Turkey’s earthquake death toll reaches 17,0000; Sen. John Fetterman has been hospitalized; Disney announces thousands of job layoffs; and social media mayhem as four tech giants experience glitches. These stories and more highlight your daily rundown for Thursday morning, Feb. 9, 2023.
Turkey earthquake death toll tops 17,000
Turkey received the hardest punch from Monday’s earthquake. Around 13,000 people in Turkey died from the historically strong quake, while 60,000 people obtained injuries.
On Syria’s side of the border, another near 4,000 victims. The death toll has now passed 17,000 this morning.
Hopes of finding many more survivors are dwindling with few stories with happy endings from rescue crews. A young girl still alive was saved then two hours later crews found her father still breathing too. But for every heroic rescue, there are dozens of other victims pulled from the wreckage.
The critical time frame for rescues is closing in. The survival ratio on average within 24 hours is 74%. But at this point, more than 72 hours in, the survival ratio drops to only 22%. By day five, rescue crews only have a 6% chance of finding anyone else alive.
John Fetterman hospitalized
Sen. John Fetterman has been hospitalized after reportedly feeling lightheaded while on a Senate Democratic retreat in Washington D.C. A statement from his staff says doctors found no signs of a new stroke but they are running more tests. The newly elected senator from Pennsylvania suffered a stroke in May during his campaign. His health and mental state was often brought up on the campaign trail heading into November’s election.
Fetterman remained in the hospital overnight for observation. He was also in attendance on Tuesday to watch President Biden’s State of The Union address.
State of The Union draws small audience
President Biden’s State of The Union address drew in the second smallest audience size in at least 30 years. The year with the smallest Nielsen ratings on record was during Biden’s first speech as president in 2021. An estimated 27.3 million people watched President Biden’s address to the nation on television. Viewership was down nearly 28% from the 38.2 million who watched the president speak the year prior.
Three out of every four people who tuned in were 55 and older. Only 5% were young adults under the age of 35.
Nielsen only has figures available since president Bill Clinton’s first address to Congress in 1993. That year, 66.9 million people tuned in.
Granted a key difference is now there are alternatives in watching the address other than just on TV. These figures don’t include those who may have watched the event on social media.
Disney announces 7,000 job layoffs
Disney is putting 7,000 jobs on the chopping block after reporting, for the first time, a decrease in Disney Plus subscribers since its streaming service launched in November of 2019.
The move will reportedly save the company $5 billion, something its new CEO says will help the company run more efficiently in a current challenging environment.
This isn’t something unique to Disney. Last year, Warner Bros. downsized its HBO Max workforce. Netflix slashed hundreds of jobs last year.
These entertainment giants aren’t just downsizing staff, they are also upping subscription costs. Disney’s ad-free service has jumped from $7.99 to $10.99 a month.
Social media mayhem as users report outages
Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube were simultaneously reporting issues on Wednesday.
Twitter faced its first widespread outage under Elon Musk. Users couldn’t tweet, send direct messages, or use certain features. Meta’s Facebook and Instagram suffered a similar story. Thousands of users couldn’t access their social media feeds. And on Youtube, users reported error messages when trying to watch videos.
Problems that persisted for hours across platforms are seemingly resolved Thursday morning.
Fake jersey crackdown ahead of Super Bowl
As fans near Super Bowl Sunday, many of them will be sporting their teams’ logos. But those jerseys and ball caps with the official NFL emblem don’t come cheap – unless it’s a counterfeit product.
Each year, the NFL makes millions of dollars off its merchandise. That number would be doubled if not for the fakes selling copycat items at a much cheaper price. The practice of counterfeiting jerseys and other merchandise is illegal. And now the NFL, along with a federal agency, are cracking down.
The National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center has already confiscated more than 180,000 counterfeit NFL attire items worth around $23 million.