If it feels like TikTok has been around forever, that’s probably because it has, at least if you’re measuring via internet time. What’s now in question is whether it will be around much longer and, if so, in what form? Starting in 2017, when the Chinese social video app merged with its competitor Musical.ly, TikTok has grown from a niche teen app into a global trendsetter. While, of course, also emerging as a potential national security threat, according to U.S. officials. On April 24, President Joe Biden signed legislation requiring TikTok parent ByteDance to sell to a U.S. owner within a year or to shut down. TikTok and its China-based parent company, ByteDance, filed a lawsuit against the U.S., claiming the security concerns were overblown and the law should be struck down because it violates the First Amendment. The Supreme Court on Friday unanimously upheld the federal law banning TikTok, and the popular short form video service went dark in the U.S. — just hours before the ban was set to begin. Here’s how TikTok came to this juncture: March 2012 ByteDance is founded in China by entrepreneur Zhang Yimin. Its first hit product is Toutiao, a personalized news aggregator for Chinese users. July 2014 Startup Musical.ly, later known for an eponymous app used to post short lipsyncing music videos, is founded in China by entrepreneur Alex Zhu. July 2015 Musical.ly hits #1 in the Apple App Store, following a design change that made the company’s logo visible when users shared their videos. 2016 ByteDance launches Douyin, a video sharing app for Chinese users. Its popularity inspires the company to spin off a version for foreign audiences called TikTok. November 2017 ByteDance acquires Musical.ly for $1 billion. Nine months later, ByteDance merges it with TikTok. Powered by an algorithm that encourages binge-watching, users begin to share a wide variety of video on the app, including dance moves, kitchen food preparation and various “challenges” to perform, record and post acts that range from serious to satirical. February 2019 A rapper releases a song on TikTok, where it goes viral and pushes the song to a record 17 weeks in the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The phenomenon kicks off a wave of TikTok videos from musical artists who suddenly see TikTok as a critical way to reach fans. TikTok settles federal charges of violating U.S. child-privacy laws and agrees to pay a $5.7 million fine. September 2019 The Washington Post reports that while images of Hong Kong democracy protests and police crackdowns are common on most social media sites, they are strangely absent on TikTok. The same story notes that TikTok posts with the #trump2020 tag received more than 70 million views. The company insists that TikTok content moderation, conducted in the U.S., is not responsible and says the app is a place for entertainment, not politics. The Guardian reports on internal documents that reportedly detail how TikTok instructs its moderators to delete or limit the reach of videos touching on topics sensitive to China such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and subsequent massacre, Tibetan independence or the sanctioned religious group Falun Gong. October 2019 U.S. politicians begin to raise alarms about TikTok’s influence, calling for a federal investigations of its Musical.ly acquisition and a national security probe into TikTok and other Chinese-owned apps. That investigation begins in November, according to news reports. December 2019 The Pentagon recommends […]
President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump are riding in the same limo to the US Capitol ahead of today’s swearing-in ceremony. The two did not ride together four years ago when Trump famously skipped Biden’s swearing-in but will return to the same tradition that President Barack Obama afforded to Trump in 2017. It is tradition for the outgoing president to accompany the president-elect to the US Capitol for the swearing-in ceremony.
Donald J. Trump is set to be inaugurated today as the 47th president of the United States, completing a historic and unlikely return to the White House. The inauguration ceremony is taking place at the U.S. Capitol, featuring speeches, performances, and other traditional proceedings. DISCLAIMER: Some portions of the event are expected to include kol isha. The livestream will be temporarily paused during moments of kol isha and will resume once those segments conclude. Viewers are advised to exercise discretion.
Trump will reportedly sign an executive order today halting all US funding of the UNRWA, the Palestinian assistance agency that is in cahoots with Hamas
Here’s a look inside the Capitol Rotunda, where President Trump’s swearing-in ceremony will take place. The event was moved indoors due to the extreme cold weather.
Billionaires’ wealth grew three times faster in 2024 than the year before, a top anti-poverty group reported on Monday as some of the world’s political and financial elite prepared for an annual gathering in Davos, Switzerland. Oxfam International, in its latest assessment of global inequality timed to the opening of the World Economic Forum meeting, also predicts at least five trillionaires will crop up over the next decade. A year ago, the group forecast that only one trillionaire would appear during that time. OxFam’s research adds weight to a warning by outgoing President Joe Biden last week of a “dangerous concentration of power in the hands of very few ultra-wealthy people.” The group’s sharp-edged report, titled “Takers Not Makers,” also says the number of people in poverty has barely budged since 1990. The World Economic Forum expects to host some 3,000 attendees, including business executives, academics, government officials, and civic group leaders at its annual meeting in the Alpine village of Davos. What’s the worry about? … The ‘new aristocracy’ President-elect Donald Trump, who visited Davos twice during his first term and was set to take the oath of office on Monday, is expected to take part in the forum’s event by video on Thursday. He has long championed wealth accumulation — including his own — and counts multibillionaire Elon Musk as a top adviser. “What you’re seeing at the moment is a billionaire president taking oaths today, backed by the richest man. So this is pretty much the jewel in the crown of the global oligarchies,” Amitabh Behar, executive director of Oxfam International, said in an interview, referring to Trump and Musk. “It’s not about one specific individual. It’s the economic system that we have created where the billionaires are now pretty much being able to shape economic policies, social policies, which eventually gives them more and more profit,” he added. Like Biden’s call for making billionaires “begin to pay their fair share” through the U.S. tax code, Oxfam — a global advocacy group — called on governments to tax the richest to reduce inequality and extreme wealth, and to “dismantle the new aristocracy.” The group called for steps like the break-up of monopolies, capping CEO pay, and regulation of corporations to ensure they pay “living wages” to workers. How are the poorest faring? Many investors racked up strong gains in 2024, with strong performances for top tech companies and stock-market indexes like the S&P 500, as well as the price of gold and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Oxfam said billionaire wealth grew by $2 trillion last year, or roughly $5.7 billion a day, three-times faster than in 2023. The number of billionaires rose by 204 to 2,769, and the 10 richest men saw their wealth rise nearly $100 million a day on average, it said. Citing World Bank data, the group pointed to lingering poverty, saying the number of people living on less than $6.85 per day has “barely changed” since 1990. Oxfam used Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaire List” as of end-November for data on the ultra-rich. By contrast, at least four new billionaires were “minted” every week in 2024, and three-fifths of billionaire wealth comes from inheritance, monopoly power or “crony connections,” it said. On average, Oxfam said, low- and middle-income countries are spending nearly half their national budgets on debt repayments. It also noted that life expectancy in Africa […]
Thailand’s Foreign Affairs Ministry welcomed the hostage release deal and called for the immediate release of all those held in Gaza, including Thai nationals. Thirty-one Thai nationals, mostly farmworkers, were taken hostage when the Israel-Hamas war erupted in October 2023. Of those, 23 were released, two were confirmed dead last May and the remaining six are still believed to be in Hamas’ custody. Released hostages spoke about their conditions in captivity, including brutal beatings. IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari announced in May 2024 that two Thai citizens who were believed to be in captivity in Gaza were murdered by Hamas terrorists on October 7th and their bodies are being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Thai citizens Sonthaya Oakkharasr and Sudthisak Rinthalak worked in orchards on Kibbutz Be’eri before they were savagely murdered. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem & AP)
Eight people died Monday in a fire at a home for older people on the outskirts of the Serbian capital, Belgrade, that is suspected of being set by a resident, officials said. Seven others were injured in the blaze that erupted around 3:30 a.m. in Barajevo, a municipality on the southern edge of Belgrade, state RTS television reported. “Emergency crews reacted swiftly … but unfortunately the fire had already flared up and eight people lost their lives,” said Serbian Social Care Minister Nemanja Starovic. Police said in a statement that 30 people were in the home when the fire broke out. They said the fire engulfed over a third of the care facility, which is located in a house in a rural area. The suspected cause of the fire was arson, police said. The state prosecutor’s office said an investigation is still underway but that initial indications suggest that one of the residents who died in the fire had started it. The injured were transferred to two hospitals in Belgrade, RTS said. At least one person was in serious condition, doctors said. “This is a huge tragedy, but it could have been even worse,” RTS quoted emergency sector officer Luka Causic as saying. (AP)8 people die in a fire at a home for the elderly in Serbia, officials say
Yemen’s Houthi terror group has signaled they now will limit their attacks in the Red Sea corridor to only Israeli-affiliated ships, just as a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip entered its second day Monday. The Houthis’ announcement, made in an email sent to shippers and others on Sunday, likely won’t be enough to encourage global firms to reenter the route that’s crucial for cargo and energy shipments moving between Asia and Europe. Their attacks have halved traffic through the region, cutting deeply into revenues for Egypt, which runs the Suez Canal linking the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. “The ceasefire is considered fragile,” said Jakob P. Larsen, the head of maritime security for BIMCO, the largest international association representing shipowners. “It is assessed that even minor deviations from the ceasefire agreements could lead to hostilities, which would subsequently prompt the Houthis to again direct threats against a broader range of international shipping.” The Houthis separately planned a military statement on Monday, likely about the decision. The Houthis made the announcement through their Humanitarian Operations Coordination Center, saying it was “stopping sanctions” on the other vessels it has previously targeted since November 2023. For Israeli ships, those “sanctions … will be stopped upon the full implementation of all phases” of the ceasefire, it added. However, the Houthi statement left open resuming attacks against both the United States and the United Kingdom, which have launched airstrikes targeting the rebels over their seaborne assaults. “In the event of any aggression … the sanctions will be reinstated against the aggressor state,” the center said. “You will be promptly informed of such measures should they be implemented.” The Houthis have targeted over 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since October 2023, after Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel. The Iranian-backed Houthis have seized one vessel and sunk two in a campaign that has also killed four sailors. Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by separate U.S.- and European-led coalitions in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets, which have also included Western military vessels. The terror group had maintained that they target ships linked to Israel, the U.S. or the U.K. to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked had little or no connection to Israel, including some bound for Iran. The tempo of Houthi attacks has slowed in recent weeks, particularly involving ships at sea. That may be due in part to the U.S. airstrike campaign. The U.S. and its partners alone have struck the Houthis over 260 times, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies. However, the terror group had continued to launch drones and missiles targeting Israel, which has warned it will continue to strike Houthi leadership. Another wild card is President Donald Trump after he is inaugurated Monday. He may reapply a foreign terrorist organization designation on the Houthis that President Joe Biden revoked, which could spark attacks again. “Uncertainty is further exacerbated by today’s inauguration of Trump,” Larsen said. “It remains unclear how the Trump administration will act in the conflict with the Houthis and whether potential punitive actions against them will be considered.” (AP & YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
Donald Trump is returning to the White House ready to immediately overhaul the government using the fastest tool he has — the executive order. An incoming president signing a flurry of executive orders is standard practice. Executive orders allow a president to wield power without action from Congress. But there are also limits to what orders can achieve. A primer on how the presidential power works and its often fleeting impact: What are executive orders? Basically, they are signed statements about how the president wants the federal government to be managed. They can be instructions to federal agencies or requests for reports. Many orders can be unobjectionable, such as giving federal employees the day after Christmas off. They can also lay out major policies. For example, President Joe Biden signed an order to create a structure for establishing regulations on artificial intelligence. But executive orders — and their policy sausage-making siblings, the proclamation and political memorandum — also are used by presidents to pursue agendas they can’t get through Congress. New presidents can — and often do — issue orders to cancel the orders of their predecessors. As the American Bar Association notes, the orders do not require congressional approval and can’t be directly overturned by lawmakers. Still, Congress could block an order from being fulfilled by removing funding or creating other hurdles. How common are executive orders? Throughout U.S. history, there have been several thousand executive orders, according to data collected by the American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara. George Washington signed eight executive orders, while Franklin Delano Roosevelt did 3,721. During his first term, Trump, a Republican, signed 220. Biden, a Democrat, signed 160 as of Dec. 20. Executive orders are often about political messaging Trump forecasted signing as many as 100 executive orders on his first day, possibly covering deportations, the U.S.-Mexico border, domestic energy, Schedule F rules for federal workers, school gender policies and vaccine mandates, among other Day 1 promises made during his campaign. He’s also promised an executive order to give more time for the sale of TikTok. Trump has asked Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., to write an order stopping the development of offshore windmills for generating electricity. Many of Trump’s measures are likely to draw Democratic opposition. And in several major cases, the orders will largely be statements of intent based off campaign promises made by Trump. There are limits to the power of executive orders Both Congress and the courts can potentially block executive orders. For example, Congress in 1992 revoked an executive order by then-President George H.W. Bush that would establish a human fetal tissue bank for scientific research by passing a measure that the order “shall not have any legal effect.” Congress can also deny funding to agencies and hamstring the enforcement of an order. There are also legal challenges based on the argument that a president exceeded his legal authorities. When President Harry Truman tried to seize steel mills during the Korean War, the U.S. Supreme Court said he lacked the authority to take private property without authorization from Congress. (AP)
President Joe Biden has pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley and members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, using the extraordinary powers of his office in his final hours to guard against potential “revenge” by the incoming Trump administration. The decision by Biden comes after Donald Trump warned of an enemies list filled with those who have crossed him politically or sought to hold him accountable for his attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss and his role in the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump has selected Cabinet nominees who backed his election lies and who have pledged to punish those involved in efforts to investigate him. “The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense,” Biden said in a statement. “Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country.” It’s customary for a president to grant clemency at the end of his term, but those acts of mercy are usually offered to everyday Americans who have been convicted of crimes. But Biden has used the power in the broadest and most untested way possible: to pardon those who have not even been investigated yet. And with the acceptance comes a tacit admission of guilt or wrongdoing, even though those who have been pardoned have not been formally accused of any crimes. “These are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing,” Biden said, adding that “Even when individuals have done nothing wrong — and in fact have done the right thing — and will ultimately be exonerated, the mere fact of being investigated or prosecuted can irreparably damage reputations and finances.” Fauci was director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health for nearly 40 years and was Biden’s chief medical adviser until his retirement in 2022. He helped coordinate the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and raised the ire of Trump when he refused to back Trump’s unfounded claims. He has become a target of intense hatred and vitriol from people on the right, who blame him for mask mandates and other policies they believe infringed on their rights, even as tens of thousands of Americans were dying. Mark Milley is the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and called Trump a fascist and detailed Trump’s conduct around the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. Biden is also extending pardons to members and staff of the Jan. 6 committee, including former Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, both Republicans, as well as the U.S. Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan police officers who testified before the committee. Biden, an institutionalist, has promised a smooth transition to the next administration, inviting Trump to the White House and saying that the nation will be OK, even as he warned during his farewell address of a growing oligarchy. He has spent years warning that Trump’s ascension to the presidency again would be a threat to democracy. His decision to break with political norms with the preemptive pardons was brought on by those concerns. Biden has set the […]
Two months ago, the father and brother of Romi Gonen, one of the three hostages who were, b’chasdei Hashem, released from captivity on Sunday, accepted a kabbalah on themselves to begin putting on tefillin every day as a zechus for her swift release, B’Chadrei Chareidim reported. Romi’s father, Eitan, and brother, Shachaf, had never previously put on tefillin and didn’t own a pair. They received assistance from the Shas party in Ma’alot as well as from Rav Ilan Abergel and Mr. Asaf Diamant, who purchased a tallis and tefillin for them and helped them put them on for the first time. As he donned the tallis (only Eitan is seen in the video below), Eitan recited Shechiyanu and commented: “What an incredible feeling…it’s moving.” Since that day, father and son have continued the mitzvah of putting on tefillin, while calling on the public to join in prayers for Romi’s well-being and release. Rav Ilan Abergil said at the time: “Eitan accepted upon himself to put on tefillin, as did Shachaf. We bless him and his wife that they should merit to see Romi return home healthy and whole, thanks to this mitzvah that is also mechazeik Am Yisrael, and the zechus h’rabbim should stand by them B’ezras Hashem for good news.” After receiving the news on Sunday that Romi was slated to be released, Eitan and his wife Meital [Romi’s stepmother], thanked Hashem by reciting Shechiyanu during a live interview with Kan News. One week before the IDF’s miraculous rescue of Louis Har and Fernando Marman from the heart of Rafah, in February 2024, Har’s daughter and son-in-law took on kabbalos in ruchniyus – lighting neiros Shabbos and putting on tefillin, donated by the members of the Shul of Bar Harbour. Last month, Har recited HaGomel at Yeshivas Bnei Akiva in Givat Shmuel, where he was greeted by the talmidim in a display of spirited singing and dancing. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
Vice President Han Zheng, China’s representative at Donald Trump’s inauguration, is a trusted adviser to President Xi Jinping and a long-time survivor of Chinese politics who rose from toiling on a collective farm and in factories to becoming one of the most powerful people in the country. Why was Han chosen for this sensitive mission? China’s decision to send Han, rather than its ambassador to Washington as it has in the past, appears to be a carefully calibrated signal that it is willing to improve relations with the U.S. while not leaving Xi exposed to criticism should ties worsen. Many of the most divisive bilateral issues involve trade, with Trump threatening to impose 60% tariffs on imports from China. But relations have also frayed over technology and China’s moves to assert its territorial claims in the South China Sea and over Taiwan. Han has extensive experience with both diplomacy — particularly meeting and greeting foreign delegations — and with projecting China’s key concerns in a lower-key manner than some Chinese officials. What’s Han’s background? Han was born in the commercial hub of Shanghai in 1954, five years after the communist revolution, when much of the city’s well established foreign influence was being swept away. Like many young Chinese, Han was sent to the countryside during the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution to “learn from the peasants” on orders from then-leader Mao Zedong. Many of such “sent down youth” on their return to the cities found jobs in state-run industries. Han rose up the in Shanghai during the 1980s and 1990s, just as China’s economy was catching fire, concurrently holding Communist Party and managerial positions in the chemical and rubber industries. There he caught the eye of senior leaders and was elevated to district-level government before becoming the Shanghai’s mayor and then party secretary, the city’s highest position, following a financial scandal involving his predecessor. Xi had briefly held the position after the scandal, giving Han direct access to him before him became China’s new leader. What impact is Han’s visit likely to have? In 2017, Han reached the apex of Chinese political power, the party’s seven-member Politburo Standing Committee. After serving one five-year term, he was given the position of vice president, a post that Xi has imbued with new weight as adviser and envoy. His presence seems to embody Xi’s desire to put U.S. relations on a more stable track, particularly when it comes to trade. On Sunday, Han met with U.S. Vice President-elect J.D. Vance and business leaders, including Elon Musk, who has grown close to Trump. Throughout his career, Han has shown a flair for low-key diplomacy, helping to deal with unrest in Hong Kong and attending numerous international events such as the U.N. General Assembly. Though Han often goes unnoticed due to his ranking in the Communist Party hierarchy, Xi apparently believes he is the man for the job when a subtle hand is needed to establish a positive atmosphere to avoid major pitfalls during Trump’s second term. Beijing appears to have put considerable thought into how receptive Trump, who is known to be an admirer of Xi’s and who places great store in personal relationships, will be toward Han. (AP)
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