World

U.S. Offers 472,000 Venezuelans Legal Status

The Biden Administration offered nearly half a million Venezuelans legal status for a period of 18 months. More than half of the migrants already have the status stemming from a 2021 designation that was renewed last year.

As Venezuelans seek asylum from economic and political turmoil in their home country, President Biden has faced record illegal border crossings, perpetuated by recent migrants entering the country.

What’s the current situation?

Fellow Democrats, such as New York City Mayor Eric Adams, have called for aid as a flood of migrants has overwhelmed state and local resources. However, due to frisky diplomatic relations with Venezuela, it will prove difficult for the Biden Administration to deport many migrants to their home country.

As Border Patrol agents become deluged, the Pentagon will send an additional 800 active-duty troops to the border, on top of the already 2,500 National Guard troops already stationed there.

Plans going forward:

The Department of Homeland Security said it would extend the valid time of work permits for certain immigrants to five years, and The White House stated it is working on processing as many work applications as possible to help the migrants become self-sufficient.

Goodbye Cancun, Hello North Korea?

Need a cheap vacation spot? Look no further. North Korea is opening its borders to tourists for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, in early 2020. The heavily sanctioned country hopes to open up a revenue source that once provided them with hard cash, and helped increase its already nominal trade activity.

The news comes from the Chinese state CCTV, which is fitting considering its historically biggest tourist group is Chinese citizens. However, if you’d like to visit, plan on a two-day quarantine as the reopening poses a threat to citizens of the country, who just recently got over the outbreak.

NASA Ubered an Asteroid?

NASA completed its first-ever sample return mission from an asteroid on Sunday. The capsule landed after its 1.2 billion-mile journey from the asteroid Bennu. To put that in perspective, that would take 20 million hours by car, or 2,279 years, according to ChatGPT. That being said, we can’t drive at 27,000 miles per hour, which is how fast the capsule was going (although I wish I could). In total, the capsule traveled 4 billion miles there and back.

The point of Ubering space rocks back to Earth is to collect information about how the universe was started. Apparently, scientists at NASA are interested in the “trace organic molecular chemistry” of the asteroid to try and “piece together our own origin story” as said by Dante Lauretta, the mission principal investigator.

NASA scientists are eager to get their hands on the sample to see if asteroids delivered the key organic compounds to Earth that allowed life to flourish. This has been a theory for decades, but this is the starting step in seeing how we came to be, according to NASA.

The 2023 Ryder Cup Kicks Off Today

It’s finally that time of year. The team pairings were announced yesterday, with the first teams participating consisting of world #1 Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns for Team USA vs. Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton for Team Europe.

Notably, Team USA will be ‘sitting’ Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, who have historically played extremely well together; boasting an impressive 7-1-0 match team record together as well as a 3-0 record in the 2018 Ryder Cup.

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Succession Stipulations

This is HBO’s Succession in real life… literally. Rupert Murdoch stepped down as chairman of Fox and News Corp, ending a more than 7-decade-long career in which he built a media empire traversing from Australia to the United States. Murdoch handed the sole chairman position of Fox and News Corp to his eldest son, Lachlan Murdoch, to the probable dismay of his other five siblings.

How did he get to this point?

Murdoch's media empire began after he inherited an Australian newspaper, the Adelaide News. Through a deep understanding of the media landscape, he expanded his influence by climbing the ladder using struggling British newspapers.

This eventually resulted in his acquisition of The Times, The Sunday Times in the UK, his launching of the Fox Broadcasting Company in the US, and the monumental purchase of News Corporation, which included 20th Century Fox, HarperCollins, and The Wall Street Journal.

Succession can be complicated…

As we all know from the HBO show, deciding who will be the heir to a hundred-billion-dollar media empire is no easy task. Rupert Murdoch decided his eldest, Lachlan, would be best suited for the job, however, the drama doesn’t end with this decision.

After Rupert’s death, his shares will be divided among Lachlan and three of his five siblings—Elisabeth, James, and Prudence. As it is clear Rupert wants Lachlan to helm the empire into the future, tensions between siblings are making it seem the top job is still up for grabs.

Poultry Giants Tyson Foods and Perdue Farms Accused of Using Child Labor in Slaughterhouses

Tyson Foods and Perdue Farms are under federal investigation over their alleged use of migrant child labor in their slaughterhouses. The two poultry giants produce a third of all chicken products sold in the United States.

The investigation focuses on the cleaning of slaughterhouses, which is regarded as some of the most dangerous work in the country, done by migrant children. The New York Times reports children as young as 13 were using acid and pressure hoses to scour blood, grease, and feathers from industrial machines.

The dangers of working in slaughterhouses

Federal law bans minors from working in slaughterhouses due to the high risk of injury. Fayette Industrial, which works with Perdue, and QSI, which works with Tyson and is part of a conglomerate, the Vincit Group. Fayette hired a migrant child from Guatemala, named Marcos, seeking asylum in the United States.

In February of last year, he was cleaning a conveyor belt at a Perdue plant when it suddenly activated and pulled him across the floor, tearing his arm open. He underwent three surgeries, but his arm remains limp.

He isn’t alone…

Marcos is one of many thousands of migrant children from Mexico and Central America who have come to the United States since 2021 and ended up in dangerous, life-threatening jobs.

The Labor Department is taking immediate steps to enact a child labor “enforcement action” against QSI. Tyson said it planned to end its contract with QSI at several plants while Perdue told Fayette it remains undecided.

AI is Only Getting More Scary

ChatGPT can now speak, apparently. At least while we all wait on the singularity we can talk to robots. ChatGPT rolled out an update that allows the AI to respond to prompts in spoken words, resulting in two-way conversations that will arguably be much better than whatever small talk I try at the bars.

The feature is exclusively available to those who buy GPT Plus ($20 a month), which is a small price to pay to have a new friend who can’t ever leave you. OpenAI said it would release it to the general audience “soon after”.

Another update: Along with giving ChatGPT the ability to speak, it can now respond to images you show it. Not that I’m advising it, but your screenshot of modern algebra homework might just write itself.

Snippets

Emotional Support… Alligator? A Phillies fan tried to bring his ‘emotional support alligator’ - named WallyGator - into the ballpark. Here’s a picture.

Robot Recessitation: According to a new study, telling an AI model to “take a deep breath and relax” helped it solve math problems more optimally.

Stinky Savior: A woman was rescued from an outhouse toilet in Northern Michigan after trying to retrieve her Apple watch and became trapped.

Death Life Certificate? A woman in Missouri has been trying to convince the authorities she isn’t dead for 17 years after a computer error.

Poop Prize: A group of scientists won the Ig Nobel Prize after discovering how and why wombats produce cube-shaped poop.

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