By Chris Isidore, CNN

(CNN) — Spirit Airlines is close to getting a $500 million bailout from the federal government, according to a source familiar with the negotiations.

The deal is expected to include the federal government taking a stake in the troubled airline, which had struggled to make money ever since the Covid pandemic.

It also means Spirit avoids becoming the first significant US airline in 25 years that was forced to completely halt operations because of financial problems. Jet fuel costs have roughly doubled since the start of the war in Iran, derailing its plans to emerge from its second bankruptcy reorganization since 2024.

The source told CNN a deal could be announced as soon as late Wednesday night or Thursday. It is designed to give the airline a chance to complete its reorganization.

A shutdown of the airline will put thousands of Spirit employees out of work and leave millions of passengers that hold Spirit tickets scrambling to make other travel arrangements. It would also likely push up fares across the US airline industry.

But while a potential deal could be good for passengers and Spirit employees, it is likely to cause backlash across the rest of the airline industry. All airlines are struggling with higher fuel costs. Fuel is the second largest cost for airlines, behind only labor.

Past bailouts of US airlines have been done on an industry-wide basis, not in support of a single, relatively small carrier. And previous bailouts have come as passengers were afraid to fly in the wake of terrorist attacks and a pandemic, not because of high costs.

This is a developing story. It will be updated.

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By Brian Stelter, CNN

(CNN) — Paramount’s blockbuster acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN’s parent company, is poised to clear a pivotal hurdle later this week.

Warner will hold a special meeting for shareholders to vote on the $110 billion bid on Thursday morning.

With the company’s board and multiple proxy advisory firms urging shareholders to vote yes, the deal is expected to be approved, moving Paramount closer to taking over its much bigger rival.

For shareholders, the math might be simple: A year ago, WBD was trading at about $8 per share, so Paramount’s $31-per-share offer comes as a relief.

But Paramount CEO David Ellison’s ambitions to combine his company with WBD remain a subject of controversy and anxiety in Hollywood and beyond.

Thousands of actors, directors, writers and other entertainment workers have signed an open letter opposing the deal, arguing that further consolidation of the media industry will hurt creators and consumers.

Opponents are hoping that state-level antitrust regulators will take action. And several Democratic state attorneys general have said they are examining how the deal will impact the media marketplace.

But Paramount executives are confident they can win all the necessary approvals to complete the takeover in the coming months. In fact, they’ve bet on it: the deal terms include a so-called “ticking fee” that increases the price per share if the deal isn’t finalized by September 30.

“Our goal,” Ellison told advertisers on Tuesday night, “is to build a leading media and entertainment company that strengthens competition, better serves the creative community, and delivers even more compelling stories to audiences around the world.”

Ellison added, “We’re doing exactly that by investing in great content and attracting and empowering exceptional talent, both in front of and behind the camera, and equipping our people with cutting-edge technology that enables them to do their best work.”

The deal that beat Netflix

Paramount prevailed in the bidding war for WBD in late February after Netflix declined to counter Paramount’s latest bid.

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos suggested afterward that Paramount was an “irrational” bidder and said that Netflix walked away rather than overpay for the Warner Bros. studio, the HBO Max streaming service and other trophy assets.

Those Warner assets will turn Ellison, the son of Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison, into one of the world’s most powerful media moguls.

He has been building to this point for quite some time, having successfully taken control of Paramount from the Redstone family last year by merging it with his production company, Skydance Media.

Then he approached WBD CEO David Zaslav almost immediately with a buyout offer, which WBD repeatedly rejected until the share price exceeded $30 per share.

In the weeks since Paramount emerged victorious, top executives have begun the integration planning process with WBD, although the two companies must still operate separately for the time being.

Paramount argued in response to the anti-merger open letter that the deal “strengthens both consumer choice and competition, creating greater opportunities for creators, audiences and the communities they live and work in.”

At a movie exhibitor convention last week, Ellison reiterated his pledge to release at least 30 new movies in theaters per year through both the Paramount and Warner Bros. studios.

But it might be difficult to make the math work. The combined Paramount-WBD will be laden with debt, creating red flags for credit agencies and all but guaranteeing that management will conduct mass layoffs to cut costs.

VANDENBERG SPACE FORCE BASE, Calif. (KEYT) – A Falcon 9 launch of 25 Starlink satellites destined for low-Earth orbit is scheduled from Space launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg SFB on Wednesday, April 22, 2026, between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. Pacific Time.

A live webcast of the launch will begin about five minutes before liftoff. You can watch it here or on SpaceX's X/Twitter account.

Following first-stage separation, the booster assigned to this mission will return to Earth to land on the Of Course I Still Love You drone ship awaiting in the Pacific Ocean.

A depiction of the launch sequence is shown in the image below.

There is the potential for sonic booms across the region during the launch process, but how far the sound travels will depend on weather and other conditions at launch time.

This will be the fifth flight for the Falcon 9 assigned to this mission. The booster previously launched three prior Starlink missions and NROL-105.

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