CCP-Linked TikTok To Crack Down On Election ‘Misinformation’, Partners With US Gov

Jack McEvoyAugust 17, 2022 5:18 PM ET

TikTok, a social media giant with ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), announced Wednesday it ispartnering with a U.S. government organization and ramping up efforts to combat “harmful misinformation” on the app in preparation for the November midterm elections.

TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has faced scrutiny and ban threats from regulators and U.S. politicians for its potential ties to the CCP; Chinese employees at ByteDance reportedly enjoy full access to data from U.S. devices, according to a June BuzzFeed investigation, and many ex-Chinese state media employees work or have worked at the company.

The platform said that it may ban users who post content that spreads “misinformation” about how to vote or threatens election officials; it will also partner with Federal Voting Assistance Program, a U.S. government organization that assists overseas voters, according to a company press release.

The short-form video app will also prevent content creators from posting political advertisements, expanding upon the company’s original 2019 ban on paid political messaging and preventing political action committees from circumventing TikTok standards by paying an individual, according to a company press release.

TikTok is also launching an in-app election center to inform its users of voting information; users will be able to access state-by-state election information, provided by TikTok’s partner the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS), according to the press release. NASS will provide information on how to register to vote, how to vote by mail and where to find polling sites.

TikTok is also working alongside non-governmental voter assistance organizations that target specific demographics and the Restore Your Vote program, which will assist voters with prior convictions, as well as the Campus Vote Project, which will help college students vote.

In order to bolster its efforts to monitor content in time for the midterms elections, TikTok will collaborate with independent intelligence firms and authorized fact-checking groups to evaluate videos and respond to misinformation. The firm said that these measures were spurred on by the lessons it learned from the 2020 election.

TikTok did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

https://dailycaller.com/2022/08/17/tiktok-china-election-midterms-misinformation/

REPORT:Bill Gates Lobbied Manchin On Sweeping $386 Billion Climate Change Bill

Sarah WeaverAugust 17, 2022 5:20 PM ET

Bill Gates lobbied Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin on the Inflation Reduction Act since before Joe Biden became president, according to a report Tuesday.

The Inflation Reduction Act, introduced by Democrats and signed into law by Biden on Tuesday, spends $386 billion on energy and climate initiatives, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Gates had been speaking with prominent senators, including Manchin, for years, “in anticipation of a rare moment in which heavy federal spending might be secured for the clean-energy transition,” Bloomberg reported.

Manchin, who often breaks rank with his fellow Democrats on legislation, promised to support the bill after previously opposing high-spending legislation amid rising inflation. Gates was reportedly optimistic about getting Manchin’s support all along, thanks to their discussions on climate change.

“__My dialogue with Joe has been going on for quite a while,” Gates told Bloomberg, referring to a 2019 Seattle dinner he had with individuals on the energy committee. “Almost everyone on the energy committee came over and spent a few hours with me over dinner.”Gates even had lunch with Manchin in Washington, D.C., when the West Virginia senator first announced his opposition to the bill.

Gates described the passing of the legislation as “one of the happier moments” of his “climate work,” according to Bloomberg.

https://dailycaller.com/2022/08/17/bill-gates-lobbied-joe-manchin-climate-bill/

DCNF Reporter Discusses Chinese Communist Party Involvement At Think Tank Once Headed By CIA Director

Harold HutchisonAugust 17, 2022 5:41 PM

A Daily Caller News Foundation reporter discussed a report that at least 20 members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) were hired by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace whenCIA Director William Burns headed the think tankon NewsNation Tuesday evening.

“It remains unclear whether or not the individuals at Carnegie who did the hiring knew of this,” investigative reporter Philip Lenczycki told host Leland Vittert. “I’m still trying to get some answers from Carnegie, and the CIA also has not revealed whether or not any disclosures were made during Burns’ background check.”

WATCH:

The members of the CCP were hired between February 2015 and November 2021, when Burns was president of the think tank, the DCNF learned.The ties to the CCP were not disclosed in the profiles of the expertsand were only discovered after an extensive search of Chinese records.

“Carnegie’s annual reports show that they’ve received hundreds of thousands, if not millions and millions of dollars from the federal government, and so it’s very possible that they also are involved in research projects for the federal government,” Lenczycki told Vittert.

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.

The CIA referred the DCNF to past discussions with Lenczycki and did not respond when asked for comments based on the DCNF’s reporting.

https://dailycaller.com/2022/08/17/lenczycki-newsnation-ceip-cia-ccp/

18 Aug, 2022 10:06

Efficiency of US missiles in Ukraine questioned

Radar-killing AGM-88 HARM missiles will have only “limited impact” on the battlefield, an expert believes

A new type of missile that Ukraine is now using against Russia after some projectiles were provided by the US is unlikely to change the tide of battle, according to an article published by Business Insider on Wednesday.

Ukraine received AGM-88 HARM missiles as part of the most recent weapons delivery from Washington. US Under Secretary of Defense Colin Kahl confirmed the shipment of anti-radiation air-launched missiles during an August 8 briefing. Ukrainian Defense Minister Aleksey Reznikov mentioned receiving such weapons from the US in an interview last week. Neither official identified the weapon system by name, but debris reportedly found this month on the ground in Ukraine points to the specific model.

The AGM-88 HARM, which has been in service since the mid-1980s, is designed to home in on strong radiation produced by ground radar systems. These weapons are usually launched to disable enemy air defenses ahead of a raid.

In the Ukrainian conflict, it is likely to have only “a limited impact,” considering its nature, defense writer Michael Peck said in the BI article.

Ukraine doesn’t have that many warplanes, he pointed out, so “shutting down Russian air-defense radars won’t necessarily translate into more success for Ukrainian aircraft.”

The type of missile is, in many ways, “a psychological weapon,” but Ukraine could potentially use them against Russian radars used for counter-artillery warfare, Peck said.

Artillery battles have been the deciding factor in the conflict so far, and Kiev has repeatedly complained about being completely outgunned as it asked for increased support from the US and its allies.

https://www.rt.com/russia/561080-anti-radiation-missiles-ukraine/

18 Aug, 2022 09:04

Ukraine planning nuclear provocation on Friday – Moscow

Kiev is set on attacking the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant during a visit by the UN chief, the Russian military claims

Ukraine plans to carry out artillery strikes on the Russia-controlled Zaporozhye nuclear power plant on Friday, and then accuse Russia of causing a disaster at the site, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Thursday.

The predicted attack will be timed to coincide with the ongoing visit to Ukraine by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, the ministry claimed.

The Russian ministry said it has detected movements of Ukrainian troops, indicating a looming “provocation.”

Kiev has deployed units trained in responding to the use of weapons of mass destruction, pre-positioning them to report a radiation leak and demonstrate a purported action to mitigate it, Russian military spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.

The ministry said it expects a Ukrainian artillery unit to attack the plant on Friday from the city of Nikopol. “The blame for the consequences [of the strike] will be attributed to the Russian armed forces,” the statement said.

In a separate statement on Thursday, Igor Kirillov, who heads Russia’s Nuclear Biological and Chemical Defense Troops, said his directorate has modeled possible scenarios for a disaster at the Zaporozhye plant. A plume of radioactive materials from the site may reach Poland, Slovakia and Germany, he warned.

Russia has accused Ukraine of conducting frequent drone and artillery strikes against the nuclear power plant in the city of Energodar over the past few weeks. Kiev has denied responsibility and said Russian forces were attacking the plant to discredit Ukraine. Ukrainian officials have also claimed that Russia is using the Zaporozhye facility as a military base.

During the briefing, Konashenkov denied Ukrainian claims that Russia has deployed heavy weapons at the Zaporozhye plant and is attacking Ukrainian troops from the site. The only Russian troops at the facility are lightly armed guards providing physical security, the official said.

The ministry pledged to do its best to prevent damage to the nuclear facility.

https://www.rt.com/russia/561073-provocation-nuclear-power-plant/