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TikTok might be too big to ban, no matter what lawmakers say | CNN Business

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TikTok might be too big to ban, no matter what lawmakers say | CNN Business



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In July 2020, the identical month former President Donald Trump stated he would ban TikTok in the USA, Callie Goodwin of Columbia, South Carolina, posted her first video on the app to advertise the small enterprise she had began out of her storage in the course of the pandemic.

Impressed by a neighbor dropping off some brownies and a handwritten be aware for her whereas she was in quarantine, Goodwin determined to launch a pre-stamped greeting playing cards firm referred to as Sparks of Pleasure Co. A number of months later, a TikTok influencer with some two million followers shared considered one of Goodwin’s playing cards on her account and Goodwin noticed her enterprise take off.

Goodwin, now 28, informed CNN that greater than 90% of her orders presently come from individuals who uncover her enterprise by way of TikTok. “If it had been to get banned, I might see enterprise plummeting,” Goodwin informed CNN. “I might lose most of my gross sales.”

For a lot of the previous two years, discuss of an outright TikTok ban appeared to recede. TikTok outlasted the Trump administration and solely noticed its recognition proceed to develop. It was the highest downloaded app in the USA final yr, and stays the highest downloaded app year-to-date in 2022, in line with knowledge from analytics agency Sensor Tower. Within the course of, TikTok, which stated it had 100 million US customers as of 2020, turned much more central to American tradition and to livelihoods of influencers and enterprise house owners like Goodwin.

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However immediately, the way forward for TikTok in the USA seems extra unsure than at any level since July 2020. A rising variety of Republican governors have not too long ago introduced bans on TikTok for state workers on authorities gadgets, together with from a number of states on Thursday alone. State attorneys normal and a Republican commissioner on the Federal Communications have every pressured Apple and Google to take more durable measures with the app. And a trio of US lawmakers led by Sen. Marco Rubio, the highest Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, launched a invoice earlier this week that when once more seeks to dam TikTok within the US because of the father or mother firm’s base in China.

The renewed political scrutiny comes amid a broader, ongoing reckoning over social media’s impacts on youngsters and after TikTok particularly has confirmed US consumer knowledge might be accessed by some workers in China. It additionally comes as TikTok has been negotiating for years with the US authorities and the Committee on International Funding in the USA (CFIUS) on a possible deal that addresses the lingering nationwide safety issues and permits the app to proceed working in the USA. Not too long ago, there have been experiences of delays in these negotiations.

The super attain of TikTok might solely make it more durable to ban the service outright, some nationwide safety consultants say. Even some TikTok critics have hedged on whether or not a ban is the precise method. Sen. Josh Hawley, who authored a invoice to ban TikTok from US authorities gadgets, stated this week he can be “high quality” if the US authorities and TikTok reached a deal to safeguard US customers’ knowledge. “But when they don’t do this,” Hawley stated, “then I believe we’re going to have to have a look at extra stringent measures.”

As lawmakers have renewed requires more durable motion to be taken with the app, a few of its customers who’ve constructed their livelihoods and located a way of neighborhood on the app say they’ll’t think about an America with out it.

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TikTok now drives culinary habits (together with a 200% bounce in Feta gross sales at one grocery retailer after a baked pasta dish went viral); numerous style and wonder crazes (from “pores and skin biking” to “glazed donut nails”), and propels new and outdated music (together with the Eighties track “Break My Stride”) to the highest of streaming charts. A major proportion of US politicians campaigned on the app forward of the midterm elections. And legacy information organizations just like the 176-year-old Related Press have not too long ago joined TikTok to achieve new audiences.

“So many individuals, myself included, are all the time on TikTok,” Kahlil Greene, 22, of New Haven, Connecticut, informed CNN. “That’s the place we get our leisure from, our information from, our musical style from, our social inside jokes we make with buddies come from memes that began on TikTok.”

Greene, who is named the “Gen Z historian” throughout social media, has amassed greater than 580,000 followers on TikTok by documenting social and cultural points. Greene’s following on TikTok even garnered the eye of the Biden administration. Greene was among the many handful of TikTokers who had been not too long ago invited to a White Home press briefing on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“A lot of our tradition and lives are pushed by TikTok now that it’s not simply one thing you possibly can rip away simply,” he stated.

TikTok has concurrently tried to ease issues about its affect on People and their knowledge whereas additionally working to broaden its footprint within the nation.

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The corporate, which is owned by Beijing-based Bytedance, has dedicated to transferring its US consumer knowledge to Oracle’s cloud platform and to taking different steps to isolate US consumer knowledge from different components of its enterprise. TikTok stated final week that it might restructure its US-focused content material moderation, coverage and authorized groups underneath a particular group inside the firm led by US-based officers and walled off organizationally from different groups targeted on the remainder of the world.

In response to the invoice calling for a ban, a TikTok spokesperson stated: “It’s troubling that moderately than encouraging the Administration to conclude its nationwide safety evaluate of TikTok, some members of Congress have determined to push for a politically-motivated ban that may do nothing to advance the nationwide safety of the USA.”

A growing number of state and federal lawmakers are attempting to crack down on TikTok, including some who are calling for an outright ban.

“We are going to proceed to transient members of Congress on the plans which have been developed underneath the oversight of our nation’s prime nationwide safety businesses—plans that we’re properly underway in implementing—to additional safe our platform in the USA,” the assertion added.

The corporate can be stressing its broad recognition. “TikTok is cherished by hundreds of thousands of People who use the platform to study, develop their companies, and join with inventive content material that brings them pleasure,” the spokesperson stated.

Now, the corporate is taking steps to continue to grow its attain. At a time when main tech giants together with Meta and Twitter are slashing workers, TikTok remains to be hiring American engineers. TikTok additionally seems be to taking purpose at a bit of Amazon’s e-commerce empire by searching for to construct out its personal warehousing community in the USA, a flurry of current job postings signifies.

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The problem for the federal authorities “is it’s nearly like TikTok is just too massive to fail,” stated Rick Sofield, a companion at Vinson & Elkins L.L.P., who focuses on nationwide safety critiques, export controls and financial sanctions. “I believe their minds are made up that ByteDance proudly owning TikTok is a nationwide safety concern – the explanation that we’ve been hung up is it’s too massive to fail, they usually’re attempting to determine a tender touchdown.”

“There’s an entire lot of issues I believe that must occur first, earlier than there’s a ban,” he added.

For Adrianna Smart, 30, TikTok hasn’t simply been “important” for constructing her bakery in Columbus, Ohio, it’s additionally been a crucial software that lets her attain younger Black and brown folks in her neighborhood and share information and recommendations on how you can construct a enterprise.

“I see the affect that I’m having once I exit into the neighborhood and persons are like, ‘Oh my gosh, I observe you TikTok,’” Smart, who’s co-founder of Coco’s Confectionary Kitchen, informed CNN. “I had just a little woman a number of weeks in the past inform me, ‘It was simply so cool as a result of you will have hair like me, and also you’re on TikTok and you’ve got so many views!’”

Adrianna Wise says TikTok allows her to reach young Black and brown people in her community.

“A variety of them are studying the abilities and the instruments they want to have the ability to create and domesticate their very own companies on platforms like TikTok, if not solely on TikTok,” she stated.

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Goodwin, the Sparks of Pleasure Co. founder, equally says a TikTok ban wouldn’t solely be devastating for her enterprise, but in addition for her sense of neighborhood. She candidly paperwork her psychological well being journey by way of TikTok and has constructed a assist system by way of the platform. “My finest good friend on the planet proper now, I met on TikTok,” she stated. “We’re virtually household at this level.”

“TikTok is far more than simply dancing movies or lip-syncing movies. It actually has so many alternative niches, and yow will discover neighborhood in any of them,” Goodwin informed CNN. “So if it had been to go away, it might be it might be a fantastic loss.”

Regardless of the hullaballoo, Greene, the Gen Z historian, says he’s not notably apprehensive a couple of potential TikTok ban – though he acknowledges it may trigger a success to his revenue and sponsorship offers. If something, he says the parents in authorities calling for a ban don’t appear to pay attention to how central it’s to the lives of individuals in his era.

Hootie Hurley, 23, a Los Angeles-based full-time creator with more than 1.3 million followers on TikTok, told CNN that he now makes most of his income through his TikTok following.

“Usually talking, the aspect of the argument that’s like tremendous towards TikTok, tremendous alarmist about what it means, hasn’t performed a fantastic job speaking that message,” he stated. Greene views “knowledge privateness issues” as “extra of a buzzword than a tangible worry.”

“We grew up in a era the place our knowledge was all the time public,” he stated, “and we all the time put our lives on social media.”

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Hootie Hurley, 23, a Los Angeles-based full-time creator with greater than 1.3 million followers on TikTok, informed CNN that he now makes most of his revenue by way of his TikTok following. Whereas a ban can be “very scary” for him and his livelihood,” Hurley stated he and different TikTok creators are extra targeted on entertaining their viewers than stressing about it – particularly after weathering the primary ban threats again in 2020.

“If the federal government ever did ban it,” he stated, “everyone would truly be very, very shocked.”

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Russia aims to be global leader in nuclear power plant construction

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Russia aims to be global leader in nuclear power plant construction

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Russia is building more than 10 nuclear units abroad as it looks to tap into rising energy demand driven by artificial intelligence and developing markets, according to an envoy of President Vladimir Putin.

Moscow is doubling down on efforts to boost its global influence by expanding its nuclear fleet, with plants under construction in countries including Bangladesh, China, Egypt, India, Iran and Turkey. Russia has enhanced its role as a major nuclear energy provider even as the oil and gas sector has faced heavy sanctions after its invasion of Ukraine.

Boris Titov, the Kremlin’s special representative for international co-operation in sustainability, said the country wanted to cement its position as “one of the biggest builders of new nuclear plants in the world”. 

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He said Russia expected strong demand for nuclear power from developing countries eager for cleaner sources of energy, as well as from technology companies harnessing AI in data centres. The International Atomic Energy Agency forecast this year that world nuclear generating capacity would increase by 155 per cent to 950 gigawatts by 2050.

“We are building more than 10 different units around the world,” Titov told the Financial Times. “We need a lot of energy. We will not be able to provide this energy without using . . . nuclear. We know that it’s safe . . . it’s not emitting [greenhouse gas emissions], so it is very clean.”

Boris Titov, the Kremlin’s special representative for international co-operation in sustainability © Maksim Konstantinov/SOPA/LightRocket/Getty Images

Russia’s growing overseas nuclear portfolio, including reactor construction, fuel provision and other services, spans 54 countries, according to an article published last year in the journal Nature Energy by the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. 

Titov pointed to Hungary’s Paks 2 plant as well as units in Bangladesh and Turkey. Russia is also expected to build a plant with small modular reactors in Uzbekistan, while it signed an agreement with Burkina Faso’s ruling junta in 2023. The FT reported this year that Russia was involved in more than a third of new reactors being built worldwide.

Western governments have attempted to push back against Russia’s nuclear prominence, with the US banning imports of Russian-enriched uranium this May. 

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With the exception of Hungary, most eastern European countries have signed contracts for fuel developed to fit Soviet-era reactors by US company Westinghouse since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 

As part of a wider push to meet an indicative target of being free from Russian fuel imports by 2027, Dan Jørgensen, the new EU commissioner for energy, said that he wanted to examine the “full nuclear supply chain”. 

But Hungarian premier Viktor Orbán and Slovakian prime minister Robert Fico have said they would block any steps to restrict Russia’s civilian nuclear energy industry.

After meeting Putin on Sunday, Fico said in a post on Facebook that potential sanctions against Russia would be “financially damaging and endanger the production of electricity in nuclear power plants in Slovakia, which is unacceptable”.

But fears that Russia could create critical nuclear fuel shortages for the bloc, as it did for gas in 2022, are overstated, one senior EU official said.

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“Rosatom has a vested interest to be reliable,” they added.

A more immediate problem is US sanctions on Gazprombank, a major conduit for energy payments to Russia. The measures exempted civil nuclear energy except for Hungary’s Paks 2 plant. Hungary’s foreign minister Péter Szijjártó has called the singling out of the new plant an “entirely political decision”.

Many developing countries are looking at nuclear to meet clean energy requirements, offering more potential markets for Russia.

Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, Malaysia’s natural resources and environmental sustainability minister, told the Financial Times that the country was “studying the introduction of nuclear”. 

He said all the “major players” were “talking to the [Malaysian] government” on potential projects, without referring to specific countries.

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Speaking at the UN COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan in November, Jake Levine, senior climate and energy director at the US National Security Council, said Washington was concerned about countries turning to China or Russia for nuclear power.

Global competitiveness in the industry was a “huge issue”, he added.

Additional reporting by Anastasia Stognei, Polina Ivanova and Raphael Minder

Climate Capital

Where climate change meets business, markets and politics. Explore the FT’s coverage here.

Are you curious about the FT’s environmental sustainability commitments? Find out more about our science-based targets here

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Why Trump's tariffs on Mexico would mean higher avocado prices at the grocery store

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Why Trump's tariffs on Mexico would mean higher avocado prices at the grocery store

Avocados grow on trees in an orchard in the municipality of Ario de Rosales, Michoacan state, Mexico, on Sept. 21, 2023. Tariffs on Mexican imports would have a big effect on avocados in the U.S.

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Alfredo Estrella/AFP via Getty Images

Of all the products that would be affected by President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on Mexico, avocados stand out: 90% of avocados consumed in the U.S. are imported. And almost all of those imports come from Mexico.

Trump has said he plans to impose a blanket tariff of 25% on imports from Mexico and Canada, along with an additional 10% tax on goods from China.

It’s unclear whether the tariffs will be implemented or if they will serve merely as a negotiating tactic.

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If enacted, they could have multiple effects on the avocado industry.

“Broad tariffs, like what’s being proposed, is not something that we’ve seen” before, says David Ortega, a food economist and professor at Michigan State University. “We had the trade war with China back in 2018 that affected steel and aluminum, but when it comes to food, these types of policy proposals are not something that are very common or that we’ve seen recently.”

With one of the biggest guacamole-eating events of the year — the Super Bowl — approaching in February, here’s what to know about avocados, tariffs, and why so many avocados are grown in Mexico.

Prices will rise

Avocados are displayed in a grocery store in Washington, D.C., on June 14, 2022. Experts predict avocado prices will rise in the event of tariffs on Mexican imports.

Avocados are displayed in a grocery store in Washington, D.C., on June 14, 2022. Experts predict avocado prices will rise in the event of tariffs on Mexican imports.

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First, a 25% tariff on imports from Mexico would lead to higher avocado prices at the grocery store.

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But estimating just how much higher is hard to say. It’s possible that producers and importers will absorb some of the costs to keep prices down and stay more competitive.

Ortega says there could be “pretty significant increases in the price of avocados. Maybe not the full 25%, but pretty close, given that there’s very little substitute ability with regards to where we would source avocados.”

But he cautions that because the tariffs apply only to the product’s value at the border, and not to other costs like transportation and distribution within the U.S., prices may not go up by the full 25%.

Regardless of these potential price increases, however, people in the U.S. love their avocados and they’re willing to pay more. Avocado consumption tripled in the U.S. between 2000 and 2021.

“Given that avocado is a staple of our consumption here, I would say that the elasticity is not very high, meaning that even with a big increase in price, consumption is not going to change that much,” says Luis Ribera, a professor and extension economist in the agricultural economics department at Texas A&M University.

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Why Mexico

A farmer works at an avocado plantation at the Los Cerritos avocado group ranch in Ciudad Guzman, state of Jalisco, Mexico, on Feb. 10, 2023. Mexico provides 90% of the avocados consumed in the U.S.

A farmer works at an avocado plantation at the Los Cerritos avocado group ranch in Ciudad Guzman, state of Jalisco, Mexico, on Feb. 10, 2023. Most of the avocados consumed in the U.S. are grown in Mexico.

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Mexico is the biggest producer of avocados in the world and exported $3.3 billion worth of avocados in 2023. A study funded by the industry estimated that avocado production supports 78,000 permanent jobs and 310,000 seasonal jobs in Mexico.

“It’s a very important business in Mexico, very lucrative,” Ribera says.

Mexico emerged as the largest foreign supplier of fruits and vegetables to the U.S. for a few reasons, he says. One: Its proximity to the U.S. market. With a perishable product, closer is better. Peru is the second-largest source of foreign avocados in the U.S., but its greater distance means avocados need to be shipped farther.

The other reasons for Mexico are favorable weather that allows for year-round production of avocados and access to cheap labor, according to Ribera.

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Avocados are grown in the U.S. too, mostly in California and to a lesser extent Florida and Hawaii, but U.S. growers can’t meet Americans’ big appetite. Avocado production in the U.S. has declined, even as Americans grew fonder of the green fruit, according to the USDA.

California avocado growers have faced droughts and wildfires in recent years, making it difficult to offer the year-round availability that American consumers crave, Ortega says. In addition, land is expensive and water is limited.

If the goal of implementing tariffs is to force avocado production to move somewhere besides Mexico, that isn’t easy.

It takes about eight years for avocado trees to produce fruit, according to the USDA. “This is not a product that you can just simply plant more of this season and you get more of in a few months,” Ortega says.

Other countries where the U.S. sources avocados — Peru, the Dominican Republic and Chile — “just simply don’t have the production capacity to replace Mexico’s supply,” he says.

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Tariffs could impact the organic avocado market

Tariffs could also alter the market dynamic when it comes to organic vs. conventional foods.

If prices rise across the board, consumers who typically buy organic avocados might switch to conventional ones to save money. Organic produce makes up about 15% of total fruit and vegetable sales in the U.S., according to the Organic Trade Association, which represents hundreds of organic businesses and thousands of farmers.

“My hypothesis is that the price of conventional products would increase more than the premium organic product,” Ortega says. He reasons that because people who are used to buying organic avocados would move to buy conventional ones, “that in turn increases the demand and would make prices rise more for that category.”

Matthew Dillon, co-CEO of the Organic Trade Association, says those in the organic food industry are looking at diversifying their supply chains away from Mexico, but there’s a three-year transition period required for farmers to switch from producing conventional to organic produce.

“Supply chains are not incredibly elastic in organic. It takes more time to pivot and change when there’s a supply chain disruption. And tariffs are in some ways a form of supply chain disruption for a company, because it creates unpredictable pricing,” he says.

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Together with grocery prices that have gone up more than 26% since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump’s plans for tariffs on Mexico, along with mass deportations, could create “a perfect storm of high inflationary pressure on the organic sector,” Dillon says.

Furthermore, retaliatory tariffs from Mexico could have their own impacts.

Avocado producers face uncertainty as Trump’s return looms

Avocados in boxes are pictured at a packing plant in the municipality of Ario de Rosales, Michoacan state, Mexico, on Sept. 21, 2023.

Avocados in boxes are pictured at a packing plant in the municipality of Ario de Rosales, Michoacan state, Mexico, on Sept. 21, 2023.

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Aside from the threat of tariffs, the avocado industry has other challenges to deal with: climate change presents several problems, and avocados require a large amount of water to grow. Meanwhile, environmentalists say some avocado growers are cutting down forests to plant avocados.

Producers also face extortion from criminal gangs in Mexico.

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And now with Trump’s tariff threats, producers are left to wonder about their next steps.

“Producers, they react to market fundamentals,” Ribera says. For example, people can foresee how bad weather in Mexico would affect avocado prices. Producers and retailers will adjust to higher and lower demand.

“The issue with a tariff is it’s not a market fundamental — it’s a policy. It’s a political move,” he says. “It could happen or it could not happen, or it could be increased or it could be decreased, you know. So it’s hard for the whole supply chain to adjust.”

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Live news: SingPost shares slump after CEO fired over handling of whistleblower report

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Live news: SingPost shares slump after CEO fired over handling of whistleblower report

While the holiday spirit will dominate the news agenda, there are notable developments to watch across the world, as the three defining themes of 2024 — elections, war and inflation — continue to hum in the background.

On Tuesday, Moldova’s pro-EU president-elect Maia Sandu will attend her inauguration. Her narrow election victory in October, despite alleged Russian meddling in the process, will set the former Soviet country on a path to EU membership.

Maia Sandu © Dumitru Doru/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Georgia, on the other hand, will on Sunday swear in Mikheil Kavelashvili to the presidency, a pro-Russian firebrand and Croatia will hold a first-round presidential vote on Sunday.

On Monday, Mozambique’s top court is set to give a verdict on the country’s disputed election in October, while Albanian opposition parties block roads demanding Prime Minister Edi Rama’s resignation

Bank of Japan governor Kazuo Ueda will deliver a speech on Christmas Day. Economists will pore over his words for clues on how president-elect Donald Trump’s tariffs will affect the pace and trajectory of monetary policy.

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UK third-quarter GDP figures will be out on Monday, after months of disappointing economic releases for chancellor Rachel Reeves.

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