An Ignoble Experiment: The 7: A sickening blackmail scheme targeting teens; where spring is starting earlier; what we can learn from grandmother whales; and more

2024/03/14

Good morning. It's Thursday, March 14 — and Pi Day. Here are 14 sweet, savory and special pie recipes to help you celebrate. Now let's get to the news.

What to know: The bill would force the video app to split from ByteDance — its China-based parent company — or face a national ban. See how your representative voted here.
Why is this happening? Some lawmakers fear the app could be used to spy on Americans or shape political views. TikTok says it has never shared U.S. user data with China.
What now? The bill goes to the Senate, where it picked up two key endorsements yesterday.

What to expect: A judge will consider Trump's requests to dismiss his federal indictment for allegedly mishandling classified documents and blocking attempts to retrieve them.
Yesterday: A Georgia judge dismissed three of the 13 charges against the former president in an election interference case, but declined to dismiss the entire indictment.
What else to know: Trump has shared a bunch of new false claims. We fact-checked them here.

What happened: At least one staff member was killed and 22 were injured, the U.N. said yesterday. Israel acknowledged the strike and said it targeted a Hamas commander.
Zooming out: The strike came during a massive hunger crisis in Gaza. Relief agencies blame the crisis on Israel's obstruction of aid into the besieged Palestinian territory.

What to know: Abusers have found thousands of minors with mental health issues using online platforms such as Discord, then coerced them into harming themselves on camera.
What's being done? Authorities and tech companies have struggled to control these sadistic acts. Abusers who are removed from the platforms often set up new accounts.

Alexander with a caregiver in 2018. (Smiley N. Pool/Dallas Morning News/AP)

What's that? A 600-pound chamber that uses air pressure to allow patients to breath after paralysis of their chest muscles from polio. Alexander began using one in 1952, at age 6.
His legacy: Alexander taught himself to breathe independently for hours at a time, wrote a memoir, became a lawyer and gained a TikTok following. He died this week at 78.

(The Washington Post)

What to know: Spring's first leaves have been appearing earlier across a wide U-shaped area from coast to coast since 1981. See how it's changed in your town here.
Why? Leaves' average arrival date roughly matches the average temperature at the start of each year. So spring has started earlier as global warming has heated the planet.

How? Whale species that experience menopause have much longer life spans than those that don't — so that older females can provide grandmotherly care, a new study said.
What they do: Grandmother killer whales have been observed babysitting calves and sharing food with their grand offspring. They also pass on important knowledge.

Before you go … feeling overwhelmed by subscriptions? Here are eight ways to save money. Plus: Watch out for this classic Facebook scam.

And finally … test your news knowledge with The Post's daily quiz, On the Record. Click here to play. Or try our word game, Keyword.

You're all caught up. See you tomorrow.