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President-elect Donald Trump has asked the Supreme Court to delay the law that could ban TikTok until after his inauguration. In an amicus brief, Trumps attorney D. John Sauer wrote that the future president wants the opportunity to find a solution to the problem through political means. The law requiring a ban or sale of TikTok is set to take effect on January 19, 2025, just one day before Trumps inauguration. The brief calls the ban date unfortunately timedand argues the incoming president should have more time to work on a deal with TikTok. TikToks legal team cited a similar concern in its requests for a delay of the ban. The brief also cites Trumps dealmaking experience and his social media platform Truth Social. President Trump alone possesses the consummate dealmaking expertise, the electoral mandate, and the political will to negotiate a resolution to save the platform while addressing the national security concerns expressed by the Governmentconcerns which President Trump himself has acknowledged, Sauer writes. Trumps stance on a TikTok is much different from the one he took in his first term, when he pursued a ban of the app in 2020. He also floated the idea that Microsoft could work out a deal, an appropriate deal, so the Treasury of the United States gets a lot of money without explaining exactly how such a deal would work. President Trump reversed his opinion on a TikTok ban during his second campaign. He told CNBCs Squawk Box in March that banning TikTok would make Facebook bigger and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people, along with a lot of the media. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on the ban on January 10.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/donald-trump-asks-the-supreme-court-to-delay-the-tiktok-ban-235703094.html?src=rss
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2023 was the hottest year on record. This past year is on track to beating it and it caused more problems this past year than just spiking thermometers. The World Weather Attribution (WWA) released its annual Extreme Weather report showing how the record-breaking 34.34 Fahrenheit increase in man-made warming from the past year caused unrelenting heatwaves, drought, wildfire, storms and floods. The WWA estimates that climate change was responsible for at least 3,700 deaths and 26 weather events in 2024 that led to the displacement of millions. The report recorded a total of 219 events from 2024 that met its trigger criteria for identifying impactful weather events. Many of the events were influenced by the natural climate pattern known as El Nio (which has only become stronger under the effects of climate change) but the WWA studies found that climate change played a bigger role than El Nio in fueling these events, including the historic drought in the Amazon. Climate change added on an average 41 additional dangerous heat days and fueled record-breaking rain and flooding across the globe. A study of 16 floods found all but one of them were caused by warming atmospheres that retained more moisture leading to heavier rainfall. These climate conditions can also fuel bigger and deadlier hurricanes and typhoons such as the Helene, the Category 4 Hurricane that hit America in September. North Carolinas Office of State Budget and Management estimates that Helene caused $53.8 billion in damage in its state alone. Two of the worlds most important ecosystems were also hit hard by climate change in 2024, according to the WWA report. The Amazon rainforest and the Pantanal Wetland, the largest tropical wetland in the world, experienced severe droughts and wildfires that created huge biodiversity loss in the past year. Both areas are critical for maintaining the strength of the Earths ecosystems, climate and economies. The Amazons plant life removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and releases water into the atmosphere that helps control the climate and circulate ocean currents. The Pantanal Wetland houses tens of thousands of species of wildlife and provides much needed flood control for the region and creates global economic activity for cattle ranching and soy production, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The WWAs report set some critical resolutions for 2025 to combat the rising influence of climate change. The report calls for a faster shift away from fossil fuel usage, improvements in early warning systems for extreme weather events, a greater focus on reporting of heat related deaths and financing for developing countries and regions hit hardest by the effects of climate change.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/2024-is-on-its-way-to-being-the-hottest-year-ever-211524257.html?src=rss
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The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is reportedly investigating Microsoft like its 1998. In the waning days of the Biden administration, outgoing chair Lina Khans probe is said to be picking up steam, according to ProPublica. The FTC is particularly concerned with Microsofts bundling of ubiquitous Office products with cybersecurity and cloud computing services. That includes a deal to upgrade government bundles for a limited time, which essentially had the effect of using a government cybersecurity crisis to sell more licenses. It adds more detail to reports from Bloomberg and the Financial Times in November about an FTC probe into the Windows maker. The publications said Microsofts competitors complained that its bundling of its popular software with cloud services made it harder to compete. ProPublica says FTC attorneys have recently interviewed and scheduled meetings with Microsofts competitors. Microsoft confirmed to ProPublica that the FTC issued a civil investigative demand (essentially a subpoena), forcing the company to hand over information related to the case. A Microsoft spokesperson told the publication without providing on-the-record examples that the FTC document is broad, wide ranging, and requests things that are out of the realm of possibility to even be logical. The investigation follows a separate ProPublica report from November about how Microsoft appeared to exploit a series of cyberattacks to sell more licenses to the US government. Following a meeting with President Biden in the summer of 2021, the company was said to have offered to upgrade the governments existing bundles (including Windows and its Office suite) to a more expensive version that added its advanced cybersecurity products. Microsoft also sent consultants to install the upgrades and train employees to use them. Many divisions of the US government accepted including all of the Defense Departments military services and then began paying for the more expensive bundles after the trial ended. (The hassle of switching to a different cybersecurity product after the trial ended practically guaranteed that would be the case.) ProPublicas account essentially paints Microsoft as exploiting a cybersecurity crisis to expand sales and pad its bottom line. Just late-stage capitalism things, yall. Microsoft Ironically, the sales tactic resulted from security lapses from you guessed it Microsoft. Bidens request from Big Tech leaders to boost government cybersecurity followed the SolarWinds attack that exploited a vulnerability in a Microsoft identity service. The company reportedly knew the app contained a security nightmare that let hackers spoof legitimate employees and probe sensitive information without raising suspicion. But patching the flaw would add friction to government logins when the company was competing for US contracts. Microsoft reportedly opted to stay mum instead of risk losing business. According to experts who spoke to ProPublica, the government trial sales scheme could have violated regulations on contracting and competition. The publication reported that even Microsofts attorneys worried the deal would spark antitrust concerns. If this sounds familiar, it echoes the governments 1998 antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft. Bundling was also a star of that show, with the FTC accusing the company of engaging in anticompetitive practices by including Internet Explorer with Windows, a move viewed in those early days of the internet as stifling rivals like Netscape.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/the-ftcs-microsoft-antitrust-probe-reportedly-focuses-on-software-bundling-193545163.html?src=rss
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