The Screen Actors, Television and Radio Artists Union (SAG-AFTRA) went on strike Friday, following screenwriters after negotiations for a new contract with studios and streaming services collapsed.
Hollywood’s two major unions are striking at the same time for the first time since 1960, when Ronald Reagan was president of the Screen Actors Guild, MarketWatch notes.
SAG-AFTRA, whose members include 160,000 movie actors, journalists, announcers, presenters and stuntmen, and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents employers including Disney, Netflix and Amazon, failed to reach an agreement after the previous three-year contract expired.
During negotiations, the Screen Actors Guild demanded a number of issues be addressed, including low wages, the need to shoot video auditions at their own expense and the unregulated use of artificial intelligence.
The AMPTP said it offered the Guild a favorable agreement that included the largest minimum wage increase in 35 years, an increase in pension and health contribution limits, and an “innovative solution” to artificial intelligence that would protect actors’ rights to use their digital image.
“Unfortunately, the union has chosen a path that will lead to financial hardship for thousands upon thousands of people involved in the film industry,” the alliance said in a statement.
According to the rules of SAG-AFTRA, during the strike actors can not participate in film production, including shooting, auditions, rehearsals and voice-overs, as well as attend premieres and in any way promote projects with their participation. The current bans call into question the actors’ appearance at the 75th ceremony of the prestigious Emmy Awards, which will be held in September.
Earlier, the writers’ strike halted work on the show “Saturday Night Live” as well as several TV series, including “Very Strange Things,” “Sly and Family Guy.” The number of paused TV shows and movie projects is expected to increase following the breakdown in negotiations between SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP.
The negative balance of Ukraine’s foreign trade in goods in January-May 2023 increased nine times compared to the same period of 2022 – to $8.975 billion from $1.004 billion, the State Statistics Service (Gosstat) said on Friday. According to its data, exports of goods from Ukraine for the period compared to January-May 2022 decreased by 15.6% to $16.448 billion, while imports increased by 24.1% to $25.423 billion.
The State Statistics Committee specified that in May-2023 compared to April-2023, seasonally adjusted exports decreased by 0.8% to $3.221 billion, while imports increased by 2.8% to $5.488 billion.
The seasonally adjusted foreign trade balance in May-2023 was negative at $2.267 billion, while it was also negative at $2.093 billion in the previous month.
The export-import coverage ratio in January-May 2023 amounted to 0.65 (0.95 in January-May 2022).
The State Statistics Service specified that foreign trade operations were conducted with partners from 223 countries.
Dobrobut medical network and Superhumans center for prosthetics and reconstructive surgery signed a memorandum of understanding and cooperation, under which patients who applied for prosthetics in Superhumans and need additional treatment before prosthetics, will receive medical care in the treatment and diagnostic center “Dobrobut”.
Superhumans patients can also receive physical rehabilitation at Dobrobut’s rehabilitation department, according to a press release from the nurse network.
Patients will receive treatment at no cost, thanks to the support of the Direct Relief and Dobrobut Foundation charities.
Dobrobut emphasized that during the full-scale war, the number of amputations in Ukraine tripled on average compared to previous years.
“Today there are more than 300 patients waiting for prosthetics at Superhumans Center. Of these, about 20% need additional treatment and surgeries for stump formation and preparation for prosthetics. That is why close cooperation and exchange of experience between Superhumans, which helps Ukrainians with amputations to get quality prostheses, and the medical network “Dobrobut”, which provides high-quality modern medical care, is so important today”, – emphasized in “Dobrobut”.
“Dobrobut is one of the largest private medical networks in Ukraine. The network includes 17 medical centers in Kyiv and Kyiv region, emergency service, dentistry and pharmacies. Medical centers of the network provide services for children and adults in more than 75 medical fields. Dobrobut specialists perform more than 7,000 surgeries annually. The network employs 2,700 employees.
Since the first days of the war, Dobrobut’s medical and diagnostic center in Kiev has been providing free 24/7 urgent medical care to Ukraine’s defenders and the population. Thanks to the activities of the Direct Relief International and Dobrobut Foundation charitable foundations, the Dobrobut Treatment and Diagnostic Center can provide free medical care to wounded military personnel and people stranded by war. “Dobrobut was the first private network in Ukraine to receive funding from the U.S. federal government. With the support of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), Dobrobut will build a state-of-the-art physical rehabilitation center.
Superhumans Center is an all-Ukrainian modern center for prosthetics, reconstructive surgery, rehabilitation and psychological support of war-affected adults and children. All services of the center are free of charge.
The mission of Superhumans is to build high-quality expertise in prosthetics and high-tech medical interventions in Ukraine, to bring the best medical practices to Ukraine.
The first Superhumans Center started operating in Lviv in April 2023, and since then about 40 patients have been prosthetized. The center has its own prosthesis production facility equipped with Ottobock, a rehabilitation department, a swimming pool, a hydrotherapy department, and a psychological support department. A reconstructive surgery department will also be operational in the near future. There are also plans to open Superhumans clinics in other Ukrainian cities.
Ministry of Economy and Trade has developed a draft resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers “On Amendments to the Annex to the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 957 of October 30, 2008”, which provides for an increase in the minimum wholesale and retail prices for certain types of alcoholic beverages.
According to information on the website of the Ministry of Economy, the current size of the minimum wholesale and retail prices for alcoholic beverages was established by the relevant Cabinet of Ministers’ resolution No. 748 in September 2018, except for retail prices for sparkling wines and carbonated wine drinks.
“The changes that have occurred in the socio-economic and tax spheres, in particular, the growth of the expenditure component of prices (raw materials, components, energy, labor costs, etc.), as well as the change of excise tax rates for alcoholic beverages on March 1, 2022, have led to the fact that the size of minimum prices does not correspond to the real costs of economic entities for the production and sale of alcoholic beverages and requires adjustment,” – noted in the explanatory note to the document.
The new resolution proposes to increase the size of minimum wholesale and retail prices for certain types of alcoholic beverages depending on the code of products from the UKTVED, including retail prices for vodka and liquor products to increase by 13%, whiskey, rum and gin – by 25%, cognac (brandy) – by 11-12%.
The rates for wine products, in particular, ordinary (non-sparkling) wines will be increased by 62%; for cider, perry, wines, vermouth and other fermented beverages (including mixtures of fermented beverages and mixtures based on fermented beverages), the actual strength of which is higher than 1.2% of volumetric units of ethyl alcohol, but not higher than 22% of volumetric units of ethyl alcohol – by 61-71%; for sparkling wines and carbonated wine drinks – by 28%.
Notes to the Decree will be supplemented with a new paragraph, according to which the minimum retail price for wine products (except for cider and perry (without added alcohol), fermented drinks obtained exclusively as a result of natural fermentation of fruit, berry and fruit-berry juices, with alcohol content not exceeding 8.5% of volume units (without added alcohol) in Tetra-Pak and Bag in box packaging will be determined as a derivative of the approved minimum price for the corresponding products in glass containers with a capacity of 0.7 liters, in other containers with a capacity of 0.7 liters.
All changes in the descriptions of goods and their grouping by codes according to UKTVED will be harmonized with the Tax Code of Ukraine.
The U.S. state budget deficit in June amounted to $227.768 billion, which is 2.6 times higher than the figure for the same month last year ($88.842 billion), the country’s Treasury Department reported.
Budget revenues fell 9.2% to $418.317 billion.
Expenditures increased 17.6% to $646.085 billion.
For the first nine months of fiscal year 2023, which began Oct. 1, the U.S. budget deficit was $1 trillion 392.64 billion, down from $515.067 billion a year earlier.
The volume of revenues in the U.S. budget since the beginning of the current fiscal year decreased by 11% to $3.413 trillion, while expenditures increased by 10% to $4.805 trillion.
As previously reported, the negative balance of the U.S. state budget at the end of 2022 fiscal year halved and amounted to $1.375 trillion.
A record deficit of $3.1 trillion was recorded in the country at the end of fiscal year 2020. The last time the U.S. budget was in surplus was in 2001.
Read more about the situation in the economy of Ukraine and the world in the video on the YoTube channel Club of Experts:
Tajikistan’s gross domestic product (GDP) reached 54.2 billion somoni in the first six months of this year, and its real growth amounted to 8.3%.
Such data were given at the meeting on summarizing the results of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) for the first half of this year, the NBT press department reported on Friday.
“During this period, the inflation rate amounted to 2.3%, which is 1.8% points lower than in the same period last year (…) The refinancing rate was revised based on the forecast of the impact of potential internal and external risks on the economy, taking into account that the inflation rate is at the lower level of the established target, and that inflation expectations of the population were reduced to 10.0% per annum,” the report said.
The current exchange rate is $1/10.89 somoni.
Read more about the situation in the economy of Ukraine and the world in the video on the YoTube channel Club of Experts:
