WASHINGTON — The young voices in the messages left for North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis were laughing, but the words were ominous. “OK, listen, if you ban TikTok I will find you and shoot you,” one said, giggling and talking over other young voices in the background. “I’ll shoot you and find you and cut you into pieces.” Another threatened to kill Tillis, and then take their own life. Tillis’s office says it has received around 1,000 calls about TikTok since the House passed legislation this month that would ban the popular app if its China-based owner doesn’t sell its stake. TikTok has been urging its users — many of whom are young — to call their representatives, even providing an easy link to the phone numbers. “The government will take away the community that you and millions of other Americans love,” read one pop-up message from the company when users opened the app. Tillis, who supports the House bill, reported the call to the police. “What I hated about that was it demonstrates the enormous influence social media platforms have on young people,” he said in an interview. While more aggressive than most, TikTok’s extensive lobbying campaign is the latest attempt by the tech industry to head off any new legislation — and it's a fight the industry usually wins. For years Congress has failed to act on bills that would protect users’ privacy, protect children from online threats, make companies more liable for their content and put loose guardrails around artificial intelligence, among other things. “I mean, it’s almost embarrassing,” says Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., a former tech executive who is also supporting the TikTok bill and has long tried to push his colleagues to regulate the industry. “I would hate for us to maintain our perfect zero batting average on tech legislation.” Some see the TikTok bill as the best chance for now to regulate the tech industry and set a precedent, if a narrow one focused on just one company. President Joe Biden has said he would sign the House bill, which overwhelmingly passed 362-65 this month after a rare 50-0 committee vote moving it to the floor. But it’s already running into roadblocks in the Senate, where there is little unanimity on the best approach to ensure that China doesn’t access private data from the app’s 170 million U.S. users or influence them through its algorithms. Other factors are holding the Senate back. The tech industry is broad and falls under the jurisdiction of several different committees. Plus, the issues at play don't fall cleanly on partisan lines, making it harder for lawmakers to agree on priorities and how legislation should be written. Senate Commerce Committee Chairwoman Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., has so far been reluctant to embrace the TikTok bill, for example, calling for hearings first and suggesting that the Senate may want to rewrite it. “We’re going through a process,” Cantwell said. “It’s important to get it right.” Warner, on the other hand, says the House bill is the best chance to get something done after years of inaction. And he says that the threatening calls from young people are a good example of why the legislation is needed: “It makes the point, do we really want that kind of messaging being able to be manipulated by the Communist Party of China?” Some lawmakers are worried that blocking TikTok could anger millions of young people who use the app, a crucial segment of voters in November's election. But Warner says "the debate has shifted” from talk of an outright ban a year ago to the House bill which would force TikTok, a wholly owned subsidiary of Chinese technology firm ByteDance Ltd., to sell its stake for the app to continue operating. Vice President Kamala Harris, in a television interview that aired Sunday, acknowledged the popularity of the app and that it has become an income stream for many people. She said the administration does not intend to ban TikTok but instead deal with its ownership. “We understand its purpose and its utility and the enjoyment that it gives a lot of folks,” Harris told ABC's ”This Week." Republicans are divided. While most of them support the TikTok legislation, others are wary of overregulation and the government targeting one specific entity. “The passage of the House TikTok ban is not just a misguided overreach; it’s a draconian measure that stifles free expression, tramples constitutional rights, and disrupts the economic pursuits of millions of Americans,” Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul posted on X, formerly Twitter. Hoping to persuade their colleagues to support the bill, Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee have called for intelligence agencies to declassify information about TikTok and China’s ownership that has been provided to senators in classified briefings. “It is critically important that the American people, especially TikTok users, understand the national security issues at stake,” the senators said in a joint statement. Blumenthal and Blackburn have separate legislation they have been working on for several years aimed at protecting children’s online safety, but the Senate has yet to vote on it. Efforts to regulate online privacy have also stalled, as has legislation to make technology companies more liable for the content they publish. And an effort by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to quickly move legislation that would regulate the burgeoning artificial intelligence industry has yet to show any results. Schumer has said very little about the TikTok bill or whether he might put it on the Senate floor. “The Senate will review the legislation when it comes over from the House,” was all he would say after the House passed the bill. South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds, a Republican who has worked with Schumer on the artificial intelligence effort, says he thinks the Senate can eventually pass a TikTok bill, even if it's a different version. He says the classified briefings “convinced the vast majority of members” that they have to address the collection of data from the app and TikTok's ability to push out misinformation to users. “I think it’s a clear danger to our country if we don’t act,” he said. “It does not have to be done in two weeks, but it does have to be done.” Rounds says he and Schumer are still holding regular meetings on artificial intelligence, as well, and will soon release some of their ideas publicly. He says he’s optimistic that the Senate will eventually act to regulate the tech industry. “There will be some areas that we will not try to get into, but there are some areas that we have very broad consensus on,” Rounds says. Tillis says senators may have to continue laying the groundwork for a while and educating colleagues on why some regulation is needed, with an eye toward passing legislation in the next Congress. “It can’t be the wild, wild west,” Tillis said.

United Nations — The U.N. General Assembly adopted by consensus Thursday a first-of-its-kind resolution addressing the potential of artificial intelligence to accelerate progress toward sustainable development, while emphasizing the need for safe, secure and trustworthy AI systems. The initiative, led by the United States, seeks to manage AI’s risks while utilizing its benefits. “Today as the U.N. and AI finally intersect, we have the opportunity and the responsibility to choose as one united global community to govern this technology rather than to let it govern us,” said U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield. “So let us reaffirm that AI will be created and deployed through the lens of humanity and dignity, safety and security, human rights and fundamental freedoms.” The Biden administration said it took more than three months to negotiate what it characterized as a “baseline set of principles” around AI, engaging with 120 countries and incorporating feedback from many of them, including China, which was one of the 123 co-sponsors of the text. While General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, they reflect the political consensus of the international community. The resolution recognizes the disparities in technological development between developed and developing countries and stresses the need to bridge the digital divide so everyone can equitably access the benefits of AI. It also outlines measures for responsible AI governance, including the development of regulatory frameworks, capacity building initiatives and support for research and innovation. The resolution encourages international collaboration to address the evolving challenges and opportunities AI technologies pose, with a focus on advancing sustainable development goals. U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris welcomed adoption of the resolution, saying all nations must be guided by a common set of understandings on the use of AI systems. “Too often, in past technological revolutions, the benefits have not been shared equitably, and the harms have been felt by a disproportionate few,” she said in a statement. “This resolution establishes a path forward on AI where every country can both seize the promise and manage the risks of AI.” At the World Economic Forum meetings in Davos, Switzerland, in January, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern about the risk of unintended consequences with “every new iteration of generative AI.” He said it has “enormous potential” for sustainable development but also the potential to worsen inequality. “And some powerful tech companies are already pursuing profits with a clear disregard for human rights, personal privacy and social impact,” he said at the time. The U.N. chief created an AI advisory body last year, and it will publish its final report ahead of the U.N.’s Summit of the Future in September.

NEW YORK — Reddit soared in its Wall Street debut as investors pushed the valued of the company close to $9 billion seconds after it began trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Reddit, which priced its IPO at $34 a share, debuted Thursday afternoon at $47 a share. The going price has climbed even higher since, with shares for the self-anointed "front page of the internet" soaring more than 55% as of around 1:20 p.m. ET. The IPO will test the quirky company's ability to overcome a nearly 20-year history colored by uninterrupted losses, management turmoil and occasional user backlashes to build a sustainable business. "The supply is pretty limited and there's strong demand, so my sense is that this is going to be a hot IPO," Reena Aggarwal, director of Georgetown University's Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy, said ahead of Reddit's trading Thursday. "The good news for Reddit is it's a hot market." Still, she also anticipates Reddit's IPO to be volatile. Even with a sizeable "pop," it's possible that some might sell their shares to reap their gains soon after, potentially causing prices to drift. The interest surrounding Reddit stems largely from a large audience that religiously visits the service to discuss a potpourri of subjects that range from silly memes to existential worries, as well as get recommendations from like-minded people. About 76 million users checked into one of Reddit's roughly 100,000 communities in December, according to the regulatory disclosures required before the San Francisco company goes public. Reddit set aside up to 1.76 million of 15.3 million shares being offered in the IPO for users of its service. Per the usual IPO custom, the remaining shares are expected to be bought primarily by mutual funds and other institutional investors betting Reddit is ready for prime time in finance. Reddit's moneymaking potential also has attracted some prominent supporters, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who accumulated a stake as an early investor that has made him one of the company's biggest shareholders. Altman owns 12.2 million shares of Reddit stock, according to the company's IPO disclosures. Other early investors in Reddit have included PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, Academy Award-winning actor Jared Leto and rapper Snoop Dogg. None of them are listed among Reddit's largest shareholders heading into the IPO. By the tech industry's standards, Reddit remains extraordinarily small for a company that has been around as long as it has. Reddit has never profited from its broad reach while piling up cumulative losses of $717 million. That number has swollen from cumulative losses of $467 million in December 2021 when the company first filed papers to go public before aborting that attempt. In the recent documents filed for its revived IPO, Reddit attributed the losses to a fairly recent focus on finding new ways to boost revenue. Not long after it was born, Reddit was sold to magazine publisher Conde Nast for $10 million in deal that meant the company didn't need to run as a standalone business. Even after Conde Nast parent Advance Magazine Publishers spun off Reddit in 2011, the company said in its IPO filing that it didn't begin to focus on generating revenue until 2018. Those efforts, mostly centered around selling ads, have helped the social platform increase its annual revenue from $229 million in 2020 to $804 million last year. But the San Francisco-based company also posted combined losses of $436 million from 2020 through 2023. Reddit outlined a strategy in its filing calling for even more ad sales on a service that it believes companies will be a powerful marketing magnet because so many people search for product recommendations there. The company also is hoping to bring in more money by licensing access to its content in deals similar to the $60 million that Google recently struck to help train its artificial intelligence models. That ambition, though, faced an almost immediate challenge when the U.S. Federal Trade Commission opened an inquiry into the arrangement. Since Thursday just marks Reddit's first day on the public market, Aggarwal stresses that the first key measure of success will boil down to the company's next earnings call. "As a public company now they have to report a lot more ... in the next earnings release," she said. "I'm sure the market will watch that carefully." Reddit also experienced tumultuous bouts of instability in leadership that may scare off prospective investors. Company co-founders Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian — also the husband of tennis superstar Serena Williams — both left Reddit in 2009 while Conde Nast was still in control, only to return years later. Huffman, 40, is now CEO, but how he got the job serves as a reminder of how messy things can get at Reddit. The change in command occurred in 2015 after Ellen Pao resigned as CEO amid a nasty user backlash to the banning of several communities and the firing of Reddit's talent director. Even though Ohanian said he was primarily responsible for the firing and the bans, Pao was hit with most of the vitriol. Although his founder's letter leading up to this IPO didn't mention it, Huffman touched upon the company's past turmoil in another missive included in a December 2021 filing attempt that was subsequently canceled. "We lived these challenges publicly and have the scars, learnings, and policy updates to prove it," Huffman wrote in 2021. "Our history influences our future. There will undoubtedly be more challenges to come."

Washington — The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday sued Apple, the first major antitrust effort against the iPhone maker by the Biden administration, alleging it monopolized smartphone markets.   Apple joins a list of major tech companies sued by U.S. regulators, including Alphabet's  Google, Meta Platforms and Amazon.com across the administrations of both former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden. "Consumers should not have to pay higher prices because companies violate the antitrust laws," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. "If left unchallenged, Apple will only continue to strengthen its smartphone monopoly." The Justice Department alleges that Apple uses its market power to get more money from consumers, developers, content creators, artists, publishers, small businesses and merchants. The civil lawsuit accuses Apple of an illegal monopoly on smartphones maintained by imposing contractual restrictions on, and withholding critical access from, developers. Apple has already been subject to antitrust probes and orders in Europe, Japan and Korea, as well as lawsuits from corporate rivals such as Epic Games.   One of Apple's most lucrative businesses - its App Store, which charges developers commissions of up to 30% - has already survived a lengthy legal challenge under U.S. law by Epic. While the lawsuit found that Apple did not violate antitrust laws, a federal judge ordered Apple to allow links and buttons to pay for apps without using Apple's in-app payment commission. In Europe, Apple's App Store business model has been dismantled by a new law called the Digital Markets Act that went into effect earlier this month. Apple plans to let developers offer their own app stores - and, importantly, pay no commissions - but rivals such as Spotify and Epic argue Apple is still making it too hard to offer alternative app stores. The rulings on Apple's App Store forced the Justice Department to look at Apple's other practices for the basis of a complaint, such as how Apple allows outside firms to access the chips and sensors in the iPhone. Consumer hardware firms, such as smart-tracker maker Tile Inc, have long complained that Apple has restricted the ways in which they can work with the iPhone's sensors while developing competing products that have greater access.   Apple began selling AirTags - which can be attached to items like car keys to help users find them when they are lost - several years after Tile had been selling a similar product. Similarly, Apple has restricted access to a chip in the iPhone that allows for contactless payments. Credit cards can only be added to the iPhone by using Apple's own Apple Pay service.   And Apple has also faced criticism over its iMessage service, which only works on Apple devices. Apple has long argued that it restricts access to some user data and some of the iPhone's hardware by third-party developers for privacy and security reasons.

New York — President Joe Biden's administration announced Wednesday revised pollution standards for cars and trucks meant to accelerate the U.S. auto industry's shift to electric to mitigate climate change. The rules set ambitious emission reductions for 2032 but are moderated somewhat compared with preliminary standards unveiled last April. Following carmaker criticism, the final rules give manufacturers greater flexibility and ease the benchmarks in the first three years. Those shifts were criticized as a sop to corporations from at least one environmental group, even as the final rule won praise from other leading NGOs focused on climate change. The final rules — which were described by administration official as "the strongest ever" and would likely be undone if Republican Donald Trump defeats Biden in November — still require a nearly 50% drop in fleet-wide emissions in 2032 compared with 2026 through increased sales of electric vehicles (EVs) and low-emission autos. The rules, which dovetail with other key Biden programs to build more EV charging stations and manufacturing facilities and incentivize EV sales, establish the environment as a significant point of difference in the 2024 presidential election. Trump has mocked climate change as a problem and cast the transition to EVs as a job-killer that will benefit China at the expense of American workers. Biden argues that U.S. auto builders need to take the lead in the expanding EV market. "I brought together American automakers. I brought together American autoworkers," said Biden in a statement. "Together, we've made historic progress." Alluding to his target set three years ago that 50% of new vehicles in 2030 would be EVs, Biden predicted "we'll meet my goal for 2030 and race forward in the years ahead." EVs accounted for 7.6% in 2023 sales, up from 5.9% in 2022, according to Cox Automotive. The original proposal had envisioned the EV share surging to as much as 67% of new vehicle sales by 2032. Carmakers, which are midway through sweeping, multi-billion-dollar investments to build more EV capacity, criticized the initial standards as overly-stringent. They cited the limited state of charging capacity in the United States that has dampened consumer demand, as well as difficulties in supply of metals and other raw materials for EV batteries. Following input from the auto industry, organized labor and auto dealerships, Biden administration officials decided to allow manufacturers a "variety of pathways" to reaching the standard, a senior Biden administration official said Tuesday. This path could include a mix of EVs, conventional but more fuel-efficient engines, and plug-in hybrid vehicles, which have seen a rise in demand of late. Biden administration officials opted to soften year-to-year emissions improvements in the 2027-2030 period, while maintaining the same target in 2032. Moderating the targets in these first three years "was the right call," said John Bozzella, president of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a Washington lobby representing carmakers. "These adjusted EV targets — still a stretch goal — should give the market and supply chains a chance to catch up," said Bozzella, adding that the extra time will allow more EV charging stations to come on-line. The final standards set a fleet-wide target of 85 grams of carbon dioxide in 2032, down from 170 in 2027, according to an administration fact sheet. Wednesday's initiative won praise from leading environmental groups including the Sierra Club and NRDC, which said the new rules "take us in the right direction," according to a statement from the Natural Resources Defense Council chief Manish Bapna. But Dan Becker, director of the climate transport campaign at the Center for Biological Diversity, slammed the adjusted rules as "significantly weaker." "The EPA caved to pressure from Big Auto, Big Oil and car dealers and riddled the plan with loopholes big enough to drive a Ford F150 through," Becker said. "The weaker rule means cars and pickups spew more pollution, oil companies keep socking consumers at the pump, and automakers keep wielding well-practiced delay tactics."

Washington — The initial backlash came quickly. Within hours of last week’s vote in the House of Representatives approving legislation that could lead to a ban of the popular TikTok app in the United States, anger and outrage poured onto multiple social media platforms. Some of the anger targeted U.S. lawmakers who supported the bill. Some focused on China. And a number of social media accounts, some with large followings, put the blame on Israel and pro-Jewish groups in the United States. “A foreign government is influencing the 2024 election,” Briahna Joy Gray posted on X. “I'm not talking about China, but Israel,” added the former national press secretary for Senator Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign.   Jake Shields, a former mixed martial arts fighter who has used social media in the past to share his views on transgender issues, blamed the Anti-Defamation League and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. “The ADL said Tiktok Is a threat to Israel,” Shields posted on X. “AIPAC the Israeli lobby gave Dan Crebsahaw [sic] millions of dollars Now Crenshaw fights to ban TikTok.” And journalist Glenn Greenwald said on X that the TikTok legislation gained momentum only after “Bipartisan DC became enraged so many Americans were allowed to criticize Israel” using the TikTok app.   Other posts and videos were quickly shared across other major platforms, including TikTok and Facebook. U.S. officials contacted by VOA said the rush by some social media users to blame Israel or Jewish groups was not a surprise. “Unfortunately, there are antisemitic people in America who will blame Israel and the Jewish people for anything, even Congress banning a Chinese-controlled app,” Republican Senator Marco Rubio said in a statement to VOA. “Their love for TikTok is no coincidence; it’s a tool used by the Chinese Communist Party to sow division and weaken our nation,” said Rubio, the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a supporter of the legislation. “We can debate Middle East policy, but we must not tolerate hate or allow Communist China to manipulate our discourse.” The FBI, which has warned repeatedly over the last several months both about the danger of TikTok and about a rising tide of antisemitism across the country, declined to comment, pointing to comments made by Director Christopher Wray at congressional hearings earlier this month. “Americans need to ask themselves whether they want to give the Chinese government the ability to control access to their data, whether they want to give the Chinese government the ability to control the information they get through their recommendation algorithm,” Wray told House lawmakers during the annual Worldwide Threats hearing last week. “When it comes to the algorithm and the recommendation algorithm and the ability to conduct influence operations, that is extraordinarily difficult to detect,” Wray added. Researchers who track influence operations on social media, while wary, tell VOA that they have yet to see evidence that the spread of conspiracy theories blaming Israel or Jewish groups for the TikTok legislation is part of a concerted campaign. “The period after 10/7 [Hamas terror attack on Israel] made clear that antisemitic conspiracies can spread rapidly across TikTok just by the nature of the platform's algorithm, so no external coordination would be required as an explanation,” said Ben Dubow, president of Washington-based Omelas, which uses a combination of data collection, artificial intelligence and experts to track and analyze online disinformation and influence operations. Dubow did not rule out the possibility that TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, could be giving the anti-Israel and antisemitic posts more play if the Chinese government thought it might be helpful. “The scant research available on TikTok's algorithm often suggests ByteDance privileges content favorable to CCP [Chinese Communist Party] policy goals,” he said. Omelas also found the conspiracy theories received some attention from other media outlets, including Russia-controlled RT and Qatar-based Al Jazeera. “We're seeing a few posts from RT and Al Jazeera tying the renewed push for a ban to TikTok's role in the spread of ‘anti-Zionism’ in response to October 7,” Dubow said. “But none tying it explicitly to AIPAC and ADL.” Geoff Roth, a professor of practice and journalism at the University of Houston, agreed the surge of social media posts echoing the Israel-TikTok narrative appeared to be “more organic.” “The Israel conspiracy theory, as I like to put it, just seems to be coming from people who in general post stuff that is anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian,” he told VOA. “It comes from different sides of the political spectrum,” Roth said. “But I think there’s people on both sides of the political spectrum that have a lot of anti-Israeli sentiment because of what’s going on in Gaza.” Roth also noted that the theory tying the TikTok legislation to Israel and Jewish groups, while possibly the most prominent, is not the only narrative that gained traction following the bill’s passage in the House. “There's the narrative of security and concerns about the [Chinese]Communist Party and whether or not that [the legislation] is justified,” he said. “And then sort of the more far out things out there like, this is a Republican plot to get younger voters to be against Biden because if Biden signed it into law, he's going to lose votes from younger people.” One account on X pushing the Republican plot theory called the TikTok legislation “another trick.” A second X account added, “I’d wager Republicans who just voted for a TikTok Ban will rename it the ‘Biden Ban the moment he signs it and within weeks that will be the official name and all anyone remembers.”  

Washington — The Biden administration has reached an agreement to provide Intel with up to $8.5 billion in direct funding and $11 billion in loans for computer chip plants in Arizona, Ohio, New Mexico and Oregon.  President Joe Biden plans to talk up the investment on Wednesday as he visits Intel's campus in Chandler, Arizona, which could be a decisive swing state in November’s election. He has often said that not enough voters know about his economic policies and suggested that more would support him if they did know.  Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the deal reached through her department would put the United States in a position to produce 20% of the world's most advanced chips by 2030, up from the current level of zero. The United States designs advanced chips, but its inability to make them domestically has emerged as a national security and economic risk.  “Failure is not an option — leading-edge chips are the core of our innovation system, especially when it comes to advances in artificial intelligence and our military systems,” Raimondo said on a call with reporters. “We can’t just design chips. We have to make them in America.” The funding announcement comes amid the heat of the 2024 presidential campaign. Biden has been telling voters that his policies have led to a resurgence in U.S. manufacturing and job growth. His message is a direct challenge to former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, who raised tariffs while in the White House and wants to do so again on the promise of protecting U.S. factory jobs from China.  Biden narrowly beat Trump in Arizona in 2020 by a margin of 49.4% to 49.1%.  U.S. adults have dim views of Biden's economic leadership, with just 34% approving, according to a February poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs. The lingering impact of inflation hitting a four-decade high in 2022 has hurt the Democrat, who had a 52% approval on the economy in July 2021.  Intel's projects would be funded in part through the bipartisan 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, which the Biden administration helped shepherd through Congress at a time of concerns after the pandemic that the loss of access to chips made in Asia could plunge the U.S. economy into recession.   When pushing for the investment, lawmakers expressed concern about efforts by China to control Taiwan, which accounts for more than 90% of advanced computer chip production.  Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat up for reelection this year, stressed that his state would become "a global leader in semiconductor manufacturing” as Intel would be generating thousands of jobs. Ohio has voted for Trump in the past two presidential elections, and Brown in November will face Republican Bernie Moreno, a Trump-backed businessman from Cleveland.  Wednesday's announcement is the fourth and largest so far under the chips law, with the government support expected to help enable Intel to make $100 billion in capital investments over five years. About 25% of that total would involve building and land, while roughly 70% would go to equipment, said Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel.  “We think of this as a defining moment for the United States, the semiconductor industry and for Intel,” said Gelsinger, who called the CHIPS Act “the most critical industrial policy legislation since World War II.”  The Intel CEO said on a call with reporters that he would like to see a sequel to the 2022 law in order to provide additional funding for the industry.  Biden administration officials say that computer chip companies would not be investing domestically at their expected scale without the government support. Intel funding would lead to a combined 30,000 manufacturing and construction jobs. The company also plans to claim tax credits from the Treasury Department worth up to 25% on qualified investments.  The Santa Clara, California-based company will use the funding in four different states. In Chandler, Arizona, the money will help to build two new chip plants and modernize an existing one. The funding will establish two advanced plants in New Albany, Ohio, which is just outside the state capital of Columbus.  The company will also turn two of its plants in Rio Rancho, New Mexico into advanced packaging facilities. And Intel will also modernize facilities in Hillsboro, Oregon.  The Biden administration has also made workforce training and access to affordable childcare a priority in agreements to support companies. Under the agreement with the Commerce Department, Intel will commit to local training programs as well as increase the reimbursement amount for its childcare program, among other efforts. 

washington — The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill March 13 that, if enacted into law, would give ByteDance, the Chinese owner of the TikTok social media app, 180 days to divest its U.S. assets or face a ban over concerns about national security, including Beijing's ability to access Americans' private information through the company ByteDance denies it would provide such private data to the Chinese government, despite reports indicating such information could be at risk. VOA sat down on the day the bill passed with Republican Representative Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida, chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on state, foreign operations and related programs, and co-chair of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus, to hear why he supported the bill and why he's calling for faster military support for Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing claims as a breakaway province that must one day reunite with the mainland, by force if necessary. This year marks the 45th anniversary of Congress' enactment of the Taiwan Relations Act, which outlines nondiplomatic relations between Washington and Taipei in the wake of formal U.S. recognition of Beijing as the government of China. The act states that the U.S. must provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself. This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity. VOA: The House just passed a bill that would require ByteDance to divest TikTok. Did you support this bill? U.S. Representative Mario Diaz-Balart: I absolutely did. … It has strong bipartisan support. And there's also been a lot of misinformation about it. People say that it's to ban TikTok. No, it's basically saying you have to divest from, in essence, being controlled by the Communist Party of China. We would have never allowed, during the Soviet empire, the Soviet Union to control, to own, one of the major networks in the United States - ABC, NBC, CBS. Why? Because it's a threat to national security. In this case, it's even more dramatic because they [the Chinese] have access not only to getting into people's homes, but to actually get information from the American people. And they've been pretty good and very aggressive at doing that. And so TikTok needs to be divested. That's the least that we should be requiring, and if so, then they can continue to function. But we cannot allow for this to function, getting information from the American people to an entity that is in essence a subsidiary of the Communist Party of China. VOA: It is a consensus in Washington that if China invaded Taiwan, it would trigger a domino effect that could be catastrophic for the U.S. What are the most important actions the U.S. can take right now to prevent that from happening? Diaz-Balart: The key is to avoid China doing something stupid, to avoid China being irresponsible in trying to intervene militarily with Taiwan. … And the way to do that is to make sure that Taiwan has the weaponry, everything it needs, so that China understands that trying to invade Taiwan is a very, very bad proposition. VOA: The Biden administration last month approved a package of military equipment sales to Taiwan. Some analysts are worried this may not be sufficient to counter China's aggression in the region. Do you think military sales to Taiwan are sufficient? Diaz-Balart: I think military sales to Taiwan have to be done quicker. We have to be more aggressive … not only, obviously, directly, to help send the weaponry, sell the weaponry, and send the weaponry to Taiwan, but we also have to keep up with our defense spending domestically to keep the military industrial base alive and, well, with what we've seen, for example, going on Ukraine, [that] has demonstrated that we're not where we need to be as far as our industrial base. VOA: You visited Taiwan in January right after its election. What is your key takeaway from that trip? Diaz-Balart: Taiwan is a very vigorous democracy. The press is very aggressive. That's a good thing. ... We made a point of obviously visiting with the president and the vice president-elect, also with the outgoing president. But we also met with the leadership of the other two parties, because it's important to demonstrate that we cherish and that we love democracy and freedom. Taiwan is a beacon of freedom and democracy. VOA: It is the bipartisan consensus to see China as one of the biggest geopolitical challenges for the U.S. in the coming decades. What should be the top priority the U.S. should tackle right now with China?   Diaz-Balart: We have to be a little bit more serious about understanding that China is a very dangerous player in the world. It is the largest fascist dictatorship on the planet, and the wealthiest fascist dictatorship on the planet. It has very ambitious goals. It has, you know, we see the cyberattacks that have taken place in this country that we know have come from Communist China. We also know that there have been thousands upon thousands of men, military-age males, coming from China across the southern border, which should frankly frighten all of us. … That means utilizing every diplomatic and economic tool at our disposal to treat China as what it is: a growing threat to the United States and to the world. And you see, for example, in the region, how countries are very concerned about China's aggressiveness, whether it's the Philippines or India or even Vietnam. So there's a growing concern in the world about this aggressive attitude of China. But we need to take real steps to confront that in a way to avoid war. VOA: You're also the chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on state, foreign operations and related programs. What kind of role would you like to see U.S. international broadcasting agencies like Voice of America play in countering Chinese Communist Party propaganda? Diaz-Balart: The Voice of America has been a key player for decades in that cause of freedom and in getting real news, real information to people who don't have access to it because of censorship. And so I've always been a strong supporter of it because of that. I think information is key. The first thing that happens in a dictatorship is that they close the ability for people to get real information, to get real news. And if we can be helpful to have people around the world get real information, real news, not only about what happens around the world but also what even happens in their own country, I think that is a service to humanity. Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.

Washington — The US Supreme Court was hearing arguments on Monday in a social media case involving free speech rights and government efforts to curb misinformation online. The case stems from a lawsuit brought by the Republican attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri, who allege that government officials went too far in their efforts to get platforms to combat vaccine and election misinformation. A lower court last year restricted some top officials and agencies of President Joe Biden's administration from meeting and communicating with social media companies to moderate their content. The ruling was a win for conservative advocates who allege that the government pressured or colluded with platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to censor right-leaning content under the guise of fighting misinformation. The order applied to a slew of agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the State Department and Justice Department as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The decision restricted agencies and officials from meeting with social media companies or flagging posts containing "free speech" protected under the First Amendment to the Constitution. Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry hailed the "historic injunction" at the time, saying it would prevent the Biden administration from "censoring the core political speech of ordinary Americans" on social media. He accused federal officials of seeking to "dictate what Americans can and cannot say on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other platforms about COVID-19, elections, criticism of the government, and more." The order could seriously limit top government agencies from notifying the platforms about false or hateful content that can lead to harmful consequences. But the ruling said that the government could still inform them about posts involving criminal activity, national security threats and foreign attempts to influence elections. In addition to communications with social media companies, the ruling also restricted agencies from "collaborating, coordinating, partnering" with groups such as the Election Integrity Partnership, a coalition of research institutions that tackle election-related falsehoods. Some experts in misinformation and First Amendment law criticized the ruling, saying authorities needed to strike a balance between calling out falsehoods and veering towards censorship or curbing free speech.

After the Apollo program ended, the US took a long hiatus from lunar exploration. What happened during this time, and what has NASA been doing? This documentary by the Voice of America's Russian service explores the multiple attempts to return to the Moon, the space developments that laid the foundation for future concepts, and the birth of the Artemis lunar program.

Washington — The U.S. Treasury Department unveiled sanctions against a network of companies and individuals for facilitating illegal technology transfers from dozens of U.S. firms to Iranian entities, including the country's central bank.  The sanctions relate to Informatics Services Corporation (ISC), the technology arm of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), the Treasury Department said in a statement Friday.   It also sanctioned a number of alleged ISC subsidiaries and front companies based in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, and three individuals allegedly linked to them including Pouria Mirdamadi, a French-Iranian dual national.  Brian Nelson, the U.S. Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said the CBI "has played a critical role" in providing financial support to Lebanon's Hezbollah and the foreign arm of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, known as the Quds Force.   "The United States will continue to use all available means to disrupt the Iranian regime's illicit attempts to procure sensitive U.S. technology and critical inputs," he said in a statement.   The Treasury's move freezes any U.S. assets associated with the sanctioned individuals and entities, and generally prohibits Americans from doing business with them. 

The White House is urging senators to quickly begin considering a bill that would address national security concerns related to the social media app TikTok. The House approved the measure earlier this week. VOA Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports. Camera: Saqib Ul Islam.

washington — Chinese drone maker DJI is expanding in the U.S. with its first flagship store in New York City amid allegations of links to human rights abuses and ties to China’s military. DJI’s “first concept” North American store on New York’s Fifth Avenue welcomes customers into a futuristic, minimalist space to shop. The company describes itself on its website as “the world's leader in civil drones and creative camera technology.” "We continue to see growing consumer demand throughout North America as we expand our consumer product portfolio," said Christina Zhang, senior director of corporate strategy at DJI. Headquartered in Shenzhen, China, the company was founded in 2006. DJI, also known as Da Jiang Innovations, has become the world’s largest drone maker, having achieved global dominance in less than 20 years. The company now supplies 70% of the world's consumer drones and nearly 80% of U.S. consumer drones. Abuse allegations On March 5, the day of DJI’s official store opening in New York, the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP), a Washington research and advocacy group, released a report titled Surveillance Tech Series: DJI’s Links to Human Rights Abuses in East Turkistan. The report accuses DJI of being involved in mass surveillance and rights violations against Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz and other Muslim communities in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which the group calls East Turkistan. “DJI is directly involved in mass surveillance schemes in East Turkistan and has supplied public security agencies with tools to surveil and target Uyghurs, Kazakh, and Kyrgyz people,” the UHRP report said. “Xinjiang public security departments entered into seven procurement orders with DJI that were worth nearly US$300,000 between 2019 and 2022.” The report stated that DJI sells drones to Xinjiang’s paramilitary organization, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, which the U.S. government sanctioned because of its “connection with serious rights abuses against ethnic minorities” in Xinjiang. “Other documents show tenders worth US$47,000 for DJI drones for the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps,” the UHRP report stated. The report also said that a DJI drone captured footage of dozens of individuals, seemingly Uyghur prisoners, blindfolded and shackled at a train station in southern Xinjiang. The video, first released on YouTube in 2019, garnered widespread media attention. “It’s unethical to support a company that knowingly engages in egregious rights violations,” Nuzigum Setiwaldi, the report’s author, told Voice of America. The U.S. and several Western parliaments have accused China of genocide in Xinjiang, targeting Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim populations. The U.N. human rights office released a report saying the human rights violations in Xinjiang may amount to crimes against humanity. China criticized Western nations for spreading "lies" about human rights in Xinjiang and Tibet. A spokesperson from DJI told VOA the company has not engaged in any activities, including sales distribution and product development, that violate or abuse human rights. “Like other manufacturers, we do not have control over how our products are used as they are available off the shelf,” wrote a DJI spokesperson in an email response. “However, we have demonstrated – through years of investments in product safety and security initiatives – that our products are developed for peaceful and civilian use only.” Chinese military company or not? In 2022, The Washington Post reported that DJI obscured ties to Chinese government funding. In the same year, the U.S. Department of Defense classified DJI as a "Chinese military company." As of January, DJI remains on the list of such companies operating in the United States. The department said it maintains companies on the list to counter China's Military-Civil Fusion strategy, which supports the modernization of the Chinese army. Reuters reported that former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who ran the U.S. Justice Department from 2015 to 2017 and is now with the Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison law firm, wrote a letter to the Defense Department last July on behalf of DJI, urging the removal of her client from the Pentagon's Chinese military companies list. In her letter, Lynch cited the importance and urgency of such a move because of the wide use of and dependence on DJI products by a variety of U.S. stakeholders. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warned in January that Chinese-made drones posed “significant risk” to U.S. national security and critical infrastructure. “[T]he PRC’s 2017 National Intelligence Law compels Chinese companies to cooperate with state intelligence services, including providing access to data collected within China and around the world,” CISA said in its cybersecurity guidance on Chinese manufactured drones or unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). However, DJI’s spokesperson told VOA that DJI “is not a Chinese military company.” According to DJI, the company remains one of the few drone companies that clearly “denounce and actively discourage” the use of drones in combat. “We do not pursue business opportunities for combat use or operations. Our distributors, resellers and other business partners globally have also committed to following this policy when they sell and use our products,” DJI spokesperson said.

BOCA CHICA, Texas — SpaceX's Starship, a futuristic vehicle designed to eventually carry astronauts to the moon and beyond, was poised for a third uncrewed test launch Thursday that Elon Musk's company hopes will carry it farther than before, even if it ends up exploding once again in flight. The spacecraft, mounted atop its towering Super Heavy rocket booster, was due for liftoff as early as 8 a.m. EDT from SpaceX's Starbase launch site on the Gulf of Mexico near Boca Chica, Texas. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration just granted a license for the test flight on Wednesday afternoon. Unlike the first two test flights last year, aimed mainly at demonstrating that the spacecraft's two stages can separate after launch, the third test flight will involve an attempt to open Starship's payload door and reignite one of its engines in space. Each of the previous flights were routed toward a planned crash landing near the Hawaiian islands in the Pacific, while the latest flight is targeting a splashdown zone in the Indian Ocean. Even if it achieves more of its test objectives than before, SpaceX acknowledges a high probability that Starship's latest flight will end up like the first two, with the vehicle blowing itself to bits before its intended trajectory is complete. Regardless of how well it performs on Thursday, all indications are that Starship remains a considerable distance from becoming fully operational. Musk, SpaceX's billionaire founder and CEO, has said the rocket should fly hundreds of uncrewed missions before carrying its first humans. And several other ambitious milestones overseen by NASA are needed before the craft can execute a moon landing with American astronauts. Still, Musk is counting on Starship to fulfill his goal of producing a large, multipurpose next-generation spacecraft capable of sending people and cargo to the moon later this decade, and ultimately flying to Mars. Closer to home, Musk also sees Starship as eventually replacing the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as the workhorse in company's commercial launch business that already lofts most of the world's satellites and other payloads to low-Earth orbit. For Thursday, SpaceX is aiming to at least exceed Starship's performance with its Super Heavy booster during their inaugural test launch together last April, when the spacecraft exploded over the Gulf less than four minutes into a planned 90-minute flight. That flight went awry from the start. Some of the Super Heavy's 33 Raptor engines malfunctioned on ascent, and the lower-stage rocket failed to separate as designed from the upper-stage Starship, leading to termination of the flight. The second test flight in November made it farther than the first, and managed to properly achieve stage separation, but the spacecraft exploded about eight minutes after launch. SpaceX's engineering culture, considered more risk-tolerant than many of the aerospace industry's more established players, is built on a flight-testing strategy that pushes spacecraft to the point of failure, then fine-tunes improvements through frequent repetition. NASA, SpaceX's biggest customer, has a lot riding in the success of Starship, which the U.S. space agency is giving a central role in its Artemis program, successor to the Apollo missions that put astronauts on the moon for the first time more than 50 years ago. While NASA Administrator chief Bill Nelson has embraced Musk's frequent flight-testing approach, agency officials in recent months have made clear their desire to see greater progress with Starship's development as the U.S. races with China to the lunar surface.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday that would force short-video app TikTok, used by about 170 million Americans, to separate from its Chinese owner, ByteDance, or face a ban. VOA Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson says the Senate may not approve the bill.

Tokyo — A rocket made by a Japanese company exploded just after launch on Wednesday, with public broadcaster NHK showing footage of the fiery failure. Tokyo-based startup Space One had been aiming to become the first Japanese private firm to successfully place a satellite into orbit. Its 18-meter solid-fuel Kairos rocket blasted off from the startup's own launch pad in Wakayama prefecture in western Japan, carrying a small government test satellite. But seconds after the launch, the rocket erupted into a ball of flame, with black smoke filling the launch pad area. Burning debris was seen falling onto the surrounding mountain slopes as sprinklers began spraying water. "The launch of the first Kairos rocket was executed, but we took a measure to abort the flight," Space One said in a statement, adding that "details are being investigated". The failure marks a blow to Japan's efforts to enter the potentially lucrative satellite-launch market. The government wants to assess if it can quickly launch temporary, small satellites when and if its existing spy satellites malfunction. Kairos had been hoped to put the satellite into orbit around 51 minutes after launch. Space One was established in 2018 by a team of major Japanese tech businesses, including Canon Electronics, IHI Aerospace, construction firm Shimizu and the government-owned Development Bank of Japan. Last July another Japanese rocket engine exploded during a test around 50 seconds after ignition. The solid-fuel Epsilon S was an improved version of the Epsilon rocket that had failed to launch the previous October. Its testing site in the northern prefecture of Akita was engulfed in flames and a huge plume of grey smoke rose into the sky. The malfunction came after Tokyo in March 2023 had seen its second attempt to launch its next-generation H3 rocket fail after liftoff. Last month though Japan's space agency toasted a successful blast-off for its new flagship rocket, the H3, after years of delays and two previous failed attempts. The H3 launched from the Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan, sparking cheers and applause at JAXA control center. It has been mooted as a rival to SpaceX's Falcon 9 and could one day deliver cargo to bases on the moon. That followed Japan's successful landing in January of an unmanned probe on the moon, albeit at a wonky angle, making it just the fifth country to achieve a "soft landing" on the lunar surface.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to approve legislation Wednesday that would force the popular TikTok video app to either separate from its Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance or sell the U.S. version of the software. The bipartisan Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act “gives TikTok six months to eliminate foreign adversary control — which would include ByteDance divesting its current ownership — to remain available in the United States,” said Representative Mike Gallagher, chairman of the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, and Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat on the committee. “All TikTok would have to do is separate from CCP-controlled ByteDance. However, if TikTok chose not to rid itself of this CCP control, the application would no longer be offered in U.S. app stores. But TikTok would have no one but itself to blame,” the lawmakers said in a prepared statement. Here's what we know about the legislation and what happens next in the U.S. Senate. Why is TikTok under scrutiny? “The concern is that TikTok could transfer personal information to its parent company ByteDance, who in turn could transfer it to the Chinese government,” Caitlin Chin-Rothmann, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told VOA. Chin-Rothmann said concerns by some members of Congress about the Chinese Communist Party potentially controlling TikTok’s algorithm for propaganda purposes have not yet been proven. “That's not to say that, in the future, there's not a risk that the Chinese government could exert pressure,” she said. What does TikTok say about the legislation? TikTok on Monday called the legislation a “ban” and has repeatedly denied the allegations against it. In a statement last week on X, formerly Twitter, the company said the “legislation has a predetermined outcome: a total ban of TikTok in the United States.” How do lawmakers view the legislation? The bill has strong support from House Democrats and Republicans, despite congressional offices receiving floods of phone calls from Americans concerned about losing access to the social media app. House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters last week, “It's an important bipartisan measure to take on China, our largest geopolitical foe, which is actively undermining our economy and security.” What about the Senate? The bill could face a much harder road to passage in the Democratic-controlled Senate, where Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said it will face consideration in the appropriate committees. “I will listen to their views on the bill and determine the best path,” Schumer said in a statement. Some Senate Democrats, including Mark Warner, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, have expressed doubts about the legality of singling out a social media app in legislation. He has introduced alternative legislation more broadly targeting apps that collect personal data. But Warner told CBS News on Sunday that the TikTok app is a serious national security concern. “If you don't think the Chinese Communist Party can twist that algorithm to make it the news that they see reflective of their views, then I don't think you appreciate the nature of the threat,” Warner said. How do the leading 2024 presidential candidates feel about the bill? The White House said it welcomes the legislation, even though the Biden campaign joined TikTok recently as an effort to reach out to younger voters. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters the bill ensures “ownership isn't in the hands of those who may do us harm.” Former President Donald Trump — who initially called for a ban of the app in 2020 — has now changed course, arguing that Facebook will be empowered if TikTok is no longer available. “There's a lot of good, and there's a lot of bad with TikTok. But the thing I don't like is that without TikTok, you're going to make Facebook bigger,” the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee told U.S. cable network CNBC in a phone interview this week. What happens once the bill passes the House? Apart from constitutional concerns over preventing U.S. citizens from exercising their right to free speech, the bill could also be difficult to legally enforce and face challenges in U.S. courts. “Chinese export control laws could potentially prevent the sale of TikTok’s algorithm,” Chin-Rothmann said. “A divestiture would be very logistically difficult, in general. TikTok is one of the largest companies in the world. So, any buyer would have to be very large, as well. They would have to have a strategic interest in purchasing TikTok, and then the merger would have to not raise antitrust concerns in the United States.”