Biden says he Is ‘turning things around’ on the economy
President Joe Biden began a concerted campaign Wednesday in Chicago to claim credit for an economic revival in America. Flanked by blue signs with the word “Bidenomics,” Biden hailed the impact of his economic agenda as the 2024 campaign cycle heats up. Biden asserted that government support of key industries like silicon chips has revitalized manufacturing. He said investments in infrastructure have begun to pave the way for growth. And he insisted that spending billions on programs such as student debt relief will allow more people to have a comfortable, middle-class life.
In battle over direction of Texas, an unlikely casualty: water breaks
A change in Texas state law, which goes into effect in September, will wipe away local requirements that employers provide their workers time to rest and rehydrate. The law does not address water breaks or other specific ordinances. Instead, it bans actions by cities to regulate work conditions that go beyond state law. The new law would preempt a broad swath of ordinances, including those affecting labor, agriculture and natural resources. According to its supporters, the goal of the Texas Regulatory Consistency Act was to rein in a patchwork of regulations that differ by locality. It is expected to preempt a broad swath of ordinances, including those affecting labor, agriculture and natural resources.
Something was messing with earth’s axis. The answer has to do with us.
For decades, scientists watched the average position of our planet’s rotational axis wander south, away from the geographic North Pole and toward Canada. Suddenly, around the turn of the millennium, it made a sharp turn and started heading east. Researchers eventually found that accelerated melting of polar ice sheets and glaciers had changed the way mass was distributed around the planet enough to influence its spin. Now, scientists have identified another factor: water pumped out of the ground for crops and households. Between 1960 and 2000, worldwide groundwater depletion more than doubled, to about 75 trillion gallons a year, scientists estimate. The new research was published this month in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Protests and sorrow in France After fatal police encounter
In a working class Paris suburb, two police officers confront a 17-year-old driver in a canary yellow Mercedes who was stopped in traffic. They shout at him, video footage shows, and one officer appears to have his gun drawn. The teenager is then fatally shot in broad daylight. The shooting — and the diverging accounts of what caused it — led to spasms of violence on the streets. As video shot by a bystander spread, French President Emmanuel Macron called the shooting “inexcusable,” and lawmakers held a moment of silence for the teenager.
Death toll in Kramatorsk missile strike climbs to 11
By Wednesday evening, the death toll from the Russian missile strike on the Ria Lounge, a popular restaurant in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, had climbed to 11 people, including 14-year-old twin sisters and another teen. Ukrainian authorities said that 56 other people had been wounded. Rescuers worked through the day, digging out the remains of the restaurant in search of victims or possible survivors. Kramatorsk lies just 20 miles from the front lines and the devastated city of Bakhmut, but also just far enough from the fighting to tempt people into going about their normal daily lives.
Some South Koreans just became younger overnight
South Koreans became a year or two younger Wednesday after a law standardizing the way the government counts age took effect. There are three common ways to count age in South Korea, but the government has changed its civil code to recognize just one: the age-counting method used most often around the world. Under the country’s traditional system, a person was considered 1 year old at birth, and a year is added to their age each Jan. 1. The three systems for counting age have confused and inconvenienced South Koreans in all kinds of situations.
Hurricane Adrian forms Off Mexico in eastern Pacific
A tropical storm that formed off the coast of Mexico rapidly intensified Wednesday to become Hurricane Adrian, the first named storm of the hurricane season in the eastern Pacific region this year. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 80 mph and was moving west at 6 mph Wednesday afternoon, according to the National Hurricane Center. Adrian was about 370 miles southwest of the coastal city of Manzanillo in Mexico, and was moving west and away from land. The system was expected to maintain the same general direction through Thursday and make a turn to the west-northwest on Friday. The hurricane did not appear to pose an immediate threat to land.
By wire sources