Donald Trump said he will issue an executive order delaying a ban on TikTok when he becomes president on Monday, and proposed the United States take 50 percent ownership in the Chinese-owned app’s American subsidiary.

“I would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture,” the Republican posted on his Truth Social platform, adding that his executive order would extend the time before a law banning the video-sharing app ultimately takes effect “so that we can make a deal.”

He said his “initial thought” was for “a joint venture between the current owners and/or new owners whereby the U.S. gets a 50% ownership in a joint venture set up between the U.S. and whichever purchase we so choose.”

AFP

Mediator Egypt said Saturday that Israel is to release more than 1,890 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 33 Israeli hostages in the first phase of a Gaza truce.

The foreign ministry said the prisoners would be freed during the first, 42-day phase of the ceasefire which is set to begin at 0630 GMT on Sunday.

Qatar, which mediated the deal along with Egypt and the United States, had announced 33 hostages would be released by militants in Gaza during the first phase.

Israel’s justice ministry had earlier said 737 Palestinian prisoners and detainees would be freed — none before 4:00 pm (1400 GMT) on Sunday.

Of the 251 people taken hostage during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that triggered the war, 94 are still in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Sunday’s ceasefire will be only the second truce in 15 months of war in the Gaza Strip, which has claimed more than 50,000 lives and devastated the Palestinian territory.

The truce is to take effect on the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration for a second term as US president.

In its statement, Egypt’s foreign ministry thanked fellow mediator Qatar and “appreciated the pivotal role played by the new US administration led by President Trump to end the crisis, as well as President (Joe) Biden.”

AFP

President Joe Biden on Friday commuted the sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted of non-violent drug offences in what the White House called the largest single-day act of clemency in US history.

Those whose sentences were commuted were serving “disproportionately long sentences” compared to what they would receive today, Biden said in a statement.

He called the move “an important step toward righting historic wrongs, correcting sentencing disparities, and providing deserving individuals the opportunity to return to their families.”

“With this action, I have now issued more individual pardons and commutations than any president in US history,” Biden said, adding that he may issue further commutations or pardons before he hands over power to President-elect Donald Trump on Monday.

Biden commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 people and pardoned 39 others last month.

Among those pardoned in December was Biden’s son Hunter, who was facing a possible prison sentence after being convicted of gun and tax crimes.

Biden has meanwhile reportedly been debating whether to issue blanket pardons for some allies and former officials amid fears they could be targeted for what Trump has previously called “retribution.”

In December, Biden also commuted the death sentences of 37 of the 40 inmates on federal death row.

Three men were excluded from the move: one of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombers, a gunman who murdered 11 Jewish worshippers in 2018 and a white supremacist who killed nine Black churchgoers in 2015.

Trump has indicated that he will resume federal executions, which were paused while Biden was in office.