(AP)  President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday to keep TikTok operating for 75 days, a relief to the social media platform’s users even as national security questions persist.

TikTok’s China-based parent ByteDance was supposed to find a U.S. buyer or be banned on Jan. 19. Trump’s order could give ByteDance more time to find a buyer.

“I guess I have a warm spot for TikTok,” Trump said.

Shou Zi Chew, TikTok’s CEO, attended Trump’s inauguration earlier in the day, seated with American tech heavyweights.

Trump has amassed nearly 15 million followers on TikTok since he joined last year, and he has credited the trendsetting platform with helping him gain traction among young voters. Yet its 170 million U.S.

(China Daily) The number of netizens in China has reached 1.1 billion by the end of last year, 16.08 million more than in 2023, according to a report released by the China Internet Network Information Center on Friday.

The proportion of internet users aged 50 and above has increased from 32.5 percent in December 2023 to 34.1 percent, meaning that the internet has been further penetrating into the middle-aged and elderly population, the Statistical Report on China's Internet Development showed.

(Xinhua) China's sales of home appliances surged in 2024 under its policy-backed trade-in program, according to the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) on Saturday.

Retail sales of home appliances and audio and visual equipment under the scheme reached 1.03 trillion yuan (about 143.29 billion U.S. dollars) in 2024, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics. This marks the first time the figure has surpassed the 1 trillion yuan threshold and represents a 12.3 percent year-on-year growth.

(China Daily) China has discovered a rare earth deposit in Honghe, Yunnan province, composed of about 1.15 million metric tons of potential resources, further consolidating the country's rare earth resource advantage and industrial chain, the China Geological Survey said Friday.

The deposit includes more than 470,000 tons of critical rare earth elements, including praseodymium, neodymium, dysprosium and terbium, according to the CGS, a division of the Ministry of Natural Resources.

(Xinhua) The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), dubbed China's "artificial sun," maintained a steady-state high-confinement plasma operation for a remarkable 1,066 seconds on Monday, setting a new world record and marking a breakthrough in the quest for fusion power generation.

The duration of 1,000 seconds is considered a key step in fusion research.

(China Daily) Shenzhou XIX mission crew members have conducted their second spacewalk outside the Tiangong space station, completing several assignments, according to the China Manned Space Agency.

The agency said in a news release that mission commander Senior Colonel Cai Xuzhe and crew member Lieutenant Colonel Song Lingdong returned to the Wentian science module at 1:12 am on Tuesday after floating eight and a half hours outside the colossal orbital station.

(Xinhua) The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) unveiled logos on Monday for three key missions in China's manned space program this year: the launches of the crewed spaceships Shenzhou XX and Shenzhou XXI, and the cargo craft Tianzhou 9.

These new logos symbolize the courage and determination of Chinese astronauts and their commitment to exploring the mysteries of the universe, the CMSA said.

(Global Times) Responding to TikTok resuming service in the US as well as the proposed deal by President-elect Donald Trump that would give the US a 50 percent stake in a joint venture of the company, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning said on Monday that China hopes the US will seriously listen to rational voices and provide an open, fair, just, and non-discriminatory business environment for market participants from various countries in the US.

(China Daily) A seminar on education planning and governance in the intelligent era concluded on Sunday, launching the Lab of AI Governance and Planning in Education and its first result — Education Policy and Planning AI Agents, according to the organizers.

(Xinhua) The Biden administration's new export controls on artificial intelligence (AI) models and advanced chips faced mounting criticism from industry experts, who worry such controls will impede global AI development.

After the administration unveiled the framework on Monday, the U.S.
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