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Vaughn Cockayne

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Vaughn Cockayne

vcockayne@washingtontimes.com

Vaughn Cockayne is a Foreign Affairs Correspondent for The Washington Times. He is an Ohio native and holds a bachelor's degree in Multi-Platform Journalism from Bowling Green State University. Vaughn previously worked as a freelance writer, covering data security and privacy issues before joining The Washington Times. He can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.

Articles by Vaughn Cockayne

The Colorado River flows through the Grand Canyon on the Hualapai reservation on Aug. 15, 2022, in northwestern Arizona. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

Grand Canyon flooding causes evacuations, highway closure

Flash flooding near the Grand Canyon caused the emergency evacuation of more than 100 people and the closure of a major highway.

August 23, 2023

Oliver Anthony performs at Eagle Creek Golf Club and Grill in Moyock, N.C., on Saturday, Aug. 19, 2023. Anthony, a Farmville, Va., native, is best known for his song "Rich Men North of Richmond," which went viral, making him an overnight country sensation. (Kendall Warner/The Virginian-Pilot via AP)

‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ debuts at No. 1 on Billboard

Oliver Anthony's folk ballad "Rich Men North of Richmond" has shot all the way to the top spot on Billboard's Hot 100 chart.Oliver Anthony's folk ballad "Rich Men North of Richmond" debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week -- a rare enough feat for any artist, but unprecedented for a performer who had never previously hit any Billboard chart at all.

August 22, 2023

Meta's app Threads is displayed on a smartphone in New York, on Thursday, July 6, 2023. According to new data from Apptopia, which researches social media platforms, Threads has blown by X in America's daily active user lane. Threads has seen a stable rise in its users and now houses around 28 million daily active users compared with X’s 22 million. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

Meta launching desktop version of ‘Twitter killer’ Threads

Meta's "Twitter killer" will get important updates this week as it seeks to keep as many users as possible and improve engagement.

August 22, 2023

WGA member Shelley Meals carries a sign showing Disney CEO Bob Iger as Marie Antoinette while Meals walks on a picket line outside Netflix studios on Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello) ** FILE **

Hollywood unions to picket Disney after hurricane cancellations

Members of the Screen Actors Guild and the Writers Guild of America planned to picket outside Disney studios in Los Angeles Tuesday as part of a National Day of Solidarity.

August 22, 2023

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors Inc., introduces the Model X car at the company's headquarters Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2015, in Fremont, Calif. Musk may want to send tweet back to the birds, but the ubiquitous term for posting on the site he now calls X is here to stay, at least for now. For one, the word is still plastered all over the website formerly known as Twitter. Write a post, you still need to press a blue button that says tweet to publish it. To repost it, you still tap retweet. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) **FILE**

Musk wants to remove headlines from X

News articles will soon have a new look at Elon Musk's X after the owner announced headlines would be removed from news articles.

August 22, 2023

The YouTube app is displayed on an iPad in Baltimore on March 20, 2018. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

YouTube to establish AI rules with help from music industry

YouTube is partnering with one of the biggest names in the music industry to help create rules for how artificially generated music is treated on the platform.

August 22, 2023

Elon Musk, who owns Twitter, Tesla and SpaceX, speaks at the Vivatech fair, on June 16, 2023, in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)

Musk says X will take the shadow off shadow-banning

The long-hated process of shadow-banning on X, formerly Twitter, soon will change, according to owner Elon Musk.

August 17, 2023

Southwest Airlines plane prepares to land at Midway International Airport, Feb. 12, 2023, in Chicago. A judge has sanctioned Southwest Airlines on Monday, Aug. 7, writing that the airline twisted his words and disregarded his order in the case of a flight attendant who claimed that she was fired for expressing her opposition to abortion. U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr said Southwest acted as if its own policy limiting what employees can say is more important than a federal law protecting religious speech. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato, File)

Southwest Airlines reaches tentative contract with transport union

Southwest Airlines reached a conditional deal with members of its transport workers union this week that includes a significant pay bump and improvements to benefits.

August 17, 2023

Cans of Bud Light beer are seen before a baseball game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Seattle Mariners on April 25, 2023, in Philadelphia. Anheuser-Busch InBev has reported a drop in U.S. revenue in the second quarter as Bud Light sales plunged amid conservative backlash over a campaign with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum) **FILE**

Anheuser-Busch heir wants to buy back family brand from parent company

Billy Busch, heir to the Anheuser-Busch brewing family, is offering to buy back the beer brand from its parent company.

August 17, 2023

Booksellers call for FTC to probe Amazon

A coalition of booksellers, authors and a think tank wants the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Amazon over its alleged monopoly of the bookselling industry.

August 17, 2023

Writer/director/executive producer Greta Gerwig poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film 'Barbie' on Wednesday, July 12, 2023, in London. (Scott Garfitt/Invision/AP)

‘Barbie’ becomes Warner Bros. biggest U.S. movie ever

Greta Gerwig's "Barbie" film is now the highest-grossing movie that the legendary Warner Bros. studio has ever released in North America.

August 16, 2023

A Boston Market is pictured in Denver, Colo., on Wednesday, June 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski) **FILE**

N.J. slams Boston Market with $2.6 million in fines for unpaid labor

New Jersey regulators ordered 27 Boston Market locations to close Tuesday after discovering the company failed to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in wages.

August 16, 2023

Links to news outlets, competing sites delayed on X; issue fixed

X added at least a five-second delay to certain news outlets and social media sites this week.

August 16, 2023

Dean Kennedy blocks an entrance to the Flint Metal Center, Oct. 17, 2019 in Flint, Mich. About 146,000 members of the United Auto Workers union will vote next week on authorizing their leaders to call strikes against the Detroit automakers. Union President Shawn Fain said in a statement Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2023 that talks are moving slowly and have yet to address wages and other economic issues. (Jake May/The Flint Journal via AP) **FILE**

UAW pushes for approval to strike vs. Big 3 as contract expiration looms

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain urged his members this week to vote to authorize a strike ahead of the union's contract expiration date.

August 16, 2023

WGA member Tyler Fruge walks on a picket line dressed as Pennywise from "It" outside Netflix studios on Monday, Aug. 14, 2023, in Los Angeles. The Hollywood writers strike passed the 100-day mark as the film and television industries remain paralyzed by dual actors and screenwriters strikes. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Contract talks advance as WGA negotiators check proposals

Writers Guild of America leaders are reviewing contract offers this week, signaling progress in the Hollywood labor struggle.

August 16, 2023

Tesla faces Chinese heat over Sentry Mode

Tesla is facing mounting pressure from China as national security and privacy become major issues for the country.

August 15, 2023

Twitter's blue bird is seen on its headquarters building in San Francisco, July 24, 2023. A California court has given the go-ahead for a lawsuit alleging that X, formerly Twitter, discriminated against older workers during its massive layoffs last year. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez, File)

X to drop key ad format amid plummeting sales

X is ditching one of its oldest advertising formats, according to reports this week.

August 15, 2023

The YouTube app is displayed on an iPad in Baltimore on March 20, 2018. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

YouTube clamps down on what it calls ‘harmful content’ about cancer

YouTube is cracking down on cancer information and announced new rules this week.

August 15, 2023

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration campus in Silver Spring, Md., is photographed on Oct. 14, 2015. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

FDA issues warning about faulty tests for pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections

The Food and Drug Administration is advising customers not to use certain brands of pregnancy, ovulation and urinary tract infection tests after the manufacturer found they were faulty.

August 15, 2023

The Ram 1500 Revolution electric battery-powered pickup truck is displayed on stage during the Stellantis keynote at the CES tech show on Jan. 5, 2023, in Las Vegas. Tensions rose in contract talks between the United Auto Workers union and Stellantis on Tuesday, Aug. 8, with the union president accusing the company of seeking concessions in contract talks when the union wants gains, as a September strike threat looms. (AP Photo/John Locher) **FILE**

UAW leader junks automaker’s contract proposals

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain literally trashed automaker Stellantis' recent contract offers Tuesday in an address to members.

August 9, 2023