US AND CANADA

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The Federal Reserve voted on Wednesday to maintain current interest rates, with Chair Jerome Powell emphasizing the vital importance of central bank independence. Adopting a "wait-and-see" approach, the Fed opted for stability despite persistent public pressure from President Donald Trump to lower borrowing costs. By holding rates steady, the central bank’s leadership effectively asserted its autonomy from the White House, prioritizing inflation control over political demands for cheaper credit.

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Three of the world’s biggest tech companies face a landmark trial in Los Angeles starting this week over claims that their platforms — Meta’s Instagram, ByteDance’s TikTok and Google’s YouTube — deliberately addict and harm children.

Jury selection starts this week in the Los Angeles County Superior Court. It’s the first time the companies will argue their case before a jury, and the outcome could have profound effects on their businesses and how they will handle children using their platforms. The selection process is expected to take at least a few days, with 75 potential jurors questioned each day through at least Thursday. A fourth company named in the lawsuit, Snapchat parent company Snap Inc., settled the case last week for an undisclosed sum.

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Amazon has announced another sweeping round of job cuts, saying it will eliminate about 16,000 positions as the company sharpens its focus on artificial intelligence and restructures how it operates.

The layoffs mark the second major workforce reduction in roughly three months, underscoring the pressure on Big Tech firms to move faster and spend more efficiently

as competition around AI tools, infrastructure, and talent accelerates across the industry.

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Prominent Republicans and gun rights advocates helped elicit a White House turnabout this week after bristling over the administration’s characterization of Alex Pretti, the second person killed this month by a federal officer in Minneapolis, as responsible for his own death because he lawfully possessed a weapon.

The death produced no clear shifts in U.S. gun politics or policies, even as President Donald Trump shuffles the lieutenants in charge of his militarized immigration crackdown. But important voices in Trump’s coalition have called for a thorough investigation of Pretti’s death while also criticizing inconsistencies in some Republicans’ Second Amendment stances.

If the dynamic persists, it could give Republicans problems as Trump heads into a midterm election year with voters already growing skeptical of his overall immigration

approach. The concern is acute enough that Trump’s top spokeswoman sought Monday to reassert his brand as a staunch gun rights supporter

“The president supports the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding American citizens, absolutely,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

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Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar was sprayed with an unidentified liquid during a public town hall in Minneapolis on Tuesday, after a man in the audience used a syringe-like device to project the substance toward her, according to local police.

Omar was not injured and remained at the podium following the incident, telling attendees she would not be intimidated. Later, she said the attack would not stop her from continuing her work, describing herself as a survivor who refuses to give in to bullying.

Witnesses inside the community center said the liquid had a strong, sour odor, similar to a chemical product. Video footage shows security personnel rushing toward the suspect as staff shouted for space, before the man was forced out of the room.

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Sir Mick Jagger's family is at the centre of a desperate search for his granddaughter Assisi Jackson's long-term partner, who has gone missing in Cornwall.

Alexander Key, a 37-year-old chef, who has two children with Assisi, 33, was last seen in Boscastle last Friday afternoon.

He was reported missing to Devon and Cornwall Police on Saturday evening, prompting an urgent public appeal.

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TikTok US has rejected allegations that its new American leadership is exercising excessive control over user content, attributing widespread glitches to technical hurdles. Since becoming a standalone American entity last week, the platform has been hit by thousands of user reports citing errors and posting failures. A spokesperson reiterated on Friday that these disruptions are purely a result of the complex transition to a separate entity and are not a deliberate effort to moderate or restrict viral content.

"We've made significant progress in recovering our US infrastructure with our US data center partner," the spokesperson said. "However, the US user experience may still have some technical issues, including when posting new content."

They also pushed back on users' claims they were not able to use the name "Epstein" on TikTok. It refers to Jeffrey Epstein, the dead convicted sex offender and financier. The Trump administration has continued to face fierce scrutiny for its handling of the Epstein case.

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Leaders of law enforcement organizations expressed alarm Sunday over the latest deadly shooting by federal officers in Minneapolis while use-of-force experts criticized the Trump administration’s justification of the killing, saying bystander footage contradicted its narrative of what prompted it.

The federal government also faced criticism over the lack of a civil rights inquiry by the U.S. Justice Department and its efforts to block Minnesota authorities from conducting their own review of the killing of 37-year-old Alex Pretti.