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President-elect Trump could keep his pledge to “save” TikTok – and still address national security concerns that spurred Congress to authorize a ban — by brokering a sale of the Chinese-owned app to a US buyer, experts told The Post.

China-based ByteDance has until Jan. 19 to completely divest its stake in TikTok or face a total US ban of the app.

In a last-ditch scramble to nix the law, ByteDance and TikTok have appealed to the Supreme Court and cozied up to Trump in the hope that he can somehow intervene.

The Supreme Court agreed to take up the case on Wednesday and has scheduled oral arguments for Jan. 10 — just nine days before the ban takes effect.

A US appeals court previously rejected TikTok’s bid to block the bill in a 3-0 decision, which suggests the company faces an uphill battle to win a late reprieve.

If Trump agrees that TikTok should remain online in the US and decides to get involved, a full divestiture is the only realistic path forward, according to Michael Sobolik, senior fellow at American Foreign Policy Council and author of Countering Chinas Great Game.

If you really want TikTok to operate in the United States, and if you want it to operate safely for Americans, then there needs to be a complete separation from its parent company, Sobolik said. And there cannot be any sort of ownership or control, direct or indirect, from a foreign adversary government. I don’t think there’s any alternative.

Trump who led the original push to ban TikTok during his first term said at a Monday press conference that he has a warm spot in my heart for TikTok and would take a look at the situation. Soon after, Trump met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

Details from the meeting have yet to emerge and its unclear whether the talks between Trump and Chew yielded any progress toward a resolution.

Representatives for TikTok and the Trump transition team did not return requests for comment.

Brokering a deal will be no easy feat. TikTok has insisted that it is not for sale and argued that the tight divestment window made finding a buyer impossible, even if it were inclined.

China also has said it will resist any attempt to force a TikTok sale and Beijing has export controls to stop the sale of its algorithm.

Still, the looming deadline creates a great opportunity for a win-win situation if Trump can hammer out a deal, according to Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Select Committee on China, which led the charge on the ban-or-sale bill.

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President Trump is a great negotiator. He loves America. He loves our national security, Moolenaar told The Post. He also recognizes that TikTok is a very valuable platform, and I think he will be able to put together a coalition of people who want to see this app continue in the United States, but do it in a secure way.

The Justice Department described TikTok as a national-security threat of immense depth and scale that functions as a Chinese spying and propaganda tool on US soil, capable of secretly manipulating content served to users through its recommendation algorithm and mass data collection such as location-tracking, among other risks.

TikTok has argued that the sale-or-ban law is unconstitutional and vehemently denied that it poses a threat to national security.

Aside from helping to negotiate a deal for TikTok, Trump is limited in what he can do to intervene. The law gives the president the power to impose a 90-day extension on the Jan. 19 deadline if there are signs of significant progress toward a deal.

Trump could push Congress to amend or reverse the law, but that could prove difficult given the overwhelming bipartisan support it received.

He could also direct the Justice Department not to enforce the law but that would shift major legal liability to app store operators like Google and Apple.

Last week, the House Select Committee on China sent letters to Google’s Sundar Pichai and Apple’s Tim Cook reminding them they are obligated to remove TikTok from their app stores by Jan. 19 if a sale wasn’t reached.

The uncertainty about Trumps strategy on TikTok has created a conundrum for Republicans including some close allies who have vocally supported a ban.

“Trump was the original champion for the TikTok ban, so it makes it difficult for his fellow Republicans to now have another opinion, one DC insider who requested anonymity said. Trump can get away with that, but they certainly can’t.”

While softening his rhetoric toward TikTok, Trump has appointed several China hawks and outspoken TikTok critics to key Cabinet and government agency positions.

That includes Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio, Under Secretary of State nominee Jacob Helberg, incoming US Ambassador to the United Nations Elise Stefanik and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr.

Its possible that Trump will seek to use TikTok as a bargaining chip as part of broader negotiations with China, according to Nathan Leamer, a former FCC policy adviser and CEO of Fixed Gear Strategies.

With Trump in office, its a whole new ballgame to hold China accountable, Leamer said. TikTok is an arrow in his quiver. Maybe they do make a deal for the CCP to divest. No one is against the platform if its separate from ownership by a totalitarian state.

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US

Is this the most powerful Trump’s been?

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Is this the most powerful Trump's been?

👉 Follow Trump100 on your podcast app 👈

Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ has passed and he’s due to sign it into law on Independence Day. Mark Stone and David Blevins discuss how the bill will supercharge his presidency, despite its critics.

They also chat Gaza and Ukraine, as Donald Trump meets with freed Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander and talks to Vladimir Putin.

If you’ve got a question you’d like the Trump100 team to answer, you can email it to trump100@sky.uk.

You can also watch all episodes on our YouTube channel.

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UK

Diogo Jota: Liverpool players join mourners as Premier League star and his brother Andre Silva buried in Portugal

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Diogo Jota: Liverpool players join mourners as Premier League star and his brother Andre Silva buried in Portugal

Liverpool players past and present have joined the family and friends of Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva for their funeral in Portugal.

A service was held in the Igreja Matriz de Gondomar church in their hometown of Gondomar near Porto in northern Portugal on Saturday morning.

Mourners lined the streets and some in the crowd clapped as the brothers’ coffins were carried into the church.

The funeral – in pictures


Liverpool's captain Virgil van Dijk arrives on the day of the funeral ceremony of Liverpool's Portuguese soccer player Diogo Jota and his b
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Liverpool’s captain Virgil van Dijk. Pic: Reuters

Liverpool's Ryan Gravenberch and Cody Gakpo (right) arrive at the funeral of Diogo Jota and Andre Silva
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Liverpool’s Ryan Gravenberch and Cody Gakpo (right) arrive at the funeral of Diogo Jota and Andre Silva. Pic: PA

Jota, 28, leaves behind his wife of only 11 days, Rute Cardoso, and three young children.

His younger brother, 25, was an attacking midfielder for Penafiel in the second tier of Portuguese football.

Liverpool manager Arne Slot, captain Virgil Van Dijk and teammates including Andy Robertson, Conor Bradley, Ryan Gravenberch, Cody Gakpo, Curtis Jones, Darwin Nunez and Joe Gomez were seen at the service.

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Former teammates Jordan Henderson, James Milner and Fabinho were also there.

Van Dijk carried a red wreath with Jota’s number 20, while Robertson had a wreath featuring number 30, Silva’s number at Penafiel.

Diogo Jota funeral
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Manchester United and Portugal player Bruno Fernandes. Pic: PA


Liverpool's captain Virgil van Dijk and Liverpool's player Andrew Robertson arrive on the day of the funeral ceremony of Liverpool's Portug
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Liverpool’s captain Virgil van Dijk and Liverpool’s player Andrew Robertson. Pic: Reuters

Some of Jota’s teammates in the Portuguese national side also attended, including Bruno Fernandes, of Manchester United, Ruben Dias and Bernardo Silva, of Manchester City, Joao Felix and Renato Veiga, of Chelsea, Nelson Semedo, from Wolves, Joao Moutinho and Rui Patricio.

Ruben Neves was one of the pallbearers after flying in from Florida where he played for Al Hilal in the Club World Cup quarter-final on Friday night.

‘More than a friend’

In a post published on Instagram before the service, he told Jota he had been “more than a friend, we’re family, and we won’t stop being that way just because you’ve decided to sign a contract a little further away from us!”

Jota’s fellow Liverpool midfielder, Alexis Mac Allister, said on Instagram: “I can’t believe it. I’ll always remember your smiles, your anger, your intelligence, your camaraderie, and everything that made you a person. It hurts so much; we’ll miss you. Rest in peace, dear Diogo.”

Porto FC president Andre Villas-Boas and Portugal national team manager Roberto Martinez were also in attendance.

‘With us forever’

Speaking after the ceremony, Martinez said the period since their deaths had been “really, really sad days, as you can imagine, but today we showed we are a large, close family.

“Their spirit will be with us forever.”

The service was private, but the words spoken by the Bishop of Porto, Manuel Linda, were broadcast to those standing outside the church.

He told Jota’s children, who were not at the service, that he was praying for them specifically, as well as their mother and grandparents.

“There are no words, but there are feelings,” he said, adding: “We also suffer a lot and we are with you emotionally.”

The brothers died after a Lamborghini they were travelling in burst into flames following a suspected tyre blowout in the early hours of Thursday morning.

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No other vehicles are said to have been involved in the incident.

Liverpool have delayed the return of their players for pre-season following Jota’s death and players past and present paid tribute to him and his brother on social media.

Flowers have been left outside Anfield, where flags have been lowered to half-mast and all club shops, museums and tours have been closed until Monday.

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Technology

Inside a Utah desert facility preparing humans for life on Mars

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Inside a Utah desert facility preparing humans for life on Mars

Hidden among the majestic canyons of the Utah desert, about 7 miles from the nearest town, is a small research facility meant to prepare humans for life on Mars.

The Mars Society, a nonprofit organization that runs the Mars Desert Research Station, or MDRS, invited CNBC to shadow one of its analog crews on a recent mission.

MDRS is the best analog astronaut environment,” said Urban Koi, who served as health and safety officer for Crew 315. “The terrain is extremely similar to the Mars terrain and the protocols, research, science and engineering that occurs here is very similar to what we would do if we were to travel to Mars.”

SpaceX CEO and Mars advocate Elon Musk has said his company can get humans to Mars as early as 2029.

The 5-person Crew 315 spent two weeks living at the research station following the same procedures that they would on Mars.

David Laude, who served as the crew’s commander, described a typical day.

“So we all gather around by 7 a.m. around a common table in the upper deck and we have breakfast,” he said. “Around 8:00 we have our first meeting of the day where we plan out the day. And then in the morning, we usually have an EVA of two or three people and usually another one in the afternoon.”

An EVA refers to extravehicular activity. In NASA speak, EVAs refer to spacewalks, when astronauts leave the pressurized space station and must wear spacesuits to survive in space.

“I think the most challenging thing about these analog missions is just getting into a rhythm. … Although here the risk is lower, on Mars performing those daily tasks are what keeps us alive,” said Michael Andrews, the engineer for Crew 315.

Watch the video to find out more.

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