Actors’ Equity said today that it’s making its Open Access membership policy permanent, allowing any non-union theater worker to join who can demonstrate that they have worked professionally as an actor or stage manager within Equity’s geographical jurisdiction. The 51,000-member union had launched the Open Access policy in July of 2021, but it had a sunset date of May 1, […]

Asian stock markets are trading mostly higher on Thursday, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, as traders reacted positively to the US Fed’s decision not to raise its benchmark lending rate more than widely expected. The central bank raised its interest rates by another quarter point and signaled further rate hikes. Asian Markets closed mostly higher on […]

Twenty minutes after ending his State of the Union address, President Joe Biden was still shaking hands in the double doorway of the House chamber, even though many members having already left, much of the room was already cleared and Speaker Kevin McCarthy had already called it a night.  On TV, commentators and pundits were well into their renderings of […]

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday announced its widely anticipated decision to raise interest rates by another quarter point. After a two-day meeting, the Fed said it has decided to raise the target range for the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to 4.50 to 4.75 percent. The latest interest rate hike comes after the central bank raised rates by […]

European stocks were seeing modest gains on Wednesday, as investors digested mixed manufacturing data from China and awaited interest-rate decisions from the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England for directional cues. Meanwhile, Eurozone manufacturing PMI has been finalized at 48.8 in January, a five-month high and up from December’s 47.8. Separate data published by the […]

Maruti Suzuki’s contribution to the sales revenue of its Japanese parent, Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC), has touched the highest-ever figure during April-December of FY23. According to SMC’s results declared on Tuesday, Maruti’s share in its global revenues jumped from 33.42 per cent in April-December of FY22 to 40.93 per cent in the corresponding period of FY23. The previous peak was […]

No stranger to controversy, Joe Rogan offering the following generalization about Jews on his massively popular Spotify show: “The idea that Jewish people are not into money is ridiculous. That’s like saying Italians aren’t into pizza.” Rogan was speaking to MSNBC contributor Krystal Ball about Rep. Ilhan Omar’s 2019 tweet that Israel’s defenders in the U.S. were motivated solely by […]

The current Powerball jackpot has reached an estimated $747 million, and that staggering figure is part of a larger trend. Billion-dollar lottery jackpots, once rare, are happening more often than ever. Five of the 10 largest lotto jackpots occurred in 2021 and 2022, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. And 2022 alone saw jackpots that topped $1 billion. […]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) employment report for January showed that the number of jobs surged by 517,000. That was unexpected. Also, the jobless rate dropped to 3.4%, which is a 50-year low. When viewed through the lens of race and gender, the figures looked very different. The jobless rate for adult men was 3.2%. For adult women, it […]