TikTok Sues U.S. Government Over Potential Ban |
Social media platform TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance sued (AP) the federal government yesterday over a new law that would ban the app in the United States unless it is sold to an approved buyer. TikTok claims the law violates the First Amendment and that such a sale would be technologically unviable. The law cited national security concerns as grounds for forcing a sale or ban; the new suit challenging it could reach the Supreme Court. The U.S. Department of Justice and the White House declined to immediately comment on TikTok’s challenge.
As Washington continues to scrutinize the use of Chinese technologies in the United States for potential security risks, the U.S. Commerce Department announced yesterday that it had revoked some licenses for exports of U.S. technology to China’s leading tech firm, Huawei Technologies. U.S. firms Intel and Qualcomm will be restricted from selling chips to Huawei, three people familiar with the matter told the Washington Post. The new rules come after (FT) Washington imposed broad restrictions on exports to Huawei in 2022.
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“There are already examples of TikTok seeming to remove comments from the app, such as comments made outside China that were critical of Beijing. And with Beijing becoming more sophisticated in its disinformation tactics in recent years—they were very clumsy in the past—there is a genuine concern that TikTok, along with Chinese disinformation on other platforms, now more sophisticated, could be used to affect voters in Australia, Canada, Europe, the United States, and other countries,” CFR expert Joshua Kurlantzick writes for the Asia Unbound blog.
“Ultimately, the United States must enhance its data security without targeting firms or individuals based on their national origin or on their relationships with foreigners as a first line of defense. This is essential to protecting the dynamism of the country’s innovation and the dignity of its workers, especially crucial in an era of strained U.S.-Chinese relations,” the University of Virginia’s Aynne Kokas writes for Foreign Affairs.
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Hong Kong Court Bans Pro-Democracy Protest Anthem |
An appeals court ruled today that a song common in Hong Kong’s 2019 pro-democracy movement is banned (Kyodo) from broadcasting, printing, and reproducing in any way. The ruling reverses a previous court decision that denied the Hong Kong government’s request to ban the song, citing concerns about the repression of free speech.
Thailand: The country plans to recriminalize (Reuters) cannabis by the end of the year, its prime minister said yesterday in a post on X. The announcement comes only two years after Thailand decriminalized its recreational use, one of the first Asian countries to do so. |
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PTI: China Appoints Ambassador to India After Eighteen-Month Lapse |
Chinese diplomat Xu Feihong will serve in the post after a prolonged vacancy and relatively frozen bilateral relations, the Chinese foreign ministry told PTI. The appointment comes amid talks to resolve tensions over military skirmishes on the countries’ shared border.
Afghanistan/Pakistan: A suicide bombing that killed six people in northwestern Pakistan in March was carried out (AP) by an Afghan citizen and planned in Afghanistan, Pakistan’s military said yesterday. A Taliban government spokesperson said today that the claim was “irresponsible and far from the reality.” |
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Middle East and North Africa |
Washington Pauses Some Arms Deliveries to Israel Over Rafah Concerns |
The United States withheld (NYT) the delivery of 3,500 bombs last week over concerns about their potential use in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, unnamed administration officials told multiple news outlets yesterday. Israel has begun what it calls a limited operation targeting Hamas fighters in Rafah. Today, Israel said that it reopened (Times of Israel, AP) the Kerem Shalom border crossing into Gaza for aid, which was closed over the weekend following a Hamas rocket attack.
Iran: Rafael Grossi, head of the UN atomic watchdog, said after nuclear talks with Iran that Tehran’s current cooperation on nuclear issues was “completely unsatisfactory” (AFP) and that there had been a “slowdown” in the implementation of a March 2023 agreement regarding safeguards and monitoring. Grossi pressed Iran to “deliver very soon.”
This Backgrounder by CFR’s Kali Robinson unpacks Iran nuclear negotiations.
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African Union Climate Insurance Agency to Pay $60 Million to Four Countries Amid Drought |
The plans for payouts to Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe in a few weeks come (Bloomberg) as the El Niño weather pattern has exacerbated drought in those countries, the insurance agency’s director said. Some countries have appealed for far more; Zambia’s driest farming season in four decades prompted (Bloomberg) a UN humanitarian appeal for $228 million in support.
Ghana: The country’s top court has begun hearing (Bloomberg) arguments on a controversial anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. Ghana’s finance ministry warned in a leaked memo in April that if the law is allowed to stand, it could put $3.8 billion in World Bank funding and a $3 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund at risk.
For the Africa in Transition blog, CFR expert Ebenezer Obadare looks at changing the approach to LGBTQ+ advocacy in Africa.
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Ukraine Foiled Russian Plan to Assassinate Zelenskyy, Security Services Say |
Security services arrested (NYT) two Ukrainian colonels suspected of involvement in a Russian plot to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other top military and political figures, Kyiv’s domestic intelligence agency said yesterday. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said (Reuters) today that he had no comment on the assertion, but that it was unlikely to be accurate.
China/United Kingdom: The hack of a private tech contractor accessed the records of up to 272,000 people on the United Kingdom Ministry of Defense’s payroll and was the suspected work of a “malign actor,” Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said. An unnamed source briefed on the incident told the Financial Times that China was suspected.
This CFR tracker details accounts of cyber operations around the world.
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Chinese Firm Takes Step Toward Arbitration in Disputed Peruvian Port Project |
China’s Cosco Shipping Ports proposed talks with Peru’s government yesterday and said it had taken the first step (Reuters) toward triggering an arbitration process over rights to operate a port on Peru’s Pacific Coast. Cosco would seek to maintain the initial terms of the deal, in which it would be the exclusive operator of the port, despite Peru’s port authority saying in March that granting the rights to China had been an “administrative error.”
Argentina: The country’s central bank introduced (FT) notes worth ten thousand pesos, or around $11, at the official exchange rate, five times higher than the previous largest note. Inflation has led to Argentines carrying large amounts of cash; as part of President Javier Milei’s economic reforms, monthly inflation dropped from a peak of 26 percent in December to 11 percent in March.
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Council on Foreign Relations |
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