CBS News
House passes legislation that could ban TikTok in the US
The House passed legislation Saturday that would ban TikTok in the United States if the popular social media platform’s China-based owner doesn’t sell its stake within a year, but don’t expect the app to go away anytime soon.
The decision by House Republicans to include TikTok as part of a larger foreign aid package, a priority for President Joe Biden with broad congressional support for Ukraine and Israel, fast-tracked the ban after an earlier version had stalled in the Senate. A standalone bill with a six-month selling deadline passed the House in March by an overwhelming bipartisan vote as both Democrats and Republicans voiced national security concerns about the app’s owner, the Chinese technology firm ByteDance Ltd.
The modified measure, passed by a 360-58 vote, now goes to the Senate after negotiations that produced a compromise.
Even if the legislation becomes law, though, the company would have up to a year to find a buyer and would likely try to challenge the law in court, arguing it would deprive the app’s millions of users of their First Amendment rights. Court challenges could significantly delay the timeline set out by Congress or block the law from going into effect.
The company lobbied hard against the legislation, pushing the app’s 170 million U.S. users — many of whom are young — to call Congress and voice opposition. But the ferocity of the pushback angered lawmakers on Capitol Hill, where there is broad concern about Chinese threats to the U.S. and where few members use the platform themselves.
CBS News
“We will not stop fighting and advocating for you,” TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said in a video that was posted on the platform last month and directed toward the app’s users. “We will continue to do all we can, including exercising our legal rights, to protect this amazing platform that we have built with you.”
The bill’s quick path through Congress is extraordinary because it targets one company and because Congress has taken a hands-off approach to tech regulation for decades. Lawmakers have failed to act despite efforts to protect children online, safeguard users’ privacy and make companies more liable for content posted on their platforms, among other measures.
The TikTok ban reflects widespread concerns from lawmakers about China.
Members of both parties, along with intelligence officials, have worried that Chinese authorities could force ByteDance to hand over American user data or direct the company to suppress or boost TikTok content favorable to its interests. TikTok has denied assertions that it could be used as a tool of the Chinese government and has said it has not shared U.S. user data with Chinese authorities.
The U.S. government has not publicly provided evidence that shows TikTok shared U.S. user data with the Chinese government or tinkered with the company’s popular algorithm, which influences what Americans see.
The company has good reason to think a legal challenge could be successful, having seen some success in previous legal fights over its operations in the U.S.. In November, a federal judge blocked a Montana law that would ban TikTok use across the state after the company and five content creators who use the platform sued.
In 2020, federal courts blocked an executive order issued by then-President Donald Trump to ban TikTok after the company sued on the grounds that the order violated free speech and due process rights. His administration brokered a deal that would have had U.S. corporations Oracle and Walmart take a large stake in TikTok. The sale never went through for a number of reasons; one was China, which imposed stricter export controls on its technology providers.
Dozens of states and the federal government have put in place TikTok bans on government devices. Texas’ ban was challenged last year by The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, which argued in a lawsuit that the policy was impeding academic freedom because it extended to public universities. In December, a federal judge ruled in favor of the state.
Organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union have backed the app. “Congress cannot take away the rights of over 170 million Americans who use TikTok to express themselves, engage in political advocacy, and access information from around the world,” said Jenna Leventoff, a lawyer for the group.
Since mid-March, TikTok has spent $5 million on TV ads opposing the legislation, according to AdImpact, an advertising tracking firm. The ads have included a range of content creators, including a nun, extolling the positive impacts of the platform on their lives and arguing a ban would trample on the First Amendment. The company has also encouraged its users to contact Congress, and some lawmakers have received profanity-laced calls.
“It is unfortunate that the House of Representatives is using the cover of important foreign and humanitarian assistance to once again jam through a ban bill that would trample the free speech rights of 170 million Americans, devastate 7 million businesses, and shutter a platform that contributes $24 billion to the U.S. economy, annually,” said Alex Haurek, a spokesman for the company.
Nadya Okamoto, a content creator who has roughly 4 million followers on TikTok, said she has been having conversations with other creators who are experiencing “so much anger and anxiety” about the bill and how it’s going to impact their lives. The 26-year-old, whose company “August” sells menstrual products and is known for her advocacy around destigmatizing menstrual periods, makes most of her income from TikTok.
“This is going to have real repercussions,” she said.
A Qantas plane made an emergency landing Friday due to what the airline said was a “contained engine failure” soon after taking off from Sydney Airport, sparking a grassfire on a nearby runway and causing several flights to be diverted.
The Qantas flight, QF520, was bound for Brisbane and was circling for a “short period of time” before landing safely back at Sydney Airport, Qantas Chief Pilot Captain Richard Tobiano said in the statement.
There was no initial word on the number of people on board.
DAVID GRAY / AFP via Getty Images
“Qantas engineers have conducted a preliminary inspection of the engine and confirmed it was a contained engine failure,” the airline said. “While customers would have heard a loud bang, there was not an explosion.”
The Reuters news agency explains that in a contained engine failure, the engine’s parts stay inside the protective housing meant to keep them from flying out. If they do, they could cause severe damage to the main body of a plane.
Airservices Australia, the government’s aviation regulator, said the engine failure caused “a grass area adjacent to the runway to catch fire” that was swiftly extinguished by firefighters.
DAVID GRAY / AFP via Getty Images
The Airservices’ National Operations Management Centre enacted a 47-minute ground stop at Sydney Airport to ensure the plane could land as quickly as possible, the regulator said in a statement, adding that no one was hurt.
Reuters reports that the airport said all its runways had re-opened by Friday afternoon after the parallel runway had been closed for inspection because of the fire.
The aircraft is a 19-year-old Boeing 737-800, Reuters said, citing Flightradar24. That type of twin-engine passenger plane is designed to be able to fly using only one engine in an emergency, Reuters noted.
Passenger Georgina Lewis said she heard a “bang.”
“One of the engines appeared to have gone. The pilot came on 10 minutes later to explain that they had a problem with a right-hand engine on takeoff,” she told local outlet Channel Nine.
Another passenger, Mark Willacy, a journalist with Australia’s national broadcaster ABC, said the plane struggled to get airborne following the “loud bang” noise.
“That big bang as the wheels were leaving the ground and the shudder, that was like nothing I have ever felt,” he told ABC. “When we landed, there was a lot of applause and cheering amongst the passengers.”
Tobiano said his staff members were “highly trained” to respond to such emergency situations.
“We understand this would have been a distressing experience for customers and we will be contacting all customers this afternoon to provide support,” he said in the statement. “We will also be conducting an investigation into what caused the engine issue.”
Customers were being moved to alternate flights, Qantas said.
Eleven domestic flights were cancelled and four diverted to other airports, a Sydney Airport spokesperson said.
CBS News
Netanyahu sends 2 planes to Netherlands to bring out Israeli soccer fans after violence surrounding match in Amsterdam
Amsterdam — Leaders of Israel and the Netherlands on Friday condemned what they called antisemitic attacks on fans of soccer club Maccabi Tel Aviv before and after a Europa League soccer match between their team and Ajax, and Israel said it was sending planes to fly supporters home from the Dutch capital.
The violence erupted Thursday despite a ban on a pro-Palestinian demonstration near the soccer stadium imposed by Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema, who’d feared clashes would break out between protesters and supporters of the Israeli soccer club.
Amsterdam police had no immediate comment on the violence or numbers of arrests and injuries.
But Halsema said supporters of the Israeli team were hurt and the extent of the violence and number of arrests were still being sorted out, according to the Reuters news agency.
Agence France-Presse reported that a Dutch police spokesperson told the Dutch ANP news agency 57 people had been arrested.
AFP said social media platforms were inundated with unverified images supposedly showing the violence, but authorities offered few confirmed details.
AFP said AT5 reported that the clashes occurred around midnight with numerous fights and acts of vandalism in the center of Amsterdam. “A large number of mobile unit vehicles are present and reinforcements have also been called in,” AT5 said.
X/ iAnnet via REUTERS.
Details were unclear, but Israel ordered that two planes be sent to the Dutch capital to bring the Israelis home.
“The Prime Minister has directed that two rescue planes be sent immediately to assist our citizens,” said a statement from Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
It added that “the harsh pictures of the assault on our citizens in Amsterdam will not be overlooked,” and that Netanyahu “views the premeditated antisemitic attack against Israeli citizens with utmost gravity.” He demanded that the Dutch government take “vigorous and swift action” against those involved.
Netanyahu’s office added that he had called for increased security for the Jewish community in the Netherlands.
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said on X that he followed reports of the violence “with horror.”
“Completely unacceptable antisemitic attacks on Israelis. I am in close contact with everyone involved,” he added, saying that he had spoken to Netanyahu and “emphasized that the perpetrators will be tracked down and prosecuted. It is now quiet in the capital.”
The Israeli Embassy in Washington said on the social media platform X that “hundreds” of Maccabi fans were “ambushed and attacked in Amsterdam tonight as they left the stadium following a game,” according to AFP. The embassy blamed the violence on a “mob who targeted innocent Israelis.”
Geert Wilders, the hard right nationalist lawmaker whose Party for Freedom won elections in the Netherlands last year and who is a staunch ally of Israel, reacted to a video apparently showing a Maccabi fan being surrounded by several men.
“Looks like a Jew hunt in the streets of Amsterdam. Arrest and deport the multicultural scum that attacked Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters in our streets. Ashamed that this can happen in The Netherlands. Totally unacceptable,” Wilders said.
Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, also condemned the violence in a post on the social media platform X.
When Huntington Beach, Calif., detectives searched Rodney Alcala‘s Seattle storage locker during the murder investigation of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe in 1979, they discovered a cache of photos, many of them young women in suggestive, and even pornographic poses.
In March 2010, after a third jury in 30 years handed Alcala a death sentence, Huntington Beach police released more than 100 of those photos hoping to identify the women and some children, and learn if Alcala claimed still more victims.
Most of those who have been identified are alive and well.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
Unidentified women in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
Unidentified women in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified child in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified child in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
Unidentified women in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified child in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
Huntington Beach Police Dept.
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
Unidentified people in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified person in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified child in image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
Unidentified women in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Minneapolis community town hall addresses homeless encampments
Qantas plane returns to Australia airport, makes emergency landing due to engine failure
Netanyahu sends 2 planes to Netherlands to bring out Israeli soccer fans after violence surrounding match in Amsterdam
Minneapolis community town hall addresses homeless encampments
Qantas plane returns to Australia airport, makes emergency landing due to engine failure