Three Democratic senators have urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to put the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger on pause over concerns about foreign investors controlling what would be one of the largest media companies in the United States.
In a joint letter to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, Sens. Cory Booker, D- N.J., Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., demanded he “must foreclose any attempt by Paramount to close this transaction” before an adequate review of the involved foreign investors is completed.
The lawmakers said the FCC must conduct this review to evaluate possible “national security threats posed by foreign government investment” in the $110 billion entity. If approved, the merger would bring CNN and CBS News under one corporate owner, further consolidating the news media landscape.
Paramount, led by CEO David Ellison, acknowledged in an April financial disclosure cited by the senators that foreign ownership in the new corporation will rise to “approximately 49.5 percent.” In that document, Paramount also said that all voting rights will be “controlled by the Ellison family through U.S. entities.”
WARNER BROS DISCOVERY SHAREHOLDERS APPROVE PARAMOUNT SKYDANCE DEAL
The document revealed that Saudi Arabia’s public investment fund and various entities based in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar would be equity holders.
Paramount told the FCC in April that this arrangement would not present “any national security, law enforcement, or foreign or trade policy concerns.”
The senators want a more rigorous check of what this level of foreign ownership would mean, telling Carr in their letter that he should not take the Ellison family’s statements “at face value.”
They argued that the FCC should reject Paramount’s petition for preemptive approval. Under Section 310 of the 1934 Communications Act, foreign individuals, companies and governments are generally prohibited from owning more than 25% of a U.S.-based firm that has an FCC-issued broadcast license.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR POINTS TO ‘HEMORRHAGING’ AT CBS TO WARN OF DAVID ELLISON’S POTENTIAL TAKEOVER AT CNN
Booker, Schiff and Warren gave Carr a July 1 deadline to notify Paramount that the deal cannot close until the foreign investment review is completed.
The FCC’s pending approval is the largest regulatory hurdle in the way of the merger. The Department of Justice signaled last week it would not challenge Paramount’s bid to acquire Warner Bros.
The DOJ’s antitrust division concluded after an eight-month review that “the transaction is not likely to result in harm to competition or American consumers” with regard to on-demand streaming, linear television and studio development, and the production and distribution of films.
Warren criticized this decision by the DOJ and urged state attorneys general to continue fighting the transaction. California Attorney General Rob Bonta was already leading a coalition of states in preparing a lawsuit to block Paramount from adding Warner Bros. to its growing portfolio.
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More than 5,000 filmmakers and actors working in Hollywood signed an open letter in April furiously demanding that the merger be stopped. They argued that it would stifle competition and reduce job opportunities.
“Our industry is already under severe strain, in large part due to prior waves of consolidation. We have witnessed a steep decline in the number of films produced and released,” according to the petition. “We are deeply concerned by indications of support for this merger that prioritize the interests of a small group of powerful stakeholders over the broader public good.”

Claude Guillemot, one of the brothers who founded Ubisoft in 1986, has been killed in a plane crash in Western France, it has been reported.
On Friday, June 19, Guillemot was flying in a Cessna 421 tourist plane when it crashed in La Baule, France. The circumstances of the crash aren’t clear, but two fatalities were confirmed, one being Guillemot, and another being a flight instructor.
Per reports, identification was delayed due to the nature of the crash, with the plane being ablaze when emergency services reached the crash site.
Claude Guillemot Tragically Killed in Plane Crash
Ouest-France, a French publication, first reported the news regarding Guillemot’s tragic plane crash, which occurred on Friday, June 19.
It was explained that Guillemot was the owner of the plane that crashed, and that he was on board with a flight instructor, who also passed in the crash.
Claude was one of five brothers who co-founded Ubisoft in 1986. He started the company alongside Christian, Gérard, Michel, and Yves Guillemot.
In company documentation, Ubisoft described Claude’s role:
He sits on Ubisoft’s Board and is Executive Vice-President in charge of operations. He provides entrepreneurial spirit to the Ubisoft Board, as well as his international experience of Asia, where he lived, and his in-depth knowledge of gaming technologies for PCs, consoles and accessories.
Claude Guillemot was 69 years old at the time of this tragic incident. Our thoughts are with the Guillemot family and wider Ubisoft community at this time.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that 11 Bit Studios has made layoffs, and for even more Insider Gaming delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for our newsletter.

The growing push to restrict Americans from using federal food aid to buy certain processed or sugary products is creating a new challenge for some of the biggest U.S. food and beverage companies.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture as of May had approved food restriction waivers for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits in 23 states, affecting roughly one-third of all SNAP participants, according to Numerator. The research firm estimates the restrictions could reduce food and beverage sales by as much as $830 million this year as consumers either shift spending to approved products or cut back overall.
Kroger CEO Greg Foran said on the company’s first-quarter earnings call on Thursday that customers remain under pressure in part due to reduced SNAP benefits, as well as higher gas prices, “squeezing budgets.”
“Customers are managing spend carefully and shopping with real intent,” Foran said.
Most waivers focus on limiting consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and confectionery products, signaling a targeted approach rather than broad food restrictions. As the movement spreads, it’s forcing major packaged food companies to monitor shopper behavior and assess whether they need to remake product lines — though many of them have already been changing what they offer after consumer habits shifted in recent years.
Iowa recently became the first state to codify elements of the “Make America Healthy Again,” or MAHA, movement into law, approving legislation that targets artificial food dyes, ultra-processed foods in school and purchases made through SNAP.
“Altogether, this bill advances the health and wellness for every Iowan today and for generations to come,” said Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds when she signed the measure last month.
She added the law helps “refocus federal food assistance programs on the actual purpose for which they were created: helping low-income families afford nutritious food.”
Many food companies aren’t waiting to see how policies evolve.
At a Goldman Sachs conference in May, Hershey said it has researchers in Texas conducting in-store interviews with shoppers who receive SNAP benefits to understand how purchasing behavior is shifting under new restrictions in the state.
“We’ve observed some consumer uncertainty at the register as new restrictions take effect,” a Hershey spokesperson told CNBC. “We anticipate this will improve as store execution improves, rules become clearer, and SNAP users can plan and budget with more certainty.”
The company is studying everything from product substitutions to budget tradeoffs, offering an early glimpse into how major food manufacturers are preparing for a potentially significant shift in consumer demand.
Many of the products most exposed to the changes are produced by some of the largest companies in the industry like Kraft Heinz , PepsiCo , Coca-Cola , General Mills , Nestle and others.
J.M. Smucker CEO Mark Smucker, however, told CNBC he expects the SNAP policy changes to have a more muted impact.
“I would say the current environment isn’t really that different than what we’ve seen over time, and thus far some of the modifications have really had no meaningful impact to our business,” he said.
Still, the company’s Hostess products like Twinkies and Donettes — the latter of which saw net sales grow 13% in the latest quarter, according to the company — may be impacted under broader state restrictions on “highly processed snacks.”
Current SNAP waivers in states like Texas focus primarily on candy and sugary drinks, not snack cakes. However, some states have proposed broader definitions that could eventually encompass packaged desserts and sweet baked goods.
At the same time, fewer Americans are even receiving the benefits. One analysis estimates 3.5 million people have lost their SNAP aid since President Donald Trump last year signed a sweeping bill that restricts eligibility for SNAP, among other changes.
Many U.S. households have found it harder to pay for groceries following the changes. The restrictions have also meant fewer dollars flowing to major businesses.
Walmart is particularly exposed to SNAP spending, capturing roughly a quarter of all SNAP grocery dollars nationwide, according to Numerator. Kroger, Costco and Amazon follow at about 8%, 6% and 5%, respectively.
The curbs on what consumers can buy with federal assistance are only one shift food companies are watching.
At a hearing of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions in April, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. went as far as to say he “would support” a ban on junk-food television advertising. The department has not yet taken steps to introduce such a ban.
Responding both to Kennedy’s MAHA initiative and shifting consumer tastes, food manufacturers have also accelerated efforts to reformulate products and reduce synthetic ingredients in products like Kool-Aid, Fanta, Doritos and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, which contain dyes like Red 40 and Yellow 5.
General Mills, Kraft Heinz and Target have all pledged to phase out certain artificial colors and additives by 2027 or sooner.
Nestle announced Monday it achieved its commitment on time to fully eliminate Food, Drug & Cosmetic colors from its U.S. food and beverage portfolio.

With its lime-green façade, T&T Supermarket is hard to miss. On Thursday morning, the spirited performances onstage — karaoke and live bands plus lion, robot and K-pop dancers — made the Asian supermarket’s California debut at San Jose’s Westgate Center even more conspicuous.
And, as with any buzzy grocery store opening these days, there was a long queue, too. By the time I arrived at 8 a.m. — an hour before the doors slid open — there were hundreds of people already waiting beneath a giant tented area.
Capt. Ken Tran of the San Jose Police Department observed that there were “easily over 500,” while a colleague of his estimated a throng of 1,000. “We’ve never seen a grand opening like this, with this type of setup and this type of crowd,” said Tran, a 27-year veteran of the police department.
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Kyle Chak, who arrived at 4:25 a.m., was at the front of the line. He first learned of T&T while vacationing in Vancouver more than a decade ago and heard about the San Jose opening through social media.
“I got off work and raced over here,” he said, referencing his midnight-to-4 a.m. shift. “That way, I have the best chance of going in first, getting the food I need and getting out of here.” High on his shopping list: Asian vegetables and T&T’s own Dubai chocolate-style Portuguese egg tart.
T&T, Canada’s largest Asian supermarket chain, celebrated the opening of its first California outpost with an hourlong ceremony, complete with a ribbon cutting by San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan. Customers then filed into the 55,000-square-foot space that previously housed Walmart. It now allures with fresh produce, Asian groceries, prepared meals, baked goods, beauty products and more.
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“We want to move away from the functional practicality of the chore of grocery shopping, and we want to make it an immersive food experience,” T&T CEO Tina Lee told SFGATE. With its multiple aspects, she added, “It’s like running seven different businesses under one roof.”
Headquartered in Richmond, British Columbia, T&T has about 40 locations in Canada and the U.S. Its expansion stateside began in 2024 in the Seattle area, where there are currently two stores. (Washington residents were known to cross the border to shop at T&T.) A store in San Francisco is slated to open by the end of the year, with Millbrae and Newark following in 2027.
To staff up in San Jose, Lee said, senior-level employees were hired locally, then trained in Bellevue for up to nine months before returning to help open T&T’s latest store.
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Chris Tran, who was a few places behind Chak in line, was well aware of T&T prior to Thursday’s opening. He moved to the Bay Area from Toronto about seven months ago. “They were my main grocery store back home,” said Tran, who’s partial to the sushi and hot food, especially the fried fish. His wife had a request: T&T’s private-label mochi cheese buns.
The day before the official San Jose unveiling, I attended a media preview that included a tour led by Lee. That sneak peek allowed me to get the lay of the land and partake of a few bites. (T&T always has sample tables.)
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Near the entrance, the produce department is up first. Per Lee, this is the No. 1 draw for shoppers. And I could see why: The impressive offerings included lychee from China, gold kiwifruit from New Zealand and durian from Thailand.
The rear left corner is home to the seafood department. Tanks filled with live tilapia, shortspine thornyhead — a type of rock cod — Dungeness crab and king crab were all sights to behold. But the front right corner of the supermarket was my favorite area: the kitchen and the bakery.
The kitchen features hot food, including made-to-order fare (like Chinese savory crepes and street-style rice rolls) and a self-serve station where dishes such as shrimp and scallops with mixed veggies and cashews and steamed pork ribs with black bean fill the metal trays. There’s also a refrigerated area with sushi and boba beverages. The bakery is nearby; just look for the green-and-white striped awning.
(Tip: Lee told me that toward the end of each night — the last hour or so before closing — items that are made daily and thus have a short shelf life, like sushi, are marked down.)
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The middle of the store contains around 10 aisles with food as well as household and beauty products from China, Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia. I was in awe of the sheer variety and abundance. Take the Oreo cookies alone — with flavors such as white peach-oolong tea, cheese, birthday cake, blueberry-raspberry, matcha and grape-peach.
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Right after the media preview, I sat down with Lee at a bistro table in the store’s seating area and, among other things, asked about any can’t-miss eats. With her recommendations in mind, I returned the next morning to shop and take in the opening-day entertainment (which continues through the weekend).
Across all locations, Lee shared, T&T annually sells more than 1 million of its barbecue pork steamed buns, which she credited with putting the store on the culinary map. The fluffy, slightly sweet dough holds tender, slow-cooked pork. They are so popular they are available at the kitchen’s dim sum station, from a cold case to reheat and even frozen.
Elsewhere in the kitchen zone, I spotted a bright yellow box and remembered Lee’s words: “My advice is always, if you see the yellow box with the Papa Chicken, grab it.” She steered me right. Just $15 for a whole, garlicky, butterflied fried chicken — juicy meat inside, with a craggy exterior — the purchase made my belly and wallet incredibly happy.
According to Lee, only 12 chickens can be deep-fried at a time. When the boxes hit the shelves, they are often snapped up immediately. If you miss out, you have to wait until the next batch comes out, and the timing can vary. Another bestseller, T&T’s mango cake — vanilla sponge cake, fresh whipped cream and mango — lived up to the hype. “It’s so close to my heart that it was my wedding cake,” Lee said.
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Indeed, running T&T is more than just a job for her. The chain is named for Lee and her younger sister, Tiffany. Their parents, Cindy and Jack Lee, opened the first store in Burnaby, British Columbia — just east of Vancouver — in 1993. The couple sought to fill a void in the community: a one-stop Asian supermarket, where patrons could connect to their culture and traditions through food.
Lee recalled working at T&T at age 13. “Tiffany and I would be racing to see who could bag groceries faster,” she said.
In 2009, T&T was acquired by Loblaw Cos., Canada’s biggest food retailer. (Fun fact: The company inspired the name of the “Arrested Development” attorney character Bob Loblaw.) That same year, Lee earned an MBA from UCLA and joined T&T as director of strategy and operations.
The idea to launch in California can be traced to her business school days. “When I lived in Los Angeles, the biggest hole in my heart was not having a T&T nearby — not having the level of freshness and the assortment and the kitchen [prepared food department],” she said.
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Lee’s ties to the Bay Area go back even further, to her childhood; her Aunt Linda lives in Saratoga. “We spent our summers there,” she recounted. “We’d swim in her backyard pool and go for Chinese food and, coming from Canada, I thought the weather here was glorious.”
When her mother retired as CEO in 2014, Lee succeeded her. With every store, she strives for a “six-senses experience,” she said.
The five senses are engaged throughout: sight (the colors and organization of the produce section), sound (the music is intentionally upbeat), smell (that aroma of fresh-baked treats is owing to the oven in the bakery), taste (free samples!) and touch (Go ahead, pick up that Chinese yam).
The sixth sense, Lee explained, “is how we make you feel, beyond the borders of our four walls. Once you’ve done all this shopping, you go home and you feel good because you feel like you got great value for your money.
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“But the biggest test is when you sit down at your kitchen table. You take that first bite into the egg tart or the pork belly or the Korean short ribs, and you’re like, ‘This is so good!’”
Lee is hopeful that at least one Silicon Valley luminary will pop in to experience the San Jose store firsthand. Last month, she posted an Instagram video inviting Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang for a private tour. Although she has yet to hear back, Lee remains optimistic. “If he really is a foodie, I don’t think he’s gonna be able to avoid T&T,” she said with a laugh. “There’s no way.”
T&T Supermarket, Westgate Center, 1600 Saratoga Ave., Suite #501, San Jose. Open daily, 8 a.m.-10 p.m.
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Mail theft may sound quaint in an age of ransomware, but an old paper-based scam looks to be roaring back, and it’s hitting taxpayers, Social Security and unemployment recipients, and everyday bill-payers who send their payments via snail mail. “Check washing” incidents are climbing fast, per the Washington Post: Reports of check fraud cited by the FBI and US Postal Service nearly doubled between 2021 and 2022, and high-volume mail theft is up roughly 2,000% since 2010, according to the Postal Police Officers Association. “This is not about lost birthday cards anymore,” says Frank Albergo, the group’s president. “We’ve entered an era of organized postal crime.”
Thieves steal mailed checks and use common chemicals found in the home (e.g., bleach, acetone) to erase the payee and amount, then rewrite the checks to themselves and cash in. Because banks rely heavily on automated processing, many altered checks sail through. The Post details the ordeal of a California couple whose check to the IRS was rewritten and cashed, leaving them on the hook for about $12,000 in taxes, interest, and penalties—and initially outside Chase’s fraud-reporting deadline.
Only after the newspaper’s inquiry did the bank track down and refund most of the money. The Post also lays out specific prevention steps, from using gel ink and more-secure payments (including electronic ones), to avoiding putting up the little flag on your mailbox to alert the postal carrier you have outgoing mail. The FBI offers some tips of its own, though this Long Island woman says she was scammed out of $16,000 despite taking some of the recommended precautions.
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