With the Writers Guild of America strike now entering its second month, there is little sign the job action will end anytime soon, which doesn't bode well for fall TV programs.

Hollywood

Writers strikes impacting hit shows, movies

Film crews are a regular sign of summer here, but the signs are fewer these days. A year ago at this time we had 25 productions shooting in the city of Toronto. This year we've got 15. Thanks in large part to streaming, the industry is booming in the city. A record $2.5 billion spent in 2021 alone. See from Apple, Titans, The Boys, Star Trek, Handmaid's Tale. The Writers Guild of America felt it wasn't seeing its share and went on strike a month ago. So if those scripts stop being created, then production has to stop as well. With no fresh content for fall, shows already affected include Abbott Elementary, Stranger Things, and The Last of Us where production delays could push filming in Vancouver until later in 2024. Many Canadian screenwriters have business on both sides of the border. Yeah, there's a lot of opportunity to, especially with the streaming world, to get your name out there in the U.S. to take meetings. The strikes change that. A lot of the development I've had in the U.S. with getting projects out there, a lot of the stuff I'm doing with my American manager is currently on pause. Hey everybody, Mark Ruffalo here at the WJA strike. With actors joining picket lines, the writers seem to be winning the PR battle. But we too have power if, if we're willing to use it. A battle that could intensify with strike deadlines looming for both the actors and directors guild. They're all spending too much money. This marketing professor says the writers have miscalculated, handing studios a gift when they're under pressure to cut costs. They don't want to cut their spending because they're in an arms race. So what would be the best of all worlds? A multilaterally enforced pause on spending. So I got to believe in the boardrooms of these companies. They're saying to SAG and the other unions, have at it. Another sign the drama behind the scenes could last until the fall. Eli Glasner, CBC News, Toronto.

Hamas's armed wing released video of two men held hostage in Gaza who are seen alive and urging Israeli authorities to strike a deal for the release of all the remaining captives.

Rafah

Israel-Gaza War

Hamas releases video of two Israeli hostages

Defence Minister Richard Marles has revealed a fresh aid package to support Ukraine in its war with Russia, including $30 million in funding for drones. It marks more than one billion dollars in funding from Australia since the war began.

Lviv

Ukraine Invasion

Australia announces $100m in Ukraine aid

Tens of thousands of people have marched across the country calling for an end to violence against women. The Prime Minister addressed the crowd in Canberra where he called the issue a 'national crisis'.

Canberra

Prime Minister joins rally calling for end to gendered violence

Israeli protesters have shut down streets in Tel Aviv demanding the release of hostages and the political end of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Anger has been growing inside Israel as the Gaza war drags on for more than 200 days.

Tel Aviv-Yafo

Thousands block Tel Aviv streets in protest

After weeks of delays, negotiations, and distractions, Israel appears to be gearing up for its ground invasion in southern Gaza. Dozens of Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles have been seen near Rafah, Gaza’s last 'safe zone'.

Israel 'gearing up' for Rafah ground offensive

Ohio police released video of a Black man who died at a local hospital after repeatedly telling officers "I can't breathe" as they pinned him to the floor of a bar and handcuffed him, evoking memories of the killing of George Floyd in 2020.

Canton

'I can't breathe' man tells Ohio cops before death

Witnesses in Gaza reported fresh Israeli strikes overnight around Rafah. It comes as Hamas says it is considering an Israeli ceasefire proposal, after a delegation from Egypt arrived in Israel to resume stalled negotiations.

Sderot

Gaza hit by fresh strikes amid ceasefire talks

The US military has started building a large floating pier off Gaza's coast to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid, the defence department has said. Ships will deliver aid from Cyprus to the pier where it will be loaded onto trucks to transfer across Gaza.

Jerusalem

US begins building floating base to boost aid

King Charles will return to his public duties next week for the first time since his February cancer diagnosis, visiting a cancer treatment centre. There fears his Australian trip will be delayed, while he continues treatment for his own cancer battle.

Windsor

King Charles resuming public duties but Australian trip in limbo

Demonstrations have taken place across the country after a spate of domestic violence deaths, including Molly Ticehurst. Protestors held signs saying ‘no more’ calling for immediate action against male-inflicted violence.

Council of the City of Sydney

Thousands rally across Australia against domestic violence

The Russian and Turkish flags were lowered to mark the closure of a center set up to monitor a ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh, as Russian peacekeepers ended a multi-year deployment in the strategic South Caucasus region.

Baku

Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire center closes as Russia withdraws

Britain's King Charles will return to public duties next week for the first time since being diagnosed with cancer as he makes good progress following treatment and a period of recuperation, Buckingham Palace said.

London

King Charles to resume public duties after cancer diagnosis

Students blocked access to Paris' prestigious Sciences Po university over the war in Gaza on Friday (April 26), demanding the institution condemn Israel's actions, in a protest that echoed similar demonstrations on U.S. campuses.

Paris

Pro-Palestinian protesters still occupying Sciences Po campus

The number of people killed in floods in Kenya due to heavier than usual rainfall since the start of the monsoon in March has risen to 70, a government spokesperson said Friday. Kenya and other countries in East Africa, a region highly vulnerable to climate change, have been pounded by heavier than usual rainfall in recent weeks, compounded by the El Nino weather pattern.

Nairobi

Climate Crisis

Kenya flood death toll since March climbs to 70

An Australian journalist has been named as a key figure in Donald Trump's criminal trial. Dylan Howard, the former editor of the National Enquirer in the U.S. accused of buying and burying negative stories as part of a deal to help him become President.

New York

U.S. Presidential Election

The Australian journalist caught up in Trump trial

A surging domestic economy and rising inflation will see the Reserve Bank change its mind and increase interest rates as many as three times this year, analysts have warned.

Reserve Bank set to raise interest rates, expert predicts

The Prime Minister has labelled the security guard murdered during the Bondi stabbing attack a 'national hero' during his funeral today. Mourners gathering at the Baitul Huda Mosque in Marsden Park, Sydney to honour Faraz Tahir.

Marsden Park

Mourners farewell Bondi security guard Faraz Tahir

After a crucial hearing, U.S. Supreme Court justices are weighing arguments for and against Donald Trump's claims of presidential immunity from 2020 election interference charges, but a ruling will take time.

Washington

U.S. Supreme Court weighs arguments on Trump immunity case

Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction has been overturned after New York’s highest court ruled the trial judge improperly allowed women to testify about allegations against him that were not part of the case.

Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction overturned

Palestinians have begun evacuating Rafah as Israel steps up airstrikes. Israel plans to go forward with a ground operation in the southern Gaza city despite warnings from allies that it could cause mass casualties.

Israel steps up airstrikes on Rafah ahead of ground operation

After weeks of delays, Haiti is due to swear in a presidential transition council. Gang violence has devastated the economy and social services are on the brink of collapse. Gang leaders say talks over Haiti's political future must include them.

Port-au-Prince

Haiti interim transition council to be sworn in

Israeli forces are carrying out "offensive action" across southern Lebanon, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said without specifying whether ground troops had crossed the border. He also claimed that "half of Hezbollah's commanders in southern Lebanon have been eliminated" in months of violence.

Beirut

Israel says forces carrying out 'offensive action' in south Lebanon

In a deal facilitated by Qatar, Russia and Ukraine will exchange nearly 50 displaced children due to Moscow's invasion, announced Maria Lvova-Belova, the Kremlin's children's rights commissioner, in Doha.

Doha

Russia and Ukraine to exchange dozens of displaced children

Rudy Giuliani, a former lawyer for Donald Trump, is among 18 people charged in Arizona with illegally seeking to claim the state's 2020 electoral votes for the then-U.S. president.

Phoenix

Giuliani indicted in election vote-rigging case

Dozens of whales have died after 160 became beached during a mass stranding event in WA's south-west. Community members turned out this morning to the mouth of Toby Inlet at Geographe Bay near Dunsborough, where dozens of pilot whales were stuck in shallow water.

Geographe

Mass whale stranding in southwest WA

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has completed a two-day trek of the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea, alongside PNG Prime Minister James Marape in commemoration of ANZAC Day

Kokoda

Australian Prime Minister's Kokoda pilgrimage

Five teenagers have appeared in court, after being arrested in connection with the stabbing of the Bishop in the Wakely church stabbing. Counter-terrorism police are continuing searches in south-west Sydney and Goulburn.

Wakeley

Teenagers face court over terrorism offences

U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to sign a law that sets a January 2025 deadline for Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell its U.S. operation. Lawmakers behind the ban have warned of national security risks from the popular social video app.

Biden to sign law that could ban TikTok in U.S.

Morning rush hour in central London turned chaotic Wednesday as five escaped military horses galloped at full speed through busy city streets, injuring at least four people. All five horses were rounded up and given veterinary care.

Runaway horses cause peak-hour chaos in London

The United Nations is calling for an inquiry after bodies were found beneath Gaza's Nasser Hospital, in the city of Khan Younis. The hospital was recently abandoned by Israeli troops who said they’d finished searching it for Hamas fighters.