How the Media Industry Keeps Losing the Future
Business

How the Media Industry Keeps Losing the Future

Related media - Associated media Cutbacks were just announced at Law360, The Intercept and the youth-oriented video site NowThis, which laid off half its staff. The tech news site Engadget, which comprehensively tracks tech layoffs, laid off its top editors and other staff members. Condé Nast and Time are shedding employees. The continued existence of Vice Media, once valued at $5.7 billion, and Sports Illustrated, in another era the most influential sports publication, is uncertain. The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post eliminated hundreds of journalists between them. One out of four newspapers that existed in 2005 no longer does. The slow crash of newspapers and magazines would be of limited interest save for one thing: Traditional media had at its core the exalted and diff...
F1 Teams Sauber and AlphaTauri Get New Names
Business

F1 Teams Sauber and AlphaTauri Get New Names

Linked media - Linked media The names of both teams have been criticized, with some fans taking to social media. “Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber might be the worst name for a team in F1 history,” a fan wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “When you try something new, and when you have a team name that is different from other team names, it’s always easy to be critical,” Alunni Bravi said. “Of course, there was criticism from those close to the Sauber name, and maybe they expected something different. “Maybe we went too extreme, but we wanted to do something new and attractive for our fan base. When Drake announced our name, we had 22 million impressions, a number we never achieved with a single post on our social media platforms. It was huge.” For Bayer, landing Visa was as big a coup. ...
Corner Offices Are Out; Collaboration Is In. Say Hello to the New Law Firm.
Business

Corner Offices Are Out; Collaboration Is In. Say Hello to the New Law Firm.

Connected media - Related media There was “a lot of interior space and very little access to natural light,” said Kelley M. Bender, the firm’s chief operating partner. And retrofitting the old offices for current technology, including that needed for hybrid meetings, would be difficult. The firm also acknowledged that the work force had changed, requiring less space. Lawyers who commit to returning to work three days of week are assigned their own offices; those who don’t still have office space, “but not necessarily one with their name on the door,” Ms. Bender said. Chapman’s decision was in keeping with others in the Chicago market, said Daniel Arends, the chairman of the law firm services group at Colliers, a real estate services firm. He added that in the past nine years, 33 law ...
Ohtani’s Contract Goes Beyond Dollars and Sense
Sports

Ohtani’s Contract Goes Beyond Dollars and Sense

Related media - Linked media Ohtani, though, is beating the Americans on their own terms. “He can hit a home run 500 feet and throw a ball 100 miles per hour, and he’s bigger and stronger than most Americans,” said Robert Whiting, who has written several books on baseball in Japan, including “You Gotta Have Wa.” Ohtani’s Ruthian contract might never have been signed if Nomo, Hideki Irabu and Alfonso Soriano hadn’t challenged Japanese restrictions on the movement of players in the 1990s. Nomo, for instance, retired from Japanese baseball so he could sign with the Dodgers, while Irabu pushed back when his old team, the Chiba Lotte Marines, cut a deal to send him to the San Diego Padres. Irabu was later sent to the Yankees, his preferred destination. A couple of years later, S...
China’s Country Garden Faces Winding Up Petition In Hong Kong
Business

China’s Country Garden Faces Winding Up Petition In Hong Kong

Associated media - Connected media More than 50 Chinese property developers have defaulted on debts since 2021. They have refused to repay overseas creditors while still making arrangements with Chinese banks for possible eventual repayment. Many of these developers have shares listed on the Hong Kong stock market or have borrowed there, or both. But creditors face formidable obstacles in seeking to recover loans from Chinese real estate developers through petitions to the court system in Hong Kong, said Zerlina Zeng, the head of East Asia corporate credits at CreditSights, a global credit research firm. Most of the assets of Chinese developers are in mainland China, where courts might not recognize liquidation orders from Hong Kong. Even if mainland courts order liquidation sales of...
The NATO Welcoming Sweden Is Larger, More Determined
World

The NATO Welcoming Sweden Is Larger, More Determined

Associated media - Related media Still, with Hungary finally voting for Sweden’s accession to NATO, at last the pieces are falling into place for a sharply enhanced NATO deterrent in the Baltic and North Seas, with greater protection for the frontline states of Finland, Norway and the Baltic nations, which border Russia. Once Hungary hands in a letter certifying parliamentary approval to the U.S. State Department, Sweden will become the 32nd member of NATO, and all the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea, with the exception of Russia, will be part of the alliance. “Sweden brings predictability, removing any uncertainty about how we would act in a crisis or a war,” Mr. Dalsjo said. Given Sweden’s geography, including Gotland, the island that helps controls the entrance to the Baltic ...
Baseball Has Grown in Bogotá, Colombia, Thanks to Venezuelan Migrants
Sports

Baseball Has Grown in Bogotá, Colombia, Thanks to Venezuelan Migrants

Related media - Connected media “Once you’re here, it doesn’t matter,” said Gabriel Arcos, a systems engineer who grew up cheering for a Leones rival in Venezuela and moved to Bogotá in 2016. “Maybe you don’t like the Leones of Caracas, but like I always say, these are the Leones of Bogotá.” Four years ago, when Iraida Acosta took over as president of the Leones, she said there were only six Venezuelan children. Now, she said, most of its 64 players are Venezuelan. Ms. Acosta, 54, said that in 2017, she and her 9-year-old son left their Venezuelan hometown near the Caribbean coast to visit her husband, who had come to Bogotá six months earlier to find work. They ended up staying because the economic opportunities were better. Still, it wasn’t easy. “The culture, although being brothe...
Yellen Urges Israel to Restore Economic Ties to West Bank
Business

Yellen Urges Israel to Restore Economic Ties to West Bank

Connected media - Related media Since Hamas’s brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the Israeli government has been withholding tax revenues that it collects on behalf of Palestinians. Traditionally, that money has been distributed back to the Palestinian Authority, which used it to fund its operating budget. Israel has previously frozen and then released that tax revenue during periods of conflict with the Palestinians. The White House national security communications adviser, John Kirby, said last month that President Biden had discussed with Mr. Netanyahu the need to ensure that the tax revenues were available to pay salaries for Palestinian security forces in the West Bank. Ms. Yellen said on Tuesday that she was encouraged that revenue was starting to make its way to the West Bank. Th...
How a Little Understood U.N. Court Became the Center of the Israel-Gaza Debate
World

How a Little Understood U.N. Court Became the Center of the Israel-Gaza Debate

Associated media - Associated media Israel denied the allegations, arguing that statements by Israeli government and military officials were taken out of context, and that its military has taken steps to preserve civilian lives. After the hearings, the Israeli government declassified a set of 30 secret orders which it said showed the effort to minimize casualties. . Just under a month after the case was filed, the court issued a series of “provisional measures,” similar to a temporary injunction, ordering Israel to refrain from genocidal acts, to prevent and punish incitement and to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. The court, which stopped short of demanding that Israel halt its military offensive, also ordered Israel to send a report within one month detailing the measures it had t...
Willie Hernández, Relief Pitcher Who Had a Banner 1984, Dies at 69
Sports

Willie Hernández, Relief Pitcher Who Had a Banner 1984, Dies at 69

Associated media - Linked media Hernández led major league pitchers in appearances (80) and games finished (68) in 1984, when he posted a 9-3 record with a 1.92 earned run average. He had 32 saves in 33 chances after tallying a total of only 27 saves in his seven previous seasons. The 1984 Tigers finished 104-58 in the regular season, then swept the Kansas City Royals in the American League Championship Series and defeated the San Diego Padres, 4-1, in the World Series. Hernández appeared in three games in the World Series and had saves in two of them. He yielded just one run and four hits in 5⅓ innings. He earned the final out of the clinching Game 5, getting Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn to hit a soft fly to left field. Hernández became only the third pitcher in major league history, af...