By DIDI TANG, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairman of a House committee that pushed for the law demanding TikTok be spun off from its Chinese owners has requested an urgent briefing from the White House, one day after Trump signed an executive order supporting a proposed deal that would put the popular social video platform under U.S. ownership.

In a statement released Friday, Rep. John Moolenaar, the chairman of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, praised the proposed deal as “an important step” in transitioning ownership of the TikTok platform to American hands but he emphasized that “divestment was not the law’s only requirement.”

“The law also set firm guardrails that prohibit cooperation between ByteDance and any prospective TikTok successor on the all-important recommendation algorithm, as well as preclude operational ties between the new entity and ByteDance,” Moolenaar said.

The Michigan Republican’s statement marks the first congressional effort to conduct oversight into the negotiations over TikTok, coming nearly two weeks after Chinese and American officials met in Spain to discuss a framework divestment deal for TikTok. Trump on Thursday signed an executive order providing support for the deal, and said Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to move forward with negotiations.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to an inquiry from the Associated Press regarding the urgent briefing.

It’s more than the algorithm

Much is still unknown about the actual deal in the works, but the new U.S. venture would license the famed ByteDance-owned algorithm that currently keeps TikTok users engaged. U.S. tech giant Oracle, a confirmed partner in the U.S. investment consortium that would own TikTok, would audit the copy of the algorithm and monitor it for security purposes.

Vice President JD Vance on Thursday assured the public that the deal would not only keep TikTok operating but also protect Americans’ data privacy as required by law. Moolenaar on Friday said he would like to know more.

While algorithms are valuable assets, the real value of TikTok is its users, which is likely why the consortium won’t just start from scratch to build a new app, said computer scientist Bart Knijnenburg, an associate professor at Clemson University who has studied how recommendation systems steer people to online content.

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Knijnenburg said all algorithms are biased in some way and if the administration is serious about retraining the TikTok algorithm to avoid Chinese influence, it should push for “radical openness” in TikTok’s mechanics so that users have a window into how bias might be influencing their feeds.

More than politics, Knijnenburg said the biggest problem with TikTok’s algorithm is that it’s geared toward addictive engagement and overuse.

“Moving it to the U.S. is not going to magically solve these types of problems,” he said. “Any company might put undue influence on these applications and from a business perspective, the best way to engage users is to make them addicted to watching these videos, which is not a good idea.”

ByteDance’s representation in the new venture

Craig Singleton, senior China fellow at the Washington-based think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies, doubts that the deal, as revealed so far, complies with the law.

“The law is clear: divestiture means severance, not supervision,” Singleton said. “A board seat for ByteDance or any continued role in maintaining the algorithm would flout Congress’s mandate.”

Though the details have yet to be finalized, the U.S. investment group’s controlling stake in the new venture would be around 80%. While ByteDance is expected to have a stake in the new venture, it would be less than 20% — a portion of the ownership reserved for foreign investors. The board running the new platform would be controlled by U.S. investors. ByteDance will be represented by one person on the board, but that individual will be excluded from any security-related matters.

Singleton argues that a board foothold by ByteDance is not merely symbolic. “ByteDance’s reported role as the largest single shareholder in a restructured TikTok U.S. venture, combined with a board seat, ensures continuing Chinese influence over the app,” he said. “Plainly put, ByteDance on the board means Beijing in the building.”

Is TikTok undervalued in this deal?

Vance said he expects the new U.S.-based TikTok to be valued at about $14 billion, describing it as a “good deal” for investors who must ultimately decide “what they want to invest in and what they think is the proper value.”

That’s a “surprisingly low” valuation, said Daniel Keum, a management professor at Columbia University’s business school.

Keum said it’s possible that “politics overrode the business case” or that the licensing structure, which hasn’t yet been disclosed, could have been designed with high fees or profit-sharing that depressed the value of TikTok’s app in the U.S.

Keum said TikTok had an early edge in attracting youth to its innovative video-sharing format, but its competitiveness has “fundamentally eroded” as social media creators and influencers increasingly post their videos on many different apps.

As TikTok’s popularity soared among young Americans in the past several years, U.S. lawmakers grew concerned that Beijing — viewed by many on the Capitol Hill as the biggest geopolitical rival to the U.S. — could use the platform to influence public discourse in the United States.

“ByteDance has shown time and again that it is a bad actor, and the Chinese Communist Party’s ultimate goal is to see America divided and weakened,” Moolenaar said in his statement. “That is why, on an overwhelming bipartisan basis, Congress required ByteDance to divest control of TikTok.”

President Joe Biden signed legislation passed by Congress last year that would ban TikTok unless ByteDance sold its U.S. assets to an American company by early this year. The U.S. Supreme Court in January unanimously upheld the TikTok law.

Trump, after he returned to the White House, has repeatedly signed orders that have allowed TikTok to keep operating in the U.S. as his administration tries to reach an agreement for the sale of the company.

On Friday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry didn’t provide any new information but repeated China’s position on TikTok.

“The Chinese government respects the will of enterprises and welcomes them to conduct sound commercial negotiations based on market rules, reaching solutions that comply with Chinese laws and regulations and achieve a balanced outcome of interests,” said Guo Jiakun, a ministry spokesperson. “We hope the U.S. will provide an open, fair, and non-discriminatory business environment for Chinese enterprises investing in the United States.”

AP Writer Matt O’Brien contributed to this report.

By JEFFREY COLLINS

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A Republican member of the South Carolina House who prosecutors say used the screen name “joebidennnn69” agreed Friday to plead guilty to distributing sexual abuse material involving children.

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RJ May signed court papers to change his plea a few days after a hearing where prosecutors laid out how they would present their evidence in May’s trial next month. May, who does not have a law degree, is acting as his own attorney.

The Republican, who resigned earlier this year, is accused of using “joebidennnn69” to exchange 220 different files of toddlers and young children involved in sex acts on the Kik social media network for about five days in spring 2024, according to court documents that graphically detailed the videos.

May, 38, is pleading guilty to five counts and faces five to 20 years in prison on each charge. He will have to register as a sex offender and could be fined up to $250,000, according to his plea agreement.

May is scheduled to be in federal court Monday to officially change his plea. He has been in jail since June after a judge refused bond following his arrest.

May acted as his own attorney at a hearing that included prosecutors showing charts explaining in stark, factual ways what was on each video May is charged with distributing.

During the hearing, May made arguments to the judge to throw out the warrant used to search his home, laptop and mobile devices. She had not ruled on the request before May approached prosecutors about pleading guilty Wednesday.

FILE – South Carolina Rep. RJ May, R-West Columbia, walks down the aisle of the House on Tuesday, March 14, 2023, in Columbia, South Carolina. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins, file)

May also was trying to keep out any evidence about whether he used a fake name to travel to Colombia three times. Prosecutors said they found videos on his laptop of him allegedly having sex with three women. A Homeland Security agent testified the women appeared to be underage and were paid. U.S. agents have not been able to locate the women.

Prosecutors said they linked May to uploading and downloading the child sexual abuse videos by showing he multitasked, emailing work files, making phone calls and doing web searches as part of his job as a political consultant as he was on Kik asking for “Bad moms. Bad dads. Bad pre teens.”

May was in his third term in the South Carolina House when he was arrested. After his election in 2020, he helped create the Freedom Caucus, a group of the House’s most conservative members who say mainstream House Republicans aren’t the true conservative heart of the GOP. He also helped the campaigns of Republicans running against GOP House incumbents.

“We as legislators have an obligation to insure that our children have no harm done to them,” May said in January 2024 on the House floor during a debate on transgender care for minors.

By EDITH M. LEDERER

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Behind the scenes at the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations, key countries and regional organizations have been coordinating efforts to try to end the horrific war in Sudan, which has created the most devastating humanitarian and displacement crisis in the world.

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Today in History: September 26, Biosphere 2 stay begins in Arizona

Alan Boswell, the International Crisis Group’s project director for the Horn of Africa, said this year’s high-level General Assembly meeting, which ends Monday, could be “make-or-break” for stopping the conflict.

“For the first time since the war broke out more than two years ago, Sudan’s most influential outside powers agreed this month on a roadmap to end the war,” he said in a statement. “Now comes the huge task of trying to convince Sudan’s warring parties to stop fighting.”

Sudan plunged into conflict in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its rival military and paramilitary commanders broke out in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to western Darfur and much of the rest of the country.

At least 40,000 people have been killed, nearly 13 million displaced and many pushed to the brink of famine with over 24 million acutely food insecure, U.N. agencies say.

Diplomats seek a humanitarian truce and ceasefire

In a key development after a summer of discussions, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates issued a joint statement on Sept. 12 calling for a humanitarian truce for an initial three months to deliver desperately needed aid throughout Sudan followed by a permanent ceasefire.

Then, the four countries said, “an inclusive and transparent transition process should be launched and concluded within nine months to meet the aspirations of the Sudanese people towards smoothly establishing an independent, civilian-led government with broad-based legitimacy and accountability.”

The group, calling themselves the Quad, met Wednesday on the sidelines of the assembly to discuss implementation of their roadmap.

Another meeting also focused on de-escalating the war was convened Wednesday by the African Union, the European Union and the foreign ministers of Germany, France and the United Kingdom. Representatives of the Quad, a dozen other countries, the Arab League, the United Nations and the east Africa regional group IGAD also attended.

A statement issued by the AU, EU, France, Germany, UK, Denmark, Norway and Canada after the meeting urged the warring government and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces to resume direct negotiations to achieve a permanent ceasefire.

It welcomed the Sept. 12 statement by the Quad, and expressed support for efforts by the AU and the EU “to coordinate international and bilateral efforts to pressure all Sudanese parties towards a ceasefire, humanitarian action and political dialogue.”

The statement strongly condemned the military involvement of unnamed foreign countries and “non-state actors” and urged them to stop fueling the conflict.

RSF accused of crimes against civilians

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in his “State of the World” speech at the opening of the global gathering Tuesday, made a similar appeal to all parties, including unnamed countries in the vast assembly chamber: “End the external support that is fueling this bloodshed. Push to protect civilians.”

“In Sudan, civilians are being slaughtered, starved, and silenced,” Guterres said. “Women and girls face unspeakable violence.”

The deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said in July that the tribunal believes war crimes and crimes against humanity are taking place in Darfur, where the RSF controls all regional capitals except el-Fasher in North Darfur.

The RSF and their allies announced in late June they had formed a parallel government in areas the group controls. The U.N. Security Council rejected the plan, warning that a rival government threatens the country’s territorial integrity and risks further exacerbating the ongoing civil war.

Sudan’s Transitional Prime Minister Kamil El-Tayeb Idris accused the RSF of “systematic killing and torture and looting and rape and humiliation and the savage destruction of all the components of life,” part of its effort “to control Sudan, to plunder its wealth and to change the demographics of its population.”

Speaking to the assembly Thursday, he stressed the country’s sovereignty and said the government is committed to a Sudanese-developed roadmap including a ceasefire, “accompanied by the withdrawal of the terrorist Rapid Support militia from the areas and cities it occupies” including el-Fasher.

El-Tayeb said the civilian government he formed will engage in a national dialogue “that includes all political and societal forces to lay the groundwork for elections that are free and fair, and to engage positively with regional and international communities.”

Chad’s Prime Minister Allah Maye Halina told the General Assembly on Thursday that his country, which borders Darfur, is hosting over 2 million refugees from Sudan, 1.5 million of whom arrived since April 2023. He appealed to the international community to help support the refugees, saying more keep arriving.

“We are convinced that the current crisis in Sudan cannot be resolved through weapons, but rather through peaceful means, through inclusive inter-Sudanese dialogue,” he said, stressing that Chad is strictly neutral in the conflict and is available to contribute to any initiative to end the war.

By JONEL ALECCIA, AP Health Writer

Federal health officials are warning consumers not to eat certain heat-and-eat beef meatball pasta meals sold at Walmart stores because they may be contaminated with listeria bacteria previously linked to a deadly outbreak.

The U.S. Agriculture Department issued a public health alert late Thursday for Marketside Linguine with Beef Meatballs & Marinara Sauce sold in refrigerated 12-ounce clear plastic trays. The products have best-by dates of Sept. 22 through Oct. 1 and may still be in consumer’s refrigerators.

The affected meals contain the establishment numbers “EST. 50784” and “EST. 47718” inside the USDA mark of inspection on the label. They were sent to Walmart stores nationwide.

No recall has been issued, but FreshRealm, a large food producer that distributed the products, said they advised Walmart this week to pull the meals from store shelves. Additional products may be identified, according to USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.

The meals may be contaminated with the same strain of listeria that caused an outbreak tied to chicken fettuccine Alfredo sold at Walmart and Kroger stores. Three people were killed and at least 17 were sickened in that outbreak, which led to a large recall this summer.

FreshRealm conducted tests that detected the listeria in linguine used in the meatball dish, company officials said. The strain matched the listeria identified in the chicken fettuccine Alfredo outbreak, the company said.

“We have long maintained that the source of the listeria was likely an ingredient supplied by a third party,” the company said in a statement.

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The pasta came from Nate’s Fine Foods of Roseville, California. The company did not immediately respond to questions.

Listeria infections can cause serious illness, particularly in older adults, people with weakened immune systems and those who are pregnant or their newborns. Symptoms include fever, muscle aches, headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and convulsions.

About 1,600 people get sick each year from listeria infections and about 260 die, the CDC says. Federal officials in December said they were revamping protocols to prevent listeria infections after several high-profile outbreaks, including one linked to Boar’s Head deli meats that led to 10 deaths and more than 60 illnesses last year.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.