Author: KnowledgeHippo

In India, a country of 1.4 billion people, TikTok took just a few years to build an audience of 200 million users. India was its biggest market. Then, on June 29, 2020, the Indian government banned TikTok, along with 58 other Chinese apps, after a simmering conflict between India and China erupted into violence on their border.A popular form of entertainment, which had not been the subject of political debate, disappeared overnight. Now, as politicians tussle in Washington over a plan that could shut down access for 170 million Americans who use TikTok, the example set by India offers a…

Amid debate in Washington about whether TikTok should be banned if its Chinese owner doesn’t sell it, one group is watching with particular interest: the many brands — particularly in the beauty, skin care, fashion and health and wellness industries — who have used the video app to increase their sales.Youthforia, a makeup brand with more than 185,000 followers on TikTok, is considering moving more of its marketing to other platforms, including YouTube and Instagram. Underlinings, which makes the popular Nailboo brand, planned to use TikTok to launch a product with a major retailer in August and is now wondering…

Surgeons in Boston transplanted a kidney from a genetically modified pig into a sick 62-year-old man, the first operation of its kind. If successful, the discovery offers hope to hundreds of thousands of Americans whose kidneys have failed.So far the signs are promising.The kidneys remove waste products and excess fluid from the blood. The new kidney began producing urine shortly after the surgery last weekend, and the patient’s condition continues to improve, according to doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital, known as Mass General. He is already walking the halls of the hospital and may be discharged soon.The patient is black,…

Tanya Dohoney has worked on sustainability initiatives for decades. A retired lawyer from Texas who now lives in Paris even started a recycling program for her workplace. When it comes to travel, she also appreciates environmentally and socially responsible companies, which led her to choose Intrepid Travel, a certified B Corp company, for a tour of Morocco in 2019.The sheer number of sustainability certifications for the travel and tourism industry is almost overwhelming and certainly confusing. Certified B Corp businesses must meet standards set by B Lab, a Pennsylvania-based nonprofit organization founded in 2006 that awards for-profit companies with certifications…

One of Israel’s biggest hospital raids in the Gaza war extended into a fourth day on Thursday, as the army said it killed dozens of people it described as terrorists in the previous 24 hours in its operation at Al-Shifa hospital.Israel has carried out a series of raids on Al-Shifa in northern Gaza, the largest medical facility in the territory, claiming that Hamas used it as a command center and hid weapons and fighters in underground tunnels there. Since the latest attack began on Monday, the Israeli military said it had killed more than 140 people it said were terrorists…

Back then, hundreds of thousands of young, mostly black students descended on Atlanta each spring for the rowdy and rowdy event called Freaknik. Artists such as Notorious BIG, OutKast and Uncle Luke performed across the city. The movement hardly moved at all, and why would it? The party was right there on the street.Three decades have passed. Parties turned professional. Children were born. Wardrobes have evolved. All the while, some who were in the middle of it all were perfectly content knowing that their youthful exploits that might be a little embarrassing today were hidden. They had their memories. The…

Federal Reserve officials plan to cut interest rates this year, real estate agents are likely to cut their commissions after a major settlement, and President Biden has begun looking for ways his administration can reduce high housing costs.In short, a lot of changes are happening in the housing market. While sales have slowed markedly amid higher interest rates, both home prices and rents remain significantly higher than before the pandemic. The question now is whether recent developments will reduce costs.Economists who study the housing market said they expect cost increases to be relatively modest next year. But they don’t expect…

Elon Musk appeared to be in a defiant mood on Wednesday when he stood before workers at Tesla’s factory near Berlin a week after an arsonist set fire to a high-voltage pylon and halted production.”They can’t stop us,” Mr. Musk, the company’s chief executive, told workers in a giant tent next to the factory.But there are growing signs that Tesla may not be as unstoppable as it once seemed. The company’s car sales are no longer growing at a tremendous rate. Chinese automakers and established brands like BMW and Volkswagen are flooding the market with electric cars. And Tesla has…

The Biden administration’s new regulation to limit emissions from cars and light trucks will transform the American auto market, charting a path away from the internal combustion engine and toward a future of electric and hybrid cars.Here’s what you need to know about the meter.It’s a big deal in the fight against climate changeIn terms of reducing global-warming emissions, this regulation does more than any other climate rule issued by the federal government, and more than any measure planned for the remainder of Mr. Biden’s first term.This is partly because transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gases produced by…

This article is part of it It is overlookeda series of obituaries for notable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, were not reported in the Times.Yvonne Barr was a 31-year-old research assistant looking for a new challenge when she was hired by a pathologist in London in 1963 to help find the cause of an unusual malignancy: extremely large facial tumors in Ugandan children.The pathologist, Anthony Epstein, was pretty sure the tumors were caused by a virus, but struggled to prove his case.Barr was then known for her superior laboratory skills, having worked on the bacterium that causes Hansen’s disease,…