Actors and other performers working in film and TV in the U.K. have voted by a landslide to refuse to be digitally scanned on set in order to secure artificial intelligence protections.

Member of performers union Equity working in film and TV voted in a ballot on AI protections, and decided by a massive majority that they are willing to take industrial action over AI. The ballot asked: “Are you prepared to refuse to be digitally scanned on set to secure adequate AI protections?,” and 99.6% of them responded “Yes.”

Equity commented: “Members are increasingly concerned about the use of their voice and likeness, including being digitally scanned on set. Equity is fighting for protections for performers based on the principles of explicit consent, transparency of terms, and fair remuneration for usage.”

The ballot turnout was 75.1%, with eligible voters made up of Equity’s membership working in film and TV – 7,732 actors, stunt performers and dancers.

The ballot was indicative, which means it is not binding and does not legally cover Equity members to take industrial action – for that, a statutory ballot is needed. However, the result shows the strength of feeling among performers about AI, and indicates they are prepared to refuse to be digitally scanned on set – a form of action short of a strike.

Equity is currently negotiating the agreements it holds with Pact, the trade body representing the majority of film and TV production companies in the U.K., to set minimum standards for pay, terms and conditions for performers working in the sector.

Equity will now write to Pact with the results and demand they come back to the negotiating table with a better deal on AI. If Pact refuses to enshrine the AI protections the union is seeking in the agreements, Equity will hold a statutory ballot for industrial action.

Equity’s general secretary, Paul W. Fleming, said: “Artificial intelligence is a generation-defining challenge. And for the first time in a generation, Equity’s film and TV members have shown that they are willing to take industrial action.

“90% of TV and film is made on these agreements. Over three quarters of artists working on them are union members. This shows that the workforce is willing to significantly disrupt production unless they are respected, and decades of erosion in terms and conditions begins to be reversed.

“The U.S. streamers and Pact need to step away from the brink, and respect this show of strength. We need adequate AI protections which build on, not merely replicate, those agreed after the SAG-AFTRA strike in the U.S.A. over two years ago.

“The union believes this can be resolved through negotiation, but 18 months of talks have led us to this stalemate. With fresh AI proposals, significant movement on royalties, and a package of modern terms and conditions, Pact and allied producers can turn this around. The ball is in their court when we return to the table in January.”

The Vatican on Thursday accepted the resignation of Cardinal Timothy Dolan and announced that Bishop Ronald Hicks of Joliet, Illinois, will become the next archbishop of New York.

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Arrests made at protests supporting imprisoned Palestine Action hunger strikers, as Gaza death toll surpasses 70,000.

Police in the United Kingdom have made their first arrests since announcing their intent to crack down on people making public calls to “globalise the Intifada” after Australia’s Bondi Beach attack, speciously linking largely peaceful protests against Israel’s genocidal war with a deadly targeting of a Jewish festival.

London’s Metropolitan Police posted on X late on Wednesday that it had made four arrests at pro-Palestinian protests held outside the Ministry of Justice in Westminster, “all involving the alleged shouting or chanting of slogans involving calls for intifada”.

The arrests were made at a demonstration that had been called in support of eight imprisoned hunger strikers, whose lives are in peril. They were jailed over connections to the Palestine Action group, just hours after the Metropolitan (Met) and Greater Manchester Police (GMT) said they would be “more assertive” in policing pro-Palestine protests to counter alleged anti-Semitism.

UK Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips backed the Met’s action. “I cannot think of any interpretation other than that [it] is inciting people to violence, which has the terrible consequences,” she was cited as saying by The Times of London.

But Ben Jamal, from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, pointed out in a statement that the Arabic word “intifada” means “shaking off or uprising against injustice”.

In the Palestinian context, the word is understood to mean civil uprising against military occupation and illegal settlement expansion, with key historical instances in 1987-93 and 2000-05, drawing brutal responses from Israel that left thousands of people dead.

Jamal criticised the lack of consultation over the new police stance, saying on X that “forces across the political establishment” were using the “grotesque racist violence on Bondi beach” to delegitimise any protest against “open genocide”.

The police crackdown follows father-and-son gunmen killing 15 people Sunday at a Hanukkah festival on the Sydney beach and an October attack on a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

“Violent acts have taken place, the context has changed – words have meaning and consequence. We will act decisively and make arrests,” said the commanders of the Met and GMP in a joint statement.

Jewish groups welcomed the announcement, with the UK’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis calling it “an important step towards challenging the hateful rhetoric we have seen on our streets, which has inspired acts of violence and terror”.

Groups like the Community Security Trust (CST), which works to provide security to protect British Jews, say anti-Semitic incidents have risen in the UK.

In the meantime, Islamophobia and attacks against Muslims in the UK, prompted by racist rhetoric in mainstream politics on the right of the political spectrum, most prevalently but not only by Nigel Farage’s Reform party and its supporters, have soared in recent years.