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News Roundup: Strikes, Spacewalks, and Movie Maps

GM Strike Will Continue Until Members Approve New Deal

General Motors (GM) has reached a deal that could end a month-long strike by its workers in the US.

Nearly 50,000 people belonging to a workers’ group known as the United Auto Workers (UAW) haven’t worked in a month. They’re on strike in an effort to get better job conditions. The strike is costing GM about $100 million a day.

On Wednesday, GM announced that it had reached an agreement with UAW leaders. But on Thursday, the UAW said workers would remain on strike until members could vote on the new deal.

UAW workers strike at a GM factory in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Nearly 50,000 people from the United Auto Workers (UAW) haven’t worked in a month. They’re on strike in an effort to get better job conditions. But the strike could be ending soon. The picture shows UAW workers striking at a GM factory in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Source: Kay Tillow, Unions for Single Payer

The UAW wants GM to keep its factories open and not cut jobs. They want better pay and conditions, especially for newer and temporary workers, who are paid far less.

Though the deal met most of the UAW’s demands for workers, it still allowed GM to close several factories, which means thousands of lost jobs. Some UAW members may not accept that.

The UAW plans to vote on the deal next Thursday. Any deal the workers reach with GM will later affect many more auto workers, since the UAW plans to make similar deals with other US car makers. 

NASA Astronauts Make First All-Female Spacewalk

On Friday, two NASA astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) took part in the first ever all-female spacewalk.

Astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir left the ISS around eight in the morning. They spent over seven hours outside the station working to replace a battery charger.

Christina Koch (left) and Jessica Meir getting ready for their spacewalk on Friday.
Astronauts Christina Koch (left) and Jessica Meir left the ISS around eight in the morning on the first ever all-female spacewalk. They spent over seven hours outside the station working to replace a battery charger. The picture shows the two getting ready for their spacewalk on Friday.
(Source: NASA.)

Though women have taken part in many spacewalks since Russian Svetlana Savitskaya first went out in 1984, this is the first time the team sent out has been just women.

A similar spacewalk was planned for March, but had to be cancelled because NASA didn’t have enough spacesuits that were the right size. 

“Abominable” Map Causes Uproar

The animated children’s movie “Abominable” is causing political trouble in Asia. Why? Because of a line on a map shown in a short section of the movie.

The line, called the “nine-dash line”, covers most of the South China Sea and it represents waters that China says belong to it. But there are five other countries which say that parts of this sea belong to them.

Nine-dash line shown in map submitted by the People's Republic of China to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.
The line, called the “nine-dash line”, covers most of the South China Sea and it represents waters that China says belong to it. But there are five other countries which say that parts of this sea belong to them. The nine dashes are the black dashed lines in the water.
(Source: PRC/UN [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.)

In spite of the disagreement, China has been acting like most of the South China Sea belongs to it, building on islands in the area and patrolling the waters with its ships.

In Vietnam, after people noticed the map in the movie, “Abominable” was pulled from theaters. In Malaysia, the scene with the map has been cut from the movie. In the Philippines, the government is still deciding what to do. One Filipino politician has called on people to stop watching movies by DreamWorks, the company that made the movie.

The map on the wall in the movie "Abominable", with China's "Nine-dash line" around the South China Sea.
In Vietnam, after people noticed the map in the movie, “Abominable” was pulled from theaters. In Malaysia, the scene with the map has been cut from the movie. The screenshot shows the map on the wall in “Abominable”. Part of the “nine-dash line” can be seen just to the right of the girl’s upper arm.
(Source: Screenshot of Abominable Trailer, DreamWorksTV.)

The map isn’t really important in the movie, which tells the story of a young girl who must help return an imaginary creature called a Yeti, or “Abominable Snowman”, back to his home.

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