1/10/2025: Space Race 2025
PLUS: TikTok Showdown; Wallen Tops Billboard Chart; and Meg’s Synergy
Today is Friday, January 10, 2025.
It is the 10th day of the year.
355 days remain.

WHAT’S ON TAP
Oregon’s law enforcement cleans up a drug legalization mess and a distraught woman confronts GAVIN NEWSOM. Details in HIT LIST.
More celebs evacuate and TOM HOLLAND releases his non-alcoholic line of beer. More in SHOWBIZ.
A talent battle unfolds behind the scenes at ABC and TOM BRADY’s time with Fox Sports may be over. Details in CASTING CALL.
MEGHAN MARKLE finds synergy. Details in ROYALS.
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TODAY: The Supreme Court will hear arguments whether the law forcing a shutdown or sale of TIKTOK is Constitutional.
FOLLOW UP: After “Shark Tank” star KEVIN O’LEARY said earlier this week he’s part of an investment group to buy the package, one of his co-investors, FRANK MCCOURT, announced the group has assembled all the resources to make a formal bid.
While an exact dollar value has not been publicized, McCourt’s group has brought together financing from private equity funds, private family offices, and big spenders with big checkbooks, plus debt financing from an undisclosed bank described as one of the largest in the country.
“By keeping the platform alive without relying on the current TikTok algorithm and avoiding a ban, millions of Americans can continue to enjoy the platform. We look forward to working with ByteDance, President-elect Trump, and the incoming administration to get this deal done,” the group said in a statement. [via NBC News]
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SPACE RACE: JEFF BEZOS’s space company, BLUE ORIGIN, will launch its own semi-reusable rocket overnight tonight from Cape Canaveral if all goes to plan. The launch was already delayed from earlier today due to weather concerns, but a new launch window opens around midnight.
Like SPACEX’s Falcon Heavy rocket, New Glenn’s booster section is designed to be reusable and will land on a floating recovery pad, though it has about half the payload capacity for geostationary orbit as its SpaceX counterpart.
If successful, the rocket will deploy the Blue Ring Pathfinder, an innovative prototype for what Blue Origin describes as a “space truck,” able to carry and transfer payloads between other satellites in orbit, as well as manage and transfer data. [via Gizmodo]
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Netflix subscribers think the newly added NICOLAS CAGE flick is his “best performance.”
First released in 2021, “Pig” features Cage as a lone truffle-hunter living in the wilderness who is forced to confront his past after his beloved foraging pig is stolen.
Rotten Tomatoes gave the movie a 97% rating. [via The Mirror]
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MORGAN WALLEN’s “Dangerous: The Double Album” topped Billboard’s Top 200 Albums of the 21st Century chart.
Debuting at No. 1 in January 2021, the album remained on top through the end of March that year, becoming the first to spend its first 10 weeks in the top spot since WHITNEY HOUSTON’s 1987 album, “Whitney.”
Wallen’s latest album “One Thing at a Time” is No. 6 on the list. [via Billboard]
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TOM BRADY’s time as an analyst for Fox Sports is (maybe?) coming to an end.
The former QB is said to be running the Las Vegas Raiders full-time next season, compromising his ability to analyze NFL games, according to several sports insiders.
Brady is in the first season of a 10-year deal worth $375 million as Fox Sports’ lead analyst. [via Daily Mail]
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UP NEXT: The TSA’s weirdest confiscated items of 2024, the latest on the California wildfires, and KHLOE KARDASHIAN’s first podcast is in the books.
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