A scene from “Abbott Elementary.” — Scott Everett White/ABC
(LOS ANGELES) — Hollywood writers are calling on the studios to show them the money.
Thousands of television and movie writers voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike when their contracts run out on May 1, unions representing the writers said on Monday.
The move sets TV creators on a collision course with the major studios as an industry-wide shift to streaming reorients the way shows are made and monetized.
Meanwhile, a strike would carry implications for millions of viewers, immediately disrupting some shows and delaying the development of others.
Here’s what to know about the impending strike, how a previous labor dispute played out and what it all means for TV offerings:
Why are Hollywood writers threatening to strike?
The contract dispute follows a decade-long shift to streaming that has slashed writer pay and worsened working conditions, the unions, which belong to East and West Coast branches of the Writers Guild of America, said in a statement.
Before the emergence of streaming, a studio typically ordered between 13 and 22 episodes for a season of television, allowing writers to work on a given project for as many as 40 weeks, Justin Halpern, a showrunner on “Abbott Elementary” and a union member, told ABC News.
Currently, studios order as few as six episodes, forcing writers to string together multiple projects and depend on savings in between jobs, he added.
“It’s becoming just a gig economy,” said Halpern, who has written for television for nearly 15 years.
“There’s a misconception in the world that writers are this really rich group of people who all drive BMWs and send their kids to private schools,” he added. “A lot of our members can’t even pay their rent.”
The proliferation of shows has also given rise to an industry practice known as the “mini-room,” in which a studio assembles a small group of writers to create a show before it gets greenlit.
Studios often pay the minimum permissible for work in mini-rooms, but oftentimes a production company lets go of some of the writers even if a show moves forward, leaving them cut out of additional pay as the show moves toward completion, Halpern said.
“Pay us a premium for being in these rooms because that’s the hardest work to do as a writer,” Halpern said.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, or AMPTP, which negotiates on behalf of TV and movie production companies, told ABC News in a statement that the strike vote amounts to a bargaining tactic.
“A strike authorization vote has always been part of the WGA’s plan, announced before the parties even exchanged proposals,” the group said. “Its inevitable ratification should come as no surprise to anyone.”
“Our goal is, and continues to be, to reach a fair and reasonable agreement,” the AMPTP added.
What happened the last time Hollywood writers went on strike?
The last time Hollywood writers authorized a strike, in 2017, the two sides reached a final-hour agreement that averted a work stoppage.
The most recent full-fledged strike, however, took place in 2007 and lasted 100 days, costing the California economy an estimated $2.1 billion.
Halpern said he hopes the writers avoid a strike this time around but he has “no idea” how long a potential strike could last.
“It’s up to our membership and it’s up to the studios,” he said.
What would a strike mean for what’s on TV?
A strike would immediately disrupt some daily programs that depend on writing staff, such as late shows.
It would also delay the development of scripted TV, potentially pushing back the release of new shows or forthcoming seasons of longstanding programs.
“The writers would stop work,” Halpern said. “Pencils down.”
“It would halt production on a lot of your favorite shows,” he added. “But I would hope that people understand that this is a labor action.”
(NEW YORK) — McDonald’s burgers have been an American classic since 1955.
Now, the iconic fast food chain is planning some changes, including how they cook their quintessential burgers.
For their signature Big Mac, McDouble, cheeseburger and hamburger, McDonald’s is promising softer buns, caramelized patties cooked with white onions on the grill, cheese slices that melt more and even an extra special sauce.
McDonald’s claims the improvements are so good even the Hamburgler is coming out of retirement to steal a bite.
The updated menu items have already been rolling out in restaurants along the West Coast, according to McDonald’s, and a few lucky ABC staffers and their families stopped by the Golden Arches in Los Angeles for a taste test.
Staffers agreed the food was indeed “very saucy” and “very cheesy” and one staffer’s young daughter added, “Yeah, very good!”
The McDonald’s changes are coming at a time when the burger business is heating up and McDonald’s continues to hang on to its market shares amid competition from other popular chains like Shake Shack, In-N-Out Burger and Five Guys.
Business experts like strategist Kathleen Griffith said these tweaks may help McDonald’s keep up with its rivals.
“Being that burger that people know, pulling out the original mascots, that sort of strategy is never going to get you into trouble when you work on driving a consistent customer experience. It’s a good recipe,” Griffith said.
The rolling launch is anticipated to be completed by 2024 and while McDonald’s is not planning to increase prices for these burgers, some individual franchises may update prices.
(NEW YORK) — The leak of dozens of highly classified documents on the social media platform Discord has elicited concern over online spaces where users can post sensitive government material without notice of authorities.
Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old airman in the Massachusetts Air National Guard, allegedly posted documents as early as December in a private Discord server, akin to a members-only chat room, according to charging documents.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was first informed of the leak months later in early April, he said at a press conference last week.
Teixeira was charged on Friday with unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information and willful retention of classified documents, which collectively carry a maximum of 15 years in prison.
The blockbuster leak underscores the challenge posed by social media platforms like Discord on which sensitive material can spread from private chat rooms into the public square, legal and national security experts said.
However, some experts and civil liberties advocates cautioned that expanded government surveillance of social media could violate privacy protections and limit free speech.
In an online statement on Friday, Discord Chief Legal Officer Clint Smith acknowledged the difficulty posed by the presence of sensitive government material but said the company had removed posts in connection with the Russia-Ukraine leak.
“Classified military intelligence documents pose a significant, complex challenge for Discord as they do for other online platforms – only authorized government personnel can determine whether a document is classified, unclassified, or even authentic,” Smith said.
“However, what is clear is that unauthorized disclosure of classified government documents violates Discord’s Terms of Service, which prohibit the posting of illegal content on our platform. Because of this, in connection with this incident, we have removed content, terminated user accounts, and are cooperating with the efforts of the United States Departments of Defense and Justice in their investigation of this incident,” he added.
The Biden administration, meanwhile, is considering an expansion of its surveillance of social media sites and chat rooms in the aftermath of the leak, NBC reported last week.
Discord, a platform with more than 150 million users worldwide, grew in popularity during the pandemic. Popular with young people and gamers, the site hosts different servers, or online communities, many of which are private.
In a 2021 cybersecurity report, the app drew scrutiny over its potential for enabling data theft.
“The Discord domain helps attackers disguise the exfiltration of data by making it look like any other traffic coming across the network,” a study from Cisco’s Talos cybersecurity team found.
The federal government faces robust legal limits in monitoring sites like Discord, however, since the U.S. cannot surveil private domestic communications without a warrant, James Lewis, a former senior intelligence official and a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told ABC News.
“Here’s an easy rule of thumb: Can you get it in a Google search?” Lewis said. “If the answer is ‘yes,’ it’s public; if you can’t, it’s private. Then you go down the route of a warrant.”
“If you had a private club and gathered around the table to talk, the government doesn’t have a right to break into that club,” he added.
In turn, social media platforms such as Discord face government pressure to monitor for illicit material but they encounter formidable challenges due in part to user preferences for data privacy, Eric Goldman, a Santa Clara University law professor who studies social media and content moderation, told ABC News.
“Social media providers are stuck in the middle. On the one hand, we want them to police against the dissemination of classified information,” Goldman said. “On the other hand, we don’t want them removing documents at the government’s request.”
While the images of the documents appeared to originate on a private Discord server, they later spread on publicly accessible social media platforms, such as 4chan and Twitter.
Enhanced government surveillance online could hinder free speech across social media, Patrick Toomey, deputy director of the National Security Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, told ABC News.
“The disclosure of classified documents on one gaming website doesn’t justify pervasive monitoring of our social media by intelligence agencies,” Toomey said.
“Suspicionless monitoring of social media chills speech and threatens Americans’ right to live without fear of constant government scrutiny,” he added.
Focus on social media in the aftermath of the leak overlooks the issue of how Texeira got a hold of the trove of documents in the first place, said Lewis, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“Why did a 21-year-old air national guardsmen have access to this material?” Lewis said. “That’s probably a better place to start because it doesn’t raise as many civil liberties concerns.”
While reexamining the pool of employees with access to highly classified information, the U.S. could also reconsider how it monitors such employees after granting them access, Lewis said.
“When you work for the government, particularly if you’re given security clearance, they usually make you sign a form giving them a right to access your bank account and other information,” he said.
“It seems like there’s a need for employees to expand that to include some monitoring of social media,” he added.
(NEW YORK) — Are you gearing up for one of the biggest shopping events of the year? Here’s what we know about Amazon Prime Day right now.
Though the company has not made its official announcement, Amazon Prime Day historically is in mid-July originally celebrating Amazon’s Birthday, which is July 5.
As we creep towards the big day we are breaking down everything you need to know to prepare for Prime Day 2023.
Be sure to check back as more information is released and deals start becoming available to shop.
What is Amazon Prime Day?
The 48-hour shopping event gives Prime members exclusive access to deals on Amazon.com across all categories including fashion, home, kitchen products and more.
When is Amazon Prime Day 2023?
Though the company has not made its official announcement, Amazon Prime Day historically is in mid-July.
Best prime day deals 2022
In past years, Amazon devices such as Echo systems, Fire Sticks and Kindles were deeply discounted. It is a great time to make purchases on electronics that you have been waiting to snag.
How do I score the best deals during Prime Day?
During the 48 hours of sale fun, there will be multiple discounts to explore. If you take bargain hunting seriously, be sure to look out for what Amazon calls “flash deals” or “lightning sales” that are time-sensitive. While some items are on sale all day long, lightning deals will only last as long as selected products remain in stock.
Do I need to have a prime membership?
Yes, Prime Day is for Amazon Prime members only. Not a member just yet? Amazon offers a 30-day free trial of Prime membership for shoppers who want to be able to participate in Prime Day. If you are looking to make the most out of this 48-hour spectacular, signing up for a membership is the best way to go. For those online shopping lovers who are looking to save all year round, the membership is $14.99/month or $139/year. Students can register at half price for $7.49 per month.
Jeffrey Greenberg/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — David’s Bridal has filed for bankruptcy and announced massive layoffs just weeks before wedding season.
One of the country’s largest bridal retailers, the company revealed plans to eliminate 9,236 employees across its hundreds of stores.
“They may shut some stores down,” The Stylish Bride founder Julie Sabatino told ABC News’ Good Morning America. “If that happens, you’re probably just going to need to go a little bit further to find a David’s.”
Layoffs have already begun in Pennsylvania and will continue to roll out through Aug. 11 at up to 15 stores in the state.
“Over the last several years, we have taken meaningful strides in our transformation to fulfill the needs of the brides of today and tomorrow,” David’s Bridal CEO James Marcum said in a statement. “We have successfully modernized our marketing and customer interaction processes and driven our retail service levels to best in class.”
He continued, “Nonetheless, our business continues to be challenged by the post-COVID environment and uncertain economic conditions, leading us to take this step to identify a buyer who can continue to operate our business going forward. We are determined to stay focused on our future, because we believe we have an important role in ensuring that every bride, no matter her budget, can have her perfect dress.”
In 2022, weddings hit their highest number in four decades as the result of a pandemic backlog, according to CEO of the Wedding Report Shane McMurray.
However, not as many people are expected to tie the knot this year due to post-pandemic obstacles, such as supply chain issues, that have continued to affect the wedding industry.
“What we’re seeing right now is dresses are taking anywhere between nine and 12 months to be produced, which is a much longer lead time than we were dealing with pre-pandemic,” said Sabatino.
Many people have also opted to pivot toward changing trends that lean toward second-hand shopping or non-traditional options.
Bride-to-be Jenn Leonard told GMA she found her wedding dress at a consignment shop and saved more than $1,500 off the retail price.
“My buying this dress is actually helping out the previous bride. That is a huge thing,” said Leonard. “You know, I’ve always firmly believed in paying it forward.”
(NEW YORK) — Speaking at the New York Stock Exchange on Monday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said the House will vote in “the coming weeks” on legislation to raise the debt ceiling and cut federal spending as he continued to blame President Joe Biden for not negotiating and accused him of “misleading the public.”
“I want to talk to you about the debate that’s not happening in Washington but should be happening over our national debt. It’s a debate that directly affects the lives of every American,” McCarthy said.
His latest salvo in the showdown comes as the White House has warned that, if House Republicans fail to pass a debt ceiling increase by this summer with no budget cuts attached, it would create financial chaos in world markets.
McCarthy said a $31 trillion debt is “too high” and the “problem is getting worse, not better.”
“Without exaggeration, America’s debt is a ticking time bomb that will detonate unless we take serious, responsible action. Yet how has President Biden reacted to this issue? He’s done nothing. So, in my view, he’s been irresponsible,” McCarthy said.
Biden and McCarthy met 75 days ago on Feb. 1, but the two leaders have not met or spoken about the debt ceiling since — beyond trading claims to reporters.
The president has not budged on his refusal to negotiate over the debt limit and has dismissed GOP efforts to combine a debt ceiling vote to a deal on the budget.
“Mr. President, with all due respect, enough is enough. This is not how the leader of the free world should act. Your partisan political games are provoking the very crisis you claim you want to avoid greater dependency on China, increasing inflation, and threatening Medicare and Social Security,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy says defaulting on our debt is “not an option” but blames the Biden administration for not engaging in negotiations with House Republicans.
“Make no mistake: The longer President Biden waits to be sensible, to find agreement, the more likely it becomes that his administration will bumble into the first default in our nation’s history,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy says a “no strings attached” debt limit increase will not pass.
“In the coming weeks, the House will vote on a bill to lift the debt ceiling into next year, save taxpayers trillions of dollars, make us less dependent on China, and curb high inflation — all without touching Social Security or Medicare,” McCarthy said.
He claimed the bill will limit federal spending, economic dependence on China, and the growth of spending over the next 10 years to 1% annual growth. The bill will also “claw back” billions of dollars in unused COVID-19 related spending, he said.
“Our proposal will also include restoring work requirements that ensure able-bodied adults without dependents earn a paycheck and learn new skills. That will grow our economy and help the supply chain,” McCarthy said.
This bill will be dead on arrival in the Senate. McCarthy is hoping this will bring Biden to the negotiating table.
Ahead of McCarthy’s speech on Monday, the White House accused him of “holding the economy and full faith and credit of the United States hostage.”
“Speaker McCarthy is holding the full faith and credit of the United States hostage, threatening our economy and hardworking Americans’ retirement,” White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in a written statement. “A speech isn’t a plan, but it’s clear that extreme MAGA Republicans’ wish lists will impose devastating cuts on hardworking families, send manufacturing overseas, take health care and food assistance away from millions of people, and increase energy costs — all while adding trillions to the debt with tax cuts skewed to the super-wealthy and corporations.”
Bates drew attention to when former Presidents Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan spoke out against debt-ceiling brinksmanship. And he noted that reporting on what McCarthy might call for in his speech “has shown no consensus within the Republican conference.”
“MAGA House Republicans can’t even agree what they are holding the debt limit hostage over,” Bates wrote. “Their proposals are all over the map, but they all have one thing in common: devastating cuts to programs that working families rely on to lower costs and make ends meet.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was also slated to respond to McCarthy’s New York Stock Exchange speech, with his office saying that on Monday he’ll call on McCarthy “to stop the partisan games and show us his plan to avoid defaulting on our national debt and provoking global financial catastrophe.”
McCarthy closed out his speech on Monday saying, “Well, if there’s one thing I hope America has learned about me in these first 100 days since I was elected speaker, it’s this: I will never give up.”
He said he has “full confidence that if we limit” federal spending, the U.S. will end dependence on China, curb inflation and protect Social Security and Medicare for the next generation.
“I’m here to tell you I want a responsible, sensible debt ceiling that puts us on an economic path to make America stronger. That works for every American. But that cannot happen if the president continues to ignore the problem and he can’t continue any longer. The day is coming. I do not want to see this president bumble into a default. I want to sit down and solve the problem together,” McCarthy said.
(WASHINGTON) — The Biden administration on Monday plans to announce a new round public and private commitments aimed at accelerating electric vehicle use throughout United States.
The commitments to be rolled out on Monday, which include investment pledges from Uber, Zipcar and other tech companies, build on the White House’s February announcement that Tesla plans to open thousands of its charging stations to the public.
“These commitments are part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to spur domestic manufacturing, strengthen supply chains, boost U.S. competitiveness and create good-paying jobs,” the administration said on Monday.
The administration set a goal of having 50% of all new vehicle sales be electric by 2030. It also plans to add more than 100,000 public EV chargers to the more than 135,000 now available throughout the country.
City officials in Madison, Wisconsin, have committed to converting its entire fleet of about 900 vehicles to EVs by 2030, the White House said on Monday.
And private companies have also made commitments to the White House to boost electric vehicle use in the years ahead.
Zipcar, a vehicle-sharing company, said it would “allocate 25% of its electric vehicles to disadvantaged communities in 2023,” the administration said in a release.
And the White House said on Monday that Uber, the ride-hailing company, had agreed to commit to driving 400 million EV miles on its platform by the end of 2023.
Uber will also “help hundreds of thousands of drivers transition to EVs and through its partnerships with automakers, rental companies, and charging companies,” officials said.
Bowie, Maryland-based Blink Charging committed to investing $49 million to increase its manufacturing capacity, growing it from 10,000 to 40,000 chargers per year by 2024.
(NEW YORK) — Michael Critchley’s job is to persuade his longtime Ford customers to swap their gas-guzzling pickups for the F-150 Lightning.
Ford started production of the all-electric Lightning in late 2021 and the Dearborn automaker still cannot keep up with demand. Critchley says he has so many requests for the electric truck that he’s forced to turn away wannabe owners.
“People are offering me a lot of money over MSRP. I’ve been offered $20K above sticker price,” Critchley, the sales manager of Romeo Ford in Kingston, New York, told ABC News. “A lot of pickup guys are coming to the Lightning.”
Higher material costs and ongoing chip shortages have hampered production of the $60,000 pickup, which gets at least 230 miles on a full charge, forcing eager buyers to wait months or longer for theirs to arrive. The Dearborn automaker sold 15,600 F-150 Lightning units in 2022.
Critchley says he has been seeing customers trade out of a Tesla or a hybrid SUV for a Lightning. Some of his upstate New York customers are so fed up with the long wait they’re going to competing dealerships and paying more.
“I have about 25 customers waiting for one … the higher prices haven’t deterred customers,” Critchley said. “My dad has one and loves it. He’s never getting rid of it.”
Ford has raised the price of the Lightning multiple times since its launch. Customers who choose the entry-level Pro model now pay at least $20,000 more than the original $40,000 price.
Ivan Drury, senior manager of insights at Edmunds, said Ford could charge even more and customers would pay up. The average transaction price of a Lightning this year costs $84,192 versus $64,331 for the standard F-150 truck, Drury pointed out.
“The Lightning is a home run for Ford,” he told ABC News. “The company has hundreds of thousands of reservations — it’s sold out through 2024. There is no cooling down in this market.”
The F-150 Lightning may be wildly popular with Americans but competition in the burgeoning electric market is just heating up. Rivian’s compact R1T electric pickup has already won accolades with the automotive community. GMC has seen unprecedented interest in its $110,000 Hummer EV pickup. The brand’s $107,000 Sierra EV Denali goes on sale in early 2024.
Stellantis recently unveiled the Ram 1500 REV, a battery-electric light-duty pickup.
Common complaints of trucks — noisiness, hefty fuel costs — no longer apply with electric models.
“They’re getting consumers to think about EVs. The adoption rate is going up,” said Drury. “Electric trucks are removing all barriers to entry … I see them as the holy grail of EVs.”
Drury also noted that electric trucks post performance numbers not found in standard gas-powered pickups. The R1T and Hummer EV can sprint from 0-60 mph in 3 seconds; the Lightning completes the task in less than 4 seconds.
“No one expects a truck to be that fast,” said Drury.
The rapidly expanding lists of electric trucks could help President Joe Biden meet his latest climate goals that call for two-thirds of new cars and trucks sold in the U.S. to be all-electric by 2032. The Biden administration says these proposed rules would cut nearly 10 billion tons of CO2 emissions and save consumers $12,000 on average over the lifetime of a vehicle.
Electric vehicle sales are rising though they still account for a small share of the U.S. auto market. Drury said electric trucks totaled a fraction — 0.20% — of total vehicle sales in 2022. Cox Automotive forecasts EV sales will surpass 1 million units this year in the U.S.
Jonny Lieberman, senior features editor at MotorTrend, took the electric plunge when he bought a Rivian R1T in June of 2022. Lieberman said the truck’s off-roading capabilities convinced him to embrace the EV lifestyle.
“The truck has four motors — that’s game-changing for off-roading,” he told ABC News. “It’s also a performance vehicle with 845 horsepower and 908 lb-ft of torque.”
Lieberman, who lives in Southern California, installed a home charger to juice the truck’s battery for his outdoor adventures. He gets 270 miles on a full charge and hasn’t experienced range anxiety yet, he says.
“I stopped thinking about worse-case scenarios like what do I do on a road trip,” he said.
He’s even become an unofficial spokesperson for the brand, preaching to friends and strangers about the benefits of owning one.
“I have convinced many people to buy a Rivian. I am an evangelist,” he said. “Imagine never having to go to a gas station again.”
Tony Caravano, senior director of customer engagement at Rivian, said 75% of R1T and R1S customers are new to EVs. Moreover, 60% of R1T customers have never owned a pickup truck before.
“People are really excited by the design, capability and performance,” Caravano told ABC News. “The vehicles are durable. Customers put baby strollers in the truck’s gear tunnel.”
He added, “We’re exposing EV technology to a lot of people.”
Owners of the $73,000 Rivian R1T truck are some of the happiest in the industry, according to a new J.D. Power survey. Many buy the R1T and the R1S, the company’s three-row SUV, for their daily commutes or to shuttle their kids to and from school, Caravano said.
The R1T may also soon act as a backup power generator, similar to what the F-150 Lightning can do. Ford customers who purchase the Lightning’s extended range battery can power up their homes for up to three days.
Rivian, like Tesla and Mercedes, is also busy building out its “Rivian Adventure Network,” where Rivian customers can exclusively charge their vehicles at various U.S. locations. Rivian currently has 113 DC fast charging sites and 34 additional locations are coming online soon, Caravano said.
“Charging infrastructure is very important as well as and education around charging,” he said.
The all-electric 2025 Ram 1500 REV, which made its debut in New York this month, has a targeted range of 350 miles with a standard 168 kilowatt-hour battery pack. That number jumps to 500 miles if owners choose the larger 229 kilowatt-hour battery.
The 1500 REV marks the first battery-electric light-duty pickup truck from Ram Trucks. The truck can add up to 110 miles of range in about 10 minutes with 800-volt DC fast charging.
“We believe in bringing the right range of powertrain solutions to our customers and will continue to redefine the pickup truck segment. Our all-new Ram 1500 REV pushes past the competition in areas customers care about most including range, towing, payload and charge time,” Ram CEO Mike Koval Jr. said.
The Silverado EV will be available next summer and GM is already accepting deposits online. The Detroit automaker said the truck will get an estimated 400 miles of range, utilize GM’s Ultium EV Platform and include the Super Cruise driver-assistance technology.
Jim Farley, the president and CEO of Ford, told ABC News in March a second electric will soon be built at Ford’s BlueOval City manufacturing campus in Stanton, Tennessee.
“Lightning is the best-selling electric pickup in the U.S. but this will be its successor,” he said.
Electric trucks’ gargantuan size and massive battery packs have not gone unnoticed. The beefy Hummer weighs more than 9,000 lbs; the Lightning tips the scale at 6,500 pounds — 2,000 to 3,000 pounds more than the internal combustion F-150. The extra weight has prompted federal officials and industry watchers to warn of their safety risks.
“I’m concerned about the increased risk of severe injury and death for all road users from heavier curb weights and increasing size, power, and performance of vehicles on our roads, including electric vehicles,” Jennifer Homendy, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board, said in January. “We have to be careful that we aren’t also creating unintended consequences: More death on our roads. Safety, especially when it comes to new transportation policies and new technologies, cannot be overlooked.”
Another criticism of electric trucks: Range drops precipitously when towing. MotorTrend found the F-150 Lightning’s range fell from 300 to 115 miles when towing a 3,140-pound camper. The magazine’s testing also discovered the truck’s max range was 100 miles when pulling a 5,260-pound camper. The R1T’s estimated 314-mile range gets slashed by half when hauling a heavy load, according to reports.
Critchley of Romeo Ford said “die-hard diesel and gas guys” who live in rural, upstate New York may be the last holdouts in the electric truck revolution. If these trucks can reliably tow, pull and travel long distances, Critchley’s customers — farmers, construction workers and locals needing a reliable winter ride — may forgo diesel and gasoline for battery power.
“The Lightning is the best pickup I’ve driven,” he said.
Drury has already put down a deposit on the Ram 1500 REV, his first electric vehicle. The long wait may be the toughest part of owning one.
“You can have everything with these trucks,” he said. “I would choose an electric truck over anything.”
(NEW YORK) — Parler, a social media platform popular among conservatives, will temporarily shut down after being acquired by the hedge fund Starboard, the company said on Friday.
The acquisition comes months after the failure of a bid for the app’s parent company, Parlement Technologies, undertaken by Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West.
Starboard pulled down the app as part of a “strategic assessment” but plans to relaunch the platform, the company said in a statement.
“No reasonable person believes that a Twitter clone just for conservatives is a viable business any more,” Starboard said.
“We at Starboard see tremendous opportunities across multiple sectors to continue to serve marginalized or even outright censored communities,” the company added.
New York-based Starboard, founded in 2018, did not disclose how much it paid to acquire Parlement Technologies.
In the middle of last year, Parler counted 700,000 monthly average users compared with 2.8 million on rival rightwing platform Truth Social, according to data from the firm Data.ai, which was analyzed by the New York Times.
Starboard also owns right-leaning sites American Wire and BizPac Review.
“Parler’s large user base and additional strategic assets represent an enormous opportunity for Starboard to continue to build aggressively in our media and publishing business,” Ryan Coyne, CEO of Starboard, said in a statement.
“The team at Parler has built an exceptional audience and we look forward to integrating that audience across all of our existing platforms,” he added.
Parler was removed from iPhone and Android app stores after the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The platform was later reinstated to those app stores.
Launched five years ago, Parler characterized itself as a platform where a user could “speak freely and express yourself openly without fear of being ‘deplatformed’ for your views,” according to the homepage on its previous website.
Parler is among a host of alternative content platforms — including Truth Social, Rumble and Gab — considered to have less stringent content moderation policies than apps such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Parler is the most well-known of those alternative platforms, according to a Pew Research survey conducted last May.
Thirty-eight percent of U.S. adults said they had heard of Parler, as opposed to 27% of adults familiar with Truth Social and 20% who knew of Rumble, the study showed.
The acquisition of Parler arrives amid tumult in the social media landscape.
Facebook-parent Meta, which has laid off more than 20,000 workers since the fall, has suffered declines in its revenue and stock price.
Meanwhile, Twitter has slashed roughly 75% of its workforce and overhauled its subscription offering since entrepreneur Elon Musk completed a $44 billion deal for the service in October.
China-based TikTok, which boasts more than 150 million U.S. users, faces bipartisan calls on Capitol Hill for a ban.
In the press announcement on Friday, Starboard referred to Parler as “the world’s pioneering uncancelable free speech platform.”
(NEW YORK) — Airlines are already booking up for getaways abroad this summer and as Americans finalize travel plans, there are some important things to keep in mind.
With 75% of seats already sold on their aircrafts, Delta revealed that it has had to increase its number of international flights.
As search interest soars for summer travel, Expedia travel expert Melanie Fish told ABC News’ Good Morning America that their app has already seen “a 25% jump in flight searches over the summer” for popular domestic destinations alone, such as Los Angeles, Seattle and New York City.
“People are going back to cities, but we’re also seeing people interested in these more far-flung destinations,” Fish said.
June will likely mark peak prices for domestic travel and July for international destinations.
Hayley Berg, an economist for the travel booking app Hopper, told GMA that for anyone planning to travel domestically, “book now if you’re going to be traveling in May, June or July.”
“If you’re planning to travel at the end of the summer, think August, early September and Labor Day,” Berg said. “You have a few more weeks to find the best deals.”
London, Paris, New Zealand, Japan and Vietnam are among the most popular international destinations. But Berg suggested finding cheaper destinations or nearby arrival cities for less.
“Most travelers headed to a bucket list vacation in Europe are going to consider the big cities Rome, Paris, London,” she said. “But Portugal is typically very inexpensive to fly in and out of.”
Bianca Signez plans to take her first international trip since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. But she told GMA that increased airfare alone for peak summer travel has already left her “really disappointed.”
“I hear that July is a great time to go to Italy, which I’m excited about, but it’s also very pricey,” Signez said. “The flight alone will cost me a little over $1,000 — I think that’s the most I’ve ever spent on a flight before.”
As airfare prices trend upwards, another option to get more bang for the buck could be to head for the high seas instead.
Cruise Critic shows that you can travel to Alaska between May and August for less than $115 per night per person, with some ships selling spots as low as $37. Meanwhile, average fares for cruises to Mexico are less than $100 per night for most of the summer.
When it comes time to plan domestic travel, experts suggested booking airfare 21 to 60 days out and at least three months in advance for international airfare.
Last year, average ticket prices were around 8% lower during these same time frames, compared to 60 to 90 days out.
