TikTok Ban
Tiktok was banned in the U.S. on January 19th, 2025 after the Supreme Court voted to uphold the current legislation of the ban, and it was temporarily lifted on January 20th due to an executive order. Currently, there is discussion of the future of the app, but it will most likely be under heavier control and restriction due to the United States government weighing in. On another page, RedNote (Xiohongshu) is a Chinese social media app that millions are flocking to because of issues with the U.S. government potentially overstepping and Tiktok still not being available on U.S. application stores (App Store and Google Play). Additionally, the app has been a connection point between Chinese and U.S. citizens who talk about a variety of things like television shows or cats. Users of RedNote in China do have to be careful due to anti-free speech laws, but if everyone follows the “One China Policy”, then it is safer for them, as sensitive topics such as drugs and politics are removed. The future of Red Note is a convoluted subject to predict as China gives a heart to censorship.
LA Wildfires
Starting January 7th in Los Angeles, California, severe wildfires ravaged the area and those surrounding it. Thousands were evacuated and 29 people passed away during this catastrophic event.The largest blaze, the Palisades fire, incinerated 9,000 structures of diverse purposes during its time. The Santa Ana winds provided heavy 50-80 mph dry winds whilst also occurring during a drought period further increasing the damage the LA Wildfires have done. The only way to help prevent these situations from happening in the future is to be careful with flammable objects in low humidity areas and to halt the climate crisis through major systemic changes.
Deepseek AI
Deepseek A.I. is a brand new Artificial Intelligence program based in China that creates a notable competition for Open AI due to its capabilities. Their R1 reasoning model has become a new opponent to Chatgpt’s o1 reasoning model. The A.I. is currently the number one app on the United States Apple App Store and is ahead of ChatGPT’s own application. Nvidia lost $590 billion dollars in market value, regaining some later, due to the hype and investor fear over this non-US based AI software. The artificial intelligence market has shifted to a more free market capitalistic approach where more groups of people can create powerful AI models without the need of being a large tech giant such as Google, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, or Open AI.
References
Karlamangla, S., Jiminez, J., Zhuhuang, Y., Selig, K., & Nostrant, R. (2025, January 27). What we know about the wildfires in southern california. New York Times.com. Retrieved February 2, 2025, from https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/08/us/wildfires-los-angeles-california.html
Saul, D., & Roeloffs, M. W. (2025, January 29). DeepSeek panic live updates: Nvidia stock drops 4%—as trump reportedly mulls china chip sale restrictions. Forbes.com. Retrieved February 2, 2025, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2025/01/29/deepseek-panic-live-updates-nvidia-stock-drops-4-as-trump-reportedly-mulls-china-chip-sale-restrictions/
Tan, Y., & Wang, F. (2025, January 17). Americans and chinese share jokes on ‘alternative tiktok’ as US ban looms. BCC News .com. Retrieved February 3, 2025, from https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c983lr756xwo