Actors’ strike over: A tentative contract agreement has been reached between the actor’s union, SAG-AFTRA, and the Hollywood producers. The union has told members the strike is over. The four-month strike crippled movie and TV production. It is anticipated it will take several months for production to ramp up to prestrike levels. The new contract establishes higher pay minimums, improves pay for streaming of productions and provides protections for actors regarding use of their voices and likenesses in performances created on computer using artificial intelligence.
Attack in Syria: U.S. F-15 fighter jets have struck a weapons storage facility in Syria. The U.S. says it had been used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard to stage attacks on U.S. and allied troops. There have been at least 40 such attacks in Syria and Iraq resulting in injuries to U.S. personnel. The U.S. has about 900 soldiers stationed in Syria and 2,500 in Iraq.
Governing Gaza: The Palestinian Authority says it will consider taking a role in running Gaza after the fighting ends. Gaza has been governed by Hamas, which Israel now seeks to dismantle following its Oct. 7 attack that killed about 1,400 Israelis. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken proposed that after the war Gaza should be unified with the West Bank and administered by the Palestinian Authority and that Israel should not occupy Gaza. Negotiations for a three-day cease-fire that would include the release of at least some hostages are reported underway.
Fatal car chase: A police chase near Batesville, Texas, ended in the deaths of eight people when the car they were chasing crashed into another vehicle and that vehicle burst into flames. The police suspected that the driver of a Honda Civic was smuggling five immigrants from Honduras and gave chase. The Civic hit a Chevy Equinox carrying two people from Georgia. Batesville is about 80 miles southwest of San Antonio.
Debatable facts: The Washington Post reports this morning that a charge against Hunter Biden made by candidate Vivek Ramaswamy in last night’s Republican Presidential Primary Debate is baseless. He alleged that Biden had received a $5 million bribe from Ukraine and that is why U.S. aid currently is being provided to Ukraine. The Post also found that candidate Nikki Haley was wrong when she said that Social Security will go bankrupt in 10 years and Medicare will go bankrupt in eight years.
Ivanka’s memory: Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka claimed she didn’t recall about 30 times during her testimony at the New York fraud trial of her father, brothers Donald Jr. and Eric and The Trump Organization. Ivanka was shown various emails carrying her name along with financial documents she was alleged to have worked on but said she couldn’t recall information about them. New York Attorney General Letitia James alleges that she was involved in negotiating various deals for the company, although she was not named as a defendant in the case.
Cover photo: Eden, Janine and Jim / Flickr Creative Commons
