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📌 US-China Meeting, Home Parenting, And More
TOP STORY
TOP STORY
US raises concerns at meeting in China
Blinken raised the matter during 5.5 hours of talks with China's top diplomat Wang Yi in Beijing, the latest high-level contact between the countries.
China has steered clear of providing arms for Russia in its war with Ukraine. Still, US officials say bigger machine tool imports from China helped Russia increase its ballistic missile production.
Progress has yet to be made on contentious issues, including US complaints about cheap Chinese exports. Instead, both sides are focusing on pragmatic issues like people-to-people exchanges.
Earlier, Wang told Blinken that the "giant ship" of the China-US ties had stabilized, "but negative factors in the relationship are still increasing and building.”
WORLD
WORLD
Venice launches first tourist entry fee
The pilot program will exact a fee of 5 euros (US$5.40) from day-trippers going to Venice, one of Italy’s most picturesque and historic cities. The new fee came into effect on Thursday.
Municipal workers were seen checking entry tickets outside the front of the fragile lagoon city’s Santa Lucia railway station. Signs had been erected to warn tourists about the payment program.
Mayor Luigi Brugnaro said the aim is to improve the quality of life and make Venice “safer, cleaner and with more services in order to guarantee citizens and visitors peace of mind.”
LAW
LAW
Bill would let teachers carry guns in schools
"What’s important to me is that we give districts the option to use a tool that will keep their children safe in their schools," Lee said Thursday on his plans to sign proposed legislation.
Under state law, Lee, a Republican, can sign the bill, veto it or allow it to become law without his signature. The Republican-controlled state house passed the measure Tuesday.
The bill comes about a year after a shooter opened fire and killed six people at the Covenant School in Nashville. The state senate, also controlled by the GOP, passed the measure this month.
Prospective gun-carrying staff will need to complete at least 40 hours of approved training specific to school policing every year and obtain written authorization from law enforcement.
SOCIETY
SOCIETY
Childcare costs keep parents at home
A study by Beike Biotechnology quantifies the value of stay-at-home parenting. Parents of two children do roughly 200 hours of unpaid childcare a month, costing in the US $4,000–$5,200.
A 2023 State of Motherhood Survey by the advice site Motherly found more respondents clocking in as stay-at-home moms, up 9% from 2022.
In 2021, the Pew Research Center reported that 18% of parents did not work for pay, and dads even represent 18% of stay-at-home parents, up from 11% in 1989.
SCIENCE
SCIENCE
Boeing’s first human spaceflight
Boeing’s Starliner capsule is due to blast off May 6 atop an Atlas rocket. Starliner will fly to the International Space Station for a week-long shakedown cruise.
Boeing is trying to catch up to SpaceX, which has been launching astronauts for NASA since 2020. No one was aboard Boeing’s two previous Starliner test flights.
One of the two NASA astronauts, Butch Wilmore (pictured with fellow assignee Suni Williams), said: “Do we expect it to go perfectly? This is the first human flight of the spacecraft. I’m sure we’ll find things out. That’s why we do this.”
ENVIRONMENT
ENVIRONMENT
Traffic noise stunts baby birds’ growth
Zebra finch eggs were exposed for five days to silence, recordings of zebra finch songs or city traffic noises. Newborn chicks had a similar routine for about four hours a night for up to 13 nights.
The bird eggs were almost 20% less likely to hatch if exposed to traffic noise. The chicks that did hatch were more than 10% smaller and nearly 15% lighter than the other hatchlings.
The birds disturbed by noise during the early stages of their lives produced fewer than half as many offspring as their counterparts, and red blood analyses showed their DNA had been affected.
“We were expecting some effects, but we didn’t expect them to be so strong,” said Dr Mylene Mariette, the study’s co-author and a bird communication expert at Deakin University in Australia.
It is unclear whether the loudness, pattern, pitch, or other elements of traffic noise disturb the young birds or the mechanism behind the observed effects.
OFFBEAT
OFFBEAT
Child’s heart beats again after 14 hours
The boy, Cartier, had been rushed to the emergency room at Children’s Hospital Colorado. “I had to carry him in because he just wasn’t moving,” Destiny Anderson, Cartier’s mother, said.
Emergency room nurses rushed Cartier in, and within minutes, he went into cardiac arrest. He was put on life support overnight and into the next day—and still no heartbeat.
After 14 hours, Cartier’s heart started pumping again. Resident doctors said they had never seen this before. Cartier will stay in the hospital for possibly months to assess his full health.