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Paris/London CNN —The European Parliament on Tuesday banned TikTok from staff devices over cybersecurity concerns, meaning the Chinese video-sharing app is now barred in all three of the EU’s main institutions. The parliament also “strongly recommended” that its members and staff remove TikTok from their personal devices. “We appreciate that some governments have wisely chosen not to implement such bans due to a lack of evidence that there is any such need.”Last week, the European Commission announced it was banning TikTok from official devices, citing cybersecurity concerns. On Monday, the White House directed federal agencies to remove TikTok from all government-issued devices within 30 days, with few exceptions. Brooke Oberwetter, a TikTok spokesperson, called the ban “little more than political theater.”“The ban of TikTok on federal devices passed in December without any deliberation, and unfortunately that approach has served as a blueprint for other world governments,” Oberwetter said in a statement.

☆ Premarket stocks: Wall Street's dirty secret: It's terrible at forecasting stocks
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

What’s happening: Last year, Goldman Sachs analysts predicted that the S&P 500 would close out 2022 at 5,100 points. With those caveats, let’s get to Wall Street’s predictionsThe numbers: Forecasts for where the S&P 500 will finish 2023 vary greatly. Analysts overestimated the final value (that is, the final value finished below the estimate) in 13 of the 20 years and underestimated the final value (the final value finished above the estimate) in the other 7 years. They’re on track to have overestimated the performance of the S&P 500 in 2022 by nearly 40%. During this period, the S&P 500 has historically gained 1.3% on average, according to data from LPL Financial going back to 1950.

The country will also scrap all other restrictive Covid measures for travelers, including quarantines for positive patients and contact tracing. China downgraded Covid management to a less-strict “Class B disease,” in the same category as less-severe diseases, such as Dengue fever. The existing quarantine policy for international arrivals to China was first launched in 2020 and modified over the course of the past several years. Since the world’s second largest economy drastically eased its Covid restrictions, there has been no clear data on the extent of the virus’ spread on the national level. China’s current focus is to prepare sufficient medical resources, according to the NHC statement.

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CNN —China will abolish its Covid-19 trace tracking service, the “Mobile Itinerary card,” on Tuesday, officials say. Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, China has used the itinerary card system to track individuals’ travel histories over 14 days. The system is tied to people’s phone numbers and aims to identify individuals who have visited cities with any area designated a “high-risk zone” by authorities. This system, together with a health QR code that tracks individuals’ health statuses regarding Covid-19, determined people’s movements into public spaces across China. Even after much of the world relaxed pandemic restrictions, China continued to lock down entire cities and send all Covid-19 patients to central quarantine facilities, while restricting others from visiting areas where positive cases were detected.

The United States and European Union established the council in June last year as a forum for discussing new technology and trade. “With the Inflation Reduction Act being informally discussed only over a 45-minute lunch, the commissioner has decided not to participate,” the aide added. The Inflation Reduction Act has become an acute source of tension between the allies. The European Union and United States share the biggest “bilateral trade and investment relationship” in the world, according to the European Commission’s website. Transatlantic trade hit a record €1.2 trillion ($1.26 trillion) in 2021, the Commission said.

CNN —Chinese leader Xi Jinping was captured by Canadian broadcasters in a rare candid moment on Wednesday, where he was filmed chiding his Canadian counterpart, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, over what he described as “leaked” discussions. On the sidelines of the G20 summit in Indonesia, Xi chatted with Trudeau in Mandarin with a smile. “Everything we’ve discussed has been leaked to the papers and that is not appropriate,” Xi’s translator said. “If there was sincerity on your part, than we shall conduct our discussion with an attitude of mutual respect, otherwise there might be unpredictable consequences,” Xi tells the Canadian leader in Mandarin. Xi’s translator attempts to translate what was said, only getting to “If there was sincerity on your part,” before being cut off by Trudeau.

☆ UK police arrest journalists covering a climate protest
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

London CNN Business —UK police arrested and detained three journalists covering a climate protest earlier this week, raising concerns that the country’s press freedoms are under threat. “It was absolutely terrifying being in a cell with a pad for a bed in one corner and a metal toilet in the other. Lynch told LBC on Wednesday that police arrested her on suspicion of “conspiracy to commit a public nuisance.” She was eventually released with no further action. The incident came just a day after documentary filmmaker Rich Felgate and photographer Tom Bowles, also covering Just Stop Oil protests, were arrested by Hertfordshire police on a bridge. The concerns add to fears that new policing laws will restrict Britons’ right to protest more generally.

☆ Grégoire de Fournas: French parliamentary session halted by lawmaker's shout "Go back to Africa"
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Xiaofei Xu | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

A rightwing French lawmaker has caused uproar by shouting “Go back to Africa” during a Black lawmaker’s comments at a parliamentary session broadcast to the public on Thursday. Grégoire de Fournas, parliamentary representative from the National Rally (RN) party, interrupted Carlos Martens Bilongo, a representative from the far-left party France Unbowed (LFI) during a session of the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament. De Fournas interrupted, shouting “go back to Africa.”Chaos immediately ensued in the chamber, leading Yaël Braun-Pivet, President of the National Assembly, to temporarily suspend the session. Bilongo and his party have described the shout as a racist personal attack, though de Fournas’ party has argued that the interjection was actually intended for the migrants under discussion. Mathilde Panot, leader of the far-left France Unbowed group at the National Assembly, has demanded that de Fournas face the toughest punishment for a French lawmaker — expulsion.

London CNN Business —UK Prime Minister Liz Truss will hold a news conference Friday amid widespread speculation that she’s getting ready to ditch a big part of her economic strategy unveiled just three weeks ago. Kwarteng flew back from the IMF meeting in Washington, D.C., on Friday for discussions with Truss about the plan. Under pressure, Kwarteng has already brought forward his full budget statement to Oct. 31, more than three weeks earlier than planned. But investors may not be prepared to wait that long for reassurance about the state of Britain’s public finances. — Luke McGee and Zahid Mahmood in London, and Xiaofei Xu in Paris contributed to this article

London CNN Business —UK Prime Minister Liz Truss has fired finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng and ditched a big part of her discredited economic strategy in a desperate bid to rescue her month-old premiership. “It was right, in the face of the issues we had, that I acted decisively to ensure that we had economic stability,” Truss said Friday. Kwarteng presented a “mini budget” just three weeks ago, promising tax cuts worth £45 billion ($50 billion) and increased borrowing with the hope of boosting UK economic growth. “Liz Truss’ reckless approach has crashed the economy, causing mortgages to skyrocket, and has undermined Britain’s standing on the world stage,” he said. Kwarteng had flown back from the IMF meeting in Washington, D.C., overnight for discussions with Truss.

Notably, Paris says it will not organize fan zones for the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, citing social and environmental issues. “Paris Saint-Germain’s matches in the Parc des Princes have become a must-see event for a great many foreign visitors.”France is looking to retain the World Cup after winning the competition in 2018. James Williamson/Getty ImagesParis joins Strasbourg, Lille, Rodez, Bordeaux, Nancy and Reims in committing to not organizing public viewings. “I repeat that this is not the trial of Qatar, we are questioning the model of this event,” insisted Rabadan. Qatar World Cup officials estimate a very different death toll, telling CNN last year that there have been just three work-related deaths on stadiums and 35 non-work-related deaths.

CNN —An animal sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is facing demands for ransom money, after kidnappers abducted three of its baby chimpanzees. “This is the first time in the world that baby apes were kidnapped for ransom,” Franck Chantereau, founder of the sanctuary where the kidnap took place, told CNN on Friday. But they didn’t come so the kidnappers took these three babies hostage and demanded a large amount of ransom from us,” Chantereau said. “Obviously, it’s impossible for us to pay the ransom,” Chantereau said. But Chantereau said the kidnapping won’t shake his determination to save baby chimps from the clutches of smugglers.

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