Author: Press Room

Statistics Korea, the official statistical agency of the South Korean government, released data from April on Wednesday that showed the biggest year-on-year increase in childbirths since 1991. The report showed 20,717 babies were born in April 2025, an 8.7 percent increase from births in April 2024. It was the first time in three years that South Korea logged more than 20,000 births in a month. The overall birth rate rose from 0.06 in April 2024 to 0.79 in April 2025 — still far below the level needed for population stability, but movement in the right direction. In fact, natural deaths…

The U.S. economy shrank in the first three months of 2025, with the latest government data showing a deeper contraction than previously estimated as consumer spending lost momentum and a surge in imports widened the trade gap. Gross domestic product declined at an annual rate of 0.5 percent in the first quarter, the Commerce Department said Thursday, marking the economy’s first contraction since early 2023. The figure was revised down from the previous estimate of a 0.2 percent decline and stood in sharp contrast to the 2.4 percent growth recorded in the fourth quarter of last year. The pullback was…

A man accused of being a co-conspirator in the May terror attack on a fertility clinic in Palm Springs, California, has died in federal custody, according to authorities. Daniel Park, 32, was accused of shipping explosive materials to Guy Edward Bartkus, who set off a car bomb at the American Reproductive Centers clinic and died in the blast. Park had been facing conspiracy charges, the New York Post reported Tuesday.  “Daniel Park was found unresponsive at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Los Angeles, California. Responding employees initiated life-saving measures. … Mr. Park was transported by EMS to a local hospital and…

US President Donald Trump earlier accused the media of trying to downplay the effect of US strikes on enrichment centers CIA Director John Ratcliffe has said it will take years for Iran to rebuild its nuclear program following US strikes on uranium enrichment sites. His comments come after days of uncertainty about the extent of the damage to the facilities in Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan, which were targeted by US bunker-busting bombs on June 22.“The CIA can confirm that a body of credible intelligence indicates Iran’s nuclear program has been severely damaged by the recent, targeted strikes,” Ratcliffe said in…

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt will brief members of the media this afternoon for the first time since President Trump ordered strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.  President Trump returned to the United States on Wednesday after participating in the NATO Summit in The Hague, Netherlands. During the summit, the President spoke and held bilateral meetings with multiple foreign leaders. Notably, Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for the first time since their explosive White House meeting in April. Trump later signaled that he would be providing more Patriot missiles to assist Ukraine in their war with Russia. The…

Jeeter Pre-RollsCourtesy of Jeeter Once dismissed as a beginner’s crutch for people who couldn’t roll their own, the humble joint, now widely sold as a “pre-roll,” has become one of cannabis’ hottest commodities: potent, precise and proudly pre-packed. According to a new industry report from Custom Cones USA, Headset and Lake Superior State University, Americans sparked more than 316 million pre-rolls in 2024, fueling $3.1 billion in sales and claiming more than 15% of the entire legal market. What’s behind the boom? Two things: infusion and innovation. According to the report, infused pre-rolls (joints enhanced with concentrates like hash, oil…

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has prevailed in a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by authors who claimed the company violated their rights by using millions of copyrighted books to train its AI language model, Llama. Although the decision is a win for Meta and other AI giants, the judge stated the decision was more about the plaintiffs’ poor case than about Meta’s approach to AI training. Bloomberg Law reports that a San Francisco federal court has ruled in favor of Mark Zuckerberg’s in a lawsuit brought by a group of authors. The plaintiffs alleged that Meta had violated their copyrights by using…

Entertainment giant Disney is continuing its campaign of employee layoffs with its latest round of cuts hitting its product and technology division. While Disney insists that the P&T division is critical to its future success, the layoffs nonetheless cut an additional two percent of the company’s workforce, The Wrap reported. This latest round of cost cutting is just one of a long series of cuts lasting several years. Indeed, it isn’t even the first round of layoffs this month. Early this month the company pushed out several hundred workers from its marketing for both film and television, television publicity, and…

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the conclusion of Operation Rising Lion against Iran as a watershed moment in Israel’s national security, declaring it a “historic victory,” stating that “we sent Iran’s nuclear program down the drain,” and warning that any effort by Tehran to restore it would be met with “the same determination and strength.” In a national address delivered Tuesday, Prime Minister Netanyahu stated, “In the 12 days of Operation Rising Lion, we achieved a historic victory. This victory will stand for generations. We removed two immediate existential threats—the threat of destruction by nuclear bombs and the threat of…

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday the Senate would not move to overrule its parliamentarian after she advised that including key provisions in the GOP’s domestic-policy megabill would expose it to a fatal Democratic filibuster. After the decisions were publicized Thursday, multiple conservative Republicans called on the Senate to sideline Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough. But when asked by POLITICO about overruling her, Thune said, “No, that would not be a good option for getting a bill done.” The rulings from MacDonough affected several major pieces of the GOP plan, including a provision that would crack down on provider taxes that…