If you think TikTok is messing with the heads of young people, consider what it’s been doing to America’s most powerful adults.
Last March, Congress voted overwhelmingly to ban the app on American soil unless a US buyer was found.
Despite claims or speculation that anyone from Elon Musk to MrBeast might be buyers, a deal has yet to emerge, with TikTok maintaining it’s not for sale.
Now, the US Supreme Court has dismissed legal challenges against the ban by the company and its users that said the new law would violate US free speech laws.
As things currently stand, the ban will take effect on January 19th, with TikTok saying the app will “go dark” in the US on Sunday.
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Mr Biden has said he will not allow prosecutions for violations of the ban during his last 36 hours in office.
Mr Trump has indicated he will use an executive order to effectively suspend the ban until a US buyer is found.
You can almost hear the chuckles in the corridors of the National People’s Congress in Beijing.
Though owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company, TikTok has never been available in China.
Image: Pic: Reuters
It was the US Congress that decided the app was (delete as appropriate to your level of paranoia): distracting; influencing; spying on; brainwashing American youth.
Yet it looks as if Mr Biden’s last day in office may be overshadowed by 170 million, mostly young, Americans opening their favourite app to be confronted with a blank screen – and blaming him for it.
And Mr Trump celebrating his inauguration with the chief executive of TikTok Shou Zi Chew, but without his 14.8 million followers on TikTok.
Not to mention the seven million US businesses, according to TikTok, that profit from the platform having to hawk their wares on Facebook, Instagram and X and understandably wondering about the fairness of it all.
It’s looking as if America called TikTok’s bluff and it simply “swiped up”, threatening to take all the dances, trends, memes and marketing opportunities with it.
And America has flinched.
Image: TikTok users protest against the ban. File pic: AP
So what happens now?
TikTok may accept the reassurance of Mr Trump and keep the app running in the US. But it’s a legally precarious position for a company as it would still be in breach of US law.
According to incoming National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, team Trump will “keep TikTok alive… if there is a viable deal”.
But what does that even look like?
TikTok’s success is largely based on its technology.
Its algorithm is famous (or infamous, depending on whether you are a teenager or parent) in social media for its ability to feed users content that keeps them glued to the app.
A powerful AI curates the “For You” page that tailors videos, not just based on content a particular user views, but the faces, video length, text and topics it thinks they will like.
The company has key patents on automatic music generation and various filters that help users create videos.
While it has a hefty 170 million users in the US, it has more than 1.4 billion more worldwide.
ByteDance has indicated that TikTok’s algorithm is not up for sale, nor, it’s reasonable to assume, are the rest of its patents.
Why would it give up all that for a fraction – albeit a lucrative one – of its overall market?
It seems unlikely a potential US buyer would pay much just to own TikTok’s platform and its list of US users if it had no way of offering them the same experience they enjoyed on the app before.
ByteDance (and the Chinese government which would have to approve the deal) could be persuaded to sell the app in its entirety to a US entity.
But the price is expected to be high: in the region of $100bn, which would be steep for even America’s richest tech titans.
That said, a deal could happen.
Mr Trump has announced he discussed TikTok on a call with China’s premier Xi Jinping.
Has the app become an unexpected pawn in US-China relations?
Keen to avoid punitive tariff’s threatened by Mr Trump, Beijing may be willing to let TikTok go.
Mr Trump may help close the deal, win favour with 170 million young voters, and gain powerful leverage over yet another social media platform.
The UK-US trade deal has been signed and is “done”, US President Donald Trump has said as he met Sir Keir Starmer at the G7 summit.
The US president told reporters: “We signed it, and it’s done. It’s a fair deal for both. It’ll produce a lot of jobs, a lot of income.”
As Mr Trump and his British counterpart exited a mountain lodge in the Canadian Rockies where the summit is being held, the US president held up a physical copy of the trade agreement to show reporters.
Several leaves of paper fell from the binding, and Mr Starmer quickly bent down to pick them up, saying: “A very important document.”
Image: President Donald Trump drops papers as he meets with Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Kananaskis, Canada. Pic: AP
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1:06
Sir Keir Starmer hastily collects the signed executive order documents from the ground and hands them back to the US president.
Sir Keirsaid the document “implements” the deal to cut tariffs on cars and aerospace, adding: “So this is a very good day for both of our countries – a real sign of strength.”
Mr Trump added that the UK was “very well protected” against any future tariffs, saying: “You know why? Because I like them”.
However, he did not say whether levies on British steel exports to the US would be set to 0%, saying “we’re gonna let you have that information in a little while”.
Image: Sir Keir Starmer picks up paper from the UK-US trade deal after Donald Trump dropped it at the G7 summit. Pic: Reuters
What exactly does trade deal being ‘done’ mean?
The government says the US “has committed” to removing tariffs (taxes on imported goods) on UK aerospace goods, such as engines and aircraft parts, which currently stand at 10%.
That is “expected to come into force by the end of the month”.
Tariffs on car imports will drop from 27.5% to 10%, the government says, which “saves car manufacturers hundreds of millions a year, and protects tens of thousands of jobs”.
The White House says there will be a quota of 100,000 cars eligible for import at that level each year.
But on steel, the story is a little more complicated.
The UK is the only country exempted from the global 50% tariff rate on steel – which means the UK rate remains at the original level of 25%.
That tariff was expected to be lifted entirely, but the government now says it will “continue to go further and make progress towards 0% tariffs on core steel products as agreed”.
The White House says the US will “promptly construct a quota at most-favoured-nation rates for steel and aluminium articles”.
Other key parts of the deal include import and export quotas for beef – and the government is keen to emphasise that “any US imports will need to meet UK food safety standards”.
There is no change to tariffs on pharmaceuticals for the moment, and the government says “work will continue to protect industry from any further tariffs imposed”.
The White House says they “committed to negotiate significantly preferential treatment outcomes”.
Mr Trump also praised Sir Keir as a “great” prime minister, adding: “We’ve been talking about this deal for six years, and he’s done what they haven’t been able to do.”
He added: “We’re very longtime partners and allies and friends and we’ve become friends in a short period of time.
“He’s slightly more liberal than me to put it mildly… but we get along.”
Sir Keir added that “we make it work”.
The US president appeared to mistakenly refer to a “trade agreement with the European Union” at one point as he stood alongside the British prime minister.
In a joint televised phone call in May, Sir Keir and Mr Trump announced the UK and US had agreed on a trade deal – but added the details were being finalised.
Ahead of the G7 summit, the prime minister said he would meet Mr Trump for “one-on-one” talks, and added the agreement “really matters for the vital sectors that are safeguarded under our deal, and we’ve got to implement that”.
A Los Angeles doctor has agreed to plead guilty to giving Friends actor Matthew Perry ketamine in the lead up to his death from a fatal overdose, prosecutors have said.
Dr Salvador Plasencia, who will admit to four counts of distribution of ketamine, faces up to a maximum of 40 years in prison.
The actor had been using the drug through his regular doctor in a legal treatment for depression, but had begun seeking more ketamine than his doctor would give him.
Image: Salvador Plasencia. Pic: Malibu Canyon Urgent Care
Plasencia is accused of supplying the bulk of Perry’s ketamine in his final weeks. He and three other defendants, including another doctor, agreed to plead guilty in exchange for their cooperation.
Jasmine Sangha, who prosecutors allege was a major ketamine dealer, is alleged to have provided the dose that killed the actor and is the only defendant who has pleaded not guilty to the prosecution’s case.
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About a month before the actor’s death, Perry found Plasencia, a doctor who allegedly asked another doctor, Mark Chavez, to obtain the drug for him, according to court filings in the Chavez case.
“I wonder how much this moron will pay,” Plasencia texted Chavez, according to court filings from prosecutors.
Image: Dr Mark Chavez has pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute ketamine to Perry. File pic: AP
The pair who practised in California met up the same day and exchanged at least four vials of ketamine, the filings said.
After selling the drugs to Perry for $4,500 (£3,314), Plasencia allegedly asked Chavez if he could keep supplying them so they could become Perry’s “go-to” prosecutors said.
Chavez has pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute ketamine to Perry.
Perry struggled with addiction for years, dating back to his time on Friends, when he became one of the biggest stars of his generation as Chandler Bing.
He starred alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004.
A man accused of killing a US politician and her husband went to the homes of other lawmakers that night, intending to kill them, officials said.
Vance Boelter, 57, meticulously planned his attacks, carrying out surveillance missions, taking notes on the properties and people he targeted and disguising himself as a police officer, according to Minnesota’s acting US attorney Joseph Thompson.
Authorities believe Boelter wore a mask as he posed as a police officer and shone a torch in the face of some of his victims to disguise his identity.
Image: The FBI released this image of Vance Boelter posing as a police officer. Pic: FBI.
“It is no exaggeration to say that his crimes are the stuff of nightmare,” said Mr Thompson.
Boelter, 57, allegedly shot and wounded Senator John Hoffman, a Democrat, and his wife, Yvette, in their Minneapolis home in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Image: John Hoffman. Pic: Facebook/Senator John Hoffman
He then travelled to the home of another state lawmaker but she and her family were on holiday, so they didn’t answer the door, said Mr Thompson.
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Video showed that Boelter rang the doorbell at around 2.24am on Friday but left when the family didn’t respond.
Image: Vance Boelter. Pic: Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office/Reuters
He then drove to the home of an unnamed state senator, but after the Hoffmans’ adult daughter called emergency services to say her parents had been shot, a police officer was dispatched to conduct a wellness check.
That officer saw Boelter’s car parked up the street but thought he was another officer, said Mr Thompson.
Boelter had reportedly altered his car to make it look more like a police car.
He then left and drove to the home of lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, according to an FBI affidavit.
Local police officers, also conducting a check, arrived to see Boelter fatally shoot Mark Hortman through the open door of the home, according to the document.
Melissa Hortman was found dead inside.
Boelter was arrested on Sunday evening after a huge manhunt in a rural area in Sibley County, southwest of Minneapolis.
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He faces two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of attempted second-degree murder in the deaths of the Hortmans and the wounding of Mr Hoffman and his wife.
Before his arrest, the father of five texted his family group chat saying: “Dad went to war last night … I don’t wanna say more because I don’t wanna implicate anybody,” according to the affidavit.
His wife got another text that said: “Words are not gonna explain how sorry I am for this situation… there’s gonna be some people coming to the house armed and trigger-happy and I don’t want you guys around,” the document said.
Several AK-style firearms and a list of about 70 names, which included politicians and abortion rights activists, were allegedly found inside his vehicle.
A Minnesota official said politicians who had been outspoken in favour of abortion rights were on the list.