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TikTok's future in the U.S. appeared uncertain on Friday after a federal appeals court rejected a legal challenge to a law that requires the social media platform to cut ties with its China-based parent company or be banned by mid-January. A panel of three judges on The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled unanimously that the law withstood constitutional scrutiny, rebuffing arguments from the two companies that the statute violated their rights and the rights of TikTok users in the U.S. The government has said it wants ByteDance to divest its stakes in TikTok. But if it doesn't and the platform goes away, it would have a seismic impact on the lives of content creators who rely on the platform for income as well as users who use it for entertainment and connection. Here are some details on the ruling and what could happen next: What does the ruling say? In their lawsuit, TikTok and ByteDance, which is also a plaintiff in the case, had challenged the law on various fronts, arguing in part that the statute ran afoul of the First Amendment and was an unconstitutional bill of attainder that unfairly targeted the two companies. But the court sided with attorneys for the Justice Department who said that the government was attempting to address national security concerns and the way in which it chose to do so did not violate the constitution. The Justice Department has argued in court that TikTok poses a national security risk due to its connections to China. Officials say that Chinese authorities can compel ByteDance to hand over information on TikTok's U.S. patrons or use the platform to spread, or suppress, information. However, the U.S. hasn't publicly provided examples of that happening. The appeals court ruling, written by Judge Douglas Ginsburg, said the law was “carefully crafted to deal only with control by a foreign adversary." The judges also rejected the claim that the statute was an unlawful bill of attainder or a taking of property in violation of the Fifth Amendment. Furthermore, Ginsburg wrote the law did not violate the First Amendment because the government is not looking to “suppress content or require a certain mix of content” on TikTok. What happens next? TikTok and ByteDance are expected to appeal the case to the Supreme Court, but it's unclear whether the court will take up the case. TikTok indicated in a statement on Friday the two companies are preparing to take their case to high court, saying the Supreme Court has “an established historical record of protecting Americans’ right to free speech." "We expect they will do just that on this important constitutional issue,” a company spokesperson said. Alan Morrison, a professor at The George Washington University Law School, said he expects the Supreme Court to take up the case because of the novelty of the issues raised in the lawsuit. If that happens, attorneys for the two companies still have to convince the court to grant them an emergency stay that will prevent the government from enforcing the Jan. 19 divestiture deadline stipulated in the law, Morrison said. Such a move could drag out the process until the Justices make a ruling. Tiffany Cianci, a TikTok content creator who has supported the platform, said she was not shocked about the outcome of the court's ruling on Friday because lower courts typically defer to the executive branch on these types of cases. She believes the company will have a stronger case at the Supreme Court. “I believe that the next stages are more likely to produce a victory for TikTokers and for TikTok as a whole,” Cianci said. What about Trump? Another wild card is President-elect Donald Trump, who tried to ban TikTok during his first term but said during the recent presidential campaign that he is now against such action . The Trump transition team has not offered details on how Trump plans to carry out his pledge to “save TikTok." But spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement last month that he plans to “deliver” on his campaign promises. After Trump takes office on Jan. 20th, it would fall on his Justice Department to enforce the law and punish any potential violators. Penalties would apply to any app stores that would violate a prohibition on TikTok and to internet hosting services which would be barred from supporting it. Some have speculated that Trump could ask his Justice Department to abstain from enforcing the law. But tech companies like Apple and Google, which offer TikTok's app on their app stores, would then have to trust that the administration would not come after them for any violations. Craig Singleton, senior director of the China program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said enforcement discretion — or executive orders — can not override existing law, leaving Trump with “limited room for unilateral action." There are other things Trump could potentially do. It's possible he could invoke provisions of the law that allow the president to determine whether a sale or a similar transaction frees TikTok from “foreign adversary” control. Another option is to urge Congress to repeal the law. But that too would require support from congressional Republicans who have overwhelmingly supported the prospect of getting TikTok out of the hands of a Chinese company. In a statement issued Friday, Republican Rep. John Moolenaar of Michigan, chairman of the House Select Committee on China, said he was “optimistic that President Trump will facilitate an American takeover of TikTok” and allow its continued use in the United States. Is anyone trying to buy TikTok? ByteDance has said it won't sell TikTok . And even if it wanted to, a sale of the proprietary algorithm that powers TikTok is likely to get blocked under Chinese export controls that the country issued in 2020. That means if TikTok is sold without the algorithm, its likely that the buyer would only purchase a shell of the platform that doesn't contain the technology that made the app a cultural powerhouse. Still, some investors, including Trump’s former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and billionaire Frank McCourt, have expressed interest in buying it. This week, a spokesperson for McCourt’s Project Liberty initiative, which aims to protect online privacy, said participants in their bid have made informal commitments of more than $20 billion in capital. The spokesperson did not disclose the identity of the participants. 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Sizing up the East in terms of contenders (Celtics, Cavs, Knicks), dark horses (Hawks, Bucks, Magic), pretenders (Pacers, 76ers, Heat) and tankers (Nets, Hornets, etc.) ORLANDO — It’s the first week post-Christmas, a symbolic time in the NBA calendar in that it’s typically time to start paying attention. Adam Silver’s play-in tournament dampened that a little — if 20 of 30 teams make the postseason and five others are set on tanking, what’s the point? — but Christmas nonetheless remains a solid marker for identifying the contenders, pretenders and others. With that in mind, here’s a stock report of the Eastern Conference. We’re a little bit more than one-third into the season, and the Knicks, for the first time in over a decade, represent a bonafide threat for the NBA Finals (stats and records are through Dec. 26). Contenders Celtics (22-8) The defending champs occupy the top spot until somebody knocks them off. They came out this season with a stated purpose of not succumbing to a post-title malaise or hangover, and they followed up with a 16-3 start. Lately, however, they’ve been sloppy and missing their 3-pointers. If there’s one weakness to the NBA’s best rotation, it’s that the Celtics are too reliant on treys. Cavaliers (26-5) Kenny Atkinson has worked miracles with this roster, and it’s probably time to stop waiting for the Cavs to crash back to earth. With the NBA’s top-ranked offense, they entered Friday’s high-profile showdown against the Nuggets with a five-game winning streak. They’re also incredibly deep, with 10 players averaging at least 18 minutes. Knicks (20-10) Winners of 15 of the last 19 with a starting lineup that may not be quite as talented as Boston’s but in the conversation. New York’s offense is incredibly efficient and Tom Thibodeau is beginning to make his mark on “D” behind the WingStop tandem of OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges . Dark Horses Magic (19-13) They’ve been more than respectable despite injuries to top players Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, riding the top-rated defense in the East while forcing over 17 turnovers per contest. It makes you think of the possibilities with a fully healthy roster. Hawks (16-15) Much more dangerous than their record and Trae Young finally seems to have figured out the right balance between shooting and distributing. Will be a tough out for any team in a playoff series. Jalen Johnson and Dyson Daniels are legit. Sixers (11-17) Basing this on sheer talent and the off chance the Sixers will have healthy bodies for an entire playoff run. If you look at the upside of the top-two players, Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey rank up there with any East duo after Boston’s. In fact, they just beat Boston on Christmas. But Embiid is also the most unreliable MVP of this era. Bucks (16-13) The roster and coach are deeply flawed but the Bucks still have the best player in the East, Giannis Antetokounmpo, who is 30 years old and doesn’t want to waste another season. After a terrible start, Milwaukee won 11 of 13 at one point but also just fell to the tanking Nets, though, to be fair, both Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard missed the game. Pretenders Heat (15-13) The NBA’s best coach can only take a roster so far. And this is the end of the road for the Heat, which is dealing with the headache of whimsical Jimmy Butler while trying to prop up Tyler Herro as a star. Barring a seismic trade, the famous “Heat Culture” isn’t getting past the first round. Pacers (15-16) A run to the conference finals last season was followed up with a steep regression from Tyrese Haliburton, whose numbers are down across the board. The Pacers now carry the feel and look of an average team with a terrible defense. Pistons (14-17) Feel bad putting the Pistons in this category but they don’t fit anywhere else. They’re playing better than expected but not quite ready to compete for anything other than a playoff spot. Detroit is exceedingly young and Cade Cunningham is a star. Bulls (13-18) Don’t understand how top executive Arturas Karnisovas still has a job because the Bulls remain the most mismanaged organization in the NBA. This will probably be the trade deadline — finally — he pivots to a rebuild because Chicago is on a road to nowhere with the East’s second-worst defense. Tankers Hornets (7-23) LaMelo Ball has missed a bunch of games – what else is new? – and Charlotte is on the way to a third straight season with at least 50 losses. The Hornets probably didn’t start the campaign thinking tank, but they’re already there. Nets (12-18) Cam Thomas is doing his best to ruin Sean Marks game of Capture the Flagg, but organizations tend to find ways to lose when that’s the goal. Unloading Dennis Schroder for peanuts revealed the commitment to the tank. Raptors (7-24) Scottie Barnes and RJ Barrett are not tentpole stars and the Raptors are finding that out daily. The next step is trying to procure compensation for Jakob Poeltl, Chris Boucher and Bruce Brown. Wizards (5-23) Predictably the worst team in the NBA with Kyle Kuzma and Jordan Poole as the top scorers. Washington’s problem ahead of the trade deadline is nobody wants players on bad contracts. And the Wizards are filled with those.

UTICA — The search for solutions continues for a Utica Com ets squad tr ying to string together positives during the 2024-25 season. Utica is mired in a team-record 13-game winless streak eight weeks into the regular season. It has put Utica in a difficult situation before the Comets have played a quarter of the 72-game American Hockey League season. How does the team get on the other side of the results? “I think we just got to keep sticking with it, keep believing,” said winger Max Willman, who recently surpassed the 200-game mark between the AHL and NHL. “I think our game is trending in the right direction and we’re in a lot of these games that we’re losing. But, I think it’s just sticking to the kind of process that we’ve been working on during the week and going from there.” With a quirk in the schedule, the Comets have played twice over a 12-day stretch. Utica interim head coach Ryan Parent said practice time has had a focus on special teams. The team’s power play unit (17%) is 19th in the 32-team league. The penalty kill, meanwhile, is last at 71.4%. “You’ve got a good idea of what the team does, but an area you can really get a lot tighter is special teams when you’ve got a week to look at them,” Parent said. “It’s an area that we need to improve.” Parent said the players have had “good energy” recently despite at tough time on the ice. Utica is already 13 points behind fifth-place Syracuse and the eventual playoff line for the North Division. The struggles have persisted for Utica following the extremely rare in-season coaching change earlier this month by officials from the parent New Jersey Devils. “It is hard when maybe on an individual basis, guys are disappointed with how they’ve played as a team,” Parent said. “What we’re trying to do is, you can’t look at the past. You can’t have a ‘woe is me’ feeling during a game if they score a goal. It’s how you respond to that goal that’s important. We can’t continue to talk about what’s happened. The only way we’re going to get out of it is to learn from it and move on.” He said the Comets’ focus is “a fresh start regardless of the situation we’re in.” “We can look forward on it and we can get positives from little plays during games. There’s little victories that we can celebrate so we’re not constantly looking at the negative results that we’re having,” Parent said. An unpleasant league winless mark looms in the background three years after the Comets made AHL history with 13 consecutive wins to start the season. The Baltimore Skipjacks started the 1987-88 campaign with a 21-game winless streak, an AHL record. This weekend features road games against North Division rivals Syracuse on Friday and Rochester on Saturday. The contests begin a stretch in which Utica has 10 of the next 13 games on the road. Utica has three home games remaining in 2024, including Wednesday vs. Providence. If the Comets aren’t able to find a level that team officials believe they can play, the situation could quickly get worse. Willman believes the Comets have a good group of players that gets along well. The team, which has had its share of roster change in recent days, has a m ix of experience including captain Ryan Schmelzer, alternate captains Joe Gambardella and Sam Laberge and defensemen Colton White and Andy Welinski. There’s also Max Willman (career-best 12 goals last season) and Brian Halonen (25 goals in his last 48 games) mixed in with top prospects in defensemen Šimon Nemec and Seamus Casey and forward Chase Stillman, who had a solid rookie season with Utica. There’s also goalies Nico Daws and Isaac Poulter, who have had up-and-down seasons so far. “It is sticking with it and not deviating from it, just because a couple of things have not been going our way,” Willman said. Parent said the team is healthy — he knocked on the wooden podium he was standing near when asked Thursday — which would mark the first time this season for the Comets. All 14 forwards and seven defensemen on the roster were present Thursday. One one of the biggest struggles is on offense as the team has been shut out four times in 13 games. That includes the last two games against Cleveland and Syracuse, pushing a goalless streak to more than 132 minutes. The team has scored just 21 goals, fewest in the AHL. Conversely, five teams have already accumulated more standings points. How does the team score more goals? “That’s a good question,” Willman said. “If we increase the (offensive) zone time and possession time, you’d like to think things would start going in for us whether they’re dirty goals or shots from the point or just lucky bounces that start going our way. We’ve definitely had a lot of chances in these games to score and they just haven’t been going in. I think we just kind of stick with it.”

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