After months of negotiations, President Biden signed into law a foreign aid package on Wednesday that includes tens of billions of dollars in assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, along with a measure that could lead to a ban on TikTok in the U.S. The White House first sought the foreign aid more than six months ago, but was met with conservative opposition to Ukraine aid. However an unexpected turn from House Speaker Mike Johnson led the House to approve legislation over the weekend. with the Senate passing the package in a bipartisan vote Tuesday evening. Biden said in remarks from the W ..read more

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it has discovered fragments of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) — more commonly referred to as bird flu — in some samples of dairy milk products. An update from the FDA said they tested milk samples by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and found the presence of fragments of the virus, which is not the same as infectious virus and that findings “do not represent actual virus that may be a risk to consumers.” The FDA stated, “we have seen nothing that would change our assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe” and expect new results f ..read more

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is featured in the music video for good buddy Chris Janson’s latest single “Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get”.  Janson shares: We had a great time making this video. Tons of genuine real fun. From Tennessee to Texas, we made it happen. Can’t thank DJ enough for starring in it and for being a great friend to me.”  Per Billboard, the video isn a ‘fun escapade as the two ride around a field and lounge in the back of a 1970 brown Ford Explorer in the clip, laughing and enjoying each other’s company.’ Johnson and Janson met in 2022 in California, when Janson was w ..read more

Apple TV+ has renewed the mystery-thriller series The Last Thing He Told Me for a second season. Jennifer Garner stars in the series as Hannah Hall, a woman who must forge a relationship with her 16-year-old stepdaughter Bailey (Angourie Rice) in order to find the truth about why her husband has mysteriously disappeared. Season 1 of The Last Thing He Told Me was based on Laura Dave’s best-selling novel; while season two will be based on the author’s newly announced sequel to her book of the same name. The latter is set to be published in 2025, ahead of the show’s Season 2 premiere.  Garne ..read more

Google confirmed it has fired 20 additional workers that it says were involved in protests last week in NYC and Sunnyvale, CA, denouncing the tech giant’s cloud computing deal with the Israeli government, bringing the total number of workers fired to 50 (per CNN). The group organizing the demonstrations, No Tech for Apartheid, told The Washington Post that Google had fired an additional 20 workers, on top of the 30 workers terminated last week, claiming that some of the workers fired were “non-participating bystanders” during last Tuesday’s sit-in protests at Google’s offices in New York and S ..read more

The Department of Justice (‘DOJ’) announced on Wednesday said that a civil settlement had been reached with the victims of ex-Team USA doctor Larry Nassar, who was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison for sexually assaulting gymnasts — resolving their claims of wrongdoing against the FBI in its failures to investigate allegations of sexual abuse. ABC News reported that the claims were filed after the department said it was declining to pursue criminal charges against agents whom the DOJ’s inspector general found failed to properly investigate allegations of abuse by Nassar. The watchdog repo ..read more

Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone and Austin Butler are among the actors set to star in Ari Aster’s next feature film, Eddington, produced A24. Luke Grimes, Deirdre O’Connell, Micheal Ward and Clifton Collins Jr. are also set to appear in the film, which centers on a ‘small-town New Mexico sheriff with lofty aspirations.’  The film does not yet have a release date. A24 has released all three of Aster’s previous feature films: 2018’s Hereditary, 2019’s Midsommar and 2023’s Beau Is Afraid. Editorial credit: Featureflash Photo Agency / Shutterstock.com ..read more

Laura Dern, Billy Crudup and Riley Keough have been cast in Noah Baumbach’s next, as-yet-untitled Netflix film. Dern, who won as Oscar for her role in Baumbach’s Marriage Story, joins previously announced stars Adam Sandler and George Clooney. Baumbach and actress Emily Mortimer wrote the screenplay for the film, though plot details are being kept under wraps.  Baumbach will also produce the film, alongside Amy Pascal and David Heyman, who worked with Baumbach on Marriage Story and also produced Barbie, which the filmmaker co-wrote with Greta Gerwig. A film synopsis described the project ..read more

President Joe Biden marked Earth Day by announcing $7 billion in federal grants for residential solar projects serving 900,000-plus households in low- and middle-income communities while visiting Prince William Forest Park in Virginia on Monday to mark Earth Day. The White House also plans to also expand Biden’s New Deal-style American Climate Corps green jobs training program, saying that it hopes its ‘Solar for All’ grants will help more than 900,000 households in low-income and disadvantaged communities get solar power. It said solar power could save about $400 per household in electricity ..read more

Clothing retailer Express, the parent of the Bonbons and UpWest brands, announced on Monday that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and will be closing 95 stores (including all of its UpWest stores) with closing sales spanning across more than 30 states and Washington, D.C. to begin on Tuesday. Express said its remaining stores will operate as usual during the mass closing. The retailer – based in Columbus, Ohio, and founded in 1980, was a shopping mall staple; the company said it made the move to file for bankruptcy as a strategic move to sell most of its operations to investment group WH ..read more