WGA Staff Authorizes Strike, Accuses Guild Leaders of Bad Faith Bargaining
The staff of the Writers Guild of America West (WGA) authorized a strike, alleging bad faith bargaining by guild leaders, weeks before the union is scheduled to negotiate with major studios, according to Variety. The union staff, who organized last spring, are demanding improved wages and job protections in their first contract. Negotiations with WGA West management have been ongoing, but details of the specific sticking points were not immediately available.
In other news, tensions between the U.S. and Iran escalated after President Donald Trump suggested military options were being considered following interventions in protests across Iran on January 28, 2026, Vox reported. Trump's remarks were prominently featured in Iranian newspapers, contributing to debates over potential U.S. intervention amid ongoing unrest. According to Vox, Cameron Peters, a staff editor, noted that Trump's statements heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran.
Meanwhile, in Minneapolis, President Trump's immigration advisor, Tom Homan, vowed to continue immigration operations despite public outcry over fatal shootings by federal immigration officials, evidence of indiscriminate stops of U.S. citizens, and allegations of unconstitutional search and seizure violations, Time reported. Homan, a former acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), was sent to Minnesota for emergency meetings with local officials. "We are not going to surrender our mission at all, we're just going to do it smarter," Homan told reporters on Thursday, according to Time.
In other developments, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla admitted to using what he termed "emotional blackmail" to motivate his team to meet ambitious deadlines during the COVID-19 pandemic, Fortune reported. In a conversation with Fortune Editor in Chief Alyson Shontell on the Titans and Disruptors of Industry podcast, Bourla explained that his team was tasked with creating a vaccine from scratch and significantly scaling up production. Prior to COVID, Pfizer produced only 200 million vaccine doses per year, a number that needed to increase rapidly to 3 billion.
President Trump is facing criticism for his approach to leadership, with Time drawing a contrast between his methods and those of President Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt used the presidency as a "bully pulpit" to persuade legislators, while Trump "bullies through coercion, threats, and retribution to serve his interests," according to Time. The article suggests that Trump's tactics are increasingly backfiring.
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