The vote, which followed the end of the strike on Sept. 27, officially brought to a close a bitter, five-month labor dispute. The actors remain on strike.
Hollywood film and TV writers voted overwhelmingly to approve a new three-year contract with the major entertainment studios, the Writers Guild of America said on Monday, formally bringing to a close a bitter five-month labor dispute.
During the one-week voting period, more than 8,500 writers submitted ballots, and the contract was ratified with 99 percent of the vote, according to the Writers Guild, which represents more than 11,000 screenwriters.
“Together we were able to accomplish what many said was impossible only six months ago,” said Meredith Stiehm, the president of the Writers Guild’s western branch, in an email to members.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which bargains on behalf of the major studios, congratulated the union in a statement, adding, “It is important progress for our industry that writers are back to work.”
Deutsche Welle
There have been appeals for the the global community to help Afghanistan following Saturday's deadly 6.3 magnitude earthquake which the Taliban government said killed more than 2,000 people in the west of the country.
Aid group CARE USA — a member of CARE International umbrella — said in a statement that the country was already in the grip of a humanitarian crisis when the latest earthquake struck and was desperately underfunded.
"The current Humanitarian Response Plan that aims to support 23.7 million people in the country is only 33.9% funded, while needs are increasing rapidly," the organization said in a statement.
"The fast-approaching winter, combined with this new disaster, is likely to exacerbate the existing challenges," the organization stressed.
Deutsche Welle
A US delegation met with Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss relations between the superpowers. Sanctions and spying as well as economic and geopolitical disputes have caused tensions for the two.
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday told a delegation of top US lawmakers that relations between their respective countries would impact "the destiny of mankind."
"How China and the United States get along with each other in the face of a world of change and turmoil will determine the future and destiny of mankind," said the Chinese host.
Calling China-US ties "the most important bilateral relationship in the world," Xi emphasized, "I have said many times, including to several presidents, that we have 1,000 reasons to improve China-US relations, but not one reason to ruin them."
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who led the six-person US delegation, agreed with Xi, saying: "Our countries, together, will shape this century. That is why we must manage our relationship responsibly and respectfully."
Al Jazeera
Since the Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip began on Saturday, more than 73,000 Palestinian residents living along the eastern regions near the Israeli frontier have left their homes to take shelter in United Nations refugee agency schools.
According to Adnan Abu Hasna, a media spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), people are arriving from all parts of the Gaza Strip, as the area faces intense aerial bombardment.
“Residents have taken refuge in 64 schools, with more coming, as they believe that they are the safest places in the Gaza Strip because they are affiliated with the United Nations,” Abu Hasna said.
Al Jazeera
Saturday’s surprise attack by Hamas has left Israelis in shock, outraged at a government many feel failed to protect them – but analysts say the political fallout will have to wait as the army wages war in Gaza.
The attack, which Israel’s intelligence services appear to have completely missed, marked “a colossal failure”, said retired Colonel Miri Eisin, the managing director of Israel’s International Institute for Counter-Terrorism.
“Critical voices will come out, but that’s not the focus in Israel right now. We need to get through this [war], then we will start pointing fingers,” she told Al Jazeera. “It will be harsh and horrible, but it will [come] after we’ve stabilised.”
Hamas launched the unprecedented operation at dawn on Saturday, firing thousands of rockets into southern Israel, sending fighters deep into Israeli territory and abducting more than 100 Israelis.
Israel swiftly responded with air attacks on the overcrowded and besieged Gaza Strip.
The Guardian
Robert F Kennedy Jr, the scion of the Kennedy political family who has spent the last six months running for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination, announced on Monday he would continue his long-shot pursuit of the White House as an independent.
The 69-year-old conspiracy theorist and vaccination opponent gave a fiery speech from Philadelphia, declaring his “independence from the Democratic party and all other parties”, and telling a gathering of several hundred supporters of his “pain” at leaving the party of his uncle and father, John F Kennedy and Robert F Kennedy.
“I’m here to declare myself an independent candidate for president for the United States. I’m here to join you in making a new declaration of independence for our entire nation,” he said, in a lengthy and often rambling speech taking aim at Wall Street, big pharma, military contractors, the “mercenary media”, and the “two-party establishment” he said was “leading us all over a cliff”.
The Guardian
One in seven adults and one in eight children may be hooked on ultra-processed foods (UPFs), experts have said, prompting calls for some products to be labelled as addictive.
Recent studies have linked UPFs such as ice-cream, fizzy drinks and ready meals to poor health, including an increased risk of cancer, weight gain and heart disease. Global consumption of the products is soaring and UPFs now make up more than half the average diet in the UK and US.
Now researchers say the way some people consume such foods could “meet the criteria for diagnosis of substance use disorder”.
Behaviours that could meet this criteria include: intense cravings, symptoms of withdrawal, less control over intake, and continued use despite such consequences as obesity, binge eating disorder, poorer physical and mental health, and lower quality of life, they said.
NPR
Israel's intelligence and security services have been called into question for failing to anticipate the large-scale attack launched by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on Saturday.
Following some reports, about 1,000 militants gunned down civilians and military targets inside Israel in an attack unprecedented in scale.
According to Israeli media, at least 700 Israelis were killed and more than 2,100 were wounded. Israel responded by launching air strikes on targets in the Gaza Strip. More than 400 Palestinians have been killed and more than 2,300 injured.
The death toll is likely to grow as fighting continues.
NPR
Hamas' attack on Israel over the weekend caught many people off guard — including two American lawmakers who were visiting the country when the violence broke out.
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., traveled to Israel separately and were in different cities on Saturday, but statements from their offices suggest they shared a similar experience. Both sheltered in place in their hotels and were able to return to the U.S. the next day.
Goldman had traveled to Tel Aviv with his wife and three children for a family bar mitzvah. He told TODAY that they were woken up around 6:30 a.m. by sirens and scrambled to seek shelter in a stairwell, an experience they repeated several times throughout the day as the barrage of rockets continued.
NPR
PARIS — In the 11th arrondissement, a middle-to-working class neighborhood in the east of Paris, if you walk out your front door, you can arrive at a preschool in one minute. A bookstore in three minutes. A cheese store in four minutes. Baguette for that cheese? Bakery's across the street.
Grocery store and pharmacy, five minutes. Parks, restaurants, metro stops, a hospital: all within a 15-minute walk. I know this because I used to live there, on a tiny cobblestone street with buildings covered in vines.
This is a 15-minute city, says Carlos Moreno, a professor at University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, who met me on the banks of the Seine River. Moreno says that in a 15-minute city, a person can access key things in their life — work, food, schools and recreation — within a short walk, bike, or transit ride of their home.
Reuters
WASHINGTON, Oct 9 (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has taken Elon Musk to court again, and this time it may win.
The agency on Thursday asked a federal court to force Musk to testify for its investigation into his $44 billion takeover of social media giant Twitter, the third time the SEC has taken Musk to court.
It sued him in 2018 and again in 2019 in relation to a tweet Musk sent saying that he had funding secured to take his electric carmaker Tesla (TSLA.O) private. The 2018 lawsuit was quickly settled on the condition that lawyers vet Musk's future tweets. The 2019 lawsuit by the SEC trying to enforce that deal did not go their way.