Brands barbie, fisher price and moi, that is mattel to find out how his company s fortunes are being revived. Wherever you are joining around the world, once again hello and welcome to the programme. It is a billion dollar industry driven by creativity and innovation with a global reach and a diverse market. The toy industry is forecast to reach $302 billion in sales by 2030 and that estimate is at the conservative end of the scale. But falling birth rates and some of the highest inflation rates we have seen in decades have created challenging conditions for manufacturers and retailers and signal more tough times to come. While the covid pandemic boosted sales of toys and games temporarily, big name companies reported sales have started to slip back once again. Let s look at some of those numbers. Local toy sales reached $108. 7 billion in 2023, a 2% drop compared to 2022 with toy companies calling it a normalisation process after that exceptional growth linked to the pandemic. But acr
Its opening up pandoras pox. The bill seriously undermines Civil Liberties by essentially banning a platform that 150 million americans use to engage in free speech and expression. Thats just some of the debate over tiktok yesterday taking place On The House Floor before lawmakers voted by a massive margin to pass a bill that could potentially ban the popular app. Well go through where the legislation will stand in the senate. Plus, donald trump is expected to be in court today for a hearing in the classified documents case. Well have legal analysis for you on that and on the charges against the former president that were just dismissed in georgia. And well show you President Bidens message to voters as he looks to secure more support in key Midwest Swing states. Good morning and welcome to Way Too Early on this thursday, march 14th. Im jonathan lemire. Thanks for starting your day with us. The house has overwhelmingly voted to pass a bill that could ban tiktok here in the United State
Ministers questions. It is always a little different, the pmqs ahead of the budget. He has vacated the chair for the Deputy Speaker. She will be going through some of the notices ahead ofjeremy hunt, the chancellor, delivering his Budget Statement. He will take to his feet shortly and will probably speak for about an hour shortly and will probably speak for Aboutan Hourand shortly and will probably speak for about an hour and then it will be the turn of the leader of the opposition, keir starmer to respond. We will take both of those live and uninterrupted and we will then have reaction from the Chief Secretary to the treasury, laura trott, part of the treasury, laura trott, part of the Treasury Team and her shadow for labour. Here isjeremy hunt. Madam Deputy Speaker, as we mourn the loss of life in israel and gaza, the loss of life in israel and gaza, the Prime Minister reminded us of the Prime Minister reminded us of the need the Fight Extremism and heal divisions. I start today by r
ukraine says its open attacks are taking a toll on russia s war machine and a major counteroffensive could begin at any moment. a dire warning as the ceo of an artificial intelligence company testifies on capitol hill. quote, if this technology depose wrong, it can go quite wrong. we know ai is going to change the world, but how, how quickly, how much, no one quite knows. with the u.s. on the brink of defaulting on its debt, lawmakers are digging in at the white house. those talks in just two hours. we are following those major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to cnn news central. amid a barrage of missile and drone attacks in kyiv overnight, russia is making a major claim that it targeted and destroyed one of these, an american-made patriot air missile defense system. a u.s. official tells cnn it was likely damaged but not destroyed. ukraine is not commenting, but it says that its air defenses worked against the large-scale attack, intercepting
let s go right to foreign correspondent kelly cobiella. just a tragic story today out of thailand. at least 22 children at that daycare were killed in this attack. several more are injured, which is why dozens, if not hundreds are people are lining up to donate blood in the area of thai wand really in shock in what is the deadliest mass killing in the country s history. all of this played out at lunchtime local time, about 12:30. it was nap time for the kids at the daycare center when this gunman came in. police say he was agitated when he couldn t find his own child at the school. one witness said that he actually shot his way into a locked room where the children were sleeping. police also tragically say that most of the children were stabbed not shot. the youngest victim about 2 years old. a gunman then fled in his own car. he was firing is and driving into people as he fled. once home they say he killed his wife and child before turning the gun on himself. lis are not t