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WarnerMedia, Discovery Could Merge: Report

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="WarnerMedia, Discovery Could Merge: Report" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-05/fubi3c3g_warnermedia-linkedin-650_625x300_17_May_21.jpg" title="WarnerMedia, Discovery Could Merge: Report" /></div>
WarnerMedia had net sales of $30.4 billion in 2020.
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Washington, United States:
US telecommunications giant AT&T could announce as soon as Monday a merger between its WarnerMedia unit -- which owns CNN and HBO -- and Discovery media, media reports said.
The new entity is expected to be owned by AT&T and Discovery, according to a CNBC report, but no details were immediately released.
Bloomberg, citing people with knowledge of the matter, reported a deal "could be announced announced as soon as this week."
Contacted by AFP, neither AT&T, WarnerMedia, or Discovery had responded on Sunday evening.
The transaction could create a giant able to compete with Netflix and Disney+, which have seen their number of subscribers surge during the pandemic.
A slowdown in the growth of the Disney empire's streaming platform between January and March, however, made investors fret and caused the group's shares to plunge last week.
AT&T bought Time Warner in 2018 for $80 billion, then renamed it WarnerMedia, which owns HBO, Warner Bros. studios and cable channels such as CNN.
Discovery has channels in 220 countries, according to its website.
WarnerMedia had net sales of $30.4 billion in 2020, and Discovery -- which owns Eurosport -- of $10.7 billion
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/warnermedia-discovery-could-merge-report-2443059">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/warnermedia-discovery-could-merge-report-2443059</a>

news world WarnerMedia, Discovery Could Merge: Report

WarnerMedia had net sales of $30.4 billion in 2020. Washington, United States: US telecommunications giant AT&T could announce as soon as Monday a merger between its WarnerMedia unit -- which owns CNN and HBO -- and Discovery media, media reports sa…

Long Working Hours Are A Killer, WHO Study Shows

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The joint study was produced by the WHO and the International Labour Organization (Representational)
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Geneva:
Working long hours is killing hundreds of thousands of people a year in a worsening trend that may accelerate further due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization said on Monday.
In the first global study of the loss of life associated with longer working hours, the paper in the journal Environment International showed that 745,000 people died from stroke and heart disease associated with long working hours in 2016.
That was an increase of nearly 30% from 2000.
"Working 55 hours or more per week is a serious health hazard," said Maria Neira, director of the WHO's Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health.
"What we want to do with this information is promote more action, more protection of workers," she said.
The joint study, produced by the WHO and the International Labour Organization, showed that most victims (72%) were men and were middle-aged or older. Often, the deaths occurred much later in life, sometimes decades later, than the shifts worked.
It also showed that people living in Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific region -- a WHO-defined region which includes China, Japan and Australia -- were the most affected.
Overall, the study - drawing on data from 194 countries - said that working 55 hours or more a week is associated with a 35% higher risk of stroke and a 17% higher risk of dying from ischemic heart disease compared with a 35-40 hour working week.
The study covered the period 2000-2016, and so did not include the COVID-19 pandemic, but WHO officials said the surge in remote working and the global economic slowdown resulting from the coronavirus emergency may have increased the risks.
"The pandemic is accelerating developments that could feed the trend towards increased working time," the WHO said, estimating that at least 9% of people work long hours.
WHO staff, including its chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, say they have been working long hours during the pandemic and Neira said the U.N. agency would seek to improve its policy in light of the study.
Capping hours would be beneficial for employers since that has been shown to increase worker productivity, WHO technical officer Frank Pega said.
"It's really a smart choice not to increase long working hours in an economic crisis."
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/long-working-hours-are-a-killer-who-study-shows-2443055">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/long-working-hours-are-a-killer-who-study-shows-2443055</a>

news world Long Working Hours Are A Killer, WHO Study Shows

The joint study was produced by the WHO and the International Labour Organization (Representational) Geneva: Working long hours is killing hundreds of thousands of people a year in a worsening trend that may accelerate further due to the COVID-19 pa…

Free At Last To Hug And Party: UK Reopens For Business

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Customers at The Swinging Witch pub enjoy drinks, as lockdown eases amid the coronavirus disease
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London:
Friends will hug, pints will be pulled and swathes of the British economy will reopen on Monday giving 65 million people a measure of freedom after the gloom of a four-month COVID-19 lockdown.
Most of the British will be free once again to hug, albeit cautiously, drink a pint in their pub, sit down to an indoor meal or visit the cinema after a series of lockdowns that imposed the strictest restrictions in peacetime history.
The biggest public health crisis in a century was accompanied by a drastic extension of state power; during England's lockdowns police broke up parties and protests alike, shut down religious services and handed out fines of up to 10,000 pounds ($14,000) to youngsters for partying.
As freedom beckons once more, there is excitement.
"I shall be hugging literally everyone I can get my hands on," British actress Joanna Lumley told The Telegraph newspaper. "I shall snatch babies from their mothers, and lean over zimmer frames."
"I shall hug girls at the till, the picture framer, and lads playing footie in the park. Much later obviously I shall be hugging police personnel as I am charged at the station. Hugger-mugger, that's me."
Beside the euphoria, though, there is also anxiety.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who before he imposed three national lockdowns had railed against the "nanny" tendencies of the British state, advised people to cuddle cautiously and served notice that the spread of the coronavirus variant first identified in India meant that the final UK reopening in June could be delayed.
"Together we have reached another milestone in our roadmap out of lockdown, but we must take this next step with a heavy dose of caution," Johnson said in a statement.
There is growing concern about variant B.1.617.2 which British scientific advisers say will become the dominant variant in the United Kingdom and which is more transmissible than B.1.1.7 (the variant first identified in Kent, England).
Broadly, from Monday in England gatherings of up to 30 people will be allowed outdoors, two families will be allowed to meet indoors; cafes, bars and restaurants will reopen for indoor service; care home residents will be allowed to have five visitors; and face coverings will no longer be compulsory in schools.
"It's been a long, long time this one," said Clare Smyth, the chef of London restaurant Core who won her third Michelin star in January during lockdown.
"I'm super excited, can't wait to get the guests through the door, it's going to be quite emotional," she told Reuters. "London is opening up and exciting times will be ahead and it will bounce back."
Though the rules are slightly different in the United Kingdom's four constituent parts, restrictions are being eased in England, Scotland and Wales from Monday while they will be eased slightly later in Northern Ireland.
The scars of COVID-19 remain.
The UK's official death count is 127,679 - Europe's highest figure and the world's fifth highest, after the United States, Brazil, India and Mexico, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The British economy last year had its worst decline in three centuries while the government spent hundreds of billions of pounds to save jobs and companies and the Bank of England doubled its bond buying programme.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/free-at-last-to-hug-and-party-uk-reopens-for-business-2443053">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/free-at-last-to-hug-and-party-uk-reopens-for-business-2443053</a>

news world Free At Last To Hug And Party: UK Reopens For Business

Customers at The Swinging Witch pub enjoy drinks, as lockdown eases amid the coronavirus disease London: Friends will hug, pints will be pulled and swathes of the British economy will reopen on Monday giving 65 million people a measure of freedom af…

UNICEF Says Rich Countries Can Afford To Donate Covax Jabs

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WHO chief had urged countries that are vaccinating children to itead give their doses to COVAX scheme
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Geneva, Switzerland:
Countries belonging to the G7 and the European Union can afford to donate more than 150 million vaccines to countries in need without compromising their own goals, UNICEF said Monday.
The world's seven richest states and the EU could help close the world's vaccine gap by sharing just 20 percent of their June, July and August stocks with the Covax jab scheme for poorer nations, a study by British firm Airfinity showed.
"And they could do this while still fulfilling their vaccination commitments to their own populations," UNICEF director Henrietta Fore said.
The UK is due to host its fellow G7 member states Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US for a summit in June.
By that time UNICEF said the Covax programme being co-led by Gavi the Vaccine Alliance, along with the World Health Organization (WHO) and Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) will find itself 190 million doses short of what it had planned to distribute.
The shortfall is in part due to a devastating flare-up of the virus in India, which was due to manufacture and export the majority of Covax doses and is now instead putting them to use at home.
With additional shortages in supplies and funding, the statement called for swift action until more sustainable production models are within reach.
"Sharing immediately available excess doses is a minimum, essential and emergency stop-gap measure, and it is needed right now," it read.
The US has 60 million AstraZeneca doses it could share, while France has pledged 500,000 doses and Sweden 1 million, with Switzerland considering a similar donation.
Yawning gap
Some 44 percent of the 1.4 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines so far injected around the world have been administered in high-income countries accounting for 16 percent of the global population.
Just 0.3 percent have been administered in the 29 lowest-income countries, home to nine percent of the world's population.
The yawning gap spurred WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to ask vaccine-wealthy nations last Friday to refrain from giving jabs to children and adolescents and instead donate those doses to Covax.
The urgency stems from more than mere fairness: wherever the virus continues to circulate it could give rise to more contagious or more deadly variants that could wipe out any progress toward immunity.
"We are concerned that the deadly spike in India is a precursor to what will happen if those warnings remain unheeded," says UNICEF.
"Cases are exploding and health systems are struggling in countries near -- like Nepal, Sri Lanka and Maldives -- and far, like Argentina and Brazil."
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/unicef-says-rich-countries-can-afford-to-donate-covax-jabs-2443047">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/unicef-says-rich-countries-can-afford-to-donate-covax-jabs-2443047</a>

news world UNICEF Says Rich Countries Can Afford To Donate Covax Jabs

WHO chief had urged countries that are vaccinating children to itead give their doses to COVAX scheme Geneva, Switzerland: Countries belonging to the G7 and the European Union can afford to donate more than 150 million vaccines to countries in need …

US Secretary of State In Flurry Of Calls To Seek End To Mideast Clashes

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="US Secretary of State In Flurry Of Calls To Seek End To Mideast Clashes" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-03/ui2j54bo_antony-blinken-reuters-650_625x300_11_March_21.jpg" title="US Secretary of State In Flurry Of Calls To Seek End To Mideast Clashes" /></div>
Antony Blinken reiterated his call on all parties to de-escalate tensions, spokesman Ned Price said.
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Washington, United States:
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday held talks with key counterparts influential in the Middle East as the United States seeks to de-escalate deadly clashes between Israel and the Palestinians.
Blinken, who was en route Sunday to Denmark at the start of a week of diplomacy focused on the Arctic, spoke by phone to officials in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and France.
After Iran, Qatar is seen as having the greatest influence on the Hamas militant group.
"The secretary reiterated his call on all parties to de-escalate tensions and bring a halt to the violence, which has claimed the lives of Israeli and Palestinian civilians, including children," State Department spokesman Ned Price said.
Each of Blinken's calls sounded those themes, according to the State Department readouts.
The calls followed the deadliest day yet in the nearly weeklong flareup, as Israeli strikes killed 42 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and as the UN Security Council held a virtual meeting amid global alarm over the conflict.
Blinken's calls also came a day after President Joe Biden called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, to express his "grave concern" over the deteriorating situation and urge both sides to show restraint.
The heaviest exchange of fire in years, sparked by unrest in Jerusalem, has killed 197 in Gaza since Monday, along with 10 in Israel, according to authorities on either side.
Israel's army said Sunday that about 3,000 rockets had been fired from the coastal strip towards Israel -- the highest rate ever recorded.
Rockets have wounded over 280 people, hitting districts that had previously been well beyond the range of Hamas rockets.
Israel said Sunday morning its "continuing wave of strikes" had in the past 24 hours struck over 90 targets across the crowded coastal enclave, where an Israeli strike that destroyed a building housing journalists' offices sparked international outrage.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-secretary-of-state-antony-blinken-in-flurry-of-calls-to-seek-end-to-mideast-clashes-2443036">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-secretary-of-state-antony-blinken-in-flurry-of-calls-to-seek-end-to-mideast-clashes-2443036</a>

news world US Secretary of State In Flurry Of Calls To Seek End To Mideast Clashes

Antony Blinken reiterated his call on all parties to de-escalate tensions, spokesman Ned Price said. Washington, United States: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday held talks with key counterparts influential in the Middle East as the Uni…

Sunday Live: Military Purging Dissidents Who Speak Out Against Marxist Critical Race Theory

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Guest host Owen Shroyer discusses how a Space Force Commander was fired from his post for speaking out against the Marxist doctrines of Critical Race Theory, as the purge of Joe Biden’s political enemies accelerates.
The Big Tech purge is here! Follow <a href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/the-big-tech-crackdown-is-accelerating-follow-infowars-on-these-growing-alternative-platforms/">Infowars and Alex Jones on other growing platforms</a> now to stay informed as the information blackout accelerates.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/sunday-live-military-purging-dissidents-who-speak-out-against-marxist-critical-race-theory">https://www.infowars.com/posts/sunday-live-military-purging-dissidents-who-speak-out-against-marxist-critical-race-theory</a>

news Sunday Live: Military Purging Dissidents Who Speak Out Against Marxist Critical Race Theory

Guest host Owen Shroyer discusses how a Space Force Commander was fired from his post for speaking out against the Marxist doctrines of Critical Race Theory, as the purge of Joe Biden’s political enemies accelerates. The Big Tech purge is here! Foll…