TikTok sold to the U.S.
TikTok finalized a deal to charter an American version of the app. The social media app brokered a deal with several American investors, including Oracle, Silver Lake and Emirati investment firm MGX. The new version of the app will implement safeguards to protect national security through increased data protection, algorithm security and content moderation.
U.S. social media user data will be stored by Oracle who will also be overseeing the new U.S. TikTok algorithm. The algorithm will be retrained on current U.S. data.
The three main investors Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX each have 15% of the shares. Other investors including Dell also hold a stake in this deal. ByteDance holds 19.9% of the joint venture.
Historic Oscar Nominations
Oscar nominations are out, and history was made on Jan. 22. “Sinners”, a horror film, led all nominees with a record-breaking 16 nominations — the most in Oscar history. It landed nominations for Best Picture, Original Song, Best Directing and more. “Sinners” star Michael B. Jordan, who plays twins Smoke and Stack, was also nominated for Best Actor, which is his first nomination in the category.
Following “Sinners” was “One Battle After Another” with 13 nominations, which include Best Picture and a Best Actor nomination for Leonardo DiCaprio. Nominated for the first time were Delroy Lindo and Wunmi Mosaku for their role in “Sinners” and Teyana Taylor for her role in “One Battle After Another”.
Other nominations included Timothée Chalamet for “Marty’s Supreme”, Jacob Elordi for “Frankenstein” and Elle Fanning for “Sentimental Value”.
The Oscars are set to air on Sunday March 15 on ABC and will be able to stream on Hulu.
WNBA 30th season coming soon
The WNBA released its schedule for the 2026 regular season on Jan. 21. All 15 teams respectively did a video to tease the upcoming season which would mark 30 years since the league’s inception. The start date for the upcoming season is on May 8, when all 15 teams will participate in the opening weekend. It will be the franchise debut of the Toronto Tempo, and the return of the Portland Fire follows on May 9.
There will be a total of 44 games this season, along with each team having 22 away and home games. There will also be a rematch of the first-ever WNBA game between the New York Liberty and the Los Angeles Sparks on June 21, the 29th anniversary of the original game.
The sixth edition of The Commissioners Cup will be held from June 1 to June 17, and the championship will be played on June 30. All-Star weekend is being held in Chicago from July 24-25, with the All-Star Game being played on July 25.
The league will be paused from Sept. 4-13 due to player commitments to the FIBA World Cup tournament. The season will conclude on Sept. 17, and the playoffs will start on Sept. 24.
Despite this, the WNBA still does not have a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA). A CBA is an agreement between the WNBA and the players that directs how the league will function. Included in the document is the breakdown of salaries, free agency and benefits for the players. Both the players and WNBA have agreed to a moratorium, which keeps the expired CBA in place since both parties remain far apart on key issues that would pass a new one.
The WNBA is set to kick off a historic season in the next few months.
