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Goodbye, MSNBC. Hello, MS NOW.
By the end of 2025, MSNBC will be known as My Source News Opinion World, or MS NOW, for short.
TODD HEISLER/NYT
For two decades, news and progressive opinion on the cable dial has been defined by five capital letters: MSNBC. By the end of this year, a couple of those letters are changing. As part of a corporate spinoff from Comcast, MSNBC is changing its name to My Source News Opinion World, or MS NOW, for short. The name is meant to reflect the channel's mission to provide 'breaking news and best-in-class opinion journalism,' Rebecca Kutler, MSNBC's president, said in a memo to employees Monday. Most of the cable channels that were part of Comcast's NBCUniversal TV empire are being spun out this year into a new company called Versant. The spinoff will require the new company to stop using the NBC brand and its signature Peacock, which are both staying with Comcast, said Mark Lazarus, CEO of Versant. CNBC will retain its initials, which stand for Consumer News and Business Channel, but will be accompanied by a new logo without the peacock when the separation is complete, which is expected by the end of the year. Adam Miller, the chief operating officer at NBCUniversal, said in a memo to employees Monday that the change would help avoid confusion between viewers of NBC News and MSNBC as the two channels covered the same news events. — NEW YORK TIMES
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LABOR
Air Canada cancels more flights after cabin crew defies ruling
A person looked at a flight board with many cancellations for Air Canada flights at Pierre-Elliott Trudeau Airport in Montreal on Sunday.
ANDREJ IVANOV/AFP via Getty Images
Air Canada's flight attendants stayed on strike Monday even after the country's labor board ordered them back to work, causing the airline to delay plans to restart flights until Tuesday afternoon. The union representing some 10,500 flight staff said it wouldn't ask members to return to their jobs, as a deadline set by the Canada Industrial Relations Board came and went at 12 p.m. Toronto time. Chief executive Michael Rousseau said on Bloomberg Television the company 'could go to the courts and seek an injunction' to get its workers back. But in the meantime, the airline doesn't have a way to enforce the labor board's order. The impasse has grounded Canada's largest airline since Saturday, disrupting travel for hundreds of thousands of people during the peak summer season. The union is seeking higher pay and compensation for periods the plane isn't in motion, such as work they perform during boarding. Air Canada is the country's largest airline, with about 43 percent of overall domestic capacity. It's responsible for 50 percent or more of domestic passenger travel among major airlines operating out of the Toronto Pearson and Montreal Trudeau airports, according to a recent report from the country's competition watchdog. Air Canada suspended its financial outlook for the year on Monday morning, citing the labor disruption, and its shares fell. The airline had originally planned to restart some flights on Sunday after the CIRB's initial ruling, then moved that to Monday. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
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ENERGY
Utility to buy power from advanced nuclear plant to fuel Tennessee and Alabama Google data centers
The nation's largest public utility plans to buy power from an upcoming advanced nuclear plant to help fuel Google data centers in Tennessee and Alabama, according to a deal announced Monday. The Tennessee Valley Authority, California-based Kairos Power, and Google say the agreement will deliver up to 50 megawatts of energy to the federal utility's grid that powers the data centers. The announcement comes at a time when tech companies expect to require a massive amount of power to fuel data centers behind artificial intelligence, and some of them have been especially interested in new nuclear production. President Trump released a plan last month to boost AI and build data centers across the United States and in May signed executive orders aimed at boosting nuclear power. TVA says it is the first US utility to sign a power purchase agreement to buy electricity from a next-generation nuclear reactor. It would rely on the Hermes 2 reactor in Oak Ridge, Tenn., which is scheduled to begin operations in 2030. The agreement will power data centers in Montgomery County, Tennessee, and Jackson County, Ala., and support future growth in the region, the news release said. Google will receive clean energy credits associated with the plant. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
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PHARMACEUTICALS
Novo halves Ozempic price to $499 a month for those paying cash
An Ozempic injector.
RYAN DAVID BROWNE/NYT
Novo Nordisk A/S is slashing the cost of Ozempic for cash-paying patients after the diabetes shot became the poster child for high US drug prices. Patients can now get Ozempic for $499 a month — about half of its US list price — through Novo's cash-pay pharmacy NovoCare, the company said in a statement Monday. It's also partnering with GoodRx Holdings Inc. to offer Ozempic and its sister weight-loss drug Wegovy for the same price at pharmacies across the United States. President Trump has been putting pressure on pharmaceutical companies to lower prices, including sending letters to drugmakers like Novo demanding action. The Biden administration previously attempted to get Novo to lower the price of Ozempic, the Danish company's best-selling drug, without success. Novo said the offer is unrelated to its discussions with the US government. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Madison Avenue is starting to love AI
AI has come for the commercials. When Coca-Cola released a holiday commercial with visuals generated entirely by artificial intelligence last year, the use of the technology for a 30-second spot seemed novel. It is quickly becoming commonplace. Nearly 90 percent of marketers who spent more than $1 million on digital video ads last year are using or have plans to use generative AI to create video advertisements, according to an industry report released in July. That can mean using tools to streamline production, but also introducing elements such as voice-overs. And AI has allowed companies to generate hyperrealistic landscapes, salesperson avatars, and almost any other visual component. 'The number of different elements that one can change in a piece of creative are almost endless,' said David Cohen, CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the trade group that published the report. 'It's impossible to do that with humans. It needs a technological assist.' — NEW YORK TIMES
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Yahoo
9 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Air Canada Flight Attendants to End Strike
Union leaders for Air Canada's flight attendants said members would return to work after a deal was reached to end a three-day strike that grounded hundreds of flights, hitting around 500,000 customers. The union said the tentative deal, reached after more than nine hours of talks with the help of a mediator, marked 'transformational change' for its members after disobeying two federal return-to-work orders. In a statement, the Canadian Union of Public Employees said that, 'unpaid work is over,' in reference to the issue of boarding pay that stuck out as a significant obstacle toward an agreement. MSNBC to Change Its Name—and Lose the Peacock Logo What It's Really Like to Support a Big Family on a Modest Income in America SoftBank Invests $2 Billion in Intel as U.S. Considers Taking 10% Stake in Chip Maker How an Obscure Firm Bet on the Trumps and Became Their Go-To Dealmaker The Chili's Economy Is Here: What's Behind the Casual-Dining Boom 'When our rights were taken away, we stood strong, we fought back—and we secured a tentative agreement that our members can vote on,' said the union, also known as CUPE. The deal marks the end of a contentious three-day strike that the Canada Industrial Relations Board categorized Monday as illegal. The union said Air Canada reached out Monday night to restart talks, hours after CUPE's national president Mark Hancock said his members would remain on strike and defy a directive from the Canada Industrial Relations Board to resume work at noon Eastern Time Monday. Hancock said he was prepared to go to jail, as disobeying the labor board could result in fines and criminal charges that carry prison terms of up to five years. Canadian polling firms indicated that a majority of Canadians sympathized with the flight attendants' cause. Air Canada said it would gradually restart its operations, with some flights taking off Tuesday evening. 'Restarting a major carrier like Air Canada is a complex undertaking,' Air Canada's President and Chief Executive Officer Michael Rousseau said, adding that it could take a week or more to return to full service. Air Canada declined to comment on the agreement until it had been ratified by the union membership. A CUPE spokesman didn't respond to a request for comment about the terms of the agreement. Before the strike, Air Canada executives said it had offered a roughly 40% increase in total compensation over a four-year period, while addressing the issue of boarding pay—or being paid for work done before takeoff. Air Canada added its offer would make its flight attendants the best compensated in the air-travel sector. The union said the offer was inadequate, and alleged the company wasn't engaging in fulsome talks on pay because it was banking on the Canadian government to intervene and impose binding arbitration. Canada's Liberal government had intervened and imposed binding arbitration to end a simultaneous strike last summer involving the country's two major railroads. In the past year, Ottawa also intervened to bring an end to strikes at the country's major ports and the state-owned postal service. About 12 hours after the start of the Air Canada strike, the Canadian government said it would impose binding arbitration, allowing the airline to resume operations shortly after. Air Canada originally looked to restart operations on Sunday, but canceled those plans after CUPE said it would defy the government order. Plans to restart late Monday were also suspended. Before the strike, Air Canada had anticipated full-year adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of between 3.2 billion Canadian dollars and C$3.6 billion, equivalent to $2.32 billion-$2.61 billion. Air Canada withdrew that guidance Monday as the labor disruption underscored the growing pressure on the airline to resolve staffing disputes that have become more frequent in the sector. Write to Gareth Vipers at and Paul Vieira at TV-Station Owner Sinclair Proposes Merger With Tegna European Trade Takes Fresh Tariff Hit as U.S. Exports Slump Air Canada Flight Attendants Union to Disobey Second Back-to-Work Order Starbucks Sets 2% Raises for Corporate Workers How Crocs Conquered China
12 minutes ago
Air Canada to gradually resume flights after reaching settlement with union
After multiple days of canceled flights, delaying and derailing thousands of passengers' travel plans, the Air Canada flight attendant strike is officially over. Canada's largest airline announced it will "gradually restart its operations" on Tuesday "after reaching a mediated agreement with the Canadian Union of Public Employees through a process overseen by a mutually agreed-to mediator." Some 10,000 flight attendants refused to return to work despite a government order on Sunday, amid a dispute with Air Canada over wages and unpaid labor. The Air Canada Component of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, or CUPE, says the carrier's wages are below inflation, market value, and the federal minimum wage and has asked that flight attendants be paid for groundwork, which includes labor performed prior to takeoff and after landing. The airline said Tuesday it participated in the mediation discussions "on the basis that the union commit to have the airline's 10,000 flight attendants immediately return to work" to allow the carrier to resume Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge operations that had been grounded since Saturday. "The suspension of our service is extremely difficult for our customers. We deeply regret and apologize for the impact on them of this labour disruption. Our priority now is to get them moving as quickly as possible," Michael Rousseau, Air Canada's president and chief executive officer, said in a statement. The "complex undertaking" to full restoration, as Rousseau referred to it, could take up to a week or longer. The first flights are scheduled for Tuesday evening, and Air Canada has advised customers that full, regular service could be seven to 10 days out as the fleet of aircraft and its crews get in position. "During this process, some flights will be cancelled over the next seven to ten days until the schedule is stabilized," Tuesday's announcement stated. Air Canada was forced to cancel hundreds of flights as a result of the work stoppage and and said nearly 500,000 customers were impacted in Canada and the U.S. United, the American-based partner for Air Canada, told ABC News in a statement that very few United customers were affected.
UPI
12 minutes ago
- UPI
Flight attendants' union, Air Canada reach tentative deal
Air Canada will resume operations after reaching a tentative deal with the union that represents flight attendants. The flight attendants had been on strike since Saturday. File Photo by Graham Hughes/EPA Aug. 19 (UPI) -- Air Canada and the union representing Canadian flight attendants have reached a tentative deal to end the strike that started Saturday. "Flight attendants at Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge have reached a tentative agreement, achieving transformational change for our industry after a historic fight to affirm our Charter rights," the Canadian Union of Public Employees said in a statement. Air Canada said it will gradually restart its operations Tuesday after reaching a mediated agreement with CUPE through a process overseen by a mutually agreed-to mediator. "The suspension of our service is extremely difficult for our customers," Air Canada said in a statement. "We deeply regret and apologize for the impact on them of this labor disruption. Our priority now is to get them moving as quickly as possible. "Restarting a major carrier like Air Canada is a complex undertaking. Full restoration may require a week or more, so we ask for our customers' patience and understanding over the coming days. I assure them that everyone at Air Canada is doing everything possible to enable them to travel soon," said Michael Rousseau, president and CEO of Air Canada. More than 10,000 flight attendants walked off the job Saturday over pay and scheduling issues. The airline estimated Monday that 500,000 customers had seen canceled flights because of the strike. "Unpaid work is over," CUPE announced. "We have reclaimed our voice and our power. When our rights were taken away, we stood strong, we fought back -- and we secured a tentative agreement that our members can vote on." In a separate note to its members, the union said that the deal was reached at 4:23 a.m. EDT after just over nine hours of talks and the help of a mediator, the New York Times reported. "We must fully cooperate with the resumption of operations," the message said. The details of the agreement haven't been announced, but one of the flight attendants' demands was that Air Canada follow the lead of some U.S. airlines and pay flight attendants for the work they do on the ground before and after a flight. Many airlines only pay flight attendants when the airplane doors are closed. Before the strike, the union said that Air Canada had accepted the idea of paying for ground work, but was only offering half pay for that time. CUPE also wanted higher wages. Air Canada offered 17.2% raises, but the union said it wasn't enough to cover inflation. On Monday, Labor Minister Patty Hajdu said she had started an investigation into unpaid work by flight attendants. In an interview with CBC News, she called the issue "deeply disturbing." A hearing on Sunday by the Canada Industrial Relations Board declared the strike unlawful, and it ordered the leadership of CUPE to tell its members to return to work by noon Monday. But the union refused and continued the strike. Union secretary and treasurer Candace Rennick said in a statement that the government's order was "a disgraceful misuse of power that reeks of systemic bias and corporate favoritism."
