Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 20, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba Read the Winter issue at: winnipegfreepress.com/fp-features Available in your Free Press (subscribers) on March 29 and at Manitoba Liquor Marts - while supplies last! SPRING 2025 ISSUE OF DON’T MISS THE COMING SOON! MONDAY, JANUARY 20, 2025 A8 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM NEWS I CITY / WORLD A vacant Point Douglas house was set to be demolished after another blaze there Sunday. Crews were sent to the 200 block of Austin Street North at about 6:20 a.m. The property was damaged in a previous fire on March 23, the Win- nipeg Fire Paramedic Service said. People were living in the multi- family building at that time. On Saturday, crews extinguished a house fire on Driftwater Trail. Crews arrived there at 1:27 p.m. and declared the fire under control shortly after 2 p.m. All the residents got out safely be- fore crews arrived and no injuries were reported. Vacant house to be demolished following fire JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS Firefighters were sent to the 200 block of Austin Street North early Sunday morning. TikTok restores service for United States users N EW YORK — TikTok restored service to users in the United States on Sunday just hours af- ter the popular video-sharing platform went dark in response to a federal ban, which president-elect Donald Trump said he would try to pause by executive order on his first day in office. Trump said he planned to issue the order to give TikTok’s China-based par- ent company more time to find an ap- proved buyer before the ban takes full effect. He announced the move on his Truth Social account as millions of U.S. TikTok users awoke to discover they could no longer access the TikTok app or platform. But by Sunday afternoon, a message greeted those who signed on thanking them — and the president-elect — for their support. “As a result of president Trump’s ef- forts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!” the message read. TikTok said it shut down the platform late Saturday because of a federal law that required parent company ByteD- ance to sell its U.S. operation by Sun- day. Google and Apple also removed TikTok from their digital stores. The law, which passed with wide bipartisan support in April, allows for steep fines. While the company that runs Tik- Tok in the U.S. said on X that the steps Trump outlined Sunday provided “the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties,” the TikTok app remained remained unavailable for download in Apple and Google’s app stores. “It was a brilliant marketing stunt for both TikTok and incoming presi- dent Donald Trump,” Jasmine Enberg, an analyst with market research firm Emarketer, said. “By abruptly shutting off service, TikTok proved how un- popular the ban was among its users.” The law that took effect Sunday re- quired ByteDance to cut ties with the platform’s U.S. operations due to na- tional security concerns. However, the statute authorized the sitting president to grant a 90-day extension if a viable sale was underway. Although investors made some of- fers, ByteDance has said it would not sell. Trump said his order would “ex- tend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect” and “confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order.” It wasn’t immediately clear how Trump’s promised action would fare from a legal standpoint since the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the ban on Friday and the statute came into force the day before Trump’s return to the White House. “I think Trump can at least make an argument that the language is meant to cover any president,” University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias said. Some lawmakers who voted for the sale-or-ban law, including some of Trump’s fellow Republicans, remain in favour of it. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkan- sas warned companies Sunday not to provide TikTok with technical support. “Any company that hosts, distrib- utes, services, or otherwise facilitates communist-controlled TikTok could face hundreds of billions of dollars of ruinous liability under the law,” Cotton wrote on X. “Think about it.” Constitutional and business law attor- ney Kirk McGill said he thinks Trump lacks the legal authority to suspend the ban but it’s unlikely the question would reach a court in the time it might take TikTok to find a buyer. It’s also unlikely that Apple or Goo- gle will face legal consequences if they move forward with Trump’s demands, given that his administration would have to initiate any prosecutions, Mc- Gill said. “In the next week or two, before the courts have the chance to do anything, this is certainly going to be a political fight, not a legal one,” McGill said. The on-and-off availability of TikTok came after the Supreme Court ruled that the risk to national security posed by TikTok’s ties to China outweighed concerns about limiting speech by the app or its millions of U.S. users. When TikTok users in the U.S. tried to watch or post videos on the platform as of Saturday night, they saw a pop-up message under the headline, “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now.” “A law banning TikTok has been en- acted in the U.S.,” the message said. “Unfortunately that means you can’t use TikTok for now.” — The Associated Press HALELUYA HADERO Georgia, top state for chicken production, hit by bird flu ATLANTA — For the first time since the 2022 countrywide outbreak, bird flu hit a poultry producer in Georgia, the nation’s top state for chicken pro- duction. The state Department of Agriculture announced Friday that the agency has detected a case of Highly Pathogen- ic Avian Influenza at a commercial poultry producer in Elbert County, approximately 165 kilometres north- east of Atlanta. The agency suspended all poultry exhibitions, shows, swaps, meets and sales. The virus has been detected four times in Georgia, but only in backyard flocks previously, including among 13 chickens and ducks earlier this month in Clayton County south of Atlanta. “This is a serious threat to Georgia’s #1 industry and the livelihoods of thou- sands of Georgians who make their living in our state’s poultry industry,” Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper said in a news release. The producer first noticed clinical signs of bird flu Wednesday at the El- bert County location. The Georgia Poultry Laboratory Network confirmed a positive virus de- tection Thursday afternoon, which the USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratory also confirmed Friday. The site had about 45,000 broiler breeders when bird flu was detected. The Georgia Department of Agricul- ture’s Emergency Management sent its State Agricultural Response Teams on Friday to the site to “conduct depopu- lation, cleaning and disinfecting and disposal operations.” All commercial poultry operations within a 10-kilometre radius were put under quarantine and will undergo at least two weeks of surveillance testing. Georgia Poultry Federation president Mike Giles said in a statement Saturday that it is cooperating with state and fed- eral officials and there are already test- ing processes in place to make sure all chicken products sold for consumption are safe to eat, local outlets reported. Bird flu has been spreading, killing millions of wild and domestic birds worldwide over the last two years. — The Associated Press ;