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US Senate Declines To Fast-Track TikTok Bill

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A bill that would force the sale of TikTok from its Chinese owners or see it banned in the United States will move cautiously in the US Senate, key lawmakers said, after it sailed through the House.

The bill’s whirlwind House passage on Wednesday, and its backing from US President Joe Biden, had raised alarm bells that the app, used by 170 million in the United States, could be shut down within months.

But hopes from TikTok’s foes that the Senate could also move quickly were dashed, with key senators saying they would put the proposed law through the usual legislative process, which can take months.

“These fields are evolving and changing so rapidly that you can do a lot of damage by moving too quickly or without the facts,” Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, told the Washington Post on Friday.

Passing major legislation is especially difficult in an election year, and backers of the bill have bitterly predicted that the House’s proposed law would die in the Senate.

“What we’re likely to see happen in the Senate is people will nickel-and-dime it, a death by a thousand cuts,” Republican Senator Josh Hawley told Axios.

“Nothing that Big Tech doesn’t want moves across the Senate floor,” he said.

Senate leaders who would be in charge of shepherding the proposed law through a complicated amendment process and bringing it to a vote have been noncommittal on the bill.

After the House vote, Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat who chairs the Commerce Committee, said that she would “try to find a path forward that is constitutional and protects civil liberties.”

Republicans also expressed caution, and on Thursday former president Donald Trump reiterated his opposition to any ban of TikTok, asking his supporters to focus their anger on Facebook-owner Meta instead.

Trump’s position, which was surprisingly ignored by Republicans in Wednesday’s vote, is a reversal from his efforts as president to force TikTok away from ByteDance, its Chinese owner, efforts which were ultimately blocked by the courts.

Some Western governments have voiced concern about TikTok’s soaring popularity, alleging that the app’s ownership makes it subservient to Beijing — and could be used as a conduit to spread propaganda — claims TikTok and Beijing deny.

The White House has said Biden will sign the bill if it reaches his desk.

AFP

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Home Alone actress, Catherine O’Hara, dies at 71

Her break into movies came in 1980 with “Double Negative” — also alongside Levy, and John Candy.In 1988, she played Winona Ryder’s stepmother in Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice.” She would later marry the film’s production designer Bo Welch.

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Emmy-winning actress Catherine O’Hara, who starred in “Schitt’s Creek” and “Home Alone,” has died at the age of 71, her management agency said Friday.

AFP reported that the Canadian-born performer also starred in “Beetlejuice” and recently Apple TV’s Hollywood satire show “The Studio.”.

Page Six, citing a fire department spokesman, reported that O’Hara was rushed to hospital before dawn from her home in the swanky Brentwood area of Los Angeles.

AFP was not immediately able to confirm that.O’Hara was born in Toronto in 1954, where she joined the legendary comedy theater Second City, alongside Eugene Levy, with whom she would collaborate throughout her career, including on the smash TV series “Schitt’s Creek.”

Her break into movies came in 1980 with “Double Negative” — also alongside Levy, and John Candy.In 1988, she played Winona Ryder’s stepmother in Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice.” She would later marry the film’s production designer Bo Welch.

The couple had two sons, Matthew and Luke.But it was in 1990 that she became widely known to a global audience, as the mother of Macaulay Culkin’s Kevin in “Home Alone.”

It’s a perfect movie, isn’t it?” she told People in 2024.You want to be part of something good, and that’s how you go,” she said.She would reprise the role in the film’s sequel — “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York,” which featured a cameo from Donald Trump, decades before he would become US president.

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Why TV Makers Switched To OLED Panels

One of the biggest reasons manufacturers moved to OLED production was the panel’s ability to use individually self-emissive pixels instead of an LCD panel with LED backlighting. 

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Story and image credit: BGR.com

If you’re looking for a TV that delivers rich colors and the kind of black levels that put actual movie theaters to shame, you should consider an OLED TV. 

The acronym stands for “organic light-emitting diode,” a panel type that signaled a major shift in display technology for TV makers.

One of the biggest reasons manufacturers moved to OLED production was the panel’s ability to use individually self-emissive pixels instead of an LCD panel with LED backlighting. 

The result was something LCD panels struggled with at the time: unbeatable black levels, near-perfect contrast, and a thinner chassis.

While early OLED TVs carried eye-watering price tags (one of LG’s first sets was nearly $10,000), growing competition and expanded panel production helped bring costs down, solidifying OLED’s role as a go-to choice for premium televisions.

Nowadays, brands like LG and Samsung — two of the most reliable smart TV brands on the market — produce industry-lauded OLED TVs at multiple price.

Generally speaking, OLED TVs are more expensive to produce than LED LCDs, and that usually translates to the former being priced a bit higher in stores and online.

And while LED LCD technology has continued to get brighter, thinner, and more affordable with each new generation, issues like light bloom, flat contrast, and poor image quality when viewed from the sides have remained. 

These are all picture maladies that pretty much don’t exist for OLED owners because of how much lighting and color control those self-emissive pixels deliver. 

The Samsung S95F OLED is one of the best TVs to buy on Amazon, according to experts, and part of what makes its picture so great is quantum dot technology.

Interestingly, quantum dots were originally an LCD feature that emerged in response to OLED TV production.

LED sets needed a way to compete with the rich colors and superior viewing angles that OLEDs introduced, and a layer of quantum dots was the answer.

By refining how light is converted into pure red and green wavelengths, quantum dots allowed LCD TVs to deliver wider color gamuts and higher peak brightness levels, without abandoning LED backlighting.

This also led to a new picture tech acronym: quantum dot-light-emitting diode, or QLED.

Brands like Samsung later adapted this same technology for OLED panels, combining a blue OLED light source with a quantum dot layer to create QD-OLED.

The hybrid approach preserves OLED’s near-perfect contrast and black levels, while boosting color volume and brightness, helping models like the S95F deliver a more vibrant, HDR-friendly picture than earlier OLED generations.

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Is Wizkid Bigger Than Fela? What’s your take?

Seun Kuti had warned against comparing modern artists to his father, saying it was disrespectful and an attempt to “steal the man’s image

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Photo collage of Seun , Fela and WizKid?

Grammy winner Wizkid has finally broken silence after days of criticism from Seun Kuti, who accused Wizkid’s fans of disrespecting his father, legendary Fela Kuti.

The dispute ignited last week after Seun, publicly accused his colleague’s fanbase, known as Wizkid FC, of disrespecting his late father’s legacy by drawing comparisons between Fela and the Grammy winner.

In a response shared on Instagram, Wizkid posted a video of a woman defending him, saying he’s done more to promote Fela Kuti’s work to a new generation.

Wizkid added: “Fela fight for freedom this Dey fight fc!! I big pass your papa, wetin you wan do? @bigbirdkuti I’m Big Wiz everyday bigger than your papa!! Wetin u one do”

Seun Kuti had warned against comparing modern artists to his father, saying it was disrespectful and an attempt to “steal the man’s image”.

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