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Pentagon: Death of ISIS leader in U.S. commando raid will hurt future operations

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Pentagon: Death of ISIS leader in U.S. commando raid will hurt future operations
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A U.S. commando raid in northwest Syria that resulted in the death of the leader of the Islamic State struck a major blow to the terrorist group and their potential to conduct future operations, Pentagon officials said Thursday, but added the threat is far from neutralized.

Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi was behind a recent brazen attack on a Kuridsh-run prison in Syria holding Islamic State fighters and orchestrated the genocide of thousands of Yazidis in Iraq in 2014. U.S. officials say he died after detonating an explosive device as U.S. special operations troops were closing on the building where he was living with his wife and two children in a village near the Syrian border with Turkey.

“They are still a threat. Nobody is taking a victory lap here,” chief Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Thursday.

The shadowy al-Qurayshi was named the leader of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, in October 2019 after the death of his predecessor, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, during a U.S. raid in the same region earlier that month.

“He was very much involved in trying to resuscitate the group,” Mr. Kirby said. “This is a man we should all be happy is no longer walking on the face of the earth.”

Pentagon officials said the terrorist fighter detonated the explosive device in the early stages of the raid, which lasted about two hours. His wife and children also were killed in the blast, so powerful that it flung bodies outside of the house.

The raid was months in the planning and officials decided it should be a special operations raid, rather than a cruise missile or drone strike, out of concern for the safety of locals. The U.S. troops used loudspeakers to coax 10 people out of the building before they went in, officials said.

“We’re always mindful of the potential for civilian harm,” Mr. Kirby said. “The lives of innocents taken in this operation were caused by [al-Qurayshi] and his decision to blow himself up along with everybody else with him on that floor.”

The U.S. military does its best to avoid civilian harm during a combat operation, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said in a statement.

“We know that al-Qurayshi and others at his compound directly caused the deaths of women and children last night,” he said. “But, given the complexity of this mission, we will take a look at the possibility our actions may also have resulted in harm to innocent people.”

The operation was under the direction of U.S. Central Command. Military officials identified the body through fingerprints and DNA analysis. A small group of locals approached the U.S. troops on the ground.

“They were appropriately deemed as hostile and they were engaged. Two of them were killed,” Mr. Kirby said.

Despite bringing down a terrorist with a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head, the raid drew mixed reactions on Capitol Hill.

Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said it’s always a better day when there is one less terrorist in the world. But he faulted the administration for what he said was a lack of a coherent approach to counterterrorism and said Thursday’s raid raised new questions about the Pentagon‘s insistence it could deal with post-Afghanistan threats from jihadist terror groups such as the Islamic State without putting troops on the ground in vulnerable areas.

“In fact, it raises questions about the Biden administration’s counterterrorism strategy,” Mr. Inhofe said in a statement. “For many months, the administration has insisted that it can effectively counter terrorists through ‘over-the-horizon’ operations.”

Rep. Adam Smith, the Washington state Democrat who leads the House Armed Services Committee, reserved the lion’s share of the praise for the troops involved, but gave some of the credit to the leadership within the Biden administration.

“This successful operation does not mark the end of the ISIS threat or the counterterrorism challenge,” Mr. Smith said. “The United States must remain vigilant in the face of such threats.”

Sheila Heti Is Still Asking Questions

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Sheila Heti Is Still Asking Questions
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In her poignant and imaginative new novel, “Pure Colour,” Sheila Heti opens with an unusual concept: Humans are bears, fish or birds.

Those who care most about their closest relationships are bears. People focused on the common good are fish. And those most preoccupied by beauty and aesthetics are birds.

“People born from these three different eggs will never completely understand each other,” Heti writes, but “fish, birds and bears are all equally important in the eye of God.”

It is an idea she has been turning over in her mind for the better part of 15 years. When she was writing her breakout novel “How Should a Person Be?” more than a decade ago, she envisioned the possibility that “God was three art critics in the sky,” she said in a video interview from her home in Toronto last month.

Criticism figures prominently in Heti’s worldview (“I think the critic is trying to keep bad art out of art history”) as well as “Pure Colour,” which Farrar, Straus & Giroux will publish on Feb. 15. Heti, 45, initially set out to write a novel about art criticism, and traces of her original project flicker across the book.

Her protagonist, Mira, a young woman living in a “first draft of existence,” enrolls in a prestigious critics training academy, where inchoate writers learn how to think. (Mira, it should be said, is a bird.)

As a student, Mira encounters and falls in love with a young woman named Annie. But Mira’s most complicated relationship is with her father, who introduces her to the beauty and mystery of the world, and whose love she both cherished and found stifling. “Mira craved to live a cold ice bath of a life,” Heti writes. “It had been hard to be held so closely by the most bearish bear.”

Once her father dies, however, the story’s heart skips a beat. Mira, who had been so certain of her path and her desires, reconsiders her choices. Her father’s soul transforms into a leaf, and Mira joins him there for a time, weighing whether to stay suspended in the comfort of his closeness or return to living a full life.

Heti did not intend to write a book about loss. In 2018, as she was drafting “Pure Colour,” her father died, and she began writing about her experiences and emotions in longhand, separate from the novel.

It wasn’t until she looked back at what she wrote months later that she realized it belonged in what became “Pure Colour.” (Heti is writing a limited-run newsletter for The Times’s Opinion section based on her diary entries from the past decade.)

“I’ve never had a book unfold for me in such a surprising way,” she said.

Heti, the author of 10 books, is accustomed to borrowing from her own life to feed her fiction. Her two most recent novels, “Motherhood,” about a woman’s decision whether to have a child, and “How Should a Person Be?,” feature protagonists who are Canadian writers. They are questioning, restless and look outside themselves — to their friends, to art, to the I Ching — for answers. Reconstituted email exchanges and relayed conversations often appear in Heti’s work, inviting comparisons to autofiction writers such as Rachel Cusk and Ben Lerner.

“She understands what it takes to examine and make something out of nothing,” the author and artist Leanne Shapton, a friend of Heti’s who has collaborated with her on several illustrated projects, said in an email. “That sometimes making work is like giving CPR to a drowning victim for 36 hours, or months, straight. Whether it lives or dies, she’s there.”

Heti grew up in Toronto, the daughter of Hungarian Jewish parents, and Jewish theology and history shapes much of her work. She studied art history and philosophy at the University of Toronto after leaving the National Theater School of Canada, where she seriously considered becoming a playwright. (Playwriting once appealed to her more than writing novels, she has said, which “seemed the most boring possible thing you could do.”)

Her first book, a collection of fable-like tales called “The Middle Stories,” was published in 2001, when she was 24. Her 2005 novel, “Ticknor,” was inspired by the real-life friendship between the 19th-century authors ​​William Hickling Prescott and George Ticknor.

But with “How Should a Person Be?,” released in the United States in 2012, Heti began “thinking about the novel from scratch and what writing was for me,” she said. Even though she had already written two books, “I had so many very basic questions that I felt I needed to answer.”

Her friendship with the painter Margaux Williamson — along with remembered conversations and scenes from her life — form the backbone of “How Should a Person Be?,” which is divided into acts like a play and explores how the two women arranged their lives as artists.

“In her work, she’s used herself as the fool — she’s practiced at being self deprecating,” Williamson said. “But what Sheila’s doing is acknowledging the ego that’s present in every creative work and getting it out of the way.”

Some reviewers of “How Should a Person Be?” took issue with what they saw as the narrator’s self-involvement. But others praised Heti’s perceptiveness and voice; the Times book critic Dwight Garner included it as one of the 15 books by women that were changing 21st-century fiction.

The inquisitiveness that guides her writing matches Heti’s real-life curiosity. For years, she was the interviews editor for the literary magazine The Believer, talking to everyone from Dave Hickey to Joan Didion.

“She is a writer who is truly an artist,” Shapton said. “She does not stop at illustrating or illuminating, she’s always asking questions, thinking, philosophizing.”

The intoxication Heti felt when she embarked on “How Should a Person Be?” wasn’t there as she was drafting “Pure Colour.” “Maybe that only happens once in your life,” she said. “Maybe you can do it again after 30 years, but not after 20 years. I like that feeling of learning and questioning everything from the beginning and starting with all new assumptions.”

But there is a noticeable shift in tone in “Pure Colour.” Williamson noticed the change, too, after reading an early draft. Even after decades of friendship, she said, “I didn’t know the depth that Sheila made inside herself.”

In Heti’s earlier books, readers see characters in the world engaging in philosophical or aesthetic jousts, at parties, in conversation with friends. The characters in those novels don’t tend to linger in discomfort: Scenes and moods change quickly. But readers of “Pure Colour” stay with Mira through some wrenching emotion.

Part of the change, Heti said, comes from her “becoming less afraid of feeling things.” With an experience as all-encompassing as grief, “there isn’t really a way of running away from it.”

There are fewer characters in “Pure Colour,” which mirrors Heti’s changing life. “I was so interested in people for so long,” Heti said, that she encountered curiosity burnout. “I came to the end of whatever I was searching for.”

With the book poised for release, it’s too soon for Heti to know what her next project might be. But she has questions, of course.

“What would it be like to write without trying to fix anything, or repair anything or beautify anything, or comfort or entertain?” she wondered. “What if you take away all of those motivations? What kind of writing happens then?”

In case it wasn’t clear, Heti, like Mira, is a bird — “obviously,” she said, with a laugh.

Dutch city to take down bridge temporarily to accommodate Jeff Bezos’ new yacht

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Dutch city to take down bridge temporarily to accommodate Jeff Bezos’ new yacht
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Officials in the Dutch port of Rotterdam have agreed to spend weeks dismantling a historic bridge to accommodate Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ new yacht. 

The boat, a 417-foot long, three-masted ship that reportedly cost $500 million, is currently under construction in the Netherlands. But it will be too tall to pass under the Koningshaven Bridge, which has a 130-foot clearance, according to the NL Times, which cited Dutch-language outlet Rijnmond.

Mr. Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post, and boat maker Oceano asked the city to temporarily take apart the bridge, saying they would cover the expenses for the job. The project should take more than two weeks, according to Rijnmond. 

Officials said they viewed the project as a revenue generator. 

“From an economic perspective and maintaining employment, the municipality considers this a very important project,” municipal project leader Marcel Walravens said. “In addition, Rotterdam has also been declared the maritime capital of Europe. Shipbuilding and activity within that sector are therefore an important pillar of the municipality.”

But not all leaders approve of the project. Rotterdam politician Stephan Leewis cited disagreement with the business practices of Mr. Bezos’s massive company. 

“This man has earned his money by structurally cutting staff, evading taxes, avoiding regulations — and now we have to tear down our beautiful national monument?” Mr. Leewis said.

Mr. Bezos’ Y721 yacht is one of the biggest ever built in the Netherlands, a common construction site for the wealthy, according to Bloomberg. 

The boat’s mast is so tall that it could present a hazard for helicopters in the area. Mr. Bezos’ solution to this was to commission a support boat with a helipad to accommodate choppers flying nearby. 

Dissenter on bin Laden raid, Biden changes course, orders similar risky mission to get ISIS leader

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Dissenter on bin Laden raid, Biden changes course, orders similar risky mission to get ISIS leader
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What a difference a decade makes.

President Biden, an infamous dissenter of the 2011 raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, signed off on an equally risky and remarkably similar mission in northwestern Syria on Wednesday that resulted in the death of Islamic State head Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi.

During both operations, U.S. Special Forces raided a compound in a primarily residential area, encountered women and children essentially used as human shields, relied heavily on local intelligence assets for information on the site and had to destroy a disabled military helicopter at the end of the mission.

For Mr. Biden, the death of al-Qurayshi is a desperately needed political win during a string of domestic crises, with skyrocketing inflation, a resurgent COVID-19 pandemic and unchecked illegal immigration at the southern border. 

It also temporarily takes some of Washington’s foreign policy focus away from the standoff along the Russia-Ukraine border. The White House faces growing criticism for its handling of the crisis and its apparent willingness to negotiate with the Kremlin.

Still, the raid is sure to raise deeper questions about whether Mr. Biden’s ill-fated advice in 2011 and the subsequent political blowback have affected his decision-making. U.S. officials said the mission had been planned for months.

Mr. Biden faced withering criticism for urging President Obama to hold back on the bin Laden raid. He said he believed it was best to conduct more reconnaissance before sending U.S. troops into such a dangerous situation.

“I’m the last person in the room. And again, this is a place where I’ve got to reserve space, in my view, for the president,” Mr. Biden told CNN during its recent “President in Waiting” documentary. “There was one option that was remaining. You could have done one more very low flight … spying down on the site to determine whether this was bin Laden.”

“I said, ‘Mr. President … I think you should wait and do one more pass,’ knowing that if you did a lower pass they might observe it and [bin Laden] would flee,” Mr. Biden said before praising Mr. Obama for disregarding his advice.

“It took real courage to make that decision,” he said.

Indeed, Mr. Obama approved the mission on May 2, 2011, over the objection of his vice president. The dissenting stance has haunted Mr. Biden ever since. It was one of the decisions that led Robert M. Gates, who served as the Obama administration’s first defense secretary, to eviscerate Mr. Biden‘s foreign policy wisdom.

“I think he has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades,” Mr. Gates wrote in his 2014 book, “Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War.”

Mr. Biden also faced heat from President Trump during the 2020 election campaign. The incumbent used the issue to cast doubt on whether Mr. Biden could be trusted on issues of counterterrorism.

“If it were up to Joe, bin Laden … would still be alive,” Mr. Trump tweeted in September 2020.

The Hill reacts

Prominent Republicans on Thursday expressed strong support for the raid but acknowledged some surprise that Mr. Biden approved it. Some tempered their praise with criticisms of Mr. Biden‘s counterterrorism policies more generally, particularly in light of the disorganized and bloody retreat from Afghanistan last summer.

“I think he understands the threat from ISIS. And yeah, I was actually pleasantly surprised, to be honest with you. I think it was a good step,” Rep. Michael T. McCaul, Texas Republican and ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told The Washington Times. 

The value and notoriety of the two targets, bin Laden and al-Qurayshi, varied considerably.

Al-Qurayshi took over as the de facto head of the global ISIS network in 2019. He had nowhere near the household name status that bin Laden earned during his years as the leader of an anti-U.S. jihadi movement across the Middle East.

Still, the military missions that resulted in their deaths share many similarities. Both terrorists were holed up in compounds in residential neighborhoods, al-Qurayshi in Syria‘s Idlib province and bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Both had their families with them in their well-protected compounds.

Neither left his residence. They communicated with their deputies through other means. Officials said al-Qurayshi often gave orders via courier.

In both instances, the commander in chief — Mr. Obama in 2011, Mr. Biden on Wednesday — opted for a Special Forces ground operation rather than an airstrike, putting U.S. troops at more risk but reducing the chances of civilian casualties and collateral damage.

U.S. helicopters encountered problems during both missions. In Abbottabad, a Black Hawk crashed as it arrived at the scene. In Syria, a helicopter sustained mechanical failures, officials said. Both were destroyed as U.S. personnel left the scene.

Despite the questions facing Mr. Biden, he struck a tough tone Thursday morning and used the mission to send a message to other terrorists around the world.

“We will come after you and find you,” he said.

• Joseph Clark contributed to this report.

Nugent-Hopkins breaks late tie, Oilers beat Capitals 5-3

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Nugent-Hopkins breaks late tie, Oilers beat Capitals 5-3
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WASHINGTON — Ryan Nugent-Hopkins broke a tie with a short-handed goal with 4:03 remaining in the Edmonton Oilers‘ 5-3 victory over the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night in the final game for both teams before the All-Star break.

Nugent-Hopkins added an empty-net goal with 1:05 remaining to wrap up the Oilers‘ fifth victory in six games.

Washington played without Alex Ovechkin after he entered the NHL’s COVID-19 protocols Wednesday. The Russian star also will miss the All-Star Game.

Leon Draisaitl, Evander Kane and Connor McDavid scored goals in the first 5:07 to give the Oilers a 3-0 lead. Mikko Koskinen stopped 24 shots.

Lars Eller, Conor Sheary and Evgeny Kuznetsov scored for Washington.

After allowing three goals and stopping just one shot, Ilya Samsonov was replaced by Pheonix Copley, who stopped 22 shots.

Draisaitl, heading to his third All-Star Game, scored 1:30seconds into the game. It was his 32nd goal, and the sixth in his last six games.

In his third game since signing with the Oilers on Jan. 27, Kane scored his second goal at 3:01 of the first, his 21st in 35 career games against the Capitals, by far his most against any opponent.

McDavid’s 23rd goal, and the fourth in his last six games, gave Edmonton a 3-0 lead. He’ll play in his fifth All-Star Game.

Eller scored for Washington at 7:36 of the first, and Sheary at 9:16 of the second. Kuznetsov, who’ll be playing in his second All-Star Game, tied it at 3 at 2:48 of the third.

NOTES: Copley appeared in his first NHL game since April 6, 2019. He replaced Vitak Vanecek, who suffered an upper-body injury in Tuesday’s win at Pittsburgh. … Capitals D Justin Schultz, who assisted on Eller’s goal, has assists in three straight games. … Oilers F Cody Ceci assisted on the first two goals, his first game with multiple points since Nov. 11. … Edmonton D Tyson Barrie was activated from long-term injured reserve, and Slater Koekkoek was waived and assigned to Bakersfield of the AHL.

UP NEXT

Oilers: Host Vegas on Tuesday night.

Capitals: Host Columbus on Tuesday night.

Copyright © 2022 The Washington Times, LLC.

Chris Mazdzer, USA Luge’s ‘cool uncle,’ ready to pass on his leadership torch

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Chris Mazdzer, USA Luge’s ‘cool uncle,’ ready to pass on his leadership torch
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BEIJING — Chris Mazdzer tends to be the guy with just about all the answers for USA Luge.

He always finds the quickest path to get where food is being served. He knows how to handle logistical issues. He can even advise on where to get a haircut.

“I would classify him as the cool uncle,” USA Luge Olympic rookie Jonny Gustafson said.

That truly is a fitting description. But at the Beijing Games, Mazdzer might be playing that role for the final time.

At 33 and now a member of four U.S. Olympic luge teams, it’s clear that his career is much closer to the end than the beginning. And while he hasn’t announced a retirement plan, it’s relatively obvious that the team’s leadership torch is going to be passed soon.

But first, Beijing. Men’s luge — where Mazdzer is one of three Americans in the field, alongside Gustafson and Tucker West — starts Saturday, with the first sliding medals of this year’s Olympics to be awarded Sunday.

“I feel like I can overcome anything if I set my mind to it,” Mazdzer said. “And that’s kind of how I always have viewed this sport. My goal is to get to the Games. So, I’m going to do everything I can. And if that’s not enough, then that’s not enough, but I’m going to give it 100% and I’m going to go down swinging.”

He took a big swing four years ago. It paid off.

Mazdzer wasn’t a medal favorite at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics after a very difficult season; he wound up winning a silver, matching the best finish in USA Luge’s Olympic history. He’s not a medal favorite this time either, once again coming into the Winter Games following a tough season. But he also believes that he’s still good enough to put down four clean runs and see what happens.

“Past success, just like the stock market, doesn’t predict future gains,” Mazdzer said. “So, you really have to take every track, every year, every race, one at a time. It’s great having the experience of success, especially at the Olympic Games. I know my mindset, I know how to treat this mentally, and that’s really important. And I know that’s going to help me here in Beijing.”

He has relied on the mental side all season.

First, Mazdzer and his wife, Mara, welcomed their first son, Nicolai, into the world last April. The sliding schedule, with every World Cup in Europe or Asia this season, has meant that Mazdzer has spent the better part of the last five months — sans for a few days around Christmas — able to see his son only on FaceTime.

Dealing with that was difficult enough. Then came a wayward piece of ice that he hit with his foot at the 2014 Olympic track in Krasnaya Polyana, Russia, causing a fracture that still hasn’t fully healed. And another blow came last month when he and doubles teammate Jayson Terdiman crashed out of what essentially was an Olympic-berth deciding race for the Americans, as first-time qualifiers Zack DiGregorio and Sean Hollander got the spot Mazdzer and Terdiman were seeking.

“I’m really not a ‘the world is against me’ type the person, but it’s been pretty tough the last couple months,” Mazdzer said. “Pretty much nothing went my way. But that doesn’t mean it’s always going to be like that, right? I am always optimistic. I feel like I can overcome anything if I set my mind to it. And that’s kind of how I always have viewed this sport and life.”

He’s already beginning to transition to the next chapter. He and some friends are involved in a start-up business revolving around an idea they have for adjustable dumbbells. He has plans to get home as soon as possible to reunite with Mara and Nicolai. And, especially now at the Games, Mazdzer is sharing whatever wisdom he can with teammates.

Luge’s cool uncle isn’t going to be around forever. He’s going to savor whatever time he has left.

“I just want to be helpful and share my experience but also have a really good time,” Mazdzer said. “There’s a time to be serious and there’s a time where you can relax and I think I do both pretty well. I’m not ever trying to hide things from people. I want to share what I know and just have a good time with my team. That’s really all I try to do. That’s it. I’m not trying to be anything other than that.”

Copyright © 2022 The Washington Times, LLC.

Rudy Giuliani spurs ‘Masked Singer’ walkout: Report

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Rudy Giuliani spurs ‘Masked Singer’ walkout: Report
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Merely having been in the presence of Rudy Giuliani is too much for some Hollywood celebrities.

The former New York mayor and legal adviser to former President Donald Trump was one of the mystery performers for the upcoming season premiere of “The Masked Singer,” TMZ reported Wednesday evening.

Mr. Giuliani was the first contestant eliminated at last week’s taping, according to the celebrity-news site.

All Hades then broke loose.

“As soon as the mask came off Rudy‘s head, Robin Thicke and Ken Jeong blew their tops,” TMZ wrote.

The two judges walked off “The Masked Singer” set in protest, though they later returned.

According to a separate report on Deadline, fellow judges Jenny McCarthy and Nicole Scherzinger stayed onstage and “bantered” with Mr. Giuliani, as is customary once a contestant is revealed.

The episode will kick off season 7 of the popular Fox series on March 9.

Spotify dominates streaming music, report finds

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Spotify dominates streaming music, report finds
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Spotify is dominating the streaming music market, far outpacing rivals Apple Music and Amazon, according to a new report.

The streaming service controlled 31% of the market of 523.9 million subscribers, while Apple Music had 15% and Amazon Music and Tencent Music both had 13% in the second quarter of 2021, the report by media and technology analysis company Midia found.

The number of music subscribers grew by 26% to 523.9 million from the second quarter of 2020 to the end of June, 2021. 

Spotify’s market share slipped from 33% in the second quarter of 2020, and its growth has been surpassed by Amazon Music — 25% vs. 20%. But by far, the biggest growth came from YouTube Music, growing by 50% over the year.

YouTube resonates with a younger audience, which could present a bigger challenge for Spotify as its subscriber base leans heavily on millennials.

Tencent Music Entertainment and NetEase Cloud Music combined to account for 18% of global market share, despite being available only in China. Yandex— which is available only in Russia — doubled its subscriber base and grabbed 2% of the market. 

The streaming market has become critical to expanding musicians’ and bands’ fanbases. 

Country artist Houston Bernard said he relies heavily on them. 

“You’re trying to get onto a good playlist, and you’re hoping that the editors will pick your song when you release it and you hope you get [on] a good playlist,” Mr. Bernard said. 

Given the significant cost of sending a song to radio stations, Mr. Bernard has focused more on streaming. 

“It’s where a lot of people are listening to music. And I am just trying to connect with more people and share my music with people,” Mr. Bernard said. 

Jeff Zucker’s sudden exit from CNN linked to Cuomo connection

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Jeff Zucker’s sudden exit from CNN linked to Cuomo connection
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Under Jeff Zucker, CNN built a reputation for left-tilting news coverage with a combative spin, so it came as no surprise that his abrupt resignation Wednesday had the makings of a political soap opera.

Mr. Zucker said he resigned over his failure to disclose a “consensual relationship” with a colleague who turned out to be chief marketing officer Allison Gollust. But what he didn’t mention is that she previously worked as communications director for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

In December, CNN host Chris Cuomo was fired for helping combat accusations of sexual harassment against his elder brother, who resigned from the governorship in August. Mr. Zucker said he failed to disclose the affair during the internal investigation.

“As part of the investigation into Chris Cuomo’s tenure at CNN, I was asked about a consensual relationship with my closest colleague, someone I have worked with for more than 20 years,” Mr. Zucker said in his memo to staff. “I acknowledged the relationship evolved in recent years. I was required to disclose it when it began but I didn’t. I was wrong.”

The latest details about CNN’s tangled involvement with the Cuomos emerged alongside the back-and-forth over Mr. Zucker’s legacy as president of CNN Worldwide, a dynamic period in which the network abandoned its just-the-facts approach to become what critics have ripped as “MSNBC lite.”

“It’s no accident that in Jeff Zucker’s nine-year tenure that CNN has become one of America’s most hated news organizations,” said Curtis Houck, managing editor of the conservative media watchdog NewsBusters. “We’re beyond a crisis of confidence in the media, and Jeff Zucker is not a minor character in all of this.”

Those lamenting Mr. Zucker’s departure included several well-known CNN figures.

Anchor Alisyn Camerota described it as “an incredible loss,” and host Don Lemon said he was “devastated” by Mr. Zucker’s departure and called him “the best boss we have ever had, one of the best things that has ever happened to CNN.”

“There are probably going to be a lot of nervous people at CNN because Jeff is really the glue there,” Mr. Lemon told Variety.

Those criticizing Mr. Zucker’s nine-year run included a surprising number of prominent journalists not known for their right-of-center views.

“I feel like Jeff Zucker has done an objectively terrible job of running CNN. Its ratings are in the toilet,” tweeted Vox senior correspondent Ian Millhiser. “And I have no idea who they view as their target audience, or even if it has occurred to them to target a particular audience.”

CNN became, for conservatives, a symbol of media bias during the Trump presidency. It was the frequent target of President Trump’s attacks of “fake news,” but in terms of ratings, the network had a love-hate relationship with the blustery Republican.

CNN’s popularity soared during the Trump presidency and crashed after he left office. From January 2021 to January 2022, the network’s ratings plunged 76% in total prime-time viewers and 82% in the key 25- to 54-year-old demographic, Mr. Houck said.

Indeed, Mr. Zucker has long been blamed on the left for focusing too heavily on Mr. Trump in the year leading up to the 2016 presidential election. This decision brought in viewers but also gave the Republican an enormous media platform.

CNN was later accused of overcompensating with its intense criticism of Mr. Trump after his election victory.

Since Mr. Zucker’s arrival, CNN has dropped 3% in prime time and 29% in the 25 to 54 demographic, said Mr. Houck, unable to topple archrival Fox News, which notched in January its 20th year as the No. 1 cable news network in daytime and prime-time viewers.

“Jeff Zucker could have managed this and stayed on the job if the ratings are up,” said conservative radio host Erick Erickson. “You can get away with a lot in entertainment if the ratings are up, but the ratings are down badly at CNN.”

Mr. Trump wasted no time with razzing. He called Mr. Zucker a “world-class sleazebag who has headed ratings and real-news-challenged CNN for far too long.”

“Now is a chance to put Fake News in the backseat because there may not be anything more important than straightening out the horrendous LameStream Media in our Country, and in the case of CNN, throughout the World,” Mr. Trump said in a statement. “Jeff Zucker is gone — congratulations to all!”

Mr. Zucker may be gone, but the story doesn’t end there. His sudden exit puzzled some media watchers, who said that the network honcho’s relationship with Ms. Gollust was an open secret.

Mr. Zucker hired Ms. Gollust shortly after he arrived at CNN in 2013, and their relationship dated back to their days working together at NBC’s “Today” show, former NBC anchor Katie Couric said in her memoir.

In her 2021 tell-all, Ms. Couric said Mr. Zucker, who was executive producer for “Today,” made a “huge push to bring on Allison Gollust,” even though there was no communications role for her. She said the two were “joined at the hip.”

“I had to wonder why Jeff was angling so hard to bring Allison on board,” Ms. Couric said in “Going There.” “She and her husband and kids had moved into the apartment right above Jeff and [his wife] Caryn’s — everyone who heard about the cozy arrangement thought it was super-strange. By that point Caryn had become a close friend and it made me really uncomfortable.”

Mr. Zucker and Ms. Gollust are now both divorced.

“That they can’t have a private relationship feels wrong on some level,” Ms. Camerota said.

The wild card in the latest string of events may be Chris Cuomo. Since being fired, he has reportedly sought to be paid about $18 million left under his contract, which may have touched off a “chain of events,” said CNN “Reliable Sources” host Brian Stelter.

“He is not going out quietly. He was fired, and there are reports that he was not going to get paid the millions of dollars that were going to be on the remainder of his contract,” said Mr. Stelter. “As a source said to me earlier today, he was going to burn the place down. He was going to court, trying to burn the place down, and claiming that he had incriminating information about Zucker and Gollust.”

The result could be a “domino effect that begins with Andrew Cuomo going down in the governor’s office and Chris Cuomo being fired from CNN and Jeff Zucker losing his job at CNN,” Mr. Stelter said.

The other moving part is that AT&T has sought to combine WarnerMedia, the CNN parent company, with Discovery as part of a $43 billion deal.

A key player is billionaire John Malone, chairman of Discovery’s major shareholder Liberty Media, who said in November that he wants CNN to return to its roots.

“I would like to see CNN evolve back to the kind of journalism that it started with, and actually have journalists, which would be unique and refreshing,” Mr. Malone told CNBC. “I do believe good journalism could have a role in this future portfolio that Discovery-TimeWarner’s going to represent.”

The company plans to launch a streaming service in the first quarter of 2022 called CNN+, featuring network personalities such as Mr. Lemon, Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper and former Fox News anchor Chris Wallace.

“CNN invented cable news in 1980, defined online news in 1995 and now is taking an important step in expanding what news can be by launching a direct-to-consumer streaming subscription service in 2022,” Mr. Zucker said in a June statement.

OMG, You’ll Never Believe What the Laser Vacuum Revealed

Enspirers | Editorial Board
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OMG, You’ll Never Believe What the Laser Vacuum Revealed
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After about a week of testing the cleaning tech, I concluded that there are convenient ways to fit these gadgets into our lives. Here’s a guide.

The V15 Detect, unveiled last year, is the latest stick vacuum from Dyson. Getting started is simple: You charge the battery, attach a cleaning head to the stick and press a button.

The device comes with seven cleaning heads for sucking up dust and dirt on hardwood floors, carpets and smaller areas like crevices. The roller attachment for hardwood is the one with the laser. It makes night vacuuming a thing — the darker it is, the more visible the laser. An attachment for carpet includes a cutter to slice up hair, which reduces the need to do maintenance on the head.

Stick vacuums have been popular because of their lightweight and cordless mobility, which makes cleaning less of a hassle than schlepping an upright corded vacuum around. Generally, though, the sticks have served as a secondary cleaner to a full-size vacuum because of their short battery life and relatively weak suction.

I can confirm that the stick vacuum has come a long way. The V15 Detect has a significantly more powerful motor, with stronger suction, than my Dyson V6 stick vacuum, which was released in 2015. Its battery lasted about 40 minutes before needing a charge, enough time to go through my modestly sized home. (My V6 lasted about 15 minutes.)

Lastly, the Dyson’s suction was not as strong as my extremely powerful Miele bagged vacuum. But after two weeks of vacuuming hardwood floors and carpets with the stick, I didn’t feel a need to plug in the full-size vacuum.

It takes a while to get accustomed to the Roomba J7+, the $850 robot vacuum, and the Braava Jet M6, the $450 robot mop, both from iRobot. The devices rely on cameras, sensors and artificial intelligence to create a map of your home. Once a map is created, you can label each room and tell the robots to clean specific areas or to clean everywhere.

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