Wednesday, January 31, 2024

🔎 What are kids seeing on social media?

Social media CEOs faced tough questions and victims' families at a Senate hearing. It's Wednesday's news. ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌  ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ 

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The Short List

Wed Jan 31 2024

 

Laura L. Davis Audience Editor

@lauradavis

Social media CEOs faced tough questions and victims' families at a Senate hearing. What the Fed had to say about interest rates today. And has Amelia Earhart's plane finally been found?

👋 Hey! Laura Davis here. We've made it to the final day of January, y'all. Now, it's time for Wednesday's news.

🥰 But first: How are you doing? Seriously. Reply to this email and let me know what's on your mind, if you want. I hope you're doing well! Elmo asked the same question on X the other day. Here's how it went.

Social media CEOs grilled by Congress

In the middle of a heated Senate hearing Wednesday on the dangers of social media, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stood, turned around and faced families who have accused his platforms — Facebook and Instagram — of harming their children. It was a rare public apology, and it comes amid scathing criticism from lawmakers and child advocates who say the industry for years has failed to protect its most vulnerable users from abuse and exploitation. In bipartisan unison throughout the hearing, Congress chastised the leaders of some of the nation's top social media companies and called on them to take immediate steps to protect children and teens online. 👉 Here's what happened at the hearing.

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CEO and founder of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, apologized to families in the audience during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing about Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis on January 31, 2024, at Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.

Amanda Andrade-Rhoades for USA TODAY

Texas town shaken over border battle

As the biggest forces of global migration, constitutional law and election-year politicking roil America, perhaps nowhere is more shaken than tiny Eagle Pass, Texas. Shelby Park, once a riverfront picnic spot, has become a militarized outpost — a city park where state officials face off with federal authorities over who will control international migration. In recent weeks, the city has found itself a discomfiting tourist destination for out-of-town visitors who want to lay eyes on the border themselves, a show of solidarity in what they see as an Abbott-Biden standoff. 👉 Take a closer look at the situation.

Biden's big pivot: Why the president is moving to the right on immigration.
What's next as Republicans close in on impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas.

eaglepass1.jpg

Juanita Martinez, 67, stands outside Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Texas, which has been taken over by Texas National Guard troops to stem the flow of undocumented migrants. Martinez opposes the closing of the park and other tactics, including concertina wire and buoys.

Rick Jervis, USA TODAY

Real quick

People with obesity are often disrespected. Can 'bill of rights' help a broken system?
Martin Scorsese tells how the Osage Nation fixed 'Flower Moon.'
What happens to your student loan debt when you drop out?
Awww: 'Handmaid's Tale' star Elisabeth Moss is pregnant with her first child.
Kelce brothers shout out Taylor Swift for reaching the Super Bowl in 'her rookie year.'
She stabbed a man 108 times and got probation. What to know about 'cannabis-induced psychosis.'

Interest rates hold steady

Despite rapidly slowing inflation, the Federal Reserve held its key interest rate steady Wednesday and opened the door to rate cuts — but signaled that a March move is probably a long shot. The central bank is almost certainly done raising interest rates after 16 months of aggressive hikes to tame high inflation, and a rate cut is at least as likely as an increase. But the Fed also suggested it's in no rush to reduce rates and wants to make sure inflation has been subdued for the long term before acting. 💲 How it will affect your rates.

Is it Amelia Earhart's airplane?

It's a mystery that has tantalized people for nine decades — and solving it isn't as easy as connecting the dots. Especially when those dots are tiny islands spread throughout the world's largest ocean. A team of underwater archaeologists with Deep Sea Vision, using marine robots equipped with sonar imaging, believe they may have found the airplane belonging to Amelia Earhart, the famed aviator who, along with her navigator Fred Noonan, disappeared as they tried to circumnavigate the globe in 1937. And while the world may be close to learning the fate of Earhart and Noonan 86 years after the pair's plane went down somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, there are some significant challenges. First and foremost? The Pacific Ocean. It's huge, and it's deep – and the airplane is really, really small. 🔎 Here's what's next for the discovery.

Why are we so obsessed with unsolved mysteries?

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The Lockheed Electra 'Flying Laboratory', piloted by American aviator Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan flies over the Golden Gate bridge in Oakland, California, at the start of a planned round-the-world flight, 17th March 1937.

Keystone / Getty Images

A break from the news

🥛🙅‍♀️ Are you suddenly lactose intolerant? This is why.
🥶 If you're frozen to your desk chair, ways to stay warm at work.
💘☕️ Love is in the air, and the coffee: See Starbucks' new Valentine's Day drinks.

Laura L. Davis is an Audience Editor at USA TODAY. Say hello: laura@usatoday.com.  Support quality journalism like this? Subscribe to USA TODAY here.

An Israeli army soldier gestures while seated in the turret of a battle tank moving at a position along the border between southern Israeli and the Gaza Strip on January 31, 2024.

The announcement from Kataib Hezbollah comes amid increasing global concerns that the war in Gaza will explode across the Middle East.

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A vehicle is parked in the driveway of a home that was a scene of a murder in Levittown, Pa., on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024. A man has been charged with first-degree murder and abusing a corpse after his father was found decapitated. Police are investigating a video on social media that allegedly shows him holding up the head. The father was found beheaded in the bathroom of his home in Levittown, on Tuesday night.
 

Pennsylvania man beheads father, posts graphic video on YouTube

A Pennsylvania man, Justin Mohn, was arrested after police say he allegedly decapitated his father and posted a gruesome video of it on YouTube.

Ryan Walters, Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction, speaks during a school board meeting at the Oklahoma Capitol in Oklahoma City, on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024.
 

Oklahoma teacher suing for defamation amid bonus repayment demand

An Oklahoma teacher is suing for defamation and for breach of contract after she was asked to repay a bonus that was received in error.

Kris Jenner stars in "Twist on It," a new Super Bowl commercial from Oreo. It's Jenner's first ad in the big game.
 

Kris Jenner jokes Oreos are 'older than I am' ahead of new commercial

Kris Jenner chatted with USA TODAY as she filmed her first Super Bowl commercial with Oreo and reflected on the success of her family's reality show.

Melissa Grogan, a woman photographed to celebrate her recovery from addiction.
 

'Redemption': Why a wedding photographer makes free portraits for addicts in recovery

Candice Love, 34, is a full time wedding photographer offering free photo sessions for former addicts, calling the series 'Redemption Story.'

View of Isla Mujeres beach beach, Quintana Roo state, Mexico, taken on May 24, 2023. (Photo by Daniel SLIM / AFP) (Photo by DANIEL SLIM/AFP via Getty Images)
 

4 Mexican tourists dead following boat wreck near Cancun, Mexico

Authorities said they're investigating what caused the small boat carring 19 people back to Cancún from Isla Mujeres to capsize or sink.

A Frontier Airlines jetliner waits on a runway for departure from Denver International Airport, Sept. 1, 2023.
 

Woman charged with indecent exposure, simple assault on Frontier flight

Dulce Huertas, 60, of Philadelphia, is charged with interfering with a flight crew, simple assault, and indecent exposure in the incident on board.

Apr 7, 2023; New York, N.Y 10018, USA; April 7, 2023; New York, N.Y., USA    For a story on homelessness among LGBTQ youth, we photograph Kevin Schmidt-Johnson, a security guard at New Alternatives, a nonprofit for homeless LGBTQ youth on April 7, 2023. Kevin was once homeless himself.
 

When parents let LGBTQ youth down, aunties and tias step in. Here's why.

A recently published study finds that LGBTQ youth whose parents offer little or questionable support often rely on aunts or aunt-like relationships.

Travis Kelce celebrates with Taylor Swift on the field after a 17-10 victory against the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Championship Game at M&T Bank Stadium on January 28, 2024.
 

Don't listen to the right wingnuts. Super Bowl isn't rigged

Right-wing media pushing conspiracy theory that Super Bowl rigged, and Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce part of Democratic plot. Or something like that.

U.S. Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) attends a press conference calling for a ceasefire in the Middle East outside of the U.S. Capitol on December 14, 2023 in Washington, DC. Bush has been brought under investigation for her campaign spending after she said she used it to hire her husband as a security detail in the face of threats as a public figure.
 

Rep. Cori Bush's campaign finances: What to know about the investigation

Missouri Rep. Cori Bush, part of the progressive "Squad," is under investigation by the Department of Justice. She hired her husband for security.

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