Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

President Trump signed a bill on Wednesday to put whole milk back on the menu in school cafeterias, which some health experts believe could provide a nutrient-dense option and potentially increase the likelihood of children choosing to drink milk.The new legislation overturns a 2012 Obama administration policy that limited milk options available under the National School Lunch Program to skim and low-fat, in hopes of lowering childhood obesity.Liz Hafalia/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images, FILE – PHOTO: In this July 6, 2017, file photo, milk is offered during lunch for summer school elementary students at Washington High School in San Francisco,…

The Trump administration signed a notable multibillion-dollar trade deal with Taiwan that’s designed to help the United States boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing. Under the deal announced by the U.S. Department of Commerce on Thursday, Taiwanese semiconductor and tech companies have agreed to make direct investments of $250 billion into the U.S. semiconductor industry. These investments will span across semiconductors, energy, and AI “production and innovation,” according to a press release. Taiwan currently produces more than half of the world’s semiconductors. Taiwan will also supply an additional $250 billion in credit guarantees for additional investments from these semiconductors and tech enterprises,…

The California Department of Public Health is raising the alarm on an outbreak of potentially deadly mushrooms, which has hospitalized dozens of people and resulted in several deaths.Due to recent rain across Northern and Central California, the region has seen a bloom of Amanita phalloides, also known as “death cap mushrooms,” which are commonly mistaken for edible mushrooms but can cause amatoxin poisoning if consumed.As of Jan. 6, the California Poison Control System has recorded 35 hospitalized cases of people from as young as 19 months to 67 years old who were poisoned by consuming wild and foraged mushrooms. Three adults…

Once the world’s most populous nation, China is now among the many Asian countries struggling with anemic fertility rates. In an attempt to double the country’s rate of 1.0 children per woman, Beijing is reaching for a new tool: taxes on condoms, birth control pills and other contraceptives.As of Jan. 1, such items were subject to a 13% value-added tax. Meanwhile, services such as child care and matchmaking remain duty-free.The move comes after China last year allocated 90 billion yuan (US$12.7 billion) for a national child care program giving families a one-off payment of around 3,600 yuan (over $500) for…

Grok is still more than willing to generate sexualized AI images of real people. After doing some tests, I quickly found out that it’s still possible — you just have to use the X and Grok apps.Over the past few weeks, Elon Musk’s AI image-generation tool has faced backlash for its willingness to digitally undress images of real women and minors, placing them in clear bikinis or underwear. XAI, the company that developed Grok and owns X, first limited image generation to premium users. Then, as criticism continued, it announced on Thursday it was preventing Grok from generating NSFW requests…

Amazon’s business partnership with luxury retailer Saks Global has hit a sour note.The e-commerce giant invested $475 million of preferred equity in Saks Global — the owner of department stores Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, and Bergdorf Goodman — in December 2024.Now, Amazon says its stake is “presumptively worthless,” and it has asked a federal judge to reject the retailer’s bankruptcy financing plans, which it says will further diminish its chances of recovery.”That equity investment is now presumptively worthless after Saks continuously failed to meet its budgets, burned through hundreds of millions of dollars in less than a year, and…

Through an extension to its previous $50 million Series A round that closed in September, AI video generation startup Higgsfield has sold another $80 million worth of stock, bringing its total Series A to $130 million. The company says it has now hit a $1.3 billion valuation. Higgsfield offers a tool that allows consumers, creators, and social media teams to create and edit AI-generated videos. The company was founded by Alex Mashrabov, former head of Generative AI at Snap, who landed at the company after it bought his previous startup, AI Factory, in 2020 for $166 million. Mashrabov was a…

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City nurses who walked off the job are set to resume negotiations with hospital administrators Thursday to try to bring an end to the city’s biggest nursing strike in decades.The New York State Nurses Association said its bargaining members will meet with their counterparts at NewYork-Presbyterian late Thursday, the fourth day of the strike.They’ll meet with officials at other affected hospitals, including Mount Sinai and Montefiore, on Friday, though the union said some have not yet agreed to a sit-down.Each medical center is negotiating with the union independently, and not every hospital run by…

Verizon is offering an account credit after a service outage affected tens of thousands of customers on Wednesday.A Verizon spokesperson told Business Insider that it “did not meet the standard of excellence our customers expect and that we expect of ourselves.”Verizon said it would provide those affected with a $20 account credit redeemable through the myVerizon app.”This credit isn’t meant to make up for what happened,” Verizon said in its statement. “No credit really can. But it’s a way of acknowledging our customers’ time and showing that this matters to us.”The company also said that if customers are still experiencing…

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Kaiser Permanente affiliates will pay $556 million to settle a lawsuit that alleged the health care giant committed Medicare fraud and pressured doctors to list incorrect diagnoses on medical records to receive higher reimbursements, federal prosecutors said.The deal announced Wednesday came more than four years after the U.S. Department of Justice filed the legal claim in San Francisco that consolidated allegations made in six whistleblower complaints.The affiliates in the settlement include the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan; Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Colorado; The Permanente Medical Group; Southern California Permanente Medical Group; and Colorado Permanente Medical Group…