Warner Bros. Discovery’s Kathleen Finch broke a lot of science producers’ hearts in Austin, Texas last week when she said that Science Channel was “not very high on our priority list”.
Chairman and Chief Content Officer of Warner Bros. Discovery’s U.S. Networks Group Finch told Deadline at the Realscreen event that it was largely pulling out of original content for the niche cable network.
“I will be honest, we are not investing a lot of money in Science Channel,” she said. “We have a really good library of things that we’re able to use there. It’s a small, beautiful network, but it’s not on a very high on our priority list.”
Instead, Finch said producers should focus on finding “something in the science world that can be spun into something a little bit bigger and more testosterone filled” that would work for the Discovery Channel.
Having said that, the network revealed today that it was airing a new documentary on Science Channel, as well as Discovery+ and HBO Max, about space exploration from Trevor Noah.
The former host of The Daily Show is producing For All Humankind, which takes a deep dive into what space exploration means for society by comparing the parallel events of 1969 and 2020.
In 1969, the country celebrated the landing on the moon. At the same time, the nation was mourning the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, with civil rights protesters facing violence in the streets.
Inspired by overlapping events in 2020 when the first crewed NASA/SpaceX mission took flight while outrage was erupting around the brutal murder of George Floyd, the doc, which launches on February 5, looks back to compare the contradictions of success and failure in the arenas of human space flight and human rights.
It is narrated by Christopher Jackson and features commentary from a wide range of experts and human rights leaders including NASA astronaut Victor Glover, journalist and political activist Gloria Steinem, Star Trek: Discovery star Sonequa Martin-Green and former NASA Astronaut Joan Higginbotham.
For AllHumankind is produced by Trevor Noah’s Day Zero Productions, APG Pictures, Storied Media Group and Mainstay Entertainment. Noah will exec produce alongside Aaron Fishman.
“This project means so much to me as I can see the parallels between 1969 and 2020. Both marked such seminal moments in innovation and scientific wonder along with extremes in the human condition. The issues presented in this documentary are just as pivotal now as they were during these flashpoints. I can’t think of a better partnership to tell this story,” said Noah.
“We are deeply honored to partner with Trevor Noah, Day Zero Productions and Mainstay Entertainment to create such a profound documentary. The unique link between humanity’s success in space and society’s struggles are two sides of the same coin. We have come so far, yet have so much further to go. These are crucial moments in both our history and future that we must endeavor forward together, for all humankind,” added Aaron Fishman.
WASHINGTON, Feb 1 (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on 22 individuals and entities in multiple countries that it accused of being tied to a global sanctions evasion network supporting Russia's military-industrial complex.
The sanctions, which come as Washington looks to increase pressure on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, is part of U.S. efforts to target the evasion of its punitive measures around the world and limit Russia's access to revenue it needs for the war, the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement.
The action targeted a sanctions evasion network that the Treasury said is led by Russia and Cyprus-based arms dealer Igor Zimenkov, who, along with his son, Jonatan, were hit with sanctions on Wednesday.
The network has engaged in projects connected to Russian defense capabilities, including supplying high-technology devices after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Treasury said. Washington also accused certain members of the network of supporting state-owned Russian defense entities under sanctions.
Zimenkov has also supported the Belarusian military-industrial complex by facilitating sales efforts in Latin America for a Belarusian defense entity under U.S. sanctions, Treasury said.
Members of the network targeted included Singapore-based Asia Trading & Construction PTE Limited and its director, which Treasury accused of having sold helicopters on behalf of U.S.-sanctioned Rostec to a government in Latin America.
GBD Limited, another company in the network targeted in the sanctions, has attempted to supply weapons systems to an African government, Treasury said.
Companies in Cyprus, Bulgaria and Israel, as well as several people, were also targeted for sanctions.
The Russian Embassy in the United States said such “illegal steps” taken by Washington would not achieve their goal.
“The Russian economy remains far from being ‘in tatters’, as some in the West hope,” it said.
The action, which freezes any U.S. assets of those added to the sanctions list and generally bars Americans from dealing with them, marks the latest round of U.S. sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine, which has killed or wounded thousands and reduced cities to rubble.
"Russia’s desperate attempts to utilize proxies to circumvent U.S. sanctions demonstrate that sanctions have made it much harder and costlier for Russia’s military-industrial complex to resupply Putin’s war machine," Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in the statement.
Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis and Doina Chiacu, additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb; editing by Deepa Babington
The carriage dispute strikes again, this time creating a rift between YouTube and Major League Baseball. As always, subscribers are the ones who really lose out.
Photo by Rob Tringali / MLB Photos via Getty Images
YouTube TV might be working to refine and improve its user experience, but like every other subscription TV service, its customers are always at risk of losing channels out of the blue. MLB Network is the latest to vanish from the service with little warning. YouTube TV emailed subscribers yesterday, giving them the heads-up that the channel would be going away… by the end of that same day. Now it’s February, and MLB Network is gone.
Any cloud DVR recordings from MLB Network will be lost as a result of the channel’s removal. In a statement to Deadline, MLB Network said “with Spring Training about to start, we regret that YouTube TV has been unwilling to negotiate a fair carriage agreement. MLB Network has offered terms consistent with what close to 300 other U.S. providers have agreed to for distribution.” It’s the same story and the same talking points. Every time. Both sides say they’ll continue efforts to reach a new deal.
This isn’t the first time YouTube TV has taken the scalpel to sports programming: it dropped the YES Network and NESN (New England Sports Network) a few years ago, with several other Sinclair-owned regional sports networks also going offline. YouTube TV subscribers will still be able to catch games on ESPN, Fox, and TBS. But if you’re a fan of MLB Network shows like MLB Tonight, you’re out of luck unless there’s a new agreement.
This one comment from Reddit really encapsulates the frustrating cycle that some people find themselves in when they lose a favorite channel and peruse other services — only to wind up right back where they started:
YouTube and Major League Baseball have had what appears from the outside to be an affable working relationship in recent years, with the former sponsoring the World Series and exclusively streaming numerous games in 2022. But that wasn’t enough to prevent yet another carriage dispute.
Veteran Egyptian journalist Ahmed Ragab once described three types of diplomatic statements: strong, sensible statements; empty statements and strong but empty statements. The latter ones are nice to hear, amusing and bring a smile to your face, but in practice are hollow and have no real message.
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This is the description that every Palestinian citizen – not just the Palestinian Authority leadership – can count on at the end over every conversation with senior officials in Washington, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Those statements have survived from the days of George W. Bush through Barack Obama until today, save for the Trump era, during which the White House viewed the Palestinians through the lens of the Yesha Council of Jewish settlements.
During Blinken's two-day visit to Israel and the West Bank this week, the Israeli conversation has been focused on the plan by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Justice Minister Yariv Levin to weaken the judicial system, which the U.S. administration can influence to some degree, and, of course, on Iran. Without the attacks in Neve Yaakov and in Silwan, the Palestinian issue would likely not have garnered any attention.
The situation in the West Bank has simmered for over a year. The number of Palestinian victims has risen, and every time the Palestinians raise a ruckus, they are told to keep quiet – no doubt for the sake of diplomacy. It started with former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, then passed on to his successor Yair Lapid, and now Mahmoud Abbas is stuck again with Netanyahu, backed this time by Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.
If, several months ago, there was no readiness to talk about a diplomatic horizon, the door has now been slammed shut. These days, the conversation is about preventing another escalation, to the point that Blinken is prepared to leave members of his staff in the region. We will see Barbara Leaf and Hady Amr coping with Ben-Gvir.
U.S. officials need to understand that the Palestinians, even if they are naïve, are not that stupid. There is no need to declaim that the United States is "committed to working toward our enduring goal of ensuring that the Palestinians and Israelis enjoy equal measures of freedom, security, opportunity, justice, and dignity" when Israel is doing whatever it pleases with no regard for international, namely American, pressure. This is especially true when every Palestinian maneuver on the international stage, including turning to the United Nations and the International Criminal Court, is perceived as a defiant move that undermines trust.
During their conversation, Abbas heard Blinken's opposition to the decision to stop security coordination with Israel and the intention to continue resorting to international organizations. Abbas – hopeless as he is – explained that these moves cannot be halted. Blinken raised the need for confidence-building measures. But instead of offering a strategically and diplomatically effective step, as expected of an official representing a power like the United States, he spoke of economic aid to the PA and civilian relief, including upgrading the cellular network – as if the average Ramallah or Jenin resident's highest expectations are playing on their phones and watching TikTok videos.
Everything else was pushed aside. The 1967 lines are irrelevant; there is not a word about the ongoing settlement construction and the occupation. Even declaring an opening date for the U.S. consulate in East Jerusalem or the PLO office in Washington weren’t on the agenda. Israel will receive visa-free entry into the United States at a discount – permitting Palestinians with U.S. citizenship to enter its territory or to fly from Ben-Gurion International Airport – or without having to pay anything at all.
With such news, it is no wonder that the Palestinian leadership would not speak to the press at the end of the meeting. From the Palestinians’ perspective, there was nothing to report, save for a brief message from Abbas. The ceremony is over, and the visit is over, with no substance – and no hope.
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