Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.

TikTok prompts users to call Congress to fight possible ban

Summary: A bill introduced by US lawmakers last week would require that the Chinese owner of TikTok, a company called ByteDance, sell TikTok or be practically banned in the US; this led to a huge effort by TikTok to rally its users against the bill, and that seems to have, in some cases, led to the opposite intended effect.

Context: This isn’t the US Congress’ first attempt to address the control a Chinese company has over a popular US platform, and it’s not the first time they’ve pushed for regulations focused on TikTok, specifically, but this time seems different because of the huge amount of bipartisan support for this bill; following its announcement, TikTok prompted its users to call their representatives, connecting them directly to their offices, and that flooded congressional phone lines to the point that no other calls could get through, which enraged some politicians who said they were neutral on the bill, but decided to vote in its favor because of this aggressive move by ByteDance; President Biden has said he would sign the bill if it’s passed by Congress, and if signed into law it would require ByteDance divest itself of TikTok within about half a year, and would give the President the limited ability to prohibit access to an app owned by a foreign entity in the United States.

—The New York Times

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Microplastics found in every human placenta tested in study

Summary: A new study analyzing tissue samples from 62 placentas found microplastics in all the samples.

Context: This parallels other recent studies that found microplastics in human blood and breast milk, and another that found them in all the human arteries that were tested for the presence of these particles; microplastics are very small pieces of the plastic we use in pretty much everything, from bags to water bottles to the cases of our computers and phones, these bits shed during the production and use of these goods, but also after they’re discarded, as they are eroded by natural forces; researchers are still trying to figure out what their ubiquity throughout nature and our bodies means, in terms of impacts, but some studies have already shown they can damage human cells, cause inflammation, and even clog our arteries, increasing the likelihood of cardiovascular events like heart attacks and strokes.

—The Guardian

Congress avoids shutdown with tougher battle ahead

Summary: US lawmakers have passed a collection of funding bills that will allocate around $460 billion to various aspects of the government, narrowly averting a government shutdown.

Context: These lawmakers will need to pull this off again before March 22, when another round of funding bills will be necessary to avert yet another shutdown; this last batch passed the Senate, 75-to-22, and will provide funding for agricultural, housing, transportation, and energy agencies, but the next batch will provide funding for more contentious agencies, like the Pentagon and Homeland Security, so it’s expected to be an even trickier round of negotiations.

—Axios

Bitcoin’s price is on the rise again, ostensibly fueled by the emergence of new (and regulator-approved) ETFs containing the assets in the US; the price of a Bitcoin has surged to an all-time high in recent weeks, and while some enthusiasts are arguing this suggests crypto isn’t dead yet, many analysts are saying this has the hallmarks of a second bubble.

—Chartr

1 nanometer

Size of the node in Intel’s upcoming 10A microchips, intended for production in late-2027. That’s a huge leap for the company, as the current production-scale state-of-the-art is 3nm chips, which are found in high-end gadgets like the iPhone 15.

Smaller chip processes mean you can pack more processing into a smaller footprint, and pretty much everyone in this space is scrambling to make their processes smaller so they can make more powerful hardware (for comparison: moving from 5nm to 3nm chips allowed producers to pack around 70% more transistors into the same microchip footprint).

—Tom’s Hardware

Trust Click

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