Bob Iger named Disney CEO again, replacing Bob Chapek and shocking Hollywood

Bob Iger named Disney CEO again, replacing Bob Chapek and shocking Hollywood


New York
CNN Organization
 — 

Bob Iger, one of the most effective CEOs in the heritage of The Walt Disney Corporation, is returning to after yet again operate the media empire. It’s a surprising development at Hollywood’s biggest company.

Bob Chapek, who changed Iger in 2020 as CEO, is stepping down instantly.

“We thank Bob Chapek for his assistance to Disney more than his lengthy occupation, which includes navigating the business by the unparalleled challenges of the pandemic,” Susan Arnold, Chairman of the Board for Disney, mentioned in a statement on Sunday night. “The Board has concluded that as Disney embarks on an more and more advanced period of field transformation, Bob Iger is uniquely positioned to lead the Enterprise by way of this pivotal period of time.”

Traders cheered the news, sending Disney shares up 9{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} Monday following the inventory has missing roughly 36{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of its benefit this yr.

The announcement, whilst surprising to the media market, comes at a time of great evolution for Disney. The business is coming off a lackluster earnings report that showed expansion for its streaming endeavors. Even so, that arrived at a fantastic cost. Disney’s streaming small business lost $1.5 billion in the fourth quarter. That report sent Disney’s inventory tumbling following a year of sluggish-to-lousy effectiveness.

Chapek guided Disney by way of the pandemic, 1 of the most tumultuous intervals in the company’s just about 100-calendar year record, but in the end Disney determined that its foreseeable future was in greater hands with Iger.

Absent from the pandemic, Chapek had a short but bumpy tenure as the head of Disney. Chapek, who served as chairman of Disney Parks, Encounters and Goods before taking over for Iger, found himself dealing with difficulties about shell out with Scarlett Johansson, a person of the company’s most significant stars, as nicely as Disney’s battles with Florida, and its personal workforce, about the state’s controversial bill proscribing certain LGBTQ matters in the classroom.

That, in individual, was a flashpoint for Chapek’s stint at Disney. In March, he was compelled to apologize for his silence on Florida’s controversial monthly bill right after in the beginning declining to remark on it.

“Speaking to you, looking at your messages, and meeting with you have served me greater realize how distressing our silence was,” Chapek wrote in a letter to workers.

Chapek put in weeks carrying out hurt manage, telling workforce that Disney was “increasing our aid for advocacy teams to battle equivalent legislation in other states” and that the business is “hard at work producing a new framework for our political giving that will guarantee our advocacy improved demonstrates our values.”

His general public stance was in stark contrast to Iger, who took a general public stance from the Florida bill.

“A great deal of these concerns are not necessarily political,” Iger informed CNN host Chris Wallace in March. “It’s about appropriate and completely wrong. So, I happen to sense and I tweeted an feeling about the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ monthly bill in Florida. To me, it wasn’t about politics. It is about what is correct and what is incorrect, and that just appeared mistaken. It seemed perhaps harmful to youngsters.”

bob iger

‘It’s about proper and wrong’: Ex-Disney CEO on why he spoke out about invoice

Iger has an nearly mythical position as the chief of Disney

(DIS)
. He used 15 a long time as CEO and was instrumental in obtaining big models like Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm, the house to Star Wars. Iger also shut the $71 billion deal to obtain most of 21st Century Fox and kicked off the streaming revolution at Disney

(DIS)
with the creation of Disney

(DIS)
+ in November 2019.

He stayed on as govt chairman directing the company’s innovative endeavors, then formally left the enterprise — soon after virtually 50 years — at the conclude of previous yr.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - NOVEMBER 18: Robert Iger attends the Stella McCartney

Bob Iger: Disney shopping for Twitter ‘would’ve been irresponsible’

Disney explained Sunday that Iger has agreed to provide as CEO for two several years with “a mandate from the Board to established the strategic course for renewed expansion and to get the job done closely with the Board in producing a successor to lead the Company at the completion of his time period.”

The transfer is also astonishing because Chapek just renewed his agreement. The company’s board of directors unanimously voted to increase Chapek’s agreement as CEO for a different a few decades, the enterprise claimed in June. Chapek’s new agreement began in July and was set to operate until 2025.

Also, it appeared that Iger was set in retirement with his legacy as one of Disney’s most notable and productive CEOs. Now, he’s back again.

“I am exceptionally optimistic for the future of this terrific company and thrilled to be requested by the Board to return as its CEO,” Iger said in a statement Sunday. “Disney and its incomparable makes and franchises maintain a exclusive put in the hearts of so numerous individuals around the world — most primarily in the hearts of our staff members, whose devotion to this business and its mission is an inspiration.”

Iger extra that he is “deeply honored to be requested to yet again guide this extraordinary group, with a obvious mission centered on artistic excellence to inspire generations as a result of unrivaled, daring storytelling.”

–CNN’s Jordan Valinsky contributed to this report.

Mental health benefits of replacing social media with exercise

Mental health benefits of replacing social media with exercise

Two people on a morning jog through city streetsShare on Pinterest
Spending less time on social media and more time exercising can enhance emotional well-being and reduce stress, according to research. Thomas Barwick/Getty Images
  • Replacing 30 minutes of social media use per day with physical activity can enhance emotional well-being and reduce stress, German researchers say.
  • The benefits of exercise lingered as much as 6 months after the end of their study.
  • Participants who cut back on social media and exercised more experienced greater happiness and less stress related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Reduced social media use also correlated with less tobacco consumption.

Social media use exploded with COVID-19’s lockdowns and contact restrictions. Millions turned to Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, and other platforms to escape feelings of isolation, anxiety, and hopelessness.

However, excessive screen time has led to addictive behaviors, stronger emotional attachment to social media, and deeper mental anguish for many people.

Researchers at the Ruhr-Universitätt in Bochum, Germany investigated the effects of reducing social media use (SMU) and increasing physical activity, or both, on emotional well-being and tobacco consumption.

Julia Brailosvskaia, Ph.D., an assistant professor at the university’s Mental Health Research and Treatment Center, led the two-week experiment.

Brailosvskaia and her team observed that the interventions they suggested may have helped enhance participants’ satisfaction with life. At a 6-month follow-up, the subjects continued to report spending less time on social media, maintaining physical activity, feeling happier, and smoking fewer cigarettes.

The Journal of Public Health recently published these findings.

The study’s authors noted that mental health “consists of two interrelated but separate dimensions: positive and negative.”

With this paradigm, they hypothesized that the positive dimension of their intervention would “increase life satisfaction and subjective happiness.” The negative dimension would decrease “depression symptoms and addictive tendencies of SMU.”

Medical News Today discussed this study with Dr.Sheldon Zablow, an author and nutritional psychiatrist. He was not involved in the research.

When asked about the effects of social media on mental health, Dr. Zablow asserted:

“If activities interfere with customary basic age-appropriate milestones of economic self-sufficiency, socialization, or health maintenance, then they are detrimental. The activities could be alcohol use, substance use, dietary choices, exercise choices, or entertainment choices—specifically social media.”

Dr. Zablow warned that excessive social media use weakens social interpersonal bonds, which can negatively impact mental health.

MNT also spoke with Dr. David A. Merrill, adult and geriatric psychiatrist and director of the Pacific Neuroscience Institute’s Pacific Brain Health Center at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, regarding the present study. He was not involved in the research.

Dr. Merrill argued that the term social media is a “misnomer that’s almost like a bait and switch,” designed “to increase user engagement.”

Too much social media use, he said, “could end up exacerbating” mental issues for people with behavioral health conditions or addictive vulnerabilities.

“There’s the brain reward system that you get from clicking or scrolling or maintaining the use of the social media,” Dr. Merrill said.

“I think [that the authors are] demonstrating causally that you both need to have a conscious awareness of the need to limit the self-soothing aspect of social media use, and you also need to have alternatives, so you need to have some other way to bring joy into your life, and especially during the pandemic.”

As a psychiatrist, Dr. Zablow emphasized that “the essential part of any treatment program recommended is exercise. Psychotherapy and, when indicated, medication, will not work well if a person does not exercise.”

Dr. Zablow added that exercise increases the production of neurotransmitters, the brain’s “natural antidepressants and antianxiety molecules.”

Consequently, more exercise can build mental health, while less activity due to social media overuse can curtail healthy brain chemistry.

Dr. Brailosvskaia and her colleagues reasoned that a “conscious and controlled reduction of time spent on SMU as well as an increase of time spent on physical activity could causally reduce negative mental health consequences of the COVID-19 situation.” They also believed that combining both interventions might amplify this effect.

The professor mentioned that the methods can easily fit into everyday life with little cost, effort, or risk of violating COVID-19 protocols.

Further, the scientists expected their experiment to reduce stress caused by COVID-19 and diminish smoking behavior.

The researchers recruited 642 healthy adult social media users and placed them in 4 experimental groups.

The social media (SM) group had 162 individuals, the physical activity (PA) group of 161, a combination group of 159, and a control group of 160.

Over 2 weeks, the SM subjects reduced their daily SMU time by 30 minutes and the PA group increased their daily physical activity by 30 minutes. The combination group applied both interventions, while the control did not change their behaviors.

Following the World Health Organization’s physical activity recommendations for adults, the first three groups increased their exercise time by 30 minutes.

The participants completed online surveys and “daily compliance” diaries at the start of the trial, 1 week later, and after the 2-week period. They also submitted follow-up surveys at 1, 3, and 6 months post-experiment.

Dr. Brailosvskaia and her team concluded that their interventions helped people decrease the time they spend with SM.

Even 6 months after the experiment, “the participants had reduced their daily initial SM time by about 37 minutes in the SM group, by about 33 minutes in the PA group, and by about 46 minutes in the combination group.”

Moreover, participants reported having a decreased emotional bond with social media.

All the interventions encouraged more physical activity as well. “Six months later, our participants had enhanced their initial weekly physical activity time for 26 minutes in the SM group, for 40 minutes in the PA group, and for 1 hour 39 minutes in the combination group,” the authors wrote.

Even the control group increased their activity by 20 minutes.

Dr. Merrill was impressed with the study’s “striking findings with the combination of reducing social media with increasing physical activity.” He agreed with the notion that SMU restrictions need a complementing activity that brings joy or a sense of achievement.

According to the study’s authors, the “experimental longitudinal design” of their present research allowed them to establish causality.

However, the study population lacked diversity. All the participants were young, female, German, Caucasian, and highly educated.

Dr. Merrill felt that, while it would be “interesting” to replicate this investigation in the United States with a more diverse group, the results would likely be similar.

The study did not consider which form of SMU the subjects were using or specify which type of physical activity the participants engaged in. The researchers hope that future work will focus more on these factors.

Dr. Brailosvskaia’s research suggests that modest changes in SMU and physical activity could help protect and enhance mental health conveniently and affordably.

The professor and her team recognize how SMU can minimize isolation and help spread information.

“From time to time, it is important to consciously limit one’s online accessibility and to go back to the human roots — […] a physically active lifestyle — to stay happy and healthy in the age of digitalization,” the researchers wrote.

Xbox Game Pass is replacing its biggest Xbox Series X download today | Gaming | Entertainment

Xbox Game Pass just lost one of its biggest games, and Microsoft isn’t waiting around to replace it on Xbox One and Xbox Series X.

As revealed earlier this month, Destiny 2 and its biggest expansion have now been removed from the Xbox library, and no return date has been announced.

Meanwhile, Bungie has confirmed that The Witch Queen expansion will not be available via the subscription in February.

Once Destiny 2 leaves Xbox Game Pass, players who don’t own any of the expansions on the Xbox platform will lose access to:

Expansion quests and campaigns, Stasis Subclass, which is Beyond Light-specific, The middle-tree Supers for each subclass. The purchase of any major expansion (sans Bungie 30th Anniversary Pack) will unlock these Subclass supers, and the 10{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} off perk for Silver purchases and other game add-ons.

The good news is that Items, such as Exotics, already acquired will still be available for players who earned them, and Season Passes will remain active.

And it should also be noted that Destiny 2 will remain available to play on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate via the PC platform.

It would be a big blow for the subscription service had it not been timed with one of the biggest launches of the year.

That is because while Destiny 2 is leaving Xbox Game Pass, the Halo Infinite campaign is about to be added to the library.

The next instalment in the Master Chief’s story has taken a long time to reach fans but is scheduled to launch on Xbox One and Xbox Series X later today.

And not only will gamers be able to jump in soon but they can also download and play the new Halo Campaign via Xbox Game Pass on consoles, PC and Cloud.

It’s not a like-for-like replacement but it does make up for the fact that one of the biggest games is being replaced on the same day by one of the most hotly anticipated titles of 2021.

WHEN DOES HALO INFINITE CAMPAIGN COME OUT?

Microsoft has confirmed that the Halo Infinite Campaign release date has been scheduled for Wednesday, December 8.

This is a launch window shared for all platforms, including Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Steam PC.

And the Halo Campaign release time has also been confirmed for 6pm GMT, or 10am PDT if you live in North America.

There has been nothing posted from the Halo development team suggesting gamers using Xbox Game Pass will have to wait longer.

So it won’t be long before everyone can start playing the latest Halo adventure on their Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PC or Android device.

The new Campaign is the final piece of the game that needs to be launched, following Microsoft’s surprise decision to release the multiplayer component on November 15.

This was to help celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the series and the original Xbox console, both of which became available on November 15, 2001.