While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Jan 18, 2025
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US President-elect Donald Trump is reviewing the situation regarding a looming ban on TikTok, after the US Supreme Court upheld a 2024 bipartisan law ordering the sale of the Chinese-owned app.
PHOTO: AFP
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Supreme Court upholds TikTok ban; in Trump’s court now
The Supreme Court upheld on Jan 17 a law banning TikTok in the United States on national security grounds if its Chinese parent company ByteDance does not sell it, putting the popular short-video app on track to go dark in just two days.
The court’s 9-0 decision throws the social media platform - and its 170 million American users - into limbo, and its fate in the hands of Donald Trump, who has vowed to rescue TikTok after returning to the presidency on Jan 20.
The law was passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in Congress in 2024 and signed by President Joe Biden, though a growing chorus of lawmakers who voted it are now seeking to keep TikTok operating in the United States.
“My decision on TikTok will be made in the not too distant future, but I must have time to review the situation. Stay tuned!” Trump said, in a social media post.
Trump inauguration moved indoors due to extreme cold
REUTERS
Donald Trump confirmed that his inauguration as US president on Jan 20 will move indoors due to expected freezing weather, undercutting the Republican’s hopes for a grandiose spectacle to kick off his second term.
“There is an Arctic blast sweeping the Country,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social feed on Jan 17. “Therefore, I have ordered the Inauguration Address, in addition to prayers and other speeches, to be delivered in the United States Capitol Rotunda.”
The dramatic change of plan means Trump will not stand on the Capitol steps overlooking the National Mall, which traditionally hosts a large crowd to welcome new presidents.
Quad foreign ministers set to meet after Trump inauguration
Getty Images via AFP
The US secretary of state and the foreign ministers of Australia, India and Japan are expected to meet in Washington on Jan 21, the day after President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, people familiar with the matter said.
Experts said the meeting, the first major diplomatic event of the Trump presidency, would send a strong signal of continuity for the “Quad”, a grouping formed amid shared concerns about China’s growing power.
Republican Senator Marco Rubio appears on track for confirmation as Trump’s secretary of state on Jan 20, clearing the way for the Quad meeting the following day, persons familiar with the matter said.
Zelensky hosts Slovakia opposition leader amid PM gas row
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky discussed energy security with Slovakia’s opposition leader in Kyiv on Jan 17, amid a row with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico who has threatened to cut aid to Ukraine.
Mr Fico is angry with Kyiv over its decision not to extend a deal on the transit of Russian gas supplies via Ukraine, saying the move had damaged Slovakia’s economy. His leftist-nationalist coalition is looking shakier and faces a no-confidence vote.
Mr Zelensky had invited Mr Fico to visit Kyiv for talks on Jan 17, an invitation he alluded to as he announced his meeting with Michal Simecka, the head of Progressive Slovakia, the country’s biggest opposition party.
Yoon supporters fuel speculation of Chinese influence in crisis
PHOTO: ALMANG MARKET/INSTAGRAM
In a strange twist to the political saga that continues to unfold in South Korea, some ruling party lawmakers and supporters of beleaguered President Yoon Suk Yeol are blaming Chinese influence for his impeachment.
The controversy started when ruling People Power Party (PPP) lawmaker Kim Min-jeon alleged at a pro-Yoon rally on Jan 2 that she had encountered many Chinese people who supported the impeachment, and later shared on social media a photograph of an anti-Yoon rally attendee wearing a winter jacket emblazoned with China’s Tsinghua University logo. She later deleted the photo when pressed for details of its veracity.
A second PPP lawmaker, Mr Yoo Sang-bum, also shared on social media a netizen’s claim to have heard Chinese “spoken all around” at a pro-impeachment rally.
