TikTok urges Supreme Court to stop impending ban just days before it takes effect
The Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments Friday morning over whether the social media platform TikTok should be required to divest from its Chinese-owned parent company or be banned in the U.S., in a highly watched case that pits concerns over national security against free speech protections. Unless justices intervene, or TikTok’s owners agree to sell, the app will be barred from operating in the U.S. by Jan. 19.Oral arguments centered on the level of First Amendment protections that should be granted to TikTok and its foreign owner, ByteDance. Noel Francisco, TikTok’s lawyer, told justices in oral arguments Friday that the U.S. government has “no valid interest in preventing foreign propaganda,” and that he believes the platform and its owners should be entitled to the highest level of free speech protections under the U.S. Constitution. This is not the first time the Supreme Court has grappled with whether or not full First Amendment protections should be extended to foreign speakers. In previous cases, they have ruled that speech by a foreign government or individuals is not entitled to the full protections. The Biden administration, for its part, will argue that the law focuses solely on the company’s control of the app, which attorneys for the administration argue could pose “grave national security threats” to Americans rather than its content. Lawyers for the administration will also argue that Congress did not impose any restrictions on speech, much less any restrictions based on viewpoint or on content, and therefore fails to satisfy the test of free speech violations under the First Amendment. The court’s decision could have major ramifications for the roughly 170 million Americans who use the app. Justices agreed in December to hold the expedited hearing and will have just nine days to issue a ruling before the ban takes place on Jan. 19. Oral arguments began shortly after 10 a.m. Stay here for live updates as the oral arguments unfold.
Liverpool wary of Accrington’s ‘Champions League final’ in FA Cup
Double-chasing Liverpool will not underestimate Accrington Stanley in the FA Cup on Saturday, according to Arne Slot. Liverpool head coach Arne Slot is prepared for a revved-up Accrington Stanley when the teams meet in the third round of the FA Cup at Anfield on Saturday. Slot suffered only his second defeat as manager of the Reds in the club’s last match when they were beaten 1-0 at Tottenham Hotspur in the first leg of their League Cup semifinal. FA Cup opponents Stanley sit 19th in English football’s fourth tier, while Slot’s Liverpool are top of the Premier League and Champions League standings. “Every team against us is a special occasion for every team but especially a lower league team, so they will be all up for it. They have lived this game for weeks probably… so we need to bring the best out of ourselves,” Slot told reporters on Friday. “If we go to the Champions League final, everyone is hyped up and that is for them tomorrow, it will feel like the Champions League final and we have to be aware of that. “First half-hour is most difficult, they will be very intense and we have to be ready for them playing the best games of their lives. That is what we have to do too.” Arne Slot suffered only his second defeat as Liverpool manager in the club’s last match against Tottenham Hotspur in the League Cup [Carl Recine/Getty Images] Liverpool have been boosted by the return to training of midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai after he recovered from illness. The 24-year-old Hungary captain had missed their 2-2 home draw against rivals Manchester United and the defeat by Tottenham. Advertisement Centreback Jarell Quansah, 21, is also available for selection. “Every game is an opportunity for them to have a chance to play and this one as well,” Slot said. “Dom trained with the under-21s yesterday. Jarell, like I said, he was a bit ill last week, as a result of that I had to take him off the game (against Tottenham) but I am expecting him to be available for tomorrow.” Trent Alexander-Arnold, left, endured a chastening game for Liverpool in the draw with Manchester United [Alex Livesey – Danehouse/Getty Images] Slot continued his defence of vice-captain Trent Alexander-Arnold, who was criticised by pundits for his performance against United. The 26-year-old England right back, linked with a move to Spanish giants Real Madrid, put on a much-improved display against Tottenham on Wednesday after coming on as a substitute in the second half. “Trent has had one difficult game for us and maybe a few that were OK to good. Mainly he has had great games when he played for us this season,” the Dutchman said. “I know there is a lot of focus on him at the moment, but I would also like to highlight the focus on how well he did when he came on in the last half-hour (Tottenham) and how our fans reacted to him, that is what pleased me even more during that game.” Who’s lifting this at the end of the season? 🏆#EmiratesFACup pic.twitter.com/5XRitRVyBX — Emirates FA Cup (@EmiratesFACup) January 9, 2025 Stanley, who are based in Lancashire, are perhaps best known among English football fans for a Milk Marketing Board television commercial in the 1980s which gently mocked the team’s obscurity. Advertisement “I do know about the milk advert,” Slot said when asked about what he knows about the relationship between Liverpool and Stanley. “Immediately after the game (was drawn) there was a clip of a player that was so happy that he was going to play at Anfield. So these kinds of things I know. “I know people from this area also play for that club. There’s quite a lot actually that I already know and, of course, I know a lot about the team.” Adblock test (Why?)
Union Berlin appeals court ruling over Bochum goalkeeper hit by lighter
Union Berlin appeal decision to award match to Bochum after their keeper was struck by a cigarette lighter in December. Union Berlin is appealing a decision by the German football federation’s sports court to award Bochum a 2-0 victory after Bochum’s goalkeeper was struck with a cigarette lighter during their Bundesliga match in December. “It’s bad enough that people repeatedly throw objects onto stages, into indoor areas or onto the pitch at concerts or sporting events. Unfortunately, there’s nothing that any event organiser can do to prevent it,” Union president Dirk Zingler said late on Thursday. Earlier, the sports court had awarded Bochum a victory over Union instead of the 1-1 draw that the teams played out on December 14. That game was nearly over when Bochum goalkeeper Patrick Drewes was struck by the object thrown from the crowd in added time. Referee Martin Petersen suspended the game and led both teams off the field after Drewes sat down and received medical treatment. The firelighter was held up by a Bochum player to the Union fans following the incident [Maja Hitij/Getty Images] Bochum did not want to restart the game, but it resumed nearly half an hour later, with striker Philipp Hofmann replacing Drewes for the remaining three minutes. Both teams agreed not to try and score – which was also an issue for the court. Advertisement “Such agreements contradict the basic principles of sporting competition,” court chairman Stephan Oberholz said. Oberholz added that Union were responsible for “a weakening of the Bochum team” as the item had been thrown by a Union supporter. Zingler feels otherwise. “The actual unsportsmanlike scandal took place on the pitch and in court today,” Zingler said, suggesting Bochum had made more of the incident than warranted. “Whether there is an impairment or weakening for one side, whether the game is abandoned or continued, must always be the sole decision of the referee,” Zingler said. “If the beneficiary party can declare themselves as weakened, we no longer need impartial referees and the door is open to fraud or even dirty tricks. The disadvantaged parties will never be able to prove the opposite.” Patrick Drewes, centre, had to be helped from the field [Maja Hitij/Getty Images] Adblock test (Why?)
Lakurawa, the new armed group wreaking havoc on the Nigeria-Niger border
A new armed group called Lakurawa is attacking villages in remote corners of northwestern Nigeria and across the border in Niger, posing new threats to two countries that already suffer from protracted conflict involving several other groups, including Boko Haram. In November, the Nigerian army acknowledged for the first time the existence of Lakurawa and said its members were operating from headquarters in the country’s Sokoto and Kebbi states. Attacks by the group have killed dozens of people, and at least nine suspected members are known and have been declared wanted by the Nigerian army. The northern region is one of the hottest beds of violence in Nigeria, with its states experiencing a toxic mix of armed attacks, kidnappings and banditry in recent years. The Nigerian army has also been grappling with a long-running battle with the Boko Haram armed group in the northeast for more than a decade. Strained relations between Nigeria and Niger, stemming from Niger’s coup d’etat in July 2023, have also affected joint military operations and given the Lakurawa group more room to expand, officials say. Advertisement Here’s what to know about the group: Who is Lakurawa? According to Nigerian army officials, Lakurawa fighters are believed to originally be from troubled Mali, a Sahelian country that’s currently under fire from a swarm of transnational armed groups seeking territory to govern. Groups like Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) and ISIL affiliate in the Greater Sahara are some of the armed groups destabilising Mali. Officials in Nigeria say Lakurawa members are affiliated with the Malian groups but have for years settled in communities along the Nigeria-Niger border, marrying local women and recruiting youth. Researchers tracing the origin of the group, however, note that its members have not just begun operating. Originally, Lakurawa members were herdsmen who would carry rifles for protection. They formed an organised armed group after local leaders in rural communities of Gudu and Tangaza, in Nigeria’s Sokoto State, invited them to help tackle armed bandits who were then raiding communities for money and cattle, and who helped prompt a kidnapping crisis in Nigeria. Trucks with goods are seen at the border between Nigeria and Niger. Members of Lakurawa have reportedly settled in border communities [File: Mohammad Babangida/AP] Remote communities in the country are often ungoverned due to the inadequacies of the country’s local and state governments, allowing crime to thrive. The local leaders in Sokoto wanted Lakurawa fighters to battle the bandits and protect the communities. Advertisement Lakurawa members were able to dislodge the bandit threat between 2016 and 2017 and were paid for their work. However, the group’s members soon turned on communities, too. They fell out with one of the local leaders who had invited them and murdered him. Most Lakurawa fighters are believed to be between 18 and 50 and speak Fulfulde, Hausa, and Arabic, according to the think tank, Nigerian Institute of International Affairs. Fulfulde is primarily spoken by the Fulani group whose members are spread across West Africa. The Nigerian military said it had identified some of the group’s leaders: Abu Khadijah, Abdulrahaman (Idi), Dadi Gumba, Muhammed Abu, Usman Shehu, Abu Yusuf, Musa Walia, Ibrahim Suyaka, Ba Sulhu, and Idris Taklakse. What do they want? In its announcement in November, the Nigerian military said Lakurawa’s motivation or ideology is unknown. However, researchers who’ve spoken to communities affected by the violence say the group promotes its own version of Islam and wants to seek a caliphate. In areas they govern, the group is believed to have imposed its own version of Islamic law. What have they done? Members of Lakurawa have been attacking villages in Nigeria and Niger. They are believed to hold territory in several villages, where they also impose taxes on cattle. As a tactic to attract more followers and gain local support, the group is said to be distributing money, farm tools, fertiliser, seeds, and water pumping machines to needy locals. Some estimates put monetary compensation for new recruits at 1 million naira ($645), and about 10,000 naira ($6) for local informants. Advertisement Villagers who don’t cooperate with the group’s leadership face threats and attacks. Lakurawa-related violence has left dozens dead. In one of the latest attacks on November 9, the group’s raid on the Mera community in Nigeria’s Kebbi State left 15 people dead. How is Nigeria responding? Tensions between Nigeria and Niger have hindered a joint and integrated response to Lakurawa and given the group some leeway. Niger’s military seized power in July 2023, but Nigeria, the current leader of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regional bloc, has taken a hard line with the military, asking for it to return the country to civilian rule and free detained former President Mohamed Bazoum. Before Niger’s 2023 coup, both countries’ armies maintained joint border patrol operations. That action is believed to have helped disperse the group in 2020. However, amid the tensions that followed the coup, joint operations between the two countries were disrupted. Authorities in Nigeria say that was about the same time the group’s members re-grouped and began attacking communities again, taking advantage of the security vacuum as relations broke down further. Joint border patrols have since resumed. In late 2024, Nigeria launched operations against the group. The military has conducted air strikes on targets believed to be Lakurawa members in the northern states affected, and ground assaults on the group’s camps. Nigeria’s military acknowledged in December that it mistakenly killed 10 civilians after an air strike on the group’s munition hideout in the villages of Gidan Bisa and Gidan Runtuwa, Sokoto State, caused secondary explosions. The villages were a high concentration for the group, an army spokesperson said. Advertisement What about Niger? Niger’s government has not revealed whether it has conducted special operations targeting the group, and it’s unclear what parts of Niger are affected. In an interview with local reporters in December, military leader General Abdourahamane Tchiani blamed the group’s emergence on Nigeria and said Abuja and France were sponsoring
‘Devastating’: California had record rainfall last year, but lacked infrastructure to store it
California does not have a water shortage, yet firefighters battling the brutal fires across Los Angeles are facing scarce resources to keep up with the blaze that has threatened thousands of lives, homes, land and wildlife. Meanwhile, critics challenge Gov. Gavin Newsom’s call to “not play politics,” arguing that political mismanagement is precisely to blame. “It’s all political,” Edward Ring, the director of water and energy policy for the California Policy Center think-tank, told Fox News Digital in an interview. “The entire cause is political, and they ironically politicize it by saying it’s about climate change, which is a political wedge that they use all the time, which is really one of the least of the factors causing this.” Experts lay blame primarily on the state’s handling of its forestry management and a lesser-known problem, the state’s outdated water reserves system. California’s existing reservoirs can only hold so much water, and many were built in the mid-20th century. Last year, the state experienced record-breaking rainfall after an atmospheric river event, but the existing water infrastructure faced difficulties managing the sudden influx of water. A significant portion of that rainfall was dumped into the ocean. PALISADES FIRE: HEIDI MONTAG, SPENCER PRATT LOSE HOME; CELEBRITIES FLEE RITZY NEIGHBORHOOD Ring also pointed to “environmentalist extremists” in the state who have pushed for heavier regulations like the Endangered Species Act, which requires freshwater to flow through rivers and into the Pacific Ocean to protect the endangered delta smelt and salmon. The mandates restrict how much water can be diverted to storage, even during wet years. “There is plenty of water,” Ring argues, but the primary challenge in transporting water south to farmers in the San Joaquin Valley and cities in Southern California isn’t infrastructure capacity—it’s environmental policies. He points to a “consensus among the bureaucrats and board directors” overseeing California’s water management that prioritizes keeping more water in rivers to support the endangered fish. “That’s true as far as it goes,” he said, but despite these efforts, the salmon and smelt populations have not recovered. Additionally, there is growing concern that sturgeon may soon be classified as endangered as well. “These endangered fish are being used as the reason to leave water in the rivers,” he said. PACIFIC PALISADES INFERNO FORCES THOUSANDS TO FLEE CALIFORNIA HOMES; GOV. NEWSOM DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY Urban areas, like Los Angeles, have highly developed drainage systems that channel stormwater directly into the ocean. They were originally designed with flood prevention in mind, not water storage, so this presents an additional challenge for the area. “They bring water in off of the California Aqueduct, and they import water into Los Angeles, and they haven’t brought enough in there, and their reservoirs are depleted,” Ring said. “But the biggest problem, because you’re not going to drain even a half-full reservoir fighting a fire, is the water infrastructure in Los Angeles, and the water infrastructure in Los Angeles has been neglected. And the reason it’s been neglected is that they want the money for other projects.” “The bottom line is they haven’t spent money on it, and they’ve justified that by saying, we have to use less water,” he continued. “And so they’ve been encouraging people, and in some cases, rationing, or even forcing people to use less water. And as a result, you don’t have a system that’s as robust.” One recent ex-California lawmaker said the state’s lack of water infrastructure is “devastating California.” ELON MUSK ANNOUNCES SPACEX WILL PROVIDE FREE STARLINK TERMINALS IN LA AMID RAGING FIRES California voters passed Proposition 1 in 2014, also known as the Water Quality, Supply and Infrastructure Improvement Act, which authorized $2.7 billion in bonds to increase the state’s water storage capacity through building new reservoirs and groundwater storage facilities. Yet as of January 2025, no new reservoirs have been completed under Prop. 1. “And here it’s been all these years, and we haven’t done a shovel full of dirt to move to make the project,” Dahle said. “The project is just not funded, and we had $100 billion in surplus, and we didn’t fund it. And so that’s the frustrating part, I think, for most Californians, is that when we had the money, and we didn’t do anything about it.” The largest of the wildfires, the Eaton Fire near Altadena and Pasadena, has scorched more than 27,000 acres, Cal Fire reported as of midday Thursday. When reached for comment, Newsom’s spokesperson Izzy Gardon told Fox News Digital, “The Governor is focused on protecting people, not playing politics, and making sure firefighters have all the resources they need.”
PM Modi laughs, responds to memes with Italy PM Giorgia Meloni: ‘Nahi, woh sab toh…’
Do you remember the G20 event when PM Modi shook hands with his Italian counterpart, Giorgia Meloni? And, there was a sudden wave of “Melodi” memes on internet.
IAS Tina Dabi vs MLA Ravindra Singh Bhati: New order stops politician from organising…
Rajasthan’s Barmer District Collector Tina Dabi cancels Ravindra Singh Bhati’s cultural event near the India-Pakistan border due to…
‘Damage control’: Congress targets PM Modi’s ‘not a god’ remark in his first-ever podcast
The Congress on Friday, i.e., January 10, took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his first-ever podcast appearance with Zerodha co-counder Nikhil Kamath on the “People by WTF” channel.
Trump to be sentenced in New York criminal trial
President-elect Trump is expected to be sentenced Friday after being found guilty on charges of falsifying business records stemming from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s years-long investigation. The president-elect is expected to attend his sentencing virtually, after fighting to block the process all the way up to the United States Supreme Court this week. Judge Juan Merchan set Trump’s sentencing for Jan. 10—just ten days before he is set to be sworn in as the 47th President of the United States. TRUMP FILES MOTION TO STAY ‘UNLAWFUL SENTENCING’ IN NEW YORK CASE Merchan, though, said he will not sentence the president-elect to prison. Merchan wrote in his decision that he is not likely to “impose any sentence of incarceration,” but rather a sentence of an “unconditional discharge,” which means there would be no punishment imposed. Trump filed an appeal to block sentencing from moving forward with the New York State Court of Appeals. That court rejected his request. Trump also filed an emergency motion with the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that it “immediately order a stay of pending criminal proceedings in the Supreme Court of New York County, New York, pending the final resolution of President Trump’s interlocutory appeal raising questions of Presidential immunity, including in this Court if necessary.” “The Court should also enter, if necessary, a temporary administrative stay while it considers this stay application,” Trump’s filing requested. TRUMP FILES EMERGENCY PETITION TO SUPREME COURT TO PREVENT SENTENCING IN NY V. TRUMP Trump’s attorneys also argued that New York prosecutors erroneously admitted extensive evidence relating to official presidential acts during trial, ignoring the high court’s ruling on presidential immunity. The Supreme Court denied Trump’s emergency petition to block his sentencing from taking place on Friday, Jan. 10. The Supreme Court, earlier this year, ruled that presidents are immune from prosecution related to official presidential acts. But New York prosecutors argued that the high court “lacks jurisdiction” over the case. They also argued that the evidence they presented in the trial last year concerned “unofficial conduct that is not subject to any immunity.” Trump was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. He pleaded not guilty to those charges. After a six-week-long, unprecedented trial for a former president and presidential candidate, a New York jury found the now-president-elect guilty on all counts. Trump has maintained his innocence in the case and repeatedly railed against it as an example of “lawfare” promoted by Democrats in an effort to hurt his election efforts ahead of November.
PM Modi laughs, responds to memes with Italy PM Georgia Meloni: ‘Nahi, woh sab toh…’
Do you remember the G20 event when PM Modi shook hands with his Italian counterpart, Georgia Meloni? And, there was a sudden wave of “Melodi” memes on internet.