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The union representing Hollywood actors has recommended strike action after a midnight negotiation deadline passed with no agreement as the industry braces for the possibility of the first simultaneous strike by Hollywood writers and actors in more than 60 years.
In a statement, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (Sag-Aftra), the union which represents 160,000 actors, said its negotiating committee had voted unanimously to recommend a strike. The national board will decide this morning.
It said: “After more than four weeks of bargaining, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) – the entity that represents major studios and streamers, including Amazon, Apple, Disney, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount, Sony and Warner Bros. Discovery – remains unwilling to offer a fair deal on the key issues that are essential to Sag-Aftra members.”
The statement said: “The companies have refused to meaningfully engage on some topics and on others completely stonewalled us. Until they do negotiate in good faith, we cannot begin to reach a deal. We have no choice but to move forward in unity, and on behalf of our membership, with a strike recommendation to our national board. The board will discuss the issue this morning and will make its decision.”
Russian spy chief confirms call to CIA director after Wagner revolt
Sergei Naryshkin, head of Russia’s foreign intelligence chief. Photograph: Alexei Nikolsky/AP
Russia’s foreign intelligence chief, Sergei Naryshkin, has said that he and his CIA counterpart discussed the short-lived mutiny a week earlier by Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin and “what to do with Ukraine” in a phone call late last month.
Sergei Naryshkin, head of the SVR foreign intelligence service, told Russia’s Tass new agency yesterday that Bill Burns had raised “the events of June 24” – when fighters from the Wagner mercenary group took control of a southern Russian city and advanced towards Moscow before reaching a deal with the Kremlin to end the revolt.
But he said that for most of the call, lasting about an hour, “we considered and discussed what to do with Ukraine”.
The CIA declined to comment on his remarks.
The New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported on 30 June that William Burns had called Naryshkin to assure the Kremlin that the United States had no role in the Wagner revolt.
House Republicans grill FBI director as Democrats deride attacks on agency
The FBI director, Christopher Wray, faces threats of impeachment from Donald Trump’s congressional allies. Photograph: Patrick Semansky/AP
House Republicans grilled the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Christopher Wray, at a frequently contentious committee hearing yesterday. While Republicans accused the FBI of political bias in its handling of investigations into…
2023-07-13 05:29:10
Post from www.theguardian.com
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