5 things to know for March 24: TikTok, Flood watches, School strike, Passports, France

Once you’re hurrying via the grocery retailer, studying the substances on meals labels might be not on the prime of your thoughts – except you’re contemplating an allergy or different dietary restrictions. Scientists and lawmakers, nevertheless, suggest customers ought to do their greatest to keep away from objects that include these controversial chemical compounds. On the listing is crimson dye No. 3, steadily used for meals coloring in candies and processed snacks.

Right here’s what else it is advisable know to Get As much as Pace and On with Your Day.

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TikTok CEO Shou Chew testified Thursday earlier than Congress as scrutiny mounts over the app’s ties to China and its potential dangers to nationwide safety. It was a uncommon likelihood for the general public to listen to from Chew, who gives only a few interviews. But his firm’s app is among the many hottest in America, with greater than 150 million lively customers. The listening to, which lasted for greater than 5 hours, kicked off with calls from a lawmaker to ban the app within the US and remained combative all through. Chew used his testimony to emphasize TikTok’s independence from China and play up its US ties. Nevertheless, a lot of Chew’s makes an attempt to emphasize that his firm is just not an arm of the Chinese language authorities appeared to fall on deaf ears. Quite a few members of Congress interrupted Chew’s testimony to say they merely don’t consider him.

The identical system that introduced uncommon tornadoes to California this week will set off widespread extreme thunderstorms right this moment for the mid-South and Ohio Valley. Greater than 20 million persons are underneath flood watches right this moment throughout a big swath of the US stretching from Oklahoma to West Virginia. The storm already handed via the Oklahoma-Missouri border late Thursday, in keeping with the Climate Prediction Heart, drenching components of the states with a number of inches of rain. In the meantime, northeast Louisiana, southeast Arkansas and western Mississippi are additionally at reasonable danger for extreme thunderstorms that might deliver robust tornadoes, massive hail and damaging wind gusts of greater than 70 mph. There may be additionally a slight danger for extreme thunderstorms from central Texas to southern Indiana via this morning.

Los Angeles faculties will reopen right this moment following the conclusion of a large three-day strike over wages and higher working circumstances. Hundreds of college staff started picketing Tuesday after almost a 12 months of unsuccessful negotiations with the college district, leaving greater than 500,000 college students out of sophistication this week. Although the strike could also be over, pissed off members of the employees’ union say they nonetheless really feel undervalued by low pay, minimal staffing and insufficient hours as they supply important providers to the nation’s second-largest faculty system. Amongst their calls for, staff are calling for a 30% pay increase to spice up their common wage – which presently stands at $25,000.

Amid “unprecedented demand,” the present wait time for an everyday US passport has soared to “about 10 to 13 weeks, and for an expedited passport about seven to 9 weeks,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated Thursday. The State Division is “getting 500,000 functions per week for passports,” which is 30 to 40% extra candidates this 12 months than final 12 months, Blinken informed a Home Appropriations subcommittee price range listening to. Staffing and sources have been elevated to cope with the surge, Blinken stated. This comes after the division had launched a pilot on-line renewal platform so Individuals who have already got a passport can renew on-line, but it surely has “now halted it to guarantee that we will fine-tune it and enhance it earlier than we roll it out in an even bigger manner,” Blinken added.

Greater than 1,000,000 individuals took to the streets throughout France Thursday with protests turning violent in some areas as demonstrators voiced their fury at proposed pension reforms. Following flare-ups in Paris and regional capitals, not less than 80 individuals had been arrested and 123 cops injured, French Inside Minister Gerald Darmanin stated. Thursday was the ninth day of strikes within the nation and the primary of coordinated motion since French President Emmanuel Macron’s authorities pushed a invoice to extend the retirement age from 62 to 64 via parliament with out a vote final week.