Tech giant Apple has launched a high-yield savings account with a 4.15 percent annual interest rate. The company said there are no fees, minimum deposits, or minimum balance requirements, and users can set up and manage their savings account directly using "Apple Card." The interest rate is higher than a standard savings account, but some online banks do offer higher rates. Goldman Sachs is partnering with Apple on the offering. .
GARBAGE LIFE
You've likely heard of the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch," a giant heap of trash in the ocean between California and Hawaii. Now a new study has revealed that the patch has gotten so large that dozens of species are now living on it. Scientists said plastic pollution is creating a new floating ecosystem for organisms that don't normally live in the open ocean. Coastal invertebrate organisms are surviving — and reproducing — on the floating debris.
BAD BAT NEWS
In what is being called the inaugural "State of the Bats" report comes the news that 52 percent of bat species could be at risk of extinction. The report found climate change, disease and habitat loss are taking their toll. It also found wind turbines alone kill about half a million bats annually.
A New Jersey mayor says buses of migrants bound for New York City have been stopping at the train station in his town and others in an apparent effort to evade an executive order by New York's mayor trying to regulate how and when migrants can be dropped off in the city.
The world population grew by 75 million people over the past year and on New Year's Day, it was estimated to stand at more than 8 billion people, according to figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday.
UW-La Crosse Chancellor Joe Gow. Wisconsin-La Crosse fired Gow on Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2023, after learning Gow and his wife have been producing and appearing in pornographic videos. Gow maintains the firing violated his free speech rights.
The U.S. military is now putting independent lawyers in charge of its investigations of sexual assault and other major crimes, what Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III has called the "most important reform" to the military justice system in recent history.
A decades-old law bans Medicare from paying for weight loss drugs. Now, drugmakers and a wide-ranging bipartisan coalition of lawmakers are gearing up to push for that to change next year.
Barring a court order, in March Texas police will start being able to arrest people they suspect have entered the U.S. illegally, but increases in border crossings since a 2021 law authorizing some arrests shows the limits of that approach in the face of desperation that causes people to risk everything and travel thousands of miles to the U.S.
