Israeli drone strike injures three in southern Lebanon

 

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, surrounded by ministers from the government attends a session of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem. Monday Nov. 18, 2024.

At least three people have been reportedly injured in an Israeli drone strike in southern Lebanon less than a day after a truce deal took effect between the regime and the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah.

The attack took place near a vehicle in the village of Markaba in southern Lebanon on November 28, Israeli Army Radio reported without giving more details.

Israel was forced to accept a ceasefire with Hezbollah after suffering heavy losses following more than 14 months of fighting and failing to achieve its goals in its aggression on Lebanon. The truce agreement officially came into effect at 04:00 local time (0200 GMT) on November 27.

Hezbollah opened a support front for Palestinians in Gaza only a day after the Israeli regime unleashed its genocidal war against the besieged territory in October 2023, launching numerous retaliatory attacks against Israeli targets in the occupied territories. 

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Following the truce announcement, the resistance movement warned it was fully ready to counter further potential Israeli aggression against Lebanon while stressing the recent ceasefire deal was driven by its thousands-strong triumphant operations.

Israel warns southern Lebanon residents against returning home

The Israeli military on November 28 issued a threat to the residents of the border villages in southern Lebanon, warning them against returning home.

It said residents are prohibited until further notice from moving South to the line of 10 villages and their surroundings, and also within the villages themselves.

These villages include Shebaa, Hebarieh, Marjeyoun, Arnoun, Yahmor, Qantara, Shaqra, Barashit, Yatar and Mansouri, it noted.

“The Israeli military does not intend to target you, and therefore, at this stage, you are prohibited from returning to your homes from this line South until further notice,” it said.

The military warned that anyone who moves South of this line exposes himself to danger.

Iran recognizes Maduro as Venezuela’s ‘legitimate’ president

 

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei says Tehran recognizes Nicolás Maduro as Venezuela’s “legitimate and elected president” and condemns U.S. intervention in the South American country’s internal affairs.  

In a post on his X account on Nov. 23, Baghaei said Iran believes that any foreign intervention in Venezuela’s internal affairs is a breach of international law and the United Nations Charter, as well as a blow to peace and stability in the country.

“We condemn illegal interventions by the U.S. and some of its allies in Venezuela’s internal affairs—which is reminiscent of malign and divisive interventions of 2019 via recognition of a parallel government,” the Iranian spokesperson added.

He expressed Iran’s solidarity with Venezuela’s legitimate and elected President Maduro.

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Iran hails efforts by the Venezuelan government and people to overcome the problems caused by the U.S.’s illegal sanctions and unjustified pressures, he noted.

Baghaei’s post came after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Nov. 19 that Washington recognized Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González as the “president-elect” of the South American country, months after President Maduro won the July election.

In a post on X, Blinken demanded “respect for the will” of Venezuelan voters.

Back in August, Venezuela’s Supreme Justice Tribunal ratified President Maduro’s victory in the July 28 presidential election.

Maduro had previously accused the U.S. and right-wing American tech entrepreneur Elon Musk of attempting to engineer coups in his country.

Maduro, who became president following the death of his mentor Hugo Chavez in 2013, was re-elected in 2018 despite U.S.-orchestrated opposition.

Venezuela has also been hit by U.S. sanctions for years, and grappling with economic challenges, including hyperinflation.

Since November 2019, the U.S.-led sanctions have pushed unbridled inflation in Venezuela to above 4,000 percent.

New wave of progressive African leaders

 

When the people of Botswana voted its nearly six decades-old government out of power in October, they chose a president who appears to be in line with a new wave of progressive African leaders.

The Southern African country of 2.4 million people selected its sixth head-of-state, however, the first one unaffiliated with the Botswana Democratic Party that ruled since independence in 1966.  

Botswana’s new president, Duma Boko, 54, and his Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) party defeated the incumbent president, Mokgweetsi Masisi, in a ballot largely driven by dissatisfaction over a sunken economy. 

Botswana was considered an African success story that suffered from a global drop in demand for mined diamonds, which was 80 percent of its exports. That and high unemployment, particularly among youth, people voted for change, a new leader, and a different vision for the country.

“It is one of the rarest moments that can only be acknowledged in retrospect,” said President Boko, at his inauguration on Nov. 10.  “For nearly three score years, our democracy remained unbroken, unproven, and untested. On the 30th of October this year, together, we tested this democracy,” he said.

“It is with pride, and perhaps even a tinge of relief, that I can proudly say we have passed this test with flying colors. Together, we usher in a new political dawn,” he noted.

Africa observers and analysts see the human rights attorney as the latest in a string of new leaders looking to shake up business as usual on the continent. Along that line, Mr. Boko is seen as a forward thinker and pan-African leader at a time Africa is at a crossroads of obtaining a viable future for African people amidst a volatile global environment.

Analysts say Africa’s growing geo-political significance continues to attract foreign powers. In the decades of African nations gaining independence from colonialism came several phases such as neo-colonialism, and now a renewed scramble for Africa’s mineral wealth, and foreign-induced militarism.

The continent remains central as a financial source for world powers seeking to remain viable in the 21st Century. Whether it is military or economic cooperation, the continent piques the interest of the U.S., Russia, China and others.

Notwithstanding the foreign interests, meddling, and control, moves for self-determination are also being waged across the continent.

For instance, in West Africa, new leaders in Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali are upending unequal power equations with powers like the U.S. and France. They unified their efforts in the Alliance of Sahel States as a regional bloc. 

These rearrangements include wresting control of their resources from foreign hands, expelling American and French militaries, and realigning with other global partners.

Although in Southern Africa, if remarks Mr. Boko made in a recent interview are any indication, he too wants unbalanced relationships with Africa to end and U.S. big gun politics to stop.

While sharing his thoughts on the return of U.S. President Donald Trump to a reporter, Mr. Boko said in his previous term, Mr. Trump scaled down the “self-declared” role of America as a “police force of the world.”

“We saw him withdraw American troops from various places and not participate in generating new wars, and so I hope his return means a continuation along that path,” Mr. Boko said.

His comment could indicate a sentiment that reflects a growing anti-U.S. military posture across Africa exemplified by the evictions of American and French troops from Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali over the last two years.

On Nov. 29, Chad added itself to the chain of nations kicking the French military out in an announcement from its Foreign Ministry hours after French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot visited the country.

Chad’s Foreign Minister Abderaman Koulamallah stressed the move does not completely break ties with its former colonial power, but another notch toward self-reliance. France has 1,000 troops in the country.

On the same day Senegal’s Pres. Bassirou Diomaye Faye told AFP that the French military must also exit his nation. “Senegal is an independent country, it is a sovereign country, and sovereignty does not accept the presence of military bases in a sovereign country,” said Mr. Faye, who was elected in March vowing to end dependence on foreign powers.   

“In terms of the anti-U.S. military sentiment, it’s getting stronger across the continent,” said Abayomi Azikiwe, political commentator and editor of Pan-African News Wire.

Mr. Azikiwe noted that Mr. Boko’s rise in Botswana exists in a progressive Southern African Development Community (SADC) bloc of nations known to stand for struggles in Africa and elsewhere.

“The Southern African Development Community is one of the most united and organized regional groupings on the continent,” explained Mr. Azikiwe to The Final Call. 

“They support the Palestinians strongly, the people of the Western Sahara—the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic,” as well as its history of “liberation movements turned political parties,” he said, as examples.

Mr. Boko was elected while Africa is experiencing great transition and changes. There is a growing Pan-African movement and anti-imperialist sentiment on the continent that has popular support, say observers.   

“I definitely would say that it’s the emergence of an anti-imperialist front and movement that’s not just settled within the state structures,” said Netfa Freeman of Pan-African Community Action (PACA). “But on the level of civil society and people’s organizations on the ground in those countries,” he told The Final Call.

It is important to understand that the growing sentiment has popular support because the U.S. and the West demonize those countries and progressive leaders, Mr. Freeman remarked.

In the case of the Alliance of Sahel States, they are led by military leaders. America and the West won’t highlight the role of the people developing their own structures and formations connected to what the countries are doing.

“So, it’s not just some military government doing things … some kind of populist type things that they’re claiming are for the people, but it’s actually the people involved in these things,” said Mr. Freeman. “So that’s good,” he added.

Kenyan AI data

 A concerning underbelly of AI (artificial intelligence) technological advancement is the farming out of data labeling to Global South countries.

For very little pay, the data labeling process includes identifying raw data, in many cases graphic and disturbing images—including suicide, child abuse, sexual assault, text files, videos, and more. Then additional labels and information are added so that a “machine learning model” can learn from it.

In May of this year, nearly 100 Kenyan tech workers, known as “data labelers,” wrote an open letter to U.S. President Joe Biden, ahead of a state dinner at the White House honoring Kenya’s President William Ruto.

The authors urged the U.S. president to help end “modern-day slavery” in Kenya’s tech sector. The signers of the letter, according to thehill.com, work as data labelers, content moderators and artificial intelligence (AI) workers for American companies like Meta’s Facebook, ScaleAI and OpenAI.

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Fast forward to a CBS 60 Minutes segment from November 24, “How Kenya became the ‘Silicon Savannah,” where reporter Lesley Stahl is interviewing Kenyan civil rights activist Nerima Wako-Ojiwa.

During interview Wako-Ojiwa explains the tech workers’ desperation in a country with high unemployment has led to a culture of exploitation with unfair wages and no job security.

“It’s terrible to see just how many American companies are just doing wrong here,” Wako-Ojiwa said. “And it’s something that they wouldn’t do at home (in U.S.), so why do it here?”

Afterward the 60 Minutes narrator added, “The familiar narrative is that artificial intelligence will take away human jobs, but right now it’s also creating jobs.

There’s a growing global workforce of millions toiling to make AI run smoothly. It’s grunt-work that needs to be done accurately and fast. To do it cheaply, the work is often farmed out to developing countries like Kenya.”

Echoing Wako-Ojiwa, Stahl, reporting from Kenya said, “American Tech giants like Meta and Open AI have been contracting middleman and companies to hire Kenyon workers for their operations.” She added, “Those employees tell us that the work was mentally draining and emotionally harmful (and) there’s no job security and the pay was dismal.”

At an unemployment rate, among its youth population of 67 percent, the East African country has become one of the main hubs for this kind of grunt-work.

In the open letter, which can be found on foxglove.org.uk American big tech companies are taken to task for “systemically abusing and exploiting African workers.” The letter points to the fact that U.S. companies, “are undermining the local labor laws, the country’s justice system and violating international labor standards.”

In addition, it points out that “working conditions amount to modern day slavery. Any trade-related discussions between the U.S. and Kenya must take into account these abuses and ensure that the rights of all workers are protected.”

In the letter, and again as reported on 60 Minutes, data labelers discussed the horrendous conditions they are required to work under, for very little pay.

“We do this work at great cost to our health, our lives and our families. U.S. tech giants export their toughest and most dangerous jobs overseas. The work is mentally and emotionally draining. We scrub Facebook, TikTok and Instagram to ensure these important platforms do not become awash with hate speech and incitement to violence.

We label images and text to train generative AI tools like ChatGPT for OpenAI. Our work involves watching murder and beheadings, child abuse and rape, pornography and bestiality, often for more than 8 hours a day. Many of us do this work for less than $2 per hour,” noted the letter. 

The open letter and the 60 Minutes segment spent considerable time discussing the psychological damage of sitting for hours, days and weeks, watching such graphic, horrific images.

“These (American-based) companies do not provide us with the necessary mental health care to keep us safe. As a result, many of us live and work with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We weren’t warned about the horrors of the work before we started, explained the letter from the data labelers.

In many cases, the effects of watching graphic images, to render a safe system, result in PTSD, similar to “Explosive Ordinance Disposal.” This is a process where hazardous explosives are disabled or rendered safe.

This takes a tremendous psychological toll on the person whose full-time job is exposing himself to the inherent danger that comes with disabling a live bomb.

According to Time Magazine, the work of data labeling is simple: “Feed an AI with labeled examples of violence, hate speech, and sexual abuse, and that tool could learn to detect those forms of toxicity in the wild.

That detector would be built into ChatGPT to check whether it was echoing the toxicity of its training data and filter it out before it ever reached the user. It could also help scrub toxic text from the training datasets of future AI models.” 

The question remains, but at what cost?

Follow @CiycKe on X

Russia’s role in Romanian election

 

The European Union said Friday it sent TikTok an urgent request for more information about Romanian intelligence files suggesting that Moscow coordinated influencers on its platform to promote an election candidate who became the surprise front-runner in the nation’s presidential election.

The 27-nation bloc’s executive branch is using its sweeping digital rulebook to scrutinize the video-sharing app’s role in the vote. which saw the far-right populist Calin Georgescu coming from out of nowhere to take top spot. But the election was thrown into turmoil Friday after the country’s top court annulled results from the first round of voting.

Declassified files released by Romanian authorities earlier this week suggest that a pro-Russia campaign used the messaging app Telegram to recruit thousands of TikTok users to promote Georgescu.

It is unclear from the intelligence release whether Georgescu was aware of the alleged campaign or assisted in it.

European Commission officials said they asked the TikTok to comment on the files and to provide information on actions that it’s taking in response. It’s the second time the commission has asked the TikTok for information since the election’s first round of voting on Nov. 24, and comes a day after it ordered the Chinese-owned platform to retain all election-related files and evidence.

TikTok declined to comment.

“We are concerned about mounting indications of coordinated foreign online influence operation targeting ongoing Romanian elections, especially on TikTok,” Henna Virkkunen, the commission’s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, said in a post on X.

TikTok has 24 hours to respond to the EU request, officials told a press briefing in Brussels

Virkunnen said also called on TikTok to “urgently redress” its policies on content moderation and amplification policies and comply with the bloc’s Digital Services Act, a wide-ranging set of rules designed to clean up social media platforms.

She had urged TikTok to step up resources “to counter information operations” ahead of a final vote planned for Sunday, when Georgescu was due to face pro-EU reformist Elena Lasconi of the Save Romania Union party. But now that the Romanian Constitutional Court has issued its unprecedented decision to cancel the initial results, the first round of voting will have to be held again.

Georgescu’s unexpected rise in the polls plunged the European Union and NATO country into turmoil and spurred the authorities to release the files.

Romania’s intelligence services alleged that one TikTok user paid $381,000 to influencers on the platform to promote content about Georgescu. They said they obtained information that “revealed an aggressive promotion campaign” to increase and accelerate the candidate’s popularity.

Some of the thousands of social media accounts used in the campaign were allegedly created years ago but were only activated in the weeks leading up to the first round vote, the files indicated.

A new $1.3B ballpark for the Rays

 

The Tampa Bay Rays’ potential new ballpark got a boost Thursday when the St. Petersburg City Council voted to approve the bonds necessary to finance the $1.3 billion stadium.

This is only part of the deal. The Pinellas County Commission also must decide whether to approve its share, with a vote set later in December. Meanwhile, the Rays will play this season in the New York Yankees’ spring training site, Steinbrenner Field in Tampa because of hurricane damage to Tropicana Field.

The Rays have said it is impossible to play at the Trop next year and maybe not until 2026. The vote Thursday was to issue bonds that could finance a new stadium, perhaps by the 2028 season. It came after the county hedged on the financing deal, while the overall plan was approved by the city and county last summer.

The ballpark is part of a larger $6,5 billion project called the Historic Gas Plant District, which is an urban restoration effort aimed at righting a wrong when Black people were moved out so that Tropicana Field and a highway could be built on prime land in downtown St. Petersburg.

“There’s more to it for me than just baseball. We are upholding our part of the bargain,” said Deborah Figgs-Sanders, chair of the St. Petersburg City Council. “We honored our deal.”

Now it’s up to the Pinellas County Commission to decide to issue bonds that would be paid for by tourist taxes that can’t be spent on such things as hurricane recovery. That meeting is set for Dec. 17.

The Rays have had no comment. The team has previously said they are abiding by the current agreement and intend to stay in St, Petersburg.

The Rays’ home since 1998, the domed Tropicana Field was hit hard by Hurricane Milton on Oct. 9, with most of its fabric roof shredded and water damage inside. The city of St. Petersburg, which owns the Trop, released an assessment of the damage and repair needs that estimated the cost at $55.7 million.

Tech stocks and AI

 

U.S. stock indexes rose to more records Wednesday after tech companies talked up how much of a boost they’re getting from the artificial-intelligence boom.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.6% to add to what’s set to be one of its best years of the millennium. It’s the 56th time the index has hit an all-time high this year after climbing in 11 of the last 12 days.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 308 points, or 0.7%, while the Nasdaq composite added 1.3% to its own record.

Salesforce helped pull the market higher after delivering stronger revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, though its profit fell just short.

CEO Mark Benioff highlighted the company’s artificial-intelligence offering for customers, saying “the rise of autonomous AI agents is revolutionizing global labor, reshaping how industries operate and scale.” The stock price of the company, which helps businesses manage their customers, jumped 11%.

Marvell Technology leaped even more after delivering better results than expected, up 23.2%. CEO Matt Murphy said the semiconductor supplier is seeing strong demand from AI and gave a forecast for profit in the upcoming quarter that topped analysts’ expectations.

All the optimistic talk helped Nvidia, the company whose chips are powering much of the move into AI, rally 3.5%. It was the strongest force pushing upward on the S&P 500 by far.

They helped offset an 8.9% drop for Foot Locker, which reported profit and revenue that fell short of analysts’ expectations.

CEO Mary Dillon said the company is taking a more cautious view, and it cut its forecasts for sales and profit this year. Dillon pointed to how keen customers are for discounts and how soft demand has been outside of Thanksgiving week and other key selling periods.

Retailers overall have offered mixed signals about how resilient U.S. shoppers can remain. Their spending has been one of the main reasons the U.S. economy has avoided a recession that earlier seemed inevitable after the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates to crush inflation. But shoppers are now contending with still-high prices and a slowing job market.

This week’s highlight for Wall Street will be Friday’s jobs report from the U.S. government, which will show how many people employers hired and fired last month. A narrower report released Wednesday morning suggested employers in the private sector increased their payrolls by less last month than economists expected. Hiring in manufacturing was the weakest since the spring, according to Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP.

The report strengthened traders’ expectations that the Fed will cut its main interest rate again when it meets in two weeks.

The Fed began easing its main interest rate from a two-decade high in September, hoping to offer more support for the job market. The central bank had appeared set to continue cutting rates into next year, but the election of Donald Trump has scrambled Wall Street’s expectations somewhat. Trump’s preference for higher tariffs and other policies could lead to higher inflation, which could alter the Fed’s plans.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday that the central bank can afford to cut rates cautiously because inflation has slowed from its peak two years ago and the economy remains sturdy.

A separate report on Wednesday said health care, finance and other businesses in the U.S. services sector are continuing to grow, but not by as much as before and not by as much as economists expected.

One respondent from the construction industry told the survey from the Institute for Supply Management that the Fed’s rate cuts haven’t pulled down mortgage rates as much as hoped. Plus, “the unknown effect of tariffs clouds the future.”

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.18% from 4.23% late Tuesday.

On Wall Street, Campbell’s sank 6.2% for one of the S&P 500’s sharper losses despite increasing its dividend and reporting a stronger profit than analysts expected. Its revenue fell short of Wall Street’s expectations, and the National Football League’s Washington Commanders hired Campbell’s CEO Mark Clouse as its team president.

Gains for airline stocks helped offset that drop after JetBlue Airways said it saw stronger bookings for travel in November and December following the presidential election. It also said it’s benefiting from lower fuel prices, as well as lower costs due to improved on-time performance.

JetBlue jumped 8.3%, while Southwest Airlines climbed 3.5%.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 36.61 points to 6,086.49. The Dow climbed 308.51 to 45,014.04, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 254.21 to 19,735.12.

In stock markets abroad, South Korea’s Kospi sank 1.4% following a night full of drama in Seoul.

President Yoon Suk Yeol was facing possible impeachment after he suddenly declared martial law on Tuesday night, prompting troops to surround the parliament. He revoked the martial law declaration six hours later.

In the crypto market, bitcoin climbed near $99,000 after Trump said he would nominate Paul Atkins, a cryptocurrency advocate, to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Court upholds law requiring sale or ban of TikTok

 

A federal appeals court panel on Friday unanimously upheld a law that could lead to a ban on TikTok as soon as next month, handing a resounding defeat to the popular social media platform as it fights for its survival in the U.S.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied TikTok’s petition to overturn the law — which requires TikTok to break ties with its China-based parent company ByteDance or be banned by mid-January — and rebuffed the company’s challenge of the statute, which it argued had ran afoul of the First Amendment.

“The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States,” said the court’s opinion, which was written by Judge Douglas Ginsburg. “Here the Government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to gather data on people in the United States.”

TikTok and ByteDance — another plaintiff in the lawsuit — are expected to appeal to the Supreme Court, though its unclear whether the court will take up the case.

“The Supreme Court has an established historical record of protecting Americans’ right to free speech, and we expect they will do just that on this important constitutional issue,” TikTok spokesperson Michael Hughes said in a statement.

“Unfortunately, the TikTok ban was conceived and pushed through based upon inaccurate, flawed and hypothetical information, resulting in outright censorship of the American people,” Hughes said. Unless stopped, he argued the statute “will silence the voices of over 170 million Americans here in the US and around the world on January 19th, 2025.”

Though the case is squarely in the court system, it’s also possible the two companies might be thrown some sort of a lifeline by President-elect Donald Trump, who tried to ban TikTok during his first term but said during the presidential campaign that he is now against such action.

“He wants to save TikTok,” Rep. Michael Waltz, Trump’s pick for national security adviser, said Friday during an interview on Fox Business.

The law, signed by President Joe Biden in April, was the culmination of a yearslong saga in Washington over the short-form video-sharing app, which the government sees as a national security threat due to its connections to China.

The U.S. has said it’s concerned about TikTok collecting vast swaths of user data, including sensitive information on viewing habits, that could fall into the hands of the Chinese government through coercion. Officials have also warned the proprietary algorithm that fuels what users see on the app is vulnerable to manipulation by Chinese authorities, who can use it to shape content on the platform in a way that’s difficult to detect. The European Union on Friday expressed similar concerns as it investigates intelligence that suggests Russia possibly abused the platform to influence the elections in Romania.

“Today’s decision is an important step in blocking the Chinese government from weaponizing TikTok,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement Friday.

TikTok, which sued the government over the law in May, has long denied it could be used by Beijing to spy on or manipulate Americans. Its attorneys have accurately pointed out that the U.S. hasn’t provided evidence to show that the company handed over user data to the Chinese government, or manipulated content for Beijing’s benefit in the U.S. They have also argued the law is predicated on future risks, which the Department of Justice has emphasized pointing in part to unspecified action it claims the two companies have taken in the past due to demands from the Chinese government.

Friday’s ruling came after the appeals court panel, composed of two Republicans and one Democrat appointed judges, heard oral arguments in September.

In the hearing, which lasted more than two hours, the panel appeared to grapple with how TikTok’s foreign ownership affects its rights under the Constitution and how far the government could go to curtail potential influence from abroad on a foreign-owned platform. On Friday, all three denied TikTok’s petition.

In the court’s ruling, Ginsburg, a Republican appointee, rejected TikTok’s main legal arguments against the law, including that the statute was an unlawful bill of attainder, or a taking of property in violation of the Fifth Amendment. He also said the law did not violate the First Amendment because the government is not looking to “suppress content or require a certain mix of content” on TikTok.

“Content on the platform could in principle remain unchanged after divestiture, and people in the United States would remain free to read and share as much PRC propaganda (or any other content) as they desire on TikTok or any other platform of their choosing,” Ginsburg wrote, using the abbreviation for the People’s Republic of China.

Judge Sri Srinivasan, the chief judge on the court, issued a concurring opinion.

TikTok’s lawsuit was consolidated with a second legal challenge brought by several content creators — for which the company is covering legal costs — as well as a third one filed on behalf of conservative creators who work with a nonprofit called BASED Politics Inc. Other organizations, including the Knight First Amendment Institute, had also filed amicus briefs supporting TikTok.

“This is a deeply misguided ruling that reads important First Amendment precedents too narrowly and gives the government sweeping power to restrict Americans’ access to information, ideas, and media from abroad,” said Jameel Jaffer, the executive director of the organization. “We hope that the appeals court’s ruling won’t be the last word.”

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, lawmakers who had pushed for the legislation celebrated the court’s ruling.

“I am optimistic that President Trump will facilitate an American takeover of TikTok to allow its continued use in the United States and I look forward to welcoming the app in America under new ownership,” said Republican Rep. John Moolenaar of Michigan, chairman of the House Select Committee on China.

Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who co-authored the law, said “it’s time for ByteDance to accept” the law.

To assuage concerns about the company’s owners, TikTok says it has invested more than $2 billion to bolster protections around U.S. user data.

The company has also argued the government’s broader concerns could have been resolved in a draft agreement it provided the Biden administration more than two years ago during talks between the two sides. It has blamed the government for walking away from further negotiations on the agreement, which the Justice Department argues is insufficient.

Attorneys for the two companies have claimed it’s impossible to divest the platform commercially and technologically. They also say any sale of TikTok without the coveted algorithm — the platform’s secret sauce that Chinese authorities would likely block under any divesture plan — would turn the U.S. version of TikTok into an island disconnected from other global content.

Still, some investors, including Trump’s former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and billionaire Frank McCourt, have expressed interest in purchasing the platform. Both men said earlier this year that they were launching a consortium to purchase TikTok’s U.S. business.

This week, a spokesperson for McCourt’s Project Liberty initiative, which aims to protect online privacy, said unnamed participants in their bid have made informal commitments of more than $20 billion in capital.

Cybersecurity Awareness

 

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, which means it’s the perfect time to learn how to protect yourself from scams.

“Scams have become so sophisticated now. Phishing emails, texts, spoofing caller ID, all of this technology gives scammers that edge,” said Eva Velasquez, president and CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center.

As scammers find new ways to steal money and personal information, consumers should be more vigilant about who they trust, especially online. A quick way to remember what to do when you think you’re getting scammed is to think about the three S’s, said Alissa Abdullah, also known as Dr. Jay, Mastercard’s deputy chief security officer

“Stay suspicious, stop for a second (and think about it) and stay protected,” she said.

Whether it’s romance scams or job scams, impersonators are looking for ways to trick you into giving them money or sharing your personal information. Here’s what to know:

Three common tactics used by scammers are based on fear, urgency and money, said security expert Petros Efstathopoulos. Here’s how they work:

— Fear

When a scammer contacts you via phone or email, they use language that makes it seem like there is a problem that you need to solve. For example, a scammer contacts you over email telling you that your tax return has an error and if you don’t fix it you’ll get in trouble.

— Urgency

Because scammers are good at creating a sense of urgency, people tend to rush, which makes them vulnerable. Scammers often tell people they need to act right away, which can lead to them sharing private information such as their Social Security numbers.

— Money

Scammers use money as bait, Efstathopoulos said. They might impersonate tax professionals or the IRS saying you will get a bigger tax refund than you expect if you pay them for their services or share your personal information.

Know the most common scams

Simply being aware of typical scams can help, experts say. Robocalls in particular frequently target vulnerable individuals like seniors, people with disabilities, and people with debt.

“If you get a robocall out of the blue paying a recorded message trying to get you to buy something, just hang up,” said James Lee, chief operating officer at the Identity Theft Resource Center. “Same goes for texts — anytime you get them from a number you don’t know asking you to pay, wire, or click on something suspicious.”

Lee urges consumers to hang up and call the company or institution in question at an official number.

Scammers will also often imitate someone in authority, such as a tax or debt collector. They might pretend to be a loved one calling to request immediate financial assistance for bail, legal help, or a hospital bill.

Romance scams

So-called “romance scams” often target lonely and isolated individuals, according to Will Maxson, assistant director of the Division of Marketing Practices at the FTC. These scams can take place over longer periods of time -- even years.

Kate Kleinart, 70, who lost tens of thousands to a romance scam over several months, said to be vigilant if a new Facebook friend is exceptionally good-looking, asks you to download WhatsApp to communicate, attempts to isolate you from friends and family, and/or gets romantic very quickly.

“If you’re seeing that picture of a very handsome person, ask someone younger in your life — a child, a grandchild, a niece or a nephew — to help you reverse-image search or identify the photo,” she said.

She said the man in pictures she received was a plastic surgeon from Spain whose photos have been stolen and used by scammers.

Kleinart had also been living under lockdown during the early pandemic when she got the initial friend request, and the companionship and communication meant a lot to her while she was cut off from family. When the scam fell apart, she missed the relationship even more than the savings.

“Losing the love was worse than losing the money,” she said.

Job scams

Job scams involve a person pretending to be a recruiter or a company in order to steal money or information from a job seeker.

Scammers tend to use the name of an employee from a large company and craft a job posting that matches similar positions. An initial red flag is that scammers usually try to make the job very appealing, Velasquez said.

“They’re going to have very high salaries for somewhat low-skilled work,” she said. “And they’re often saying it’s a 100% remote position because that’s so appealing to people.”

Some scammers post fake jobs, but others reach out directly to job seekers through direct messages or texts. If the scammers are looking to steal your personal information, they may ask you to fill out several forms that include information like your Social Security number and driver’s license details.

The only information a legitimate employer should ask for at the beginning of the process is your skills, your work experience, and your contact information, Velasquez said.

Other details don’t generally need to be shared with an employer until after you’ve gotten an offer.

Investment scams

According to Lois Greisman, an associate director of marketing practices at the Federal Trade Commission, an investment scam constitutes any get-rich-quick scheme that lures targets via social media accounts or online ads.

Investment scammers typically add different forms of “testimony,” such as from other social media accounts, to support that the “investment” works. Many of these also involve cryptocurrency. To avoid falling for these frauds, the FTC recommends independently researching the company — especially by searching the company’s name along with terms like “review” or “scam.”

Quiz scams

When you’re using Facebook or scrolling Google results, be aware of quiz scams, which typically appear innocuous and ask about topics you might be interested in, such as your car or favorite TV show. They may also ask you to take a personality test.

Despite these benign-seeming questions, scammers can then use the personal information you share to respond to security questions from your accounts or hack your social media to send malware links to your contacts.

To protect your personal information, the FTC simply recommends steering clear of online quizzes. The commission also advises consumers to use random answers for security questions.

“Asked to enter your mother’s maiden name? Say it’s something else: Parmesan or another word you’ll remember,” advises Terri Miller, consumer education specialist at the FTC. “This way, scammers won’t be able to use information they find to steal your identity.”

Marketplace scams

When buying or selling products on Instagram or Facebook Marketplace, keep in mind that not everyone that reaches out to you has the best intentions.

To avoid being scammed when selling via an online platform, the FTC recommends checking buyers’ profiles, not sharing any codes sent to your phone or email, and avoiding accepting online payments from unknown persons.

Likewise, when buying something from an online marketplace, make sure to diligently research the seller. Take a look at whether the profile is verified, what kind of reviews they have, and the terms and conditions of the purchase.

Don’t pick up if you don’t know who is calling

Scammers often reach out by phone, Ben Hoffman, Head of Strategy and Consumer Products at Fifth Third Bank recommends that you don’t pick up unknown incoming calls.

“Banks don’t ask your for your password,” said Hoffman. If you believe your bank is trying to reach out, give them a call at a number listed on their website.

This makes it easier to know for sure that you’re not talking to a scammer. As a general rule, banks don’t often call unless there is suspicious activity on your account or if you previously contacted them about a problem.

If you receive many unknown calls that end up being scammers or robocalls, you can use tools available on your phone to block spam. Check here for how to do this on your iPhone and here for Android.

Use all of the technology at your disposal

There are many tools are your disposal that can be used to protect yourself from scammers online.

— Use a password manager to ensure you’re utilizing a complex password that scammers can’t guess.

— Regularly checking your credit report and bank statements is a good practice since it can help you identify if someone has been using your bank account without your knowledge.

— Turn on multi-factor verification to make sure impersonators aren’t able to access your social media or bank accounts.

When in doubt, call for help

As scams get more sophisticated, it’s difficult to know who to trust or if a person is actually real, or an impersonator. If you aren’t sure if a job recruiter is real or if your bank is actually asking your for information, find organizations that can help you, recommended Velasquez.

Organizations like the Identity Theft Protection Center and the AARP Fraud Watch Network offer free services for customers who need help identifying scams or knowing what to do if you’ve been a victim of a scam.

Share what you know with loved ones

If you’ve taken all the necessary steps to protect yourself, you might want to help those around you. Whether you’re helping your grandparents to block unknown callers on their phones or sharing tips with your neighbors, talking with others about how to protect themselves from scams can be very effective.

Protect Yourself From Scammers

 

Between finding openings, sending out your resume and interviewing, looking for a job is tough. Now a growing trend of scammers impersonating recruiters is making it even harder.

In the last year, job scams have been on the rise, according to Eva Velasquez, president and CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center, a nonprofit that helps consumers when their identities are compromised.

Because most job seekers turn to online platforms for employment, scammers impersonate companies and recruiters to trick people into giving them money or personal information.

“We’ve really seen tremendous growth in job scams,” Velasquez said. “I think that’s just due to the fact that we fundamentally changed the way we recruit and hire people.”

It happened to Tehseen Islam, a 28-year-old quality assurance analyst. She had been looking for a job for a few months when she finally got an offer from a well-known marketing technology company. Or at least she thought she did.

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After a weeklong process that included an online form with interview screening questions, Islam was offered the job and received a check. She was asked to deposit it and send the company $1,000 to pay for shipment of equipment she’d need for the job.

A few days later, her bank notified her that the check had bounced and, because it looked like she was cooperating with scammers, it was ending all banking relationships with her. That’s when she learned the job was a scam.

“I’m a little traumatized,” said Islam, who lost the $1,000 and unknowingly shared personal information with scammers.

If you’re a job seeker, here are some recommendations from experts on how to avoid job scammers:

Know how job scams work

Job scams are a type of impersonation scam.

Scammers tend to use the name of an employee from a large company and craft a job posting that matches similar positions. An initial red flag is that scammers usually try to make the job very appealing, Velasquez said.

“They’re going to have very high salaries for somewhat low-skilled work,” she said. “And they’re often saying it’s a 100% remote position because that’s so appealing to people.”

Some scammers post fake jobs, but others reach out directly to job seekers through direct messages or texts. If the scammers are looking to steal your personal information, they may ask you to fill out several forms that include information like your Social Security number and driver’s license details.

The only information a legitimate employer should ask for at the beginning of the process is your skills, your work experience, and your contact information, Velasquez said.

Other details don’t generally need to be shared with an employer until after you’ve gotten an offer.

Do your research

Whether you’re replying to a job posting or a recruiter, you must research the company, especially if you didn’t initiate the conversation, Velasquez said.

Fake recruiters often contact job seekers through social media or text messages. If someone reaches out to you, verify their identity before responding to their message.

Here are a few recommendations while you research the recruiter or the company:

— Don’t respond to the message right away.

— Go online and research if the company has current job openings on its official website.

— Research the name of the recruiter and check if the person has a verifiable social media presence.

— If the company has a job opening on its website, apply directly through the website.

Don’t reply or click on links

If you receive a message from a recruiter, it’s best to not respond unless you know that the source is reputable. Avoid clicking on any links sent to you, whether to apply for a position or to fill out a questionnaire.

In Islam’s case, the scammers sent her a form with interview screening questions where they asked for her personal information.

Don’t deposit checks

A common tactic is for scammers to send you a fake signing bonus and then ask you to send some money back, supposedly to cover expenses. This is a way for scammers to steal money from job seekers, said Alvaro Puig, consumer education specialist at the Federal Trade Commission.

“If you deposit a check and it’s fake, your account will show the money is there. But then days later, the bank will discover that it was a fake check,” Puig said.

So, if you take out money from your account and send it to the fake recruiter, the money will be coming from your bank account and it will be impossible to get back.

Be selective with the job openings you trust

When job hunting through platforms like LinkedIn and Indeed, Velasquez recommends being very cautious with job openings and recruiters you trust. While these platforms are reputable and many of their job postings are real, the companies cannot verify every single employment opportunity posted. This creates an opportunity for scammers to post fake job listings and trick people.

“Don’t let platforms that you know are legitimate allow other people to borrow that trust,” Velasquez said.

After her experience with job scammers, Islam has been more careful with the job openings she trusts. Now, she has a list of steps she follows, including verifying a recruiter’s email through a free email address validator, such as Emailable or Clearout, and calling the company directly.

“This is adding a lot more time to my job search now but I can’t just blindly trust that this person is who they say they are,” Islam said.

Solid Jobs

 

U.S. stocks are drifting around their records Friday after data suggested the job market remains solid enough to keep the economy going, but not so strong that it raises immediate worries about inflation.

The S&P 500 rose 0.1% and was just above its all-time high set on Wednesday. It’s rolling toward the close of a third straight winning week in what’s likely to be one of its best years since the 2000 dot-com bust. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 115 points, or 0.3%, as of 12:53 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.6%.

Stocks held relatively steady as the latest jobs report strengthened expectations among traders that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates again at its next meeting in two weeks. While the report showed U.S. employers hired more workers than expected last month, it also said the unemployment rate unexpectedly ticked up to 4.2% from 4.1%.

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“This print doesn’t kill the holiday spirit and the Fed remains on track to deliver a cut in December,” according to Lindsay Rosner, head of multi-sector investing within Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

The Fed began easing its main interest rate from a two-decade high in September to offer more help for the slowing job market, after bringing inflation nearly all the way down to its 2% target. Lower interest rates can ease the brakes off the economy, but they can also offer more fuel for inflation.

Expectations for a series of cuts from the Fed have been a major reason the S&P 500 has set an all-time high 56 times so far this year. And the Fed is part of a global surge: 62 central banks have lowered rates in the past three months, the most since 2020, according to Michael Hartnett and other strategists at Bank of America.

Still, the jobs report may have included some notes of caution for Fed officials underneath the surface.

Scott Wren, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute, pointed to average wages for workers last month, which were a touch stronger than economists expected. While that’s good news for workers who would always like to make more, it could also keep upward pressure on inflation.

“This report tells the Fed that they still need to be careful as sticky housing/shelter/wage data shows that it won’t be easy to engineer meaningfully lower inflation from here in the nearer term,” Wren said.

So, while traders are betting on a nearly 90% probability the Fed will ease its main rate in two weeks, they’re much less certain about how many more cuts it will deliver next year, according to data from CME Group.

For now, the hope is that the job market can help U.S. shoppers continue to spend and keep the U.S. economy out of a recession that had earlier seemed inevitable after the Fed began hiking interest rates swiftly to crush inflation.

Several retailers offered encouragement after delivering better-than-expected results for the latest quarter.

Ulta Beauty rallied 9.7% after topping expectations for both profit and revenue. The opening of new stores helped it boost its revenue, and it raised the bottom end of its forecasted range for sales over this full year.

Lululemon stretched 18.3% higher following its own profit report. It said stronger sales outside the United States helped it in particular, and its earnings topped analysts’ expectations.

Retailers overall have been offering mixed signals on how resilient U.S. shoppers can remain amid the slowing job market and still-high prices. Target gave a dour forecast for the holiday shopping season, for example, while Walmart gave a much more encouraging outlook.

A report on Friday suggested sentiment among U.S. consumers may be improving more than economists expected. The preliminary reading from the University of Michigan’s survey hit its highest level in seven months. The survey found a surge in buying for some products as consumers tried to get ahead of possible increases in price due to higher tariffs that President-elect Donald Trump has threatened.

In tech, Hewlett Packard Enterprise jumped 11.1% for one of the S&P 500’s larger gains after reporting stronger profit and revenue than expected. Tech stocks broadly were one of the main reasons the S&P 500 climbed this past week, as Salesforce and other big companies talked up how much of a boost they’re getting from the artificial-intelligence boom.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury yield slipped to 4.16% from 4.18% late Thursday.

In stock markets abroad, France’s CAC 40 rose 1.3% after French President Emmanuel Macron announced plans to stay in office until the end of his term and to name a new prime minister within days. Earlier this week, far-right and left-wing lawmakers approved a no-confidence motion due to budget disputes, forcing Prime Minister Michel Barnier and his cabinet to resign.

In Asia, stock indexes were mixed. They rallied 1.6% in Hong Kong and 1% in Shanghai ahead of an annual economic policy meeting scheduled for next week.

South Korea’s Kospi dropped 0.6% as South Korea’s ruling party chief showed support for suspending the constitutional powers of President Yoon Suk Yeol after he declared martial law and then revoked that earlier this week. Yoon is facing calls to resign and may be impeached.

Bitcoin was sitting a little above $101,000 after briefly bursting above $103,000 to a record the day before.