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Trump resigns from Screen Actors Guild as union considers disciplinary action

The Screen Actors Guild was holding a disciplinary meeting to consider revoking former President Trump’s membership, but before SAG could make any announcements, Mr. Trump announced he’s breaking up with them first. Mr. Trump sent a resignation letter to the organization’s president, Gabrielle Carteris, writing “I no longer wish to be associated with your union.”

“I write to you today regarding the so-called Disciplinary Committee hearing aimed at revoking my union membership. Who cares!” the former commander in chief wrote. “While I’m not familiar with your work, I’m very proud of my work on movies such as ‘Home Alone 2,’ ‘Zoolander’ and ‘Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps’; and television shows including ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,’ ‘Saturday Night Live,’ and of course, one of the most successful shows in television history, ‘The Apprentice’ — to name just a few!”  

The SAG-AFTRA National Board voted overwhelmingly in late January to find probable cause that Mr. Trump violated the organization’s constitution, citing Mr. Trump’s role in the January 6 assault on the Capitol and his threats against journalist. 

After claiming that he’s “greatly helped the cable news business,” taking shots at MSNBC and CNN, and claiming SAG is attempting to distract from its dismal record as a union, the real estate mogul ex-president said he’s through with SAG. “You have done nothing for me,” Mr. Trump wrote.

In response, SAG issued a two-word statement: “Thank you.”

In addition to actors, SAG-AFTRA represents also broadcast journalists across the country, and the organization claimed reports of intimidation and physical assaults “escalated” throughout Mr. Trump’s presidency.

Mr. Trump, according to his financial disclosures, has received a pension from SAG.

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US expresses ‘grave concern’ over reports of military coup in Burma, ‘will take action’

U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken condemned reports that the Burmese military took control of the country and detained senior leaders—including Aung San Suu Kyi, its de facto leader—and called for the military to “reverse these actions immediately.”

Myawaddy TV, which is controlled by the military, announced the takeover and cited a section of the military-drafted constitution that allows the military to take control in times of national emergency. The presenter said the reason for the takeover was, in part due, to the government’s failure to act on the military’s claims of voter fraud in last November’s election and its failure to postpone the election because of the coronavirus crisis. A state of emergency has been declared for a year.

FILE – In this May 6, 2016, file photo, Aung San Suu Kyi, left, Myanmar’s foreign minister, walks with senior General Min Aung Hlaing, right, Myanmar military’s commander-in-chief, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar.(AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo, File)

The National League for Democracy, which is led by Suu Kyi, said in a statement obtained by Reuters that those in the country should reject the military actions.

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“The actions of the military are actions to put the country back under a dictatorship,” the statement read. “I urge people not to accept this, to respond and wholeheartedly to protest against the coup by the military.”

Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said the U.S. is “alarmed” by reports from Burma. President Biden has been briefed on the unfolding situation by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.

“We continue to affirm our strong support for Burma’s democratic institutions and, in coordination with our regional partners, urge the military and all other parties to adhere to democratic norms and the rule of law, and to release those detained today,” she said. She said the U.S. will “take action against those responsible” if the steps “are not reversed.”

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The takeover is a sharp reversal of the partial yet significant progress toward democracy Myanmar made in recent years following five decades of military rule and international isolation that began in 1962. It would also be shocking fall from power for Suu Kyi, who led the democracy struggle despite years under house arrest and and won a Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts. The BBC reported that the country was ruled by the military until reforms began in 2011. The report said that the military did poorly in the November elections and Suu Kyi’s party did “even better than in 2015.”

The military, however, maintains its actions are legally justified, though Suu Kyi’s party spokesman as well as many international observers have said it is in effect a coup. The commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, is said to be in control of the country. ABC News reported that he is accused of human rights abuses against the Rohingyas.

Thant Myint-U, a historian of Myanmar, told the New York Timesm that the doors in the country just opened to a “different, almost certainly darker future.”

“Myanmar is a country already at war with itself, awash in weapons, with millions barely able to feed themselves, deeply divided along religious and ethnic lines,” he said. He continued, “I’m not sure anyone will be able to control what comes next.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report

 

 

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G.I. Joe’s Fortnite collaboration includes a Snake Eyes skin and action figure

With all of its recent licensed characters, which includes everyone from Sarah Connor to The Mandalorian, the virtual battlefield of Fortnite is starting to resemble a playground full of action figures. When you think about it like that, a collaboration with G.I. Joe makes a lot of sense. With that in mind, Epic and Hasbro announced that iconic character Snake Eyes will be available as part of the Fortnite universe starting today — both in-game and as a physical toy.

The new version of the character is called Snake Eyes: Zero Point edition, an allusion to a key part of Fortnite lore (one which took on more significance this season). The in-game version will be available starting on January 30th for 1,800 V-bucks, while a 6-inch-tall action figure is also available to preorder for $39.99 via Hasbro Pulse. Hasbro says that the figure will feature accessories inspired by “the rich history of the Snake Eyes character” as well as a few that will be familiar to Fortnite fans, like the classic Boogie Bomb.

There have already been plenty of toys and figures based on Fortnite’s original characters, of course, but this collaboration hints at something different, as licensing deals become a bigger part of the battle royale. Next stop, metaverse.

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GameStop frenzy has Washington teasing action on Reddit vs. Wall Street

A number of Democrats and Republicans united in opposition to the strict limits imposed by Robinhood and other online stock brokerages on the purchasing of GameStop and other stocks swept up in a Reddit-fueled trading frenzy this week.

Members of Congress such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Ro Khanna, D-Calif., Ted Lieu, D-Calif., Ken Buck, R-Colo., and Sens. Pat Toomey, R-Pa. and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, were among those who criticized the move, with many calling for hearings that Democratic leaders say will soon take place in both the House and Senate as what began as an internet movement continues to roil Wall Street.

Lawmakers trained attention on the volatility surrounding GameStop’s stock much like many others this week. The stock climbed from $4 only a few months ago to more than $400 this week, juiced by an online movement not dissimilar to others that have broadly altered the political landscape in recent years. At the same time, hedge funds that made large bets on GameStop’s stock cratering — known as “shorting” — began to pile up big losses. Then the brokerages instituted limits, leading to charges of collusion with the larger financial entities facing big losses.

Robinhood’s co-founder, Vladimir Tenev, said hours after the change that it had no choice but to limit the stocks as it and its peers were forced by obligations imposed by federal regulators. The decision “was not made on the direction of any market maker we route to or other market participants,” he said, adding that notions to the contrary amounted to “misinformation.”

For both progressive and more conservative members, there was a sense that the nation was watching a populist insurgency win out, however temporarily, against a so-called rigged system. Yet there is not broad consensus on policy goals to pursue in response to the brokerages limiting the ability for users to trade in the handful of stocks.

“There’s clearly bipartisan concern,” Michael Steel, a former spokesman to then-House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told NBC News. “I think the question is whether there are effective public policy changes that make sense and would make a difference.”

For the left, the restrictions were viewed as further evidence of Wall Street malfeasance, prompting demands for greater regulation. On the right, lawmakers decried the limits as flouting the free market, while comparing the curtailment to other claims of big tech “censorship.”

That dynamic — surface level agreement that gives way to existing partisan divides — mirrors the partisan gaps in other areas in which the parties have found some shared gripes, most notably with the major U.S. tech companies.

House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and incoming Senate Banking Committee Chairmen Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said their committees would both soon hold hearings to address the ordeal. Democrats and progressives also said the episode makes confirmation of President Joe Biden’s selection for Securities and Exchange Commission chair, Gary Gensler, all the more pressing.

“Bipartisan support for an investigation is good, but at the end of the day, if you believe someone like Ted Cruz will actually stand up to Wall Street, I have a GameStop short position I’d like to sell you,” said Tim Hogan, a Democratic consultant and former spokesperson for Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s presidential campaign.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., one of the leading Democrats on issues of financial regulation, wrote to the SEC’s acting commissioner on Friday questioning the extent to which a combination of large investors and online message boards impacted the fluctuation of GameStop’s stock, if any of those practices ran afoul of existing laws, and if the “wild swings” in GameStop and other companies’ value “present any systemic concerns for financial systems or the stock market?”

“There are rich people on both sides of this, people who are trying, it appears, to manipulate this market,” Warren told CNBC on Thursday. “And that’s what we don’t know the details of.”

Like many of the forces shaping American politics in recent years, the Reddit forum, r/WallStreetBets — which describes itself as “Like 4chan found a Bloomberg Terminal” and is credited with originating much of the trading frenzy — sells the idea of the little guy taking on the big establishment. Amid a pandemic that has triggered a surge in retail trading, its audience has grown substantially in recent months.

“You know something is about to go down when most members of Congress are United over Wall Street trying to f— us,” one user wrote Thursday, linking to a tweet from Lieu. Another wrote about how he was not particularly moved into entering the GameStop trade until it “morphed into a class movement.”

“I’m a big populist and think we need big changes in this country, especially a transfer of wealth and power from the elites to the people,” the user wrote. “When this morphed into a class movement I became obsessed.”

The wild ascension of the GameStop traders has been cheered on by some of the world’s wealthiest individuals, like Tesla CEO Elon Musk and the Winklevoss twins. Former President Donald Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., has also sought to cast himself as an ally of the Redditors.

Andy Surabian, a Republican strategist, said people are “probably underestimating how big of a moment this was,” adding the episode likely “did more to hurt Big Tech in the eyes of people who weren’t already gunning for them, than anything I’ve seen in recent history.”

Appearing to sense a shift in political winds, Robinhood listed a job Friday for a “Federal Affairs Manager” to “focus on federal advocacy and government affairs” dealing with laws and regulations.

“The job listing doesn’t mention this, but you’ll also get to know the House Financial Services Committee,” Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., tweeted, along with a crying-laughing emoji.



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