3 Things to Know About the TikTok Deal, and a New Protest Tactic in Minnesota

0:02From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Friday, January 23rd. Here's what we're covering.

0:13After a high-stakes, years-long legal saga, the Chinese company that owns TikTok has struck a deal to create a new U.S. version of the social media app. Under the agreement, the company ByteDance has brought in a group of non-Chinese investors who will now help run the platform for its 200 million-plus American users. Here are three things to know about the deal. First, why is there a deal at all? Back in the pandemic, as the app surged in popularity, U.S. lawmakers started to worry that it could be a national security risk, with the Chinese government potentially able to access personal information about Americans or feed them propaganda.

0:58That eventually led to a law that was supposed to have banned TikTok if it didn't break off from ByteDance by early last year. But President Trump delayed enforcement of that law multiple times while he got personally involved in putting together a new arrangement of investors. So the second thing to know, who are those investors? ByteDance is still actually the biggest player, owning about 20 percent of the new venture. Other leading stakeholders include some major investment firms, and Oracle, the cloud computing giant. Several of those new owners have ties to Trump, like Oracle's billionaire CEO Larry Ellison, who's made frequent visits to the White House.

1:41It is the latest example of the Ellison family's rapidly expanding influence over news and entertainment in the U.S. At this point, Larry and his son David control Paramount, which includes CBS, and are making a play for Warner Brothers' discovery. And the third thing, what does this all mean for people who use TikTok? The short answer, it is too early to tell. You do not have to download a new app, and ByteDance will still be licensing its powerful recommendation algorithm to the American TikTok. But the new ownership will have the power to moderate content on the app, deciding which videos to leave up or take down.

2:21That's raised concerns among some experts and TikTok users that the new owners could try to influence what people see, potentially showing more posts aligned with the Trump administration's views.

2:41We are not going to shop. We are not going to work. We are not going to school on Friday, January 23rd. Today in Minnesota. We are shutting down all the business in Mall 24 on Friday. Hundreds of businesses are expected to close across the state as part of a general strike in protest of the Trump administration's ramped up immigration enforcement. Don't show up to work. Don't spend no kind of money. We ain't going to the Mall of America. We're not going to no Burger King. We ain't doing none of that. It comes as Minnesotans have been pushing back for weeks on the surge of federal agents there.

3:15The government has sent as many as 3 ,000, and their operation has led to thousands of arrests and at least two shootings, including the killing of Renee Good by an ICE officer. Local officials have called the deployment an invasion, as agents have fanned out in neighborhoods and used aggressive tactics, breaking car windows and deploying pepper spray in people's faces. At one point, they dragged a man who turned out to be a U.S. citizen out of his house in his underwear in the snow. In another case that's gotten national attention this week, they detained a five-year-old boy as he was coming home from pre-K with his dad.

3:53School officials said he was the fourth child in the district to be detained recently. Good afternoon, everybody. How are we doing? With the state on edge, Vice President J.D. Vance traveled to the Twin Cities yesterday. I wanted to meet with business leaders, with ICE officers, with local law enforcement to try to understand a little bit better what's going on so that we can tone down the temperature a little bit, reduce the chaos. Vance said that he thought federal agents were doing a, quote, incredible job and that the unrest in the city was the result of a failure of cooperation by state and local officials.

4:27In another update on the protests, the Justice Department arrested three people over a demonstration at a church in St. Paul, after they went there to demand that one of the pastors resign, believing he works for ICE. It's a rare instance of the federal government directing the arrests of nonviolent protesters. President Trump wrote online that he'd seen footage of them interrupting the church service, saying, quote, quote, they are troublemakers who should be thrown in jail or thrown out of the country. The Justice Department also tried to charge former CNN journalist Don Lemon, who was at the scene reporting on it.

5:03But sources tell the Times a federal magistrate judge refused to approve that criminal complaint. Meanwhile, a new Times-Siena poll shows that while roughly half of voters support President Trump's deportations, 61 % said ICE had gone, quote, too far in their tactics. That includes nearly one in five Republicans.

5:36Well, we have waited for winter weather, and boy, are we going to get it going into this weekend. Across the U.S. Winter storm watch is now up for a large portion of North Texas. People are bracing for a major winter storm. Road crews in Missouri are out preparing for these storms. It could hit almost half the country's population with a mix of snow and sleet. I am sure New York and our entire corridor here is going to be next. The storm is expected to get going this afternoon in the Rockies before moving east across the country over the weekend. Meteorologists say some regions could get a foot or more of snow.

6:13And after that, an intense freeze. The windchill in North Dakota, for example, could drop as low as minus 50 degrees. One meteorologist told the Times, it's going to be hazardous for humans to step outside. Further south, the big concern is freezing rain. State and local officials are preparing for the possibility of trees, power lines, and roads being covered in heavy ice, causing travel delays. There's also concern about the power grid. Experts are drawing comparisons to another massive winter storm in Texas five years ago that led to extensive blackouts and left around 200 people dead.

6:56A new analysis of crime data from across the country is pointing to a remarkable milestone. 2025 will likely register as having the lowest national homicide rate in more than a century, according to the nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice, which crunched the numbers. The drop is part of an overall decrease in violent crime that's been happening for years, apart from a temporary surge during the pandemic. Experts say there's no one clear answer for why crime rates have been falling, but they have a wide range of educated guesses. Some point to the phasing out of lead gasoline back in the 70s, which had impaired brain development.

7:38Some other possible factors? The growing use of surveillance cameras, new policing techniques, more programs that give teenagers summer jobs, better mental health treatment, or even the country's aging population. One professor who studies crime told The Times that changing habits, like more screen time, could also be playing a role, saying American society is, quote, becoming much less face-to-face, which is sort of a requirement for violence.

8:13And finally. You keep dancing with the devil. One day he's going to follow you home. The big wow out of the Oscar nominations this year was that the vampire movie Sinners broke the record for most nominations ever, beating out the previous three-way tie of Titanic, La La Land, and All About Eve. Thank you, Sensei. Thank you. Viva la revolution! The movie One Battle After Another, about a scrappy crew rising up against authoritarianism, was close behind. Both are the kind of movies Hollywood has mostly stopped making. big-budget original stories instead of sequels, spinoffs, etc. In fact, the studio executives who originally backed Sinners and won Battle After Another were widely expected to lose their jobs for taking those swings.

9:04The biggest snub in the nominations, according to The Times pop culture reporter Kyle Buchanan, is that the Wicked sequel got none, zero. even after the first installment got a bunch. And one of the major, hmm, reallys, according to Kyle? F1, the race car movie featuring Brad Pitt driving real fast and taking his shirt off, walked away with a Best Picture nomination. Did you win something? Vroom, vroom. The Oscar ceremony will be March 15. Those are the headlines. If you'd like to play the Friday News Quiz, it is just after these credits. This show is made by Will Jarvis, Jan Stewart, and me, Tracy Mumford.

9:53Original theme by Dan Powell. Special thanks to Isabella Anderson, Larissa Anderson, Zoe Murphy, Paula Schumann, and Chris Wood.

10:03Now, time for the quiz. We've got a few questions for you about stories The Times has been covering. Here we go. First up.

10:17In Greenland and Denmark, President Trump's recent threats to seize the Arctic island sparked protests. Some of the people out on the streets wore red hats that look like the ones Trump made famous. And they do have the same MAGA initials. But in this case, MAGA stands for something else. Your question, what do the hats say? A hint? It's make America what?

10:53The answer? Make America go away. When we made it, funny enough, we sold maybe five, and I gave a lot of way to friends and so on, and they said, oh, that's funny. The man who designed the hats told the Associated Press he first made a batch last year, but they weren't really a bestseller until recently when Trump amped up his threats. Now the designer is trying to keep up with a new flood of online orders.

11:24Next question. In the past few years, as GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic have become more and more popular, they've had unexpected side effects for American businesses. Junk food companies are scrambling as people crave less processed food, and some wedding dress designers are seeing a surge in customers asking for last-minute alterations after losing weight. Now, a new report says that one industry in particular could potentially save hundreds of millions of dollars thanks to the drugs. What industry is it?

12:01A hint? You might say these American companies are united on trying to cut costs. The answer? The U.S. airline industry. According to the study by a financial services firm, the country's four biggest airlines, including American and United, could save as much as$580 million a year on fuel because of lighter passengers. Quick bonus question. Roughly, what percentage of Americans say they have taken a GLP-1 drug?

12:41The answer? About 20 percent. And last question. The iconic fashion designer Valentino died this week. Over his decades-long career, he dressed some of the most famous women in the world. The mayor of Rome once said about him, in Italy, there is the Pope and there is Valentino. I've got a few questions for you about some of his big fashion moments. See if you can name whose dresses he designed. This dress is something very, very important in my life. She make me famous in the United States. This former first lady wore a cream lace Valentino dress when she got married again in 1968. Next one. This red dress.

13:25She's actually wearing a red tight. I mean, seriously, this is incredible. Head to toe burgundy. Burgundy. This style icon famously wore one of his designs in 1992 amid a very public separation from her husband. And it did not exactly adhere to a traditional royal dress code. And? And the Oscar goes to? When this actress won her first ever Oscar in 2001, she was wearing a black and white Valentino. So I thank you for really making me feel so. I love it up here. So that was in order of First Lady, a style icon bucking traditional royal dress, and the actress who took home the trophy for, and this is kind of a big hint, playing Erin Brockovich.

14:13The answers? Jackie Onassis in the wedding dress, Princess Diana in a knee-length burgundy number, and Julia Roberts celebrating her big win. I'll just leave you here with my personal favorite Valentino fact that I learned. Apparently when he traveled, he regularly brought five of his beloved pugs along with him on his private jet. And when he got to his destination, there would be a car in his motorcade specifically for the pugs.

14:44That's it for the news quiz. Our email is theheadlines at nytimes.com. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back on Monday.