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DOJ suing TikTok over alleged ‘widespread’ child privacy violations

August 3, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, accusing the social media giant of unlawfully collecting and retaining data from children in violation of United States privacy laws.

The civil consumer protection complaint filed Friday in federal court in California accuses TikTok of collecting a “wide variety” of personal information from children who created accounts on the app dating back to 2019 through the present day.

The department further alleges that even when children created accounts in TikTok’s designated “Kids Mode,” the company still unlawfully collected and retained children’s email addresses and other personal information without notifying or getting consent from parents.

The alleged privacy violations “have resulted in millions of children under 13 using the regular TikTok app, subjecting them to extensive data collection and allowing them to interact with adult users and access adult content,” the department said in a release announcing the lawsuit.

“The Department is deeply concerned that TikTok has continued to collect and retain children’s personal information despite a court order barring such conduct,” acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin Mizer said in a statement. “With this action, the Department seeks to ensure that TikTok honors its obligation to protect children’s privacy rights and parents’ efforts to protect their children.”

A TikTok spokesperson disputed the allegations, saying many “relate to past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been addressed.”

“We are proud of our efforts to protect children, and we will continue to update and improve the platform,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “To that end, we offer age-appropriate experiences with stringent safeguards, proactively remove suspected underage users, and have voluntarily launched features such as default screentime limits, Family Pairing, and additional privacy protections for minors.”

The lawsuit against the company was widely expected after the Federal Trade Commission in June announced it had referred a complaint to the DOJ following an investigation of TikTok and ByteDance’s alleged violations under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.

TikTok said at the time it disagreed with the FTC’s allegations, which it argued were either inaccurate or outdated policy practices the company had already addressed.

The lawsuit also comes just days after the Justice Department argued in court filings that TikTok poses a unique threat to U.S. national security as it sought to defend a newly passed law that would require the company to sell its American-based operations or risk an all-out ban. The company has sued to block enforcement of the law before it takes effect in January, arguing it is unconstitutional and would violate its more than 170 million American users’ First Amendment rights.

Man arrested after allegedly striking Lowe’s employee on head with sledgehammer

August 3, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(DURHAM, N.C.) — A North Carolina man has been arrested after he allegedly struck a Lowe’s store employee with a sledgehammer and stole a drill set, police said.

Aaron Deshown Willams, 25, has been arrested on warrants for assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, inflicting serious injury and robbery with a dangerous weapon, according to the Durham Police Department.

The Lowe’s employee was helping Williams when he allegedly took a sledgehammer from his shopping cart and struck the employee in the head, according to police.

When the victim fell to the ground, the customer grabbed a drill set box and ran out of the store, police added.

The victim was transported to the hospital with serious injuries, but they are now in stable condition.

William also had an outstanding warrant for possession of a firearm by a felon, according to police. He is currently being held in the Durham County Jail with no bond.

Hunter Biden to be sentenced on gun crime a week after Election Day

August 3, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(WILMINGTON, Del.) — Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, will face sentencing for his three-count felony conviction on Nov. 13, just one week after the presidential election.

Biden was found guilty in June by a Delaware jury of violating the law when he obtained a firearm in 2018, at a time when he was addicted to drugs. For the three felony convictions, Hunter Biden could face up to 25 years in prison — though legal experts believe he will not serve time as a first-time and nonviolent offender.

Hunter Biden had sought a new trial in the case, saying his “convictions should be vacated” because trial commenced before a circuit court formally issued a mandate denying one of his many pretrial appeals. But last month, his attorneys withdrew their bid for a new trial, conceding in court papers that the motion misunderstood a technicality in the district court’s capacity to carry out a trial.

He had tried several times to get the federal charges tossed before the trial began, but to no avail.

President Joe Biden has repeatedly pledged to not pardon his son, including in an interview with “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir.

While the trial was still ongoing, Biden was asked if he would respect the outcome, to which he responded, “Yes,” and if he would rule out a pardon for Hunter Biden. Again, he responded, simply, “Yes.”

Hunter Biden faces a separate criminal trial in September on federal tax charges. He has pleaded not guilty.

Supreme Court returns Trump Jan. 6 immunity judgment to lower court

August 3, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — One month after the Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling on presidential immunity, the judge overseeing former President Trump’s federal election interference case now has jurisdiction over the case again.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan is now likely to set a series of deadlines, including a potential status conference.

The case has been stayed for seven months as Trump’s legal team appealed presidential immunity all the way to the Supreme Court.

In a 6-3 ruling authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court found that a president has absolute immunity for acts within their core constitutional powers and a presumption of immunity for “acts within the outer perimeter of his official responsibility.”

Judge Chutkan will now be responsible for applying the Supreme Court’s decision to the allegations in Trump’s criminal case, including whether Trump’s actions were “official acts” or private conduct that can be prosecuted.

Trump last year pleaded not guilty to charges of undertaking a “criminal scheme” to overturn the results of the 2020 election by enlisting a slate of so-called “fake electors,” using the Justice Department to conduct “sham election crime investigations,” trying to enlist the vice president to “alter the election results,” and promoting false claims of a stolen election as the Jan. 6 riot raged — all in an effort to subvert democracy and remain in power.

The former president has denied all wrongdoing.

Trump originally faced a March 4 trial date before his appeal effectively paused the proceedings for more than half a year.

Murder trial for suspect accused of killing Laken Riley expected to begin Nov. 18

August 3, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(ATHENS, Ga.) — The murder trial for the suspect accused of killing 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley on the University of Georgia’s campus is expected to start in mid-November, a judge said Friday, as the defense is seeking to move the high-profile case to another county.

Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard said jury selection would likely begin on Nov. 13, with the trial starting on Nov. 18.

The suspect, Jose Ibarra, appeared in the Athens-Clarke County courtroom for the hearing Friday morning.

His defense is seeking to move the trial out of Athens-Clarke County, arguing in a motion filed on Thursday that it “will not be possible to find an impartial jury to hear the matter.” They also cited the “extensive media coverage” of the case in the county.

Haggard preliminarily gave prosecutors within 10 days of the motion’s filing to respond to the request and said he would like to have a motions hearing sometime in late September or early October.

The defense said the schedule sounded reasonable. Prosecutors said they would like to wrap up the trial proceedings before Thanksgiving for the jurors, which Haggard said was “not lost on me.”

Ibarra, 26, was indicted by an Athens Clarke County grand jury on malice murder and felony murder and other offenses in May. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Riley, a student at Augusta University, was found dead in a wooded area on the Athens campus on Feb. 22 after she didn’t return from a run. The indictment alleges Ibarra killed her by “inflicting blunt force trauma to her head and by asphyxiating her” and seriously disfigured her head by striking her “multiple times” with a rock.

Additional charges in the 10-count indictment include aggravated battery, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to rape, obstructing or hindering a person making an emergency telephone call and tampering with evidence. The latter charge alleged that he “knowingly concealed” evidence — a jacket and gloves — involving the offense of malice murder.

He was also charged with a peeping tom offense. The indictment alleges that on the same day as Riley’s murder, he spied through the window of a different person who lived in an apartment on campus.

In a separate motion filed on Thursday, the defense sought to sever that charge from the indictment, arguing that the offense is against a different alleged victim and would “create significant prejudice.”

Ibarra was denied bond following his arrest on Feb. 23 and is being held at the Clarke County Jail.

Police have said they do not believe Ibarra — a migrant from Venezuela who officials said illegally entered the U.S. in 2022 — knew Riley and that this was a “crime of opportunity.” Her death has become a rallying cry for immigration reform from many conservatives.

White House puts Harris out front in historic prisoner exchange. Will it help her campaign?

August 3, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — When Americans imprisoned in Russia returned to U.S. soil late Thursday, standing right there to greet them was the likely Democratic presidential nominee, Kamala Harris.

The vice president, along with President Joe Biden, who ended his own campaign and handed her the party baton, greeted Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, among others on the Joint Base Andrews tarmac even before they embraced their families.

The late-night scene underscored the diplomatic victory the White House had just scored — and how it was putting Harris front and center as her nascent campaign launches, trying to enhance her credibility on the world stage against Donald Trump’s attacks that she would be treated as a “play toy.”

“This is just an extraordinary testament to the importance of having a president who understands the power of diplomacy and understands the strength that rests in understanding the significance of diplomacy and strengthening alliances,” Harris said Thursday night — a statement that could be read both as praise of Biden and a knock on the former president’s foreign policy, which is skeptical of working with allies.

In a May Truth Social post, Trump claimed Gershkovich “will be released almost immediately after the Election, but definitely before I assume Office. Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, will do that for me but not for anyone else.”

The prisoner exchange, which also freed Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a legal permanent U.S. resident, was the product of months of intense diplomacy that gained true traction in the last couple of weeks and involved several different countries, including Germany and Slovenia.

But the breakthrough came amid a turbulent presidential race between Trump and Harris, who has been blitzing the campaign trail since Biden bowed out of the contest.

Besides swiftly greeting the freed prisoners and speaking Thursday night, administration officials were also quick to highlight her role in the historic deal, considered one of the biggest swaps to take place since the Cold War and significant enough to break through an incessant news cycle surrounding the election.

“Both President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have made the return of unjustly detained American hostages an absolute priority, and in this particular case, Vice President Harris actually had an opportunity to engage with Chancellor [Olaf] Scholz earlier this year at an opportune and timely moment at the Munich Security Conference where she talked about this issue with him,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said at the White House Thursday, referring to Harris’ interaction with Germany’s leader.

“I’ve sat in the Oval Office more times than I can count over the course of the past years providing briefings and updates on this and getting peppered with questions by both the president and the vice president thinking through the strategy, iterating the approach, which she was a participant in very much, a core member of the team that helped make this happen,” he added.

Trump, for his part, downplayed the exchange soon after news broke.

“So when are they going to release the details of the prisoner swap with Russia? How many people do we get versus them? Are we also paying them cash? Are they giving us cash (Please withdraw that question, because I’m sure the answer is NO)?” Trump posted on his social media platform.

The White House has insisted no cash was exchanged nor was there any sanctions relief for Russia.

Still, the Harris-Trump race is expected to carry on, largely unaffected by the exchange, historic as it is.

Trump is a defined entity, spending decades in the limelight and four years in the White House, after which he has retained a stubborn and iron grip on the GOP.

Harris, while she is still defining herself as a presidential candidate, appears largely set to introduce herself as a prosecutor going after a convicted felon with a focus on policies emphasizing “freedom.”

She did tie herself to the administration’s record on released prisoners before news broke Thursday, saying in Houston that, “As vice president, it has been my honor to work alongside our president, Joe Biden, to bring home more than 70 Americans in the last three and a half years.”

The broad contours of the race are still expected to remain the same, strategists in both parties said.

“No, I don’t think so,” one former Trump campaign official who remains in touch with his current team said when asked if there was any electoral fallout from the swap. “I don’t think it moves the needle diplomatically.”

“I’d be shocked if bit did,” one Democratic strategist said when asked the same question. “This isn’t the Iran hostage situation that riveted people for 444 days and created Nightline and other alternative time news offerings.”

What’s behind the recent stock selloff?

August 3, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The major stock indexes dropped significantly on Friday after a weaker-than-expected jobs report stoked worries of a possible recession.

In early trading, the S&P 500 was on pace for its worst trading day in about two years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen nearly 800 points, or about 2%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq had fared even worse, dropping more than 2%.

The stock decline on Friday followed unsteady performance over roughly the past month. Until then, stocks had enjoyed strong gains this year.

From the outset of 2024 through Thursday, the S&P 500 had climbed more than 15%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq had also seen double-digit increases.

The selloff is concerning since it’s rooted in a labor market cooldown that may signal a wider economic downturn, investors told ABC News. However, the solid state of the economy may very well allow it to weather the difficulty and send stocks back toward gains.

“We don’t think it’s the start of a bear market,” Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist at LPL Financial, told ABC News, ruling out the possibility of an outcome in which a stock index has dropped 20% below its most recent high.

“Today’s weaker economic data is certainly concerning,” Turnquist added. “We don’t think it’s pointing to an imminent recession, but it certainly changes the narrative.”

A weaker-than-expected jobs report is fueling concern about a potential recession and calls for an interest rate cut.

Employers hired 114,000 workers last month, falling well short of economist expectations of 185,000 jobs, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed. The unemployment rate climbed to 4.3%, the highest level since October 2021.

Still, the unemployment rate remains at a relatively low level in historical terms. Gross domestic product data last week showed that the U.S. economy grew much faster than expected over three months ending in June, according to the Commerce Department.

“The stock market is churning as investors try to figure out if current valuations are justified given the softening economic data seen in recent months,” Clark Bellin, president and chief investment officer at Nebraska-based Bellwether Wealth, told ABC News in a statement.

“Stock market volatility is very normal, and we believe the economy is still on a sound footing,” Bellin added.

The fresh jobs data extends a monthslong stretch of economic performance marked by the key conditions for a rate cut: falling inflation and slowing job gains.

In recent months, Fed Chair Jerome Powell has shifted focus to the central bank’s responsibility for maintaining a robust job market, in addition to its goal of controlling inflation.

“For a long time, since inflation arrived, it’s been right to mainly focus on inflation. But now that inflation has come down and the labor market has indeed cooled off, we’re going to be looking at both mandates,” Powell said last month at a meeting of The Economic Club of Washington, D.C.

On Wednesday, Powell said the Fed may cut interest rates at its next meeting in September, though he said the central bank would like to see further evidence that inflation is heading downward.

An interest rate cut would ease borrowing costs for consumers and businesses alike, which may rekindle economic activity and boost hiring.

Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at North Carolina-based Independent Advisor Alliance, said it’s too early to tell whether the underwhelming jobs report on Friday foretells sustained losses for the stock market.

“If it turns out that this is just some noise in the labor market data and that stabilizes — similar to how we had some noise in the inflation data earlier this year before that stabilized — then this will be looked back at as a temporary period of weakness in the economy and stock market,” Zaccarelli told ABC News.

“However, if this is a beginning of a turn in the economy for the worse, then all bets are off,” Zaccarelli added.

Kamala Harris has enough delegate votes to officially become historic Democratic nominee: DNC chair

August 3, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris has enough Democratic Party delegate votes in a virtual roll call to officially earn the party’s nomination when the roll call ends Monday, Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison announced Friday.

“I am so proud to confirm that Vice President Harris has earned more than a majority of votes from all convention delegates and will be the nominee of the Democratic Party following the close of voting on Monday,” Harrison said during a campaign update video call on Friday.

“You returned your nomination petitions at lightning speed. You made your voices heard. And what you said was clear: We are not going back. We have to send Kamala Harris to the White House,” Harrison said to the delegates in a call plagued by audio issues. “You demonstrated your dedication and your commitment to this process.”

Convention delegates have been virtually voting by email or phone since 9 a.m. ET on Thursday in a virtual roll call set up by the Democratic National Committee. Delegates still have until Monday at 6 p.m. ET to vote in the nomination process, and Harris — who joined the call — highlighted that she would officially accept her nomination then, after the voting period is closed.

“I am honored to be the presumptive Democratic nominee for president of the United States,” said Harris, who the DNC deemed the presumptive nominee on Tuesday after she emerged from a process, laid out by the party’s Rules Committee, as the only qualified candidate.

“As your future president, I know we are up to this fight, and when we fight, everyone will say, we win,” she later added.

The nomination is a historic one — if she wins the general election in November against former President Donald Trump, she would be the first woman to serve as president. Harris is already the first woman, Black person and person of South Asian descent to be vice president.

Friday’s announcement marks a major milestone of Harris’ rapid ascension to the top of the ticket, which comes just 12 days after President Joe Biden ended his campaign for reelection on July 21 — a remarkable show of unity for a party that just weeks ago stood deeply divided over what to do about the president’s candidacy.

With Biden endorsing Harris to succeed him shortly after he announced that he would step aside, support from Democratic donors and elected officials quickly coalesced around the vice president. In the end, Harris was the only competitive candidate that launched a campaign to succeed Biden and the only candidate that received enough delegate signatures to progress to the virtual roll call.

Harris is the first candidate to become the nominee for either major party without winning a single party primary since Hubert Humphrey in 1968. (That year’s convention precipitated reforms that led to the modern primary process.)

The DNC initially decided in May to hold a virtual roll call because of uncertainty over deadlines to get on the ballot in Ohio. The state legislature eventually rectified the issue, but the DNC has argued that Republican lawmakers in Ohio are acting in bad faith and that the Democratic candidate needs to be nominated earlier than the convention to avoid legal issues. Ohio leaders have denied this allegation.

ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Fritz Farrow, Will McDuffie and Sarah Beth Hensley contributed to this report.

New images reveal what NASA learned from colliding a spacecraft into an asteroid

August 3, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Recent images released from NASA have revealed new information on the origins of the asteroid system.

Nearly two years ago, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft, or DART, collided with Dimorphos, a small asteroid that is the moon of a bigger space rock, Didymos, at about 14,000 miles per hour, testing a strategy to defend against a potential asteroid headed toward Earth.

In a slate of studies published this week, NASA researchers have suggested that the mission did far more than accomplish its initial goal.

The five papers, published in the journal Nature Communications, have provided information on the origins, physical characteristics and evolution of the asteroids and are helping scientists gain a greater understanding of binary asteroid systems like planet asteroid Didymos and moonlet Dimorphos.

“These findings give us new insights into the ways that asteroids can change over time,” Thomas Statler, lead scientist for Solar System Small Bodies at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in a statement.

He went on, “This is important not just for understanding the near-Earth objects that are the focus of planetary defense, but also for our ability to read the history of our Solar System from these remnants of planet formation. This is just part of the wealth of new knowledge we’ve gained from DART.”

In one study, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland studied the geology of the asteroids. They found Didymos was smoother at lower elevations, rockier at high elevations and had more craters while the moonlet Dimorphos had boulders of varying sizes.

The team concluded that Dimorphos likely spun off from Didymos in what is known as a “large mass shedding event,” which are natural processes that speed up the spinoff of smaller asteroids.

The team’s analysis suggested Didymos has a surface age between 40 and 130 times older than Dimorphos with the former estimated to be 12.5 million years old and the latter less than 300,000 years old, NASA said.

Because Dimorphos’ surface is younger, it likely had “low strength” which, in turn, contributed to why DART was so successful in disrupting its orbit.

In another paper, researchers compared the shapes and sizes of the boulders on the two asteroids and determined Dimorphos likely formed in stages with material from Didymos, providing further evidence that the former spun off from the latter.

A third study compared the boulders on Dimorphos to rubble pile asteroids — asteroids that are made up of pieces of debris — and found they shared similar characteristics, concluding all the asteroids likely formed similarly.

“The images and data that DART collected at the Didymos system provided a unique opportunity for a close-up geological look of a near-Earth asteroid binary system,” Dr. Oliver Barnouin, a planetary geophysicist from Johns Hopkins APL, said in a statement. “From these images alone, we were able to infer a great deal of information on geophysical properties of both Didymos and Dimorphos and expand our understanding on the formation of these two asteroids. We also better understand why DART was so effective in moving Dimorphos.”

Brittney Griner, Cherelle Griner react to Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich’s release: ‘Head over heels’

August 3, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(PARIS) — WNBA star Brittney Griner, who spent 10 months detained in Russia, said she is “head over heels” after the release of Americans Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan and Alsu Kurmasheva, who were freed from Russia in a prisoner swap.

“Great day,” Griner said from Paris, where she is competing in women’s basketball for Team USA at the Olympics. “I’m head-over-heels happy for the families right now. Any day that Americans come home, that’s a win.”

Griner, who spoke to reporters after the U.S. women beat Belgium 87-74 to advance to the quarterfinals, said finding out about their release was “definitely emotional.”

“I’m sure it will be even more emotional a little later on. Yeah, I’m just happy. This was a big win. Huge win,” Griner said.

“I know they have an amazing group of people that are going to help them out — them and their families,” she said, adding that she was “glad” to receive that help herself to “get re-acclimated into everyday life.”

Brittney Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner, told “Good Morning America” that when they heard about the swap, “Everything stopped for us. There was no basketball in that moment. We just kind of went back to 2022 for us, and it was just reliving that moment.”

“We were overwhelmed with joy and just relief,” she continued. “Because for BG, it’s still an everyday memory for her, what it was like to come back home. We were so happy for the families to be reunited.”

Cherelle Griner said when her wife was detained in Russia, Whelan’s family was “arms wide open.”

“His sister sent me plenty of emails, just helping me through the process of what to expect,” she said.

Though the prisoners are now free, Cherelle Griner said she’d caution their families that “there’s so much work to be done.”

“Tune the world out and just love on them until they’re whole again,” she advises. “Because they have went through something that’s unimaginable.”

“Do not expect them to be the exact same person you last saw,” she added.

“Just having that grace to be able to, you know, be in the room with somebody that you once knew, and understanding that, you know, we’re all different people now, and giving them the space to, like, reintroduce themselves,” she said.

“Everyone at the San Antonio base was … helping me out with what to expect from someone who’s experienced a great amount of trauma,” she said.

In a statement on Instagram the Griners said they were “overwhelmed with joy and relief.”

“The Biden-Harris Administration showed true leadership once again by doing whatever it took to bring Americans home. Every American returned is a win,” they said.

The Griners said that while “today is one of celebration,” their “hearts go out to the many Americans still being held hostage overseas, and their families.” They called for people to “continue to do everything we can to shine a light on the remaining Americans detained.”

In February 2022, while returning to Russia to play basketball during the WNBA’s offseason, Brittney Griner was detained at Russia’s Sheremetyevo International Airport after she was accused of having vape cartridges containing cannabis oil, which is illegal in the country. The State Department said she was wrongfully detained.

In July 2022, Brittney Griner pleaded guilty to drug charges, saying that the vape cartridges containing cannabis oil were in her luggage unintentionally. She testified that she had “no intention” of breaking Russian law and packed the cartridges by accident.

The WNBA star was released in December 2022 after U.S. officials agreed to swap her for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

Brittney Griner told “GMA” co-anchor Robin Roberts earlier this year she expected to also see Whelan there when she was boarding the plane to leave Russia.

“When I walked on and I didn’t see him, I was like, ‘OK, maybe I’m early. Maybe he’s next. Maybe they are going to bring him next,'” she said of Whelan. “And when they closed the door, I was like … are you seriously not gonna let this man come home right now?”

“If it was left up to me in that trade, I would have went and got Paul and brought him home,” she said.

Whelan, a former U.S. Marine, was arrested in 2018 and accused of espionage. Both the Biden and Trump administrations denied the allegation against Whelan. He was convicted on the charges in 2020 and sentenced to 16 years in prison.

Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter, was arrested by Russian authorities in 2023 for espionage, a charge he and U.S. officials flatly deny, with President Joe Biden saying he was targeted for being a journalist and an American. After an unusually hasty trial that played out behind closed doors, Gershkovich was found guilty and sentenced to 16 years in a high-security penal colony.

ABC News’ Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.

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