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Striking Hollywood actors vote to authorize new walkout against video game makers

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:51 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Striking actors have voted to expand their walkout to include the lucrative video game market, a step that could put new pressure on Hollywood studios to make a deal with the performers who provide voices and stunts for games.The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Radio and Television Artists announced the move late Monday, saying that 98% of its members voted to go on strike against video game companies if ongoing negotiations are not successful. The announcement came ahead of more talks planned for Tuesday.Acting in video games can include a variety of roles, from voice performances to motion capture work as well as stunts. Video game actors went on strike in 2016 in a work stoppage that lasted nearly a year.Some of the same issues are at play in the video game negotiations as in the broader actors strike that has shut down Hollywood for months, including wages, safety measures and protections on the use of artificial intelligence. The companies involved...

A Dominican immigration agent is accused of raping a Haitian woman who was detained at an airport

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:51 GMT

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — An immigration agent in the Dominican Republic has been arrested after being accused of raping a Haitian woman in a detention cell at the country’s main international airport in the presence of her 4-year-old son, authorities said Tuesday.The unidentified agent was detained over the weekend, and prosecutor Milciades Guzmán said he has requested that a judge order the suspect to remain in jail while the investigation continues. Officials said the alleged incident occurred early Saturday at a detention cell at Las Américas International Airport in the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo. The Associated Press does not generally identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly.Officials said the woman was en route to Nicaragua but was detained in the Dominican Republic for allegedly presenting false documents. The head of the Dominican Ministry for Women, Mayra Jiménez, told local media that the Haitian w...

Swiss prosecutors indict an ex-employee of trading firm Gunvor over bribes paid in Republic of Congo

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:51 GMT

GENEVA (AP) — Swiss federal prosecutors on Tuesday said they have indicted a former employee of oil trading company Gunvor over bribes paid to obtain access to the Republic of Congo’s petroleum market more than a decade ago.The attorney general’s office said the indictment follows an eight-year investigation, during which the company itself was ordered to pay 94 million Swiss francs ($94 million) in 2019 over the bribery allegations.The suspect, who wasn’t identified by name, was responsible for Gunvor’s financial matters in Congo-Brazzaville between June 2010 and December 2011, and is accused of “actively participating in the bribery of foreign public officials,” the attorney general’s office said in a statement.A spokesman for the company declined to comment.The 2019 decision that penalized Gunvor included nearly 90 million francs — a sum said to be close to the amount of profits the company had earned from the bribery operations in the African countr...

Biden arrives in Michigan to join UAW strike picket line

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:51 GMT

ROMULUS, Mich. (AP) — President Joe Biden’s decision to stand alongside United Auto Workers pickets on Tuesday on the 12th day of their strike against major carmakers underscores support of labor unions that appears to be unparalleled in presidential history.UAW President Shawn Fain was the first to greet Biden after he arrived in Michigan on Air Force One, and he joined him in the presidential limosuine for a ride to the picket line. Labor historians say they cannot recall an instance when a sitting president has joined an ongoing strike, even during the tenures of the more ardent pro-union presidents such as Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman. Theodore Roosevelt invited labor leaders alongside mine operators to the White House amid a historic coal strike in 1902, a decision that was seen at the time as a rare embrace of unions as Roosevelt tried to resolve the dispute. Biden will be arriving one day before former President Donald Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republ...

Amazon’s checkout-free stores are coming to Toronto, Calgary sports arenas

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:51 GMT

Toronto and Calgary sports fans will soon be able to skip the lineup when purchasing snacks before or during games.Scotiabank Arena in Toronto and Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary are rolling out Amazon’s technology, allowing some of the venue’s stores to offer fans checkout-free shopping.The “Just Walk Out” technology requires fans to gain entry to a store with their credit or debit card and then uses computer vision, machine learning and generative artificial intelligence to track what they pick up and return to store shelves.When fans are done shopping, they leave with their purchases in hand, and the technology charges the card they used for entry and sends them a receipt.The technology will make its Canadian debut on Sept. 29 at the Saddledome, where it will be available to Market 213 shoppers.It will then launch at the Scotiabank Arena’s 100-level Grains and Greens and the Molson Market on the 300 level on Oct. 10.Amazon’s “Just Walk O...

Exasperated residents flee Nagorno-Karabakh after Azerbaijan seizes control of breakaway region

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:51 GMT

GORIS, Armenia (AP) — Ruzan Israyelyan and her children spent days walking through forests in Nagorno-Karabakh and hiding from Azerbaijani drones as they fled for Armenia following Azerbaijan’s blitz offensive to reclaim control of the breakaway region.A truck in the convoy of thousands of refugees carried the bodies of Israyelyan’s husband, brother and uncle for burial in Armenia. They died defending their village of Sarushen during the Azerbaijani attack last week.“At the beginning of the attack, women and children hid in the upper part of the village,” the 35-year-old mother said. “The same night, we escaped by foot, running through the forests, while our men were left to defend the village.”Israyelyan, her 8-year old son and her daughters aged 11 and 12, eventually found a car and drove to the regional capital of Stepanakert, where they spent two days outside with no food or spare clothes.“After the blockade, my children were already malnourished,” ...

Canada watching nervously as Biden, Trump do battle in Michigan over EV strategy

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:51 GMT

WASHINGTON — Joe Biden is making history today as the first modern U.S. president to visit a picket line — a big-stakes play for blue-collar votes with implications for Canada. Biden, an avowedly pro-union president, is in Michigan to commiserate with striking members of the United Auto Workers. But it’s not just about supporting union workers — the visit is also about defending his all-in strategy on making electric vehicles a cornerstone of U.S. manufacturing. Donald Trump, Biden’s presumptive Republican rival, will be in the state Wednesday to attack that strategy as a looming catastrophe for the auto industry. It could become a pivotal question in the 2024 election with deep ramifications for Canada’s auto sector, which is tightly integrated with U.S. manufacturers. Eric Miller, president of the D.C.-based Rideau Potomac Strategy Group, says automakers themselves are likely too invested in EVs to reverse course now. This report by The Canadian Press was first p...

The UK’s hardline immigration chief says international rules make it too easy to seek asylum

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:51 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s immigration minister argued Tuesday that international refugee rules must be rewritten to reduce the number of people entitled to protection, as the Conservative government seeks international support for its tough stance on unauthorized migration.Home Secretary Suella Braverman said people who faced discrimination for their gender or sexuality should not be granted asylum unless they were “fleeing a real risk of death, torture, oppression or violence.”“Where individuals are being persecuted, it is right that we offer sanctuary,” Braverman told an audience in Washington. “But we will not be able to sustain an asylum system if in effect, simply being gay, or a woman, or fearful of discrimination in your country of origin, is sufficient to qualify for protection.”Braverman said that the bar for asylum claims had been lowered over the decades since the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention. She questioned whether “well-intentioned legal conventions and treaties...

Amazon hit with antitrust lawsuit by FTC, 17 states

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:51 GMT

(The Hill) -- The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and a bipartisan coalition of 17 state attorneys general sued Amazon over violations of anti-competitive behavior on Tuesday, building on the government’s crackdown on the market power of powerful tech companies. The lawsuit targeting Amazon is twofold — alleging the e-commerce giant’s practices are anti-competitive in how it serves shoppers as well as third-party sellers on the site, according to an FTC announcement. The government alleges that Amazon uses anti-competitive measures that punish sellers and deter other online retailers from offering lower prices than Amazon, which keeps prices higher for consumers across the internet even off Amazon’s platform. FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan called it a “one, two punch” that has “internet-wide effects” for consumers and sellers. The complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington, does not lay out specific remedies the agency is...

Tuesday Forecast: Temps in low 70s with showers and storms

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:51 GMT

CHICAGO — Mainly cloudy Tuesday with scattered storms. Winds: ESE 5-10 G15. High: 72. Interactive Radar: Track showers and storms here Mainly cloudy tonight with scattered storms. Winds: ESE 5-10 G15. Low: 62.Wednesday Forecast: Mainly cloudy, scattered storms. Winds: E 5-10. High: 68.Full forecast details and more at the WGN Weather Center blog