The Group of 20 nations agreed to grant the African Union permanent membership status in a move aimed

India is counting down to landing a spacecraft near the moon’s south pole — an unchartered territory that scientists believe could hold important reserves of frozen water and precious elements

China is proposing new measures to curb the amount of time that kids and teens can spend on their phones, as the country takes aim at internet addiction and tries to cultivate "good morality" and "socialist values" among minors.

Dozens of popular Reddit communities have pledged to continue a blackout indefinitely after no resolution was reached over a pricing dispute. The protest was initially meant to last 48 hours, with moderators of the subreddit communities hoping the action would force Reddit’s chief executive to reconsider charges for third-party app developers. These charges have already forced the Apollo app to announce that it is shutting down, as they mean it will no longer be able to afford access to Reddit’s API (Application Programming Interface). Apollo is one of several platforms that Reddit members use to access the site, with several subreddits posting a message on Wednesday stating: “Reddit is killing third-party applications (and itself).” The continuation of the protest will impact millions of Reddit users, with more than 300 subreddits committing to staying dark. They include r/music, which has 32 million subscribers, and r/videos, which has around 26 million members. Unpaid volunteers who moderate the communities claim that Reddit admins have been removing moderators who support the protest in order to force the sub-Reddits to open. One moderator of r/gaming also claimed the defiant stance was a response to Reddit chief executive Steve Huffman claiming that the protest “will pass”. In an internal memo to staff this week, Mr Huffman reportedly referred to the blackout as “noise”, despite more than 8,000 communities initially taking part on Monday. “Please know that our teams are on it, and like all blowups on Reddit, this one will pass as well,” he wrote, according to The Verge. “We absolutely must ship what we said we would. The only long term solution is improving our product, and in the short term we have a few upcoming critical mod tool launches we need to nail.” Mr Huffman also warned staff members to not wear the Reddit logo in public, in case it made them the “object of [users’] frustrations”. The CEO claimed that the site-wide protest had not resulted in “any significant revenue impact”, though this is unlikely to remain the case if widespread blackouts continue. Read More ‘This will pass’: Reddit boss responds to major chaos at site Reddit is in chaos – and it’s boss has finally responded Reddit down amid major protest Reddit just went ‘dark’, and the site is in chaos

PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 16, 2023--

Investors are showing a willingness to give beaten-down electric-vehicle stocks another chance, but they’re being more discerning this

A viral aerial video of Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium has many social media users convinced that floodwaters submerged the ballpark amid Tropical Storm Hilary over the weekend

Shell Plc, IAG SA’s British Airways, the British Broadcasting Corp., the state of Minnesota’s Department of Education, multiple

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 11, 2023--

A federal appeals court ordered the Biden administration to sell drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico within

The US Supreme Court has struck down President Joe Biden’s plan to cancel student loan debts for millions of Americans, reversing his campaign-trail promise as borrowers prepare to resume payments this summer. Chief Justice John Roberts delivered the 6-3 decision from the court’s conservative majority. The ruling, which stems from a pair of cases challenging the Biden administration and the US Department of Education, argues that the president does not have authority to implement sweeping relief, and that Congress never authorised the administration to do so. Within 30 minutes on the last day of its term, the court upended protections for LGBT+ people and blocked the president from a long-held promise to cancel student loan balances amid a ballooning debt crisis impacting millions of Americans. Under the plan unveiled last year, millions of people who took out federally backed student loans would be eligible for up to $20,000 in relief. Borrowers earning up to $125,000, or $250,000 for married couples, would be eligible for up to $10,000 of their federal student loans to be wiped out. Those borrowers would be eligible to receive up to $20,000 in relief if they received Pell grants. Roughly 43 million federal student loan borrowers would be eligible for that relief, including 20 million people who stand to have their debts canceled completely, according to the White House. Roughly 16 million already submitted their applications and received approval for debt cancellation last year, according to the Biden administration. The long-anticipated plan for debt cancellation was met almost immediately with litigation threats from conservative legal groups and Republican officials, arguing that the executive branch does not have authority to broadly cancel such debt. Six GOP-led states sued the Biden administration to stop the plan altogether, and a federal appeals court temporarily blocked any such relief as the legal challenges played out. Since March 2020, with congressional passage of the Cares Act, monthly payments on student loan debt have been frozen with interest rates set at zero per cent. That Covid-19-pandemic era moratorium, first enacted under Donald Trump and extended several times, was paused a final time late last year – until the Education Department is allowed to cancel debts under the Biden plan, or until the litigation is resolved, but no later than 30 June. Payments would then resume 60 days later. The amount of debt taken out to support student loans for higher education costs has surged within the last decade, alongside growing tuition costs, increased private university enrollment, stagnant wages and GOP-led governments stripping investments in higher education and aid, putting the burden of college costs largely on students and their families. The crisis has exploded to a total balance of nearly $2 trillion, mostly wrapped up in federal loans. Millions of Americans also continue to tackle accrued interest without being able to chip away at their principal balances, even years after graduating, or have been forced to leave their colleges or universities without obtaining a degree at all while still facing loan repayments. Borrowers also have been trapped by predatory lending schemes with for-profit institutions and sky-high interest rates that have made it impossible for many borrowers to make any progress toward paying off their debt, with interest adding to balances that exceed the original loan. One analysis from the Education Department found that nearly 90 per cent of student loan relief would support people earning less than $75,000 per year. The median income of households with student loan balances is $76,400, while 7 per cent of borrowers are below the poverty line. That debt burden also falls disproportionately on Black borrowers and women. Black college graduates have an average of $52,000 in student loan debt and owe an average of $25,000 more than white graduates, according to the Education Data Initiative. Four years after graduating, Black student loan borrowers owe an average of 188 per cent more than white graduates. Women borrowers hold roughly two-thirds of all student loan debt, according to the American Association of University Women. Mr Biden’s announcement fulfilled a campaign-trail pledge to wipe out $10,000 in student loan debt per borrower if elected, though debt relief advocates and progressive lawmakers have urged him to cancel all debts and reject means-testing barriers in broad relief measures. In November 2020, the president called on Congress to “immediately” provide some relief for millions of borrowers saddled by growing debt. “[Student debt is] holding people up,” he said at the time. “They’re in real trouble. They’re having to make choices between paying their student loan and paying the rent.” This is a developing story Read More Supreme Court allows Colorado designer to deny LGBT+ customers in ruling on last day of Pride Month Biden condemns Supreme Court striking down affirmative action: ‘This is not a normal court’ Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson delivers searing civil rights lesson in dissent to affirmative action ruling

Elon Musk’s Twitter Spaces event with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis started off with technical glitches the Twitter owner said was due to “straining” servers because so many people were trying to listen to the audio-only event