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Hollywood writers, studios nearing agreement to end strike: Report

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:23 GMT

Hollywood writers and studios are nearing an agreement to end the months-long strike that has shut down the entertainment industry since May, sources tell CNBC.In a joint statement released after negotiations Wednesday, both sides stated, “The WGA and AMPTP met for bargaining today and will meet again tomorrow.”CNBC reports a deal will likely be finalized on Thursday. While negotiators were optimistic, sources also told CNBC that if a deal was not reached soon the strike could last through the end of the yearThe Writers Guild of America went on strike on May 2 and in a historic move, the Screen Actors Guild also joined writers on the picket line on July 14, marking the first time in over 60 years both unions have been on strike at the same time.For striking writers, the two sides have been divided on issues of pay, the size of writing staffs on shows and the use of artificial intelligence in scriptwriting. Nearly 20,000 writers have been without work or pay since May 2 as negot...

Russia strikes cities from east to west Ukraine, starting fires and killing at least 2

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:23 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Air alerts sounded again and again in Kyiv and residents headed to shelters early Thursday morning, as a massive Russian attack on at least six cities across Ukraine killed at least two people, started fires and wounded at least 21.The attack carried out on the International Day of Peace coincided with the United Nations General Assembly summit in New York, where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a speech and presented a Ukrainian “peace formula.”The missile attack was Russia’s largest since August 15 and came a day after reports of sabotage at a Russian military airfield in Chkalovsk near Moscow.In the southern city of Kherson, near the front lines, two people were killed in Thursday’s attacks and at least five injured after a strike hit a residential building, said regional Governor Oleksand Prokudin.Seven people were injured in Kyiv, including a 9-year-old girl, reported Mayor Vitalii Klitschko, and some residential and commercial buildin...

‘Game of Thrones’ creator and other authors sue ChatGPT-maker OpenAI for copyright infringement

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:23 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — John Grisham, Jodi Picoult and George R.R. Martin are among 17 authors suing OpenAI for “systematic theft on a mass scale,” the latest in a wave of legal action by writers concerned that artificial intelligence programs are using their copyrighted works without permission. In papers filed Tuesday in federal court in New York, the authors alleged “flagrant and harmful infringements of plaintiffs’ registered copyrights” and called the ChatGPT program a “massive commercial enterprise” that is reliant upon “systematic theft on a mass scale.” The suit was organized by the Authors Guild and also includes David Baldacci, Sylvia Day, Jonathan Franzen and Elin Hilderbrand among others. “It is imperative that we stop this theft in its tracks or we will destroy our incredible literary culture, which feeds many other creative industries in the U.S.,” Authors Guild CEO Mary Rasenberger said in a statement. “Great books are generally written by those who spend their careers ...

Syrian President Bashar Assad arrives in China on first visit since the beginning of war in Syria

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:23 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Syrian President Bashar Assad has arrived in China on his first visit to the country since the start of Syria’s 12-year conflict during which Beijing has been one of his main backers, state media reported Thursday.The Associated Press

The Asian Games: larger than the Olympics and with an array of regional and global sports

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:23 GMT

The Asian Games are an attention grabber. For starters, they involve more participants than the Summer Olympics. Organizers say more than 12,000 will be entered when the opening ceremony takes place Saturday in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou. This is more than the 10,500 expected for next year’s Paris Olympics.The giant numbers are partly due to the staggering array of events with many regional specialties, sports, and games you won’t find in the Olympics. And there’s also cricket, which appears headed to the Olympics as soon as 2028 in Los Angeles, and certainly for 2032 in Brisbane, Australia.And there’s squash, which has tried several times for Olympic recognition.The regional fare includes dragon boat racing, sepaktakraw — sometimes called “kick volleyball — wushu, a Chinese martial art, and kabaddi, a popular contact sport on the Indian subcontinent. There is also the non-Olympic martial art of ju-jitsu, and kurash, a form of wrestling popula...

First private US passenger rail line in 100 years is about to link Miami and Orlando at high speed

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:23 GMT

MIAMI (AP) — The first big test of whether privately owned high-speed passenger train service can prosper in the United States will launch Friday when Florida’s Brightline begins running trains between Miami and Orlando, reaching speeds of 125 mph (200 kph). It’s a $5 billion bet Brightline’s owner, Fortress Investment Group, is making, believing that eventually 8 million people annually will take the 3.5-hour, 235-mile (378-kilometer) trip between the state’s biggest tourist hubs. The company is charging single riders $158 round-trip for business class and $298 for first-class, with families and groups able to buy four round-trip tickets for $398. Thirty-two trains will run daily. Brightline, which began running its neon-yellow trains the 70 miles (112 kilometers) between Miami and West Palm Beach in 2018, is the first private intercity passenger service to begin U.S. operations in a century. It’s also building a line connecting Southern California and...

Lotto 649 winning numbers for Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:23 GMT

TORONTO — The winning numbers in Wednesday’s Lotto 649 draw for an estimated $5 million: 10, 14, 17, 22, 25 & 38.Bonus: 24The winning number for the guaranteed $1 million: 44684443-02In the event of any discrepancy between this list and the official winning numbers, the latter shall prevail. The Canadian Press

Outdated headline sparks vicious online hate campaign directed at Las Vegas newspaper

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:23 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A Las Vegas newspaper is being viciously attacked online for its coverage of an alleged murder of a retired police chief, either because of a misunderstanding or a deliberate attempt to mislead.The “firehose of hatred” has led the Las Vegas Review-Journal to sift through email directed at one of its reporters to protect her from the worst of it, the paper’s executive editor, Glenn Cook, said on Wednesday.On Aug. 18, four days after a 64-year-old former California police chief, Andreas Probst, was killed when he was struck by a hit-and-run motorist while riding his bike in Las Vegas, Review-Journal reporter Sabrina Schnur interviewed his family for a story.The headline: “Retired police chief killed in bike crash remembered for laugh, love of coffee.”Then the story took a sinister turn.Video emerged, apparently taken by a teenage passenger in the car that hit Probst, showing that it was no accident. Charges against the 17-year-old driver were upgraded to murder o...

Japanese crown prince begins Vietnam visit, marking 50 years of diplomatic relations

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:23 GMT

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Japanese Crown Prince Akishino, the younger brother of Emperor Naruhito, met Vietnamese Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan on Thursday as he started his visit to Hanoi marking the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two nations.The visit by Akishino and his wife, Crown Princess Kiko, comes at a time when Tokyo is pushing to deepen ties with Southeast Asia and other emerging nations to tackle regional and global challenges.Akishino stressed the importance of ties between the two nations at a news conference in Japan last week and said, “I hope we can contribute as part of an effort to promote friendly relations between the two countries.”The couple also laid a wreath at the mausoleum of Vietnam’s first president, Ho Chi Minh, and are scheduled to meet President Vo Van Thuong before traveling to Hoi An in central Vietnam.The trip is Akishino’s third to Vietnam after earlier visits in 1999 and 2012.Bilateral trade between the two countries was n...

Kari Lake’s 3rd trial to begin after unsuccessful lawsuit challenging her loss in governor’s race

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:23 GMT

PHOENIX (AP) — Kari Lake, the Republican who unsuccessfully challenged her defeat in the 2022 Arizona governor’s race, is headed to another trial Thursday in a separate lawsuit, this time asking to review ballot envelopes signed by approximately 1.3 million early voters in the state’s most populous county.The former TV anchor has already lost two trials that challenged her loss to Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs by more than 17,000 votes. In the second trial, a judge rejected a misconduct claim Lake made about ballot signature-verification efforts in Maricopa County, home to Phoenix and where more than 60% of the state’s voters live.Lake’s latest case doesn’t challenge her defeat but instead is a public records lawsuit that asks to review all early ballot envelopes with voter signatures in Maricopa County, where officials had denied her request for those documents.She is among the most vocal of last year’s Republican candidates promoting former President Donald Trump’s election li...