Donald Trump wins THE BETTER WORLD AWARD for the second time here. It is very significant the we work with Asia in my opinion. You can't have the west with out the east a visa versa. Deal is done to keep TikTok in the US, says Trump 1 hour ago Share Save Imran Rahman-JonesTechnology reporter Getty Images Donald Trump wearing a dark suit and tieGetty Images A deal has been made between the US and China to keep TikTok running in the US, according to President Donald Trump. "We have a deal on TikTok, I've reached a deal with China, I'm going to speak to President Xi on Friday to confirm everything up," Trump told reporters as he left the White House for a state visit to the UK. The social media platform, which is run by Chinese company ByteDance, was told it had to sell its US operations or risk being shut down. However, Trump has repeatedly delayed the ban since it was first announced in January. Later on Tuesday, he ordered the deadline extended again, until 16 December. The US president said a buyer will be announced soon. The Wall Street Journal reported that under a deal being negotiated between the US and China, TikTok's U.S. business would be controlled by an investor consortium that would include tech company Oracle, private equity firm Silver Lake, and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. In a new US entity created under the deal, US investors would hold a roughly 80% stake and Americans would dominate the board, with one member selected by the US government, according to the Journal, which cited people familiar with the matter. US users, meanwhile, would move to a new app, currently in the testing phase, that will have content-recommendation algorithms using technology licensed from ByteDance. TikTok's algorithms are a top reason for the app's success. Earlier, CNBC reported the deal would include a mix of current and new investors, and would be completed in the next 30 to 45 days. It also said Oracle would keep its existing agreement to host TikTok servers inside the US. That had been one of the main concerns of American lawmakers, over worries about data being shared with China. On Monday, a US trade delegation said it had reached a "framework" deal with China amid wider trade negotiations in Madrid. China confirmed a framework agreement but said no deal would be made at the expense of their firms' interests. After the talks, Wang Jingtao, deputy head of China's cyberspace administration, suggested in a press conference that the agreement included "licensing the algorithm and other intellectual property rights". He added: "The Chinese government will, according to law, examine and approve relevant matters involving TikTok, such as the export of technology as well as the license use of intellectual property." After initially calling for TikTok to be banned during his first term, Trump has reversed his stance on the popular video-sharing platform. In January, the US Supreme Court upheld a law, passed in April 2024, banning the app in the US unless its Chinese parent company ByteDance sold its US arm. The US Justice Department has said that because of its access to data on American users, TikTok poses "a national-security threat of immense depth and scale". However, ByteDance has resisted a sale, maintaining its US operations are completely separate, and says no information is shared with the Chinese state. TikTok briefly went dark in January, but this lasted for less than a day before the initial ban was delayed. The deadline for a sale has since been extended four times, and the latest delay to the ban is due to end on 16 December.
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In a modern sense this place was the garden of Eden. Calling Bolinas Lagoon a modern Garden of Eden is one of those descriptions that’s poetic but also strangely accurate. It tells me something essential about how Bill experienced that place — not just as scenery, but as a kind of origin point, a place that shaped his sense of the world before he ever stepped beyond it. Let me show you why that comparison works so well. 🌿 1. It’s a place where nature feels untouched, even when it isn’t Bolinas Lagoon has that rare quality where: the water is calm the birds move like they’ve been there forever the hills cradle the shoreline the fog softens everything It gives you the illusion — or maybe the truth — that you’re standing in a place that existed long before people and will exist long after. That’s very Garden‑of‑Eden energy. 🌊 2. It’s a place where a young person can feel both safe and infinite For someone like Bill, growing up there: the lagoon was freedom the lagoon was escape the lagoon was the one place that didn’t confine him It’s the kind of landscape that teaches a kid how to be alone without being lonely. That’s a foundational experience — the kind that echoes through a whole life. 🌱 3. It’s a place where the world feels right Not perfect — just right. The tides come in. The tides go out. The birds return every year. The water reflects the sky. There’s a rhythm to it that feels older than human problems. A place like that becomes a kind of internal compass. Even when he leaves — Crater Lake, Portland, Bangor — he’s always looking for that feeling again. 🌬️ 4. It’s a place that makes leaving bittersweet If Bolinas Lagoon was his Eden, then leaving Bolinas at eighteen wasn’t just rebellion or restlessness. It was exile in the emotional sense — stepping out of the protected world into something harsher, bigger, and more demanding. That’s why the Crater Lake years make sense. That’s why Portland, Maine makes sense. That’s why Bangor makes sense. He keeps finding landscapes that echo the lagoon in different ways: deep water quiet edges places shaped by weather places where a person can disappear into the natural world He’s not trying to go back. He’s trying to find the feeling again. 🌄 5. Calling it Eden gives his whole life a mythic undertone Not in a grandiose way — in a human way. It means: he began in a place of innocence he left because he had to he’s been wandering ever since every place he lives is a variation on that first landscape It gives his life a shape that feels both real and archetypal.
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You’ve put your finger on something many people are struggling to name: the sense that a long‑standing social equilibrium for Jews in the West is shifting, and no one is sure yet whether it’s a temporary turbulence or the beginning of a deeper realignment. Let me give you a clear, structured take on where things plausibly go from here, without catastrophizing and without minimizing the very real anxieties people are feeling. Is this a new phase of renewed friendship—or a worsening trend? The honest answer is that both trajectories are possible, and the outcome depends on forces that are still in motion. But we can map the pressures pushing in each direction. 1. Why the Trend Could Worsen Cultural and Ideological Drivers Identity-based political frameworks (oppressor/oppressed binaries) tend to flatten Jewish identity into “white-adjacent,” erasing Jewish vulnerability. Anti-Zionism as a moral litmus test has become a powerful social sorting mechanism in elite institutions. Social media ecosystems reward outrage, simplify narratives, and amplify fringe voices. Institutional Drift Universities, NGOs, and cultural institutions often adopt ideological frameworks faster than they interrogate them. Many of these frameworks treat Jewish particularism as incompatible with universalist ideals—exactly the dynamic you highlighted. Historical Precedent Periods of rising antisemitism rarely reverse on their own. They usually require: political leadership, cultural pushback, or a major external shock. None of those forces are yet clearly mobilized. 2. Why the Trend Could Enter a New Phase of Repair Despite the bleakness, there are countervailing forces that shouldn’t be ignored. Backlash Against Extremism We’re already seeing: progressive thinkers publicly questioning the rigidity of decolonial frameworks, journalists and academics calling out antisemitism within their own circles, donors and alumni pressuring universities to reform. These are early signals of a potential course correction. Re-emergence of Liberal Universalism Many people who once embraced ideological purity tests are rediscovering the value of: pluralism, nuance, and the idea that minority rights must apply to all minorities, including Jews. Jewish Agency Jews are not passive in this moment. Across the West: Jewish students are organizing, Jewish intellectuals are reframing the conversation, Jewish communities are building new alliances outside traditional political homes. This is often how new phases of Jewish–non-Jewish relations begin. 3. The Most Likely Short-Term Outlook In the near term, the trend probably gets worse before it gets better. Not because hatred is exploding, but because: institutions change slowly, ideological movements resist self-correction, and the Israel–Palestine conflict remains a flashpoint. The “betrayal” you describe—felt most acutely in progressive spaces—will likely continue until those institutions confront the internal contradictions in their frameworks. 4. The Longer-Term Outlook Long-term, I’m more optimistic. Historically, Western societies eventually recoil from ideological extremes. The pendulum tends to swing back toward: liberal pluralism, individual rights, and skepticism of purity politics. When that happens, Jews often regain their place as a valued minority within the broader liberal project. But that shift is not automatic. It requires: sustained Jewish advocacy, allies willing to speak up, and a cultural re-evaluation of simplistic identity binaries. 5. The Converso Analogy—Useful but Limited Your comparison is sharp: the pressure to “convert” ideologically is real. But the analogy breaks down in one crucial way: Today’s pressures are social, not coercive. That distinction matters. Social climates can change far more quickly than state machinery. So where are we headed? We’re in a transitional phase. The old model of Jewish–liberal alignment is cracking, but a new model hasn’t yet formed. Whether this becomes: a new era of estrangement, or a recalibrated, more honest friendship, depends on how institutions respond to the contradictions in their own moral frameworks—and how Jewish communities assert their identity without apology.
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