The US and several other countries are raising serious concerns about the popular social media app TikTok, which they are increasingly convinced is a tool for Chinese intelligence operations. A former journalist and employee of Russia's space agency has been arrested on charges of treason. US immigration officials are planning to deport foreign students if their colleges transition to full-time online classes in the fall. Join Ben Bowlin for more Strange News Daily, and share your stories on Twitter: #strangedaily.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Strange News Daily. It's a production of I heart media.
In a world full of bizarre events, unsolved mysteries, and
a billion stories from all corners of the globe, some
(00:22):
news gets lost in the shuffle. This is your gateway
to the stories on the fringe of the mainstream map.
These are your dispatches in the dark. I'm Ben Bolan,
and this is the Strange News Daily, our first story today.
(00:44):
The popular social media app known as TikTok is becoming
the subject of increasing controversy in the US and abroad.
Earlier this week, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said
the US is looking at banning Chinese social media apps
in general, including, of course, TikTok. Pompeo suggested this possible
(01:09):
move in an interview with Laura Ingram on Fox News,
adding that the US is taking this idea very seriously.
He made this statement in response to a question about
whether the U s should be considering a ban on
these Chinese social media apps specifically, Pompeo said quote with
respect to Chinese apps on people's cell phones, I can
(01:32):
assure you the United States will get this one right too.
I don't want to get out in front of the president,
but it's something we're looking at. He also added that
people should only download the app quote if you want
your private information in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.
TikTok responded to these comments pretty quickly. In a statement,
(01:54):
they said, TikTok is led by an American CEO with
hundreds of employees and leaders across safety, security, product and
public policy here in the US. We have no higher
priority than promoting a safe and secure app experience for
our users. We have never provided user data to the
Chinese government, nor would we do so if asked. Pompeo's
(02:18):
remarks come at an interesting geopolitical time. Tensions between the
US and China are ratcheting up, as the US has
just sent even more naval ships into the disputed areas
of the South China Sea. This tension is also spilled
into arguments over trade and technology. TikTok has a CEO
(02:40):
in the US, but it is owned by a startup
named Bite Dance that's bite like a computer. Bite b
y t e Bye Dance is based in Beijing, and
TikTok has already been criticized by multiple US politicians, most
of whom accused this video app of being a threat
to national security because of its ties to China. The
(03:04):
opponents of TikTok alleged the company could be compelled to
quote support and cooperate with intelligence work controlled by the
Chinese Communist Party for its sport. TikTok has already said
in the past that it operates separately from byte Dance.
It says it's data centers are located outside of China
and that none of the data collects is subject to
(03:25):
Chinese law. That means that if you are a TikTok
user in the US, your data is stored in the
US and there's a backup of it in Singapore, at
least according to TikTok's official statements. A spokesperson for the
company said back in May that it thinks the national
security concerns here are quote unfounded controversy aside. TikTok is
(03:49):
incredibly popular. It's having its moment in the Sun. It's
exploded in the US and other Western countries. It's become
the first Chinese social media platform to gain significant traction
with users outside of China. In the first three months
of twenty it was downloaded three hundred and fifteen million times.
(04:10):
That's more quarterly downloads than any other app in history.
The company isn't just running into controversy in the US.
Last week, the Indian government said it would ban TikTok
and several other Chinese apps because they quote pose a
threat to sovereignty and integrity. Tensions between India and China
(04:30):
have been escalating after that clash along the Himalayan border
we mentioned in an earlier episode, and TikTok has signaled
it will pull out of Hong Kong as well. Our
(04:50):
second story today, an employee of Russia's State Space Corporation
has been detained on treason charges. This happened just today,
according to the nation's top security agency. The employee, one
Ivan Safronov, was a former journalist who served as an
advisor to ros Cosmos head Dmitri rugos In. He was
(05:14):
detained in Moscow by agents of the Federal Security Service
abbreviated FSB in Russian that's the main successor to the KGB.
His arrest sent shockwaves throughout Russian media. Many other journalists
were questioning the treason charges, and his former newspaper openly
rejected these accusations as absurd. So what exactly is he
(05:38):
alleged to have done well. The FSB says that Safronov
is accused of relaying sensitive data to a spy agency
of an unspecified NATO member. It said in a statement
that the information he provided referred to military, technical cooperation,
defense and security of the Russian Federation. If he has convicted,
(05:59):
Safranov could base up to twenty years in prison. The
space agency Roskosmos says that Safronov didn't have access to
any state secrets and they claimed that the charges couldn't
relate to his work for the corporation, which he just
joined in May have this year. Before then, Saffronov was
working as a correspondent for Commerceant, one of the top
(06:21):
business daily newspapers. He had worked there for nearly a decade,
and after that he worked one more year for another
business newspaper, Vidimosti. He generally covered military issues, arms trade
and government affairs. However, we're getting conflicting reports here. Spokesperson
for the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, said that Safronov's detention was
(06:44):
not related to his activities as a journalist. When he
was asked about the case during a conference call with
reporters just yesterday, he described Safronov as a talented journalist.
In their statement, Commersant, the paper that Saffronov worked for
for so long, hailed him as one of the country's
top journalists. They called him a true patriot and said
(07:06):
that he had deep concerns about the state of the
military and space industries he covered. The paper noted that
rights activists, journalists, scientists, and corporate officials who faced trees
and accusations often find it difficult to defend themselves because
of the secrecy surrounding their cases and the lack of
public access in summation. They said, as a result, the
(07:28):
public has to rely on the narrative offered by special
services whose work has increasingly raised questions, and journalists asking
those questions find themselves under blow. Several other journalists, including
some of Safronov's former co workers, were detained outside the
headquarters of the FSB in Moscow as they protested his arrest.
(07:50):
There's some background to the case. Last year, the FSB
apparently opened an inquiry following an article Safronov wrote that
claimed Russia had signed a contract with Egypt for the
delivery of sophisticated s U thirty five fighter jets. Commerson,
the paper where this article was published, later removed the
report from its website and no actual charges were filed.
(08:14):
There's murky family history here as well. Safronov's father also
worked for the paper Commersant after he retired from the
Armed Forces, and while he was working as a journalist,
he covered military issues at least that is until two
thousand and seven, when he died after falling from a
window of his apartment building in Moscow. Investigators concluded that
(08:36):
he committed suicide, but naturally, some Russian media question the
official version and pointed out his intention to publish a
sensitive report about secret arms deliveries to Iran and Syria.
(08:56):
Our third story Today, foreign students attended US colleges that
will operate entirely online this coming fall have found themselves
between a rock and a hard place. New regulations released
just yesterday by US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, better known
(09:17):
as ICE, say that these students cannot remain in the
US if their schools go entirely online. To call this
a dilemma as an understatement, College students across the country
and around the world are trying to figure out what
their upcoming semesters are going to look like, and this
federal guidance limits options. For international students. It leaves them
(09:41):
with a very difficult choice attend in person classes during
a pandemic and risk infection, or take those classes online
from another country. For students enrolled in schools that have
already announced plans to operate fully online, the choice is gone.
Under those new rules. The State Department will not issue
(10:01):
them visas and ICE will not allow them to enter
the country. ICES Student and Exchange Visitor Program released a
statement about this which reads active students currently in the
US enrolled in such programs must depart the country or
take other measures such as transferring to a school with
in person instruction, to remain in lawful status. If not,
(10:24):
they may face immigration consequences, including but not limited to
the initiation of removal proceedings. Removal proceedings of course means deportation.
The agency said that students already in the country facing
a fully online course of study could take alternative measures
to maintain their non immigrant status, such as reduced course
(10:46):
load or appropriate medical leave. This rule applies to holders
of what are known as F one and M one
non immigrant visas, they allow non immigrant students to pursue
academic and vocational coursework. More than one million of higher
education students in the US come from overseas. That's according
(11:07):
to the nonprofit Institute of International Education. Typically, these students
are going to be limited in how many online courses
they can take. They're required to do the majority of
their learning in the classroom, according to immigration lawyer Fiona mcinte.
Once the pandemic struck, students were given flexibility to take
(11:28):
more online classes, but apparently this only held true for
spring and summer semesters. Mcentye goes on to say, quote,
this is an unprecedented public health crisis, and I don't
think it's too much to ask for the allowances that
they made to continue, especially given the fact that we clearly,
quite clearly do not have a handle on the pandemic
(11:48):
right here, right now, unlike other countries that have. She
went on to say, the decision is particularly puzzling given
the value of foreign students, which is something we know
how to quant to fight Economically, According to an economic
analysis by NAFZA, the Association of International Educators, International students
(12:10):
studying at US colleges and universities contributed forty one billion
dollars across twenty eighteen to nineteen alone. They also supported
four hundred fifty eight thousand, two hundred and ninety jobs.
This announcement came as higher education institutions are releasing their
(12:30):
frameworks for reopening in the fall semester. Schools are preparing
to offer either full in person instruction, full online classes,
or a hybrid a mix of both. According to the
Chronicle of Higher Education, eight percent of colleges or planning
to operate online, sixty or planning to return to in
(12:52):
person instruction, and twenty three percent are proposing a hybrid model.
There's another eight point five percent that are undecided or
still considering a range of scenarios. Mcentie, who is herself
a former international student, said leaving for school can be
challenging enough not to mention during a pandemic and in
a landscape of near constant immigration restrictions. She called the
(13:16):
new rule both in substance and timing not right, saying
this is not the America that I think foreign students
come to live in. That's all for now. We've been
asking you to chime in with suggestions for stories you
think your fellow listeners should know about to hit us
with your best or worst bad dad jokes, as well
as your personal experience with COVID nineteen, the ongoing protest,
(13:40):
or anything else strange happening in your neck of the
global Woods. Let us know. Tag hashtag Strange daily on Twitter,
or reach out to me directly. I'm at Ben Bolan
hsw on Twitter or at Ben Bolan on Instagram. Thanks
as always to our super producer Dylan Fagan, our research
associate Sam T. Garden, and most importantly, thanks to you.
(14:01):
I'm Ben Bullen. We'll see you tomorrow. Until then, stay strange. M.
Strange News Daily. It's a production of I heart media.
In a world full of bizarre events, unsolved mysteries, and
a billion stories from all corners of the globe, some
(00:22):
news gets lost in the shuffle. This is your gateway
to the stories on the fringe of the mainstream map.
These are your dispatches in the dark. I'm Ben Bolan,
and this is the Strange News Daily, our first story today.
(00:44):
The popular social media app known as TikTok is becoming
the subject of increasing controversy in the US and abroad.
Earlier this week, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said
the US is looking at banning Chinese social media apps
in general, including, of course, TikTok. Pompeo suggested this possible
(01:09):
move in an interview with Laura Ingram on Fox News,
adding that the US is taking this idea very seriously.
He made this statement in response to a question about
whether the U s should be considering a ban on
these Chinese social media apps specifically, Pompeo said quote with
respect to Chinese apps on people's cell phones, I can
(01:32):
assure you the United States will get this one right too.
I don't want to get out in front of the president,
but it's something we're looking at. He also added that
people should only download the app quote if you want
your private information in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.
TikTok responded to these comments pretty quickly. In a statement,
(01:54):
they said, TikTok is led by an American CEO with
hundreds of employees and leaders across safety, security, product and
public policy here in the US. We have no higher
priority than promoting a safe and secure app experience for
our users. We have never provided user data to the
Chinese government, nor would we do so if asked. Pompeo's
(02:18):
remarks come at an interesting geopolitical time. Tensions between the
US and China are ratcheting up, as the US has
just sent even more naval ships into the disputed areas
of the South China Sea. This tension is also spilled
into arguments over trade and technology. TikTok has a CEO
(02:40):
in the US, but it is owned by a startup
named Bite Dance that's bite like a computer. Bite b
y t e Bye Dance is based in Beijing, and
TikTok has already been criticized by multiple US politicians, most
of whom accused this video app of being a threat
to national security because of its ties to China. The
(03:04):
opponents of TikTok alleged the company could be compelled to
quote support and cooperate with intelligence work controlled by the
Chinese Communist Party for its sport. TikTok has already said
in the past that it operates separately from byte Dance.
It says it's data centers are located outside of China
and that none of the data collects is subject to
(03:25):
Chinese law. That means that if you are a TikTok
user in the US, your data is stored in the
US and there's a backup of it in Singapore, at
least according to TikTok's official statements. A spokesperson for the
company said back in May that it thinks the national
security concerns here are quote unfounded controversy aside. TikTok is
(03:49):
incredibly popular. It's having its moment in the Sun. It's
exploded in the US and other Western countries. It's become
the first Chinese social media platform to gain significant traction
with users outside of China. In the first three months
of twenty it was downloaded three hundred and fifteen million times.
(04:10):
That's more quarterly downloads than any other app in history.
The company isn't just running into controversy in the US.
Last week, the Indian government said it would ban TikTok
and several other Chinese apps because they quote pose a
threat to sovereignty and integrity. Tensions between India and China
(04:30):
have been escalating after that clash along the Himalayan border
we mentioned in an earlier episode, and TikTok has signaled
it will pull out of Hong Kong as well. Our
(04:50):
second story today, an employee of Russia's State Space Corporation
has been detained on treason charges. This happened just today,
according to the nation's top security agency. The employee, one
Ivan Safronov, was a former journalist who served as an
advisor to ros Cosmos head Dmitri rugos In. He was
(05:14):
detained in Moscow by agents of the Federal Security Service
abbreviated FSB in Russian that's the main successor to the KGB.
His arrest sent shockwaves throughout Russian media. Many other journalists
were questioning the treason charges, and his former newspaper openly
rejected these accusations as absurd. So what exactly is he
(05:38):
alleged to have done well. The FSB says that Safronov
is accused of relaying sensitive data to a spy agency
of an unspecified NATO member. It said in a statement
that the information he provided referred to military, technical cooperation,
defense and security of the Russian Federation. If he has convicted,
(05:59):
Safranov could base up to twenty years in prison. The
space agency Roskosmos says that Safronov didn't have access to
any state secrets and they claimed that the charges couldn't
relate to his work for the corporation, which he just
joined in May have this year. Before then, Saffronov was
working as a correspondent for Commerceant, one of the top
(06:21):
business daily newspapers. He had worked there for nearly a decade,
and after that he worked one more year for another
business newspaper, Vidimosti. He generally covered military issues, arms trade
and government affairs. However, we're getting conflicting reports here. Spokesperson
for the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, said that Safronov's detention was
(06:44):
not related to his activities as a journalist. When he
was asked about the case during a conference call with
reporters just yesterday, he described Safronov as a talented journalist.
In their statement, Commersant, the paper that Saffronov worked for
for so long, hailed him as one of the country's
top journalists. They called him a true patriot and said
(07:06):
that he had deep concerns about the state of the
military and space industries he covered. The paper noted that
rights activists, journalists, scientists, and corporate officials who faced trees
and accusations often find it difficult to defend themselves because
of the secrecy surrounding their cases and the lack of
public access in summation. They said, as a result, the
(07:28):
public has to rely on the narrative offered by special
services whose work has increasingly raised questions, and journalists asking
those questions find themselves under blow. Several other journalists, including
some of Safronov's former co workers, were detained outside the
headquarters of the FSB in Moscow as they protested his arrest.
(07:50):
There's some background to the case. Last year, the FSB
apparently opened an inquiry following an article Safronov wrote that
claimed Russia had signed a contract with Egypt for the
delivery of sophisticated s U thirty five fighter jets. Commerson,
the paper where this article was published, later removed the
report from its website and no actual charges were filed.
(08:14):
There's murky family history here as well. Safronov's father also
worked for the paper Commersant after he retired from the
Armed Forces, and while he was working as a journalist,
he covered military issues at least that is until two
thousand and seven, when he died after falling from a
window of his apartment building in Moscow. Investigators concluded that
(08:36):
he committed suicide, but naturally, some Russian media question the
official version and pointed out his intention to publish a
sensitive report about secret arms deliveries to Iran and Syria.
(08:56):
Our third story Today, foreign students attended US colleges that
will operate entirely online this coming fall have found themselves
between a rock and a hard place. New regulations released
just yesterday by US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, better known
(09:17):
as ICE, say that these students cannot remain in the
US if their schools go entirely online. To call this
a dilemma as an understatement, College students across the country
and around the world are trying to figure out what
their upcoming semesters are going to look like, and this
federal guidance limits options. For international students. It leaves them
(09:41):
with a very difficult choice attend in person classes during
a pandemic and risk infection, or take those classes online
from another country. For students enrolled in schools that have
already announced plans to operate fully online, the choice is gone.
Under those new rules. The State Department will not issue
(10:01):
them visas and ICE will not allow them to enter
the country. ICES Student and Exchange Visitor Program released a
statement about this which reads active students currently in the
US enrolled in such programs must depart the country or
take other measures such as transferring to a school with
in person instruction, to remain in lawful status. If not,
(10:24):
they may face immigration consequences, including but not limited to
the initiation of removal proceedings. Removal proceedings of course means deportation.
The agency said that students already in the country facing
a fully online course of study could take alternative measures
to maintain their non immigrant status, such as reduced course
(10:46):
load or appropriate medical leave. This rule applies to holders
of what are known as F one and M one
non immigrant visas, they allow non immigrant students to pursue
academic and vocational coursework. More than one million of higher
education students in the US come from overseas. That's according
(11:07):
to the nonprofit Institute of International Education. Typically, these students
are going to be limited in how many online courses
they can take. They're required to do the majority of
their learning in the classroom, according to immigration lawyer Fiona mcinte.
Once the pandemic struck, students were given flexibility to take
(11:28):
more online classes, but apparently this only held true for
spring and summer semesters. Mcentye goes on to say, quote,
this is an unprecedented public health crisis, and I don't
think it's too much to ask for the allowances that
they made to continue, especially given the fact that we clearly,
quite clearly do not have a handle on the pandemic
(11:48):
right here, right now, unlike other countries that have. She
went on to say, the decision is particularly puzzling given
the value of foreign students, which is something we know
how to quant to fight Economically, According to an economic
analysis by NAFZA, the Association of International Educators, International students
(12:10):
studying at US colleges and universities contributed forty one billion
dollars across twenty eighteen to nineteen alone. They also supported
four hundred fifty eight thousand, two hundred and ninety jobs.
This announcement came as higher education institutions are releasing their
(12:30):
frameworks for reopening in the fall semester. Schools are preparing
to offer either full in person instruction, full online classes,
or a hybrid a mix of both. According to the
Chronicle of Higher Education, eight percent of colleges or planning
to operate online, sixty or planning to return to in
(12:52):
person instruction, and twenty three percent are proposing a hybrid model.
There's another eight point five percent that are undecided or
still considering a range of scenarios. Mcentie, who is herself
a former international student, said leaving for school can be
challenging enough not to mention during a pandemic and in
a landscape of near constant immigration restrictions. She called the
(13:16):
new rule both in substance and timing not right, saying
this is not the America that I think foreign students
come to live in. That's all for now. We've been
asking you to chime in with suggestions for stories you
think your fellow listeners should know about to hit us
with your best or worst bad dad jokes, as well
as your personal experience with COVID nineteen, the ongoing protest,
(13:40):
or anything else strange happening in your neck of the
global Woods. Let us know. Tag hashtag Strange daily on Twitter,
or reach out to me directly. I'm at Ben Bolan
hsw on Twitter or at Ben Bolan on Instagram. Thanks
as always to our super producer Dylan Fagan, our research
associate Sam T. Garden, and most importantly, thanks to you.
(14:01):
I'm Ben Bullen. We'll see you tomorrow. Until then, stay strange. M.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com