The documents TikTok wanted to keep secret. And, the concerns with SpaceX's rocket

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Today's top stories

Newly revealed internal documents from TikTok show company officials acknowledging how addictive the app can be for teenagers. Fourteen attorneys general have been investigating the app for two years regarding child safety. They subpoenaed the company and obtained internal communications. At TikTok’s request, the states redacted privileged and confidential parts of the suit, but in Kentucky, the redaction was not effective on some 30 pages meant to be kept secret. NPR and Kentucky Public Radio have been reviewing dozens of these pages.

• 🎧 The details uncovered so far have been startling, NPR’s Bobby Allyn tells Up First. In internal messages, company officials admitted that features like time-on-app reminders are not expected to reduce screen time, but are instead aimed at improving public trust. A document found the exact number of videos before someone forms a habit: 260, which could boil down to 35 minutes on the app. A company spokesperson condemned NPR for reporting on information under a court seal when reached for comment, though the documents were public and anyone would’ve been able to see the redactions.

Cleanup efforts are underway in Florida after Hurricane Milton battered the state with high winds, a storm surge, and torrential rains. Millions are still without power, and at least 16 deaths have been attributed to the storm. Although Milton was a serious storm, residents and officials say it was not as bad as some had feared.

• 🎧 NPR’s Greg Allen, who is in St. Petersburg, reports that as Hurricane Milton approached land, it weakened, resulting in a much milder storm surge than forecasted. He mentions that while many trees were down, buildings and other infrastructure held up against the winds. Additionally, a number of rivers across Florida are rising and are expected to flood, not only on the coast but also in central Florida.
• ➡️ There were 38 eyewitness reports of tornadoes in Florida. Here’s why Milton caused so many.

SpaceX is preparing for another test launch of the Starship, the largest rocket ever made. The company aims to lift off from its test site in Cameron County, Texas as soon as Sunday. However, regulators have repeatedly delayed this launch, citing environmental concerns about the damage it will cause to surrounding areas. SpaceX’s launchpad is in the middle of a major wildlife preserve that's home to hundreds of thousands of shore birds, sea turtles and other species.

• 🎧 During the rocket's initial test launch, it was so powerful that it destroyed its own launch pad. In an effort to prevent this from happening again, the company sprays nearly 200,000 gallons of water under the rocket during launch, according to reporting from NPR’s Geoff Brumfiel. But the runoff from this process is negatively impacting the surrounding wetlands. SpaceX failed to obtain an Industrial Wastewater Permit, violating the Clean Water Act, despite being instructed to do so multiple times. As a result, the company was fined approximately $150,000 by state and federal regulators, leading to a delay in the launch. Regulators seem willing to allow the next launch to proceed as long as SpaceX conducts testing and shares the results after the launch.

We, the voters

This essay was written by Leila Fadel, Morning Edition and Up First host

What happens if a portion of the United States doesn’t accept the results of this election? It was on my mind as voters told me why they were voting and what the vote meant to them during my time in Michigan. In Dearborn, I found an Arab and Muslim community fractured on how to express their political power in a time of intense grief and anger at this administration over its continued military support of Israel’s war in Gaza and now Lebanon.

There are the voters who want the economy to get better and are choosing the candidate they think can deliver. Many Black voters I spoke to believe Vice President Harris will protect their civil rights and Donald Trump will roll them back. There are those who want abortion to be limited even more and those who want reproductive rights restored. Every American will make their choice on whether to vote and who to vote for in just a few weeks.

So I go back to that question, what happens if millions of Americans claim fraud if their candidate doesn’t win? It’s something I explored in Hillsdale County, a couple hours outside Detroit. There, the Republican Party is split between a group filled with election deniers and Republicans who still believe in the nation’s institutions. Click here to listen and read about a local election worker trying to keep people’s faith in a process one presidential candidate is actively undermining.

Weekend picks

Check out what NPR is watching, reading and listening to this weekend:

🍿Movies: Ali Abbasi's new film The Apprentice depicts Donald Trump's years as a real estate businessman under the guidance of former lawyer Roy Cohn. Abbasi discusses the controversial film with Morning Edition.

📺 TV: Lifelong friends Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal reunite for a new Hulu series called La Maquina, about an aging boxer, his manager – and a big fight they are under threat to throw. It’s the platform's first original series in Spanish.

📚 Books: Margaret Atwood’s Paper Boat: New and Selected Poems: 1961-2023 is a collection of poetry that includes some new works and covers 60 years of her poetry.

🎵 Music: Grammy-winning jazz artist esperanza spalding and singer-songwriter Milton Nascimento perform songs from their new collaborative album, Milton + esperanza, in an exclusive mini-concert recorded live in Brazil for World Cafe.

❓Quiz: From who is playing Trump in a movie to two questions about Nobel Prizes, do you think you have what it takes to ace this week’s quiz?

3 things to know before you go

1. Rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs’ trial is scheduled to start May 5. He was arrested last month on federal charges, including sex trafficking and racketeering.
2. Fisher-Price announced a recall yesterday of more than 2 million Snuga Swings due to a suffocation hazard after five children were reported dead from sleeping in the device.
3. Tech columnist Taylor Lorenz left The Washington Post last week after a rift with top editors. Sources told NPR Lorenz lost trust after she called President Biden a “war criminal” in a social media post and initially misled editors about it. She is now starting her own digital magazine.

This newsletter was edited by Obed Manuel.