TikTok is investigating a cyberattack targeting “a number of high-profile” accounts, including media outlet CNN and celebrity Paris Hilton.

The social media giant said this week in a statement that it is in direct contact with “affected account owners to restore access, if needed,” and has taken measures to prevent future incidents.

In particular, a TikTok spokesperson said, the company has been “collaborating closely with CNN to restore account access and implement enhanced security measures” after the news organization was targeted on the app by “malicious actors.”

“We are dedicated to maintaining the integrity of the platform and will continue to monitor for any further inauthentic activity,” the TikTok rep added.

The spokesperson did not provide any information about the identities and possible motive of the hackers. According to the Associated Press, the attack occurred through the app’s direct-messaging feature and one of the other marks was Hilton. The attack on Hilton’s account was unsuccessful, said a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to comment.

The Times has reached out to reps for CNN and Hilton for comment.

The cyberattack is the latest hurdle for TikTok, which sued the United States government last month for creating a new law that would effectively ban the short-form video platform in the country unless its current Chinese parent company, ByteDance, sells the app’s American operations.

Several TikTok content creators have also taken legal action against the government for allegedly violating their free speech rights with the legislation.

Additionally, TikTok is facing a round of layoffs expected to affect employees in its global content, marketing and user departments, according to technology-focused news outlet the Information, which first reported on the job cuts.

Times staff writer Wendy Lee and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Beoing’s Starliner capsule with two astronauts aboard was finally launched into space Wednesday after a series of delays that have vexed the troubled aerospace giant.

The test flight of the crew ship, developed to service the International Space Station, took off as scheduled at 7:52 a.m. Pacific from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

The capsule reached orbit after 32 minutes of flight and is expected to dock with the station around 9:15 a.m. Pacific tomorrow. It’s the first time the capsule has carried astronauts after two prior uncrewed test flights.

The last scheduled launch of the CST-100 Starliner, which is years behind SpaceX in servicing the space station, was halted Saturday less than four minutes before liftoff by the ground computer that controls the final steps of the process. The problem was traced to a faulty computer power supply unit that was replaced.

The capsule was originally set to blast off May 6, but that flight was scuttled hours before liftoff because of a malfunctioning valve on the Atlas V rocket that launches it into space. The Atlas V, considered a reliable workhorse, is manufactured by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

Additional launch dates were missed last month after a helium leak was found in the Starliner’s propulsion system, which maneuvers the capsule. NASA and Boeing officials decided the leak was not serious enough to replace a defective seal, which would have taken months, and instead developed software fixes to work around it.

“For all practical purposes, SpaceX has become the player in the launch market. It’s never good to have a monopoly,” said aerospace analyst Marco Caceres of Teal Group, who applauded the flight’s initial success. “The best Boeing can hope for now is that they remain a player in this segment of the market.”

The 15-foot diameter capsule is only the sixth spacecraft that NASA astronauts have ridden since the dawn of the space age, the first being the Project Mercury capsule and the most recent being SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.

Veteran astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have previously flown to the space station, are expected to spend about a week testing the capsule before returning to Earth mid-month.

The capsule will touch down in the Arizona or New Mexico desert in a parachute ground landing pioneered by the Soviets decades ago, rather than the ocean landings typical of U.S. space flights. Ground landings make it easier to refit the reusable capsule for future missions, though Starliner also can land in water in an emergency.

The flight, also carrying 760 pounds of cargo to the space station, is critical for the Arlington, Va., aerospace company, which is far behind SpaceX in launching a crewed capsule to service the space station.

Both companies were given multibillion-dollar contracts in 2014 to develop their crafts, and since 2020 Elon Musk’s Hawthorne company has ferried more than a half dozen crews aboard its Crew Dragon to the station — while Boeing has managed only two remote flights, including one in May 2022 that docked with the orbiting lab.

The companies were chosen by NASA after the agency has had to rely on the Russian program to send U.S. astronauts to the station when the space shuttle program ended in 2011. Assuming the Starliner mission goes well, it would then be certified to send four-person operational crews to the station for six-month missions. NASA would then have two U.S. spacecraft to service the station, but it also plans to continue to send some American astronauts via the Russian Soyuz craft.

Russia and the U.S. were the primary builders of the space station, and play critical roles in keeping it aloft.

Boeing has reportedly had to eat $1.5 billion in Starliner cost overruns and can ill afford a failure, especially after two crashes of its 737 Max 8 jets and the blowout of a door plug during a 737 Max 9 flight this year to Ontario International Airport in San Bernardino County.

Andrew Meieran is about to reopen the doors of one of L.A.’s legendary restaurants in a bid to once again make it an offbeat dining and entertainment destination.

Meieran is the proprietor of Clifton’s Republic, the kitschy, forest-themed restaurant on Broadway in downtown’s Historic Core that for nearly a century served up comfort food such as pot roast, mashed potatoes and Jell-O. The five-story restaurant and bar complex has been closed for the last year after a burst water pipe caused a flood that destroyed the kitchen and collapsed the ceilings on three floors.

Clifton’s is scheduled to reopen next month after extensive repairs and renovations. Among the changes patrons will find is a basement venue several years in the making that Meieran said is “dedicated to innovation and the magic of experiences” with “entertainment, cocktails and culinary offerings.”

Meieran is keeping details under wraps for now, but he has demonstrated a knack for creating provocative entertainment and dining venues through an obsessive attention to offbeat details, as well as a willingness to spend more money than most real estate developers to realize his vision and preserve the historic integrity of his projects.

A Bay Area transplant with a background in real estate development and filmmaking, Meieran emerged on the L.A. scene in 2007 when he opened the Edison, a subterranean nightclub he created in a former power plant deep under a century-old building on 2nd Street.

In 2010 he took over Clifton’s from the family that had operated it since the 1930s, when founder Clifford Clinton purchased the lease of the former Boos Bros. cafeteria on Broadway and set out to create a space that would evoke the coastal redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains, where Clinton spent summers growing up. After taking over, Meieran closed the restaurant for nearly four years for renovations and upgrades and again during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Times spoke with Meieran to discuss his plans for reviving Clifton’s after the current shutdown, as well as his thoughts about the evolving nature of the bar and restaurant business during a time of change downtown. The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Since the pandemic began, the restaurant business has been battered and put through changes that have made it hard for owners to operate profitably. How do you intend to make a go of it?

People need, and I emphasize “NEED” in capital letters, to be able to disengage from their devices and balance their life with physical and social interaction with people who are there and present around them. We are catering to people who are looking for a much more interactive lifestyle and are craving physical experiences to balance the ubiquitous online presence.

Clifton’s exists in L.A.’s collective memory as a vast cafeteria in a whimsical woodland setting, but we don’t see cafeterias much anymore. Why is that? Will we get back Clifton’s as we remember it?

Cafeterias used to be the dominant form of food delivery and food service and now, with very few exceptions, it’s not. There are clear reasons for that that are understandable and reasonable — you need tons of people in a captive audience to make a cafeteria work. You need volume and you need stable, reasonable food prices that you can pass on to your guests. That’s completely absent in this era.

So what will Clifton’s include when it reopens?

It will be fully operating as a restaurant, lounge and nightlife destination that will include the Brookdale historic dining hall people remember as Forest Glen, Walt Disney’s original inspiration for Disneyland. We’ll also reopen the Monarch Bar on the second floor and the Pacific Seas “adventure bar” on the third floor. The basement will open in midsummer.

Obviously downtown has changed a lot from Clifton’s heyday in the 20th century when Broadway was L.A.’s premier shopping and entertainment district. Occupancy in office buildings, which used to provide a steady source of lunchtime customers, has dwindled substantially since the COVID-19 lockdown. What are the prospects for downtown businesses like Clifton’s?

It’s obviously a very different environment from what it was before the pandemic. People have altered their habits and patterns and businesses have responded accordingly, with some closing and others shifting their focuses. It’s a tectonic level shift, something that hasn’t happened in generations, and it’s happening very rapidly now. It was triggered initially by the pandemic but followed up by technological shifts that have altered the dining experience such as app-based ordering, touchscreens and the potentially revolutionary impact of artificial intelligence.

It’s hard for people to really recognize what’s coming next and where this is all going. Obviously that makes it difficult for a business to respond and for other people to make investments and to determine where we’re going to be in 18 months, three years or five years down the road, which is what you need in business.

Downtown, because of the level of the impact and its density, is slower to respond to change than some other, more nimble communities. It’s like turning a tanker ship that doesn’t turn on a dime. It’s taking a lot more effort and and concerted focus to shift its direction.

What are the odds that the Historic Core can mount a comeback?

Broadway, in particular, has all of the ingredients that make for extraordinary projects and extraordinary communities sitting here waiting for the right catalyst. It has density, historic infrastructure and buildings that have an intrinsic beauty and an intrinsic connection to guests, residents,and visitors. And it’s got the location in terms of accessibility with plenty of parking and service by transit.