Republicans plan U.S. TikTok crackdown
Home Republicans plan to vote this week on laws that might pressure the Chinese language homeowners of TikTok to divest or be barred within the U.S., even after Donald Trump got here out strongly towards banning the platform.
“We should make sure the Chinese language authorities can not weaponize TikTok towards American customers and our authorities by way of information assortment and propaganda,” mentioned Consultant Steve Scalise, the Home majority chief.
Scalise, a Republican of Louisiana, mentioned the Home would attempt to velocity the invoice’s passage. The strategy mirrored the rising momentum behind the invoice throughout an election yr, when members of each events need to present they’re robust on China. President Biden has mentioned 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 rationalization 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 means to proceed sinking bipartisan laws from the marketing campaign path.
Context: The invoice is one in all a number of efforts over the previous yr geared toward curbing TikTok due to considerations that its dad or mum firm’s relationship with Beijing poses dangers to nationwide safety.
Preventing 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 kids that Kensington Palace had shared. Information shops retracted the picture from their articles hours later, citing the edits.
It was the primary official picture of Catherine since earlier than she underwent belly surgical procedure two months in the past. And it turned 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 youngsters.
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 other impact. It set off extra rumors and conspiracy theories and created a recent 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 carrying her wedding ceremony ring. A part of one in all her daughter’s sleeves was lacking or misaligned.
Ukraine may quickly fly just a few F-16s
Ukraine may 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 might begin with as few as six F-16s, out of about 45 pledged.
The jets may assist Ukraine defend itself towards Russia, which has used extra aggressive air help to achieve floor within the east in latest weeks. The F-16s would additionally seemingly 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 Instances, realized to play Pokémon together with her kids after they have been little. Nicely into her kids’s maturity, they’re nonetheless taking part in collectively.
“The reward isn’t the sport,” she writes in an essay. “The actual current is that as my kids soar into their very own impartial lives, they nonetheless need me to fly together with them.”
And the Oscar goes to …
“Oppenheimer” gained seven Academy Awards, together with finest image, finest director (Christopher Nolan) and finest actor (Cillian Murphy). Emma Stone gained the Oscar for finest actress for her efficiency in “Poor Issues,” which gained 4 awards. See the record of winners from Sunday.
In recent times, Hollywood’s prime prize has gone nearly solely to impartial 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.
