Category: World

The Trump administration is repurposing a mobile application – originally created to facilitate asylum appointments – into a way for undocumented migrants already in the US to “self-deport”.

The app, known as CBP Home, allows migrants to submit an “intent to depart”, which US Customs and Border Patrol says offers them a chance to leave without “harsher consequences”.

US officials have repeatedly suggested that undocumented migrants in the country should leave voluntarily, rather than be arrested and subject to deportation.

This is the latest move in the White House’s effort to dramatically overhaul the US immigration system, which has included promises of mass detentions.

Originally launched as CBP One in 2020, the mobile application was expanded during the Biden administration to allow prospective migrants to book appointments to appear at a port of entry.

At the time, officials credited the application with helping reduce detentions at the border and portrayed the technology as part of a larger effort to protect asylum seekers making the often dangerous journey.

Now, on the newly rebranded application, undocumented migrants identify themselves and declare their intention to leave the country.

In a statement, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that by self-deporting through the app, migrants “may still have the opportunity to return legally in the future and live the American dream”.

“If they don’t, we will find them, we will deport them, and they will never return,” she added.

The app also asks migrants whether they have “enough money to depart the United States” and whether they have a “valid, unexpired passport from your original country of citizenship”.

The BBC has contacted DHS for further details about how the process works once the forms on the app are filled out.

CBP Home can also be used to apply and pay for I-94 entry and exit cards up to seven days before travel, book inspections for perishable cargo and check wait times at US border crossings.

According to DHS, the app is meant to complement a $200m (£155m) domestic and international ad campaign calling for undocumented migrants to “stay out and leave now”.

The Trump administration moved quickly to scrap the CBP One app as part of a larger shift in immigration strategy. It also paused parole programmes, and an uptick in Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in the country followed.

In late February, the administration said it would create a national registry for undocumented migrants and those failing to sign up could possibly face criminal prosecution.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c7430kq7eyxo

Experts have examined how technology is affecting the human body and have suggested that we may see some dramatic changes by the year 2100.

To fully realise the impact everyday tech has on us, experts conducted scientific research to help build a 3D design of what they suspect could be the physical changes humans may experience. The research comes after consistent use of smartphones, laptops and other tech we use on a daily basis.

Scientists named their futuristic model “Mindy”, based on their predictions for humans living in 2100. The model appears to have a hunched back from hours of sitting over computers and looking at phones.

Their design also shows Mindy having bigger neck muscles, which help to compensate for her poor posture; a thicker skull to protect from radiation; and a smaller brain that has shrunk from leading what they considered to be a predominantly inactive lifestyle.

A health and wellness expert at Maple Holistics who created the images, Caleb Backe, said: “Spending hours looking down at your phone strains your neck and throws your spine off balance. Consequently, the muscles in your neck have to expend extra effort to support your head.

“Sitting in front of the computer at the office for hours on end also means that your torso is pulled out in front of your hips rather than being stacked straight and aligned.”

Jason O’Brien, head of TollFreeForwarding.com, the company that produced the model and was behind the study, described these potential physical changes as what he considers the “trade-off” that comes with the benefits of modern technology use.

Speaking in 2019, he said: “Technology gives us convenience, connectivity, entertainment, and so much more – but there is a trade-off. Overexposure to technology can sometimes come to the detriment of our health.”

Experts predict that in fewer than 100 years, humans may also have claw-like hands after increased amounts of time gripping their mobile phones.

Dr Nikola Djordjevic, from Med Alert Help, said: “The way we hold our phones can cause strain at certain points of contact – causing ‘text claw’ and ’90-degree elbow’, also known as cubital tunnel syndrome.

“This syndrome is caused by pressure or the stretching of the ulnar nerve, which runs in a groove on the inner side of the elbow.

“This causes numbness or a tingling sensation in the ring and little fingers, forearm pain, and weakness in the hands – keeping the elbow bent for a long time.” As well as this, the scientists suggested that humans develop a double eyelid to protect their eyes from harmful light.

The research mainly centred around smartphones and acknowledged the growing concerns that radiofrequency radiation emitted from smartphones could cause when exposed to the brain.

Given the impact, the study shows the potential for Mindy to develop a thicker skull, and along with it, a smaller brain. The invisible change of her brain size is based on the scientific theory of idiocracy.

Source : https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/tech-obsessed-humans-could-hunch-34808445

Jamie White, a reporter for Alex Jones’ Infowars, was killed in a suspected homicide outside of his home in Austin, Texas just before midnight on Sunday.

“We are deeply saddened to inform you that Infowars Reporter Jamie White was brutally murdered around midnight Sunday night due, in part, to the policies of the Soros Austin, TX D.A. Jose Garza,” announced Jones in a social media post on Monday. “We pledge that Jamie’s tragic death will not be in vain, and those responsible for this senseless violence will be brought to justice.”

Austin Police Department found White outside his apartment complex at around 11:59 p.m. on Sunday with “obvious signs of trauma.” While White was quickly transported to the hospital, he died of his injuries soon after arriving. Austin police are investigating White’s death as a homicide.

“Jamie was murdered last night outside of his home, just a few miles away from our studios,” said Jones in a video on Monday. “We sent some people over this morning when he didn’t answer the phone because he’s always here early, loves to work, loves to fight tyranny, loves to promote freedom, and when they got to the apartment complex there was yellow tape everywhere, blood all over the parking lot.”

Jones continued, “I’m gonna talk about in a moment who I hold responsible for this, and who is responsible for this, and who are accomplices to Jamie and so many others’ murder,” before describing Garza – whose campaign for district attorney was funded by billionaire Democratic Party donor George Soros – as “even worse than Alvin Bragg” and “probably the worst in the country.”

The Infowars founder cited the Austin Police Department’s budget being cut by one-third, as well as Garza’s own documented conflicts with Austin police, before arguing, “He’s doing exactly what he was put in by Soros to do, and I lay all of this squarely at the feet of these D.A.’s and at the Soros crime syndicate and at the Democratic Party. They are the ones that administratively cut the police, prosecute the police.”

Source : https://www.mediaite.com/lawcrime/infowars-reporter-brutally-murdered-in-texas-blood-all-over-the-parking-lot/

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has arrived in Saudi Arabia ahead of his team having talks with America’s top diplomat on Tuesday.

Mr Zelenskyy will not be at the meeting with US secretary of state Marco Rubio, but Mr Zelenskyy’s team will try to improve relations following his disastrous 28 February visit to Washington, which descended into an Oval Office argument with President Donald Trump and vice president JD Vance.

Mr Zelenskyy briefly met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday, after the end of the daily fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio is also in Jeddah. He is not due to meet Mr Zelenskyy – but he held talks with Prince Mohammed to discuss Yemen and threats to ships from Houthis, Syria, and the reconstruction of Gaza.

During talks on Tuesday the Ukrainian team will try to convince the US to restore military aid and intelligence that had helped Kyiv since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Speaking to reporters while travelling to Jeddah, Mr Rubio said if Ukraine and the US reach an understanding acceptable to Mr Trump, that could accelerate his administration’s push to peace talks.

“What we want to know is, are they interested [in] entering some sort of peace conversation and general outlines of the kinds of things they could consider, recognising that it has been a costly and bloody war for the Ukrainians,” Mr Rubio said.

“They have suffered greatly and their people have suffered greatly. And it’s hard in the aftermath of something like that to even talk about concessions, but that’s the only way this is going to end and prevent more suffering.”

He said: “I’m not going to set any conditions on what they have to or need to do. I think we want to listen to see how far they’re willing to go and then compare that to what the Russians want and see how far apart we truly are.”

He added: “The most important thing that we have to leave here with is a strong sense that Ukraine is prepared to do difficult things, like the Russians are going to have to do difficult things to end this conflict.”

Meanwhile, British prime minister Sir Keir Starmer spoke to Mr Trump on Monday ahead of the US-Ukraine meeting.

A Downing Street readout of the call said that Sir Keir told the president that “UK officials had been speaking to Ukraine officials over the weekend and they remain committed to a lasting peace”.

“The prime minister said he hoped there would be a positive outcome to the talks that would enable US aid and intelligence sharing to be restarted,” the statement said.

“The two leaders also spoke about the economic deal they had discussed at the White House and the prime minister welcomed the detailed conversations that had already happened to move this forward. Both leaders agreed to stay in touch.”

The European Union agreed last week to boost the continent’s defences and free up hundreds of billions of euros for security in response to the Trump administration’s shift in policy towards Ukraine.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/zelenskyy-in-saudi-arabia-for-talks-as-us-says-ukraine-should-be-prepared-to-do-difficult-things-13325920

A US senator has hit back at Elon Musk, saying the billionaire Trump adviser is “not a serious guy” after he branded the politician a “traitor” for visiting Ukraine.

Mark Kelly, the Democrat senator for Arizona and a former US navy combat pilot, made his third visit to Kyiv since 2023 earlier this month, meeting with wounded service members and Ukrainian officials.

Posting on X after he left the country, he said “what I saw proved to me we can’t give up on the Ukrainian people”, and in a break from US President Donald Trump’s stance on negotiations, called for security guarantees in any peace deal.

“Everyone wants this war to end, but any agreement has to protect Ukraine’s security and can’t be a giveaway to Putin,” he said.

Mr Musk, who also leads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an advisory department under the Trump administration, replied on X and said: “You are a traitor.”

Firing back at the Tesla chief, Mr Kelly said: “Traitor? Elon, if you don’t understand that defending freedom is a basic tenet of what makes America great and keeps us safe, maybe you should leave it to those of us who do.”

He then told reporters back in the US the billionaire is “obviously not a serious guy”.

It comes as Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives in Saudi Arabia ahead of his team having talks with America’s top diplomat on Tuesday.

Mr Zelenskyy will not be at the meeting with US secretary of state Marco Rubio, but his team will try to improve relations following his disastrous 28 February visit to Washington, which descended into an Oval Office argument with the US president and vice president JD Vance.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/elon-musk-calls-us-senator-a-traitor-for-visiting-ukraine-13326079

Former First Lady Michelle Obama will talk divorce, newfound freedom, and friendship—but refuses to delve into politics—on a newly announced podcast with her brother, it was revealed Monday.

The New York Times disclosed the existence of the podcast, called IMO, which stands for “in my opinion,” and reviewed its first two episodes. The production, a video-led podcast, will be released to the public on Wednesday.

It features the former first lady and her brother, Craig Robinson, who is the executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches. The pair talk about a variety of subjects but sidestep politics and current affairs, instead opting for a lifestyle-themed format.

That does not mean they avoid heavy-hitting subjects, however. The pair opened up about Robinson’s divorce from his first wife, Janis Robinson, in 2000, according to the Times. The former college basketball coach remarried in 2006 to his current wife, Kelly McCrum Robinson. The Obamas, too, have faced a wave of speculation about marital troubles in recent months.

The pair also discuss Michelle’s marriage with her husband, former President Barack Obama, and his relationship with politics, the paper reported.

The couple has been dogged by persistent rumors about the state of their marriage, including that he had been dating actress Jennifer Aniston.

The Friends star denied a romance with Obama on Jimmy Kimmel Live, saying that she has only “met him once.”

“I know Michelle more than him,” she said.

While Michelle Obama may address her marriage on her new podcast, one area she is keen to avoid is politics, which she said in her 2018 memoir Becoming that she “never wanted to be involved in.”

The Times reports that she addresses this subject with her brother on IMO. As a pair, they also talk about their tough upbringing in Chicago, Ill. They shared a room in a small apartment in the city.

Obama also says that after years of Secret Service protection and restrictions, she has gotten back behind the wheel.

The paper states that hosts “mainly offered advice based on their life experiences” and will eventually welcome celebrity guests, some of whom appeared on Obama’s previous production, The Michelle Obama Podcast. This includes director Tyler Perry and new guests, like actors Seth Rogen and Keke Palmer.

On the second episode of the new show, the pair will be joined by writer, actress, and producer Issa Rae, who will speak about maintaining adult friendships.

The new show is produced by the Obamas’ media company, Higher Ground, alongside Audible, which is owned by Amazon.

One audience likely to be listening assiduously is Republicans, particularly President Donald Trump, because of her formidable polling if she were to run for president. When former President Joe Biden pulled out of the presidential race last year, Trump was fascinated by the prospect of running against her, best-selling author Michael Wolff revealed in his book All or Nothing, to the extent that he had decided on a nickname for her.

Source : https://www.thedailybeast.com/michelle-obama-opens-up-about-her-personal-life-in-new-podcast-imo/

AN EasyJet pilot was suspended after his packed holiday jet flew too close to a mountain and was just seconds away from disaster.

Captain Paul Elsworth was grounded following the cockpit drama as the plane descended towards the Red Sea resort of Hurghada in Egypt.

The Ground Proximity Warning System in the cockpit was triggered and dramatically sounded an impending crash warning.

The alert rang out ‘pull up, terrain, terrain, pull up, pull up, terrain ahead, pull up’ and a dramatic last-gasp manoeuvre – pulling on the joystick to level off the plane – saved up to 190 passengers and crew on-board.

The GPWS alert is recognised as a last resort to prevent a controlled flight into terrain.

The Airbus A320 flew over the mountain range at an altitude of just 3,100ft.

The peak of the mountain near the plane was just 771ft away from the twin-jet aircraft at an altitude of 2,329ft.

Pilots normally clear the mountain range at around 6,000ft, showing just how low the plane had flown.

Sources revealed that the jet had been descending at 4,928ft per minute, which has been dubbed “ridiculously unsafe,” before the GPWS sounded and it levelled out.

The aircraft, which had taken off from Manchester, should have been travelling slower and with a shallower rate of descent, experts said.

An official investigation into the February 2 drama of Flight EZY2251 will include details of how Capt Elsworth reported the safety scare.

The Sun understands the 61-year-old pilot registered the incident the following day – February 3 – before he was due to leave the crew hotel and head to Hurghada airport, ready to pilot the plane back to Manchester.

But EasyJet officials escalated the incident within minutes – recognising the severity of the cockpit drama.

No blame has yet been apportioned for the harrowing incident.

However, in line with protocol, bosses immediately banned Capt Elsworth, who lives in Cheshire, from flying the plane back to the UK.

A source said: “Within moments of the flight drama being raised, officials stepped in and Paul Elsworth was forbidden from piloting the plane. Another flight crew brought the jet home.

“The pilot will be asked detailed questions. The GPWS only sounds when a plane is heading into terrain – in this instance a mountain.

“Passengers on-board are understood to have been oblivious to the scare, and unaware of just how close they came to the mountain range as the plane descended into Egypt.”

After being stood down, Capt Elsworth was flown back to Manchester as a passenger, seated in the cabin.

Once back in the UK, the experienced flyer was officially suspended while investigations continue.

Despite the senior pilot being banned, the same plane—registered G-UZHA—flew back to the UK, and the cockpit voice recorder was overridden, The Sun understands.

Capt Elsworth’s account, and responses from the First Officer who was sat alongside him, will help investigators.

Capt Elsworth made headlines in 2016 when his son Luke became the youngest professional pilot at just 19 after following in his father’s footsteps at EasyJet.

The proud dad said at the time: “Luke has worked really hard. I have as much confidence in Luke flying as I have in myself—and I’ve been doing this for 32 years.” Luke now flies for British Airways.

Last night the suspended pilot advised it would be inappropriate for him to comment while there is an ongoing investigation.

The Civil Aviation Authority is waiting to review how the incident is investigated by EasyJet bosses – including how the airline ‘manages their risk’.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/13743598/easyjet-plane-mountain-disaster/

Former central banker Mark Carney won the race to become leader of Canada’s ruling Liberal Party and will succeed Justin Trudeau as prime minister, official results showed on Sunday.
Carney will take over at a tumultuous time in Canada, which is in the midst of a trade war with longtime ally the United Statesunder President Donald Trump and must hold a general election soon.
Carney, 59, took 86% of votes cast to beat former Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland in a contest in which just under 152,000 party members voted.

“There’s someone who’s trying to weaken our economy,” Carney said of Trump, spurring loud boos at the party gathering. “He’s attacking Canadian workers, families, and businesses. We can’t let him succeed.”
“This won’t be business as usual,” Carney said. “We will have to do things that we haven’t imagined before, at speeds we didn’t think possible.”
Trudeau announced in January that he would step down after more than nine years in power as his approval rating plummeted, forcing the ruling Liberal Party to run a quick contest to replace him.

“Make no mistake, this is a nation-defining moment. Democracy is not a given. Freedom is not a given. Even Canada is not a given,” Trudeau said.
Carney, a political novice, argued that he was best placed to revive the party and to oversee trade negotiations with Trump, who is threatening additional tariffs that could cripple Canada’s export-dependent economy.
Trudeau has imposed C$30 billion of retaliatory tariffs on the United States in response to tariffs Trump levied on Canada.
“My government will keep our tariffs on until the Americans show us respect,” Carney said.

Carney’s win marks the first time an outsider with no real political background has become Canadian prime minister. He has said his experience as the first person to serve as the governor of two G7 central banks – Canada and England – meant he was the best candidate to deal with Trump.

The prospect of a fresh start for the Liberal Party under Carney, combined with Trump’s tariffs and his repeated taunts to annex Canada as the 51st U.S. state, led to a remarkable revival of Liberal fortunes.

RALLY-AROUND-THE-FLAG MOMENT

At the start of 2025 the party trailed by 20 or more points but is now statistically tied with the official opposition Conservatives led by career politician Pierre Poilievre in several polls.
At a protest outside Canada’s Parliament building in Ottawa on Sunday, dozens of Canadians held up signs protesting Trump with no reference to domestic politics.
“There is a rallying-around-the-flag moment that we would never have predicted a year ago,” said University of British Columbia politics professor Richard Johnston. “I think it’s probably true as we speak that the Liberals have been saved from oblivion.”
Polls though indicate that neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives would be able to form a majority government. An election must be held by October 20.
Two Liberal Party sources said Carney would call an election in coming weeks, meaning one could take place much sooner.
Carney could legally serve as prime minister without a seat in the House of Commons but tradition dictates that he should seek to win one as soon as possible.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canada-liberals-announce-trudeaus-successor-midst-us-trade-war-2025-03-09/

Norway’s ski jumping team deliberately cheated by using manipulated jumpsuits at the Nordic World Ski Championships, where two of their competitors were disqualified during Saturday’s ski jumping event, the Norwegian Ski Federation said on Sunday.
Marius Lindvik and Johann Andre Forfang were disqualified from the men’s large hill competition, while Joergen Graabak was also disqualified from Friday’s Nordic Combined team event, but this was related to his bindings.

“The support system has explained that on Friday, they chose to put a reinforced thread in the jumpsuit of Forfang and Lindvik,” Norway Ski Federation general manager Jan-Erik Aalbu told a press conference.
“This was done knowing that this is not within the regulations, but with a belief that it would not be discovered by FIS’s equipment controller.
“The way I consider this. We have cheated. We have tried to cheat the system. That is unacceptable.”
Lindvik had finished second but was denied the silver medal following his disqualification after an equipment inspection, along with compatriot Forfang who had finished fourth.

Race director Sandro Pertile said afterwards that they had received information prior to the event about possible manipulations of the suits, and had also received an official protest from three nations.
The organisers found nothing untoward during the initial check, but after the race they discovered different material in the seams.
Earlier on Sunday, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) said that their Independent Ethics and Compliance Office had begun an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the disqualifications.
“I welcome the fact that FIS is now also opening an investigation. And of course, we will cooperate fully with them,” Aalbu said.

Lindvik had earlier won gold in the normal hill event, and was also part of the mixed team which won the large hill while the Norwegian women won the normal hill. Aalbu said their cheating was related only to Saturday’s event.
“There is no indication that this form of manipulation has been used earlier in the season, or in this championship,” he said.
“I have been working again with the support system last night and throughout the day, that this was only, if you can use that word, two suits. Saturday’s competition, and nothing earlier in the championship.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/sports/ski-jumping-norwegians-admit-cheating-world-ski-championships-2025-03-09/

The creator of the disturbing ‘Trump Gaza’ AI-generated video which went viral last month has said he didn’t expect it to end up as part of a ‘propaganda machine’ and insists artificial intelligence should be banned for political use.

Captioned ‘Gaza 2025 – what’s next?’, the video showed AI-generated likenesses of displaced Gazans walking through the rubble before transitioning to a newer, Dubai-esque city.

Skyscrapers bordering the coastline with blue water and palm trees were shown in the fake video, along with Elon Musk munching on a snack of some kind in the sun.

A song singing ‘Trump Gaza is finally here, golden future, a brand new life’ played in the background of the disturbing video.

Trump was even seen next to a woman belly-dancing, as Musk threw money in the air as young children jumped up to catch it.

The video understandably sparked outrage, and Solo Avital, a US-Israeli content creator who works with EyeMix, said he intended the video to be satire when he made it – but not a ‘propaganda machine’.

Atival told Reuters: ‘I believe that AI should be banned by politicians. I mean, if the politicians should do justice for AI in their own lawmaking processes, they should first and foremost ban AI for politicians, or political use.’

He and Ariel Vromen co-founded EyeMix, based out of Los Angeles, explained they were testing a new AI software, Arcane, when they thought: ‘Hey, why don’t we do that? Let’s do a little satire’, after seeing Trump’s comments about the ‘Gaza Riviera’.

Vromen said: ‘The idea was like, how Trump wants to turn Gaza into Vegas. We wanted to have an internal laugh about it. It was a joke.

‘With humor, there is truth, you know, but it was not our intention to be a propaganda machine.’

The duo claim they have no idea how Trump found the video, as they had posted it on their personal Instagram for just a few hours and then circulated it among some friends.

After it got picked up by Trump, Arcana Labs CEO Jonathan Yunger told NBC: ‘The fact that the president took it and posted it as his own, I think, is one of the most insane things I’ve ever seen in my life.

‘The video is not breaking any laws, as far as I’m concerned. And artists are going to express themselves. What people decide to do with that, you know, is up to them.’

The video concludes with a large golden statue of Trump in the centre of a city square, and a shirtless Trump and Netanyahu lounging in the sun.

Itwas inspired following a White House news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in February, where the president detailed a plan to build new settlements for Palestinians outside the Gaza Strip and redevelop the war-torn territory into ‘the Riviera of the Middle East’.

‘Oh I think they’d love to leave Gaza if they had an option,’ said Trump on Tuesday afternoon. ‘Right now they don’t have an option. What are they going to do? They have to go back to Gaza.’

‘I think it should be a location that’s going to make people happy. You look over the decades, it’s all death in Gaza. This has been happening for years. It’s all death.

Source : https://metro.co.uk/2025/03/09/creator-trumps-gaza-video-says-ai-banned-politics-22695596/

Former Bank of England governor Mark Carney has been named Canadian prime minister after winning the Liberal Party leadership in a landslide victory.

Mr Carney, who also used to head up Canada’s central bank, had emerged as the frontrunner as his country was hit with tariffs imposed by President Trump.

He ended up winning 85.9% of the vote.

During his victory speech, he told the crowd: “Donald Trump, as we know, has put unjustified tariffs on what we build, on what we sell and how we make a living.

“He’s attacking Canadian families, workers and businesses and we cannot let him succeed and we won’t.”

Mr Carney said Canada would keep retaliatory tariffs until “the Americans show us respect”.

Mr Trump’s tariffs against Canada and his talk of making the country America’s 51st state have infuriated Canadians.

The American national anthem has been repeatedly booed at NHL and NBA games.

“Think about it. If they succeeded, they would destroy our way of life… America is a melting pot. Canada is a mosaic,” Mr Carney added.

“America is not Canada. Canada will never ever be part of America in any way, shape or form.”

The 59-year-old will replace Justin Trudeau, who has served as prime minister since 2015.

Mr Trudeau announced he was stepping down in January after facing calls to quit from a chorus of his own MPs.

The 53-year-old’s popularity had declined as food and house prices rose. He will stay in post until Mr Carney is sworn in.

Mr Carney will soon have to decide when to call a general election – a vote must take place on or before 20 October.

In 2013, he became the first non-UK citizen to run the Bank of England since it was founded in 1694.

His appointment came after Canada recovered from the 2008 financial crisis faster than many other countries.

During leadership debates, Mr Carney argued he was the only person prepared to handle Trump.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/former-boe-boss-named-canada-pm-and-tells-trump-it-will-never-be-part-of-america-13325043

A plane carrying five people crashed into a retirement home car park in Pennsylvania on Sunday.

The fiery crash happened around 3pm near Lancaster Airport, according to police, who said everyone on board the plane survived.

Police chief Duane Fisher said all five victims were taken to hospitals in unknown condition and nobody on the ground was hurt.

Audio from air traffic control captured someone on the plane reporting an aircraft door was open and requesting a landing at the airport.

An air traffic controller is heard clearing the plane to land, before saying, “Pull up!”

Moments later, someone can be heard saying the aircraft was down.

Brian Pipkin was driving nearby when he noticed the small plane climbing before it suddenly veered to the left.

“And then it went down nose first,” he said. “There was an immediate fireball.”

He said the plane narrowly missed hitting a three-story building at the sprawling retirement community about 75 miles (120 km) west of Philadelphia.

A fire engine from the airport arrived within minutes, and more first responders followed quickly.

“It was so smoky and it was so hot,” Pipkin said. “They were really struggling to get the fire out.” A dozen parked cars were damaged, Mr Fisher said.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/plane-with-open-door-crashes-into-retirement-home-car-park-13325474

The Latvian president has urged European countries to “absolutely” introduce conscription, as he conceded the continent was “quite weak” militarily.

Edgars Rinkevics told Sky’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips that European countries should increase defence spending amid the “ups and downs” in relations with the US.

Latvia introduced conscription for men in 2023 and has pushed defence spending to 4% of the country’s GDP.

“Seeing what is happening in the world, the decision that we took – many other European countries need to follow that,” Mr Rinkevics said.

“A lot of people are a little bit nervous. People are following the news. Of course strong reassurances [are] one thing, but another thing is other European governments [have] to make sure that we all get stronger.”

UK Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden said the government is not considering introducing conscription, but decisions may be needed in the future to respond to the “new reality” we are now living in.

He said: “We are not considering conscription, but of course we have announced a major increase in defence expenditure.

“We do have to recognise that the world has changed. The phrase ‘step-up’ is used a lot. Europe does have to step-up in terms of its own defence.”

But Mr Rinkevics said he believes that both Europe and the US “understand the risks and the threats” of the future of NATO.

“An attack against any of NATO member means an attack against other NATO members, Europeans and non-Europeans. If there is a failure to fulfil article five, then I think everybody really understands this is the end of NATO.”

While calling Latvia and fellow Baltic states Estonia and Lithuania the “litmus test of NATO”, Mr Rinkevics also called for an increase in “the overall presence” on the countries’ borders with Russia amid “increasing risks”.

“What is now important is not only declarations, but also how those declarations are being implemented. I’m fine with the wordings, but we also need some deeds,” he said.

After the US’s change in long-standing policy towards Russia and Ukraine in recent weeks, Mr Rinkevics insisted that Latvia’s cooperation with the US is “good” but insisted that “we do see the need also to apply equal pressure vis-a-vis Russia when it comes to the peace talks in Ukraine”.

He said: “I do see that the United States are right when it comes to requesting more defence spending for NATO European allies. But what I also believe is needed is the kind of diplomatic approach that we tried to explain our point of view to the United States.

“We are concentrating very much on the United States. Unfortunately, what we are not talking so much [about is] what we as Europe should do, and we see that Europe currently is quite weak.

“We all understand that we do not have military capacity, but we also understand that we need to build it up. So my current suggestion would be – while I do see some differences with the United States when it comes to how to approach Ukraine – to concentrate on our own task to raise defence expenditure.”

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/european-countries-should-absolutely-introduce-conscription-latvias-president-says-13324009

MARK Carney has been announced as Canada’s new Prime Minister after Justin Trudeau stepped down from the role.

Liberal Party members confirmed the 59-year-old’s new position on Sunday night at the Rogers Center in Ottawa.

Carney vowed to his party’s faithful that Canada will never be part of America in “any way, shape or form”.

The rebuke of neighbouring President Donald Trump could set the important North American relationship off on a rocky footing with the American also slapping tariffs on Canada.

Carney said: “We didn’t ask for this fight, but Canadians are always ready when someone else drops the gloves.

“The Americans should make no mistake – in trade, as in hockey, Canada will win.

“The Americans want our resources, our water, our land, our country.”

Addressing Trump’s tariff threats, Carney said: “We cannot let him succeed and we won’t.”

Carney saw off rival Chrystia Freeland, Trudeau’s former deputy prime minister, and won 85.9 per cent of the total votes.

His position at the helm as the governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England during the 2008 financial crisis and the fallout from the 2016 Brexit vote made him a popular choice.

The political novice was the front-runner for the role after Trudeau announced his resignation in January as he faced a crushing election defeat.

He received a slew of support including endorsements from the majority of Trudeau’s cabinet.

Carney, a centrist, will be taking over as PM at a turbulent time as Canada faces tariff and annexing threats from US President Donald Trump, which saw Trudeau hold back tears in his final days.

Meanwhile, Trudeau spoke his final words as the leader of Canada.

In front of hundreds of his party members, he opened his speech and said: “I’m damn proud of what we’ve done over these past 10 years. But tonight is about our future as a party, as a country.”

He added: “Your country needs you maybe more than ever. And I have no doubt that you will answer the call, because you’ve done it before. Liberals will meet this moment.

He describes it as a “nation-defining moment”, adding: “Democracy is not a given, freedom is not a given, even Canada is not a given.”

The process to choose Canada’s next PM began on February 26 with the almost 400,000 Liberal Party members voting online through a verified process and ranking their favourites.

The new leader is expected to trigger an election shortly afterward. Either the new Liberal party leader will call one, or the opposition parties in Parliament could force one with a no-confidence vote later this month.

On Tuesday, the US slapped a brutal 25 per cent tariff on all goods imported from Canada, and despite a softening from Trump, the damage has been done.

This is a challenge, Carney says he is more than prepared to take on.

At his final rally on Friday, the former governor slammed Trump, accusing him of “attacking” Canada.

On multiple occasions, Trump said that it would be a “great idea” to make Canada the 51st state of the US.

Carney said: “He is attacking what we build. He is attacking what we sell. He is attacking how we earn our living.

“We are facing the most serious crisis in our lifetime. Everything in my life has prepared me for this moment.”

Polling from earlier in the week by the firm Angus Reid showed that the majority of Canadians from across the political spectrum back Carney as their choice to face off with the American president.

It is hoped that the PM will be able to see the governing Liberals through the upcoming federal election as current polls show a narrow win by the rival Conservative Party.

According to data collected by Angus Reid, 43 per cent of Canadians back Carney to deal with Trump compared to the 34 per cent who support Tory leader Pierre Poilievre.

A win by Freeland would have shocked Liberals and made them more fearful of an election loss.

Thanks to Trudeau’s unpopularity following his scandal-hit decade in power, she would have struggled to shake off the connection as the Conservatives attack the former Prime Minister’s record.

The election, which must take place by October 20, could happen in a matter of weeks so Carney will have to hit the ground running to win over voters.

Carney’s new role as Prime Minister is his first position in parliament and elected office – something that could work in his favour or be to his detriment in the upcoming election.

He has sold himself to supporters as a breath of fresh air for the Liberal Party, as there is no overlap with himself and Trudeau.

At his closing rally he said that across the country, Canadians want change and that he, as a political outsider, can give them that.

“It’s getting to the point where after two months I may have to start calling myself a politician,” he joked with supporters.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/13734753/trudeau-replaced-mark-carney-canada-prime-minister/

A PLANE has crashed into a retirement village parking lot and burst into ferocious flames, injuring five people.

Emergency services rushed to the residential neighborhood in Manheim, Pennsylvania, to find black smoke filling the skies.

The plane avoided smashing into buildings by mere meters, but landed on top of cars, “severely” damaging five and set some ablaze, officials said.

Scott Little, the fire chief in Manheim Township, said all five aboard had been taken to hospital, but did not give an update on their conditions.

Nobody on the ground was injured and no buildings were damaged.

The light aircraft came down in the parking lot of Brethren Village Retirement Home, just off the Lititz Pike road, at 3:18pm on Sunday.

The Beechcraft Bonanza aircraft had taken off from Lancaster Airport – less than a mile away.

According to audio from Air Traffic Control, the pilot told the Lancaster Airport control tower that one of the doors was open, so he needed to “return for landing.”

ATC cleared the plane to return, but a few seconds later urged the pilot to “pull up”.

Footage posted to social media shows a wreckage burning fiercely amongst parked cars, with sections of the metalwork disintegrating.

Nearby cars can also be seen blazing away, and the plane’s tail appears to be propped up on vehicle.

Huge jets of water can be made out, shot into the flames by fire fighters.

Brian Pipkin was driving nearby when he noticed the plane climbing before it suddenly veered to the left.

He said: “And then it went down nose first. There was an immediate fireball.”

Pipkin called 911 and then drove to the crash site, where he recorded video of the aftermath.

He continued: “A fire truck from the airport arrived within moments, and more first responders followed quickly.

“It was so smoky and it was so hot. They were really struggling to get the fire out.”

Duane Fisher, Manheim Township Police Chief, said: “At no point on the ground was anyone injured, at no point did the plane or aircraft strike any part of the structure.

“The fact that we have a plane crash where everybody survives and nobody on the ground is hurt is a wonderful thing.

“Anytime you have transportation, you always have risk when people are moving, but having this type of ending so far is a great day for us.”

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said: “Our team at [Pennsylvania Police] is on the ground assisting local first responders following the small private plane crash near Lancaster Airport in Manheim Township.

“All Commonwealth resources are available as the response continues, and more information will be provided as it becomes available.”

Manheim is just south of Lancaster, south-east Pennsylvania.

This comes barely a month after another plane crash in the state, when a medical jet plunged into a Philadelphia street – killing six.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/13735749/plane-crashes-parking-lot-pennsylvania/

One sentence in the latest report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) may come as a surprise at first glance: global arms exports have more or less stagnated and barely changed compared to the period from 2010-2019. But a closer look at the individual countries points to the dramatic geopolitical changes currently shaking up the world order.

Ukraine has been the largest recipient of heavy weapons in the world in the period from 2020-2024. The country attacked by Russia has increased its imports almost a hundredfold, a breathtaking development, compared to the period from 2015-2019. Almost 9% of all global arms exports ended up in Ukraine.

Russia’s aggression and fear of the US

In the same period, arms imports from other European countries rose by 155%. This is also a direct consequence of Russian aggression, which began in February 2022. According to SIPRI researchers in Stockholm, the reason for this is also uncertainty about the future direction of US foreign policy.

“The new arms transfers figures clearly reflect the rearmament taking place among states in Europe in response to the threat from Russia. However, some major arms importers, including Saudi Arabia, India and China, saw large declines in import volumes for a variety of reasons, despite high threat perceptions in their regions,” says Mathew George, one of the authors of the new report.

According to the report, 35 countries have participated in arms deliveries to Ukraine in the period between 2020 and 2024, around 8.8% of all global imports. The US accounted for 45% of all deliveries, followed by Germany with 12% and Poland with 11%.

These ratios once again clearly show how problematic it would be if the US, under the new President Donald Trump, actually withdraws military support for Ukraine altogether. Ukraine was the only European country among the top ten arms importers worldwide in the period between 2020-2024, although other European countries also significantly increased their arms orders and deliveries.

“With an increasingly belligerent Russia and transatlantic relations under stress during the first Trump presidency, European NATO states have taken steps to reduce their dependence on arms imports and to strengthen the European arms industry,” said Pieter Wezeman, a senior researcher with the SIPRI Arms Transfer Program.

“But the transatlantic arms-supply relationship has deep roots. Imports from the US have risen and European NATO states have almost 500 combat aircraft and many other weapons still on order from the US,” he added. Donald Trump was already US President from 2017 to 2021 and took office again in January of this year. This week, he halted military support for Ukraine following an unprecedented dispute with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Whether it will stay that way has yet to be seen.

US remains biggest arms exporter, Russia falls behind

The United States remains the biggest exporter of weapons worldwide and delivered to a total of 107 countries between 2020 and 2024. “The US is in a unique position when it comes to arms exports. At 43%, its share of global arms exports is more than four times as much as the next-largest exporter, France,” said Mathew George.

Russia, on the other hand, exported 63% fewer weapons between 2015 and 2024, and in 2021 and 2022 the total volume was the lowest in the past two decades. No wonder: apparently the country was already arming itself in preparation for war rather than selling weapons elsewhere.

“The war against Ukraine has further accelerated the drop in Russia’s arms exports because more weapons are needed on the battlefield, trade sanctions make it harder for Russia to produce and sell its weapons, and the US and its allies pressure states not to buy Russian arms,” Wezeman said. If the country was still selling weapons, it was mainly to China and India.

Stagnation in volume but with major shifts

While arms imports by states in the Middle East fell by 20% between 2015-19 and 2020-24, four of the ten largest recipient countries of weapons from 2020-2024 were states in the Gulf region: Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Kuwait. Four other countries in the top ten recipients came from Asia and Oceania: India, Pakistan, Japan and Australia.

Siemon Wezeman, another senior researcher at SIPRI, is surprised that so little attention is paid to this: “While arms imports to Europe and the Middle East continue to grab media attention, Asia and Oceania remained the largest arms-importing region in the world in 2020–24, as it has been almost invariably since the early 1990s.”

Despite the war in the Gaza Strip, which began in October 2023, there was virtually no change in Israel’s arms imports between 2015 and 2024. The Israelis have mainly used weapons that had already been supplied to them, primarily from the US, according to the SIPRI report.

The global arms trade is stagnating in terms of overall volume, but the changes between the countries that ultimately receive the weapons are serious.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/us-increases-dominance-as-worlds-biggest-arms-exporter/a-71860617

This dude booked the solo trip of his dreams—only to be stuck alone on an apparently “cursed” island.

Elon Musk has accused organizations allegedly funded by billionaire George Soros of orchestrating anti-Tesla protests, claiming a coordinated effort to damage the company’s reputation and stock value.

Tesla has seen its public perception shift dramatically following Musk’s vocal support for Donald Trump and far-right politics. Once a symbol of sustainability for liberal consumers, Tesla is now facing boycotts, vandalism and mass sell-offs.

The company’s stock has plummeted 38% since Trump’s inauguration, exacerbating financial losses and investor uncertainty, the Economic Times reported. Meanwhile, ActBlue, the Democratic fundraising platform Musk linked to the protests, is under investigation for allegedly accepting illegal foreign donations.

On Saturday, Musk posted on X alleging that groups like Indivisible Project and Democratic Socialists of America are being funded by Soros and other liberal donors to stage protests against Tesla.

“An investigation has found 5 ActBlue-funded groups responsible for Tesla ‘protests’: Troublemakers, Disruption Project, Rise & Resist, Indivisible Project and Democratic Socialists of America,” Musk wrote. “ActBlue funders include George Soros, Reid Hoffman, Herbert Sandler, Patricia Bauman, and Leah Hunt-Hendrix”

He cited growing acts of vandalism, including arson attacks on Tesla dealerships and the defacement of Cybertrucks.

Source : https://www.latintimes.com/elon-musk-claims-organization-funded-george-soros-responsible-tesla-protests-577889

Hackers thought to be working for the North Korean regime have successfully cashed out at least $300m (£232m) of their record-breaking $1.5bn crypto heist.

The criminals, known as Lazarus Group, swiped the huge haul of digital tokens in a hack on crypto exchange ByBit two weeks ago.

Since then, it’s been a cat-and-mouse game to track and block the hackers from successfully converting the crypto into usable cash.

Experts say the infamous hacking team is working nearly 24 hours a day – potentially funnelling the money into the regime’s military development.

“Every minute matters for the hackers who are trying to confuse the money trail and they are extremely sophisticated in what they’re doing,” says Dr Tom Robinson, co-founder of crypto investigators Elliptic.

Out of all the criminal actors involved in crypto currency, North Korea is the best at laundering crypto, Dr Robinson says.

“I imagine they have an entire room of people doing this using automated tools and years of experience. We can also see from their activity that they only take a few hours break each day, possibly working in shifts to get the crypto turned into cash.”

Elliptic’s analysis tallies with ByBit, which says that 20% of the funds have now “gone dark”, meaning it is unlikely to ever be recovered.

The US and allies accuse the North Koreans of carrying out dozens of hacks in recent years to fund the regime’s military and nuclear development.

On 21 February the criminals hacked one of ByBit’s suppliers to secretly alter the digital wallet address that 401,000 Ethereum crypto coins were being sent to.

ByBit thought it was transferring the funds to its own digital wallet, but instead sent it all to the hackers.

Ben Zhou, the CEO of ByBit, assured customers that none of their funds had been taken.

The firm has since replenished the stolen coins with loans from investors, but is in Zhou’s words “waging war on Lazarus”.

ByBit’s Lazarus Bounty programme is encouraging members of the public to trace the stolen funds and get them frozen where possible.

All crypto transactions are displayed on a public blockchain, so it’s possible to track the money as it’s moved around by the Lazarus Group.

If the hackers try to use a mainstream crypto service to attempt to turn the coins into normal money like dollars, the crypto coins can be frozen by the company if they think they are linked to crime.

So far 20 people have shared more than $4m in rewards for successfully identifying $40m of the stolen money and alerting crypto firms to block transfers.

But experts are downbeat about the chances of the rest of the funds being recoverable, given the North Korean expertise in hacking and laundering the money.

“North Korea is a very closed system and closed economy so they created a successful industry for hacking and laundering and they don’t care about the negative impression of cyber crime,” Dr Dorit Dor from cyber security company Check Point said.

Another problem is that not all crypto companies are as willing to help as others.

Crypto exchange eXch is being accused by ByBit and others of not stopping the criminals cashing out.

More than $90m has been successfully funnelled through this exchange.

But over email the elusive owner of eXch – Johann Roberts – disputed that.

He admits they didn’t initially stop the funds, as his company is in a long-running dispute with ByBit, and he says his team wasn’t sure the coins were definitely from the hack.

He says he is now co-operating, but argues that mainstream companies that identify crypto customers are abandoning the private and anonymous benefits of crypto currency.

North Korea has never admitted being behind the Lazarus Group, but is thought to be the only country in the world using its hacking powers for financial gain.

Previously the Lazarus Group hackers targeted banks, but have in the last five years specialised in attacking cryptocurrency companies.

The industry is less well protected with fewer mechanisms in place to stop them laundering the funds.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2kgndwwd7lo

The US Secret Service shot a man outside the White House early on Sunday after an “armed confrontation”, the service said in a statement.

It had earlier received a tip-off from local police about a “suicidal individual who may be travelling to Washington DC from Indiana”, it said.

Its officers approached a man matching that description, “who brandished a firearm”, it said, adding that shots were fired. The man is now in hospital in an “unknown” condition.

President Donald Trump was not in the White House at the time, as he is spending the weekend at his Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago.

“As officers approached, the individual brandished a firearm and an armed confrontation ensued, during which shots were fired by our personnel,” the statement said.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gdwde82ldo

A man waving a Palestinian flag climbed the Big Ben tower at London’s Palace of Westminster early on Saturday, with local media reporting he shouted “free Palestine”.

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said they were alerted to the incident at Elizabeth Tower (Big Ben) at 0724 GMT.
“Officers are at the scene working to bring the incident to a safe conclusion. They are being assisted by the London Fire Brigade and the London Ambulance Service,” the spokesperson said.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/man-climbs-londons-big-ben-tower-waving-palestinian-flag-2025-03-08/

Hermes (HRMS.PA) designer Nadege Vanhee presented a fall-winter 2025 collection of glossy coats, dresses and trousers in dark-coloured leather on Saturday, showing the sleek styles on a dirt-covered runway in Paris.
Held at the Garde Republicaine, the sprawling stables of the French capital’s mounted gendarmes or police, the fashion house built a set with curved walls that resembled a Richard Serra sculpture – but were covered in brown felt.

Attendants raked the catwalk before the start of the show and the models strode out in riding boots, the toes stretched out into points, their silky hair bouncing.
They paraded skirts and micro shorts with tassels, a cropped jacket with quilted panels and long coats lined with felted wool, zippers running down the back – all of it in leather.
Extra layers came in the form of ribbed knit gloves that covered the arm and piles of sweaters worn like scarves around the neck and cinching outerwear. Contrasting with the mostly all-black looks were a few styles in beige, a brown marbled pattern molded into a fitted dress and a coat and trouser ensemble in bright green leather.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/hermes-shows-slick-leather-ensembles-dirt-runway-paris-fashion-week-2025-03-08/

As a measles outbreak spreads across West Texas, Dr. Ana Montanez is fighting an uphill battle to convince some parents that vitamin A – touted by vaccine critics as effective against the highly contagious virus – will not protect their children.
The 53-year-old pediatrician in the city of Lubbock is working overtime to contact vaccine-hesitant parents, explaining the grave risks posed by a disease that most American families have never seen in their lifetime – and one that can be prevented through immunization.

Increasingly, however, she also has to counter misleading information. One mother, she said, told her she was giving her two children high doses of vitamin A to ward off measles, based on an article posted by Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine group led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. nearly a decade before he became President Donald Trump’s top health official.
“Wait, what are you doing? That was a red flag,” Montanez said in an interview. “This is a tight community, and I think if one family does one thing, everybody else is going to follow. Even if I can’t persuade you to vaccinate, I can at least educate you on misinformation.”

Kennedy resigned as chairman of Children’s Health Defense and has said he has no power over the organization, which has sued in state and federal courts to challenge common vaccines including for measles.
The organization did not respond to a request for comment.
As U.S. health and human services secretary, Kennedy has said vaccination remains a personal choice. He has also overstated the evidence for use of treatments such as vitamin A, according to disease experts.
The supplement does not prevent measles and can be harmful to children in large or prolonged doses, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. It has been shown to decrease the severity of measles infections in developing countries among patients who are malnourished and vitamin A deficient, a rare occurrence in the United States.

“I’m very concerned about the messaging that’s coming out,” said Dr. Jeffrey Kahn, chief of infectious diseases at Children’s Health in Dallas. “It’s somewhat baffling to me that we’re relitigating the effectiveness of vaccines and alternative therapies. We know how to handle measles. We’ve had six decades of experience.”
Andrew Nixon, a Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson, did not respond to questions about Kennedy’s handling of the measles outbreak. But commenting on a measles-related death in New Mexico, Nixon said on Thursday that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “recommends vaccination as the best protection against measles infection.”
Texas officials said on Friday that the state’s measles outbreak had grown to 198 cases, including 23 people who were hospitalized. That includes the death of an unvaccinated school-age child at a Lubbock hospital last month.

New Mexico officials have tallied 30 cases and one death of an unvaccinated adult. Those are the first deaths from measles in the United States since 2015.

‘I’M WILLING TO HOLD OFF’

A 29-year-old nurse who is the mother of three and is a self-described Kennedy fan visited Montanez’s clinic on Thursday. She asked to be identified as Nicole C. – her middle name and last initial – to protect her family’s privacy.
She said she values the doctor’s advice and appreciated that she never felt judged for not fully vaccinating her school-age daughter and toddler twins – a boy and a girl – with a second dose of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.
After the initial shots, she said she grew more concerned about potential side effects from vaccines and embraced more natural supplements.
She said school officials told her that her daughter would have to miss 21 days of class if she remains under-vaccinated and was exposed to measles.
The risk of contact in Lubbock is real. Montanez called about a dozen families last month because they were exposed to measles in her own waiting room, which she shares with other doctors in the Texas Tech physicians group.
Still, Nicole could not go through with the vaccination during her visit this week. She said she and her husband had prayed about it and believed in their family’s God-given immune systems.
“As a mom, you naturally think, ‘Oh my goodness, I can’t let my daughter miss 21 days of education.’ But who knows what effects the vaccine could cause? That could be a lifetime of issues. I’m willing to hold off on the shot,” she said.
Public health experts have said vaccines for measles and other diseases pose minimal risks of side effects and protect children and adults against diseases that once routinely killed many people.
As flu season worsened this winter, Nicole said she started giving her children a daily dose of strawberry-flavored cod liver oil, which is high in vitamin A, based on information other mothers had shared with her.
Montanez took her vaccine rejection in stride. The doctor said she has persuaded more than a dozen parents to get their children fully vaccinated in recent weeks.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/doctors-push-back-parents-embrace-kennedy-vitamin-texas-measles-outbreak-2025-03-08/

Gurpreet Singh was handcuffed, his legs shackled and a chain tied around his waist. He was led onto the tarmac in Texas by US Border Patrol, towards a waiting C-17 military transport aircraft.

It was 3 February and, after a months-long journey, he realised his dream of living in America was over. He was being deported back to India. “It felt like the ground was slipping away from underneath my feet,” he said.

Gurpreet, 39, was one of thousands of Indians in recent years to have spent their life savings and crossed continents to enter the US illegally through its southern border, as they sought to escape an unemployment crisis back home.

There are about 725,000 undocumented Indian immigrants in the US, the third largest group behind Mexicans and El Salvadoreans, according to the most recent figures from Pew Research in 2022.

Now Gurpreet has become one of the first undocumented Indians to be sent home since President Donald Trump took office, with a promise to make mass deportations a priority.

Gurpreet intended to make an asylum claim based on threats he said he had received in India, but – in line with an executive order from Trump to turn people away without granting them asylum hearings – he said he was removed without his case ever being considered.

About 3,700 Indians were sent back on charter and commercial flights during President Biden’s tenure, but recent images of detainees in chains under the Trump administration have sparked outrage in India.

US Border Patrol released the images in an online video with a bombastic choral soundtrack and the warning: “If you cross illegally, you will be removed.”

“We sat in handcuffs and shackles for more than 40 hours. Even women were bound the same way. Only the children were free,” Gurpreet told the BBC back in India. “We weren’t allowed to stand up. If we wanted to use the toilet, we were escorted by US forces, and just one of our handcuffs was taken off.”

Opposition parties protested in parliament, saying Indian deportees were given “inhuman and degrading treatment”. “There’s a lot of talk about how Prime Minister Modi and Mr Trump are good friends. Then why did Mr Modi allow this?” said Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, a key opposition leader.

Gurpreet said: “The Indian government should have said something on our behalf. They should have told the US to carry out the deportation the way it’s been done before, without the handcuffs and chains.”

An Indian foreign ministry spokesman said the government had raised these concerns with the US, and that as a result, on subsequent flights, women deportees were not handcuffed and shackled.

But on the ground, the intimidating images and President Trump’s rhetoric seem to be having the desired effect.

“No-one will try going to the US now through this illegal ‘donkey’ route while Trump is in power,” said Gurpreet.

In the longer term, this could depend on whether there are continued deportations, but for now many of the Indian people-smugglers, locally called “agents”, have gone into hiding, fearing raids against them by Indian police.

Gurpreet said Indian authorities demanded the number of the agent he had used when he landed back home, but the smuggler could no longer be reached.

“I don’t blame them, though. We were thirsty and went to the well. They didn’t come to us,” said Gurpreet.

While the official headline figure puts the unemployment rate at only 3.2%, it conceals a more precarious picture for many Indians. Only 22% of workers have regular salaries, the majority are self-employed and nearly a fifth are “unpaid helpers”, including women working in family businesses.

“We leave India only because we are compelled to. If I got a job which paid me even 30,000 rupees (£270/$340) a month, my family would get by. I would never have thought of leaving,” said Gurpreet, who has a wife, a mother and an 18-month-old baby to look after.

“You can say whatever you want about the economy on paper, but you need to see the reality on the ground. There are no opportunities here for us to work or run a business.”

Gupreet’s trucking company was among the cash-dependent small businesses that were badly hit when the Indian government withdrew 86% of the currency in circulation with four hours notice. He said he didn’t get paid by his clients, and had no money to keep the business afloat. Another small business he set up, managing logistics for other companies, also failed because of the Covid lockdown, he said.

He said he tried to get visas to go to Canada and the UK, but his applications were rejected.

Then he took all his savings, sold a plot of land he owned, and borrowed money from relatives to put together 4 million rupees ($45,000/£36,000) to pay a smuggler to organise his journey, Gurpreet told us.

On 28 August 2024, he flew from India to Guyana in South America to start an arduous journey to the US.

Gurpreet pointed out all the stops he made on a map on his phone. From Guyana he travelled through Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, mostly by buses and cars, partly by boat, and briefly on a plane – handed from one people-smuggler to another, detained and released by authorities a few times along the way.

From Colombia, smugglers tried to get him a flight to Mexico, so he could avoid crossing the dreaded Darién Gap. But Colombian immigration didn’t allow him to board the flight, so he had to make a dangerous trek through the jungle.

A dense expanse of rainforest between Colombia and Panama, the Darién Gap can only be crossed on foot, risking accidents, disease and attacks by criminal gangs. Last year, 50 people died making the crossing.

“I was not scared. I’ve been a sportsman so I thought I would be OK. But it was the toughest section,” said Gurpreet. “We walked for five days through jungles and rivers. In many parts, while wading through the river, the water came up to my chest.”

Each group was accompanied by a smuggler – or a “donker” as Gurpreet and other migrants refer to them, a word seemingly derived from the term “donkey route” used for illegal migration journeys.

At night they would pitch tents in the jungle, eat a bit of food they were carrying and try to rest.

“It was raining all the days we were there. We were drenched to our bones,” he said. They were guided over three mountains in their first two days. After that, he said they had to follow a route marked out in blue plastic bags tied to trees by the smugglers.

“My feet had begun to feel like lead. My toenails were cracked, and the palms of my hands were peeled off and had thorns in them. Still, we were lucky we didn’t encounter any robbers.”

When they reached Panama, Gurpreet said he and about 150 others were detained by border officials in a cramped jail-like centre. After 20 days, they were released, he said, and from there it took him more than a month to reach Mexico, passing through Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala.

Gurpreet said they waited for nearly a month in Mexico until there was an opportunity to cross the border into the US near San Diego.

“We didn’t scale a wall. There is a mountain near it which we climbed over. And there’s a razor wire which the donker cut through,” he said.

Gurpreet entered the US on 15 January, five days before President Trump took office – believing that he had made it just in time, before the borders became impenetrable and rules became tighter.

Once in San Diego, he surrendered to US Border Patrol, and was then detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

During the Biden administration, illegal or undocumented migrants would appear before an immigration officer who would do a preliminary interview to determine if each person had a case for asylum. While a majority of Indians migrated out of economic necessity, some also left fearing persecution because of their religious or social backgrounds, or their sexual orientation.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2gjjrzm54o

More than 80 Afghan women who fled the Taliban to pursue higher education in Oman now face imminent return back to Afghanistan, following the Trump administration’s sweeping cuts to foreign aid programmes.

Funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), their scholarships were abruptly terminated after a funding freeze ordered by President Donald Trump when he returned to office in January.

“It was heart-breaking,” one student told the BBC, speaking anonymously for fear of reprisals. “Everyone was shocked and crying. We’ve been told we will be sent back within two weeks.”

Since regaining power nearly four years ago, the Taliban has imposed draconian restrictions on women, including banning them from universities.

The Trump administration’s aid freeze has faced legal roadblocks, but thousands of humanitarian programmes around the world have already been terminated as the White House dismantles USAID and cuts tens of billions of dollars in spending.

The students in Oman say preparations are under way to return them to Afghanistan, and have appealed to the international community to “intervene urgently”.

The BBC has seen emails sent to the 82 students informing them that their scholarships have been “discontinued” due to the termination of the programme and USAID funding.

The emails – which acknowledge the news will be “profoundly disappointing and unsettling” – refer to travel arrangements back to Afghanistan, which caused alarm among the students.

• US cuts send South Africa’s HIV treatment ‘off a cliff’

“We need immediate protection, financial assistance and resettlement opportunities to a safe country where we can continue our education,” one told the BBC.

The USAID website’s media contact page remains offline. The BBC has contacted the US State Department for comment.

The Afghan women, now facing a forced return from Oman, had been pursuing graduate and post-graduate courses under the Women’s Scholarship Endowment (WSE), a USAID programme which began in 2018.

It provided scholarships for Afghan women to study science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), the disciplines banned for women by the Taliban.

• The Afghan women who escaped to get an education abroad
• Exhibition giving Afghan women and girls a voice
• Afghan women ‘banned from midwife courses’ in latest blow to rights

Just over a week ago, the students were told their scholarships had been terminated.

“It’s like everything has been taken away from me,” another student told the BBC. “It was the worst moment. I’m under extreme stress right now.”

These women, mostly aged in their 20s, qualified for scholarships in 2021 before the Taliban seized Afghanistan. Many continued their studies in Afghan universities until December 2022, when the Taliban banned higher education for women.

After 18 months in limbo, they said they fled to Pakistan last September.

USAID then facilitated their visas to Oman, where they arrived between October and November 2024.

“If we are sent back, we will face severe consequences. It would mean losing all our dreams,” a student said. “We won’t be able to study and our families might force us to get married. Many of us could also be at personal risk due to our past affiliations and activism.”

The Taliban has cracked down on women protesting for education and work, with many activists beaten, detained and threatened.

Women in Afghanistan describe themselves as “dead bodies moving around” under the regime’s brutal policies.

The Taliban government says it has been trying to resolve the issue of women’s education, but has also defended its supreme leader’s diktats, saying they are “in accordance with Islamic Sharia law”.

“Afghanistan is experiencing gender apartheid, with women systematically excluded from basic rights, including education,” a student said.

She and her friends in Oman had managed to escape that fate, as the scholarships were supposed to fund their education until 2028.

“When we came here, our sponsors told us to not go back to Afghanistan till 2028 for vacations or to visit our families because it’s not safe for us. And now they’re telling us to go,” a student said.

Last month, White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly blamed the situation for Afghan women on the US military’s withdrawal from the country under the Democrats, telling the Washington Post: “Afghan women are suffering because Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal allowed the Taliban to impose mediaeval Sharia law policies.”

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg4k25wlw21o

GENE Hackman’s wife ran errands and sent emails in her final hours before she died from a rare rat virus.

Theories about the couple’s death ended after it was revealed on Friday that the 95-year-old actor died from a heart condition seven days after his wife Betsy Arakawa died from a rodent disease.

Arakawa, 65, died of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, which is caused by contact with rodents like rats and mice, New Mexico’s chief medical examiner Dr. Heather Jarrell said.

She died before Hackman – perhaps on February 11 – leaving the two-time Oscar winner alone at the house.

Hackman – suffering from the debilitating effects of Alzheimer’s – is believed to have died seven days later on February 18.

He tragically lived alongside his wife’s body, likely not knowing she was dead.

Arakawa’s decomposed body was found in the bathroom of their four-bedroom house, surrounded by scattered pills from an open prescription bottle on the counter.

The couple’s dog, Zinna, was also found dead in a crate in the bathroom near Arakawa’s body. Zinna’s cause of death was still pending necropsy results, but officials said on Friday that hantavirus is not a possible reason.

Two other dogs were found distressed but alive at the home.

Just hours before her death, the 65-year-old was busy with her day-to-day chores as she became Hackman’s sole caregiver.

Arakawa’s last known movements began on February 9 when she picked up Zinna from the vet hospital, which could explain why the dog was later found dead in a crate.

On February 11, the classical pianist emailed her massage therapist in the morning of the day she died.

In the afternoon, she went to a grocery store and was captured making a brief stop at a pharmacy.

Officials said she was seen on surveillance footage wearing a mask, which could indicate that she wasn’t feeling well.

According to a report by the New York Times, Arakawa stopped by a local pet food store later that afternoon. She was not seen or heard after that.

Arakawa had “numerous unopened emails” on her computer from February 11 and no outgoing messages after that date, leading officials to believe she died around then.

She was found collapsed on the bathroom floor before the medical examiner determined she died of hantavirus.

Hantavirus spreads when exposed to rodents’ urine, droppings, and saliva, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Symptoms include fever, chills, cough, headaches, gastrointestinal problems, headaches, muscle aches, and fatigue.

Pope Francis is responding well to treatment at a Rome hospital for pneumonia, the Vatican said Saturday, adding that the 88-year-old’s condition had seen “a gradual, slight improvement.”

“The Holy Father’s clinical condition in recent days has remained stable and, consequently, testifies to a good response to treatment. There is therefore a gradual, slight improvement,” the Holy See said in an update.

But as a precaution, his doctors have decided to keep his prognosis as guarded, it added, meaning the head of the Catholic Church isn’t out of danger.

The Vatican also said Francis had worked and rested during the day Saturday.

The 88-year-old pope was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on February 14 for what was initially a bad case of bronchitis.

The infection progressed into a complex respiratory tract infection and double pneumonia.

Pope Francis already had chronic lung disease and had part of one lung removed as a young man.

He has been given high flows of supplemental oxygen during the day and a noninvasive mechanical ventilation mask at night.

Cardinal steps in for ailing pope

In his absence, the Vatican’s day-to-day operations continued, with Cardinal Pietro Parolin celebrating Mass for a pro-life group in St. Peter’s Basilica.

At the start, Parolin delivered a message from the pope from hospital on the need to protect life, from birth to natural death.

The message, dated March 5, encouraged the faithful to promote pro-life activities not just for the unborn, but “for the elderly, no longer independent or the incurably ill.”

On Friday, Francis spent 20 minutes in the Gemelli hospital chapel, praying and doing some work in between rest and respiratory and physical therapy, the Vatican said.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/pope-showing-good-response-to-treatment-says-vatican/a-71869824

France, Germany, Italy and the UK said on Saturday they supported an Arab-backed plan for the reconstruction of Gaza.

The plan would cost $53 billion (€50.5 billion) and avoid displacing Palestinians from the territory.

“The plan shows a realistic path to the reconstruction of Gaza and promises — if implemented — swift and sustainable improvement of the catastrophic living conditions for the Palestinians living in Gaza,” the foreign ministers of the four countries said in a joint statement.

Arab leaders on Tuesday endorsed the post-war plan, which was put forward by Egypt, to rebuild the Paelstinian enclave.

The Arab Summit in Cairo took place after US President Donald Trump floated a widely condemned proposal to turn the Gaza Strip into what he called the “Riviera of the Middle East” and displace its residents.

Arab plan welcomed by Europe, rejected by the US

Earlier this week, the Trump administration dismissed the $53 billion counter proposal after it was adopted.

The White House said it stood by Trump’s vision, with National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes commenting late Tuesday that “the current proposal does not address the reality that Gaza is currently uninhabitable.”

Meanwhile, the foreign ministers of the four European countries stressed the importance of recovery and reconstruction efforts built on a framework that “provides long-term peace and security for both Israelis and Palestinians alike.”

What’s in the Arab plan to rebuild Gaza?

The phased reconstruction plan consists of three major stages over five years.

An initial six-month recovery phase is aimed at removing debris, de-mining and building temporary housing.

In the first phase, the plan calls for the building of 200,000 housing units in Gaza over the next two years. A second stage will see 200,000 more housing units.

By 2030, the plan foresees hundreds of thousands of new homes housing up to 3 million people as well as an airport, industrial zones, hotels and parks.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/france-germany-italy-uk-hail-arab-backed-gaza-plan/a-71866984

Women experience a significant drop in income from employment after marriage in Germany, with earnings decreasing by an average of 20%, according to a study by Munich’s IFO Institute and the University of Oslo.

The research, titled “The Marriage Earnings Gap,” attributes this decline to reduced working hours or complete withdrawal from the workforce because of increased responsibilities. In contrast, men’s earnings remain unchanged after marriage.

Income gap widens after marriage

The study, based on pension insurance data, found that income differences between men and women grow significantly after marriage, regardless of whether they have children. ”Our research shows that the income differences between men and women increase in marriage, regardless of the birth of children,” said IFO researcher Elena Herold.

Though men’s earnings remain stable, women’s income declines steadily over several years. Herold explained that this drop is not solely due to marriage-related childbirth.

Even when that factor is removed, women’s earnings still decrease by 20%, and when childbirth is included, the decline reaches nearly 50%.

The study also found that cohabitation does not produce the same financial impact. “For couples who lived together before marriage, we see no different effects than those who only move in together with the wedding,” Herold said.

She suggested that the greater legal security provided by marriage likely encourages women to reduce their working hours.

One in 10 women stop working after marriage

The income decline is not due to lower wages but rather a reduction in work hours. According to the study, one in ten women stop working altogether after marriage, while the rest work about 20% fewer hours. This shift occurs gradually over several years.

Meanwhile, household work done by women increases by a similar proportion, even when child-rearing is excluded. The study found no similar changes among men.

Tax system and gender roles reinforce the trend

A key reason for the reduction in working hours is the structure of the tax system. Herold noted that “a quarter of the reduction in income for wives can be attributed to the splitting of income between spouses.”

Gender roles also play a significant role. “For women who grew up in East Germany before reunification, we see less negative effects than for women from West Germany,” said Herold.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/husband-tax-german-womens-pay-drops-after-marriage-study/a-71865772

When Alex Wong was growing up, his father spent most of his time at work instead of at home. Family holidays were also limited to summertime.

But his father made a promise: After retirement, they would surely make up for lost time.

That promise was shattered when, shortly after Wong’s 18th birthday, his father suffered a spinal injury that left him paralysed.

It was a life-changing moment for Wong. If his father had worked tirelessly for a future that never came, he thought, what was stopping the same from happening to him?

“Previously I’d spent most of my time studying,” the 22-year-old said. “Now I want to enjoy myself enough first and think about the future only in my 30s.”

His commitment to this altered path is unwavering, even in the face of financial hardship. His mother, the family breadwinner, supports not only his father, but also his six-year-old brother. They also had to hire a domestic helper from Indonesia.

Wong copes by taking on warehouse jobs a few days a month, earning just HK$310 (US$40) a day when there is work to be found. But he is not in any rush to secure something more stable.

His mindset is far from unique. A Hong Kong government-related survey last year found that among youth (aged 15 to 29) not studying or working, 36 per cent had no plans to get a job.

Indeed, the phenomenon called “tang ping”, or lying flat — a rejection of the culture of hard work — has gained ground in the city.

About 44 per cent of secondary students in a Hong Kong Young Women’s Christian Association poll last year said they were lying flat or planning to do so.

For some, it is about freedom. For others, it is boredom.

Ken Hui, 26, worked full-time for about six months before quitting in 2023. His admin job, tied to sports and event planning, seemed exciting at first but quickly became repetitive.

“I don’t want to go back to full-time (work) because I don’t want my job to be very monotonous — repeating the same work every day (and) knocking off at the same time,” he said. “There’s no life.”

He now gets by with freelance gigs, like photography.

Some Gen Z professionals, meanwhile, are freelancing full-time or juggling multiple part-time jobs. They are a growing group known as “slashers” — so named because of the slashes in their job descriptions.

Make-up artist Joyce Fung, for instance, is also a part-time bagel maker at a cafe. “I’m lucky that the cafe is flexible about working hours,” the 25-year-old said. “They know that I’m a ‘slasher’ and I take on freelance work.

“After I finish my make-up work or on days with no make-up jobs, I can work there.”

She does not plan on stopping, perhaps ever. “I’m very scared of boredom,” Fung said. “If I must … work 9 to 5 every day and do work that’s pretty much the same, that isn’t a way of life I desire.”

As young Hongkongers like her eschew stable careers, the programme Insight explores whether the city’s Gen Z are growing work-weary altogether and what can move the needle for them.

FROM FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO COVID-19 IMPACT

In 2022, government data showed that Hong Kong had lost around 116,600 young workers (aged 18 to 39) over a two-year period. Many either left the city or simply opted out of the workforce.

Experts posit that one reason behind the shift in Gen Z is the financial security achieved by previous generations.

“(Their) parents are … better off and don’t expect the new generation to earn a lot to take care of them,” said Benson Chan, chief officer of the Mental Health Association of Hong Kong. “This generation doesn’t really face financial pressures.”

As a result, many young adults remain financially dependent on their families, with a majority still living at home.

This has given rise to the buzzword “full-time children”, young adults who live with their parents and help out with household chores in exchange for an allowance.

Beyond their parents’ purse strings, many Gen Zers are also focused on the present rather than on long-term financial goals.

Most of Wong’s friends, he said, have a spend-now, work-later mentality. They would rather earn just enough to buy games, upgrade their devices and enjoy life. “They think about going back to work only when they run out of money.”

Chan suggested that growing up in a world of social media and instant gratification has left Gen Zers feeling unfulfilled when their wants are not met immediately.

At the same time, long-term financial goals seem out of reach. A 2024 HSBC survey found that 61 per cent of Gen Z Hongkongers believed home ownership was “far-fetched” for them.

After all, Hong Kong is one of the world’s most expensive property markets: The average private home costs US$1.15 million.

It does not seem worth it for Hui. “I don’t want to put my money in property and cars,” he said. “I work so that I can earn money to go travelling.”

Chan believes this disillusionment runs deeper. “Many youths feel, ‘If I can’t meet expectations anyway, why should I work?’” he said.

The pandemic also helped shape Gen Z’s perspectives. It cut off their social interactions and deepened feelings of seclusion.

Wong experienced this firsthand. While studying in mainland China as a cross-border student, he found himself trapped under strict quarantine measures.

“In the small neighbourhoods, you were all boarded up, with only one point of entry and exit. You could only use delivery services to get groceries,” recalled Wong, who became “even more reclusive”.

The isolation, combined with exam stress, took a toll on his mental health. At his lowest point, he even considered taking his own life.

Chan, who works with young people experiencing mental health issues, said many of them struggle because “they face outside pressures or lack a clear goal for their future”.

CAN GEN Z AFFORD TO BE PICKY?

Despite their reluctance to work full-time, Gen Zers might not have the luxury to hold off on seeking permanent employment as opportunities are dwindling.

Take 24-year-old Ada Siu. A recent communications graduate, she and some of her classmates struggled for six months to land a full-time job. They had to submit over 100 applications each to secure a few interviews.

Hong Kong’s post-pandemic recovery has been sluggish. Gross domestic product growth last year — 2.5 per cent — was at the lowest point of the projected range. This year, growth is expected to be between 2 per cent and 3 per cent.

Small and medium enterprises have been hardest hit. High interest rates, a property slump and an exodus of investors have left these businesses struggling to stay afloat.

They make up more than 98 per cent of Hong Kong’s total enterprises, employ more than 44 per cent of the private sector workforce but must scramble to attract young talent.

A few months ago, Siu secured a full-time role at a small agency, where she helped with events and public relations. But her time there did not last long.

“On the fourth day, … I already felt (the company) was unsuitable for me,” she recalled. “I went right back to job hunting. … I left after a month.”

Two in five Gen Zers and millennials in Hong Kong often think about leaving their jobs, according to a survey last year. Many of them may be in search of greater engagement.

“I’d feel like a frog … in boiling water,” Siu said about staying long in a company. “If I feel that I’ve already learnt enough in this position or have experienced enough, then I think it’s natural to want to change.”

Job hopping is frowned upon, however, in Hong Kong’s traditional work culture.

“(Job hoppers) are … seen as a high cost for companies because you train them and then they leave,” noted Wendy Suen, the head of talent solutions for recruitment consultancy ConnectedConsult.

Adding to the challenge for Hong Kong’s Gen Z is competition from mainland China. Since 2022, relaxed visa rules have allowed more mainlanders to live and work in the city.

In 2023, there was an upsurge in applications for the Immigration Arrangements for Non-local Graduates visa, which allows non-local students to stay in Hong Kong and work after graduation, cited Natixis Corporate and Investment Banking senior economist Gary Ng.

And since November, the government has also allowed non-local undergraduates to work part-time. This applies to around 20,000 students, equivalent to more than 3 per cent of the 15 to 24 age group in Hong Kong.

That is an influx of job hunters into a labour market that is not growing, observed Ng.

“If (non-local students) want to stay in Hong Kong, … it’d be fair to assume that some of (them) may be willing to work harder to basically compete for the same jobs,” he said.

Suen added that mainlanders are increasingly drawn to Hong Kong as a stepping stone to the global arena and tend to be more receptive to traditional work expectations such as long hours.

WHAT WILL GET GEN Z TO CLOCK IN AGAIN?

To attract more Gen Z Hongkongers, who are increasingly concerned about burnout, anxiety and mental health, Suen suggested that companies should focus on implementing well-being initiatives.

A survey released last year by mental health startup Intellect and digital wealth platform Endowus found that 31 per cent of Hong Kong millennials and Gen Zers wanted their workplaces to offer mental wellness workshops.

In another recent survey, global communications firm Edelman found that Hong Kong’s Gen Z have high expectations for their leaders. They want a manager who is hard-working and someone like a friend, whom they can connect with naturally.

Young workers are also known to seek out flatter hierarchies and more collaborative work environments. Many of these preferences, however, could prove challenging in Hong Kong’s workplaces, which remain largely hierarchical, with an emphasis on rules and professionalism.

Then there is the city’s long-hours culture. According to a Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions survey in 2023, more than half of workers put in over 45 hours a week; 7.3 per cent of respondents worked over 70 hours.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/cna-insider/lying-flat-hong-kong-gen-z-rethinking-full-time-work-4982501

President Donald Trump proposed in February a “gold card” visa program, which he said would offer permanent residency for a price of $5 million. But despite criticism from some experts who warned of the possibility that the administration’s cozying with oligarchs able to make the payment, this isn’t the first time a visa of this nature has floated around the immigration sphere.

The proposed new program would allow “very high-level people” a new “route to citizenship,” Trump said. The new gold card would replace the EB-5 visa program, which similarly provides a pathway to citizenship for wealthy investor types but has also been criticized, in this case as an avenue for fraud.

Alex Nowrasteh is the Cato Institute’s vice president for economic and social policy studies, he proposed a similar version of Trump’s gold card in a 2019 policy analysis. In his plan, Nowrasteh recommended charging a lower price and not removing the investor’s visa.

“My whole plan that I wrote up in 2019 is substantially and radically different from what Trump came out with,” Nowrasteh told The Latin Times. “It is merely that he stole the marketing and the idea on the names.”

Under Cato’s envisioned program, foreigners could pay an immigration tariff to the federal government in exchange for a gold card visa that would allow the holders to reside and work in the U.S. as long as they are not “inadmissible under existing criteria and do not commit a deportable offense.”

Unlike Trump’s plan, Nowrasteh’s gold card would not provide a new path to citizenship, but its holders could adjust their status to a green card and eventually earn citizenship through any other currently existing legal means. He also suggested Congress adjusting tariff rates by age and education to guarantee that all immigrants make a positive net fiscal contribution.

“The ‘gold card’ proposal is the flip side of this dark record. More than just a policy, it’s a wholesale rewrite of what it means to be an American.” an MSNBC op-ed reads. “In Trump’s vision, citizenship is no longer about building a shared national project; it is an asset reserved for those who can afford it, as it is in countries with ‘golden visa’ programs such as Malta and Cyprus. Being American would become a high-end commodity, available only to the wealthy.”

Nowrasteh agrees with the sentiment, arguing that Trump’s new visa program is “ludicrous” and fuels the oligarchy rhetoric the Trump administration has been accused of embracing. The scholar said that ultimately, the administration could sell only a couple visas a year.

“I think it fuels the [oligarchy] rhetoric, definitely. But it’s also just silly because nobody’s gonna take advantage of those. I mean nobody, like who is going to do this? I have no idea,” Nowrasteh said. “Not many people have $5 million burning a hole in their pocket, and they’re like, ‘you know what I want? A green card and have no other way to get it.”

In his last speech from the Oval Office in January, former President Joe Biden warned of a rising ultra-wealthy “oligarchy” in America posing threat to the country’s democracy, and urged U.S. citizens to defend institutions against “powerful forces.”

A few days later, some of the world’s wealthiest people stood beside Trump as he was inaugurated into office, including CEO and Founder of SpaceX and “first buddy” Elon Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and more.

Upon announcing the new program, Trump also joked Russian oligarchs would “possibly” be able to apply for the visa. These oligarchs are wealthy and politically connected businesspeople who benefitted from Russia’s post-Soviet privatization, often leveraging their influence over politics, media and key industries.

Source : https://www.latintimes.com/how-trumps-ludicrous-gold-card-visa-program-fuels-oligarchy-rhetoric-scholar-explains-577715

Senior members of President Donald Trump’s team have secretly met with Ukrainian opposition figures, reportedly discussing ways to push President Volodymyr Zelenskyy out of office as tensions between Washington and Kyiv escalate, according to a report.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Ukraine has relied heavily on U.S. military and financial support. Under Trump’s presidency, however, relations have soured, with his administration pushing for a rapid end to the war, even if it requires Ukrainian concessions to Russia, Politico reported.

Zelenskyy has resisted pressure to negotiate under unfavorable terms. Meanwhile, opposition figures like former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and former President Petro Poroshenko could be positioning themselves as more cooperative alternatives.

In recent weeks, four high-ranking Trump allies have held undisclosed meetings with Tymoshenko and members of Poroshenko’s party, discussing the possibility of holding early presidential elections in Ukraine, several sources told the outlet.

Currently, elections are suspended due to martial law, and many believe a rushed vote would be strategically beneficial to Russia. Despite added concerns, Trump’s team appeared confident that Zelenskyy would lose.

The talks align with the Kremlin’s long-standing goal of removing Zelenskyy, and Trump himself has accused the Ukrainian president of being a “dictator without elections.”

Source : https://www.latintimes.com/trump-entourage-secretly-met-zelenskyys-biggest-political-rivals-tensions-between-us-ukraine-577676

As President Trump puts new tariffs on goods from China and threatens a trade war with allies like Mexico and Canada, one global company is likely to suffer less than most of its competitors: Tesla.

But the electric car maker led by Elon Musk, which accounts for a third of the billionaire’s wealth, is also vulnerable if relations with China worsen. That country is the company’s second-largest market after the United States and it produces more cars there than anywhere else.

Tesla has built largely self-sufficient supply chains in the United States and China, a rarity in a world of interconnected trade. As a result, the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on Chinese goods, and the continuing threat to put them on Mexican and Canadian products, might help Tesla by hurting its competitors more.

Although there is no evidence that Mr. Musk is shaping trade policies, the tariffs are one of several measures adopted by the Trump administration that may benefit Tesla at the expense of its rivals. On Wednesday, Mr. Trump paused 25 percent tariffs on most autos and parts made in Canada and Mexico, but the reprieve expires in a month, leaving automakers in the United States that depend on foreign supply chains in a state of uncertainty.

The administration is also trying to eliminate financial support for the construction of fast-charging stations for electric vehicles, a move that could handicap companies seeking to compete with Tesla’s extensive network. And it is attempting to cut or eliminate loans and subsidies that competitors like Ford Motor and Rivian are using to finance electric vehicle and battery factories.

Mr. Musk has said next to nothing about trade or the administration’s crusade to promote fossil fuels and impede sales of electric vehicles, which could also hurt Tesla. And his support of Mr. Trump has inspired protests at Tesla dealerships and weighed on Tesla’s share price. But his position as a de facto member of Mr. Trump’s cabinet gives him influence that far exceeds any other auto executive.

“Conflict of interest is putting it very mildly here,” said John Helveston, an assistant professor at George Washington University who teaches engineering management.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment. A White House official said that its policies predated Mr. Musk’s support for Mr. Trump.

“President Trump consistently slammed Biden’s job-killing electric vehicle policies on the campaign trail since summer 2023 — more than a year before Elon Musk even endorsed President Trump — and he has consistently pressed companies to have their products be made in America since he first ran for president in 2015,” Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, said in an email.

The trade war and other Trump policies also hold risks for Tesla when the company is already in crisis, with sales plummeting in China and Europe even as the overall market for electric vehicles is surging.

Mr. Musk’s extensive investments in China leave him vulnerable as trade tensions between the Chinese government and the Trump administration rise.

“He could become a pawn in all of this,” said Lei Xing, an independent auto analyst based in Massachusetts who is focused on China.

Tesla is already struggling in Europe and China because of competition from Chinese electric carmakers and a dearth of new models. Anger over Mr. Musk’s political activities, including promotion of far-right parties, has also hurt demand in Germany, the United States and other markets. Mr. Musk’s personal wealth is tied up in Tesla stock, which has been on a steep decline.

When Tesla began mass-producing electric cars at a factory in Fremont, Calif., in 2012, it designed a supply chain that was less dependent on imports than virtually all of its competitors. Electric vehicles were a new technology then, forcing Tesla to largely develop its own sources of batteries, motors and other components.

Tesla built a battery factory in Nevada in partnership with Panasonic of Japan, and it remains one of just a few car companies to mass-produce batteries in the United States.

When, in 2014, Mr. Musk began talking about building a factory in China, he received a warm welcome from government officials. Tesla opened a factory in Shanghai six years later under unusually favorable conditions. Beijing changed ownership rules so that the company could set up without a local partner, a first for a foreign automaker in China. The Chinese government also ensured low-interest loans, access to top leaders and even changes that Tesla had sought on emissions regulations.

But Mr. Musk kept supply chains for the Chinese and U.S. factories relatively separate, unlike other auto companies that depend heavily on imported parts.

“He set himself up nicely in the event that trade goes sideways and tariffs go higher,” said Michael Dunne, a longtime China automotive consultant. “And that serves him well today.”

Today, the cars made in Shanghai are sold in Europe, Southeast Asia or in the domestic Chinese market — but not in the United States.

The cars Tesla sells in the United States are made at factories in Fremont and Austin, Texas. Tesla also produces charging equipment for its proprietary charging network — the nation’s largest — in Buffalo, N.Y. Tesla regularly tops an annual ranking by Cars.com, an online shopping site, of how much of a vehicle is American-made.

“Tesla is in a good position” to withstand tariffs, said Patrick Masterson, who oversees compilation of the data that goes into the Cars.com ranking. “Their domestic production is robust.”

Tesla is still vulnerable to tariffs on goods from China and Mexico because a quarterof the components and materials in the car, measured by value, is imported, according to data compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. But electric vehicles made by Tesla’s competitors are much more vulnerable to tariffs.

General Motors’ Chevrolet Equinox sport utility vehicle, for example, is made in Mexico. With a starting price of $34,000, the battery-powered Equinox is a threat to the Tesla Model Y, which starts at $45,000 before government incentives. The Trump administration’s 25 percent tariff will erase most of that advantage, assuming it stands.

The risk to Tesla in China is harder to gauge. So far, Chinese leaders appear to see Mr. Musk’s role in the Trump administration as a plus, viewing him as a potential point of contact. In January, when Han Zheng, China’s vice president flew to Washington to attend Mr. Trump’s inauguration, he met with Mr. Musk.

“U.S.-China policy often has operated through specific personal relationships,” said Ilaria Mazzocco, a senior fellow in Chinese business and economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. “There is hope in China that he could play a constructive role.”

But Mr. Musk has also lost some bargaining power in China.

When Chinese leaders greenlighted the Shanghai factory, Tesla was seen as a technology leader that would spur development of the E.V. industry. With sales plummeting in Europe and weakening in China, however, Tesla production in Shanghai fell 50 percent in February from a year earlier. Chinese automakers like BYD and Xiaomi are introducing new models that rival Tesla in features like autonomous driving.

Tesla’s prestige and leverage in China may be diminished as a result.

“Tesla can no longer control China,” said Jia Xinguang, an independent automotive analyst in Australia. “But China, by contrast, can control Tesla.”

Still, China would likely think twice before targeting Tesla and Mr. Musk because doing so could make it more difficult to attract foreign investment, said Wang Yanhang, a fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University in Beijing who tracks trade issues. “China will not shoot itself in the foot,” he said. “It is the last option.”

China has so far steered clear of autos when retaliating against the Trump administration’s tariffs on Chinese goods, instead raising duties on U.S. agricultural products like chicken and wheat.

Tesla has quietly fought at least one potential tariff on Chinese materials that would have a direct impact on its competitiveness.

China is the main source of high-purity graphite, an essential material for batteries. In December, a group of companies that are trying to produce battery-grade graphite in the United States accused China of dumping and asked the U.S. International Trade Commission to impose punitive duties that could be more than 800 percent.

Source : https://dnyuz.com/2025/03/08/trumps-tariffs-could-help-tesla-by-hurting-its-rivals-more/

North Korea unveiled for the first time a nuclear-powered submarine under construction, a weapons system that can pose a major security threat to South Korea and the U.S.

The state media agency on Saturday released photos showing what it called “a nuclear-powered strategic guided missile submarine,” as it reported leader Kim Jong Un’s visits to major shipyards where warships are built.

The Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, didn’t provide details on the submarine, but said that Kim was briefed on its construction.

The naval vessel appears to be a 6,000-ton-class or 7,000-ton-class one which can carry about 10 missiles, said Moon Keun-sik, a South Korean submarine expert who teaches at Seoul’s Hanyang University. He said that the use of the term “the strategic guided missiles” meant it would carry nuclear-capable weapons.

“It would be absolutely threatening to us and the U.S.,” Moon said.

U.S. National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said that “we’re aware of these claims and do not have additional information to provide at this time.

“The U.S. is committed to the complete denuclearization of North Korea,” Hughes said.

A nuclear-powered submarine was among a long wish list of sophisticated weaponry that Kim vowed to introduce during a major political conference in 2021 to cope with what he called escalating U.S.-led military threats. Other weapons were solid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missiles, hypersonic weapons, spy satellites and multi-warhead missiles. North Korea has since performed a run of testing activities to acquire them.

North Korea obtaining a greater ability to fire missiles from underwater is a worrying development, because it’s difficult for its rivals to detect such launches in advance.

Questions about how North Korea, a heavily sanctioned and impoverished country, could get resources and technology to build nuclear-powered submarines have surfaced.

Moon, the submarine expert, said that North Korea may have received Russian technological assistance to build a nuclear reactor to be used in the submarine in return for supplying conventional weapons and troops to support Russia’s war efforts against Ukraine.

He also said that North Korea could launch the submarine in one or two years to test its capability before its actual deployment.

North Korea has an estimated 70-90 diesel-powered submarines in one of the world’s largest fleets. However, they are mostly aging ones capable of launching only torpedoes and mines, not missiles.

In 2023, North Korea said that it had launched what it called its first “ tactical nuclear attack submarine,” but foreign experts doubted the North’s announcement and speculated that it was likely a diesel-powered submarine disclosed in 2019. Moon said that there has been no confirmation that it has been deployed.

North Korea has conducted a slew of underwater-launched ballistic missile tests since 2016, but all launches were made from the same 2,000-ton-class submarine which has a single launch tube. Many experts call it a test platform, rather than an operational submarine in active service.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/north-korea-nuclear-submarine-missiles-kim-us-183cde96a36844fdce559081551fc0a7

For SpaceX, 2025 should have been the best year yet.

Elon Musk, the founder of the private space company, is one of the most influential people in the Oval Office, and President Trump has endorsed his vision of sending humans to Mars.

But so far, it has not been a great year for the rocket company. The vehicle that is central to the Mars goal, SpaceX’s giant Starship rocket, has launched twice this year, and twice, it has blown up.

The latest explosion occurred on Thursday during the eighth test flight of Starship, less than two months after the seventh test flight also came apart in space. Again, a shower of debris rained down, creating a novel headache for travelers around Florida and the Caribbean who were unaccustomed to seeing “falling space debris” as the reason for flight delays. Neither incident injured anyone.

Explosions are not necessarily failures for a company that has thrived on a mind-set of “launch it, break it, fix it, launch again.” With innovations like landing and reusing rocket boosters, SpaceX has slashed the cost of sending stuff to space. Starship, designed to be fully reusable, has the potential to upend the rocket business once again.

But these two Starship explosions were a step backward in SpaceX’s development process, as the flights could not even repeat the successes of earlier test flights, and they perhaps show that the company’s engineers are not as infallible as fans of the company sometimes like to think.

“There’s this persona that has built up around SpaceX, but you’re starting to see that they’re human, too,” said Daniel Dumbacher, a former NASA official who is now a professor of engineering practice at Purdue University and chief innovation and strategy officer for Special Aerospace Services, an engineering and manufacturing company whose customers include NASA, the United States Space Force and some of SpaceX’s competitors.

The delays could also have repercussions for NASA, which hired SpaceX to use a version of Starship to land astronauts on the moon as soon as 2027 during the Artemis III mission.

The two lost Starships, which both failed less than 10 minutes after liftoff, were an upgraded design. Discouragingly, they were less successful than an older version of Starship that flew last year. Three previous test flights successfully coasted halfway around the world, survived re-entry through the atmosphere over the Indian Ocean, and then simulated landings in the waters off the west coast of Australia.

In addition, the failures of the seventh and eighth flights occurred at about the same part of the flight, and both appeared to originate near the engines of the second-stage spacecraft. That suggests that SpaceX did not successfully diagnose and solve the problem. It could point to a significant design flaw in the upgraded Starship.

That also means that SpaceX has so far been unable to test aspects of the updated Starship design, including smaller and repositioned forward flaps used to guide the spacecraft as it falls through the air during re-entry. SpaceX also planned to test a Pez-like dispenser for deploying its Starlink internet satellites.

Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, is central to Mr. Musk’s dreams of building human settlements on Mars. A frequent cadence of Starship launches is also crucial to SpaceX’s more immediate plans to make money.

The next generation of satellites for its Starlink internet-from-space service are bigger and heavier. The voluminous cargo space of the Starship upper stage would allow the company to replenish its constellation of thousands of orbiting satellites quickly and cheaply.

The test flight failures also mean that SpaceX’s development program has not been able to move on to other objectives.

SpaceX needs to demonstrate that Starship can stay in orbit for an extended period of time, and then drop out of orbit and return to the launch site to be caught by the mechanical arms on the launch tower. (The Super Heavy booster stage, which does not go to orbit, has successfully done this three times). The company also needs to show that it can launch several Starships in quick succession.

Most critically, it needs to show that it can move liquid oxygen and methane propellants from one Starship to another. That procedure is key to allowing a Starship to accumulate enough fuel to go to moon or Mars.

Thus, the Starship that is to reach the moon will have to remain in Earth orbit as other Starships are launched to bring up propellants to refill the lunar lander Starship’s tanks.

Mr. Musk has asserted that propellant transfer is a straightforward exercise. But pumping that much liquid that quickly while floating in orbit has never been attempted, and no one knows yet how many Starship launches — perhaps as many as 20 — will be needed for a single moon mission.

“We just don’t know how the tank performance is going to be,” Amit Kshatriya, deputy associate administrator for NASA’s moon to Mars program, said in December at a media event focused on Artemis at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. “We just don’t.”

At the time, Mr. Kshatriya said NASA would learn that soon, because the long-duration version of Starship was expected to launch in the spring. Then SpaceX could also test its ability to operate two Starships in orbit simultaneously and determine how efficiently it can move propellants between two spacecraft.

Those findings, in turn, would help NASA put together a realistic schedule for Artemis III.

Within a year, “we’re going have a really good understanding of that problem,” Mr. Kshatriya said. “But I can’t schedule that innovation. There’s no way to.”

But the schedule Mr. Kshatriya described assumed there would not be major setbacks. With the Federal Aviation Administration grounding Starship until SpaceX completes an investigation of the Flight 8 failure, the debut of the long-duration Starship may be delayed to the middle of the year, or longer.

Mr. Dumbacher thinks that SpaceX will be able to solve the technical challenges posed by Starship. “I have no doubt that they’ll get it addressed, and they’ll get flying again and they’ll get things fixed,” he said. “I just don’t know how long it’s going to take them to do that.”

In testimony to a House committee last month, Mr. Dumbacher said the Starship system, with the multitude of fueling flights, was too big and too complicated to meet the current target date of 2027 for Artemis III, or even 2030, when China plans to land astronauts on the moon.

Source : https://dnyuz.com/2025/03/08/twin-test-flight-explosions-show-spacex-is-no-longer-defying-gravity/

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has thanked Ukraine’s allies for condemning Russian strikes after one of the deadliest days for civilians in his country so far this year.

Ukraine’s president described the attacks as a “vile and inhumane intimidation tactic” by Russia.

While a warning by Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin to stop “pounding” Ukraine or else, appears to have fallen on deaf ears.

Russia launched heavy aerial attacks overnight into Saturday after the White House administration suspended intelligence sharing with Ukraine.

The US has been piling pressure on President Zelenskyy’s government to cooperate in convening peace talks with Russia.

American aerospace company Maxar Technologies said on Friday it had disabled access to its satellite imagery for Kyiv. Its ability to strike inside Russia and defend itself from bombardment is very much diminished without such images.

At least 22 people were killed in multiple Russian attacks, including 11 in the frontline town of Dobropilla in Ukraine’s embattled eastern Donetsk region.

Russia fired two ballistic missiles into the town centre, then launched a strike targeting rescuers who responded, according to Mr Zelenskyy. Forty-seven people, including seven children, were injured in the attack.

“It is a vile and inhumane intimidation tactic to which the Russians often resort,” he said.

The president added: “It was one of the most brutal strikes, a combined one. The strike was deliberately calculated to cause maximum damage. Missiles, along with a Shahed drone, targeted the central part of the town.

“Nine residential buildings were hit. Also, the shopping centre and stores were struck.”

Another seven people were killed in four towns close to the frontline where Russian troops have been making steady advances, said regional governor Vadym Filashkin.

Three others died when a Russian drone hit a civilian workshop in the northeastern Kharkiv region, emergency services reported. And one man was killed by shelling in the region.

The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said it was one of 2025’s deadliest attacks for Ukrainian civilians.

Some 24 hours earlier, Russia struck Ukrainian energy facilities using dozens of missiles and drones.

The attacks hampered Ukraine’s ability to supply power to its citizens and run weapons factories vital to its defences.

When asked on Friday if Russian President Vladimir Putin was taking advantage of the US pause on intelligence-sharing to attack Ukraine, Mr Trump responded: “I think he’s doing what anybody else would.”

Mr Zelenskyy did not mention intelligence-sharing on Saturday, but said he welcomed Mr Trump’s proposal to bring in banking sanctions and tariffs on Russia until a ceasefire and final peace settlement is reached.

Mr Zelenskyy also said: “I am grateful to all the leaders, all those diplomats of our partner countries, all public figures who support Ukraine, who have condemned these Russian strikes and who call all things by their proper names.

“And it is essential that we continue coordinating all our efforts with our partners to ensure that our defence works effectively and that we do everything to bring peace closer.”

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/zelenskyy-condemns-vile-and-inhumane-russian-attacks-after-one-of-years-deadliest-days-for-ukrainian-civilians-13324823

Two men have been arrested in India over an alleged gang rape of an Israeli female tourist and a local woman.

The victims were stargazing with three male travellers – an American and two Indians – when the attack happened near a popular UNESCO World Heritage site on Thursday night.

Three men on a motorbike approached the group and asked them for money in Koppal town in southern Karnataka, according to authorities.

An argument followed and the three men pushed the male travellers into a nearby river canal, before the women were sexually assaulted, said police official Ram Arasiddi.

The American man and one of the two Indian men survived by swimming to safety but the other Indian man drowned and his body was recovered on Saturday.

The Indian woman was the homestay operator for the Israeli.

Homestay is a form of hospitality and lodging where visitors share a residence with a local host.

The arrested pair are being investigated on suspicion of attempted murder, gang rape and robbery, said Mr Arasiddi.

Previous high-profile attacks

Attacks on women in India gained global attention last year after a junior doctor was raped and murdered at a hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata, sparking national outrage and protests over a lack of safety for women.

In 2022, police recorded 31,516 rape cases, a 20% rise on the year before, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.

The real figure is believed to be far higher due to the stigma surrounding sexual violence and victims’ lack of faith in police.

Rape and sexual violence have been in the spotlight since a student was gang-raped in 2012 on a bus in New Delhi and later died of her injuries.

The attack led to huge demonstrations and inspired politicians to bring in fast-track courts dedicated to rape cases and toughen up penalties.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/israeli-tourist-and-host-gang-raped-in-india-as-man-drowns-after-being-pushed-in-canal-police-say-13324574

A state of emergency has been issued in New York as brush fires sweep through swathes of Long Island and near Brooklyn.

Firefighters are battling the flames with National Guard helicopters providing air support, according to New York State governor Kathy Hochul.

The flames are being fanned by high winds that spewed thick smoke into the sky and caused the evacuation of a military base and the closure of a major highway.

Governor Hochul said emergency workers were responding to the fires around the Pine Barrens, a wooded area that is home to commuter towns east of New York City.

“This is still out of control at this moment,” she told Long Island TV station News 12.

“We’re seeing people having to be evacuated from the Westhampton area.”

Around the same time as videos started appearing on social media showing the fires, the Town of Southampton issued a warning against starting recreational fires due to the wildfire risk.

“Exercise caution handling any potential ignition sources, including machinery, cigarettes, and matches,” the weather service warned.

“Any fires that ignite will have the potential to spread quickly.”

NASA satellite data showed fire and smoke stretching roughly 2.5 miles along Sunrise Highway, a thoroughfare to the east end of Long Island.

Governor Hochul said homes, a chemical factory and an Amazon warehouse were at risk.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/state-of-emergency-issued-as-fires-sweep-through-new-yorks-long-island-13324819

More than 1,000 people have died in clashes in Syria after violence erupted between government supporters and people thought to be loyal to the ousted President Bashar al Assad.

The death toll, reported by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), makes the two days of violence some of the deadliest since Syria’s conflict began 14 years ago, according to the group.

The government said it is responding to attacks from remnants of Assad’s forces and blamed “individual actions” for the violence.

Seven hundred and forty-five civilians were killed, mostly in massacres, as well as 148 pro-Assad fighters and 125 people from security forces, according to the British-based SOHR.

No official figures have been released.

SOHR said the violence erupted on Thursday afternoon when pro-Assad militants ambushed Syrian security forces in the Latakia region, a former stronghold of the deposed leader where many of the minority Alawites, who made up his support base, live.

On Friday, Sunni Muslim gunmen loyal to the government began revenge killings against members of Assad’s minority Alawite sect, according to people in the region.

“They forcibly brought people down to the streets, then they lined them up and started shooting them,” said one resident of Baniyasin on the west coast of Syria.

“They left nobody. They left nobody at all. The scene that I saw was pure horror; it’s just indescribable,” he said.

The man, who Sky News is not naming for his safety, described women being forced to “walk naked” before being shot and a teenage boy being handed a rifle and forced to shoot his family.

He said he hid in a bin before escaping under the cover of night.

“The victims of this massacre were all civilians – just civilians and not Assad loyalists,” said the man.

Other residents from Alawite communities told the Associated Press (AP) about gunmen shooting Alawites, the majority of them men, in the streets or at the gates of their homes.

Many homes were looted and then set on fire, two residents of Syria’s coastal region told the AP from their hideouts.

The revenge killings stopped early Saturday, according to SOHR’s founder Rami Abdurrahman.

“This was one of the biggest massacres during the Syrian conflict,” Mr Abdurrahman said about the killings of Alawite civilians.

Syria’s state news agency said all roads leading to the coastal region have been closed “to prevent violations and gradually restore stability”.

According to SOHR, electricity and drinking water were cut off in large areas around the city of Latakia.

An unnamed Defense Ministry official was quoted by the news agency as saying government forces have regained control of much of the areas from Assad loyalists.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/they-left-nobody-more-than-1-000-people-killed-in-some-of-syrias-deadliest-violence-13324440

South Korea’s impeached president has been released from prison, a day after his arrest was cancelled.

A Seoul court cancelled the arrest so that he could stand trial for rebellion without being detained.

As he left the detention centre, Yoon bowed deeply to his supporters, waving and clenching his fists.

The crowd shouted his name and waved South Korean and US flags.

Yoon said he “appreciates the courage and decision by the Seoul Central District Court to correct illegality”, in a statement distributed by his lawyers, an apparent reference to legal disputes over his arrest.

While thanking his supporters, he also asked those who are on hunger strike against his impeachment to end the action.

Yoon faces rebellion charges linked to his declaration of martial law on 3 December.

The move set off the country’s most serious political crisis since its democratisation in the late 1980s.

The crisis began when, in an attempt to break through legislative gridlock, he imposed military rule and sent troops to the National Assembly and election offices.

The standoff lasted only hours after politicians who managed to get through a blockade voted to lift the measure.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/south-koreas-impeached-president-released-from-prison-13324686

DONALD Trump is set to fly in person to Saudi Arabia as he said he will get the peace deal back on track between Russia and Ukraine.

Speaking from the Oval Office on Friday, the President said it is getting “more difficult” to deal with Kyiv

US President Donald Trump delivers remarks in the Oval Office of the White House in WashingtonCredit: ReutersHe said it “may be easier” to deal with Moscow, despite recognising that Putin holds “all the cards”.

But, Trump maintains his belief he will get the conflict “settled and stopped”.

When quizzed over Russia’s intentions to end the war, Trump said he does believe Putin is “committed to peace”.

He added: “I do believe Putin wants peace. I think we’re doing very well with Russia.”

Trump also said that Russia is “bombing the hell” out of Ukraine to take advantage of his weapon and intelligence pause to Kyiv.

He said Putin is doing what “anyone else would do”.

“But right now they’re bombing the hell out of Ukraine.

“Ukraine has to get on the ball and get the job done.”

Echoing Trump’s statement on a peace deal, advisor Mike Waltz said that he expects things to get “back on track” with Ukraine.

Trump is expected to be in Saudi Arabia in the spring after Riyadh agreed to invest $1 trillion in American companies over the next four years.

He said: “They’ve gotten richer, we’ve all gotten older. So I said, ‘I’ll go if you pay a $1 trillion to American companies… over a four-year period.

“They’ve agreed to do that, so I’m going to be going there… probably over the next month and a half.”

Trump is also expected to bring up the war in Ukraine during his visit.

Meanwhile, top diplomats from the US including Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet the Ukrainian delegation for talks on ending the war.

Zelensky will not be meeting with US representatives in Saudi Arabia next week for peace talks as both sides try to build back their damaged relationship.

The talks set to take place in Jeddah, will see his team meet with Americans while the President returns to Kyiv after meeting the crown prince.

In a post he said: “Next week, on Monday, my trip to Saudi Arabia is planned to meet with the crown prince.

“After that my team will stay in Saudi Arabia to work with American partners. Ukraine is most interested in peace.

“As we conveyed to president Trump Ukraine is working and will continue working exclusively in a constructive manner to reach a quick and stable peace.”

Sanctions blast
Earlier today, Trump accused Vlad’s forces of “pounding” the cities – and said he was “strongly considering” a tough new regime of sanctions and tariffs.

Trump wrote on Truth Social: “Based on the fact that Russia is absolutely ‘pounding’ Ukraine on the battlefield right now, I am strongly considering large scale Banking Sanctions, Sanctions, and Tariffs on Russia until a Cease Fire and FINAL SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT ON PEACE IS REACHED.

“To Russia and Ukraine, get to the table right now, before it is too late. Thank you!!!”

His blasting post on is his most direct attack on the Russians since he steered his new administration into the role of peacemaker.

Trump’s past comments, including labelling the Ukrainian leader a “dictator,” fuelled speculation that he was siding with Moscow, and he has previously cast doubt on continued US support for Ukraine.

But this latest statement now marks a decisive pivot, suggesting Trump is now willing to exert economic pressure on Russia to ensure long-term peace.

Russia has been blitzing Ukraine with massive overnight strikes, targeting civilian infrastructure and residential buildings.

Just last night, Nato was forced to scramble fighter jets after Moscow launched a massive missile drone strike on Ukrainian gas facilities.

Mad dictator Putin sent up his Tu-95MS strategic bombers from an Arctic airfield to launch devastating strikes, impacting Ukrainian civilians.

The overnight missile blitz came after Ukrainians were left raging after Trump axed sharing intelligence – leaving Kyiv’s troops “fighting blind”.

The Nato fighter planes were on alert to shoot down any Russian missiles entering Polish airspace as tensions continue to spiral between Europe, Russia and the US.

Zelensky had proposed an aerial truce with Moscow following the overnight attack and having met with EU leaders at the summit yesterday.

In a social media post, Zelensky called for “silence in the skies – a ban on the use of missiles, long-range drones and bombs.

“And also silence at sea – a real guarantee of normal navigation.”

Can Europe fill the gap?
Yesterday, leaders gathered at an emergency EU summit in Brussels and signalled that a £670 billion war chest will be amassed to help Ukraine in the war against Russia.

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen called it a “watershed moment” for Europe and Ukraine.

And British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced that a “coalition of the willing” would come together and devise a peace plan to end the bloody war.

An overwhelming 20 countries are now lined up to join to protect against further Russian aggression.

France’s defence minister confirmed that his country was continuing to provide Ukraine with military intelligence.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/13723794/trump-saudi-arabia-ukraine-putin-zelensky/

A DOUBLE murderer has been executed by firing squad – but he kept breathing after he was shot three times in the chest.

Brad Sigmon is the first person to choose execution by firing squad in 15 years – and faced his lethal punishment on Friday night.

He died after three special bullets were shot at his heart by three volunteer riflemen at the South Carolina Department of Corrections in Columbia.

Sigmon, 67, was convicted of beating to death with a baseball bat his ex-girlfriend’s parents, David and Gladys Larke, at their Taylors home in 2001.

He chose the firing squad over the electric chair or lethal injection, which he feared would cook him alive and make it feel like he was drowning.

The death row inmate of 23 years wore a black jumpsuit with a hood over his head as he was strapped into a chair.

A bullseye target showed the executioners where to shoot as they took aim from 15ft away behind a curtain.

Sigmon breathed heavily as he awaited the rain of bullets.

All three gunmen opened fire at the same time, in front of about a dozen witnesses.

Sigmon tensed briefly when he was shot, the target was blasted off his chest, and he appeared to give another breath or two as a red stain spread across his chest.

A doctor entered the death chamber to examine Sigmon about a minute later, before declaring him dead at 6:08 p.m.

Gerald “Bo” King, Sigmon’s lawyer, said the decision was because he feared a lack of transparency could be covering up how painful these methods really are.

Sigmon made a last gasp for life on Wednesday, when he pleaded with the Supreme Court to halt his execution.

He argued that South Carolina’s refusal to disclose information about its lethal injection procedure violates his due-process rights.

Gerald “Bo” King, Simgon’s lawyer, said it took around 20 minutes for the last three men executed in the state to die from the lethal injection.

He said Sigmon faced “an impossible choice” between bullets that will “break the bones in his chest and destroy his heart” and a having his “lungs filling with blood and fluid” after the injection.

Bo also said Sigmon avoided the chair because he feared it would “burn and cook him alive”.

A group of protesters holding signs with messages such as “All life is precious” and “Execute justice not people” gathered outside the prison before Sigmon’s execution.

BRUTAL MURDER
Sigmon pulped the couple in April 2001, just a week after breaking up with their daughter, Rebecca Barbare.

He and Rebeca had been in a relationship for around three years, living in a trailer park near David and Gladys’s home.

After a night of crack cocaine and drinking, Sigmon told a friend he was going to “get Becky for leaving him” and would “tie her parents up”, according to court documents.

When Rebecca took her kids to school, Sigmon showed up at her parents’ house armed with a baseball bat.

He bludgeoned them alternately, striking each nine times over the head.

David’s “skull was […] almost broken in two”, the court heard during the 2002 trial.

Sigmon then stole David’s gun and waiting for Rebecca to get back.

He marched her into the car at gunpoint but she managed to escape, fleeing as he blasted shots in her direction, according to the court docs.

The murderer fled the state but was captured after 11 days on the run in Tennessee.

When he was arrested, Sigmon told detectives he had planned to murder Rebecca and then turn the gun on himself.

He said: “I couldn’t have her. I wasn’t going to let anybody else have her.”

RARE METHOD
Just three convicts have been executed by firing squad in the US since 1976 – and all of them in Utah.

Rebecca, Sigmon’s ex, told USA Today she does not believe in the death penalty, but that he “should answer for what he’s done”.

Randy Gardner, brother of Ronnie Lee Gardner, the last man to be killed by firing squad in the US, has slammed the fact the method still exists.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/13723508/murderer-executed-firing-squad-south-carolina/

D’Wayne Wiggins, a mentor to superstar Beyonce and founding member of band Tony! Toni! Tone!, has died aged 64.

Wiggins sadly passed on Friday morning after a private bladder cancer battle which he had fought for the past year.

In a statement, his family said: “D’Wayne’s life was incomparable, and his music and service impacted millions around the world, including in his hometown of Oakland, California.”

Wiggins was a singer and bass guitarist for the R&B group Tony! Toni! Tone! which sold over 4million records.

They were best know for the classic 1990s hits Anniversary, It Never Rains (In Southern California) and (Lay Your Head on My) Pillow.

But it could be for his 1995 work developing Destiny’s Child and Beyonce into the global pop phenomenon that he could be best remembered.

His family added: “Through this fight, he remained committed and present for his family, his music, his fans and his community.

“He was deeply passionate about providing artist development and mentorship to emerging young musicians, helping to shape the early careers of many.”

Tony! Toni! Tone! were mainstays of the New York swing movement, but Wiggins and his brother Raphael Saadiq, another band member, were from Oakland, California.

They burst onto the music scene with their 1988 debut album, Who? with songs like Baby Doll and Little Walter.

But it was their 1990 New Jack Swing-infused Feels Good record that gave the group mainstream success, peaking at nine on Billboards’ Hot 100 chart.

The Tonyies went their separate ways after their fourth album, 1996’s platinum-selling House of Music. Fame.

Finances, miscommunication and creative differences were unsustainable for the brothers.

Wiggins then turned to production and produced and helped grow young artists who would become some of today’s brightest young stars, including Zendaya, H.E.R., and Kehlani.

In 2000, Wiggins released his solo album, Eyes Never Lie.

That featured collaborations with Darius Rucker of Hootie and the Blowfish, Jamie Foxx and Carlos Santana.

In 2003, Wiggins appeared on Alicia Keys’ track Diary which was nominated for a Grammy.

The Tonies reunited in 2023 and planned new material.

Wiggins said: “We got a lot of material, and now we just want to make sure that we put out the right energy through our music.”

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/13726496/dwayne-wiggins-dead-beyonce-mentor/

MEGHAN Markle’s new Netflix show has suffered a scathing review from a Hollywood industry bible which compared it to a “forced march”.

With Love, Meghan landed on the streaming service earlier this week – before being confirmed today for a second series.

That’s despite the lifestyle show, which also featured Prince Harry, being largely panned by critics and audiences.

For many in the celeb world, the word of US trade magazine Variety is gospel but it didn’t take kindly to the Duchess of Sussex’s offering.

It described the “attitude” of the eight-episode show as “well-tailored and beige”, which was said to match Meghan’s outfit choices.

The royal – who stepped down as a working member of the Firm alongside her husband in 2020 – was labelled “less-than-adept at speaking on her feet”.

The review goes on to say: “With Love, Meghan exists as a sort of celebration of all things Duchess of Sussex — and, as with past of her media outings, no amount of praise seems enough.”

And: “With Love, Meghan is made with a great deal of love — in the sense that the greatest love of all is the one that a person has for herself.”

The harsh criticism from Variety will sting the duchess and her team, but the huge interest in the show has convinced Netflix bosses to give it another outing.

Meghan posted on Instagram saying she’s “thrilled” with the decision.

Wearing a Netflix cap she was seen grinning in a short clip on her stories, with the caption: “Lettuce romaine calm… or not(!) because I’m thrilled to share that Season 2 of ‘With Love, Meghan’ is coming!”

A TV insider told The Sun: “This may raise a few eyebrows but one thing which Netflix love is controversy – and this show certainly created alot of debate.

“Many were so scathing about the eight-part series that they thought there was no way it would get another season.

“But it seems the streamer is delighted with the chatter its created on both sides of the Atlantic this week.”

It’s not clear whether work has already started on the second series, but Netflix want it to drop later this year.

It comes after royal pros had suggested that a lot of people dislike the mum-of-two and as a result, are ‘hate watching’ her new lifestyle series.

With Love, Meghan is the second Netflix collaboration for the Sussexes, who signed a lucrative multi-million pound deal with the streaming giant back in 2020.

Meanwhile, the duchess, 43, recently renamed her lifestyle brand As Ever, switching from the name American Riviera Orchard after facing trademark issues.

Speaking to The Sun’s Royal Editor, Matt Wilkinson, on The Sun’s Royal Exclusive show, News.com.au Royal Correspondent Bronte Coy and The Sun’s royal photographer Arthur Edwards weighed in on the series, which was released on Tuesday and has been described as ‘absolutely awful’.

Bronte said: “There’s a lot riding on this series, I think a lot of people will have watched it, whether they hate Meghan or they love her – the hate watching part of it as well – there’s clearly interest, even though a lot of people have no admiration for her.

“But at the same time, that won’t carry through for a season two. The hate watching element would be season one.”

She added: “Harry and Meghan need to keep these deals going, they have a very expensive lifestyle, particularly with security and everything.

“I think it is in danger of being axed or significantly reduced.”

Not only this, but Arthur explained: “Eventually [Harry and Meghan] are going to run out of ideas and people are not going to be interested. People will lose interest.

“She seems to be attracting publicity. She gave it her best shot but it just wasn’t good enough.”

‘The whole thing was false’
Throughout the series, Meghan shared a variety of recipes, including a cooked breakfast, skillet spaghetti and a honey and lemon cake.

She also demonstrated her method for making tea by steeping bags in cold water under the sun for two to three hours, using “nice silk bags, lots of leaf tea, and just let it steep with the warmth of the sun.”

And whilst Matt recognised, “With Love, Meghan has been roasted, absolutely savaged by TV critics, Arthur chimed in: “I just think it was completely over-the-top.”

Clearly not impressed, the iconic photographer added: “Everything about it was false.

“The whole thing was false – it wasn’t even her house, it was somebody else’s house.”

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/royals/13725751/meghans-greatest-love-of-all-netflix/

A male coach leading an elite women’s team is an everyday sight, but the opposite is almost never true. Helen Nkwocha, who has broken that convention in soccer, is among the women and coaches who want things to change.

Helen Nkwocha still feels that as a female coach the odds are stacked against herImage: privatPacked stadiums, increasing professionalization and a 50/50 athlete gender split at the Paris Olympics. The growth in women’s sport is visible.

Though the pace of change in a few sports has picked up, decades of underfunding, prevention of opportunity and sexism are taking some time to unpick in a broader sense. That’s particularly true in leadership positions, such as coaching.

While equality was achieved at the 2024 Olympics for athletes, it was far from the case for those tasked with improving them.

Though the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has not released data, most estimates put the percentage of female coaches in Paris at 13%, around the same level as the Tokyo Games three years earlier. It’s a pattern repeated across the sporting landscape — just over a third of coaches at the Women’s football World Cup in 2023 were women.

Female coaches in men’s sports are exceptionally rare. Helen Nkwocha is one woman who managed to clear the hurdles required to break those conventions. The English coach became the first woman to coach a men’s European top-division football team in 2021 when she took over as head coach of Tvoroyar Boltfelag of the Faroe Islands.

Despite that achievement, she feels the odds are stacked against her regarding future employment.

“I’d just like a chance to say: ‘I’m a football coach, and that’s it.’ But you also need to feel that you’re not unfairly up against [less qualified] competition. It’s not an equal playing field if you’re trying to get a job, it’s saturated with people that you wouldn’t ordinarily be in competition with,” she told DW.

What’s behind the unwillingness to hire female coaches?
Nkwocha now works as director of coaching at US youth football organization Rush Soccer. She has recognized an improvement in development and opportunities for female coaches since she started more than a decade ago. But the pace of change can be frustrating, as recognized by 2025’s International Women’s Day campaign Accelerate Action.

The reluctance to hire a female coach and break with old habits is a frustration identified by many of those affected. Those in decision-making roles in sports are usually men, and many do not even consider a female coach. Some of this may be due to concerns of a backlash, some may be misogyny, but, in many cases, it is just not part of the thought process.

“I always talk about like visibility versus opportunity,” Tamara Taylor, national coach developer for the English Rugby Union, told DW. “Some people, in order to pursue something, whatever that thing is, need to be able to see someone who is a bit like them.

“Some people will do it, whether there’s visibility or not. But are they going to get given the opportunity? I’d probably say that even now they’re not.”

Less female coaches than before?
Taylor points to the top division of English women’s rugby, Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR), as evidence of her belief. Three years ago, there were seven female head coaches and more than 20 female coaches working as assistants. Now, there are fewer than five female assistant coaches and no female head coaches.

Increasingly close links to men’s clubs can sometimes lead to decisions made by people with limited experience of the women’s game and a contacts book from the male equivalent. There is also a perception that women cannot understand the men’s game, which frustrates Taylor.

“You’ll have male coaches who’ve only played men’s rugby and coached in the men’s game who are very happy to go and coach in the PWR, and nobody seems to have a problem with it. And yet, you don’t see the other way around, a female coach who’s only played women’s rugby as coach in the men’s game. There is just not that crossover.”

Both Nkwocha and Taylor have benefitted from programs attempting to redress that balance. Nkwocha now runs a similar course to try to help the next generation.

“I’m overseeing the program, which allows me to do something similar. So I am hiring and having conversations with females who used to play, and I’m saying to them, Why aren’t you coaching?” she said.

“It also gives them a chance to make mistakes, because the judgment is quite harsh in football. We also want to get people exposed to the reality that maybe you’re being judged differently because you’re female.”

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/international-womens-day-female-coaches-battling-barriers/a-71823103

Since the beginning of 2025, more than 160 people have died from poisoning after drinking bootleg alcohol in Turkey. How did going out for a drink become so dangerous?

Raki, the Turkish anise-flavored spirit, is so much more than just a drink. It is deeply rooted in Turkish culture and an essential part of the country’s lively culinary tradition. Meals that take hours, lots of laughter and communal singing are all hallmarks of an evening during which raki is imbibed.

Famous Turkish poet Orhan Veli Kanik once said he’d like to be a fish living in a raki bottle. Turkish pop legend Sezen Aksu sang about a drunken night where the raki flows. Even the man known as the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, was famous for his hospitality, serving raki generously when he hosted friends and artists.

But more recently raki has been getting a different kind of reputation: It’s become known as the guilty party in an increasing number of deaths from alcohol poisoning, in particular in Turkey’s major cities — Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir — as well as at Turkish holiday destinations.

This year, there’s been a dramatic increase in deaths because of “fake” or bootleg alcohol. Since the beginning of 2025, at least 160 people have died as a result of consuming illegally-produced alcohol. According to Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya, by the end of February the government had seized 648,000 liters of illegally produced raki, vodka, gin and other sprints. The government had also arrested 560 suspects.

Prices for alcoholic drinks have increased significantly in Turkey over the past few years due to rising taxes. A bottle of raki now costs around €35 ($38). Given that the monthly minimum wage is about €572 ($617), those sorts of prices make raki unaffordable for many ordinary Turks. In Germany, for example, a bottle of raki is much cheaper, usually selling for between €12 and €18.

Germany’s Foreign Office, along with other governments such as that of the United Kingdom, has warned about the dangers of consuming bootleg alcohol in Turkey. Tourists heading to the country have been advised to be cautious, to ensure the label on their bottle is not a copy and that the blue-turquoise banderole (a small seal on the bottle top) isn’t damaged or tampered with.

Recently local NGO, Turkish Public Alcohol Policy Watch (Devletin Alkol Politikalarini Izleme Platformu), which monitors public policies on alcohol, added to those warnings with a post on X (formerly twitter): “Avoid restaurants that offer unlimited alcohol, take care to order an unopened bottle and then open it yourself, to make certain the original seal is intact,” the organization warned.

The main cause of alcohol poisoning is the addition of cheap methanol instead of ethanol, which is the main type of alcohol produced by grain fermentation. Methanol is highly poisonous and can lead to visual disturbances, vomiting, dizziness, organ failure and, in the worst case, death.

But a drink containing methanol is almost impossible to differentiate from one that doesn’t, says Cagin Tan Eroglu, of the Turkish Public Alcohol Policy Watch. It smells the same, looks the same and even tastes like regular alcohol, he notes.

Like others in Turkey, Eroglu criticizes the Turkish government tax policy that has led to such huge price increases for drinks. Since 2013, value-added taxes and consumer taxes on alcohol have increased automatically every six months and this has led to disproportionate price increases. Currently taxes make up about two-thirds of the consumer price for spirits. And on top of that, the Turkish economy has been suffering from galloping inflation. All this has forced people to turn to the black market where they can get a cheaper alternative to drink.

Economist Ozan Bingol, a Turkish tax expert, recently added it all up. “Fifteen years ago, the consumer tax alone was around 51.5 Turkish lira per liter of alcohol. It is currently almost 1,366 lira [per liter] — an incredible increase of 2,553%,” he wrote on X in early February.

As one local from the western Turkish city of Izmir told DW, going out to have a drink has become something of a luxury. Because buying alcohol on the black market is way too risky, the local has been distilling his own raki for almost 10 years now. He remembers when raki used to cost around €18 and is of the opinion that the Islamist-conservative government is using alcohol taxation as an instrument of repression and a way to interfere in people’s private lives, trying to force more liberal, less religious Turks to stop drinking alcohol. The government is dividing society, the Izmir local argues, and demonizing anybody who doesn’t conform to their ideals.

Erdogan’s alcohol clampdown
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan makes no secret of the fact that, as devout Muslim, he’s not keen on alcohol. He’ll often say so in his speeches. For Erdogan, Turkey’s national drink is the yoghurt drink ayran.

After the most recent cases of death from alcohol poisoning, two professional groups —the Turkish chambers of food and chemical engineers — made an urgent appeal to the Turkish government. They argued that high taxes haven’t led to any reduction in alcohol consumption and have in fact become a threat to public health. They called on local authorities to do more to curtail illegal alcohol production and for the government to reduce the taxes.

Eroglu, of Turkish Public Alcohol Policy Watch, agrees that the high taxes haven’t had the desired effect of lessening alcohol consumption. Rather they have led to more deaths from alcohol poisoning.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/why-having-a-drink-in-turkey-can-mean-life-or-death/a-71861523

A 13F-HR filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed that the Gates Foundation Trust’s portfolio size declined by £2.31 billion to £38.4 billion in Q4 2024.

For the second consecutive quarter, Gates sold a considerable amount of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.B) shares.

For the quarter ended 31st December 2024, the foundation trimmed its stake in Microsoft by 1.73%, or 500,000 shares, to 28.46 million shares worth £9.26 billion.

In the same quarter, the billionaire sold 2.48 million shares of Berkshire Hathaway, reducing his stake in the company by 11.21% to 19.66 million shares worth £6.88 billion.

Despite these trades, Microsoft and Berkshire Hathaway remain Gates’ top portfolio holdings, making up almost 50% of his total portfolio size.

Microsoft Continues To Face Widespread Outages
Alongside a Crowstrike crash in 2024, which crippled millions of devices running on Microsoft Windows systems, the company’s services continue to struggle with massive outages, disrupting user access to key tools like Outlook and Microsoft 365.

Last week, Microsoft users in the US couldn’t access Outlook, Microsoft 365, and other services due to a widespread outage. Downdetector logged over 37,000 complaints about Outlook alone. Complaints for 365 services mounted to 24,000 users, while many people reported problems with Microsoft Teams, Azure, and Xbox services. The company has faced similar disruptions in 2024 and 2023.

Late last year, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) launched an antitrust investigation into Microsoft’s cloud computing, cybersecurity, and AI units, asking the tech firm to divulge details about its business practices. Since Microsoft is a top government contractor offering cloud and software products to US agencies, the FTC stated that outages impacting a cloud provider’s services as big as Microsoft could have a “cascading impact” on the overall economy.

Berkshire Hathaway Shares Could Be Overvalued
Gates sold almost five million Class B shares of Berkshire Hathaway in the past two quarters. His moves coincided with his friend and legendary investor Warren Buffett’s decision not to buy back shares of his own company in Q3. This was the first time Buffett made such a decision in six years, probably because the Oracle of Omaha thought his company could be overvalued.

A company regulatory filing mentioned Buffett would purchase shares when he feels the stock price is ‘below Berkshire’s intrinsic value, conservatively determined,’ showcasing his decades-long adherence to value investing principles of buying great businesses at lower prices.

In Q4, Berkshire Hathaway’s cash reserves ballooned to £258.4 billion, fueling speculation about whether there are no bargains in the market. However, Buffett reassured investors about his preference for equities over cash.

‘Despite what some commentators currently view as an extraordinary cash position at Berkshire, the great majority of your money remains in equities,’ Buffett noted. ‘That preference won’t change.’

He added that although Berkshire’s stock holdings fell last year, the value of its private holdings rose ‘and remains far greater than the value of the marketable portfolio.’

Source: https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/bill-gates-offloads-500k-microsoft-248m-berkshire-hathaway-shares-portfolio-shrinks-231b-q4-1731712

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has reportedly dragged IKEA beds and other bedroom necessities to a federal office building as the task force’s young team sets up camp.

At least four offices in the General Services Administration’s office building have been equipped with IKEA beds, as well as lamps and dressers, two career GSA employees told Politico.

A February invoice obtained by the outlet also indicated that the agency had been considering using about $25,000 to purchase a washing machine and dryer for the office building’s sixth floor—where the office bedrooms are reportedly set up.

Although it’s unclear how often the sleeping areas are used, one GSA employee told Politico, “People are definitely … sleeping there.”

Back in January, the Tesla CEO previously told others that he had been sleeping at the DOGE headquarters, WIRED reported. However this is not the first time Musk has done this, saying in an interview with Ron Baron in 2022 that would spend some nights at Tesla and Twitter headquarters to keep employees motivated.

“It’s exceedingly odd,” Jeff Nesbit, a former staffer, told Politico. “I’ve run the public affairs offices of five different Cabinet departments or agencies under four different presidents, two Republicans and two Democrats. I have never heard of any such thing. I can’t even imagine what the purpose is, other than to terrorize the civilian workforce.”

Source: https://www.latintimes.com/doge-drags-ikea-beds-federal-office-buildings-young-team-sets-camp-577861

At the South by Southwest premiere of “Another Simple Favor,” Blake Lively spoke in public for the first time since her legal battle with Justin Baldoni began in December.

“I love this character so much. It’s probably my favorite character I’ve ever been fortunate enough to play,” she said onstage at Austin’s Paramount Theater after the screening. “So when Paul asked us to come back, I was so excited.”

Though no one referenced the Baldoni controversy directly, support for Lively among her collaborators was clear. On the red carpet before the premiere, director Paul Feig told Variety that she is “the most amazing collaborator,” adding that “every movie star has opinions about what they’re doing. I haven’t worked with one that doesn’t want to get in there and work on stuff and make it better. That’s our process. I love that Blake works that way.”

Lively skipped doing interviews on the carpet, but did visit and take selfies with fans cheering for her in front of the theater; minus the presence of one pro-Baldoni protestor outside of the premiere, who wore a shirt saying “Blake Lied,” SXSW gave her a warm welcome. There were whispers and excitement throughout the auditorium when she made her way to her seat, flanked by two bodyguards and two publicists, Leslie Sloane and Jami Kandel of Vision PR — though she she still took time to say hello to her seatmates. The crowd erupted into applause and cheers every time Lively’s name was mentioned in the introduction to the film, and even more loudly when she first appeared on screen, saying, “Boo!”

Source: https://variety.com/2025/film/news/blake-lively-speaks-in-public-baldoni-sxsw-1236331731/

After years of wrangling with authorities, students in Thailand can now let their hair down. Literally.

On Wednesday, Thailand’s Supreme Administrative Court annulled a 50-year-old directive by the education ministry, which had previously set out rules on hairstyles for school students: short hair for boys and ear-length bobs for girls.

In practice, hairstyle rules have been gradually relaxed across many schools. But some still used the 1975 junta-issued directive as a guideline, and would cut the hair of students who didn’t adhere.

The 1975 directive violated individual freedoms protected by the constitution and was out of touch with today’s society, the court said.

The court decision this week came in response to a petition, filed by 23 public school students in 2020, which argued that the 1975 directive was unconstitutional.

Student activists have long campaigned for hairstyle rules to be relaxed, saying it infringes on their human dignity and personal freedom over their bodies.

One of them is Panthin Adulthananusak, who recently graduated from university.

“In the eyes of kids like us back then… even though it seemed impossible, we wanted to do something,” he told the BBC. “If no student in Thai history rose up to challenge the power of the adults that suppressed us, it would be a lifelong embarrassment.”

In response to such campaigns, the education ministry in 2020 allowed students to have longer hairstyles – but there remained some restrictions. Boys’ hair could not cover the nape of their necks, while girls with long hair had to tie it up.

Those regulations were revoked in 2023, with then education minister Trinuch Thienthong announcing that students, parents and school authorities should negotiate their own common ground on what is acceptable for hairstyles in their schools.

But through all these changes, some schools continued to follow the standard laid out in the original 1975 directive.

Schools have traditionally associated short hair with discipline and tidiness – an argument that has been repeated by many social media users this week. But in recent years reports of schools banning bangs or dyed hair have sparked public outcry across Thailand.

In some parts of the country, teachers are known to shoddily cut students’ hair during morning assembly to punish them for flouting hairstyle rules. Such practices have continued even as education authorities warned teachers against it.

In January, the Ministry of Education reiterated that it had repealed restrictions on hair length for all students, saying it recognised the “importance of promoting diversity and fairness in all aspects of education”.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj67yj1kj36o

Not long after the US imposed their tariffs on Canada, a local neighbourhood pub in Toronto began removing all American products off their menu.

That means nachos, wings – and of course, beer – must all to be made now with local Canadian ingredients, or wherever not possible, non-US products from Europe or Mexico.

For Leah Russell, manager at Toronto’s Madison Avenue pub, the boycott was a no-brainer. She adds that it is “pretty set in stone,” even if the tariffs themselves are not.

“I’m glad that we’re getting rid of American products and supporting local businesses,” Ms Russell told the BBC on Thursday. “I think it’s an important thing to do.”

This defiant stance in response to President Donald Trump’s tariffs and threats against Canada has been unfolding across the northern country.

Just ask actor Jeff Douglas, once the face of Molson Canadian Beer’s “I Am Canadian” advertisements, who has filmed and posted a light-hearted, but deeply-patriotic video on Youtube this week addressing Trump’s “51st state” rhetoric.

“We’re not the 51st anything,” declares Mr Douglas in the video, which has since gone viral in Canada.

Some of the backlash has been more symbolic, like one Montreal café changing the Americano on their menu to a “Canadiano” – a small gesture that the owners say is meant to display unity and support for their community and country.

Even the CBC, the country’s public broadcaster, is feeling the full force of this wave of patriotism, after it dared run a programme asking Canadians what they think about Canada becoming “the 51st state”, as Trump has suggested many times.

The show sparked intense backlash and accusations of “treason,” “sedition” and even “betrayal”.

Although Trump has since lifted some of the tariffs imposed this week and put others on pause until 2 April, many Canadians say the damage has already been done.

After Thursday’s reversal, foreign minister Melanie Joly told CNN that Canada has been shown “too much disrespect by the Trump administration at this point, calling us a 51st state, calling our prime minister ‘governor.'”

Meanwhile, Doug Ford, who is the leader of Canada’s most populous province, did not back down from his plan to slap export tariffs on electricity that Canada supplies some US states. The 25% surcharge will affect up to 1.5 million American homes.

“I feel terrible for the American people because it’s not the American people, and it’s not even elected officials, it’s one person,” he told a local radio show on Thursday in reference to Trump.

“He’s coming after his closest friends, closest allies in the world and it’s going to absolutely devastate both economies,” Ford said.

Canadians support their country’s reciprocal actions, saying they should remain in place until US tariffs are completely off the table.

“You go to bed every night and don’t have any idea where you stand,” said Andrew, a shopper at a Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) store in Toronto, which has stopped stocking US-made alcoholic drinks. Trump says he will delay the tariffs, “but what does that mean?” he asks.

“Let’s keep [American-made drinks] off the shelves until we know what things are going to be from day to day.”

The tariffs have been met with deep anxiety in Canada, whose majority of exports are sold to companies and clients in the US. Officials predict up to a million job losses if a 25% across the board levy went ahead, while economists warn that a recession is imminent if they persist.

The potential impact is devastating enough that the Canadian government has announced it will bring in relief measures, similar to those implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic, to help impacted individuals and businesses.

Even with the tariffs being scaled back temporarily, the uncertainty alone is hurting both American and Canadian economies, says Rob Gillezeau, an assistant professor of economic analysis and policy at the University of Toronto.

“The most sensitive thing to uncertainty is business investment,” Prof Gillezeau says, adding that firms are “not going to want to spend a dime anywhere” until they have some clarity.

Analysts suggest the mere whiff of a trade war is likely costing Canadian companies hundreds of thousands of dollars as they try to navigate through these changes, and are likely delaying deals and disrupting trade due to the confusion.

That trepidation is also seen in the stock market, which had erased virtually all its gains since Trump won the presidency in November.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd92ynwne18o

Officials involved in diversity, equality, inclusion and accessibility programs at the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence have been ordered to resign or be fired, the lawyer for two of the officials said on Friday.
Attorney Kevin Carroll said he did not know how many other ODNI officials had received the directive beyond his clients.
Unlike the CIA, which issued a similar order last month to 51 officers temporarily assigned to diversity programs, ODNI was giving those who received one a chance to appeal to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, he said.

“Like their colleagues at CIA, they are being told that they cannot apply for other jobs; unlike CIA, they are being given a right to appeal to the DNI,” said Carroll, a former undercover CIA officer.
An ODNI spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Nearly two weeks ago, a federal judge refused to halt the firings of the CIA officers who were terminated under U.S. President Donald Trump’s January 20 executive order eliminating diversity, equality, inclusion and accessibility programs across the federal government.

One of Carroll’s clients said in an email reviewed by Reuters that they were told to report at 11:45 a.m. EST on Monday to the ODNI visitors center, where they were expected to resign, accept deferred resignation by September 30 or be fired after 90 days of paid administrative leave.
They also could submit a written appeal of the order, the email said.
The client, whose identity was not disclosed, said they were told they were ineligible for reassignment to another post.
The CIA this week terminated an unspecified number of recent hires in cuts that current and former U.S. intelligence officials warned would risk damaging U.S. national security, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/deia-terminations-begin-us-office-director-national-intelligence-lawyer-says-2025-03-07/

Just Stop Oil co-founder Roger Hallam has had his prison sentence reduced by a year after a High Court appeal.

He was among a group of 16 activists who challenged jail terms of between 15 months and five years for their roles in four demonstrations between August and November 2022.

Ten of them had their appeals dismissed.

Hallam was jailed for five years last July over a plot to disrupt M25 traffic, which saw 45 people climbing on to gantries over the motorway.

His sentence was reduced to four years on appeal.

Daniel Shaw, Louise Lancaster, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu, and Cressida Gethin each received four-year jail terms for their involvement in the same protest, which caused four days of disruption.

Shaw and Lancaster’s sentences were reduced to three years, while Whittaker De Abreu and Gethin’s sentences were reduced to 30 months.

Gaie Delap, who was previously jailed for 20 months for her role in protests on the M25 had her sentence reduced to one of 18 months.

Her co-defendants, George Simonson, Theresa Higginson, Paul Bell and Paul Sousek, who were imprisoned for between two years and 20 months, had their appeals dismissed, along with six others involved in different protests.

They included Dr Larch Maxey, Chris Bennett, Samuel Johnson and Joe Howlett were jailed for between three years and 15 months after occupying tunnels dug under the road leading to the Navigator Oil Terminal in Thurrock, Essex.

The Court of Appeal also threw out challenges from Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland were sentenced to two years and 20 months respectively after almost “destroying” Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers by throwing soup on its protective glass at London’s National Gallery.

Lawyers for the group of 16 told the court last month the sentences were “manifestly excessive”, breached the activists’ human rights, and should have taken into account their “conscientious motivation”.

The Crown Prosecution Service opposed the appeal, arguing “deterrence is required in order to protect the public”.

As the Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr read out a summary of the Court of Appeal’s ruling, several campaigners in court stood and turned their backs, wearing T-shirts that read “Corruption in Court”.

The sentences of Hallam and his four co-defendants were thought to have been the longest ever relating to peaceful protest.

During the trial at Southwark Crown Court, prosecutors alleged the M25 protests led to an economic cost of at least £765,000 while the cost to the Metropolitan Police was more than £1.1m.

They also allegedly caused more than 50,000 hours of vehicle delay, affecting more than 700,000 vehicles, and left the M25 “compromised” for more than 120 hours.

Raj Chada, head of criminal defence at law firm Hodge Jones & Allen, which represents the other protesters, said: “The small reduction in the case of Roger Hallam recognises the extraordinarily excessive sentences that continue to be given out to protesters in England.

“It is, however, extremely disappointing that many of the other sentences were upheld.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/just-stop-oil-co-founder-wins-court-appeal-13323257

A former Olympic snowboarder accused of running an international drug smuggling network behind four murders has been added to the FBI’s list of 10 most wanted fugitives.

A $10m (£7.7m) reward has been offered for information leading to the arrest of Ryan Wedding, 43, who competed for Canada in the giant slalom at the 2002 winter games.

Wedding – whose aliases include “El Jefe,” “Giant” and “Public Enemy”- is accused of running a network that routinely shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico and Southern California, to Canada and other US locations.

He is also suspected of orchestrating four murders and an attempted murder.

“Wedding went from shredding powder on the slopes at the Olympics to distributing powder cocaine on the streets of US cities and in his native Canada,” said Akil Davis, the assistant director of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office.

“The alleged murders of his competitors make Wedding a very dangerous man.”

Wedding was charged last year and an indictment in September alleged he and others arranged the shipment of some 60 tonnes of cocaine a year using long-haul trucks.

The FBI said a dozen people had been arrested in connection with the case.

US authorities allege the group killed two members of a family in Canada in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment in what officials there said was a case of mistaken identity, as well as two other people.

“The former Canadian snowboarder unleashed an avalanche of death and destruction, here and abroad,” said special agent Matthew Allen.

“He earned the name ‘El Jefe’, becoming boss of a violent transnational drug trafficking organisation.

“Now, his face will be on ‘The Top 10 Most Wanted’ posters. He’s unremitting, callous and greed-driven.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/former-olympic-snowboarder-added-to-fbis-10-most-wanted-list-13323461

Donald Trump has said Russia has “all the cards” in negotiations to end the war with Ukraine – as Sir Keir Starmer held talks with the French president to “compare notes”.

Speaking at the White House, the US president reiterated his desire to get a deal done to end the conflict, which he warned “could lead to World War Three”.

But he said he had found it “more difficult” to deal with Ukraine, and suggested it may be easier to deal with Moscow, because “they have all the cards”.

He was also asked if Vladimir Putin was taking advantage of the decision by the US to stop sharing intelligence with Ukraine, following a series of air attacks on Ukrainian cities in recent days.

“I think he’s doing what anyone else would do,” Mr Trump replied.

However, he said he believed Mr Putin wanted to get the war “stopped and settled”.

“I think both parties want to settle. I think we are going to get it settled,” he added.

While on social media on Friday, Mr Trump said he was “strongly considering” placing additional sanctions on Russia to force it into peace talks with Ukraine.

“To Russia and Ukraine, get to the table right now, before it is too late,” Mr Trump said.

It comes as Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron spoke to “compare notes” on their work towards a possible peace in Ukraine, Downing Street said.

The call, which took place on Friday evening, followed a call between the prime minister and other European leaders after European countries agreed a massive increase in defence spending.

Sir Keir and Mr Macron have been leading efforts to draw together a “coalition of the willing” to help Kyiv.

On Friday, Mr Trump also suggested his priorities are in a different order to Ukraine’s – saying he wants the fighting to end before any security guarantees are made.

“Before I even think about that, I want to settle the war, get it finished,” he said.

“As far as the question about security later, that’s the easy part. The hard part is getting it settled.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly said his country needs “reliable and clear” security guarantees before a peace deal with Russia can be agreed.

Relations between the US and Ukraine have become fractured in recent weeks.

Mr Trump’s latest comments come exactly a week after his disastrous Oval Office meeting with Mr Zelenskyy – which saw the US president and his vice president, JD Vance, berate the Ukrainian leader and accuse him of being “disrespectful”.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/russia-has-all-the-cards-in-negotiations-to-end-ukraine-war-trump-says-as-starmer-compares-notes-with-macron-13323529

When it comes to cringey musical tributes, nobody does it better than the Oscars. And while that chorus line of tuxedoed 007s pirouetting around the stage during the Academy’s James Bond extravaganza wasn’t quite as jaw-droppingly awkward as some previous song-and-dance fiascos — at least Rob Lowe didn’t turn up to tango with Snow White — there was one small but uncomfortable moment you might have missed.

That’d be when the camera panned into the audience to Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson.

The whole reason the Academy decided to devote six full minutes of the ceremony to Bond music was that Broccoli and Wilson were the recipients of this year’s honorary Irving G. Thalberg Oscar, an accolade bestowed upon them in November at the Governors Awards to celebrate the half-siblings’ 30 years of unwavering stewardship over the spy franchise they inherited in 1995 from their father, legendary Bond producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli. “Let me tell you, they don’t just produce Bond movies,” one-time Bond Girl Halle Berry gushed about Broccoli and Wilson in her introduction from the podium, “they were the heart and soul of this franchise for decades.”

There was just one small problem: Days before the ceremony, Broccoli and Wilson announced they were selling Bond to Amazon.

It was a bombshell development that caught much of Hollywood — including, clearly, Oscar’s musical producers — by surprise. What could have compelled them to do it? After so many years of fiercely protecting their father’s business — EON Productions, the company that’s been in charge of 007 since the character first swaggered onto the screen in 1962 — why would they decide to unload it? And to Amazon, no less, the sprawling global syndicate run by the bald-headed, rocket-building billionaire Ernst Stavro Bezos? It makes even less sense than the plot of No Time to Die.

More pointedly, what does the sale mean for Bond’s future? Amazon, of course, had purchased MGM, Bond’s longtime home, in 2022 for $8.5 billion, mostly to get its hands on 007 IP and build it into a Marvel-style universe filled with bingeable TV spinoffs. The only things stopping them were Broccoli and Wilson, who had very different ideas for their father’s legacy, as well as a decades-long deal with MGM guaranteeing them creative dominion over all things Bond. But now that they’re out of the picture, Amazon can do whatever it wants. A TV show about Moneypenny? Why not. A prequel about Blofeld’s teenage years? Sure. More 007 game shows? Please no. But anything is possible. Amazon is now free to milk the franchise dry.

“Don’t let anybody else screw it up,” Cubby Broccoli warned his children before he died. “You can screw it up if you want to, but don’t let other people screw it up.”

Barbara, 64, was 2 years old when Dr. No opened in the U.K., and by the time she was a teenager, she was working on her dad’s movies. Michael, 83, took a more circuitous route to the family business, studying law and engineering before officially joining the franchise in 1972 (though he did have an early gig as an extra in 1964’s Goldfinger). The point is, Broccoli and Wilson were practically raised on the 007 soundstage at Pinewood. Bond is in their blood. So, when they inherited their father’s franchise, they took his words to heart.

“For Barbara and Michael, it’s always been franchise first,” says one Bond insider. “Nothing else got in the way.”

When they took it over in the mid-1990s, that franchise was in critical condition. Timothy Dalton’s two Bond films — 1987’s The Living Daylights and 1989’s License to Kill — had bombed. Cubby Broccoli, the man who had, with partner Harry Saltzman, ushered 007 onto the big screen in the 1960s, was dying of heart disease after triple bypass surgery. At the time, there was doubt that another Bond movie would ever get made. But Broccoli and Wilson managed to squeeze $60 million out of the studio to produce GoldenEye, which ended up grossing $356 million worldwide.

The partnership between EON and MGM was a bumpy one during the early Pierce Brosnan era, but the studio chiefs back then — first John Calley, then Frank Mancuso — largely respected Broccoli and Wilson’s wishes, while the new producers learned to occasionally throw their corporate collaborators a bone (like giving in when MGM pushed for the casting of Denise Richards as a nuclear physicist in 1999’s The World Is Not Enough). Indeed, over the years, enough trust was built between them that when Broccoli and Wilson came up with the radical idea in 2006 of pushing the reset button on the whole series and starting over with an updated origin story based on Ian Fleming’s first 007 novel, Casino Royale — and casting an unknown named Daniel Craig as the seventh Bond — MGM barely flinched.

Those last five Craig movies turned out to be the most profitable in the franchise’s history, each grossing more than $500 million and one of them — 2012’s Skyfall — becoming the first Bond film to gross more than a billion dollars. Obviously, those numbers were a large part of Amazon’s calculations to buy MGM in 2021— they certainly didn’t spend $8.5 billion for the Pink Panther. Broccoli and Wilson were said to be nervous about the sale of the nearly 100-year-old studio to the 21st century tech conglomerate, but they knew that even under new management they’d retain creative control. Amazon knew that too, but executives there — like Mike Hopkins, head of Prime Video, and Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios — apparently believed they could sweet talk the Broccolis into expanding the brand beyond the single Bond film EON had been putting out every two or three years.

As Dr. No himself would put it, that was very foolish.

“We just try to focus on making good pictures, and it takes time, it takes a couple of years,” Wilson said in an interview shortly after MGM’s sale to Amazon was announced, telegraphing to his new owners his unwillingness to put Bond on television. “Putting all that energy into making 10 or 20 hours of a TV show, that’s a big commitment. We’d have to delegate to do that. And we’ve been very reluctant to delegate.”

His half sister expressed it even more bluntly in that interview. “It’s not something we’ve ever wanted to do,” she said.

Still, Amazon had ideas. Sources close to the franchise say the streamer approached the Broccolis with pitches for a TV series based on Moneypenny, the MI6 secretary who’s been batting eyes at Bond since Sean Connery’s days, as well as a show about Bond CIA buddy Felix Leiter, and maybe even something involving a female 007. Predictably, Broccoli and Wilson weren’t interested. There was hope early on at Amazon that former Warner Bros. exec Courtenay Valenti — the daughter of late MPAA boss Jack Valenti, who had come aboard MGM about a year after Amazon bought it, and whom Broccoli was said to have liked — might have some luck loosening up the Bond IP. But not even “the Barbara whisperer,” as Valenti was reportedly called inside Amazon, could sway Cubby’s kids. Relations grew even frostier after a meeting in which Salke reportedly mortified Broccoli by calling Bond “content.” Wilson, meanwhile, was said to be complaining about how he’d been unable to set up meetings with Amazon’s top brass.

Neither Amazon nor EON could be reached for comment on any of the above, but it’s clear that in the three years since Amazon purchased MGM — and the six years since production wrapped on No Time to Die — zero progress had been made in getting 007 back onscreen. There’s no script for the next movie, no director and — most critically — no Bond. Sources say Amazon had suggested a few actors, but none the Broccolis would sign off on. In fact, the only Bond “content” that’s come out of Amazon is Prime’s little-noticed game show 007: Road to a Million, which has proved so underwhelming, not even its host sounds like much of a fan. “I actually thought, ‘Oh wow, I’m getting a James Bond film,’ ” Brian Cox recently explained about how he accidentally accepted the gig. “And then I realized it wasn’t a Bond film but a game show.”

Meanwhile, as the franchise sputtered and stalled, Wilson, nearly 20 years older than Broccoli, decided to retire, leaving Barbara on her own with the Amazonians. The half-siblings (their mother was Dana Natol, Cubby’s second wife) couldn’t be more different. She’s liberal, he’s conservative; her passion is storytelling, he’s more into production engineering. But they had complementary skill sets. And they had absolute trust and faith in each other. “They didn’t always agree,” says a source. “But they had a way of working through to a resolution that they would both stand by. They never tried to do an end run around each other. They were always in it together.”

Wilson’s departure was said to be a big factor in Broccoli’s ultimate decision to walk away from the franchise. After 30 years of Bond movies, she no longer had the stomach or stamina for the endless studio battles or the years-long Bond production marathons, certainly not on her own. And there was no obvious successor ­— not even Wilson’s son, Greg, who’s been working on the recent films but who, insiders say, wasn’t considered ready to step into his father’s shoes.

In any case, it all came to a head in December, a month after Broccoli and Wilson picked up the Thalberg at the Governors Awards. That’s when The Wall Street Journal published a piece detailing the chilly state of affairs between Amazon and the Broccolis in which Barbara is quoted as telling friends that Amazon executives were “fucking idiots.” Not surprisingly, those choice words did not go over well with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. “He read her quote in the Journal and got on the phone and said, ‘I don’t care what it costs, get rid of her,’ ” is how one insider describes what happened, confirming that what Bezos ended up paying for the franchise was close to a billion dollars.

For that kind of money, Broccoli and Wilson must have decided, other people can screw it up all they want.

Amazon has a mixed record when it comes to franchises. It spent a reported billion dollars getting a Lord of the Rings series, Rings of Power, onto its servers, only to end up with a show that nobody, not even Tolkien fans, thought was worth a billion dollars. Same goes for spy thrillers; it spent $300 million on a splashy 2023 drama, Citadel, which earned meh reviews and drew a middling audience.

It’s no wonder, then, that news of Amazon’s takeover was greeted like a death notice by Bond fans, who plastered the internet with “RIP 007” posts following the announcement. Even Dalton got into the act, with the onetime Bond telling the British press that he was “shocked” and “sad” about the sale, though he did add an upbeat note, predicting that Amazon will do its “best to make a lot of money, so hopefully they will make good movies.”

And — who knows? — maybe Amazon will. Because there is an opportunity here, now that Broccoli and Wilson are gone, for the streamer to reinvent an icon that could, truth be told, stand a little reinventing.

The fact is, the very same qualities that made the Broccolis such superb custodians of their father’s legacy are also ones that in some ways have stunted the franchise’s growth. Their iron grip on the series and rigid insistence on total creative control hasn’t always prevented the films from flying off the handle or ballooning into bloated, confusing messes (that bit in Spectre where Bond learns Blofeld is his brother — wasn’t that an Austin Powers plot point?). It also has resulted in some spectacular missed opportunities. Broccoli and Wilson, for instance, could have been a bit more accommodating to Christopher Nolan when he was reportedly sniffing around after Tenet, hinting that he’d be interested in directing a Bond movie. Perhaps it was worth at least considering giving final cut to the guy who reinvented Batman. After all, if his film about the A-bomb could make a billion dollars, imagine what Nolan’s Bond movie could do. (Also, while we’re on the subject, is that Moneypenny spinoff really such a dumb idea? Look at what Max just did with The Penguin.)

But, of course, along with opportunities, there are huge challenges. To begin with, with the Broccolis out of the picture, Amazon will be starting from scratch as it rebuilds one of the largest franchises in the history of cinema. From the beginning, the Bond films have been something of a movable feast, with many of the same people — from casting (Debbie McWilliams) to costuming (Lindy Hemming) to screenwriting (Neal Purvis and Robert Wade cranked out first-draft scripts for the past seven films), along with stunt coordinators, publicists, caterers and others — reassembling to make a 007 movie. “It’s always been like a family,” says one member of the clan. “There are stories about Cubby on the set making pasta for everybody. And it was the same with Barbara and Michael. They became the center of the family. They were always there.”

Whoever ends up cooking pasta on the set of the next Bond movie — and Amazon hasn’t signaled who it’ll pick to produce in place of Broccoli and Wilson — they’ll likely be cooking for an entirely different crew. And that’s a problem. Despite Broccoli’s assessment in the Journal, there are smart people at Amazon with years of experience managing big-budget properties. But there’s nobody there with any institutional memory of how to make a Bond movie. And Bond movies are notoriously difficult to make, with production schedules that stretch for eight months, publicity campaigns that last even longer, and location shoots around the world.

Source : https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/amazon-007-takeover-impact-future-james-bond-1236155844/

About 125 civilians have been executed by government security forces in north-west Syria during a rolling two-day battle with loyalists to the ousted Assad regime, a Syrian war monitor reported on Friday.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), a human rights monitor considered independent and credible, documented “large-scale field executions of men and young adults, without any clear distinction between civilians and combatants”, in north-west Syria.

SNHR has documented the killing of at least 240 people since Thursday, including 100 Syrian security forces and 15 civilians at the hands of Assad loyalists.

The fighting resulted in Syria’s deadliest day since the toppling of the Assad regime three months earlier.

Fighting started on Thursday afternoon when militants loyal to the ousted Assad government ambushed Syrian security forces in a coordinated attack in a rural area of Latakia province, a former stronghold of the deposed leader where many of Syria’s minority Alawite Islamic sect live.

Late on Friday, interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa called on armed groups affiliated with the former government to lay down their arms “before it’s too late” and for those loyal to the new government to avoid attacking civilians or abusing prisoners.

“When we compromise our ethics, we reduce ourselves to the same level as our enemy,” he said in a video address. “The remnants of the fallen regime are looking for a provocation that will lead to violations behind which they can seek refuge.”

The wide-scale military operation is the biggest challenge to the new government in Damascus since the former Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) toppled the Assad regime on 8 December.

In response to the attack, the Syrian government mobilised thousands of troops to north-west Syria, and attacked Assad loyalists with helicopter gunships, drones and artillery.

The attack by Assad loyalists seems to have provoked revenge killings in north-west Syria, which is populated heavily by the minority Islamic Alawite sect from which deposed Syrian president Bashar al-Assad hailed.

SNHR reported that in al-Mukhtariya, Latakia, about 40 civilians were executed together in a single location. Videos of the massacre show people dressed in civilian clothes piled on top of one another as women wailed. Another video in a second town showed gunmen executing seemingly unarmed men who were crawling on their hands and knees away from them.

The Guardian was unable to independently verify either of the videos.

Syria’s interior ministry said some “individual violations” had taken place as a result of people heading towards the villages being attacked by Assad loyalists, but did not claim responsibility for the alleged executions. “We are working to put a stop to these violations that do not represent the Syrian people as a whole,” an interior ministry source told Syria’s state broadcaster.

The Guardian asked for a specific comment from the interior ministry on the SNHR’s claims, but did not receive a response by the time of publishing.

The UN special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, urged protection for civilians as clashes intensified. “There is clearly an immediate need for restraint from all parties, and full respect for the protection of civilians in accordance with international law,” Pedersen said in a statement.

Government forces continued to battle with Assad regime loyalists late on Friday night, launching a military operation in Qardaha, Latakia, the home town of the former Syrian president, Hafez al-Assad, according to state media.

A source in the military of defence said security forces were targeting the buildings and hills around the town where former regime elements were hiding out.

The two-day, coordinated attack was a marked escalation by loyalists to the former government against Syria’s new rulers.

The new government in Damascus is struggling to consolidate its grip over the country. An Israeli incursion in south-east Syria, as well as an economic malaise perpetuated by western sanctions, threaten to undermine the fledgling authority’s rule.

The attack began in the town of Jableh, Latakia, on Thursday but soon spread to other areas. Gunmen cut off roads in the countryside and seized control of areas in the towns of Qardaha and Baniyas.

A video released by a former Assad regime officer shortly after the operation began called on Syria’s various sects to rise up against the government in Damascus in what it dubbed operation “coastal shield”.

Lengthy military columns of security officers and militias loyal to the government in Damascus quickly started heading towards Latakia from across Syria to quell the rebellion. Government forces began to carry out “combing operations” to catch gunmen

A curfew was established on the coast provinces and in Homs province, with people instructed not to leave their homes until 9am on Saturday.

“Civilians are being killed two blocks down from me. The fights are becoming bigger, I have no clue what’s going to happen,” said a resident of Jableh over the phone while sheltering in their home on Friday.

Saudi Arabia condemned what it described as “crimes” by “outlaw groups” and reaffirmed its backing for the new authorities.

Syria’s coast is populated by Alawites, the sect from which the Assad family hailed, though most of the sect had no relation to the former regime. Mutual suspicion between Alawites in the coastal region and the new rulers of Syria has persisted since the toppling of the Assad regime.

Despite assurances that minorities, including Alawites, would be safe in the new Syria, Alawite communities have been subject to a number of revenge killings since December.

In one case, on 31 January in the town of Arza, in Homs province, eight men were asked if they were Alawite and then executed with a bullet to the head. Ten more men were executed in Arza on Friday, with their bodies left out in the open, SNHR reported.

Syria’s new rulers have said the killings were “individual cases” committed by individuals and groups unaffiliated with the government in Damascus, but that has done little to quell the growing fears of Alawites.

Source : https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/07/death-toll-rises-syrian-security-forces-struggle-quell-assad-loyalist-attacks

Gene Hackman died a full week after his wife Betsy Arakawa died and lived in the house as her body lay in the bathroom … this according to New Mexico officials.

New Mexico officials concluded Betsy likely died February 11, and the cause of death was Hantavirus … a serious and rare disease which can be fatal.

Gene died February 18. An autopsy revealed the 95-year-old had a history of cardiovascular disease, along with advanced Alzheimer’s. He had a history of heart attacks and high blood pressure. Although the medical investigators did not use the words “heart attack,” it seemed they were going in that direction, although the medical investigator said she could not squarely say that was the cause. They did say heart disease was the cause of death, and Alzheimer’s was a significant contributing factor.

The Sheriff says it appears Betsy’s body was in the house for a week while Gene lived in the same house until his death a week later. Investigators made it clear … Gene was in poor health and the Alzheimer’s may have created confusion, which could explain why he never called authorities.

Investigators say it’s possible Gene did not know his wife had died, because of the Alzheimer’s.

Officials ruled out carbon monoxide and gas leaks.

As for the dog that died, she had a procedure at a veterinary clinic and was in a crate when found dead. A necropsy is pending.

As we told you … Gene and his wife were found dead last week, along with one of their dogs, in separate rooms of their mansion.

A local security guard performing a welfare check dialed 911 after seeing Betsy’s body on the floor near a locked exterior door, and pleaded with the dispatcher to send someone immediately. Gene’s body was later found in the kitchen.

Law enforcement authorities called their deaths “suspicious” … noting in an application for a search warrant that there was an open prescription bottle with pills scattered near Betsy’s body, and the dog was found close by.

During the subsequent search, officials retrieved thyroid medication, Tylenol and Diltiazem — a calcium-blocker used to treat high blood pressure and other heart-related issues. They also took medical records and two cell phones.

Source : https://www.tmz.com/2025/03/07/gene-hackman-death-investigation-update-santa-fe-new-mexico/

India’s Ministry of External Affairs summoned UK Chargé D’ Affaires Christina Scott on Thursday after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s security was breached by pro-Khalistan supporters while he was leaving in a car after participating in an event at the Chatham House think tank in London.

Hours before, the United Kingdom strongly condemned the breach of security of EAM Jaishankar.

Reacting to the incident, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) spokesperson said, “We strongly condemn the incident that took place outside the Chatham House yesterday during the External Affairs Minister’s visit to the UK. While the UK upholds the right to peaceful protest, any attempts to intimidate, threaten, or disrupt public events are completely unacceptable. The Metropolitan Police acted swiftly to address the situation, and we remain fully committed to ensuring the security of all our diplomatic visitors, in line with our international obligations.”

Earlier, India also condemned the attempt made by Khalistani protesters to heckle EAM Jaishankar when he was leaving the Chatham House think tank in London.

India stated that it condemned the “provocative activities” and “deplored the misuse of democratic freedoms by the separatists”.

“We have seen the footage of a breach of security during the visit of EAM to the UK. We condemn the provocative activities of this small group of separatists and extremists. We deplore the misuse of democratic freedoms by such elements. We expect the host government in such cases to fully live up to their diplomatic obligations,” said a spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs.

A protest was organised by pro-Khalistan supporters outside the venue. In the video, a man was seen approaching the foreign affairs minister’s vehicle and tearing India’s national flag amid the presence of London police officers. The police officers appeared unresponsive to the act of vandalism.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/india-summons-uk-charge-d-affaires-after-eam-jaishankars-security-breach-in-london-9252193.html

Paramount and CBS filed motions Thursday to throw out President Donald Trump’s lawsuit over a “60 Minutes” interview last year, calling the suit an “affront to the First Amendment.”

Trump first sued the network a few days before the November election, alleging that the program had violated a Texas consumer protection law by deceptively editing an interview with Kamala Harris. Last month, the president expanded the lawsuit, alleging an additional claim under the federal Lanham Act and seeking $20 billion in damages.

In a bid to establish jurisdiction in federal court in Texas, Trump also added Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Amarillo, as a co-plaintiff.

The company filed two motions to dismiss the case, one for lack of jurisdiction and the other on grounds that consumer fraud laws do not govern editorial speech.

It’s a muggy morning the day before the 2025 Super Bowl in New Orleans, and YouTube CEO Neal Mohan is stuck in parade traffic and not happy about it. It’s not so much the French Quarter gridlock or the humidity that’s bothering him, but that he’s late for a meeting with a YouTube creator. They’re supposed to make a video together, and it involves slime.

“I should have pulled the trigger half an hour ago,” Mohan says to an aide, and then orders everyone out of the car: They’re going to walk the 1.7 miles to the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. Mohan will be damned if he’s not going to go the extra mile for the particular breed of content creator known as a “YouTuber.”

Over the past 20 years, Google-owned YouTube has become the world’s most-watched video platform, bar none. It’s the home base of countless self-made influencers, podcasters, commentators and entrepreneurs and over time has made it into the big leagues of TV through rights deals with the NFL, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and NBCUniversal.

The platform that helped introduce the world to streaming with its launch two decades ago has had a twisty-turny journey in Hollywood on its way to establishing itself as a digital household utility. If you want to find anything on video, the search invariably starts on YouTube. This is a dramatic shift from the first few years of YouTube’s existence, when most of Hollywood viewed the Silicon Valley-born company as a copyright-infringing pariah.

Now, no major studio or network can afford not to post its trailers, clips, previews and promotional interviews on the platform. And those same studios and networks are starting to make significant money from YouTube, whether it’s in carriage fees for channels distributed via YouTube TV or by making select television shows and movies available for free viewing with advertisements.

“Today, YouTube is television,” says Jeff Zucker, former head of NBCUniversal and CNN. “It’s so many businesses wrapped into one — short-form video, long-form video, live, cable TV. I don’t think any media company today can ignore YouTube. It’s too big and too powerful.”

YouTube’s expansion into cable-like TV service with YouTube TV is another reason Mohan has made the trek to New Orleans. He’s here to schmooze top brass from one of his biggest media partners: the NFL. Starting with the 2023-24 season, YouTube became the exclusive U.S. retailer for the Sunday Ticket out-of-home package, replacing DirecTV — and beating out other highly interested parties, including Apple, for the rights.

At the same time, Mohan is using the hoopla around the Super Bowl to promote the other major part of YouTube’s business — its DIY creators, who have turned video dispatches from their basements into businesses worth seven and eight figures.

“It truly is your own world on YouTube. You run the business, and there’s no network notes or anything like that,” says Sean Evans, host of the popular “Hot Ones” series that challenges celebrity guests to nibble on increasingly spicy chicken wings. It sounds like a jokey idea, but the show that launched in 2015 is up to 360-odd episodes and counting.

Top YouTubers have traveled to the Super Bowl this year to take part in the inaugural NFL-YouTube Creator Flag Football Game, which will be livestreamed on the platform the night before the Philadelphia Eagles play the Kansas City Chiefs at the Superdome. Later in the day, Mohan will loudly cheer from the sidelines at the elaborate exhibition match featuring a mix of influencers, musicians and pro athletes. But for now, he’s on a mission to keep his date with creator Carter Kench for that promised video collab, something that has been the CEO’s calling card. Just before noon, Mohan finds Kench at the convention center. “It’s been a long walk, but it’s great to be here,” says Mohan. His wife and three children have come along too. His kids are big fans of YouTube creators, “like all kids,” he says.

Kench, an L.A-based creator with more than 5.4 million subscribers, has set up the materials for their collab in a booth: They’re going to make slime and color it for the Super Bowl teams — red and green. Kench starts to assure the CEO that making slime is pretty simple, but Mohan says, “I have a slime expert right here,” gesturing to the younger of his two daughters. Over the next hour, he delights his girls with his goopy hands.

Afterward, Mohan marvels at the talents of the creators who make the content that fuels his multibillion-dollar business — the minds behind the 3 million-plus channels who earn a cut of YouTube ad revenue. “They’re amazing, creative people,” he says. “What’s always impressive to me is how they sweat every single detail. It’s inspiring.”

As YouTube celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, Mohan, 51, is about to mark 10 years with the platform. The Google veteran signed on in November 2015 as chief product officer before becoming CEO in 2023.

The executive was born in Lafayette, Indiana, and grew up near Ann Arbor, Michigan, where his parents were both graduate students. When he was a teenager, his family moved back to their hometown of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, India, where he attended high school at St. Francis College. Former classmates described him as “brilliant but shy,” according to a Times of India article.

“I do think I am a reserved fellow, as my wife reminds me,” Mohan says. “I’ll let others decide on the brilliance piece.”

After returning to the States, Mohan attended Stanford University, where he graduated in 1996 with a degree in electrical engineering and later earned an MBA. He was perfectly positioned to be part of the first dot-com boom. Mohan jumped into the budding online-advertising industry back when most Americans had slow dial-up connections and most websites moved at a glacial pace. Mohan eventually rose to senior VP of strategy and product development at digital ad firm DoubleClick. Google liked the company’s technology and acquired it in 2008. In the process of completing the DoubleClick acquisition, Mohan met Susan Wojcicki, an influential player at Google. She was the company’s 16th employee after its founding in 1998.

By the time Mohan met her a decade later, Wojcicki was head of Google’s massive advertising business. The two went on to spend 15 years working together — Wojcicki was tapped to run YouTube in 2014, and Mohan joined her as chief product officer a year later.

“We hit it off from our very first conversation in some legal office boardroom in New York City,” Mohan recalls. The two ad-tech wonks, he says, loved “geeking out on building interesting products for our customers.” He and Wojcicki became close friends.

Wojcicki’s death in August 2024, at age 56, marked the end of an era for Google and YouTube. Mohan was devastated. “I am forever grateful for her friendship and guidance,” he said at the time. “I will miss her tremendously.” Not only was Wojcicki an early employee, but it was her garage in Palo Alto, California, that founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin rented as Google’s first headquarters. Mohan took the reins of YouTube from Wojcicki, which provided a level of continuity that was important for both enterprises.

Wojcicki was a model of a highly effective tech leader focused on building great products in a large organization, Mohan says. And part of the reason for that, he adds, is that “she was also really oriented around people.”

When YouTube was incorporated in February 2005 by three former PayPal employees — Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim — the start-up was housed in Hurley’s garage in Menlo Park, California. The very first video was uploaded April 23, 2005, by Karim; titled “Me at the Zoo,” it was a 19-second clip he shot in front of the elephant exhibit at the San Diego Zoo.

The founders actually launched the platform as a site for video dating. But after one week, not a single person had uploaded any videos. So they pivoted to promoting YouTube as a general-purpose video-sharing platform.

It was a long-shot idea, as it wasn’t clear at the time whether the internet could support video delivery at scale, says Roelof Botha, managing partner of Sequoia Capital, the Menlo Park-based venture capital firm that has backed some of Silicon Valley’s most world-beating start-ups. Botha led Sequoia’s total investment of $8.5 million in YouTube.

“The three entrepreneurs were scrappy and smart,” he says, explaining why he made the bet on the fledgling service. “The site was usable in a way that others were not.”

Two decades later, the platform is a massive fire hose that sprays out every kind of content imaginable, watched by an estimated 2.44 billion monthly users in 2024, according to researcher eMarketer. There are vlogs, how-to videos, comedy sketches, music videos, news segments, talk shows, product reviews, video-game playthroughs, life hacks, animated shows, podcasts, TV clips, full movies and movie trailers, stunts, pranks and challenges. More than 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. It’s the No. 2 most-visited site in the world, behind only Google.com, and the second-biggest search engine after Google.

Worldwide, users watch on average more than 1 billion hours of YouTube content on TVs every day, according to the company. In the U.S., TVs recently surpassed phones and tablets as YouTube’s No. 1 viewing device. According to Nielsen, for two years running, Americans have spent more time watching YouTube on their TV sets than any other streamer, including Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video.

In 2024, YouTube generated global ad revenue of $36.15 billion, up an impressive 15%. For the 12 months that ended September 2024, YouTube’s subscription revenue topped $15 billion. That was generated by YouTube TV, the biggest internet-delivered live TV service in the U.S. with 8 million-plus customers; YouTube Premium, which provides ad-free videos and other perks; and YouTube Music Premium, a music-only streaming service. This week it announced that it now has more than 125 million subscribers for YouTube Music and Premium services, up from 100 million a year ago.

As a stand-alone entity, apart from Google, YouTube would be worth more than $400 billion, Wall Street analyst firm MoffettNathanson has estimated — more than Disney, Comcast, Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global combined.

When he was running NBC in the mid-2000s, Zucker saw so much conflict ahead with the upstart video-sharing platform that it drove him to partner with Rupert Murdoch’s Fox to launch a streaming competitor, Hulu, that was known internally as “the YouTube killer” when it was gestating at NBC and Fox.

“The idea behind Hulu was we couldn’t let YouTube take advantage of our IP at NBC and leave us in the dust with no ability to monetize it,” Zucker says.

YouTube now sustains thousands of businesses that have grown into small media companies, primarily by distributing their shows on the platform. Mohan calls them “the start-ups of Hollywood.” Some of the biggest names are Rhett & Link of “Good Mythical Morning”; Mark Rober; MrBeast; and “Hot Ones” producer First We Feast.

Evans and Chris Schonberger launched “Hot Ones” in 2015 as, says Evans, a “skunkworks, freak-show project” when they worked at digital media company Complex. In 2021, BuzzFeed bought Complex, and then in early 2024 sold most of the company — but held on to First We Feast. Then in December 2024, Evans, Schonberger and a group of investors bought First We Feast from BuzzFeed for $82.5 million. Today, “Hot Ones” has millions of fans and has busted into the cultural zeitgeist — including getting spoofed on “Saturday Night Live.”

“There’s no one that I look around at in entertainment and think to myself, ‘Oh, I’d rather have that,’” Evans says. “I just like being king of my castle over here.”

Meanwhile, traditional media companies have completely shifted their stance toward YouTube. Initially, many it saw it as a huge piracy threat — epitomized by the 2007 lawsuit filed by Viacom accusing YouTube of “brazen” copyright infringement and demanding more than $1 billion in damages. (The parties reached a settlement in 2014; Google did not pay out any money.)

Now, media firms “view YouTube as a really important part of their future growth strategies, and that is a night-and-day difference from where we were from those early Viacom days,” Mohan says.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell says the Sunday Ticket pact with YouTube didn’t come down to just the dollar amount YouTube was willing to pay. The league wanted a partner with global reach and a younger demographic — both of which YouTube delivers. “I think Neal understood how these mediums were going to collide and how the NFL content could actually be helpful in developing their strategy overall,” says Goodell. “We have great confidence in him.”

In YouTube’s first year, its primary traffic driver was viral videos. Two stood out: In November 2005, a Nike ad featuring Brazilian soccer star Ronaldinho improbably hitting a goal’s crossbar with a ball four times in a row became the first YouTube video to reach 1 million views. The following month, fans of “Saturday Night Live” and Andy Samberg uploaded copies of the Lonely Island’s mock-rap short “Lazy Sunday.” It racked up 5 million views before NBC’s lawyers demanded the three-minute clip be pulled down.

YouTube’s founders and Botha recognized that defending the site against claims of copyright infringement was one of its two major risks, along with the technical challenges of scaling performance. They relied on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which limits the liability of online platforms for user-shared material that includes copyrighted content.

But that didn’t satisfy some media companies. YouTube’s first general counsel, Zahavah Levine, recalled on a recent podcast hosted by Botha that prior to the Google acquisition, Universal Music Group “fully unleashed an orchestrated campaign of fear tactics on us” — and she had one UMG exec “literally scream at me over the phone: ‘YouTube was built on the backs of our artists and owes us hundreds of millions of dollars!’” YouTube eventually inked a licensing deal with UMG, which Google had made a precondition of the acquisition’s closing.

To address media companies’ wrath over the misappropriation of their content, YouTube developed Content ID: a system that scans uploads against a database of copyrighted audio and video content. If Content ID finds a match, a copyright owner can block the video or opt to monetize the video with ads.

But Content ID has its critics. The system favors copyright holders, giving them the ability to remove videos that should be covered under fair-use doctrine, argues Katharine Trendacosta, director of policy and advocacy at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. YouTube’s Content ID was borne out of “wanting big media companies to like them and leave them alone,” she says. “It’s more profitable for them to be partners with these big companies rather than with smaller individual creators.”

Mohan counters that Content ID is the fundamental technology that allows YouTube to be an open platform — to protect the rights of partners and make it economically viable for all creators. From 2021-2023, YouTube paid out some $70 billion to creators, artists, and music and media companies. And Mohan says that wouldn’t be possible without Content ID.

“What Content ID allows us to do is not just talk the talk [about copyright protection] but walk the walk,” says Mohan.

By the end of 2005, YouTube’s corporate headquarters had moved from Hurley’s garage to offices above Amici’s pizzeria in San Mateo, California. The company now accounted for about one-fourth of all internet bandwidth usage in the U.S., and this early surge of growth caught the eye of Google, as well as Yahoo and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

Botha recalls that Google “came in with confidence, speed and precision” on an offer for YouTube. Google ultimately closed its acquisition for $1.65 billion in stock in November 2006. (The YouTube founders landed on the price tag because they thought it would be cool to sell the company for 10% more than eBay paid for PayPal in 2002.)

Zucker, who was CEO of NBC Entertainment at the time, certainly remembers “Lazy Sunday” blowing up on YouTube. “We saw it as an opportunity — and a threat,” he says. “YouTube showed us how powerful viral video could be.” He still thinks “Lazy Sunday” was a primary reason Google bought YouTube.

The dawn of the creator economy arguably was in 2007. That’s when the platform introduced its YouTube Partner Program, which shares ad revenue with creators whose channels hit minimum subscriber and viewing thresholds. (The current standard YouTube split is 55% for the channel owner, 45% for the house.) The program, known as YPP, gave rise to a brand-new job: YouTuber. For those with showbiz aspirations, it’s the new version of packing up the car and driving to Hollywood or New York. Never mind that only about 4% of an estimated 50 million creators worldwide earn more than $100,000 per year, according to Goldman Sachs research.

YouTube’s biggest star today is Jimmy Donaldson, the 26-year-old known as MrBeast. He runs the platform’s most-subscribed channel, with more than 370 million followers, garnering a global fan base for his outlandish stunts, wacky big-money giveaways and philanthropic endeavors. Donaldson earned an estimated $85 million for the 12 months ended June 2024, according to Forbes.

Donaldson says the moment he realized YouTube could become a full-time job was with his “I Counted to 100,000!” video, uploaded in January 2017 — in which he literally counted from one to 100,000. He says it took him 40 hours; the video, sped up in parts, runs nearly 24 hours. That video was “the catalyst for everything that followed,” Donaldson says. “It was a big idea, but I was all in.”

But Donaldson’s most audacious project to date wasn’t on YouTube: The reality competition show “Beast Games” was co-produced with Amazon Prime Video. The “Squid Game”-style program, which awarded more than $20 million in prize money to contestants, cost more than $100 million to produce.

“It was an opportunity to expand the MrBeast brand to new audiences and take on a bigger project,” Donaldson says. But, he adds, “YouTube will always be my No. 1 focus, as it powers everything I do. I don’t want to be a creator that loses focus and my channel dies as a result.”

Mohan says he’s “really proud when YouTube is the jumping off point for things that creators can do outside of YouTube” like Donaldson’s “Beast Games.” “I’m rooting for Jimmy in all of his endeavors because he knows, and I know, that sort of the basis of all of that is the investment and hard work that he puts into YouTube,” the CEO says.

Over time, media companies have found YouTube fertile ground for promoting content and earning revenue. Yet those companies are also competing with YouTube for consumers’ time and ad dollars. “YouTube is the ultimate frenemy,” says Brian Fuhrer, Nielsen’s senior VP of product strategy.

Netflix brass, when pressed on the question of competing with YouTube, insist the services are complementary. “We compete directly with YouTube for people’s time, for the time they spend on that TV screen. But we have very different strengths,” co-CEO Ted Sarandos told analysts on its Q3 2024 earnings interview.

Dana Walden, co-chairman of Disney Entertainment, says any share of viewing that YouTube might take from the Mouse House’s TV and streaming properties is hugely outweighed by the upside of working with the platform. The partnership spans promotional content for Disney+ and Hulu, plus movies and theme parks, as well as advertising and pay-TV distribution.

“YouTube plays a key role in deepening fandom across each segment of our company, and not just streaming,” Walden says. It’s a deeply symbiotic relationship, she says, “one where both Disney and YouTube thrive on the scale, awareness and passion of our audiences.”

One of Disney’s goals with YouTube, Walden says, is “enabling creators to grow that love for our IP.”

René Rechtman, an alum of Maker Studios and Disney, founded children’s entertainment outfit Moonbug Entertainment in 2018 after he realized that none of the top 100 YouTube channels aimed at kids was owned by traditional media companies. “I saw how uninterested kids were in cable TV, and how engaged they were with YouTube creators,” he says.

Moonbug acquired several companies producing content for YouTube: CoComelon, Blippi and Little Baby Bum. One of CoComelon’s top all-time YouTube videos is “Wheels on the Bus” — which has a mind-bending 7.2 billion views (and counting). In 2021, two of Rechtman’s former Disney colleagues, Tom Staggs and Kevin Mayer, came calling with an offer he couldn’t refuse: $3 billion for Moonbug to become part of their new media roll-up company, Candle Media.

“I think this was a greenfield for us because companies like Disney had an existential crisis with Netflix,” Rechtman says. “They were all focused on, How do we compete in this new direct-to-consumer world? They saw YouTube as a marketing platform, which was a big mistake.” YouTube is the biggest free streaming platform in the world, Rechtman says: “How great is that opportunity?”

Among traditional media companies, WWE has one of the biggest footprints on YouTube. Its main channel, launched in May 2007, has served more than 91 billion video views to date and has over 107 million subscribers. That makes it one of the top 10 most-subscribed channels on YouTube.

WWE president Nick Khan says that in the earliest days of YouTube, the only media outlets that covered WWE were those that had licensing agreements with the wrestling entertainment company. “So we were forced to push our content to other platforms to get our message out,” he says.

“We believe we deliver what our fans wanted,” Khan says by way of explaining WWE’s tremendous growth on YouTube with clips, highlights, classic matches and some exclusive material. “We like to be first movers in any space.” And the company has done that without cannibalizing viewing on tentpole properties on TV and other streaming platforms, he says.

Asked whether WWE sees YouTube as a potential distributor for its premium live events in the future, Khan notes that the company’s deal with NBCU’s Peacock runs through March 2026. He says NBCU has been a “tremendous partner,” noting it will have the have the first to renew the rights for Peacock. If not, “we will talk to everyone including YouTube, which has done phenomenally well with Sunday Ticket and YouTube TV,” says Khan.

Will McIntosh, president of NBCU’s Fandango and NBC Sports Next, sees YouTube largely as a partner and not so much as a competitor. Fandango’s content promoting movies coming to theaters and home entertainment performs really well on YouTube. “It’s inarguable — it’s the most important platform from that perspective,” McIntosh says. “Ultimately, we know that manifests itself in ticket sales.”

YouTube also is a partner for Fandango’s Movieclips business, which is currently one of the biggest channels on YouTube with more than 63 million subscribers. It’s a three-way win: Fandango, studios and YouTube each earn revenue from ads served against licensed clips of TV and movie scenes. One of the most-viewed videos on Movieclips’ channel is the “Shake It Off” scene from 2016 animated hit “Sing” (525 million views).

McIntosh says his team works with all the online platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. “None of those partners has risen to the scale of YouTube, with its audience and what we can draw into our platforms,” he says.

Ynon Kreiz, CEO of Mattel, previously ran Maker Studios, the multichannel network company that aggregated thousands of YouTube creators into different vertical segments. Disney bought Maker in 2014. Kreiz observes that YouTube’s evolution over the years — to use technology to better target content and ads to individual viewers and drive engagement — is similar to Mattel’s shift from being a toy manufacturer to a steward of franchises like Barbie and Hot Wheels that engages with fans on an emotional level.

On YouTube, “you can have a two-way conversation with fans, who create their own content around your brands,” he says. “This is not just a place where you put advertising.” Mattel, he says, is spending more creating content specifically for YouTube, where “there’s a commercial model with financial returns.”

Zucker, the one-time YouTube adversary, today is the CEO of media-investment firm RedBird IMI, whose holdings include British production house All3Media, Front Office Sports and studio Media Res. He’s a convert to the notion that YouTube is integral to any media business today. “We know the power of that platform, we know what it can do — and we’re going to continue to try to harness that,” he says.

Even as YouTube ramps up subscription revenue, advertising remains its lifeblood. The video platform continues to post double-digit growth off a large revenue base. It’s taking share from traditional TV, where ad sales have slowed or declined: GroupM projects just 1.9% growth worldwide in 2025 for linear television advertising.

Marketers have been attracted to YouTube’s ability to reach viewers from the get-go. YouTube may have been an antagonist to traditional media players — but that wasn’t the case with advertisers. “From the earliest days, advertisers were trying to work with YouTube,” says Brian Wieser, founder and CEO of Madison & Wall, an advisory and data services firm for advertising and tech industries. “If you go back to the early and mid-2000s, advertisers appreciated how important online video advertising was and would become.”

According to Sequoia’s Botha, the ad business made it profitable before the Google acquisition. “The YouTube founders made it very cost effective to deliver video. So you only needed a low monetization rate to be successful,” he says.

YouTube gained the attention of TV advertisers with the introduction in 2014 of Google Preferred. Later rebranded YouTube Select, the program lets marketers target the top 5% of popular channels in categories like entertainment and pop culture, food and music. “That’s when they started to dip their toe into the broader TV spending pool,” says Drew Corry, SVP and group director of strategic investment at ad-buying giant IPG Mediabrands. “If you’re trying to reach consumers by video, you’re going to have some level of investment in YouTube.”

YouTube also has delivered an advertising experience that, from a viewer’s perspective, is superior to TV, says Mattel’s Kreiz. “It’s more user-friendly than traditional linear television, where you have to sit through literally several minutes of advertising per hour,” says Kreiz. He notes that YouTube pioneered skippable ads — a radical concept when it was first introduced in 2010. Mohan, who was involved in developing YouTube’s TrueView skippable ad format, says he’s proud of the innovation: “I do think it’s changed the industry in terms of how advertiser value is conveyed, but in a way that actually also works for all of us as users and consumers.”

Today, YouTube is the biggest streamer on TVs — and if viewing trends continue on their current trajectory, says Nielsen’s Fuhrer, “there’s a lot more runway there.”

In 2016, Nielsen adopted a new methodology for measuring viewing on TV that encompassed streaming. And it found that while Netflix represented half of streaming, YouTube was in second place. “We thought, ‘This can’t be right. YouTube can’t be this big on TV,’” Fuhrer recalls.

Then came a tipping point: In the summer of 2022, YouTube passed Netflix on TV viewing in the U.S. for the first time, per Nielsen. And it’s held the lead for the past two years. In January 2025, YouTube had 10.8% share on TVs, with Netflix following at 8.6%. YouTube’s TV audience for a long time has been the most diverse from an age perspective and with its broad range of content has “an amazing ability to engage every ethnicity,” says Fuhrer.

Source : https://variety.com/2025/digital/news/youtube-20th-anniversary-sean-evans-hollywood-1236327520/

In announcing the decision to postpone some tariffs on Mexico for another month, US President Donald Trump was at pains to praise his Mexican counterpart, Claudia Sheinbaum.

“I did this as an accommodation, and out of respect for, President Sheinbaum”, he wrote on his social media site, Truth Social. “Our relationship has been a very good one and we are working hard, together, on the border.”

The comments were in stark contrast to the kind of language he has used for the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, who he continues to refer to as “Governor Trudeau”, while calling Canada “the 51st State”.

The war of words – if not yet trade – continues between Canada and the Trump administration with Prime Minister Trudeau calling the entire tariffs policy “dumb” and the US Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, calling him a “numbskull” in return.

Caroline Darian, the daughter of Dominique and Gisèle Pelicot, is pressing charges against her father, accusing him of drugging and raping her – something he has always denied.

Last December, Dominique Pelicot was sentenced to 20 years in jail for drugging his ex-wife, Gisèle, raping her and inviting dozens of men to also abuse her over nearly a decade.

Pelicot filmed the rapes of his wife, collecting hundreds of videos he neatly catalogued on a hard disk.

Among them were also two photos of his daughter, in which Ms Darian, 46, says she is clearly unconscious, sleeping in an unfamiliar position and wearing underwear she doesn’t recognise.

Dominique Pelicot has offered conflicting explanations for the photos, but has always denied sexually assaulting his daughter.

Ms Darian has long said the photos are proof her father also drugged and raped her.

“I know that he drugged me, probably for sexual abuse. But I don’t have any evidence,” she told the BBC in January, when she also talked about the shock of being shown those pictures by police for the first time.

Police will now launch an investigation, and prosecutors will later decide whether to proceed to trial.

Béatrice Zavarro, Dominique Pelicot’s lawyer, told French media that Ms Darian’s decision to press charges was “unsurprising”.

But she also pointed out that the prosecutors in the previous trial had said there were insufficient “objective elements” to accuse Pelicot of raping and using chemical submission on his daughter.

The heated courtroom exchanges between Ms Darian and her father were some of the most dramatic in the 16-week trial that shocked France and the world. “I never touched you, never,” Pelicot pleaded to his daughter during one session. “You are lying!” Ms Darian shouted back.

Ms Darian has previously said she felt she was the trial’s “forgotten victim” as, unlike in her mother’s case, there was no record of the abuse she is convinced was inflicted upon her.

She told Elle France earlier this week that the charges she is pressing against her father were “symbolic” but “in line with what I have said since the start: that I am a victim of chemical submission [drug-facilitated assault] but was never recognised as such”.

She has hired lawyer Florence Rault to represent her.

For many years, Ms Rault has been fighting for justice for two women who were the victims of violent ordeals in the 1990s.

One, a young property agent known by the pseudonym Marion, was the victim of an attempted rape in 1999, to which Pelicot has admitted.

The other – also an estate agent in her 20s – was raped and murdered in 1991. Pelicot is currently being investigated over that case, but has always denied any involvement.

Ms Darian said she saw similarities between her and Marion. “We look strangely alike. She is blonde, her hair is bobbed, we were born the same year… I wanted to meet her lawyer and hear all the details,” she told Elle France.

In her police complaint, which was quoted by French media, Ms Rault lamented that Ms Darian had never been offered gynecological examinations nor had she been tested for the drugs Pelicot used on his wife.

Ms Rault said the investigation had only focused on Gisèle Pelicot and that her client had been treated as a “peripheral victim”. She asked the authorities to launch a fresh “serious and in-depth” inquiry.

Forty-nine men were sentenced in December alongside Dominque Pelicot. All were found guilty of at least one charge – rape or sexual assault – against Gisèle Pelicot.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0mwllzzyxlo

The group allegedly wanted to to establish a paramilitary militia, overthrow the Romanian government and pull the country out of NATO. Romanian prosecutors also said the suspects intended to introduce a new constitution.

Two of the alleged plotters are said to have travelled to Moscow in January, where they met with backers of the coup. The Romanian intelligence service SRI said the individuals “actively requested the support of officers from the Embassy of the Russian Federation.”

One of the suspects is 101-year-old retired major general Radu Theodoru. The former officer is a Holocaust denier who has praised Romania’s fascist leadership from the World War II, and has described the current government as “a system organized to rob [the] country.”

Rising tensions between Romania and Russia

The arrests follow yesterday’s expulsion of two Russian officials by the Romanian government. The officials were the Russian military attache and his deputy, both accused of colluding with the far-right presidential candidate Călin Georgescu.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/romania-six-arrested-over-alleged-coup-plot-with-russia/a-71847734

The US trade deficit surged to a new record in January, government data showed Thursday, as imports spiked while tariff worries flared in the month of President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Trump returned to the White House this year with pledges to ease cost-of-living pressures for voters, but on the campaign trail he also raised the possibility of sweeping levies across US imports.

The overall trade gap of the world’s biggest economy ballooned 34 percent to $131.4 billion, on the back of a 10 percent jump in imports for the month, said the Commerce Department.

This was the widest deficit for a month on record, dating back to 1992, and the expansion was more than analysts anticipated.

The latest figures came after the US economy saw its goods deficit hit a fresh record too for the full year of 2024 — at $1.2 trillion.

In January, imports came in at $401.2 billion, and this was $36.6 billion more than the level in December, Commerce Department data showed.

US exports, meanwhile, rose $3.3 billion between December and January to $269.8 billion.

Among sectors, imports of industrial goods jumped, and imports of consumer goods rose notably by $6.0 billion.

US deficits with other economies were a key focus of Trump’s first administration from 2017 to 2021, and at the time he waged a bruising tariffs war with China in particular.

This time the Trump administration has referred to tariffs as a means to raise government revenue, remedy imbalances and exert pressure on other governments over American priorities.

In January, US goods deficits with China and the European Union both widened.

On the campaign trail last year ahead of November’s election, Trump vowed reciprocal tariffs on nations that taxed US-made products, dubbing this the “Trump Reciprocal Trade Act.”

Since returning to office, Trump has launched plans for “reciprocal tariffs” tailored to each US trading partner, to tackle trade practices deemed unfair by Washington.

He has promised an announcement on these levies on April 2, while also threatening tariffs on other imports ranging from semiconductors to autos.

Source :https://www.ibtimes.com/us-trade-gap-hits-new-record-january-tariff-fears-loomed-3765343

The U.S. Commerce Department has tapped top Morgan Stanley banker Michael Grimes, who was a main figure in Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter (now X), to lead the sovereign wealth fund being pushed by President Donald Trump, new reports revealed.

Grimes left behind 30 years of tenure at one of the country’s leading banks to join the Trump administration under the Commerce Department and lead the new project, Reuters and Bloomberg reported late Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified as the matter has not yet been made public.

Who is Michael Grimes?

Grimes is one of Morgan Stanley’s top bankers and investment industry dealmakers, but he is most prominently known for helping Musk during his acquisition of then-Twitter.

He is known for his work in locating equity investors to buy into the takeover and reduce the financial burden on Musk amid surging interests in 2022.

The initial deal fell apart but Musk was still able to secure the funds needed for his $43 billion acquisition of the social media platform. Grimes is believed to have retained close ties with the tech billionaire since then.

An industry expert called the recruitment of a prominent dealmaker like Grimes a “very smart” move.

Grimes has often been called the “Wall Street Whisperer of Silicon Valley” but “rarely” speaks with reporters or journalists.

What is the US Sovereign Wealth Fund?

Trump ordered the creation of a sovereign wealth fund last month, designating Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to oversee the fund’s creation.

Sources told Bloomberg that the project is still in the very early stages and even Grimes’ leadership may be subject to change.

One source said an idea being floated is that the fund will be paired with the U.S. International Development Finance Corp. and Export-Import Bank to drive American investment in various areas that play a crucial role toward national security, including technology, manufacturing, and defense.

Source : https://www.ibtimes.com/michael-grimes-star-banker-behind-musks-twitter-buyout-lead-sovereign-wealth-fund-reports-3765297

A source tells Page Six that Jennifer Lopez is “not happy with constantly seeing photos,” of her ex, Ben Affleck, and his ex, Jennifer Garner.

Affleck and Garner, both 52, have been spending a lot of time together, which is generating headlines and even causing some speculation over Affleck’s feelings towards his first ex wife.

A source tells us the chummy pics have been like “salt in the wound.”

FIFA is considering whether to expand the men’s World Cup to include 64 teams in 2030, a spokesperson has confirmed.

The football tournament has already expanded ahead of next year’s edition, with 48 teams set to compete – instead of the usual 32 – as the United States, Mexico and Canada share hosting duties.

The idea to have 64 teams compete as a one-off for the World Cup’s centenary year in 2030 was put forward this week.

The proposal was “spontaneously raised by a FIFA council member” near the end of a meeting held by world football’s governing body on Wednesday, a FIFA spokesperson said.

“The idea was acknowledged as FIFA has a duty to analyse any proposal from one of its council members,” they added.

It was suggested by the elected delegate from Uruguay, Ignacio Alonso, two people familiar with the situation told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussion was confidential.

The 2026 World Cup will be the biggest edition of the tournament so far, with 104 games being played across 16 host cities in a six-week period.

Supersizing it even further would likely present fresh logistical challenges.

Also, it would mean hundreds more players going to the World Cup at a time when player unions have criticised a relentless expansion of games and competitions without consulting their members.

However, FIFA president Gianni Infantino has said expansion raises revenue and gives more teams the chance to qualify, citing a need to develop football globally.

Football Association chief executive Mark Bullingham told Sky News: “I know that a huge amount of countries around the world have never had the opportunity to play in the World Cup finals and would like the opportunity to do that, but then you’ve got to balance that up with the tournament itself.

“So let’s see what the ideas are and then we can judge them.”

Planning is already well under way for the 2030 tournament, set to be hosted in six countries across three continents.

To mark 100 years since the first World Cup took place in Uruguay, the first match of the tournament will be played in Montevideo, the Uruguayan capital.

Argentina, runners up in the first World Cup, and Paraguay – where South America’s football confederation, Conmebol, is based – will also host one match each to open the tournament.

The contest will then move east, with Spain and Portugal and Morocco serving as the main co-hosts.

On Wednesday, it was announced the four nations of the UK are planning a joint bid to host the 2035 Women’s World Cup.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/fifa-considers-spontaneous-proposal-for-64-team-mens-world-cup-in-2030-13322884

MCDONALD’S is overhauling all 43,000 restaurants to cut wait times as one executive has admitted locations can be “very stressful.”

The fast-food giant is giving its restaurants an AI makeover in a bid to enhance customer and employee experience.

Starting with internet-connected kitchen equipment, artificial intelligence-enabled -drive-throughs and AI-powered tools for managers.

The target being to ensure order accuracy and help restaurants detect equipment issues before they fail.

Brian Rice, McDonald’s Chief Information Officer, told how workers face these issues repeatedly which can be “very stressful.”

He said: “Our restaurants, frankly, can be very stressful.

“We have customers at the counter, we have customers at our drive-through, couriers coming in for delivery, delivery at curbside.

“That’s a lot to deal with for our crew.”

He added: “Technology solutions will alleviate the stress.”

The restaurant hopes that better tech-enabled experiences will triumph in it growing its loyalty patrons from 175 million to 250 million by 2027.

To accomplish that, McDonald’s tapped Google Cloud in late 2023 to bring more computing power to each of its restaurants—enabling them to process and analyze data on-site.

The setup, known as edge computing, can be a faster, cheaper option than sending data to the cloud, especially in more far-flung locations with less reliable cloud connections.

Edge computing will enable applications like predicting when kitchen equipment is likely to break down

The burger chain said its suppliers have begun installing sensors on kitchen equipment that will give data to the edge computing system and allow franchisees a “real-time” view into how their restaurants are operating.

AI can then analyze that data for early signs of a maintenance problem.

McDonald’s is also exploring the use of computer vision, the form of AI behind facial recognition, in store-mounted cameras to determine whether orders are accurate before they’re handed to customers.

Additionally, the ability to tap edge computing will power voice AI at the drive-through, a capability McDonald’s is also working with Google’s cloud-computing arm to explore.

The company has been experimenting with voice-activated drive-throughs and robotic deep fryers since 2019.

But ended its partnership with International Business Machines to test automated order-taking at the drive-through in 2024.

Edge computing will also help McDonald’s restaurant managers oversee their in-store operations.

Rice also dropped the bombshell that the burger giant is looking to create a “generative AI virtual manager.”

Its job will be to carry out administrative tasks such as shift scheduling on managers’ behalf.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/money/13705108/mcdonalds-restaurants-wait-times-locations/

A total of 48 people were killed in fighting between Syrian security forces and pro-Assad fighters on Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said.

Supporters of ousted President Bashar Assad ambushed and killed 16 police personnel. The response from Syrian security forces led to clashes that left 28 pro-Assad fighters and four civilians dead, according to the London-based SOHR.

The monitoring body called it “the most violent attacks against the new authorities since Assad was toppled.”

What do we know about the clashes in Syria’s Latakia?

The incident took place around the town of Jableh, in the coastal province of Latakia — the heartland of Syria’s Alawite minority, of which Assad is a member.

Mustafa Kneifati, a security official in Latakia, said that in “a well-planned and premeditated attack, several groups of Assad militia remnants attacked our positions and checkpoints, targeting many of our patrols in the Jableh area.”

SOHR reported that security forces employed helicopter gunships to fire on the ambushers which reportedly included fighters loyal to former Syrian army General Suheil al-Hassan. It was not immediately clear if al-Hassan had been involved in the fighting.

State-run news agency SANA said that security forces had arrested former senior intelligence official Ibrahim Hweiji, believed to be responsible for organizing the assassination of Lebanese Druze leader Kamal Joumblatt in 1977.

Sectarian violence reported in Alawite strongholds

Following the attacks, large numbers of military reinforcements were deployed to the area and overnight curfews were imposed on Alawite-populated areas including nearby Tartus and Syria’s third city Homs, SANA reported.

Sajed al-Deek, a security official, was quoted by local media as saying the situation is under control. He played down reports that the attacks had been carried out by Alawites, and called “for abstaining from raising sectarian sentiments.”

Tensions in the Alawite stronghold regions have been rising as Sunni militants carry out attacks on the formerly dominant group.

The Syrian government, led by the rebels who overthrew Assad in a lightning advance in December, has warned against collective punishment or sectarian violence.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/syria-sees-worst-day-of-violence-since-ouster-of-assad/a-71852125

The United States has withdrawn from the Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETP), a multi-billion-dollar initiative launched in 2021 to help emerging economies move away from coal and other non-renewable energy sources.

Other partners, including France, Germany, the European Union, the UK, the Netherlands, and Denmark, remain committed to the program.

The US exit will strongly affects South Africa and Indonesia, which are among the beneficiaries of the program.

According to a statement from South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office, grant projects that were previously funded ”and in planning or implementation phases have been canceled.”

Billions for projects in South Africa, Indonesia and Vietnam

Indonesia’s JETP Secretariat head, Paul Butarbutar, confirmed that the US embassy in Jakarta informed him of Washington’s decision, citing an executive order from President Donald Trump.

He noted that while the $21.6 billion (€20.70 billion) pledge from private and public donors remains unchanged, the US withdrawal will impact transition studies and grant funding in Indonesia.

Under the South Africa agreement, the country was promised $56 million (€52.37 million) in grants and an additional $1 billion in potential commercial investments. Similar agreements were made with Indonesia and Vietnam.

UK climate envoy Rachel Kyte called the US withdrawal ”regrettable” but reassured South Africa that “the rest of the world moves on.”

Can South Africa afford a green transition?

South Africa is one of the world’s largest polluters, with coal generating 80% of its electricity. Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa stated, ”Our commitment to a just energy transition is not conditional on other sovereign powers.”

However, frequent power outages plaguing the country have fueled political opposition to closing coal plants.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/us-exits-93-billion-climate-deal-with-developing-nations/a-71847744

President Donald Trump convened his Cabinet in person on Thursday to deliver a message: You’re in charge of your departments, not Elon Musk.

According to two administration officials, Trump told top members of his administration that Musk was empowered to make recommendations to the departments but not to issue unilateral decisions on staffing and policy. Musk was also in the room.

The meeting followed a series of mass firings and threats to government workers from the billionaire Tesla founder, who helms the Department of Government Efficiency, that created broad uncertainty across the federal government and its workforce.

DOGE’s actions have faced ferocious resistance in court and criticism from Democratic lawmakers and some Republicans.

The president’s message represents the first significant move to narrow Musk’s mandate. According to Trump’s new guidance, DOGE and its staff should play an advisory role — but Cabinet secretaries should make final decisions on personnel, policy and the pacing of implementation.

Musk joined the conversation and indicated he was on board with Trump’s directive. According to one person familiar with the meeting, Musk acknowledged that DOGE had made some missteps — a message he shared earlier this week with members of Congress.

Trump stressed that he wants to keep good people in government and not to eject capable federal workers en masse. But his administration has in recent weeks fired tens of thousands of federal workers across numerous agencies in a series of blanket terminations. A federal judge and the chair of a federal civil service board have both concluded that the terminations were not tied to performance issues — and may have violated civil service laws.

It is unclear whether the new guidance will result in laid off workers getting rehired.

Trump posted about the meeting on Truth Social after this story posted, promising to hold similar meetings every two weeks.

“As the Secretaries learn about, and understand, the people working for the various Departments, they can be very precise as to who will remain, and who will go,” he wrote. “We say the ‘scalpel’ rather than the ‘hatchet.’ The combination of them, Elon, DOGE, and other great people will be able to do things at a historic level.”

The president later told reporters he wants Cabinet members to “keep all the people you want, everybody that you need.”

But he also said he wanted cuts, and that Musk would remain a power center: “If they can cut, it’s better. And if they don’t cut, then Elon will do the cutting.”

Musk later retweeted a Trump post and called it a “very productive meeting.”

The timing of the meeting was influenced by recent comments from Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), who said on CNN Tuesday that Cabinet secretaries should retain the full power to hire and fire, according to one official. The official said Trump has been flooded with similar concerns from other lawmakers and Cabinet secretaries.

The president’s admonition to agency heads could impact mounting legal scrutiny facing DOGE.

Judges have increasingly expressed frustration and bewilderment at the Trump administration’s inability to explain who is in charge of the bureaucracy-culling effort and whether Musk himself is playing any role in ordering up the steep cuts to programs and jobs.

Complicating the matter further, Trump declared during his address to Congress Tuesday that Musk is indeed the “head” of DOGE, a label that immediately reverberated in several of the Musk-focused court cases. Trump’s assertion conflicted with the White House’s representation in court last month that Musk had no independent authority to make policy decisions.

Judges will now have to decide whether Trump’s after-the-fact characterization of Musk’s role resolves the already-existing legal challenges to DOGE’s work.

It comes just as some of those lawsuits reach a new fact-finding phase that could produce more clarity on the SpaceX boss’ involvement in running the government.

Source : https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/06/trump-cabinet-musk-025093

President Donald Trump issued exemptions on tariffs for a variety of goods coming into the United States from Mexico and Canada — just two days after he put the sweeping tariffs in place — leaving investors and businesses grappling with the whiplash of his back-and-forth trade policy.

The exemptions to the 25% tariffs enacted Tuesday would apply to about half of goods coming into the United States from Mexico and around 38% of goods from Canada that comply with the North American trade deal reached during Trump’s first term, according to a senior administration official.

It’s the second time in less than two months that Trump has announced and then backtracked on tariffs on the United States’ neighbors. The moves have rattled the stock market, with businesses warning that the added costs could drive prices higher and cut into their profits. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 are on pace for their worst week since September.

“The can keeps getting pushed, kicked down the road, and we don’t know what that means,” said Chuck Dardas, president of AlphaUSA, an auto parts manufacturer in Livonia, Michigan. He later added: “To make investments and to do things we need to do, we need some certainty. Not that we can have perfect certainty — but not be on a constant diet of, well, we’ll wait till next month to see if the ax is going to fall.”

“The only thing, I guess, to be certain is that we’ve got 30 more days to worry about it,” Dardas said.

The exemptions Trump issued Thursday will last until April 2, when Trump plans another round of retaliatory tariffs on goods from a range of countries. The exemptions apply to some things like potash, which is used in fertilizers, but some Canadian energy products won’t qualify and will be subjected to a 10% tariff. And all other goods, including computers from Mexico, will be subjected to the 25% tariff, the senior administration official said.

The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which Trump heralded during his first term as a negotiating victory, allows goods to move among the three countries tariff-free if they follow certain rules. The rules require that a product be made entirely in North America or be substantially transformed in North America if it is made of components from other countries. For products like autos, 75% of the content must be from North America.

The tariffs for non-USMCA-compliant goods could address concerns past and current U.S. officials have raised about Chinese goods’ being shipped into Mexico and then sent to the United States tariff-free, without having met the USMCA requirement of having been substantially transformed in North America.

On Tuesday, the Trump administration began charging U.S.-based companies importing goods from Canada and Mexico a 25% tariff for bringing those goods into the country. Trump also increased the tariff on goods from China to 20%, on top of tariffs already in place from his first term.

Target, Best Buy and other companies warned the added costs from the tariffs could drive prices higher on thousands of products, including alcohol, fresh produce, cars and electronics.

“Tariffs hit families where it hurts: groceries, school supplies and apparel. This continuous tariff uncertainty increases pocketbook anxiety for families and also throws a wrench into future business planning and investment,” said Michael Hanson, executive vice president of public affairs for the Retail Industry Leaders Association.

A day after the tariffs went into effect, the White House said it would begin exempting autos if the companies complied by standards in the USMCA deal, which automakers said they have been doing. The tariffs could have added $4,000 to $10,000 to the cost of cars made in North America, according to estimates from Anderson Economic Group.

In announcing them, Trump said he was using the tariffs as a tool to pressure Canada and Mexico to do more to stop the flow of fentanyl into the United States, though less than 1% of fentanyl seized at the U.S. border was coming from Canada. The United States recorded 87,000 drug overdose deaths from October 2023 to September 2024, a decrease from 114,000 the previous year, according to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Trump said he decided to issue the exemptions after he spoke with U.S. automakers’ CEOs on Wednesday, giving them some time to adjust before he puts wider tariffs in place next month.

“There will always be a little short-term interruption. I don’t think it’s going to be big, but the countries and companies that have been ripping us aren’t particularly happy with what I’m doing,” Trump told reporters Thursday. “But the United States will be very happy. And, you know, our farmers are going to be very happy, and again, there’ll be disruption.”

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said at a news conference Thursday that, in her call with Trump, she cited a graph from U.S. Customs and Border Protection showing a drop in fentanyl seizures, which she said Trump hadn’t previously seen.

Source : https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/economics/trump-administration-floats-exemptions-tariffs-canadian-mexican-goods-rcna195110

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Ukraine should be granted the security of NATO without the actual membership in the military alliance.

Speaking on the sidelines of a European Union leaders’ meeting in Brussels on Thursday, she said “we need to think about more durable solutions” than sending European peacekeeping troops to Ukraine.

Extending the provision of NATO’s Article 5 — the collective defense clause that commits members to protect each other — would be much more effective, she said.

The proposal comes as European leaders are seeking ways to shore up Kyiv as the administration of President Donald Trump pushes for a rapid end to the three-year war. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last month ruled out Ukraine’s NATO membership.

It’s the first time Meloni has backed the idea in such clear terms. While the Italian prime minister has been seen as a potential conduit between Europe and Trump, the proposal is unlikely to find the support of the US.

Source : https://finance.yahoo.com/news/meloni-backs-giving-ukraine-nato-201913863.html?guccounter=1

Just before his cryptocurrency empire crumbled in November 2021, Sam Bankman-Fried considered going on Tucker Carlson’s show to “come out as a republican” to rehabilitate his image. On Thursday, almost a year since Bankman-Fried, a co-founder of FTX, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for defrauding users of his cryptocurrency exchange, he finally fulfilled his plan.

From “a little side room” of Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, Bankman-Fried spent his 33rd birthday dishing to Carlson in a wide-ranging interview, which included new details about life in prison with his cellblock mate Sean “Diddy” Combs. As NBC has reported, Bankman-Fried and Combs, who has been charged with sex trafficking, are being housed in the same unit.

“I’ve only seen one piece of him, which is Diddy in prison, and he’s been kind to people in the unit; he’s been kind to me,” Bankman-Fried said on “The Tucker Carlson Show.” “It’s also — it’s a position no one wants to be in.”

Bankman-Fried, 33, was convicted in November 2023 of seven counts of wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering for swindling customers of FTX and lenders of Alameda Research, its associated hedge fund. Prosecutors said Bankman-Fried “perpetrated one of the biggest financial frauds in American history.”

A chief public information officer for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York declined to comment.

Life behind bars

Bankman-Fried told Carlson that he has “made some friends” at the Brooklyn center, where, sources told NBC News, he is in a unit for detainees who need extra protection.

“It’s sort of dystopian,” Bankman-Fried said. “You know, the fortunate thing, the place I’m in, I’m not in … I’m not in physical danger.”

He said the unit has defendants from high-profile cases and “a lot of ex-gangsters — or alleged ex-gangsters.” Asked how cellblock mates feel about being housed with him and Combs, Bankman-Fried theorized that some of them think “this is a big opportunity to meet people they wouldn’t otherwise get to meet.”

“They’re good at chess. That’s one thing I learned,” he added. “Former armed robbers who don’t speak English and probably didn’t graduate middle school, a surprising number of them are fairly good at chess. I’m not saying they’re grandmasters, but I lose games to them all the time. I was not expecting that.”

In addition to playing chess and working on his appeal, he told Carlson, Bankman-Fried has started to read novels again. Carlson said Bankman-Fried seemed “less jumpy” and “healthier” after two years in prison. He then said it seemed Bankman-Fried was “flying high on Adderall” in his previous TV appearances.

Bankman-Fried denied ever being on the drug. “But I was pretty out of it. My mind was racing because there were, you know, a billion things to keep track of,” he added.

His changing political stance

Bankman-Fried described how his politics have evolved over the last five years, from being a major Biden donor to having a better relationship with Republicans than Democrats by the time he went to trial.

“One fact that might be relevant. In 2020, I was center-left, and I gave to Biden’s campaign,” he said. “I was optimistic he’d be a sort of solid center-left president. I spent the next few years in D.C. a lot. I made dozens of trips there and was really, really shocked by what I saw — not in a good direction — from the administration.

“By late 2022, I was giving to Republicans privately as much as Democrats. And that started becoming known right around FTX’s collapse, so that probably played a role,” he added, noting that he believed in ideas from both sides of the aisle.

In his trial, prosecutors showed a document in which he considered ways to rehabilitate his public image after FTX collapsed, including going on Carlson’s show to “come out against the woke agenda.” Carlson asked him whether he called in political favors during his trial, which Bankman-Fried denied, saying because he did not want to do “something inappropriate.”

His optimistic view on the future of crypto

Bankman-Fried said “hopefully” things are moving in the right direction for cryptocurrency under President Donald Trump, saying a lot of “good things” are already happening.

“So I think the big question is, you know, when rubber meets the road, like, will the administration do what needs to be done and figure out how to do it?” he said. “Right now, crypto is not at the point where it could become an everyday tool.”

Carlson also asked Bankman-Fried whether he believes “there is a lot of shady behavior in the crypto business.” Bankman-Fried said that a decade ago he might have agreed but that the business is now “a lot smaller” and more regulated.

Bankman-Fried’s financial status

Carlson asked Bankman-Fried whether he has “any money” left — and Bankman-Fried admitted “basically no.” In addition to his prison sentence, he was ordered to pay $11 billion in forfeiture.

“The company that I used to own … had nothing intervened, today it would have about $15 billion of liabilities and about $93 billion of assets. So the answer should be, in theory, yes there was enough money to pay everyone back in kind,” he said. “But that’s not how things worked out. Instead, it all got roiled up in a bankruptcy.”

“It’s been a colossal disaster,” he said. “Not stopping that from happening is by far the biggest regret of my life.”

Source : https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/sam-bankman-fried-calls-sean-diddy-combs-kind-jailhouse-interview-tuck-rcna195221

Adidas (ADSGn.DE), sold its last pair of Yeezy sneakers at the end of 2024, the sportswear brand said on Wednesday, ending the process of liquidating stock of the lucrative shoe partnership with rapper Ye after splitting from him in October 2022.
Adidas has been trying to put the Yeezy affair behind it since antisemitic rants by Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, forced it to end the highly profitable partnership, denting revenues and driving the company to an annual loss in 2023.

“There is not one Yeezy shoe left, it has all been sold and that episode is behind us,” Chief Financial Officer Harm Ohlmeyer told a press conference on Wednesday after Adidas reported results.
The company has felt the loss of Yeezy particularly in the United States, where the shoes were popular. In its results on Wednesday Adidas said North America sales fell 2% in 2024, “solely due to significantly lower Yeezy sales”.
The company started selling off its remaining stock of Yeezy shoes in May 2023, pledging to donate part of the proceeds to organisations combating antisemitism, including the Anti-Defamation League.

Adidas reported it sold 650 million euros ($696 million) worth of Yeezy sneakers last year, making a profit of around 200 million euros.
The year before, Adidas made 750 million euros in revenue from Yeezy inventory, generating 300 million euros in operating profit.
The company has set aside 260 million euros for charitable donations from the proceeds of Yeezy sales, CEO Bjorn Gulden told a press conference. That amounts to about half of the operating profit Adidas made on selling off its stock of the sneakers in 2023 and 2024.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/adidas-sold-last-pair-yeezy-sneakers-2025-03-05/

Hundreds of diplomats at the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development have written a letter addressed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio protesting the dismantling of USAID, saying its demise would undermine U.S. leadership and security and create a power vacuum which China and Russia could exploit.
In a cable expected to be filed with the department’s internal “dissent channel,” which allows diplomats to raise concerns about policy anonymously, the diplomats said the Trump administration’s January 20 freeze on almost all foreign aid also endangers American diplomats and forces overseas while putting at risk the lives of millions abroad that depend on U.S. assistance.

More than 700 people have signed onto the letter, a U.S. official speaking on the condition of anonymity said.
“The decision to freeze and terminate foreign aid contracts and assistance awards without any meaningful review jeopardizes our partnerships with key allies, erodes trust, and creates openings for adversaries to expand their influence,” said the cable, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.
The Republican president, pursuing what he has called an “America First” agenda, ordered a 90-day pause on all foreign aid on his January 20 return to office. The order halted USAID operations around the world, jeopardizing delivery of life-saving food and medical aid, and throwing global humanitarian relief efforts into chaos.

“The freeze on life-saving aid has already caused irreparable harm and suffering to millions of people around the world,” the letter said, adding that despite statements on waivers being issued for life-saving programs, the funding remained shut.
The president tasked billionaire and adviser Elon Musk with dismantling USAID as part of an unprecedented push to shrink the federal government over what both say is wasteful spending and abuse of funds.
“Foreign assistance is not charity. Instead, it is a strategic tool that stabilizes regions, prevents conflict, and advances U.S. interests,” the letter said.
A State Department spokesperson, when asked about the cable, said: “We do not comment on leaked internal communication.”
In fiscal year 2023, the United States disbursed $72 billion of aid worldwide, on everything from women’s health in conflict zones to access to clean water, HIV/AIDS treatments, energy security and anti-corruption work.
Upon evaluating 6,200 multi-year awards, the administration decided to eliminate nearly 5,800 of them worth $54 billion in value, a 92% reduction, according to a State Department spokesperson. USAID fired or put on administrative leave thousands of staff and contractors.
The cable said the government’s failure to pay outstanding invoices to contractors and implementing partners has severe economic repercussions.
“The resulting financial strain not only undermines confidence in the U.S. government as a reliable partner, it also weakens domestic economic growth at a time of mounting global competition,” the cable said.

Organizations and companies that contract with USAID last month sued the administration, calling the dismantling of the agency unlawful and saying funding had been cut off for existing contracts, including hundreds of millions of dollars for work that is already done.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-diplomats-dissent-cable-rubio-protest-usaid-dismantling-cut-foreign-aid-2025-03-05/

Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino said on Wednesday morning that U.S. President Donald Trump was lying when he said that the North American leader’s administration was “reclaiming” the Panama Canal.
Trump’s comments to Congress came after a deal led by U.S. firm BlackRock (BLK.N), was announced earlier Tuesday to buy most of the $22.8 billion ports business of Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison (0001.HK), which includes assets along the Panama Canal.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/panama-president-says-trump-lied-about-panama-canals-reclaiming-2025-03-05/

France is open to discussing extending the protection offered by its nuclear arsenal to its European partners, President Emmanuel Macron said in a grave address to the nation on Wednesday, in which he warned that Europe must face up to the threat from Russia.
France and Britain are Europe’s only two nuclear powers.
“Our nuclear deterrent protects us: it’s complete, sovereign, French through and through,” Macron said on Wednesday in his televised speech.

“But, responding to the historic call of the future German Chancellor, I have decided to open the strategic debate on the protection of our allies on the European continent through our (nuclear) deterrence,” Macron said.
German Chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz has questioned whether NATO would remain in its “current form” by June and advocated talks with France and Britain about an expansion of their nuclear protection.
France’s nuclear deterrence strategy has hitherto been defensive and meant to protect the country’s own vital interests.

In his televised speech, Macron also said France would have to spend more on defence and would continue to help Ukraine. He acknowledged voters’ concerns over Russia and over the new U.S. administration’s upending of the international order.
He said that he wanted to believe that the United States “will remain at our side,” while adding that Europe had to be ready if that was no longer the case.
“You are, I know, legitimately worried about the current events, which are disrupting the world order,” Macron told voters.
“Russia has become a threat for France and Europe,” he said, adding that “to watch and do nothing would be madness.”

European countries are scrambling to boost defence spending and maintain support for Ukraine after President Donald Trump froze U.S. military aid to Kyiv and fuelled doubts about Washington’s commitment to its European NATO allies.

NUCLEAR DETERRENT

Jack Daniel’s maker Brown-Forman’s (BFb.N)

CEO Lawson Whiting said on Wednesday Canadian provinces taking American liquor off store shelves was “worse than a tariff” and a “disproportionate response” to levies imposed by the Trump administration.
Several Canadian provinces have taken U.S. liquor off store shelves as part of retaliatory measures against President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Canadians are steering away from U.S. goods, sports events and trips following the recent imposition of tariffs, which have left them stirred, despite the deep ties between the two countries.

“I mean, that’s worse than a tariff, because it’s literally taking your sales away, (and) completely removing our products from the shelves,” Whiting said on a post-earnings call.
Canada accounted for only 1% of the company’s total sales, Whiting said, so the company can withstand the hit.
Canada on Tuesday also imposed 25% tariffs on goods imported from the U.S., including wine, spirits, and beer.
Whiting added the company would watch out for what happens in Mexico, which according to its annual report, made up 7% of its 2024 sales.

Canadians have been increasingly looking to support locals by adapting different ways such as boycotting alcohol brands from the U.S. to altering kitchen pantry with local products.
Shares of Brown-Forman were marginally down in extended trading.
The liquor maker reaffirmed its annual forecasts, which accounted for the impact of tariffs.
While Whiting warned of “continued uncertainty and headwinds in the external environment,” he said that he was confident of the company’s trajectory.
Brown-Forman has been reeling from a slowdown in demand so far this year, led by the U.S., Canada and Europe, which offset benefits from stronger sales in emerging markets such as Mexico and Poland.

The company has undertaken cost-cutting measures, including workforce reduction. Analysts have said this is a response to a more challenging environment both for the company and the broader spirits industry.
Net sales fell 3% from a year ago to $1.04 billion, compared with analysts’ estimate of $1.07 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/brown-forman-misses-quarterly-sales-estimates-muted-spirits-demand-2025-03-05/

U.S. President Donald Trump will exempt automakers from his punishing 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico for one month as long as they comply with existing free trade rules, the White House said on Wednesday, a development that halted at least for now Wall Street’s steepest skid in nearly three months.
Trump is also open to hearing about other products that should be exempted from the tariffs, which took effect Tuesday, the White House said.

But Trump made clear he was not calling off his trade war with Canada and Mexico as he pressures both countries to deter fentanyl smuggling. After a phone call with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Trump said he was not convinced the situation had improved.
“He said that it’s gotten better, but I said, ‘That’s not good enough,'” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “The call ended in a ‘somewhat’ friendly manner!”
Public data shows only 0.2% of all fentanyl seized in the U.S. comes from across the Canadian border, while the vast majority originates from the southern border.

Canada is willing to reduce its retaliation to U.S. tariffs if the Trump administration drops some of the tariffs it has imposed, a Canadian government source said.
Negotiations between Ottawa and Washington were continuing, and no deal had yet been reached, the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, cautioned.
The one-month reprieve sparked a rebound in auto stocks, but trade tensions have created uncertainty for U.S. corporations and sapped consumer confidence, leading to a selloff in stocks in recent days.
General Motors (GM.N), shares were up 7.2% and Ford (F.N), gained 5.8% on Wednesday, but both shares are still down on the year.
Trump’s tariffs pose extreme difficulties for automakers, which produce vehicles in all three countries and often ship parts across North American borders multiple times as they get built into systems and finished vehicles.

A one-month exemption for cars and trucks that comply with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s complex content rules, as Trump has outlined, would be a boon for Ford, GM and Stellantis (STLAM.MI)

Trump also might eliminate the 10% tariff on Canadian energy imports, such as crude oil and gasoline, that comply with the USMCA rules of origin, a source familiar with the discussions said.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told Bloomberg it was “to be determined” whether specific agricultural products such as potash and fertilizer might be carved out, saying “everything is on the table.”
Trump’s tariffs have damaged relations between the three trading partners. Canada has hit back with tariffs of its own on selected U.S. imports, while Mexico has vowed to retaliate as well.
Mexican state-run oil company Pemex is in talks with potential buyers in Europe and Asia, including China, as it seeks alternative markets for its crude after Trump’s tariffs, a senior Mexican government official said. Nearly 60% of Pemex’s exported barrels went to the U.S. last year.

BOON FOR DETROIT

At the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards, JSW Group Chairman Sajjan Jindal questioned Musk’s chances, stating that Indian EV leaders Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra are too deeply entrenched for Tesla to displace.
Tesla’s long-awaited entry into India is finally taking shape, with the company securing a showroom in Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) and hiring for key roles. The five-year lease, beginning in February 2025, will cost Tesla approximately $446,000 in the first year, increasing by 5 per cent annually. Hiring efforts are also underway for store managers, service staff, and customer engagement roles. However, not everyone is convinced of Tesla’s ability to thrive in India.

Jindal: ‘Musk Can’t Do What Tata and Mahindra Can’

Jindal expressed his scepticism, highlighting Musk’s lack of local presence and the strength of Indian automakers. “Elon Musk is not here. He is in the US,” he remarked. “We Indians are here. He cannot produce what Mahindra can do, what Tata can do—it’s not possible. He can do (it) under Trump’s shadow, in the US. He’s super smart, no question about it. He’s a maverick, doing spacecraft and all that. He’s done amazing work, so I don’t want to take anything from him. But to be successful in India is not an easy job.”

Jindal, whose company has a joint venture with Chinese automaker SAIC under the MG Motor brand, is also working on launching a fully owned EV business. “I’m putting my heart and soul into the auto business, and I’m 100 per cent sure it will be super successful; there’s nothing that can stop me. This country needs a huge amount of autos, huge amounts of good quality stuff,” he added.

India’s EV Tariffs: Tesla’s Biggest Challenge

A major hurdle for Tesla’s entry into India is the country’s steep import duties. Currently, fully assembled imported EVs attract tariffs exceeding 100 per cent. Musk has repeatedly criticised these duties, arguing that they make Tesla’s vehicles prohibitively expensive for Indian buyers.
The US government has been pushing India to lower car import duties as part of a trade deal, but Indian authorities remain cautious. New Delhi is promoting its domestic EV manufacturing through the Scheme to Promote Manufacturing of Electric Passenger Cars (SMEC), which allows foreign companies to import EVs at a reduced 15 per cent tariff—provided they commit at least $500 million to local production.

This policy is designed to attract foreign investment, but Indian automakers argue that it places domestic players at a disadvantage. The government is considering an on-tap facility that would allow companies like Tesla to test the market before committing to full-scale production.

Tata Motors and Mahindra Brace for Tesla’s Entry

India’s leading EV manufacturers are not sitting idle. Tata Motors, which dominates the market with a 62 per cent share, recently celebrated 2 lakh EV sales by offering incentives such as exchange bonuses, 100 per cent financing, and free charging perks.
Meanwhile, Mahindra & Mahindra’s Chairman Anand Mahindra has expressed confidence in his company’s ability to compete. Drawing a parallel to the 1991 economic liberalisation that brought global carmakers to India, he stated,“We have not just survived, but we continue working like maniacs to remain relevant even a century from now. With your support, we will make it happen.”
Mahindra’s latest electric models, the XEV 9e and BE 6e, have received a positive market response, further solidifying its position in the EV race.
Tesla is expected to enter the Indian market as early as April 2024, initially importing cars from its German plant. However, its success is far from guaranteed. With high import duties, strong domestic competition, and an evolving regulatory landscape, Tesla will need to navigate multiple challenges to establish itself in India.

Source : https://www.timesnownews.com/business-economy/companies/tesla-doesnt-stand-a-chance-jindal-doubts-musks-success-as-ev-giants-tata-mahindra-hold-firm-in-india-article-118748773

Ranya Rao had travelled to Dubai four times in 15 days, prompting authorities to conduct a targeted operation upon her return.

Ranya Rao, an actor and the daughter of a senior IPS officer, was arrested by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence at Bengaluru International Airport after she was found in possession of 14.8 kg of gold. The DRI busted the major smuggling racket, termed to be the biggest seizure of gold at the Bengaluru airport, while Rao was just one step away from clearing the airport security.

Ranya Rao was presented before an economic offences court, which remanded her to 14 days in judicial custody.

Acting on specific intelligence, DRI officers intercepted Rao, who had arrived from Dubai to Bengaluru via Emirates flight on March 3, 2025. Upon examination, gold bars weighing 14.8 kg were found ingeniously concealed on the person. The contraband, valued at Rs. 12.56 crore, was seized under the provisions of the Customs Act, 1962.

Following the interception, DRI officers conducted a search at her residential premises located at Lavelle Road, Bengaluru, where she resides with her husband, sources reported.

The search resulted in the seizure of gold jewelry worth Rs. 2.06 crore and Indian currency amounting to Rs. 2.67 crore.

The total seizure in the case stands at Rs. 17.29 crore, marking a significant blow to organised gold smuggling networks.

Travelled Multiple Times To Dubai

According to sources, Ranya Rao had travelled to Dubai four times in 15 days, prompting authorities to conduct a targeted operation upon her return. In addition to this, she was seen wearing the same clothes every time she travelled to Dubai.

The actress may have attempted to use her connections to bypass customs checks, preliminary investigations suggested.

China has warned the US it is ready to fight “any type” of war after hitting back against President Donald Trump’s mounting trade tariffs.

The world’s top two economies have edged closer to a trade war after Trump slapped more tariffs on all Chinese goods. China quickly retaliated imposing 10-15% tariffs on US farm products.

“If war is what the US wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end,” China’s embassy said on X, reposting a line from a government statement on Tuesday.

It is some of the strongest rhetoric so far from China since Trump became president and comes as leaders gathered in Beijing for the annual National People’s Congress.

On Wednesday, China’s Premier Li Qiang announced that China would again boost its defence spending by 7.2% this year and warned that “changes unseen in a century were unfolding across the world at a faster pace.” This increase was expected and matches the figure announced last year.

Leaders in Beijing are trying to send a message to people in China that they are confident the country’s economy can grow, even with the threat of a trade war.

China has been keen to portray an image of being a stable, peaceful country in contrast to the US, which Beijing accuses of being embroiled in wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.

China may also hope to capitalise on Trump’s actions relating to US allies such as Canada and Mexico, which have also been hit by tariffs, and will not want to ramp up the rhetoric too far to scare off potential new global partners.

The Premier’s speech in Beijing on Wednesday emphasised that China would continue to open up and hoped to attract more foreign investment.

China has, in the past emphasised that it is ready to go to war. Last October, President Xi called for troops to strengthen their preparedness for war as they held military drills around the self-governing island of Taiwan. But there is a difference between military preparedness and a readiness to go to war.

The Chinese embassy in Washington’s post quoted a foreign ministry statement in English from the previous day, which also accused the US of blaming China for the influx of the drug fentanyl

“The fentanyl issue is a flimsy excuse to raise US tariffs on Chinese imports,” the foreign ministry spokesperson said.

“Intimidation does not scare us. Bullying does not work on us. Pressuring, coercion or threats are not the right way of dealing with China,” he added.

The US-China relationship is always one of the most contentious in the world. This post on X has been widely shared and could be used by the China hawks in Trump’s cabinet as evidence that Beijing is Washington’s biggest foreign policy and economic threat.

Officials in Beijing had been hopeful that US–China relations under Trump could get off to a more cordial start after he invited Xi to his inauguration. Trump also said the two leaders had “a great phone call” just a few days before he entered the White House.

There were reports that the two leaders were due to have another call last month. That did not happen.

Xi had already been battling persistently low consumption, a property crisis and unemployment.

China has pledged to pump billions of dollars into its ailing economy and its leaders unveiled the plan as thousands of delegates attend the National People’s Congress, a rubber-stamp parliament, which passes decisions already made behind closed doors.

China has the world’s second-largest military budget at $245bn but it is far smaller than that of the US. Beijing spends 1.6% of GDP on its military, far less than the US or Russia, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gmd3g2nzqo

Two years ago, on his bank adviser’s suggestion, Rajesh Kumar pulled out his savings – fixed deposits included – and shifted to mutual funds, stocks and bonds.

With India’s stock market booming, Mr Kumar, a Bihar-based engineer, joined millions investing in publicly traded companies. Six years ago, only one in 14 Indian households channelled their savings into the stock market – now, it’s one in five.

But the tide has turned.

For six months, India’s markets have slid as foreign investors pulled out, valuations remained high, earnings weakened and global capital shifted to China – wiping out $900bn in investor value since their September peak. While the decline began before US President Donald Trump’s tariff announcements, they have now become a bigger drag as more details emerge.

India’s benchmark Nifty 50 share index, which tracks the country’s top 50 publicly traded companies, is on its longest losing streak in 29 years, declining for five straight months. This is a significant slump in one of the world’s fastest-growing markets. Stock brokers are reporting that their activity has dropped by a third.

“For more than six months now, my investments have been in the red. This is the worst experience in the last decade that I have been invested in stock market,” Mr Kumar says.

Mr Kumar, 55, now keeps little money in the bank, having shifted most of his savings to the stock market. With his son’s 1.8 million-rupee ($20,650; £16,150) private medical college fee due in July, he worries about selling investments at a loss to cover it. “Once the market recovers, I’m thinking of moving some money back to the bank,” he says.

His anxieties reflect those of millions of middle-class Indians who have poured into the stock market from cities big and small – part of a financial revolution.

The go-to investment route is Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs), where funds collect fixed monthly contributions. The number of Indians investing through SIPs has soared past 100 million, nearly trebling from 34 million five years ago. Many first-time investors, lured by the promise of high returns, enter with limited risk awareness – often influenced by a wave of social media “finfluencers” on platforms like Instagram and YouTube, a mixed bag of experts and amateurs alike.

Meet Tarun Sircar, a retired marketing manager, and you get a glimpse of India’s new investor.

When his public provident fund – a government-backed tax-free investment – matured last year, he sought a way to secure his retirement. Burnt by past stock market losses, he turned to mutual funds – this time with an adviser’s help and a buoyant market.

“I’ve put 80% of my savings into mutual funds, keeping just 20% in the bank. Now my adviser warns me – Don’t check your investments for six months, unless you want a heart attack!”

For now, Mr Sircar isn’t entirely sure if moving his retirement fund into the stock market was the right decision. “I’m both ignorant and confident,” he says with wry candour. “Ignorant about what’s happening and why the market is reacting this way, yet confident because Instagram ‘experts’ make investing sound like a fast track to millions. At the same time, I know I might be caught in a web of deception and hype.”

Mr Sircar says he was drawn to the markets by TV shows hyping stocks and excited chatter in WhatsApp groups. “The TV anchors talk up the market and people in my WhatsApp group boast about their stock market gains,” he says.

In his sprawling apartment complex, even teenagers discuss investments – in fact, during a badminton game, a teenager gave him a hot tip on a telecom stock. “When you hear all this around you, you start thinking – why not give it a shot? So I did, and then the markets crashed.”

Mr Sircar lives in hope. “My fingers are crossed. I am sure the markets will recover, and my fund will be back in green.”

There are others who have taken more risks and already lost money. Lured by get-rich-quick videos, Ramesh (name changed), an accounting clerk from a small industrial town in western India, borrowed money to invest in stocks during the pandemic.

Hooked to YouTube influencers, he dived into risky penny stocks and trading in derivatives. This month, after losing over $1,800 – more than his annual salary – he shut his brokerage account and swore off the market.

“I borrowed this money, and now creditors are after me,” he says.

Ramesh is one of 11 million Indians who lost a combined $20bn in futures and options trades before regulators stepped in.

“This crash is unlike the one during the Covid pandemic,” says financial adviser Samir Doshi. “Back then, we had a clear path to recovery with vaccines on the horizon. But with the Trump factor in play, uncertainty looms – we simply don’t know what’s next.”

Fuelled by digital platforms, low-cost brokerages and government-driven financial inclusion, investing has become more accessible – smartphones and user-friendly apps have simplified market participation, drawing a broader, younger audience seeking alternatives to traditional assets.

On the flip side, many new Indian investors need a reality check. “The stock market isn’t a gambling den – you must manage expectations,” says Monika Halan, author and financial educator. “Invest in equity only what you won’t need for at least seven years. If you’re taking on risk, understand the downside: How much could I lose? Can I afford that loss?”

This market crash couldn’t have hit India’s middle class at a worse time. Economic growth is slowing, wages remain stagnant, private investment has been sluggish for years and job creation isn’t keeping pace. Amid these challenges, many new investors, lured by rising markets, are now grappling with unexpected losses.

“In normal times, savers can take short-term setbacks, because they have steady incomes, which keep adding to their savings,” noted Aunindyo Chakravarty, a financial analyst.

“Now, we are in the midst of a massive economic crisis for the middle-class. On the one side, white-collar job opportunities are reducing, and raises are low. On the other, the real inflation faced by middle-class households – as opposed to the average retail inflation that the government compiles – is at its highest in recent memory. A stock market correction at such a time is disastrous for middle-class household finances.”

Financial advisers like Jaideep Marathe believe that some people will start taking money out of the market and move them to safer bank deposits if the volatility continues for another six to eight months. “We are spending a lot of time telling clients not to liquidate their portfolios and to treat this as a cyclical event.”

But clearly, all hope is not lost – most believe that the market is correcting itself from previous highs.

Foreign investor selling has eased since February, suggesting the market downturn may be nearing its end, says veteran market expert Ajay Bagga. Following the correction, valuations for many stock market indices have dipped below their 10-year average, providing some respite.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz7vlezv05no

Canada’s Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly has told the BBC she takes US President Donald Trump’s remarks on making Canada the 51st state of his country “very seriously”.

“This is not a joke anymore,” Joly told Newsnight. “There’s a reason why Canadians, when they go out on a hockey game, are booing the American national anthem… We’re insulted. We’re mad. We’re angry.”

Her comments come after Trump imposed 25% tariffs on products entering the US from Canada on Tuesday. Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called that a “very dumb thing to do” and announced retaliatory tariffs.

However, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Trump would “probably” announce a deal to reduce tariffs on Wednesday.

In response, Joly told the BBC that “at the end of the day, the only one that really takes a decision is President Trump”.

She said no Trump administration secretaries had contacted their Canadian counterparts on Monday or Tuesday about tariffs.

Trump and Trudeau, however, are expected to speak over the phone on Wednesday morning, according to sources who spoke to CNN and the Toronto Star.

Trump announced 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico on 4 February, but delayed implementation until 4 March. Canadian energy imports face a 10% tariff.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford implemented a 25% surcharge on electricity exports to three US states, and if tariffs escalated, said he would consider cutting Michigan, New York and Minnesota off from Canadian power.

Trump also imposed a 10% tariff on goods worth more than $800 (£645) from China in February, which doubled in March. China responded with its own tariffs.

The White House said when it introduced the tariffs that it was “taking bold action to hold [the three countries] accountable to their promises of halting illegal immigration and stopping poisonous fentanyl and other drugs from flowing into our country”.

Fentanyl is linked to tens of thousands of overdose deaths in the US each year.

Trudeau said his country was responsible for less than 1% of fentanyl entering the US.

Canada had introduced new border security measures in December, in response to Trump’s tariff threats before he took office.

“We didn’t want this trade war. We did everything that was required under the executive order to make sure our border was safe and secure,” Joly told the BBC, but said “this is a bogus excuse on the part of the Trump administration against us”.

Joly said Canada was the “canary in the coal mine”, with the Europeans next, and the UK after that. Trump has threatened 25% tariffs on the European Union as well.

She said Canada and the UK should work together: “That’s also why I went to London to make sure that if there are tariffs imposed, we should work on counter-tariffs well.”

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg198xxy1xo

Scientists have discovered how aspirin may stop some cancers from spreading, describing it as a “Eureka moment”.

The new research builds on existing evidence suggesting aspirin supports a boost in the immune system to help catch deadly cancer cells.

Clinical trials in cancer patients, examining how aspirin could stop the disease coming back, are ongoing – but experts warn against routinely taking aspirin without speaking to a doctor.

The new research suggests a path for aspirin to become a cancer treatment, alongside the development of more effective drugs to prevent cancer spreading.

Researchers screened 810 genes in mice and found 15 that impact the spread of cancer.

Mice lacking a gene which produces a certain protein, called ARHGEF1, were less likely to have cancer spread to the lungs and liver, the study found.

Scientists found that ARHGEF1 suppresses a type of immune cell called a T cell, which is important for recognising and killing metastatic (spreading to other parts of the body) cancer cells.

They unexpectedly discovered the ARHGEF1 is switched on when T cells are exposed to a particular clotting factor, a protein that prevents excessive bleeding.

The clotting factor, called thromboxane A2 (TXA2), is made by platelets in the blood – and aspirin is already known to cut its production.

By decreasing TXA2 production, aspirin can prevent certain cancers from spreading, researchers found.

In mice given aspirin, the frequency of metastases – the spread of cancer – was reduced compared with ones not on the drug, the research, published in the Nature journal and funded by the Medical Research Council and Wellcome Trust, found.

Dr Jie Yang, from the team which led the study at the University of Cambridge, described the discovery about TXA2 as a “Eureka moment”.

“It was an entirely unexpected finding which sent us down quite a different path of inquiry than we had anticipated,” Dr Yang said.

“Aspirin, or other drugs that could target this pathway, have the potential to be less expensive than antibody-based therapies, and therefore more accessible globally.

Researchers are now working with Professor Ruth Langley at University College London, who is leading a study into whether aspirin can stop or delay early stage cancers from returning.

Prof Langley said: “This is an important discovery. It will enable us to interpret the results of ongoing clinical trials and work out who is most likely to benefit from aspirin after a cancer diagnosis.”

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/eureka-moment-as-scientists-discover-how-aspirin-could-stop-some-cancers-spreading-13322196

Scientists believe they have discovered how the cheap painkiller aspirin can stop cancers spreading.

In animal experiments they showed the drug enhanced the ability of the immune system to fight back.

The team at the University of Cambridge said it was an exciting and surprise discovery that could eventually lead to cancer patients being prescribed the drug – but not yet and people are advised against just taking the pills themselves.

Regular aspirin comes with risks and trials are still trying to figure out which patients are most likely to benefit.

Tantalising data from more than a decade ago showed people who were already taking a daily aspirin were more likely to survive if they were diagnosed with cancer.

But how?

It appears to centre on a moment of vulnerability for a cancer – when a lone cell breaks off from the original tumour and tries, like a seed on the wind, to spread elsewhere in the body.

This process is called metastasis and is the cause of the majority of deaths from cancer.

Part of our immune defences – a white blood cell called a T-cell – can swoop in and destroy the spreading cancer as it tries to take root.

But the study showed that another part of our blood – the platelets that normally stop bleeding – were suppressing the T-cells and making it harder for them to take out the cancer.

Aspirin disrupts the platelets and removes their influence over the T-cells so they can hunt out the cancer.

Prof Rahul Roychoudhuri, from the University of Cambridge, told me: “What we’ve discovered is that aspirin might work, surprisingly, by unleashing the power of the immune system to recognize and kill metastasizing cancer cells.”

He thinks the drug would work best in cancers that have been caught early and could be used after treatment such as surgery to help the immune system find any cancer that might already have spread.