Media Today

[Rick Plant]

Fox News Is on Trial, and So Are Falsehoods About 2020
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/16/business/media/fox-news-dominion-trial.html

[Rick Plant]

Is Twitter finally dying?
Say goodbye to the old Twitter and hello to the new normal.
https://www.vox.com/technology/2023/4/15/23683554/twitter-dying-elon-musk-x-company

[Rick Plant]

Inmate escapes jail by impersonating cellmate who was due for release

An inmate at a Washington state jail strolled out of the facility Wednesday after he impersonated his cellmate who was due for release that day, the New York Post reported.

Brian Francisco Roman, 26, is still on the run.

The escape was made possible when a corrections officer went to his cell to fetch the inmate who was scheduled for release, but all three men, including Roman, were asleep.

"Deputies learned that when a corrections officer went to contact an inmate who was due to be released, all three inmates in the cell were asleep," a press release from the Cowlitz County Sheriff's Office read. "When the corrections officer called for the inmate, Roman identified himself as that inmate and went with the corrections officer to be processed out of custody. Jail staff stated that Roman and the other inmate have similar physical features."

He was given his cellmate’s property and signed the discharge paperwork by forging his cellmate's name.

Roman was initially jailed on drug dealing charges.

https://nypost.com/2023/04/19/inmate-strolls-out-of-jail-by-impersonating-cellmate/

[Rick Plant]

Will Fox News change after Dominion defamation settlement?

Fox News has settled a defamation suit over its reporting of the 2020 presidential election, averting a trial involving one of the world's top media companies.

The network agreed to pay $787.5 to the voting machine company Dominion who argued its business was harmed by Fox spreading false claims the vote had been rigged against Donald Trump.

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

What a day for Moron Musk who destroyed Twitter today, saw his rocket explode, had his stocks plummet, and lost 
13 billion.

He Musk be furious! Elon's wealth nosedives by $13 BILLION in a day after SpaceX rocket blows up, Tesla earning's plummet 20%, and disastrous Twitter blue check mark revamp
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11997477/He-Musk-furious-Elons-wealth-nosedives-13-BILLION-day.html

SpaceX's 1st Starship launches on epic test flight, explodes in 'rapid unscheduled disassembly'
https://www.space.com/spacex-starship-first-space-launch

Twitter Starts Long-Planned Removal Of Blue Check Marks; Purge Affects Journalists, Entertainers And Even Pope Francis
https://deadline.com/2023/04/twitter-blue-check-marks-elon-musk-1235332928/

[Rick Plant]

Charges dropped against Alec Baldwin in fatal on-set 'Rust' shooting: Sources
Baldwin was charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/charges-dropped-alec-baldwin-fatal-set-rust-shooting/story?id=98734243

[Rick Plant]

World could face record temperatures in 2023 as El Nino returns

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The world could breach a new average temperature record in 2023 or 2024, fuelled by climate change and the anticipated return of the El Nino weather phenomenon, climate scientists say.

Climate models suggest that after three years of the La Nina weather pattern in the Pacific Ocean, which generally lowers global temperatures slightly, the world will experience a return to El Nino, the warmer counterpart, later this year.

During El Nino, winds blowing west along the equator slow down, and warm water is pushed east, creating warmer surface ocean temperatures.

"El Nino is normally associated with record breaking temperatures at the global level. Whether this will happen in 2023 or 2024 is yet known, but it is, I think, more likely than not," said Carlo Buontempo, director of the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service.

Climate models suggest a return to El Nino conditions in the late boreal summer, and the possibility of a strong El Nino developing towards the end of the year, Buontempo said.

The world's hottest year on record so far was 2016, coinciding with a strong El Nino - although climate change has fuelled extreme temperatures even in years without the phenomenon.

The last eight years were the world's eight hottest on record - reflecting the longer-term warming trend driven by greenhouse gas emissions.

Friederike Otto, senior lecturer at Imperial College London's Grantham Institute, said El Nino-fuelled temperatures could worsen the climate change impacts countries are already experiencing - including severe heatwaves, drought and wildfires.

"If El Niño does develop, there is a good chance 2023 will be even hotter than 2016 – considering the world has continued to warm as humans continue to burn fossil fuels," Otto said.

EU Copernicus scientists published a report on Thursday assessing the climate extremes the world experienced last year, its fifth-warmest year on record.

Europe experienced its hottest summer on record in 2022, while climate change-fuelled extreme rain caused disastrous flooding in Pakistan, and in February, Antarctic sea ice levels hit a record low.

The world's average global temperature is now 1.2C higher than in pre-industrial times, Copernicus said.

Despite most of the world's major emitters pledging to eventually slash their net emissions to zero, global CO2 emissions last year continued to rise.

© Reuters