All posts tagged: News

Susan Zirinsky Back at CBS News As Interim Executive Editor

Susan Zirinsky Back at CBS News As Interim Executive Editor

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Former CBS News president Susan Zirinsky is returning to a leadership role at the news division as executive editor on a temporary basis. CBS CEO George Cheeks announced Zirinsky’s role in a memo Monday evening. Zirinsky, or “Z” as she is affectionately known inside CBS, will also continue to run the documentary division See it Now Studios. Cheeks said that CBS News and Stations chief Wendy McMahon has been searching for an executive editor “with the specific mandate of ensuring we have the expertise, resources and oversight to enable coverage of the most challenging issues with the highest degree of balance and integrity.” He noted that complex, charged news like the conflict in Gaza can be challenging to navigate. An interview conducted by CBS Mornings co-anchor Tony Dokoupil even became national news, and sparked a response from Paramount controlling shareholder Shari Redstone. And on Monday, the Anti-Defamation League released a statement criticizing a 60 Minutes statement as “biased and one-sided” against Israel. “While there is no way to cover such sensitive issues without provoking some …

Whose Line Is It Anyway? star Tony Slattery dies of heart attack aged 65 | Ents & Arts News

Whose Line Is It Anyway? star Tony Slattery dies of heart attack aged 65 | Ents & Arts News

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Comedian and actor Tony Slattery has died aged 65 following a heart attack, his partner has said. The actor was famous for appearing on the Channel 4 comedy improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway? and other series such as Just A Minute and Have I Got News For You. He had recently been touring a comedy show and launched his podcast, Tony Slattery’s Rambling Club, just a few months ago, in October. A statement made on behalf of his partner, Mark Michael Hutchinson, said: “It is with great sadness we must announce actor and comedian Tony Slattery, aged 65, has passed away today, Tuesday morning, following a heart attack on Sunday evening.” Image: Clockwise from left: Jennifer Saunders, Hugh Laurie, Emma Freud, Tony Slattery and Stephen Fry pictured in 1991. Pic: PA Born in 1959, Slattery went to the University of Cambridge alongside contemporaries Dame Emma Thompson, Sir Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. While there, he served as president of the legendary Cambridge Footlights improvisation group. Alongside Sir Stephen and Dame Emma, he was …

Sir Kevan Collins to lead Department for Education board

Sir Kevan Collins to lead Department for Education board

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Sir Kevan Collins, the government’s school standards tsar, will lead the Department for Education’s non-executive board, it has been announced. Collins, a former chief executive of the Education Endowment Foundation, was appointed as a non-executive board member at the DfE after Labour won the election in July. Now he has been promoted after former Co-operative boss Richard Pennycook’s latest term of office came to an end. Pennycook, who was recently appointed as chair of the new Skills England body, has served in an interim capacity since November. Collins will serve as lead non-executive board member from February 11 for a period of three years. He will be paid £20,000 for around 24 days each year. The DfE said Collins was appointed “through an open recruitment process where he was deemed to be strongest candidate for the role by the panel”. Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “Through our plan for change, we are driving high and rising standards for every child, in every school, in every part of the country, breaking the link between background and …

Parliamentary committee calls for evidence

Parliamentary committee calls for evidence

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Intense lobbying expected as bill seeks to curtail academy freedoms Intense lobbying expected as bill seeks to curtail academy freedoms More from this theme Recent articles A Parliamentary committee that will scrutinise the government’s children’s wellbeing and schools bill is inviting evidence from the sector. Having passed its first and second reading in the House of Commons, the bill will now be considered by a public bill committee – which will go through the bill line by line. MPs will head oral evidence from sector leaders, but are also calling for written submissions to inform their scrutiny of the bill and any amendments tabled by Parliamentarians. A number of proposals in the bill, particularly around moves to curtail freedoms for academies, have already proved controversial in the sector. A substantial lobbying effort is therefore expected as MPs consider the bill. The committee is due to meet for the first time on January 31, and will report back by 5pm on February 11. But the committee could conclude its work earlier, so is asking for written …

Armed groups kill at least 40 farmers in Nigeria’s Borno State | Boko Haram News

Armed groups kill at least 40 farmers in Nigeria’s Borno State | Boko Haram News

Published by Sam

Officials say Boko Haram and ISWAP groups suspected of being behind the attacks on farmers in the Dumba region. At least 40 farmers have been killed in an attack by armed groups in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno State, according to government officials. Fighters from the Boko Haram group and ISIL (ISIS) affiliate in West Africa Province (ISWAP) were suspected of carrying out the attack, Borno State Governor Babagana Umara Zulum and State Information Commissioner Usman Tar said on Monday. Tar said the groups rounded up dozens of farmers in Dumba on the shores of Lake Chad and shot them dead late on Sunday. “Initial report indicates about 40 farmers have been killed while the whereabouts of many who escaped the attack are being traced for reunion with their families,” Tar said. The state government has ordered soldiers battling rebel fighters in the region “to track and obliterate the insurgent elements” operating around Dumba and their enclaves in the wider Lake Chad area, Tar added. The farmers “strayed off” the safe limit set by the armed forces …

Jenny Eclair says she ‘can’t compete’ with ‘terrible’ AI Michael Parkinson podcast | Ents & Arts News

Jenny Eclair says she ‘can’t compete’ with ‘terrible’ AI Michael Parkinson podcast | Ents & Arts News

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The first episode of a podcast hosted by AI replicating Sir Michael Parkinson has been released – and comedian and podcaster Jenny Eclair has branded it a “terrible, terrible idea”. The podcast Virtually Parkinson sees AI technology synthetically recreate the late presenter’s voice and style to interview real-life celebrities. Known for his interviews with the world’s biggest stars, Parkinson died in 2023 aged 88, following a brief illness. The first episode released on Monday saw the Parkinson AI speak to R&B singer Jason Derulo, who was answering questions about his upbringing, fatherhood and fracturing part of his neck. Eclair, who co-hosts the podcast Older and Wider with Judith Holder, said it made her “furious”. Image: Jenny Eclair, pictured in 2015, co-hosts the podcast Older and Wider. Pic: PA Speaking about the podcast on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Eclair, 64, said: “I’m furious, because there are living people like me who’ve still got mortgages, I’ve just actually mostly got rid of mine. “But there’s not enough room. I know he was dearly loved and that sort …

T-level results to be published for individual schools for first time

T-level results to be published for individual schools for first time

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But a planned overall attainment measure has been delayed But a planned overall attainment measure has been delayed More from this theme Recent articles T-level results data for individual schools and colleges will be made public this year for the first time – but an overall attainment measure for the new qualifications has been delayed. Officials have been working on an overall results measure since before the technical courses were introduced in 2020 – with plans to roll it out in 2023-24 once the third cohort completed. The previous government signalled that this measure would show a school or college’s “attainment in each of the technical qualification (TQ) elements of the T-level, separately; showing average point score per entry for each TQ element, also expressed as a grade”. The Department for Education shared this data directly with schools and colleges as part of a data checking exercise in October 2024. The measures were supposed to be published on the Compare School and College Performance (CSCP) service in early 2025. But the department said today that …

Disney being sued for billions over Moana claims | Ents & Arts News

Disney being sued for billions over Moana claims | Ents & Arts News

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Disney is being sued over Moana and Moana 2, with an animator claiming the films copied plot points from one of their screenplays. Animator Buck Woodall filed a lawsuit in California federal court on Friday that claims Disney stole elements of a screenplay he wrote for an animated film project called Bucky in the early 2000s. Mr Woodall, who is seeking damages of at least $10bn (£8.25bn), says he produced a screenplay and trailer for Bucky and began sharing details of the project with Jenny Marchick, former Mandeville Films director of development, in 2003. Mandeville had a first look deal with Disney, the lawsuit says, and claims Ms Marchick, who is now DreamWorks Animation’s head of development for features, asked for materials like production plans, character designs and storyboards, and reassured Mr Woodall she could get the film greenlit. It points to similarities between the plot points of Moana, released in 2016, and Bucky “which could not possibly have been accidental”, including how both are about a teenager who defies parental warnings and embarks on …

Eye tests in special schools will create ‘unfunded burden’

Eye tests in special schools will create ‘unfunded burden’

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More from this theme Recent articles The government is ploughing ahead with delayed plans to offer students in all special schools in England free NHS eye tests – but it has been warned it could create a “huge unfunded burden”. In October, the government and NHS England re-committed to a pledge that eyesight checks would be carried out annually for students in all day or residential special education needs schools. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said NHS England will provide up to £12.7 million in funding annually from next year to support this national rollout, following a pilot in 83 schools. Sight tests will be done in participating schools, and children who need glasses will be given two pairs of their choice, with specialist frames included, free of charge, NHS guidance states. SeeAbility, a charity, says children with learning disabilities are 28 times more likely to have a serious sight problem, and thousands across the country are missing out on eye care they need. But it fears that the model from the …

The Wanted star Max George recalls moment he wrote will from hospital bed before heart surgery | Ents & Arts News

The Wanted star Max George recalls moment he wrote will from hospital bed before heart surgery | Ents & Arts News

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The Wanted star Max George has told of the moment he wrote his will from a hospital bed, as he was convinced he “was going to die”. In December, George revealed he had to undergo urgent heart surgery after being diagnosed with a block. In an interview with The Sun, his first since he underwent the lifesaving surgery, the 36-year-old described the moment when he thought he would die. He said: “If I could go from being absolutely on top of the world to being told ‘the bottom part of your heart isn’t working’, I kept thinking in my head, ‘Well, what if the top half stops working overnight?’” “That first night I wrote a will, I thought I was going to die,” the 36-year-old musician added. On the night of 13 December, George said his heart rate and blood pressure dropped, “I felt like I was dying,” he said. He had a pacemaker fitted by doctors during the surgery, but the former Strictly Come Dancing star said he made a will on his phone …