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Today is Thursday, March 14th. We're

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talking about the newly passed bill that

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could ban TikTok in the US and

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what needs to happen next. Also

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a surprise ruling in former President Trump's criminal

0:11

case out of Georgia, as another

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big question hanging over the case is set

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to be decided this week. Plus,

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we'll get into the details of the world's

0:19

first artificial intelligence law, why

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a Grammy-winning musician decided to end his

0:23

boycott of Spotify and where to take

0:26

advantage of deals and discounts this Pi

0:28

Day. Those stories and more news

0:30

to know next. Welcome,

0:33

welcome to the newsworthy, all the day's

0:36

news in around 10 minutes. Fast, fair,

0:38

fun, and on the go. I'm Erica

0:40

Mandy, thanks so much for being here.

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You ready? Let's do this. American

0:48

lawmakers on both sides of the

0:50

aisle took a big step toward

0:52

a potential nationwide TikTok ban. The

0:55

US House overwhelmingly passed a bill that

0:57

would keep the popular video app off

0:59

American app stores if its

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Chinese owner does not sell its stake.

1:03

Now, as you know, lawmakers believe TikTok's

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parent company, ByteDance, could be forced to

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hand over American data to the Chinese

1:10

government. There are also concerns

1:12

about the Chinese government flooding Americans

1:14

with misinformation. And President Biden says

1:16

he wants to sign the bill into law.

1:19

But the thing is, the Senate would also have to

1:21

pass the bill first. And it's not clear

1:23

if that's going to happen. For now, Senate

1:25

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer just says he's going

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to be consulting with committee chairs to figure

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out what comes next. In the meantime,

1:32

TikTok and many of its 170 million American

1:35

users are fighting back. In

1:37

a video posted last night, TikTok CEO

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again said the company has invested to

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keep user data safe and the platform

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free of outside manipulation. And he

1:45

told users, quote, "'We will not stop fighting

1:47

and advocating for you.'" Users have

1:50

been flooding lawmakers' phones with calls demanding

1:52

they drop the effort, so much

1:54

so that some offices even shut their phones off.

1:57

Dozens of influencers also rallied outside

1:59

the Capitol. By

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the way, even if the Senate does pass

2:03

this bill and it becomes law, TikTok would

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not go away immediately. For starters,

2:07

ByteDance could be willing to sell, and there

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are American buyers who have already expressed interest.

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But also, the law would almost certainly be challenged

2:15

in court. So, to be

2:17

continued. Former

2:20

President Trump got a bit of a

2:22

win in Georgia this week. A judge

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dismissed a handful of charges in his

2:26

election interference case, saying they were not

2:29

specific enough. That said, most of

2:31

the case is still intact. The

2:33

charges that got thrown out, though, had to

2:35

do with the allegations that he and some

2:37

of his co-defendants illegally tried to influence Georgia

2:39

elected officials to violate their oaths of office.

2:42

But the judge decided to drop those counts,

2:44

since it wasn't clear what part of the

2:46

oaths were violated. Trump and members

2:48

of his inner circle are still accused of

2:50

planning to block certification of the election, getting

2:52

illegal access to voting machines, and more. And

2:55

those charges are still moving forward. Another

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big question in this case is whether the lead

3:00

prosecutor will be disqualified or not. She's

3:03

accused of having a romantic relationship with

3:05

her chief deputy, which defense attorneys say

3:07

violated Georgia ethics laws and threatens the

3:10

prosecution. The judge has said he hopes

3:12

to rule by this week about her future in this

3:14

case. Then perhaps a trial date

3:16

can be set. Overall, the former president is

3:18

now facing 88 charges over

3:20

the four criminal investigations in Georgia,

3:23

New York, Washington, D.C., and Florida.

3:28

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, also

3:30

known as ICE, is going to make

3:33

more of its agents start wearing body

3:35

cameras. 1600 body

3:37

cams are going out to officers in

3:39

Baltimore, Philadelphia, Detroit, Washington, D.C., and Buffalo,

3:41

New York. The ICE director

3:43

says he's hoping it will help to build public

3:46

trust. He actually wants to expand

3:48

the program to even more officers in more

3:50

cities, but says that cannot happen without more

3:52

federal funding. In fact, ICE needs

3:55

more funding anyway since it's facing a $500 million

3:57

budget gap. News

4:00

site sources who say we'll have to

4:02

start cutting key operations like detention and

4:04

deportation of migrants by May if the

4:06

funding does not come through. Lawmakers

4:09

have just about one more week to negotiate

4:11

a spending package. This

4:15

week marked exactly four years since

4:17

COVID-19 was declared a pandemic and

4:19

a national emergency in the U.S.

4:22

Of course, since then, millions of people have

4:25

died from the virus, 1.2 million just here

4:28

in the U.S. But there have

4:30

also been a lot of medical breakthroughs worth

4:32

celebrating, like vaccines for nearly every age group,

4:35

the development of antiviral drugs to treat those

4:37

at risk for severe illness, and at-home

4:39

tests that are now widely available. And

4:42

because of all of that, and a general

4:44

herd immunity, COVID-19 is nowhere near as deadly

4:46

as it once was. At

4:48

its peak, nearly 26,000 Americans were dying

4:51

of the virus every week. Now

4:53

it's more like 1,200 a week. And

4:56

the world has mostly opened back up, with

4:58

few restrictions. Still, there are some

5:00

changes that seem to have stuck around. For

5:02

example, remote work being far more

5:04

common now, more socializing being done

5:06

online instead of in person. And

5:09

for some people, the effects of long

5:11

COVID have stuck around. So

5:13

many medical professionals say at this point, the

5:15

next goal should be finding tests and treatments

5:18

to help long COVID patients recover. We

5:23

have much more news for you still ahead. But first,

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support for this episode comes from Zuckdock. Even

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zocdoc.com/newsworthy. zocdoc.com/newsworthy.

6:30

Now back to the news. European

6:34

Union lawmakers passed a first of its

6:36

kind law meant to regulate artificial intelligence.

6:39

It's expected to reshape how businesses

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and organizations in Europe use AI for

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everything from health care decisions to

6:45

policing. For starters, it imposes

6:48

some blanket bans on uses of the

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technology the EU calls unacceptable. For

6:52

example, it outlaws any biometric-based tools

6:55

to guess a person's race, political

6:57

leanings or sexual orientation. AI

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also won't be allowed to interpret the emotions

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of people in schools and workplaces, and

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it will not be able to predict a person's likelihood

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of committing future crimes. The new

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law also requires so-called deepfakes to

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be clearly labeled. Deepfakes

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can be any kind of deceptive video,

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audio or images that could deceive people

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into thinking they're real. The law

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is set to take effect bit by bit over the next

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two years. Here in the U.S., Senate

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Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said last year that he

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was putting AI at the top of his agenda.

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So far, though, there hasn't been much progress to get a

7:30

bill passed in Congress in the U.S. But

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some legal professionals expect the new EU

7:34

regulation to pave the path for other

7:36

countries like the U.S. to follow. The

7:41

biggest, most powerful rocket ever built is

7:43

set to launch today for its third

7:45

test flight. SpaceX is set to

7:47

launch the rocket called Starship from its Texas campus.

7:50

It's nearly 400 feet tall, about 90

7:52

feet taller than the Statue of Liberty,

7:54

including its pedestal. SpaceX is hoping

7:56

to build on the last couple of flights. minutes

8:00

and achieve some milestones before

8:02

ultimately exploding. This time

8:04

SpaceX wants to demonstrate new capabilities like

8:07

opening and closing the door, transferring fuel

8:09

during the flight, and splashing down in

8:11

the Indian Ocean. The company will

8:13

live stream the launch on its website starting

8:15

at 8am Eastern. If you're interested, we've included

8:17

a link in today's episode note. Nearly

8:21

a thousand Family Dollar and Dollar Tree stores are

8:24

going to be shutting their doors. The Family Dollar

8:26

brand is now owned by Dollar Tree and this

8:28

week the company said it reviewed all of its

8:30

stores and decided to close the ones that are

8:33

not performing well. It won't happen all

8:35

at once though. The stores will be closing as their

8:37

leases come to an end. Dollar Tree

8:39

CEO blames inflation and store theft for

8:41

forcing his hand. Though he says

8:44

the company still has a bright future as

8:46

it expands its product offerings and charges prices

8:48

higher than a dollar. Dollar Tree now also

8:50

has three dollars, five dollar items for sale.

8:55

A UFC legend is now in critical

8:57

condition with injuries he got while saving

8:59

his parents from a house fire. Mark

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Coleman who was the first UFC heavyweight

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champion carried both of his parents to

9:06

safety but during that heroic act

9:08

he suffered from smoke inhalation and had to

9:11

be airlifted to the hospital. One

9:13

of his fellow Hall of Famers and former

9:15

competitors Dan Severn said he wasn't at all

9:17

surprised to hear about Coleman's bravery saying that's

9:19

just the type of man Coleman is. Several

9:22

other current MMA stars and wrestlers also

9:24

shared their support on social media as

9:26

did his daughter who wrote quote, he

9:28

is and always will be a fighter.

9:33

A folk rock star is finally ending his

9:35

two-year boycott of Spotify. You'll remember

9:37

Neil Young withdrew his catalog to

9:39

protest the spread of medical misinformation

9:42

on popular Spotify podcasts like the

9:44

Joe Rogan Experience. His move

9:46

ended up inspiring some other artists like Joni

9:48

Mitchell and India Ari to do the same

9:51

but Young changed his tune this week saying

9:53

he realized some of the same misinformation is

9:55

now featured on Apple and Amazon too and

9:57

that he can't leave all of them since that.

10:00

would leave fans without much of a chance to stream his

10:02

music at all. And with that,

10:04

Young's songs like Harvest Moon and Like

10:06

a Hurricane are available everywhere. Granted,

10:08

he's still not happy about it, and Young is

10:10

pushing for Spotify to improve sound quality so that,

10:12

quote, people will be able to hear and feel

10:14

all the music as we made it. Today

10:19

is Pi Day. We're talking about

10:21

PI Pi, the mathematical sign that

10:23

represents the ratio of a circle

10:25

circumference to its diameter. The

10:28

most accurate value for Pi is more than 62 trillion digits,

10:32

but it's rounded to 3.14, which

10:34

is why we celebrate every year on the date, 3-14. It was first

10:37

celebrated 35 years ago at

10:39

San Francisco's Exploratorium. Today, that museum

10:42

is hosting a parade. So celebrate

10:44

today with deals on PIE pies,

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the sweet kind, pot pies, or

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pizza pies. There are deals being

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offered at places like 7-Eleven, Papa

10:52

John's, Pizza Hut, Smoothie King, Gold

10:54

Belly, and several other bakeries and

10:56

pizza places around the country. That's

11:00

it for the main news today, so now it's time

11:02

for Think to Know Thursday. But first, a quick break.

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check it out. Okay, now back

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to thing to know Thursday. Americans have

12:18

found new ways to make the wild housing

12:20

market a little more manageable. And one of

12:22

those ways is buying a home with a

12:24

friend. It's a trend many

12:26

people call houses before spouses. JW

12:29

Shirty Bonds did a recent survey that found

12:31

about 15% of Americans have gone in on

12:33

a home with someone other than a romantic

12:35

partner. And nearly half of those surveyed

12:37

said they'd at least consider it. People

12:39

who have chosen this route say there's a few reasons it

12:41

made sense for them. One, they've delayed

12:44

getting married and having kids. Two, there's a

12:46

sense of community you get living with someone

12:48

else. And three, probably the most important one,

12:50

splitting the bill is the only way they

12:52

can comfortably afford to buy a house right

12:54

now with home prices hovering around all time

12:56

highs. That said, there are potential financial

12:58

risks to consider if you want to buy a home

13:00

with a non-spouse. Rocket Mortgage points out

13:02

that if one person has a bad credit

13:04

score, that could hurt the mortgage terms. Also,

13:07

if one person fails to pay their part of

13:09

the mortgage payments, that will hurt both people's credit

13:11

scores. So just make sure you really

13:13

trust who you're buying with and be willing to

13:15

openly talk about finances. All

13:19

right. Thank you so much for listening today. We will

13:21

catch you up on more news to now, tomorrow. Until

13:24

then, have a great day.