Bipartisan group of senators unveil bill targeting TikTok, other foreign tech companies
CBSN
Washington — A bipartisan group of senators unveiled a bill Tuesday that would give the executive branch new powers to take action against tech companies with ties to foreign adversaries and cut them off from the U.S. market, a measure that would allow the Biden administration to eventually ban Chinese-owned TikTok and other tech products in the name of protecting national security.
The legislation — titled the Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology (RESTRICT) Act — would apply to technology tied to China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela that "poses an undue or unacceptable risk" to national security.
"Today everybody is talking about TikTok. But before there was TiKTok, there was Huawei and ZTE. Before that, there was Russia's Kaspersky Labs," Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and one of the bill's lead sponsors, said at the Capitol, referencing previous action to block technology from other Chinese and Russian firms.
London - The wife of Julian Assange said Thursday that her husband's legal case "could be moving in the right direction" after President Biden indicated that the U.S. could drop charges against the imprisoned WikiLeaks founder. It came as supporters in several cities rallied to demand the release of Assange on the fifth anniversary of his incarceration in London's high-security Belmarsh prison.
Strasbourg, France — Europe's highest human rights court ruled Tuesday that its member nations have an obligation to protect their citizens from the ill effects of climate change, but it still threw out a high-profile case brought by six Portuguese youngsters aimed at forcing countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Rome — The Vatican has blasted the practices of gender-affirming surgery and maternal surrogacy in a new document, declaring both are inconsistent with God's plan for human life. The Catholic Church's document puts both practices on a par with abortion and euthanasia in terms of their perceived negative impact on human dignity.