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Amazon layoffs will continue into next year, CEO says

November 18, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Amazon’s layoffs will continue into the new year, CEO Andy Jassy said in a new memo Thursday.

The announcement comes a day after the tech company began layoffs of workers on its devices team, which focuses on products like its voice-operated Alexa, according to a memo from Dave Limp, senior vice president of devices and services.

“This year’s review is more difficult due to the fact that the economy remains in a challenging spot and we’ve hired rapidly the last several years,” Jassy said Thursday.

Decisions on the latest Amazon role reductions will be shared in early 2023, Jassy said. It is not yet certain how many jobs will be impacted, though the reductions will impact Amazon’s stores and People Experience and Technology Solutions organizations, he said.

The move adds the company to a list of major tech firms that have imposed job cuts in recent weeks, including Facebook-parent Meta and Twitter.

Limp’s memo did not provide details on the scale of the layoffs, but the job losses arrive at a time when the company typically expands its workforce during the busy holiday season.

“We continue to face an unusual and uncertain macroeconomic environment,” Limp’s memo said. “After a deep set of reviews, we recently decided to consolidate some teams and programs.”

“In cases where employees cannot find a new role within the company, we will support the transition with a package that includes a separation payment, transitional benefits and external job placement support,” the memo added.

The layoffs follow major job cuts at other big tech firms, as industry titans retreat from record sales attained during the pandemic, when billions across the world were forced into isolation. Customers stuck at home came to rely on delivery services like e-commerce and virtual connections formed through social media and videoconferencing.

However, persistent recession fears, rising interest rates and a shift back toward a pre-pandemic lifestyle have crunched the tech sector.

Under new owner Elon Musk, Twitter laid off roughly half of its 7,500-person workforce, citing losses of about $4 million each day.

Days later, Meta announced that it would cut about 11,000 employees, which amounts to roughly 13% of its workforce. The company reported a second consecutive quarter of declining sales last month.

Lyft, Netflix, Coinbase, Salesforce, Microsoft and Snap are among a slew of other tech companies that have cut workers this year.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq has fallen more than 25% in 2022. Shares in Amazon are down 18% this year.

Third-quarter earnings released by Amazon last month fell short of analyst expectations for revenue, sending the stock down 13% in extended trading on the day of the announcement.

Tennessee AG probing Ticketmaster over botched Taylor Swift ticket rollout

November 18, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The Tennessee attorney general said he is looking into whether consumer protection laws were violated after Ticketmaster botched the rollout of Taylor Swift concert tickets.

“We have received complaints about the sale process, and we have previously looked into antitrust allegations involving Ticketmaster and Live Nation. We want to make sure that there are no issues here that merit legal response,” Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti told reporters Wednesday, according to a transcript of the press conference obtained by ABC News.

Swift is hitting the road for the first time since the pandemic started on her “Eras Tour” and demand for tickets including the three shows in Nashville, Tennessee, have never been higher. Users reported waiting in a virtual line for hours without being able to purchase tickets when it was their turn. Ticketmaster has since cancelled Friday’s regular sale of tickets due to “ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory.”

Skrmetti said there are a few specific issues his office is looking at, in particular the representations made with the presale code fans were given to buy tickets with.

“If there were any representations made with respect to the process in advance, that could be an issue,” he said. “We’re talking about a company with an extremely dominant market share.”

Under a previous settlement with Ticketmaster, it allows the attorney general to get information that is otherwise not public regarding the company’s business practices. He did say it was worth looking at whether or not Ticketmaster and Live Nation are a monopoly.

“I know the Department of Justice and the states took a hard look at the Ticketmaster Live Nation merger and secured a consent decree that was theoretically going to reduce the antitrust risks,” he said. “If we’re seeing a situation where people are trying to use the service and aren’t getting the product that they’ve paid for, the product that they were promised, that could be an indicator that there’s not enough competition in the market. We just need to take a closer look.”

Ticketmaster responded Thursday to the criticisms it has faced over its handling of the Verified Fan presale, which opened earlier this week and noted that over 2 million tickets were sold in a single day for Swift’s shows on Tuesday.

“The biggest venues and artists turn to us because we have the leading ticketing technology in the world – that doesn’t mean it’s perfect, and clearly for Taylor’s on sale it wasn’t. But we’re always working to improve the ticket buying experience. Especially for high demand on sales, which continue to test new limits,” the statement said.

Ticketmaster said that it would “improve the experience and that’s what we’re focused on.”

Ticketmaster also canceled the Friday public sale of “Eras Tour” due “to extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand.”

Ticketmaster and Live Nation merged in 2010 and in 2019 the company paid fines pertaining to the company violating the agreed upon terms of DOJ consent decree during the final merger.

“Despite the prohibitions in the Final Judgment, Live Nation repeatedly and over the course of several years engaged in conduct that, in the Department’s view, violated the Final Judgment,” a press release by DOJ said in 2019. “To put a stop to this conduct and to remove any doubt about defendants’ obligations under the Final Judgment going forward, the Department and Live Nation have agreed to modify the Final Judgment to make clear that such conduct is prohibited.”

As part of the updated 2019 settlement, the company agreed to have the Justice Department’s antitrust division monitor the companies’ practices.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was also critical of the merger after seeing reports people couldn’t get tickets to Swift shows.

“Daily reminder that Ticketmaster is a monopoly, it’s merger with LiveNation should never have been approved, and they need to be reigned in,” she tweeted Tuesday. “Break them up.”

If the company was found to be in violation of consumer protection laws, they could be the subject of fines and a court order to not engage in similar practices.

“This is a company that we’ve looked at in the past,” Skrmetti said. “This is a company that’s been the subject of numerous complaints going back decades. And there may be other people who are interested, but this is something that we are interested in to make sure that they’re treating consumers fairly.”

The reason Skrmetti is doing this, he said, is because music is an important part of the local economy.

“It’s not just a matter of fans who are or being harmed by this potentially. There are a lot of people involved in concert production and concert promotion in this area,” he said. “The ramifications of it are more significant here than elsewhere. The other thing is there are different AGs with different bandwidths and different opportunities.”

Attorney General Skrmetti said he is “curious” about the company’s planning given the widespread announcement of the tour.

Jan. 6 committee pushes back after Pence says he won’t testify

November 18, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Former Vice President Mike Pence said this week that he’s not going to testify before the House Jan. 6 committee, claiming that doing so would violate the separation of powers between Congress and the White House.

Pence, on a media blitz to promote his new memoir, told CBS News that he was “closing the door” on speaking before the panel after previously stating that he’d consider it.

“The Congress has no right to my testimony,” Pence said. “We have a separation of powers under the Constitution of the United States. I believe it would establish a terrible precedent for the Congress to summon a vice president of the United States to speak about deliberations that took place at the White House.”

Pence, though now adamant against sitting before the committee, said he otherwise expects to speak about the Jan. 6 attack “to some degree for the rest of my life” and has been doing so in interviews or town halls with ABC, CBS, CNN and others.

As then-vice president, Pence was at the U.S. Capitol when rioters breached the building and was forced to hide at an underground location for hours before Congress was able to certify President Joe Biden’s electoral victory.

Pence has been praised repeatedly by committee members for standing up to former President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential race.

Pence hasn’t minced words of late when it comes to Trump’s behavior, telling ABC News’ David Muir earlier this week that Trump’s words on Jan. 6 were “reckless” and endangered his life and the lives of others.

In an exclusive interview, Pence told Muir about the first discussion he had with Trump in the aftermath of the insurrection, about whether he regretted his own rhetoric in the aftermath of the election and why Trump wasn’t taking calls during the riot.

Pence has also recently delivered critiques of the Jan. 6 panel. Speaking with CBS, he accused the committee of being partisan.

Committee chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and vice chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., pushed back on Pence in a statement on Wednesday.

“The Select Committee has proceeded respectfully and responsibly in our engagement with Vice President Pence, so it is disappointing that he is misrepresenting the nature of our investigation while giving interviews to promote his new book,” the two lawmakers said.

Thompson and Cheney said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., had the opportunity to appoint Republicans to the panel but chose not to. The two Republicans who serve on the committee — Cheney and Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, both vocal Trump critics and departing members of the House — were appointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“The Select Committee has consistently praised the former Vice President’s refusal to bow to former President Trump’s pressure to illegally refuse to count electoral votes on January 6th,” Thompson and Cheney said. “But his recent statements about the Select Committee are not accurate.”

The committee has not subpoenaed Pence but has subpoenaed Trump for documents and testimony in a historic move.

Trump sued to block the subpoena and the committee has since said it’s evaluating all of its options to try and compel his participation.

Why Philadelphia’s district attorney was impeached by Pennsylvania’s Republican-led House

November 18, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(PHILADELPHIA) — Pennsylvania’s Republican-led State House voted overwhelmingly to impeach Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner over what they allege is his lax approach to crime, leniency toward criminal offenders and other allegations.

The House’s 107-85 vote on Wednesday will send the matter to the Republican-controlled State Senate. This sets the stage for what would be the first Pennsylvania Senate impeachment trial in nearly three decades.

With a 29-21 majority in the state Senate, Republicans will need a two-third vote to convict and remove Krasner from office.

In their resolution to impeach Krasner, State House Republicans cited what they called his alleged lax approach to crime, including his office’s policies to seek more lenient sentences for offenders, as well as his failure to prosecute some low-level offenses such as drug possession and prostitution.

Krasner said in a statement that the vote was the only time the state House has ever “used the drastic remedy of impeachment of an elected official because they do not like their ideas.”

He accused House Republicans of impeaching him without presenting a “single shred of evidence connecting our policies to any uptick in crime.”

“History will harshly judge this anti-Democratic authoritarian effort to erase Philly’s votes – votes by Black, brown, and broke people in Philadelphia. And voters will have the last word,” he added.

Republicans have blamed Krasner and his policies for a surge in gun violence in Philadelphia over the past few years, a trend consistent in cities across the country since the start of the pandemic.

Republican State Representative Martina White, who introduced the impeachment articles, said at Wednesday’s vote: “This man has denied that there is even a crisis of crime happening on our streets.”

To date, there have been 460 homicides in Philadelphia this year, a 5% decrease from 2021, according to the city’s Office of the Controller. There were 562 homicides in 2021, a 13% increase from 2020.

State Republicans also alleged Krasner obstructed the House’s investigation of his office.

Krasner’s office filed a motion in October seeking to quash a subpoena issued by the state legislative committee searching for grounds to impeach him, describing it as a “politically motivated effort” in a statement. In a letter to the committee, Krasner accused them of failing to specify the basis of his impeachment and repeatedly refusing to speak with him

Krasner is one of many progressive prosecutors elected in recent years amid growing concerns about racism and over-incarceration in the U.S. criminal justice system.

Krasner was overwhelmingly reelected by voters last year with significant support from Black voters living in neighborhoods historically most impacted by gun violence, according to reports from local news outlets like The Philadelphia Tribune and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

His office also reported that violent crime and all categories of crime remain historically low compared with the 1990s.

State House Democrats contend Republicans are scapegoating Krasner for wider problems with crime, accusing them of abusing legislative power for political ends.

Democratic Representative Joanna McClinton, whose district includes parts of Philadelphia, accused Republicans of wanting to “overturn the will” of the electorate during the House session on Wednesday.

“Impeachment now seems to be a measure that we’re using when we have a disagreement on public policy,” McClinton said.

WNBA star Brittney Griner moved to penal colony in Russian region of Mordovia

November 18, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — WNBA star Brittney Griner has been taken to penal colony IK-2 in the Russian region of Mordovia, her lawyers said in a statement Thursday.

Griner is nearing her ninth month in detention after being taken into custody at a Moscow area airport in February for possessing vape cartridges with hashish oil, which is illegal in Russia. Griner pleaded guilty in July and was sentenced to 9 1/2 years in prison in August.

“We visited her early this week. Brittney is doing as well as could be expected and trying to stay strong as she adapts to a new environment,” Griner’s legal team said in a statement to ABC News. “Considering that this is a very challenging period for her, there will be no further comments from us.”

The lawyer continued, “On behalf of Brittney, we would like to thank everyone who has expressed care for her. During the last few days, we’ve received numerous messages of support.”

The U.S. government has classified Griner as “wrongfully detained” in Russia as it continues to negotiate for her freedom. U.S. officials have accused Russia of imposing an unusually harsh sentence on Griner and using her as a political prisoner as Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine just a week after Griner was taken into custody.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris called the WNBA player’s wife, Cherelle Griner, in July to “reassure” her that they are working to secure Griner’s release.

The U.S. has publicly floated a proposal it made to the Russian government to negotiate the release of Griner and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who has been detained in Russia since 2019, in exchange for convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout.

Griner filed an appeal to her nine-year prison sentence, but a Russian judge rejected the appeal on Oct. 25.

The 32-year-old Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and eight-time All-Star for the Phoenix Mercury, was traveling to Russia to play for her club team, UMMC Ekaterinburg, during the WNBA’s offseason when she was taken into custody.

Last week, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that while the U.S. did not know Griner’s exact location or final destination, diplomats were already advocating for her through official channels.

“As soon as we learned of her transfer, we requested formally from the Russian government, we requested more information about her transfer,” Price said, reacting to reports she had been transferred to a penal colony. “We are also engaging to do all that we can to ensure that her conditions are as safe, as healthy, as can be during this time.”

Price said Russia had not responded to the requests.

Biden had expressed optimism that negotiations with the Russian government might be more successful now that the midterm elections were over.

ABC News’ Shannon Crawford contributed to this report.

Ukrainians endure power outages amid Russian strikes on infrastructure

November 18, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(KYIV, Ukraine) — As darkness descends on the Ukrainian capital, the consequences of the waves of Russian missile strikes against critical energy infrastructure become apparent.

There’s no street lighting in many places around Kyiv, with people carrying flashlights or just their mobile phones with lights on to navigate around. Even traffic lights go off from time to time — all part of the new reality that residents are getting used to.

After the first massive Russian strike on Oct. 10 on energy facilities in various regions, Ukrainians have been warned of expected blackouts and outages and urged to save as much electricity as possible. The most popular commercial to watch on TV (that’s when the lights are on and the TV works, of course) is the government appeal to help stabilize the energy network: switch off as many appliances as possible, especially from 7-9 a.m. and between 7-11 p.m.

As a result of Russian missile attacks on Wednesday, more than 10 million Ukrainians are currently without electricity, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Most of them are in Vinnytsia, Odesa, Sumy regions and Kyiv, he said.

The governor of Kyiv region said Thursday that at least 78% of customers are affected by power outages in one way or another. Last week, 350,000 households in Kyiv alone were without electricity, roughly half of the city, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

Then there’s public transport used by hundreds of thousands of residents every day with a vast network of metro, tramway and trolleybus lines — all needing power, yet needed to save power. Hence, less services and longer intervals between them: waiting for the metro train for 10 minutes instead of 2-3 minutes is a new norm, if service hasn’t been stopped altogether as it happens every time when air sirens signal the threat of another missile strike.

The worst is yet to come, officials warn, saying energy companies have run out of spare parts to repair essential infrastructure and appealing to international partners for urgent technical help. But any supplies will take time and for now people are told to prepare not just for planned blackouts but for emergency outages lasting hours.

This would be the best case scenario, says Dmytro Sakharukm, the CEO of DTEK, the biggest energy company in Ukraine, adding that a more realistic scenario includes having permanent blackouts with planned electricity supplies at intervals.

Not many residents will take those warnings with great optimism as the weather is not on their side either. With the first snow in Kyiv overnight on Thursday and more expected by the weekend, pressure will be mounting on energy systems as plunging temperatures mean the heating network will be more and more hungry for power.

The majority of households in Kyiv and the region have been affected by outages, yet it’s a matter of luck.

Much of it depends on where exactly you live in Kyiv and which generator and transformer facilities or power lines have been damaged. In general, residents on the left bank of Dnipro River have been affected much worse due to the higher number of industrial facilities and residences in the area that require more power.

Serhiy Holichenko, a resident of Schaslyve, a town about 3 miles outside Kyiv, told ABC News that the temperature outside was not yet a major concern but he is worried about his electric stove getting power.

“You never know when you’ll be able to cook or just heat your meal,” he said.

Footage of Black man’s beating in custody draws outrage, state investigation

November 18, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(CAMDEN COUNTY, Ga.) — Security footage that shows a group of police officers in Georgia beating a 41-year-old Black man in custody has drawn community outrage. Civil rights attorney Harry Daniels said the incident is yet another case of wrongdoing by Georgia’s Camden County Sheriff’s Office.

The footage from the sheriff’s office of the Sept. 3 incident was released by Daniels. It shows Jarrett Hobbs standing in a holding cell when an officer enters, seemingly grabbing Hobbs by the neck. Four more officers come in, one of whom begins to punch Hobbs in the back of the neck before other officers join in the attack.

Hobbs, a resident of North Carolina, had been detained earlier that day for allegedly speeding, driving with a suspended driver’s license and possession of a controlled substance. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced Wednesday it would begin an independent investigation of the “use of force incident” at the request of Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Keith Higgins.

Daniels and co-counsel Bakari Sellers announced in August a $25 million lawsuit against Camden County deputies and Sheriff Jim Proctor over the shooting death of 37-year-old Latoya James while executing a drug-related search warrant in her home in May 2021. The district attorney’s office decided not to charge the deputies involved in that shooting, according to ABC affiliate station WJXX in Jacksonville.

“While any loss of life is always tragic, the officers’ use of force in this instance was justified to protect their lives,” Higgins said in a statement in April on the James case.

“This is not a bad apple, this is a bad apple orchard,” Daniels said at a press conference Wednesday.

Hobbs’ two sisters and Camden County NAACP President Timothy Bessent, Sr. also attended the press conference. While the sisters declined to comment, Bessent, Sr. spoke on the local NAACP’s ongoing efforts to mend community-police relations over the past two years.

“We like to say the NAACP of Camden County believes in the rule of law. We want to support the law enforcement officers and treat everyone with dignity that humans deserve,” he said. “The beating of Jarrett Hobbs and other incidents that have come to light show how far the sheriff’s office still have to go.”

Daniels, Sellers, community members, and Hobbs’ family are now calling for the immediate arrest and termination of the officers involved.

“There was absolutely no reasoning, no justification, no cause, no debatable issue, no legal justification to go in that cell with a man sitting there and pummel him,” Sellers said at the conference. “[What] they did to him was a criminal act.”

According to a statement from Daniels, Hobbs had been “suffering a psychological episode” and had asked to be placed in protective confinement on the day of the incident.

According to Daniels, Hobbs suffered injuries including a chipped tooth and swelling and one of his dreadlocks was also pulled out of his head during the altercation. He says that though Hobbs complained immediately afterwards, he did not receive medical attention and was put in solitary confinement for about two weeks.

It is unclear whether any particular event prompted the incident, but Hobbs was later charged with assault and battery against a police officer.

Hobbs bonded out on all charges and was released from Camden County custody on Sept. 30, court records show. He is now in custody in North Carolina for violating his probation due to his Georgia arrest.

Camden County Sheriff Jim Proctor has ordered an internal investigation, according to a statement from the sheriff’s office Monday, more than two months after the incident occurred.

“These investigations limit what can be stated but, I can say that the five employees have been placed on administrative duties that are not in any way associated with law enforcement duties,” Camden County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Larry Bruce said in a statement to ABC News Thursday. “This was done so the investigators have immediate access to these individuals during the conducting of the inquiry.”

The sheriff’s office said it will not release the names of the deputies involved until the investigation concludes.

Other roommates home when four Idaho college students were stabbed to death

November 17, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Emily Shapiro, ABC News

(MOSCOW, Idaho) — No persons of interest or suspects have been identified in the fatal stabbings of four University of Idaho students who were found dead in a house near the Moscow, Idaho, campus, police said.

No one has been cleared in the case, either, Idaho State Police spokesman Aaron Snell told ABC News on Thursday.

The students, who were killed early Sunday morning and found hours later, were identified as Ethan Chapin, 20, of Conway, Washington; Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Xana Kernodle, 20, of Avondale, Arizona; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho.

Two other roommates were home at the time of the crime, and they were not hurt, Moscow Police Chief James Fry said during a news conference Wednesday. It was not a hostage situation, he added.

It’s believed the victims were killed between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. Sunday, Moscow Mayor Art Bettge told ABC News. The roommates were home when police responded to a call for an unconscious individual at the home about eight hours later, Fry said. The roommates were not the 911 callers, according to Snell.

Snell said the two surviving female roommates — who have not been ruled “in or out at suspects” — are “working and talking with detectives, and they have been cooperative — very cooperative.”

“Potentially they are witnesses, potentially they are victims,” Snell said, adding that the roommates could be “the key to this whole thing.”

Fry said the four victims were killed with a knife in “an isolated, targeted attack”.

Snell did not reveal what type of knife was used in the killings but said authorities are going to local businesses to see if anyone recently purchased a fixed-blade knife.

Snell described it as “a very complex and in-depth investigation.”

As for having no suspects or persons of interest nearly a week later, Snell said, “It’s very frustrating … we would have loved to have solved this [immediately.]”

Police said they are working to determine the victims’ timeline Saturday night.

Chapin and Kernodle were at a party on campus while Goncalves and Mogen were at a downtown bar that night, Fry said.

Chapin didn’t live in the house but was sleeping over with his girlfriend, Kernodle, according to his mother, Stacy Chapin.

Goncalves and Mogen had been best friends since childhood and “did everything together,” Goncalves’ sister, Alivia Goncalves, told ABC News.

She said she finds some solace that the friends were together in their final moments.

Autopsies from the Latah County Coroner found all of the victims were stabbed to death in a homicide.

Although Fry described the attack as “targeted,” he said, “We cannot say there is no threat to the community.”

He urged anyone with information about the victims’ whereabouts Saturday night to call the tip line at 208-883-7180.

As police canvass for information, a direct neighbor of the victims’ house told ABC News he has not been interviewed by police.

“If anybody does have information, we encourage them to contact us,” Snell said.

Former FBI agent and ABC News contributor Brad Garrett thinks the surviving roommates are the “key” in the investigation, but he doesn’t think they are suspects.

“It’s a small town. The likelihood that they know who that person was in the house, I think, is reasonable,” Garrett said Thursday morning.

In terms of the investigation, Garrett said, “police appear to be stymied based on their own comments.”

For police, Garrett said the next steps are: “You really are going to have to do a complete detail of the party that was prior to whatever was going on between 3 and 4 o’clock at the victim’s house. … Who followed them home? Who has been taking whom? Who have had issues with people? This killer didn’t all of a sudden show up at this house — he knew this house.”

ABC News’ Kayna Whitworth contributed to this report.

Taylor Swift ticket debacle renews calls to split up Ticketmaster and Live Nation

November 17, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Ticketmaster is pulling the plug on the general-public ticket sale for Taylor Swift’s “Eras” tour that was set to take place Friday, Nov. 18.

The company tweeted Thursday: “Due to extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand, tomorrow’s public on-sale for Taylor Swift’s ‘The Eras Tour’ has been cancelled.” It remains unclear whether the general sale will be rescheduled.

The announcement comes after backlash from Swift fans who experienced long waits and “error” messages when trying to purchase tickets during a “verified fan” pre-ticket sale Nov. 15.

Samantha Miller said she knew scoring tickets for Taylor Swift’s 2023 “Eras” tour for her 13-year-old daughter wouldn’t be easy, but she said her experience with Ticketmaster left her stressed, angry and empty-handed.

“The whole thing was like a bad joke,” Miller told ABC News. The New York City mom said she made sure to register her daughter’s name, email address and contact number a week before pre-sale tickets were available, so Ticketmaster could vet her “Swiftie” (as the popstar’s fans are called) and confirm she was a “verified fan” and not a third-party ticket reseller.

Despite having a special code from Ticketmaster to access tickets, Miller was stuck waiting in an online queue for four hours before seeing the below message pop up on her computer screen:

“We’re sorry! Something went wrong on our end and we need to start over. Broken things are a drag — our team is on it so it doesn’t happen again.”

At the same time, tickets that were selling for between $49 and $449 each, were already being listed on resale sites like StubHub for as much as $22,700 per ticket. West Coast fans had to wait an extra three hours as Ticketmaster delayed those sales to help ease traffic on its site.

Despite the glitches, Ticketmaster says it sold 2 million tickets for Swift’s first stadium concert tour in five years — the most tickets ever sold for an artist in a single day. Unfortunately for Miller, she wasn’t one of the lucky ones. She had to eventually abandon her efforts to “get back to my day job” and said she feels “guilty” about not being able to secure the tickets for her daughter.

Similar scenarios played out for thousands of disappointed Swift fans, renewing calls from activists and lawmakers to split up Ticketmaster and the concert promoter Live Nation, which merged in 2010.

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti told reporters during a news conference on Wednesday that he is looking into whether consumer protection laws were violated after Ticketmaster botched the rollout of Taylor Swift tickets.

“We have received complaints about the sale process, and we have previously looked into antitrust allegations involving Ticketmaster and Live Nation. We want to make sure that there are no issues here that merit legal response,” Skrmetti said, according to a transcript of the news conference obtained by ABC News.

Consumer advocates say the Taylor Swift ticket debacle underscores the pitfalls of consolidation in the ticketing industry. The combined company, which controls 70% of primary ticketing and live event venues, has been accused of abusing its market power by hiking up ticket prices and adding on arbitrary fees.

House Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called Ticketmaster a monopoly and said the merger with Live Nation should never have been allowed. “They need to be reigned in… Break them up,” she tweeted.

Senate Democrat Richard Blumenthal tweeted that Swift’s tour sale is “a perfect example of how the Live Nation/Ticketmaster merger harms consumers by creating a near-monopoly.”

Congressman David Cicilline, D-R.I., added his voice to the chorus, calling the excessive wait times and fees “a symptom of a larger problem” at “an unchecked monopoly.”

Politicians are not the only ones targeting Ticketmaster. A consortium of organizations, including the American Economic Liberties Project and Sports Fans Coalition are lobbying to end the company’s hold on the ticketing industry with their Break Up Ticketmaster campaign.

In a statement to ABC News, Ticketmaster said, “Even when a high demand on sale goes flawlessly from a tech perspective, many fans are left empty handed. For example: based on the volume of traffic to our site, Taylor would need to perform over 900 stadium shows (almost 20x the number of shows she is doing)…that’s a stadium show every single night for the next 2.5 years. While it’s impossible for everyone to get tickets to these shows, we know we can do more to improve the experience and that’s what we’re focused on.” Ticketmaster added that, “Every ticket was sold to a buyer with a Verified Fan code.”

The pandemic wreaked havoc on the live music industry as concerts and festivals were canceled and companies were forced to handle hoards of refunds. As a result, Live Nation’s revenue for the second quarter of 2020 was down 98% from the previous year.

Since then, the industry has roared back as fans flock to live entertainment again, and concert tickets prices have jumped nearly 20% from pre-pandemic levels.

ABC News’ Luke Barr contributed to this report.

Malta abortion laws eased after American woman almost died

November 17, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(VALLETTA, Malta) — Malta announced Wednesday it is easing its abortion laws, becoming the last country in the European Union to end a total ban on the procedure.

The Mediterranean nation, located off the coast of Sicily, does not allow women to receive an abortion, including in cases of rape or incest.

However, Health Minister Chris Fearne said the government will amend the law to allow termination of a pregnancy if the mother’s life or health is at risk.

A legislative amendment will be presented to its Parliament next week allowing abortion if the mother is at risk of death and the fetus is not developed enough to be delivered.

Currently, Malta’s criminal code states any providers who perform an abortion to save the mother’s life — or women who receive an abortion — could face up to four years in prison.

“The choice isn’t whether the mother or the baby survive. The choice here is whether the mother and baby both dies, or whether the mother’s life is saved,” Fearne told reporters, according to Reuters.

“We don’t believe that after going through this ordeal the woman should face the possibility of imprisonment,” Fearne said.

The change was spurred after an American pregnant woman nearly died in the country because doctors refused to perform an abortion.

Andrea Prudente was 16 weeks pregnant when she and her partner Jay Weeldreyer decided to go on a two-week “babymoon” to Malta.

One week into the trip, Prudente was rushed to the hospital after she began bleeding profusely. Doctors told her the placenta had separated from the uterus — a condition known as placental abruption — and she was miscarrying.

Prudente was told the pregnancy was no longer viable and she was at risk of hemorrhaging if she didn’t have an abortion.

However, due to Malta’s strict abortion laws, doctors were unable to perform the procedure.

After days of communicating with their midwife back in the U.S., Prudente and Weeldreyer were able to get their insurance company to organize an emergency flight to Spain, where an abortion could be performed.

“This baby can’t live,” Weeldreyer told ABC News at the time. “And the fact that Andrea’s being forced to suffer as a consequence of it is barbaric. Like … it’s inexcusable. It’s been a long grind. She’s been through the wringer,” he said.

In September, the couple sued Malta’s government, arguing the ban is unconstitutional and violates the European Convention of Human Rights. The case has yet to go to trial.

Malta is a predominantly Catholic country with most residents favoring abortion restrictions. One recent poll found 61.8% of Maltese do not believe abortion should be decriminalized.

The poll showed 27.8% of survey respondents believe abortion should be legal in some circumstances while 8.3% said it should be legal in all cases.

Malta is one of only five countries in Europe where abortion is severely restricted, which includes Andorra, Liechtenstein, Poland and Vatican City.

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