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Source: https://noternet.org/feed/

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<title>These may be the oldest rocks on Earth</title>
<link>https://noternet.org/what-may-be-earths-oldest-rocks-found-in-canada/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[LinJianDe]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 27 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Science]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://noternet.org/what-may-be-earths-oldest-rocks-found-in-canada/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Scientists have identified what could be the oldest rocks on Earth from a rock formation in Canada. The Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt has long been known for its ancient rocks – plains of streaked gray stone on the eastern shore of Hudson Bay in Quebec. But researchers disagree on exactly how old they are. Dispute apparently …]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Scientists have identified what could be the oldest rocks on Earth from a rock formation in Canada. 
The Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt has long been known for its ancient rocks – plains of streaked gray stone on the eastern shore of Hudson Bay in Quebec. But researchers disagree on exactly how old they are.
<h2>Dispute apparently settled</h2>
Work from two decades ago suggested the rocks could be 4.3 billion years old, placing them in the earliest period of Earth’s history. But other scientists using a different dating method contested the finding, arguing that long-ago contaminants were skewing the rocks’ age and that they were actually slightly younger — at 3.8 billion years old.
In the new study, researchers sampled a different section of rock from the belt and estimated its age using the previous two dating techniques – measuring how one radioactive element decays into another over time. The result: The rocks were about 4.16 billion years old. 
The different methods “gave exactly the same age,” said study author Jonathan O’Neil with the University of Ottawa. 
The new research was published Thursday in the journal Science.
<h2>Ancient rocks could shed light on Earth’s earliest days  </h2>
Earth formed about 4.5 billion years ago from a collapsing cloud of dust and gas soon after the solar system existed. Primordial rocks often get melted and recycled by Earth’s moving tectonic plates, making them extremely rare on the surface today. Scientists have uncovered 4 billion-year-old rocks from another formation in Canada called the Acasta Gneiss Complex, but the Nuvvuagittuq rocks could be even older. 
Studying rocks from Earth’s earliest history could give a glimpse into how the planet may have looked – how its roiling magma oceans gave way to tectonic plates – and even how life got started. 
“To have a sample of what was going on on Earth way back then is really valuable,” said Mark Reagan with the University of Iowa, who studies volcanic rocks and lava and was not involved with the new study.
<h2>Inuit community wants steps to avoid rocks being exploited</h2>
The rock formation is on tribal Inukjuak lands and the local Inuit community has temporarily restricted scientists from taking samples from the site due to damage from previous visits. 
After some geologists visited the site, large chunks of rock were missing and the community noticed pieces for sale online, said Tommy Palliser, who manages the land with the Pituvik Landholding Corp. The Inuit community wants to work with scientists to set up a provincial park that would protect the land while allowing researchers to study it. 
“There’s a lot of interest for these rocks, which we understand,” said Palliser, a member of the community. “We just don’t want any more damage.”
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<title>Killer whales caught on video grooming each other with seaweed after master’s student noticed “something kind of weird” going on</title>
<link>https://noternet.org/killer-whales-video-grooming-each-other-seaweed/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[LinJianDe]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 23 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://noternet.org/killer-whales-video-grooming-each-other-seaweed/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Killer whales have been caught on video breaking off pieces of seaweed to rub and groom each other, scientists announced Monday, in what they said is the first evidence of marine mammals making their own tools. Humans are far from being the only member of the animal kingdom that has mastered using tools. Chimpanzees fashion …]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<a href="../news/video-orcas-algae-infested-pool-wikie-keijo-protests/" target="_blank" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">Killer whales</a> have been caught on video breaking off pieces of seaweed to rub and groom each other, scientists announced Monday, in what they said is the first evidence of marine mammals making their own tools.
Humans are far from being the only member of the animal kingdom that has mastered using tools. Chimpanzees fashion sticks to fish for termites, crows create hooked twigs to catch grubs and elephants swat flies with branches.
Tool use in the world’s difficult-to-study oceans is rarer, however sea otters are known to smash open shellfish with rocks, while octopuses can make mobile homes out of coconut shells.
A study published in the <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/pdf/S0960-9822(25)00450-6.pdf" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">journal Current Biology</a> describes a new example of tool use by a critically endangered population of orcas.
Scientists have been monitoring the southern resident killer whales in the Salish Sea, between the Canadian province of British Columbia and Washington state, for more than 50 years.
Rachel John, a master’s student at Exeter University in the U.K., told a press conference that she first noticed “something kind of weird” going on while watching drone camera footage last year.
The researchers went back over old footage and were surprised to find this behavior is quite common, documenting 30 examples over eight days.
One whale would use its teeth to break off a piece of bull kelp, which is strong but flexible like a garden hose.
It would then put the kelp between its body and the body of another whale, and they would rub it between them for several minutes.
The pair forms an “S” shape to keep the seaweed positioned between their bodies as they roll around.
<h2>“Skin maintenance behaviors”</h2>
Whales are already known to frolic through seaweed in a practice called “kelping.”
They are thought to do this partly for fun, partly to use the seaweed to scrub their bodies to remove dead skin.
The international team of researchers called the new behavior “allokelping,” which means kelping with another whale.
“We hypothesize that allokelping is similar to skin maintenance behaviors exhibited by other cetaceans,” the researchers wrote.
They found that killer whales with more dead skin were more likely to engage in the activity, cautioning that it was a small sample size.
Whales also tended to pair up with family members or others of a similar age, suggesting the activity has a social element.
The scientists said it was the first known example of a marine mammal manufacturing a tool.
Janet Mann, a biologist at Georgetown University not involved in the study, praised the research but said it “went a bit too far” in some of its claims.
Bottlenose dolphins that use marine sponges to trawl for prey could also be considered to be manufacturing tools, she told AFP.
And it could be argued that other whales known to use nets of bubbles or plumes of mud to hunt represent tool use benefitting multiple individuals, another first claimed in the paper, Mann said.
However, the <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/pdf/S0960-9822(25)00450-6.pdf" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">study’s authors say</a> allokelping may be the “first case of non-human animals manipulating a tool with the core of their body rather than an appendage.”
Michael Weiss, research director at the Center for Whale Research and the study’s lead author, said it appeared to be just the latest example of socially learned behavior among animals that could be considered “culture.”
But the number of southern resident killer whales has dwindled to just 73, meaning we could soon lose this unique cultural tradition, he warned.
“If they disappear, we’re never getting any of that back,” he said.
The whales mainly eat Chinook salmon, whose numbers have plummeted due to overfishing, climate change, habitat destruction and other forms of human interference.
The orcas and salmon are not alone — undersea kelp forests have also been devastated as ocean temperatures rise.
Unless something changes, the outlook for southern resident killer whales is “very bleak,” Weiss warned.
Earlier this year, an unusual spectacle featuring a pod of orcas was also <a href="https://www.kiro7.com/video/raw-video/raw-orcas-west-seattle-2-courtesy-kersti-muul/fba5ada9-96d4-44a1-acfa-cb471f7922ad/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">caught on video</a> when onlookers in Seattle were treated to the rare sight of the apex predators <a href="../news/killer-whales-video-bird-hunt-seattle/" target="_blank" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">hunting a bird</a> close to shore. 
Killer whales have made headlines for other reasons in recent years. Boaters in Europe have reported several instances of orcas <a href="../news/orcas-attack-sailboat-spain-crew-seriously-injured-rescue/" target="_blank" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">ramming into their vessels</a> in a pattern that baffled many marine experts. Sailors said they resorted to everything from throwing sand in the water to setting off fireworks to <a href="../news/orca-attacks-sailors-thrash-metal-could-be-game-changer/" target="_blank" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">blasting thrash metal music</a> in efforts to ward off the encroaching predators.
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<title>U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel partnership is finalized, companies say</title>
<link>https://noternet.org/us-steel-nippon-steel-partnership-finalized/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[LinJianDe]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 18 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[MoneyWatch]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://noternet.org/us-steel-nippon-steel-partnership-finalized/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel announced Wednesday that they have finalized their long-awaited partnership.  Under the announced agreement, U.S. Steel will retain its name and headquarters in Pittsburgh. The steel will continue to be “mined, melted and made” in the United States, the companies said. The partnership is expected to create more than 100,000 jobs …]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel announced Wednesday that they have finalized their <a href="../news/trump-clears-us-steel-sale-nippon-steel-golden-share-unclear/" target="_blank" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">long-awaited partnership</a>. 
Under the announced agreement, U.S. Steel will retain its name and <a href="../pittsburgh/news/us-steel-headquarters-pittsburgh-trump/" target="_blank" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">headquarters in Pittsburgh</a>. The steel will continue to be “mined, melted and made” in the United States, the companies said. The partnership is expected to create more than 100,000 jobs throughout the U.S., and will feature “unprecedented massive investments in steelmaking in the United States,” the companies said in their announcement.
A deal between Nippon and U.S. Steel was first proposed in late 2023. Then-President Joe Biden <a href="../news/biden-us-steel-nippon-deal/" target="_blank" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">rejected the deal</a> on national security grounds near the end of his time in office, but President Trump <a href="../pittsburgh/news/us-steel-new-review-trump/" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">ordered a new review</a> of the deal and suggested Nippon could agree to “invest heavily” in U.S. Steel’s facilities <a href="../news/trump-considering-allowing-sale-of-u-s-steel-to-nippon-steel/" target="_blank" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">rather than fully acquiring</a> the company.
On June 13, Mr. Trump <a href="../news/trump-clears-us-steel-sale-nippon-steel-golden-share-unclear/" target="_blank" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">cleared the sale</a> of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel. The companies say they have “now completed the transaction as contemplated by their merger agreement.” 
The companies have also entered into a National Security Agreement with the U.S. government.
Under that agreement, Nippon Steel has agreed to make about $11 billion in new investments in U.S. Steel by 2028, including an initial investment in a greenfield project that will be completed after 2028, they said. The agreement also requires that the majority of members of U.S. Steel’s board of directors and key management personnel, including its CEO, be U.S. citizens, and says that U.S. Steel will remain a U.S.-incorporated entity. 
Takashi Mori, Nippon Steel’s representative director and vice chairman, will serve as chairman of the board of U.S. Steel, according to the news release. 
The United Steelworkers union issued a statement accusing the companies of “down-playing concerns” about what the deal would mean over the long-term.
“As the sale concludes, it seems likely that attention will dissipate,” USW president <a href="https:/usw.org/leadership/david-mccall/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">David McCall</a> said. “However, our union will remain. We will continue watching, holding Nippon to its commitments. And we will use the most powerful tool workers have against global corporations: collective bargaining.” The union’s current contract agreement expires in September 2026.
The deal announced Wednesday requires that U.S. Steel maintain capacity to produce and supply steel from U.S. production locations to meet market demand in the country, and says that Nippon Steel will not “prevent, prohibit, or otherwise interfere with U.S. Steel’s ability to pursue trade action under U.S. law.” 
The company will also <a href="../news/us-steel-golden-share-trump-approval-relocation-jobs-nippon/" target="_blank" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">issue a “golden share”</a> to the U.S. government, which will give the president the power to approve or veto a number of major corporate decisions, and gives the U.S. government the right to appoint one independent director. 
The deal comes as Mr. Trump <a href="../news/tariff-steel-aluminum-effective-date-trump/" target="_blank" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">recently doubled tariffs</a> on foreign steel imports. 
“This is a momentous day for our country, our communities, and the American steel industry,” said U.S. Steel CEO Dave Burritt in a news release announcing the partnership details. “Thanks to President Trump’s bold leadership, American workers secured the best possible deal. U. S. Steel will remain rooted in the United States and continue to call Pittsburgh home. Through our partnership with Nippon Steel, we are poised to grow better and bigger, with transformative investment, cutting-edge technology, and the creation of good-paying jobs across the United States.”
Nippon Steel has manufacturing bases in more than a dozen countries, including Japan, India and Mexico. 
U.S. Steel has been headquartered in Pittsburgh since 1901, and has operations elsewhere in the U.S. and in Central Europe. 
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<item>
<title>Protesters in Spain shoot water guns at tourists in demonstration against mass tourism, housing costs</title>
<link>https://noternet.org/spain-protest-water-guns-tourism-housing-costs/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[LinJianDe]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 16 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://noternet.org/spain-protest-water-guns-tourism-housing-costs/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Residents in Spain and several other popular destinations in Europe protested against mass tourism Sunday, saying a flood of summer visitors is driving up housing costs in their cities and pushing out locals. Some of the protesters in Barcelona and on the Spanish island of Mallorca sprayed tourists with water guns. The protests were part …]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Residents in Spain and several other popular destinations in Europe protested against <a href="../news/overtourism-summer-travel-portugal-italy-spain-2024/" target="_blank" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">mass tourism</a> Sunday, saying a flood of summer visitors is driving up housing costs in their cities and pushing out locals.
Some of the protesters in Barcelona and on the Spanish island of Mallorca sprayed tourists with water guns.
The protests were part of the first coordinated effort by activists concerned with the ills of overtourism across southern Europe’s top destinations. While several thousands rallied in Mallorca in the biggest gathering of the day, hundreds more gathered in other Spanish cities, as well as in Venice, Italy, and Portugal’s capital, Lisbon.
“The squirt guns are to bother the tourists a bit,” Andreu Martínez said in Barcelona with a chuckle after spritzing a couple seated at an outdoor café. “Barcelona has been handed to the tourists. This is a fight to give Barcelona back to its residents.”
Martínez, a 42-year-old administrative assistant, is one of a growing number of residents who are convinced that tourism has gone too far in the city of 1.7 million people. Barcelona hosted 15.5 million visitors last year eager to see Antoni Gaudí’s La Sagrada Familia basilica and the Las Ramblas promenade.
Martínez says his rent has risen over 30% as more apartments in his neighborhood are rented to tourists for short-term stays. He said there is a knock-on effect of traditional stores being replaced by businesses catering to tourists, like souvenir shops, burger joints and “bubble tea” spots.
“Our lives, as lifelong residents of Barcelona, are coming to an end,” he said. “We are being pushed out systematically.”
Around 5,000 people gathered in Palma, the capital of Mallorca, with some toting water guns as well and chanting “Everywhere you look, all you see are tourists.” The tourists who were targeted by water blasts laughed it off. The Balearic island is a favorite for British and German sun-seekers. Housing costs have skyrocketed as homes are diverted to the short-term rental market.
Hundreds more marched in Granada, in southern Spain, and in the northern city of San Sebastián, as well as the island of Ibiza.
In Venice, a couple of dozen protesters unfurled a banner calling for a halt to new hotel beds in the lagoon city in front of two recently completed structures, one in the popular tourist destination’s historic center where activists say the last resident, an elderly woman, was kicked out last year.
Protesters in Barcelona blew whistles and held up homemade signs saying “One more tourist, one less resident.” They stuck stickers saying “Citizen Self-Defense,” in Catalan, and “Tourist Go Home,” in English, with a drawing of a water gun on the doors of hotels and hostels.
There was tension when the march stopped in front of a large hostel, where a group emptied their water guns at two workers positioned in the entrance. They also set off firecrackers next to the hostel and opened a can of pink smoke. One worker spat at the protesters as he slammed the hostel’s doors.
American tourists Wanda and Bill Dorozenski were walking along Barcelona’s main luxury shopping boulevard where the protest started. They received a squirt or two, but Wanda said it was actually refreshing given the 83 degree Fahrenheit weather.
“That’s lovely, thank you sweetheart,” she said to the squirter. “I am not going to complain. These people are feeling something to them that is very personal, and is perhaps destroying some areas (of the city).”
There were also many marchers with water guns who didn’t fire at bystanders and instead solely used them to spray themselves to keep cool.
Cities across the world are struggling with how to cope with mass tourism and a boom in short-term rental platforms, like Airbnb, but perhaps nowhere has surging discontent been so evident as in Spain, where <a href="../news/spain-barcelona-tourism-protests-water-guns/" target="_blank" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">protesters in Barcelona</a> first took to firing squirt guns at tourists during a protest last summer.
There has also been a confluence of the pro-housing and anti-tourism struggles in Spain, whose 48 million residents welcomed a record 94 million international visitors in 2024. When thousands marched through the streets of Spain’s capital in April, some held homemade signs saying “Get Airbnb out of our neighborhoods.”
Spanish authorities are striving to show they hear the public outcry while not hurting an industry that contributes 12% of gross domestic product.
Last month, Spain’s government <a href="../news/airbnb-rental-listings-blocked-in-spain-violations/" target="_blank" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">ordered Airbnb to remove almost 66,000 holiday rentals</a> from the platform that it said had violated local rules.
Spain’s Consumer Rights Minister Pablo Bustinduy told The Associated Press shortly after the crackdown on Airbnb that the tourism sector “cannot jeopardize the constitutional rights of the Spanish people,” which enshrines their right to housing and well-being. Carlos Cuerpo, the economy minister, said in a separate interview that the government is aware it must tackle the unwanted side effects of mass tourism.
The boldest move was made by Barcelona’s town hall, which stunned Airbnb and other services who help rent properties to tourists by announcing last year the elimination of all 10,000 short-term rental licenses in the city by 2028.
That sentiment was back in force on Sunday, where people held up signs saying “Your Airbnb was my home.” 
The short-term rental industry, for its part, believes it is being treated unfairly.
“I think a lot of our politicians have found an easy scapegoat to blame for the inefficiencies of their policies in terms of housing and tourism over the last 10, 15, 20 years,” Airbnb’s general director for Spain and Portugal, Jaime Rodríguez de Santiago, recently told the AP.
That argument either hasn’t trickled down to the ordinary residents of Barcelona, or isn’t resonating.
Txema Escorsa, a teacher in Barcelona, doesn’t just oppose Airbnb in his home city, he has ceased to use it even when traveling elsewhere, out of principle.
“In the end, you realize that this is taking away housing from people,” he said.
In another strategy, last year, Barcelona’s leaders launched a program to <a href="../news/barcelona-tourist-tax-fighting-climate-change/" target="_blank" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">replace outdated infrastructure in public schools</a> to address rising temperatures, paid for by a tax on tourists. 
“The possibility of using these revenues, the tourism tax, for such a project is very important so that we can accept tourism in our city and the role that tourism has,” Barcelona’s Deputy Mayor Laia Bonet told CBS News at the time.
But some residents say the program misses the point. 
“The government should be doing this without depending on tourism … it’s public health,” activist Agnes Rodriguez said. “If you’re coming to Barcelona tonight, to Chicago or to New York, and you’re staying in a tourist apartment where a family should be living, you are part of this city changing. You’re affecting the life of people living there.”
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<title>3</title>
<link>https://noternet.org/3-year-sextortion-probe-buffalo-ghana-d-c/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[LinJianDe]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Sun, 15 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://noternet.org/3-year-sextortion-probe-buffalo-ghana-d-c/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Surveillance camera footage from the lobby of a building down the street from the U.S. Capitol provided a break in the three-year search for the person who was extorting a young man from Buffalo, New York.  Cross Cole, a 21-year-old citizen of Ghana, who is linked to a 2022 stay at a rental property in …]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Surveillance camera footage from the lobby of a building down the street from the U.S. Capitol provided a break in the three-year search for the person who was extorting a young man from Buffalo, New York. 
Cross Cole, a 21-year-old citizen of Ghana, who is linked to a 2022 stay at a rental property in Washington, D.C., was charged last week with the sextortion scheme.
Cole’s arrest is part of a growing wave of such <a href="../news/sextortion-generative-ai-scam-elijah-heacock-take-it-down-act/" target="_blank" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">cases</a> nationwide and illustrates the complicated and international nature of these attacks.     
<a href="../news/gavin-guffey-nigerian-extradited-sextortion/" target="_blank" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">Sextortion</a>, in which schemers threaten to release illicit photos of victims unless the victims pay them, has surged nationwide.
An FBI affidavit reviewed by CBS News said Cole had obtained a naked photo of the victim from years earlier, when the victim was a minor. Prosecutors also alleged Cole had accessed a nude image of the victim’s friend, while the friend was also a minor. The victim’s email account was hacked, and his social media account security was compromised, federal prosecutors said.
“The victim sent $200 to the CashApp account but cancelled the payment after speaking with his father,” Michael Digiacomo, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of New York, said in a public notice about the case. “He then continued to receive multiple text messages from the same telephone number that made the threats.” 
The affidavit reviewed by CBS News said agents eventually tracked down an IP address linked to Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., that had accessed the victim’s account in October 2022. A security camera image in the affidavit allegedly shows Cole entering an AirBNB rental facility at the Capitol Hill address in October 2022.   
The affidavit said Cole’s mother, who is also a citizen of Ghana, had rented a space in the building through AirBNB that month. A judge has ordered Cole to be detained, pending trial. His next court hearing is scheduled for September in Buffalo federal court.
Safety experts and federal law enforcement officials told CBS News that a growing number of these sextortion schemes are being executed by <a href="../news/meta-sextortion-scam-nigeria-facebook-instagram-crackdown/" target="_blank" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">foreign nationals</a> against children and young adults in the U.S. FBI records obtained by CBS News show a nearly 500% increase in reports of sextortion since 2019.
The FBI and safety groups have been trying to raise awareness around cases like Cole’s. Targets are increasingly <a href="../news/sextortion-scam-fbi-justice-department-minors/" target="_blank" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">young men</a>. Experts say these victims are less likely to report the incidents.  
In some of the newest wave of sextortion cases, schemers lure children and young adults into sharing illicit photos by pretending to be someone who’s about the same age. In other cases, including the one described in the charging documents against Cole, suspects are accused of hacking into the social media accounts of victims to obtain the illicit images.
“These cases are like something we’ve never seen before,” said Lauren Coffen, director of the Exploited Children Division at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.  
“We are used to people being able to reach out and engage and chat with children for sexual reasons. They wanted the images, they wanted to be able to maybe meet up,” Coffen told CBS News. “Now, they want money. And that’s a totally different motivator than what we’re used to seeing in exploitation.”
“People have no idea how targeted our teenage boys are right now,” Pauline Stuart told CBS News.    
Stuart’s son, <a href="../news/combating-child-exploitation/" target="_blank" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">Ryan Last</a>, died by suicide hours after a sextortion scheme was threatened against him in 2022. The Justice Department says Last’s death showed the pervasiveness of international criminals in sextortion schemes. In an announcement in May, the department said four men in Côte d’Ivoire had been arrested on criminal charges related to their alleged role in an international sextortion scheme that targeted thousands of victims, including Last.
“The sad reality is this is not an uncommon event,” said Digiacomo, whose office is prosecuting Cole’s case. Though he would not comment on the details of the Cole investigation, Digiacomo said the pervasiveness of sextortion cases is troubling and largely unrecognized by some parents.     
“Oftentimes in these cases, there are very young victims,” Digiacomo told CBS News, “The perpetrators will say ‘Just send me the pictures and I’ll leave you alone.’ And the victims think (sending money) is the easy way out or the only way out.”  
Digiacomo and the National Center for Missing Exploited Children both told CBS News that the international component of the conspiracies complicates efforts to track down and stop sextorters. 
According to the FBI affidavit in Cole’s case, agents connected an iCloud account to Cole that included a note listing multiple Yahoo email addresses and passwords.    
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<item>
<title>Trump administration can keep Mahmoud Khalil jailed for allegedly lying on green card application, judge says</title>
<link>https://noternet.org/trump-administration-can-keep-mahmoud-khalil-jailed-judge-says/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[LinJianDe]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 13 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://noternet.org/trump-administration-can-keep-mahmoud-khalil-jailed-judge-says/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil can remain in federal detention on allegations he lied on his green card application, a federal judge ruled Friday. U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz said days earlier the Trump administration cannot detain or deport Khalil based on Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s determination that he could harm foreign policy. …]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil can remain in federal detention on allegations he lied on his green card application, a federal judge ruled Friday.
U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz <a href="../news/judge-rules-mahmoud-khalil-cannot-be-deported-based-on-rubio-determination/" target="_blank" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">said days earlier</a> the Trump administration cannot detain or deport Khalil based on Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s determination that he could harm foreign policy. The New Jersey judge wrote that Khalil had shown his detention was causing irreparable harm to his career, family and free speech rights.
But the judge <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.njd.564334/gov.uscourts.njd.564334.306.0_1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">acknowledged Friday</a> his earlier ruling did not address the Trump administration’s other stated basis for holding Khalil, that he allegedly left out information about his career and prior associations on his green card form.
Farbiarz said it is now up to Khalil to ask for bail from the immigration judge overseeing his case. 
In a <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69757814/304/khalil-v-joyce/" rel="nofollow noopener">filing Friday</a>, the government argued that Farbiarz never said it would be “unlawful” to detain Khalil over concerns about his green card application, even as the judge noted in his Wednesday ruling that evidence suggested that legal permanent residents are virtually never detained for such reasons.
Khalil, for his part, disputes that he wasn’t forthcoming in his application. He maintains, among other things, that he was never employed by or served as an “officer” of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, as the administration claims, but completed an internship approved by the university as part of his graduate studies.
<a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69757814/163/khalil-v-joyce/" rel="nofollow noopener">In a letter</a> to Farbiarz, Khalil’s lawyers said he had satisfied all of the court’s requirements to go free and that the government’s lawyers missed a Friday morning deadline to challenge the judge’s Wednesday ruling.
After Farbiarz’s ruling Friday, Khalil’s legal team criticized his continued detention.
“Mahmoud Khalil was detained in retaliation for his advocacy for Palestinian rights. The government is now using cruel, transparent delay tactics to keep him away from his wife and newborn son ahead of their first Father’s Day as a family,” said lawyer Amy Greer, an associate at Dratel & Lewis.
Khalil was detained on March 8 at his apartment building in Manhattan over his links to pro-Palestinian demonstrations. His was the first arrest under President Trump’s crackdown on students who were connected to campus protests, typically citing a law that allows people to be removed from the U.S. if the secretary of state finds their presence could pose “adverse foreign policy consequences.”
Khalil’s lawyers say the Trump administration is simply trying to crack down on free speech.
Khalil isn’t accused of breaking any laws during the protests at Columbia. The international affairs graduate student served as a negotiator and spokesperson for student activists. He wasn’t among the demonstrators arrested, but his prominence in news coverage and willingness to speak publicly made him a target of critics.
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<title>GOP tax bill could cost low</title>
<link>https://noternet.org/big-beautiful-bill-tax-medicaid-snap-impact-cbo/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[LinJianDe]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Thu, 12 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[MoneyWatch]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://noternet.org/big-beautiful-bill-tax-medicaid-snap-impact-cbo/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The Republicans’ “big beautiful” budget package is aimed at ushering in “a new golden age in America” through a combination of tax and spending cuts, according to House Speaker Mike Johnson. But a new analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office finds that the bill may prove less golden for some Americans. The lowest-earning 10% of U.S. …]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[The Republicans’ <a href="../news/gop-senators-change-in-trumps-house-passed-one-big-beautiful-bill/" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">“big beautiful” budget package</a> is aimed at ushering in “a new golden age in America” through a combination of tax and spending cuts, according to House Speaker Mike Johnson. But a new analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office finds that the bill may prove less golden for some Americans.
The lowest-earning 10% of U.S. households are likely to see their financial resources reduced by $1,600 per year, or almost 4% of their annual income, according to the June 12 CBO <a href="https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2025-06/61387-Distributional-Effects.pdf" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">report</a>. 
The analysis, which tallies the impact of the bill’s tax breaks, reductions in funding for federal programs and changes in matching state funds, notes that the proposed legislation would reduce resources for low-income Americans because of cuts to Medicaid and food stamps. 
The CBO found the bill would boost the government resources going to the highest-earning 10% of U.S. households by $12,000 per year, while middle-income households would see a gain of $500 to $1,000.
The agency estimated that, on average, “household resources would increase over the 2026–2034 period, mainly because of reductions in how much households owed in federal taxes,” CBO said. But those changes would not be evenly distributed the agency said.
“The agency estimates that in general, resources would decrease for households toward the bottom of the income distribution, whereas resources would increase for households in the middle and top of the income distribution,” the CBO report noted.
President Trump has urged lawmakers to support the Republican budget measure. White House spokesman Kush Desai defended the Trump administration’s economic policies, saying they will benefit working class Americans. 
“Democrats and the media unquestioningly ran with CBO’s gloomy scoring of President Trump’s tax cuts during his first term — tax cuts that helped usher in the first decline in wealth inequality in decades,” Desai said in a statement to CBS MoneyWatch. “President Trump’s America First economic agenda unleashed historic job, wage, and economic growth for working-class Americans in his first term, and this agenda will repeat the success in his second term.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and other Republicans have criticized the CBO for their methodology and claim that failing to pass the tax and spending bill would hurt the economy. 
The CBO analysis could fuel criticism from some congressional Democrats and advocates for low-income Americans that the proposed legislation could hurt the most vulnerable households by stripping away Medicaid and other benefits, while providing the richest Americans with generous tax cuts. 
“As the nonpartisan [Congressional Budget Office] just confirmed to me, Trump’s budget bill will make it harder for working Americans to make ends meet while sending thousands to the ultra-rich,” <a href="https://x.com/CongBoyle/status/1933214371125301584" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">said</a> Rep. Brendan Boyle, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, on social media. 
Boyle, who with House minority leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries asked the CBO for the analysis, added, “Republicans are stealing hard-earned money from working people to enrich billionaires.”
Previous analyses from nonpartisan think tanks such as the Penn Wharton Budget Model, a University of Pennsylvania research group that analyzes the fiscal impact of public policies, have come to similar conclusions about the bill’s impact. 
Penn Wharton <a href="../news/gop-tax-bill-one-big-beautiful-bill-impact-by-income-group/" target="_blank" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">forecasts </a>that the bottom 20% of U.S. households would lose $1,035 in 2026, while the top 0.1% of income earners would get an after-tax boost of $389,000 due to the bill’s provisions.
A Thursday <a href="https://budgetlab.yale.edu/research/combined-distributional-effects-one-big-beautiful-bill-act-and-tariffs" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">analysis</a> of the CBO report by the Yale Budget Lab, a nonpartisan policy research center, concluded that the bottom 10% of U.S. households would see an average decrease of more than 6.5% in incomes under the GOP budget bill, while high-income earners would get a boost of 1.5%.
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<title>Kilmar Abrego Garcia is “defending bedrock constitutional protections for all of us,” his lawyer says</title>
<link>https://noternet.org/kilmar-abrego-garcia-lawyer-due-process-takeout-interview/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[LinJianDe]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 10 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://noternet.org/kilmar-abrego-garcia-lawyer-due-process-takeout-interview/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Washington — A lawyer for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the mistakenly deported man who was recently brought back from El Salvador to face charges in the U.S., said his case is bigger than one individual.  Chris Newman, who represents Abrego Garcia’s family, told CBS News’ Major Garrett in an interview that he does not see the …]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Washington — A lawyer for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the <a href="../baltimore/news/maryland-father-deported-el-salvador-abrego-garcia-us-immigration/" target="_blank" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">mistakenly deported</a> man who was recently brought back from <a href="../baltimore/news/kilmar-abrego-garcia-el-salvador-deported-chris-van-hollen/" target="_blank" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">El Salvador</a> to face charges in the U.S., said his case is bigger than one individual.
Chris Newman, who represents Abrego Garcia’s family, told CBS News’ Major Garrett in an interview that he does not see the case as a referendum on immigration, but as a potential turning point in the erosion of due process rights in the U.S. 
“The Trump administration is very invested in making this a referendum on the immigration debate, which, as you know, has become coarsened and polarized,” Newman said. “And that is one way to look at it. And I think certainly a lot of people view it that way. I don’t view it that way. I view this as a core constitutional order case, a core due process case. And it just so happens that a Salvadoran immigrant is defending bedrock constitutional protections for all of us.”
Abrego Garcia was <a href="../news/kilmar-abrego-garcia-indicted-us-el-salvador/" target="_blank" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">returned to the U.S.</a> on Friday to face charges of human smuggling, amid an escalating battle between the Trump administration and the courts. 
The case ignited widespread outrage after Abrego Garcia was sent to El Salvador and held in an <a href="../news/inside-el-salvador-notorious-cecot-mega-prison/" target="_blank" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">infamous supermax prison</a> along with <a href="../news/what-records-show-about-migrants-sent-to-salvadoran-prison-60-minutes-transcript/" target="_blank" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">hundreds of other deportees</a>, despite a judge ruling years earlier that he shouldn’t be deported to El Salvador. The Trump administration admitted that his deportation was <a href="../news/trump-administrative-error-deporting-man-el-salvador-prison/" target="_blank" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">an “administrative error.”</a>
A j<a href="../baltimore/news/maryland-father-deported-kilmar-abrego-garcia-cecot-administrative-error/" target="_blank" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">udge had ordered</a> the government to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S., but the administration did not bring him back for months, arguing it was up to the Salvadoran government whether to release him.
The indictment, which was unsealed Friday, alleges that Abrego Garcia and others transported thousands of migrants across the U.S. who were in the country illegally. It also claims that many of the undocumented migrants were members of the gang MS-13. The administration has also accused Abrego Garcia of MS-13 membership, which his family and attorneys strongly deny.
“Until Friday, Kilmar Abrego Garcia had never been charged with any crime, either in the United States or El Salvador, but you wouldn’t know that if you watched White House press briefings for the last two months,” Newman said. “All we’ve been asking up until this point is for Kilmar to have his day in court so he could defend himself.” 
In court papers over the weekend, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mdd.578815/gov.uscourts.mdd.578815.186.0_5.pdf" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">accused the Trump administration</a> of an “elaborate, all-of-government effort to defy court orders, deny due process, and disparage Abrego Garcia.” The administration <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mdd.578815/gov.uscourts.mdd.578815.181.0_5.pdf" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">says it has complied</a> with court orders by returning Abrego Garcia to the U.S.
Newman said that Democratic lawmakers who <a href="../baltimore/news/maryland-sen-van-hollen-meets-with-mistakenly-deported-kilmar-abrego-garcia-in-el-salvador/" target="_blank" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">visited</a> Abrego Garcia when he was imprisoned in El Salvador came back with a warning from Salvadorians whose family members had been treated similarly by President Nayib Bukele’s government. 
“We in El Salvador have no more guardrails. We have no more Supreme Court. We have no more check against President Bukele, other than public opinion. You all have to fight to make sure that you keep the bedrock institutions of your democracy because we’ve already lost them in El Salvador,” Newman said of their message. 
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<title>4 cartel suspects killed during chase in Mexico days after ambush killed 5 officers in same area</title>
<link>https://noternet.org/cartel-suspects-killed-after-ambush-killed-officers-chiapas-mexico/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[LinJianDe]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 09 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Crime]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://noternet.org/cartel-suspects-killed-after-ambush-killed-officers-chiapas-mexico/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Police in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas and federal forces killed four suspected criminals on Sunday during a chase in an area bordering Guatemala, the local government said. The incident unfolded just days after five police officers were killed in an ambush by an armed group in the same area. A statement from the …]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Police in the southern Mexican state of <a href="../news/mexico-chiapas-cartel-violence-bodies-found/" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">Chiapas</a> and federal forces killed four suspected criminals on Sunday during a chase in an area bordering Guatemala, the local government said. The incident unfolded just days after <a href="../news/police-officers-killed-ambush-chiapas-mexico-vehicle-fire/" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">five police officers were killed</a> in an ambush by an armed group in the same area.
A <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sspchiapas/posts/pfbid02BWK7Ejr5jSeQ1n4HjYX4552fF1oCeg6byfrKjpEa97RXFcbkvBDwPGTKvYYFMVCRl" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">statement</a> from the local Security Secretariat said the events occurred in the municipality of Frontera Comalapa after security forces were attacked while on a routine patrol.
“Authorities repelled the fire … and managed to kill four suspected members of organized crime,” the statement said.
Local media reported that the security forces may have entered Guatemalan territory during the pursuit.
Guatemalan Vice President Karin Herrera <a href="https://x.com/KarinHerreraVP/status/1931905100714217742" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">wrote on social media</a> that “the border is under control” and that the army and police maintain “an active presence in the area to guarantee the protection and security of the population.”
The Chiapas Security Secretariat insisted that the operation took place within Mexico.
A source from the agency, who asked not to be identified, told AFP the dead were members of the powerful <a href="../news/jalisco-cartel-image-jaguar-seized-leader-sanctions/" target="_blank" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">Jalisco New Generation Cartel</a>.
The Chiapas Security Secretariat said it seized four trucks, three AK-47 long guns and other weapons after the incident. The agency <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1118280560328298&set=pcb.1118265366996484" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">released images of trucks</a> at the scene and some appeared to be riddled with bullet holes.
In recent months, <a href="../news/hidden-graves-dozens-bodies-chiapas-mexico-cartel-turf-war/" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">Chiapas</a> has been shaken by a bloody turf war between the <a href="../news/sinaloa-cartel-leader-family-enters-us-deal-trump-administration-mexico/" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">Sinaloa Cartel</a> and the <a href="../news/jalisco-cartel-operation-investigation-recruitment-ranch-mexico/" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http="">Jalisco New Generation cartel</a> — the country’s two most powerful criminal organizations.
Last week, five Chiapas state police officers patrolling the area were killed after they were ambushed by an armed group in Frontera Comalapa, according to the local Security Secretariat.
Authorities <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sspchiapas/posts/pfbid0evJPUipEacj8eCfRzMTa3PSQ32vJ8cA2L9PftsUUDYPG1NkyqVRbHuyCN3EseYzpl" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">shared an image</a> of the slain officers’ charred patrol vehicle after it was completely engulfed in flames on a roadway. Later, the agency <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sspchiapas/posts/pfbid02MzcJYUxrCKyDvqz6EAJdqJL88mBNTydiZmYKfqVC3g1zPmZ9k8FGvM1YiXKEmnkpl" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">announced on social media</a> they had arrested a man in connection to the murders.
Criminal violence, most of it linked to drug trafficking, has claimed around 480,000 lives in Mexico since 2006 and left more than 120,000 people missing.
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<title>Sheriff says riot in Tennessee prison is contained, inmates back in cells</title>
<link>https://noternet.org/tennessee-prison-riot-trousdale/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[LinJianDe]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 09 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Crime]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://noternet.org/tennessee-prison-riot-trousdale/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[A riot in a prison northeast of Nashville was contained overnight, officials say, and all prisoners returned to their cells after officers deployed chemical agents into the prison yard. The Trousdale County Sheriff’s Department says it got word just after 10 p.m. Sunday of the trouble at the Trousdale Turner Correctional Center. “A multi-agency response …]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[A riot in a prison northeast of Nashville was contained overnight, officials say, and all prisoners returned to their cells after officers deployed chemical agents into the prison yard.
The Trousdale County Sheriff’s Department says it got word just after 10 p.m. Sunday of the trouble at the Trousdale Turner Correctional Center.
“A multi-agency response followed a short time after the initial call,” the department said. “The incident was contained inside the facility fences. The prison staff reported all prisoners were returned back to their cells.”
CBS Nashville affiliate WTVF-TV was told by CoreCivic, the company that runs the facility, that the incident began when several inmates refused to go back to their cells.
<a href="https://www.newschannel5.com/news/three-guards-held-hostage-during-overnight-riot-at-trousdale-turner-correctional-facility" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">WTVF said</a> three guards were held hostage but all got out safely and with no major injuries.
At one point, there were roughly 100 officers on the scene from several agencies.
In a statement Monday, CoreCivic said staff “responded to a large group of inmates from several housing units who exited their cells and gained access to an inner yard, becoming disruptive and confrontational” on Sunday night.
“This group created safety hazards by attempting to destroy facility property, compromising security cameras, setting a few small fires and refusing to comply with multiple verbal directives provided by facility staff,” the statement continued, saying local law enforcement was alerted and helped secure the site.
“Chemical agents were deployed in accordance with department protocol,” CoreCivic said.
WTVF quoted Trousdale County Sheriff Ray Russell as saying, “There’s no threat at all. The prisoners never got to the main fence where they could escape. They were in a yard and contained,” adding that officers “shot gas into the yard and forced them back into the cell block.”
CoreCivic said one correctional officer was received minor injuries and was treated and released from the hospital. 
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