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As tourists discover Finland’s Santa Claus Village, some locals call for rules to control the masses

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Rovaniemi, Finland — Shuffling across icy ground on a cold December afternoon, lots of tourist groups poured into Santa Claus Village, a winter-themed amusement park perched on the edge of the Arctic Circle.

They frolic in the snow, take a reindeer sleigh ride, sip a cocktail in an ice bar or even meet Saint Nick himself in the capital of Finnish Lapland, Rovaniemi, which happily calls itself the “official hometown of Santa Claus.”

The Santa Claus Village theme park, which attracts more than 600,000 people annually, is especially popular during the holiday season.

“This is like my dream came true,” beamed Polish visitor Elzbieta Nazaruk. “I’m really excited to be here.”

Tourism is booming in Rovaniemi — which has hotel and restaurant owners, as well as city officials, excited as it brings lots of money to the town. However, not everyone is happy about the onslaught of visitors, 10 times the town’s population, each year at Christmas time.

“We are worried about the overgrowth of tourism. Tourism has grown so rapidly, it’s not anymore in control,” said 43-year-old Antti Pakkanen, a photographer and member of a housing network that in September organized a rally through the city’s streets.

It’s a feeling that has been echoed in other popular European travel destinations, including Barcelona, Amsterdam, Malaga and Florence.

Across the continent, locals have protested against “over-tourism” — which generally describes the tipping point at which visitors and their cash stop benefiting residents and instead cause harm by degrading historic sites, overwhelming infrastructure and making life markedly more difficult for those who live there.

Now, it seems to have spread north, all the way to the edges of the Arctic Circle.

Rovaniemi counted a record 1.2 million overnight visitors in 2023, almost 30 percent growth on 2022, after rebounding from pandemic travel disruptions.

“Nordic is a trend,” Visit Rovaniemi CEO Sanna Karkkainen, said as she stood in an ice restaurant, where snow carvers were working nearby.

“People want to travel to cool countries to see the snow, to see the Northern Lights, and, of course, to see Santa Claus,” she added.

Thirteen new flight routes to Rovaniemi Airport opened this year, bringing passengers from Geneva, Berlin, Bordeaux and more. Most tourists come from European countries like France, Germany and the UK, but Rovaniemi’s appeal has also spread further.

Hotel availability is scarce this winter, and Tiina Maatta, general manager of the 159-room Original Sokos Hotel, expects 2024 to break more records.

Local critics of mass tourism say many apartment buildings in Rovaniemi’s city center are also used for accommodation services during peak season and are thus no longer available for residential use. They say the proliferation of short-term rentals has driven up prices, squeezed out long-term residents, and turned its city center into a “transient space for tourists.”

Finnish law prohibits professional accommodation services in buildings intended for residential use, so campaigners are calling on authorities to act.

“The rules must be enforced better,” said Pakkanen.

Not everyone agrees. Mayor Ulla-Kirsikka Vainio notes some make “good money” on short-term rentals.

Either way, stricter regulations likely won’t be in place to impact this winter season, and despite the unease expressed by locals, mass tourism to Rovaniemi is probably only going to grow in 2025 — as visitors want to experience the unique atmosphere up north, especially during the holiday season.

“It’s Christmas time and we would love to see the Northern Lights,” says Joy, a visitor from Bangkok. “Rovaniemi seems to be a good place.”
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South Korea’s tourism, soft power gains, at risk from extended political crisis

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SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — From plastic surgery clinics to tour firms and hotel chains, South Korea’s hospitality sector is wary of the potential impact of a protracted political crisis, as some overseas travelers cancel trips following last week’s brief bout of martial law.

South Korea’s travel and tourism industry, which generated $59.1 billion in 2023, around 3.8% of GDP, has held up through previous bumps in the road, including a 2016 presidential impeachment and periodic tensions with North Korea.

But more than a dozen hospitality and administrative sources said the army’s involvement in the latest political crisis was a serious development that could deter leisure and business travel, when the sector is approaching a full recovery in visitor numbers, which stood at 97% of pre-COVID levels as of October.

“There are concerns that safety issues in Seoul would throw cold water on the tourism industry,” Seoul mayor Oh Se-hoon said on Wednesday while meeting tourism industry officials to discuss a fall in travel demand.

“There is a growing number of examples of foreign tourists canceling visits to Seoul and shortening their stays,” Oh said, before declaring “Seoul is safe,” in English, Chinese and Japanese to the media.

Daily life and tourist activities have continued as usual, despite ongoing large protests, since President Yoon Suk Yeol rescinded his six hours of martial law on December 4 after parliament voted it down, with analysts noting that South Korea’s institutional checks and balances seem to be holding up.

Some tourists have since canceled bookings, albeit not in great numbers, while others are enquiring whether they could pull out should the situation change, travel and hospitality sources said.

Accor hotel group, which includes the Fairmont and Sofitel brands, said it noted a “slight increase” in cancellation rates since December 3, around 5% higher than in November.

The Korea Tourism Start-up Association said on Friday bookings for the first half of 2025 already had seen a sharp decline.

Rooms in previously fully booked hotels in the capital, Seoul, have become available due to cancellations with some hotels “even lowering their rates and offering special deals to attract more bookings,” said an inbound travel agency that asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.

A plastic surgery clinic in Seoul’s upmarket Gangnam neighborhood also said some foreign patients had canceled visits since the martial law incident.

“We are not worried now, but if this situation continues, that would have an impact on foreign visitors,” a clinic representative said, declining to be named.

South Korea is a top global destination for medical and plastic surgery tourism.

Soft power

The latest political crisis also threatens to deal a major blow to the country’s brand, which has been improving thanks to Korean culture and economic success, said Kim Wou-kyung, head of a government brand promotion agency.

The explosion to global prominence of South Korean drama, music and beauty, known as the “Korean Wave,” plus a reputation for safety, and global brands such as Samsung, are key forms of soft power that the government leverages to grow tourist numbers.

South Korea hopes to almost double the number of annual tourists by 2027 from 2019 levels, to 30 million.

Part of the strategy also is to focus on group business travel for events including conferences and exhibitions, a sector known as MICE tourism, which could be impacted if the political crisis continues into early next year, said Ha Hong-kook, secretary-general at Korea MICE Association.

The parliament plans to vote on a motion to impeach Yoon on Saturday, a week after its first impeachment vote was defeated.

“If we get through this immediate, unprecedented period … into a clear route to new elections, then I think actually the impact won’t be that bad,” said Andrew Gilholm, director at risk consultancy Control Risks Group.

He said the country’s reputation “might even be improved” long-term by displaying how it comes through the problems.

Su Shu, founder of Chinese firm Moment Travel in Chengdu, is also sanguine about travel demand for South Korea.

“No matter where there is chaos, there will be people who dare not go,” Su said.

China is the largest source of foreign visitors to South Korea, followed by Japan and the U.S.  
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Australia to charge tech companies for news content if they do not pay

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SYDNEY — Australia’s center-left government said on Thursday it planned new rules that would charge big tech firms millions of dollars if they did not pay Australian media companies for news hosted on their platforms.

The move piles pressure on global tech giants such as Facebook-owner Meta Platforms and Alphabet’s Google to pay publishers for content or face the risk of paying millions to continue operations in Australia.

“The news bargaining initiative will … will create a financial incentive for agreement-making between digital platforms and news media businesses in Australia,” Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services Stephen Jones told a news conference.

The platforms at risk will be significant social media platforms and search engines with an Australian-based revenue in excess of $160 million, he said.

The charge will be offset for any commercial agreements that are voluntarily entered into between the platforms and news media businesses, Jones said.

Tech companies condemned the plan.

“The proposal fails to account for the realities of how our platforms work, specifically that most people don’t come to our platforms for news content and that news publishers voluntarily choose to post content on our platforms because they receive value from doing so,” a Meta spokesperson said after Jones’ remarks.

A spokesperson for Google said the government’s decision “risks ongoing viability of commercial deals with news publishers in Australia.”

The proposed new rules come as Australia toughens its approach to the mostly U.S.-domiciled tech giants.

Last month it became the first country to ban children under the age of 16 from social media, in a move seen as setting a benchmark for other governments’ handling of Big Tech.

Canberra also plans to threaten the companies with fines for failing to stamp out scams.

Google, ByteDance through TikTok, and Meta through its various platforms, would fall within the scope of the charges under the new rules. However X, formerly Twitter, would not be covered, Jones said.

Blocking news

In 2021, Australia passed laws to make the U.S. tech giants, such as Google and Meta, compensate media companies for the links that lure readers and advertising revenue.

After the move, Meta briefly blocked users from reposting news articles, but later struck deals with several Australian media firms, such as News Corp and national broadcaster Australian Broadcasting Corp.

It has said since it will not renew those arrangements beyond 2024.

Meta, which also owns Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp, has been scaling back its promotion of news and political content globally to drive traffic, and says news links are now a fraction of users’ feeds.

This year it said it would discontinue the news tab on Facebook in Australia and the United States, adding that it had canceled the tab last year in Britain, France and Germany.

In 2023, Meta blocked users in Canada from reposting news content after its government took similar action.

Australia news organizations, including Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, are expected to benefit from the new rules.

Following Jones’ announcement, News Corp Australia Executive Chairman Michael Miller said he would contact Meta and TikTok immediately to seek a commercial relationship with News Corp Australia.

“I believe news publishers and the tech platforms should have relationships that benefit both parties on commercial and broader terms,” he said in a statement. 
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Zimbabwe aims to end HIV/AIDS as public health threat by 2030

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MARONDERA, ZIMBABWE — Zimbabwean health officials said Tuesday they aim to eliminate HIV/AIDS as a public health threat by 2030, crediting the United States with making such progress possible through aid and support.

U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe Pamela Tremont and officials from PEPFAR and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention toured the HIV services area at Marondera Hospital, located some 70 kilometers east of Harare, the Zimbabwe capital, where HIV/AIDS once sickened thousands.

Speaking to journalists afterward, Dr. Delight Madoro, a district medical officer in Mashonaland East province, said PEPFAR — or the U.S. Presidential Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief — enabled Zimbabwe to combat the epidemic with strategies such as blood-based self-testing and PrEP, which stands for pre-exposure prophylaxis.

“And after maybe you test positive, there are staff and support … at the facilities to help link you to other HIV services,” Madoro said.

“There is a lot that is happening on the ground in terms of [the] fight against HIV through the support that we are getting from PEPFAR,” he continued. “And in terms of human resources, we’re getting more staff. This means our clients are going to have more time with clinicians, so that we become thorough, and we get thorough with our treatment.

“So, in a nutshell, I can say the support that we have been getting from PEPFAR is of paramount importance,” he said.

Tremont said the U.S. was committed to help fight the HIV epidemic in Zimbabwe.

“We’ve made huge progress since 2006,” she said. “The number of deaths from HIV has fallen 80%, and that is something I think we should all be very proud of.”

Tremont mentioned that the U.S. provided antiretroviral treatments and many health care workers at clinics and hospitals around Zimbabwe.

“It’s great to see all that in action today and to see the dedication and stubbornness of the health care workers reaching down to those HIV patients who are scared and reluctant to undertake treatment,” she said. “Thank you to the health care workers. You are our heroes in all this.”

Haddi Cham, the Centers for Disease Control’s Zimbabwe HIV services branch chief, said the PEPFAR program made the HIV facility at Marondera Hospital possible.

“We have been supporting this facility for many, many years now, and we are really grateful for the collaboration with all the key stakeholders. Through that strong collaboration, we are able to realize these results,” Cham said.

Zimbabwe is one of the countries hit hardest by HIV/AIDS, especially before 1999, when authorities introduced an AIDS levy — a 3% tax on income and business profits that is used by the National AIDS Council for programs to combat the spread of the pandemic.

Data indicate the prevalence of HIV among adults ages 15 to 49 in Zimbabwe declined from 12.7% in 2019 to 10.5% in 2023.
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US moves to save once-common monarch butterflies from extinction

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washington — The United States is moving to grant federal protections to the monarch butterfly — a once-common species recognizable by its striking black and orange patterns that has faced a dramatic population decline in recent decades.

The Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) said Tuesday it has initiated a public comment period to consider listing the insect under the Endangered Species Act.

But the looming presidency of Donald Trump, who rolled back numerous wildlife protections during his first term, casts uncertainty over the decision.

“The iconic monarch butterfly is cherished across North America, captivating children and adults throughout its fascinating lifecycle,” said FWS Director Martha Williams in a statement. “Despite its fragility, it is remarkably resilient, like many things in nature when we just give them a chance.”

The proposed listing comes at a critical time for the species, which has been designated as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature since 2022.

Monarchs are divided into two migratory populations in North America. The larger eastern group has declined by approximately 80% since the 1980s, while the western population has plummeted by 95%.

According to the FWS, the species faces a host of threats, including the loss and degradation of its breeding, migratory and overwintering habitats; exposure to insecticides; and the growing impacts of climate change.

As part of its conservation efforts, the FWS is also recommending the designation of critical habitat at specific overwintering sites along California’s coast. These habitats serve as vital winter refuges, providing monarchs the resources needed to rest and prepare for spring breeding.

“The fact that a butterfly as widespread and beloved as the monarch is now the face of the extinction crisis is a tri-national distress signal warning us to take better care of the environment that we all share,” said Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity.

“For 30 years, we’ve watched the population of monarch butterflies collapse. It is clear that monarchs cannot thrive — and might not survive — without federal protections,” added Dan Ritzman, director of conservation at Sierra Club.

The Endangered Species Act of 1973 is widely credited with saving iconic American species such as the gray wolf, bald eagle and grizzly bear.

During Trump’s first administration, however, key provisions of the law were weakened. These changes, later reversed by President Joe Biden, included measures that allowed industrial projects such as roads, pipelines and mines in areas designated as critical habitat for vulnerable species.

Trump’s administration also removed endangered species protections for gray wolves across most of the United States and slashed critical habitat designated for northern spotted owls.
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UN digital program seeks to empower Africa’s public workers

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NAIROBI, KENYA — The United Nations, Microsoft and Kenya’s Ministry of Information last week launched a digital and artificial intelligence center in Nairobi to train African public servants and accelerate the development and use of online services.

Officials said the program — the Timbuktoo GreenTech Hub and Africa Centre for Competence for AI and Digital Skilling — aims to improve the skills of 100,000 government workers.

U.N. Development Program Regional Director Ahunna Eziakonwa said at the launch that better digital skills and resources will enable Africa to achieve technological progress.

“An inclusive public sector digital transformation drives efficiency and effectiveness and helps governments to enhance coordination of resources and information and strengthen data and code policymaking and implementation,” she said.

Kenyan President William Ruto said that more than 20,000 government services can be accessed online and that the digital transformation has made government work easier.

“This will help us streamline public service delivery and enhance transparency and efficiency, minimize opportunities for corruption and maximize visibility and mobilization of public revenue,” he said. “The transformative impact of this single initiative on citizens’ experience in accessing public services, along with the government’s capacity to effectively manage public resources, clearly illustrates the immense value of digital transformation.”

Governance experts say digital services offered online have improved citizens’ trust in public services and made the work of government employees faster, more accurate and more transparent.

However, the frequent power and internet blackouts that plague some African countries sometimes force government workers to resort to traditional paper and file systems.

Some workers have little experience with computers and feel that online glitches are slowing them down.

Michael Niyitegeka, team leader at Refactory, a software academy in Uganda that prepares youth for global tech work, said authorities must push workers to use the technology.

“Leadership has to be extremely firm in knowing how they want to use these technologies and invest in ensuring that people are working with it,” Niyitegeka said.

“We need to work on the entire system so the citizens can be brought to speed, and different users of these technologies as we are building need to be brought on board so that we are building together,” he said. “Otherwise, it will probably become a white elephant.”

Tech experts say that if developed correctly and with proper investment, then digital technology and artificial intelligence can transform communities.
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Sub-Saharan officials say reducing fish imports creates local jobs

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Yaounde, Cameroon — Officials in Sub-Saharan Africa countries have agreed it is important to reduce over-dependence on imported fish and seafood from North Africa and the European Union and instead they should strive to cultivate fish-farming, which will create jobs for unemployed youth. The officials, meeting in Cameroon, said their goal is to invest some of what they collectively spend on importing fish each year, and put that funding into developing local fish farms. They hope to re-direct to local fish farmers a large amount of the $7 billion spent annually on importing seafood.

Fish farmer Tanyi Hubert demonstrates how every day he catches and sells at least 10 kilograms of fresh fish from his pond in Nkolbisson, a neighborhood in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde.

He told government officials from 12 African countries, who were in Cameroon on Monday, that he makes at least $40 each day since he started selling fish one year ago from his riverside fish pond, in which he farms fish.

Hubert said he is one of several hundred youths the government of Cameroon trained, and provided financial assistance of about $4,000 each, to begin a fish farming business.

Eta Collins Ayuk is the director of the Limbe National Institute of Fisheries and Aquaculture created by the government of Cameroon to train fish farmers. He said several hundred unemployed Cameroonians who have received training in fish farming are today supplying fish to local markets and raising enough money to take care of their families.

“The catch we get from the wild is rapidly declining and the only way to ensure fish and fish products availability for local consumption should be through the farming of fish, which is aquaculture. We train people to create jobs. We don’t train people to go and search for employment,” said Collins.

Eta said efficient local fish farming will reduce the large amounts of money Cameroon spends each year on importing fish from North Africa and Europe.

The government of this central African country says it has spent about $200 million in 2024, to import 60% of the 550,000 tons of fish and seafood it needs this year to feed its 30 million civilians.

Officials and fish farmers from Sub-Saharan African countries meeting in Yaounde on Monday said Africa alone accounts for close to 13% of the world’s total fish imports.

The continent spends close to $7 billion to import fish and seafood from Europe and North African countries, including Morocco, Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia, officials said.

Olodayo Ganiyu, chief executive officer of Aquapet Ventures, a Nigerian company that promotes local fish farming, said it is unfortunate that, despite its huge potential of abundant natural resources including oceans, rivers, lakes, waterways and coasts, Africa still spends huge sums of money to import fish.

“We [Nigeria] import thousands of tons of fish every year, that cost us $1.2 billion. Now the government of my country is encouraging so many people to come into fish farming. A time will come in Nigeria when you will not see any imported fish again. Many people are now encouraged to invest more in aquaculture so that the scarce dollars used in importation of frozen fish into the country will be channeled into health, education and other infrastructure,” he said.

Olodayo said participants at the Yaounde meeting this week agreed to try to guide their countries to soon invest about 60% of the money they normally use to import fish, to instead pursue local fish farming development and production. The plan aims to create jobs for African youths who, due to widespread poverty and joblessness, are leaving their countries to seek work in Europe.

The participants said Africa has over 30,000 kilometers of untapped coastline to gradually expand the fishing industry, which has the potential to drive economic growth, ensuring food security and creating jobs.

Cameroon’s livestock minister, who goes by only one name, Taiga, said the African Continental Free Trade Area, alongside global initiatives, has prepared a blueprint for Africa to use its vast fishing resources to fight hunger and propel development. 

Taiga said Cameroon and Sub-Saharan countries will succeed to stop the importation of fish and seafood from North Africa and Europe, just as they succeeded to stop the importation of frozen chicken and pork from developed countries. He said the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development is presently assisting African countries to produce fish locally and reduce dependence on imports.

Taiga spoke on Cameroon state TV. He said African nations are fighting to stop illegal fishing on their coastal waters but did not say how.

The United Nations reports that Africa this year accounted for 13.1 million tons of fisheries and aquaculture production, which is six percent of the world’s annual total. At the conference Monday, officials said they hope that by 2026, some 60% of money they use to import fish will be invested in local production. 
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US sanctions Chinese cybersecurity firm for ‘malicious’ activities

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WASHINGTON — The United States slapped sanctions on a Chinese cybersecurity company and one of its employees Tuesday, accusing it of compromising more than 80,000 firewalls in a 2020 attack.

The U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement that it had sanctioned Sichuan Silence Information Technology Company and an employee named Guan Tianfeng over the April 2020 attack, which targeted firewalls around the world, including critical infrastructure in the U.S.

Over a three-day period, Guan exploited a vulnerability in a firewall product and proceeded to deploy malware against some 81,000 businesses around the world with the aim of stealing data, including usernames and passwords, while also attempting to infect the computers with ransomware, according to the Treasury Department.

More than 23,000 firewalls were in the United States, of which 36 were protecting “critical infrastructure companies’ systems,” the Treasury said.

“Today’s action underscores our commitment to exposing these malicious cyber activities … and to holding the actors behind them accountable for their schemes,” Bradley Smith, Treasury acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement.

The Treasury, he said, “will continue to leverage our tools to disrupt attempts by malicious cyber actors to undermine our critical infrastructure.”

Alongside the sanctions, the Department of Justice has also unsealed an indictment against Guan and announced a reward of up to $10 million for information about the employee or company, according to the Treasury Department.
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From VOA Mandarin: Trump 2.0 and the future of the CHIPS Act

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The Biden administration is shoring up its CHIPS Act funding agreements before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20. Trump has previously disparaged the CHIPS Act and called for higher tariffs instead of subsidies to incentivize companies to build semiconductor factories. What would be the future of TSMC under the Trump administration?

See the full story here.
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TikTok asks federal appeals court to bar enforcement of potential ban until Supreme Court review 

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TikTok asked a federal appeals court on Monday to bar the Biden administration from enforcing a law that could lead to a ban on the popular platform until the Supreme Court reviews its challenge to the statue. 

The legal filing was made after a panel of three judges on the same court sided with the government last week and ruled that the law, which requires TikTok to divest from its China-based parent company or face a ban as soon as next month, was constitutional. 

If the law is not overturned, both TikTok and its parent ByteDance, which is also a plaintiff in the case, have claimed that the popular app will shut down by Jan. 19, 2025. TikTok has more than 170 million American users. 

“Before that happens, the Supreme Court should have an opportunity, as the only court with appellate jurisdiction over this action, to decide whether to review this exceptionally important case,” attorneys for the two companies wrote in the legal filing on Monday. 

It’s not clear if the Supreme Court will take up the case. 

President-elect Donald Trump, who tried to ban TikTok the last time he was in the White House, has said he is now against such action. 

In their legal filing, the two companies pointed to the political realities, saying that an injunction would provide a “modest delay” that would give “the incoming Administration time to determine its position — which could moot both the impending harms and the need for Supreme Court review.” 
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China launches anti-monopoly probe into Nvidia 

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BEIJING — China on Monday said it has launched an investigation into U.S. chip maker Nvidia over suspected violations of the country’s anti-monopoly law, in a move that will likely be seen as a retaliatory move against Washington’s recent chip curbs.  

The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said Nvidia is also suspected of violating commitments it made during its acquisition of Mellanox Technologies Ltd, according to terms outlined in the regulator’s 2020 conditional approval of that deal. 

It did not elaborate on how Nvidia might have violated China’s anti-monopoly laws.  

Nvidia did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company’s shares fell 2.2% in premarket trading after the Chinese regulator’s announcement.  

The investigation comes after the U.S. last week launched its third crackdown in three years on China’s semiconductor industry, which saw Washington curb exports to 140 companies, including chip equipment makers. 

Nvidia has enjoyed booming demand from China, though this has been dented over the past year by U.S. efforts to stop China from acquiring the world’s most advanced chips. 

Before the U.S. curbs, Nvidia dominated China’s AI chip market with more than 90 per cent share. However, it currently faces increasing competition from domestic rivals, chief among them being Huawei. 

When the U.S. firm made a $6.9 billion bid to acquire Israeli chip designer Mellanox Technologies in 2019 there were concerns that China could block the deal due to U.S.-China trade frictions.  

Beijing however later approved the deal in 2020 with multiple conditions for Nvidia and the merged entity’s China operations, including prohibitions on forced product bundling, unreasonable trading terms, purchase restrictions, and discriminatory treatment of customers who buy products separately. 
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India not pursuing shared BRICS currency, analysts say

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NEW DELHI — India is not pursuing the creation of a shared BRICS currency, an idea that has met with a strong verbal pushback from incoming U.S. President Donald Trump, but the South Asian giant is making efforts to promote trade in its local currency, according to analysts in New Delhi.

Trump has threatened a 100% tariff on products from BRICS nations if they develop their own currency to replace the U.S. dollar.

The BRICS bloc, which began with China, Russia, India, Brazil and South Africa, expanded this year to include Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia and Egypt.

“We require a commitment from these countries that they will neither create a new BRICS currency nor back any other currency to replace the mighty U.S. dollar,” Trump said in a post on the Truth Social media platform.

Talk of a BRICS currency gained some momentum following U.S.-led sanctions on Russia in 2022 and since, in recent years, economic and political tensions have grown between the West and China. Russia and China have publicly expressed a desire to explore diversification of international trade away from the dollar.

Ajai Sahai, director general of the Federation of Indian Export Organizations, though, said New Delhi does not plan to move away from the American currency.

“Trump’s post is like a forewarning to tread carefully down this road. But at the moment, this is just an idea, and a common BRICS currency is simply not on India’s agenda,” Sahai said.

The creation of such a currency is unlikely to gain traction due to mistrust and internal differences within major countries in the alliance such as India and China, according to analysts working in the Indian capital.

“India is not supportive of this particular initiative. Any common currency is not going to help anyone; only the dominant countries like China ultimately will dictate. So, it is very difficult to develop a consensus to have a common currency,” according to Chintamani Mahapatra, founder of the Kalinga Institute of Indo Pacific Studies.

The emerging countries group is also too diverse to make it economically viable to forge a competing currency, according to Mahapatra.

“Unlike the European Union, we [BRICS countries] don’t have a common market. We don’t have a common trade policy. We have nothing in common,” Mahapatra said.

At the same time, several BRICS members have accelerated efforts to explore ways to reduce dependence on the U.S. dollar, which has been the world’s dominant currency since the end of World War II. BRICS countries account for about 40% of the world’s population and an estimated one-third of global gross domestic product.

At a summit held in the Russian city of Kazan in October, BRICS nations agreed to boost efforts to trade in local currencies rather than in U.S. dollars and said they would strengthen banking networks within the group to facilitate settlements in their currencies.

“Trade in local currencies and smooth cross-border payments will strengthen our economic cooperation,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.

India, which adopted a new foreign trade policy last year to support using the rupee more frequently for trade, has identified 17 countries with which it wants to use rupees or the other country’s currency, according to Biswajit Dhar, a senior professor at the Council for Social Development in New Delhi.

Those countries include Russia. New Delhi, which did not join U.S. sanctions against Russia, is paying for its crude oil imports from Moscow in rupees. As trade with Russia increases exponentially, though, that also presents problems.

“India runs a huge trade deficit vis-a-vis Russia, which means that when India is buying a lot of oil and is paying in rupees, Russia does not know what to do with the stock of rupees it is holding now,” Dhar said.

“Indian businesses are wary of selling to Russia because of the sanctions.” he said.

Aside from Russia, other countries such as Malaysia, Kenya, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh also have agreed to facilitate trade in rupees. Such efforts however are modest, and India’s international trade is still dominated by the dollar.

Indian External Affairs Minister Jaishankar Subramanian has said that moving away from the U.S. currency is not part of New Delhi’s economic policy.

“We have never actively targeted the dollar. That’s not part of either our economic policy or our political or strategic policy,” he said responding to a question on dedollarization at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington in October.

But in an indirect reference to Russia, he said that India had to look for “workarounds” when trade in dollars with some partners became difficult.

“It was the U.S. actions targeting Russia that made countries search for mechanisms and options to the dollar. It was not to dislodge the dollar’s position,” according to Ajay Srivastava, of the Global Trade Research Initiative.

However, he said Trump’s threat to impose 100% tariffs on products coming from countries adopting a BRICS currency makes the idea of such a potential new currency “unrealistic and more symbolic than practical.”
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India not pursuing shared BRICS currency

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India is not supporting the creation of a shared currency among the nine-nation BRICS grouping but it is trying to promote trade in its local currency, according to analysts in New Delhi. Incoming U.S. President Donald Trump recently warned BRICS nations against efforts to replace the dollar with an alternative currency. Anjana Pasricha has a report from New Delhi.
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$45M stegosaurus on display in NY. Here’s what scientists hope to learn about it

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NEW YORK — The most expensive dinosaur fossil ever discovered will be on view in New York starting this weekend, American Museum of Natural History officials announced Wednesday.

The giant stegosaurus fossil, dubbed “Apex,” is 3.3 meters tall and 8.2 meters nose to tail. The display will start in a giant atrium at the museum’s entrance before being moved to the museum’s existing fossil halls next year.

The museum also confirmed the identity of the philanthropist who purchased Apex. Billionaire hedge fund manager and longtime museum donor Ken Griffin bought it at an auction in July for $45 million, the most ever paid for dinosaur remains. Sean Decatur, president of the American Museum of Natural History, said that Griffin approved a long-term loan of Apex, as well as allowing scientists to take samples from the fossil for analysis.

“This partnership allows Apex to have pride of place at a museum world-renowned for its dinosaur collection and for its longstanding leadership in paleontology and, even more exciting, enables us to pursue specialized stegosaurus research centered around this extraordinary and scientifically important specimen,” Decatur said in a statement Wednesday.

Of the more than 80 stegosauri made available to scientific institutions, very few are substantially complete, the statement said. Apex is the most complete specimen ever found, Decatur said. With about 80% of its 320 bones preserved, it is miraculous for creature that has been dead for 150 million years. The specimen is also prized by scientists because it is estimated to have died at a relatively old age, and it could reveal insights into stegosaurus metabolism and bone growth.

Scientists will make CT scans of the internal structures of the dinosaur’s skull and analyze a small sample extracted from one of its giant thigh bones, the statement said.

“As exciting as is it is to have this dinosaur on display, it is even more exciting to have the opportunity to study it and make important scientific data available for research,” said Roger Benson, who curates the American Museum of Natural History’s fossil amphibians, reptiles, birds and plants.

The museum’s paleontologists have a long record of breaking ground in dinosaur research, including identifying the first dinosaur eggs and early evidence of dinosaur feathers, the statement said.

Commercial paleontologist Jason Cooper discovered in Apex on his land near Dinosaur, Colorado, on the Utah border near Dinosaur National Monument.

Griffin’s successful $44.6 million bid for Apex over the summer set a record for dinosaur remains, beating out the $31.8 million paid for “Stan,” the remains of a Tyrannosaurus rex sold in 2020. Like Apex, the Stan fossils were purchased by a private individual with plans to make it available to the public. The T. rex has been slated to be on display in Abu Dhabi, in United Arab Emirates, at a museum that opens in late 2025.
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As data centers proliferate, conflict with local communities follows

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ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA — Richard Andre Newman thought he would live the rest of his life in his quiet, leafy neighborhood in suburban Virginia. He was born and raised in Bren Mar Park, where children ride their bikes and neighbors wave hello.

But now, as he’s approaching 60, he’s considering selling his Fairfax County home and moving away. That’s because he’s getting a new neighbor: Plaza 500, a 466,000-square-foot data center and an adjacent electrical substation to be built a few hundred feet from townhomes, playgrounds and a community center.

Newman feels helpless to stop it.

“I planned on staying here until I died,” he said, “until this came up.”

The sprawling, windowless warehouses that hold rows of high-speed servers powering almost everything the world does on phones and computers are increasingly becoming fixtures of the American landscape, popping up in towns, cities and suburbs across the United States.

Demand for data centers ballooned in recent years due to the rapid growth of cloud computing and artificial intelligence, and local governments are competing for lucrative deals with big tech companies. But as data centers begin to move into more densely populated areas, abutting homes and schools, parks and recreation centers, some residents are pushing back against the world’s most powerful corporations over concerns about the economic, social and environmental health of their communities.

Tyler Ray, a vocal critic of data centers and leader in the fight against the Virginia project, said the incentives offered are not enough to counteract the consequences of building a facility so close to homes.

“All that we are asking for is, as the county is trying to bring in this data center income, that they are doing it in a way that doesn’t run residents away from their homes,” he said.

Dotting the hills in Northern Virginia

In Northern Virginia, more than 300 data centers dot the rolling hills of the area’s westernmost counties. Cyclists who ride the popular Washington & Old Dominion trail are at times flanked by data centers, and the thousands of commuters who head into the nation’s capital each day can see them in the distance from the Metro.

Plaza 500, one of the latest proposals in the area, is encroaching on neighborhoods like never before, said Newman, who heads a homeowners association in the community.

The pitch from Starwood Capital Group, the private investment firm founded by billionaire Barry Sternlicht, to Fairfax County officials promised a significant property tax boost and, in addition to permanent positions in the data center itself, hundreds of temporary construction and electrical jobs to build the facility.

Tyler Ray and his husband moved to the Bren Pointe community in 2022, hoping to balance proximity to Washington with a desire for green space.

But shortly after the couple moved in, Starwood Capital began scoping out a commercial property near their new home as a possible location for the Plaza 500 project.

When Ray and his neighbors learned of the proposal, they held protests, attended regular county meetings and drew media attention to their concerns to try and stop the development. But their efforts were largely unsuccessful: the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in September said all newly proposed data centers must adhere to stricter zoning rules, but the Plaza 500 project would be grandfathered in under the old rules.

Ray worries that more data centers in the area could compromise the already stressed power grid: Over 25% of all power produced in Virginia in 2023 went to data centers, a figure that could rise as high as 46% by 2030 if data center growth continues at its current pace. Some estimates also show a mid-sized data center commands the same water usage every day as 1,000 households, prompting concerns over the cost of water. Ray also frets over air quality, as the massive diesel generators that help power the data centers’ hardware send plumes of toxic pollutants into the atmosphere.

A spokesperson for the firm declined to respond to questions for this story.

“I don’t know how a general resident, even someone who has been engaging intently on an issue,” Ray said, “has any chance to go up against the data center industry.”

Local leaders say data centers a financial boon

For local governments, attracting data centers to their municipalities means a financial boon: Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin said in 2024 that Virginia’s existing data centers brought in $1 billion in tax revenue, more than the $750 million in tax breaks given to the tech companies that own them in 2023.

For average-sized facilities, data centers offer a small number of direct jobs — often fewer than 100 positions. Google announced recently that its two data centers in Loudoun County, which has about 440,000 residents, created only around 150 direct jobs. But data center advocates argue that the number of indirect jobs like construction, technology support and electrical work make the projects worthwhile. In that same announcement, Google said their investment spurred 2,730 indirect jobs.

Kathy Smith, the vice chair of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, voted in favor of the Plaza 500 proposal because, in her estimation, data center growth is inevitable in the region, and Fairfax County should reap the benefits.

“I have a responsibility to step back from what we do and look at the big picture,” Smith said. “Data centers are not going away.”

Amazon data centers welcomed by some in Oregon 

On the other side of the country, in Morrow County, Oregon, Amazon Web Services has built at least five data centers surrounding the 4,200-person town of Boardman, nestled among vast stretches of farmland flecked with mint patches and wind turbines, next to the Columbia river.

Last year, AWS, which is owned by Amazon, paid roughly $34 million in property taxes and fees stipulated in the agreements after receiving a $66 million tax break. The company also paid out $10 million total in two, one-time payments to a community development fund and spent another $1.7 million in charitable donations in the community in 2023.

That money has been instrumental in updating infrastructure and bolstering services for the roughly 12,000-person county, going toward a new ladder fire engine, a school resource officer, police body cameras, and $5,000 grants for homebuyers among other things.

Still, some residents are skeptical of the scale of tax break deals. Suspicions started years ago, when three formerly elected officials allegedly helped approve data center deals while owning a stake in a company that contracted with AWS to provide fiber optic cables for the data centers. In June, they each paid $2,000 to settle an ethics complaint against them.

Those officials are no longer in office. But some remain wary of the relationships between the company and local officials, and raised eyebrows at one of the latest data center deals which gives AWS an estimated $1 billion in tax breaks spread over the 15 years to build five new data centers.

Former county commissioner Jim Doherty described a meeting with AWS officials soon after he was elected to office at an upscale restaurant in Boardman, where large windows opened onto the Columbia River.

The AWS representatives asked what Doherty wanted to accomplish as a commissioner. “They said, ‘Tell us what your dreams are. Tell us what you need. Tell us what we can do for you,'” Doherty recalled. Other former officials have described similar interactions. Doherty said AWS didn’t ask for anything in return, but the exchange left him uneasy.

“We engage with stakeholders in every community where we operate around the world, and part of that outreach is to better understand a community’s goals,” said Kevin Miller, AWS’ Vice President of global data centers. “This helps AWS be a catalyst for communities to achieve those goals, and reflects our ongoing commitment to being good neighbors.”

Doherty and another former county commissioner Melissa Lindsay said they pushed unsuccessfully in 2022 for AWS to pay more in taxes in new data center negotiations. They also lobbied to hire outside counsel to negotiate on their behalf, feeling outgunned by the phalanx of AWS-suited lawyers.

“We didn’t want to blow it up. We didn’t want to run them off,” said Lindsay. “But there were better deals to be made.”

Boardman Mayor Paul Keefer and Police Chief Rick Stokoe say their direct line to AWS allows them to get the most out of the company.

“This road right here? Wouldn’t happen if it wasn’t for AWS,” said Keefer, riding in the passenger seat of Stokoe’s cruiser, pointing out the window at construction workers shifting dirt and laying pavement. Both Keefer and Stokoe have been in positions to vote on whether to authorize tax breaks for AWS.

“These companies would not be here if they weren’t getting some kind of incentive,” Stokoe said. “There wouldn’t be any money to talk about.”
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US House to vote to provide $3 billion to remove Chinese telecoms equipment

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WASHINGTON — The U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote next week on an annual defense bill that includes just over $3 billion for U.S. telecom companies to remove equipment made by Chinese telecoms firms Huawei and ZTE 000063.SZ from American wireless networks to address security risks.

The 1,800-page text was released late Saturday and includes other provisions aimed at China, including requiring a report on Chinese efforts to evade U.S. national security regulations and an intelligence assessment of the current status of China’s biotechnology capabilities.

The Federal Communications Commission has said removing the insecure equipment is estimated to cost $4.98 billion but Congress previously only approved $1.9 billion for the “rip and replace” program.

Washington has aggressively urged U.S. allies to purge Huawei and other Chinese gear from their wireless networks.

FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel last week again called on the U.S. Congress to provide urgent additional funding, saying the program to replace equipment in the networks of 126 carriers faces a $3.08 billion shortfall “putting both our national security and the connectivity of rural consumers who depend on these networks at risk.”

She has warned the lack of funding could result in some rural networks shutting down, which “could eliminate the only provider in some regions” and could threaten 911 service.

Competitive Carriers Association CEO Tim Donovan on Saturday praised the announcement, saying “funding is desperately needed to fulfill the mandate to remove and replace covered equipment and services while maintaining connectivity for tens of millions of Americans.”

In 2019, Congress told the FCC to require U.S. telecoms carriers that receive federal subsidies to purge their networks of Chinese telecoms equipment. The White House in 2023 asked for $3.1 billion for the program.

Senate Commerce Committee chair Maria Cantwell said funding for the program and up to $500 million for regional tech hubs will be covered by funds generated from a one-time spectrum auction by the FCC for advanced wireless spectrum in the band known as AWS-3 to help meet rising spectrum demands of wireless consumers. 
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North Macedonian political party calls for ban on social media content that incites ‘self-destructive behavior’

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SKOPJE, North Macedonia — A political party in North Macedonia on Saturday demanded authorities ban social networks whose content incites violence and self-destructive behavior after several young people were seriously injured in connection with the popular “Superman challenge” on TikTok. 

Health authorities said at least 17 students, ages 10 to 17, were brought to hospitals in the capital Skopje and other towns over the past week with broken bones, contusions and bruises. The children were injured after being thrown into the air by their friends to fly like superheroes and get applause on the internet. 

The Liberal-Democratic Party, which was part of the left-led coalition that ruled the country from 2016 to earlier in 2024, issued a press statement Saturday strongly condemning “the irresponsible spread of dangerous content on social media, such as the latest TikTok ‘challenge’ known as ‘Superman,’ which has injured six children across (the country) in the past 24 hours.” 

“The lack of adequate control over the content of social media allows such ‘games’ to reach the most vulnerable users,” the party statement said. It demanded the “immediate introduction of measures to ban content that incites violence and self-destructive behavior, increase surveillance, and sanction platforms that enable dangerous trends.” 

North Macedonia’s education minister Vesna Janevska said students should focus on education, not TikTok challenges. 

“The ban on mobile phones in schools will not have an effect. Phones will be available to children in their homes, neighborhoods and other environments,” she said. 

Psychologists have warned that the desire to be “in” with the trends on social networks, combined with excessive use of mobile phones, is the main reason for the rise in risky behaviors among children. They urged parents and schools to talk with students. 
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Decriminalization dominates Australian drug summit

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SYDNEY — Australian authorities are being criticized for ruling out drug decriminalization at an international summit in Sydney this week, ignoring a call by many experts and health groups for a health care response to drug use and addiction rather than criminal penalties.

Several hundred politicians, policy experts, police officers and health professionals gathered this week for a summit on drug reform in Sydney.

The New South Wales government is examining ways to redraft the state’s drug laws and policies.

Calls for the decriminalization of drug use and possession were the focus of the meeting.

Campaigners say not treating drug use as a crime would encourage people to seek help without fear of legal consequences.

New South Wales Health Minister Ryan Park told local media Friday, though, there is not enough local support for such reform.

“The summit is not just about decriminalization, and for a government to move to decriminalize in the drugs … would be a seismic shift to the way in which we handle drugs in New South Wales,” Park said. “In relation to decriminalization, we think that is too significant to put on the table now without a clear mandate.”

The Sydney summit heard from the mayor of Portland, in the U.S. state of Oregon, Ted Wheeler. He told delegates that earlier this year, state lawmakers repealed laws that decriminalized the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs in the state. He said that the health system has been overwhelmed, and that drug-related crime has risen sharply because of the legislation.

International debate is passionate and divided.

A report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy, formed in 2011 to campaign for drug reform, called for a total reexamination of the approach to illicit substances.

Louise Arbour, a former U.N. high commissioner for human rights, was involved in the report and told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that a new approach is needed.

“Globally, it is very clear that this so-called war on drugs has created a gigantic international illegal drug trade,” Arbour said. “The worst aspect of that war is that it has essentially been a war on people — been a war on people who use drugs and not a war on people who actually prey on them.”

The annual number of drug overdose deaths in Australia has almost doubled over the past 20 years, according to the Penington Institute, a nonprofit organization in Victoria state.

Some 100,000 people are estimated to die each year from drug overdoses in the United States, but the number of fatalities has decreased, according to research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Maternal mortality review panels are in the spotlight. Here’s what they do

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Efforts to reduce the nation’s persistently high maternal mortality rates involve state panels of experts that investigate and learn from each mother’s death.

The panels — called maternal mortality review committees — usually do their work quietly and out of the public eye. But that’s not been the case recently in three states with strict abortion laws.

Georgia dismissed all members of its committee in November after information about deaths being reviewed leaked to the news organization ProPublica. Days later, The Washington Post reported that Texas’ committee won’t review cases from 2022 and 2023, the first two years after the state banned nearly all abortions. In Idaho, the state let its panel disband in 2023 only to reinstate it earlier this year.

“They’ve become more of a lightning rod than they were before,” said epidemiologist Michael Kramer, director of the Center for Rural Health and Health Disparities at Mercer University in Georgia.

Here’s what maternal mortality review committees across the nation do and what might happen next:

What are they?

“Maternal mortality review committees are important because they are the most comprehensive source of information about maternal mortality that we have,” said David Goodman, who leads the maternal mortality prevention team at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The panels review deaths that occur during pregnancy or within a year after it ends, whether directly related to the pregnancy or not. Causes of death can range from hemorrhage during childbirth to drug overdoses to traffic accidents.

The goal, Kramer said, is to examine maternal deaths and help “decide what we can do about them.”

All states, a few cities and Puerto Rico have these committees. Their membership varies and may include OB-GYNs, maternal-fetal medicine doctors, nurses, midwives, mental and public health experts and members of patient advocacy groups. Most have representatives from several areas of expertise, which the CDC recommends.

How members are selected also varies; people may apply, submit letters of interest or be invited to serve.

The selection shouldn’t be politically motivated, Kramer said, because “if there’s a systematic exclusion of certain data or certain perspectives” it’s difficult to truly understand what’s happening.

How do they look at deaths?

First, the panels work with state vital statistics offices and epidemiologists to identify deaths associated with pregnancy by examining death certificates and looking for a pregnancy checkbox or a related cause of death. They may also search for links to birth and fetal death records, or delve into hospital discharge data, media reports and obituaries.

Once they identify cases, they collect as much information as possible, such as prenatal care records, hospital and social service records, autopsy reports and interviews with family members. Professional “abstractors” distill all this into case narratives, which committee members pore over. Most use a standardized review process developed by the CDC — and all panels can get help and guidance from the agency.

They consider questions such as: Was the death pregnancy-related? What was the underlying cause? Was it preventable? What factors contributed?

States generally have privacy rules that protect committee members and people who provide information on the deaths.

The groups then issue public reports that don’t name moms or hospitals but include overall findings, trends and recommendations. Some come out a couple of years or more after the deaths.

Across the nation in 2023, Goodman said, 151 recommendations from those reports were implemented by communities, hospitals, medical professionals and policymakers.

What about Georgia, Texas and Idaho?

Georgia will rebuild its committee through a new application process, the state public health commissioner said.

Texas’ committee has been reviewing 2021 deaths and will start on 2024 cases at its next meeting, Texas Department of State Health Services spokesperson Lara Anton said in an email to The Associated Press.

“Reviewing cases is a lengthy process and legislators have asked for more recent data. Starting the next review cycle with 2024 cases will allow us to provide that in the next report,” Anton said, adding that maternal and child health epidemiologists will continue to analyze and publish data for 2022 and 2023.

In Idaho, the reconstituted review committee now falls under the state board of medicine, which licenses doctors, instead of the state’s health and welfare department. It will operate like it always has, said Bob McLaughlin, spokesperson for the medical board. Members met for the first time in November and plan to issue a report by Jan. 31. Because the legislature wanted the most up-to-date information, McLaughlin said the first report will cover only 2023 cases, and the group will review 2022 deaths next.

Goodman said he’s encouraged that every state has a review committee now — only 20 had them in 2015.
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Appeals court upholds law that could ban TikTok in US

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A federal appeals court in Washington on Friday upheld a law requiring the wildly popular social media app TikTok to be sold to a non-Chinese owner or face closure in the United States by next month. The court cited “persuasive” and “compelling” arguments presented by the federal government that TikTok poses a risk to national security.

The ruling could leave the 170 million Americans who regularly use TikTok without access to a social media platform that has enjoyed explosive global growth in recent years. It could also mean that the millions of Americans who create content for TikTok — some of whom rely on monetizing that content for their livelihood — could be cut off from their audiences.

The government has argued that TikTok presents a unique danger to national security because it collects vast amounts of information about its users, and because the Chinese government ultimately exercises control over its parent company, ByteDance, and over the algorithm that determines what content TikTok users see.

Because ByteDance is in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) it is subject to that country’s laws, including measures requiring private companies to cooperate with government intelligence agencies.

The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found that the government has a compelling interest in taking steps “to counter the PRC’s efforts to collect great quantities of data about tens of millions of Americans” and “to limit the PRC’s ability to manipulate content covertly on the TikTok platform.”

TikTok signals an appeal

TikTok immediately signaled that it would appeal the circuit court’s ruling to the Supreme Court.

In a statement posted to its website, the company said, “The Supreme Court has an established historical record of protecting Americans’ right to free speech, and we expect they will do just that on this important constitutional issue.”

The company said that the law underlying the case “was conceived and pushed through based on inaccurate, flawed and hypothetical information, resulting in outright censorship of the American people,” and warned that it “will silence the voices of over 170 million Americans here in the U.S. and around the world.”

The Supreme Court is not obligated to hear the company’s appeal, and it was not immediately clear that it would do so. If the high court accepts the case, it is possible that it would block the government from enforcing the law until the case is decided.

President-elect Donald Trump, who once supported a TikTok ban before changing his mind during the recent presidential election, has suggested that he will act to save the app when he takes office. However, it is unclear what options he might have for doing that.

Lack of trust

In April, President Joe Biden signed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act into law. The measure gave TikTok 270 days to find a way to separate itself from ByteDance before a ban on the application would kick in on January 19, 2025.

The federal government made it clear that the only kind of divestiture that it would accept was a complete separation of TikTok from its Chinese parent. The company offered alternatives, and established TikTok U.S. Data Security Inc. (TTUSDS) as a subsidiary in Delaware, to wall off U.S. user data from ByteDance.

However, the government cited instances in which U.S. user data that the company claimed to have shielded from the PRC was, in fact, accessible to ByteDance employees in mainland China. It told the court that it lacked “the requisite trust” that “ByteDance and TTUSDS would comply in good faith” with any arrangement other than complete separation of TikTok and ByteDance.

In Friday’s ruling, the judges wrote, “The court can neither fault nor second-guess the government on these crucial points.”

First Amendment concerns

TikTok and its supporters have claimed that severing TikTok from ByteDance is both practically impossible for technological reasons and legally impossible because the Chinese government will block the sale of the company. Therefore, they claim, the law constitutes a de facto ban and a violation of the guarantee of free speech enshrined in the First Amendment to the Constitution.

In a sign of how seriously the court took the First Amendment arguments, the panel of judges agreed that the law should be subject to “heightened scrutiny,” which the Supreme Court has applied to measures restricting fundamental rights.

In the end, the panel determined that the law satisfies even the most stringent form of “strict scrutiny,” which requires that the government “prove that the restriction furthers a compelling interest and is narrowly tailored to achieve that interest.”

Free speech advocates respond

The decision came under immediate criticism from free speech advocates.

“Although we’re still analyzing the decision, we find it deeply disappointing,” David Greene, civil liberties director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said in a statement emailed to VOA. “The court appropriately applied strict scrutiny as we have urged it to. But the strict-scrutiny analysis is lacking, relying heavily on speculation about possible future harms.

“Restricting the free flow of information, even from foreign adversaries, is fundamentally undemocratic,” Greene said. “Until now, the U.S. has championed the free flow of information and called out other nations when they have shut down internet access or banned online communications tools like social media apps.”

George Wang, a staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, told VOA that the court accorded “a shocking amount of deference” to the government’s claims about the danger TikTok poses to national security.

“We should be really wary whenever we allow the government to use vague national security arguments as a justification to shut down speech,” Wang said. “That’s a tactic of authoritarian regimes, not democracies. It’s usually the job of courts to stand up to the government when it infringes on the constitutional rights of millions of Americans, and I think the D.C. Circuit really didn’t do that today.”

‘A victory for the American people’

Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, the senior Democrat on the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, and one of the original sponsors of the law requiring TikTok’s divestiture or ban, released a statement Friday praising the court’s decision.

“With today’s opinion, all three branches of government have reached the same conclusion: ByteDance is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, and TikTok’s ownership by ByteDance is a national security threat that cannot be mitigated through any other means than divestiture,” Krishnamoorthi said.

“Every day that TikTok remains under the Chinese Communist Party’s control is a day that our security is at risk,” Krishnamoorthi added.

Representative John Moolenaar, the committee’s Republican chairman, said in a statement that the ruling was “a victory for the American people and TikTok users, and a loss for the Chinese Communist Party, which will no longer be able to exploit ByteDance’s control over TikTok to undermine our sovereignty, surveil our citizens and threaten our national security.”

Moolenaar also held out hope to the app’s users that access to it may, in the end, be preserved under a Trump presidency.

“I am optimistic that President Trump will facilitate an American takeover of TikTok to allow its continued use in the United States and I look forward to welcoming the app in America under new ownership,” Moolenaar said.
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