Senate committee chairman Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota will enact legislation Monday banning political campaigns from routing online donors to recurring donations by default. This practice has attracted criticism for tricking backers into giving inadvertent gifts, sometimes in the thousands of dollars in total.
The planned introduction of the law follows a non-partisan recommendation by the Bundestag Electoral Commission that Congress should restrict the practice of pre-checking boxes that automatically encourage donors to make repeated donations. The FEC unanimously voted 6-0 in favor of recommending the change after a New York Times investigation found that contributors’ refunds and fraud claims against former President Donald J. Trump rose.
Ms. Klobuchar, who heads the rule committee that oversees the administration of the federal elections, calls the draft law the RECUR law to “save every participant from unwanted repetitions”. She currently has only Democratic co-sponsors, including Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, who is the second-largest Democrat in the Senate leadership and chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
But Ms. Klobuchar said she was confident she could attract Republican co-sponsors after the FEC’s three Republican commissioners joined the Democrats in recommending the ban on the practice – a rare moment of agreement at an agency, often driven by a party-political deadlock is defined.
“We have to make sure that we encourage people who can only make small contributions so that their voices are heard but not exploited,” said Ms. Klobuchar in an interview.
In a statement, Mr Durbin said he was “proud” to introduce the bill with Ms. Klobuchar. “In a bipartisan recommendation, the Bundestag Electoral Commission called on Congress to take action to stop the fundraising practices that were outrageously used by the Trump campaign and that led contributors to recurring payments,” he said.
The Times investigation found that Mr. Trump’s cash shortage political operation had his online employees become unintentional repeat donors by checking a box to withdraw additional donations every week last fall. Their inquiries also included a second pre-checked box labeled a “money bomb”. Over time, the campaign added text, sometimes in bold or capital letters, that obscured the opt-out language. Soon banks and credit card companies saw a flurry of fraud complaints.
Overall, the Trump operation with the Republican Party reimbursed donors who donated through the online processing site WinRed $ 122.7 million – more than 10 percent of each dollar raised. In contrast, the online reimbursement rate for President Biden’s campaign with the party at ActBlue, the corresponding Democratic processing agency, was 2.2 percent.
While the practice of pre-checking boxes is now far more common among Republicans, Democrats have previously used the tactic as well. Some prominent Democratic Party committees continue to use it. And Mr Trump continued the practice in his post-presidency period.
Ms. Klobuchar’s legislation would require all political committees to be given “consent” to receive donations, and it specifically states that pre-checked boxes do not meet this requirement.
“If you have experience and look at this, you know that it is just pure fraud,” said Ms. Klobuchar of the pre-examination practice, “and it is not something that should be allowed in the future.”
Ms. Klobuchar said the FEC’s unanimous vote was “very helpful” in providing impetus for their legislation. This is a stand-alone bilateral bill, but it could be incorporated into other election-related laws. The Democrats are pushing for legislation that would result in a major overhaul of the elections, but the bill’s prospects remain bleak.
Nine states now have 70% of adult residents with at least one vaccine shot, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data published Sunday shows, as nationwide Covid case and death counts fell further.
The seven-day average of new infections is about 25,300 per day as of Sunday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, down 24% from a week ago. The country’s daily death toll, which is currently at nearly 550 per day, is also declining.
U.S. share of the population vaccinated
About 49% of the U.S. population has had at least one shot, according to the CDC, with 39% fully vaccinated.
Of people ages 18 and older nationwide, 61% are at least partially vaccinated. President Joe Biden’s goal is to get that number to 70% by July 4.
Vaccination progress varies across the country. On Sunday, New Mexico became the ninth state to report that 70% of adult residents have had at least one shot, joining Vermont, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, New Jersey and Rhode Island.
That figure is below 50% in 10 states, including Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and Wyoming, which are all under 47%.
U.S. vaccine shots administered
Data from the CDC shows the U.S. is reporting an average of 1.8 million vaccinations per day over the past week.
The White House’s partnership with ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft begins Monday. Through the partnership, users can hail free rides to and from vaccination sites.
U.S. Covid cases
With about 13,000 cases reported on Sunday, the seven-day average of daily new infections in the country dropped to 25,270.
The seven-day average is down 24% compared with one week ago.
A CNBC analysis of Hopkins data shows that average case counts have declined by at least 5% in 41 states and the District of Columbia over the past week.
U.S. Covid deaths
The U.S. is seeing an average of 546 Covid deaths per day over the last week, according to Hopkins data, the lowest since July 2020.
The U.S. counts more than 589,000 Covid deaths since the start of the pandemic.
A salmonella outbreak related to backyard poultry has led U.S. health officials to issue a stern warning: do not kiss or cuddle your ducks and chickens.
163 illnesses and 34 hospital admissions have been reported in 43 states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week. North Carolina had the highest number of reported cases at 13, followed by Iowa at 11. About a third of the cases involved children under the age of 5, the agency said.
The true number of those sick is most likely higher as many recover without medical help and not tested for salmonella, according to the CDC.
The likely source of the outbreak is exposure to backyard poultry, the agency said.
“Do not kiss or cuddle the birds as it can spread germs in your mouth and make you sick,” the agency said.
This was among the guidelines the CDC offered to people who keep poultry at home, whether they are seasoned owners or building their first backyard pen. You should always wash their hands for 20 seconds after contact with birds or related materials, the agency said, and don’t allow children under the age of 5 to touch the birds.
Emily Shoop, poultry educator at Penn State Extension, said Monday poultry farming is “the fastest growing animal-related hobby in the US.”
The CDC has routinely issued similar guidelines over the years, she said, adding that this is the time of year when hatcheries and feeders sell chicks to people who start herding at home.
“You bring these chickens home, you cuddle them close to your face or you kiss them, and then we see some bugs and a salmonella outbreak,” said Ms. Shoop. “The best way to prevent this from happening is to wash your hands after touching chickens, their dung, eggs, or meat.”
Animals can ingest salmonella from contaminated food or the bacteria can live naturally in their intestines. According to the CDC website, some may even pick up the bacteria from their mothers before they are born.
Raising backyard poultry has become more common in recent years, and some have described the process of rearing chickens as an exercise of inter-species respect.
Chick sales often go up during times of anxiety or economic stress, such as being at home. B. Stock market slumps and presidential election years. At the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, a combination of unemployment, anxious leisure time for those not struggling with illness, and financial instability led people to panic buying chickens, much like toilet paper. Many were first-time buyers.
Although their intentions may have been good, there were health consequences. By mid-December 2020, there had been more than 1,700 salmonella infections in all 50 states, the CDC said, noting that exposure to backyard poultry was the likely cause of the outbreaks. More than 300 people have been hospitalized and one death has been reported. The number of diseases reported was higher than any previous backyard-related outbreak.
Ms. Shoop said that there is a risk with all types of livestock. “These are not pets, and a lot of people get them confused,” she said. Poultry, she said, is usually kept outside and outside of the food preparation areas.
“If you cuddle them close to your face or mouth, you should probably wash your face and brush your teeth as well to prevent cross-contamination from these birds,” she said. “Chickens are by no means dirty animals, but of course they have a lot of bacteria around their bodies.”
One of the tuner cars in “F9” has an actual rocket engine attached to its roof.Credit…Universal Pictures
LOS ANGELES — In February 2020, Universal Pictures used the Super Bowl to light a marketing match under “F9,” the latest installment in the “Fast and Furious” franchise. With any luck, the studio hoped, the movie would roar into theaters a few months later and take in more than $1 billion worldwide, just as a predecessor, “The Fate of the Furious,” did in 2017.
But the pandemic had other plans. Some rival studios hemmed and hawed over their release schedule, but Universal shocked Hollywood in early March 2020 by delaying “F9” for an entire year. “It was a very unpopular decision,” Donna Langley, chairwoman of the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, said recently in a phone interview. “A lot of people really did not agree with me.”
It was a $350 million-plus decision, between production and marketing costs, and Ms. Langley, like everyone at that stage of the pandemic, was operating in the dark. “It really was a gut call,” she said.
More and more, it looks like the right one: Over the weekend, “F9” arrived in theaters in eight international markets, including China and South Korea, and sold an estimated $162 million in tickets — a blockbuster result that signaled a summer rebound for Hollywood, which was largely reduced to a supplier to streaming services during the pandemic. “F9” collected $135 million in China alone, 33 percent higher than the initial total for “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” in 2019. The most-recent film to take in more than $100 million over its first three days in China was Disney-Marvel’s “Avengers: Endgame” in 2019.
Vin Diesel, left, in “F9,” the latest installment in the “Fast and Furious” franchise.Credit…Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures
“F9,” directed by Justin Lin, will arrive in North American cinemas on June 25, the longest delay ever between an overseas Hollywood debut and a domestic one. The reason: Releasing “F9” in China over the weekend allowed Universal to get ahead of the country’s usual summertime blackout on imported movies, which will begin around July 1, the 100th anniversary of the founding of China’s Communist Party. Movie theaters in China are being ordered to screen patriotic films with titles like “The Sacrifice” and “The Red Sun” at that time.
As Hollywood has contemplated how best to rev up moviegoing now that theaters are beginning to operate with some normalcy again, there has been a lot of talk about “the right movie at the right time.” It was not Christopher Nolan’s cerebral “Tenant,” which was released in September by Warner Bros. An old-fashioned monster mash-up, “Godzilla vs. Kong,” drew big crowds last month, but results were depressed because it was simultaneously available on HBO Max.
Could “F9” be the one? It will receive an exclusive run in theaters and features action sequences designed specifically for big screens. One of the film’s cars has an actual rocket engine attached to its roof.
“It feels like a big, beginning-of-summer, school’s-out celebration,” Ms. Langley said of the sequel. It finds Vin Diesel’s marble-mouthed Dom Toretto facing his younger brother Jakob (John Cena), an assassin working with the villainous Cipher (Charlize Theron). Michelle Rodriguez returns as the brooding Letty. Tyrese Gibson, Helen Mirren and Ludacris also star.
Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, which bought $1.5 billion in Bitcoin last quarter.Credit…Michele Tantussi/Reuters
Over the weekend, the price of Bitcoin briefly fell to around $31,000, more than 50 percent down from its high last month. It has recovered somewhat and is currently trading at around $37,000.
“About $20 billion of long positions were liquidated last week,” Sam Bankman-Fried, the chief executive of the crypto derivatives exchange FTX, told the DealBook newsletter. “In terms of price movements: the biggest part of it is liquidations,” he said, suggesting the worst is over.
But he also noted news from China late Friday of a crackdown on Bitcoin mining and trading. This added to other news of official scrutiny that has spooked crypto investors in recent days, from Hong Kong, Canada and the United States.
Companies with Bitcoin on their balance sheets may be getting nervous. For accounting purposes, cryptocurrency is valued at its purchase price in company accounts. If it goes up in value, this isn’t reflected in a company’s accounts but if it falls, the value is impaired and puts a dent in quarterly profits. Three big corporate investors in Bitcoin are Tesla, MicroStrategy and Square. Here’s where they stand:
Tesla: The electric vehicle company bought $1.5 billion in Bitcoin last quarter, at an average price of about $34,700 per coin, not far from its current price. Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk, has signaled that the company isn’t selling, but it probably isn’t buying, either.
MicroStrategy: The business intelligence software company has spent about $2.2 billion on Bitcoin, at an average price of $24,450. The company bought more last week and is still sitting on big gains.
Square: The payments company, led by the Twitter chief Jack Dorsey, bought two batches of Bitcoin for its treasury — $50 million in October at a price of about $10,600 per coin and $170 million in February at a price of around $51,000. It took a $20 million impairment on its holdings last quarter. It doesn’t plan to buy any more, its finance chief said this month.
Wizz Air, a discount carrier based in Hungary, said on Monday it had rerouted a flight from Kyiv, Ukraine, to Tallinn in Estonia to avoid flying in Belarus airspace.Credit…Andrew Boyers/Reuters
Some airlines in Eastern Europe began diverting their planes to avoid Belarus airspace on Monday, a day after that country’s leader sent a fighter jet to force down a Ryanair flight, allowing the authorities to seize an opposition journalist on board.
The shocking move has unleashed a storm of criticism against Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, the Belarus president who has clung to power despite huge protests last year. The European Union is considering penalties against the country.
At least two airlines said that they were diverting flights away from Belarus airspace as a precaution, but most carriers seem to be waiting to be told what to do by the European authorities.
Later in the day, Lithuania’s transport commissioner announced that all flights to and from Lithuanian airports must avoid the airspace of neighboring Belarus, Reuters reported. The minister, Marius Skuodis, said the ban would begin Tuesday at 3 a.m. local time.
Ryanair’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary, on Monday condemned the actions of the Belarus authorities, who ordered the plane, flying from Athens to Vilnius, Lithuania, to land in the Belarus capital of Minsk and then arrested Roman Protasevich, a dissident journalist on board, and his companion.
“This was a case of state-sponsored hijacking, state-sponsored piracy,” Mr. O’Leary told interviewers on Newstalk, an Irish radio broadcaster.
Mr. O’Leary, however, said he was waiting for instructions from European Union authorities in Brussels about whether to steer other flights away from Belarus.
He added that it would be an easy matter for his flights to avoid Belarus. “We don’t fly over Belarus much,” he said. “It would be a very minor adjustment to fly over” Poland instead, he added. Ryanair, a discount airline based in Ireland, describes itself as Europe’s largest airline group.
Some analysts say that the European Union may be reluctant to ban flights over Belarus because such a move would create difficulties for European airlines. Airlines are already avoiding Ukraine, the country’s southern neighbor, because of conflict with Russia, and so putting Belarus air space off limits as well would present serious routing difficulties on flights between Europe to Asia.
“Flying to Asia from Europe without crossing Belarus is likely too costly and challenging,” wrote analysts from Eurasia Group, a research firm, in a note on Monday.
Other airlines, flying shorter routes, are already making changes.
AirBaltic, the Latvian national airline, said that its flights would avoid entering Belarus airspace “until the situation becomes clearer or a decision is issued by the authorities.” The rerouted flights include ones from Riga, the airline’s home base, to Odessa in Ukraine and Tbilisi in Georgia.
Another airline that flies in the area, Wizz Air, said that it would alter the path of a flight from Kyiv in Ukraine to Tallinn in Estonia so as to skirt Belarus.
“We are continuously monitoring and evaluating the situation,” a spokesman for Wizz Air, which is based in Hungary, said.
Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary.Credit…Pool photo by Oliver Contreras/EPA, via Shutterstock
The transportation secretary said Monday that the safety of flights operated by U.S. airlines over Belarus should be reviewed after the Eastern European country forced a commercial flight to land in order to seize a dissident on board.
“That’s exactly what needs to be assessed right now,” the secretary, Pete Buttigieg, told CNN. “We, in terms of the international bodies we’re part of and as an administration with the F.A.A., are looking at that because the main reason my department exists is safety.”
The comments came after the authoritarian leader of Belarus dispatched a fighter jet on Sunday to intercept a Ryanair plane carrying the journalist Roman Protasevich. The plane was forced to land in Minsk, the Belarusian capital, where Mr. Protasevich was arrested.
The secretary of state, Antony J. Blinken, condemned the forced diversion, saying it was a “shocking act” that “endangered the lives of more than 120 passengers, including U.S. citizens.” And Michael O’Leary, the chief executive of Ryanair, an Irish-based low-cost carrier, called the operation a “state -sponsored hijacking.”
The International Air Transport Association, a global industry group, said Saturday on Twitter, “We strongly condemn any interference or requirement for landing of civil aviation operations that is inconsistent with the rules of international law.” The group called for “a full investigation by competent international authorities.”
Officials in the region also criticized the action. Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, called the re-routing to Minsk “utterly unacceptable,” adding that “any violation of international air transport rules must bear consequences.”
Though not a major European hub, Minsk is served by multiple international airlines, including Lufthansa, KLM, Turkish Airlines and Air France. Delta Air Lines and United Airlines offer flights to Minsk through their partnerships with those European airlines as well as through Belavia, the Belarusian national carrier.
Belarus sits between Poland and Russia and also has borders with Ukraine, Lithuania and Latvia, putting it in the path of some flights to and from major European airports.
Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, announced last week that the central bank will this summer issue a discussion paper outlining the benefits and risks of a United States central bank digital currency.Credit…Al Drago for The New York Times
Top Federal Reserve officials have made clear in recent days that the central bank will spend this year taking a closer look at the possibility of a digital dollar — a push partly motivated by concerns that private-sector digital coins could come to dominate the payment system.
Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, announced last week that the Fed will issue a discussion paper this summer outlining the benefits and risks of a United States central bank digital currency, which would basically be a digital version of cash. He made clear that the Fed had not decided to issue a digital currency, and that the paper “represents the beginning of what will be a thoughtful and deliberative process.”
Mr. Powell specifically cited stablecoins, digital coins that tie their value to the dollar or another underlying asset, as something that could pose risks to users and to the “broader financial system” because those private currencies “may not come with the same protections as traditional means of payment.” That means the Fed needs to understand how to oversee them.
Lael Brainard, a Fed governor who has paid significant attention to payments issues, fleshed out that message during a speech on digital currencies on Monday. She outlined growing concerns about the possible widespread adoption of stablecoins as something that could fragment the payment system.
“A predominance of private monies may introduce consumer protection and financial stability risks because of their potential volatility and the risk of run-like behavior,” Ms. Brainard said. “Indeed, the period in the 19th century when there was active competition among issuers of private paper banknotes in the United States is now notorious for inefficiency, fraud, and instability in the payments system.”
The Fed has other motivations for exploring the possibility of a digital dollar. Other nations including China are further along in developing central bank digital currencies, and the United States wants to make sure it has a prominent seat at the table as the rules of future cross-border payments are drawn. Digital currencies may have financial inclusion benefits, and even if central banks don’t choose to create their own, they need to understand the technology to regulate and supervise it.
But stablecoins — in particular, Facebook’s Libra project, which has since been renamed Diem — has played a critical role in focusing both the central bank and Congress’s attention on understanding the new technologies, their possibilities and their risks.
Mr. Powell said in testimony last year that Libra was “a bit of a wake-up call that this is coming fast and could come in a way that is quite widespread and systemically important fairly quickly,” highlighting the “importance of making quick progress.”
Robert Iger, the former Disney chief executive, reportedly called the head of Time Warner in 2016 about a possible merger.Credit…Etienne Laurent/EPA, via Shutterstock
After its $100 billion deal to buy Time Warner, and spending millions more to fight a Justice Department lawsuit that delayed the deal, AT&T wants a do-over. This reversal culminated in the announcement last week that it would spin off WarnerMedia, as the former Time Warner is now known, to merge with the reality-TV giant Discovery.
In the three short years since AT&T closed the deal to buy Time Warner, AT&T radically upended the business by cutting staff, angering the talent and firing executives and becoming something of a Hollywood villain. Some of WarnerMedia’s most successful executives, including Richard Plepler of HBO, left or were pushed out. The company cut more than 2,000 jobs.
It could have been different if a phone call in 2016 had come just a few weeks earlier, according to the DealBook newsletter. In October that year, shortly before Time Warner and AT&T first announced their deal, Robert A. Iger, the chief executive of the Walt Disney Company at the time, placed a call to Jeffrey Bewkes, the head of Time Warner, according to two people familiar with those details.
The Disney leader asked Mr. Bewkes if he’d be interested in a possible merger. It was too late, Mr. Bewkes said: There was already something in the works. Mr. Iger wished him well and hung up the phone. Later, Mr. Iger called another media chief in the hopes of forging a deal. It was Rupert Murdoch.
U.S. stocks rose on Monday, with the S&P 500 climbing about 1 percent. Stocks in Europe were little changed.
Belarus government bonds, denominated in dollars, dropped on Monday after the Belarusian government sent a fighter jet to intercept a Ryanair plane traveling through the country’s airspace on Sunday and seized a prominent opposition journalist on board. European officials are considering further penalties against Belarus.
Commodity prices
Metal prices, including iron ore and steel rebar, fell as Chinese officials continued to intervene in what the government sees as excessively high commodity prices.
The National Development and Reform Commission said in a statement on Monday that there would be “zero tolerance” for illegal activities such monopolistic behavior or hoarding after major metal producers were called to a meeting with several Chinese government departments.
Oil prices rose. Futures of West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. crude benchmark, rose 3 percent to $65.47 a barrel.
Company news
Cineworld shares rose in London after the movie theater chain said it had a “strong opening weekend” in Britain thanks to the success of “Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway.” In the United States, 97 percent of the company’s movie theaters are now open, Cineworld said, which operates Regal Cinemas, the second-largest chain in the country after AMC.
Shares in Virgin Galactic soared after Richard Branson’s space plane completed a test flight on Saturday to the edge of space. The company also has more than 600 customers who paid up to $250,000 each for seats on its earliest flights.
Beyond Meat shares jumped after the largest supermarket chain in Britain, Tesco, said on Monday it was introducing a range of frozen meals with Beyond Meat.
Dexter George asked white customers who came to his shop after the death of George Floyd to support Black businesses more consistently.Credit…Ben Sklar for The New York Times
While Black business ownership rates nationwide dropped by 41 percent from February 2020 to April 2020 — the largest decline for any racial group — Dexter George watched as 1,200 patrons donated $69,211 to support his 30-year-old enterprise, Source of Knowledge, a bookstore on Broad Street in Newark.
Personal checks and civic grants further steadied the store’s finances.
Unable to secure loans, he used some of the money to reinvest in his 2,700 square feet of retail space.
“At the end of the day, you only fit in a box,” Mr. George, who was born in Tobago, said of putting the money back into the store. “Can’t take it with you.”
Mr. George, 56, has kept his business operating partly by practicing caution during the pandemic, Kevin Armstrong reports for The New York Times.
“There’s a lot of people we aren’t seeing again,” he said. “This virus is going around in a circle until it gets everybody.”
Mr. George counted 30 customers killed by the coronavirus. Almost 1,000 people have died in Newark, New Jersey’s largest city, because of Covid-19 and the vaccination rate remains below 30 percent. Throughout the pandemic, Mr. George considered not only safety concerns, but also the costs of closures and curfews. He weighed reduced foot traffic against his mortgage of $6,500 per month for the two-story building that houses his bookstore. On his commute, he noted roller gates that remained down and “For Lease” signs going up.
But Mr. George was not done building. Early in the epidemic, he created a GoFundMe page to alert customers to his status: “Covid almost killed us!”
It was the contributions that revived him.
Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator and Republican presidential candidate, has been dropped from his role as a CNN political commentator amid controversy over recent remarks in which he seemed to erase the role of Native Americans in U.S. history. Mr. Santorum’s departure from CNN came after comments he made about Native Americans at a Young America’s Foundation event last month. “We birthed a nation from nothing — I mean, there was nothing here,” Mr. Santorum said.
Daimler, the world’s largest maker of heavy trucks, whose Freightliners are a familiar sight on American interstates, said last week that it would convert to zero-emission vehicles within 15 years at the latest, providing another example of how the shift to electric power is reshaping vehicle manufacturing with significant implications for the climate, economic growth and jobs.
A dog handler checking luggage from the Ryanair plane in Minsk, Belarus, on Sunday.Credit…Onliner.by, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
International outrage mounted on Monday as new details emerged about a brazen operation by the strongman leader of Belarus to divert a Ryanair passenger jet and arrest a dissident Belarusian journalist traveling on board.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken condemned the forced diversion, saying it was a “shocking act” that “endangered the lives of more than 120 passengers, including U.S. citizens.”
He demanded the “immediate release” of the journalist, Roman Protasevich.
“Initial reports suggesting the involvement of the Belarusian security services and the use of Belarusian military aircraft to escort the plane are deeply concerning and require full investigation,” Mr. Blinken said.
Britain ordered that “airlines avoid Belarusian airspace in order to keep passengers safe,” the transportation secretary, Grant Shapps, wrote on Twitter.
Mr. Shapps said that the operating permit for Belavia Belarusian Airlines was being suspended.
Michael O’Leary, the chief executive of Ryanair, an Irish-based low-cost carrier, called theoperation, which was directed by President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus, a “state-sponsored hijacking.”
Leaders from the European Union were expected to meet Monday night to discuss possible penalties.
Sofia Sapega, the girlfriend of the arrested journalist, was also detained when the plane landed in Minsk on Sunday after a bogus bomb threat during its flight from Athens to Vilnius, Lithuania, her university in the Lithuanian capital said.
Ms. Sapega, a Russian citizen, was detained at the Minsk airport along with Mr. Protasevich under “groundless and made-up conditions,” the European Humanities University in Vilnius said in a statement demanding her release.
There was no word Monday morning from the Belarusian authorities on their whereabouts.
Lawyers seeking to help Mr. Protasevich said he was believed to be in a jail in Minsk operated by the Belarussian intelligence service. The Russian Embassy in Minsk said that Belarus had notified it of Ms. Sapega’s detention.
Roman Protasevich at a court hearing in 2017.Credit…Reuters
Five people who boarded in Athens were not on the plane when it finally arrived in Vilnius, the Lithuanian police said on Monday.
Mr. O’Leary said some of the passengers may have been agents of the Belarusian intelligence service, which is still known by its Soviet-era initials.
“We believe there were some K.G.B. agents offloaded at the airport as well,” Mr. O’Leary told Irish radio on Monday.
Mr. O’Leary said Ryanair was in the process of debriefing its crew and that the European Union and NATO were “dealing with” the situation.
The Lithuanian government called for Belarusian airspace to be closed to international flights in response to what it called a hijacking “by military force.”
The Lithuanian police said they had opened a criminal investigation, on suspicion of hijacking and kidnapping. Of 126 passengers who took off from Athens, 121 arrived in Vilnius, the police said. (Officials had earlier said there were about 170 passengers on the plane, and that six had stayed behind in Minsk.)
The Lithuanian police spoke to the pilots after they landed in Vilnius on Sunday evening, Renatas Pozela, the Lithuanian police commissioner general, said in a telephone interview.
Police investigators would be interviewing the passengers this week, he said.
“The pilots were the priority,” Mr. Pozela said. “We wanted to hear their stories. How did they see the situation? What did they do? Were there other planes?”
Mr. Pozela said he was not yet authorized to disclose any findings of the investigation.
An opposition rally to reject the presidential election results and to protest against the inauguration of President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko in Minsk, Belarus, in 2020.Credit…Tut.By, via Reuters
The chorus of condemnation and outrage from across the European Union swelled on Monday as leaders began discussing possible penalties they could direct at Belarus for its forcing down of a civilian passenger jet.
However, they are somewhat limited in the actions at their disposal, because there are already E.U. sanctions against Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, the brutal and erratic leader of Belarus who has clung to power despite huge protests against his government last year, and dozens of his immediate associates.
In a summit scheduled to take place Monday evening, European leaders are expected to discuss adding aviation-related sanctions.
The options may include designating Belarusian airspace unsafe for E.U. carriers; blocking flights from Belarus from landing in E.U. airports, and sanctions against the national flag carrier, Belavia.
E.U. leaders also called for an investigation into the circumstances of the incident by the International Commercial Aviation Organization.
While the European Union considered its options, Lithuania — the original destination of the Ryanair flight and one of the countries that shares a border with Belarus — has said it is banning flights over Belarus and strongly advising its citizens not to travel there.
Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuania’s minister for foreign affairs, said in a tweet that the government was responding to “unprecedented threats” from Belarus and would push for the European Union to impose further measures.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of Greece, where the flight originated, said it was critical the European Union take specific action, especially in the context of the bloc’s frequent paralysis over foreign-affairs issues including a recent failure to agree on a statement regarding the Middle East conflict.
“Our inability to reach a consensus on recent events in Israel and Gaza — where as a union we failed to present a unified stance — must not be repeated,” Mr. Mitsotakis told the Financial Times. “The forcible grounding of a commercial passenger aircraft in order to illegally detain a political opponent and journalist is utterly reprehensible and an unacceptable act of aggression that cannot be allowed to stand.”
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, also promised action at the leaders’ summit.
“The outrageous and illegal behavior of the regime in Belarus will have consequences,” she said in a tweet Sunday evening, adding that there must be sanctions for those “responsible for the #Ryanair hijacking.”
President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus in April. Rather than try to blunt diplomatic fallout on Monday, he signed new laws cracking down further on dissent.Credit…Pool photo by Sergei Sheleg
Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, the strongman ruler of Belarus and the most enduring leader in the former Soviet Union, appeared undeterred by the international outcry that has erupted after his country forced a civilian passenger jet to land and then arrested a dissident journalist who was onboard.
Rather than try to blunt diplomatic fallout on Monday, he signed new laws cracking down further on dissent.
The country placed bans on publishing unauthorized public opinion polls, on the livestreaming of unauthorized protests, and even on posting links to “banned” information.
The Belarusian Foreign Ministry’s spokesman, Anatoly Glaz, insisted that what happened to the jet was in strict accordance with aviation rules and said the country was prepared to host international experts “in order to rule out any insinuations.”
Russia, Mr. Lukashenko’s main ally, stood by him.
Maria Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman, compared Sunday’s incident to the forced diversion of a plane carrying Bolivia’s president, Evo Morales, which made an unscheduled landing in Austria when he was flying home from Moscow in 2013 after other European countries refused it permission to refuel or to use their airspace.
“I’m shocked that the West is calling the incident in Belarusian airspace ‘shocking,’” Ms. Zakharova wrote on Facebook.
Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, also refused to join the chorus of condemnation in the West.
“The international aviation authorities need to evaluate whether or not this followed or did not follow international norms,” he told reporters. “I cannot comment on anything in this situation.”
Passengers from the diverted flight arriving in Vilnius, Lithuania, its original destination. Credit…Petras Malukas/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The tray tables were being raised and the seat backs returned to the upright position as passengers on Ryanair Flight 4978 prepared for the scheduled landing in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius. Then, suddenly, the plane made an abrupt U-turn.
There was no explanation given.
It would be roughly 15 minutes before the pilot came over the intercom and announced that the plane would be diverting to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, according to those on board.
For many passengers, it seemed, at first, it was most likely just one of those unexpected delays that can be part of airline travel — perhaps a technical problem, some speculated.
For one passenger, however, the situation was clear. And frightening.
Roman Protasevich, a prominent Belarusian opposition journalist who had been living in exile since 2019, started to panic.
“He panicked because we were about to land in Minsk,” Marius Rutkauskas, who was sitting one row ahead of Mr. Protasevich, told the Lithuanian broadcaster LRT upon arrival in Vilnius. “He said: ‘I know that death penalty awaits me in Belarus.’”
Once in Belarus, Mr. Protasevich’s worries appeared more real than ever. The plane was surrounded by Soviet-looking officials in green uniforms, along with dogs, fire crews and technical workers from the airport.
Saulius Danauskas, a passenger who spoke to Delfi, a news website, after arriving safely in Vilnius, said it quickly became apparent to him that the notion of a bomb threat was all a ruse.
“When we landed people were standing around the plane doing nothing, looking pleased with themselves,” Mr. Danauskas said. “They didn’t let us out for half an hour,” he added. “If there was a bomb on the plane, why would they not let us out?”
Passengers were eventually told to descend in groups of five with their luggage, which was thoroughly checked by security officials.
Mr. Protasevich’s luggage was checked twice, passengers recalled. Then a security officer escorted him to the terminal, where he was arrested.
Most of the rest of the passengers were kept standing in a dark corridor for three hours. Some had to stand with their children. Guarded by security officials, they had no access to food, water or a toilet.
In retrospect, passengers noted how weird it all was.
Mantas, a passenger on the plane, told a Lithuanian news website that the pilot was “visibly nervous” during the landing in Minsk.
Alyona Alymova, one of the passengers, wrote about the experience in a Facebook post, noting that for much of the time there was only “light anxiety.”
“There was no clear understanding of what was going on,” she wrote.
Some passengers learned about the bomb threat only hours later, when they could connect to the internet.
In an Instagram post, one passenger said that they were “treated as prisoners in Minsk.” Hours later, they were allowed in an airport lounge area with a small cafeteria.
“I want to see who will be responsible for this chaos,” she said.
Roman Protasevich is a co-founder of a channel on the social media app Telegram that become a popular conduit for President Aleksandr Lukashenko’s foes to share information and organize demonstrations.Credit…EPA, via Shutterstock
A day after the dissident journalist Roman Protasevich was detained in a plot that most Hollywood producers would have dismissed as improbably dramatic, there has been no word about where he is, how long he could be held, or what will happen to him.
Mr. Protasevich, an exiled opposition figure, was taken into custody on Sunday after the flight he was on was intercepted while traveling from Athens to Vilnius, Lithuania, by a MIG-29 fighter jet under orders from the strongman president of Belarus, Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, and diverted to Minsk.
Mr. Protasevich is a co-founder and a former editor of the NEXTA channel on the social media platform Telegram, which has become a popular conduit for Mr. Lukashenko’s foes to share information and organize demonstrations.
Mr. Protasevich became a dissident as a teenager, drawing scrutiny from law enforcement. He was expelled from a prestigious school for participating in a protest rally in 2011.
He fled the country in 2019, fearing arrest. But he has continued to roil Mr. Lukashenko’s regime while living in exile in Lithuania, to the extent that he was charged in November last year with inciting public disorder and social hatred.
Also in November, the government’s main security agency in Belarus, called the K.G.B.,placed Mr. Protasevich’s name on a list of terrorists. If he is convicted of terrorism, he could face the death penalty.
The charges of inciting public disorder and social hatred carry a punishment of more than 12 years in prison.
Sofia Sapega, a 23-year-old Russian citizen and the girlfriend of Mr. Protasevich, was traveling with him on the flight, and she was also detained, according to a statement from the European Humanities University in Lithuania, where she is a student. The university said she was detained on “groundless” conditions and pleaded for help in securing her release.
An international arrivals board at Vilnius Airport, Lithuania, on Sunday, with the diverted flight at the top.Credit…Andrius Sytas/Reuters
Shortly after Ryanair Flight 4978 crossed in the airspace of Belarus, an alarming message came crackling over the radio.
The pilots were told of “a potential security threat on board.” A possible bomb.
The plane, headed from Athens in Greece to Vilnius in Lithuania, would have to be diverted to Minsk, the capital of Belarus.
And if there was any doubt about the seriousness of the situation, the pilots only needed to look out of their window, where a MIG-29 fighter had suddenly appeared to escort them.
Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, the ruler of Belarus who is often referred to as “Europe’s last dictator,” personally ordered the fighter jet to intercept the passenger plane — a fact his office proudly noted in a news release.
According to the statement, Mr. Lukashenko gave an “unequivocal order” to “make the plane do a U-turn and land.”
After the plane was forced to land, Roman Protasevich, a dissident journalist, was arrested. His girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, was also on the flight, and she, too, did not board the plane again.
The country’s interior ministry announced Mr. Protasevich’s arrest in a statement that was later deleted from its official Telegram channel.
After about seven hours on the ground in Minsk, the passenger jet, a Boeing 737-800, took off for Vilnius, landing there safely 35 minutes later.
No bomb was found on board, according to law enforcement authorities in Belarus. The Investigative Committee, Belarus’s top investigative agency, said it had opened a criminal case into a false bomb threat.
“Nothing untoward was found,” Ryanair said in statement.
Wizz Air, a discount carrier based in Hungary, said on Monday it had rerouted a flight from Kyiv, Ukraine, to Tallinn in Estonia to avoid flying in Belarus airspace.Credit…Andrew Boyers/Reuters
Some airlines in Eastern Europe began diverting their planes to avoid Belarus airspace on Monday, a day after that country’s leader sent a fighter jet to force down a Ryanair flight, allowing the authorities to seize an opposition journalist on board.
The shocking move has unleashed a storm of criticism against Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, the Belarus president who has clung to power despite huge protests last year. The European Union is considering penalties against the country.
At least two airlines said that they were diverting flights away from Belarus airspace as a precaution, but most carriers seem to be waiting to be told what to do by the European authorities.
Later in the day, Lithuania’s transport commissioner announced that all flights to and from Lithuanian airports must avoid the airspace of neighboring Belarus, Reuters reported. The minister, Marius Skuodis, said the ban would begin Tuesday at 3 a.m. local time.
Ryanair’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary, on Monday condemned the actions of the Belarus authorities, who ordered the plane, flying from Athens to Vilnius, Lithuania, to land in the Belarus capital of Minsk and then arrested Roman Protasevich, a dissident journalist on board, and his companion.
“This was a case of state-sponsored hijacking, state-sponsored piracy,” Mr. O’Leary told interviewers on Newstalk, an Irish radio broadcaster.
Mr. O’Leary, however, said he was waiting for instructions from European Union authorities in Brussels about whether to steer other flights away from Belarus.
He added that it would be an easy matter for his flights to avoid Belarus. “We don’t fly over Belarus much,” he said. “It would be a very minor adjustment to fly over” Poland instead, he added. Ryanair, a discount airline based in Ireland, describes itself as Europe’s largest airline group.
Some analysts say that the European Union may be reluctant to ban flights over Belarus because such a move would create difficulties for European airlines. Airlines are already avoiding Ukraine, the country’s southern neighbor, because of conflict with Russia, and so putting Belarus air space off limits as well would present serious routing difficulties on flights between Europe to Asia.
“Flying to Asia from Europe without crossing Belarus is likely too costly and challenging,” wrote analysts from Eurasia Group, a research firm, in a note on Monday.
Other airlines, flying shorter routes, are already making changes.
AirBaltic, the Latvian national airline, said that its flights would avoid entering Belarus airspace “until the situation becomes clearer or a decision is issued by the authorities.” The rerouted flights include ones from Riga, the airline’s home base, to Odessa in Ukraine and Tbilisi in Georgia.
Another airline that flies in the area, Wizz Air, said that it would alter the path of a flight from Kyiv in Ukraine to Tallinn in Estonia so as to skirt Belarus.
“We are continuously monitoring and evaluating the situation,” a spokesman for Wizz Air, which is based in Hungary, said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks at a news conference following meetings at the Danish Foreign Ministry, Eigtved’s Warehouse, in Copenhagen, Denmark, May 17, 2021.
Saul Loeb | Reuters
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will head to the Middle East this week on the heels of nearly two weeks of fighting between Israel and Palestinians, the White House said Monday.
“Following up on our quiet, intensive diplomacy to bring about a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, I have asked my Secretary of State, Tony Blinken, to travel to the Middle East this week,” President Joe Biden said in a statement, emphasizing that part of the trip will involve Blinken meeting with Israeli leaders “about our ironclad commitment to Israel’s security.”
Blinken will also focus on the U.S.-Palestinian relationship, which the Biden statement described as “our Administration’s efforts to rebuild ties to, and support for, the Palestinian people and leaders, after years of neglect.”
Israel’s security Cabinet voted Thursday to approve a tentative cease-fire after 11 days of fighting with Hamas in Israel and the Gaza Strip, the worst violence the area has seen since 2014. Negotiations leading to the cease-fire were led by Egypt, the only country with open communication lines with Israel and Hamas, the U.S.-designated terrorist group that governs the Gaza Strip.
Israeli airstrikes and internecine fighting killed more than 220 Palestinians in Gaza over 11 days, including more than 100 women and children. During that time Hamas fired more than 4,000 rockets into Israel, killing 12 people, including two children.
Biden came under fire from human rights groups and progressive Democrats for perceived inaction as the conflict escalated and for his administration’s continued financial and military support for Israel. His administration has revived some support for Palestinians, restoring $235 million in U.S. aid — most of which will go to the UN’s refugee program for Palestinians — which was completely cut under the Trump administration.
The U.S. provides Israel with $3.8 billion annually in military aid. In early May before the fighting began, the Biden administration approved selling $735 million in precision-guided munitions to Israel — a sale that several progressive Democrats are now trying to halt.
A Palestinian woman carries her child amid the rubble of their houses which were destroyed by Israeli air strikes during the Israel-Hamas fighting in Gaza May 23, 2021.
Mohammed Salem | Reuters
The violence in the blockaded Gaza Strip, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Jerusalem and several places in Israel was triggered by protests surrounding the threat of evictions of some Palestinians from their homes in east Jerusalem by the Israeli government.
The demonstrations, largely peaceful but including rock throwing, brought on a harsh Israeli response, such as firing stun grenades into the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex during prayers in the holy month of Ramadan. In response, Hamas fired rocket barrages from Gaza into Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and elsewhere in Israel.
Israel then launched airstrikes that the military said was targeted at Hamas, but in the process bombed multiple civilian homes as well as a building housing foreign media outlets including The Associated Press.
Israel has occupied the West Bank and east Jerusalem since the 1967 war, building Jewish settlements that the majority of the international community considers illegal under international law. Israel rejects this.
After what seems like an eternity, Marvel just dropped the first teaser for the highly anticipated Eternals. Set to span across multiple centuries, the film follows a group of immortal alien beings called the Celestials as they reunite to fight their evil counterparts, the Deviants. By the looks of the trailer, we’ll get to learn more about the Celestials’ origins and how they work as a group. It also seems like we’ll get to see them in their secret Earth lives as well, although Kumail Nanjiani’s Kingo does not keep a low-profile. “We’re supposed to keep quiet and I’ve become the biggest Bollywood movie star,” Nanjiani shared on Deadline’s New Hollywood podcast back in March.
Starring Angelina Jolie (Thena), Richard Madden (Ikaris), Nanjiani (Kingo), Lauren Ridloff (Makkari), Brian Tyree Henry (Phastos), Salma Hayek (Ajak), Lia McHugh (Sprite), Don Lee (Gilgamesh), Barry Keoghan (Druig), Gemma Chan (Sersi), and Kit Harington (Black Knight), the cast is filled with heavy hitters, and we can’t wait to see what they do in a superhero role. The film is also directed by recent Oscar winner Chloé Zhao, who called Eternals a big melting pot and has a writing credit for the film as well. Ahead of the movie’s premiere on Nov. 5, you can watch the full teaser above.
A healthcare worker holds syringes with the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a vaccination centre, in El Paso, Texas, May 6, 2021.
Jose Luis Gonzalez | Reuters
A new study has found that two doses of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or AstraZeneca-University of Oxford vaccine give effective protection against the Covid variant first discovered in India, however it underscored the need for two doses, as both vaccines were significantly less effective after only one shot.
The study, led by Public Health England, also found that two doses of one of those vaccines were similarly as effective at protecting against the variant that first emerged in the U.K. and has since become a dominant strain in the West.
Dr. Jenny Harries, CEO of the U.K. Health Security Agency, told the BBC that the study provided the “first real-world evidence of vaccine effectiveness” against the variant first identified in India.
Conducted between April and May, the research found that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was 88% effective against symptomatic disease from the B.1.617.2 Covid variant — a subtype of a variant that emerged in India last fall which has since spread to Europe — two weeks after the second dose. The vaccine was 93% effective two weeks after the second dose against the B.1.1.7 variant. which was first discovered in the U.K. last fall.
Meanwhile, two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine were found to be 60% effective against symptomatic disease from the B.1.617.2 variant from India, compared with 66% effective against the strain from the U.K.
“Vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic disease from the B.1.617.2 variant is similar after 2 doses compared to the B.1.1.7 (Kent) variant dominant in the U.K., and we expect to see even higher levels of effectiveness against hospitalisation and death,” the study authors wrote. The results were published Saturday as a preprint and the study has not yet been peer-reviewed.
PHE said the difference in effectiveness between the vaccines after two doses “may be explained by the fact that rollout of second doses of AstraZeneca was later than for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and other data on antibody profiles show it takes longer to reach maximum effectiveness with the AstraZeneca vaccine.”
However, both vaccines were only33% effective against symptomatic disease from B.1.617.2 three weeks after the first dose. In the same time frame, they were found to be 50% effective against the B.1.1.7 variant.
Variant of concern
The variant first discovered in India has been blamed for causing a dramatic third wave of infections in the country, overwhelming hospitals and causing thousands of deaths this spring. There were concerns that Covid vaccines could be rendered less effective by the variant so the latest data should help allay those worries.
The India variant has been detected in numerous other countries now, according to the World Health Organization, which dubbed it a “variant of concern” in early May.
The PHE study analyzed data from 1,054 people, of all age groups and several ethnicities, confirmed as having the B.1.617.2 variant through genomic sequencing. The data was collected from April 5 and hence covers the period since the B.1.617.2 variant (one of three variant subtypes found in India) emerged in parts of the U.K.
“As with other variants, even higher levels of effectiveness are expected against hospitalisation and death. There are currently insufficient cases and follow-up periods to estimate vaccine effectiveness against severe outcomes from the B.1.617.2 variant. PHE will continue to evaluate this over the coming weeks,” the study’s authors added.
Responding to the study, the U.K.’s health secretary, Matt Hancock, described the findings as “groundbreaking – and proves just how valuable our Covid-19 vaccination programme is in protecting the people we love.”
The U.K. has given more than 22 million people two doses of a Covid vaccine, while 72% of the population (or almost 40 million people) have had one shot, government data shows.
Hancock said the latest data emphasized “how important the second dose is to secure the strongest possible protection” against Covid-19 and its variants.
Separate PHE analysis indicated that the country’s Covid-19 vaccination program has so far prevented 13,000 deaths and around 39,100 hospitalizations in older people in England, up to May 9.
The blockbuster deal with WarnerMedia-Discovery is particularly good news for HBO Max, billionaire media mogul John Malone told CNBC’s David Faber.
In an interview that aired Monday, Malone said his previous reservations about HBO Max’s ability to be a dominant player in the crowded digital streaming landscape will be addressed once AT&T becomes its own service is under the same roof as Discovery.
“I thought they would have a hard time getting the growth in subscribers they were hoping for in the US, and I think they are,” said Malone, a Discovery board member who has more than 25% of the voting rights in the company.
Malone believes the new company could join Netflix and Disney + as a true global powerhouse.
“I think we will not only be the third platform of its kind, but I think we will be very competitive with the other two when it comes to meeting the world’s entertainment, curiosity and information needs, basically worldwide Platform, “said Malone.
John Malone
Matthew Staver | Bloomberg | Getty Images
According to the company, Disney + ended the second quarter of the fiscal year with 103.6 million subscribers. Netflix announced last month that it had nearly 208 million subscribers worldwide.
AT&T announced in April that HBO and HBO Max combined had 44.2 million subscribers in the US and nearly 64 million worldwide.
WarnerMedia’s flagship streaming flagship HBO Max debuted in the US last May and plans to expand internationally. Malone believes that Discovery’s global expertise will support this advance.
“For me, the problem with HBO Max is that at that point it wasn’t possible to go international. Combining it with Discovery, given Discovery’s existing presence, was a huge presence in 200 countries around the world with a great brand,. .. for me, that’s the big plus, “said the cable television pioneer and longtime chairman of Liberty Media.
Malone opened up in a comprehensive interview with CNBC about AT & T’s deal announced last week with Discovery and WarnerMedia, which the telecommunications giant acquired less than three years ago.
If the transaction receives regulatory approval, WarnerMedia’s various media and entertainment properties, including CNN, HBO and the Warner Bros. studio, will be spun off from AT&T and combined with Discovery’s brands such as HGTV, Food Network and Discovery Channel .
It would position the new company – which hasn’t been renamed yet – as a stronger competitor in the highly competitive streaming video wars. In addition to WarnerMedia’s HBO Max, the Discovery Signature direct-to-consumer platform Discovery + was launched in January.
Malone trusted in David Zaslav’s leadership
David Zaslav, CEO of Discovery, told CNBC last week that the combined company could ultimately attract 400 million subscribers to streaming video worldwide – significantly more than any other competitor.
“Netflix is a great company, Disney is a great company, but we have a portfolio of content that is very diverse and generally engaging,” said Zaslav, who will lead the new company.
Malone said he has confidence in Zaslav’s management skills and generally believes the connection between Discovery and WarnerMedia is beneficial. He also said he had no qualms about giving up his Discovery shares with super-voting as part of the deal.
David Zaslav, President and CEO of Discovery Inc.
Anjali Sundaram | CNBC
According to FactSet, Malone owns more than 93% of the Class B shares of Discovery, which equates to 10 votes per share compared to one vote per share for Class A. His ownership of these shares enables his significant voting rights in the company. Discovery also has a third class of stocks known as Series C.
The combined WarnerMedia Discovery will only have one type of warehouse.
“My reaction was okay that I thought the alphabet soup we had served its purpose had protected the company and given it a long term for several years. It was time when its usefulness ran out, I agreed “said Malone, whose Liberty Media spun off its stake in Discovery Communications in 2005 into a separate entity.
Malone on the “brave decision” made by John Stankey, CEO of AT&T
AT & T’s decision to outsource WarnerMedia marked the end of any attempt to link a content producing asset to a wireless company.
Malone praised John Stankey, CEO of AT&T, for pulling the plug on this built-in experiment, which some observers questioned from the time the deal was first announced in 2016. AT&T completed the acquisition of Time Warner in 2018 following a regulatory and judicial dispute.
“John Stankey showed a hell of a lot of courage in making this decision at this point because he was really chasing two capital-intensive, very competitive rabbits,” said Malone.
Stankey replaced Randall Stephenson as AT&T CEO in July 2020. He was President and Chief Operating Officer.
“”[Stankey’s] The idea of focusing AT&T on its primary, traditional business and allowing other managers to pursue direct consumer opportunity with a different balance sheet was a bold move, “said Malone.
Over the weekend, the price of Bitcoin briefly fell to around $31,000, more than 50 percent down from its high last month. It has recovered somewhat and is currently trading at around $37,000.
“About $20 billion of long positions were liquidated last week,” Sam Bankman-Fried, the chief executive of the crypto derivatives exchange FTX, told the DealBook newsletter. “In terms of price movements: the biggest part of it is liquidations,” he said, suggesting the worst is over.
But he also noted news from China late Friday of a crackdown on Bitcoin mining and trading. This added to other news of official scrutiny that has spooked crypto investors in recent days, from Hong Kong, Canada and the United States.
Companies with Bitcoin on their balance sheets may be getting nervous. For accounting purposes, cryptocurrency is valued at its purchase price in company accounts. If it goes up in value, this isn’t reflected in a company’s accounts but if it falls, the value is impaired and puts a dent in quarterly profits. Three big corporate investors in Bitcoin are Tesla, MicroStrategy and Square. Here’s where they stand:
Tesla: The electric vehicle company bought $1.5 billion in Bitcoin last quarter, at an average price of about $34,700 per coin, not far from its current price. Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk, has signaled that the company isn’t selling, but it probably isn’t buying, either.
MicroStrategy: The business intelligence software company has spent about $2.2 billion on Bitcoin, at an average price of $24,450. The company bought more last week and is still sitting on big gains.
Square: The payments company, led by the Twitter chief Jack Dorsey, bought two batches of Bitcoin for its treasury — $50 million in October at a price of about $10,600 per coin and $170 million in February at a price of around $51,000. It took a $20 million impairment on its holdings last quarter. It doesn’t plan to buy any more, its finance chief said this month.
