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The House made another push Wednesday to push through legislation that would require the sale of TikTok by its Chinese owner or ban the app in the United States, accelerating efforts to disrupt the popular social media app.President Mike Johnson has indicated he plans to package the measure, a modified version of a standalone bill passed by the House last month, with foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.While the new legislation would still require TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app to owners who have resolved national security concerns, it includes an option to extend the sale deadline to nine months from the original six months , according to the text of the law. legislation enacted by House leadership. The president could extend the deadline another 90 days ...

For days, Israel's closest Western allies have implored the country's wartime government not to risk triggering a wider war by responding too forcefully to last weekend's barrage of Iranian missiles and drones. And top German and British diplomats delivered this message in person to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Wednesday.But Netanyahu emerged from those talks determined that his country would not bow to any outside pressure in choosing its response. Before a cabinet meeting he declared that Israel "will do whatever is necessary to defend itself" and warned allies that "we will make our own decisions," according to his office.British Foreign Secretary David Cameron acknowledged shortly before meeting the prime minister that Israel was unlikely to heed the ...

A pill to be taken once a week. An injection given at home once a month. Also a vaccination administered in a clinic every six months.In the next 5 to 10 years, these options may be available to prevent or treat HIV. Instead of drugs that must be taken daily, scientists are moving towards longer-acting alternatives – perhaps even a future where HIV might require attention only twice a day. year, inconceivable in the darkest decades of the epidemic.“This period represents the next wave of innovation, new products are meeting people's needs, particularly in prevention, in ways we've never had before,” said Mitchell Warren, executive director of the HIV prevention organization AVAC .Long-acting therapies can obviate the need to remember to take a daily pill to prevent or treat HIV...

There are many reasons why a foreigner might enlist to fight a war that doesn't concern him.One, of course, is money. Permanent contracts in Ukraine pay, on average, about $2,500 a month, an attractive sum for some men who arrived there from countries with few good economic opportunities for them.But some fighters at the woods post of the 2nd International Legion, created at the direction of the Ukrainian president in the days after Russia's invasion in February 2022, said they were looking for something more.One soldier, a Pole named Konrad 13, described the war as a calling, even a blessing. Back home, he said, he had a troubled upbringing. Then, at age 41, he felt like he was at a dead end.Yes, the pay is attractive, says Konrad 13, but so is the sense of purpose.“When I got ...

In a time when the headlines are dominated by wars and a divisive presidential campaign, the magazine-world rivalry between The Atlantic and The New Yorker doesn’t amount to much.So you might have missed it when, on April 2, The Atlantic beat The New Yorker in three big categories at the 2024 National Magazine Awards.But to Rusty Foster, who chronicles the media industry and internet culture in his daily newsletter, Today in Tabs, The Atlantic’s victory was big news.Shortly after the awards ceremony, which took place at Terminal 5 in Manhattan, Mr. Foster tapped out a fanciful report for his audience of media obsessives. Under the headline “Shutout at the TK Corral,” he wrote that David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, “solemnly folded up and ate each of his prepared speeches as he w...

The United States plans to impose new sanctions on Iran in the coming days to punish it for attacks on Israel over the weekend, US officials said on Tuesday.Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, said in a statement that the sanctions will target Iran's "missile and drone program" and entities that support the country's military groups.“These new sanctions and other measures will continue to apply sustained pressure to contain and degrade Iran’s military capability and effectiveness and address the full range of its problematic behaviors,” Sullivan said.Sullivan did not specify how sanctions might undermine Iran's weapons programs, but a Treasury official, who declined to be named to discuss private deliberations, said the United States was looking for ways to cut off...

Federal regulators on Tuesday issued new protections for miners against a type of dust long known to cause deadly lung disease — changes recommended by government researchers half a century ago.Mining companies will have to limit concentrations of airborne silica, a mineral commonly found in rocks that can be lethal if ground up and inhaled. The new requirements affect more than 250,000 miners who mine coal, a variety of metals and minerals used in products such as cement and smartphones. Tuesday's announcement is the culmination of a tortuous regulatory process that has spanned four presidential administrations.The miners paid dearly for the delay. As progress on the rule stalled, government researchers documented with growing alarm a resurgence of severe black lung afflicting youn...

Israel's difficult choices on Iran.

Microsoft said Tuesday it will make a $1.5 billion investment in G42, an artificial intelligence giant in the United Arab Emirates, in a deal largely orchestrated by the Biden administration to defeat China as Washington and Beijing battle over who will exert technological influence in the Persian Gulf region and beyond.As part of the partnership, Microsoft will grant G42 permission to sell Microsoft services that use powerful AI chips, used to train and fine-tune generative AI models. In exchange, the G42, which has been under scrutiny by Washington for its ties to China, will use Microsoft's cloud services and adhere to a security agreement negotiated in detailed conversations with the US government. The agreement places a number of protections on AI products shared with G42 and in...

Israeli leaders were discussing Tuesday how to best respond to Iran's unprecedented airstrike over the weekend, officials said, weighing a series of options calibrated to achieve different strategic outcomes: deterring a similar attack in the future, appeasing the American allies and avoid an all-out war.Iran's attack on Israel, a huge barrage that included hundreds of ballistic missiles and explosive drones, changed the unspoken rules in the rivals' long shadow war. In that conflict, large air strikes from the territory of one country directly against the other had been avoided.Given this change in precedent, the calculus by which Israel decides its next move has also changed, said Israeli officials who requested anonymity to discuss Iran.“We cannot resist this kind of aggres...