The Daily Moth 2-14-2025
It is Friday, February 14, 2025. Happy Valentine’s Day. Here are today’s top stories.
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TikTok back on Apple & Google app stores
The TikTok app went back on both the Apple App and Google Play stores last night. The app was removed a few weeks ago due to a new law that required TikTok to divest from its China-based owner, ByteDance, out of national security concerns. Those who already had the TikTok app downloaded prior to the law could view content all this time (except for a brief time when it was shut down), but those who hadn’t downloaded the app couldn’t download it because it was not available in the app stores. Now it’s back there.
Attorney General Pam Bondi notified Apple and Google that the new law would not be enforced for now, so that may be the reason why the apps are available to download. The law still calls on TikTok to be divested. When President Trump was inaugurated, he put a 75-day delay on the requirement for TikTok to be divested and we’re almost halfway through. Trump said yesterday that there are many people interested in buying TikTok and he’s hoping that there can be a deal, with approval from China.
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Humpback whale “swallows” kayaker
There is a viral video that shows a kayaker off the coast of Chile being “swallowed” by a humpback whale. The video, which was filmed by the kayaker’s father, showed the whale surfacing and opening its giant mouth right where the kayaker was at. He disappeared for a few seconds but reappeared when the whale spit him out.
The kayaker’s name is Adrian Simancas. He told news outlets that he thought he was “done for, that he was dead.” He said it was like three strange seconds down there. His father said he felt fear when his son went underwater, but was relieved when he came out.
Humpback whales’ mouths can easily fit a human, but they cannot swallow an adult human because their throats are the size of a human fist and can only stretch to about 15 inches in diameter.
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Russian drone strikes Chernobyl reactor shell
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said a Russian drone with an explosive warhead struck the protective confinement shell of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine during the night, but radiation levels have not increased.
Russian officials denied being involved.
The shell was built in 2016 and is designed to limit the release of radioactivity from the shuttered power plant, which exploded in 1986 in a disaster.
This incident comes at a sensitive time as the Trump administration is now engaging Russia and Ukraine to enter into a peace deal to end their war. Zelenskyy met with Vice President JD Vance today in Germany. Zelenskyy said he wants security guarantees before he is willing to discuss a peace deal with Russian President Putin.
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Sponsored video by Sorenson: www.sorenson.com
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Hamas to release three Israeli hostages
NPR reported that Hamas said it will release three Israeli hostages on Saturday and this resolves a dispute with Israel that had threatened to derail the ceasefire deal.
The three hostages are Sagui Dekel-Chen, who is a 36-year-old dual U.S.-Israeli citizen (the guy in the white shirt), Alexander Trupanov, a 29-year-old dual Russian-Israeli citizen, (the guy with the blue shirt and hair) and Yair Horn, a 46-year-old Israeli (the man in the bottom picture).
Hamas said it is expecting Israel to release 36 Palestinians who are serving life sentences in Israeli prisons. NPR said these are prisoners convicted for deadly attacks against Israelis.
NPR said mediators from Egypt and Qatar worked in recent days to resolve new disputes between Israel and Hamas and to ensure that the ceasefire can keep going.
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Teenage arrested for allegedly plotting mass shooting
Police in Martinsville, Indiana said a 18-year-old was arrested on Thursday for allegedly plotting a mass shooting at her high school on Valentine’s Day. The person’s name is Trinity Shockley.
ABC News explained that a tipster contacted authorities to say that their friend was allegedly planning an attack, had access to an AR-15 rifle, and had just ordered a bulletproof vest. The tipster said their friend was obsessed with Nikola Cruz, who killed 17 people in Parkland, Florida on Valentine’s Day 2018, and posted on social media that she wanted to do “Parkland part two.” The tipster said the friend’s name is “Jamie” and identified as transgender. It appears that “Jamie” is Shockley. Shockley is named in news reports as a girl.
ABC News said when police executed a search warrant of Shockley’s home, they found in her bedroom wall pictures of Cruz and two other notorious mass shooters. Her notebook had illustrations of swastikas and violent language. Police found AR-15 magazines, ammunition, an armor vest, but no firearm. Shockley told police she was joking about plans to carry out a shooting and said she didn’t have access to a gun.
Police said Shockley had received mental health counseling since her freshman year but that nothing was significant enough to cause intervention. Police said her father would deny her access to resources for mental health assistance and did not believe in mental health treatment and did not take her daughter’s conditions seriously.
Shockley was in the news in 2022 after she was seriously injured by a drunk driver who struck her while she was outside waiting for a school bus. There was a crowdfunding campaign to help her, but Shockley said she was bullied after the incident.
Shockley is charged with conspiracy to commit murder and is being held without bond.
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U.S. to get chilly polar vortex again
AP News said weather forecasters are warning that there will be another polar vortex impacting the U.S. starting this weekend and stay all of next week. You can see in the maps here the darker-colored areas where it’ll be really cold. The chilly air that usually stays near the North Pole is “spilling” into the U.S. It will be the 10th time this winter that this has happened and forecasters said this will be the coldest one yet. Next week, 89% of the contiguous U.S. will be below 32 degrees F. The darkest colored areas of the maps are where temperatures will reach below 0 degrees F.
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That’s all the top stories for this week. Have a nice weekend and stay with the light.
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TikTok: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/apple-google-restore-tiktok-to-their-app-stores/
Whale:
https://x.com/Channel4News/status/1890079293591445725
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2025/02/14/humpback-whale-swallows-kayaker-video/78592005007/
Chernobyl:
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/russian-drone-struck-chernobyl-reactor-shell-radiation-levels-118815393
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/feb/14/russia-ukraine-war-peace-vladimir-putin-volodymyr-zelenskyy-donald-trump-munich-security-conference-europe-news
Hostages:
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/14/nx-s1-5297749/israeli-hostages-gaza-hamas-us-russian-argentine
Teen shooting suspect:
https://abcnews.go.com/US/indiana-teen-arrested-allegedly-plotting-mass-shooting/story?id=118806958
Vortex:
https://apnews.com/article/cold-icy-polar-vortex-winter-freezing-850b99054b73770de43db1b1918ee8c5