Amazon plans to lay off about 10000 employees, largest in company ...

Amazon plans to lay off about 10,000 employees in what would be the largest reduction in the company's history, according to reports.

The New York Times reported the mass layoffs could begin as soon as this week and will focus on Amazon's devices organization, retail division and human resources, citing people with knowledge of the move who were not authorized to speak publicly.

Amazon did not immediately confirm the layoffs to USA TODAY.

The reported layoffs would affect about 3% of Amazon's corporate employees and less than 1% of its global workforce. The company has more than 1.5 million workers worldwide.

A recent report from market analysis firm Finbold found Amazon had lost 45% of its value in the past year, from $1.6 trillion on Jan. 1 to $939 billion on Nov. 3. Other companies, including Apple and Microsoft, also saw drops in value.

Petra Moser, a professor of economics at New York University, had told USA TODAY the loss in market value probably would be felt through employment.

'This is a dicey moment':Amazon, Apple, other tech giants lose billions in value as market wobbles

Jeff Bezos: Billionaire and Amazon founder says he plans to give most of his fortune to charity

Other major tech companies have announced similar moves in recent weeks. Thousands of people were laid off at Twitter in the beginning of November, one week after billionaire Elon Musk acquired the company.

A few days later, Facebook parent company Meta announced it was going to lay off more the 11,000 employees, about 13% of its workforce, "to become a leaner and more efficient company."

The New York Times report comes as Amazon announced million of deals that will be available for its 48- hour Black Friday event, which begins Nov. 24.

On Oct. 27, Amazon announced in its third-quarter financial results that its net sales had increased more than 15% compared with last year, but operating income decreased to $2.5 billion compared with the $4.9 billion operating income in the same time span last year.

A New York Times report from Oct. 4 said Amazon would freeze corporate hiring in its retail business for the rest of the year, but Amazon said it has plans to hire roughly 150,000 people for open seasonal, full-time and part-time roles "across its operations network in the U.S. to help deliver for customers during the holidays."

Follow Jordan Mendoza on Twitter: @jordan_mendoza5.

Amazon layoffs: Company plans to lay off thousands of employees ...

CNN Business —

Amazon is planning to lay off some 10,000 employees in corporate and technology jobs, the New York Times reported on Monday, citing anonymous sources with knowledge of the matter.

The job cuts could start as early as this week, and will likely include staff working on Amazon (AMZN) devices (such as its voice-assistant Alexa), as well as people in its retail and human resources divisions, according to the report. “The total number of layoffs remains fluid,” the report stated.

Amazon did not immediately respond to CNN Business’ request for comment Monday. CNN has not been able to independently confirm the report. The Wall Street Journal also reported Monday that Amazon is set to lay off thousands of workers, citing a person familiar with the matter.

The news would make Amazon the latest in a spate of tech companies that have announced significant layoffs in recent weeks, amid broader economic uncertainty and a sharp slowdown in the demand many tech giants saw during the pandemic that led them to quickly add staff. Last week, Facebook-parent Meta announced it is laying off 11,000 employees.

Earlier this month, Amazon said it was freezing corporate hiring “for the next few months,” citing economic uncertainty and “how many people we have hired” in recent years. Amazon rapidly grew its headcount as the pandemic shifted consumer habits and spending towards e-commerce. In its most-recent earnings report, however, Amazon forecast its revenue for the holiday quarter would be lighter than analysts had expected.

Shares in Amazon have fallen more than 40% in 2022 so far amid a broader market decline.

News of potential layoffs comes at a crucial time for the retail industry, ahead of the holiday shopping season. Despite recession fears and inflationary pressures, the National Retail Federation is predicting a 6% to 8% sales increase from last year during the holiday shopping months.

Last month, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos tweeted about the possibility of a looming recession, writing, “the probabilities in this economy tell you to batten down the hatches.” In an interview with CNN’s Chloe Melas on Saturday, Bezos said that advice was meant for business owners and consumers alike. “Take some risk off the table,” he said. “Just a little bit of risk reduction could make the difference.”

Microsoft layoffs: 10,000 employees affected; stock opens higher

Microsoft announced thousands of job cuts this week, becoming the latest tech company to pluck its workforce as the global economy slows.

The software company confirmed Wednesday its reducing workforce by 10,000 people through the end of the third quarter of the 2023 fiscal year.

The cuts come “in response to macroeconomic conditions and changing customer priorities," the company's CEO Satya Nadella released in a statement to its employees Wednesday.

Microsoft reported the layoffs would affect roughly 5% of its workforce, with some notifications happening as early as Wednesday.

"It’s important to note that while we are eliminating roles in some areas, we will continue to hire in key strategic areas. We know this is a challenging time for each person impacted," Nadella wrote in the statement. "The senior leadership team and I are committed that as we go through this process, we will do so in the most thoughtful and transparent way possible."

According to Bloomberg, which cited a person familiar with the matter, Microsoft will cut jobs in a number of engineering divisions.

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Microsoft stock (MSFT)

The company's stock was modestly higher in early Wednesday trading, opening at a share price of $241.56.

How many employees does Microsoft have?

Microsoft employs about 221,000 people around the world, including 122,000 in the United States, as of June 30, 2022.

Nadella: 'Difficult, but necessary'

Nadella also said the company will continue to invest in strategic areas for its future, "meaning we are allocating both our capital and talent to areas of secular growth and long-term competitiveness for the company, while divesting in other areas."

"These are the kinds of hard choices we have made throughout our 47-year history to remain a consequential company in this industry that is unforgiving to anyone who doesn’t adapt to platform shifts," he wrote.

"As such, we are taking a $1.2 billion charge in Q2 related to severance costs, changes to our hardware portfolio, and the cost of lease consolidation as we create higher density across our workspaces .... We will treat our people with dignity and respect, and act transparently. These decisions are difficult, but necessary. "

Microsoft layoffs come amid tech slowdown

After a massive hiring spree in the first two years of the pandemic, industry giants like Amazon and Meta reversed course in 2022.

There were at least 154,000 layoffs from more than 1,000 tech companies last year, according to Layoffs.fyi, a website that has been tracking tech layoffs since March 2020.

The website's tallies – which are likely an undercount – have continued at a fast clip in 2023, with more than 25,000 layoffs recorded so far this year.

Layoffs.fyi data shows the U.S. tech companies that trimmed the most jobs last year include:

Meta: 11,000

Amazon: 10,000

Cisco: 4,100

Carvana: 4,000

Twitter: 3,700

Lockdowns had a major effect on consumer spending. Experiences like travel or restaurants were largely off the table, so people began to shift their discretionary spending to products from tech companies like Amazon and Peloton.

Contributing: Bailey Schulz, USA TODAY

Natalie Neysa Alund covers trending news for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.

Amazon confirms it has begun laying off employees | CNN Business

CNN —

Amazon confirmed on Wednesday that layoffs had begun at the company, two days after multiple outlets reported the e-commerce giant planned to cut around 10,000 employees this week.

The initial cuts at Amazon will impact roles on the devices and services team, per a memo shared publicly by Dave Limp, senior vice president of devices & services at Amazon

“After a deep set of reviews, we recently decided to consolidate some teams and programs. One of the consequences of these decisions is that some roles will no longer be required,” Limp said. “We notified impacted employees yesterday, and will continue to work closely with each individual to provide support, including assisting in finding new roles.”

Limp did not specify how many employees have been cut.

Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel told CNN Business in a statement that the company looks at all of its businesses as part of an annual operating review process. “As we’ve gone through this, given the current macro-economic environment (as well as several years of rapid hiring), some teams are making adjustments, which in some cases means certain roles are no longer necessary,” Nantel added.

She continued: “We don’t take these decisions lightly, and we are working to support any employees who may be affected.”

On Tuesday evening into Wednesday morning, many laid-off Amazon workers posted publicly on LinkedIn that they had been impacted by the job cuts and were looking for work. Some of these posts mentioned they were on teams involved with Amazon’s voice assistant, Alexa.

Amazon and other tech firms significantly ramped up hiring over the past couple of years as the pandemic shifted consumers’ habits towards e-commerce. Now, many of these seemingly untouchable tech companies are experiencing whiplash and laying off thousands of workers as people return to pre-pandemic habits and macroeconomic conditions deteriorate.

Facebook-parent Meta recently announced 11,000 job cuts, the largest in the company’s history. Twitter also announced widespread job cuts after Elon Musk bought the company for $44 billion, funded in part by debt financing.

In a sobering sign of the times, a growing number of business leaders in the tech sector – from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey – have been issuing remorseful apologies in recent weeks as their employees lose their livelihoods.

After reaching record highs during the pandemic, shares of Amazon have shed more than 40% in 2022 so far.

Facebook parent company Meta will lay off 11000 employees

New York CNN Business —

Facebook parent company Meta on Wednesday said it is laying off 11,000 employees, marking the most significant job cuts in the tech giant’s history.

The job cuts come as Meta confronts a range of challenges to its core business and makes an uncertain and costly bet on pivoting to the metaverse. It also comes amid a spate of layoffs at other tech firms in recent months as the high-flying sector reacts to high inflation, rising interest rates and fears of a looming recession.

“Today I’m sharing some of the most difficult changes we’ve made in Meta’s history,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a blog post to employees. “I’ve decided to reduce the size of our team by about 13% and let more than 11,000 of our talented employees go.”

The job cuts will impact many corners of the company, but Meta’s recruiting team will be hit particularly hard as “we’re planning to hire fewer people next year,” Zuckerberg said in the post. He added that a hiring freeze would be extended until the first quarter, with few exceptions.

In September, Meta had a headcount of more than 87,000, per a September SEC filing.

Meta’s core ad sales business has been hit by privacy changes implemented by Apple, advertisers tightening budgets and heightened competition from newer rivals like TikTok. Meanwhile, Meta has been spending billions to build a future version of the internet, dubbed the metaverse, that likely remains years away from widespread acceptance.

Last month, the company posted its second quarterly revenue decline and said that its profit was cut in half from the prior year. Once valued at more than $1 trillion last year, Meta’s market value has since plunged to around $250 billion.

“I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here,” Zuckerberg wrote in his post Wednesday. “I know this is tough for everyone, and I’m especially sorry to those impacted.”

Shares of Meta rose 5% in trading Wednesday following the announcement.

Meta is not alone in feeling the pain of a market downturn. The tech sector has been facing a dizzying reality check as inflation, rising interest rates and more macroeconomic headwinds have led to a stunning shift in spending for an industry that only grew more dominant as consumers shifted more of their lives online during the pandemic.

“At the start of Covid, the world rapidly moved online and the surge of e-commerce led to outsized revenue growth,” Zuckerberg wrote Wednesday. “Many people predicted this would be a permanent acceleration that would continue even after the pandemic ended. I did too, so I made the decision to significantly increase our investments. Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected.”

“I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that,” he added.

Meta’s headcount in September was nearly twice the 48,268 staffers it had at the start of the pandemic in March of 2020.

A handful of tech companies have announced hiring freezes or job cuts in recent months, often after having seen rapid growth during the pandemic. Last week, rideshare company Lyft said it was axing 13% of employees, and payment-processing firm Stripe said it was cutting 14% of its staff. The same day, e-commerce giant Amazon said it was implementing a pause on corporate hiring.

Also last week, Facebook-rival Twitter announced mass layoffs impacting roles across the company as its new owner, Elon Musk, took the helm.

In addition to the layoffs, Zuckerberg said the company expects to “roll out more cost-cutting changes” in the coming months. Meta, which like other tech giants is known for its vast, perk-filled offices, is rethinking its real estate needs, he said, and “transitioning to desk sharing for people who already spend most of their time outside the office.”

“Overall,” he said, “this will add up to a meaningful cultural shift in how we operate.”

Amazon layoffs result in more than 18,000 job cuts since November

Amazon began laying off thousands of more employees Wednesday, as the online retailer and cloud computing giant continues the largest job cuts in its history just months after an initial round of 10,000 job cuts.

The Seattle Times and multiple other outlets reported Amazon made the staff reductions in its human resources and stores division, as the company is expected to lay off about an added 8,000 employees. Doug Herrington, Amazon's worldwide retail chief, said in a memo the company would begin to notify employees by email Wednesday, according to Bloomberg.

Here's what to know about Amazon's layoffs:

Tracking tech layoffs:Why companies like Amazon and Meta cut jobs in 2022

Microsoft:Company to lay off 10,000 employees starting Wednesday; roughly 5% of workforce affected

Amazon to lay off over 18,000 employees

Amazon began making layoffs to its devices organization, retail division and human resources divisions in November, cutting about 10,000 employees.

On Jan. 4, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced the company planned to lay off more than 18,000 employees "between the reductions we made in November and the ones we’re sharing today." The additional layoff notifications would begin Jan. 18, Jassy said.

Amazon didn't specify to USA TODAY how many cuts would be made to certain departments, but Jassy previously said the majority were being made in its Amazon Stores and PXT (People, Experience, and Technology) organizations.

How many employees does Amazon have?

Amazon had over 1.5 million employees as of October 2022.

What is Amazon is saying about the layoffs?

Jassy said in his Jan. 4 note the company will be providing severance packages to affected employees, including separation payments, transitional health insurance benefits and external job placement support.

"Amazon has weathered uncertain and difficult economies in the past, and we will continue to do so. These changes will help us pursue our long-term opportunities with a stronger cost structure," he said. "However, I’m also optimistic that we’ll be inventive, resourceful, and scrappy in this time when we’re not hiring expansively and eliminating some roles. Companies that last a long time go through different phases. They’re not in heavy people expansion mode every year."

Amazon, Microsoft and more tech companies lay off employees

Amazon's news comes the same day Microsoft announced it would be reducing its workforce by 10,000 people through the end of the third quarter of the 2023 fiscal year (ending March 31).

They aren't the only tech companies to recently lay off employees; there were at least 154,000 layoffs from more than 1,000 tech companies last year, according to Layoffs.fyi, a website that has been tracking tech layoffs since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.

More than 26,000 jobs have been cut in 2023 so far, as Layoffs.fyi creator Roger Lee previously told USA TODAY he doesn't see layoffs "going away anytime soon."

Contributing: Bailey Schulz, USA TODAY

Follow Jordan Mendoza on Twitter: @jordan_mendoza5.

Amazon CEO says job cuts will continue into 2023 | CNN Business

CNN Business —

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said job cuts at the e-commerce giant would continue into early next year, in his first public remarks since the company began widespread layoffs earlier this week.

“Our annual planning process extends into the new year, which means there will be more role reductions as leaders continue to make adjustments,” Jassy wrote in a letter to staff Thursday. “Those decisions will be shared with impacted employees and organizations early in 2023.”

Jassy said that the company hasn’t “concluded yet exactly how many other roles will be impacted” by the layoffs, but added that “each leader will communicate to their respective teams when we have the details nailed down.”

Amazon confirmed on Wednesday that layoffs had begun at the company, just days after multiple outlets reported the e-commerce giant planned to cut around 10,000 employees this week.

Amazon (AMZN) and other tech firms significantly ramped up hiring over the past couple of years as the pandemic shifted consumers’ habits toward e-commerce. Now, many of these seemingly untouchable tech companies are experiencing whiplash and laying off thousands of workers as people return to pre-pandemic habits and macroeconomic conditions deteriorate.

Facebook-parent Meta recently announced 11,000 job cuts, the largest in the company’s history. Twitter also announced widespread job cuts after Elon Musk bought the company for $44 billion.

Jassy alluded to the macroeconomic climate in his memo Thursday, saying this year’s annual operating review “is more difficult due to the fact that the economy remains in a challenging spot and we’ve hired rapidly the last several years.”

Jassy said that this is the most difficult decision the company has had to make during his year-and-a-half tenure at Amazon’s helm.

“It’s not lost on me or any of the leaders who make these decisions that these aren’t just roles we’re eliminating, but rather, people with emotions, ambitions, and responsibilities whose lives will be impacted,” Jassy wrote.

Premarket stocks: Fed officials crushed investors' hopes this week ...

New York CNN Business —

Investors sleuthing for clues about what the Federal Reserve will decide during its December policy meeting got quite a few this week. But those hints about the future of monetary policy point to an outcome they won’t be very happy about.

What’s happening: Federal Reserve officials made a series of speeches this week indicating that aggressive interest rate hikes to fight inflation would continue, souring investors’ hopes for a forthcoming central bank policy shift. On Thursday, St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said the central bank still has a lot of work to do before it brings inflation under control, sending the S&P 500 down more than 1% in early trading. It later pared losses.

Bullard, a voting member on the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), said that the moves the Fed has made so far to fight inflation haven’t been sufficient. “To attain a sufficiently restrictive level, the policy rate will need to be increased further,” he said.

Those comments come a day after Kansas City Fed President Esther George, a voting member of the FOMC, said to The Wall Street Journal that she’s “looking at a labor market that is so tight, I don’t know how you continue to bring this level of inflation down without having some real slowing, and maybe we even have contraction in the economy to get there.”

San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly added on Wednesday that a pause in rate hikes was “off the table.”

A numbers game: Fed officials should increase interest rates to somewhere between 5% and 7% to tamp inflation, Bullard said Thursday. Those numbers shocked investors, as they would require a series of significant and economically painful hikes which increase the chance of a hard landing.

The current interest rate sits between 3.75% and 4% and the median FOMC participant projected a peak funds rate of 4.5-4.75% in September. If those numbers hold steady, Fed members would only raise rates by another three-quarters of a percentage point.

But Fed Chair Powell said at the November meeting that the projections are likely to rise in December and if Bullard is correct, that means investors can expect another one to three percentage points in rate hikes.

Dreams of a pivot: October’s softer-than-expected CPI and producer price reading bolstered investors’ hopes that the Fed might ease its aggressive rate hikes and sent markets soaring to their best day since 2020 last week.

But messaging from Fed officials this week has brought Wall Street back down to earth.

That’s because market rallies help to expand the economy, said Liz Ann Sonders, Managing Director and Chief Investment Strategist at Charles Schwab, which is the opposite of what the Fed is trying to do with its tightening policy. Fed officials could be attempting to do some “jawboning” via excessively hawkish speeches in order to bring markets down, she said.

The bottom line: Investors listen closely to Bullard’s comments because he’s known for having looser lips than other Fed officials, Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer of Bleakley Financial Group, wrote in a note Thursday. But his hawkish predictions may have been “overboard,” especially since he won’t be a voting member of the FOMC next year.

Still, Wall Street analysts are listening. Goldman Sachs raised its peak fed funds rate forecast on Thursday to 5-5.25%, up from 4.75-5%.

Tech layoffs don’t mean impending recession

A series of high-profile layoffs have rattled Big Tech this month.

Amazon confirmed that layoffs had begun at the company and would continue into next year, just days after multiple outlets reported the e-commerce giant planned to cut around 10,000 employees. Facebook-parent Meta recently announced 11,000 job cuts, the largest in the company’s history. Twitter also announced widespread job cuts after Elon Musk bought the company for $44 billion.

The series of high-profile layoff announcements prompted fears that the labor market was weakening and that a recession could be around the corner.

Those fears aren’t unwarranted: The Federal Reserve is actively working to slow economic growth and tighten financial conditions to rebalance the white-hot labor market. Further layoffs in both tech and other industries are likely inevitable as the Fed continues to raise interest rates.

But this wave of layoffs isn’t as significant as headlines might lead Americans to believe. Thursday’s weekly jobless claims actually fell by 4,000 to 222,000 in spite of the surge in tech job cuts.

In a note on Thursday Goldman Sachs analysts outlined three reasons why the layoffs may not point to a looming recession in the US.

First off, the tech industry accounts for a small share of aggregate employment in the US. While information technology companies account for 26% of the S&P 500 market cap, it accounts for less than 0.3% of total employment.

Second, tech job openings remain well above their pre-pandemic level, so laid-off tech workers should have good chances of finding new jobs.

Finally, tech worker layoffs have frequently spiked in the past without a corresponding increase in total layoffs and have not historically been a leading indicator of broader labor market deterioration, Goldman analysts found.

“The main problem in the labor market is still that labor demand is too strong, not too weak,” they concluded.

Mortgage rates plunge in largest weekly drop since 1981

Mortgage rates dropped sharply last week following a series of economic reports that indicated inflation may finally be easing, reports my colleague Anna Bahney

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.61% in the week ending November 17, down from 7.08% the week before, according to Freddie Mac, the largest weekly drop since 1981.

But that’s still significantly higher than a year ago when the 30-year fixed rate stood at 3.10%.

“While the decline in mortgage rates is welcome news, there is still a long road ahead for the housing market,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “Inflation remains elevated, the Federal Reserve is likely to keep interest rates high and consumers will continue to feel the impact.”

Affording a home remains a challenge for many home buyers. Mortgage rates are expected to remain volatile for the rest of the year. And prices remain elevated in many areas, especially where there is a very limited inventory of available homes for sale.

Meanwhile, inflation and rising interest rates mean many would-be buyers are also facing tightened budgets.

5 things to know for November 17: House, Layoffs, UVA shooting ...

CNN —

Get '5 Things' in your inbox If your day doesn’t start until you’re up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to your new favorite morning fix. Sign up here for the ‘5 Things’ newsletter.

NASA’s Artemis I mission that launched Wednesday has shared a spectacular view of Earth on its way to the moon. If you often marvel at space and its endless expanse, you may also enjoy tracking the spacecraft in real time as it travels thousands of miles away from our planet.

Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day.

(You can get “5 Things You Need to Know Today” delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here.)

1. House

Republicans will win the House of Representatives, CNN projects, after passing the threshold of 218 seats needed for control of the chamber. The victory falls short of the GOP’s hopes of a “red wave” but will thwart President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda and will likely subject his White House to relentless investigations. The GOP win, on the other hand, could create an environment where both parties are more productive than you think – as research shows the US government actually overperforms during periods of divided government. The House win for Republicans also means House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is in line to be the next speaker and will bring an end to Democrat Nancy Pelosi’s second tenure in January. Pelosi is expected to “address her future plans” today, her spokesperson said, with many anticipating she may step aside for a new generation of leadership.

2. Tech layoffs

Amazon has confirmed it has begun laying off employees, a few days after multiple outlets reported the e-commerce giant planned to cut around 10,000 people this week. Amazon’s layoffs come as several major tech companies are significantly scaling back their workforces as people return to pre-pandemic habits. Facebook parent Meta recently announced 11,000 job cuts, the largest in the company’s history. Twitter also announced widespread job cuts after Elon Musk bought the company for $44 billion. Musk has given employees until this evening to commit to “extremely hardcore” work or else leave the company, according to a copy of an internal email sent by the billionaire and obtained by CNN.

Video Ad Feedback Twitter under Musk shows 'the unwinding of a person' not a company: Scott Galloway 10:17 - Source: CNN

3. UVA shooting

The student accused of killing three University of Virginia football players was denied bail Wednesday as chilling new details emerge. The suspect was on a field trip Sunday with fellow UVA students to see a play in Washington, DC, a university spokesperson said. When the bus returned to the Charlottesville campus, authorities said, the 22-year-old opened fire on the bus, killing the three players. According to a witness, the suspect shot one of the three players while he was sleeping, the Albemarle County prosecutor said. The suspect is in custody and faces several charges, including second-degree murder and counts of using a handgun in the commission of a felony.

Video Ad Feedback 'Bizarre': Witness speaks about confrontation before shooting 01:59 - Source: CNN

4. Ukraine

President Biden today responded to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s claim that a Ukrainian missile was not responsible for a deadly explosion in Poland on Tuesday that killed two people. “That’s not the evidence,” Biden told reporters at the White House after returning from the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia. Polish officials say it is likely that a Ukrainian missile, deployed by its air defenses amid waves of Russian missile attacks, fell inside Polish territory. Meanwhile, Russian shelling and missile strikes continued to target civilian infrastructure overnight, including gas and electricity facilities, according to Ukrainian officials. Russia’s renewed attacks on civilian infrastructure come after Moscow’s forces fired around 100 missiles on at least a dozen cities and districts in Ukraine on Tuesday.

Video Ad Feedback Missile that hit Poland may have come from Ukraine 02:56 - Source: CNN

5. College rankings

Yale and Harvard law schools, two of the premier law schools in the country, announced they are parting ways with U.S. News & World Report’s rankings of best law schools. The schools are bowing out after criticizing the publication’s methodology, arguing that the list actively perpetuates disparities in law schools. Given the elite status of Yale and Harvard, the move is significant and could signal a greater shift away from college rankings. For years, policymakers and those working in higher education have dismissed the rankings, though they are still referenced by potential students and their families. The decisions have been met with praise, but some questioned whether the move, if followed by other schools, would make it more difficult for the average person to choose to which colleges to apply.

BREAKFAST BROWSE

‘Most Cringiest Thing’: Daniel Craig dances in new ad

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Taylor Swift’s ‘Midnights’ snubbed at Grammys?

Some are asking why Swift’s phenomenally successful album “Midnights” was not nominated for a Grammy this week. Here’s what happened.

Andy Warhol artwork sells for ‘monumental’ $85.4 million

Warhol may be best known for his pop art prints of Marilyn Monroe and Campbell’s soup cans, but this piece just joined the most valuable post-war works ever to sell at auction.

Freeze your feast: The ultimate make-ahead Thanksgiving

Forget feeling overwhelmed in the kitchen this year. Here’s how you can prepare your Thanksgiving feast ahead of time to have a stress-free holiday.

Coffee prices are down thanks to better weather in Brazil

Rain in Brazil is making for a good coffee crop this year, securing supply… but it may not mean much for your cup of joe. Starbucks and other stores are still raising prices amid increasing labor and distribution costs.

TODAY’S NUMBER

4 feet

That’s how much snow could be dumped on western New York in the coming days as forecasters are now measuring the potential snowfall in feet rather than inches. This week’s lake effect snowfall in and around Buffalo and Watertown is expected to be “paralyzing,” the National Weather Service said. Historical events in the region include November 2000, when many were stranded in their vehicles as two feet of snow fell in less than 24 hours, and the twin storms that made “Snow-mageddon” in 2014 infamous with over 5 feet of snow.

TODAY’S QUOTE

“I still pray for the president. And I pray for the grace to forgive him and all those responsible for that tragic day.”

– Former Vice President Mike Pence, on whether he is still angry with former President Donald Trump for putting his family at risk during the January 6 insurrection. During a CNN town hall on Wednesday, Pence was shown a video of his family fleeing for safety at the US Capitol. Pence reacted to the video with dismay, calling Trump’s rhetoric and behavior “reckless.” Still, he emphasized that he is moving on from being angry because “in the Christian faith, forgiveness is not optional.”“

TODAY’S WEATHER

Video Ad Feedback Second round of heavy lake effect snow begins late Thursday 03:09 - Source: CNN

Check your local forecast here>>>

AND FINALLY

"Moon River" on Piano for Sharky the Dog

Dog enjoys peaceful piano

Watch this talented 7-year-old beautifully play “Moon River” for her dog, Sharky. You may recognize this song from “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” originally performed by Audrey Hepburn. (Click here to view)

Swiss bank UBS plans massive layoffs of 10,000

AP

UBS posts huge 3Q losses, aims to shrink ailing investment bank

Bank plans to lay off 16% of workforce in 57 countries by 2015

Switzerland's biggest bank hit by series of costly blunders in recent years

GENEVA (AP) — Swiss banking giant UBS plans to cut as many as 10,000 employees, or some 16% of its staff, to drastically shrink its ailing investment bank.

News of the layoffs came as Switzerland's biggest bank posted another big loss for the third quarter. It said Tuesday that the job cuts are part of a strategy to shore up profits.

As a result, UBS said it needs to reduce its headcount to "around 54,000" by 2015, down from its current 64,000 employees in 57 countries.

Some 7,500 jobs are to be cut mainly in London and the United States, where UBS has a prominent building and trading operations in Stamford, Conn., near New York City. The other 2,500 cuts are to be in Switzerland.

Investors cheered the move and the stock was trading 5% higher Tuesday in Zurich on top of the 7.3% rise Monday amid speculation over the cuts.

The announcement of the job cuts came as the Zurich-based bank posted a loss of $2.31 billion in the third quarter, in contrast to last year's equivalent net profit of $1.13 billion in the same three period.

UBS blamed the loss on a $1 billion charge at the investment bank and an $920 million hit linked to an accounting rule on how banks must value their debt.

Banks can post gains if the value of their debt falls, because it would theoretically become cheaper for the bank to repurchase that debt. But the rule also says that when a bank's debt increases, it must take a write-down because it would theoretically have to pay more to buy back its own debt on the open market.

In what it called "a significant acceleration" in its transformation, the bank said it would sharpen its focus on the investment bank and appoint a new executive, Andrea Orcel, formerly of Bank of America, to lead it. The current co-head of the investment bank, Carsten Kengeter, is stepping down from the group's executive board to unwind the non-core assets.

UBS said it also plans to save millions of dollars in additional costs through 2015, but that the reorganization will result in restructuring charges of nearly the same amount over the next three years, including a charge next quarter.

UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti said the investment unit, which has been hit by a series of costly blunders in recent years, will "continue to be a significant global player in its core businesses."

But tighter industry-wide requirements for banks to increase their capital cushion also have hurt profitability as banks have less cash to invest.

"It can't get better than this point for us to act," he told reporters.

Ermotti, who took over in November after the discovery of unauthorized trading last year, has been downsizing the investment bank to meet stricter capital requirements and shrinking profits due largely to Europe's sovereign debt crisis.

Former UBS trader Kweku Adoboli has been facing trial in London this month on charges of committing fraud that cost the bank $2.3 billion. He has told the jury that the losses came after senior traders persuaded him to change from a bearish to a bullish point of view in July 2011.

The bank has been under fire on other fronts. In 2008, it was forced to seek a bailout from the Swiss government when it was hard hit by the financial crisis and its fixed-income unit had more than $50 billion in losses.

UBS is one of several global banks being investigated in the U.S. and other countries for the alleged rigging of benchmark interest rates known as Libor, or London Interbank Offered Rate.

In April, Ermotti said Switzerland's tax disputes with the U.S. and some European nations are "an economic war," putting 20,000 jobs at risk.

Switzerland has been trying to shed its image as a tax haven, signing deals with the U.S., Germany and Britain to provide greater assistance to foreign tax authorities seeking information on their citizens' accounts in the Alpine nation.

But the tax agreements have drawn fire from Switzerland's nationalist People's Party, which won more than a quarter of the vote in last year's general election, with some lawmakers saying they will try to block the treaties through referendums.


Champion WNBA coach on no White House invite: 'Probably ...

Cheryl Reeve, the coach and general manager of the WNBA champion Minnesota Lynx, said this week that she believes her team has not been invited to the White House at least in part because of how President Donald Trump's administration views women.

"It’s hard not to think that gender is playing a role here because of the consistency with which men’s teams are being invited and celebrated," Reeve told The Washington Post on Thursday. "I think it reflects the priorities of this particular administration."

Reeve told reporters Wednesday that the Lynx received congratulatory phone calls and invitations to the White House from Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, after their previous title wins in 2011, 2013 and 2015. More than seven months have passed since their most recent championship and they have yet to hear from Trump, she said.

"It's probably because we're a women's sport and it maybe is not on our president's radar," Reeve said on a podcast with Star Tribune columnist Jim Souhan.

Reeve, a two-time WNBA coach of the year, told reporters that if the White House extends an invitation, she will meet with a group of veterans on the team, and they will decide whether to accept it.

The White House press office did not immediately reply to an email from USA TODAY Sports seeking comment.

Visiting the White House has long been a tradition for championship sports teams, but it has not been a certainty under Trump. The president withdrew a White House invitation for the NBA champion Golden State Warriors after star Stephen Curry said he didn't want to attend. (The Warriors went to the National Museum of African American History and Culture with a group of children instead.)

More recently, several prominent Olympians who have been critical of President Trump — including skier Lindsey Vonn and figure skater Adam Rippon — skipped a trip to the White House.

However, several major professional teams have received and accepted invitations to the White House since Trump's arrival, including the NFL's Super Bowl LI champion New England Patriots, MLB champion Houston Astros, NHL champion Pittsburgh Penguins and NCAA football champion, Alabama. In late April, a Philadelphia Eagles spokesman told The New York Times that the team is "discussing the logistics of an upcoming visit to Washington."

Given those trips, Reeve said, the absence of an invitation for the champion of the most popular women's professional sports league stands out.

"That’s the disappointment, is, what’s going on here?" she told The Post. "Let’s not perpetuate this antiquated narrative that women are less than men, because we’re not. And that has to change."

Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on Twitter @Tom_Schad.

Clemson football team visits White House, greeted by President ...

WASHINGTON — Exactly one week after beating Alabama to win their second national championship in three years, the Clemson Tigers traveled to the White House on Monday for a celebration hosted by President Donald Trump.

And they were greeted with a buffet of fast food.

In the midst of the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history, Trump welcomed coach Dabo Swinney, quarterback Trevor Lawrence and 75 other players with stacks of burgers from McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's, among other assorted fast food.

Press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement that Trump covered the cost of the food because "the Democrats refuse to negotiate on border security" and "much of the residence staff at the White House is furloughed."

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"I had a choice," Trump said. "Do we have no food for you? ... Or do we give you some little quick salads that the First Lady will make, along with the Second Lady — they'll make some salads.

"(No), I said, you guys aren't into salads."

Though the White House did not initially detail the amount of fast food and its costs, Trump said he ordered "about 1,000 hamburgers" for the group. He believed the football players would enjoy the meal because they have some "very large people that like eating."

The result was an unusual scene in the East Room, where empty boxes of Big Macs sat atop intricately embroidered tablecloths and the ornate room smelled lightly of grease.

As the Clemson contingent finished eating, Trump stepped to the podium and spent much of his time praising the Tigers' 44-16 win over the Crimson Tide. He singled out wide receiver Hunter Renfrow, defensive coordinator Brent Venables, cornerback A.J. Terrell and Lawrence in his remarks.

"Oh I want to be the agent for that tall, handsome quarterback," Trump said of Lawrence. "Six foot seven, they say great athlete, and he's accurate. That's nice."

It was the Tigers' second trip to the White House in less than two years, making Clemson the only repeat visitor among championship sports teams since Trump took office. The program previously met with Trump in the summer of 2017, roughly five months after its previous title-game victory that completed the 2016 season.

Monday's celebration also came just seven days after the national title game — an unusually quick turnaround for a team's White House visit.

Trump announced the visit in a tweet Friday, and expressed excitement about the unique menu for the event Monday morning before flying to New Orleans to address the American Farm Bureau Federation's convention. Clemson, meanwhile, spent part of Monday afternoon on the National Mall, including a pit stop at the Lincoln Memorial.

"What a fun day it's been," Swinney said during his remarks in the East Room. "It's an honor to be a part of this tradition, and to be honest with you, it's really cool that football can create an opportunity like this."

White House visits have long been a tradition for championship teams and athletes, but they have become increasingly sporadic under Trump. None of the four NCAA men's and women's basketball champions have visited the White House under Trump, nor have the two-time NBA champion Golden State Warriors.

The most recent NFL champions, the Philadelphia Eagles, were initially invited to visit last summer before Trump learned that they would not be sending a large delegation and rescinded the invitation. The defending World Series champion Red Sox have accepted a White House invitation but a date for the visit has yet to be announced.

Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on Twitter @Tom_Schad.

Donald Trump: LeBron James, Steph Curry not invited to White House

President Donald Trump told reporters Friday morning that he will not invite the Cleveland Cavaliers or Golden State Warriors to visit the White House following the conclusion of this year's NBA Finals.

Cavaliers forward LeBron James and Warriors guard Stephen Curry said their teams had no interest in a prospective White House visit.

"I didn't invite LeBron James, and I didn't invite Steph Curry. We're not going to invite either team," Trump told reporters before departing for Canada, where he will participate in the G7 Summit.

"But we have other teams that are coming. If you look, we had Alabama — national champion. We had Clemson, national champion. We had the New England Patriots. We had the Pittsburgh Penguins last year."

Trump also said he believes the Washington Capitals will make a visit to the White House after clinching their first Stanley Cup title with a 4-3 win over the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday night. The president congratulated the team on Twitter earlier Friday.

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"I think we'll have the Caps. We'll see," Trump told reporters. "You know, my attitude is if they want to be here, the greatest place on Earth, I'm here. If they don't want to be here, I don't want them."

In a similar situation last year, Trump uninvited the Warriors from visiting the White House after Curry and other prominent members of the team said they weren't interested in attending a ceremony. The move prompted a tweet from James, who wrote "U bum @StephenCurry30 already said he ain't going! So therefore ain't no invite. Going to White House was a great honor until you showed up!"

Professional and college sports teams have long celebrated championships with a ceremonial visit to the White House, but the tradition has become increasingly controversial under Trump.

Just this week, the president abruptly uninvited the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles from visiting the White House, in part because they planned to bring a "smaller delegation" rather than their full team. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders accused the Eagles of pulling "a political stunt."

The Minnesota Lynx, the reigning WNBA champions, did not receive an invitation to the White House and instead spent a day performing community service in Washington this week.

Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on Twitter @Tom_Schad.

Trump's approach to championship sports teams breaks tradition

WASHINGTON — Ever since President Jimmy Carter invited the NBA's Washington Bullets to the White House in 1978, presidents of both parties have used the White House to celebrate championship teams as the embodiment of American virtues of teamwork, determination and diversity.

But President Trump's weekend assaults on those who took a knee during the anthem have jeopardized that tradition, as the event has become wrapped up in cultural wars over patriotism, police violence and race during the Trump presidency.

First, Trump said at a rally Friday night that NFL owners should fire any player who kneels in protest during the national anthem. "Get that son of a bitch off the field right now," he said. What followed was a weekend of non-stop coverage of national anthem protests.

Then Trump rescinded a White House invitation to the NBA champion Golden State Warriors after their star player Stephen Curry expressed ambivalence.

It follows a pattern of Trump breaking with presidential traditions — some substantive, and others more ceremonial. In response to opposition, he skipped the Kennedy Center Honors and the White House Correspondents' Dinner. And he frequently injects political comments into non-political events like the Boy Scout Jamboree and previous ceremonies honoring championship football teams.

To use the sports metaphors favored by presidents on these occasions, a championship team's invitation to the White House should be a slam dunk. They give a president an opportunity to appear presidential, to be a "winner by association," and to adopt the team's victory as an American moment.

More:Analysis: This is a major political week for Trump. But his NFL feud is overshadowing his agenda

Sanders on Trump's NFL insults: 'It's always appropriate' for president to defend flag

"These are important ceremonies, otherwise they wouldn’t be happening," said Michael Hester of the University of West Georgia, who has studied presidential sports ceremonies. "They're perfect for a president to use their office, to use their pulpit, to articulate national values."

Presidents have invited sports teams to the White House since at least Andrew Johnson, according to the White House Historical Association. Johnson invited two amateur baseball teams — the first professional team was still four years away — in August, 1865, just three months after the end of the Civil War.

Other teams were recognized sporadically, but it wasn't until Jimmy Carter that the tradition began to take hold. Reagan expanded and popularized the practice, with frequent references to The Gipper, a reference to his movie portrayal of the college football star. Over time, Olympic medalists, collegiate teams and women's sports have also been recognized.

Regardless of president or party, those events have largely followed the same script. There are some subtle differences: Republicans talk more about individual achievement, while Democrats talk more about teamwork, for example.

And while presidents sometimes compare championship sports teams to presidential campaigns, Trump has perhaps gone further than his predecessors. Honoring the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots, Trump told a long story about how coach Bill Belichick supported him in the campaign. At a ceremony to present the Commander in Chief Trophy to the Air Force Academy Falcons — and with cadets as a backdrop — he blasted Democrats three times, putting the officially apolitical cadets in an awkward situation.

Trump's polarizing presidency has caused an increasing number of athletes to say they won't attend the White House ceremonies.

"Going to the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team. Stephen Curry is hesitating, therefore invitation is withdrawn!" Trump tweeted Saturday.

LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers — perhaps Curry's biggest on-court rival — defended Curry and called Trump a "bum" on Twitter. " Going to White House was a great honor until you showed up!” he said.

At the Cavalier's media day outside Cleveland Monday, James accused Trump of being divisive. "The thing that kind of frustrated me and pissed me off a little bit is the fact that ... he used the sports platform to try to divide us. And sports is so, is so, is so amazing," James said.

But White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday the remarks were intended to be unifying, not divisive.

"Look, this isn't about the president being against anyone," she said. "This is about the president and millions of Americans being for something; being for honoring our flag, honoring our national anthem, and honoring the men and women who fought to defend it."

It's unclear whether Trump has done any lasting damage to the role of the president as the sports-fan-in-chief. After he disinvited the Warriors, he made clear that the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team was still invited.

The Stanley Cup champions confirmed their attendance, saying the Penguins "respect the institution of the Office of the President, and the long tradition of championship teams visiting the White House."

"Any agreement or disagreement with a president's politics, policies or agenda can be expressed in other ways," the team said in a statement. "However, we very much respect the rights of other individuals and groups to express themselves as they see fit.”

But Hester says Trump's sports rhetoric has already broken barriers.

"With Trump everything is personal. I can't imagine a previous president disinviting someone," he said. "He flips all of these traditional ways we think about using the presidency on their head. Just burn every political science book. Everything we’ve been teaching is wrong. This guy breaks all the rules."

Malcolm Jenkins won't let NFL players' message be silenced

PHILADELPHIA – YOU AREN’T LISTENING.

Malcolm Jenkins presented his message in the simplest, black-and-white form he could think of: in all-caps, written in Sharpie on poster boards.

Journalists encircled the Philadelphia Eagles safety and social justice leader, eager to hear his thoughts on President Trump’s decision to revoke the football team’s invitation to visit the White House this week for what would have been a celebration of February’s Super Bowl victory.

But Jenkins did not speak. His bearded face remained emotionless as reporters hurled questions at him. To each he simply raised another sign, many of which bore sobering statistics on the justice system.

“What does that have to do with not going to the White House yesterday?” one reporter called out.

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“Malcolm, do you feel it was fair for the president to cancel the White House trip even though a large majority of the team wasn’t going?” another asked.

“Are you upset with the White House for canceling the event?” came another.

Upset? Over a canceled trip to the White house?

Jenkins had it right with the “YOU AREN’T LISTENING” poster.

More:Coach Doug Pederson: Canceled White House visit 'is what it is,' and Eagles remain united

More:Steve Kerr: President Trump treating Eagles situation like a 'political game'

Most Eagles players didn’t waste energy on the yanked White House invitation. Most of them hadn't been set to go anyway.

The unfairness that they’re concerned with involves those faced daily by people of color, at-risk youth and poverty-stricken Americans.

Many of the Eagles players had no desire to rub shoulders with Trump, who lacks a sympathetic ear on such issues. He’s the same person who last fall referred to any player who kneeled as a “son of a bitch" for protesting during the playing of the national anthem. The president did not engage on the issues driving the protests and instead painted players as anti-patriotic and unappreciative of the military.

So as the president again bashed the NFL, touting the canceled visit as a matter of respect for The Star-Spangled Banner, Jenkins and his teammates stuck to their message.

Jenkins’ poster board responses stuck to his original point:

• “More than 60 percent of people in prison are people of color.”

• “Nearly 20,000 juveniles enter the adult criminal system each year, most for non-violent crimes.”

• "In 2018, 439 people shot and killed by police (thus far). In U.S. Pop. – 8 percent African-American males; Shot by police – 25 percent African-American males”

• “Any given night, 500,000 sit in jail. Convicted? No. Too poor? Yes.”

Jenkins’ other posters displayed a lengthy list of NFL players, which he called “TRUE PATRIOTS” because of their charitable work. Many of those players were his fellow members of the Players Coalition, which worked with team owners to secure $90 million for social justice efforts over the next several years.

The list of players included exiled quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who has now given $1 million to charity. Another was Jenkins’ teammate Chris Long, who donated his entire 2017 salary to Philadelphia schools.

Long also faced a barrage of questions. He did speak, but avoided getting caught in a war of words with the president. Like Jenkins, Long understands that’s what feeds Trump and his supporters. He recognizes that accusations of anti-patriotism or disrespect for the military are nothing more than ill-informed opinions and distraction tactics.

None of those ploys can detract from the players' true mission, Long said.

“I don’t feel like the work these guys are doing in the community can be hijacked,” he said. “You’ve got guys like Malcolm doing tremendous work in the community dealing with criminal justice reform, meeting with legislators. We’ve got a bunch of guys doing great work in their community, and really all across the league. Some of the best men I know are guys I’ve met that are pro football players and who really had the opportunity to not give a crap about people with less than them, but they do it anyway. They go in the community to help people who have less and use their platform well.”

Ever since Kaepernick began taking a knee during the national anthem two years ago to raise awareness of the police violence against people of color, opponents of the protest have tried to tell players to “stick to sports.” But they’re ignoring the point.

With his stunt this week, the president succeeded in a few regards. He further strengthened his standing in the eyes of those who are willing to gulp down his narrative with little to no concern for the facts. And he further alienated the portion of the population fighting for equality and reform.

He again used the NFL – the country’s most powerful sports league and the exclusive club to which Trump tried in vain to gain membership with a failed attempt to buy the Buffalo Bills in 2014 – as his pawn. But he did not accomplish anything truly meaningful.

At a time when so many, from the White House to some NFL fans, are telling professional football players how to conduct themselves, perhaps a better solution is take a page from their playbook.

Get to know each other.

“One of the beautiful things about the NFL is you have a true melting pot of guys from all over the country,” said Eagles center Jason Kelce, who declined to say if he planned on attending the White House, because it was irrelevant at this point.

He continued, “You’ve got guys from rural America, guys from inner city Detroit, guys that have grown up in upper class, to middle class, to guys that have grown up in single-parent households and have nothing. I think there’s all sorts of different viewpoints and different beliefs, and one thing you learn quickly in this league is, everyone has different beliefs, but you learn to quickly put that aside and as a team you accomplish great things, you develop empathy and sympathy for one another, to learn and develop the ability to work together, and to be honest, I think our country could follow that a little bit more.”

That’s an American talking. He happens to play football.

Follow Mike Jones on Twitter @ByMikeJones.

Donald Trump: National champ Clemson football team to visit White ...

The national champion Clemson Tigers football team will visit the White House on Jan. 14, President Donald Trump announced in a tweet Friday.

“I look forward to hosting, right out of the great State of South Carolina, the 2019 NCAA Football Champion Clemson Tigers at the White House on Monday, January 14th. What a game, what a coach, what a team!” President Trump wrote.

It will be the second trip to the Trump White House for Clemson, which beat Alabama 44-16 in the College Football Playoff National Championship on Monday. The Tigers also visited in 2017 after they beat the Crimson Tide for the 2016 national championship.

Championship teams visiting the White House became a yearly tradition late in the 20th century under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

Since President Trump took office, however, the practice of visiting the White House has invited scrutiny and controversy. The Golden State Warriors have not been to the White House for either of their back-to-back NBA titles, with President Trump saying in 2017 that star Steph Curry “is hesitating, therefore invitation is withdrawn!”

That Twitter declaration prompted NBA superstar LeBron James to call the president “a bum” in a tweet.

The Philadelphia Eagles also did not make a trip to the White House after winning their first Super Bowl title. The champions’ invitation was rescinded last year after a number of players dropped out of attending.

The current men's and women's college basketball national champions also have not visited the White House. Villanova coach Jay Wright said in October that his most recent title team did not receive an invitation.

Alabama, the college football champion before Clemson, made a White House trip after winning the 2017 championship. A number of other pro teams and athletes have also visited: The Pittsburgh Penguins attended after winning the Stanley Cup in 2017, as did the Houston Astros for their 2017 title. The Boston Red Sox have announced that they will make a White House visit at some point after winning the 2018 World Series.

World Series champion Astros will accept invitation to White House

The Houston Astros officially have been invited to visit the White House and plan to accept that invitation, a team spokesperson confirmed to USA TODAY Sports on Wednesday.

Astros president of business operations Reid Ryan told The Houston Chronicle in an interview that the team is planning to visit the White House at President Donald Trump's invitation, adding that the date for the visit has not yet been finalized.

"This is a tradition and an honor," Ryan told the newspaper. "For many people, this might be their only time to ever be invited to the White House. And as the representatives of baseball and the World Series champs, when the White House calls and invites you to come up, it's something that as an organization we felt both a responsibility and an obligation to be part of."

When asked about Ryan's comments Wednesday, team spokesperson Steve Grande told USA TODAY Sports in an e-mail that the report is accurate and that he has "nothing to add."

While most teams visit the White House before, during or after a series with the Washington Nationals or Baltimore Orioles, the Astros' schedule will not bring them to the area until the end of September. The team could instead choose to visit the White House during spring training.

It has long been customary for the champions of major professional sports leagues to visit the White House, though the trips and invitations have become less certain since President Donald Trump entered office nearly a year ago.

The NBA-champion Golden State Warriors did not visit the White House after guard Stephen Curry said he would not attend, prompting Trump to subsequently withdraw the team's invitation. The NCAA-champion South Carolina women's basketball team also did not visit the White House despite receiving an invitation.

The Pittsburgh Penguins, who won last season's NHL championship, visited the White House in October.

Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on Twitter @Tom_Schad.

President Trump to welcome Washington Capitals at White House ...

The Washington Capitals have accepted an invitation to meet with President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday to celebrate last June’s Stanley Cup championship, the team confirmed Tuesday.

A person familiar with Capitals plans but not authorized to speak about them publicly said players were told they were free to make their own decisions about whether they want to attend.

Several professional championship teams haven't been invited to the White House during the Trump Administration after players said they wouldn't go.

But in the week after winning the Cup, most players told the Washington Post they would visit the White House if invited.

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Forward Brett Connolly said publicly back then he would skip the White House visit. He reiterated that to reporters on Monday.

“I respectfully decline,” Connolly, a Canadian, said, according to The Athletic. “That’s all I’ll say about it. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. It’s obviously a big deal and it gains a lot of attention. I’ve been in full support of an old teammate that I’m really good friends with and who I agreed with, and a guy who will be back here I’m sure at the end of the year. That’s all I’ll say.”

That player is forward Devante Smith-Pelly, a black Canadian who told the National Post last June that he wouldn’t go because some statements by Trump “are straight-up racist and sexist.”

Smith-Pelly was waived by the Capitals in February and sent to the American Hockey League in a salary cap move.

The Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins did visit the White House in 2017, while the NBA champion Golden State Warriors were not invited to the White House in 2017 and 2018. Trump canceled the 2018 Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles’ visit when several players said they wouldn’t be attending.

The MLB champion Boston Red Sox were scheduled to visit in February but postponed until May because of the government shutdown.

Some players on the 2019 Super Bowl champion New England Patriots players have said they would not go to the White House if their team is invited.

Joe Biden-Kamala Harris get support from WNBA champion Seattle ...

In recent weeks and months, dozens of professional and college sports teams have urged their fans to register and vote in the upcoming presidential election.

But on Wednesday, the reigning WNBA champions took it one step further.

In an exceedingly rare move for a sports organization, the Seattle Storm urged fans to support Democrats Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in the upcoming election, posting an endorsement of the Democratic ticket on its team-branded Twitter account.

"Join us in support of @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris," the team wrote in a tweet, accompanied by a hyperlink for fans to register to vote.

The message reflects the political beliefs of Seattle's three co-owners: Lisa Brummel, Ginny Gilder and Dawn Trudeau. All three women have made donations to federal Democratic candidates or causes in the current election cycle, according to a review of federal campaign filings by USA TODAY Sports.

"We don't typically endorse candidates," Gilder wrote on Twitter, "but these are NOT typical times."

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While sports team owners have long made financial contributions to political candidates, they have often done so quietly, or gone to great lengths to distinguish their political views as independent of their teams.

The Storm, meanwhile, took the unusual stance of directly linking the two.

Gilder told The Seattle Times that she believes the team's tweet in support of Biden and Harris is in line with its values as an organization.

"There’s a certain value set that the Storm organization represents that we try to deliver on whenever the owners take a stand on anything," she told the newspaper. "I don’t think we caught anyone in our organization off guard."

Gilder added that she "hopes for a White House that NCAA champions and women’s pro sports champions can return to," according to The Seattle Times.

Under President Trump, none of the past three WNBA champions have been invited to visit the White House, which has long been a tradition for championship sports teams. The Storm, who have won four WNBA titles, visited the White House in 2011 at the invitation of Barack Obama but were not invited by Trump after they won in 2018.

Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on Twitter @Tom_Schad.

Braves visit White House, President Biden to celebrate 2021 title

Associated Press

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden said Monday that the Atlanta Braves will be “forever known as the upset kings of October” for their improbable 2021 World Series win, as he welcomed the team to the White House for a victory celebration.

Biden called the series an “unstoppable, joyful run.” The team got its White House victory visit in with a little more than a week left before the 2022 regular season wraps up and playoffs begin again. The Braves are just two wins behind first place in the National League East. Chief Executive Officer Terry McGuirk said he hoped they’d be back to the White House again soon.

In August 2021, the Braves were a mess, playing barely at .500. But then they started winning. And they kept doing it, clinching the World Series in six games over the Houston Astros.

Biden called their come-from-behind win one of “history’s greatest turnarounds.”

“This team has literally been part of American history for over 150 years,” said Biden. “But none of it came easy … people counting you out. Heck, I know something about being counted out.”

Players lined up on risers behind Biden, grinning and waving to the crowd, but the player most discussed was one who hasn’t been on the team in nearly 50 years and who died last year: Hall of Famer Hank Aaron.

Hammerin’ Hank was the homerun king for 33 years, dethroning Babe Ruth with a high flier to centerfield on April 8, 1974. He was one of the most famous players for Atlanta and in baseball history, a vocal and clear-eyed chronicler of the many hardships thrown his way – from the poverty and segregation of his Alabama youth to the racist threats he faced during his pursuit of one of America’s most hallowed records. He died in January at age 86.

“This is team is defined by the courage of Hank Aaron,” Biden said.

McGuirk said Aaron, who held front office positions with the team and was one of Major League Baseball’s few Black executives, was watching over them.

“He’d have been there every step of the way with us if he was here,” McGuirk added.

The president often honors major league and some college sports champions with a White House ceremony, typically a nonpartisan affair in which the commander in chief pays tribute to the champs’ prowess, poses for photos and comes away with a team jersey.

Those visits were highly charged in the previous administration. Many athletes took issue with President Donald Trump’s policies and rhetoric on policing, immigration and more. Trump, for his part, didn’t take kindly to criticism from athletes or their on-field expressions of political opinion.

Under Biden, the tradition appears to be back. He’s hosted the NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks and Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers at the White House. Biden on Monday joked about first lady Jill Biden’s Philadelphia allegiances.

“Like every Philly fan, she’s convinced she knows more about everything in sports than anybody else,” he said. He added that he couldn’t be too nice to the Atlanta team because it had just beaten the Phillies the previous night in extra innings.