TikTok Ban, More Playful Apps Going Away Soon Too

The TikTok ban is no expanding to more than just TikTok, but all apps created by the company ByteDance. House of Representatives Chief Administrative Officer Catherine Szpindor announced in an internal notice yesterday that the House will block and remove all ByteDance apps from House-managed devices on August 15^th.

So this does not mean that they will be removed for YOUR device (yet) but if a device is managed by the House of Representatives, all apps will be deleted. The TikTok ban is in!

Starting in December of 2022, there was a TikTok ban from all House-managed devices, and now all ByteDance products will follow suit. That includes CapCut, Hypic, Lark and Lemon8. CapCut is used for creative video editing, Hypic is a photo editing app, Lark is a team collaboration app and Lemon8 is a content discovery app. Read more at NBCNews.

New Law Requires Parents To Pay Child Influencers

If this proves anything, it's that those apps will be banned from American smart devices before we know it. A bill signed into law by President Joe Biden gives ByteDance until just after election day in November to sell the app or be banned in the US, which is convenient for the candidates on the ballot.

Both Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have accounts on TikTok to help their campaign. Here's a video from Harris' account.

And here's one from Trump's account.

Summer Olympics 2024 is officially in full swing in Paris following an Opening Ceremony for the ages.

Seriously, this Opening Ceremony had something for everyone, and get ready for us to do our best Stefon:

-Can-Can dancers.
-Lady Gaga.
-A surprising sub-plot in the overall ceremony's narrative that involved a ménage à trois.
-References to the beheading of Marie Antionette, which led into a performance from French metal band Gojira.

-A buttload of rain.
-Priceless artwork from the Louvre coming to life.
-A silver horse galloping across the Seine in majestic glory.

-A catwalk from out of nowhere highlighting France's club scene and the country's influence on fashion.
-A brief performance from Les Misérables.

And then, as if things couldn't get any more over-the-top, Celine Dion delivers a stunning performance of Edith Piaf's "Hymne A L'Amour" from inside of the Eifle Tower. The legendary singer has been battling stiff-person syndrome, which is a condition that impacts the central nervous system. This condition has affected Dion's ability to sing. She revealed her diagnosis in December 2022, stopped performing and made very few public appearances while she sought treatment to return to performing.

Even once the Olympic cauldron is extinguished, people will still be talking about this triumphant moment.

Now that we've gone through all of our tissues from happy-crying about Celine, it's time to get down to business and talk about the athletes.

This 2024 Opening Ceremony was very unique for the above reasons, but also because it saw the Parade of Nations actually make their way down the Seine in boats of all sizes. Some small countries had a small boat to themselves. Oftentimes, there were multiple countries sharing a boat, while countries with large delegations had massive boats just for their athletes.

Regardless of boat size, pretty much every athlete got drenched by the pouring rain throughout the entire Opening Ceremony. However, the rain didn't seem to dampen the moods of the athletes. In fact, Kelly Clarkson commented, "Everyone is killing that wet look. Just sayin’!"

Now, because of the rain, this led to many of the athletes to wear clear plastic rain ponchos over their Opening Ceremony outfits, which had to be a bit of a bummer. (It certainly got in the way of checking out all of the various team outfits.) However, this also made us take a closer look at the fashion choices of each nation, and it's led to our very serious (wink-wink) assessment of the best and worst fashion choices from the Summer Olympics 2024 Opening Ceremony. Enjoy!