Republicans plan U.S. TikTok crackdown
Home Republicans plan to vote this week on laws that might drive the Chinese language house owners of TikTok to divest or be barred within the U.S., even after Donald Trump got here out strongly in opposition to banning the platform.
“We should make sure the Chinese language authorities can’t weaponize TikTok in opposition to American customers and our authorities via information assortment and propaganda,” stated Consultant Steve Scalise, the Home majority chief.
Scalise, a Republican of Louisiana, stated the Home would attempt to velocity the invoice’s passage. The method mirrored the rising momentum behind the invoice throughout an election yr, when members of each events need to present they’re powerful on China. President Biden has stated he would signal the laws.
However Trump, who as president as soon as vowed to ban the platform, now vocally opposes the invoice. He gave a rambling clarification for his reversal yesterday, saying that he didn’t need to alienate younger voters or give Fb, which he considers a nemesis, extra energy. The battle will check his capacity to proceed sinking bipartisan laws from the marketing campaign path.
Context: The invoice is one in every of a number of efforts over the previous yr geared toward curbing TikTok due to considerations that its mother or father firm’s relationship with Beijing poses dangers to nationwide safety.
Combating again: Final week, TikTok requested its customers to flood congressional phone traces and ask members to not shut down the platform.
A manipulated royal picture
Catherine, Princess of Wales, apologized yesterday for having doctored {a photograph} of herself together with her three youngsters that Kensington Palace had shared. Information retailers retracted the picture from their articles hours later, citing the edits.
It was the primary official picture of Catherine since earlier than she underwent stomach surgical procedure two months in the past. And it grew to become a royal blunder, our London bureau chief writes. Even earlier than her apology, memes of “undoctored” pictures stuffed the web. One confirmed a bored-looking Catherine smoking with a bunch of kids.
If the picture was meant to douse hypothesis about Catherine’s well being — she has not been seen in public since final yr — it had the alternative impact. It set off extra rumors and conspiracy theories and created a contemporary tempest for a royal household that has lurched from one self-created disaster to a different.
Some telltale edits: Catherine didn’t appear to be sporting her marriage ceremony ring. A part of one in every of her daughter’s sleeves was lacking or misaligned.
Ukraine might quickly fly a couple of F-16s
Ukraine might deploy F-16 fighter jets by this summer time. However regardless of guarantees from its European allies, delivering the jets and coaching the pilots has proved tough. Ukraine could begin with as few as six F-16s, out of about 45 pledged.
The jets might assist Ukraine defend itself in opposition to Russia, which has used extra aggressive air assist to realize floor within the east in latest weeks. The F-16s would additionally possible come armed with missiles and bombs, which might partially make up for Ukraine’s scarcity of ground-based munitions.
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Deb Amlen, who writes about video games for The Occasions, discovered to play Pokémon together with her youngsters after they have been little. Nicely into her youngsters’s maturity, they’re nonetheless taking part in collectively.
“The present isn’t the sport,” she writes in an essay. “The actual current is that as my youngsters soar into their very own unbiased lives, they nonetheless need me to fly together with them.”
And the Oscar goes to …
“Oppenheimer” gained seven Academy Awards, together with greatest image, greatest director (Christopher Nolan) and greatest actor (Cillian Murphy). Emma Stone gained the Oscar for greatest actress for her efficiency in “Poor Issues,” which gained 4 awards. See the checklist of winners from Sunday.
In recent times, Hollywood’s prime prize has gone virtually solely to unbiased films. However that “Oppenheimer” gained this yr mirrored a shift. Name it the revenge of the studio film: a blockbuster from an old-line studio with practically $1 billion in ticket gross sales.
