Life from NPR news in Washington, I'm Louise Skivone.
In Los Angeles, a mistrial has been declared in the case of a man accused of igniting
“last year's deadly palicades fire, defendant Jonathan Render-Connast, faced three charges”
that could have sent him to prison for 45 years, ten members of the jury walked to a quit him and two held that he was guilty. It's not known if the prosecution will ask for a retrial 12 people died in the blaze as one of the worst in state history and thousands of homes were destroyed. Venezuela's president is reporting the death toll from two major earthquakes this week
is up to 589 with almost 3,000 injured. The quakes which rank among the strongest in Venezuela in over a century hit the capital caracas and surrounding areas, report a Manuel Verweta, describes the scene on the ground. What people are saying is that some parts of Caracas look like a war zone because many buildings have collapsed entirely and also in laguada, which is a city about an hour away
on the Caribbean coast and because so many buildings have collapsed, people have lost their homes, their sleep in parks at night, even people who perhaps are building didn't collapse or sleep outside because they're afraid. Reporter Manuel Verweta, crews from around the world have been arriving at Venezuela to aid in the search and rescue.
“Brutal oil prices are dropping as the supply shock caused by the war with Iran eases,”
but as NPR Scott Horsley reports, retail gasoline prices remain elevated. As oil tanker traffic and the straight-to-four moves begins to come untangled, Saudi Arabia is preparing to start shipping oil once again, Saudi Aramco began loading tankers at its
rostonura terminal for the first time in almost four months.
Crutal oil prices have fallen nearly 10% in the last week with the US benchmark dropping below $70 a barrel, retail gas and diesel prices have also been inching lower, although triple-ase is the average price of regular gas is still about 92 cents a gallon higher than when the war with Iran began. Apple is raising prices for MacBooks and iPads and the price of iPhones is expected to
jump as well. The company blames the rising cost of memory chips sparked by the artificial intelligence boom. Scott Horsley and peer news, Washington. Chinese authorities report that an aircraft has crashed into Beijing's tallest building.
“Eyewitnesses say the small plane crashed into the CIDIC tower, from Taipei, Jan, Camadonne”
Brumby, has more. Photos show two damaged glass panels on the outside of the building in Beijing's central business district. Pictures of a small aeroplane tail on the ground have also been circulating on social media.
Videos and photos of the crash and the aftermath have been removed from Chinese social media. Authorities have closed off roads. Surrounding the 108th story skyscraper as dozens of police and emergency vehicles surround the site of the incident. Fampian news, I'm Jan Cummins and Brumby in Taipei.
On Wall Street, the Dow was up 98, this is NPR News in Washington. Officials in Ukraine say three civilians died and many more were injured in Russian attacks on the Harki region. Moscow's defense ministry is reporting that overnight Ukraine launched a massive drone attack on Russian regions Crimea and surrounding seas.
4 out of 5 Australian teens under 16 say they're still using social media. After a nationwide ban took effect, NPR's Maria Gadoy reports on the latest in the Journal of the BMJ.
Last December, Australia became the first country in the world to ban children under 16 from
having accounts with many social media platforms, including TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat. But a new observational study of 408 Australian teens found that in the early months since it passed, the law has had very little impact. And most teens continue to access social media with their own accounts.
Only a small minority of teens said they were required to provide official proof of age to use social media. Some teens said they actively bypassed age restrictions by using fake accounts, other people's accounts, or other measures. The findings come as similar bands are in the works in other countries.
Maria Gadoy and PR News. The US lost its final group stage match at the Men's World Cup Soccer Tournament last night Turkey beat the US through to two. The US team played without many of its starters because of yellow cards and having already secured a spot in the tournament's knockout round.
32 teams are moving on to the World Cup Soccer knockout round. I'm Louise Givoni and PR News, Washington. This week on the NPR Politics podcast, we're digging into the massive wave of tech money flooding the midterms with a growing appetite and DC to regulate AI. AI companies and AI interests really want to be involved in picking who is going to
write that kind of legislation. We break down a proxy battle over the future of AI regulation.
