Nation & World Glance
House Republicans move ahead with Tiktok vote even as Trump voices opposition to possible ban
new YORK — house republicans are moving ahead with a bill that would require chinese company Bytedance to sell Tiktok or face a ban in the united States even as former President donald Trump is voicing opposition to the effort.
house leadership has scheduled a vote on the measure for Wednesday. a republican congressional aide not authorized to speak publicly said that’s still the plan and there has not been significant pushback to the bill from lawmakers.
a vote for the bill would represent an unusual break with the former president by house republicans, but Speaker mike Johnson and others have already forcefully come out in favor of the bill, and dropping it now would represent a significant reversal. “It’s an important bipartisan measure to take on china, our largest geopolitical foe, which is actively undermining our economy and security,” Johnson declared last week.
Trump said monday that he still believes Tiktok poses a national security risk but is opposed to banning the hugely popular app because doing so would help its rival, Facebook, which he continues to lambast over his 2020 election loss.
“Frankly, there are a lot of people on Tiktok that love it. There are a lot of young kids on Tiktok who will go crazy without it,” Trump said in a call-in interview with cnbc’s “Squawk Box.” “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, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people, along with a lot of the media.”
A Gaza family uprooted by war and grieving their losses shares a somber Ramadan meal in a tent
muwasi, Gaza Strip — It was a somber scene as randa Baker and her family sat on the ground in their tent in southern Gaza at sunset monday for their meal breaking their first day of fasting in the muslim holy month of ramadan.
Three of her children were largely silent as randa set down a platter of rice and potatoes and bowls of peas, a meal pieced together from charity and humanitarian aid. “What’s wrong? eat,” randa’s mother told the youngest child, 4-year-old alma, who glumly picked at the plate.
randa’s 12-year-old son, amir, was too ill to join them; he had a stroke before the war and is incapacitated. also absent this ramadan was randa’s husband: he was killed along with 31 other people in the first month of Israel’s assault in Gaza when airstrikes flattened their and their neighbors’ homes in Gaza city’s upper middle-class rimal district.
“ramadan this year is starvation, pain, and loss,” the 33-year-old randa said. “People who should have been on the table with us have gone.”
For muslims, the holy month combines self-deprivation, religious reflection and charity for the poor with festive celebrations as families break the sunrise-to-sunset fast with iftar, the evening meal.