Mediagazer: Ukraine's foreign ministry criticizes HBO for casting Milos Bikovic in The White Lotus' season three, saying without evidence the Serbian actor supports Russia (Christopher Kuo/New York Times)

10:50 PM ET, January 29, 2024

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Discussion: Sirius XM Holdings Inc., Inside Radio, Deadline, The Verge, @lucas_shaw, Variety, @frankyarriola, The Hollywood Reporter, @johnjedwards3, CNN, Radio Ink, @lucas_shaw, @shaun_obanion, @pkafka@threads.net, @variety, The Wrap, Digital Trends and Cord Cutters News

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Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:
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Christopher Kuo / New York Times:

Ukraine's foreign ministry criticizes HBO for casting Milos Bikovic in The White Lotus' season three, saying without evidence the Serbian actor supports Russia — On social media, Ukraine's foreign ministry posted clips of the Serbian actor Milos Bikovic receiving a medal for cultural achievement from Vladimir Putin in 2018.

Discussion: @mfa_ukraine, Deadline, The Messenger, New York Post, Variety, Deadline, Agence France-Presse, UPROXX, Vanity Fair, Balkan Insight, The Daily Beast and Politico

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Alex Barinka / Bloomberg:

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Ben Strauss / Washington Post:

Sports Illustrated's union files an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB, alleging retaliation and union-busting after the mass layoffs this month — The union representing the staff of Sports Illustrated filed an unfair labor practice charge against the magazine's publisher …

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Wall Street Journal:

How Penguin Random House started actively challenging the removal of books from US school libraries, including through an “Intellectual Freedom” task force — A fiery board meeting inspired Penguin Random House to actively challenge the removal of books from school libraries

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Reuters:

UK sanctions Iranian officials who were found by an ITV report to be involved in plots to assassinate two TV presenters from Iran International in the UK — Britain on Monday imposed sanctions on Iranian officials it said were involved in threats to kill journalists on British soil …

Discussion: Deadline and Press Association

Katie Campione / Deadline:

Nielsen: Ted Lasso was the most-watched streaming original in 2023, at 16.9B minutes, despite Apple TV+'s small footprint, followed by Netflix's The Night Agent — Ted Lasso went out on a high note at Apple TV+. — According to Nielsen, the series was the most-watched streaming original last year …

Discussion: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Screen Rant, Nielsen, UPROXX, BGR, AppleInsider, New York Times, Media Play News and The Messenger

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Alex Fitzpatrick / Axios:
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Reuters:
German state broadcaster ARD says Israel was blocking two of its long-term Palestinian workers from leaving Gaza, citing security concerns that don't make sense

Patrick Frater / Variety:
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From Techmeme:

Qianer Liu / The Information:
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Kif Leswing / CNBC:
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