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Hayden Field / CNBC : Source: Perplexity AI made a TikTok US bid to ByteDance, proposing a merger that brings video to Perplexity, with ByteDance investors retaining their stakes   —  Perplexity AI officially made a play for TikTok on Saturday, submitting a bid to its parent company, ByteDance …

A Georgia state senator has had his ban from entering the state House chamber revoked following an ugly incident on Thursday which saw him flung to the floor, arrested and subsequently hospitalized. State Sen. Colton Moore, a hardline supporter of President-elect Trump who previously tried to have Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis impeached for indicting the former president, was involved in a heated exchange at the entrance to the House chamber where officials refused him entry to attend Gov. Brian Kemp's State of the State Address. Moore, of Trenton in Dade County, ended up being pushed to the floor by Keith Williams, a lawyer for House Speaker Jon Burns' office, who was trying to enforce a ban placed on Moore by the speaker. Moore was banned from entering the chamber after he blasted the state Senate's decision last year to consider  a resolution  to name a building at the University of North Georgia after the now-deceased former house speaker David Ralston...

Politico : Congressional leaders seem flummoxed by the growing popularity of Xiaohongshu and Lemon8, an unintended consequence of the TikTok ban   —  The Chinese apps RedNote and Lemon8 have exploded in popularity as TikTok faces an imminent ban and the Supreme Court upheld the law forcing its sale.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken 's final press conference quickly devolved into chaos Thursday after reporters had to be forcibly removed from the event, including one, an activist, who was physically carried out.  The men were upset that a cease-fire deal between Hamas and Israel had not been reached sooner, accusing Blinken of "genocide" and being a "criminal."  Writer and activist Sam Husseini had to be dragged out of the event by security. Another reporter, Grayzone News' Max Blumenthal, left more peacefully but still had to be escorted out after shouting questions at Blinken about why he had kept "the bombs flowing when we had a deal in May?" ISRAEL-HAMAS CEASE-FIRE, HOSTAGE RELEASE DEAL REACHED: 'Americans will be part of that' "You pontificate about a free press?" Husseini erupted. "I'm asking questions after being told by Matt Miller that he will not answer my questions, and so I ask them. Wasn't – wasn’...

The Hollywood Reporter : A look at efforts by Meta, YouTube, Snapchat, X, and Substack to attract TikTok's creators and users; Substack is offering a $25K “TikTok Liberation Prize”   —  Tech giants like Meta and YouTube want to poach TikTokers, with Snapchat, X, Substack and others also planning efforts to coax them to their platforms.

FIRST ON FOX – Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., is introducing a bill that aims to redirect funding from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to fund the hiring of more Border Patrol agents at the U.S.-Mexico border.  The bill, titled the "Diverting IRS Resources to the Exigent Crisis Today Act" or the "DIRECT Act," aims to "rescind certain balances made available to the Internal Revenue Service and redirect them to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection."  Specifically, the proposal seeks to have "unobligated balances" appropriated or otherwise made available to the IRS for "enforcement activities" under federal law instead go to the CBP "for the salaries and expenses of new agents and officers hired for the security of the southern border of the United States," according to the bill's language. Tenney is reintroducing the 2023 bill to the newly sworn-in 119th Congress.  HOUSE REPUBLICAN'S BILL WOULD RIP FEDERAL FUNDS ...

Bloomberg : Zhou Chaonan, the chairwoman of data center operator Range Intelligent, has become China's third richest woman after her company's stock rose 105% in 2024   —  - Range Intelligent's chairwoman Zhou joins world's 500 richest  — TikTok owner ByteDance is one of Range's major customers