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Hollywood on strike: Actors join screenwriters in historic stoppage

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:25:21 GMT

LOS ANGELES — Leaders of a Hollywood’s actors union voted Thursday to join screenwriters in the first joint strike in more than six decades, shutting down production across the entertainment industry after talks for a new contract with studios and streaming services broke down.Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, executive director of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, said at a news conference that the union leadership voted for the work stoppage hours after their contract expired and talks broke off with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers representing employers including Disney, Netflix, Amazon and others.“A strike is an instrument of last resort,” he said. Union leaders said at a news conference that they voted unanimously for a strike to begin at midnight. Outside Netflix’s Hollywood offices, picketing screenwriters chanted “Pay Your Actors!” immediately after the strike was announced.It’...

Massachusetts House votes to boost market-rate housing program for Gateway Cities

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:25:21 GMT

House lawmakers voted Thursday to boost the annual cap of a housing production program that supporters have hailed as one of the best ways to create market-rate units in Gateway Cities, matching a proposal from their Senate counterparts that was floated earlier this year.But House Democrats decided to expand the program in a different legislative vehicle than the Senate, using a roughly $700 million spending package released Wednesday to increase the annual cap for the Housing Development Incentive Program’s instead of a tax relief bill locked up in negotiations.The program provides two tax incentives to developers who decide to undertake new construction or “substantial rehabilitation” of properties for sale or lease as multi-family, market-rate residential housing, according to the state.The program has already been used to create more than 2,600 units at an average cost of just over $23,000 per unit, and by boosting the annual cap from $10 million to $30 million, an additional 12...

Revolution deal Latif Blessing to Toronto for Marc-Anthony Kaye

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:25:21 GMT

The New England Revolution on Thursday acquired midfielder Marc Anthony-Kaye from Toronto FC for midfielder Latif Blessing and a 2023 international roster spot.Kaye, 28, is a 6-1, 170-pound MLS All-Star who competed for the Canadian National Team. He has played six MLS seasons for LAFC, Colorado and Toronto with 138 regular season appearances and 128 starts. Kaye has recorded 15 goals and 23 assists and is described as a versatile midfielder.Blessing developed an emotional bond with the Revolution because team management was involved in bringing his wife and daughter from their native Ghana to the United States. Blessing made 15 appearances with 14 starts and registered one assist.RICH THOMPSON

Orioles to host ESPN’s ‘Sunday Night Baseball’ for first time since 2018 on July 30 vs. Yankees

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:25:21 GMT

The last time the Orioles hosted ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball,” they were 37-93.The circumstances July 30, when Camden Yards will host the nationally televised game for the first time since, could not be more different than during that dreadful 2018 season.Baltimore will host the New York Yankees, the same team it welcomed to Oriole Park on Aug. 26, 2018, in a game between two teams vying for playoff spots, ESPN announced Thursday afternoon. The game, originally scheduled for 1:35 p.m., has been moved to a 7:10 p.m. first pitch.Not only are the Orioles competing with the Yankees for a playoff spot, they’ll likely enter the contest later this month with a better record — a far cry from 2018. When New York beat the Orioles, 5-3, nearly five years ago, the Yankees improved to 83-47 — a 46-game difference in the win column over Baltimore.Hosting “Sunday Night Baseball” is the latest in a series of examples that the post-rebuild Orioles ar...

Democratic Gov. Beshear touts economic gains as theme in reelection bid in GOP-trending Kentucky

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:25:21 GMT

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear touted robust revenue collections in Kentucky as another sign of a surging state economy Thursday, building on a theme he has made a cornerstone of his reelection bid in a state that Republicans have dominated in recent years.Citing general fund receipts that totaled $15.1 billion in the just-concluded fiscal year, Beshear said the state was poised to record its largest-ever revenue surplus of roughly $1.4 billion. And he was quick to point out that the money kept rolling in even after the state individual income tax rate was cut.“Put simple, we’re booming,” the governor said at his weekly news conference. “And this revenue figure shows how much we’re booming at unprecedented levels.”The general fund pays for most state services, including education, health care and public safety. Although he announced the surplus in his official capacity as governor, the massive surplus reinforced his campaign strategy of touting his economic stewa...

Former Mozambique finance minister pleads not guilty in US federal court over $2 billion scandal

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:25:21 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Mozambique’s former finance minister pleaded not guilty in a U.S. federal court in New York on Thursday in connection with a $2 billion corruption and money laundering scandal that prosecutors said defrauded American investors and threatened to further destabilize the economy of one of the world’s poorest countries. Manuel Chang served as finance minister from 2005 to 2015 for Mozambique, a country of 31 million on Africa’s southern coast on the Indian Ocean. He was ordered detained until at least October, when his attorneys argue for a dismissal of his case.Chang is accused of receiving bribes of up to $18 million during a scheme that secured loans for Mozambican state-owned companies from foreign banks and financiers for maritime projects. The money was looted through kickbacks and other corrupt dealings, according to U.S. prosecutors.Until his extradition to the United States Wednesday, Chang had been held in South Africa after being arrested in Johann...

Canadian film, TV industry braces for impact of Hollywood actors strike

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:25:21 GMT

TORONTO — Canada’s film and television community is bracing for more job uncertainty amid a Hollywood actors’ strike that observers say has the potential to throw more people out of work, upend TV schedules and dim the wattage of celeb-studded events like the Toronto International Film Festival.The decision by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists to walk off the job at midnight Thursday sounds the death knell for Canadian sets with SAG stars that survived a Writers Guild of America strike entering its sixth week.It also raised questions about the fate of celeb-studded tourist draws including TIFF, set for Sept. 7 to 17, and Fan Expo Canada, set for Aug. 24 to 27.TIFF said in an emailed statement that a SAG strike would almost certainly impact its typically star-packed festival, known for fan-friendly red carpets and premieres, as well as A-list studded press conferences and junkets that draw journalists from around the world.“The impact o...

Clarification: Media-Fox-Lawsuit story

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:25:21 GMT

DOVER, Del. (AP) — In a story published July 12, 2023, The Associated Press reported on a defamation lawsuit filed against Fox News. The story should have made clear that the lawsuit was initially filed Monday in Superior Court in Delaware, then transferred to federal court in that state on Wednesday.Randall Chase And David Bauder, The Associated Press

Environment Canada says tornado touched down north of Montreal, no injuries or damage

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:25:21 GMT

MONTREAL — Environment Canada confirmed one tornado touched down north of Montreal and a second is suspected to have hit southwest of the city as severe thunderstorms ripped across eastern Ontario and Quebec on Thursday.The confirmed tornado was in a field near the airport in Mirabel, Que., where there were no reports of injury or damage, Environment Canada spokesperson Katarina Radovanovic said.The other tornado is suspected to have hit an area with no built infrastructure in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Que., also causing no damage, she said.Monica Vaswani, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada, said the agency had received reports of other rotating cloud formations that may have produced tornadoes in Ontario and Quebec, but it was unable to confirm additional touchdowns.Environment Canada lifted tornado warnings that earlier in the day covered much of southwestern Quebec, including Montreal, but severe thunderstorm warnings persisted in many areas Thursday aft...

Syria gives green light to reopen key crossing to rebel-held northwest from Turkey – with caveats

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:25:21 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The Syrian government gave a green light Thursday for the United Nations to resume delivering humanitarian aid to Syria’s rebel-held northwest through the Bab al-Hawa crossing from Turkey for six months, but said it must be done “in full cooperation and coordination with the government.”Syria’s U.N. ambassador, Bassam Sabbagh, said the U.N. should not communicate “with the terrorist organizations and groups and their affiliated illegal administrative entities in northwestern Syria.” Instead, he said, the U.N. must allow the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent to supervise aid distribution in areas controlled by “terrorist organizations.”Sabbagh made the announcement after delivering letters to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Security Council president with the government’s decision. It followed Tuesday’s failure of the Security Council to renew authorization of aid deliveries through Bab al-Hawa, a U.N. operation...