Oracle to take charge of TikTok’s US biz; may help ByteDance avoid ban

Microsoft announced Sunday that its bid to buy TikTok has been rejected

The owner of TikTok has chosen Oracle over Microsoft as its preferred suitor to buy the popular video-sharing app, according to a source familiar with the deal.Under the proposed deal, Oracle will be ByteDance’s technology partner and will assume management of TikTok’s U. S. user data, the sources said. Oracle is also negotiating taking a stake in TikTok’s U. S. operations, the sources added. Some of ByteDance’s top backers, including investment firms General Atlantic and Sequoia, will also be given minority stakes in TikTok’s U. S. operations under the proposed deal, one of the sources said.Microsoft announced Sunday that its bid to buy TikTok has been rejected, removing a leading suitor for the Chinese-owned app a week before President Donald Trump promises to follow through with a plan to ban it in the US.

Microsoft said in a Sunday statement that TikTok’s parent company, Bytedance, let us know today they would not be selling TikTok’s US operations to Microsoft. The Trump administration has threatened to ban TikTok by mid-September and ordered ByteDance to sell its US business, claiming national-security risks due to its Chinese ownership. The government worries about user data being funneled to Chinese authorities. TikTok denies it is a national-security risk and is suing to stop the administration from the threatened ban….

US to block cotton, tomato imports from China’s Xinjiang over forced labor

The Trump administration announcement of the actions, initially expected on Tuesday, has been put off until later this week because of scheduling issues

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials have prepared orders to block imports of cotton and tomato products from western China’s Xinjiang region over allegations they are produced with forced labor, although a formal announcement has been delayed. The Trump administration announcement of the actions, initially expected on Tuesday, has been put off until later this week because of “scheduling issues,” a CBP spokesman said.

The cotton and tomato bans along with five other import bans over alleged Xinjiang forced-labor abuses would be an unprecedented move by CBP and likely stoke tensions between the world’s two largest economies. The “Withhold Release Orders” allow the CBP to detain shipments based on suspicion of forced-labor involvement under long-standing U.S. laws aimed at combating human trafficking, child labor and other human rights abuses.

President Donald Trump’s administration is ratcheting up pressure on China over its treatment of Xinjiang’s Uighur Muslims. The United Nations has said it has credible reports that 1 million Muslims have been detained in camps in the region, where they are put to work.

China denies mistreatment of the Uighurs and says the camps are vocational training centers needed to fight extremism. CBP Executive Assistant Commissioner Brenda Smith told Reuters that the effective import bans would apply to the entire supply chains involving cotton, including cotton yarn, textiles and apparel, as well as tomatoes, tomato paste and other products exported from the region…Read More

Trump signs into law suspending US privileges to Hong Kong, blasts China

Beijing's new security law will end to Hong Kong's special status, say China critics.

International News: President Donald Trump signed into law the Hong Kong Autonomy Act on Tuesday and also gave his assent to an executive order ending US preferential treatment for Hong Kong. "Today, I signed a legislation and an executive order to hold China accountable for its oppressive actions against the people of Hong Kong," Trump told reporters at a White House press conference. The Hong Kong Autonomy Act was passed unanimously by the Congress, he said, adding that the law gives his administration powerful new tools to hold responsible the individuals in the entities involved in extinguishing Hong Kong's freedom.

"We have all watched what happened, not a good situation. Their freedom has been taken away, their rights have been taken away and with it goes Hong Kong in my opinion, because it will no longer be able to compete with free markets. A lot of people will be leaving Hong Kong I suspect and we are going to do a lot more business because of it because we just lost one competitor.

"We lost a very, very serious competitor, a competitor that we incentivised to take a lot of business and do well, and we gave them a lot of business by doing what we did. We gave them things that nobody else had the right to do and that gave them a big edge over other markets, and because of that edge, they have some really historic business, tremendous business, far bigger than anybody would have thought years ago when we did this gift. It was really a gift to freedom," Trump said...

Iran issues arrest warrant for Trump in relation to Qasem Soleimani’s death

Iran has issued an arrest warrant for US President Donald Trump over the drone strike that killed a top Iranian general in January, CNN reported citing Iran's local media sources on Monday.

Iran has issued an arrest warrant for US President Donald Trump over the drone strike that killed a top Iranian general in January, CNN reported citing Iran's local media sources on Monday. According to Iran's semi-official Fars news agency, Trump is one of 36 people whom Iran has issued arrest warrants for in relation to the death of Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), but the Tehran attorney general Ali Alqasi Mehr said Trump was at the top of the list.

Mehr claimed that Trump would be prosecuted as soon as he stands down presidency after his term ends, Fars reported. Iran also said it had asked Interpol to issue a Red Notice for these 36 individuals, semi-official state news agency ISNA reported. \Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike at Baghdad International Airport in January along with five others, including Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Iran-backed Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).

The strike, condemned by Iran and its allies as an "assassination," raised the spectre of further regional destabilization. A spokesman for Iran's judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Esmaili, announced in early June that an Iranian citizen had been sentenced to death for allegedly working for foreign intelligence agencies. Esmaili claimed that Seyed Mahmoud Mousavi Majd disclosed the whereabouts of Soleimani to US intelligence officials...Read More

Trump blames WHO for ‘covering up’ Covid-19 spread; stops US funding

The Trump administration has accused WHO of taking side with China in the coronavirus outbreak that has brought America’s economy to a standstill

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday halted America’s funding of the World Health Organisation, while ordering a review to assess the institution’s role in “severely mismanaging and covering up” the spread of the deadly coronavirus. The novel coronavirus, which originated from Wuhan City of central China’s Hubei province in November, has so far killed at least 119,000 people globally, including more than 25,000 in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University.

“Today I am instructing my administration to halt funding of the World Health Organisation while a review is conducted to assess the World Health Organisation’s role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus. Everybody knows what has gone on there,” Trump told reporters at his daily White House news conference on the pandemic.

The Trump administration has accused WHO of taking side with China in the coronavirus outbreak that has brought America’s economy to a standstill. American taxpayers provide between $400 million and $500 million per year to the WHO, in contrast, China contributes roughly $40 million a year and even less, he said…

US coronavirus stimulus: Here's what Trump, Republicans, and Democrats say

Any plan the White House introduces will need to be approved by both houses of the U.S. Congress.

President Donald Trump met with fellow Republicans in the US Senate on Tuesday to discuss a fiscal stimulus plan to bolster the nation’s economy in the face of the coronavirus outbreak. Any plan the White House introduces will need to be approved by both houses of the US Congress. Expect Democrats, who control the House of Representatives, and Republicans, who control the Senate, to battle over the shape of the stimulus in the weeks to come.

Here are some of the ideas being put forward by the different groups.

The White House : Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin presented options for a stimulus package, but did not have a detailed plan. Trump has been focused on a payroll tax cut, advisers say, but has also publicly pledged relief for the airline, hotel, and cruise industries in recent days.

Employees and employers each pay 6.2% of a worker’s gross pay in payroll tax, which goes to fund Social Security and unemployment compensation, among other things. Donald Trump, who is up for re-election in November, told Republicans at the meeting that if a payroll tax cut is implemented, he would like it to last until after the election, or for it to become permanent.

Pence told the senators that the government insurers Medicare and Medicaid, as well as private insurers, have agreed to cover the cost of coronavirus tests, and the deductibles related to them. Mnuchin presented several options for deferred tax payments, Republicans said, including allowing companies and individuals to defer taxes interest free.

Pompeo tries to salvage a post-Brexit Britain alliance amid growing rift

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been touting the prospects of a big new trade deal with the United States that can fill the void of Britain’s departure from the European Union on Friday

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visits London on Wednesday to salvage a post-Brexit alliance with an old friend whose defiance on China and Iran underscores Washington’s diplomatic isolation.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been touting the prospects of a big new trade deal with the United States that can fill the void of Britain’s departure from the European Union on Friday. But Pompeo’s meetings with Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and Johnson on Wednesday and Thursday threatens to become a damage limitation exercise for the “special relationship”.

Mike Pompeo had been doing his best to convince Johnson that allowing China’s Huawei tech giant to help build Britain’s next-generation 5G network introduced a long-term security threat. Britain approved a limited but still important role for Huawei on Tuesday. “The United States is disappointed by the UK’s decision,” a senior administration official said in a terse statement. And Johnson had been pushing Washington to send back the wife of a US diplomat who is using the cover of diplomatic immunity to avoid prosecution over the death of a teenager in a road accident in England last August.

The United States rejected Anne Sacoolas’s extradition to Britain last week. “We feel this amounts to a denial of justice,” Raab said in response. “The UK would have acted differently if this had been a UK diplomat serving in the US.” Disagreements about Iran and a US prosecutor’s complaint that Prince Andrew was stonewalling an FBI investigation into the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein only add to the layers of tensions.

India to take bilateral approach on issues faced by China with others: MEA

Jaishankar refused to join the Trump administration which describes 5G as a national security issue, by saying that for India it is a telecom issue and not political one.

India wants to see its relation with China become “better and substantive” and would take a bilateral approach on issues like 5G which Beijing faces with other countries, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said.

In fact, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar refused to join the Trump administration which describes 5G as a national security issue, by saying that for India it is a telecom issue and not political one. “Our intention obviously is to progress our relations with China. We are very clear on that and we get the sense that they too would like to see the relations become better and substantive,” Jaishankar told The Heritage Foundation think-tank on Wednesday in response to a question.

“On lot of the issues which different countries face with China, frankly, we would weigh the issues on their merit and largely take a bilateral approach,” he said responding to a question. “We actually, essentially handle China relationship very, very bilaterally. We believe that’s frankly the best way of moving forward,” he added. “Our position on 5G for example is we don’t see 5G as a political problem. 5G for us is a telecom issue. And we will make whatever decisions we have to at the right time on the merits of that particular decision,” Jaishankar said…

Over 900 children separated at US border, ACLU urges judge to take action

US District Court Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego ordered the reunification of more than 2,800 migrant children in a court supervised process

International News: The American Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday requested that a bureaucratic judge stop the Trump organization’s progressing division of families at the US-Mexico fringe, saying the administration had taken in excess of 900 kids from their folks since the arrangement formally finished a year ago.

In June 2018, the legislature said it would end its “zero resilience” strategy of arraigning the individuals who illicitly cross the fringe and isolating them from their kids after an open objection and a lawful test by the ACLU. US District Court Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego requested the reunification of in excess of 2,800 vagrant kids in a court directed procedure.

On Tuesday, the ACLU returned to court guaranteeing that the legislature was all the while isolating families, making special cases to its promise to end the practise. “The government is methodicallly isolating huge quantities of families dependent on minor criminal history, very questionable charges of unfitness, and blunders in distinguishing true blue parent-kid connections.”

The Trump organization has attempted to prevent record quantities of transient families landing at the US-Mexico outskirt looking for asylum from neediness and brutality in nations like Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. The government has said it isolates families when it speculates the parent has a criminal record or questions the connection between the grown-up and the vagrant tyke..

Read More: US – Maxico Border

Huawei may lose access to Google Android OS, apps after Trump blacklist

Huawei will continue to have access to the version of the Android operating system available through the open source license

Technology News: Letters in order Inc’s Google has suspended business with Huawei that requires the exchange of equipment and programming items aside from those secured by open source licenses, a source near the issue told Reuters on Sunday, in a hit to the Chinese innovation organization that the US government has looked to boycott far and wide.

Huawei Technologies Co Ltd will quickly lose access to updates to the Android working framework, and the following variant of its cell phones outside of China will likewise lose access to prominent applications and administrations including the Google Play Store and Gmail application.

Subtleties of the particular administrations were all the while being talked about inside at Google, as indicated by the source. Huawei lawyers are likewise concentrating the effect of the US Commerce Department’s activities, a Huawei representative said on Friday. Huawei was not quickly reachable for further remark. Agents of the US Commerce Department did not promptly have remark.

Huawei will keep on approaching the variant of the Android working framework accessible through the open source permit that is uninhibitedly open to any individual who wishes to utilize it. Be that as it may, Google will quit giving any specialized help and joint effort for Android and Google administrations to Huawei going ahead, the source said. On Thursday the Trump organization authoritatively added Huawei to an exchange boycott, quickly sanctioning limitations that will make it incredibly hard for the innovation monster to work with US organizations.

Trump ends DACA: All you need to know about it and how Indians are impacted

Move likely to impact 800,000 undocumented workers, including more than 20,000 Indian-Americans

 

With President Donald Trump’s reversal of an Obama-era executive order known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), worst fears of young immigrants seem to be coming true.
The historic move is likely to impact 800,000 undocumented workers, including more than 20,000 Indian-Americans who trusted the US government with their fingerprints and other personal information when they applied for DACA.

Most of the immigrants protected by DACA, dubbed 'Dreamers', came from Mexico and other Latin American countries.

What is DACA?

DACA The DACA programme granted the undocumented youth temporary reprieve from deportation and the ability to legally apply for a job or get admission to educational institutions.
The programme grants them a two-year reprieve that can be extended by issuing them identity papers like driver’s licences, work permit and a social security number.

However, DACA does not provide beneficiaries legal residency in US.

How could one enrol under the programme?

An immigrant was required to be at 15 years of age when applying for DACA. They were to submit proof that they were brought to the US before they turned 16 and were under 31 when the programme was launched.

The application cost was nearly $500 and permits needed to be renewed every two years. The application and renewal process took several weeks.

What about Indians living in US?

Around 20,000 people from India who arrived in the US illegally as children are fearing deportation, South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) said.

"Over 27,000 Asian-Americans, including 5,500 Indians and Pakistanis, have already received DACA. An additional estimated 17,000 individuals from India and 6,000 from Pakistan are eligible for DACA, placing India among the top ten countries for DACA eligibility," SAALT said.

With the termination of DACA, these individuals could face deportation at the discretion of the administration....read more