The US House has advanced a bill on TikTok
The House has approved a bill that would force ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, to sell the popular video app or have it banned in the US. national security, free speech and the social media industry.
The measure came despite TikTok’s efforts to mobilize its 170 million US users against the bill.
Republican leaders quickly rushed the bill through the House, and it passed by a bipartisan vote of 352-65, reflecting broad support for legislation that would directly target China in an election year. The bill received broad bipartisan support, despite Donald Trump’s recent criticism of the ban.
The bill faces a tough road to pass the Senate, although President Biden has said he will sign it. But it is likely to face legal challenges, and finding a buyer for TikTok’s US division alone, which could cost more than $50 billion, would be difficult without violating antitrust laws. It would also require approval from China.
Analysis: In the four years since President Trump tried to ban TikTok, it’s become clear that the security threat posed by the app has far less to do with who owns it than who writes TikTok’s code and algorithms.
Israel allowed aid trucks into northern Gaza
Israel allowed a small convoy carrying food to enter northern Gaza through an Israeli border crossing for the first time since the war began last October.
The six trucks came as global pressure intensified on Israel to release more aid to the enclave, where hundreds of thousands of people are at risk of starvation.
Little aid has reached northern Gaza after major aid groups suspended operations there, citing lawlessness, poor road conditions and Israeli restrictions on convoys.
The food was only a fraction of what would be needed to feed hungry Gazans. The US and other nations also ship aid to the Gaza coast and drop it from the air.
Elsewhere in Gaza: Israel’s military confirmed it bombed a humanitarian aid depot in Rafah, saying it killed a Hamas commander in an attack the UN said killed at least one aid worker.
The UK moved to ban foreign state ownership of newspapers
A bid of about $1 billion for the Telegraph by Jeff Zucker, the former CNN chief executive, appeared to be on life support after the British government proposed legislation that would bar foreign nations from owning newspapers and news magazines.
Mr. Zucker’s offering relies heavily on funding from investment partners in the United Arab Emirates. The use of Emirati funds has sparked an uproar in Westminster over foreign influence in British media, with critics citing the UAE’s authoritarian government and its checkered human rights record.
The Telegraph is particularly important to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party, so influential in Conservative politics that it is often called “The Torygraph”.
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The concept of “colorblindness,” the idea that the Constitution prohibits the use of race to discriminate against citizens, was originally advocated by civil rights activists as a path toward a more just society in the US.
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Heirs waiting for Nazi-looted art 17 years after power
“Unloading the Hay Wagon,” a 17th-century painting by Dutch Old Master Isaac van Ostade (shown above), is packed in Amersfoort, Netherlands. Once the property of a British Jewish couple living in France, it was confiscated by Nazi collaborators during World War II before ending up in a Dutch museum.
The collectors’ heirs demanded the painting’s return in 2006, and the Netherlands investigated the case and recommended its return the following year. But the family still doesn’t have the painting, thanks to a diligent Dutch notary who won’t let go until he receives missing documents.
