TikTok owner ByteDance is reportedly still searching for non-sale options to stay in the US after the Supreme Court upheld a national security law requiring that TikTok's US operations either be shut down or sold to a non-foreign adversary.

Last weekend, TikTok briefly went dark in the US, only to come back online hours later after Donald Trump reassured ByteDance that the US law would not be enforced. Then, shortly after Trump took office, he signed an executive order delaying enforcement for 75 days while he consulted with advisers to "pursue a resolution that protects national security while saving a platform used by 170 million Americans."

Trump's executive order did not suggest that he intended to attempt to override the national security law's ban-or-sale requirements. But that hasn't stopped ByteDance, board member Bill Ford told World Economic Forum (WEF) attendees, from searching for a potential non-sale option that "could involve a change of control locally to ensure it complies with US legislation," Bloomberg reported .

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Foreign secretary discussed China’s treatment of Uyghurs and support of Russia as well as ‘areas of cooperation’

David Lammy pressed his Chinese counterpart on human rights concerns and China’s support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine during talks in Beijing, the Foreign Office has said.

The foreign secretary had been under pressure to take a tough line on a range of human rights issues with the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, when the pair met on Friday during Lammy’s first visit to China since taking office.

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UN says most fatalities occurred during the second strike as first responders attempted to evacuate patients. What we know on day 949

• See all our Russia-Ukraine war coverage

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The FBI has shut down a botnet run by Chinese hackers:

The botnet malware infected a number of different types of internet-connected devices around the world, including home routers, cameras, digital video recorders, and NAS drives. Those devices were used to help infiltrate sensitive networks related to universities, government agencies, telecommunications providers, and media organizations…. The botnet was launched in mid-2021, according to the FBI, and infected roughly 260,000 devices as of June 2024.

The operation to dismantle the botnet was coordinated by the FBI, the NSA, and the Cyber National Mission Force (CNMF), according to a press release dated Wednesday . The U.S. Department of Justice received a court order to take control of the botnet infrastructure by sending disabling commands to the malware on infected devices. The hackers tried to counterattack by hitting FBI infrastructure but were “ultimately unsuccessful,” according to the law enforcement agency.

‘Risk’ analyses largely ignore the dangers of the climate crisis. Unless we wake up to them, they will soon outweigh all others

The Irish sea captain who in 1751 discovered the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (Amoc) – closely connected with, though not identical to, the Gulf Stream – found a practical use for it: he used the frigid deeper water to cool his wine.

That may seem a rather frivolous response, but of course, Capt Henry Ellis had no idea that the oceanic pattern he had stumbled upon had been critical to the climate, the agriculture and indeed the entire development of western Europe. The same excuse can hardly be made for British and European governments today.

Anatol Lieven is director of the Eurasia programme at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and author of Climate Change and the Nation State: The Realist Case

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Last December when the MPA and other rightsholders renewed calls for site-blocking measures to be implemented in the United States, much of the focus was placed on Fmovies.

Before its recent sudden demise , Fmovies was considered the world’s largest illegal movie and TV show streaming site, yet some lawmakers in attendance at last year’s hearing had never heard of it before.

Fewer still would’ve heard of pirate IPTV service Magis TV, but for the MPA and enforcement coalition Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, Magis TV is the source of a persistent headache for which there’s currently no cure.

China and Latin America

According to the MPA, Magis TV is believed to operate out of China. Its focus is on the Latin American market where millions consume content mostly via the platform’s ubiquitous, subscription-based Android app.

Cybersecurity firm ESET has linked the popular app to malware and botnets, but that doesn’t appear to have had any negative effect on Magis TV’s continued popularity.

Indeed, despite being under significant pressure from anti-piracy measures across the entire region, limiting Magis TV’s ability to operate has proven quite the challenge.

An order published in Argentina dated September 13, 2024, reveals that the country’s Internet Service Providers are now required to block dozens of Magis TV-linked domains for violating intellectual property law.

The original order in Spanish (translation above) runs to four pages, most of which list Magis TV-linked domains. As screenshots of those domains shows, there’s no obvious design consistency, which suggests that whoever operates them have received no specific instructions from the owners of the IPTV service.

Some domains on the list claim to offer services to those considering becoming a reseller, so at least in theory they may have closer links to the service itself. In other cases, site operators may not have any direct connections beyond buying subscription credits at one price and then selling them on at another. That’s not to downplay their importance, but it does highlight the difficulties when it comes to enforcement.

In total, 69 domains (full list below) must be blocked to ensure they’re inaccessible from Argentinian territory but how effective that will be at limiting access to the service remains to be seen.

ACE Has Already Seized or Shut Down as Many Domains

The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment has been working on the Magis TV problem for at least a couple of years. In the summer of 2022, a series of DMCA subpoenas targeting dozens of illegal streaming sites aimed to unmask their operators, including whoever is behind Magis TV.

In November that same year, another subpoena sought information from Zenlayer. Whether any, all, or none of these efforts bore fruit is unknown, but ACE soon started to take possession or exercise some type of control over dozens of domains with links to Magis TV. As is usually the case, many began diverting to the ACE anti-piracy portal.

The lack of an official announcement to celebrate such a big haul was somewhat unusual. However, it seems likely that having assessed the situation, ACE may have concluded that the seizures wouldn’t provide the clean kill the coalition is known for.

The true scale of the problem hasn’t been revealed in public but an ACE report seen by TorrentFreak suggests a continent-wide problem.

Focused on piracy in Latin America, the report reveals that by the end of 2023, the anti-piracy coalition had taken down around 50 Magis TV websites in the region. Starting in Chile and heading north, up through Peru, into Ecuador, then Colombia, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, and finally back on home turf in the United States, sites were systematically taken down.

The only issue, albeit quite a significant one, is that ACE concluded that Magis TV and/or its affiliates, including an unknown number of resellers, were together operating over 370 websites.

Inevitable Site-Blocking

Ecuador has been blocking pirate sites since 2019 and earlier this year it began blocking Magis TV .

In August, ISPs in Ecuador added a further 183 Magis TV-linked IP addresses to the existing blocklist, followed by a dynamic blocking order last week, which allows a rightsholder to add new blocking targets without a court intervention.

As the image below shows (right), Ecuador has also managed to place warnings directly on the screens of pirates watching illegal streams, while Bolivia (left) issued direct warnings as far back as July 2022.

Limited blocking also takes place in Peru (magis-tv.app, magstv.com, tvmagis.com, magistv.news, magistv-app.net) and other countries in the region. But with domains both cheap and easy to replace, pirates at the consumer end of what is effectively a pyramid sales operation, will always be one step ahead.

ACE has been keeping up the pressure by obtaining new DMCA subpoenas in March and June 2024 , so presumably intends to tackle this problem by taking out those at the top.

If they are indeed based in China, that’s unlikely to be straightforward; yet, with enough patience and the right leverage , nothing is impossible.

The domains listed for blocking in the Argentinian order read as follows:

magistv-la.com, magistv.net, tvmagis.pro, magistv-app.net, magistv.video, magistvplus.com, magistv.app, tvmagis.com, magistvonline.com, magis123.com, magistv.film, magistvoficial.net, magistviptv.com, magistv.live, magistvlatin.com, magistvlatino.es, fullmagistv.com, magistvv.com – redirects to > tvsnipers.com, magistv-ecuador.com, magistv.agency, soportemagistv.com, panelmagistv.com, magistvstream.net, magistvmas.com, magistv-venezuela.com, comprarmagistv.app, magistv.ai, descarga-magistv.com, magispro.com, magistvgo.com, magislatamtv.net, magistvecuador.app, magistvinternational.com, magiscr.org, magistv.mx, magistvmexico.net, oficialmagistv.com, magistv.so – redirects to > magistv.film, magistvapk.app – redirects to> magis-tv.vip, comprarmagistv.com, magistvmex.com, magisapp.app, magistvperu.org, magistvusa.net, magistvoficial.com, magistv-app.net, renovarmagistv.net, panelmagistv.net, magistvgratis.com, magistvpty.com, getmagistv.com, magistve.com, magistvoficial.org, magistvpc.com, magistv.la, magistv.club, tvmagis.pro, magistv.stream, magis.com.ec, magistvtv.com, planesmagistv.com, magistvpremium.com, magistv-latino.net, magistvhn.com, magistvplus.com.co, magisapk.com, magis-cr.com, magistvoficialchile.com, magistvapp.app

To our knowledge, ACE has shut down at minimum the following domains:

magistvgroup.com, magistv.global, magistv.org.pe, magistvnicaragua.com, magistvperu.com, magistvusa.com, magistvapk.com, magistvecuador.com, magistvlatino.app, magistvdemo.com, magistvargentina.com, magistvrepublicadominicana.com, magistvchile.com, magistvpanama.com, magistvfacil.com, magistvbrasil.com, magisglobal.net, magistvcostarica.com, magistvpuertorico.com, magistvmexico.com, magistvuruguay.com, magistvglobal.com, magistvoficial.vip, magistvparaguay.com, magistvbolivia.com, magistvcolombia.com, bolivia.magistvgroup.com, cuba.magistvgroup.com, colombia.magistvgroup.com, argentina.magistvgroup.com, magistvfull.com, magistv.biz, magistv.services, magistv.solutions, magistv.fyi, magistv.us, magistvoficial.online, magistv.group, magistv.social, magistvoficial.digital, magist.vg, magistvvenezuela.com, magistv.es, magistvglobal.co, magistv.place, magistvrepublishedadomenica.com, magistv.store, magistv.asia, magistvoficial.services, magistv.life, magistvoficial.info

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

It is unclear if the suspect targeted the boy because he was Japanese, but there is concern that the incident could trigger a further deterioration in ties

Japan’s foreign minister, Yoko Kamikawa, has described as “despicable” the alleged killing in China of a 10-year-old Japanese boy and demanded that Chinese authorities do everything possible to ensure the safety of Japanese nationals living in the country.

The boy, who has not been named by Japanese media, died on Thursday, a day after he was allegedly stabbed about 200 metres from his school in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.

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For couples in the US mid-way through the adoption process, news of an end to international adoptions has been crushing

Americans Lauren and Harrison Smith met in China as students, and discussed their desire to adopt from the country early on in their relationship. As soon as they reached the minimum age of 30, the couple put together their applications and submitted for inspections of their home in Kunming, the capital of south-west China’s Yunnan province, where they lived with their two-year-old daughter.

“In September 2019, we saw our son’s picture for the first time and were able to submit a letter of intent to adopt him,” Lauren told the Guardian.

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Raising the retirement age is never popular, particularly for a country that is getting old before it gets rich

No one should be surprised that China is raising its retirement ages . They are currently among the lowest in the world and haven’t shifted for decades, even as lifespans have lengthened dramatically. Women currently retire as early as 50 and men at 60, while life expectancy is around 78 – up from 44 in 1960 . Now the male retirement age is to rise to 63, while women’s will rise to 55 (for blue-collar workers) and 58 (for white-collar employees). These changes will be phased in over the next 15 years. Employees will also have to make more contributions from 2030.

China is far from alone in facing the problem of too many old people and too few young workers to support them. But unlike western nations, it is getting old before it has got rich . The scale of the challenge and the speed at which it is arriving are extraordinary, thanks in large part to the decades of birth restrictions known as the one-child policy . It also means that fewer retirees are able to count on their kids supporting them.

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