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Lee President: Catherine Lee Editor: John Robbins, Jun Gai Address: 11122 Bellaire Blvd., Houston, TX 77072 E-mail: [email protected] Southern Daily News is published by Southern News Group Daily Inside C2 Saturday September 19 2020 | www.today-america.com | Southern News Group Trump to shut off TikTok, WeChat to new U.S. users on Sunday WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration WeChat developer Tencent Holdings’ called the order will ban WeChat and video-sharing app TikTok from U.S. “We have some great options and maybe we can keep a lot of “unfortunate” but said it “will continue to discuss with app stores starting Sunday night, a move that will block people happy,” Trump told reporters. “We have to have the total the government and other stakeholders in the U.S. ways Americans from downloading the Chinese-owned plat- security from China.” to achieve a long-term solution.” forms over concerns they pose a national security threat. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told Fox Business Network that The Commerce Department order bars Apple Inc’s app The bans, announced on Friday, affect only new “the basic TikTok will stay intact until Nov. 12.” store, Alphabet Inc’s Google Play and others from offer- downloads and updates and are less sweeping than expect- ing the apps on any platform “that can be reached from ed, particularly for TikTok, giving its parent group ByteD- The ban on new U.S. downloads of the widely popular app could within the United States,” a senior Commerce official ance some breathing space to clinch an agreement over the still be rescinded by President Donald Trump before it takes effect told Reuters. fate of its U.S. operations. if ByteDance seals a deal with Oracle that addresses concerns While the bans are less dramatic than some had about the security of its users’ data. feared, the Commerce Department said it could WeChat, an all-in-one messaging, social media and elec- issue additional orders if it finds “that WeChat’s or tronic payment app, faces more severe restrictions from “This is the right move - ratchet up the pressure on Beijing, pro- TikTok’s illicit behavior is being replicated by an- Sunday. Existing TikTok users, on the other hand, will see tect Americans,” said Republican Senator Josh Hawley on Twitter. other app somehow outside the scope of these executive little change until Nov. 12 when a ban on some technical orders.” transactions will kick in, which TikTok said would amount RELATED COVERAGE to an effective ban. For a Q&A on the real impact, click Oracle shares closed down 0.3% after initially dropping Trump says he sees no reason to delay TikTok decision 1.6% in pre-market trading. “We disagree with the decision from the Commerce De- What’s the real impact of Trump’s action against TikTok? partment, and are disappointed that it stands to block new The Trump administration has ramped up efforts to purge “un- The American Civil Liberties Union said the Commerce app downloads from Sunday and ban use of the TikTok trusted” Chinese apps from U.S. digital networks amid escalating order “violates the First Amendment rights of people in app in the U.S. from Nov. 12,” the company said in a state- tensions with Beijing on a range of issues from trade and human the United States by restricting their ability to communi- ment. “We will continue to challenge the unjust executive rights to the battle for tech supremacy. cate and conduct important transactions on the two social order.” media platforms.” The ban on WeChat, used by over 1 billion people worldwide, Trump on Friday did not indicate whether he would back a bars the transfer of funds or processing of payments to or from The order does not ban U.S. companies from doing TikTok deal. He said a deal “could go quickly.” people in the United States through it. Users could also start to businesses on WeChat outside the United States, which experience significantly slower service or sporadic outages from will be welcome news to U.S. firms like Walmart and Sunday night. Starbucks that use WeChat’s embedded ‘mini-app’ pro- grams to facilitate transactions and engage consumers in China, officials said. quests for comment. POPULAR APPS TikTok has 100 million users in the United States and is especially popular among younger Americans. Many TikTok U.S. users did not express alarm over the new restrictions. “It’s kind of like the boy who cried wolf,” said Carter Kench, a 17-year old from Atlanta, Georgia with 2.4 million followers. ADVERTISEMENT WeChat has had an average of 19 million daily active users in the United States, analytics firms Apptopia said in early August. It is popular among Chinese students, ex-pats and some Americans who have personal or busi- ness relationships in China. The Commerce Department will not seek to compel people in the United States to remove the apps or stop using them. “We are aiming at a top corporate level. We’re not going to go out after the individual users,” one Commerce official said. Over time, officials said, the lack of updates will degrade ENGLISH 星期六 2020年9月18日 Saturday, SEPTEMBER 18, 2020 C2 09/18/2020 CORONAVIRUS DIARY Dialogue With Sheriff Gonzales Our old friend Sheriff Ed Gonzales met of us. After he graduated from the with a group of Asian Community University of Houston, he joined the leaders recently and talked about the Houston Police Department (HPD) and issues facing all of us. later became City of Houston councilman and later was elected to the Ed is a native-born Houstonian. He is position of Harris County Sheriff. Under from a Mexican immigrant family. As a his command, he led a police force of poor kid, his life is a success story for all five thousand with a $550 million budget. social services to local residents. Ed urged the international and immigrant community to join his team in order to As a first generation of Latino descent, better serve our community. Sheriff Gonzales is our leader. His success story will pave the way for many Under his supervision Harris County also youth in the new generation. has opened a Women’s Center Medical Clinic and provided many other Hi Ed, we are so very proud of you. Մ὘↛፹ LIVE Stay Home! BUSINESS Wear Mask! The Trump administration its totals to 6,620,186 cas- on Wednesday outlined a Federal Officials Unveil Plan To Provide Free Coronavirus Vaccine es and 196,465 deaths, ac- strategy to deliver safe and cording to the Johns Hop- some experts have expressed con- HHS added that McKesson will effective COVID-19 vaccine doses to the American kins online dashboard. And in a breaking development cern that health agencies will rush use the CDC’s guidance, with lo- people as quickly as possible, for free. In a report to that came on the heels of today’s hearing, HHS today the authorization to aid his reelec- gistical support from the DOD, to Congress and a separate “playbook” for states, the De- announced that Caputo will be on medical leave for tion chances. Health officials have ship products to vaccine adminis- partment of Health and Human Services, in conjunc- the next 60 days and that Paul Alexander, an aide to been working hard to reassure the tration sites. tion with the Department of Defense and the Centers Caputo who was reportedly part of efforts to control public that a vaccine will only come In another development, the for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) laid out de- CDC’s COVID-19 messaging, including that involv- to market when it’s ready. CDC’s Redfield and two HHS tailed vaccination distribution plans for states, tribal, ing MMWR publications, will permanently leave the “We are working closely with our officials today testified about territorial and local public health programs. The play- agency, the Washington Post reported. state and local public health part- COVID-19 response efforts at a book warned that states have never needed a pandemic CDC unveils new tool for schools ners ... to ensure that Americans Senate appropriations subcom- response plan that is this complex. Among several other developments, the CDC yes- can receive the vaccine as soon as mittee hearing. Redfield told “Significant additional planning is needed to opera- terday unveiled indicators to help schools make de- possible and vaccinate with confi- legislators that COVID vaccine tionalize a vaccination response to COVID-19, which cisions about in-person learning amid changing local dence,” HHS Secretary Alex Azar probably won’t be widely avail- is much larger in scope and complexity than seasonal pandemic conditions. A color-coded chart shown in- said in a statement Wednesday. able until the spring or summer of influenza or other previous outbreak-related vacci- cluded core and secondary indicators to help gauge the “Americans should know that the 2021, NPR reported. He also said nation responses,” the agencies said. Health officials risk of COVID-19 spreading into and within schools, vaccine development process wearing a mask is still the most noted that the plan is flexible, because some variables Compiled And Edited By John T.