Business

Harsh Jain says it’s an “open secret” that he doesn’t use his own fantasy sports app — for fantasy football, at least. 
“I am still committed to fantasy football on Fantasy Premier League, the reason we created Dream11.” 

Fantasy sports are online games in which players create virtual teams of proxies that track real sports players. They can earn points and win cash prizes based on the real-world performances of these players.  
Fantasy football was already hugely popular in the U.K. in the early 2000s and Jain caught the bug while studying in high school there.
After introducing it to his childhood friend Bhavit Sheth, they set out to look for a fantasy cricket platform in India. When they didn’t find what they were looking for, they created their own in 2008.

What happens if you get hit by the bus? Are you building scale and systems in a way … not dependent on [a single person] and … having one person make a decision?

Harsh Jain
Co-founder and CEO, Dream Sports

According to Jain, it’s the “first mover’s advantage” that brought their company Dream Sports — the parent company of Dream11 — to great heights. 
“Once you and your friends are … connected over one network in fantasy sports, for a rival to get you to play there, you have to move all your friends with you,” said Jain, who is also Dream Sports’ CEO.

“Because you have your leagues set up, all your friends are playing against each other.” 
Dream Sports is not only India’s first sports tech unicorn — the company also reportedly holds “almost 90% market share” in the country’s fantasy sports industry. 
The 36-year-olds share three tips on how to run a successful company. 

1. Unplug 

If there’s one “fundamental principle” that Jain and Sheth live by as leaders of their company — it’s making sure their business isn’t reliant on either one of them, they told CNBC Make It.
Jain said, “What happens if you get hit by the bus? Are you building scale and systems in a way … not dependent on [a single person] and … having one person make a decision?”
That’s why the co-founders enforced a week of “unplug” time for every Dream Sports employee, including themselves. 

Harsh Jain (left) and Bhavit Sheth are the co-founders of Dream Sports, a sports tech firm from India that owns Dream11, the biggest fantasy gaming platform in the country.
Dream Sports

“Once a year, for one week, you’re kicked out of the [company] system … you don’t have Slack, emails and calls,” Jain added. 
“Because it helps you greatly to have that one week of uninterrupted time and it helps the business to know whether we’re dependent on anyone.” 
Anyone who reaches out to another employee during “unplug” time has to pay a fine of about $1,200, Jain added. That has been effective so far, the co-founders said. 
“No one wants to be that jerk who called someone who was on unplug,” Sheth, who is also the chief operations officer, said with a laugh.

2. Learn from rejection 

Jain and Sheth said they heard “no” at least 150 times from venture capital firms when they were trying to secure early stage funding 10 years ago. 
“We went to all the Indian VCs, and they said, ‘This is a U.S. concept. Fantasy sports aren’t prevalent in India … Why don’t you raise money in the U.S.?'” 
But it was equally trying when Jain attempted to raise money in New York and San Francisco. 
“All the VCs there told me to go back to India. ‘It’s an Indian company, raise money in India!'” Jain recalled. “Then I realized that it was just a polite way of saying no.” 
Instead of feeling discouraged, Jain and Sheth gained fuel from the rejections.

Early stage investors are actually looking for deeply passionate founders, [and products] with a large market.

Harsh Jain
Co-founder and CEO, Dream Sports

“The takeaway was that from every meeting, you can get to know why they said no, you can ask them, ‘What’s your biggest area of concern?'” 
Jain and Sheth said it took them nearly two years before they finally nailed their pitch. 
“Early stage investors are actually looking for deeply passionate founders, [and products] with a large market,” Jain said. 
“Early traction, high retention of users … and founders [who] will stay in there and will not give up. I think that’s what helped us finally crack the pitch.” 
Dream Sports’ vision of connecting with India’s millions of sports fans has since drawn big-name investors such as Chinese tech giant Tencent, American investment firm Tiger Global and Hong Kong- headquartered Steadview Capital. 
Its last round of fundraising in 2021 fetched $840 million, giving the company its $8 billion valuation. 

3. Shut out the noise 

The life of an entrepreneur is “always sexier from the outside,” Jain said. 
That’s something the childhood friends know all too well — they lost “a couple millions of dollars” worth in starting capital when they were just 26 years old. 
“Every founder, when you start something, you truly believe that this is going to explode, you’re going to change the world … and ours crashed and burned.” 
Yet, even after a successful pivot from a free-to-play to “freemium” model in 2012, the challenges did not stop. 
“2008 to 2012 was difficult in finding the right business model. 2012 to 2014 was difficult in raising money. And 2015 till now is difficult in matching investors’ expectations,” Jain said. 

You’re always fighting something.

Harsh Jain
CEO and co-founder, Dream Sports More

Airlines have canceled more than 17,000 U.S. flights since Wednesday.
Bitter cold, high winds and snow slowed operations down at airports across the U.S.
Flight cancellations eased but Southwest’s meltdown continued at the end of the holiday weekend.

Aircraft are deiced at General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee

Southwest Airlines canceled more than 60% of its flights on Monday, while flight disruptions stemming from severe winter weather eased at other carriers.
Airlines have canceled more than 17,000 U.S. flights since Wednesday, according to FlightAware, as storms brought snow, ice, high winds and bitter cold around the country, derailing air travel from coast to coast. Those conditions slowed down crews as they faced severe conditions at airports.

Southwest said Monday that it expected “additional changes with an already reduced level of flights as we approach the coming New Year holiday travel period.”
Carriers are likely to detail the costs of the disruptions when they report results next month, if not earlier. Southwest Airlines had outsize struggles. Executives pointed to unexpected fog in San Diego, staffing shortages at its fuel vendor in Denver, and internal technology, among the additional challenges.
Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, United Airlines, JetBlue Airways and Alaska Airlines were among the carriers affected by the weather. But other airlines had a percentage of cancellations on Monday.
Southwest’s problems continued on Monday while other carriers stabilized. The carrier had canceled more than 2,600 flights, 65% of its schedule, and 820 more were delayed. Delta had canceled 9% of its mainline flights on Monday, United 5% and American less than 1% with 12 flights scrubbed.
More than 3,200 U.S. flights were canceled on Monday, and close to 5,000 were delayed. Southwest had been canceling many flights proactively in an effort to stabilize its operation, COO Andrew Watterson told staff.

From Wednesday through Sunday, nearly one third of Southwest’s flights were canceled, and two-thirds were delayed, according to FlightAware data.
The airline apologized to employees for the chaos, which left many struggling to get a hold of crew scheduling services, making it harder to get reassignments or make other changes, or get hotel rooms.
Southwest also offered flight attendants working over the holiday extra pay.
Southwest CEO Bob Jordan said in a staff message on Monday it could take a few more days to fix the airline’s operation.
“Part of what we’re suffering is a lack of tools,” Jordan said in a message to staff on Sunday. “We’ve talked an awful lot about modernizing the operation, and the need to do that. And Crew Scheduling is one of the places that we need to invest in. We need to be able to produce solutions faster.”
Some pilots and flight attendants were forced to sleep at airports because they were unable to find hotel rooms, their unions said.
Crews complained about being stranded and having to wait on hold with scheduling services. “Our customers struggled with it just as our thousands of flight attendants did. These are issues that you can’t solve with holiday pay; this is time and quality of life that we will never get back,” Lyn Montgomery, president of the Transport Workers Union of America Local 556, said in a statement.
Both the pilots and flight attendant unions are in contract talks with the company.
Airlines often cancel flights proactively during bad weather to avoid having planes, crews and customers out of place, problems that can make recovery from a storm more difficult.
Carriers also planned smaller schedules for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day compared with the days leading up to the holidays, making it harder for them to rebook travelers on other flights, and bookings had spiked. An American Airlines spokeswoman said the “vast majority of our customers affected by cancellations were able to be reaccommodated.”
Delta is “seeing steady recovery in our operations, and expect the improvements to continue over the next several hours,” a spokesman said Monday.
Extreme cold and high winds slowed ground operations at dozens of airports. More than half of U.S.-based airlines’ flights arrived late from Thursday through Saturday, with delays averaging 81 minutes, according to FlightAware.
“Temperatures have fallen so low that our equipment and infrastructure have been impacted, from frozen lav systems and fuel hoses to broken tow bars,” said United Airlines message to pilots on Saturday. “Pilots have encountered frozen locks when trying to re-enter the jet bridge after conducting walk arounds.”
The FAA said it had to evacuate its tower at United hub Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey because of a leak on Saturday.
JetBlue, meantime, offered flight attendants triple pay to pick up trips on Christmas Eve due to staffing shortages.

Passengers check in at the Delta counter at Detroit Metro Airport in Romulus, Michigan, on December 22, 2022. 
Jeff Kowalsky | AFP | Getty Images

An American Airlines spokeswoman said the “vast majority of our customers affected by cancellations were able to be reaccommodated.”
Delta is “seeing steady recovery in our operations, and expect the improvements to continue over the next several hours,” a spokesman said Monday.
Passengers also faced delayed luggage, however.
Bill Weaver, 41, said he, his wife and five children drove from Wichita, Kansas to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport for a Friday flight to Cancun after their connecting flight into the American Airlines hub was canceled. The American Airlines flight to Cancun arrived on time but their luggage didn’t get to in Cancun until Monday, and hadn’t made it to their hotel by mid-morning, so they had to spend hundreds of dollars to buy clothing and other essentials at their hotel.
Weaver, who works in software sales, said he used to travel frequently.
“I’m used to missing bags and things happen but this is by far the worst I’ve ever seen,” he said.
Extreme cold and high winds slowed ground operations at dozens of airports. More than half of U.S.-based airlines’ flights arrived late from Thursday through Saturday, with delays averaging 81 minutes, according to FlightAware.
“Temperatures have fallen so low that our equipment and infrastructure have been impacted, from frozen lav systems and fuel hoses to broken tow bars,” said United Airlines message to pilots on Saturday. “Pilots have encountered frozen locks when trying to re-enter the jet bridge after conducting walk arounds.”
The FAA said it had to evacuate its tower at United hub Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey because of a leak on Saturday.
JetBlue, meantime, offered flight attendants triple pay to pick up trips on Christmas Eve due to staffing shortages.

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“Silver rights” is a term Operation Hope founder and CEO John Hope Bryant coined to describe the economic empowerment of minority and low-income communities.
During the nonprofit’s recent Hope Global Forums, the CEOs of Walmart, Delta Air Lines and other companies joined Bryant on stage to talk about “silver rights” and the power of financial literacy.

Preaching a message of financial education and financial freedom, John Hope Bryant is galvanizing America’s top business leaders in the battle for “silver rights,” a term he coined to describe the economic empowerment of minority and low-income communities.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired,” Bryant said earlier this month during the Hope Global Forums, an annual meeting for his nonprofit Operation Hope. “Our goal is that by the time your kids grow up, financial literacy is in school — kindergarten through college — as a requirement so that everyone learns the language of money.”

To that end, Operation Hope in 2021 launched Financial Literacy for All, a joint initiative with businesses such as Walmart, Bank of America, Disney and many others.
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Walmart president and CEO Doug McMillon, co-chair of Financial Literacy for All and other initiative partners Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian, PayPal president and CEO Dan Schulman, billionaire investor Tony Ressler and civil rights icon and former U.S. Ambassador Andrew Young were among the business leaders joining Bryant on stage at the Hope Global Forums in Atlanta to talk about silver rights and the power of financial literacy.

Financial literacy is ‘a foundational issue’

During a panel at the Hope Global Forums in Atlanta, Operation Hope founder and CEO John Hope Bryant, far right, speaks with (left to right) Dan Schulman, president and CEO of PayPal; Tony Ressler, executive chair of Ares Management and principal owner of the Atlanta Hawks; and Doug McMillon, president and CEO of Walmart.
Credit: Operation Hope

“We want all of our associates to understand how to manage their money,” McMillon said during an exclusive interview with CNBC at the Hope Global Forums. “John Hope Bryant and I have come together to form Financial Literacy for All to take on financial education.
“We think it’s a foundational issue for families and for our country.”

On CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” ahead of the forums, Bryant described the event as “like the Davos for the working class, for the empowerment of the poor and the underserved.”
“We have the energy of making the economy work for all,” he said. “A lot of the attendees, the 4,000 delegates, are working-class folks with too much month at the end of their money.”
Operation Hope is focused on wealth inequality in the Black community and communities of color, and narrowing that gap. As of the second quarter of 2022, the average white family had $1.27 million in wealth; compared to $316,000 for the average Black family and $291,000 for the average Hispanic family, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

The nonprofit is also committed to creating 1 million new Black-owned businesses by 2030. Doing so is another avenue for economic empowerment and wealth creation.
Bryant said during the event that silver rights must be the next step in the civil rights and the global social justice movement which sparked after the killing of George Floyd.
“Social justice through an economic lens, you can do well and do good at the same time.”

‘In order to be something, we often need to see it first’

With a possible recession looming, it’s important to demystify money issues and encourage financial readiness, Troy Millings and financial advisor Rashad Bilal of the “Earn Your Leisure” podcast told forum attendees. The duo have more than 1 million followers on Instagram, many of them new investors in the Black and brown communities.
“In order to be something, we often need to see it first,” Millings said. “When people see us creating brokerage accounts and investing in entrepreneurship and creating businesses, they look at it like this is an opportunity and we can do it.
“The mission is to educate people, but also show them how to do it.” 
They encouraged a long-term perspective on the value of financial knowledge.
“Look five years, 10 years, 20 years from now,” Bilal said. “That’s going to stop you from spending money frivolously, that’s going to make you have emergency funds, that’s going to force you to save money for your retirement and your children’s education.”

During a fireside chat with Bryant, Bishop T.D. Jakes, senior pastor at Dallas-based megachurch The Potter’s House , discussed the need for faith leaders to be prominent voices in both the civil rights and silver rights movement.
Jakes is a strong advocate for real estate investing, especially for younger Black Americans.
“Home ownership is my Bible,” Jakes told CNBC before the fireside chat. “You can accrue wealth in an appreciating asset.”
“The problem in our community is we are consuming depreciating assets,” he said. “The young people today are not interested in home ownership because they want mobility.
“We are not trying to fix you so you are immobilized, we are trying to fix you so you are empowered economically and aggregate wealth to pass to your children.”

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Travelers have a host of pathogens to dodge this winter, including the “tripledemic” of infections caused by Covid-19, flu and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus).
But there are steps people can take to reduce their chances of getting sick, say health specialists at Spain’s SHA Wellness Clinic.

The key is to develop “a resilient immune system that can defend itself from attack by viruses and bacteria,” said Dr. Vicente Mera, SHA’s head of genomic medicine.

What to eat

“The most important thing is nutrition,” Mera said.
But drastic dieting isn’t necessary, he added. Rather, travelers can simply eat whole, plant-based foods, which can help decrease inflammation, he said.
Fiber in plant-based foods also helps the gut microbiome “fight pathogens that enter or are activated through the digestive tract,” he said.

Dr. Vicente Mera, Melanie Waxman and Philippa Harvey of SHA Wellness Clinic in Alicante, Spain.
Source: SHA Wellness Clinic

Eating a nutrient-dense diet is the top recommendation from Melanie Waxman, an integrative nutrition specialist and eating coach at SHA Wellness Clinic.

That means eating “lots of vegetables, whole grains, fresh herbs, beans, sea vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds and fermented foods,” she said.
What to pack on a plane
Waxman said travelers should snack on alkaline foods to combat acidity that is commonly caused by air travel. She recommended these easy-to-pack foods:

Toasted nori snacks: “Great for travelling as they are light and easy to carry in small packs. Nori is alkaline and provides a good source of vitamin C, as well as omega-3 fatty acids, protein and minerals.”
Instant miso soup: “Contains all the essential amino acids … and restores beneficial probiotics to the intestines … great for flights and in hotel rooms as you only need to add boiling water to the sachet.”
Spirulina powder: “Packed with calcium and protein. It has a high chlorophyll content … is especially beneficial after spending hours in airplane cabins. The flavor can be strong so add it to a refreshing vegetable juice … [or take] as a capsule.”  
Plum balls: “A wonderful travel companion, as they are extremely alkaline, full of minerals that help increase energy, aid digestion, boost immunity and improve liver functions … the balls come in a container and are easy to pack in a cabin bag.”

A fermented plum, called umeboshi in Japanese, can be added to a cup of tea on a flight. It is a “very sour plum that has been fermented for at least three years,” said SHA Wellness Clinic’s Melanie Waxman.
Tomophotography | Moment | Getty Images

Breakfast
Waxman recommends drinking one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar mixed with a glass of water before breakfast. The vinegar is “a powerful immune booster … full of probiotics,” she said.
For breakfast, a “wonderful” choice is oatmeal topped with berries, chia seeds and flax seeds, she said.
“Oats actually help the body produce melatonin more naturally,” she said. “Oats contain amino acids, potassium, B vitamins, magnesium and complex carbs … berries pack a punch of vitamin C, and the seeds provide extra omega-3 and protein.”
Jet lag
To combat jet lag, Waxman recommends taking more vitamin C.
She recommends eating sauerkraut, both before and after flying. “Fermenting cabbage causes the vitamin C and antioxidant levels to skyrocket,” she said.
Fresh vegetable juice is also great for immunity and jet lag recovery, she said.

Getting enough sleep

Sleep and immunity are closely linked, Mera said.  
“Restful sleep strengthens nature immunity,” he said, adding that poor quality, or quantity, of sleep increases the chances of falling sick.
People who average less than six hours of sleep a night, or 40 hours per week, have “a serious risk of illness,” he said.

Exercise — but don’t overdo it

Moderate exercise strengthens the immune system, Mera said.
But “30 minutes a day is more than enough,” he said. “Prolonged intense exercise can suppress the immune system.”

To avoid suppressing the immune system, travelers shouldn’t exercise to the point of exhaustion, said Dr. Vicente Mera, head of genomic medicine at SHA Wellness Clinic.
Westend61 | Westend61 | Getty Images

Examples of beneficial exercise include running, walking, swimming and cycling, he said.

Supplements, for some

Studies indicate that certain supplements — such as vitamin C, vitamin D, zinc, garlic, echinacea and green tea — may strengthen the body’s immune response, Mera said.
But, he said, they’re not necessary for everyone.
“It only compensates for nutrient deficiencies, which usually occur when nutrition is inadequate, or the immune system is very depressed,” he said.

Other recommendations

To strengthen the immune system, Waxman also suggests Epsom salt baths (“magnesium is easily absorbed through the skin”), using essential oils (“especially lavender, eucalyptus or tree tree oil”), drinking plenty of water and cutting back on alcohol, caffeine and sugar.
Mera added that relieving stress and anxiety is critical to immune health. He recommends meditation, yoga, tai chi and mindfulness to better manage emotions.
Philippa Harvey, head of SHA’s traditional Chinese medicine department, said travelers should start taking steps to strengthen their immune systems about a week before traveling.
“In TCM when someone is healthy and happy we say they have good qi, pronounced ‘chee'” she said.
She recommends eating foods that are in season, especially garlic and ginger in the autumn and winter.
She also recommends exercise and acupressure to stay healthy.
“Before we travel, a nice brisk walk in fresh air is the simplest solution,” she said. More

James Cameron and Disney’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” has generated $855 million in global ticket sales since its Dec. 16 release and is the fifth-highest-grossing film released in 2022.
Domestically, the sequel snared an estimated $56 million during its second weekend in theaters, a 58% drop from its debut.
Box office analysts noted that cold winter weather and storms during the Christmas weekend likely led to slower ticket sales domestically.

Avatar: The Way of Water
Courtesy: Disney Co. 

Disney and James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” snared an estimated $56 million during its second weekend in theaters, a 58% drop from its debut.
A decline in ticket sales is common for blockbuster titles, with most seeing a 50% to 70% slip. This metric, known as the second-week drop, is often used as an indicator of whether a film will have longevity at the box office or may fizzle quickly.

Films that fall less than 50% are expected to have solid, long runs, while those that top 70% are likely to see ticket sales continue to sharply decline as the movie fades from the public eye.
“The second-weekend drop for ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ puts it right in the zone of where it needs to be as this performance will set the tone for the ongoing box office journey for the film,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.
Box office analysts noted that cold winter weather and storms during the Christmas weekend likely led to slower ticket sales domestically.
Additionally, international ticket sales continue to thrive. The second-week drop for markets outside the U.S. and Canada was 43.9%. It was always expected that “The Way of Water” would generate at least 70% of its box office from international ticket sales and that is exactly where the split stands as of Sunday.
“The Way of Water” has generated $855 million in global ticket sales since its Dec. 16 release — $254 million domestically and $601 million from international markets. At present, it is the fifth-highest-grossing film released in 2022.

Paramount and Skydance’s “Top Gun: Maverick” is the current leader with $1.48 billion worldwide, followed by Universal’s “Jurassic World: Dominion” ($1 billion), Disney and Marvel Studios’ “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” ($952 million) and Universal and Illumination’s “Minions: The Rise of Gru” ($939 million).
“The Way of Water’s” haul stands at less than half of what Cameron said the film needs to generate in order to be considered profitable. Despite waning word of mouth, which has focused on stunning visuals felled by a lackluster plot, the “Avatar” sequel has room to run at the box office.
The next major blockbuster — Disney and Marvel’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” — doesn’t hit theaters until Feb. 17, leaving “The Way of Water” a long stretch at the box office without hefty competition.
“January is absent much direct competition against the film,” said Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at BoxOffice.com. “That’s when the Avatar sequel could make up for any perceived lost ground toward reaching long-term expectations, if it’s going to.”
“We live in a world where the craving for instant gratification leads to early results being used as the final barometer of a film’s success,” he said. “Realistically, sometimes that makes sense, but sometimes it doesn’t. This is one of the latter situations.”
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal is the distributor of “Jurassic World: Dominion” and “Minions: The Rise of Gru.”

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Airlines struggled to find empty seats for travelers because flights were so full and schedules limited.
Snow, high winds and bitter cold hit much of the U.S. in the days leading up to Christmas.
Cancellations began to ease on Saturday as weather improved.

An American Airlines plane is de-iced as high winds whip around 7.5 inches of new snow at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport Thursday, December 22, 2022.
Star Tribune Via Getty Images | Star Tribune | Getty Images

U.S. flight cancellations eased somewhat on Saturday but federal officials warned that disruptions could continue as severe winter storms snarled air travel across the country ahead of Christmas.
U.S.-based airlines have canceled more than 10,000 flights since Wednesday, according to flight tracker FlightAware.

The bad weather and flight disruptions upended the holiday travel plans of hundreds of thousands of people during what airlines expect to be one of the busiest periods since before the pandemic.
Airlines and travelers were hard-pressed to find alternative flights before the holiday because planes were booked so full and schedules dropped sharply during the weekend. The Federal Aviation Administration said schedules peaked at 47,554 flights on Thursday, dropping to 30,875 on Saturday and just 27,997 on Sunday, Christmas Day.
That could force airlines to provide cash refunds to travelers who decide to scrap their trips altogether because of the delays.
FedEx and UPS warned holiday packages could arrive late due to the storms.
Airlines scrubbed about 5,600 flights on Friday alone, about a quarter of the schedule, when storms swept through cities from the Pacific Northwest to the East Coast, bringing life-threatening cold to many areas. Federal forecasters warned of dangerous road conditions from ice and low visibility.

“Wind and blowing snow could cause delays in Chicago, and wind could cause delays in and around Washington, D.C., New York, Boston and Philadelphia,” the FAA said Saturday morning. “Seattle, San Francisco and airports serving Colorado ski resorts could see delays from low clouds and visibility.”
More than 2,200 Saturday flights were canceled and 5,000 more were delayed.
Delays are also possible in Florida because of the high number of seasonal flights, the FAA added.

A jet taxis in snow at O’Hare International Airport on December 22, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois.
Scott Olson | Getty Images

Extreme cold and high winds also slowed operations at dozens of airports. Fifty-eight percent of U.S. flights arrived late on Friday, by an average of nearly 90 minutes, FlightAware data showed.
The disruptions stemmed from weather that hit all major U.S. carriers.
JetBlue Airways offered flight attendants triple pay to pick up trips on Saturday.
“Winter Storm Elliott has driven thousands of weather-related delays and cancellations across the nation,” according to a JetBlue staff memo, which was seen by CNBC. “There has also been an increased Crewmember absence rate, leaving us with many open trips for today.”
JetBlue said it would also still include holiday pay for those flight attendants, under their collective bargaining agreement.
Southwest Airlines, which has a large operation in Chicago and in Denver, canceled more than 1,300 flights, about a third of its schedule, while 2,000 others, half of its schedule, were delayed.
The Southwest Airlines Pilot Association, the airline’s pilots’ union, said 52% of pilots were rerouted on Thursday.
SWAPA said that ground operations managers in Denver had declared an “operational emergency” on Thursday, and required staff to provide doctors’ notes for calling out sick.

James Garofalo of Colorado Springs is checking cellphone after his flight cancelation at Denver International Airport in Denver, Colorado on Thursday, December 22, 2022.
Hyoung Chang | Denver Post | Getty Images

Seattle-based Alaska Airlines canceled more than 500 flights, or 65% of its schedule on Friday, and said planes and airport ramps were covered in thick sheets of ice, slowing its Pacific Northwest operations.
“While it’s difficult, especially at this time of year, we strongly encourage guests to reassess their need to travel due to continued icy weather and limited availability,” it said on Friday. “Due to very full flights over the next several days, it is likely to take several days to accommodate guests who need new flights.”

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The Food and Drug Administration is changing the informational packaging of the emergency contraceptive pill, Plan B One-Step, to clarify that it is not an abortion pill.
Plan B works by stopping or delaying the release of an egg from the ovary, not by causing an abortion, the agency said.
It is an over-the-counter drug that can be taken as a backup method of birth control to reduce the chance of pregnancy after unprotected sex.

In this photo illustration, PlanB one-step emergency contraceptive is displayed on June 30, 2022 in San Anselmo, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

The Food and Drug Administration is changing the informational packaging of the emergency contraceptive pill, Plan B One-Step, to clarify that it is not an abortion pill, the federal agency announced Friday.
Plan B is an over-the-counter drug that can be taken as a backup method of birth control to reduce the chance of pregnancy after unprotected sex. If taken within 72 hours after unprotected sex or contraceptive failure, Plan B works by stopping or delaying the release of an egg from the ovary, not by causing an abortion, the agency said.

“Plan B One-Step will not work if a person is already pregnant, meaning it will not affect an existing pregnancy,” the FDA said in a release. “Evidence does not support that the drug affects implantation or maintenance of a pregnancy after implantation, therefore it does not terminate a pregnancy.”
Until now, packaging for Plan B and generic versions of the drug have erroneously claimed that taking the pill might be able to prevent a fertilized egg from implanting. Medical professionals say this claim is not backed by scientific evidence but was included on the label in order to get Plan B’s over-the-counter status approved.
As such, the FDA revised the informational leaflets in Plan B’s packaging to reflect that it does not work after fertilization, the agency said.
The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in June, sparking a wave of concerns about continued access to birth control and emergency contraception. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said the landmark high court rulings that established gay rights and contraception rights should be reconsidered since the federal right to abortion had been revoked.
At least eight states immediately banned all forms of abortion, including medical abortions using a pill, within hours of the high court’s decision.

The FDA said since Plan B prevents pregnancy by acting on ovulation, “well before implantation,” it does not cause abortions.
The agency recommends that consumers talk with their doctors about emergency contraceptives so they understand “the importance of using these products as intended.”

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Whatever the economic weather, the sun always seemed to shine on Silicon Valley. America’s five largest technology companies—Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta—saw their revenues and profits grow at five times the rate of American GDP in the decade to 2021. Tech’s ability to thrive as others struggled seemed to be confirmed during covid-19 lockdowns, when firms in the Valley posted record earnings even as much of the economy crumpled.In 2022 tech’s luck ran out. It has been a difficult year for everyone: the S&P 500, an index of America’s largest firms, has fallen by a fifth since January. But digital firms have been hit harder, with the NASDAQ composite, a tech-heavy index, losing a third of its value. Tech’s five giants have collectively lost a dizzying $3trn in market value (see chart 1). The most dramatic loser, Meta, barely even counts as part of “big” tech any more—nearly two-thirds of its value was wiped out, leaving its market capitalisation at just over $300bn.The end of tech exceptionalism has several causes. One is that after years of growth, digital markets are maturing. Take advertising, the lifeblood of Alphabet and Meta, and a growing sideline for Amazon, Apple and Microsoft. During past downturns, ad spending fell but spending on digital ads kept growing, as advertisers pulled their budgets from old media like TV and newspapers and shifted adverts online. Today, much of that migration has already taken place: about two-thirds of ad spending in America this year was digital. Online ad platforms are thus vulnerable to the cyclical shifts that have long battered their offline rivals. In July Meta reported its first-ever quarterly drop in revenue; in October it reported another.The next change is competition. For years tech was synonymous with concentrated markets: Google monopolising search, Facebook dominating social media, and so on. These days competition is fierce. Part of the reason for Meta’s pain was that new rivals, particularly TikTok, caused the first-ever drop in user numbers at Facebook, its flagship social network. Tech firms are also trespassing more on each other’s turf. Amazon’s cloud-computing arm has seen a sharp slowdown in growth, partly because Google is pouring billions into its own cloud service, taking big losses in order to gain a toehold in the business. Netflix, which for years had streaming virtually to itself, now faces competition not just from Disney and Warner Bros but from Apple and Amazon, which can splurge more liberally on content. That is one reason why its market value has dropped by 50% this year.These changes in the structure of the tech business have coincided with headwinds that are particularly troublesome for digital companies. In America the Federal Reserve has raised the upper bound on its policy interest rate to 4.5%, from 0.25% in January, as it battles inflation. This makes life harder for all businesses. But tech companies, whose high valuations reflect investors’ belief that they will deliver outsized earnings far in future, look much less appealing in a world of high rates, which erode the present value of those promised earnings. Higher rates have been particularly hard on the venture-capital (VC) industry, which places long-term bets on unprofitable startups. The value of new VC deals globally was 42% lower in the first 11 months of 2022 than in the same period the year before, according to Preqin, a research firm—a steeper fall than after the financial crisis of 2007-09.Semiconductors have been another sore spot in the tech world. Over the past two years the supply of chips has built up as manufacturers have added capacity. But just as chip production bloomed, demand withered, thanks to falling sales of PCs and smartphones. Further pain was caused by the collapse of the cryptoverse, which meant miners of digital currencies no longer needed the advanced processors built by Nvidia and AMD, two big chipmakers. On December 21st Micron Technology, an American maker of memory chips, reported a quarterly loss and said it would lay off a tenth of its staff in the new year. Geopolitical tensions added to the strife. America announced several new trade restrictions on the export of semiconductor equipment to China, the world’s biggest buyer of chips. China has also become an operationally riskier place. Before it began being dismantled in recent weeks, its draconian zero-covid policy saw factories placed suddenly under lockdown. Apple, which makes most of its gadgets in China, is steadily shifting new production to India and Vietnam. Supply-chain hiccups have weighed on the world’s most valuable company, which despite outperforming its peers has still lost more than a quarter of its market value in the past 12 months.These difficulties mean that the year ahead will be a lean one in techland. Most have made a resolution to trim their costs, which in many cases means cutting the payroll (see chart 2). Tech firms worldwide have announced more than 150,000 job cuts so far in 2022, according to Layoffs.fyi, a website. Meta alone accounts for 11,000 of those. Amazon has told graduates who were meant to be starting work in May 2022 that they will need to wait until the end of 2023. Whereas tech once seemed like something of a haven for investors and employees, in the months ahead it may feel like anything but. ■ More