In a break with tradition, President Donald Trump and the first lady have decided not to participate in events honoring recipients of this year's Kennedy Center arts awards to "allow the honorees to celebrate without any political distraction," the White House announced Saturday.
Past presidents and first ladies have hosted a reception for honorees at the White House before the Kennedy Center gala and sat with them at the televised event.
The decision came a day after the entire membership of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities resigned to protest Trump's comments about last weekend's demonstrations by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia. The president blamed "many sides" for the violence that left an anti-racism activist dead.
But Trump has long had a contentious relationship with the arts world and some of the Kennedy Center honorees already had said they would not attend the White House reception in December.
One of the honorees, television writer and producer Norman Lear, had previously questioned whether Trump would want to attend the gala, "given his indifference or worse regarding the arts and humanities."
Other honorees include hip-hop artist LL Cool J, singers Gloria Estefan and Lionel Richie, and dancer Carmen de Lavallade. It's the 40th year of the awards, which honor people who have influenced American culture through the arts.
The White House said Trump and first lady Melania Trump "extend their sincerest congratulations and well wishes to all of this year's award recipients for their many accomplishments."
The honorees will be celebrated at a gala on Dec. 3, featuring performances and tributes from top entertainers.
South Korea fines Meta $15 million for illegally collecting information on Facebook users
South Korea's privacy watchdog on Tuesday fined social media company Meta 21.6 billion won ($15 million) for illegally collecting sensitive personal information from Facebook users, including data about their political views and sexual orientation, and sharing it with thousands of advertisers.
It was the latest in a series of penalties against Meta by South Korean authorities in recent years as they increase their scrutiny of how the company, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, handles private information.
Following a four-year investigation, South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission concluded that Meta unlawfully collected sensitive information about around 980,000 Facebook users, including their religion, political views and whether they were in same-sex unions, from July 2018 to March 2022.
It said the company shared the data with around 4,000 advertisers.
South Korea's privacy law provides strict protection for information related to personal beliefs, political views and sexual behavior, and bars companies from processing or using such data without the specific consent of the person involved.
The commission said Meta amassed sensitive information by analyzing the pages the Facebook users liked or the advertisements they clicked on.
The company categorized ads to identify users interested in themes such as specific religions, same-sex and transgender issues, and issues related to North Korean escapees, said Lee Eun Jung, a director at the commission who led the investigation on Meta.
"While Meta collected this sensitive information and used it for individualized services, they made only vague mentions of this use in their data policy and did not obtain specific consent," Lee said.
Lee... Read More