A ban on TikTok in the US may take effect by the end of next week. President Biden signed a law in April of last year due to privacy concerns and gave TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, until January 19 to either sell its stake in its US business or face a ban. If the ban is implemented, TikTok will be removed from the App Store in the US. This would affect approximately 170 million US users. While people may still have the app on their phones, without updates, it will degrade over time, and the company may block users from accessing the app before that happens.

US President Joe Biden gave his final speech on foreign policy in Washington on Monday, stating that China will never be able to surpass America. In his address, Biden defended his decision to end the war in Afghanistan. He noted that while experts once predicted China's economy would surpass that of the US, current assessments suggest that the path China is on will prevent it from ever surpassing America. Biden discussed a range of issues in his speech, including the Russia-Ukraine war, the Gaza conflict, China, and Iran. However, throughout the speech, Biden did not mention former President

Firefighters scrambled Sunday to make further progress against wildfires that have destroyed thousands of homes and killed 24 people in the Los Angeles area as forecasters again warned of dangerous weather with the return of strong winds this week. At least 16 people were missing, and authorities said that number was expected to rise. The National Weather Service issued red flag warnings for severe fire conditions through Wednesday, with sustained winds of 50 mph (80 kph) and gusts in the mountains reaching 70 mph (113 kph). The most dangerous day will be Tuesday, said weather service meteorol

A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.9 has hit southwestern Japan, the country's Meteorological Agency said Monday. Tsunami warnings were issued for Miyazaki Prefecture, where the temblor was centered, in the southwestern island of Kyushu, as well as nearby Kochi Prefecture, shortly after the quake struck at 9:19 p.m. local time, according to the agency. The extent of damage was not immediately clear. Japan is frequently hit by earthquakes because of its location along the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.

At least 10 people have been confirmed dead as a wildfire in the Los Angeles area of California spreads into the city. Officials say the actual death toll will not be known until it is safe for investigators to fully enter the area. At least four major wildfires are currently burning in Los Angeles County, with 29,000 acres of land scorched in the past four days. More than 10,000 buildings have been destroyed, and nearly 30,000 homes have been damaged. The Palisades and Eaton fires, both of which started on Tuesday, are the two largest fires in Los Angeles. Firefighters expect strong winds an

New York's highest court declined to block Donald Trump's upcoming sentencing inhis hush money caseThursday, leaving the U.S. Supreme Court as the president-elect's likely last option to prevent the hearing from taking place Friday. One judge of the New York Court of Appeals issued a brief order declining to grant a hearing to Trump's legal team. Trumphas asked theSupreme Courtto call off Friday’ssentencingin thehush money case. His lawyers turned to the nation’s highest court on Wednesday afterNew York courtsrefused to postpone the sentencing by Judge Juan M. Merchan, who presided over Tr

President Joe Biden on Wednesday cancelled the final overseas trip of his presidency just hours before he was set to depart for Rome and the Vatican, choosing to remain in Washington to monitor the response todevastating fires raging in California. Biden was scheduled to leave Thursday afternoon, aftereulogizing former President Jimmy Carterat a memorial service in Washington, for the three-day trip to meet with Pope Francis and Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The trip was meant as a coda to the second Catholic U.S. president’s time in the White House a

More than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed inthe Israel-Hamas war, Gaza's Health Ministry said Thursday, as the conflict raged into a 16th month with no end in sight. The ministry said a total of 46,006 Palestinians have been killed and 109,378 wounded. It has said women and childrenmake up more than half the fatalities, but does not say how many of the dead were fighters or civilians. The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence. It says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames Hamas for their deaths because the militants operate in resid

Israel’s defense minister said Wednesday that troops have recovered the bodies of two additional hostagesfrom Gaza. Defense Minister Israel Katz said the bodies of Yosef Al Zaydani and his son Hamzah were recovered in an operation, without disclosing further details. The men were taken captive during Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, 2023. The return of the two bodies comes as Israel and Hamas are consideringa ceasefire dealthat would free the remaining 100 or so hostages and would halt the fighting in Gaza. Israel believes a third of the remaining hostages are dead. However, Yosef and Hamzah Al Za