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Massive Cuts at CNN Affects Roughly 200 Journalists

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Massive Cuts at CNN Affects Roughly 200 Journalists

CNN is laying off hundreds of employees in a cost-cutting effort highlighting the financial challenges that many media companies face as the economy approaches a possible recession.

The layoffs began on Wednesday and ended on Thursday, with employees affected notified in person or via Zoom.

“It is incredibly difficult to say goodbye to any one member of the CNN team,” CNN CEO Chris Licht wrote in a staff memo obtained by The Washington Post on Wednesday, describing the layoffs as a “gut punch.”

Chris Cillizza, who joined CNN in 2017 as a political reporter and editor-at-large, confirmed his dismissal from The Washington Post. Susan Glasser, a CNN global affairs analyst, said she was “one of many” part-time commentators laid off. Rachel Metz, a senior technology writer, expressed her “devastation” at being laid off on Thursday.

Other television networks are planning to cut costs this winter. According to a Business Insider report, NBCUniversal, NBC News and MSNBC’s parent company will lay off employees in January, though a news division spokesperson declined to comment Thursday. Disney, ABC News’ parent company, is also planning layoffs under the leadership of Bob Iger, who recently returned as CEO.

Gannett, the country’s largest newspaper chain, is planning a round of layoffs that will affect approximately 200 journalists at newspapers large and small over the next two days.

CNN Layoffs

CNN off approximately 400 employees in August and halted hiring for hundreds more positions.

“While extremely difficult, implementing these efficiencies and responding decisively to the ongoing macroeconomic volatility will continue to propel Gannett’s future,” said Lark-Marie Antón, a spokesperson for Gannett.

Rachel Axon, a USA Today sports investigative reporter who has reported on sexual abuse in competitive sports, was among those laid off. “I’m grateful to everyone who has trusted me with their stories,” she said on Twitter. “I’ve never forgotten the honor of showing their triumphs or holding those who harmed them accountable.”

One Gannett publication journalist told The Washington Post that he was laid off because of Zoom, leaving a newsroom of less than a dozen reporters behind. “They read from a script and thanked me for my service, which I find amusing,” the person said on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly.

According to CEO John Lansing, who addressed employees on Wednesday, NPR is also facing a financial shortfall that will necessitate $10 million in budget cuts over the next ten months. Sally Buzbee, the executive editor of the Washington Post, informed employees on Wednesday that the company’s weekly print magazine would be closed, citing The Post’s plans for “global and digital transformation.”

“A lot of media companies like CNN are looking at the economy right now and saying to themselves, ‘We’re about to go into recession, and we’re going to need fewer people,'” said Chris Roush, dean of Quinnipiac University’s School of Communications.

CNN Plus

CNN employees are no strangers to layoffs this year, as Licht moved quickly to shut down the network’s expensive new streaming service, CNN Plus, just three weeks after it launched in April.

A network spokesperson said that about 350 employees would be affected at the time, though some of the service’s star journalists, including Chris Wallace, Audie Cornish, and Kasie Hunt, have remained with the network.

CNN management also decided to part ways with media correspondent Brian Stelter and the staff of his weekly “Reliable Sources” show in August and White House correspondent John Harwood earlier this year.

According to an audio recording obtained by The Post, at a companywide meeting last month, Licht defended the need for layoffs while pledging to minimize the impact on newsgathering operations.

He explained that the cuts are part of a “strategic reimagining of how we do business” and an effort to better position the network for 2023. When asked if he expected more layoffs next year, he replied, “not at this time.”

CNN-HLN

Licht announced in a memo on Thursday afternoon that sister network HLN — formerly known as Headline News — will cease producing live programming, including the morning show hosted by Robin Meade, who has also been laid off. The network now primarily airs unscripted crime and mystery shows.

“These are difficult choices. “They’re nerve-racking for everyone involved,” said digital media executive Jon Klein, who oversaw CNN in the United States from 2005 to 2010. “The only advantage is that you’ll better understand where the value is in your organization.”

He claims that cutting costs “forces executives to look hard at their business and understand what the audience values.”

According to Quinnipiac University’s Roush, some media companies “grew way too fast” and over-invested in talent before developing a sizable audience and business model. Klein said that the “cord-cutting” trend had hard-hit television news.

The industry struggled to offset the loss of cable subscription revenue and advertising dollars with gains in digital subscriptions.

Although the impact on journalism is difficult to predict, Victor Pickard, professor of media policy at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication, believes the cuts come at the worst possible time for American democracy.

In an interview, Pickard stated, “This is about maximizing profits for shareholders.” “These are rash business decisions that do not consider the implications for a democratic society.” At this point in our country’s history, any layoffs in the media are a step back.”

Last month, at the company’s town hall meeting, Licht urged CNN journalists to keep reporting and developing sources but to do so cost-effectively in what he called a “tough economic environment” that could last into next year.

“Of course, you should do source dinners,” he explained. “Perhaps not with a bottle of Dom Pérignon.”

Source: Washington Post, VOR News

Business

United CEO Tries To Reassure Customers Following Multiple Safety Incidents

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united

United Airlines is attempting to reassure passengers following a spate of accidents on its Boeing jets this year. In a statement to customers, the airline states that safety is “at the center of everything that we do.”

“While they are all unrelated, I want you to know that these incidents have captured our attention and sharpened our focus,” CEO Scott Kirby wrote in a Monday morning statement to customers.

united

United CEO Tries To Reassure Customers Following Multiple Safety Incidents

On Friday, a United Boeing 737-800 landed in Medford, Oregon, missing an underside fuselage panel.

Earlier this month, United experienced four mishaps, all involving Boeing jets. A United Boeing 737-900ER blew flames from its engine after takeoff from Houston, a Boeing 777 lost a wheel during takeoff from San Francisco, a Boeing 737 Max slipped off a runway in Houston, and a United Boeing 777 trailed hydraulic fluid as it left Sydney.

“Our team is reviewing the details of each case to understand what happened and using those insights to inform our safety training and procedures across all employee groups,” Kirby continued.

The airline is extending pilot training by one day, retooling training for new mechanics, and “dedicating more resources to supplier network management.”

Passengers witnessing a run of negative articles about the airline and its Boeing jets may consider booking elsewhere. In its letter, the airline is attempting to keep consumers from departing. As of the end of last year, 81% of the jets used on United’s mainline operations were manufactured by Boeing, compared to little more than half of the jets in rivals Delta and American Airlines’ mainline fleets.

Aside from the problems on  flights, the most dramatic Boeing incident this year featured an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9, which lost a door stopper on a January 5 flight, resulting in a gaping hole in the plane’s side. And last week, a Latam Airlines flight from Sydney, Australia, to Auckland, New Zealand, fell unexpectedly, throwing some passengers to the cabin ceiling.

united

United CEO Tries To Reassure Customers Following Multiple Safety Incidents

Investigators are still investigating the causes of both events, but a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board showed Boeing left the bolts required to keep the door plug in place on the 10-week-old Alaska Air jet. Boeing asserted that an incident in the cockpit rather than a problem with the aircraft’s systems may have caused the Latam accident.

The age of the aircraft in the United incidents suggests that the problem could be with their staff rather than Boeing’s well-documented quality faults. For example, Boeing purchased the jet that lost its panel on a Friday trip in 1998. So, Boeing’s quality difficulties are likely unrelated to that occurrence.

However, Boeing’s issues have impeded United’s operations. Due to the FAA’s production slowdown, it has halted hiring a new class of pilots since it will receive fewer new planes from Boeing this year, as previously promised. In January, the Alaska Air incident grounded its 737 Max 9 jets for three weeks.

united

United CEO Tries To Reassure Customers Following Multiple Safety Incidents

Furthermore, approval of a new generation of Boeing jets, the 737 Max 10, ordered by United, has been delayed due to the company’s quality and safety issues.

Kirby told investors last week that United is considering purchasing more jets from Boeing competitor Airbus. He also stated earlier this year that the Alaska Air incident was the “straw that broke the camel’s back” on United’s plans to receive deliveries of the Max 10 in the near future.’

SOURCE – (CNN)

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For The Past Year, Global Ocean Temperatures Has Set New Records On A Daily Basis.

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ocean

According to new data, the world’s oceans have now been subjected to an unprecedented year of heat, with new temperature records being smashed every day.

Global water surface temperatures began breaking daily records in mid-March last year, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer, raising fears about marine life and extreme weather worldwide.

ocean

For The Past Year, Global Ocean Temperatures Has Set New Records On A Daily Basis.

“The amplitude by which previous sea surface temperature records were beaten in 2023, and now again in 2024, is remarkable,” said Joel Hirschi, associate head of marine systems modelling at the National Oceanography Centre in the United Kingdom.

Gregory C. Johnson, a NOAA oceanographer, reported that the global average ocean temperature in 2023 was 0.25 degrees Celsius higher than the previous year. That increase “is equivalent to about two decades’ worth of warming in a single year,” he told CNN. “So it is quite large, quite significant, and a bit surprising.”

According to scientists, human-caused global warming, along with El Niño, a natural climate trend characterized by higher-than-average water temperatures, is accelerating  heat.

The biggest repercussions are for marine life and global weather. As the global waterwarms, hurricanes and other extreme weather phenomena, such as blistering heat waves and heavy rains, may gain more force.

High temperatures are already wreaking havoc on coral. In March, based on aerial observations, authorities declared that Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is witnessing its seventh mass bleaching episode.

Bleaching happens when heat-stressed corals release the algae that dwell in their tissue and serve as a food supply. If water temperatures continue too high for too long, corals will starve and die.

ocean

For The Past Year, Global Ocean Temperatures Has Set New Records On A Daily Basis.

Data from NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch program suggest that the crisis extends far beyond Australia, with the world potentially facing a fourth worldwide mass coral bleaching event in the coming months.

Ocean heat creates the conditions for more powerful hurricanes. “The warmer the ocean, the more energy to fuel storms is available,” said Karina von Schuckmann, an oceanographer at Mercator Ocean International in France.

Temperatures in the North Atlantic, an water area important for storm generation, have been unusual, startling some scientists who are still investigating the specific causes.

“At times, the records (in the North Atlantic) have been broken by margins that are virtually statistically impossible,” Brian McNoldy, a senior research associate at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School, said to CNN.

If water temperatures remain high in the second half of 2024 and a La Niña event intensifies the Atlantic hurricane season, “this would increase the risk of a very active hurricane season,” Hirschi explained.

The oceans contain around 90% of the world’s excess heat generated by burning planet-heating fossil fuels. “Measuring water warming allows us to track the status and evolution of planetary warming,” Schuckmann stated in an interview with CNN. “The ocean is the sentinel for global warming.”

El Niño is expected to weaken and fade in the coming months, perhaps reducing record water temperatures if La Niña replaces it.

ocean

For The Past Year, Global Ocean Temperatures Has Set New Records On A Daily Basis.

“In the past, surface temperature values have decreased after the passage of El Niño,” Schuckmann said. However, she cautioned that it is now hard to forecast when water temperatures will fall below record levels.

While natural climatic variability will cause water temperatures to vary, NOAA’s Johnson predicts that in the long run, they will “continue to break records as long as greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere rise.”

SOURCE – (CNN)

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Reactions As Vladimir Putin Secures A Fifth Term As Russia’s President After Tightly Controlled Vote

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putin charged with war crimes

Vladimir Putin won a historic fifth term as Russia’s president on Monday, as the electoral commission announced the results of a referendum in which he faced no serious challenges and took place amid the toughest crackdown on dissent and free speech since Soviet times.

putin

Reactions As Vladimir Putin Secures A Fifth Term As Russia’s President After Tightly Controlled Vote

Putin claimed that the landslide majority demonstrated Russians’ “trust” and “hopes” in him, while lawmakers throughout Europe blasted the vote as a hoax and Russia’s efforts to conduct elections in seized portions of Ukraine that it claims as its territory.

Here’s what Putin, European leaders, and others say:

“Of course, we have a lot of work ahead. But I’d like to clarify one thing: no one has ever been able to intimidate or stifle our will or self-conscience since our consolidation. They have failed in the past and will fail in the future. Vladimir Putin, President of Russia.

“The elections took place in an ever-shrinking political space, which has resulted in an alarming increase of violations of civil and political rights, and precluded many candidates from running, including all those opposed to Russia’s illegal war of aggression.” – Statement from the European Union.

“These Russian elections highlight the intensity of repression under President Putin’s administration, which tries to stifle all dissent to his illegal war. Putin eliminates his political opponents, controls the media, and declares himself the winner. “This is not a democracy.” — David Cameron, UK Foreign Secretary.

putin

Reactions As Vladimir Putin Secures A Fifth Term As Russia’s President After Tightly Controlled Vote

“Searches at voting stations’ entrances, attempts to examine ballots before voters place them in ballot boxes, and detentions of voters who arrived at noon. According to reports, at one voting location in Moscow, police asked that the chairman of a commission (of poll workers) unlock a ballot box and hand them a ballot with anything inscribed on it. This is the first time in my life that I have witnessed such ridiculousness.” — Stanislav Andreychuk, co-chair of Golos, the independent election watchdog, on Telegram.

putin

Reactions As Vladimir Putin Secures A Fifth Term As Russia’s President After Tightly Controlled Vote

“The Russian election was one without a choice. Holding so-called elections in portions of Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia violates international law. It is all the more amazing that so many Russians made it known over the weekend that they do not agree with this Russian president. That you go to a polling station even if you’re surrounded by military earns me the highest respect.” — German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.

SOURCE – (AP)

 

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