Connect with us

Published

on

The Chinese government could use TikTok to control the data of millions of American users, according to the FBI.

Addressing a US Senate hearing on Wednesday, FBI director Christopher Wray said the Chinese-owned video app “screams” of security concerns.

He told a Senate Intelligence Committee on worldwide threats to US security that China’s government could use the social media platform to control software on millions of devices, as well as drive narratives to divide Americans over Taiwan or other issues.

Expressing concerns that China could feed misinformation to users, Mr Wray said: “Yes, and I would make the point on that last one, in particular, that we’re not sure that we would see many of the outward signs of it happening if it was happening.”

He added: “This is a tool that is ultimately within the control of the Chinese government – and it, to me, it screams out with national security concern.”

FBI Director Christopher Wray (L) shakes hands with Chairman Mark Warner at the committee hearing
Image:
FBI director Christopher Wray (L) shakes hands with chairman Mark Warner at the committee hearing

It comes after the White House backed legislation introduced on Tuesday by a dozen senators to give President Biden’s administration new powers to ban TikTok and other foreign-based technologies if they pose national security threats.

China-US tensions set to be defining issue of our time

One revealing exchange spelt out the reason that America’s top intelligence officials believe TikTok is a threat to US national security.

The vice-chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Marco Rubio, asked the director of the FBI, Christopher Wray, a few simple questions.

Rubio: “Could they use TikTok to control data on millions of users?”

FBI director: “Yes.”

Rubio: “Could they use it to control the software on millions of devices given the opportunity to do so?”

FBI director: “Yes.”

Rubio: “Could they use it to drive narratives like to divide Americans against each other? For example, let’s say China wants to invade Taiwan, to make sure that Americans are seeing videos arguing why Taiwan belongs to China; why the US should not intervene?”

FBI director: “Yes.”

It was one of the numerous moments when the Chinese-owned and globally popular social media app came up at this annual committee hearing on worldwide threats, with testimony from all the leaders of key intelligence community agencies.

The TikTok threat provides a tangible headline and will resonate with millions of TikTok users in America and beyond.

Read Mark Stone’s full analysis here

The endorsement has boosted the efforts by a number of politicians to ban the app, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance and used by more than 100 million Americans.

More on China

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

What are the issues around TikTok and why are governments getting involved? Sky’s Asia correspondent Helen-Ann Smith explains

Read more:
TikTok views on eating disorder content continue to climb, research says
Leading Chinese genetics firm ‘tried to hack NHS genome database’
Chinese foreign minister warns ‘reckless’ US risks ‘catastrophic’ conflict

Several other top US intelligence officials including director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, CIA director William Burns and National Security Agency director Paul Nakasone also agreed at the hearing that TikTok posed a threat to US national security.

On Tuesday, Mr Nakasone expressed concern during Senate testimony about TikTok’s data collection and potential to facilitate broad influence operations.

Continue Reading

US

Trump says he will cancel all Biden executive orders ‘signed with autopen’

Published

on

By

Trump says he will cancel all Biden executive orders 'signed with autopen'

Donald Trump has said he will cancel all executive orders that he claims were signed with an autopen by his predecessor Joe Biden.

The US president alleged Mr Biden was “not involved” in signing the orders and claimed “the radical left lunatics circling Biden around the beautiful Resolute Desk in the Oval Office took the presidency away from him”. He did not provide any evidence for his claims.

An autopen is a device which reproduces a person’s signature, allowing them to repeatedly sign documents without having to do so by hand each time.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said: “Any document signed by Sleepy Joe Biden with the Autopen, which was approximately 92% of them, is hereby terminated, and of no further force or effect.

“The Autopen is not allowed to be used if approval is not specifically given by the President of the United States.”

He added: “I am hereby cancelling all Executive Orders, and anything else that was not directly signed by Crooked Joe Biden, because the people who operated the Autopen did so illegally.

“Joe Biden was not involved in the Autopen process and, if he says he was, he will be brought up on charges of perjury.”

Read more from Sky News:
Trump: Land ops against Venezuela starting ‘very soon’
US to review immigration from 19 countries after shooting

Mr Trump has repeatedly claimed Mr Biden was not mentally capable by the end of his term and his staff made decisions on his behalf, using an autopen to sign them off without his knowledge.

Mr Trump has not provided any evidence for his claims, while Mr Biden and his former aides have denied they made decisions on his behalf.

In June, Mr Biden said: “Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency.

“I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false.”

Mr Trump has also used an autopen, but claimed he only used it “for very unimportant papers”.

Pic: Reuters
Image:
Pic: Reuters

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Trump trolls Biden with new ‘presidential portrait’

Earlier this year, Mr Trump replaced a portrait of Mr Biden in the Oval Office with a picture of an autopen signing the former president’s name.

Continue Reading

US

Suspect in US National Guard shooting now facing first-degree murder charge

Published

on

By

Suspect in US National Guard shooting now facing first-degree murder charge

The suspect in the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington DC is facing a first-degree murder charge.

It follows the death of one of the soldiers, 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom.

The other soldier, Andrew Wolfe, 24, was taken to hospital in critical condition after the incident on Wednesday afternoon. On Friday, West Virginia’s governor said Wolfe remained in a “very critical condition”.

Andrew Wolfe and Sarah Beckstrom. Pic: Reuters
Image:
Andrew Wolfe and Sarah Beckstrom. Pic: Reuters

US attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office said the suspect, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, now faces charges including one count of first-degree murder, three counts of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence and two counts of assault with intent to kill while armed.

Pirro said there are “many charges to come” beyond the upgraded murder charge and that Lakanwal had driven across the country to launch an “ambush-style” attack with a revolver.

She said her heart went out to the family of Beckstrom, who volunteered to serve and “ended up being shot ambush-style on the cold streets of Washington DC by an individual who will now be charged with murder in the first degree”.

President Donald Trump called Beckstrom, part of the West Virginia guard, a “highly respected” and “magnificent person”.

More on Trump

Investigators are continuing to execute warrants in the state of Washington, where the suspect lived, and other parts of the country, Pirro said.

However, she declined to discuss the suspect’s motive, saying officials have been working around the clock on that question.

Officials said Lakanwal entered the US in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden administration programme that evacuated and resettled tens of thousands of Afghans after the US’s chaotic withdrawal from the country.

People who knew him say he served in a CIA-backed Afghan Army unit before immigrating to the US.

Kristina Widman, who claims to be Lakanwal’s former landlord, said he had been living in Bellingham, close to Seattle, with his wife and five children.

The #AfghanEvac charity said Lakanwal applied for asylum during the Biden administration, but his asylum was approved under the Trump administration.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Trump has called for every Afghan national who entered the US under Biden to be investigated following the shooting of two National Guard troops.

Read more:
Trump’s targeting of ‘third world’ immigrants after DC shooting spreads fear
US to review immigration from 19 countries after shooting

On Wednesday night, Trump called for the reinvestigation of all Afghan refugees who had entered under the Biden administration.

The director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Joseph Edlow, said in a statement that the agency would take additional steps to screen people from 19 “high-risk” countries “to the maximum degree possible”.

👉 Tap here to follow Trump100 wherever you get your podcasts👈

The President has since said he wants to “permanently pause migration” from poorer nations and is promising to seek to expel millions of immigrants from the US by revoking their legal status.

Organisations that work with refugees are worried that those who fled dangerous situations to start again in America will face a backlash after the shooting.

Continue Reading

US

US to review immigration from 19 countries after Washington DC double shooting

Published

on

By

US to review immigration from 19 countries after Washington DC double shooting

The US will review green cards issued to the citizens of 19 countries after two members of the National Guard were shot by a suspected Afghan gunman in Washington DC.

Immigration from Afghanistan has also been suspended indefinitely, the White House said, following the double shooting on Wednesday.

Joseph Edlow, director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), revealed the order from President Trump.

He wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “At the direction of @POTUS, I have directed a full scale, rigorous re-examination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern.”

Asked which countries would be affected, USCIS pointed to a presidential proclamation from June listing 19 countries.

The proclamation sought to “fully restrict” arrivals from Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.

It also “partially” restricted arrivals from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.

More on Donald Trump

Rahmanullah Lakanwal.
Pic: Reuters
Image:
Rahmanullah Lakanwal.
Pic: Reuters

Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, has been named as the suspected gunman in this week’s shooting and has been detained.

He worked as part of a CIA-backed unit in Afghanistan, and reportedly came to the States under a programme meant to help Afghans who’d risked their lives assisting US troops in Afghanistan.

He’s thought to have driven thousands of miles to the capital from his home in Washington state, where he lives with his wife and five children.

Attorney general Pam Bondi called him “a lone gunman” who “opened fire without provocation, ambush style”.

Gunfire in Washington DC sees two National Guard members shot
Image:
Gunfire in Washington DC sees two National Guard members shot

President Trump described him as a “savage monster”.

He was granted asylum in April this year, according to NBC News.

One of his victims, 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom, died of her wounds, while the other, Andrew Wolfe, 24, remains in a critical condition.

The two National Guard members who were shot in Washington D.C. as 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom and 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe. Pic: Reuters
Pic: Reuters
Image:
The two National Guard members who were shot in Washington D.C. as 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom and 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe. Pic: Reuters
Pic: Reuters

Lakanwal reportedly came to the US under Operation Allies Welcome, a programme enacted by former President Joe Biden after he pulled American forces out of Afghanistan in 2021.

Edlow explictly targeted the previous president as he announced the new green card regime.

Read more:
Trump condemns ‘monstrous’ attack near White House
Election interference charges against Donald Trump dismissed

He wrote on X: “The protection of this country and of the American people remains paramount, and the American people will not bear the cost of the prior administration’s reckless resettlement policies.”

Speaking after the attack, President Trump was even more caustic.

He said: “The suspect in custody is a foreigner, who entered our country from Afghanistan, a hellhole on Earth.

“He was flown in by the Biden administration in September 2021 on those infamous flights that everybody was talking about.

“His status was extended under legislation signed by President Biden – a disastrous president, the worst in the history of our country.”

👉 Tap here to follow Trump100 wherever you get your podcasts👈

He continued: “This attack underscores the greatest national security threat facing our nation.

“The last administration let in 20 million unknown and unvetted foreigners from all over the world, from places that you don’t even want to know about.

“No country can tolerate such a risk to our very survival.”

Continue Reading

Trending