TikTok began its court battle to remain a major source of exercise for American thumbs. The Chinese-owned platform had its first day in a DC federal appeals court yesterday, kicking off its attempt to overturn the law Congress passed in April that would ban the app nationally unless it’s sold to a US company within a year.

The outcome of TikTok’s tussle with the Justice Department will decide its fate in its biggest market while setting an important precedent for foreign social media companies in the US.

Tiktok’s First Amendment card

TikTok, which claims that a sale before the January deadline is impossible, tried to convince the panel of mostly skeptical judges that a ban is unconstitutional and would violate the First Amendment rights of its 170 million American users.

The company’s lawyers said Congress didn’t provide enough evidence to ban the app on national security grounds, noting that much of the alleged proof is classified (though the judges got to see an unredacted version of the government’s evidence).

Meanwhile, TikTok content creators—who are co-plaintiffs on the case—argued that a ban would be illegal since they have a constitutional right to work with any publisher they want.

DOJ’s China defense

The government says it isn’t targeting speech on the platform but is focused on concerns about its foreign ownership. Officials are worried that TikTok could be used for data collection or information warfare by China.

A DOJ lawyer argued that some of the code that powers TikTok’s algorithm is written in China and that the Chinese government has leverage over the platform’s owner.

Looking ahead: While legal experts are split as to the likely outcome of the case, the court of public opinion is shifting in TikTok’s favor. The share of Americans supporting a ban shrank to 32% this summer from 50% in March 2023, per Pew Research Center. A decision is expected as soon as November.—SK

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Suspect in second attempted Trump assassination faces federal gun charges. The suspect arrested for allegedly trying to shoot former President Donald Trump on his Florida golf course, 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh, appeared in court yesterday and was charged with possession of a firearm while a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. As the Secret Service faces questions about its ability to keep the former president safe, court documents revealed that the suspect was near the golf course for almost 12 hours before being observed.

With workers on strike, Boeing seeks to hoard its cash. While dealing with a strike by 30,000 unionized factory workers that has shut down production of its 737 planes and could cost the company $500 million a week, Boeing has instituted a hiring freeze and other money-saving measures. The beleaguered aviation company said the strike could jeopardize its recovery following a safety scandal, and that it was also considering furloughing employees. Both Boeing and the union representing the workers have said they want to get back to the bargaining table quickly, though workers rejected their last contract deal.

Amazon orders employees back to the office M–F. Amazon is over letting its corporate staff have hybrid roles that permit them to come to the office just three days per week, and, as of Jan. 2, will expect everyone to make the commute in all five working days. The company wants to make its offices feel like 2019 again, with CEO Andy Jassy explaining in a memo, “Before the pandemic, it was not a given that folks could work remotely two days a week, and that will also be true moving forward.” The memo says the company is also looking to have fewer managers in its structure, maintaining that both changes will strengthen its culture and effectiveness.

Right now in Reno, there are regular people trying their luck at the craps table and billionaires trying their luck in the courtroom. A legal battle over the fate of Rupert Murdoch’s empire began yesterday as the media mogul seeks to change the rules of his family trust to put his oldest son in the driver’s seat.

The trust that holds the family’s assets (and, essentially, control of News Corp and Fox News) is currently set up to give Rupert’s eldest four children equal stakes upon his death. He wants to change it to make his son Lachlan the sole beneficiary.

Why? Lachlan reportedly has the same right-wing views as his father, while the others have differing ideologies (Rupert’s younger son, James, recently endorsed Kamala Harris).

• Murdoch’s argument hinges on the claim that giving control to his other children would change the ideological lean of his media companies, which would hurt their value.
• On average, Fox gets 2 million viewers per night, 267% more than CNN and 77% more than MSNBC.

That’s all we know. Despite the best efforts of several media organizations to get access to the case files and the trial, the court maintains that the proceedings are a private family matter.—CC

These founders are raising the roof. No, they’re not at the club. They’re working to turn roof shingles into revenue. 15m+ tons of shingles are trashed every year. For this dynamic duo, that’s a $4.4b revenue opportunity. They’ve seen 211% revenue growth—but they believe the best is yet to come. Now, with a planned Nasdaq listing (SKYQ), you can invest while the company is still private. Opportunity ends 9/18.

If you live in California, one of your next burrito bowl orders might be automated. Robots have joined the kitchen at two Chipotle locations in the state, the fast-casual chain announced yesterday.

Hello, Autocado. One Chipotle in Huntington Beach is testing a contraption that halves, skins, and cores avocados in 26 seconds each, on average, and then deposits the innards into a bowl to get guac-ified by a human worker. You may already be visualizing yourself hitting knives-down faster than the bot, but:

• The Autocado will free workers up for other tasks since it’ll cut down on the 50 minutes Chipotle says it usually takes to hand-make a fresh batch of guacamole.
• That should prevent some hand cramps—Chipotle expects to use nearly 130 million pounds of avocados this year.

Keep it going for Augmented Makeline. In addition to Autocado, Chipotle is piloting another, lamer-named robot in Orange County that assembles burrito bowls and salads, which account for 65% of online orders.

With these bots—developed through Chipotle’s $100 million Cultivate Next venture fund—the burrito chain is aiming to serve more customers without hiring more workers.

And so is everyone else. McDonald’s recently introduced self-serve kiosks for cash-paying customers at select stores, Sweetgreen is determined to partially automate salad-making at all its locations, and at some drive-thrus like White Castle and Jack in the Box, robots are working the fryer.—ML

At two months old, Thailand’s Moo Deng is already a viral star—and she won’t ever know it. That’s because the rosy-cheeked baby who’s captured the internet’s attention is a pygmy hippo residing at a zoo. Videos of the bouncy quadruped are doing numbers any influencer would covet. One TikTok clip of her munching on a snack has 33+ million views and ~3 million likes, and another on X has 16+ million views. Brands are also trying to get in on the action. Sephora Thailand recommended blushes to help humans capture that baby hippo glow. But fame has its downsides—the zoo has sternly warned visitors to stop throwing things at her. Still, her popularity is bringing attention to a worthy cause: Pygmy hippos are endangered, with only 2,000 left in the wild.