Niger’s military government has banned many local and foreign reporters since seizing power in 2023.
Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned Niger’s suspension of nine French media publications as the military government continues to crack down on journalists.
Niger announced the suspension on Friday, citing “repeated dissemination of content likely to seriously jeopardise public order, national unity, social cohesion, and the stability of the institutions of the Republic”.
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The suspended organisations are France 24, RFI (Radio France Internationale), France Afrique Media, LSI Africa, AFP (Agence France-Presse), TV5 Monde, TF1 Info, Jeune Afrique and Mediapart, according to a TV statement from the National Communication Observatory (ONC).
It added that the decision was “immediate” and it included “satellite packages, cable networks, digital platforms, websites and mobile applications”.
RSF described the decision as “abusive”.
“RSF condemns a coordinated strategy to repress press freedom within the AES [Alliance of Sahel States] and calls for the immediate reversal of this abusive decision,” said a statement posted on X, referring to Niger and allies Mali and Burkina Faso, all ruled by military governments.
Niger’s military seized power in July 2023, toppling the democratically elected government of President Mohamed Bazoum and detaining him.
The government has since targeted local and foreign media outlets, particularly those critical of its policies, by issuing bans or suspensions.
RFI and France 24 were suspended a few days after the coup, and the BBC from Britain was suspended in December 2024.
The targeting of French and other foreign media comes as Niger’s military government has largely severed ties with its former colonial power, France, and turned away from Western allies.
In late 2023, Niger asked leaders in Paris to withdraw thousands of troops involved in missions against armed groups operating in Niger, neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso.
The three AES states have since secured defence partnerships with other countries, notably Russia.
All three have regularly denounced France’s “imperialism”, saying they want to assert their “sovereignty”. French media and other foreign outlets have similarly been suspended or banned by the governments in Bamako and Ouagadougou.
Local journalists have also been affected. Two Nigerien journalists, Gazali Abdou, a correspondent for German broadcaster Deutsche Welle, and Hassane Zada, a regional newspaper editor, were released this week after being detained for months.
In 2024, leaders in the capital Niamey strengthened a law that criminalises the digital dissemination of “data likely to disturb public order”.
The United Nations said in November that 13 journalists were arrested in Niger and urged the government to release them. Local media organisations say six journalists are detained for allegedly “undermining national defence” and for “conspiracy against the authority of the state”.
According to AFP, Niger suspended nearly 3,000 local and foreign NGOs in 2025, accusing them of lacking transparency and supporting “terrorists” and armed groups.
Niger dropped 37 places in this year’s RSF World Press Freedom Index and now ranks 120th out of 180 countries. RSF and Amnesty International have repeatedly voiced concerns about the “decline” in press freedom in Niger.
The CPJ says the ‘lack of concrete progress’ in the FBI investigation represents a failure by the US government.
Published On 8 May 20268 May 2026
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has demanded a “public progress update” from United States authorities on the FBI probe into the Israeli military’s killing of Palestinian-American Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, 51, who was shot dead in the occupied West Bank in 2022.
In an open letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI chief Kash Patel, the CPJ said on Thursday evening that “the effectively stagnant status of this case is inconsistent with ensuring the security of US citizens anywhere in the world.”
It said the “lack of concrete progress” represents a failure by the US government to respond to the “killing of one of its citizens by a foreign military”.
It noted that there had been no formal interviews with witnesses, “despite the willingness of multiple witnesses to cooperate”, and no signs of FBI activity to gather evidence in Israel or Palestine.
Longtime TV correspondent for Al Jazeera Arabic, Abu Akleh, was covering Israeli army raids in the West Bank city of Jenin when she was killed by Israeli forces on May 11, 2022. She was wearing a clearly marked press vest when she was shot dead.
Israel initially accused Palestinian fighters of her death, but the Israeli military later released a statement saying “it is not possible to unequivocally determine the source of the gunfire which hit” Abu Akleh. It added that there was a “high possibility” that she was hit by Israeli gunfire.
Many independent investigations conducted by CNN, The Associated Press news agency, and The Washington Post concluded that Abu Akleh was deliberately targeted, the CPJ letter noted.
The CPJ asked for a public update on the status of the investigation, a commitment to a timeline for the investigation, and the public release of its findings. It also said the investigation needs to be “impartial and independent, free from political considerations”.
Abu Akleh’s family said in a statement on Thursday, “despite the passage of time, justice remains elusive,” adding that the lack of justice “sends a dangerous message that journalists can be targeted without consequence”.
Abu Akleh’s death became a symbol of the wider Palestinian struggle. Murals of her have adorned the cities of the occupied territory as people remember her for her fearless reporting.
Since her killing, Israel has killed 258 journalists and media workers, the CPJ reported. Israel has acknowledged killing a number of journalists, alleging they had links to armed groups, accusations their employers deny and the CPJ calls “deadly smears”.
“The prevailing culture of complete impunity enjoyed by Israel is a direct factor in the continued targeting of journalists without deterrence,” said Sara Qudah, CPJ’s regional director. “Without an independent investigation and real accountability, such attacks will only continue to escalate, emboldening those who seek to silence the truth through violence.”
Sigal’s most recent book is “The Secret Defector” (HarperCollins). He teaches journalism at USC
“We don’t go in for that kind of crap that you have back in New York–of being obliged to print both sides. We’re going to beat this son of a bitch Sinclair any way we can. . . . We’re going to kill him.”
The speaker: Kyle Palmer, Los Angeles Times political editor, to Turner Catledge of the New York Times.
The time: 1934, when socialist writer Upton Sinclair, who had just swept the Democratic primary for governor of California, threatened to beat handily the GOP candidate, Frank Merriam, in the November election.
Kyle Palmer, the pope of Southern California right-wing politics, was neither kidding nor exaggerating. Nor was he exceptional in his venom toward Upton Sinclair and his mass movement, End Poverty in California (EPIC). According to Greg Mitchell in his fascinating and valuable study, EPIC “was nothing less than a roundabout route to socialism.” On this point, “Political pundits, financial columnists, and White House aides, for once, agreed: Sinclair’s victory represented the high tide of radicalism in the United States.” This tide had to be pushed back, or California would suffocate under the weight of Sinclair’s “maggot-like horde” of supporters, as the Los Angeles Times called EPICers.
In 1934, a year racked by general strikes and epidemic unemployment, the maverick pamphleteer-novelist Sinclair–author of muckraking tracts like “The Jungle” and the most widely translated American writer abroad–was a menace not only to the so-called Vested Interests. Down deep, he embodied a revulsion felt by many Californians toward the capitalist system. EPIC’s program of production-for-use-not-profit, land colonies, barter exchanges and cooperation versus competition was a potentially deadly blow to the American Dream. It was subversive because it spoke to the misery of desperate, Depression-ruined Americans yearning for relief from the day-to-day savagery of a skewed, inefficient system that seemed to be failing everybody but the very rich. At its height, EPIC enrolled 100,000 members from San Diego to Sacramento, and its newspaper sold 2 million copies.
In “The Campaign of the Century,” Greg Mitchell has chosen to focus not on EPIC itself but “on the cataclysmic response to Sinclair’s emergence as the Democratic nominee.” Thus we learn relatively little about EPIC or about Sinclair, but a lot about the nuts and bolts of the “most astonishing . . . smear campaign ever directed against a major candidate.” Our present-day “media politics” with its emphasis on image over substance, was born in the ferocious, fraudulent anti-Sinclair campaign, says Mitchell.
A subtext of Mitchell’s book is how strongly adherents felt about Sinclair and EPIC. They “came from every strata, although nearly all were white. It was not . . . a poor people’s movement. Most of the activists were middle-class and middle-aged . . . Many were down-on-their-luck businessmen.” Any given EPIC club might include “Utopians, technocrats, Townsendites, progressive Republicans, New Deal Democrats, ex-Socialists and secret Communists, all united by a belief in a perfectible society.” No EPIC, aside from clerical staff, earned a cent from the movement. “Members paid a dollar, penny, or a collar button” to join; “Some EPICs hocked the gold fillings in their teeth to raise money.” Although broad-based and decentralized, “EPIC was far from democratic” and indifferent to unions. And Sinclair’s portrait occupied a holy place in many homes.
In any other state, EPIC might never have flown. But California’s populist tradition, open-mindedness (or wackiness), absence of party bosses or deep ethnic loyalties meant that a challenge to established authority was as relatively easy to mount as it was difficult to organize a counter-revolution. At first, the state’s wealthy were so rattled that their political representatives were caught completely off balance by Sinclair’s spectacular rise. Only loonies had expected him to win the primary, and nobody had been crazy enough to predict he would outpoll all six of his opponents together.
But like a great octopus, California’s Republicans and conservative Democrats, equally terrified of EPIC, slowly thrashed up from the murk of politics-as-usual to deal with the “enemy within.” “The prospect of a socialist governing the nation’s most volatile state,” says Mitchell, “sparked nothing less than a revolution in American politics.”
Spurred by “fear and desperation,” ad men like Albert Lasker and especially Clem Whittaker, hired conservative guns, broke the old rules and “virtually invented the modern media campaign.” Whittaker and his associate Leone Baxter introduced the radical idea that free-lance outsiders like themselves, not party chiefs, would “handle every aspect of a political campaign.” Whittaker’s “cozy relationship” with California’s 700 newspaper publishers meant that local editors were happy to run his press releases “as news stories–even as editorials.” The anti-Sinclair “lie factory” twisted and distorted; but worst of all, his enemies quoted from Upton Sinclair’s own works, in which he had attacked everything from wedded bliss (“marriage plus prostitution”) to religion (“a mighty fortress of graft”) and the Boy Scouts. After his defeat, Sinclair confessed wearily and with justice, “I talk too much. I write too much, too.”
By most accounts, Sinclair was a decent, generous, puritanical man of genuine sweetness. What his blurted half-jokes and honest indiscretions failed to supply, Hollywood and Madison Avenue concocted by way of movie propaganda and, probably even more effectively, radio shots–like an anti-Sinclair “One Man’s Family”-type series. Film studio bosses, alarmed by Sinclair’s not-very-serious threat to socialize movie production, colluded with what a Scripps-Howard reporter called a “reign of unreason bordering on hysteria.” Big-time screenwriters like Carey Wilson and directors like Felix Feist (later of “Peyton Place” fame) were enlisted or dragooned to produce Goebbelsesque films, often using faked footage, that drilled home the message: EPIC equals Armageddon. Studio workers were forced to contribute to Frank Merriam’s campaign. Very few Hollywood stars had the guts to refuse. (Holdouts included James Cagney and Jean Harlow.)
Law ‘n’ order also came to the rescue of the anti-Sinclair forces. Election officials, GOP activists and local district attorneys intimidated EPIC supporters away from the polls by challenging the credentials of at least 150,000 voters and threatening to arrest them. All across the state preachers thundered, “Go and Sinclair no more!” and Aimee Semple McPherson, hungry for respectability after her recent kidnaping hoax, turned against Sinclair, despite the pro-EPIC sympathies of her flock.
Finally, the Democrats themselves carved up EPIC. At first friendly to Sinclair, President Roosevelt, needing conservative support for his faltering New Deal, cut a deal with the Republicans. In return for Frank Merriam converting to a pallid form of New Dealism, the party dumped the divisive Sinclair. Frightened Democrats and “third party” anti-EPICers formed around a candidate named Haight, who may have drawn off enough votes to beat the insurgent–but not by all that much. Final results: Merriam 1,100,000; Sinclair 900,000; Haight 300,000. In defeat, Sinclair received twice as many votes as any previous Democratic candidate for governor.
EPIC soon disappeared in a backlash of internal Red-baiting. (The communists and socialists opposed EPIC, but the Communist Party also tried to take it over.) Sinclair stopped muckraking to write the “Lanny Budd” series of best-sellers. Waves of fright and self-interest quickly covered over EPIC’s writing in the sand. Today, who remembers it?
Later, Sinclair insisted that the EPIC campaign had “changed the whole reactionary tone of the state.” EPIC was “the acorn from which evolved the tree of whatever liberalism we have in California,” claimed state Supreme Court justice Stanley Mosk, a Sinclair supporter in ’34. And as a direct result of EPIC and the studio bosses’ much-resented bullying, “politics in Hollywood moved steadily to the left over the next few years.”
Of course, the Right learned, too. “A number of men who would become legends in California politics, on both sides of the ideological fence, virtually cut their teeth on the ’34 campaign,” writes Mitchell. These included Earl Warren (Merriam’s campaign manager), Asa Call, Edmund G. (Pat) Brown (sending what encoded messages to his son today?), Murray Chotiner, Augustus Hawkins, Cuthbert Olson–a whole generation of pols whose experience taught them just how powerful the rich, who own the media, can be when aroused.
Lessons for liberals are harder to come by in this sizzling, rambunctiously useful book. If we take note of this nation’s recent rash of insurgencies–from Carol Moseley Braun to Ross Perot–maybe one lesson is that nothing good ever completely dies, it just goes to sleep for a while.
BOOK MARK: For an excerpt from “The Campaign of the Century,” see the Opinion section, Page 6.
Kyle Loftis, who started filming street racing with a point-and-shoot camera and went on to become a pioneer in car culture media, has died, his company confirmed Wednesday. He was 43.
“We are extremely saddened to share that Kyle Loftis, the founder of 1320video, passed away last night,” the company wrote in a statement posted on social media. “We are in a state of shock.”
No cause of death has been disclosed.
The Sarpy County Sheriff’s Office and Gretna Fire Department in Nebraska responded to Loftis’ home Tuesday night, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office said in a statement emailed to The Times.
“Loftis was declared deceased; his death is not suspicious,” the spokesperson wrote. “Out of respect for privacy, we will not be releasing further details.”
According to his LinkedIn page, Loftis attended the University of Nebraska at Omaha from 2000-2005 and earned a bachelor’s degree in management of information systems.
It was there, Loftis said in a 2023 video on his company’s YouTube channel, that his interests in car stereos and photography evolved into a passion for street racing — in particular, capturing races in still photos and on video and making that media available to fans.
“I’m a hardcore ‘car nut’ that’s taken his love for cars and turned it into the most amazing ‘job’ of my life,” Loftis wrote on LinkedIn. “Through my business, 1320Video, I’m able to experience the craziest & best automotive events (fitting my tastes) and share them with millions of people around the world!”
Back in the early days, Loftis posted his work on message boards and sold it on DVDs. For nearly 10 years after college, he worked for PayPal while building his motorsports media business on his own time. He dedicated himself to 1320Video full time starting in January 2015.
Currently, 1320Video has nearly 4 million subscribers on YouTube, more than 6 million followers on Facebook and nearly 3 million followers on Instagram.
“Kyle’s passion for motorsports inspired millions of people around the world and we will never forget what he has done to grow our beloved sport,” 1320Video wrote. “Kyle was a beam of light at every gathering… his enthusiasm, kindness, and creativeness was contagious.
“Let us pray that Kyle is in a better place.”
Garrett Mitchell — the YouTuber and stock car racer known as Cleetus McFarland — posted a tribute to his longtime friend on Facebook.
“Completely shocked about the loss of Kyle,” Mitchell wrote. “The most influential person on my life. We’re crushed. Please pray for his Mother and close friends, they need it most.”
Ted Turner, the brash media mogul who created CNN and revolutionized how Americans watched television, and who wielded his media empire and wealth to pursue liberal global causes and land conservation, has died. He was 87.
Turner died Wednesday, according to his family.
In 2018, he revealed he had been diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, a neurodegenerative disease, which had been progressing in recent years.
Turner’s outsized public persona — some called him the “Mouth from the South” for his free-wheeling trash talk — matched the Georgian’s influence on news, politics, sports and entertainment in the late 20th century. Turner repeatedly shook up established industries by invading quickly and expanding options for consumers, while railing against monolithic competitors who were less daring or nimble than his maverick Turner Broadcasting System.
Turner created the cable stations TBS and Turner Classic Movies; he owned the Atlanta Braves baseball team, the Atlanta Hawks basketball team and revitalized professional wrestling with World Championship Wrestling.
Turner was one of the first adopters of cable and satellite broadcasting technology, and for many rural Americans living beyond the tower signals of major cities, he was the first person to bring them interesting TV.
The media baron constantly generated headlines. He had a Clark Gable pencil mustache, raced sailboats, cavorted with the late communist leader Fidel Castro in Cuba, and at one point married Academy Award-winning actress and activist Jane Fonda. His wealth enabled him to become one of the largest private landowners and wealthiest philanthropists in the U.S.
July 1990 image of Ted Turner with Jane Fonda.
(Tony Duffy/Getty Images)
His crowning cultural achievement was the creation of the Cable News Network in 1980, which created the model for today’s cable news titans. The 24-hour news channel was not widely expected to be a success. All-night broadcasting had not been proven as a business model in an industry dominated nationally by corporate monoliths like ABC, NBC and CBS, where news programming was something that happened on a set schedule. And CNN’s headquarters weren’t in media centers like New York or Los Angeles, but Atlanta.
But Turner believed that “over-the-air networks would decline as audiences turned to videos and other outlets for entertainment on demand,” wrote the late journalist Daniel Schorr in a 2001 memoir.
“The network future belonged to whoever would deliver what was happening now — live news and live sports. That was why he wanted to be the first to deliver all news, all sports, all the time,” wrote Schorr, whom Turner courted to join CNN.
Within two years, CNN had more than 9 million subscribers. By the 2000s, Turner’s once far-flung idea for an around-the-clock news service had become so successful that it had attracted imitators like MSNBC (now called MS NOW) and Fox News.
“We not only became profitable, but also changed the nature of news — from watching something that happened to watching it as it happened,” Turner said of CNN in 2004. “If we needed more money for [broadcasting from] Kosovo or Baghdad, we’d find it. If we had to bust the budget, we busted the budget. We put journalism first, and that’s how we built CNN into something the world wanted to watch.”
Fox Corp. Chairman Emeritus Rupert Murdoch, who was both a rival and friend of Turner, said his “vision for 24-hour cable news transformed the media industry and gave viewers everywhere a front seat to witness history unfold. His impact as a trailblazer has left an indelible mark on our cultural landscape.”
Turner recognized the value of global distribution long before his rivals, launching CNN’s international business in the mid-1980s. He bought his first western property, The Bar-None Ranch in Montana, and would eventually become one of the nation’s largest individual landowners with nearly 2 million acres, which provide habitat for threatened species and his beloved American bison.
“Ted’s entrepreneurial spirit, creative ambition and willingness to take risks changed the media industry forever,” David Zaslav, chief executive of Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns CNN, said Wednesday in a note to employees. “He believed deeply in the power of ideas, in doing things differently and in building platforms that could inform, inspire and connect people around the world.”
Robert Edward Turner III was born in Cincinnati on Nov. 19, 1938, and raised in Georgia. A mischievous child — who later became a mischievous adult despite attending the Georgia Military Academy — he had a tough childhood at the hands of his alcoholic father, Ed.
“Ninety percent of the arguments I had with Ed were over his beating Ted too hard,” Ted’s mother, Florence Turner, recalled later.
“My dad ran an old-fashioned household and he insisted that pretty much everything had to be his way,” Ted Turner said in a 2008 memoir. “My father and I had a complex relationship but I loved him.”
The younger Turner attended Brown University but dropped out before graduating. His savings had run out, his father had stopped financially supporting his tuition, and in his final days on campus, he was suspended for bringing a woman to his dorm room, according to his memoir.
He soon joined his father’s expanding billboard advertising company, Turner Advertising, where he had been working off and on for years since childhood.
He inherited the business at the age of 24 after his father died by suicide. By then, Turner had already had years of experience , and he worked furiously to reverse his father’s recent sale of part of the company to a competitor and paid down its daunting debt, an act that presaged the empire-building to come.
While growing the business, Turner also pursued his passion for competitive sailing, which is how he met his first wife, Judy Nye, in college. It’s also how their marriage ended. Turner intentionally hit his wife’s boat during a 1963 race to keep her from passing him, and the pair, who had two children, split immediately afterward.
It was to be the first of three divorces. . “My problem is I love every woman I meet,” Turner has said. He would go on to win the America’s Cup in 1977 while expanding his father’s company into a modern multimedia conglomerate.
Leveraging the billboard business, Turner started buying local radio stations across the South in the late 1960s. In 1970, he bought the Channel 17 television station in Atlanta, competing with local network affiliates by airing old movies whose rights were affordable and picking up programming dropped by the less nimble competition. He didn’t like putting news on prime time back then — too negative — and soon picked up broadcast rights for the Braves, Hawks and other local sports.
Oct. 1998 photo of former President Jimmy Carter, right, and Atlanta Braves team owner Ted Turner, during Game 6 of the National League Championship Series in Atlanta.
(PAT SULLIVAN/AP)
The Braves were a ratings hit, and when the team flailed and went up for sale, Turner’s company became its owner in 1976. The team continued to flail but Turner boosted its profile with gimmicks such as sewing “Channel 17” on the back of a pitcher’s jersey and dressing up as the team’s batboy and manager, to the league’s disdain. Turner bought the Hawks shortly after.
Facing entrenched local network affiliates, Turner expanded his independent station’s reach across the South and then the U.S. by embracing the new technologies of cable and satellite broadcasting. Channel 17 became nationally known as the “SuperStation,” with call letters WTBS, later shortened to TBS.
The quirky Atlanta station’s local broadcasts of old movies and sports games had become national broadcasts.
Still hungry for more, Turner finally turned his attention to news programming. He launched CNN in 1980 in a desperate bid to create a national 24-hour news channel before the broadcast titans ABC, NBC and CBS — and their gargantuan budgets — could beat him to it.
“The 24/7 genre started with Ted Turner,” veteran CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour said Wednesday on CNN. “He was the original, and he made us all proud, and he made us all hopeful, and he made us all strive for his vision of a better world.”
There were some lean early years. But the nascent channel fended off an attempt by ABC to create a competitor, and critics could see the value of an ever-present news channel, even if quality was a little thin at times.
“Non-viewers of CNN are missing a lot. There are so many reasons to watch,” Los Angeles Times critic Howard Rosenberg wrote in 1986, hailing the 6-year-old channel as an “institution.” “It’s not always good, but it’s always there.”
In 1986, CNN was the only broadcaster running live coverage when the Challenger shuttle liftoff ended in disaster. In 1991, the network gave Americans a live and uninterrupted look at the invasion of Iraq. American officials held news conferences knowing that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was watching them on CNN.
Americans had seen images of war before, but not broadcast nonstop into their homes.
“CNN seeks to be a stethoscope attached to the hypothetical heart of the war, and to present us with its hypothetical pulse,” the French theorist Jean Baudrillard wrote, critiquing the conflict as a media spectacle. Media scholars began to wonder whether a “CNN effect” was influencing government policy. Officials found that they now had to respond much more quickly to crises unfolding on live television.
Turner was not adversarial to communist countries of the era and even tried his own version of the Olympics, called the Goodwill Games, a bit of private-sector peace-craft that brought the Soviet Union and the U.S. out of their respective Olympic boycotts and back into direct competition in the 1989s. All on television, of course.
Turner also saw professional wrestling as part of his sports portfolio, at one point trying to pit his World Championship Wrestling program against competitor Vince McMahon’s wrestling empire, then called the World Wrestling Federation. Turner similarly tried to take a bite out of MTV with the Cable Music Channel, with a promise “to stay away from the excessive, violent or degrading clips to women that MTV is so fond of putting on.”
Moralism was a Turner hallmark. Turner had started his life as a conservative — Turner had met his second wife, Jane Smith, at a 1964 fundraiser for Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater — and turned toward more liberal-leaning causes, such as world peace, nuclear nonproliferation and fighting climate change, later in life.
At the 1990 American Humanist Assn.’s annual convention, Turner presented his “Ten Voluntary Initiatives” — his atheistic version of the Ten Commandments — which included pledges to world peace, environmentalism, nonviolence and “to have no more than two children, or no more than my nation suggests.” He would become a major private donor to the United Nations, pledging $1 billion and launching the United Nations Foundation nonprofit.
In 1991, a year marked by the collapse of the Soviet Union, the first U.S. war against Iraq and the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Time magazine named Turner its “Man of the Year” for his “visionary” creation of CNN, which covered those events live. He also married Fonda that year (the ceremony was reported by CNN) and his Braves narrowly lost the World Series.
Time’s honorific was also a nice bit of corporate synergy. The magazine’s parent company, Time Warner, owned about 20% of Turner Broadcasting System stock.
Turner launched the Cartoon Network in 1992, which helped introduce his then-newly acquired Hanna-Barbera characters — including Fred Flintstone, Yogi Bear and Scooby-Doo — to a new generation of viewers.
Adversaries thought that Turner’s ventures could be reckless and impulsive. Far-seeing accomplishments in national broadcasting and the creation of CNN were also paired with several expensive misadventures, including a failed attempt to buy CBS.
Turner had to unwind a purchase of the MGM film studio less than a year after buying it, though he held onto one valuable asset: The studio’s film library, which became the foundation of the Turner Classic Movies channel and, later, jewels in the Burbank-based Warner Bros. studio vault.
In 1996, Turner Broadcasting merged with Time Warner to form the world’s largest media company, marking the beginning of the end of Turner’s apex in corporate media. Time Warner’s 2000 merger with budding internet giant AOL, then the largest-ever corporate merger, ended in disaster. Turner, who had not been a key player in the negotiations and had made no secret of his disdain for that deal, was fired as an executive.
“Ted Turner was one of the rare leaders who truly changed the trajectory of an industry,” Versant Media Chief Executive Mark Lazarus, a former Turner underling, said in a statement. “I saw firsthand his willingness to take risks and his belief that media could be something bigger and more impactful.”
CNN Worldwide Chairman Mark Thompson added: “He was and always will be the presiding spirit of CNN. Ted is the giant on whose shoulders we stand.”
Turner resigned from the AOL Time Warner board in 2003, and in 2007, announced he had sold his company shares. In his later days, one of his best-known ventures was his Ted’s Montana Grill restaurant chain. His philanthropy and land conservation efforts and protection of the American bison became guide posts during his retirement years.
While CNN maintains influence in the U.S. and abroad, its TV ratings have declined in recent years — a casualty of changing consumer behavior, the rise of social media, derision from President Trump — and several ownership changes.
During the past decade, CNN has had three different corporate owners. The company is poised to be sold again, this time to billionaire David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance. That proposed merger would bring CNN under the same roof as CBS News.
“I’ve often considered and joked about what I might want written on my tombstone,” Turner said in a 2008 memoir. “At one point, when I felt like I could get out of the way of the press, ‘You Can’t Interview Me Here’ was a leading candidate. … These days, I’m leaning toward, ‘I Have Nothing More to Say.’”
Turner is survived by his five children — Laura Turner Seydel (Rutherford), Robert Edward “Teddy” Turner IV (Blair), Rhett Turner, Beau Turner, Jennie Turner Garlington (Peek) — 14 grandchildren and a great granddaughter. The family plans a private and public service at a later date.
Pearce is a former Times reporter. Times Staff Writer Stephen Battaglio contributed to this report.
SACRAMENTO — State elections officials warned voters Tuesday to send their mail-in ballots in early following changes at the U.S. Postal Service that has led to slower mail service throughout California.
Atty. General Rob Bonta and Secretary of State Shirley Weber said vote-by-mail ballots should be put in the mail at least a week before the June 2 election.
The officials also cast skepticism about social media posts that urges Democrats to vote “late” and to rally around one candidate in order to ensure a Republican doesn’t win. The posts are similar in wording and have spread on Facebook in the last week.
Bonta said the posts, which were brought up by the Times at a news conference in Sacramento, could be “misinformation” or “disinformation” and “potentially unlawful.”
“Get your ballot in the mail at least a week early,” he said. “You want to make sure your vote is counted. And the misinformation that you’re referencing is the misinformation we’re trying to combat.”
Voters using the postal service to mail their ballot within a week of the election should go inside the post office and ask that their ballot be postmarked, or can drop off their ballot at a secure voter box, officials said.
The new guidance follows sweeping changes made at the United States Postal Services last year that has reduced the number of trips to pick up mail at post offices in mostly rural areas in the country, including California.
A Times analysis of last year’s November special election found that there was a significantly higher number of mail-in ballots that arrived too late to be counted compared to the 2024 election.
Rural counties saw some of the biggest increase in rejected ballots because they came in too late, The Times found.
The changes to the postal service are nationwide, but are particularly relevant in California because the vast majority of people vote in the state using mail-in ballots.
Voters who mail a ballot on election day, or even two days before, may not see their vote counted because it will arrive too late, Bonta told reporters.
“You want your vote to be counted, I want your vote to be counted,” Bonta said. “If you vote earlier, you maximize that possibility that it will.”
Vote-by-mail ballots are considered late if they are not postmarked on or ahead of election day or if the postmarked ballots do not arrive within seven days of the election.
Weber’s office also said it would look into a recent trend of social posts that urge California Democrats to “vote late” in the June 2 election.
The posts, which have appeared on Facebook and Instagram, are similar in wording, and tell Democrats to hold off from voting early to ensure that two Republican don’t make the two top spots, and to rally around one Democrat.
California’s primary election system allows the two candidates who received the most votes to advance to the November election, regardless of party.
With many Democrats crowding the ballot this year, some Democratic leaders have expressed concern fear that two Republicans — businessman Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco — will take the top two spots because Democratic voters will be splintered among the party’s top seven candidates.
The validity of the social media posts are under scrutiny.
One post on Facebook last week, for instance, purports to be written by historian Heather Cox Richardson. The post warned voters not to vote until after all the debates in California have concluded and the front-runner is clear.
Richardson told the Times she’s not connected to the post. “I didn’t write it and we can’t figure out who did,” she said in an email. “I haven’t— and won’t— take any position in a primary.”
The last statewide election in California was closely watched after the U.S. Department of Justice said would monitor polling sites in some California counties following a request by California Republican Party officials.
However, the election proceeded without any incident.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday sent a letter to elections officials in the state’s 58 counties that highlighted recent legislation mandating that California ballots be counted within 13 days, instead of 30 days. Newsom thanked the elections staff for their work and urged a speedy vote count.
“We must acknowledge that the longer the voting count takes,” Newsom wrote, “the more mis- and disinformation spreads.”
Raducanu last played a match in Indian Wells on 8 March, and has since missed the Miami Open and clay-court events in Linz and Madrid because of her post-viral symptoms.
However, the 23-year-old has been practising in recent weeks at the National Tennis Centre in London and at the Ferrer Academy near Benidorm.
She had been accompanied in Rome by Jane O’Donoghue, a friend and former LTA national coach, and physio Emma Stewart, who perhaps tellingly was with Raducanu during her interviews.
“Coming on to the clay courts is much more physically demanding than potentially other surfaces but I want to come back 100% ready,” Raducanu said.
“I have been building my way up slowly and looking forward to when I get out there.”
We now know she will not be getting out there in Rome this week.
Raducanu has one last chance to play a WTA event before the French Open in either Strasbourg or Rabat in two weeks’ time.
But if she misses the entire clay swing, then Raducanu will have been absent for three months by the time the grass-court season begins.
Even if Raducanu is fit to compete at Roland Garros, which begins on 24 May, she will do so as an unseeded player.
The 2021 US Open champion is currently 30 in the world rankings but only 32 players are seeded – and she will drop several places now she is no longer able to defend the points she earned from a fourth-round run in Rome last year.
Videos from a tournament kit reveal photo shoot and images from training sessions highlighting Team Melli’s preparations.
Published On 5 May 20265 May 2026
Iran’s preparations for the FIFA World Cup appear to be on track, as social media posts from the team’s official account hint at an upcoming tournament kit reveal and show the squad training at an undisclosed location.
Videos posted by Team Melli’s Instagram account on Monday showed players taking part in a photo shoot for what appears to be Iran’s home kit for the World Cup.
Iran are in Group G of the World Cup and will play all their games in the United States, which is cohosting the tournament with Canada and Mexico.
Several members of Iran’s squad, including first-choice goalkeeper Alireza Safar Beiranvand and winger Milad Mohammadi, were shown wearing a new kit in a series of social media posts.
The Team Melli account also posted photos from training sessions, which have been held in Iran before the squad travels to Turkiye for three friendly matches before the World Cup.
The Asian giants’ participation in the tournament became uncertain after the US and Israel launched a war on Iran on February 28, with Iranian officials questioning the US’s role as host and President Donald Trump suggesting Team Melli’s players may not be safe if they travel to his country for the championship.
However, recent statements by FIFA president Gianni Infantino and Iranian football officials have reaffirmed the country’s participation in the World Cup.
Infantino confirmed that Iran will play its games in the US in his opening remarks at the FIFA Congress in Canada on Thursday.
“Let me start at the outset. Of course, Iran will be participating at the FIFA World Cup 2026. And of course Iran will play in the United States of America,” Infantino said.
Trump later said he was “OK” with Iran playing in the country.
“If Gianni said it, I’m OK,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “You know what? Let them play.”
Football officials in Iran have outlined the team’s training and preparations for the tournament, which include camps at home and in neighbouring Turkiye before travelling to the US.
“The first phase of the preparation period will end with an intra-team game on Wednesday,” assistant coach Saeed Alhoei told Iranian sport news outlet Varzesh3.
The game will be held at a stadium, and the players will wear official match kits, with an international referee and video assistant referee technology (VAR) to simulate tournament-like conditions.
Alhoei said the squad will depart for Turkiye on Monday for their final leg of preparations before travelling to the US in June.
Team Melli will kick off their campaign against New Zealand in Los Angeles on June 15 before taking on Belgium at the same stadium on June 21.
“We will have three friendly matches, two of which will probably be against [local] club teams and behind closed doors, and the third against an African team,” Alhoei said. “It is a quality team that can be a good simulation for playing against African teams.”
Iran will face Egypt in their final group match in Seattle on June 26.
On Monday, Iran suffered a significant blow after it was confirmed that winger Ali Gholizadeh had suffered a season-ending knee injury while playing for his club Lech Poznan in Poland.
Gholizadeh, who would have started on the right wing at the World Cup, was stretchered off the pitch against Motor Lublin last Saturday, and tests later confirmed he had torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.
“Gholizadeh will face surgery in the coming days, followed by several months of rehabilitation,” the club said in a statement.
Distraught onlookers caught the moment a monster truck lost control at a car show and plowed into spectators in Colombia, killing at least three people, including a 10-year-old girl. Around 40 people were injured.
Published On 4 May 20264 May 2026
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Palestinian journalists in Gaza marked World Press Freedom Day by honouring colleagues killed and targeted by Israel, as the territory becomes the deadliest place ever recorded for media workers. Pope Leo XIV called for greater protection of reporters ‘pursuing the truth’, especially in war zones.
Published On 3 May 20263 May 2026
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Cullen and Leinster, who had comfortably cruised through the tournament last season, came under intense scrutiny after Northampton’s fast start saw them take a 12-point lead at half-time.
The four-time champions fought back and almost snatched the game at the death, with Cullen revisiting late refereeing decisions that cost his side in the 37-34 defeat last May.
A year on, he defended his side, who had previously never beaten three-time champions Toulon, and said he always expects a Champions Cup semi-final to “never go to script”.
“Naturally [in the last 10 minutes] you try and protect things, don’t you? Whereas the other team they don’t have protection and throw everything at it,” he added.
“We were sitting in this room this time last year. We were in that situation and we were throwing everything at Northampton. [Henry] Pollock gets a poach – it should have been a penalty.
“It’s clearly illegal, but nobody wants to report about it after. We should have had a penalty try and nobody wants to report about it. You just want to kick the boot into us, don’t you? But that’s the way it goes.
“Semi-finals come down to the tightest of margins. In 2012, Wesley Fofana knocked the ball over the tryline and that is how we [Leinster] got to the final.
“I would be kind to Toulon as they showed great spirit to the very end.”
Leinster will travel to Bilbao for the final on Saturday, 23 May, where they will face last year’s champions Bordeaux-Begles or Bath, who play on Sunday.
Cullen confirmed centre Robbie Henshaw and flanker Josh van der Flier, who left the field with head injuries, will undergo the graduated return-to-play protocol.
Flanker Jack Conan limped off and “will get checked”, with Tommy O’Brien said to be likely suffering from cramp.
All four are important players for Cullen as Leinster seek a fifth Champions Cup in three weeks’ time.
TV star Simon Cowell’s fiancée Lauren strongly believes social media MUST be made safe for our children.
The US socialite, 48, is a determined campaigner for tougher curbs.
Her passion for change is driven by her sons – Adam, 20, from a previous relationship and 12-year-old Eric with music mogul Simon – plus the anguish of parents who blame online content for their child’s death.
This week, the Government finally agreed to bring in stronger, age-based restrictions for under-16s following pressure from grieving mums and dads.
Here, Lauren – who does not allow Eric to use social media – explains why more needs to be done . . .
WHEN I heard what had happened to 14-year-old Jools Sweeney, it broke my heart.
After he had been playing happily with his friends one afternoon, his mother Ellen Roome came home to find his lifeless body in his bedroom.
Jools was one of several British children who died in 2022 having seemingly copied a deadly challenge shown on TikTok.
I thought, “God forbid, this could have been my child”.
My youngest son Eric, 12, isn’t much younger than Jools was, and my eldest Adam, 20, is close to the age Jools would be now.
Since then, myself and Simon have met Ellen, who is a remarkable woman taking on the big tech giants.
Ellen is one of the parents behind a campaign called Raise The Age, which wants the restriction on access to social media to be raised from 13 to 16.
The policy was opposed by the UK Government, but they finally saw sense this week and agreed to introduce stronger controls on what young people can and cannot do online.
There is no issue more important to parents right now. It’s what everyone cares about.
Making social media safe is the topic that dominates all my parent group chats.
In our family we have already made up our minds.
Me and Simon won’t allow our son Eric to access social media.
We recently gave him a brick phone so he can communicate with his friends by text and WhatsApp.
A lot of his friends use Snapchat, but I said no to that platform because I believe it is one of the least safe products.
Eric is fine with that decision because we have had so many discussions about the dangers.
But a lot of parents are not aware of the risks, particularly on seemingly innocuous sites such as Discord, Pinterest and CapCut.
It is unreasonable to expect parents to monitor everything their children do online.
Instead, it should be the government which keeps them safe.
The evidence we hear is sick.
The tech companies knew their platforms were addictive and yet they kept going, inventing new ways to keep our children hooked.
Some told our politicians that their products were safe, even though their own internal research showed they did not believe it.
In my opinion, these firms put profits ahead of children’s safety, and that is absolutely unacceptable.
We have seen groundbreaking court cases in the US which ruled that these platforms were intentionally designed to be addictive and were endangering children.
Our children could not wait any longer because they were dying as a result of what they saw and experienced online.
This movement isn’t about a total ban on the internet.
It is about a restriction on unsafe and harmful social media.
We want an end to infinite scrolling where children are sent material they did not ask for, and an end to strangers being able to message them.
Those firms that make their products safe will be available — those that don’t must restrict access by law or face massive fines.
I met with Lord Nash, who has been calling in the House of Lords for tougher controls on social media.
It was his pressure which forced the Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson to commit to implementing social media restrictions for under-16s. I hear people saying that restrictions won’t work because children will find workarounds.
However, we haven’t given up on age restrictions for alcohol just because some children still get their hands on booze.
When seatbelt laws were first passed, many people ignored them.
But eventually, the message got through that they save lives.
Now, it is natural to strap in safely.
The Government U-turn doesn’t mean the fight is over.
Far from it.
We need to keep the pressure on them to act quickly.
Our children cannot wait years, because they are dying every month as a result of what they see online.
I made a vow to Ellen, who I consider to be a close friend, to not give up until social media is safe for our children.
I have huge respect for the families that are campaigning for this change.
They know it won’t bring their children back.
But they want to do everything in their power to stop anyone else experiencing these horrors.
Freedom of the press around the world has fallen to its lowest level in a quarter of a century, according to the leading Paris-based press freedom NGO, Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), or Reporters Without Borders.
Every year, RSF publishes a World Press Freedom Index used to compare the level of freedom enjoyed by journalists and media outlets in 180 countries. Its ranking uses a five-point scale to assess a country’s level of press freedom, ranging from “very serious” to “good”.
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For the first time since RSF started producing the index in 2002, more than half of the world’s countries fall into the “difficult” or “very serious” categories for press freedom – “a clear sign that journalism is increasingly criminalised worldwide”.
Only seven mostly Nordic countries are ranked with “good” press freedom, with Norway, the Netherlands and Estonia in the top three. France ranks 25th with a “satisfactory” score, while the United States ranks 64th with a “problematic” score, falling seven places since President Donald Trump took office.
RSF reports that Trump “has turned his repeated attacks on the press and journalists into a systematic policy”, citing the detention of Salvadoran journalist Mario Guevara, who was later deported, while he was documenting a protest against immigration raids, as well as the suspension of several notable public media institutions.
In Latin America, RSF highlighted the dramatic fall of Javier Milei’s Argentina (98th, -11) and of El Salvador (143rd), which has dropped 105 places since 2014 following the launch of a war against the Maras criminal gangs.
The press freedom NGO said that “Eastern Europe and the Middle East are the two most dangerous regions for journalists in the world, as they have been for 25 years”, notably putting Russia (172nd) and Iran (177th) in the bottom 10.
It added that wars and restrictions on access to information are some of the driving factors for the decline in press freedom. It cited Israel’s attacks on journalists in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Lebanon as an example of this, ranking Israel 116th.
“Since October 2023, more than 220 journalists have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli army, including at least 70 who were slain while carrying out their work,” it said.
Broadly speaking, RSF reported that “the criminalisation of journalism, which is rooted in circumventing press law and misusing emergency legislation and common law, is proving to be a global phenomenon”.
It reported that more than 60 percent of countries – 110 out of 180 – have criminalised media workers in various ways, notably citing India (157th), Egypt (169th), Georgia (135th), Turkiye (163rd) and Hong Kong (140th) as prime examples of state-imposed crackdowns.
“Although attacks on the right to information are more diverse and sophisticated, their perpetrators are now operating in plain sight,” Anne Bocande, RSF’s Editorial Director said.
She cited “authoritarian states, complicit or incompetent political powers, predatory economic actors and under-regulated online platforms” as the main causes “for the global decline in press freedom”.
Bocande called on democratic governments and citizens to do more to end this global criminalisation of journalists, particularly through “firm guarantees and meaningful sanctions”.
“Current protection mechanisms are not strong enough; international law is being undermined and impunity is rife,” she said. “Inaction is a form of endorsement,” while concluding that “the spread of authoritarianism isn’t inevitable”.
“The Devil Wears Prada 2” opens like a knockoff of itself, with sight gags calling back to the mean quips in the 2006 hit: near-identical teal belts, a gala hailing the less-than-innovative theme “Spring Florals” and a red carpet that’s actually cerulean. Those belts, if you’ll remember, were the trigger for Meryl Streep’s Oscar-nominated speech about how her imperious fashion magazine editor in chief Miranda Priestly creates trends that trickle down to the rest of us rabble.
That first film (I’ll go ahead and anoint it a classic) followed a dowdy college graduate, Andy (Anne Hathaway), pursuing a low-level position at Runway magazine — Vogue in everything but name — as a bridge to a serious reporting career. Woe, said bridge is guarded by three trolls: fellow assistant Emily (Emily Blunt), tastemaker Nigel (Stanley Tucci) and the devil herself, Streep’s silver-haired Miranda, whose saintly last name is an ironic joke. Miranda is a riff on Vogue’s former editor in chief Anna Wintour, who used to be irritated by her caricature but eventually came around. After all, she’s getting played by Meryl Freaking Streep.
The setting was glam, the struggle relatable. Andy’s transition from sensible boots to stilettos served as a metaphor for the effort — even discomfort — it takes to chase your dreams, however they might evolve. “The Devil Wears Prada” gets celebrated for her makeover, with even Andy’s clueless boyfriend, played by Adrian Grenier, accusing her of caring about her Runway job solely for the shoes. No, it was never about the shoes. It was about respecting the workaholic she saw in the mirror.
The sequel, from returning director David Frankel and screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna, doesn’t find its own footing until it acknowledges that a Cinderella story about making it in journalism no longer fits. Gone are the days when Miranda and Nigel could casually tell their deep-pocketed publisher Irv (Tibor Feldman) that they’re junking a $300,000 photo shoot because it failed to reach their lofty standards. Likewise, Andy’s story starts when a magnate shutters her current job at a newspaper called the New York Vanguard, firing her and her colleagues for a $500-million tax write-off. (Cue the workers of at least one major Hollywood studio nodding in recognition.)
Hathaway’s Andy, smart and likable as ever, returns to a budget-slashed Runway as the features editor in charge of investigative pieces that online metrics reveal nobody reads — that is, until she breaks a celebrity engagement. Meanwhile, the internet has reduced Miranda to a meme. Her most recent viral scandal has gotten her animated into that Homer-Simpson-in-a-hedge GIF.
McKenna writes Miranda a self-aware scene where she acknowledges that her harsh reputation boosts her clout. Yet I wonder what Wintour will make of this diminished avatar pursuing the same promotion that she herself just claimed at Condé Nast as global head of content. After elevating custom couture to an art form, just the word “content” sounds like a demotion. Content is to prestige journalism what Shein is to Chanel.
Twenty years later, all of the money and power in publishing has been siphoned to the very, very rich. There seem to be as many billionaires in the script for “The Devil Wears Prada 2” as magazine assistants. Mighty Miranda must kowtow to the luxury brands and their ambassadors, whose sponsorship keeps Runway strutting, including the once-harried and humiliated Emily, who is now an executive at Dior. The tension is thicker than mink. The film franchise chooses to ignore original author Lauren Weisberger’s own 2013 follow-up novel “Revenge Wears Prada,” although I’d love to see a threequel that follows her lead and gives Blunt’s hilariously frosty Emily the center stage as she does in her third book, “When Life Gives You Lululemons.”
The storytelling is wonky, given the film’s competing needs to be Miranda-blunt about the modern magazine business while pairing marvelously with a glass of rosé. Instead of Paris, we’re now whisked to cameo-studded shindigs in the Hamptons and Milan, including a dinner party underneath Da Vinci’s mural of “The Last Supper.” (Not only is the painting’s topic apropos, Da Vinci himself butted heads with his wealthy patrons.) Much of the first half feels like we’re cooling our heels with the gang, waiting for a plot to start. There are a lot of idea threads that fray off and don’t go anywhere. Are we supposed to interpret anything from the fact that Miranda has succumbed to throwing a spring florals event — a theme she famously loathes — or are we just supposed to chuckle at the banner and move on? Also, no one in attendance is even wearing anything with flowers. Is the old gal slipping, or is the costume design?
Finally, things get going with a funeral — I won’t say whose, only that the death makes a fitting twist for an industry already getting the axe. Like Andy, I started writing for newspapers a few years after Craigslist decimated the classified page. My personal version of “The Devil Wears Prada” would be closer to a grindhouse flick. At least the Runway employees look killer at their own wake.
Twerpy MBAs force Miranda to fly coach. Of course you snicker — her character hasn’t gone past the first-class curtain since everyone onboard got served a hot meal and plenty of legroom. But there’s no schadenfreude watching her squeeze into a middle seat, no glee in her comeuppance. If Miranda Priestly can get thrown in steerage, we’re all screwed.
The movie is simultaneously more depressing than the original and more saccharine, with a repellent amount of affection between characters who should know better. Tucci’s endearingly steadfast Nigel is finally applauded for his years of service to Runway, and I was dismayed to find myself rolling my eyes at how corny the moment felt. Frankel and McKenna were geniuses to keep things callous on the first go-round, but they now add a romantic subplot between Andy and an Australian apartment contractor (Patrick Brammall) that detracts from the platonic workplace relationships — it’s fan service that I’m not sure fans actually want. Miranda, too, has found love again, and her new husband’s part is so small that I kept trying to convince myself that the actor couldn’t really be the great Kenneth Branagh..
Justin Theroux has a showier, funnier part as the billionaire Benji Barnes who, every time you see him, is holding court about another inane idea or giggling about how a civilization-destroying Pompeii disaster is on the horizon. Terrifyingly, he refers to “humans” in the third person, as if he no longer considers himself one of our species. Given the film’s interest in the figures gutting journalism and how his character’s ex-wife (Lucy Liu) refers to their marriage as being like “a rocket ship to a hall of mirrors,” he’s Jeff Bezos with a sprinkle of Elon Musk. It’s pointed timing, given that Bezos is sponsoring May’s Met Gala, wrapping the Wintour-chaired event in his brand like a giant cardboard box.
But enough about what “The Devil Wears Prada 2” has to say about the economy. How are the clothes? Aesthetically, I dug Andy and Miranda’s sleek menswear looks, lots of vests and blazers with panache. Narratively, their characters — a heroine and her nemesis — shouldn’t dress as though they could swap wardrobes. Then again, they’re here aligned as champions of art, beauty and the press, standing shoulder to shoulder in the all-but-hopeless fight to protect Runway from the philistines. The real devils wear Fitbits.
‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’
Rated: PG-13, for strong language and some suggestive references
Running time: 1 hour, 59 minutes
Playing: Opening Friday, May 1 in wide release
The company’s stock plunged about 8 percent on the news of Hastings’s departure.
Published On 16 Apr 202616 Apr 2026
Netflix Chairman Reed Hastings is leaving the streaming service he cofounded 29 years ago as the company regains its footing after it lost its $72bn deal for Warner Bros Discovery to Paramount Skydance.
In a letter to investors released on Thursday, Netflix said Hastings will not stand for re-election at its annual meeting in June and plans to focus on philanthropy and other pursuits.
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The company’s stock plunged about 8 percent on the news of Hastings’s departure. The cofounder is credited with helping to revolutionise how movies and television shows are delivered in homes, upending Hollywood’s business model.
“Netflix is growing revenues double-digits, expanding margins in 2026 and gushing free cash flow,” said LightShed Partners media analyst Richard Greenfield. “While the Q1 was uneventful financially, the departure of Reed Hastings has spooked investors.”
Netflix reaffirmed in a 14-page shareholder letter that its mission remains “ambitious and unchanged” – to entertain the world, providing movies and series for many tastes, cultures and languages. The company’s full-year outlook remained unchanged.
The company did not say how it plans to spend the $2.8bn termination fee it received after losing the Warner Bros movie studio and HBO, and lifted its earnings per share to $1.23 in the first quarter compared with 66 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
Revenue rose to $12.25bn, an increase of 16 percent from the year-ago period, modestly exceeding analyst forecasts of $12.18bn.
Netflix, which long told investors that a Warner Bros acquisition was a “nice to have, not need to have” proposition, highlighted areas of future growth.
The company said its investment in expanding its entertainment offerings, with video podcasts and live entertainment – such as the World Baseball Classic in Japan – is driving engagement.
It plans to use technology to improve the user experience and improve monetisation, as advertising revenue remains on track to reach $3bn in 2026 – a twofold increase from a year ago.
Europe, Middle East and Africa President of Snap, Ronan Harris (L), and Wifredo Fernandez, director of global government affairs at X, leave No. 10 Downing Street in London on Thursday morning after meeting Prime Minister Keir Starmer to discuss ways to protect children safe when they are on social media . Photo by Neil Hall/EPA
April 16 (UPI) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer put the big five social media firms on notice Thursday that he was considering state intervention, including the nuclear option of a ban, if they did not do more to protect children from being harmed by their products.
Starmer warned executives from Meta, Snap, Google, TikTok and X at a meeting in Downing Street that something had to give, saying a ban on children accessing their platforms would be “preferable to a world where harm is the price” for social media use.
“Things can’t go on like this, they must change because right now social media is putting our children at risk. In a world in which children are protected, even if that means access is restricted, that is preferable to a world where harm is the price of participation,” said Starmer.
“I am determined we will build a better future for our children, and look forward to working with you on this. I do think this can be done. I think the question is not whether it is done, the question is how it is done,” he added.
Executives attending the meeting included Google U.K. managing director Kate Alessi, Markus Reinisch, a public policy principal at Meta, and X’s global government affairs director Wifredo Fernandez.
TikTok was represented by Alistair Law, director of public policy for northern Europe, while Snap was represented by Europe president Ronan Harris.
Starmer put to the firms the negative impacts of social media use on children’s ability to concentrate, their sleep, relationships and the way they view the world that have been flagged by parents and child experts.
“It’s clear to me that parents aren’t asking us for tweaks at the edges, they’re asking us whether a system that clearly isn’t working for children should be allowed to continue at all. Companies have to grip this and work with us to do better by British children,” he said.
No. 10 had earlier acknowledged that some of the tech firms had “stepped up” by disabling autoplay of videos for children by default and providing better tools to parents to limit the amount of time their children spend looking at screens, but took a much tougher line at Thursday’s meeting.
Starmer’s Labour administration has previously pushed back on pressure from parents, educators and child safety advocates for an Australia-style ban for children younger than 16 on fears it could drive them onto the dark web and make them more vulnerable when they eventually begin using the apps by hindering development of their digital skills.
Most social media sites operating in Britain do not permit children younger than 13 to use their products.
However, in the past three months, Starmer’s administration has twice been forced to use its House of Commons majority to override two efforts by the House of Lords, the upper chamber of Parliament, to amend a government bill to include a ban for children younger than 16.
The most recent of these was on Wednesday in which the government defeated the Lords’ latest attempt to force through a ban, but with a reduced majority from the previous vote on March 10. More than 240 of 650 MPs either failed to show or abstained.
In January, 60 Labour Party backbenchers signed a letter urging Starmer to bring forward a ban.
The government managed to fend off the first challenge in March by launching a three-month public consultation on how to proceed with anticipation inside his administration growing that Starmer will yield to pressure for a ban when the findings are published in the summer.
The general consensus is that President Trump’s social media post of himself dressed in robes, after a busy weekend in which he blasted Pope Leo and attended a prizefight while an Iran peace plan fell apart, was an attempt to cast himself as a Jesus-like figure.
But Trump says we have it wrong.
“It’s supposed to be me as a doctor, making people better,” he said.
As a graduate of St. Peter Martyr grade school in the San Francisco East Bay area, and as someone who has seen a lot of doctors for various ailments, I feel uniquely qualified to weigh in.
In Catholic school, holy cards are a big deal. You’ve seen a couple hundred of them by the time you hit second or third grade, so you become familiar with the muted ethereal glow, the heavenly gaze and the look of piety. A standard feature is the halo, a clearly defined sphere that sits like a buttered bonnet on the head of the saint.
Let the record show that in his post on his very own Truth Social, which is not always truthful, Trump does not have a halo.
So in total fairness, it’s possible the president was not lying when he said he was supposed to be a doctor.
On the other hand, having seen a good number of cardiologists and surgeons and orthopedic specialists, I don’t recall any doctors who wore flowing robes while bathed in heavenly light, with a flock of eagles coming out of their ears and a team of Navy SEALs busting through the hospital ceiling.
And then there’s the fireball emanating from Trump’s right hand. All of which begs the question: If Trump thinks this is what a doctor looks like, what ailment is he being treated for, and shouldn’t the public be advised?
There’s also the question of creation — not of human life, but of the very existence of a social media post like this from the president of the United States in wartime. It was described as an AI-generated image, but who was at the computer?
Did the president sit down at the end of a long day and churn out an image of himself playing doctor, if not Jesus Christ? Or does he have a team of staffers who do this sort of thing, and if so, how could Elon Musk have missed them when he said the government was bloated and set out to fire half the federal workforce?
You’d at least hope the president would have the courage of his convictions. But as criticism of his post mounted, Trump deleted it Monday morning.
I think he should have stuck with the story — he was portraying himself a doctor because he’s a healer. The next day, he could have been in a New York Jets uniform and told us he’s a quarterback. Then he could have released an image of himself in the Artemis space capsule and told us he’s an astronaut, and he’s thinking of building a string of Trump hotels on the moon. Ask yourself this: Would anyone have been surprised?
A guy who only knows how to go for broke, and always doubles down when things go wrong, has to stick to his guns or the whole shtick unravels. I’d have respected Trump more if he had traipsed around the White House with a stethoscope for a week or two, or maybe performed brain surgery on Pete Hegseth, just to see what’s going on in there.
What’s going on in Trump’s head, if I might volunteer a bit of armchair psychoanalysis, is that failure triggers a sense of grandeur rather than humility.
Things are not going well at the moment, so he’s lashing out. The price of things was supposed to come down on Day One, but thanks to his upheaval of the world economy, prices went up, and now they’re soaring because he helped start a war that made no sense.
A war that has been criticized by Pope Leo, who has pointed out that while the Trump administration has ascribed a religious imperative to the assault on Iran, and Trump promised to blow the country all the way back to the “Stone Ages,” Jesus would probably not be on board.
Trump, who said last year that he wants to “try and get to heaven, if possible,” now realizes he’s not going to get an endorsement from the pontiff.
And so the man who once issued a national call to prayer, said the Bible was his favorite book, joked after the death of Pope Francis that he wanted to be the next pontiff, and has now issued his own holy card, has attacked Pope Leo for being too liberal as well as “weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy.” He has, in effect, anointed himself as holier than the pope himself.
Even staunch supporters of Trump have worked themselves into a lather over this. They’re lashing out at Trump, as if his criticism of the pope and depiction of himself as Jesus Christ are shocking.
My fellow Americans, certain words have been rendered meaningless in describing the current state of affairs. Among them are shocking, surreal, unbelievable, unprecedented and unexpected.
If indeed Trump thinks he’s Jesus, let his penance begin with 100 Our Fathers, 500 Hail Marys and 1,000 Acts of Contrition.
If indeed he thinks he’s a doctor:
Physician, heal thyself.
steve.lopez@latimes.com
“All Hippos, the drone is in the control room, give us your all.”
Vanessa Bonet of the installation art group Dedo Vabo watched over a mission-control monitor deck, as the buzzing craft climbed into room full of braying hippos in rumpled suits. The beasts were, ostensibly, running a menacing communications conglomerate in a satellite tower looking over the main field of Coachella, but now they were spooked. They scampered around the office looming above the Outdoor stage, while delighted fans on the ground watched them flail behind glass.
“When you put a hippopotamus in a 10 foot enclosed space for 12 hours, they tend to go a little crazy,” Bonet said, picking up her CB radio to tell one hippo their mask had slipped off. “It takes a lot of work to keep this running.”
Coachella veterans were chuffed to hit the grounds and see “Network Operations,” the long-awaited return of Dedo Vabo’s hippos. It’s a years-long installation gag on the polo fields where actors (and Coachella performing artists) in hippo masks pantomime working at evil-ish corporations before the operation blows up in their faces by Sunday evening.
Festival goers observe ‘hippos’ at exhibit, ‘Network Operations’ at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio on Saturday, April 11, 2026.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
While the project began in a room at the infamous Cecil Hotel in downtown L.A.’s Art Walk in 2008, they’re now synonymous with Coachella and back on the field for the first time since 2019. Artists from the young punk band Die Spitz and Janelle Monáe’s crew have taken spins in the costumes (they’re hoping famed animal rights activist Moby might be up for a turn this year.) Past installments have seen the hippos found a power company, join the space race and tank the stock market.
“Network Operations” is a little slice of the arty anarchy that defined Coachella’s early, pre-influencer era. In a season of Hollywood marked by mega-mergers from well-funded nepo children, there is something timely about these oblivious creatures smashing up a printing press and a broadcast studio.
“The hippos are mimetic. It’s little bit of a reflection of society with dark, absurdist humor,” said Dedo Vabo’s Derek Doublin. “This is your friendly global neighborhood multi-conglomerate telecommunications and broadcast company. They hold enormous power but they’re also clueless about where they’re going with it.”
If any of the Skydance/Paramount brass are on the field, they might find the situation a bit resonant.
Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It’s Alene Tchekmedyian, with an assist from Rebecca Ellis, giving you the latest on all things local government.
Last summer, the Los Angeles Fire Department enlisted a public relations firm to help shape the narrative around its response to the Palisades fire as it geared up to release its long-awaited after-action report.
The optics around the devastating fire hadn’t been good.
A Times investigation revealed that top LAFD officials failed to pre-deploy engines in Pacific Palisades, despite forecasts of dangerously high winds. Mayor Karen Bass ousted the fire chief. The thousands of residents who lost their homes were growing increasingly angry. City and LAFD officials were concerned about how the report, which was intended to examine what mistakes the department made and how to avoid repeating them, would land.
“While we have a section that deals with press inquiries, media, and interview requests, they are not equipped to deal with what I call a ‘Crisis,’” LAFD Deputy Chief Kairi Brown wrote to the Lede Company in July.
The Times obtained the email and other materials this week through the California Public Records Act. Brown wrote in the email that his brother, Jay Brown, who co-founded the entertainment company Roc Nation with Jay-Z, recommended the firm.
At the time, LAFD’s public information director position was vacant, but a staff roster shows that two captains and four firefighters were assigned to the Community Liaison Office. The captains, Erik Scott and Adam Van Gerpen, each made more than $200,000 in overtime alone last year, on top of their roughly $200,000 base salaries, payroll data show.
Scott and Van Gerpen did not immediately respond to a question about what the overtime was for.
Fire officials also met with and considered another PR firm called Cielo Strategic Communications, but ultimately selected Lede for the job. Lede bills itself as a “full-service strategy, communications and social impact consulting firm,” with high-profile celebrity clients like Kerry Washington and Emma Stone, according to its website.
The Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation, which calls itself “the official nonprofit arm of the LAFD” that provides “vital equipment and funds critical programs to help the LAFD save lives,” took care of the $65,000 bill.
The Times has described efforts by Bass and others to water down the after-action report. Lede’s role, according to internal documents, was to shield the LAFD and the mayor’s office from “reputational harm” associated with the report’s release.
Bass also was involved in media spin, with Scott writing in an Oct. 9 email that “any additional interviews with the Fire Chief would likely depend on the Mayor’s guidance.”
The documents obtained by The Times this week reveal that Lede embarked on “Media 101” training for interim Fire Chief Ronnie Villanueva, including basic tips such as: “While reporters aren’t always out to get you, they’re not your friends either.”
“Tricks” that reporters use to get people talking, according to a Lede slideshow, include: “Speculate,” “Stir the pot,” “The long pause/silence” and “Act like your friend.”
Other advice from Lede: “Stay on message and don’t volunteer information that is not asked.” Don’t “offer information to fill the silence (this is a reporter tactic).”
The Lede Company previously declined to comment on its work for the LAFD, citing client confidentiality. An LAFD spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
Other records previously released show that Lede also analyzed news articles before and after the Palisades fire — the goal was to get a sort of vibe check of LAFD from the public — and found criticism of department leadership as well as support for the rank and file.
And a communications plan developed in the event that the after-action report was leaked to reporters involved convening an “emergency briefing between LAFD, Lede, and the Mayor’s Office within 60 minutes of discovery,” as well as embargoed briefings within a day “to control the narrative and reinforce lessons learned and key actions coming out of the LAFD.”
Lede worked with the LAFD until about mid-November, when Jaime Moore took over as fire chief. A couple of months later, the agency hired a public information director, Stephanie Bishop, to lead the Community Liaison Office.
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— SB CANDIDATE: Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt acknowledged this week that he’s living in Santa Barbara County after the Palisades fire destroyed his home. He’s allowed to use his Palisades address to vote and run for office, as long as he intends to return, election officials said.
— BASS BUCKS: Bass and City Councilmember Ysabel Jurado say they want to allot more than $360 million to developers and nonprofits creating affordable housing. The money, which comes largely from the “mansion tax,” would fund 80 projects.
— REVOLVING DOOR: A Times analysis found the longer the mayor’s signature program to battle homelessness exists, the worse its metrics are. As Inside Safe finished its third year in December, roughly 40% of the people who had gone indoors were back on the street.
— CHANGE AGENT: Everyone running for L.A. mayor wants to be a champion of change. As her first term comes to an end, Bass is campaigning on change, vowing to tackle decades-old problems. So is City Councilmember Nithya Raman, who says her decision to run was based on “a sense of urgency that things needed to change.”
—FIGHT FLOP: More than a year after California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta charged 30 probation officers with facilitating so-called “gladiator fights” among youths inside the county’s juvenile halls, almost half of the criminal cases are falling apart. State prosecutors dismissed charges against one-third of the officers, and four more entered into plea deals Tuesday that will end with their cases dropped.
— BADGE BREACH: Sensitive police records, including personnel files, were seized by hackers in a breach involving the L.A. city attorney’s office. A group known for conducting ransomware attacks on large entities took credit for the hack, which involves 337,000 files.
— OLYMPIC OOPS: Los Angeles officials are worried that taxpayers could be on the hook for budget-busting costs to support the 2028 Olympic Games, if the profit promised by LA28 doesn’t materialize. City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto and Councilmember Monica Rodriguez both want a contract pledging that LA28 cover any future costs incurred by the city.
— VANISHING BLUES: Up for reelection and facing a budget deficit, Bass says she’s shifting from her original plan to grow the L.A. Police Department to the 9,500-officer force it once was. Her new goal: making sure the department doesn’t shrink from its current total of 8,677 officers, which is the lowest in nearly a quarter-century.
— PRICEY PROTESTS: A well-known LAPD critic and two attorneys are suing the LAPD after officers allegedly fired less-lethal rounds at them during a protest last summer. Activist Jason Reedy says he was shot in the groin after confronting an officer outside LAPD headquarters.
That’s it for this week! Send your questions, comments and gossip to LAontheRecord@latimes.com. Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Saturday morning.
The Dept. of Justice is investigating the NFL’s media deals with streaming companies as more of its games go behind subscription pay walls.
The investigation first reported by the Wall Street Journal centers on the financial impact of live sports streaming on consumers and whether the league’s traditional broadcast partners are getting fair treatment.
The Justice Dept. did not respond to a request for comment. A government official told NBC News the DOJ’s investigation into the NFL is “about affordability for consumers and creating an even playing field for providers.”
Early last month, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah requested the investigation in a letter to the DOJ, and issued a statement Thursday on X saying he was glad to see it move forward.
The Sports Broadcasting Act passed by Congress in 1961 allowed professional football teams to collectively license the TV rights of their games to national broadcast networks without running afoul of anti-trust laws. Lee noted that courts have recognized the act refers to broadcasts “financed through advertising and made available free to the public.”
Lee said sports packages that go behind subscription paywalls “no longer align” with the intention of the act which was passed when the public only had access to three TV networks.
The NFL has not received a letter from the DOJ saying it is under investigation, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to comment. But the league issued a statement asserting that fans can see every NFL game played by the teams in their markets for free on broadcast TV unlike every other major sport.
“The NFL’s media distribution model is the most fan and broadcaster-friendly in the entire sports and entertainment industry,” the league said. “The NFL has for decades put our fans front and center in how we distribute our content.”
The NFL said 87% its games can be watched on free TV. The other 13% on streaming and cable platforms are made available on the local TV stations of the teams involved in those contests.
The sports rights landscape has shifted dramatically in the last 10 years as deep pocketed tech companies such as Amazon, Google and Netflix have provided the NFL with significant leverage in its negotiations with its longtime TV partners NBC, CBS, Fox and ESPN.
While streaming companies initially eschewed live sports because of the high cost of rights fees, they have found them to be an effective way to bring a massive number of viewers to their platforms.
Amazon Prime Video is paying $1.5 billion a year for the rights to “Thursday Night Football,” a package that was a money loser when carried by the broadcast networks. Netflix has picked up the rights to games on Christmas Day, while Google’s YouTube became the home of the Sunday Ticket package that gives subscribers access to out-of-market games.
The pressure from the newer competitors comes at a time when companies with traditional TV networks depend on the NFL more than ever as it provides the highest rated programming by a wide margin. The NFL packages also give TV station groups with leverage in negotiating carriage deal fees with cable and satellite companies.
Tensions over the rising rights fees are growing as the NFL has the right to open up the deal with Paramount, because the company underwent an ownership change last year when acquired by Skydance Media. The league is reportedly looking for another $1 billion annually from Paramount which is already paying $2.1 billion a year for its package of games on CBS.
The league has also made it clear it plans to exercise its option in 2029 to open the current 10-year media rights contract that runs through the 2032-33 season.
Fox Corporation — home of the Trump-friendly Fox News Channel — heavily depends on the NFL for programming on its TV stations — has already raised concerns about the renegotiation.
Executive Chairman Lachlan Murdoch has said he believes the $2.5 billion a year Fox pays the NFL is “fair market value.” But he has also told Wall Street analysts the company may have to re-examine its other sports deals in preparation to pay more to the NFL going forward.
Last week, Fox and station group owner Sinclair Broadcasting filed a statement with the FCC asserting that the NFL’s antitrust exemption does not apply to streaming platforms that require paid subscriptions.
“Congress provided a valuable exemption from the antitrust laws for leagues that bargain collectively for sports broadcasting,” wrote Joseph Di Scipio, Fox Corp.’s senior VP, legal and FCC compliance. “But on its face, the statute does not exempt negotiations that the leagues may have with streaming services.”
Pakorn Supajitsoontorn/iStock via Getty Images
Greece will ban social media for children under the age of 15 from next year, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on Wednesday, making it the latest country to follow Australia’s landmark move.
In a video message posted on TikTok, Mitsotakis said
