U.S. President Donald Trump said on social media Friday that he would grant ByteDance an additional 75-day extension to either sell the popular video-sharing app TikTok to a non-Chinese company or risk being banned in the United States.
In his first term, Trump signed an executive order effectively seeking to ban the app in the United States unless ByteDance sold its U.S. operations to an American company, but the order didn't go into effect amid legal challenges.
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Trump extends TikTok ban deadline for another 75 days
Trump extends TikTok ban deadline for another 75 days
Trump extends TikTok ban deadline for another 75 days
Trump extends TikTok ban deadline for another 75 days
Trump extends TikTok ban deadline for another 75 days
In April 2024, then U.S. President Joe Biden signed a law that gave ByteDance 270 days to sell TikTok, citing unfounded national security concerns. If the company failed to comply, the law would require app store operators such as Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their platforms starting on Jan 19, 2025.
However, after taking office on Jan 20, Trump signed an executive order to delay the TikTok ban by 75 days "to permit my Administration an opportunity to determine the appropriate course of action with respect to TikTok." That extension was set to expire on April 5.
In the early hours of Saturday, ByteDance announced that negotiations with the U.S. government over TikTok's future are still ongoing, with no agreement yet reached. The company stated that the two sides remain divided on many key issues.
It also emphasized that any potential deal must undergo review procedures in accordance with Chinese laws.
Trump extends TikTok ban deadline for another 75 days
Trump extends TikTok ban deadline for another 75 days
Trump extends TikTok ban deadline for another 75 days
Trump extends TikTok ban deadline for another 75 days
Trump extends TikTok ban deadline for another 75 days
Axis powers during World War II should offer sincere reflection and apology, a Greek mayor said after Greece successfully repatriated a rare collection of 262 World War II-era photographs.
Greek officials traveled to Belgium to negotiate with the seller and brought the photographs back to Greece, after they were put up for sale online by a Belgian collector, said the Greek Culture Ministry.
The images were taken by Wehrmacht lieutenant Hermann Heuer, who served in Greece from 1943 to 1944, during World War II, and part of the collection documents the mass execution of Greek communists by Nazi troops in Kaisariani, east of Athens.
During World War II, German occupation in Greece met with fierce resistance. On May 1, 1944, German forces executed 200 Greeks at the Kaisariani firing range in retaliation for the killing of a German general by resistance fighters.
A memorial and a museum were set up after the war in Kaisariani to commemorate those who died in the mass execution.
"The photos really shocked us all because they were real documents from the day of the execution. We are shocked for many reasons. An important reason is that the 200 communists were singing with their heads held high before the execution in the photos, and they were not mourning because they were fighters," said Ilias Stamelos, mayor of Kaisariani.
The newly recovered photographs have drawn renewed attention to the historical trauma still felt in the community, as the images provide a direct visual record of the final moments of those executed.
In 1987, then German President Richard von Weizsaecker visited Greece and made a special stop in Kaisariani, reflecting on the profound suffering inflicted on the Greek people by Germany during World War II.
Ilias said that, like Germany, Japan, another Axis power during the war, should also be held accountable for the massive harm it caused to multiple countries and should offer sincere reflection and apology for its wartime aggression.
"And I think it's a common demand, because those responsible for the deaths in the World War II need to pay for what happened. It's known to all that back then it was Germany, Japan and Italy, the allies in this war, that each played different roles in the war, yet they do have common responsibilities," said the mayor.
Historic photos of Nazi mass execution of Greeks returned to Greece, mayor calls for historical accountability