Senator Edward Markey on Thursday said that Democrats in the chamber are continuing to push to extend the deadline that could lead to TikTok being banned in the US by the weekend.
“TikTok must not go dark on Sunday,” he said, adding that he, along with senators Cory Booker and Chris Van Hollen, had sent a letter to President Joe Biden urging him to use an article in the TikTok bill’s provision that could extend the deadline of January 19 by 90 days.
"This isn't just cat videos," Mr Markey said, laughing. "It's community, it's small businesses, it's creators, it's democracy, it's people talking to each other, and again, it's 65 per cent of all adults in the country."
Mr Markey, who opposed the bill that sought to force parent company ByteDance to divest from TikTok back in April, said the legislation had been forced into a humanitarian bill, which limited honest discussion on it at the time.
"That's why we need a time-out,” he said. "We need hearings. We need experts. We need to know what we're talking about."
Mr Markey also said that he recently became aware of a letter from senior intelligence officials that went against the notion that TikTok had manipulated data and the platform’s algorithm for political reasons, an argument that made its way to recent hearings on the issue at the US Supreme Court.
“It’s very telling that many of my colleagues aren’t aware of this,” he said.
Mr Booker, who has more than 472,000 followers on TikTok, said that forcing the platform to go dark on Sunday is not the appropriate solution.
“We need to make sure we're creating space for us to come together and save this platform in a way that comports with legitimate concerns … and preserve a platform that, as Senator Markey has said, is so profoundly important in the lives of so many Americans,” he said, referring to content creators and small businesses that have bolstered their economic bottom line because of TikTok.
Before the news conference, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer echoed those sentiments.
“We’re not against TikTok, we’re against a Chinese company in cahoots with the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] owning TikTok,” Mr Schumer posted on X. “Senate Democrats tried to pass a bill to extend the deadline, Republicans blocked it.”
In a bipartisan vote in April, Congress passed and Mr Biden later signed a bill that set a deadline for ByteDance to sell TikTok to a US entity by January 19 or risk being banned in the country.
Last week, the Supreme Court heard a legal argument from TikTok claiming that its First Amendment rights are being violated. It is unclear what the justices will decide but several seemed sceptical about the company's argument.
Mr Markey and Mr Booker said that if Mr Biden does not exercise his authority to extend the TikTok deadline, they hope that president-elect Donald Trump will after being sworn in on Monday.
Media reports have reported that TikTok’s chief executive Shou Zi Chew plans to attend Mr Trump’s inauguration in some capacity, along with the heads of other technology companies.
"I think it's probably helpful that the … chief executive of TikTok is going to be in town because he personifies, he puts the human face on what the impact is going to be on 170 million Americans,” said Mr Markey.
He said that “what they’re doing is no different from what Facebook is doing", referring to criticism about data collection.
At the heart of the deadline is an argument that goes back to 2020, when Mr Trump, who was president at the time, issued an executive order emphasising user data concerns related to TikTok because its parent company was based in China.
TikTok and ByteDance have repeatedly dismissed those concerns and denied that any US user data was in danger of being compromised.
The company moved much of its user data to US-based servers run by Oracle, but ultimately critics and elected officials have pointed out that because ByteDance is subject to the laws of China, there is still a national security risk.
Desert Warrior
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Rating: 3/5
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
The struggle is on for active managers
David Einhorn closed out 2018 with his biggest annual loss ever for the 22-year-old Greenlight Capital.
The firm’s main hedge fund fell 9 per cent in December, extending this year’s decline to 34 percent, according to an investor update viewed by Bloomberg.
Greenlight posted some of the industry’s best returns in its early years, but has stumbled since losing more than 20 per cent in 2015.
Other value-investing managers have also struggled, as a decade of historically low interest rates and the rise of passive investing and quant trading pushed growth stocks past their inexpensive brethren. Three Bays Capital and SPO Partners & Co., which sought to make wagers on undervalued stocks, closed in 2018. Mr Einhorn has repeatedly expressed his frustration with the poor performance this year, while remaining steadfast in his commitment to value investing.
Greenlight, which posted gains only in May and October, underperformed both the broader market and its peers in 2018. The S&P 500 Index dropped 4.4 per cent, including dividends, while the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index, an early indicator of industry performance, fell 7 per cent through December. 28.
At the start of the year, Greenlight managed $6.3 billion in assets, according to a regulatory filing. By May, the firm was down to $5.5bn.
The Outsider
Stephen King, Penguin
RACE CARD
6.30pm Al Maktoum Challenge Round-1 Group 1 (PA) Dh119,373 (Dirt) 1,600m
7.05pm Handicap (TB) Dh102,500 (D) 1,200m
7.40pm Handicap (TB) Dh105,000 (Turf) 1,800m
8.15pm UAE 1000 Guineas Trial (TB) Dh183,650 (D) 1,400m
9.50pm Handicap (TB) Dh105,000 (D) 1,600m
9.25pm Handicap (TB) Dh95,000 (T) 1,000m
The Book of Collateral Damage
Sinan Antoon
(Yale University Press)
57%20Seconds
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Mobile phone packages comparison
Tamkeen's offering
- Option 1: 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 30% in year 3
- Option 2: 50% across three years
- Option 3: 30% across five years
The%20specs
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Sui Dhaaga: Made in India
Director: Sharat Katariya
Starring: Varun Dhawan, Anushka Sharma, Raghubir Yadav
3.5/5
The%20specs
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COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Letstango.com
Started: June 2013
Founder: Alex Tchablakian
Based: Dubai
Industry: e-commerce
Initial investment: Dh10 million
Investors: Self-funded
Total customers: 300,000 unique customers every month
Company%20profile
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Notable salonnières of the Middle East through history
Al Khasan (Okaz, Saudi Arabia)
Tamadir bint Amr Al Harith, known simply as Al Khasan, was a poet from Najd famed for elegies, earning great renown for the eulogy of her brothers Mu’awiyah and Sakhr, both killed in tribal wars. Although not a salonnière, this prestigious 7th century poet fostered a culture of literary criticism and could be found standing in the souq of Okaz and reciting her poetry, publicly pronouncing her views and inviting others to join in the debate on scholarship. She later converted to Islam.
Maryana Marrash (Aleppo)
A poet and writer, Marrash helped revive the tradition of the salon and was an active part of the Nadha movement, or Arab Renaissance. Born to an established family in Aleppo in Ottoman Syria in 1848, Marrash was educated at missionary schools in Aleppo and Beirut at a time when many women did not receive an education. After touring Europe, she began to host salons where writers played chess and cards, competed in the art of poetry, and discussed literature and politics. An accomplished singer and canon player, music and dancing were a part of these evenings.
Princess Nazil Fadil (Cairo)
Princess Nazil Fadil gathered religious, literary and political elite together at her Cairo palace, although she stopped short of inviting women. The princess, a niece of Khedive Ismail, believed that Egypt’s situation could only be solved through education and she donated her own property to help fund the first modern Egyptian University in Cairo.
Mayy Ziyadah (Cairo)
Ziyadah was the first to entertain both men and women at her Cairo salon, founded in 1913. The writer, poet, public speaker and critic, her writing explored language, religious identity, language, nationalism and hierarchy. Born in Nazareth, Palestine, to a Lebanese father and Palestinian mother, her salon was open to different social classes and earned comparisons with souq of where Al Khansa herself once recited.
Classification of skills
A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
What is the Supreme Petroleum Council?
The Abu Dhabi Supreme Petroleum Council was established in 1988 and is the highest governing body in Abu Dhabi’s oil and gas industry. The council formulates, oversees and executes the emirate’s petroleum-related policies. It also approves the allocation of capital spending across state-owned Adnoc’s upstream, downstream and midstream operations and functions as the company’s board of directors. The SPC’s mandate is also required for auctioning oil and gas concessions in Abu Dhabi and for awarding blocks to international oil companies. The council is chaired by Sheikh Khalifa, the President and Ruler of Abu Dhabi while Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, is the vice chairman.
Gulf Under 19s final
Dubai College A 50-12 Dubai College B
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
White hydrogen: Naturally occurring hydrogen
Chromite: Hard, metallic mineral containing iron oxide and chromium oxide
Ultramafic rocks: Dark-coloured rocks rich in magnesium or iron with very low silica content
Ophiolite: A section of the earth’s crust, which is oceanic in nature that has since been uplifted and exposed on land
Olivine: A commonly occurring magnesium iron silicate mineral that derives its name for its olive-green yellow-green colour
Dubai World Cup prize money
Group 1 (Purebred Arabian) 2000m Dubai Kahayla Classic - $750,000
Group 2 1,600m(Dirt) Godolphin Mile - $750,000
Group 2 3,200m (Turf) Dubai Gold Cup – $750,000
Group 1 1,200m (Turf) Al Quoz Sprint – $1,000,000
Group 2 1,900m(Dirt) UAE Derby – $750,000
Group 1 1,200m (Dirt) Dubai Golden Shaheen – $1,500,000
Group 1 1,800m (Turf) Dubai Turf – $4,000,000
Group 1 2,410m (Turf) Dubai Sheema Classic – $5,000,000
Group 1 2,000m (Dirt) Dubai World Cup– $12,000,000
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The years Ramadan fell in May
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
