12: And then there were twelve. A dozen jurors, plus one alternate, have been selected in Donald Trump’s criminal “hush money” trial in New York. This comes after two jurors were dismissed on Thursday – one of them resigned over fears she had been targeted publicly by a FOX news host, while the other was sent home over prosecutors’ suspicions he had lied on his juror questionnaire. Five more alternates will be selected on Friday.
4: Who do you call when the emergency is that 911 itself is out? People in four US states had to wrestle with that conundrum on Wednesday night after their emergency call systems went down. No cause was given for the outages in Nevada, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Texas, but federal officials have warned that the move to digital systems in recent years has raised the risk of cyberattacks.
60: As expected, Croatia’s governing center-right HDZ party won the most votes in the election, securing 60 seats out of 151, but it will not be able to govern alone, heralding difficult coalition talks ahead. The vote followed a bitter campaign between the HDZ and a center-left coalition led by President Zoran Milanović.
50: New insecticides applied to mosquito nets cut malaria transmissions by up to 50% in trials. Mosquito nets treated with insecticides are the most effective way to stop the spread of malaria, which infects hundreds of millions around the globe and kills some 600,000 people annually. But as mosquitos develop immunity to long-used insecticides, it becomes necessary to develop new ones.
9.3 million: Netflix’s recent un-chill crackdown on password-sharing appears to have worked, as the global streaming behemoth added 9.3 million subscribers worldwide in the first quarter of 2024, and saw its operating income soar by 54%. The company says it still plans to stop reporting subscriber numbers altogether next year, as it focuses more on “engagement” than account numbers.
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What is President Trump trying to achieve in Iran, and how does his strategy compare to past US interventions in the Middle East?
The US has paused Russian oil sanctions in a bid to stabilize energy markets rocked by the war with Iran. Administration officials stress that it’s a “tailored” measure, applying only to oil already loaded onto tankers, but it’s still a gift to Russia, which has already been clocking an extra $150 million daily in oil revenues since the war began.
4: The number of crew members aboard a US refuelling plane – out of six total – who died after the aircraft crashed in neighboring Iraq on Thursday, US Central Command said this morning.