📌 Iran, US Meeting, China Winds, More

Iran said today it will give high-level nuclear talks with the US on Saturday "a genuine chance.”

President Donald Trump made a surprise announcement on Monday that Washington and Tehran would begin talks in Oman, a Gulf state that has mediated between the West and the Islamic Republic before.

The Iranian foreign ministry said today that the US should value the Islamic Republic's decision to engage in talks despite what it called Washington's "prevailing confrontational hoopla.” Earlier, President Donald Trump threatened bombing if discussions failed.

"We intend to assess the other side’s intent and resolve this Saturday," spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei posted on X. "In earnest and with candid vigilance, we are giving diplomacy a genuine chance.”

Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in a post on X: ”Important and practical" Iranian proposals have been prepared in pursuit of "a real and fair" agreement.

Iranian state media said the talks would be led by Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and US special envoy Steve Witkoff, with Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi as intermediary. The US and Iran held indirect talks during President Joe Biden's term that ended in January but made little if any progress.

Millions have been urged to stay indoors in northern China as it prepares for extreme winds this weekend.

Some state media outlets warned people weighing less than 50 kilograms (110lbs) may be "easily blown away.” Winds reaching 93 mph are expected to sweep Beijing, Tianjin and other parts of the Hebei region until Sunday, as a cold vortex moves southeast from Mongolia.

For the first time in a decade, Beijing has issued an orange alert for gales — the second-highest in a four-tier weather warning system. China measures wind speed with a scale ranging from level 1 to 17.

A level 11 wind, said the China Meteorological Administration, can cause "serious damage,” while a level 12 wind brings “extreme destruction" and level 13 "catastrophic destruction." The winds this weekend are expected to range from level 11 to 13.

Parks and tourist attractions have been closed as authorities have told residents to avoid outdoor activities, while construction works and train services have been suspended.

A survey of 2,000 Americans pinpointed the remaining battery power percentage on their phones before starting to feel anxious.

Anxiety creeps in early, with well over a third of battery life left (38%) revealed as the average level before worry sets in. A cooler 34% feel content waiting until the juice runs to below 20% before thoughts of finding a charge begin. And a casual 13% say they don’t worry about their phone’s charge until it falls below 10%.

At the other end of the spectrum, 24% of Americans start to worry about their phone’s battery life before it’s even dropped to half full.

Charging worry is stronger among the younger generations, with older generations happier to let the charge drop lower before concern kicks in. Gen Z’s threshold for the worry to start building starts at just 44% of battery life remaining — millennials are similar at 43%.

Gen Xers allow themselves more leeway — 38% is their level of fear. Boomers are the most relaxed generation when monitoring their phone battery, waiting until 34% on average to start looking for an outlet.

Americans displaying only the battery level are in the minority — 39% of Americans judge their juice on the bar alone. While 61% have the numerical percentage display to know the precise battery power they have left.

Fast food giant Burger King must face a lawsuit accusing it of restricting worker mobility and suppressing wages.

US District Judge Jose Martinez in Miami ruled that workers in the proposed class action had provided enough factual support to let their lawsuit move forward. Martinez said the workers had plausibly shown that the Burger King no-hire agreement was an “unreasonable” restraint on the labor market.

The lawsuit, first filed in 2018, accused Burger King and related corporate entities of violating US antitrust law through the use of “no hire” agreements at thousands of franchises across the country. The agreements generally barred franchises from hiring a worker from another, at least for six months.

The plaintiffs include current and former Burger King employees who worked at restaurants in Illinois and other states from at least 2010, court papers show. The lawsuit is seeking unspecified monetary damages and class-action status on behalf of thousands of Burger King workers.

Last year, the Supreme Court turned down a bid by McDonald’s to shut down a similar proposed class action claiming it violated antitrust laws by prohibiting franchisees from poaching employees from other McDonald's restaurants.

The US Food and Drug Administration is replacing animal testing with human-relevant methods such as AI for drug development.

The regulatory change is intended to improve drug safety and accelerate the "evaluation processing" while reducing animal experimentation, lowering research and development costs and drug prices, the FDA announced Thursday.

FDA commissioner Martin Makary said: ”By leveraging AI-based computational modeling, human organ model-based lab testing and real-world human data, we can get safe treatments to patients faster and more reliably while also reducing R&D costs and drug prices. It’s a win-win for public health and ethics.”

Makary said the regulatory change creates a "more efficient pipeline for novel treatments" while improving drug safety because human-based tests make it easier to "predict real-world outcomes.”

The change means the lives of thousands of animals, including dogs and primates, will be spared every year as the new testing methods are implemented, Makary said.

A range of testing methods will replace the FDA's prior animal testing requirement, including AI-based computer models of toxicity, cell lines and organ toxicity in labs. The new testing requirements include using pre-existing and real-world data from other nations with similar regulatory standards.

Zimbabwe will provide an initial pay-out of $3 million to white farmers whose farms were seized over 20 years ago.

In 2000, then-President Robert Mugabe supported land invasions by a mix of government forces and vigilante groups, sparking international condemnation. The seizures were meant to redress colonial-era land grabs but contributed to the country's economic decline and ruined relations with the West.

Zimbabwe’s payment will cover the first 378 farms out of 740, for which compensation had been approved. It represents 1% of the total $311 million allocated for the first batch of payments. The rest will be paid through US-dollar-denominated treasury bonds, said Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube.

However, the majority of former farmers have not signed up for the deal, and are still holding onto their title deeds. The government has agreed to compensate former farm owners only for "improvements" made on the land and refused to pay for the land itself, arguing it was unfairly seized by colonialists.

Zimbabwe has been locked out of the global financial system for over two decades, leaving the struggling economy with a huge foreign debt. Analysts say the land payment marks an important step in repairing relations with Western nations and avoiding international judgments against Zimbabwe.

A study of 2,500 British households found that a furry companion is as good for one’s mental health as a human partner.

Spending time with a dog can relieve stress, boost activity and extend life, studies suggest. Petting a cat can lower blood pressure and heart rate, which might explain why one study found cat owners to have a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease.

The research quantifies how much pet ownership increases life satisfaction — by three to four points on a scale of 1–7. It says that raising a cat or dog can bring the same psychological benefits as getting married or earning an extra $90,000 a year.

The study, headed by Dr. Adelina Gschwandtner of the University of Kent, also sheds some light on the personality traits of pet owners, noting that “while cat carers appear to be more open, dog carers appear to be more extroverted, agreeable and less neurotic.”

However, the study pointed out that, “Overall, pet carers in general appear to be more open, conscientious and extroverted than non-pet carers.” The researchers hope their paper informs public policy and highlights the importance of pets.