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Tag: U.S. News

  • Tornado damage to Pfizer plant unlikely to cause major drug supply shortages, FDA says

    Tornado damage to Pfizer plant unlikely to cause major drug supply shortages, FDA says

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    A tornado that tore through eastern North Carolina and struck a large Pfizer pharmaceutical plant has damaged its drug storage facility but not its medicine production areas

    ByHANNAH SCHOENBAUM Associated Press/Report for America

    RALEIGH, N.C. — Most of the destruction from a tornado that tore through eastern North Carolina Wednesday and struck a large Pfizer pharmaceutical plant affected its storage facility, rather than its medicine production areas, the company said Friday.

    The drugmaker’s ability to salvage production equipment and other essential materials could mitigate what experts feared would be a major blow to an already strained system as the United States grapples with existing drug shortages.

    “We do not expect there to be any immediate significant impacts on supply given the products are currently at hospitals and in the distribution system,” U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf said Friday.

    An EF3 tornado touched down Wednesday near Rocky Mount, ripping the roof off a Pfizer factory responsible for producing nearly 25% of the American pharmaceutical giant’s sterile injectable medicines used in U.S. hospitals, according to the drugmaker.

    Pfizer said Friday that a warehouse for raw materials, packaging supplies and finished medicines awaiting release had endured most of the damage to its 1.4 million square foot plant. An initial inspection by the company found no major damage to its medicine manufacturing areas, and all 3,200 local employees are safe and accounted for.

    Pfizer Chairman and CEO Dr. Albert Bourla said staff are rushing products to nearby sites for storage and identifying sources to rapidly replace raw materials lost in the storm. The drug company says it is also exploring alternative manufacturing locations across its U.S. network to fill gaps in production while the North Carolina site remains closed for repairs.

    The FDA’s initial analysis identified fewer than 10 drugs for which Pfizer’s North Carolina plant is the sole source for the U.S. market, Califf said.

    The Rocky Mount plant produces anesthesia and many other drugs needed for surgeries but does not make or store Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine or the Comirnaty and Paxlovid treatments. Medications produced at that facility alone account for nearly 8% of all sterile injectables used in U.S. hospitals, Pfizer said on its website.

    The FDA said it will complete in the coming days a more extensive evaluation of the products that might be affected and the current domestic supply of those medications. “Many weeks’ worth” of the destroyed drugs should be available in Pfizer’s other warehouses, Califf said.

    ___

    Hannah Schoenbaum is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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  • Scientists say Florida Keys coral reefs are already bleaching as water temperatures hit record highs

    Scientists say Florida Keys coral reefs are already bleaching as water temperatures hit record highs

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    FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Some Florida Keys coral reefs are losing their color weeks earlier than normal this summer because of record-high water temperatures, meaning they are under stress and their health is potentially endangered, federal scientists said.

    The corals should be vibrant and colorful this time of year, but are swiftly going white, said Katey Lesneski, research and monitoring coordinator for Mission: Iconic Reefs, which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration launched to protect Florida coral reefs.

    “The corals are pale, it looks like the color’s draining out,” said Lesneski, who has spent several days on the reefs over the last two weeks. “And some individuals are stark white. And we still have more to come.”

    Scientists with NOAA this week raised their coral bleaching warning system to Alert Level 2 for the Keys, their highest heat stress level out of five. That level is reached when the average water surface temperature is about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius) above the normal maximum for eight straight weeks.

    Surface temperatures around the Keys have been averaging about 91 degrees (33 Celsius), well above the normal mid-July average of 85 degrees (29.5 Celsius), said Jacqueline De La Cour, operations manager for NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch program. Previous Alert Level 2s were reached in August, she said.

    Coral reefs are made up of tiny organisms that link together. The reefs get their color from the algae that live inside them and are the corals’ food. When temperatures get too high, the coral expels the algae, making the reefs appear white or bleached. That doesn’t mean they are dead, but the corals can starve and are more susceptible to disease.

    Andrew Bruckner, research coordinator at the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, said some coral reefs began showing the first signs of bleaching two weeks ago. Then in the last few days, some reefs lost all their color. That had never been recorded before Aug. 1. The peak for bleaching typically happens in late August or September.

    “We are at least a month ahead of time, if not two months,” Bruckner said. “We’re not yet at the point where we are seeing any mortality … from bleaching. It is still a minor number that are completely white, certain species, but it is much sooner than we expected.”

    Still, forecasting what will happen the rest of the summer is hard, De La Cour and Bruckner said. While water temperatures could continue to spike — which could be devastating — a tropical storm or hurricane could churn the water and cool it down. Dusty air from the Sahara Desert moving across the Atlantic and settling over Florida could dampen the sun’s rays, lowering temperatures.

    Because of climate change and other factors, the Keys waters have lost 80% to 90% of their coral over the last 50 years, Bruckner said. That affects not only marine life that depends on the reefs for survival, but also people — coral reefs are a natural buffer against storm surge from hurricanes and other storms. There is also an economic impact because tourism from fishing, scuba diving and snorkeling is heavily dependent on coral reefs.

    “People get in the water, let’s fish, let’s dive — that’s why protecting Florida’s coral reef is so critical,” De La Cour said.

    Both scientists said it is not “all doom and gloom.” A 20-year, large-scale effort is underway to rebuild Florida’s coral back to about 90% of where it was 50 years ago. Bruckner said scientists are breeding corals that can better withstand the heat and are using simple things like shade covers and underwater fans to cool the water to help them survive.

    “We are looking for answers and we are trying to do something, rather than just looking away,” Bruckner said.

    Breeding corals can encourage heat resistance in future generations of the animals, said Jason Spadaro, coral reef restoration program manager for Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium in Sarasota, Florida. That could be vital to saving them, he said.

    Spadaro and others who have visited the corals said they have noticed the coral bleaching is worse in the lower Keys than in the more northern parts of the area. The Keys have experienced bad bleaching years in the past, but this year it is “really aggressive and it’s really persistent,” he said.

    “It’s going to be a rough year for the reef. It hammers home the need to continue this important work,” he said.

    The early bleaching is happening during a year when water temperatures are spiking earlier than normal, said Ross Cunning, a research biologist at Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. The Keys are experiencing water temperatures above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius), which would normally not occur until August or September, he said.

    The hot water could lead to a “disastrous bleaching event” if it does not wane, Cunning said.

    “We’re seeing temperatures now that are even higher than what we normally see at peak, which is what makes this particularly scary,” Cunning said.

    De La Cour said she has no doubt that the warming waters are caused by human-made global warming and that needs to be fixed for coral to survive.

    “If we do not reduce the greenhouse gas emissions we are emitting and don’t reduce the greenhouse gases that are already in the atmosphere, we are creating a world where coral reefs cannot exist, no matter what we do,” she said.

    ___

    Whittle reported from Portland, Maine.

    ___

    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Tornado damage to Pfizer plant unlikely to cause major drug supply shortages, FDA says

    Tornado damage to Pfizer plant unlikely to cause major drug supply shortages, FDA says

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    A tornado that tore through eastern North Carolina and struck a large Pfizer pharmaceutical plant has damaged its drug storage facility but not its medicine production areas

    ByHANNAH SCHOENBAUM Associated Press/Report for America

    RALEIGH, N.C. — Most of the destruction from a tornado that tore through eastern North Carolina Wednesday and struck a large Pfizer pharmaceutical plant affected its storage facility, rather than its medicine production areas, the company said Friday.

    The drugmaker’s ability to salvage production equipment and other essential materials could mitigate what experts feared would be a major blow to an already strained system as the United States grapples with existing drug shortages.

    “We do not expect there to be any immediate significant impacts on supply given the products are currently at hospitals and in the distribution system,” U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf said Friday.

    An EF3 tornado touched down Wednesday near Rocky Mount, ripping the roof off a Pfizer factory responsible for producing nearly 25% of the American pharmaceutical giant’s sterile injectable medicines used in U.S. hospitals, according to the drugmaker.

    Pfizer said Friday that a warehouse for raw materials, packaging supplies and finished medicines awaiting release had endured most of the damage to its 1.4 million square foot plant. An initial inspection by the company found no major damage to its medicine manufacturing areas, and all 3,200 local employees are safe and accounted for.

    Pfizer Chairman and CEO Dr. Albert Bourla said staff are rushing products to nearby sites for storage and identifying sources to rapidly replace raw materials lost in the storm. The drug company says it is also exploring alternative manufacturing locations across its U.S. network to fill gaps in production while the North Carolina site remains closed for repairs.

    The FDA’s initial analysis identified fewer than 10 drugs for which Pfizer’s North Carolina plant is the sole source for the U.S. market, Califf said.

    The Rocky Mount plant produces anesthesia and many other drugs needed for surgeries but does not make or store Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine or the Comirnaty and Paxlovid treatments. Medications produced at that facility alone account for nearly 8% of all sterile injectables used in U.S. hospitals, Pfizer said on its website.

    The FDA said it will complete in the coming days a more extensive evaluation of the products that might be affected and the current domestic supply of those medications. “Many weeks’ worth” of the destroyed drugs should be available in Pfizer’s other warehouses, Califf said.

    ___

    Hannah Schoenbaum is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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  • No children’s remains found in Nebraska dig near former Native American boarding school

    No children’s remains found in Nebraska dig near former Native American boarding school

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    An archeological dig for a lost children’s cemetery near the Nebraska site of a former Native American boarding school has ended after two weeks — and no remains were found.

    Dave Williams, the state’s archeologist, said the team searching near the former Genoa Indian Industrial School plans to meet on Zoom with representatives of 40 tribes across the U.S. next week to determine next steps.

    “I would have preferred that we found the children,” said Judi gaiashkibos, a member of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska and the executive director of the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs. “But we have to remain hopeful. They’ve been gone more than 90 years. I feel like I have to remain steadfast and committed.”

    The search for gained renewed interest after hundreds of children’s remains were discovered at other Native American boarding school sites across the U.S. and Canada in recent years.

    Dogs trained to detect the odor of decaying remains searched the area last summer and indicated there could be a burial site in a strip of land bordered by a farm field, railroad tracks and a canal. In November, ground-penetrating radar identified four anomalies — or areas of disturbed soil beneath the ground surface — in the shapes of graves.

    Williams and his team spent the last two weeks excavating, but didn’t find the first anomaly they were seeking, which could’ve contained children’s remains.

    “That’s one of the challenges of archaeology,” Williams said. “We can have a lot of evidence that something should be where we think it’s going to be. And then once we actually get in and open up the ground and take a look, it’s not what we expected.”

    They’ll spend the next few weeks reevaluating the data and everything that led them to that location, Williams said, and figure out a new plan in consultation with the dozens of tribes that lost their children to the school.

    There are three other anomalies nearby. Crews could search for those, pursue other leads or stop the search entirely if the tribes collectively decide that’s what they want, Williams said, but he hopes the team can still help the tribes, find the children and “bring them to rest in a satisfactory way.”

    Sunshine Thomas-Bear, a member of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska and the cultural preservation director for the tribe, said she wishes there had been more consultation with all 40 tribes — and not just the tribes in Nebraska — before now. She’s looking forward to that happening more in this next phase.

    “Nothing was found this time. But perhaps that was because we weren’t all ready yet,” Thomas-Bear said. “There were tribes that weren’t notified, there were tribes that weren’t there. We believe that everything happens for a reason. I think that if we get on the right track together, perhaps we’ll be more successful.”

    The Genoa Indian Industrial School was part of a national system of more than 400 Native American boarding schools that attempted to assimilate Indigenous people into white culture by separating children from their families, prohibiting them from speaking their Native languages, cutting them off from their heritage and inflicting abuse.

    The school, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) west of Omaha, opened in 1884 and at its height was home to nearly 600 students. It closed in the 1930s and most buildings were demolished long ago.

    The U.S. Interior Department — led by Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico and the first Native American Cabinet secretary — released a first-of-its-kind report last year that named hundreds of schools the federal government supported to strip Native Americans of their cultures and identities.

    At least 500 children died at some of the schools, but that number is expected to reach into the thousands or tens of thousands as efforts like the Nebraska dig continue.

    ___

    Trisha Ahmed is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues. Follow Trisha Ahmed on Twitter: @TrishaAhmed15

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  • AI is the wild card in Hollywood’s strikes. Here’s an explanation of its unsettling role

    AI is the wild card in Hollywood’s strikes. Here’s an explanation of its unsettling role

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    LOS ANGELES — LOS ANGELES (AP) — Artificial intelligence has surged to the forefront of Hollywood’s labor fights. Standing alongside more traditional disputes over pay models, benefits and job protections, AI technology is the wild card in the contract breakdowns that have led actors and writers unions to go on strike.

    The technology has pushed negotiations into unknown territory, and the language used can sound utopian or dystopian depending on the side of the table. Here’s a look at what the unions and their employers each say they want.

    WHY IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SUCH A HOT-BUTTON ISSUE?

    As the technology to create without creators emerges, star actors fear they will lose control of their lucrative likenesses. Unknown actors fear they’ll be replaced altogether. Writers fear they’ll have to share credit or lose credit to machines.

    The proposed contracts that led to both strikes last only three years. Even at the seeming breakneck pace at which AI is moving, it’s very unlikely there would be any widespread displacement of writers or actors in that time. But unions and employers know that ground given on an issue in one contract can be hard to reclaim in the next.

    Emerging versions of the tech have already filtered into nearly every part of filmmaking, used to de-age actors like Harrison Ford in the latest “Indiana Jones” film or Mark Hamill in “The Mandalorian,” to generate the abstracted animated images of Samuel L. Jackson and a swirl of several aliens in the intro to “Secret Invasion” on Disney+, and to give recommendations on Netflix.

    All sides in the strikes acknowledge that use of the technology even more broadly is inevitable. That’s why all are looking now to establish legal and creative control.

    Actor and writer Johnathan McClain said the battle echoes fights over automation across other industries, but foretells many more to come as tech becomes better.

    “It’s easy to marginalize what we do because it’s entertainment” McClain said on the picket lines outside Warner Bros. Studios. “And I get it. But I feel on some level we are, as far as this tech conversation is concerned, a little bit of a canary in a coal mine. This is an important moment and we’ve got to really make a decisive stand.”

    THE ACTORS’ TAKE

    AI discussions between the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents employers, went from a theoretical framework to a bitter battle that spilled into the public when the strike broke out July 13.

    In a description widely shared by outraged actors on social media, SAG-AFTRA released this characterization of the studios’ AI position, which the AMPTP called a deliberate distortion:

    “We want to be able to scan a background performer’s image, pay them for a half a day’s labor, and then use an individual’s likeness for any purpose forever without their consent,” the union said. “We also want to be able to make changes to principal performers’ dialogue, and even create new scenes, without informed consent. And we want to be able to use someone’s images, likenesses, and performances to train new generative AI systems without consent or compensation.”

    The AMPTP said in a statement in response that its offers included an “AI proposal which protects performers’ digital likenesses, including a requirement for performers’ consent for the creation and use of digital replicas or for digital alterations of a performance.”

    SAG-AFTRA used similar language in describing what they wanted, emphasizing the need to protect “human-created work” including alterations to the “voice, likeness or performance” of an actor.

    It may be fitting that “voice” comes first on that list. While many viewers still cringe at the visual avatars of actors like Hamill and Jackson, the aural tech feels further along.

    The voices of the late Anthony Bourdain and the late Andy Warhol have both been recreated for recent documentaries.

    Union members who make a living doing voiceovers have taken note.

    WRITERS WANT THEIR LINE OF CREDIT

    In screenwriters’ contract talks, which broke down in early May, the Writers Guild of America said it would allow for the use of AI — but only insofar as it was a tool for them to use in their own work.

    They would be willing, potentially, to shape stories with help from AI software. But they do not want it to affect the credits that are essential to their prestige and pay.

    The guild wants to prevent raw, AI-generated storylines or dialogue from being regarded as “literary material” — a term in their contracts for scripts and other story forms a screenwriter produces. This means they wouldn’t be competing with computers for credit — or for an original screenplay Oscar.

    The writers also don’t want those storylines or dialogue to be considered “source material” — their contractual language for the novels, video games or other works that writers may develop into scripts.

    The AMPTP said in a document outlining its position that writers “want to be able to use this technology as part of their creative process, without changing how credits are determined, which is complicated given AI material can’t be copyrighted.”

    The studios also emphasized that previous writers’ contracts established that any “corporate or impersonal purveyor” of literary is not a screenwriter.

    “Only a ‘person’ can be considered a writer,” the AMPTP said. “AI-generated material would not be eligible for writing credit.”

    While this position could assuage writers’ worries about sharing credit with AI, it could also lead to no one getting credit when they “collaborate” with AI.

    Modern screenwriting contracts, and who gets what credit, are already a bramble that the guild often has to step in and sort out. Detailed legal language is pulled out to determine whose name is preceded by “written by,” whose name comes before “story by” or whose name follows “from characters created by.”

    Putting artificial intelligence into the mix threatens to turn each of those terms into an even stickier thicket.

    ___

    Associated Press journalist Krysta Fauria contributed from Burbank, California.

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  • Helicopter carrying state workers crashes into remote Alaska lake, no survivors found, officials say

    Helicopter carrying state workers crashes into remote Alaska lake, no survivors found, officials say

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    Officials say no survivors have been found after a helicopter carrying a pilot and three state workers crashed in a shallow lake in Alaska’s North Slope region

    ByMARK THIESSEN Associated Press

    This photo provided by North Slope Borough shows an aerial view of a shallow lake where a helicopter crashed on Alaska’s North Slope near Utqiagvik, Alaska, Thursday, June 20, 2023. A North Slope Borough search and rescue team in a helicopter found debris matching the description of the missing helicopter, but officials said no bodies of the pilot or three passengers had been seen or recovered. (North Slope Borough via AP)

    The Associated Press

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska — No survivors were found after a helicopter carrying a pilot and three state workers crashed in a shallow lake in Alaska’s North Slope region, officials said Friday.

    The helicopter had been chartered by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, the department said in a statement Friday. It was carrying three employees from the Division of Geological and Geophysical Survey who had been conducting field work.

    “DNR is praying for our employees and the pilot, their families, and the DNR team,” the statement said. “We are continuing to await updates from the search and rescue effort.”

    The helicopter, a Bell 206, was reported overdue Thursday night. A North Slope Borough search and rescue team in a helicopter found debris matching the description of the missing helicopter, but no bodies had been seen or recovered, D.J. Fauske, the borough’s director of government and external affairs, said in a text to The Associated Press on Friday.

    The wreckage was found in a shallow lake near Wainwright, about 50 miles south to southwest of Utqiagvik, the northernmost city in the U.S., formerly known as Barrow.

    The flight originated in Utqiagvik and was supposed to return there, said Clint Johnson, chief of the National Transportation Safety Board’s Alaska region. Johnson said he did not immediately have further information on the flight details.

    The helicopter was operated by Maritime Helicopters Inc., according to a statement on the company’s website. It confirmed the accident was fatal and said names of the pilot and passengers would be released pending notification of next of kin.

    The borough notified the Federal Aviation Administration and state officials as well as NTSB, Fauske said.

    “The borough is here to help and we will pray for the missing,” he said.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Becky Bohrer in Juneau contributed.

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  • Colorado deputy won’t be charged for Tasing a man who was then hit and killed on interstate

    Colorado deputy won’t be charged for Tasing a man who was then hit and killed on interstate

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    DENVER — A Colorado deputy who deployed a Taser on a man who was then hit and killed by an SUV on Interstate 25 won’t face criminal charges, prosecutors said Friday.

    While Larimer County Deputy Lorenzo Lujan’s decision to use the Taser on Brent Thompson after he ran away as the deputy tried to arrest him showed “poor judgment” and possibly the need for more training, 8th District Attorney Gordon McLaughlin said it was not likely a jury would find Lujan criminally negligent and convict him.

    According to McLaughlin’s letter summarizing the investigation into Thompson’s death, Thompson pulled off at an I-25 exit after Lujan turned on his patrol car’s lights at night on Feb. 18. But as Lujan tried to arrest Thompson, who allegedly gave a false name and did not have a driver’s license, he ran down an embankment toward the highway.

    Body camera footage showed Thompson was getting onto the interstate from the shoulder when Lujan deployed the Taser, and another officer said he saw Thompson fall in the northbound side of the roadway, the summarizing letter said. The second officer then saw approaching headlights and waved his flashlight to warn that vehicle to stop.

    The man driving the Ford Explorer, with his wife and three children inside, said he saw something in the road and two people standing along the highway. He said he tried to steer away from the people and hit something in the road.

    Lujan, who was working overtime, told investigators he wanted to detain Thompson so he did not pose a threat to himself or drivers on the interstate.

    However, the letter noted that he looked for approaching vehicles about 20 seconds before deploying the Taser, but not right before using it about 15 seconds later, calling that “a clear lapse in judgement.”

    A law firm representing Thompson’s family, Rathod Mohamedbhai LLC, called the decision not to pursue charges a “travesty of justice” and called for Lujan to be fired.

    Lujan has been working in a non-enforcement capacity since early July and will remain in that role until the conclusion of the department’s own investigation into what happened, sheriff’s office spokesperson Kate Kimble said. It is expected to wrap up in the next few days, she said.

    Such internal investigations typically look at whether department policies were followed.

    The statement from the law firm referenced another case where officers in another Colorado county were prosecuted after a woman under arrest was put in a patrol car parked on railroad tracks. A train then hit the car, injuring the woman.

    “As unconscionable as it is locking a person in a police car on railroad tracks, it is even more unconscionable to tase someone on the interstate at night. Tasing a person on the interstate is a death sentence,” it said.

    One of the lawyers representing Thompson’s family, Siddhartha Rathod, who has seen the body camera footage, said Thompson was in the middle of the northbound lanes when he was hit with the Taser. Lujan was a few feet away and had to get back to avoid being hit himself, he said.

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  • Comedians energize the picket lines as Hollywood actors and writers strikes enter second week

    Comedians energize the picket lines as Hollywood actors and writers strikes enter second week

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    LOS ANGELES — The combined strike by Hollywood actors and screenwriters entered its second week with no swift end in sight, and union leaders and star strikers, including a bevy of comedians attempted to boost morale Friday as the novelty of picket lines wears off.

    “The momentum is still building,” said stand-up comic, writer and actor Marc Maron outside Netflix headquarters. “I got some of my comedy buddies — we’re like, let’s go, let’s make sure we’re there and we show up for our union. There’s a lot of people here and look, eventually they have to, they have to negotiate, right?”

    Maron starred on the series “GLOW” for Netflix, whose headquarters in an increasingly hip section of Hollywood has been a bustling hub during the strike, with music blasting and food trucks serving ice cream, shaved ice and churros.

    His fellow comedians and comic actors abounded on the picket line, including “Saturday Night Live” and “Portlandia” alum Fred Armisen, “Hacks” star Hannah Einbinder, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” actor Chelsea Peretti, “What We Do in the Shadows” vampire Mark Proksch, and longtime comedy team Eric Wareheim and Tim Heidecker, who said they were not optimistic about a quick end to the strike.

    “I think it’s going to be a long struggle, a long fight,” Heidecker said. “We’re going to have to be out here until we get what we need to get.”

    But they were confident about finding sustenance to get them through it.

    “There’s an Arby’s here and Eric hasn’t eaten Arby’s in a year,” Heidecker said.

    “It’s been 364 days since I had a big roast beef and we’re doing it today,” Wareheim said.

    It has been harder for picketers to keep the energy up at more sprawling corporate campuses like Warner Bros. Studios and Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, where a Southern California heat wave hit hard all week.

    But as the strike has begun to stretch on, the regular appearance of star writers and actors has given a jolt to picket lines in both LA and New York, and provided high-profile voices on issues that are key to both writers and actors — better pay and preserving established practices like residual payments, as well as protection from the use of artificial intelligence. Roughly 65,000 actors — the vast majority of whom make less than $27,000 a year from their screen work — along with 11,500 screenwriters, are on strike.

    On Friday, actors in London rallied in solidarity with their Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists brethren. Stars including Brian Cox, Andy Serkis, Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg and Imelda Staunton gathered with other performers and production crew in Leicester Square for the demonstration organized by British actors’ union Equity.

    They chanted “One struggle, one fight, we support SAG-AFTRA fight” and “The luvvies, united, will never be defeated,” using a British slang term for actors.

    Cox, who played media mogul Logan Roy in “Succession,” said, “I think we are at the thin end of a horrible wedge,” with artificial intelligence shaking the foundations of actors’ work.

    “The wages are one thing, but the worst aspect is the whole idea of AI and what AI can do to us,” he said. “AI is the really, really serious thing. And it’s the thing where we’re most vulnerable.”

    The British actors’ union is not on strike, though many members are also part of the U.S. union.

    Cox said it was important actors showed solidarity with striking screenwriters in the Writers Guild of America.

    “We’re just like pieces of furniture without writers,” he said.

    Serkis, who has become a specialist in playing digitally created characters since he first played Gollum in “The Lord of the Rings” saga two decades ago, said “I’m probably one of the most scanned actors on the planet.”

    “I know that my image can be used, or my library of movements, can be used or my voice,” he said, adding that it “is wrong that that is easily accessed and used without remunerating the artist.”

    In the U.S., Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago were among the the major cities with strike events Wednesday and Thursday, demonstrating that film production doesn’t just happen in New York and Los Angeles.

    There’s no indication when negotiations with studios and streaming companies, which are represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, will resume. The group has said they’ve offered both writers and actors substantial pay increases and have tried to meet other demands.

    “Please come back to the table, please be realistic, please have a little bit more socialism in your heart and think of the people who make the money for you,” “Mission Impossible” star Pegg urged studios and streaming services.

    Many on the picket lines in the U.S. have seized upon comments by their corporate bosses like Disney CEO Bob Iger, who last week called the unions’ demands “not realistic.”

    During an earnings event Wednesday, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said grew up in a union household and knew the strike was painful on workers and their families.

    “We’re super committed to getting to an agreement as soon as possible. One that’s equitable and one that enables the unions, the industry and everybody in it to move forward into the future,” he said.

    ___

    Lawless reported from London. Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton contributed to this report.

    ___

    For more on the writers and actors strike, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/hollywood-strikes/

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  • DeSantis seeks review of Florida’s holdings in Bud Light maker over transgender influencer backlash

    DeSantis seeks review of Florida’s holdings in Bud Light maker over transgender influencer backlash

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    Presidential candidate and Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is asking for an investigation of the state’s investments in the company that makes Bud Light because of conservative backlash over a transgender social media influencer marketing the beve…

    Protesters unfold and raise a rainbow flag behind Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as he speaking during a campaign event on Monday, July 17, 2023, in Tega Cay, S.C. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)

    The Associated Press

    TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Presidential candidate and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis wants Florida to investigate its investments in the company that makes Bud Light because of conservative backlash over a transgender social media influencer marketing the beverage.

    DeSantis said Thursday in a letter to the State Board of Administration that “all options are on the table” in its response to Dylan Mulvaney’s Instagram post of a video of her opening a Bud Light with her face on the can.

    The governor said that due to the the backlash over the post, Anheuser-Busch InBev has suffered sales losses that could affect state investments. He added that the beer manufacturer’s “radical social ideologies” have turned Bud Light into a “social pariah” and losses have been “staggering.”

    DeSantis has previously made headlines by battling Walt Disney World over its opposition to a Florida law banning discussion of gender identity and sexuality orientation in schools, and has targeted other companies that promote social issues that don’t match his beliefs.

    DeSantis, who sits on the adminstration board, asked its executive director, Lamar Taylor, to review the state’s holdings, questioning whether they violate Florida law, and suggested a shareholder action may be needed against the company.

    “We must prudently manage the funds of Florida’s hardworking law enforcement officers, teachers, firefighters and first responders in a manner that focuses on growing returns, not subsidizing an ideological agenda through woke virtue signaling,” DeSantis wrote.

    Anheuser-Busch InBev didn’t immediately respond to an email requesting comment.

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  • Stock market today: Wall Street closes another winning week by barely moving

    Stock market today: Wall Street closes another winning week by barely moving

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    NEW YORK — Wall Street closed out another winning week with a quiet Friday, as stocks found some stability after sliding the day before.

    The S&P 500 edged up by 1.47, or less than 0.1%, to 4,536.34 to cap its eighth winning week in the last 10. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 2.51 points, or less than 0.1%, to 35,227.69, its 10th gain in a row. The Nasdaq composite slipped 30.50, or 0.2%, to 14,032.81 a day after tumbling to its worst loss in more than four months.

    Roper Technologies rallied 3.7% for one of the larger gains in the S&P 500 after it reported better profit and revenue for the spring than analysts expected. The company, which looks to dominate niche tech markets, also raised its financial forecasts for the full year.

    The earnings reporting season is gaining momentum, and a majority of companies are reporting better results than expected. They’re doing so by a bit less than usual, though, according to FactSet.

    On the losing side of Wall Street was American Express, which fell 3.9%. It reported stronger profit for the spring than expected, but its revenue fell short of forecasts.

    Comerica swung from an initial gain to a loss of 4.1% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the spring than analysts expected. The regional bank also reported a decline in average customer deposits, though it said the levels stabilized in the second half of the quarter. Deposits have been under heavy scrutiny since several banks failed in March after customers suddenly yanked out their cash.

    The stock market has generally been on a tear this year as the economy has defied predictions for a recession. It’s so far powered through much higher interest rates meant to bring down inflation, and the hope is that it may outlast the Federal Reserve’s rate-hike campaign.

    The Fed is widely expected to raise its federal funds rate on Wednesday to its highest level since 2001. But the hope is that will be the final increase of the cycle because inflation has been cooling since last summer. The federal funds rate started last year at virtually zero.

    To be sure, the 18.1% jump for the S&P 500 this year also has critics saying the rally has come too far, too fast. The risk of recession remains because inflation and interest rates remain high.

    When Fed Chair Jerome Powell speaks on Wednesday after the central bank’s decision on rates, economists at Deutsche Bank say he “is likely to emphasize that further evidence is needed to have confidence inflation will be tamed.”

    Besides the Fed meeting, next week will also feature earnings reports from three of the “Magnificent Seven” companies behind the majority of the S&P 500’s gains this year. Alphabet, Meta Platforms and Microsoft will report their earnings, and expectations are high after they all soared more than 35% so far this year.

    Another one of the seven, Tesla, slumped sharply on Thursday despite reporting stronger profit and revenue than expected on fears about upcoming growth. It helped drag the S&P 500 to a loss and the Nasdaq composite to a drop of 2.1%.

    The top stocks have become so big and their movements have become so influential over the market that Nasdaq is rebalancing its Nasdaq 100 index before trading begins Monday, to lessen the impact some stocks have on the overall index.

    The seven stocks, which also include Amazon, Apple and Nvidia, are collectively trading with stock prices that are 44 times higher than their earnings per share over the last 12 months, according to Savita Subramanian, equity strategist at Bank of America.

    That’s an expensive level compared with history, but the other stocks in the S&P 500 are trading at a more reasonable-looking 17 times earnings. The stock market’s gains have broadened out a bit recently, and Subramanian said in a BofA Global Research report that she expects that to continue.

    In the bond market, Treasury yields were mixed.

    The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 3.83% from 3.86% late Thursday. It helps set rates for mortgages and other important loans.

    The two-year Treasury yield, which moves more on expectations for the Fed, ticked up to 4.85% from 4.84%.

    In markets abroad, stocks were mixed across Europe and Asia.

    Taiwan’s Taiex fell 0.8% after TSMC, the world’s biggest manufacturer of computer chips, said it expects its sales to fall 10% this year as demand wanes. It also said it would not meet a 2024 target for starting production at a factory under construction in Arizona.

    ___

    AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

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  • Threat or not? Elon Musk gets new hearing on tweet about Tesla workers’ stock amid UAW union effort

    Threat or not? Elon Musk gets new hearing on tweet about Tesla workers’ stock amid UAW union effort

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    A federal appeals court will reconsider its March ruling that Tesla CEO Elon Musk unlawfully threatened employees with a loss of stock options in a 2018 Twitter post

    ByKEVIN McGILL Associated Press

    FILE – Elon Musk leaves the Phillip Burton Federal Building and United States Court House in San Francisco, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2023. A federal appeals court Friday, July 21, said it will reconsider its March ruling that Musk unlawfully threatened employees with a loss of stock options in a 2018 Twitter post amid an organizing effort by the United Auto Workers union. (AP Photo/ Benjamin Fanjoy, File)

    The Associated Press

    NEW ORLEANS — A federal appeals court Friday said it will reconsider its March ruling that Tesla CEO Elon Muskunlawfully threatened to take away employees’ stock options in a 2018 Twitter post amid an organizing effort by the United Auto Workers union.

    Three judges on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans upheld a National Labor Relations Board order to delete the tweet. The panel also upheld an order to rehire a fired Tesla employee, with back pay.

    But Friday’s brief order says a majority of the court’s full-time judges have voted to hear the matter again — this time before the full court. The March ruling was vacated — snatching away, at least for now, a UAW legal victory.

    The case arose amid UAW organizing efforts at a Tesla facility in Fremont, California, and years before Musk bought the platform in 2022.

    On May 20, 2018, Musk tweeted: “Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union. Could do so tmrw if they wanted. But why pay union dues and give up stock options for nothing? Our safety record is 2X better than when plant was UAW & everybody already gets healthcare.”

    The 5th Circuit panel ruled in March that “substantial evidence supports the NLRB’s conclusion that the tweet is as an implied threat to end stock options as retaliation for unionization.”

    The panel also said there was evidence that the terminated employee “was fired for lying about protected union activity and not related to his job performance or Tesla’s legitimate business interests or workplace rules.”

    The 5th Circuit currently has 16 full-time judges and one vacancy, pending Senate confirmation of a judge nominated by President Joe Biden.

    In March, the judges that ruled on the panel were James Dennis, who was nominated to the court by former President Bill Clinton and now has part-time senior status; Leslie Southwick, nominated by former President George H.W. Bush; and Cory Wilson, nominated by former President Donald Trump.

    A UAW spokesperson did not immediately respond Friday afternoon to an email query.

    Tesla attorneys have argued that the March panel decision conflicted with Supreme Court and appellate court precedents regarding First Amendment free speech protections. And they said the employee in the case was properly fired for giving false information during an investigation of employee harassment.

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  • Prosecutors say FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is harassing a key witness at his upcoming trial

    Prosecutors say FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is harassing a key witness at his upcoming trial

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    NEW YORK — FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is harassing a key witness against him at his upcoming trial by giving a newspaper personal things she wrote while she was the chief executive of his cryptocurrency hedge fund trading firm, prosecutors say.

    They asked a judge late Thursday to order trial participants not to make statements that might taint the yet-to-be-chosen jury in a criminal case over allegations that Bankman-Fried and other top executives cheated investors and looted FTX customer deposits, in part to fund lavish lifestyles.

    In a letter to Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, prosecutors said Bankman-Fried gave some of Caroline Ellison’s personal correspondence to The New York Times. They said that had the effect of harassing her and seemed designed to deter other potential trial witnesses from testifying.

    They called it an effort to “publicly discredit a government witness” and interfere with an Oct. 2 trial.

    Ellison, 28, was CEO of Alameda Research, a cryptocurrency hedge fund trading firm that was an offshoot of FTX.

    FTX entered bankruptcy in November when the global exchange ran out of money after the equivalent of a bank run.

    Ellison pleaded guilty in December to criminal charges that carry a potential penalty of 110 years in prison. She has agreed to testify against Bankman-Fried, 31, as part of a deal that could result in leniency.

    Prosecutors said lawyers for Bankman-Fried confirmed that their client had shared documents that were not currently part of trial evidence with The New York Times before it published an article Thursday with the headline: “Private Writings of Caroline Ellison, Star Witness in the FTX Case.”

    According to the article, Ellison wrote that she did not think she was well suited to running Alameda or decisive as a leader, and the doubts occurred as she coped with the breakup of a sporadic romantic relationship with Bankman-Fried.

    The Times reported that in April 2022, Ellison wrote in a Google document that an earlier breakup with Bankman-Fried had “significantly decreased my excitement about Alameda” and that life at the hedge fund “felt too associated with you in a way that was painful.”

    Lawyers for Ellison and for Bankman-Fried did not return emails seeking comment Friday. A spokesperson for prosecutors declined comment.

    In their letter to Kaplan, prosecutors stopped short of asking the judge to jail Bankman-Fried in the weeks before his trial.

    They said Ellison was expected to testify at trial that she agreed with Bankman-Fried to defraud FTX’s customers and investors and Alameda’s lenders.

    Prosecutors accused Bankman-Fried of trying to “cast Ellison in a poor light, and advance his defense through the press and outside the constraints of the courtroom and rules of evidence: that Ellison was a jilted lover who perpetrated these crimes alone.”

    They said they expect “overwhelming evidence to give the lie to this defense,” and they called it improper and prejudicial for Bankman-Fried to malign Ellison’s credibility before the trial.

    Prosecutors also wrote that lawyers for potential trial witnesses, including some who live abroad, said their clients were hesitant to testify in a case with persistent media attention.

    “These witness concerns will only be heightened if witnesses are made to fear that a consequence of testifying against the defendant may include personal humiliation and efforts to discredit their reputation that go beyond what the rules of evidence might permit during cross examination,” prosecutors wrote.

    Earlier this year, Kaplan had suggested that jailing Bankman-Fried was possible after prosecutors complained that he found ways to get around limits placed on his electronic communications as part of a $250 million personal recognizance bond issued after his December arrest that requires him to live with his parents in Palo Alto, California.

    In February, prosecutors said he might have tried to influence a witness when he sent an encrypted message in January over a texting app to a top FTX lawyer, saying he “would really love to reconnect and see if there’s a way for us to have a constructive relationship, use each other as resources when possible, or at least vet things with each other.”

    At a February hearing, the judge said prosecutors described things Bankman-Fried had done after his arrest “that suggests to me that maybe he has committed or attempted to commit a federal felony while on release.”

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  • Stock market today: Wall Street closes another winning week by barely moving

    Stock market today: Wall Street closes another winning week by barely moving

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    NEW YORK — Wall Street closed out another winning week with a quiet Friday, as stocks found some stability after sliding the day before.

    The S&P 500 edged up by 1.47, or less than 0.1%, to 4,536.34 to cap its eighth winning week in the last 10. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 2.51 points, or less than 0.1%, to 35,227.69. The Nasdaq composite slipped 30.50, or 0.2%, to 14,032.81 a day after tumbling to its worst loss in more than four months.

    Roper Technologies rallied 3.7% for one of the larger gains in the S&P 500 after it reported better profit and revenue for the spring than analysts expected. The company, which looks to dominate niche tech markets, also raised its financial forecasts for the full year.

    The earnings reporting season is gaining momentum, and a majority of companies are reporting better results than expected. They’re doing so by a bit less than usual, though, according to FactSet.

    On the losing side of Wall Street was American Express, which fell 3.9%. It reported stronger profit for the spring than expected, but its revenue fell short of forecasts.

    Comerica swung from an initial gain to a loss of 4.1% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the spring than analysts expected. The regional bank also reported a decline in average customer deposits, though it said the levels stabilized in the second half of the quarter. Deposits have been under heavy scrutiny since several banks failed in March after customers suddenly yanked out their cash.

    The stock market has generally been on a tear this year as the economy has defied predictions for a recession. It’s so far powered through much higher interest rates meant to bring down inflation, and the hope is that it may outlast the Federal Reserve’s rate-hike campaign.

    The Fed is widely expected to raise its federal funds rate on Wednesday to its highest level since 2001. But the hope is that will be the final increase of the cycle because inflation has been cooling since last summer. The federal funds rate started last year at virtually zero.

    To be sure, the 18.1% jump for the S&P 500 this year also has critics saying the rally has come too far, too fast. The risk of recession remains because inflation and interest rates remain high.

    When Fed Chair Jerome Powell speaks on Wednesday after the central bank’s decision on rates, economists at Deutsche Bank say he “is likely to emphasize that further evidence is needed to have confidence inflation will be tamed.”

    Besides the Fed meeting, next week will also feature earnings reports from three of the “Magnificent Seven” companies behind the majority of the S&P 500’s gains this year. Alphabet, Meta Platforms and Microsoft will report their earnings, and expectations are high after they all soared more than 35% so far this year.

    Another one of the seven, Tesla, slumped sharply on Thursday despite reporting stronger profit and revenue than expected on fears about upcoming growth. It helped drag the S&P 500 to a loss and the Nasdaq composite to a drop of 2.1%.

    The top stocks have become so big and their movements have become so influential over the market that Nasdaq is rebalancing its Nasdaq 100 index before trading begins Monday, to lessen the impact some stocks have on the overall index.

    The seven stocks, which also include Amazon, Apple and Nvidia, are collectively trading with stock prices that are 44 times higher than their earnings per share over the last 12 months, according to Savita Subramanian, equity strategist at Bank of America.

    That’s an expensive level compared with history, but the other stocks in the S&P 500 are trading at a more reasonable-looking 17 times earnings. The stock market’s gains have broadened out a bit recently, and Subramanian said in a BofA Global Research report that she expects that to continue.

    In the bond market, Treasury yields were mixed.

    The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 3.83% from 3.86% late Thursday. It helps set rates for mortgages and other important loans.

    The two-year Treasury yield, which moves more on expectations for the Fed, ticked up to 4.85% from 4.84%.

    In markets abroad, stocks were mixed across Europe and Asia.

    Taiwan’s Taiex fell 0.8% after TSMC, the world’s biggest manufacturer of computer chips, said it expects its sales to fall 10% this year as demand wanes. It also said it would not meet a 2024 target for starting production at a factory under construction in Arizona.

    ___

    AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

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  • Rapper Quando Rondo crashes car while awaiting trial. Prosecutors want him back in jail

    Rapper Quando Rondo crashes car while awaiting trial. Prosecutors want him back in jail

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    Prosecutors in Georgia want rapper Quando Rondo back in jail after he crashed a car while awaiting trial on gang and drug charges

    FILE – This jail booking photo released by the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office in Savannah, Ga., shows Tyquian Terrel Bowman, a rapper also known as Quando Rondo. Prosecutors in Georgia want rapper Quando Rondo sent back to jail after he crashed a car, Wednesday, July 19, 2023, while free on bond pending his trial on gang and drug charges. (Chatham County Sheriff’s Office via AP)

    The Associated Press

    SAVANNAH, Ga. — Prosecutors want the rapper Quando Rondo sent back to jail after he crashed a car while free on bond pending trial on gang and drug charges.

    The 24-year-old rapper, whose given name Tyquian Terrel Bowman, was indicted last month in his hometown of Savannah. He was released from jail June 26 on a $100,000 bond. Now prosecutors are asking a judge to revoke his bond.

    Their filing in Chatham County Superior Court says Bowman crashed a car while driving at high speed Wednesday, and that emergency responders “administered Narcan as he was exhibiting signs of an overdose.”

    Narcan is a drug used to treat opioid overdoses. Bowman was ordered to refrain from using illegal drugs as a condition of his bond, according to court records.

    Bowman’s attorney, Kimberly Copeland, had no comment on the case, said a woman answering the phone at Copeland’s law office Friday.

    A judge scheduled a Thursday hearing on Bowman’s bond. Prosecutors obtained a subpoena for toxicology tests and other medical records from the hospital that treated Bowman after the crash.

    Bowman and 18 others were indicted last month by a Chatham County grand jury. Bowman was charged with four counts, including being a manager of an illegal street gang known as “Rollin’ 60’s.” His other charges include conspiring with others to distribute marijuana and to buy pills of the opioid hydrocodone.

    Prosecutors said additional charges stemming from the car crash are pending.

    As Quando Rondo, the rapper’s singles “I Remember” and “ABG” led to a deal with Atlantic Records, which released his debut album, “QPac,” in 2020. His follow-up album, “Recovery,” came out in March.

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  • A UPS strike could be just around the corner. Here’s what you need to know

    A UPS strike could be just around the corner. Here’s what you need to know

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    NEW YORK — The clock is ticking. As the deadline to reach a new contract nears, a potential UPS strike feels closer than ever.

    Negotiations broke down earlier this month and unionized workers have been holding rallies and practice pickets across the country. The Teamsters, which represent more than half of the company’s workforce, will resume talks with UPS on Tuesday.

    That leaves less than a week to come to an agreement before the current contract expires on Monday, July 31. The union has authorized a strike and Sean M. O’Brien, a fiery leader elected last year to lead the union, has vowed to do so if their demands aren’t met.

    “We’re sending a message… all 340,000 of our members are united and ready to fight,” O’Brien told The Associated Press at a practice picket Friday in Atlanta, where UPS is based.

    UPS’s unionized workers still seethe about a contract they feel was forced on them in 2018, and say that the company delivers millions more packages every day than it did just five years ago. The Teamsters are calling for better pay, particularly for part-time employees, and improved working conditions.

    UPS has maintained that it already offers “industry-leading pay and benefits,” but says it’s prepared to increase that compensation. In a Friday update, the company said it aimed “quickly to finalize a fair deal that provides certainty for our customers, our employees and businesses across the country.”

    If negotiations are unsuccessful the deliveries that Americans have come to rely on, particularly since the pandemic began in 2020, could be vastly disrupted. Such an impasse hasn’t been seen since 1997, well before delivery of everyday items from dog food to prescription drugs became the norm, when a walkout by 185,000 workers crippled UPS. Here’s what you need to know.

    WHAT ARE THE TEAMSTERS ASKING FOR?

    Much on the union’s demands comes down to better pay and improved working conditions.

    Annual profits at UPS in the past two years are close to three times what they were before the pandemic. The company returned about $8.6 billion to shareholders in the form of dividends and stock buybacks in 2022, and forecast another $8.4 billion for shareholders this year.

    The Teamsters say frontline UPS workers deserve some of that windfall. A sticking point in negotiations has been wage increases for part-time workers, who make a minimum of $16.20 an hour.

    “People want their packages yesterday with the emergence of the e-commerce. So it’s a very demanding job,” O’Brien said, pushing back on the salary statistics that UPS shares. “Everybody doesn’t realize what it takes to get these packages on the truck. And a lot of our part timers… work for poverty wages.”

    In addition to addressing part-time pay, the union wants to eliminate a contract provision that created two separate hierarchies of workers with different pay scales, hours and benefits. Driver safety, particularly the lack of air conditioning in delivery trucks, is also in the mix.

    HAS UPS AGREED TO ANY DEMANDS?

    Before contract talks broke down on July 5, with both sides blaming each other for walking away from the bargaining table, tentative agreements were made on several issues — including installing air conditioning in more trucks. UPS said it would add air conditioning to U.S. small delivery vehicles purchased after January 1, 2024. Existing vehicles wouldn’t get that upgrade, but the union said they will have other additions like fans and air vents.

    The union also said it has reached tentative agreements to establish Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a full holiday for the first time, end unwanted overtime on drivers’ days off and get rid of the two-tier wage system for drivers who work weekends and earn less money.

    COULD A STRIKE BE AVOIDED? CAN THE GOVERNMENT INTERVENE?

    The strike can be avoided if UPS and the Teamsters agree to a new contract before the July 31 deadline. There’s also a possibility of government intervention.

    O’Brien said Sunday that he has asked the White House on numerous occasions not to intervene if workers end up going on strike. Last year, President Joe Biden intervened to avert a railroad strike to avoid disrupting the nation’s supply chain, and workers had accept an agreement that wasn’t broadly supported by union members.

    WHAT IMPACT WOULD A STRIKE HAVE?

    The 24 million packages UPS ships on an average day amounts to about a quarter of all U.S. parcel volume, according to the global shipping and logistics firm Pitney Bowes. As UPS puts it, that’s the equivalent of about 6% of nation’s gross domestic product.

    Higher prices and long wait times are all but certain if there is an impasse. A strike also threatens to extend lingering supply chain troubles.

    “Something’s got to give,” Thomas Goldsby, logistics chairman in the Supply Chain Management Department at the University of Tennessee, told The Associated Press. “The python can’t swallow the alligator, and that’s going to be felt by all of us.”

    UPS said this month that it will temporarily begin training nonunion employees in the U.S. to step in should there be a strike.

    Beyond shipping and supply implications, a union win at UPS could have significance for organized labor across industries. UPS’s contract talks arrive amid other prominent labor campaigns at Apple, Starbucks, Trader Joe’s and other companies — as well as the current writers and actors’ strikes seen in Hollywood.

    _______

    Videojournalist Sharon Johnson contributed from Atlanta

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  • Elton John, Scorsese and more friends and admirers of Tony Bennett react to his death

    Elton John, Scorsese and more friends and admirers of Tony Bennett react to his death

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    Reaction to the death of Tony Bennett at age 96:

    “So sad to hear of Tony’s passing. Without doubt the classiest singer, man, and performer you will ever see. He’s irreplaceable. I loved and adored him. Condolences to Susan, Danny and the family.” — Sir Elton John, via Instagram.

    “Tony Bennett was a consummate artist. All you have to do is listen to any one of his hundreds of recordings to recognize that. Very early on, his music quietly wove itself into the fabric of our lives. His voice felt as familiar and as close as the voices of our loved ones. I know that this was true for millions of people around the world. For Italian-Americans who were growing up in the middle of the twentieth century, that familiarity ran even deeper. At a certain point, we started to imagine that Tony would live forever. Of course he didn’t. Nobody does. But the music? That’s another story.” — Martin Scorsese, in a statement.

    “Tony was one of the most splendid people who ever lived. Kind, loving, talented and generous, he never let us down. Sending my love to Susan, Danny and their family and friends. Tony was a true champion.” — Nancy Sinatra, via Twitter.

    “Rest in peace, Tony. You were the epitome of a gentleman with a God given one-of-a-kind voice. It was truly a great honor of my career and of my life to get to share the stage with you…” — Carrie Underwood, duet partner on “It Had to Be You,” via Instagram.

    “RIP Tony Bennett. The best of the best. The last of the legends. A man whose heart was as big as his voice. The world’s foremost practitioner of the ‘Art of Excellence.’ Deepest love and condolences to my friend Danny and the family.” — Stevie Van Zandt, via Twitter.

    “Sending my prayers for and condolences to the family of #TonyBennett whose legendary career spanned seven decades. He marched with us in 1964. He was dedicated to civil and human rights and to the arts. He will lives as long as we remember him. #IleftmyheartinSanFrancisco.” — Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., via Twitter.

    “We loved and admired Tony Bennett and marveled at the breadth of his talent and depth of his commitment to creating a better world. … We will always be personally grateful to Tony for performing at the 1993 Inaugural and for lending his talents, time and again, to support the work of the Clinton Foundation. With his singular voice and generous spirit, he lived his remarkable life with perfect pitch.” — Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, in a statement.

    “This one shouldn’t sting so much because any of us would take 96 years, but man is it hard to imagine a world without the great Tony Bennett.” — actor Josh Gad, via Twitter.

    “The world was a better place with Tony Bennett at the microphone in a tuxedo, singing. To one of the kindest, most loving people I’ve ever known… Rest in peace, dear Tony.” — actor and comedian Ruth Buzzi, via Twitter.

    “Sesame Workshop mourns the passing of Tony Bennett, who brought joy and music to millions of people around the world. Mr. Bennett joined us on Sesame Street in 1998 to turn a classic of his into a new favorite of ours.” — Sesame Street, via Twitter.

    “RIP Tony Bennett. Such a big loss. Deepest sympathy to his family and the world.” — Carole King, via Instagram.

    “Rest in Peace to one of the best to ever grace the stage. I was just saying that the greatest gig I had ever witnessed was Tony Bennett at North Sea Jazz in 2012. It was like dropping a needle on a record. He was the last of the greatest generation of singers and musicians.” — guitarist Joe Bonamassa, via Twitter.

    “My most heartfelt condolences go out to Tony Bennett’s family and friends. They’re also my emotional family and friends.” — producer Nile Rodgers, via Twitter.

    “Ahhh, RIP Tony Bennett, truly one of the greats. The first album I had was Tony Bennett sings 10 Rodgers and Hart songs, from when my record company in 1976 let me do a ‘bank raid’ of their vinyl stock and I was a fan from there on in. An incredible singer live, saw him many times.” — musician, singer and songwriter Paul Young, via Twitter.

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  • Brother of ex-NFL star Aqib Talib’s pleads guilty to murder, prosecutors say

    Brother of ex-NFL star Aqib Talib’s pleads guilty to murder, prosecutors say

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    Prosecutors say the brother of retired NFL cornerback Aqib Talib has pleaded guilty to murder in the 2022 shooting death of a coach at a youth football game in Texas

    DALLAS — The brother of retired NFL cornerback Aqib Talib has pleaded guilty to murder in the 2022 shooting death of a coach at a youth game in Texas, prosecutors said.

    Yaqub Salik Talib, 40, pleaded guilty Thursday to the charge in the shooting of 43-year-old Michael Hickmon, according to Claire Crouch, a spokesperson for the Dallas County District Attorney’s office. She said Talib agreed to a sentence of 37 years in prison and that he will be sentenced in August.

    A lawyer for Talib did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment Friday.

    Last August, police said witnesses saw Talib pull out a gun and repeatedly shoot Hickmon during a brawl among adults at a youth game in the Dallas suburb of Lancaster. Police said the fight was prompted by a disagreement between the opposing coaching staffs over calls made by the officiating crew, but an official with one of the teams later said it began when Hickmon went to pick up a and someone kicked it away.

    The sons of both Talib brothers played on one of the teams and Hickmon’s son played on the other, according to The Dallas Morning News.

    Yaqub Talib left the field following the shooting and later turned himself in to police. His lawyer said at the time that his client “regrets the tragic loss of life” but was surrendering to “have the chance to say his side of the story.”

    Aqib Talib is a five-time Pro Bowler who announced his retirement in 2020. He was named last year as a contributor for Prime Video’s “Thursday Night Football” but left the role following the shooting.

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  • Filming Christmas in July? How Hollywood strikes hit holiday movie-making here – National | Globalnews.ca

    Filming Christmas in July? How Hollywood strikes hit holiday movie-making here – National | Globalnews.ca

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    It’s a classic holiday film tale: small towns, snowflakes and star-crossed lovers.

    But this year’s queue of beloved holiday movies may be considerably smaller due to the worldwide shut-down of productions caused by current Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strikes.

    Glitch SPFX is an Ottawa-based special effects company responsible for simulating most of the artificial snow in holiday films produced in the province in the last five years — the majority of those films for American studios and networks.

    Now, Glitch SPFX founder Ben Belanger said the company is completely out of work.

    “It went from us working on literally three films at the same time in June … and then it was the writers’ strike that seemed like it was going to be nice and short.”

    “But now with the actors’ strike jumping on top of that, it makes things a little more uncertain,” Belanger told Global News in an interview, referring to the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and Writers Guild of America (WGA) strikes.

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    Click to play video: 'Canadian impact of the SAG/AFTRA strike'


    Canadian impact of the SAG/AFTRA strike


    Glitch has been in business for 10 years, but Belanger said the last five have been especially lucrative due to deals with American networks such as the Hallmark Channel, known for pumping out some of the most talked about holiday films each year.

    Many of those films have been produced in Canada, with small-town locations in Ontario and British Columbia as well as the nation’s capital Ottawa flourishing with business the past few years.

    But due to the strikes this year, the number of holiday films produced in Canada for Hallmark and similar networks will be greatly reduced, experts say — not because of the crews, but actors.

    1Development Entertainment Services is an Ottawa-based production company with a focus on holiday, made-for-TV movies. Like Glitch, almost all of the studio’s projects are in collaboration with American unions and networks due to having a larger market and audience size.

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    Founder of 1Development, Shane Boucher, said it’s a big deal for networks to have at least one American star in a holiday film. That’s why many companies will likely choose to wait out the actors’ strike instead of working on new projects with an entirely Canadian cast.

    “The SAG requirement is usually pretty high. There’s either a level of a Hallmark-known star … that’s going to help drive the viewership, or it’s just an American star that has a really high social media presence. Normally they’re higher than some of your top-level Canadians just because of the reach and the audience.”

    Canadian studios will typically opt to hire domestic crews for tax credit purposes, which is more cost-effective.


    Picketers carry signs outside Netflix studios on Thursday in Los Angeles. The strike by actors comes more than two months after screenwriters began striking in their bid to get better pay and working conditions.

    AP Photo/Chris Pizzello

    Boucher said 1Development will not be one of the companies waiting out the strike and will work with networks to develop their own intellectual property (IP) in the meantime.

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    “We’re usually busy servicing production, so that’s kind of the silver lining. It gives us an opportunity,” he said.

    Boucher said his goal has always been to grow the film industry in Ottawa since joining 20 years ago. Since work with American unions and networks is currently off the board, he’ll be focusing on smaller projects to fill the gaps.

    “My job over the next few weeks to a month is to … work on getting some sort of projects so that we can keep everybody working … regardless of where it comes from.”

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    ACTRA Toronto executive director Alistair Hepburn said there is a small chance that some holiday film productions will be able to secure an American actor.

    SAG-AFTRA is working on an agreement in which independent producers — those not affiliated with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) — will be able to engage the services of a SAG member through a waiver system for the duration of the strike.

    “That may be something that we see maybe even more of because they will be filling that gap,” Hepburn said in an interview with Global News.

    Hepburn noted that even if Canadian productions are able to hire SAG-AFTRA actors, those projects cannot be distributed by AMPTP companies, such as Netflix or Disney. Instead, independent producers can sell their project’s wares to unaffiliated networks like Hallmark.

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    “That is a very clear direction from SAG,” he said.


    Click to play video: '‘We are the victims here’: SAG-AFTRA president says as Hollywood actors go on strike'


    ‘We are the victims here’: SAG-AFTRA president says as Hollywood actors go on strike


    Belanger said that he’s fortunate to feel financially secure enough during Glitch’s uncertainty, but that he worries about many of his employees.

    “I’m more worried about the guys whose pay cheques I sign. The guys that work for me are looking for whatever other income they can get right now.”

    Belanger said that what his company is currently experiencing is similar to the strain felt in the industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which also saw an industry-wide shut-down. A number of Glitch employees left at the time to supplement their income elsewhere, and not all returned.

    However, Belanger said many of his staff are enjoying having a break. Though the holidays are still some time away, the summer season is typically the busiest for filming.

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    “It’s a bit of an abnormality. They don’t seem to be too worried about it, but we also don’t know when we’re coming back,” he said.

    SAG-AFTRA is entering its second week of striking. Hepburn said that he doesn’t know how long the strikes will go on and that doesn’t see a resolution coming soon.

    “This is going to have an impact for months, absolutely months,” Hepburn said. “On not just performance, but the entire industry as a whole.”

    &copy 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

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    Naomi Barghiel

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  • Miami Beach area under precautionary boil water alert after main break

    Miami Beach area under precautionary boil water alert after main break

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    A water main break in Miami Beach caused pressure to drop and forced officials to issue a precautionary boil water alert for the tourism hotspot

    MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — A water main break in Miami Beach caused pressure to drop and forced officials to issue a precautionary boil water alert Friday for a large swath of the tourism hotspot in Florida.

    A private contractor hit a water main late Thursday in the South Beach section of the city, causing the break.

    City officials were advising residents and tourists to use bottled water or to boil tap water for one minute before using for drinking, cooking, brushing teeth or washing dishes.

    The precautionary boil water notice will be in place until drinking water test results pass inspection for two consecutive days, Miami Beach officials said in a news release.

    Miami Beach had 217 hotels with 21,000 rooms, making up more than a third of the inventory in Miami-Dade County, as of last December, according to the Greater Miami Convention and Business Bureau.

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  • Tornado damages Pfizer plant in North Carolina as scorching heat and floods sock other parts of US

    Tornado damages Pfizer plant in North Carolina as scorching heat and floods sock other parts of US

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    RALEIGH, N.C. — A tornado heavily damaged a major Pfizer pharmaceutical plant in North Carolina on Wednesday, while torrential rain flooded communities in Kentucky and an area from California to South Florida endured more scorching heat.

    Pfizer confirmed that the large manufacturing complex was damaged by a twister that touched down shortly after midday near Rocky Mount, but said in an email that it had no reports of serious injuries. A later company statement said all employees were safely evacuated and accounted for.

    Parts of roofs were ripped open atop its massive buildings. The Pfizer plant stores large quantities of medicine that were tossed about, said Nash County Sheriff Keith Stone.

    “I’ve got reports of 50,000 pallets of medicine that are strewn across the facility and damaged through the rain and the wind,” Stone said.

    The plant produces anesthesia and other drugs as well as nearly 25% of the sterile injectable medications Pfizer supplies to U.S. hospitals, the company said on its website. Erin Fox, senior pharmacy director at University of Utah Health, said the damage “will likely lead to long-term shortages while Pfizer works to either move production to other sites or rebuilds.”

    The National Weather Service said in a tweet that the damage was consistent with an EF3 tornado with wind speeds up to 150 mph (240 kph).

    The Edgecombe County Sheriff’s Office, where part of Rocky Mount is located, said on Facebook that they had reports of three people injured in the tornado, and that two of them had life-threatening injuries.

    A preliminary report from neighboring Nash County said 13 people were injured and 89 structures were damaged, WRAL-TV reported.

    Three homes owned by Brian Varnell and his family members in the nearby Dortches area were damaged. He told the news outlet he is thankful they are all alive. His sister and her children hid in their home’s laundry room.

    “They got where they needed to be within the house and it all worked out for the best,” Varnell said near a home that was missing exterior walls and a large chunk of the roof.

    Elsewhere in the U.S., an onslaught of searing temperatures and rising floodwaters continued, with Phoenix breaking an all-time temperature record and rescuers pulling people from rain-swamped homes and vehicles in Kentucky.

    Forecasters said little relief appears in sight from the heat and storms. For example, Miami has endured a heat index of 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius) or more for weeks, with temperatures expected to rise this weekend.

    In Kentucky, meteorologists warned of a “life-threatening situation” in the communities of Mayfield and Wingo, which were inundated by flash flooding this week from thunderstorms. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency there Wednesday as more storms threatened.

    Forecasters expect up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain could yet fall on parts of Kentucky, Illinois and Missouri near where the Ohio and Mississippi rivers converge.

    The storm system is forecast to move Thursday and Friday over New England, where the ground remains saturated after recent floods. In Connecticut, a mother and her 5-year-old daughter died after being swept down a swollen river Tuesday. In southeastern Pennsylvania, a search continued for two children caught in flash flooding Saturday night.

    Meanwhile, Phoenix broke an all-time record Wednesday morning for a warm low temperature of 97 F (36.1 C), raising the threat of heat-related illness for residents unable to cool off adequately overnight. The previous record was 96 F (35.6 C) in 2003, the weather service reported.

    Lindsay LaMont, who works at the Sweet Republic ice cream shop Phoenix, said business had been slow during the day with people sheltering inside to escape the heat. “But I’m definitely seeing a lot more people come in the evening to get their ice cream when things start cooling off,” LaMont said.

    Heat-related deaths continue to rise in Maricopa County, where Phoenix is located. Public health officials Wednesday reported that six more heat-associated fatalities were confirmed last week, bringing the year’s total so far to 18. All six deaths didn’t necessarily occur last week as some may have happened weeks earlier but were confirmed as heat-related only after a thorough investigation.

    By this time last year, there had been 29 confirmed heat-associated deaths in the county and another 193 under investigation.

    Phoenix, a desert city of more than 1.6 million people, had set a separate record Tuesday among U.S. cities by marking 19 straight days of temperatures of 110 F (43.3 C) or more. It topped 110 again Wednesday.

    National Weather Service meteorologist Matthew Hirsh said Phoenix’s 119 F (48.3 C) high Wednesday tied the fourth highest temperature recorded in the city ever. The highest temperature of all time was 122 F (50 C), set in 1990.

    Across the country, Miami marked its 16th straight day of heat indexes in excess of 105 F (40.6 C). The previous record was five days in June 2019.

    “And it’s only looking to increase as we head into the later part of the week and the weekend,” said Cameron Pine, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

    The region has also seen 38 consecutive days with a heat index threshold of 100 F (37.8 C), and sea surface temperatures are reported to be several degrees warmer than normal.

    “There really is no immediate relief in sight,” Pine said.

    A 71-year-old Los Angeles-area man died at a trailhead in Death Valley National Park in eastern California on Tuesday afternoon as temperatures reached 121 F (49.4 C) or higher and rangers suspect heat was a factor, the National Park Service said in a statement Wednesday.

    It is possibly the second heat-related fatality in Death Valley this summer. A 65-year-old man was found dead in a car on July 3.

    Human-caused climate change and a newly formed El Nino are combining to shatter heat records worldwide, scientists say.

    The entire globe has simmered to record heat both in June and July. Nearly every day this month, the global average temperature has been warmer than the unofficial hottest day recorded before 2023, according to University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer.

    Atmospheric scientists say the global warming responsible for unrelenting heat in the Southwest also is making extreme rainfall a more frequent reality.

    ___

    Finley reported from Norfolk, Virginia. Associated Press reporters Anita Snow in Phoenix, Freida Frisaro in Miami, JoNel Aleccia in Temecula, California, and Rebecca Reynolds in Louisville, Kentucky, contributed to this report.

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