The social media platform will pay $400 mn in an out-of-court settlement over claims that it violated minors’ personal data protections TikTok and its parent company ByteDance have agreed to pay $400 million to settle a US government lawsuit accusing the social media platform of illegally collecting children’s personal data. The out-of-court settlement, announced by the US Department of Justice on Friday, ends the case without the allegations being tested at trial and without any determination of liability. The case was brought in 2024 under the Biden administration by the DOJ and Federal Trade Commission. The government accused TikTok of knowingly allowing millions of children under age 13 to create regular accounts and collecting and retaining their personal information without parental consent. It also alleged that TikTok frequently failed to delete children’s accounts and data when requested ...
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Fyodor Lukyanov reflects on the first anniversary of the Russia-US summit The meeting between the Russian and US presidents in Alaska last year caused a sensation in both form and substance. Expectations were so high, whether expressed as hope or alarm, that the Anchorage summit was almost certain to disappoint. The conflict surrounding Ukraine is too deep and complex to be resolved at a single meeting, even one involving the leaders of Russia and the United States. Negotiations to end the Vietnam War dragged on for years, despite both sides understanding from the beginning that the conflict would eventually have to end. The real question was whether Anchorage could provide the starting point for a peace process; it didn’t. Much has since been said about why, although the conditions for such a breakthrough probably didn’t exist in the first place. Yet rather than dismissing the summit with the ...
Monika Laskowska was presented as an ‘Ambassador of Remembrance’ of Poland’s 1944 anti-Nazi revolt before organizers reversed course An adult-content creator was presented as a potential ambassador for the memory of Poland’s 1944 Warsaw Uprising before public outrage forced a reversal, according to local media reports. The campaign commemorating the revolt’s 82nd anniversary has the honorary patronage of the Polish Culture Ministry. Monika Laskowska, known in Poland as an OnlyFans creator, appeared in a photo published by the Warszawa44 Association wearing a T-shirt commemorating the uprising and was presented as an ‘Ambassador of Remembrance’, multiple media outlets reported on Thursday. OnlyFans is a subscription platform widely associated with adult content. The Warsaw Uprising was launched by the Polish resistance against Nazi German forces on August 1, 1944, in an attempt to l...
Beijing has called for diplomacy after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged countries to join Washington’s economic campaign against Tehran China has refused to join a US plan to “squash” Iran’s economy, rejecting Washington’s push to be part of the “toughest sanctions in history” against the Islamic Republic. On Thursday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called on American allies and other countries to choose sides and stop doing business with Iran, as Washington prepares what he touted as “the greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world.” In an interview with CNBC, Bessent described the plan, expected to be unveiled on Monday, as “a one-two punch” combining a naval blockade with “the toughest sanctions in history.” He claimed it would “squash” the Iranian economy and “collapse this ...
Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party secured 255 votes in Thursday’s voting, against his rival’s 88 Bangladeshi lawmakers have elected Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, a candidate of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), as the country’s 23rd president. The former secretary-general of the BNP secured 255 parliamentary votes in the presidential election, while Oli Ahmed, a former army colonel from the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami-led alliance, received 88 votes. The president is the constitutional head of state but the position is largely ceremonial. The polling was held on Thursday evening, with all of the country’s 349 lawmakers casting their votes. This was the first presidential election in 35 years to feature more than one candidate. In previous elections, the political opposition never contested the ruling party. Read mor...
Locals in the Lebanese capital have labeled a US-brokered framework peace deal with Israel “a disgrace and humiliation” for their country Residents of a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut have said they will not trade the group’s weapons for reconstruction money, while decrying a US-brokered framework peace agreement between Lebanon and Israel. The Dahiyeh neighborhood in the south-western part of the Lebanese capital has suffered extensive destruction from strikes by West Jerusalem since the escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2023 and its subsequent spillover into Lebanon. The deal, signed between the Lebanese and Israeli governments in late June, envisages the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) pulling out from southern Lebanon, to be replaced by the Lebanese military, which would oversee the disarmament of Hezbollah. Read more Isra...