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ITV’s Good Morning Britain has been on the air since 2014 and has boosted the profiles of the likes of Susanna Reid and Piers Morgan – but the long-running series could be getting a major overhaul

There are fears of a “mutiny” at ITV over plans to revamp breakfast news show Good Morning Britain. The topical news show has been on the air since 2014 and features Susanna Reid, Richard Madeley and Kate Garraway as regular hosts.

However, things are tipped to change at the Television Centre in London, where the ITV show is filmed—and there will be a major “shake-up” over the way the show is filmed. It has been suggested that the overall aesthetic of the show could be changed to be more hard-hitting and in line with ITV’s news reports, which are produced by ITN.

It has been suggested that a new studio could be constructed to house the morning show, sparking alarm among staff that this could affect roles behind the scenes. Changes are said to be in consideration in the hope that the ITV show can overtake BBC Breakfast, which regularly pulls in over one million viewers each morning, compared to around 700,000 for GMB.

The suggestion of changes comes months after former ITV News boss Andrew Dagnell was appointed director of news and current affairs at ITV. While Unions reportedly expressed “concern” in a memo to staff.

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The Daily Mail reported the rumours of changes with a source telling the outlet: “Obviously any talk of major change starts panic – lots of the staff were immediately worried about the security of their jobs.

“This is about streamlining ITV’s news output across the whole day, and having separate teams doubling up just doesn’t make sense. So it may well be that some correspondents end up appearing across the whole day’s schedule, rather than being specifically attached to GMB or ITV News.

“There could be a new set and a new feel, and a more continuous feel to ITV’s news bulletins throughout the whole day as a result. But people are very much likely to lose their jobs, so there is a lot of upset, anger and in some cases, mutiny.”

The Mirror has contacted ITV for comment.

One of Good Morning Britain’s biggest stars was Piers Morgan who served as an anchor on the show from 2015 until 2021 and was known for his outspoken opinions. His inclusion on the show helped GMB reach some of its biggest ratings in it’s 11 years history.

However, he sensationally walked away from the show four years ago after hitting out at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex after they gave an interview with Oprah Winfrey. Piers sparked a backlash when he criticised Meghan Markle after she opened up about past mental health struggles during her interview.

Quitting the show, he later wrote on X: “On Monday, I said I didn’t believe Meghan Markle in her Oprah interview. I’ve had time to reflect on this opinion, and I still don’t. Freedom of speech is a hill I’m happy to die on.”

Piers has struggled to find steady work since leaving the ITV show, however, as he joined News UK’s TalkTV channel – only for the network to be wound down. He now broadcasts a show on YouTube.

Piers has enjoyed viral success, however – particularly with an interview with Scottish lawyer Fiona Harvey, who is suing Netflix as she claims she was defamed by their hit show Baby Reindeer.

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May 16 (UPI) — U.S. President Donald Trump has directed the firing of almost 600 employees with the publicly-funded Voice of America, representing about a third of the broadcaster’s staff.

“Today, in compliance with President Trump’s Executive Order titled, Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy, dated March 14, 2025, the US Agency for Global Media initiated measures to eliminate the non-statutory components and functions to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law,” U.S. Agency for Global Media Senior Adviser Kari Lake said on the agency’s website late Thursday.

“This action will impact the agency’s workforce at USAGM, Voice of America, Office of Cuba Broadcasting, and all Grantees. Most USAGM staff affected by this action will be placed on paid-administrative leave beginning Saturday, March 15, 2025, and remain on leave until further notice.”

“Buckle up. There’s more to come,” Lake said in an email to the Washington Post.

The USAGM is the agency responsible for VOA, which provides non-partisan news content in countries across the world, including China, Iran, Russia and others with limited freedom of the press.

The bulk of Voice of America’s approximately 1,350 full-time employees were not affected by the latest executive order, which targets mostly contractors.

Lake confirmed 584 positions were affected.

VOA director Michael Abramowitz told staff he is “heartbroken,” The Post reported, citing an internal memo.

“Some of VOA’s most talented journalists have been [personal services contractors] – many of whom have escaped tyranny in their home countries to tell America’s story of freedom and democracy,” Abramowitz wrote in the memo.

Trump’s executive order aims to continue “the reduction in the elements of the Federal bureaucracy that the President has determined are unnecessary.”

The president has previously called the agency “anti-American” and accused it of broadcasting “propaganda.”

The news comes despite a federal judge in April ordering the Trump administration to restore funding and staffing to Voice of America and its affiliated news services. At the time, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth deemed the administration’s cuts to be unconstitutional.

Trump in mid-March signed an executive order to reduce the scope of the federal government, which targeted the USGM and VOA.

Earlier this month, the Justice Department announced a “phased return” of VOA staff following court rulings.

Lake in her statement said the agency would continue its international broadcast of U.S. news, but vowed once again to cut excessive spending.

“While at USAGM, I vow to fully implement President Trump’s executive orders in his mission to reduce the size and scope of the federal government,” Lake said in the statement, adding the reductions are within what is “statutorily required by law.”

“The US Agency for Global media will continue to deliver on all statutory programs that fall under the agency’s purview and shed everything that is not statutorily required. I fully support the President’s executive order. Waste, fraud, and abuse run rampant in this agency and American taxpayers shouldn’t have to fund it,” Lake wrote.

A HUGE dessert chain with 30 locations has been forced to close shop after just six months.

The Jars dessert bar in Edinburgh’s trendy Quartermile shut its doors for good on April 25, despite the business only opening in November last year.

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Eight staff members were allegedly suddenly left jobless with one senior manager blasting the way they were treated by bosses.

Ian Munro, the last manager of the now-shuttered Lister Square branch, said he was “fuming” after being told the company would be closing up shop with barely a day’s notice.

Speaking to the Edinburgh Evening News, Ian slammed Icon Brand – the company behind the Jars chain.

He claimed workers were “meant to be given two weeks’ notice but they weren’t”.

Ian told the outlet: “The new owners let the place go to the wall. And they let staff go without any redundancy payments.

“This has left them all, quite rightly, very annoyed. I was upset that I’d have to be letting them go, but I was told it would be done properly.”

He revealed he only got a call from management on the afternoon before the closure, with the shutters coming down the next day.

Describing the Friday as a “tough last shift”, he said: “Everyone was still a bit in shock and angry about the whole situation and how it had been dealt with by the company.”

Ian, who has now quit the business in protest, said the final straw came after staff had trouble getting their last pay packet on time.

“We have all been paid now, but there was an initial problem with the most recent wages which just made the situation worse,” he said.

Ian added that he handed in his notice because he doesn’t “want to work for a company that treats its staff like that”.

He continued: “People need to know how badly the staff there were treated. I’m worried about them. They have got bills to pay amid a cost of living crisis.

“I’ve got a new job lined up so I’m ok, but I’m worried about them and quite angry with the company. It’s horrible to see the staff treated like that.”

TROUBLE ON THE HIGH STREET

Plenty of other retailers are closing stores across the high street as households lean more towards online shopping and amid high business rates.

Soaring inflation in recent years has also dented shoppers’ pockets.

The Centre for Retail Research’s latest analysis suggests 13,479 stores, the equivalent of 37 each day, shut for good in 2024.

Of those, 11,341 were independent shops while 2,138 were shut by larger retailers.

The data also showed over half the stores that closed last year were shut due to the store or retailer going through insolvency proceedings.

This is when formal measures are taken to deal with tackling a business’s debt.

Retailers are also shutting stores in 2025.

New Look is ramping up a store closure programme ahead of April’s National Insurance hike.

Approximately a quarter of the retailer’s 364 stores are at risk when their leases expire.

This equates to about 91 stores, with a significant impact on its 8,000-strong workforce.

NEW YORK — U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s motto is “Make America Healthy Again,” but government cuts could make it harder to know if that’s happening.

More than a dozen data-gathering programs that track deaths and disease appear to have been eliminated in the tornado of layoffs and proposed budget cuts rolled out in the Trump administration’s first 100 days.

The Associated Press examined draft and final budget proposals and spoke to more than a dozen current and former federal employees to determine the scope of the cuts to programs tracking basic facts about Americans’ health.

Among those terminated at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were experts tracking abortions, pregnancies, job-related injuries, lead poisonings, sexual violence and youth smoking, the AP found.

“If you don’t have staff, the program is gone,” said Patrick Breysse, who used to oversee the CDC’s environmental health programs.

Federal officials have not given a public accounting of specific surveillance programs that are being eliminated.

Instead, a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman pointed the AP to a Trump administration budget proposal released Friday. It lacked specifics, but proposes to cut the CDC’s core budget by more than half and vows to focus CDC surveillance only on emerging and infectious diseases.

Kennedy has said some of the CDC’s other work will be moved to a yet-to-be-created agency, the Administration for a Healthy America. He also has said that the cuts are designed to get rid of waste at a department that has seen its budget grow in recent years.

“Unfortunately, this extra spending and staff has not improved our nation’s health as a country,” Kennedy wrote last month in the New York Post. “Instead, it has only created more waste, administrative bloat and duplication.”

Some health experts say the eliminated programs are not duplicative, and erasing them will leave Americans in the dark.

“If the U.S. is interested in making itself healthier again, how is it going to know, if it cancels the programs that helps us understand these diseases?” said Graham Mooney, a Johns Hopkins University public health historian.

The core of the nation’s health surveillance is done by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. Relying on birth and death certificates, it generates information on birth rates, death trends and life expectancy. It also operates long-standing health surveys that provide basic data on obesity, asthma and other health issues.

The center has been barely touched in layoffs, and seems intact under current budget plans.

But many other efforts were targeted by the cuts, the AP found. Some examples:

Pregnancies and abortion

The Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, which surveys women across the country, lost its entire staff — about 20 people.

It’s the most comprehensive collection of data on the health behaviors and outcomes before, during and after childbirth. Researchers have been using its data to investigate the nation’s maternal mortality problem.

Recent layoffs also wiped out the staffs collecting data on in vitro fertilizations and abortions.

Those cuts come despite President Trump’s assertions he wants to expand IVF access and that the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 playbook for his administration called for more abortion surveillance.

Lead poisoning

The CDC eliminated its program on lead poisoning in children, which helped local health departments — through funding and expertise — investigate lead poisoning clusters and find where risk is greatest.

Lead poisoning in kids typically stems from exposure to bits of old paint, contaminated dust or drinking water that passes through lead pipes. But the program’s staff also played an important role in the investigation of lead-tainted applesauce that affected 500 kids.

Last year, Milwaukee health officials became aware that peeling paint in aging local elementary schools was endangering kids. The city health department began working with the CDC to test tens of thousands of students. That assistance stopped last month when the CDC’s lead program staff was terminated.

City officials are particularly concerned about losing expertise to help them track the long-term effects.

“We don’t know what we don’t know,” said Mike Totoraitis, the city’s health commissioner.

Environmental investigations

Also gone is the staff for the 23-year-old Environmental Public Health Tracking Program, which had information on concerns including possible cancer clusters and weather-related illnesses.

“The loss of that program is going to greatly diminish the ability to make linkages between what might be in the environment and what health might be affected by that,” Breysse said.

Transgender data

In some cases, it’s not a matter of staffers leaving, but rather the end of specific types of data collection.

Transgender status is no longer being recorded in health-tracking systems, including ones focused on violent deaths and on risky behaviors by kids.

Experts know transgender people are more likely to be victims of violence, but now “it’s going to be much more challenging to quantify the extent to which they are at higher risk,” said Thomas Simon, the recently retired senior director for scientific programs at the CDC’s Division of Violence Prevention.

Violence

The staff and funding seem to have remained intact for a CDC data collection that provides insights into homicides, suicides and accidental deaths involving weapons.

But CDC violence-prevention programs that acted on that information were halted. So, too, was work on a system that collects hospital data on nonfatal injuries from causes such as shootings, crashes and drownings.

Also going away, apparently, is the CDC’s National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey. The system is designed to pick up information that’s not found in law enforcement statistics. Health officials see that work as important, because not all sexual violence victims go to police.

Work injuries

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which tracks job-related illnesses and deaths and makes recommendations on how to prevent them, was gutted by the cuts.

Kennedy has said that 20% of the people laid off might be reinstated as the agency tries to correct mistakes.

That appeared to happen last month, when the American Federation of Government Employees said that NIOSH workers involved in a black lung disease program for coal miners had been temporarily called back.

But Health and Human Services Department officials did not answer questions about the reinstatement. The American Federation of Government Employees’ Micah Niemeier-Walsh later said the workers continued to have June termination dates and “we are concerned this is to give the appearance that the programs are still functioning, when effectively they are not.”

There’s been no talk of salvaging some other NIOSH programs, including one focused on workplace deaths in the oil and gas industries or a research project into how common hearing loss is in that industry.

Smoking and drugs

The Health and Human Services cuts eliminated the 17-member team responsible for the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, one of the main ways the government measures drug use.

Also axed were the CDC staff working on the National Youth Tobacco Survey.

There are other surveys that look at youth smoking and drug use, including the University of Michigan’s federally funded “Monitoring the Future” survey of schoolkids.

But the federal studies looked at both adults and adolescents, and provided insights into drug use by high school dropouts. The CDC also delved into specific vaping and tobacco products in the ways that other surveys don’t, and was a driver in the federal push to better regulate electronic cigarettes.

“There was overlap among the surveys, but each one had its own specific focus that the other ones didn’t cover,“ said Richard Miech, who leads the Michigan study.

Data modernization and predictions

Work to modernize data collection has been derailed. That includes an upgrade to a 22-year-old system that helps local public health departments track diseases and allows CDC to put together a national picture.

Another casualty was the Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics, which tries to predict disease trends.

The center, created during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, was working on forecasting the current multistate measles outbreak. That forecast hasn’t been published partly because of the layoffs, according to two CDC officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss it and fear retribution for speaking to the press.

Trump hasn’t always supported widespread testing of health problems.

In the spring of 2020, when COVID-19 diagnoses were exploding, the president groused that the nation’s ability to do more testing was making the U.S. look like it had a worse problem than other countries. He called testing “a double-edged sword.”

Mooney, the Johns Hopkins historian, wonders how interested the new administration is in reporting on health problems.

“You could think it’s deliberate,” he said. “If you keep people from knowing, they’re less likely to be concerned.”

Stobbe writes for the Associated Press.