Chocolate factory explosion kills two people, with several missing - Sky News

Two people are dead and several are missing after an explosion at a chocolate factory in the US state of Pennsylvania.

The explosion happened just before 5pm at the RM Palmer Co plant in West Reading, about 60 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

One of the factory's buildings was destroyed, as well as a neighbouring property.

Nine people are missing and several have been injured, according to West Reading Borough Police Department Chief of Police Wayne Holben.

He said there are still rescue workers searching for people at the scene.

Image: Pic: AP

Image: Pic: AP

The cause of the explosion is being investigated, he added, also warning residents to stay away from the area.

RM Palmer Co employs 850 people at the West Reading site.

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According to its website, the company had been making sweets since 1948, specialising in Easter, Halloween and Valentine's Day products.

West Reading Borough Mayor Samantha Kaag said the factory site was "pretty levelled", adding: "The building in the front, with the church and the apartments, the explosion was so big that it moved that building four feet forward."

No homes were evacuated, she said, although people were asked to move back about a block in each direction from the site of the explosion.

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2023-03-25 05:18:49Z
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Russia-Ukraine war live: Russian assault on Bakhmut has ‘largely stalled’, says UK ministry - The Guardian

From 2h ago

Russia’s assault on the fiercely contested eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut has “largely stalled”, the UK’s Ministry of Defence says.

It said in its latest intelligence update:

This is likely primarily a result of extreme attrition of the Russian force. Ukraine has also suffered heavy casualties during its defence.

The ministry said Russia’s situation had likely been worsened by “tensions between the Russian ministry of defence and Wagner Group, both of whom contribute troops in the sector”.

The battle over Bakhmut has been the longest and bloodiest of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The UK ministry said Russia had probably shifted its operational focus towards Avdiivka, south of Bakhmut, and to the Kremina-Svatove sector in the north – “areas where Russia likely only aspires to stabilise its frontline”.

This suggests an overall return to a more defensive operational design after inconclusive results from its attempts to conduct a general offensive since January 2023.

Spring has arrived in Ukraine – with late March temperatures an unreasonably high 17C along much of the frontline in the east. It means it is possible to declare, definitively, that the Russian campaign to knock out Ukraine’s power grid has failed, and whatever happens next in the war, its people will not be frozen out of their homes, as was once feared when the cynical bombing campaign began on 10 October.

The reality, of course, was the missile strikes on key infrastructure had been largely abandoned at the end of January, with Russian missile stocks at 10-15% of prewar levels, according to Ukrainian estimates. Moscow’s tactics are changing: Vadym Skibitsky, deputy head of Kyiv’s military intelligence, said in a TV interview that it appeared military fuel and “logistics systems” were now being targeted.

There has been no shortage of bombing and fighting during the long winter, but in another sense little has happened. The battle for the small Donbas city of Bakhmut rages, as it has since May, but in recent weeks Ukraine’s forces have been pushed back north and south of the city, leaving the urban centre increasingly isolated, its supply roads dangerously exposed. Drone footage depicts a battered urban landscape, although many buildings are still standing and troops are able to shelter in basements.

As the weather turns, so too does talk of a Ukrainian counterattack. Kyiv’s forces are gradually taking delivery of previously promised western tanks, fighting vehicles and other munitions, and some of them have been freshly trained in Britain, Germany or Poland. But the country’s second most important commander, Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, surprised most observers when he suggested, on Thursday, that the place for a counterstrike could be in or around Bakhmut itself.

Russia’s parliament speaker has proposed banning the activities of the international criminal court (ICC) after the court issued an arrest warrant for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, accusing him of the war crimes.

Vyacheslav Volodin, an ally of Putin’s, said on Saturday that Russian legislation should be amended to prohibit any activity of the ICC in Russia and to punish any who gave “assistance and support” to the court.

“It is necessary to work out amendments to legislation prohibiting any activity of the ICC on the territory of our country,” Volodin said in a Telegram post, Reuters reported.

Volodin said the US had legislated to prevent its citizens ever being tried by The Hague court and that Russia should continue that work.

Any assistance or support for the ICC inside Russia, he said, should be punishable under law.

The ICC issued an arrest warrant earlier this month accusing Putin of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine. It said there were reasonable grounds to believe that Putin bears individual criminal responsibility.

Russian officials have cautioned that any attempt to arrest Putin, Russia’s leader since the last day of 1999, would amount to a declaration of war against the world’s largest nuclear power.

Police in Russia have placed a former speechwriter for President Vladimir Putin on a wanted list for criminal suspects, the latest step in a sweeping crackdown on dissent.

The Associated Press reports that Abbas Gallyamov wrote speeches for Putin during the Russian leader’s 2008-12 stint as prime minister. Gallyamov later became an outspoken political consultant and analyst who was frequently quoted by Russian and foreign media. He has lived abroad in recent years.

On Friday, Russian news outlets and an AP reporter discovered Gallyamov listed in the interior ministry’s database. His entry said he was wanted “in relation to a criminal code article” but did not include the law he was accused of breaking.

Russia’s justice ministry added Gallyamov last month to its register of foreign agents, a designation that brings additional government scrutiny and carries strong pejorative connotations aimed at undermining the recipient’s credibility.

The ministry said Gallyamov “distributed materials created by foreign agents to an unlimited circle of people, spoke out against the special military operation in Ukraine [and] participated as an expert and respondent on information platforms provided by foreign structures”.

Gallyamov told AP on Friday that he learned he was on a wanted list from the media. No law enforcement agency had been in touch, so he didn’t know what charge he faced in Russia.

He said in a phone interview:

I presume that formally it’s the offence of discrediting the army. It is being used against anyone who refuses to amplify the Kremlin’s playbook and tries to conduct an objective, impartial analysis of what’s going on.

Gallyamov described the move against him as part of the Russian government’s “intimidation strategy”.

Russia’s assault on the fiercely contested eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut has “largely stalled”, the UK’s Ministry of Defence says.

It said in its latest intelligence update:

This is likely primarily a result of extreme attrition of the Russian force. Ukraine has also suffered heavy casualties during its defence.

The ministry said Russia’s situation had likely been worsened by “tensions between the Russian ministry of defence and Wagner Group, both of whom contribute troops in the sector”.

The battle over Bakhmut has been the longest and bloodiest of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The UK ministry said Russia had probably shifted its operational focus towards Avdiivka, south of Bakhmut, and to the Kremina-Svatove sector in the north – “areas where Russia likely only aspires to stabilise its frontline”.

This suggests an overall return to a more defensive operational design after inconclusive results from its attempts to conduct a general offensive since January 2023.

The US president, Joe Biden, and the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, have displayed a united front against authoritarian regimes as Biden visited the Canadian capital days after the leaders of China and Russia held a Moscow summit.

Reuters reports that images of Biden and Trudeau standing side by side in Ottawa on Friday announcing agreements including on semiconductors and migration represented a counterpoint to the scene in Moscow days ago.

There, the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, professed friendship and pledged closer ties as Russia struggles in its war against Ukraine.

At a joint news conference with Trudeau, Biden questioned the level of China and Russia’s cooperation, noting that China has not provided weapons to Russia for use against Ukraine.

Biden said the US had expanded alliances including with Nato, the G7, South Korea and the Quad nations of the US, Australia, India and Japan.

We have significantly expanded our alliances. Tell me how in fact you see a circumstance where China has made a significant commitment to Russia. What commitment can they make?

Addressing Canada’s parliament, Biden said that, as Nato members, the two countries would “defend every inch of Nato territory”.

Trudeau told the news conference that Ukraine was a top issue:

Today we reaffirmed our steadfast support for the Ukrainian people as they defend themselves against Putin’s brutal and barbaric invasion.

Hello and welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. This is Adam Fulton to bring you up to speed with the latest developments.

The leaders of the US and Canada, Joe Biden and Justin Trudeau, have met in Ottawa and reaffirmed their “steadfast support” for Ukraine just days after the Russian and Chinese presidents held their summit in Moscow.

Biden questioned the level of China and Russia’s cooperation, noting that China had not provided weapons to Russia for use against Ukraine.

Trudeau said: “Today we reaffirmed our steadfast support for the Ukrainian people as they defend themselves against Putin’s brutal and barbaric invasion.”

Meanwhile, Russia’s assault on the besieged eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut has “largely stalled”, the UK Ministry’s of Defence says.

“This is likely primarily a result of extreme attrition of the Russian force,” the ministry said in its latest intelligence briefing. “Ukraine has also suffered heavy casualties during its defence.”

More on both of those stories shortly.

In other key developments just after 9am in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv:

• At least 10 civilians were killed and 20 wounded from long-range Russian bombardments in several parts of Ukraine on Friday, officials said. The casualties included two people who died in heavy Russian shelling of the town of Bilopillia in Sumy province in northern Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office said.

• The United Nations has said it is “deeply concerned” by what it said were summary executions of prisoners of war by both Russian and Ukrainian forces on the battlefield. A new report from the UN’s office of the high commissioner for human rights said its monitors had documented dozens of the executions by both sides, that the actual number was likely higher and that they “may constitute war crimes”.

• The Russian former president Dmitry Medvedev said Moscow was readying for a Ukrainian counteroffensive that “everyone knows” Kyiv is preparing for. Medvedev, who is deputy chair of Putin’s powerful security council, warned that Moscow was ready to use “absolutely any weapon” if Ukraine attempted to retake the Crimean peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014.

• Russian forces attacked northern and southern stretches of the front in eastern Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region on Friday. Ukrainian military reports described heavy fighting along a line running from Lyman to Kupiansk, as well as in the south at Avdiivka on the outskirts of the Russian-held city of Donetsk.

• The US president, Joe Biden, said he believed China had not yet sent arms to Russia after its invasion of Ukraine. “I’ve been hearing now for the past three months China is going to provide significant weapons to Russia ... They haven’t yet,” he told a news conference on Friday. “Doesn’t mean they won’t, but they haven’t yet.”

• Ukraine claimed Russian forces were “running out of steam” in Bakhmut and its commanders have started to raise the prospect of an unlikely turnaround in the besieged eastern Ukrainian city.

• Three women were among at least five people killed after a Russian missile struck one of the “invincibility points” providing refuge and basic services for Ukrainian civilians in the eastern city of Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region, local officials said. The Russians attacked overnight on Thursday with S-300 anti-aircraft missiles, prosecutors said

• Air force commanders from Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark have agreed to create a unified Nordic air defence aimed at countering the rising threat from Russia, they said. The intention is to be able to operate jointly based on already known ways of operating under Nato, according to statements by the four countries’ armed forces. The Danish air force commander, Major General Jan Dam, said: “Our combined fleet can be compared to a large European country.”

• About 10,000 civilians, many of them elderly and with disabilities, are living in “very dire conditions” in and around Bakhmut, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Several thousand civilians were estimated to remain in the city itself and be “spending almost the entire days in intense shelling in the shelters”, the ICRC’s Umar Khan said.

• The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has said the “friendship” between China and Russia has limits, and that Europe should welcome any attempts by Beijing to distance itself from Moscow’s war in Ukraine. He said China “has not crossed any red lines for us”, adding that Beijing’s proposals to end the war showed it did not want to fully align with Russia.

• The bodies of 83 Ukrainian soldiers killed fighting in the war have been returned from the Russian side, a Ukrainian official said. Separately, Kyiv said it handed over an undisclosed number of seriously wounded Russian soldiers.

• Seven Ukrainian children have been reunited with their families after being forcibly taken to Russian-occupied Crimea, the Kherson regional military administration said.

• The security situation around the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv will have to improve before its ports can be included in a deal allowing the safe export of Ukrainian grain, a senior Ukrainian official has said. The deal was extended this month, but Kyiv and Moscow differ over how long the extension will last.

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2023-03-25 08:18:58Z
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Indian opposition leader expelled from parliament after defamation conviction - The Guardian

The Indian opposition leader, Rahul Gandhi, has been expelled from parliament 24 hours after he was convicted of defamation for a remark implying the country’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, was a criminal.

Senior members of Gandhi’s Congress party met on Friday morning to discuss the conviction and his two-year jail sentence when they received news of his expulsion.

Gandhi will not go to jail immediately because the court granted him bail for 30 days to file an appeal against the verdict. If an appeals court sets aside Gandhi’s conviction, he can regain his seat.

The party knew that under Indian law anyone who receives a two-year sentence is automatically disqualified to serve as a legislator. But it assumed that Gandhi, 52, would have time to appeal to a higher court first. Instead, the office of the speaker of the house informed Gandhi that he was disqualified from the date of his conviction.

“I’m stunned by this action and by its rapidity, within 24 hours of the court verdict and while an appeal was known to be in process,” Shashi Tharoor, a senior Congress figure, tweeted. “This is politics with the gloves off and it bodes ill for our democracy.”

The case stemmed from a remark made during the 2019 election campaign in which Gandhi, the leading face of the Congress party, had asked why “all thieves have Modi as [their] common surname”. Modi’s BJP government has been widely accused of using the law to target and silence critics.

Gaurav Gogoi, another prominent Congress figure, told NDTV: “With this action, the BJP has ended up proving Rahul’s point that democracy is sinking under Narendra Modi and this is the final nail in the coffin.”

BJP leaders have denied that the process against Gandhi is politicised. “What’s the problem? The law has taken its course. There is nothing political about it,” Alok Vats, a prominent BJP politician, told local media.

The disqualification means that a byelection will have to be held in Gandhi’s constituency of Wayanad in Kerala, south India. His future political career remains somewhat unclear. Much will hang on the appeal process, which is expected to go all the way to the supreme court.

Knowing that the appeal process will take time, Congress has mobilised its members to come out on to the streets in protest.

Asim Ali, a political researcher, said he was puzzled by the BJP’s focus on Gandhi. “I can’t work out what the strategy is because this may benefit Rahul and the Congress,” Ali said. “They [Congress] will say it shows the BJP is insecure about Rahul and that it merely validates what he has been saying about how this government will not allow any criticism of Modi or itself.”

Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a Delhi-based writer and analyst, told Agence France-Presse that the verdict showed the BJP “does not want Rahul Gandhi in parliament”.

He said the disqualification followed a “big storm” of disruptions to parliamentary proceedings by Congress politicians demanding an inquiry into Modi’s relationship with tycoon Gautam Adani.

The two men have been close associates for decades but Adani’s business empire has been subject to renewed scrutiny this year after a US investment firm accused it of “brazen” corporate fraud. Adani has repeatedly denied that his longstanding connection with the prime minister has led to preferential treatment, as has the Indian government.

Until recently Gandhi, a member of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that has given India three prime ministers, had been lampooned by BJP figures as a “kid” who was “wet behind the ears” but a 2,200-mile march across the country last year appears to have lent some credibility and gravitas to his image.

Outside the party, many Indians will be bewildered to find that Gandhi has been disqualified given that 233 of the 539 MPs elected in the 2019 general election have criminal charges against them – many of them more serious than defamation.

Gandhi’s disqualification has served, at least temporarily, to unite a usually fractious opposition that has been appalled by the news. “The BJP is desperate to silence the voice of the opposition. This is the lowest of the low in the history of parliamentary democracy. Shame on them,” said Derek O’Brien, of the Trinamool Congress party.

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2023-03-24 11:04:00Z
1850682973

US air strikes target Iran-backed militants in Syria - Financial Times

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2023-03-24 14:56:20Z
1869161397

Kim Jong Un oversees launch of nuclear-capable underwater drone - state media - BBC

EPA

By Kelly Ng

BBC News, Singapore

North Korea says it has tested an underwater drone that can unleash a "radioactive tsunami".

The "secret weapon" was put in the waters off South Hamgyong province on Tuesday, state news agency KCNA says.

It cruised for over 59 hours at a depth of 80 to 150 metres and was detonated off its east coast, the report says.

But analysts urge caution on North Korea's claim about the capabilities of the new weapon.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula have been running high, as the US and South Korea concluded the largest joint field exercises in five years on Wednesday.

South Korea President Yoon Suk-yeol said on Friday he would "make sure North Korea pays the price for its reckless provocations".

Dubbed "Haeil", Korean for tsunami, the North's weapon is designed to attack enemy vessels and ports by setting off a "super-scale" radioactive wave, KCNA says.

"This nuclear underwater attack drone can be deployed at any coast and port or towed by a surface ship for operation," it adds.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised this exercise, and said it should serve as a warning for the US and South Korea to "realise the DPRK's unlimited nuclear war deterrence capability being bolstered up at a greater speed", AFP reported.

North Korea's latest weapon appears to be emulating Russian Poseidon torpedoes, said to be capable of spawning radioactive ocean swells and nuclear tsunamis that could destroy coastal cities in the US.

• What missiles has North Korea been testing?
• Wargaming a North Korean attack

This weapon is the first of its kind, says Hong Min, a research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification. "It is very difficult to be detected in advance by any reconnaissance or interceptor assets that South Korea and the United States have so far."

"North Korea is showing a behavioural pattern of responding with 'nuclear weapons' to all military responses against the past, ongoing and future [US-South Korea] joint exercises," he said.

But Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said Pyongyang's latest claim "should be met with scepticism".

"It is clearly intended to show that the Kim regime has so many different means of nuclear attack that any pre-emptive or decapitation strike against it would fail disastrously," he said.

Ankit Panda, a nuclear weapons specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said: "I tend to take North Korea seriously, but can't rule out the possibility that this is an attempt at deception/psyop (psychological operations)."

Mr Yoon said North Korea was "advancing its nuclear weapons by the day, and carrying out missile provocations with an unprecedented intensity". He made the comments at a ceremony marking West Sea Defence Day, an annual holiday to commemorate the soldiers who died while defending the Northern Limit Line, a disputed maritime border between the Koreas.

Separately, the North fired strategic cruise missiles on Wednesday "tipped with a test warhead simulating a nuclear warhead", KCNA says.

Skip twitter post by Ankit Panda

First-ever video footage of North Korea's long-range Hwasal-1/Hwasal-2 "strategic" cruise missiles. (via KCTV) pic.twitter.com/Bv5MbPDP7B

— Ankit Panda (@nktpnd) March 24, 2023

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

Last Thursday, Pyongyang test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile just hours before the leaders of South Korea and Japan met for landmark talks.

In 2022, North Korea launched more than 90 missiles - the most it has ever fired in a single year to date - despite being subject to a raft of sanctions from the UN, the US, the EU and its neighbouring countries.

North Korea has become more assertive in its nuclear strategy under Kim Jong Un, who has overseen much of its recent development of its weapons programme, and four of the six nuclear tests so far.

Additional reporting by Damin Jung.

Related Topics

• Kim Jong-un
• Asia
• North Korea missile tests
• South Korea
• United States
• North Korea

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2023-03-24 08:25:34Z
1837908750

Bordeaux town hall set ablaze as French pension reform unrest grows - Euronews

Unrest over pension reform in France grew on Thursday, with Bordeaux town hall set ablaze.

More than a million protesters took to the streets across France, amid renewed violence and tension. 

457 arrests were made and 441 police injured, according to the country's Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin. 

The porch of the Bordeaux town hall, where King Charles III is set to be received early next week, was set on fire Thursday evening. It was not clear who is behind the blaze, which firefighters quickly extinguished. 

Unrest - now in its ninth day - was sparked by French President Emmanuel Macron's attempt to increase the retirement age from 62 to 64. 

He claims the reform is necessary to make the system economically viable, with increasing numbers of pensioners putting a burden on the state. 

However, it is deeply unpopular and Macron's use of special powers to force the legislation through parliament has been sharply criticised as anti-democratic and authoritarian. 

Polls suggest up to 70% of French citizens reject the reform. 

France's powerful unions have spearheaded the protest movement, with one in six civil servants on strike yesterday, while tons of rubbish is piling up on the streets amid industrial action by refuse collectors.

Between 1 and 3.5 million people are believed to have marched in 300 cities yesterday.

Violent clashes between riot officers and protesters have punctuated several protests in recent days, with Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne deeming the "violence and degradation" "unacceptable".

The police, in turn, have been accused of using excessive force. Footage circulating online purports to show a group of riot officers pointing a firearm at the press covering one protest. 

The fire in Bordeaux lasted around fifteen minutes and damaged the massive wooden door of the building, before being extinguished by the firefighters, according to Pierre Hurmic, mayor of Bordeaux.

"It's the house of Bordeaux, I don't really see the symbol behind it," he said, adding he was "very shocked". 

Investigations are in progress. 

Unions have called for further protests next Tuesday, which would coincide with King Charles III's state visit to the country. He is scheduled to visit the southwest city of Bordeaux that day.

For the first time since the start of the protest, tear gas was fired by the police at groups of masked young people throwing projectiles and setting fires at barricades in Bordeaux. 

Thursday's demonstration in the wine-producing city brought together between 18,000 and 110,000 people. 

Meanwhile, seven people were arrested for throwing projectiles, arson and contempt, according to the authorities. 

Violent clashes were reported in Nantes and Rennes, where water canons were used, plus a police station in Lorient was targeted. Lille and Dijon were also reportedly tense. 

In Brest, Aurélia Vaillant, a 44-year-old restaurateur, told AFP she "will go all the way".

"There is too much at stake to stop now", she said, adding that Macron was "despised" for using constitutional powers to force the legislation through without a parliamentary vote.

On Wednesday, Macron remained resolute, maintaining his reform was "necessary" while describing the perpetrators of violence as "factious".

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2023-03-24 07:36:37Z
1845123785

TikTok ban – live: CEO Shou Chew says social media apps should be banned from government devices - The Independent

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TikTok CEO Shou Chew says that no government devices should have social media apps on them.

“I disagree with that characterisation. I think the government devices should have no social media apps to be honest, not just targeted at us,” he told Rep John Joyce, from Pennsylvania during his testimony before Congress on Thursday.

TikTok is facing a complete ban in the US over fears that China is using the app as a covert tool for spying and spreading propaganda.

Mr Chew testified before Congress, with members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee raising their concerns about how much access the Chinese government has to user data, as well as how much influence the Chinese Communist Party has over it.

TikTok has consistently denied such allegations, though this has not stopped the US and other countries from banning the app from government and military-issued devices.

Some countries like India have even issued a nationwide ban of TikTok and dozens of other Chinese apps as a result of national security worries.

With more than 150 million TikTok users in the US, many will be following Thursday’s proceedings closely to see if Biden’s administration follows India by banning TikTok.

You can follow all the latest news and updates in our live coverage here.

1679648580

TikTok boss agrees no government devices should have social media apps

TikTok CEO Shou Chew told Rep John Joyce, from Pennsylvania, that no government devices should have TikTok or any other social media app.

“I disagree with that characterisation. I think the government devices should have no social media apps to be honest, not just targeted at us.”

He was then asked if he let his under 13 children to use TikTok.

“This experience does not exist in Singapore. If my children lived here then yes,” he told the politician.

Graeme Massie24 March 2023 09:03

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‘Has ByteDance spied on Americans at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party?’

Rep Neal Dunn, Republican of Florida, asked CEO Shou Chew whether TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, has ever spied on American citizens at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party.

“No,” Mr Chew said, which set off a tense exchange with the congressman. Mr Chew concluded by saying the lawmaker did not offer him a chance to respond to his multiple quesetions.

Graeme Massie24 March 2023 06:53

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TikTok ban latest: Member of Congress describes TikTok as a ‘weapon'

You can watch the clip of Chair Rodgers describing TikTok as a weapon here:

Chair Rodgers claims ‘TikTok is a weapon'

Graeme Massie24 March 2023 05:01

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TikTok ban latest: ‘TikTok is a weapon'

Chair Rodgers brings up Shou Chew’s alleged links to the Chinese Communist Party, having worked as the chief financial officer of the Chinese version of TikTok before taking up his current role.

Both companies are owned by ByteDance, with high-level figures within the parent company having ties to the Chinese state.

“TikTok is a weapon,” Chair Rodgers says.

Graeme Massie24 March 2023 04:03

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How would a TikTok ban in the US actually work?

The Biden administration is currently in the proces of trying to pass the RESTRICT ACT, which lawyers say would allow the US government to circumvent speech protections embedded in existing law.

But how would a nationwide TikTok ban actually be implemented?

US officials are yet to give any firm details about how a total ban in the US would actually be implemented, but it would likely involve Apple and Google removing it from their app stores and internet service providers blocking access to the site.

There are always ways around such bans – most likely any VPN would be able to circumvent any restrictions – but when the same thing happened in India, most users just moved to copycat short-form content set up by the likes of YouTube and Facebook.

Graeme Massie24 March 2023 03:08

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Who is TikTok CEO Shou Chew

TikTok CEO Shou Chew doesn’t have long to wait before he appears before Congress at 10am local time (2pm GMT) today.

He has already posted a TikTok asking US users what they want their elected representatives to know about “what you love” about TikTok.

“I’ll be testifying before Congress this week to share all that we’re doing to protect Americans using the app and deliver on our mission to inspire creativity and to bring joy,” he said in the post published to TikTok’s main account.

His own account has been remarkably quiet considering he’s the boss of the app, having posted less than a couple of dozen times in its history. His low profile is in keeping with his public persona, which he has managed to keep extremely private compared to the heads of other tech giants.

There’s only six sentences on his Wikipedia page, but if you want to find out more you can read this:

Graeme Massie24 March 2023 02:05

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TikTok ban: Charting the app’s controversial rise to the top

TikTok was the most downloaded app in the world last year, beating its closest rival by more than 100 million downloads.

This comes despite a complete ban of TikTok being imposed in India in 2020, where close to 200 million people used the app. Other countries have also imposed bans and partial bans, including Europe and US, as this map shows:

You can see all the charts and read the full story of TikTok’s controversial rise to the top here:

Graeme Massie24 March 2023 01:02

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TikTok ban latest: CEO says app provides ‘unprecedented transparency'

Shou Chew claims TikTok is going further than any other major social media app to protect the data of its users.

The centerpiece of our work is called Project Texas. Project Texas is an unprecedented initiative dedicated to safeguarding both U.S. user data and U.S. national security interests. This initiative addresses key issues of corporate governance, content recommendation and moderation, data security, and system access. It is a comprehensive package of measures with layers of independent oversight to protect against backdoors into TikTok that could be used to manipulate the platform or access U.S. user protected data. Project Texas puts the concepts of transparency and accountability into action by addressing national security concerns head-on with concrete, measurable solutions. Project Texas is designed to introduce layers of transparency and vetting that are commonly used for defense contractors but are unheard of for consumer platforms.

Shou Chew, TikTok CEO

Graeme Massie24 March 2023 00:04

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TikTok ban latest: Boss declines to guarantee that China cannot decide what shows in app

During questioning from Chair Rodgers, the TikTok CEO failed to confirm “100 per cent” that the Chinese Communist Party would not be able to influence parts of the app.

You can read the full story from The Independent’s Andrew Griffin here:

Graeme Massie23 March 2023 23:05

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TikTok ban latest: UK parliament blocks app

While the US mulls a nationwide TikTok ban, the UK has announced that the app will be blocked from “all parliamentary devices and the wider parliamentary network”, pointing to concerns about security.

“Cyber security is a top priority for Parliament, however we do not comment on specific details of our cyber or physical security controls, policies or incidents,” a spokesperson said.

“Following the Government’s decision to ban TikTok from Government devices, the commissions of both the House of Commons and Lords have decided that TikTok will be blocked from all parliamentary devices and the wider parliamentary network.”

You can read the full story from Andrew Griffin here:

Graeme Massie23 March 2023 22:03

Adblock test (Why?)

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2023-03-24 06:53:19Z
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