Cynthia Nixon says they were “very lucky” to be able to leave out Chris Noth’s additional scenes in ‘And Just Like That’.

The 67-year-old actor’s alter ego John James ‘Mr Big’ Preston was killed off in the first episode of the ‘Sex and the City’ spin-off, but he had also filmed scenes with on-screen wife Sarah Jessica Parker (Carrie Bradshaw) in Paris, France, to feature in the season finale.

However, after the actor was accused of sexual assault by multiple women, insiders told TV Line the cameo footage “will not make it to air” now.

Cynthia, who plays Carrie’s friend Miranda Hobbes on the HBO series, told ‘Entertainment Tonight’: “I think we were very lucky that those changes were able to be made and I think we are very proud of our show.”

What’s more, following the passing of Willie Garson – who played Carrie’s gay best friend Stanford Blatch – in September, they were able to adapt the story so that his character was on tour around the world.

And the 55-year-old actress has explained how they wanted to ensure viewers weren’t “distracted” from the characters.

She added: “We just wanted, you know, people to not be distracted or already feel, certainly with the death of Willie Garson, [which is] such a painful thing and already [something] viewers had to contend with. We didn’t want them to be distracted from the fictional characters.”

When it comes to another series of ‘And Just Like That’, Cynthia – who got to direct one episode and is an executive producer – insisted she doesn’t have much say in the matter.

She said: “Even though I’m an executive producer and I got to direct an episode, I am not a writer. And so, that is one of the great privileges of being a writer, that it’s not my job to figure it out, thank god.

“You know, it’s my job to say that doesn’t seem right for my character. But in terms of the amazing writers, we have [been] dreaming things up. They know much better than I do.”

By Jonathan Stempel and Shivam Patel

NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York state’s attorney general has accused Donald Trump’s family business of repeatedly misrepresenting the value of its assets to obtain financial benefits, citing what it said was significant new evidence of possible fraud.

The accusations by Attorney General Letitia James mark a substantial escalation of her civil probe into the Republican former U.S. president’s business, the Trump Organization, and the roles of his adult children.

They are part of her effort to force Donald Trump and his children Donald Trump Jr and Ivanka Trump to comply with her subpoenas to testify under oath, which the family has asked a judge to block.

Neither Trump nor his children have been accused of criminal wrongdoing. While James cannot file criminal charges because her probe is civil, she can sue the Trumps and the company.

James is examining whether the Trumps violated a New York law targeting “persistent fraud or illegality,” allowing her to seek damages or a court-ordered halt to any wrongdoing.

Trump has called the nearly three-year probe by James, a Democrat, a political “witch hunt.”

In filings late Tuesday with a New York state court in Manhattan, James described what she called misleading statements about the values of six Trump properties, as well as the “Trump Brand.”

The properties are golf clubs in Aberdeen, Scotland, and suburban Westchester County near New York City, the Seven Springs Estate in Westchester, buildings on Wall Street and Park Avenue in Manhattan, and Trump’s penthouse in Trump Tower.

James has been investigating whether real estate values were inflated to obtain bank loans and reduced to lower tax bills, and her filing described evidence of misstatements to lenders, insurers and the Internal Revenue Service.

The attorney general wants a judge to order the Trumps to testify within 21 days.

“We have uncovered significant evidence that suggests Donald J. Trump and the Trump Organization falsely and fraudulently valued multiple assets and misrepresented those values to financial institutions for economic benefit,” James said in a statement.

‘UNFOUNDED ATTACKS’

Alina Habba, a lawyer for Trump, in a statement called James’ accusations “merely the latest in a long line of unfounded attacks against my client and an obvious attempt to distract the public from her own inappropriate conduct. Letitia, you are not above the law.”

The Trump Organization in a statement said it will defend against James’ “baseless” accusations, accusing her of twisting the facts and misleading the public because she faces “the stark reality that she has no case.”

James’ probe also partially overlaps a criminal probe by the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, which James joined in May, into the Trump Organization’s practices.

The attorney general said the Trump Organization has “not made anything approaching a complete production of documents for Mr. Trump,” including from cabinets holding his files.

Lawyers for the Trump family have argued that James’ subpoenas are an improper means to gather evidence in the civil probe that could then be used in the criminal probe.

Alan Futerfas, a lawyer for Donald Trump Jr and Ivanka Trump, in a statement said James’ filings did not address her “repeated threats to target the Trump family” and ignore their constitutional rights by conducting overlapping probes.

In July, the Trump Organization and its longtime Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg pleaded not guilty in the criminal probe to charges they awarded “off-the-books” benefits to company executives in a 15-year tax fraud.

FINANCIAL CONDITION

Many of James’ accusations center on Donald Trump’s annual “statements of financial condition,” which give lenders and other counterparties the values and liabilities associated with various assets.

James said she found evidence that Trump was “personally involved” in approving the statements, and used them “in numerous commercial transactions for his own financial benefit.”

She said one statement in June 2015 valued Trump’s building at 40 Wall Street at $735.4 million, tacking on nearly $200 million to its appraised value, a mere eight months after one lender valued the same building at $257 million.

James said Trump inflated the values of the Scotland golf club and Seven Springs in part based on assumptions that residential housing could be built there.

She also said Trump in his 2015 and 2016 statements overstated the value of his penthouse apartment, putting it at $327 million by claiming it contained 30,000 square feet and not the 10,996 square feet described in various documents he signed.

Under questioning by her office, Weisselberg conceded that “this amounted to an overstatement of ‘give or take’ $200 million,” James said in a filing.

Last month, Donald Trump sued James in a federal court in Albany, the state capital, to halt her civil probe, calling it a means to harass and intimidate a political opponent.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen, Karen Freifeld and Jonathan Stempel in New York; and Shivam Patel and Akriti Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Gerry Doyle, Noeleen Walder and Mark Porter)

Miami (AFP) – The plan to restore the Florida Everglades, the largest wetlands in the United States, will receive a federal investment of $1.1 billion to protect the region against the effects of climate change, the White House said Wednesday.

“The Administration is making the largest single investment in the Everglades in US history,” the White House said in a statement.

The money, which comes from already approved funds in President Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure package passed by Congress in November, will be spent by the US Army Corps of Engineers. 

“The iconic American landscape provides drinking water supply for over 8 million Floridians, supports the state’s $90 billion tourism economy, and is home to dozens of endangered or threatened species,” the White House said. 

The Everglades, a subtropical ecosystem of more than 607,000 hectares (1.5 million acres), is the scene of one of the biggest ecological rehabilitation projects in the world. 

The area is especially vulnerable to sea level rise, a consequence of climbing temperatures due to climate change, as an influx of saltwater could disrupt groundwater reserves and throw off the balance between the region’s plants and animals. 

The restoration efforts will try to revive the flow of water across the wetland, which has been interrupted by decades of human development. 

Scientists envision a complex system of canals, dams and water pumps. 

Congress in 2000 approved a $7.8 billion federally and state-funded plan to protect the Everglades, a national park, which, despite some advances, faced delay after delay.

The money from Wednesday’s announcement could accelerate the project, according to Florida’s Democratic Representative Debbie Wasserman Shultz. 

“This is enormous news, and allows us to set a course for quicker completion of the world’s largest ecosystem restoration project,” she said in a statement.

By Julie Steenhuysen and Manas Mishra

(Reuters) – People who had previously been infected with COVID-19 were better protected against the Delta variant than those who were vaccinated alone, suggesting that natural immunity was a more potent shield than vaccines against that variant, California and New York health officials reported on Wednesday.

Protection against Delta was highest, however, among people who were both vaccinated and had survived a previous COVID infection, and lowest among those who had never been infected or vaccinated, the study found.

Nevertheless, vaccination remains the safest strategy against COVID-19, according to the report published in U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

The results do not apply to the Omicron variant of the virus, which now accounts for 99.5% of COVID-19 cases in the United States.

“The evidence in this report does not change our vaccination recommendations,” Dr. Ben Silk of the CDC and one of the study’s authors told a media briefing.

“We know that vaccination is still the safest way to protect yourself against COVID-19,” he said.

For the study, health officials in California and New York gathered data from May through November, which included the period when the Delta variant was dominant.

It showed that people who survived a previous infection had lower rates of COVID-19 than people who were vaccinated alone.

That represented a change from the period when the Alpha variant was dominant, Silk told the briefing.

“Before the Delta variant, COVID-19 vaccination resulted in better protection against a subsequent infection than surviving a previous infection,” he said.

In the summer and fall of 2021, however, when Delta became the predominant circulating iteration of the virus in the United States, “surviving a previous infection now provided greater protection against the subsequent infection than vaccination,” he said.

But acquiring immunity through natural infection carries significant risks. According to the study, by November 30, 2021, roughly 130,781 residents of California and New York had died from COVID-19.

The analysis did not include information on the severity of initial infection, nor does it account for the full range of illness caused by prior infection.

One important limitation to the study was that it ended before administration of vaccine booster doses was widespread.

Dr. Erica Pan, state epidemiologist for the California Department of Public Health, said in an email that the study “clearly shows” that vaccines provide the safest protection against COVID-19 and they offer added protection for those with prior infections.

“Outside of this study, recent data on the highly contagious Omicron variant shows that getting a booster provides significant additional protection against infection, hospitalization and death,” Pan said.

Silk said the CDC is studying the impact of vaccination, boosters and prior infection during the Omicron surge and expects to issue further reports when that data becomes available.

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago and Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

By Richard Cowan, David Morgan and Moira Warburton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Conservative Democratic U.S. Senator Joe Manchin on Wednesday said he opposed changing the chamber’s rules to ease passage of a voting-rights bill, all but dooming the measure’s passage in a high-stakes vote later in the day.

Manchin took to the Senate floor to reiterate his opposition to changing the filibuster rule on Wednesday, as Republicans prepared to use the 60-vote threshold to block an election reform bill https://news.trust.org/item/20220113182721-f9syv Democrats insist is necessary to preserve the right to vote in the United States.

He spoke as President Joe Biden, who has called the bill critical to preserving democracy, was giving his first news conference in months.

“Let this change happen in this way the Senate will be a body without rules,” Manchin said. “We don’t have to change the rules to make our case to the American people for voting rights.”

Biden told reporters on Wednesday that he had not given up hope of passing the voting-rights bill.

“We’ve not run out of options yet,” Biden said.

Manchin joined fellow conservative Democrat Kyrsten Sinema in announcing their opposition to the rules change in Senate floor speeches.

The Senate was scheduled to hold a procedural vote at about 6:30 p.m. EST (2330 GMT), which will require supermajority support to advance the voting rights legislation toward final passage.

If that vote fails, as is widely expected, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said he will move to alter the filibuster https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-senate-democrats-mull-ending-filibuster-pass-voting-rights-reform-2022-01-11 rule by vote.

It was unclear when that vote would occur.

With the Senate split 50-50, Democrats would need support from all of their caucus members plus a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Kamala Harris to change the chamber’s rules.

“If Republicans block … the legislation before us, I will put forward a proposal to change the Senate rules to allow for a talking filibuster,” Schumer said in a floor speech earlier on Wednesday.

“There are some in our caucus who believe (the filibuster) helps bring us together. I don’t see that evidence,” Schumer added.

Democrats say the bill is crucial to protecting the American political system as Republican-led states pass a wave of new voting restrictions, driven by former President Donald Trump’s false claims of widespread election fraud. Republicans dismiss the bill as a partisan power grab.

As Republican after Republican accused Democrats of trying to usurp states’ rights to administer elections, Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock said their arguments “have sounded uncannily familiar” to segregationists’ opposition to civil rights legislation of the 1960s, which ultimately succeeded.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the chamber’s top Republican, warned of a legislative “nuclear winter” if Democrats succeed in upending the 60-vote threshold. But he predicted that a slim majority of lawmakers would preserve the filibuster and turn back what he called a partisan Democratic frenzy.

“The fear is false, the rage is misplaced and today factional fevers will not carry the day,” said McConnell, contending that Democrats would pay a political price even for a failed attempt to overturn Senate rules.

“For both groups of senators, this group will echo for generations. Before we part ways tonight, all 100 of us will have marked our legacies in permanent ink,” he said.

If the week ends in failure for Biden and his fellow Democrats in Congress, attention is expected to turn to a possible bipartisan effort by a small group of moderate senators to fashion narrower election rule changes.

Such an effort could include new federal funding to help protect non-partisan state election workers from threats against their safety, which have been mounting since the 2020 presidential election. Also under discussion are ways to tighten the way Congress certifies presidential elections every four years.

The battle over voting procedures and campaign finance reform comes against the backdrop of several Republican-controlled state legislatures stripping away some of the get-out-the-vote practices allowed in 2020 while piling on new restrictions.

Their efforts have been embraced and encouraged by Trump. More than a year after his November 2020 loss to Democrat Biden, Trump has continually and falsely insisted that the election was stolen from him by widespread voter fraud.

That claim has been debunked by multiple court decisions, Trump’s own Justice Department and Republican-instigated investigations.

Among the practices Democrats want to turn into minimum federal voting standards are the opportunity for any registered voter to request a mail-in ballot, at least two weeks of early voting and ballot drop boxes that make voting more convenient in many areas.

The Democrats’ legislation also would attempt to remove partisanship from the way congressional districts are redrawn every decade. Currently, “gerrymandering” regularly tilts the field to whichever party is in power in the various states.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan and David Morgan, additional reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Scott Malone, Leslie Adler, Mark Porter and Aurora Ellis)

New York (AFP) – Influential fashion journalist Andre Leon Talley, the first Black creative director of Vogue, died Tuesday in New York at the age of 73, with figures from fashion and entertainment paying tribute.

“It is with great sadness we announce the passing of Andre Leon Talley,” a statement posted on his official Instagram account said, without specifying the cause of death.

“Mr Talley was the larger-than-life, longtime creative director at Vogue during its rise to dominance as the world’s fashion bible.

“Over the past five decades as an international icon (he) was a close confidant of Yves Saint Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld, Paloma Picasso, Diane von Furstenberg and he had a penchant for discovering, nurturing and celebrating young designers.”

Born in Washington in 1948, Talley was largely raised by his grandmother in Durham, North Carolina and was interested in fashion from an early age.

“Every Sunday I would walk across the railroad tracks into the affluent part of Durham and buy Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, and go back to my grandmother’s house, read my magazines.

“I was allowed to retreat from the bullying and the sexual abuse into a beautiful world,” he told The Guardian in a May 2020 interview.

Talley studied French at university, going on to earn a master’s at prestigious Brown University and then entered the world of fashion journalism.

After stints with Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine, Women’s Wear Daily, W, and a brief spell at The New York Times, Talley joined Vogue as fashion news director in 1983, the same year as its now editor-in-chief Anna Wintour.

It was the start of a three-decade association with the fashion bible, serving as creative director, contributing editor and later editor-at-large until his departure in 2013.

“I scorched the Earth with my talent and I let my light shine,” he told The Guardian in his 2020 interview.

‘A beacon of grace’

A flamboyant and towering figure in fashion, Talley nurtured Black designers and lobbied for more diversity on the runway.

Besides his fashion journalism, Talley served as a judge on “America’s Next Top Model” and also appeared in episodes of “Sex and The City” and “Empire.”

He wrote three books, including his 2020 best-selling memoir “The Chiffon Trenches” in which he detailed his famous falling out with powerful Vogue chief Wintour.

“Like many decades-long relationships, there were complicated moments,” Wintour said in a statement. “But all I want to remember today, all I care about, is the brilliant and compassionate man who was a generous and loving friend.”

Other top figures from the worlds of fashion and entertainment also paid tribute.

“Goodbye darling Andre… no one saw the world in a more elegant and glamorous way than you did,” veteran designer von Furstenberg said on Instagram.

“No one was more soulful and grander than you were. The world will be less joyful. I have loved you and laughed with you for 45 years. I miss your loud screams… I love you soooo much,” she said.

Oscar-winner Viola Davis posted a photograph of herself and Talley on Twitter, saying: “RIP Andre Leon Talley. Rest well King.”

“Slave Play” playwright Jeremy O. Harris was also among those paying tribute.

“For a little black gay boy who reached for the stars from the south there were few people I could look up to up there amongst the stars who looked like me just more fab except for you Andre,” Harris tweeted.

“For a generation of boys Andre Leon Talley was a beacon of grace and aspiration. RIP.”

Prince Andrew’s Twitter account has been deleted.

It was announced last week that Queen Elizabeth’s second son would no longer use ‘His Royal Highness’ in an official capacity and his patronages and military titles would be given to other members of the royal family ahead of his civil case in the US, and now the @DukeofYork page on the micro-blogging site has been removed.

Visitors to Andrew’s page are now greeted with the message: “This account doesn’t exist.”

In addition, the 61-year-old prince’s Instagram account, which has the handle @HRHDukeofYork, has been set to private.

On the royal family’s official website, Andrew’s profile page has been updated with last week’s statement about the returning of his patronages and titles and further content detailing his past work has been removed.

The news Andrew will be facing his legal battle as a “private citizen” was announced last week.

Buckingham Palace said in a statement: “With the Queen’s approval and agreement, the Duke of York’s military affiliations and Royal patronages have been returned to the Queen.

“The Duke of York will continue not to undertake any public duties and is defending this case as a private citizen.”

The move came after it was confirmed Andrew will face a civil case in the US over allegations he sexually assaulted Virginia Giuffre when she was 17.

Giuffre has accused convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein – who died by suicide in August 2019 – and his one-time girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell of arranging and forcing her into having sex with the prince in 2001.

In December, Maxwell was convicted by a jury in US federal court on five sex trafficking-related counts, which carry a potential custodial sentence of up to 65 years’ imprisonment.

Andrew has repeatedly denied Giuffre’s allegations and his legal team recently argued to get her lawsuit dismissed, citing a 2009 deal and $500,000 settlement she agreed with Epstein.

However, a federal judge in New York recently ruled that the case could continue.

By Jan Wolfe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The congressional committee probing the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol issued subpoenas on Tuesday to three lawyers who joined former President Donald Trump’s unsuccessful attempt to overturn his election defeat: Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis.

The House of Representatives committee demanded the pro-Trump lawyers hand over documents and sit for depositions on Feb. 8.

Representative Bennie Thompson, the committee’s chairman, said in a statement that the panel expects the lawyers to join the nearly 400 witnesses who have spoken with the Select Committee as part of its investigation into the causes of the deadly attack by Trump supporters.

The committee also subpoenaed Boris Epshteyn, a Trump political adviser.

Robert Costello, a lawyer for Giuliani, said in an interview that the subpoena was “political theater” and that his client was constrained by the legal doctrines of attorney-client privilege and executive privilege.

“I don’t think there’s anything here he can testify about,” Costello said.

Powell, Epshteyn, and Ellis did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“The four individuals we’ve subpoenaed today advanced unsupported theories about election fraud, pushed efforts to overturn the election results, or were in direct contact with the former president about attempts to stop the counting of electoral votes,” Thompson said in the statement.

Powell, Giuliani, and Ellis jointly spoke at a Trump campaign news conference on Nov. 19, 2020, where they vowed to overturn President Joe Biden’s election victory. Powell promised to “release the Kraken,” likening their effort to a mythological sea monster.

The Trump campaign distanced itself from Powell after she claimed without evidence at the news conference that electronic voting systems had switched millions of ballots from Trump to Biden.

Giuliani’s New York law license was suspended in June, after a state appeals court found he made “demonstrably false and misleading” statements that widespread voter fraud undermined the election, won by Democrat Joe Biden.

The committee is aiming to release an interim report in the summer and a final report in the fall, a source familiar with the investigation said last month.

CNN reported on Tuesday that the committee has subpoenaed and obtained records of phone numbers associated with one of Trump’s children, Eric Trump, as well as Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is engaged to Donald Trump Jr.

The Select Committee’s members have said they will consider passing along evidence of criminal conduct by Trump to the U.S. Justice Department. Such a move, known as a criminal referral, would be largely symbolic but would increase the political pressure on Attorney General Merrick Garland to charge the former president.

(Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Additional reporting by Karen Freifeld; Editing by Scott Malone, Bill Berkrot and Bernard Orr)

By Alistair Smout

LONDON (Reuters) – People with mild COVID-19 who do not suffer any other traditional “long COVID” symptoms can still exhibit deteriorated attention and memory six to nine months after infection, a study by Britain’s Oxford University has found.

Cognitive issues impacting concentration levels, along with forgetfulness and fatigue, are features of long COVID – a condition that afflicts some after an initial bout of infection – but it has not been established how widespread issues with attention span might be following COVID-19 infection.

In the study, participants who had tested positive for COVID-19 previously but did not report other traditional long COVID symptoms were asked to complete exercises to test their memory and cognitive ability.

The researchers found that participants were significantly worse at recalling personal experiences, known as episodic memory, up to six months after infection.

They also had a bigger decline in their ability to sustain attention over time than uninfected individuals up to nine months after infection.

“What is surprising is that although our COVID-19 survivors did not feel any more symptomatic at the time of testing, they showed degraded attention and memory,” said Dr Sijia Zhao of the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford.

“Our findings reveal that people can experience some chronic cognitive consequences for months.”

The researchers said that individuals over time demonstrated episodic memory and attention span largely returned to normal after six and nine months, respectively.

Participants also performed well in tests of other cognitive abilities, including working memory and planning, in the analysis of 136 participants.

Stephen Burgess of the MRC Biostatistics Unit at the University of Cambridge highlighted the small number of people involved in the study, adding that it was not randomised.

“However, despite this, differences between the COVID and non-COVID groups in terms of several specific measures of cognitive ability looked at in this study were striking,” he said.

“Despite the limitations of non-randomised research, it seems unlikely that these results can be explained by systematic differences between the groups unrelated to COVID infection.”

(Reporting by Alistair Smout; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

Adele is expected to make more than “£500,000 per gig” during her Las Vegas residency.

The 33-year-old singer will soon perform at the Colosseum theatre at Caesars Palace, and she’s poised to become one of the highest-paid female artists in the history of Las Vegas residencies.

A source shared: “Adele is the hottest ticket in Las Vegas right now and she’s raking in a pretty penny from it.

“She is expected to make over £500,000 per gig thanks to ticket sales alone, even before the merchandising.”

Adele will earn a cut from ticket sales, as well as a share of all merchandise sold at the venue.

The London-born star will also be given access to a £30,000-a-night private suite throughout her residency.

The insider told The Sun newspaper: “Caesars has rolled out the red carpet to ensure she’s treated like the superstar she is.”

The ‘Easy on Me’ hitmaker – who announced her Las Vegas residency in November – will also have a chauffeur and security throughout her live shows, which run from January 21 until April 16.

Adele released her long-awaited fourth album, ’30’, last year, and she admitted that she’s recently rediscovered her love of music, after her passion waned for a period of time.

She explained: “I definitely feel like I lost sight of and lost the appreciation of what a gift it is to be into music and be able to make it.

“I think I got a bit frightened of it for a while and it really, really took care of me big time. Not just making this record, my own record, but diving back into old records of other people’s that I loved, discovering new artists on SoundCloud or whatever.”

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The chief executives of major U.S. passenger and cargo carriers on Monday warned of an impending “catastrophic” aviation crisis in less than 36 hours, when AT&T and Verizon are set to deploy new 5G service.

The airlines warned the new C-Band 5G service set to begin on Wednesday could render a significant number of widebody aircraft unusable, “could potentially strand tens of thousands of Americans overseas” and cause “chaos” for U.S. flights.

“Unless our major hubs are cleared to fly, the vast majority of the traveling and shipping public will essentially be grounded,” wrote the chief executives of American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines and others in a letter first reported by Reuters.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has warned that potential interference could affect sensitive airplane instruments such as altimeters and significantly hamper low-visibility operations.

“This means that on a day like yesterday, more than 1,100 flights and 100,000 passengers would be subjected to cancellations, diversions or delays,” the letter https://twitter.com/davidshepardson/status/1483148794690740224?s=20 cautioned.

Airlines late on Monday were considering whether to begin canceling some international flights that are scheduled to arrive in the United States on Wednesday.

“With the proposed restrictions at selected airports, the transportation industry is preparing for some service disruption. We are optimistic that we can work across industries and with government to finalize solutions that safely mitigate as many schedule impacts as possible,” plane maker Boeing said on Monday.

Action is urgent, the airlines added in the letter also signed by UPS Airlines, Alaska Air, Atlas Air, JetBlue Airways and FedEx Express. “To be blunt, the nation’s commerce will grind to a halt.”

The letter went to White House National Economic Council director Brian Deese, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, FAA Administrator Steve Dickson and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.

Airlines for America, the group that organized the letter, declined to comment. The FAA said it “will continue to ensure that the traveling public is safe as wireless companies deploy 5G. The FAA continues to work with the aviation industry and wireless companies to try to limit 5G-related flight delays and cancellations.”

The other government agencies did not comment.

‘INTERVENTION IS NEEDED’

AT&T and Verizon, which won nearly all of the C-Band spectrum in an $80 billion auction last year, on Jan. 3 agreed to buffer zones around 50 airports to reduce interference risks and take other steps to cut potential interference for six months. They also agreed to delay deployment for two weeks until Wednesday, temporarily averting an aviation safety standoff, after previously delaying service by 30 days.

Verizon and AT&T declined comment on Monday. They argue C-Band 5G has been successfully deployed in about 40 other countries without aviation interference issues.

The CEOs of major airlines and Boeing Chief Executive Dave Calhoun held a lengthy call with Buttigieg and Dickson on Sunday to warn of the looming crisis, officials told Reuters.

United Airlines late Monday separately warned the issue could affect more than 15,000 of its flights, 1.25 million passengers and snarl tons of cargo annually.

United said it faces “significant restrictions on 787s, 777s, 737s and regional aircraft in major cities like Houston, Newark, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago.”

The airlines ask “that 5G be implemented everywhere in the country except within the approximate 2 miles (3.2 km) of airport runways” at some key airports.

“Immediate intervention is needed to avoid significant operational disruption to air passengers, shippers, supply chain and delivery of needed medical supplies,” they said.

The airlines added that flight restrictions will not be limited to poor weather operations.

“Multiple modern safety systems on aircraft will be deemed unusable causing a much larger problem than what we knew… Airplane manufacturers have informed us that there are huge swaths of the operating fleet that may need to be indefinitely grounded.”

One area of concern is whether some or all Boeing 777s will be unable to land at some key U.S. airports after 5G service starts, as well as some Boeing cargo planes, airline officials told Reuters.

The airlines urged action to ensure “5G is deployed except when towers are too close to airport runways until the FAA can determine how that can be safely accomplished without catastrophic disruption.”

The FAA said on Sunday it had cleared an estimated 45% of the U.S. commercial airplane fleet to perform low-visibility landings at many airports where 5G C-band will be deployed and they expect to issue more approvals before Wednesday. The airlines noted on Monday that the list did not include many large airports.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Bill Berkrot and Gerry Doyle)

Julian Fellowes has hinted that a third ‘Downton Abbey’ film could be made.

The hit period drama returns to the big screen with the sequel ‘Downton Abbey: A New Era’ which is slated for release in March and the show’s creator Julian claims that another movie could follow.

The 72-year-old screenwriter told the Radio Times magazine: “We were lucky to reassemble our cast.

“I think for them it’s become a sort of club. They say goodbye, everyone cries and two years later, we’re back at it!”

Julian added: “I think each time it’s goodbye, but whether it is or not, who knows?”

The first ‘Downton Abbey’ film was released in 2019 and proved to be a box office hit and stars Hugh Bonneville, Michelle Dockery and Dame Maggie Smith are all reprising their roles in the latest project.

The flick has been filmed at Hampshire’s Highclere Castle last year and was originally scheduled for release, last month before the pandemic led to a delay.

It was previously reported that a much-loved character would be killed off in this movie and the scenes would be tear-jerking for fans.

The insider added to The Sun newspaper: “Those who have seen the scenes said they are so emotional.

“They will really leave fans in floods. It’s heartbreak at Highclere Castle and there won’t be a dry eye in cinemas.”

No clues have been given as to who will die, but ‘Downton’ fans could be fearing for Maggie’s Dowager Countess of Grantham.

Other characters who could meet their maker include Lord Grantham (Bonneville), Lady Mary Crawley (Dockery) and butler Carson (Jim Carter).