TikTok, TikTok: The House Energy and Commerce Committee spent five hours grilling TikTok’s chief executive, Shou Chew, about the social app’s ties to the Chinese government and its potential harm to children and teenagers.

  Critics say TikTok exposes youngsters to sexual matter and potential predators as well as violent, or suicidal material and dangerous stunts kids might want to try themselves. That’s in addition to deadening their brains by addicting them to their screens.

  TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is Chinese. Some reports the app has the ability to “keystroke” its users, following everything they do. 

  One member asked whether TikTok has spied on American citizens and Chew said, “I don’t think that spying is the right way to describe it.” Chew said TikTok does not sell its user data, but dodged a demand to promise not to do so in the future.

  Chew was evasive on other questions as well. He didn’t do himself any favors, claiming a data “firewall” between TikTok and the Chinese government, which the committee absolutely didn’t believe. 

  Legislators have proposed forcing TikTok’s sale or banning the app altogether.

  If TikTok does pose a national security threat, no evidence of that has been revealed. And it’s questionable how much power Congress has to do anything about it. 

Flash War: The US has carried out air strikes in eastern Syria in retaliation for a drone attack of “Iranian origin” that killed an American contractor on a base also in Syria. Five others were wounded in that initial attack on the American base.

  The Pentagon said it ordered airstrikes against facilities in eastern Syria used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards.

  US forces have been in Syria since 2015 fighting the Islamic State. 

French Toast: Britain’s King Charles postponed his planned trip to France amidst the country’s turmoil over the retirement age. 

  In the 9^th day of demonstrations, as many as a million French workers yesterday choked off the streets of Paris, targeted the transportation network, and shut down schools in protest of  President Emmanuel Macron’s unilateral decision to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.

  Protesters set fires in the streets and fought with riot police. Refuse collectors have stopped working, leaving the streets of Paris heaped in garbage.

Trump World: Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has accused Donald Trump of inciting congressional interference in the DA’s investigation of the former President’s hush money payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels.

  The DA’s office says Trump falsely claimed that he was going to be arrested this past Tuesday, motivating Republican house committee chairmen to accuse Bragg of abusing prosecutorial authority and demand communications, documents, and testimony from him.

  Bragg’s office responded that the committee chairmen were seeking confidential information about a pending criminal investigation. A letter from the DA’s general counsel, Leslie Dubeck, said, “Congress cannot have any legitimate legislative task relating to the oversight of local prosecutors enforcing state law.”

  Trump has still not been indicted and the grand jury investigating him will not meet again until Monday.

It’s Political: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is positioning himself to run for president, but a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll says a majority of Americans oppose seven out of DeSantis’s eight signature policies.

  A big 66% oppose his proposal to be able to carry a gun without a license. Some others:

-Banning public college diversity programs; 48% oppose, 32% favor.

-Banning abortions after six weeks; 50% oppose, 34% favor. 

-Eliminating teaching of  Critical Race Theory in public colleges; 43% oppose, 35% approve

  The one big exception is that 52% of respondents agree with DeSantis, opposing transgender female athletes competing in female sports. 

The Long Count: Arizona’s supreme court declined to hear the challenge by failed Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake to her November election loss,  keeping the case alive only by sending one of Lake’s claims back to a county judge for review. That one issue involves signature checking on ballots.

  Lower courts had rejected all her claims that she was the victim of fraud and is the rightful governor of Arizona. The state supreme court said Lake’s challenges were “insufficient to warrant the requested relief under Arizona or federal law.”

  After this latest decision, Lake seemed to think her glass is nearly full rather than nearly empty. She tweeted, “HUGE: AZ Supreme Court Rules In Favor of Kari Lake, Forces Lower Court to Look at Signature Verification Issues.”

The Spin Rack: — The World Athletics Council has decided that no transgender athletes who went through male puberty will be allowed to compete in the female category at international events. World Athletics answers to member federations, athletes, coaches, and the International Olympic Committee. — Arizona resident Ray Epps has demanded for Fox News host Tucker Carlson to retract his “false and defamatory statements” that Epps had worked as a government provocateur in the January 6^th insurrection. Epps says he was there as a Trump supporter, but never entered the Capitol. — The legislature in Uganda passed a law imposing a 20-year prison sentence for anyone in that country who identifies as gay, lesbian, or bisexual … anything but hetero. The new law also says that “aggravated homosexuality” is punishable by death. — Many owners of multi-million dollar homes in Los Angeles are reported to be in a rush to sell before the city’s new 4 percent “mansion tax” kicks in on April 1. The tax will be paid by the sellers. 

March Madness: Kansas State beat Michigan State 98-93 in overtime with Markquis Nowell scoring 20 rebounds and 19 assists, an NCAA tournament record. 

Below the Fold: Romy Croquet Mars, the 16-year-old daughter of writer and director Sofia Coppola and her husband, Phoenix lead singer Thomas Mars, revealed on TikTok that she’s grounded, “because I tried to charter a helicopter from New York to Maryland on my dad’s credit card because I wanted to have dinner with my camp friend.”