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The Trump administration issued a sweeping ban Friday that will begin barring downloads and use of the Chinese-owned mobile apps WeChat and TikTok from U.S. app stores as of midnight Sunday. The announcement is the latest escalation in America’s tech fight with China.Officials from the U.S. Commerce Department cited national security and data privacy concerns over the move to ban the two popular internet platforms that serve more than 100 million people in the United States.Starting Monday, both apps will be removed from app stores and users will not be able to download the apps to their phones. For users who have the apps already installed, they will not be able to receive updates to the platforms. This restriction will quickly make the app obsolete on smartphones, as the inability to update will make it incompatible with Apple and Google smartphone software, which currently dominate the tech market.The order includes moves to render WeChat useless within the United States by banning American companies from hosting internet traffic or processing transactions from within the app as of midnight Sunday.WeChat serves millions of U.S. users who predominantly rely on the app to stay in touch and conduct business with people and companies in China.Like most social networking sites, both TikTok and WeChat collect user data, including location and messages to track what kind of targeted ad content is most applicable to them.As of now, TikTok will escape the most drastic sanctions until similar restrictions go into effect November 12 unless the company is able to resolve the administration’s national security concerns by the deadline. The order follows weeks of wrangling with the company, which recently struck a deal with U.S.-based software maker Oracle, the details of which have yet to be announced.The app, which has become especially popular among younger users, has proved useful in some political contexts, including for mischief.TikTok users made headlines earlier this year by working to inflate the expected turnout for a rally President Donald Trump held in Tulsa, Oklahoma — and making the actual attendance seem especially low by comparison.The deadline to comply with restrictions falls just after the November 3 presidential election in the United States.Prior to striking the deal, representatives of TikTok, which is owned by China’s ByteDance, were in talks with Microsoft. The partnership between Microsoft and ByteDance fell through earlier this month after reports estimated that the company would shell out up to $30 billion for the acquisition of the app.“We are confident our proposal would have been good for TikTok’s users, while protecting national security interests,” Microsoft said in a blog post Sunday. “We would have made significant changes to ensure the service met the highest standards for security, privacy, online safety and combating disinformation, and we made these principles clear in our August statement.”The move to ban the use of the apps in the United States follows an August 6 executive order by Trump, in which he argued that TikTok and WeChat collect data from American users that could be accessed by the Chinese government. Over the past several weeks, Trump has pressured the app’s owner to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations to a domestic company to satisfy these concerns.TikTok spokesman John Gartner said in a statement that the company is “disappointed” by the move and that it would continue to challenge the “unjust executive order.”The American Civil Liberties Union denounced the move as well, saying that the order is an infringement on Americans’ rights to free expression.While the Trump administration has accused the apps of collecting data used by the Chinese government to surveil Americans, the government has not provided specific evidence to support the allegations.ByteDance has repeatedly denied that it has partnered with the Chinese government to siphon U.S. user information. 
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Surveillance footage showed the moment a utility pole fell on a passing motorcyclist amid tropical storm Noul in Vietnam, Friday, September 18, before the motorcyclist got up and ran to safety. (REUTERS)
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U.S. health officials dropped a controversial piece of coronavirus guidance Friday and said anyone who has been in close contact with an infected person should get tested. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention essentially returned to its previous testing guidance, getting rid of language posted last month that said people didn’t need to get tested if they didn’t feel sick. That change had set off a rash of criticism from health experts who couldn’t fathom why the nation’s top public health agency would say such a thing amid the pandemic. It was “not consistent with the basic principles of controlling an epidemic,” said Dr. Silvia Chiang, a pediatric infectious diseases expert at Brown University who applauded the change announced Friday. The CDC now says anyone who has been within 6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes should get a test. In a statement, the agency called the changes a “clarification” that was needed “due to the significance of asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission.” CDC Relaxes COVID Testing Guidelines, Alarming Some Health Providers Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says people who come in close contact with infected people ‘do not necessarily need a test’     Agency officials declined additional comment. Health officials were evasive about why they had made the change in August, and some outside observers speculated it was forced on the CDC by political appointees within the Trump administration. At the time, administration officials said the language originated at the CDC, but the decision came out of meetings of the White House coronavirus task force. Dr. Brett Giroir, an assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, said many federal leaders outside the agency were involved in “lots of editing, lots of input.” He said it was difficult to attribute the final language to any one source. The New York Times, citing internal federal documents and unnamed sources, on Thursday reported that the August change in guidance was placed on the CDC’s website over the objections of agency scientists. Public health experts have noted that testing the contacts of infected people is a core element of efforts to keep outbreaks in check, and that a large percentage of those infected with the coronavirus exhibit no COVID-19 symptoms. The CDC’s chief, Dr. Robert Redfield, issued a statement shortly after the controversy erupted that did little to clarify why the change was deemed necessary. The main intent seemed to be to assure state health officials that they could continue to recommend that all close contacts be tested if they felt that was wisest, despite the website language that said it was not necessary. During a U.S. Senate hearing on Wednesday, Redfield continued to defend the language that was dropped Friday. He said the August changes had been misinterpreted and were part of an effort to increase engagement by doctors and local health officials in the handling of potential illness clusters.
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Three women, two of them from Africa, advanced to the second round of selection to become the next director-general of the World Trade Organization as the field was cut from eight to five, the Geneva-based body said Friday.  The WTO is looking for a new director-general to replace Brazilian Roberto Azevedo, who stepped down a year earlier than expected at the end of August.  The 25-year-old trade body has never had a leader who is female or from Africa.  The five to go through to the next round are Kenyan minister Amina Mohamed, former Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, South Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee, Saudi Arabia’s Mohammad Al-Tuwaijri and British ex-minister Liam Fox.  This confirms Reuters’ reporting on Thursday that Mexico’s Jesus Seade, Egypt’s Hamid Mamdouh and Moldovan Tudor Ulianovschi were eliminated.  Azevedo’s successor will face a considerable challenge with rising global tensions and protectionism during a COVID-induced slowdown, most obviously between Beijing and President Donald Trump’s U.S. administration, and pressure to drive reform.  Round two, in which the WTO’s 164 members will give their preferences from Sept 24 to Oct 6, will whittle the candidates down to two. The WTO has said it wants to select the winner by early November.Trade experts and former WTO officials say that the U.S. presidential election, on Nov. 3. could extend the process, even if that goes against the WTO’s prescribed deadline.  However, the WTO said the process had gone well so far and that all members had taken part.  “The objective is to have this process completed within 2 months – it began on 7 September so on or about 7 November, so we are on track for this. The process has gone smoothly,” WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell told reporters.
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China said Friday it was conducting military exercises near the Taiwan Strait, as a top U.S. diplomat visits the self-ruled island in a move that has angered Beijing.Relations between the United States and China are at their lowest point in decades, with the two sides clashing over a range of trade, military and security issues, as well as the coronavirus pandemic.Keith Krach, U.S. undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment, landed in Taipei Thursday for a three-day visit, the highest-ranking State Department official to visit in 40 years.At a press conference on Friday, a Chinese defense ministry spokesman said Beijing was “holding actual combat exercises near the Taiwan Strait” when asked how it would respond to the visit.”This is a legitimate and necessary action taken to safeguard China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in response to the current situation in the Taiwan Strait,” Ren Guoqiang told reporters.Ren also warned that the Chinese military had “sufficient ability” to counter any external threat or challenge from Taiwan separatists.Beijing considers Taiwan part of its territory, to be absorbed into the Chinese mainland — by force if necessary.China’s Communist leadership baulks at any recognition of Taiwan — which has been ruled separately from China since the end of a civil war in 1949 — and has pursued a decades-long policy of marginalizing the democratic island.Ren accused the United States of “frequently causing trouble” over Taiwan, which he said “is purely China’s internal affairs, and we won’t tolerate any external interference”.According to Taipei’s defense ministry, 18 Chinese aircraft — including bombers and fighters — entered Taiwan’s southwest air defense identification zone (ADIZ) on Friday and also crossed the so-called median line that divides the Taiwan Strait.The ministry said Taiwan’s military “scrambled fighters, and deployed air defense missile system to monitor the activities”.”We hope the other side can exercise restraint and not… heighten conflicts between the two sides. These military intimidations have caused resentment among the Taiwanese people,” it said in a statement.In recent weeks, Taiwan has reported a sharp rise in incursions by Chinese warplanes into its ADIZ.Chinese jets also made a brief incursion across the midline of the strait separating the two sides in August, as US health chief Alex Azar made his country’s highest-level visit to Taiwan since 1979 — the year Washington switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing.Washington’s increased outreach to Taiwan under President Donald Trump has become yet another U.S.-China flashpoint.The U.S. said Krach was visiting Taiwan to attend Saturday’s memorial service for late president Lee Teng-hui, who died in July aged 97.  On Friday, Krach met with foreign minister Joseph Wu to discuss various bilateral issues and exchange view on future collaborations, according to Taipei authorities. He is also scheduled to join President Tsai Ing-wen for dinner at her official residence.China has ramped up pressure on Taiwan since Tsai came to power in 2016, as she refuses to acknowledge its idea that the democratic island is part of “one China”.
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Peruvian lawmakers will hold an impeachment hearing Friday, a day after the country’s top court rejected a request by President Martin Vizcarra to stop the proceedings.Congress voted last week to begin impeachment hearings against Vizcarra on grounds of moral incompetence, following allegations he tried to interfere in a probe into government contracts given to a singer.The move by Congress was fueled by opposition legislators airing secretly recorded audio that appears to show Vizcarra orchestrating a strategy with his aides to answer questions about his meetings with singer Richard Cisneros.Media reports say Cisneros claims the $50,000 worth of contracts were legal.On Thursday, the president did not comment on the allegations while touring a banana plantation in the region of Piura, but a day earlier Vizcarra seemed to lash out at his detractors for attempting to create a political crisis in the midst of the coronavirus crisis. 
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FBI Director Christopher Wray on Thursday warned lawmakers that Russia is not letting up in its efforts to sway the outcome of the November presidential election by trying to hurt the campaign of Democratic candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden – testimony that appears not to be sitting well with U.S. President Donald Trump.Wray, testifying before the House Homeland Security Committee, described the Kremlin’s influence operations as “very, very active” on social media, on its own state-run media and through various proxies.The aim of these influence operations is “primarily to denigrate Vice President Biden and what the Russians see as kind of an anti-Russian establishment,” he said.Wray’s public appraisal of the stepped-up Russian influence operations is his first since the U.S. presidential campaign entered its final stretch. It is also in line with a rare public assessment offered in early August by the nation’s top counterintelligence official, William Evanina.Evanina, though, also warned Russian-linked actors were “seeking to boost” Trump’s candidacy, something the FBI’s Wray did not say when asked about Russian meddling.Trump, who has been known to take top intelligence and law enforcement officials to task on social media, responded late Thursday, calling the FBI director by his first name.“But Chris, you don’t see any activity from China, even though it is a FAR greater threat than Russia, Russia, Russia,” Trump wrote, adding “They will both, plus others, be able to interfere in our 2020 Election with our totally vulnerable Unsolicited (Counterfeit?) Ballot Scam. Check it out!”But Chris, you don’t see any activity from China, even though it is a FAR greater threat than Russia, Russia, Russia. They will both, plus others, be able to interfere in our 2020 Election with our totally vulnerable Unsolicited (Counterfeit?) Ballot Scam. Check it out! https://t.co/mH3vrHWvS8— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 18, 2020Despite the president’s allegations about mail-in ballots, allegations he has raised repeatedly, the FBI director told lawmakers just hours earlier such concerns were baseless.”We have not seen, to date, a coordinated national voter fraud effort in a major election,” Wray said, echoing assurances given by senior U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials who spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity just last month.Instead, Wray said, his fears have centered on the barrage of disinformation, from Russia and others, targeting U.S. voters.“What concerns me the most is the steady drumbeat of misinformation and amplification of smaller cyber intrusions,” Wray said. “I worry they will contribute over time to a lack of confidence of (among) American voters.”“That would be a perception, not reality. I think Americans can and should have confidence in our election system and certainly in our democracy,” he added.Antifa & US protestsThe FBI director also clashed with Trump, over antifa, a left-wing protest movement that has been increasingly visible in demonstrations that have spread across the country.“We look as antifa as more of an ideology or a movement than an organization,” Wray told lawmakers, adding there is no evidence that antifa is behind any sort of coordinated campaign to incite violence at protests that have gripped parts of the country.In another tweet late Thursday, Trump chastised both Wray and the entire FBI for allowing antifa, “to get away with “‘murder.’”“I look at them as a bunch of well-funded ANARCHISTS & THUGS who are protected because the Comey/Mueller inspired FBI is simply unable, or unwilling, to find their funding source,” the president said….And I look at them as a bunch of well funded ANARCHISTS & THUGS who are protected because the Comey/Mueller inspired FBI is simply unable, or unwilling, to find their funding source, and allows them to get away with “murder”. LAW & ORDER! https://t.co/yHLzB0RQ8e— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 18, 2020But during his testimony before lawmakers, Wray said that while the FBI does have “quite a number of properly predicated investigations into violent anarchist extremists, any number of whom self-identify with the antifa movement,” the evidence does not support claims of a larger conspiracy.“Much of the violence that we’re seeing does not appear to be organized or attributed to any one particular group or movement,” the FBI director said.Instead, he described attempts by antifa and other movements, like the right-wing Boogaloo Boys, to organize in order to instigate violence as ad hoc.”We are seeing, in certain pockets, more kind of regionally organized folks coalescing, often coordinating on the ground in the middle of protests,” Wray said, adding that such attempts can even cross ideological lines, such as in one incident earlier this month in which two self-described Boogaloo Boys attempted to join with the Palestinian terror group Hamas.ICYMI: Self-described “Boogaloo Bois” charged w/attempting to provide #Hamas firearms/parts Per @FBI 30yo Michael Solomon of Minnesota & 22yo Benjamin Teeter of #NorthCarolina are part of a sub-group called the “Boojahideen” & felt their anti-US gvt views aligned w/Hamas— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) September 4, 2020Republican pushbackWray’s explanations, however, did not impress some Republican lawmakers, including Representative Dan Crenshaw, from Texas, who has been supportive of the president.“It seems strange to me that we can’t call it a group,” Crenshaw told Wray.“This is an ideology that organizes locally. It coordinates regionally and nationally. It wears a standardized uniform. It collects funds to buy high powered lasers to blind federal officers,” Crenshaw said. “It just seems to be more than an ideology.”US-based extremistsWray also told lawmakers the FBI sees U.S.-based violent extremists, whether influenced by jihadist ideology or ideology emanating domestically, as the biggest threat to the country.“Racially motivated violent extremism is, I think, the biggest bucket within that larger group,” he said, noting there have been a total of 120 arrests for domestic terrorism so far this year.  
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President Donald Trump has threatened a US ban on TikTok could happen as early as next week
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Federal prosecutors brought new wire fraud charges Thursday against an associate of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani who was involved in attempts to get Ukrainian officials to investigate the son of U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. Lev Parnas and his business partner, David Correia, were charged with defrauding investors in a business called Fraud Guarantee. A superseding indictment also charged them with additional campaign finance violations. FILE – David Correia, center, leaves federal court in New York, Oct. 17, 2019.Prosecutors said the company “purported to insure investors against corporate fraud while in fact, as alleged, they misled investors as to what would be done with their money.” The indictment said the men misled investors about the strength of the company and their business model and in some cases used the invested money for personal expenses. “We couldn’t say it better ourselves – the behavior alleged today is indeed fraudulent – guaranteed,” FBI Assistant Director William F. Sweeney Jr. said in a statement.  Parnas defense attorney Joseph Bondy said that the new indictment “contains no surprises” and that his client has been on “strict home confinement for nearly one year.” “We are pleased that the matter can now move forward,” Bondy said, “for both Mr. Parnas and the public interest.”  Correia’s attorney declined to comment.  Previous chargesBoth men had previously faced charges of using foreign money to make illegal campaign contributions to U.S. politicians to aid their political and business interests. Parnas and Correia had been charged along with two other men, Igor Fruman and Andrew Kukushkin, a Ukrainian-born U.S. citizen, in a scheme to make illegal campaign donations to local and federal politicians in New York, Nevada and other states to try to win support for a new recreational marijuana business. FILE – Rudy Giuliani, an attorney for President Donald Trump, speaks in Portsmouth, N.H., Aug. 1, 2018.Parnas and Fruman also made sizable contributions while trying to get Americans interested in investigating Biden’s son in Ukraine. Giuliani, a Republican, has said he knew nothing about the donations. Trump’s efforts to press Ukraine for an investigation of the Bidens led the House to impeach Trump, though he was acquitted by the Senate earlier this year. Parnas and Fruman were arrested almost a year ago at an airport outside Washington carrying one-way tickets to Europe. They made hundreds of thousands of dollars in political donations to Republicans while facing lawsuits from disgruntled investors over unpaid debts. Parnas and Correia also hired Giuliani to consult with Fraud Guarantee. Giuliani has said he was promised $500,000 to work with the company.  That money was ultimately paid to Giuliani’s company by Charles Gucciardo, a Long Island lawyer and supporter of President Donald Trump. Gucciardo’s attorney previously said that the $500,000 was intended to be an investment in Fraud Guarantee. The indictment did not name the defrauded investors. 
 
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The U.S. Department of Justice has announced criminal charges against three Iranian men for their alleged participation in state-sponsored identity theft and hacking by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, a designated foreign terrorist organization.The men are all residents and citizens of the Islamic Republic of Iran, U.S. authorities said Thursday in a press release. Officials also say the men conspired to infiltrate the networks of American companies in search of commercial data and intellectual property.The Reuters news agency said attempts to locate contact information for the Iranian defendants were not immediately successful and that a message left with Iran’s mission to the United Nations was not returned.The hacking campaign used malware to attempt to steal the identities of thousands of U.S. citizens to accomplish unlawful acts and steal information related to U.S. aerospace and satellite technology, officials said in the written statement announcing the indictment. It also said the hacking campaign was launched in July 2015 and continued until February 2019.According to the U.S. government, at one point in time the defendants possessed a target list of approximately 1,800 online accounts, including accounts belonging to various companies and organizations, in addition to international government organizations in Australia, Israel, Singapore, the United States and Britain.Officials say the defendants are accused of engaging in an attempt to identify U.S. citizens working in the satellite and aerospace fields and whose identities could be stolen by the IRGC online. The impersonation of those individuals allowed the defendants to register email addresses and fraudulently purchase domains and hacking tools to be used in the coordinated campaign, the U.S. government said.U.S. officials said phony online personas were created and the defendants sent customized spearphishing emails that purported to be from the individuals whose identities had been stolen, with malicious links embedded throughout that were then sent to members of the public. When clicked, malware would be downloaded onto the recipients’ computers and provide unauthorized access to their devices and networks.Through these methods to steal data sought by the IRGC, authorities allege that the defendants were able to compromise a number of victims’ networks, resulting in the theft of sensitive commercial information, intellectual property and personal data from victim companies.The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia has issued arrest warrants for Said Pourkarim Arabi, Mohammad Reza Espargham and Mohammad Bayati.Charges include conspiracy to commit computer intrusions, obtaining information by unauthorized access to protected computers, intentional damage to protected computers, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy to commit fraud.News of the charges follow an indictment of two other Iranians accused of participating in similar attacks.Assistant U.S. Attorney General for National Security John Demers called the campaign “another effort by a rogue foreign nation to steal the fruits of this country’s hard work and expertise.”
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The British auction house Christie’s announced this week that it would sell the largest and most complete known skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex in early October.The auction house said the dinosaur skeleton is nearly 12 meters long and just under 5 meters tall. It has been known as Stan, named after amateur paleontologist Stan Sacrison, who discovered it in the upper Midwestern U.S. state of South Dakota in 1987.Christie’s science and natural history specialist James Hyslop said scientists that looked at the bones initially misidentified them as belonging to a triceratops, a more common dinosaur discovery.It was not until Sacrison took the remains to the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research in 1992 that anyone realized what he had found.A detail of the teeth of Stan, one of the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex fossils discovered, is pictured Sept. 15, 2020, at Christie’s in New York.Hyslop said the paleontologists from the institute carefully excavated and reassembled the skeleton, ultimately finding 188 of the estimated 300 total bones in a T. rex, more than for any previously found specimen.Hyslop said Stan eventually went on tour to Japan between 1995 and 1996, and he later went on permanent display in Hill City, South Dakota.Complete T. rex skeletons are very rare, and the last time one was put up for auction was in 1997, when the Field Museum in Chicago bought the now-famous Sue for $8.36 million. Hyslop said Christie’s hopes to beat that price when Stan goes up for auction October 6.Christie’s will display the dinosaur until mid-October at its Manhattan auction house, making Stan visible to the public through Christie’s windows.
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