Business Sentiment
Sentiment Legend:
Negative < 44
Mixed 46-54
Positive > 56
Open trade with Europe is more important to the UK than a deal with Donald Trump, most Britons believe
A clear majority of UK voters want the government to concentrate on rebuilding trade ties with the EU over forging a new economic deal with the US, according to research published this weekend.
The study, based on analysis of polling that used new methods of questioning participants, suggests people of voting age now see their economic interests, and the UK's, as far more closely linked to open trade relations with our EU neighbours than any deals that Keir Starmer might or might not strike with the US.
The analysis shows how far the UK public has turned back in favour of the EU since the Brexit referendum, and it indicates the trend could be strengthened as a result of the economic turmoil unleashed by US president Donald Trump's tariff announcements and resulting global financial panic over recent days.
Commissioned by the internationalist thinktank Best for Britain, the research found that 53% of voters now believe a closer relationship with the EU will have a positive effect on the UK economy, against just 13% who said the effect would be negative. In turn, 68% believed better relations with the EU would boost UK/EU trade in a clearly positive way.
Asked what they believed Keir Starmer's priorities should be for a UK-EU summit in May, at which the prime minister and EU leaders will discuss moves to increase post-Brexit cooperation, the most popular answer was “trade between the UK and the EU”, which came out narrowly ahead of “illegal immigration across the channel” and, in third place, “improving the UK's and EU's defence and security”. Even among people who said they would consider voting for Reform UK at the next election, half (48%) said closer EU ties would have a positive impact on trade, with the same number saying it would make travel for Britons easier across Europe. This compares with one in 10 (11%) potential Reform voters who said it would have a negative impact on either.
When voters were given 20 options and asked to choose four that the government should focus on improving, “the UK's ability to sign new trade deals with the USA” came 17th. The cost of living came top, followed by immigration and asylum, the UK economy and economic growth, energy costs, UK defence, and trade between the UK and was EU in sixth place.
The study also found that a majority (62%) understand that the government is seeking a closer relationship with the EU. Far more people also thought the government was not going far enough to rebuild ties (35%) than those who thought the current approach was correct (15%). Among Labour's winning coalition at the last election, a clear majority believed the government was not going far enough (54%).
A sample of 4,703 people responded to YouGov between 31 March and 2 April, just as Trump was beginning to unveil his tariff plans, which have panicked the global final financial markets and opened the prospect of a bitter and prolonged trade war between the world's two biggest economies, the US and China.
Last week, Trump was forced by the meltdown on the financial markets to announce a 90-day pause in the introduction of his higher “reciprocal” tariffs imposed on dozens of countries – with the notable exception of China. Keir Starmer's public line is that he still hopes to gain an exemption from the 10% base tariffs imposed on the UK by signing a wider UK/US economic deal in the coming weeks.
Recent independent economic analysis by Frontier Economics found that even in the face of Trump's trade war, a commonsense deal with the EU that included deeper alignment on goods and services would secure economic growth of up to 1.5% to UK GDP, offsetting the impact of US tariffs completely for the UK and by a third for the EU.
Naomi Smith, chief executive of Best for Britain, said: “Voters expect the prime minister to come away with more than just a defence pact when he hosts EU leaders in May and want him to prioritise removing trade barriers in the interests of bringing costs down and getting growth. They want trade before defence, trade before Channel crossings, and definitely trade with the EU before trade with Donald Trump.”
Much of the analysis was based on the “Max-Diff” method, which is regarded as suitable when a range of options need to be put to respondents in order to gain a full and meaningful set of responses. Under this methodology, priorities are scored by asking people to choose their top three preferred options and their bottom three to provide a representative result.
Peter Norris, chair of Virgin Group said: “As the last week has so painfully demonstrated, Trump is bad for business, consumers and savers. He has wreaked havoc in international markets and left us all on the precipice of a global recession that would mean real pain for people in the UK.
“It is of the utmost urgency that our UK government work with our reliable partners in the EU to remove the artificial trade barriers between us so that both British and European businesses are in the best position to succeed in these extremely challenging conditions and so shield consumers from the worst effects.”
Former British ambassador to the US Kim (now Lord) Darroch said: “Under the current administration at least, the US has shown little interest in doing favours for anyone, friend or foe.
“The global order which has been in place for almost 80 years is changing by the hour and it makes sense for the UK to find stability through deeper cooperation with our allies in Europe while maintaining good relations with Washington.”
Senior Kyiv economist describes latest postion of Trump administration in talks as ‘colonial-type' bullying
The US has demanded control of a crucial pipeline in Ukraine used to send Russian gas to Europe, according to reports, in a move described as a colonial shakedown.
US and Ukrainian officials met on Friday to discuss White House proposals for a minerals deal. Donald Trump wants Kyiv to hand over its natural resources as “payback” in return for weapons delivered by the previous Biden administration.
Talks have become increasingly acrimonious, Reuters said. The latest US draft is more “maximalist” than the original version from February, which proposed giving Washington $500bn worth of rare metals, as well as oil and gas.
Citing a source close to the talks, the news agency said the most recent document includes a demand that the US government's International Development Finance Corporation take control of the natural gas pipeline.
It runs from the town of Sudzha in western Russia to the Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod, about 750 miles (1,200km) away, on the border with the EU and Slovakia. Built in Soviet times, the pipeline is a key piece of national infrastructure and a major energy route.
On 1 January, Ukraine cut off the supply of gas when its five-year contract with the Russian state energy company Gazprom expired. Both countries had previously earned hundreds of millions of euros in transit fees, including during the first three years of full-scale war.
Volodymyr Landa, a senior economist with the Centre for Economic Strategy, a Kyiv thinktank, said the Americans were out for “all they can get”. Their bullying “colonial-type” demands had little chance of being accepted by Kyiv, he predicted.
Last autumn, Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposed giving the US access to Ukraine's underdeveloped mineral sector. He envisaged a deal that would see the incoming Trump administration supply Ukraine with weapons, in return for future profits from joint investments.
Instead, Trump has refused to give security commitments or military support but wants the minerals anyway. Last week he complained Zelenskyy was trying to “back out of an agreement” and said Ukraine's president would have “big problems” if he failed to sign.
Speaking to journalists on Thursday, Zelenskyy said he was ready to do a deal to modernise his country but that Ukraine could only agree if there was “parity” between the two sides, with revenues split “50-50”.
“I am just defending what belongs to Ukraine. It should be beneficial for both the United States and Ukraine. This is the right thing to do,” Zelenskyy said. The US Treasury confirmed “technical” talks were ongoing.
Meanwhile, the US special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said his remarks over a possible partition of Ukraine had been misinterpreted. In an interview with the Times, Kellogg said the country could be divided “almost like the Berlin after world war two” as part of a peace deal.
Writing on X, Kellogg said he was referring to “a post-cease fire resiliency force in support of Ukraine's sovereignty”. Under this plan, Russian troops would remain in territory already seized by Moscow, with British and French forces stationed in Kyiv and in other parts of the country.
On Friday, Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff held talks with Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg. Witkoff's reported solution to the conflict was to give Russia the four Ukrainian provinces it is demanding – including territory that Ukraine controls, and which is home to 1 million people.
Meanwhile, at a meeting of the Ukraine defence contact group on Friday, Kyiv's allies announced a record €21bn (£18.2bn) in additional military help. They accused Putin of dragging his feet over a 30-day ceasefire deal which Ukraine has accepted.
Early on Saturday, Russia carried out further air attacks against Ukrainian civilian targets. Three warehouses were destroyed in Kyiv, with two people injured. The Kremlin has fired 70 missiles and 2,200 drones at Ukraine since the 11 March US ceasefire proposal, Ukrainian officials said.
Zelenskyy paid tribute on Saturday to a 26-year-old pilot, captain Pavlo Ivanov, who was killed during an F-16 combat mission. Ukraine's small air force “heroically” defends the country from Russian missiles and drones, and supported ground operations, he said.
Follow:
The Department of Homeland Security has administered lie detector tests to about 50 staffers in recent weeks, including FEMA's acting administrator and roughly a dozen officials at the disaster relief agency, as part of an intensifying effort to root out what the department alleges are leaks of national security information.
Acting FEMA Administrator Cameron Hamilton, an appointee of President Donald Trump, was given a polygraph just days after taking part in a meeting with top DHS officials for a policy discussion on the future of FEMA and how to potentially dismantle the agency in the coming months. That closed-door meeting was reported by CNN and other media outlets.
At least one FEMA official has been placed on administrative leave and was escorted out of the agency's office this week after being administered a polygraph test, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
“We are agnostic about your standing, tenure, political appointment, or status as a career civil servant — we will track down leakers and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in an email to CNN.
The investigations at DHS have raised concerns that the lie detector tests may be used on federal workers accused of leaking non-classified information to the media, particularly at FEMA where sources say classified information is handled in very limited circumstances. Whistleblower support organizations tell CNN it would be unusual, alarming and potentially illegal for the tests to be used in such cases.
One FEMA official, who declined to be identified out of fear of retribution, said: “They're going after rank-and-file employees and instilling this culture of fear.”
The Trump administration, including at DHS and the Department of Defense, has launched various investigations involving polygraphs into unauthorized disclosures of classified and national security information.
Some FEMA officials “failed” the test, McLaughlin said, declining to provide details on what information was allegedly leaked. She insisted DHS is following the law.
“We will take appropriate action and, in some cases, refer some for criminal prosecution based on additional evidence found,” McLaughlin said in an email to CNN.
McLaughlin said Hamilton's polygraph cleared him. Hamilton remains in his job. CNN has reached out to him for comment. Politico first reported he was administered the test.
The FEMA official told CNN that the idea DHS is only testing workers accused of leaking classified information is “extremely farcical” based on knowing some of the people who were given the tests and the positions they hold.
“They are just covering up the unpopular stuff they're doing,” the official said. “FEMA is a consumer of classified information, not a producer of classified information, and the FEMA programs that are truly classified are all an extremely small group of people.”
A second FEMA official called the tests “a witch hunt.”
“I find it very, very hard to believe that within the normal course of business, any of these employees had their hands on classified material,” the official said. “They are trying to incite fear. They are trying to get rid of people.”
Tom Devine, legal director for the Government Accountability Project, a non-partisan, nonprofit whistleblower support organization, said he's surprised by the number of polygraphs administered in just the first three months of the Trump administration.
“Government agencies for decades, have used lie detectors to catch leakers or anyone else they perceived as wrongdoers. The difference here is the volume,” Devine said. “What used to be a sensitive, carefully considered high-risk decision, is now a knee-jerk reaction, and that's what's scary.”
As CNN previously reported, experts have questioned the validity of polygraphs, as they are subject to coercion and can be unreliable, and they are often inadmissible in court.
The tests come against the backdrop of growing tension between FEMA's workforce and the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the disaster relief agency. Trump and his allies have lambasted FEMA for months, claiming the agency is partisan, ineffective and unnecessary. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has vowed to “eliminate FEMA.”
Noem, DHS and the Elon Musk-led DOGE effort are seeking potentially major cuts at FEMA. Last week, FEMA staff were offered voluntary separations and early retirement as part of the latest iteration of the Deferred Resignation Program.
Multiple FEMA officials tell CNN they expect the offer will spark a mass exodus from the disaster relief organization amid the mounting turmoil and cratering morale, which some fear will impact the agency's ability to respond to storms during hurricane season.
“Far more employees are considering or taking the [voluntary resignation offers],” the first FEMA official said. “You have the potential for a ton of institutional knowledge to walk out the door, and then you have a double whammy if you don't have enough manpower to meet the mission, even if it's an average hurricane season.”
CNN previously reported that the turmoil at FEMA is already affecting the agency's hurricane preparations. The FEMA official warns that response teams and resources could be stretched thin if the US faces a storm season like last year, when Hurricanes Helene and Milton pounded the Southeast in succession.
© 2025 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved. CNN Sans ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network.
Government introduces measure to prevent spread of foot-and-mouth disease after rise in cases across Europe
Tourists from Great Britain who travel to the continent to satisfy their epicurean desires for cured meats and fragrant cheeses will be frustrated in their attempts to bring home some of their favourite foods after a ban on meat and dairy imports from EU countries came into force this weekend.
From Saturday, holidaymakers will no longer be able to bring meat from cattle, sheep, goats or pigs, or dairy products, from EU countries into Great Britain for personal use, in a move aimed at preventing the spread of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) after a rise in cases across Europe.
Even those attempting to bring sandwiches with offending items such as cheese and ham will be stopped by customs and excise. Cured meats, raw meats and milk are off limits regardless of whether they are packed, packaged or have been bought at duty-free.
FMD does not directly affect humans, but it can be devastating to cattle, and while there are no cases in the UK at present, the government wants to keep it that way.
FMD is a highly contagious viral disease that affects cattle, sheep, pigs, and other cloven-hoofed animals such as wild boars and deer.
In a statement, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said the outbreak in Europe “presents a significant risk to farm businesses and livestock”. The disease can cause “significant economic losses due to production shortfalls in the affected animals, as well as loss of access to foreign markets for animals, meat and dairy”, it added.
Earlier this year, the government placed bans on imports of cattle, sheep, other ruminants, pig meat and dairy products from Germany, Hungary, Slovakia and Austria in response to outbreaks of FMD in those countries.
The new restrictions apply only to travellers arriving in Great Britain and will not be imposed on personal imports arriving in Northern Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey or the Isle of Man.
The minister for food security and rural affairs, Daniel Zeichner, said: “This government will do whatever it takes to protect British farmers from foot-and-mouth. That is why we are further strengthening protections by introducing restrictions on personal meat and dairy imports to prevent the spread of the disease and protect Britain's food security.”
The UK deputy chief veterinary officer for international and trade affairs, Jorge Martin-Almagro, said: “Robust contingency plans are already in place to manage the risk of this disease to protect farmers and Britain's food security. This biosecurity measure, combined with all others we have implemented, are critical to limit the risk of FMD incursion.”
Martin-Almagro urged livestock keepers to keep an eye out for signs of disease, maintain biosecurity, and immediately report any suspicion of disease to the Animal and Plant Health Agency.
There are exemptions from the new rules, including a limited amount of infant milk, medical foods, and certain composite products such as chocolate, confectionery, bread, cakes, biscuits and pasta.
The government said: “Those found with these items will need to either surrender them at the border or will have them seized and destroyed. In serious cases, those found with these items run the risk of incurring fines of up to £5,000 in England.”
Markets
Hot Stocks
Fear & Greed Index
Latest Market News
Hot Stocks
Follow:
Electronics imported to the United States will be exempt from President Donald Trump's reciprocal tariffs, according to a US Customs and Border Protection notice posted late Friday.
Smartphones, computer monitors and various electronic parts are among the exempted products. The exemption applies to products entering the United States or removed from warehouses as early as April 5, according to the notice.
The move comes after the Trump administration imposed a minimum tariff rate of 145% on Chinese goods imported to the United States. The tariffs would have a major impact on tech giants like Apple, which make iPhones and other products in China.
Roughly 90% of Apple's iPhone production and assembly is based in China, according to Wedbush Securities' estimates.
Analysts at Wedbush on Saturday called the tariff exclusion, “the best news possible for tech investors.”
“Big Tech firms like Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft and the broader tech industry can breathe a huge sigh of relief this weekend into Monday,” Wedbush said in a statement. “A big step forward for US tech to get these exemptions and the most bullish news we could have heard this weekend…now onto the next step in negotiations on the broader China tariff war which will take a number of months at least.”
Nvidia and Microsoft declined to comment to CNN. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Counterpoint Research, a firm that monitors global smartphone shipments, estimated Apple has up to six weeks of inventory in the United States. Once that supply runs out, prices would have been expected to go up.
The White House said on Saturday that Trump will continue to urge tech companies to move production to the United States.
“President Trump has made it clear America cannot rely on China to manufacture critical technologies such as semiconductors, chips, smartphones, and laptops. That's why the President has secured trillions of dollars in U.S. investments from the largest tech companies in the world, including Apple, (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company), and Nvidia. At the direction of the President, these companies are hustling to onshore their manufacturing in the United States as soon as possible,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
Trump had told reporters Friday on Air Force One that there could be possible exclusions to his sweeping tariffs.
“There could be a couple of exceptions for obvious reasons, but I would say 10% is a floor,” Trump said.
Economists have warned the cost of tariffs may ultimately be passed on to the consumer. That fear has sent many Americans rushing to buy big-ticket items, such as cars and electronics, as consumer sentiment has dropped to record lows.
Nintendo said on April 4 that it would postpone the US preorder date of its Switch 2 gaming console to “assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions.” Initially priced at $450, the Switch 2 could instead cost around $600 as a result of tariffs, according to experts.
The Trump administration says these tariffs would bring more manufacturing jobs to the United States and reverse a decades-long decline. But some products can't be easily made or found in the United States, thus increasing the costs to produce them in American factories.
Semiconductors and microchips are among the products heavily outsourced to factories in Asia due to lower costs. Those electronic parts are now exempt, according to the Friday notice. That could help Asian chipmakers, such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), South Korea's Samsung and SK Hynix.
“The president has stated that autos, steel, pharmaceuticals, chips and other specific materials will be included in specific tariffs to ensure tariffs are applied fairly and effectively,” a White House official said.
The official said Trump would soon order a study on the national security effects on semiconductor imports — known as a Section 232 study.
At a Republican National Congressional Committee event on Tuesday, Trump criticized the Biden administration's decision to award a $6.6 billion grant to TSMC for semiconductor production in Phoenix as part of the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act. Trump said he gave TSMC no money and told the company “if you don't build your plant here, you're going to pay a big tax — 25, maybe 50, maybe 75, maybe 100%.”
CNN's Kevin Liptak and Lisa Eadicicco contributed to this report.
This story has been updated with additional content.
Most stock quote data provided by BATS. US market indices are shown in real time, except for the S&P 500 which is refreshed every two minutes. All times are ET. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices Copyright S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and/or its affiliates. Fair value provided by IndexArb.com. Market holidays and trading hours provided by Copp Clark Limited.
© 2025 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved. CNN Sans ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network.
Follow:
Editor's note: A version of this story appeared in CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.
An intriguing object my husband and I saw during our honeymoon was the Robenhausen door at Switzerland's National Museum Zurich. More than 5,500 years old, the wooden board is one of the most ancient preserved doors in Europe.
Archaeologist Jakob Messikommer uncovered the prehistoric object from the marshes in Wetzikon in 1868, according to the museum.
The door likely belonged to a Neolithic home in a village on Lake Pfäffiker — and seeing it caused me to wonder who built it, and who passed through it, thousands of years ago.
Rare artifacts like this, as well as fossils, help us determine where we came from and reveal more of humanity's story.
When commercial fishing nets dredged up a fossilized jawbone off Taiwan's coast in 2010, scientists puzzled over where it might fit on the human family tree.
Ancient protein fragments within the jaw's teeth revealed the bone, known as Penghu 1, belonged to a Denisovan man who likely lived on a submerged land bridge that once connected what's now China and Taiwan.
Denisovan fossil finds are hard to come by, which means scientists have scant evidence suggesting what our extinct mystery relatives might have looked like. But revisiting fossils in Taiwan's National Museum of Natural Science may yield riveting clues.
Don't forget to look up Saturday for a glimpse of April's full moon, known as the pink moon, as it peaks at 8:22 p.m. ET.
Despite the nickname, which is a nod to springtime blooms, the moon will maintain its white-golden hue — but it may appear smaller.
That's because this full moon is a micromoon, meaning that Earth's satellite is at or near its greatest orbital distance from our planet — and April's is the smallest micromoon of the year.
And in space exploration news, tech billionaire Jared Isaacman, President Donald Trump's pick to lead NASA, said Wednesday he would “prioritize sending American astronauts to Mars,” among other potential shifts for the agency, during a Senate confirmation hearing.
The dire wolf that was the inspiration for the fearsome creatures in the “Game of Thrones” series once roamed North America. The real-life canine went extinct about 12,500 years ago — but scientists say they have resurrected the species through gene editing.
Biotech company Colossal Biosciences, which also has “de-extinction” plans to bring back the woolly mammoth, shared footage of its healthy dire wolves, both as adorable pups and as juveniles roaming a 2,000-acre site.
“Our team took DNA from a 13,000 year old tooth and a 72,000 year old skull and made healthy dire wolf puppies,” said Colossal CEO Ben Lamm in a news release.
While experts may argue over how much genetic material constitutes a dire wolf, Colossal scientists have noted some unique behaviors in the wolves as they grow.
While dinosaurs won't be making a comeback anytime soon, scientists have long debated whether the giants were already declining when an asteroid wiped them from the face of the Earth 66 million years ago.
New research adds to a growing body of evidence that, in fact, dinos were doing just fine before the deadly strike.
A team of researchers compared the fossil record of the four main dino groups that lived during the 18 million years before the mass extinction event with data modeling estimates and found a mismatch.
“If it weren't for that asteroid, they might still share this planet with mammals, lizards, and their surviving descendants: birds,” said Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza, a Royal Society Newton International Fellow at University College London.
Deep-sea mapping company Magellan has created a full-scale “digital twin” of the RMS Titanic, and the 3D underwater scan has shed new light on the ship's final moments before it tragically sank 113 years ago.
The project is featured in a new National Geographic documentary about the doomed ocean liner, which now rests on the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean.
The scan reveals previously hidden details, including evidence to support a claim that 35 boiler room engineers sacrificed themselves to keep the power on for the ship, enabling the sending of distress signals. And the project's findings exonerate an officer who was accused of abandoning his post at a crucial moment.
There is more to these stories than meets the eye:
— An enigmatic altar found in an ancient Mayan city contains bodies — and wasn't made by the Maya. The ornately decorated structure may hold the key to unraveling the geopolitics of the time.
— Construction on a soccer field in Vienna, Austria, unveiled a mass grave of soldiers from nearly 2,000 years ago, revealing rare but gruesome evidence of clashes between the Romans and Germanic tribes.
— A vast ocean glow reported for more than 400 years has stumped scientists, but they say they're getting closer to solving “milky sea” events.
Like what you've read? Oh, but there's more. Sign up here to receive in your inbox the next edition of Wonder Theory, brought to you by CNN Space and Science writers Ashley Strickland, Katie Hunt and Jackie Wattles. They find wonder in planets beyond our solar system and discoveries from the ancient world.
© 2025 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved. CNN Sans ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network.
Video captured one person robbing corpse on idling train before another person robbed and sexually assaulted it
A man sexually violated a corpse on a New York City subway train after stealing from the body, becoming the second of two people to rob that particular dead person, authorities said recently.
One of the more grotesque US crime stories of late unfolded on a southbound R train near the Whitehall Street station in Manhattan at about 12.20am on Wednesday, when “an unidentified individual had sexual contact with an unconscious and unresponsive adult male” in plain view of surveillance cameras, according to a police statement.
The police's statement did not elaborate and did not identify the attacker or the victim – though they released surveillance photos of a suspect carrying a black backpack while wearing a blue baseball cap, a black hooded jacket, a yellow hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans, and red and white sneakers.
Nonetheless, a poster distributed to transit workers alleged that the man wanted in the case had engaged in sexual intercourse with “a dead human body”, as the New York City news website Gothamist reported. The poster, which was reviewed by the Guardian as well, alleged that investigators had probable cause to arrest a 51-year-old man identified as Carlos Garcia – whose last known address is in the Bronx – on a count of sexual misconduct of a dead human body.
Gothamist, citing police, also reported that the man identified in the wanted poster as Garcia could be seen on surveillance footage taking items from the pockets of the dead person before violating the corpse and fleeing.
That attack marked the second time the dead person – who was described as a man – had been stolen from in less than an hour. At about 10.48pm on Tuesday, police said a woman approached the late man, removed unspecified property from him and then left.
Police released surveillance images of a suspect in that initial robbery, which showed a woman wearing a yellow hooded sweatshirt, black pants and a black baseball cap.
A police spokesperson would not comment on the allegations of the wanted poster first reported on by Gothamist and later seen by the Guardian.
Another official on Saturday morning said there had not been any arrests made in the case. Police said anyone with useful information can submit it to New York City's Crimestoppers website.
Wednesday morning's case of necrophilia on the subway not only provided a graphically documented instance of a sexual disorder psychiatrists assume to be among the rarest. It also reignited a discussion about the safety of the New York City subway system that in some quarters is ongoing.
Statistics generally show violence on the subway is relatively rare, though high-profile cases have the tendency to unnerve the public.
For instance, in December, a 57-year-old woman named Debrina Kawam died after being set on fire while sleeping on a train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station in Brooklyn. Days later, 45-year-old Joseph Lynskey was pushed in front of an oncoming train at Manhattan's 18th Street station but survived.
Follow:
Several universities in Florida have signed agreements to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement amid an ongoing push by state leaders to aid the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration.
The University of Florida said Friday it has signed the 287(g) agreement that allows local law enforcement to act as immigration officers.
“We can confirm that we have signed the 287(g) agreement,” a spokesperson for the university told CNN. Under the agreement, ICE delegates to local officers “the authority to perform specified immigration officer functions under the agency's direction and oversight,” according to the Department of Homeland Security.
The move comes as the Trump administration continues to target foreign nationals affiliated with prestigious American universities. The earliest high-profile cases focused on those accused of supporting terror organizations, as was the case with Mahmoud Khalil's arrest following pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University.
Related article
More than 500 student visas revoked as the government expands reasons for deportation
By CNN's count, more than 525 students, faculty and researchers across across 88 colleges and universities have had their visas revoked this year, as an increasing number of student deportation threats involve the revocation of visas based on relatively minor offenses like years-old misdemeanors.
Four University of Florida students have had their visas revoked, the university's director of public affairs told CNN Friday.
The prospect of increased immigration enforcement could cause additional friction on the University of Florida campus. On Wednesday, crowds gathered there to protest the deportation of a Colombian student, according to CNN affiliate WCJB. Demonstrators said international students are afraid after the deportation, WCJB reported.
The agreement in Florida allows local officers to question those they suspect of being in the country illegally and “to serve and execute warrants of arrest for immigration violations,” according to a statement from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in February about other law enforcement agencies in the state who signed similar agreements.
A spokesperson for the governor's office on Saturday referred questions to the Florida Board of Governors, the governing body of the state university system.
“Several police departments at universities within the State University System of Florida are partnering with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” spokesperson Cassandra Edwards said in an email. “Our university police departments are always encouraged to collaborate with other law enforcement entities to enforce state and federal law.”
The University of Central Florida and the University of South Florida have also signed agreements with ICE, according to CNN affiliate WFTV. CNN reached out to Florida International University and Florida Atlantic University about news reports their campus police have done the same.
Across Florida, 200 state, county and municipal law enforcement agencies have entered into 287(g) agreements with ICE, and more than 40 others have agreements pending, according to DHS.
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN's David J. Lopez and Kelly Murray contributed to this report.
© 2025 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved. CNN Sans ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network.
Follow:
In May 2024, after 32 years living in Southern California, Karina Nuvo hit a wall.
Coming out of a pandemic-induced lull in the singing gigs that made her happy and left her feeling fulfilled, the two-time Grammy-nominated artist found herself under an incredible amount of stress.
She'd taken on jobs as a real estate agent and property manager at a Pasadena apartment building where she'd had a string of rough moments, including encountering a tenant dead in his apartment.
Nuvo was also busy taking care of her octogenarian father.
“I couldn't focus on singing, I couldn't focus on real estate, I had to put my dad in an assisted living facility. My health just took a toll, it was killing me,” says Nuvo, 55.
By May 2024, with the political climate in the US on tenterhooks again as Donald Trump's presidential campaign swung into full tilt, Nuvo says it all “just felt like too much.”
“I made a decision that I was leaving, that I was going to Europe. The job stress was what pushed my situation, but also politically I just couldn't fathom what was coming,” she says.
She told her parents about her plans to leave.
It was then that Nuvo's father, Jose Novo (Karina uses a modified spelling of this surname professionally), reminded her that they'd always had a way out, a path to try living a different kind of life in Spain, since they were able to apply for citizenship in that country.
Novo was born in Camagüey, Cuba, and came to the United States for a better life at the age of 21. But his father (Karina's grandfather) was born in Spain, which entitled both him and his children to pursue citizenship through the ley de nietos (the “grandchildren's law”).
Also called the Law of Democratic Memory, the ley de nietos, set to expire October 21, 2025, grants descendants of Spaniards persecuted during the Spanish Civil War and subsequent Francisco Franco dictatorship a path to Spanish citizenship.
Nuvo told her father, then 87, she would go to Spain and submit her application for Spanish citizenship there.
“His response was, ‘Please, I don't want to die here in this place,'” she says. So she asked him if he wanted to move there with her.
“He didn't even hesitate, he was like, ‘Yep,'” Nuvo says.
So, she set to work selling most of their worldly possessions on Facebook Marketplace, packed a few suitcases and put her plan into motion.
The only time Nuvo and her father had attempted to travel to Spain together was on a cruise that left from Fort Lauderdale in 2022. He got Covid long before they made it to Spain. They had to disembark from the ship in the Azores, where she checked her dad into a hospital.
“It was the only time I tried to take him to Spain, and I failed miserably,” Nuvo says.
So before leaving California, Nuvo told her father, a bladder cancer survivor, that they had to be on the same page. If something similar happened once they moved to Spain — if he got sick and wasn't well enough to live in their new shared home — he might have to go back into assisted living there. Jose agreed.
Nuvo set to work looking for a place for the two of them to live, tapping the real estate website Idealista for potential rentals and talking to brokers to figure out the best location in Spain for a move.
Originally, she says, she was set on Málaga, along the Andalusia coast, but was dissuaded by the housing prices. A broker suggested Nuvo consider the nearby Costa del Sol town of Fuengirola, about 20 miles south, which has similarly flat terrain that would be easy for her father to navigate, as well as a lower cost of living.
Nuvo was still in California when she found a nearly 1,200-square-foot apartment in the town with two bedrooms that looked perfect. It was a few blocks from the beach and had a view of the sparkling Mediterranean from the balcony.
“I went, ‘oh my god, it's dad's dream, by the ocean,'” says Nuvo. The monthly rent was 1,050 euros (around $1,150), a fraction of what they'd both been paying in California to live.
After a stop in Miami on the way to Europe, they landed in Spain in September 2024 with six pieces of luggage and her dad's walker and wheelchair in tow.
“I have a photo of dad in front of the apartment right after we got to Fuengirola with a huge smile. For me, though, because of the emotional trek it was to get there, I went into a full panic attack at what I'd done,” Nuvo recalls.
She called her son, 20, who's in college back in California, and cried, expressing her doubts. But he assured her it was all going to be OK.
Just a week after Nuvo and her father arrived in Spain, her mother and stepfather, Gloria and Cesar Tarafa, came to visit for 15 days. “We're a modern family, everyone gets along,” Nuvo says.
Nuvo's mother and stepfather were born in Cuba, like her father, but had spent most of their lives in Miami, and later, California. They had been living for years in a fixed-income adult community in Monrovia near Pasadena.
It didn't take long before Gloria and Cesar, then 87 and 73, decided they would make the move to Fuengirola, too. They both also have the right to apply for Spanish citizenship since they have parents or grandparents who were born in Spain.
The couple, who are retired, returned to the US from their Spanish vacation in October 2024, sold nearly everything they owned and were back in Fuengirola a month later. They moved into the apartment Nuvo shared with her father and set about applying for Spanish citizenship.
Cesar says the political climate in the US and cost of living in the Los Angeles area both contributed to their decision to leave.
Cesar first went to Spain shortly before his 15th birthday (the age when military service was mandatory for Cuban youth back then), when his parents sent him away from the island to stay with family friends near Madrid. (He later left for the US).
He and Gloria, who met in Miami as members of the Cuban diaspora there, had also vacationed in Spain on several occasions and enjoyed it. And with Spanish as their mother tongue, imagining a move there was easy, he says.
“We decided we have to make sure we enjoy our lives for however many years we have left,” he says, adding that he knew the quality of life in Spain — and, in particular, Andalusia — was good.
“The culture is also very akin to our culture in Cuba. Cubans have a lot of similarities with the Andalusian way of speaking and expressing ourselves, moving our hands and exaggerating. So we knew if we were going to make the change, it would be to this part of Spain,” he says.
Cesar says the couple's lifestyle has changed for the better because they can “do more with less” in Spain.
“You don't even have to spend a lot of money. You can just go out and see people walking and see the nightlife. This city is alive. People go to dinner at 9 or 10 o'clock at night,” he says.
Back home in Monrovia, the couple would usually be in for the night at 6 p.m. he says, watching TV.
“Here at 6 o'clock you're having a merienda (snack) and then you go to dinner at 9. And the funny thing is people don't rush you at restaurants. You can have a cup of coffee and sit down at a table for two hours. It's just a whole different mentality,” he says.
Related article
Considering leaving the US for good? Here's what to think about before you move abroad
Cesar admits it's taken some getting used to Spanish bureaucracy and things moving a little bit slower compared to the US, “but the overwhelming quality of life here is just undeniable. We're just trying to be like a sponge and suck everything in.”
Cesar compared his recent departure from the US for Spain as eliciting similar feelings as when he first left Cuba long ago, since both times he left everything behind.
“I knew when I left Cuba that I was not going to be back ever, and I have the same feeling now,” he says.
Gloria says the people, style and way of living really speak to her in Spain. She left Cuba as a young woman, when she was recruited to work as a flight attendant for PanAm in Miami. She and Cesar lived in Florida for many years before moving to California.
Their American life was so different, especially during the years after the pandemic, she says.
“Our life there was OK. Half of my life is there, and I miss family members. But I have to try to enjoy what is left of me. I'm 88, I'm not young,” Gloria says.
“Here, we go downstairs and have coffee, we sit there and talk. In Monrovia there was no social life for us. I might go to my son's house or a friend's once in a while, but that was it,” she says.
“The quality of life here is life. The food, the people and the weather in this part of Spain, I just love it.”
By January of 2025, Nuvo's father, Jose, was having health complications, she says.
It was becoming far too difficult for her to care for him at home. So together they made the difficult decision to move him into an assisted living facility in February in nearby Marbella, about 20 miles west of Fuengirola.
Nuvo says she felt very guilty and wondered if bringing him to Spain had been a mistake.
“But then he'll just tell me he loves it. He spent months enjoying Fuengirola. And now he says he's sitting out looking at the ocean in Spain, eating his favorite foods like tortilla española and croquetas and speaking Spanish with everyone,” she says.
The facility costs 2,300 euros (about $2,500) a month, far less than his assisted living facility in California, and it includes physical therapy, access to a psychologist and all living expenses and meals as well as daily activities.
Nuvo talks to her father every day on the phone and visits him twice a week in his private room with a balcony overlooking a lush garden, which she says feels more like a palace than an assisted living facility.
The main reason she moved from California to Spain, Nuvo says, was for a better quality of life and “saving our mental, emotional and physical wellbeing.” It's a goal she feels she's so far achieved with her family.
She and her mother and stepfather recently moved into a larger three-bedroom rental apartment in Fuengirola with sea views from a sprawling balcony right in the center of town. The location allows Cesar and Gloria to get out and walk to everything with no car needed and continue enjoying their new Spanish lifestyle. The rent is 1,400 euros, or about $1,500.
Nuvo says her living expenses in Spain compared to Los Angeles have been nearly halved. Once she gets her work permit as a citizen, Nuvo says she plans to get back to what she loves doing for work — pursuing singing gigs around Europe and helping people who are also considering a move find real estate opportunities in Spain.
She loves California, she says, but it was time to go. And she has no regrets.
“Things still take my breath away here, just the kindness of everybody. They have a cherishment and appreciation for their lives. And the elderly are treated like royalty.” she says.
“Even with everything that's happened, even with my son still living in California, I can't explain it. I feel like I'm supposed to be here.”
As for her father, Jose says his whole life has been an adventure, and he chalks this experience up as another one.
“I left Cuba when I was 20 years old. So, from there on I went to Costa Rica, working for my company. Then I went to the Dominican Republic to work for another company. So, it's been one adventure after another adventure,” he says.
He has no complaints about the assisted living facility in California where he was living before he left.
“People there were very nice to me. And I had people that I care very much for. People here are very good, too,” he says, adding that the cost is a big differentiating point and he finds the Spanish facility “more sophisticated.”
As for any regrets about crossing the ocean to finish out his remaining years, Jose says he has none.
“Why would I? I'm in the country of my family because my father was born in Asturias, and my grandparents on my mother's side were born in Galicia. I have Spanish blood running through my veins,” he says.
To anyone who's considering a similar move, no matter at what stage of life, his advice is simple.
“Follow your heart — and don't be afraid.”
Terry Ward is a Florida-based travel writer and freelance journalist in Tampa who hopes to one day relocate with her family to Europe, too.
© 2025 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved. CNN Sans ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network.
Abbas Araghchi says ‘initial understanding' could be reached in Oman and lead to ‘path of negotiations'
Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has arrived in Oman for mediated talks with the US special envoy Steve Witkoff, saying there is a chance the two sides can reach an initial understanding that leads to a timetable for negotiations on Iran's nuclear programme.
The aim is to agree a format and parameters for talks that in months could lead to some US economic sanctions on Tehran being lifted and a recasting of Iran's civil nuclear programme.
Such a breakthrough, highly implausible a month ago, would represent the biggest improvement in US-Iranian relations since the two countries signed a nuclear deal in 2015. Donald Trump removed the US from the agreement in 2018, claiming “the heart of the deal was a giant fiction – that a murderous regime desired only a peaceful nuclear energy program”.
In the initial indirect talks, Araghchi plans to test whether Witkoff has been given, as reported, a narrow mandate to prevent any possibility of Iran's civil nuclear programme being weaponised, or a broader brief to end the programme altogether, as well as to make wider political demands on Iran.
Araghchi said on arriving in the capital of Oman, Muscat, that Tehran's “intention is to reach an honourable agreement from an equal position. If the other side also comes from the same position, God willing, there will be a chance for an initial understanding that will lead to a path of negotiations, and if there is sufficient will, we will decide on a timetable.”
In the wake of Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal, Iran has piled up a vast stockpile of highly enriched uranium now sufficient for as many as six nuclear bombs, but Tehran insists there is a fatwa opposing Iran's possession of nuclear weapons.
Previous US demands revealed in a Trump executive order in February, which imposed further economic sanctions on Iran, gave the impression that the US president would make maximalist demands that Iran end its nuclear programme, cease all political support for so-called resistance groups, and end its missile programme.
But a personal letter from Trump to the Iranian leadership did not echo these maximalist demands, and Witkoff has hinted at the possibility of compromise, which suggests that an internal debate in the US administration leans in favour of making initial demands focused on handing over its stockpile of uranium, and improved monitoring.
But if Witkoff demands a complete end to Iran's civil nuclear programme, Tehran will make a counterproposal for a Middle East nuclear-weapon-free zone. This would require the US to pressure Israel to join the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and dismantle its own unconfirmed nuclear arsenal. Such a proposal would be rejected by Israel and the US.
With the Iranian economy in freefall, and Iranians suffering energy blackouts, the country's president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has always favoured talks with the US as the way to escape “the cage of sanctions”, but he has faced resistance from parliamentary hardliners and parts of the group around the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. On 7 February, Khamenei said experience showed it was “not rational, intelligent or honourable” to hold talks with Trump, a judgment that Pezeshkian said he had no option but to accept.
But the Iranian foreign ministry – supportive of talks – persuaded Khamenei that his regime, already weakened by reverses in Syria, Lebanon and Gaza, might crumble unless he negotiated. Trump also threatened to give Israel the freedom to bomb Iran's nuclear sites.
To preserve Iran's dignity, Khamenei insisted the initial talks at least be indirect, but there will be pressure from the US side to allow direct talks. The two countries broke off formal diplomatic relations after the 1979 Iranian revolution.
Pezeshkian, in an effort to talk Trump's transactional language, said this week: “His excellency [Khamenei] has no opposition to investment by American investors in Iran. American investors: come and invest.”
Trump, too, has relented both in his rhetoric and possibly his demands, saying on Friday: “I'm not asking for much; they can't have a nuclear weapon,” adding: “I want them to thrive. I want Iran to be a great, wonderful, happy country.” Trump and Witkoff also badly need a diplomatic breakthrough since their peace efforts in Gaza and Ukraine have so far been abject flops. A further war in the Middle East is fiercely resisted by the Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia.
Netanyahu said this week that a deal would only work if Iran's nuclear facilities were blown up, “under American supervision with American execution”. He also called for a “Libya-style agreement”, a reference to Muammar Gaddafi's voluntary dismantlement of his nuclear programme under international supervision. But Iran senses that Netanyahu is losing influence with Trump over the nuclear file.
Iran's deputy foreign minister for political affairs, Majid Takht-Ravanchi, who is involved in parallel talks with European leaders, said: “If the American side does not raise irrelevant issues and demands and puts aside threats and intimidation, there is a good possibility of reaching an agreement. The Islamic republic of Iran believes in dialogue and interaction based on mutual respect, and any bullying and coercion is unacceptable in our view.”
Araghchi, a veteran of the 2015 talks who holds a PhD in political thought from the University of Kent, is accompanied by a technical team.
The Omani foreign minister, Badr bin Hamad al-Busaidi, is acting as the mediator, a role that Oman has long held to help resolve Middle East conflicts.
Witkoff has admitted he does not have technical expertise about civil nuclear disarmament programmes, but Trump implicitly trusts his judgment.
Iran, which has a reputation for being an exhaustive and exhausting negotiator, knows it is working against a deadline of two months, European officials say, because the UK, Germany and France must signal by the end of July whether they will reimpose punishing UN sanctions against Tehran. The option to reimpose those sanctions, which were lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal, will expire on 18 October.
Iranian foreign minister hails ‘calm and respectful environment' to mediated talks in Oman
Iran and the US completed a successful opening round of indirect talks in Oman designed to prevent the weaponisation of Iran's nuclear programme. In a sign the talks had gone as well as the two sides had hoped in agreeing a joint agenda, they agreed to meet again on 19 April.
A breakdown would have come if Donald Trump had demanded the complete dismantling of Iran's civil nuclear programme, something that Iran is not prepared to contemplate. Iran insists it is pursuing only a civil nuclear programme, but Donald Trump took the US out of the previous nuclear deal claiming Tehran's regime was seeking a nuclear weapon.
It appears he is resolved to pursue an updated version of the deal.
The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said the talks had been “constructive”, and held in a “calm and respectful environment” with “no sharp words exchanged”.
He added: “Both sides don't want to talk for sake of talking and wasting time, and want to reach a deal as quickly as possible. Both sides showed commitment to take these talks forward until we reach a favourable deal.”
Oman's foreign minister acted as the mediator in the talks in Muscat, shuttling between Araghchi and Trump's diplomatic envoy Steve Witkoff.
Witkoff has admitted he does not have technical expertise about civil nuclear disarmament programmes, but Trump implicitly trusts his judgment.
Witkoff also said the discussions had been held in a positive and constructive atmosphere. It is likely the next set of talks will not be held in Muscat, but Oman will retain the role of shuttling between the two negotiating teams in separate rooms.
It is understood that the two diplomats did have a brief exchange at the end of the process, but it was described as not a fully fledged negotiation.
An Iranian condition for the talks was there would be no direct talks with the US while Iran is under US economic sanctions.
But what was more important to the Iranian side was whether Witkoff would demand Iran stop uranium enrichment altogether and end its civil nuclear programme. There was also concern Trump might table demands that Iran stop backing militant groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas.
Witkoff mapped out an agenda apparently similar to the intent behind the 2015 nuclear deal, but that will also have to address the fact that since 2018 Iran has amassed a large stockpile of uranium enriched to 60%, a purity greater than what is required for a civil nuclear programme.
The next round of talks will have to agree how to dispense with this stockpile and how Iran will allow the reintroduction of an independent inspection regime. The UN nuclear weapon inspectorate, the IAEA, has seen its cameras switched off in Iran's key nuclear sites on successive occasions, making it next to impossible to know what Iran is producing.
Rafael Grossi, the IAEA director general, is due in Iran next week, but it is not clear whether he is yet working in tandem with the small and relatively inexperienced US negotiating team.
Oman's foreign minister, Badr al-Busaidi, said he was proud to have hosted the talks in Muscat and to have mediated. The goal was “a process of dialogue and negotiations with the shared aim of concluding a fair and binding agreement”, he said.
He added: “I would like to thank my two colleagues for this engagement which took place in a friendly atmosphere conducive to bridging viewpoints and ultimately achieving regional and global peace, security and stability. We will continue to work together and put further efforts to assist in arriving at this goal.”
Sina Toossi, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, said “the outcome signals progress. A likely framework is likely now on the table, centred on no weaponisation and sanctions relief.”
Toosi added: “Both sides were likely to sound positive today – even with talks focused on format and agenda – because they currently need the negotiations to continue.
“But without real progress, this dynamic – sustainable in past talks – is unlikely to hold as long this time.”
Ryan Costello, policy director with the National Iranian American Council, said the parties had cleared a low bar today.
He said: “Now, it is important for both the US and Iran to insulate the apparent positive environment of negotiations from those who want to sabotage a move toward a deal.
“Each side should exercise restraint. For the US, this could mean dialling back the military threats. President Trump will also have to make sure that Israel does not go behind the administration's back and undertake provocative steps that could derail negotiations, including sabotage, as we saw in 2021.
“For Iran, signalling more openness to direct negotiations and ceasing warnings of weaponisation options can help build momentum toward and put a breakthrough in reach.”
With the Iranian economy in freefall, and Iranians suffering energy blackouts, the country's president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has always favoured talks with the US as the way to escape “the cage of sanctions”, but he has faced resistance from parliamentary hardliners and parts of the group around the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. On 7 February, Khamenei said experience showed it was “not rational, intelligent or honourable” to hold talks with Trump, a judgment that Pezeshkian said he had no option but to accept.
But the Iranian foreign ministry – supportive of talks – persuaded Khamenei that his regime, already weakened by reverses in Syria, Lebanon and Gaza, might crumble unless he negotiated. Trump also threatened to give Israel the freedom to bomb Iran's nuclear sites.
To preserve Iran's dignity, Khamenei insisted the initial talks at least be indirect, but there will be pressure from the US side to allow direct talks. The two countries broke off formal diplomatic relations after the 1979 Iranian revolution.
Pezeshkian, in an effort to talk Trump's transactional language, said this week: “His excellency [Khamenei] has no opposition to investment by American investors in Iran. American investors: come and invest.”
Trump, too, has relented both in his rhetoric and possibly his demands, saying on Friday: “I'm not asking for much; they can't have a nuclear weapon,” adding: “I want them to thrive. I want Iran to be a great, wonderful, happy country.” Trump and Witkoff also badly need a diplomatic breakthrough since their peace efforts in Gaza and Ukraine have so far been abject flops. A further war in the Middle East is fiercely resisted by the Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia.
Netanyahu said this week that a deal would only work if Iran's nuclear facilities were blown up, “under American supervision with American execution”. He also called for a “Libya-style agreement”, a reference to Muammar Gaddafi's voluntary dismantlement of his nuclear programme under international supervision. But Iran senses that Netanyahu is losing influence with Trump over the nuclear file.
Iran's deputy foreign minister for political affairs, Majid Takht-Ravanchi, who is involved in parallel talks with European leaders, said: “If the American side does not raise irrelevant issues and demands and puts aside threats and intimidation, there is a good possibility of reaching an agreement. The Islamic republic of Iran believes in dialogue and interaction based on mutual respect, and any bullying and coercion is unacceptable in our view.”
Araghchi, a veteran of the 2015 talks who holds a PhD in political thought from the University of Kent, is accompanied by a technical team.
Iran, which has a reputation for being an exhaustive and exhausting negotiator, knows it is working against a deadline of two months, European officials say, because the UK, Germany and France must signal by the end of July whether they will reimpose punishing UN sanctions against Tehran. The option to reimpose those sanctions, which were lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal, will expire on 18 October.
Meera Syal also to star in London production reflecting producer's experience of censorship in Georgia
Hidden from view inside a south London warehouse, a new underground movement will be fighting the international blight of misinformation this summer.
The huge immersive event – half theatrical show, half social campaign – is to involve some of Britain's leading acting talent, including Toby Jones and Meera Syal, and has been put together by a theatre company led by a woman who learned about misinformation the hard way, at the Georgian television station Imedi.
Liana Patarkatsishvili, the founder of Sage & Jester productions, still recalls the moment when the independent newsroom was taken over on the orders of the government of Mikheil Saakashvili. Her experiences have influenced her work on the new show, which is due to take place over 9,000 sq metres in an empty building in Deptford.
“I still remember those days clearly,” she told the Observer. “Before the 2007 crackdown in Georgia, independent media faced significant challenges and mounting pressure.”
The debut show, called Storehouse, is due to run from 4 June until 20 September. The story will take place in a fictional storage facility, where humanity's history has been archived since 1983, the dawn of the internet.
In this arena, a “battle between truth and order” will be waged, “as the powerful manipulate the truth to their own ends and critical thinking is the only effective weapon”. Syal, who will voice Dolly K Guha, one of the imagined radical founders of the movement, said: “I'm thrilled to be part of Storehouse. It is an ambitious immersive production that tackles a critical issue.”
The three other founders are played by Jones, whose performances as postmaster Alan Bates in the ITV drama about the Post Office scandal won widespread acclaim, the renowned actor Kathryn Hunter, recently seen in Netflix's Black Doves and in the film Poor Things, and by rising star Billy Howle from the film On Chesil Beach. They will guide visitors through the warehouse and through a cast of live actors.
Sign up to The Guide
Get our weekly pop culture email, free in your inbox every Friday
after newsletter promotion
Patarkatsishvili is keen to show that misinformation is not just the spreading of deliberate falsehoods. “It's also about creating uncertainty and eroding trust,” she said. “This tactic has been used globally, from casting doubt in the media to flooding the public with conflicting narratives. In today's attention economy, news has been commodified, becoming a product that needs to be ‘sold'. It becomes paramount to be able to discern ‘sellable information' and false narratives from facts and being properly factually informed.”
The show will run in tandem with a series of public debates, or critical conversations, that are being held through the summer on the other side of London at the Pleasance theatre. The sessions, staged in collaboration with Intelligence Squared, will be compered by the journalist Sophia Smith Galer.
The discussions are intended to help inform or “inoculate” the audience against misinformation by showing them how it can work. “We want to empower individuals by better understanding the powers at play. A key point for us is to give people a sense of agency, as this topic can make us feel apathetic and disempowered, which ultimately feeds the problem,” said Patarkatsishvili, whose late father, known as Badri, founded the Imedi radio station and television station in Georgia.
Debate, she argues, might be a more conventional way to develop critical thinking skills, but theatre can be more effective. “In its own way, this is what Storehouse aims to do; immerse audiences in a world where they decide what's true,” she said. “The art of storytelling creates empathy and understanding in ways that facts alone cannot. When audiences step inside, they're not just watching a story – they're living it. They're forced to grapple with difficult questions about truth, power, and their own complicity in shaping narratives. Entertainment has always been a powerful tool because it humanises abstract issues and makes them personal.”
Patarkatsishvili's hope is that Storehouse will be “more than a show – it's a call to action”.
“It asks audiences to reflect on their role in today's information ecosystem, and challenges them to take responsibility for the stories they believe and share.”
Resurgence could be on horizon as outbreaks pick up speed in US and abroad amid public health program cuts
As tuberculosis outbreaks pick up speed in the US and abroad amid deep cuts in funding for local, state and international public health programs, a resurgence of the deadliest infectious disease – including drug-resistant tuberculosis – could be on the horizon.
Increasing funding for public health responses could end tuberculosis (TB) altogether, says James Brookes, an IT specialist from Idaho, who told this to his representatives in Congress on Wednesday.
Unlike many advocates, Brookes has no personal connection to tuberculosis. No one he knows has gotten it, and it was not top of mind until fairly recently.
But he has followed John Green, the prominent vlogger and author, and his brother, Hank, on social media for nearly two decades now. When Green created a group called TBFighters, Brookes joined; after Green, along with the non-profit Partners In Health, asked for volunteers to travel to Washington DC, to participate in a TB Hill Day, Brookes booked flights and a hotel.
“I'm looking for a way to help in any way I can. I can help here. I can do this,” Brookes said. “We're a global community, and how the least of us is doing in the world impacts how the best of us is doing.”
About 250 TBFighters gathered in Washington this week to learn more about advances in TB testing, treatment and prevention and to attend a total of 210 meetings with senators, representatives and legislative aides representing 49 states on Capitol Hill.
Organizers were stunned by the response. Last year, only 35 or so advocates attended a handful of TB Hill Day meetings.
Tuberculosis has long suffered a PR problem. Despite impressive advances in treatments and progress toward effective vaccines, it has been championed by only a few dedicated people in the field.
But John Green, as close to a celebrity as authors can get, wants to change that.
“We know how to live in a world without tuberculosis, and that means, ultimately, that we're choosing to live in a world with tuberculosis,” he told TBFighters on Tuesday – an argument underlying his new book, the bestseller Everything Is Tuberculosis. “But all of y'all are making a different choice. And that is my great encouragement.”
While there's an effective cure for TB, developed in the 1950s, it has persisted. It's now known as a disease of poverty that tends to hit hardest among people living with HIV or malnutrition and those with unstable or crowded housing.
“We should have eliminated this scourge decades ago,” Green said.
Kate O'Brien, a television producer, became a TB advocate after contracting the illness in New York while pregnant with her son. She still doesn't know how she got it.
“I truly, truly believe that eliminating this disease is possible,” O'Brien said. “It's just a little fucking money.”
Recent cuts to public health efforts – including the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and local and state heath departments – have possibly set back progress on TB by years or decades.
Nick Enrich, a former deputy administrator at USAID, estimated in an agency memo projections of a 28-32% increase in TB cases globally, including drug-resistant TB, which becomes more of a risk as people are unable to access care.
“We are looking at a world whereby, two years from now, 2 million people will die of tuberculosis, instead of 1.25 million,” Green said. “This is getting worse, not better, and I really, really hate it when we have the ability to make something better and we let it get worse.”
Sign up to Headlines US
Get the most important US headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning
after newsletter promotion
For his part, Green and the TBFighters had recent success pushing to lower prices of the drug bedaquiline and diagnostic tests.
“I've mobilized them, but they've also mobilized me,” Green said. They developed a 100-page document about how to respond to the crisis. “I think probably most people weren't aware of tuberculosis, but when they became aware of it, they became very angry, like I did.”
Like Green, Brookes found the more he learned about tuberculosis, the more important it is to fight to keep everyone safe.
“It is the number one infectious disease currently and throughout history, and the only thing stopping us from eradicating it is logistics? Let's end TB and start working on the harder stuff,” Brookes said.
Before this week, he was involved in some local activism; his daughter has cerebral palsy and autism. He is hoping the skills he's learned now will translate into more advocacy for people with disabilities.
“I didn't know how easy it was to just reach out to my senators and be like: ‘Hey, can we have a meeting?' And they just say ‘Yes'?” he said, in disbelief.
Of his daughter, Brookes said: “This is one piece of a larger picture for us just to learn how to advocate for and make a better world for her. The better the health outcomes are for our community and for the world, the more protected she is.”
Brookes was nervous as he walked into the US Senate and House buildings, donning a suit and a pin that read “TB is not over”.
The meetings went much better than he expected. He is now following up with Partners In Health to send more information to his Congress members.
“In a lot of ways, this trip is just the beginning,” he said.
CNN's Laura Coates speaks with investor Steve Eisman, the trader famously profiled in “The Big Short,” who says that the US is well equipped to handle a trade war with China.
Most stock quote data provided by BATS. US market indices are shown in real time, except for the S&P 500 which is refreshed every two minutes. All times are ET. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices Copyright S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and/or its affiliates. Fair value provided by IndexArb.com. Market holidays and trading hours provided by Copp Clark Limited.
© 2025 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved. CNN Sans ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network.
Follow:
A sightseeing helicopter plunged into the Hudson River on Thursday, turning a family outing above Manhattan's misty skyline into a tragedy.
The helicopter carried six people, including three children and their parents – who have both worked for Siemens, a German multinational technology conglomerate. It lifted off from a Manhattan heliport and followed a familiar route: circling the Statue of Liberty, gliding north along the Hudson toward the George Washington Bridge and then turning south. About 16 minutes after takeoff, the aircraft crashed into the water, according to analysis by CNN and FlightRadar24.
Witnesses described the helicopter flipping and spiraling before crashing near the New Jersey shoreline upside down, scattering debris across the river.
“The helicopter was a little bit like nose down, slightly, and I saw the propeller separating from the helicopter. It kept spinning in the air alone. Nothing was attached to it,” Sarah Jane Raymond Ryer, who saw the crash unfold, told CNN affiliate WCBS.
A video obtained by CNN shows the rotor blades detached from the helicopter and flying through the air. “The videotape in this case is very dramatic and very important to the investigation,” former National Transportation Safety Board managing director Peter Goelz told CNN on Friday.
Eyewitness Avi Rakesh told CNN's Jessica Dean that what was left of the helicopter appeared to be so out of control, he didn't feel safe in his own building.
“Debris was flying everywhere. I was concerned that something might come and hit the window,” Rakesh said.
Here's what we know about the crash that killed everyone on board:
The victims include Agustín Escobar, 49, his wife, Mercè Camprubí Montal, and their three children - two sons, ages 4, and 11, along with a daughter who was to turn 9 today. New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the family was visiting from Spain, and Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop said in a social media post that the family was in New York to celebrate Camprubí's 40th birthday.
“We are deeply saddened by the tragic helicopter crash in which Agustin Escobar and his family lost their lives. Our heartfelt condolences go out to all their loved ones,” a Siemens Mobility spokesperson said in a statement to CNN.
Escobar served as CEO of Rail Infrastructure at Siemens Mobility, the transportation solutions division of Siemens AG.
Spain's Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, expressed his condolences, calling the incident “an unimaginable tragedy.”
Camprubí was the global commercialization manager for Siemens Energy, according to her LinkedIn page. Siemens Energy is an independent company that was spun off from Siemens AG in 2020.
“We are deeply saddened and shocked by the loss of a colleague due to a tragic accident during vacation,” said a statement from Siemens Energy. “Our thoughts and heartfelt condolences go out to the family, friends and colleagues of the victims.”
In addition to her international corporate career, Camprubí is known in Spain as a member of a prominent sports family. Camprubí's grandfather and great-grandfather both served as presidents of FC Barcelona, one of the most popular soccer clubs in the world.
The pilot was identified as 36-year-old Seankese Johnson, according to city officials. He was certified to fly commercial helicopters since August of 2023, according to FAA records, and the NTSB noted he had completed 788 hours in the air.
A friend of Johnson, helicopter pilot Matt Klier, told CNN affiliate WABC he was “an amazing pilot.”
“He was just a super good dude,” Klier said, holding back tears. “I'm a helicopter pilot, we started at the same time. The man was an amazing pilot.”
The cause of the crash remains unclear, but its sudden descent stunned witnesses as first responders raced to rescue the victims.
The helicopter took off at 2:59 p.m. from Manhattan's downtown heliport following a popular sightseeing route, New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. After circling the Statue of Liberty, it flew north along the Hudson River, reaching the George Washington Bridge by 3:08 p.m. It then turned south along the New Jersey shoreline, where it lost control shortly after, Tisch said.
Related article
A Siemens exec, his family and their pilot are dead after helicopter crashes into the Hudson River
Visibility at the time was 10 miles, though the region was cloudy with winds of 10 to 15 mph and gusts up to 25 mph. A weather system was expected to bring light rain later in the afternoon.
At 3:17 p.m., multiple 911 calls reported a crash near Pier A Park in Hoboken, New Jersey. Witnesses said the helicopter appeared to stop midair before pieces broke off, consistent with preliminary emergency reports, Tisch said.
Jersey City resident, Ipsitaa Banigrhi, described the sound as “such a loud sound. It felt like thunder,” she told WCBS. “Then I saw black particles flying. Again, I thought maybe it's just dust or birds, and then we heard all the emergency vehicles and sirens go by. I think that's when it was like, ‘OK, what's happening.'”
With the helicopter's catastrophic failure in midair, there was no way to guide the aircraft to safety, a former combat pilot told CNN's Kate Bolduan.
“There's nothing that pilot could have done in that situation to recover the aircraft,” Brandt Anderson said.
First responders from NYPD and New York City Fire Department teams pulled six people from the water. Four victims were pronounced dead at the scene, and two others succumbed to injuries shortly after, Tisch said. Two children were taken to Jersey City Medical Center, where they were later pronounced dead, Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop said on X.
The aircraft's main fuselage was retrieved from the river on Thursday evening, and dive operations continued Friday, according to the NTSB. The search continues for the main rotor, transmission, roof and tail of the aircraft.
The company operating the helicopter was previously involved in two safety incidents investigated by federal aviation authorities.
In 2015, a pilot for the New York Helicopter Charter company was forced to land in New Jersey after hovering 20 feet in the air for a short time. An initial inspection showed there “may have been corrosion removed” from sections of the helicopter and that some of the helicopter's component parts may have been deformed to an extent to be “considered unairworthy,” according to an FAA inspector at the time. The same helicopter was previously involved in a crash in Chile in 2010.
In 2013, a pilot for the company was forced to land a helicopter carrying four passengers on the water near Manhattan after hearing a “bang” that was followed by the “Engine Out warning horn.” The pilot inflated the helicopter's floats and got the passengers to safety on a boat.
“The only thing I can tell you is that we are devastated,” Michael Roth, the CEO of the company operating the flight, told CNN of Thursday's crash. “I'm a father, a grandfather and my wife hasn't stopped crying since this afternoon.”
When asked about the helicopter's maintenance, he said, “That's something my director of maintenance handles.” The director of maintenance declined to comment.
Maintenance records are not publicly accessible, and the NTSB restricts what companies can disclose during an ongoing investigation.
“(The pilot) called in that he was landing and that he needed fuel, and it should have taken him about three minutes to arrive, but 20 minutes later, he didn't arrive,” Roth told The Telegraph Thursday.
Concern about the safety of low-altitude helicopter flights in the New York City area has a long history.
“Helicopter operations in the Hudson River have been under criticism for many, many years,” former Department of Transportation inspector general Mary Schiavo told CNN.
At least 32 people died in helicopter accidents in New York City from 1977 to 2019, according to the Associated Press. That included a 2018 crash that killed five passengers in a “doors-off” aerial tour, which subsequently became more tightly regulated by the FAA. The victims in that case drowned after being unable to free themselves from their safety harnesses after plunging into the water, an NTSB investigation found.
“I am calling for a serious reevaluation of current policies and am urging the city to consider an immediate moratorium on non-essential helicopter flights from city-owned heliports while investigations are ongoing,” New York City Councilwoman Amanda Farías, chair of the council's Committee on Economic Development, said Friday.
The Eastern Region Helicopter Council, a trade group that represents helicopter operators, says a ban would not be the right solution.
“The helicopter community is in shock and mourning after the tragic and horrific events of yesterday,” chairman Jeff Smith said in a statement. “Unfortunately, some well-meaning but misguided leaders are using this tragedy to exploit and push their decades-old agenda to ban all helicopters. Before taking legislative action, we need to learn more from the investigation.”
The helicopter, a Bell 206L-4 LongRanger IV, was built in 2004 and held an airworthiness certificate issued in 2016 that was valid through 2029, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.
Maintenance records are not public and during investigations NTSB rules prohibit companies from releasing certain information relating to the accident.
The investigation into the cause of the crash will pore over documentation on all the work that was done on the aircraft. That would include the company's compliance with two recent FAA-issued airworthiness directives.
One directive from May 2023, required the testing and possible replacement of tail rotor drive shafts on eight different Bell 206L models, including the 206L-4. That directive was prompted by an incident in which a Bell 206L helicopter experienced the loss of a tail-rotor drive due to a joint failure.
The FAA also issued a December 2022 airworthiness directive on Bell 206L models with specific parts requiring inspection and possible replacement of the helicopters' main rotor blades because of “delamination.” That refers to layers within the blade separating due to material fatigue, damage (from bird strikes, for example), or manufacturing errors, potentially leading the rotor blade to fail.
It remains unclear whether any of these issues played a role in Thursday's crash.
Both the FAA and the NTSB are investigating the crash. The NTSB has dispatched a “go-team” to the site to examine the wreckage and review maintenance records, it said on social media, and is asking the public to submit any additional video or photos they may have.
The helicopter was flying within New York's Special Flight Rules Area in New York, where air traffic control support is limited, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said in a post on X. Duffy added that the helicopter had received air traffic assistance from LaGuardia Airport shortly before entering the uncontrolled zone.
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN's Mark Morales, Alexandra Skores, Andy Rose, Tim Lister, Matt Stiles and Audrey Ash contributed to this report.
© 2025 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved. CNN Sans ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network.
Follow:
President Donald Trump sent a memorandum to four federal department heads Friday night instructing them to allow the military to use and take jurisdiction of federal land along the US-Mexico border.
The memo, sent to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Agricultural Secretary Brooke Rollins, states that the military must “take a more direct role” in efforts to secure the border and calls on the secretaries to act to provide the Defense Department “use and jurisdiction” over certain federal lands “to enable military activities” on military installations.
The memo states that the Defense Department should be provided jurisdiction over lands including the Roosevelt Reservation – a 60-foot-wide swath of land along the border – for military purposes including border wall construction and installing detection and monitoring equipment. The memo excludes Federal Indian Reservations.
Related article
Texas Army base chosen to house migrants, defense officials say
Trump mandated that the US military step up its presence along the southern border on his first day in office, and thousands of additional active duty US troops have been ordered there as part of the Trump administration's ongoing military mission at the border, CNN previously reported.
Because Trump has declared a national emergency at the border, according to the memo, Burgum “may make withdrawals, reservations, and restrictions of public lands to provide for the utilization of public lands by the Department of Defense.”
The memo also confirms what CNN reported last month was in the works: plans for the military to take command of a swath of territory along the border by designating federal lands as a military installation.
Migrants who cross in this area would be put into “holding” for trespassing onto a military property, CNN previously reported, until the Department of Homeland Security could arrive to pick them up and deport them — putting the military in the position of effectively detaining migrants, something that is traditionally a law enforcement function. The military is prohibited from carrying out domestic law enforcement under the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, but by describing the zone as a “holding” area, DoD could feasibly circumvent that law.
The memo explains that the four agency heads will “initially implement this memorandum on a limited sector of federal lands” designated by Hegseth. However, at any time, Hegseth can “extend activities” under the memo to additional federal lands along the border.
The memo further states that, “members of the Armed Forces will follow rules for the use of force prescribed by the Secretary of Defense.”
CNN's Natasha Bertrand contributed to this report.
© 2025 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved. CNN Sans ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network.
Gen Keith Kellogg appears to suggest Ukraine could be split into zones of control after a peace deal; Trump warns Putin to ‘get moving' ahead of US-Russia talks. What we know on day 1,144
Ukraine could be partitioned like Berlin after the second world war, Donald Trump's envoy to Kyiv has suggested, as Russia continues to hold out on accepting a truce. Gen Keith Kellogg appeared to suggest the country could be split into zones of control, with British and French troops as part of a “reassurance force” in the west and Moscow's forces in the east. Between them would be Ukrainian forces and a demilitarised zone but the US would not provide any ground forces, he claimed. “You could almost make it look like what happened with Berlin after world war two, when you had a Russian zone, a French zone and a British zone,” he told the Times newspaper. Kyiv is yet to comment on the remarks.
Donald Trump issued a rare warning to Vladimir Putin ahead of talks between the US president's special envoy Steve Witkoff and the Russian president, saying on the Truth Social platform: “Russia has to get moving. Too many people ere [sic] DYING, thousands a week, in a terrible and senseless war – A war that should have never happened, and wouldn't have happened, if I were President!!!” Putin was shown on state TV greeting Witkoff in St Petersburg's presidential library at the start of the negotiations and state news agencies later said the talks lasted more than four hours. “The theme of the meeting: aspects of a Ukrainian settlement,” the Kremlin said after the meeting. Putin's investment envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, who was seen in news footage accompanying Witkoff leaving a hotel in the city, called the talks productive, according to Russia's state news agency Tass.
Ukraine's allies promised a record €21bn ($24bn) in additional military support for Kyiv and accused Vladimir Putin of dragging his feet and delaying US-led negotiations over a ceasefire deal, reports Luke Harding. Speaking at a meeting of the Ukraine defence contact group in Brussels, the British defence secretary, John Healey, said: “Putin said he wanted peace but he rejected a full ceasefire. His forces continue to fire on Ukraine, military and civilian targets alike.” The UK and Germany jointly convened Friday's meeting in Ramstein, which was attended by more than 40 countries but not the US, with Trump's defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, joining by video instead.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Ukraine's military allies to focus on air defence, asking them to provide 10 additional Patriot systems. The Ukrainian president told the Ramstein meeting via video that Russian attacks showed Moscow was not ready to implement any realistic and effective peace proposals. Separately, Zelenskyy said Ukraine was ready to purchase additional air defence systems, adding that he discussed it with Donald Trump. “Ukraine is not just asking – we are ready to buy appropriate additional systems,” he said in his nightly address on Friday. The government would also strengthen air defences with additional funds for electronic warfare, he said.
US and Ukrainian officials met on Friday on the US proposal to gain access to Ukraine's mineral wealth but prospects for a breakthrough were scant given the meeting's “antagonistic” atmosphere, a source with knowledge of the matter said. The Reuters report quoted the source as saying the strains in the Washington talks stemmed from the Trump administration's “maximalist” latest draft proposal, which is more expansive than the original version. “The negotiating environment is very antagonistic.” A Treasury Department spokesperson confirmed the discussions, calling them “technical in nature”.
Russia launched 88 drones at Ukraine in overnight attacks, the Ukrainian air force said on Saturday, and damage was reported in the centre, east and south of the country. It said Ukraine's air defences shot down 56 of the drones, while 24 drones were “lost” as the military used electronic warfare to redirect them. The Russian defence ministry said earlier that its air defences destroyed 13 Ukrainian drones in the space of 30 minutes late on Friday. Between 10pm and 10.30pm nine drones were destroyed in the Rostov region, on Ukraine's eastern border, and four in the Kursk region, on Ukraine's north border, it said.
More than a hundred Chinese citizens fighting for the Russian military against Ukraine are mercenaries who do not appear to have a direct link to China's government, two US officials familiar with American intelligence and a former western intelligence official said. Chinese military officers had, however, been in the war behind Russia's lines with Beijing's approval to draw tactical lessons from the conflict, the former official said in the Reuters report. The US confirmed on Wednesday that Ukrainian forces had captured two men of Chinese origin in eastern Ukraine after Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country had information about 155 Chinese citizens fighting there on Russia's behalf.
Ukrainian legislators are almost certain to extend martial law again before it expires on 9 May, the parliamentary speaker has said, even as the US and Russia pressure Kyiv to hold a new vote. Ruslan Stefanchuk underlined the legal and practical implausibility of holding free and fair elections in a country that is part-occupied and still under constant attack, while stressing Ukraine's commitment to democratic elections.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2025 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.
Fox News Poll finds that voters traditionally think their taxes are too high, and the lowest recorded in a Fox News survey was 51% in April 2004.
Voters are split on how they view President Trump's policies since being reelected into office.
Voters discuses whether they sport the movie going to Ukraine and Israel under the Trump administration.
American take part in a poll about their views on different government programs and the funding that DOGE is currently investigating.
President Donald Trump and Republicans are at a record high with voters as Democrats falter in the eyes of voters.
Despite the U.S. Surgeon General's advisory on the link between alcohol and cancer, a majority says they won't skip happy hour, according to a new Fox News survey.
A new Fox News survey shows almost twice as many think the Biden administration has made the economy worse rather than better.
As Inauguration Day approaches, President-elect Trump receives his highest favorable rating, and half of registered voters approve of his handling of the transition.
Conducted under the joint direction of Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R), Fox News national surveys include interviews with a representative sample of approximately 1,200 registered voters who were randomly selected from a national registered voter list sourced from Aristotle. About 75% of completed interviews are with respondents on the telephone (roughly 15% on landlines and 85% cellphones) and the remainder are with respondents contacted by text message who then complete the survey online. The total sample has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points. When necessary, minor weights are used to ensure the demographics of survey respondents are representative of the national registered voter population. All sample frames are weighted together. Generally, weights are applied to age, race, education, and area variables. The Fox News poll is not weighted by party identification. (statement updated February 2024)
For a more detailed methodology statement, click the last link on the right-hand side.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2025 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by
Factset. Powered and implemented by
FactSet Digital Solutions.
Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by
Refinitiv Lipper.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2025 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.
President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meet at the White House amid reciprocal tariffs uproar, and the president addresses a wide range of questions.
Nearly a month into Israel's renewed ground operation, U.S. backing appears to be shaping the conflict on multiple levels—militarily, diplomatically and politically. Israeli officials have suggested the chances of a hostage deal have significantly increased, with some anticipating developments within the next two weeks.
On Monday, sitting beside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump told reporters, "We are trying very hard to get the hostages out. We're looking at another ceasefire. We'll see what happens." The remarks highlighted Trump's dual-track approach: continued diplomatic pressure on Iran and direct support for Israel's military campaign in Gaza.
With what Israeli officials describe as a "free hand" to operate, Israel has expanded its offensive into Rafah and the strategically significant Morag Corridor. The stated aim is to increase pressure on Hamas and help secure the release of the remaining 59 hostages.
ISRAEL LAUNCHES NEW GROUND OPERATION IN GAZA
A senior Israeli security official told Fox News Digital that the campaign is being carried out in close coordination with the United States. "Everything is coordinated with the Americans — both the negotiations and the operational activity. The goal is to bring the hostages home. We now have a free hand to act, and no longer facing the threat of a veto at the UN Security Council, unlike during the previous administration."
The same official pointed to a shift in humanitarian policy that, in their view, has enhanced Israeli leverage. "Unlike the previous administration, the U.S. is not forcing 350 aid trucks into Gaza every day. That gives us leverage," the official said, adding that limiting aid reduces Hamas's ability to control the population.
On Saturday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced the IDF had completed the takeover of the Morag Axis. The Morag Corridor — which separates Rafah from Khan Younis — is part of an effort to establish a new buffer zone and degrade Hamas's operational capabilities. "The logic is that the more territory Hamas loses, the more likely it will be to compromise on a hostage deal," the official said.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir reinforced that strategy during a visit to front-line units this week. "I expect you to defeat the Rafah Brigade and lead to victory wherever you are fighting," he told troops. The IDF had previously declared the Rafah Brigade dismantled in September, but forces have returned to key strongholds, where tunnel networks remain.
HAMAS LAUNCHES FIRST ATTACK ON ISRAEL SINCE CEASEFIRE COLLAPSE
Activity of troops of the 36th Division in the Rafah area on April 5th, 2025. (IDF)
In the same statement on Saturday, Katz warned Gazans, "Hamas is unable to protect the residents or the territory. Hamas leaders are hiding in tunnels with their families or living in luxury hotels abroad, with billions in bank accounts, using you as human shields. Now is the time to rise up, to get rid of Hamas, and to release all the Israeli hostages — that is the only way to stop the war."
In their Oval Office meeting, Trump and Netanyahu reiterated their alignment on core issues. Netanyahu stated that Gazans should be "free to choose to go wherever they want," in what some analysts view as a reference to renewed discussions about third-country resettlement. Trump went further, floating the idea of a U.S. presence in the Strip, noting, "Gaza is an incredible piece of important real estate. Having a peace force like the United States there, controlling and owning the Gaza Strip would be a good thing."
Javed Ali, a former senior director at the U.S. National Security Council and now a professor at the University of Michigan, offered a more measured view of the current military strategy. "Now that we're almost a full month into the resumption of high-intensity IDF operations in the Gaza Strip against Hamas, Israel's military strategy appears to be focused on clearing and holding remaining pockets of known Hamas elements, which at the same time is displacing Palestinians throughout the territory."
CEASEFIRE OVER AS ISRAEL STRIKES GAZA AFTER HAMAS REFUSED TO RELEASE HOSTAGES, OFFICIALS SAY
Israeli forces establish the Morag Corridor in Gaza. (IDF)
Ali said it remains unclear how Israel intends to manage or govern areas it clears. He drew comparisons to the U.S. experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. "The U.S. encountered its own challenges in the post-9/11 wars with similar 'clear and hold' approaches, since insurgent and jihadist elements in both conflicts utilized guerrilla warfare tactics and terrorist attacks."
While the Biden administration had previously emphasized humanitarian access, Ali noted that the current White House has not publicly pressed Israel to scale back its operations. "That could change," he said, particularly as humanitarian conditions worsen or if negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program progress. "If those talks gain momentum, Iran may pressure the U.S. to rein in Israel's campaign against Hamas to preserve what remains of the group. Whether the U.S. team, led by Steve Witkoff, entertains such demands will be a key regional development to watch."
On the ground, Israel has moved to reshape the humanitarian landscape in Gaza. The decision to restrict Hamas's access to aid reflects a broader policy shift under IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, who reversed his predecessor's stance and authorized the military to directly oversee the distribution of supplies. "Hamas will not regain control over the aid, because that was its lifeline," an Israeli security official explained. "It's what allowed it to maintain control over the territory throughout this period. People in Gaza know that Hamas controls the aid; if they realize that Hamas no longer does, its control within the Strip becomes ineffective."
Israeli troops deployed to Gaza. (IDF)
Humanitarian organizations and international leaders continue to condemn Israel. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, speaking on April 8, condemned the ongoing blockade of aid. "More than an entire month has passed without a drop of aid into Gaza. No food. No fuel. No medicine. Gaza is a killing field — and civilians are in an endless death loop," he said.
Israel's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Oren Marmorstein, strongly rejected the Secretary-General's claims. "As always, you don't let the facts get in the way when spreading slander against Israel," he posted on X. "There is no shortage of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip — over 25,000 aid trucks have entered during the 42 days of the ceasefire. Hamas used this aid to rebuild its war machine. Yet, not a word in your statement about the imperative for Hamas to leave Gaza. The people of Gaza are braver than you — they're calling, loud and clear, on Hamas to leave and stop abusing them."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Defense Minister Israel Katz (Israeli PM)
Eugene Kontorovich, a senior legal scholar at the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital: "One doesn't need the Israeli Supreme Court to say there is no starvation in Gaza — this was admitted by the UN's own Food Security Phase Classification, which in June found that prior UN reports were inaccurate and that there is no famine. There is no serious evidence of starvation in Gaza, and what food scarcity does exist can be attributed to Hamas pillaging and hoarding aid. As the truth comes out, it becomes clear that the starvation claims were designed to halt Israel's legitimate self-defense against a genocidal attack."
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
As military and diplomatic tracks converge, Israeli officials remain cautiously optimistic that talks may soon produce results.
Efrat Lachter is an investigative reporter and war correspondent. Her work has taken her to 40 countries, including Ukraine, Russia, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, and Afghanistan. She is a recipient of the 2024 Knight-Wallace Fellowship for Journalism. Lachter can be followed on X @efratlachter.
Fox News' Antisemitism Exposed" newsletter brings you stories on the rising anti-Jewish prejudice across the U.S. and the world."
By entering your email and clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to the Fox News Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and
agree to receive content and promotional communications from Fox News. You understand that you can
opt-out at any time.
Subscribed
You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter!
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2025 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by
Factset. Powered and implemented by
FactSet Digital Solutions.
Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by
Refinitiv Lipper.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2025 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.
Fox News Flash top sports headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com.
MLB umpire Mark Ripperger is receiving praise for how he called a recent game.
Ripperger was behind home plate for Thursday's game between the Kansas City Royals and the Minnesota Twins. While the Royals' shortstop Bobby Witt Jr.'s sacrifice fly broke the tie in the seventh inning, much of the talk after the game was about Ripperger.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM
July 9, 2023; San Francisco, California: Home plate umpire Mark Ripperger (90) before the first inning of the game between the San Francisco Giants and the Colorado Rockies at Oracle Park. (Robert Edwards-USA Today Sports)
The umpire was credited with calling a "perfect game," which is something that reportedly has happened just one other time in the Umpire Scorecards era.
2025 WORLD SERIES ODDS: DODGERS FAVORED TO WIN IT ALL, BRAVES FALL
Umpire Scorecards compile the major league's advanced pitch-tracking data to rate how accurate an umpire was during a given game. The data also considers how an umpire's call impacts the game.
Ripperger made calls for 136 pitches on Thursday. According to Umpire Scorecards metrics, he called every pitch accurately.
The MLB logo on the on-deck circle at Great American Ball Park on September 18, 2023, in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
Kansas City trailed Minnesota by a run on Thursday before rallying in the seventh inning. Royals starter Michael Wacha pitched 5.1 innings, giving up two earned runs. He also struck out four batters.
Kansas City Royals' Bobby Witt Jr. watches his sacrifice fly to score one run during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Thursday, April 10, 2025, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
The Royals' 2-3 win over the Twins on Thursday was followed by a 7-0 loss to the Guardians on Friday.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Former MLB umpire Pat Hoberg is credited with the only other perfect game Umpire Scorecards has recorded. Hoberg accomplished that feat in Game 2 of the 2023 World Series.
Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
Chantz Martin is a sports writer for Fox News Digital.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox.
By entering your email and clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to the Fox News Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and
agree to receive content and promotional communications from Fox News. You understand that you can
opt-out at any time.
Subscribed
You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter!
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2025 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by
Factset. Powered and implemented by
FactSet Digital Solutions.
Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by
Refinitiv Lipper.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2025 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.
Emmanuel Acho, LeSean McCoy, James Jones and Chase Daniel debate whether Steph Curry or LeBron James needs another NBA Finals run more ahead of tonight's Los Angeles Lakers-Golden State Warriors matchup.
Basketball Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas took exception to LeBron James shooting shirtless before the Los Angeles Lakers took on the Houston Rockets on Friday night.
Thomas, an analyst for NBA TV, took issue with James' alleged lack of professionalism as he warmed up.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM
April 11, 2025; Los Angeles, California: Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) passes against the Houston Rockets during the first half at Crypto.com Arena. (Jonathan Hui-Imagn Images)
"I just totally 100% object to this," Thomas said. "If I were the GM or coach, I would never let one of my players walk out on the floor looking like this. I mean, we're a professional NBA league. We ain't summer league. We ain't at the YMCA."
Thomas agreed with Steve Smith when he said he thought the NBA should go back to making players wear suits.
"I just think the professionalism in our NBA league has diminished so much," he continued. "Look, I like LeBron, I'm a fan of his so forth and so on. But to walk out on the floor before a game with no shirt on and shoot – I mean come on man. Where we at? What we doing?
EX-NBA STARS CALL OUT JA MORANT OVER GRENADE CELEBRATION
February 20, 2022; Cleveland, Ohio: NBA great Isiah Thomas is honored for being selected to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team during halftime in the 2022 NBA All-Star Game at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. (Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports)
"Adam Silver, if you want to fine somebody, fine that. Put a fine on that."
James appeared to respond to Thomas' comment in a post on X after the Lakers won the game, 140-109.
"Man I was going to say something but it's useless at this point in my career! Anyways more important CONGRATULATIONS JJ on a 50 win season in the WEST & Post Season nod!" he wrote.
Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James, left, dunks as Houston Rockets center Jock Landale defends during the first half of an NBA basketball game Friday, April 11, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
James had 14 points, eight assists and four rebounds.
Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
Ryan Gaydos is a senior editor for Fox News Digital.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox.
By entering your email and clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to the Fox News Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and
agree to receive content and promotional communications from Fox News. You understand that you can
opt-out at any time.
Subscribed
You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter!
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2025 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by
Factset. Powered and implemented by
FactSet Digital Solutions.
Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by
Refinitiv Lipper.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2025 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.
Tom Brady threw footballs to fans at the American Dream in New Jersey as he opened up a new CardVault store at the mall.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Tom Brady rarely heard cheers when he was in New Jersey playing in the NFL but the environment at the American Dream on Friday night was completely different than what it was at MetLife Stadium during his career.
The seven-time Super Bowl champion opened a CardVault by Tom Brady premium trading card store at the American Dream. It's the first flagship store located outside of the Boston Area.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM
Tom Brady throws footballs into the crowd at the American Dream. (Fox News Digital)
Brady fans wearing New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers gear flocked to the enormous shopping center and filled all three levels just to get a glimpse of the legendary quarterback. He spoke to co-founder Chris Costa for a brief Q&A session before he had a treat for the fans.
He showed off his legendary arm, firing footballs into the crowd – not showing any signs of rust. Fans were extremely excited about the possibility of catching a football from one of the greatest players of all time.
Brady spoke about some of the favorite trading cards in his collections. One, a dual autograph with San Francisco 49ers legend Joe Montana, and the other he has of teammates Randy Moss, Julian Edelman, Rob Gronkowski and Wes Welker.
He talked about his admiration for Montana first.
Tom Brady throws footballs into the crowd. (Fox News Digital)
TOM BRADY OPENS CARDVAULT SPORTS CARD STORE AT AMERICAN DREAM, OPTIMISTIC ABOUT HOBBY
"The San Francisco 49ers were the team to beat in the NFL and they had a tremendous run from the early 80s through the late 90s – they were a dynasty. When you grow up in the Bay Area and you have that, it gives you a lot of reasons to love sports and love football," he said. "And that's when I fell in love with football, because of Joe Montana. And he's still my idol today.
"He was an incredible quarterback and he set the tone every single day for what greatness really looks like. And every pro football player, every quarterback that's ever played in the NFL understands how talented and how poised this guy was. This guy was a champion – four Super Bowl wins in for Super Bowl appearances. Nobody performed in Super Bowls as great as this guy and the fact that I'm on a card with him signed, it had to be in my collection."
Brady then talked about how he needed to rely on his teammates when the Patriots came back to defeat the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI.
The Patriots famously trailed 28-3 when they stormed back to stun the Falcons and win the Super Bowl title in overtime.
Tom Brady speaks to fans at a Q&A in the American Dream. (Fox News Digital)
Tom Brady opens CardVauly by Tom Brady at the American Dream in East Rutherford, NJ. (Fox News Digital)
"It's 2016, the end of the season, came down to one game against the Falcons and it was pretty rough being down 28-3," he recalled. "But I had a group of teammates that never quit and we did fight to the end. We played our butts off for the last 18 minutes of that game and went from what would have been the toughest loss of my career to the greatest victory that maybe the sport has even seen.
"And we get to make jokes with Falcons fans for the rest of our lives."
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
CardVault by Tom Brady offers rare and premium trading cards for hobbyists who want to elevate their collections. The store also provides an environment for collectors of all kinds.
Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
Ryan Gaydos is a senior editor for Fox News Digital.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox.
By entering your email and clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to the Fox News Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and
agree to receive content and promotional communications from Fox News. You understand that you can
opt-out at any time.
Subscribed
You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter!
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2025 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by
Factset. Powered and implemented by
FactSet Digital Solutions.
Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by
Refinitiv Lipper.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
A family from Spain was about to celebrate the ninth birthday of one of their children when their sightseeing helicopter broke apart in midair and crashed into the Hudson River between New York City and New Jersey.
Six people were killed when a sightseeing helicopter broke apart and crashed into the Hudson River between New York City and New Jersey. Pieces of the aircraft could be seen floating in the river Friday as divers resumed searching for clues as to the cause of Thursday's crash.
Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board investigate the wreckage of a site seeing helicopter, Friday, April 11, 2025, that crashed into the Hudson River a day earlier in Jersey City, N.J. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
A New York Police Department scuba team prepares to dive, Friday, April 11, 2025, where a sightseeing helicopter crashed a day earlier into the Hudson River in Jersey City, N.J. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
A New York Police Department scuba team exits the water, Friday, April 11, 2025, after diving at the site where a sightseeing helicopter crashed a day earlier into the Hudson River in Jersey City, N.J. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City sightseeing helicopter broke apart and crashed into the Hudson River near the New Jersey shoreline, killing the pilot and a Spanish family of five who were on board.
Pieces of the aircraft could be seen floating in the river on Friday as divers searched for clues about what caused the Thursday crash. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating. It's the latest in a series of recent aircraft crashes and close calls that have left some people worried about the safety of flying in the U.S.
Here's what we know so far:
Witnesses described seeing the helicopter's tail and main rotor breaking away and smoke pouring from the spinning chopper before it slammed into the water.
The helicopter took off from a downtown heliport at around 3 p.m. and flew north along the Manhattan skyline before heading south toward the Statue of Liberty. Less than 18 minutes into the flight, parts of the aircraft were seen tumbling into the water.
Rescue boats circled the submerged aircraft within minutes of impact, and recovery crews hoisted the mangled helicopter out of the water just after 8 p.m. using a floating crane.
The bodies were also recovered from the river, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said.
The victims included passengers Agustin Escobar, 49, his wife, Mercè Camprubí Montal, 39, and their three children, Victor, 4, Mercedes, 8, and Agustin, 10. Mercedes would have turned 9 on Friday, officials said.
Escobar, an executive at Siemens, was in the New York area on business, and his family flew in to meet him for a few days, Steven Fulop, mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey, wrote in a post on X. Photos on the helicopter company's website show the couple and their children smiling just before taking off.
In a statement posted on the social platform X on Friday night by Joan Camprubí Montal, Montal's brother, family members said there were “no words to describe” what they are experiencing.
“These are very difficult times, but optimism and joy have always characterized our family. We want to keep the memory of a happy and united family, in the sweetest moment of their lives,” he said. “They have departed together, leaving an indelible mark among all their relatives, friends, and acquaintances.”
The pilot was Seankese Johnson, 36, a U.S. Navy veteran who received his commercial pilot's license in 2023. He had logged about 800 hours of flight time as of March, Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, told reporters Friday.
In the summer of 2023, Johnson announced on Facebook that he was flying a helicopter to fight fires for a Montana-based firm. In March this year, he changed his profile to an image of him piloting a helicopter with a view of One World Trade Center and the Manhattan skyline in the background.
His father, Louis Johnson, told The New York Times his son had moved to New York this year for “a new chapter in his life.”
Hemendy said the NTSB would not speculate on the cause of the crash so early in the investigation.
The main and rear rotors of the helicopter, along with its transmission, roof and tail structures had still not been found as of Friday, she said.
“We are very factual, and we will provide that in due course,” she said.
Justin Green, an aviation lawyer and former Marine Corps helicopter pilot, said videos of the crash suggest that a “catastrophic mechanical failure” left the pilot with no chance to save the aircraft. It is possible the helicopter's main rotors struck the tail boom, breaking it apart and causing the cabin to free fall, Green said.
Michael Roth, who owns the helicopter company, New York Helicopter, told The New York Post that he doesn't know what went wrong with the aircraft.
“The only thing I know by watching a video of the helicopter falling down, that the main rotor blades weren't on the helicopter,” he said, noting that he had never seen such a thing happen in his 30 years in the business, but that, “These are machines, and they break.”
In the last eight years, the New York Helicopter has been through a bankruptcy and faces ongoing lawsuits over alleged debts. Phones rang unanswered at the company's offices Friday.
In 2013, one of the company's helicopters suddenly lost power in midair, and the pilot maneuvered it to a safe landing on pontoons in the Hudson.
FAA data shows the helicopter that crashed Thursday was built in 2004. According to FAA records, the helicopter had a maintenance issue last September involving its transmission assembly. The helicopter had logged 12,728 total flight hours at the time, according to the records.
At least 38 people have died in helicopter crashes in New York City since 1977. A collision between a plane and a tourist helicopter over the Hudson in 2009 killed nine people, and five people died in 2018 when a charter helicopter offering “open door” flights went down into the East River.
Thursday's crash was the first for a helicopter in the city since one hit the roof of a skyscraper in 2019, killing the pilot.
Recently, seven people were killed when a medical transport plane plummeted into a Philadelphia neighborhood. The crash in January happened two days after an American Airlines jet and an Army helicopter collided in midair in Washington in the deadliest U.S. air disaster in a generation.
On Friday, three people were killed when a small plane crashed in South Florida near a major highway.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
This image provided by the U.S. National Archives shows a scan of a photo of a Japanese Zero fighter plane hitting the USS Missouri in waters off Okinawa, Japan on April 11, 1945. (U.S. National Archives photo no. 80-G-315811A via AP)
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (AP) — A Japanese pilot slammed his Zero fighter plane into the USS Missouri and ignited a fireball on April 11, 1945, during the Battle of Okinawa. The suicide attack instantly killed the pilot, but none of the battleship's crew members were badly hurt.
The Missouri's captain ordered a military burial at sea with full honors, marking one of the more unusual and little-known episodes of World War II. The pilot received the same funeral that the ship would have given one of its own sailors.
Eighty years later, the Missouri is a museum moored at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, not far from the submerged hull of the USS Arizona, which sank in the 1941 Japanese bombing that propelled the U.S. into the war.
The museum hosted a ceremony Friday marking the anniversary of the attack and burial with three of the captain's grandsons and the mayors of Honolulu and the Japanese city of Minamikyushu, from which many kamikaze pilots set off on their suicide missions.
“This is one of the ship's great stories and explains, in part, why the ship became an international symbol of peace and reconciliation within two years of its launching and rather than just an instrument of destruction,” said Michael Carr, CEO of the Battleship Missouri Memorial. “This is a remarkable story of compassion and humanity, even in the midst of one of the worst battles of World War II.”
A Japanese Zero fighter plane hits the USS Missouri in waters off Okinawa, Japan, on April 11, 1945. (U.S. National Archives)
Here is what to know about the attack on the Missouri and the pilot's burial:
Japan launched a suicide attack campaign as a last-ditch measure to push U.S. forces back late in the war, when it was hopelessly losing.
The Imperial Navy founded the Kamikaze Tokko Tai, which translates as Divine Wind Special Attack Corps, and the Imperial Army followed with its own unit. Internationally their missions are called kamikaze, but in Japan they are better known as “tokko,” which means “special attack.”
The pilots flew hastily constructed planes and even reconnaissance and training aircraft because the military lacked sufficient equipment. They took off on one-way flights with just enough fuel to reach their targets.
Kamikaze sank their first ship on Oct. 25, 1944, when a navy Zero pilot smashed into the USS St. Lo in the Philippine Sea while carrying a pair of 550-pound (250-kilogram) bombs. Britain's Imperial War Museum says they killed 7,000 Allied naval personnel in all.
Their initial 30% success rate fell to about 8% by mid-1945 due to declining crew skills, dwindling aircraft capabilities and improved U.S. defenses.
Some 4,000 pilots died on suicide missions, about 2,500 navy and more than 1,400 army, most of them university students drafted in late 1943. Many launched from Chiran, a tea farming town that today is part of Minamikyushu, a city in southwest Japan.
The missions became more intense as Japan's outlook grew more dire and the military showcased the sacrifice of the pilots to drum up patriotism and support for the war. Those who failed to take off or survived were considered a disgrace.
Despite stereotypes of kamikaze as super-patriots who volunteered to die, many were not, as shown by their carefully nuanced last letters to loved ones and survivor accounts.
“They were victims of war,” said Hiroyuki Nuriki, mayor of Minamikyushu, who noted the pilots were only around 20 years old and had futures.
“I'm sure they didn't want to die, but they still had to go,” he said. “That's the tragedy of war, and that's why we should never start a war again.”
The Battle of Okinawa lasted 82 todays, with fierce fighting on land and sea. On April 11 the Missouri fended off aerial assaults from multiple directions and already had downed one kamikaze plane when a second approached.
Anti-aircraft fire peppers the sky and sea as a Japanese Zero fighter plane heads towards the USS Missouri that was operating off Okinawa, Japan, on April 11, 1945. (U.S. National Archives photo no. 80-G-315812 via AP)
The Missouri's gunners hit the Zero fighter with a 5-inch (12.7-centimeter) round. The plane plunged, but it leveled out about 20 feet (6 meters) above the ocean and headed for the ship's starboard side.
The crash ripped off the plane's right wing, which landed on the deck. Fuel in the wing caught fire, unleashing a giant plume of smoke. The crew controlled the fire within five minutes.
The dent left by the attack is still visible on the Missouri's hull.
This April 3, 2025, photo taken at the Battleship Missouri Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii shows damage sustained when a Japanese Zero fighter flown by a kamikaze pilot rammed into the USS Missouri during the Battle of Okinawa on April 11, 1945. (AP Photo/Audrey McAvoy)
Capt. William Callaghan ordered the funeral to be held the next morning.
The crew collected red and white cloth and sewed a makeshift “rising sun” flag so he could be buried under his own colors, said Frank Clay, curator of the Battleship Missouri Memorial. They cleaned the body, wrapped it in canvas and placed it on a tray against the rail beneath the flag.
Marine rifle guards gave a gun salute and a bugler played taps. The chaplain gave an invocation and said, “Commit his body to the deep.” The crew tipped the tray and the body slid into the sea.
It was the only known instance of U.S. forces holding a military funeral for a kamikaze pilot.
U.S. service members prepare a burial at sea for the remains of a Japanese pilot whose plane hit the USS Missouri on April 11, 1945. (U.S. National Archives photo no. 80-G-315823 via AP)
Some crew members resented the ritual, while others grumbled but later came to believe it was the right thing to do, Clay said.
Ed Buffman, who was a teenage gunner's mate 2nd class on the Missouri, said he did not dwell on it: “The next day you're ready to go back and battle again.”
Little is known of Callaghan's reasons for ordering the ceremony, which appeared on the ship's daily schedule for meal times and other routine activity.
Carey Callaghan said his grandfather never spoke of the burial and his family didn't learn about it until 2001. He said his grandfather had empathy and a sense of dignity, which was reflected by the funeral.
A remarkable thing, Callaghan said, was that three years earlier, his grandfather lost his brother, Rear Adm. Daniel Callaghan, to Japanese gunfire off Guadalcanal.
Scholars believe he was Setsuo Ishino, a petty officer 2nd class in a flight training program.
The pilot took off from Kanoya air base in southern Japan with 15 others as part of the No. 5 Kenmu Squadron. Most failed to hit their targets and crashed into the ocean.
“Dear Mother, The time has come for me to blossom at last. I am fulfilling my final duty with a smile. Please don't say anything, this is for our country,” Ishino wrote. “The next time we see each other, we will be under the beautiful cherry blossom trees at Yasukuni Shrine. Please don't cry, only smile and tell me ‘well done.'”
Then-President Barack Obama referenced the burial in 2016 when he visited Pearl Harbor with then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. He told those gathered that Callaghan showed “we must resist the urge to demonize those who are different” and do so “even when hatred burns hottest.”
Thanks to Callahan's act, the Missouri museum and the Chiran Peace Museum, which displays army tokko artifacts, today are partners and help each other with exhibits.
Nuriki, the Minamikyushu mayor, said it is important to remember the events of April 11, 1945, and the tragedy of kamikaze pilots as Asia-Pacific tensions rise.
“We share the history between the former enemies that have become friends,” he said. “We should keep telling the story and think about peace.”
___
Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
President Donald Trump had an annual physical on Friday and concluded, “I think I did well,” while noting medical reports from White House doctors may not be ready until the weekend. Trump also spoke to reporters during an Air Force One flight to Florida about tariffs and Iran talks.
President Donald Trump arrives at Palm Beach International Airport, Friday, April 11, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
President Donald Trump arrives at Palm Beach International Airport, Friday, April 11, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump had an annual physical Friday and concluded, “I did well,” praising his own heart, soul and cognitive ability while noting medical reports from White House doctors may not be ready until the weekend.
The 78-year-old, who in January became the oldest in U.S. history to be sworn in as president, spent nearly five hours at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center undergoing what he called “every test you can imagine.”
President Donald Trump waves to supporters from his limousine as he arrives at Trump International Golf Club, Saturday, March 29, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
“I was there for a long time,” Trump said. “I think I did very well.”
Despite long questioning predecessor Joe Biden's physical and mental capacity, Trump has routinely kept basic facts about his own health shrouded in secrecy — shying away from traditional presidential transparency on medical issues. He said he believes the doctor's report on his latest physical would be ready on Sunday — though, if history is any indication, that may offer little more than flattery with scarce detail.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said while Trump was still being examined that a “readout from the White House physician” on his health that would be released “as soon as we possibly can” and suggested it'd be comprehensive.
Trump went straight from the examination to Air Force One to fly to Florida for the weekend. Speaking to reporters midflight, he said doctors offered him “a little bit” of advice on lifestyle changes that could improve his health, though he didn't elaborate on what that was.
”Overall, I felt I was in very good shape. A good heart, a good soul, a very good soul,” Trump said. He also noted that he took a cognitive test. “I don't know what to tell you other than I got every answer right,” he said.
He said undergoing mental acuity screening was “what the American people want” and took another shot at his predecessor, saying, “Biden refused to take it.”
The finished medical report would be the first public information on Trump's health since an assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July.
President Donald Trump speaks during an event on energy production in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Rather than release medical records at that time, Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson — a staunch supporter who served as his White House physician and once joked in the White House briefing room that Trump could live to be 200 if he had a healthier diet — wrote a memo describing a gunshot wound to Trump's right ear.
In a subsequent interview with CBS last August, Trump said he'd “very gladly” release his medical records, but never did.
Trump is three years younger than Biden. But on Inauguration Day of his second term in January, Trump was five months older than Biden was during his 2021 inauguration — making Trump the nation's oldest president to be sworn into office.
Presidents have privacy rights protecting their medical records just like ordinary citizens, and that means they have leeway over what details are released. Modern annual physicals, though, have often played key roles in offering the public a sense of the commander-in-chief's health.
Trump has long opted for offering few substantive details about his health. Before Jackson's memo, the public hadn't seen key details since November 2023, when Dr. Bruce A. Aronwald released a letter to coincide with Biden's 81st birthday, saying Trump was in “excellent” physical and mental health.
The letter, posted on Trump's social media platform, lacks the basics — such as the Republican's weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels, or the results of any test. Instead, Aronwald wrote that he'd examined Trump that fall and found his “physical exams were well within the normal range and his cognitive exams were exceptional,” while also noting that Trump had “reduced his weight.”
CORRECTS TO WALTER REED NATIONAL MILITARY MEDICAL CENTER - President Donald Trump arrives at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for his annual physical appointment, Friday, April 11, 2025, in Bethesda, Md. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Trump was treated at Walter Reed, located in Bethesda, Maryland, outside Washington, for his serious bout with the coronavirus in 2020. During that time, Trump's physician offered a rosy prognosis on his condition, though White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said some of Trump's vital signs were “very concerning.”
After Trump recovered, more details emerged that he had been sicker than he'd let on.
In November 2019, meanwhile, Trump's trip to Walter Reed for a physical was omitted from his public schedule, breaking the White House protocol of giving advance public notice of them.
The visit was revealed three days later, with Trump disclosing that he'd had a “very routine physical.” The White House released a subsequent statement from the president's then-personal physician, U.S. Navy Cmdr. Sean Conley, saying it had been a “planned interim checkup” kept “off the record” due to scheduling uncertainties.
Arguably, Trump's most famous past comments about his own health came during a television interview in July 2020, when he listed off “Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV” while attempting to demonstrate his cognitive abilities.
Trump said that a collection of those five nouns, or ones like them, stated in order, demonstrated mental fitness and were part of a cognitive test he had aced. The president was asked about that test again on Air Force One on Friday and responded, “It's a pretty well known test.”
“Whatever it is, I got every one — I got it all right,” he said.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2025 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.
USS Stockdale, assigned to the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group, returned from a seven-month deployment to the 3rd, 5th, and 7th fleet area of operations on Feb. 21, 2025. (Credit: U.S. Navy/ Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Paul LeClair)
The Navy recently deployed another warship, which successfully repelled multiple Iranian-backed Houthi attacks, to secure the southern border.
USS Stockdale, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, left Naval Base San Diego on Friday to support U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) southern border operations, in accordance with President Donald Trump's recent executive orders.
The executive orders included a national emergency declaration and clarification of the military's role in protecting the territorial integrity of the U.S.
NAVY DEPLOYS ADDITIONAL WARSHIP TO CURB ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION, DRUG SMUGGLING AT THE SOUTHERN BORDER
The guided-missile destroyer USS Stockdale (DDG 106) underway. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Andrew Schneider/Released)
"Stockdale's departure reinforces the Navy's role in the Department of Defense's coordinated efforts to comply with the order," according to a statement from the Navy.
The ship will continue operations with an embarked U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment.
In February, Stockdale returned to San Diego after a seven-month independent deployment to the U.S. 3rd, 5th and 7th Fleet areas of operation.
PENTAGON DEPLOYS NAVY WARSHIP THAT FOUGHT HOUTHIS TO NEW US SOUTHERN BORDER MISSION IN LINE WITH TRUMP ORDER
USS Stockdale pulls into Naval Base San Diego on Feb. 21. (U.S. Navy video by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Paul LeClair)
It joined the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and remained in 5th Fleet following the departure of the ABECSG.
While in the 5th Fleet, Stockdale "successfully repelled multiple Iranian-backed Houthi attacks" during transits of the Bab el-Mandeb strait and escorted operations of U.S.-flagged vessels in the Gulf of Aden, according to the Navy.
It also engaged and defeated one-way attack uncrewed aerial-ship cruise missiles, according to officials.
TRUMP'S USE OF WARSHIP FOR BORDER ENFORCEMENT A ‘SMART' USE OF MILITARY FORCE, EXPERT SAYS
The guided missile destroyer USS Stockdale (DDG 106) steams through the Arabian Sea. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Phil Ladouceur/Released)
Stockdale sustained no damage and its personnel were uninjured.
Stockdale will join the USS Spruance and USS Gravely, two other Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers, which were sent to the border in March, Fox News Digital previously reported.
CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
"As the DoD's lead for implementing border-related executive orders, USNORTHCOM continues to support critical Department of Homeland Security capabilities gaps, with Stockdale making a vital contribution to these efforts," the Navy said.
Alexandra Koch is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital. Prior to joining Fox News, Alexandra covered breaking news, crime, religion, and the military in the southeast.
The hottest stories ripped from the headlines, from crime to courts, legal and scandal.
By entering your email and clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to the Fox News Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and
agree to receive content and promotional communications from Fox News. You understand that you can
opt-out at any time.
Subscribed
You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter!
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2025 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by
Factset. Powered and implemented by
FactSet Digital Solutions.
Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by
Refinitiv Lipper.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil can be kicked out of the U.S. an immigration judge in Louisiana found Friday during a hearing over the legality of deporting the activist who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
Student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil is seen at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on the Columbia University campus in New York, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
Clergy hug outside the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena, La., after an immigration hearing for Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University activist facing deportation for his role in pro-Palestinian campus protests, Friday, April 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Human rights attorney Sabrine Mohamed reads a message from Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University activist facing deportation for his role in pro-Palestinian campus protests, after his immigration hearing, outside the Central Louisiana Ice Processing Center in Jena, La., Friday, April 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Visitors walk into the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena, La., during an immigration hearing for Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University activist facing deportation for his role in pro-Palestinian campus protests, Friday, April 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
A supporter holds a sign outside the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena, La., after an immigration hearing for Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University activist facing deportation for his role in pro-Palestinian campus protests, Friday, April 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Security personnel stand post outside the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena, La., during an immigration hearing for Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University activist facing deportation for his role in pro-Palestinian campus protests, Friday, April 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Clergy stand during a news conference of supporters outside the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena, La., after an immigration hearing for Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University activist facing deportation for his role in pro-Palestinian campus protests, Friday, April 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Supporters hug outside the Central Louisiana Ice Processing Center in Jena, La., after an immigration hearing for Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University activist facing deportation for his role in pro-Palestinian campus protests, Friday, April 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Security personnel stand guard outside the Central Louisiana Ice Processing Center in Jena, La., during an immigration hearing for Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University activist facing deportation for his role in pro-Palestinian campus protests, Friday, April 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
A supporter who identified himself as Palestinian is hugged by a fellow supporter after speaking at a news conference outside the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena, La., after an immigration hearing for Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University activist facing deportation for his role in pro-Palestinian campus protests, Friday, April 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
JENA, La. (AP) — Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil can be forced out of the country as a national security risk, an immigration judge in Louisiana ruled Friday after lawyers argued the legality of deporting the activist who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
The government's contention that Khalil's presence in the U.S. posed “potentially serious foreign policy consequences” satisfied requirements for deportation, Immigration Judge Jamee E. Comans said at a hearing in Jena.
Visitors walk into the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena, La., during an immigration hearing for Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University activist facing deportation for his role in pro-Palestinian campus protests, Friday, April 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Comans said the government had “established by clear and convincing evidence that he is removable.”
After the immigration court hearing, Khalil attorney Marc Van Der Hout told a New Jersey federal judge that Khalil will appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals within weeks.
“So nothing is going to happen quickly,” he said.
Addressing the judge at the end of the immigration hearing, Khalil recalled her saying at a hearing earlier in the week that “there's nothing more important to this court than due process rights and fundamental fairness.”
“Clearly what we witnessed today, neither of these principles were present today or in this whole process,” he added. “This is exactly why the Trump administration has sent me to the court, 1,000 miles away from my family.”
Van Der Hout, also criticized the hearing's fairness.
“Today, we saw our worst fears play out: Mahmoud was subject to a charade of due process, a flagrant violation of his right to a fair hearing, and a weaponization of immigration law to suppress dissent,” Van Der Hout said in a statement.
Khalil, a legal U.S. resident, was detained by federal immigration agents March 8 in the lobby of his university-owned apartment, the first arrest under President Donald Trump's promised crackdown on students who joined campus protests against the war in Gaza.
Within a day, he was flown across the country to an immigration detention center in Jena, far from his attorneys and wife, a U.S. citizen due to give birth soon.
Khalil's lawyers have challenged the legality of his detention, saying the Trump administration is trying to block free speech protected by the First Amendment.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has cited a rarely used statute to justify Khalil's deportation, which gives him power to deport those who pose “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”
At Friday's hearing, Van Der Hout told the judge that the government's submissions to the court prove the attempt to deport his client “has nothing to do with foreign policy” and said the government is trying to deport him for protected speech.
Khalil, a Palestinian born and raised in Syria after his grandparents were forcibly removed from their ancestral home in Tiberias, isn't accused of breaking any laws during the protests at Columbia.
The government, however, has said noncitizens who participate in such demonstrations should be expelled from the country for expressing views that the administration considers to be antisemitic and “pro-Hamas,” referring to the Palestinian militant group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Khalil, a 30-year-old international affairs graduate student, had served as a negotiator and spokesperson for student activists at Columbia University who took over a campus lawn last spring to protest Israel's military campaign in Gaza.
Student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil is seen at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on the Columbia University campus in New York, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
The university summoned police to dismantle the encampment after a small group of protesters seized an administration building. Khalil is not accused of participating in the building occupation and wasn't among those arrested.
But images of his maskless face at protests and his willingness to share his name with reporters have drawn scorn from those who viewed the protesters and their demands as antisemitic. The White House accused Khalil of “siding with terrorists” but has yet to cite any support for the claim.
Federal judges in New York and New Jersey have ordered the government not to deport Khalil while his case plays out in multiple courts.
The Trump administration has said it is taking at least $400 million in federal funding away from research programs at Columbia and its medical center to punish it for not adequately fighting what it considers to be antisemitism on campus.
Some Jewish students and faculty complained about being harassed during the demonstrations or ostracized because of their faith or their support of Israel.
Immigration authorities have cracked down on other critics of Israel on college campuses, arresting a Georgetown University scholar who had spoken out on social media about the Israel-Gaza war, canceling the student visas of some protesters and deporting a Brown University professor who they said had attended the Lebanon funeral of a leader of Hezbollah, another militant group that has fought with Israel.
___
Brumback reported from Atlanta. Associated Press reporter Larry Neumeister in New York contributed.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Credit Cards
Loans
Banking
Mortgages
Insurance
Credit Monitoring
Personal Finance
Small Business
Taxes
Help for Low Credit Scores
Investing
SELECT
All Credit Cards
Find the Credit Card for You
Best Credit Cards
Best Rewards Credit Cards
Best Travel Credit Cards
Best 0% APR Credit Cards
Best Balance Transfer Credit Cards
Best Cash Back Credit Cards
Best Credit Card Welcome Bonuses
Best Credit Cards to Build Credit
SELECT
All Loans
Find the Best Personal Loan for You
Best Personal Loans
Best Debt Consolidation Loans
Best Loans to Refinance Credit Card Debt
Best Loans with Fast Funding
Best Small Personal Loans
Best Large Personal Loans
Best Personal Loans to Apply Online
Best Student Loan Refinance
SELECT
All Banking
Find the Savings Account for You
Best High Yield Savings Accounts
Best Big Bank Savings Accounts
Best Big Bank Checking Accounts
Best No Fee Checking Accounts
No Overdraft Fee Checking Accounts
Best Checking Account Bonuses
Best Money Market Accounts
Best CDs
Best Credit Unions
SELECT
All Mortgages
Best Mortgages
Best Mortgages for Small Down Payment
Best Mortgages for No Down Payment
Best Mortgages with No Origination Fee
Best Mortgages for Average Credit Score
Adjustable Rate Mortgages
Affording a Mortgage
SELECT
All Insurance
Best Life Insurance
Best Homeowners Insurance
Best Renters Insurance
Best Car Insurance
Travel Insurance
SELECT
All Credit Monitoring
Best Credit Monitoring Services
Best Identity Theft Protection
How to Boost Your Credit Score
Credit Repair Services
SELECT
All Personal Finance
Best Budgeting Apps
Best Expense Tracker Apps
Best Money Transfer Apps
Best Resale Apps and Sites
Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) Apps
Best Debt Relief
SELECT
All Small Business
Best Small Business Savings Accounts
Best Small Business Checking Accounts
Best Credit Cards for Small Business
Best Small Business Loans
Best Tax Software for Small Business
SELECT
All Taxes
Filing For Free
Best Tax Software
Best Tax Software for Small Businesses
Tax Refunds
Tax Brackets
Tax Tips
Tax By State
Tax Payment Plans
SELECT
All Help for Low Credit Scores
Best Credit Cards for Bad Credit
Best Personal Loans for Bad Credit
Best Debt Consolidation Loans for Bad Credit
Personal Loans if You Don't Have Credit
Best Credit Cards for Building Credit
Personal Loans for 580 Credit Score or Lower
Personal Loans for 670 Credit Score or Lower
Best Mortgages for Bad Credit
Best Hardship Loans
How to Boost Your Credit Score
SELECT
All Investing
Best IRA Accounts
Best Roth IRA Accounts
Best Investing Apps
Best Free Stock Trading Platforms
Best Robo-Advisors
Index Funds
Mutual Funds
ETFs
Bonds
Iran and the United States will hold more negotiations next week over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program, Iranian state television reported Saturday at the end of the first round of talks between the two countries since President Donald Trump returned to the White House.
American officials offered no immediate comment on the talks. However, Iran's state-run broadcaster revealed that U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi "briefly spoke" together — the first time the two nations have done that since the Obama administration.
Tehran likely speeded out its public announcement ahead of a possible Trump post on a social media. But declaring that the two sides spoke face-to-face — even if briefly — suggests the negotiations went well even to Iranian state TV, which long has been controlled by hard-liners. Araghchi announced the next round would take place Saturday, April 19.
This first round of talks began at around 3:30 p.m. local. The two sides spoke for over two hours at a location in the outskirts of Muscat, Oman's capital, ending the talks around 5:50 p.m. local time. The convoy believed to be carrying Witkoff returned to Muscat before disappearing into traffic around a neighborhood that is home to the U.S. Embassy.
The stakes of the negotiations couldn't be higher for the two nations closing in on half a century of enmity. Trump repeatedly has threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran's nuclear program if a deal isn't reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.
Associated Press journalists saw a convoy believed to be carrying Witkoff leave the Omani Foreign Ministry on Saturday afternoon and then speed off into the outskirts of Muscat. The convoy went into a compound and a few minutes later, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei wrote on the social platform X that the "indirect talks" had begun.
Afterward, Araghchi described the meeting as constructive to Iranian state TV, with four rounds of messages exchanged during the indirect portion.
"Neither we nor the other side are interested in fruitless negotiations — so-called 'talks for the sake of talks,' wasting time, or drawn-out, exhausting negotiations," he said. "Both sides, including the Americans, have said that their goal is also to reach an agreement in the shortest possible time. However, that will certainly not be an easy task."
That the two men spoke face-to-face satisfied a demand of the Americans. Trump and Witkoff both had described the talks as being "direct."
"I think our position begins with dismantlement of your program. That is our position today," Witkoff told The Wall Street Journal before his trip. "That doesn't mean, by the way, that at the margin we're not going to find other ways to find compromise between the two countries."
He added: "Where our red line will be, there can't be weaponization of your nuclear capability."
Araghchi, however, sought to downplay the encounter as "a brief initial conversation, greetings and polite exchanges" — likely to avoid drawing the anger of hard-liners in Iran.
Badr al-Busaidi, Oman's foreign minister who shuttled between the two sides, said the countries have a "shared aim of concluding a fair and binding agreement."
"I would like to thank my two colleagues for this engagement, which took place in a friendly atmosphere conducive to bridging viewpoints and ultimately achieving regional and global peace, security and stability," al-Busaidi wrote on X. "We will continue to work together and put further efforts to assist in arriving at this goal."
While the U.S. side can offer sanctions relief for Iran's beleaguered economy, it remains unclear just how much Iran will be willing to concede. Under the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran could only maintain a small stockpile of uranium enriched to 3.67%. Today, Tehran's stockpile could allow it to build multiple nuclear weapons if it so chooses and it has some material enriched up to 60%, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels. Judging from negotiations since Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the deal in 2018, Iran will likely ask to keep enriching uranium up to at least 20%.
One thing it won't do is give up its program entirely. That makes the proposal of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of a so-called Libyan solution — "you go in, blow up the facilities, dismantle all the equipment, under American supervision, American execution" — unworkable.
Iranians including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have held up what ultimately happened to the late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was killed with his own gun by rebels in the country's 2011 Arab Spring uprising, as a warning about what can happen when you trust the United States.
Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you.
Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox
Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.
© 2025 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Division of NBCUniversal
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes.
Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data
and Analysis.
Data also provided by
Credit Cards
Loans
Banking
Mortgages
Insurance
Credit Monitoring
Personal Finance
Small Business
Taxes
Help for Low Credit Scores
Investing
SELECT
All Credit Cards
Find the Credit Card for You
Best Credit Cards
Best Rewards Credit Cards
Best Travel Credit Cards
Best 0% APR Credit Cards
Best Balance Transfer Credit Cards
Best Cash Back Credit Cards
Best Credit Card Welcome Bonuses
Best Credit Cards to Build Credit
SELECT
All Loans
Find the Best Personal Loan for You
Best Personal Loans
Best Debt Consolidation Loans
Best Loans to Refinance Credit Card Debt
Best Loans with Fast Funding
Best Small Personal Loans
Best Large Personal Loans
Best Personal Loans to Apply Online
Best Student Loan Refinance
SELECT
All Banking
Find the Savings Account for You
Best High Yield Savings Accounts
Best Big Bank Savings Accounts
Best Big Bank Checking Accounts
Best No Fee Checking Accounts
No Overdraft Fee Checking Accounts
Best Checking Account Bonuses
Best Money Market Accounts
Best CDs
Best Credit Unions
SELECT
All Mortgages
Best Mortgages
Best Mortgages for Small Down Payment
Best Mortgages for No Down Payment
Best Mortgages with No Origination Fee
Best Mortgages for Average Credit Score
Adjustable Rate Mortgages
Affording a Mortgage
SELECT
All Insurance
Best Life Insurance
Best Homeowners Insurance
Best Renters Insurance
Best Car Insurance
Travel Insurance
SELECT
All Credit Monitoring
Best Credit Monitoring Services
Best Identity Theft Protection
How to Boost Your Credit Score
Credit Repair Services
SELECT
All Personal Finance
Best Budgeting Apps
Best Expense Tracker Apps
Best Money Transfer Apps
Best Resale Apps and Sites
Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) Apps
Best Debt Relief
SELECT
All Small Business
Best Small Business Savings Accounts
Best Small Business Checking Accounts
Best Credit Cards for Small Business
Best Small Business Loans
Best Tax Software for Small Business
SELECT
All Taxes
Filing For Free
Best Tax Software
Best Tax Software for Small Businesses
Tax Refunds
Tax Brackets
Tax Tips
Tax By State
Tax Payment Plans
SELECT
All Help for Low Credit Scores
Best Credit Cards for Bad Credit
Best Personal Loans for Bad Credit
Best Debt Consolidation Loans for Bad Credit
Personal Loans if You Don't Have Credit
Best Credit Cards for Building Credit
Personal Loans for 580 Credit Score or Lower
Personal Loans for 670 Credit Score or Lower
Best Mortgages for Bad Credit
Best Hardship Loans
How to Boost Your Credit Score
SELECT
All Investing
Best IRA Accounts
Best Roth IRA Accounts
Best Investing Apps
Best Free Stock Trading Platforms
Best Robo-Advisors
Index Funds
Mutual Funds
ETFs
Bonds
Apple's iPhone and other technology hardware, from chips to PCs, received a China tariff reprieve from President Trump on Saturday, but for much of the U.S. economy and small business owners, the damage will soon be irreversible from the 145% tariffs being imposed on Chinese imports.
Canceled freight orders and abandoned freight from China are quickly becoming the norm in the trade war between the U.S. and China, according to supply chain executives, as businesses across U.S. industries put a full stop on container exports, with the tariffs hitting like a ton of bricks.
"Furniture producers in China have seen a complete halt in orders from U.S. importers, and we're hearing the same across toys, apparel, footwear, and sports equipment," said Alan Murphy, founder and CEO of Sea-Intelligence.
"We had the same across Southeast Asia, but after the 90-day reprieve those bookings have restarted," said Brian Bourke, chief commercial officer for SEKO Logistics, while the cancelled bookings for containers out of China continue.
"Almost everything is on hold as it relates to China business," said Alan Baer, CEO of OL USA.
"Trump's 145% total tariff on Chinese imports would stop most trade between the U.S. and China," economist Erica York, vice president of federal tax policy at the Tax Foundation's Center for Federal Tax Policy, said on Thursday on CNBC's "The Exchange."
"There may still be some things without any substitutes that companies just have to foot the bill, but for the most part, that cuts it off," York said.
As it became clear over the last week that China would remain the main target of the Trump administration's tariffs policy — after the 90-day reprieve was granted to all other countries expected to be hit with new tariffs — the message that came through is that lower-margin goods cannot sustainably be produced in China. The new exemption for technology can be partially explained by the how the supply chain works, but also reinforces where the greatest pain will be felt.
"Higher-margin and more technical goods, such as electronics, machinery, medical equipment, and pharmaceuticals cannot easily move sourcing, as setting up highly technical manufacturing takes time and considerable capital," Murphy said.
Before the tech tariff exemption, he says producers of these goods were analyzing what components could be sourced elsewhere, while primarily looking to draw down U.S. inventories in the short term. There is a concerted effort to move production to South East Asia, primarily Vietnam, or India. Lowering prices to Europe to keep production going, or outright closing down production lines, were also being considered.
Stephen Lamar, CEO of the American Apparel & Footwear Association, said the sudden policy changes and high tariffs are disrupting supply chains at a level not seen since the pandemic.
"With prohibitively high tariff levels on U.S. imports from China, many companies have no choice but to cancel orders," said Lamar. "The constant switchbacking means new tariff costs are not accurately presented or predictable until the goods arrive at the port, and the high rates are generating bills that can't be paid. That is not a risk or burden small business can sustain."
Lamar said with no alternative sourcing on the horizon for many of these companies, particularly small businesses, this sudden lack of orders will immediately translate into lost sales and widespread product shortages. "An extension of the trade war pause to U.S. imports from China is needed now before the damage is irreversible," Lamar said.
Integrated logistics giant Maersk has warned that on the container liner side of its business, the drop in bookings coupled with the possibility of shipbuilding fees on "Chinese" vessels also going into effect next week, will result in a "massive restructuring of all liner services to North America."
"And it will take months to sort out the mess, with congestion and freight rate spikes for months to come," Maersk wrote to clients.
Murphy said across all of the Chinese-based producers his firm has spoken with, none are currently actively looking to move production to the U.S., with part of the reason being lack of understanding about the administration's ultimate aims.
"The biggest concern here is a complete uncertainty of the actual end-game of the Trump administration," he said. "No one will consider massive investments in U.S. production if tariffs are merely a ploy to negotiate better trade deals. If the administration is actually pursuing a goal of U.S. reindustrialization, then the long-term plan for tariffs has to be clear, and less talk of '4D chess' and 'Art of the Deal,'" he said. "The Yo-yo tactic of changing tariff rates on a daily basis does nothing but create uncertainty," he added.
Holding on freight processing is one way of mitigating the impact of tariffs. Logistics providers can offer bonded storage, which allows freight to come into the U.S. without being charged a tariff for a certain amount of time. Use of foreign trade zones and other methods of delaying transits allow for the temporary deferral of trade duties.
"The current circumstances are unprecedented," said Karsten Kildahl, chief commercial officer at A.P. Moller-Maersk.
The fate of abandoned ocean and air freight — cargo that isn't claimed or paid for by the shipping company or the freight forwarder responsible for paying customs on behalf of their client — isn't clear and rules change port to port, and contract to contract.
Port officials tell CNBC they are not typically notified of abandoned cargo. The New York Terminal Conference Agreement states that cargo remaining on the terminal in excess of 30 days will be considered as abandoned and sold for collection of demurrage charges due to the NYTC — charges assessed for leaving freight at terminals for an excessive period of time. It also says the ultimate responsibility of the costs usually depends on specific shipping contracts. "If the BL (Bill of Lading) hasn't been transferred to the consignee, it is the shipper's responsibility. The shipper could decide to take the cargo back (i.e. re-export the cargo), destroy or donate it."
Shippers usually prepare a "letter of abandonment" for U.S. Customs purposes for the cargo to be sold or auctioned, with proceeds from the sale/auction paying any expenses, such as use of container and chassis, and with the balance for the terminal.
The terminal can move abandoned cargo to a bonded warehouse or leave it on the terminal and sell it from there. There is a market for buying abandoned freight. Companies such as JS Cargo & Freight Disposal, FR8 Auctions or Merchandise USA buy abandoned cargo and then sell it in discount stores, outlets, liquidators, online sellers like Amazon, drug chains, variety outlets, redemption centers, liquidators, and closeout buyers.
Maersk tells CNBC many shippers are deploying a "wait and see"-approach and in a recent alert to clients wrote that until there is a clearer picture, customers will be cautious about their inventory levels and continue exploring ways to build additional flexibility into their supply chains. Across its global network of warehouses, distribution centers, port terminals, vessels, and cargo planes, "extra flexibility" is what many clients are seeking now, he said.
Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you.
Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox
Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.
© 2025 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Division of NBCUniversal
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes.
Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data
and Analysis.
Data also provided by
Credit Cards
Loans
Banking
Mortgages
Insurance
Credit Monitoring
Personal Finance
Small Business
Taxes
Help for Low Credit Scores
Investing
SELECT
All Credit Cards
Find the Credit Card for You
Best Credit Cards
Best Rewards Credit Cards
Best Travel Credit Cards
Best 0% APR Credit Cards
Best Balance Transfer Credit Cards
Best Cash Back Credit Cards
Best Credit Card Welcome Bonuses
Best Credit Cards to Build Credit
SELECT
All Loans
Find the Best Personal Loan for You
Best Personal Loans
Best Debt Consolidation Loans
Best Loans to Refinance Credit Card Debt
Best Loans with Fast Funding
Best Small Personal Loans
Best Large Personal Loans
Best Personal Loans to Apply Online
Best Student Loan Refinance
SELECT
All Banking
Find the Savings Account for You
Best High Yield Savings Accounts
Best Big Bank Savings Accounts
Best Big Bank Checking Accounts
Best No Fee Checking Accounts
No Overdraft Fee Checking Accounts
Best Checking Account Bonuses
Best Money Market Accounts
Best CDs
Best Credit Unions
SELECT
All Mortgages
Best Mortgages
Best Mortgages for Small Down Payment
Best Mortgages for No Down Payment
Best Mortgages with No Origination Fee
Best Mortgages for Average Credit Score
Adjustable Rate Mortgages
Affording a Mortgage
SELECT
All Insurance
Best Life Insurance
Best Homeowners Insurance
Best Renters Insurance
Best Car Insurance
Travel Insurance
SELECT
All Credit Monitoring
Best Credit Monitoring Services
Best Identity Theft Protection
How to Boost Your Credit Score
Credit Repair Services
SELECT
All Personal Finance
Best Budgeting Apps
Best Expense Tracker Apps
Best Money Transfer Apps
Best Resale Apps and Sites
Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) Apps
Best Debt Relief
SELECT
All Small Business
Best Small Business Savings Accounts
Best Small Business Checking Accounts
Best Credit Cards for Small Business
Best Small Business Loans
Best Tax Software for Small Business
SELECT
All Taxes
Filing For Free
Best Tax Software
Best Tax Software for Small Businesses
Tax Refunds
Tax Brackets
Tax Tips
Tax By State
Tax Payment Plans
SELECT
All Help for Low Credit Scores
Best Credit Cards for Bad Credit
Best Personal Loans for Bad Credit
Best Debt Consolidation Loans for Bad Credit
Personal Loans if You Don't Have Credit
Best Credit Cards for Building Credit
Personal Loans for 580 Credit Score or Lower
Personal Loans for 670 Credit Score or Lower
Best Mortgages for Bad Credit
Best Hardship Loans
How to Boost Your Credit Score
SELECT
All Investing
Best IRA Accounts
Best Roth IRA Accounts
Best Investing Apps
Best Free Stock Trading Platforms
Best Robo-Advisors
Index Funds
Mutual Funds
ETFs
Bonds
New York University's Grossman School of Medicine made history in 2018 when it became the first top-ranked medical program to offer full-tuition scholarships to all students, regardless of need or merit.
The number of applicants, predictably, spiked in the year that followed. But then, the share of incoming students considered "financially disadvantaged" sank to 3% in 2019, down from 12% in 2017, reports showed.
"Tuition-free schools can actually increase inequity," said Jamie Beaton, co-founder and CEO of Crimson Education, a college consulting firm.
"Tuition-free colleges experience surges in application numbers, dramatically boosting the competitive intensity of the admissions process," he said. "This in turn can skew admissions towards middle- or higher-income applicants who may be able to access more effective admissions resources, such as tutoring or extracurriculars."
More from Personal Finance:How to maximize your college financial aid offerTop colleges roll out more generous financial aid packagesCollege hopefuls have a new ultimate dream school
"Our goal for tuition-free education was to clear pathways for the best and brightest future doctors from all backgrounds to attend NYU Grossman School of Medicine without the stress of taking on the average $200,000 in debt medical students typically incur," Arielle Sklar, a spokesperson for the school told CNBC. "This allows students to align career choices with their passions in medicine rather than immediate economic pressures."
Sklar, however, did not directly address the issue of declining low-income student enrollment.
Since the initiative by NYU's Grossman School of Medicine, other top schools and programs have embraced the tuition-free model.
Harvard University was the latest undergraduate school to announce that it will be tuition free for undergraduates with family incomes of up to $200,000 beginning in the 2025-26 academic year, following similar initiatives at Vanderbilt University, Dartmouth, University of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Nearly two dozen more schools have also introduced "no-loan" policies, which means student loans are eliminated altogether from their financial aid packages.
In the case of Harvard, "you may see a trend of families with income closer to $200,000 outcompeting low-income students for slots," Beaton said. "This may shift the proportion of Harvard students from the top 1% of income down, but it might also decrease the share of low-income students to the benefit of middle or middle-upper income families."
More generous aid packages and tuition-free policies remove the most significant financial barrier to higher education but attract more higher-income applicants, other experts also say.
"Even though it sounds like lower-income students are going to be advantaged, it's the middle class that's going to win here," said Christopher Rim, president and CEO of college consulting firm Command Education.
"These colleges are trying to build a well-rounded class, they need middle class and wealthy students as well," he added. "They are not trying to take fewer rich kids — they need them because they're the ones that are also going to be donating."
For lower income students, "anything that increases the number of applications will be detrimental," said Eric Greenberg, president of Greenberg Educational Group, a New York-based consulting firm.
These days, taking on too much debt is the top worry among all college-bound students, according to a survey by The Princeton Review.
College tuition has soared by 5.6% a year, on average, since 1983, significantly outpacing other household expenses, a recent study by J.P. Morgan Asset Management also found.
This rapid increase means that college costs have risen much faster than inflation, leaving families to shoulder a larger share of the expenses, experts say.
For the 2024-25 school year, tuition and fees plus room and board for a four-year private college averaged $58,600, up from $56,390 a year earlier. At four-year, in-state public colleges, it was $24,920, up from $24,080, according to the College Board.
To bridge the affordability gap, some of the nation's top institutions are in an "affordability arms race," according to Hafeez Lakhani, founder and president of Lakhani Coaching in New York.
However, overall, most institutions do not have the financial wherewithal to offer tuition-free or no-loan aid programs, added Robert Franek, The Princeton Review's editor in chief. "More than 95% of four-year colleges in the U.S. are tuition driven," he said.
Even if a school does not offer enough aid at the outset, there are other ways to bring costs down, according to James Lewis, co-founder of National Society of High School Scholars.
"Get beyond, 'I can't afford that,"' he said. "A lot of institutions will have a retail price but that's not necessarily what a student will pay."
Many schools will provide access to additional resources that can lower the total tab, he said, either through scholarships, financial aid or work-study opportunities.
Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.
Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you.
Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox
Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.
© 2025 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Division of NBCUniversal
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes.
Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data
and Analysis.
Data also provided by
Related Stories
From rising clothing and food prices to unexpected car repairs, everyday expenses are creeping up — and the prospect of government-imposed tariffs aren't helping. Add in a rocky stock market and a few losses in my retirement accounts, and it would be really easy to panic. But I haven't ... yet.
I've paid off $300,000 of debt, and as an elder millennial, I have weathered recessions and economic storms before. What's helped me the most is not overreacting out of fear.
Instead, I try my best to make calm, clear decisions based on what matters most to me — and what I want my money to do for me. Here's what I'm doing with my money right now:
Even though things are getting more expensive, I'm still spending money — I'm just not wasting it. For example, I'm a fashionista, but I haven't bought any new clothes this year, and I don't plan to anytime soon.
I'm getting creative with what I already own, thanks to what I call the "$1 rule": If I've worn it as many days as every dollar I paid for it, it's a keeper. Otherwise, it's time to repurpose it (think jeans into cutoffs) or donate it.
Instead of throwing money at "convenience inflation" — impulse buys, random Amazon finds or dupes that don't last, I'm redirecting those funds toward what truly supports my health and happiness: nutritious food, better sleep, and time-saving services that keep my stress low.
DON'T MISS: How to change careers and be happier at work
I am saying yes to buying things I use every day, like my favorite health supplements and imported items I know will see a price hike (hello, matcha!). As an Asian American, I'm especially aware that many of my household staples are imported, and I'm stocking up now ahead of potential price spikes.
One of my clients is a therapist, and she's already seeing patients drop off because of fears around job loss. I encourage my clients to keep therapy in the budget, especially now, by cutting what's not essential so they can keep what is. Emotional support is just as important as financial planning when things feel uncertain.
I'm not hoarding cash out of fear, but I am building in a little more flexibility.
I'm slightly increasing my cash reserves to prep for higher costs in essentials — especially groceries, clothing, and car repairs. I even have a little "car-buffer fund" now, just in case auto part tariffs sneak up on me.
I still keep six months of emergency expenses in a high-yield savings account, but that's because I'm debt-free, a lifestyle choice that has served me well in the last two recessions.
For my clients who still carry credit card debt, I'm urging them to pay that off now. If the interest rate is 20% and prices on goods go up another 20%, that's a recipe for cash flow chaos, even if your spending habits stay the same. Paying down credit card debt is saving 20% that would have gone to the credit card company instead of staying in your pocket.
One easy shift that's helping me and my clients: pay your credit card weekly instead of monthly. It helps catch price creep in real time. Paying your credit card bills on a monthly basis means you're still paying for purchases from up to 30 days ago.
Yes, I've looked at my retirement account recently — and yes, it stung. Watching something I've worked so hard for drop in value because of man-made economic decisions is frustrating.
But I'm not pulling my money out. I've done the panic withdrawal in the past, and I regretted it.
I'm still maxing out my 401(k), IRA, and Flexible Spending Account and sticking to my plan with dollar-cost averaging. I'm not putting extra into my brokerage right now, and this particular downturn in the stock market sped me up to what I knew I had to do all along: diversify.
We often mistake having multiple stocks as diversification, but as we saw recently, many stocks tend to move in the same direction, so it's important to look at the asset classes you are invested in.
I'm not withdrawing a dime of my retirement, and you shouldn't either unless you are prepared to pay the extra taxes and penalties. But I am shifting away from companies that don't align with my values within my retirement accounts. To me, investing isn't just about returns — it's about what kind of world you want to build.
This is the advice I've shared with my money coaching clients lately: manage your money as though the recession is already here. If I've learned anything from the last two decades, it's that uncertainty isn't going anywhere.
I've stopped waiting for the "perfect" economy to make decisions. Instead of doom scrolling, use this time to refine your budget, double down on stacking cash and paying down debt, and stay vigilant of your present progress, rather than trying to predict the future.
Bernadette Joy is the author of "CRUSH Your Money Goals″ and a personal finance expert and investor dedicated to helping you beat burnout and reach financial independence. You can find her on Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.
Do you want a new career that's higher-paying, more flexible or fulfilling? Take CNBC's new online course How to Change Careers and Be Happier at Work. Expert instructors will teach you strategies to network successfully, revamp your resume and confidently transition into your dream career. Start today and use coupon code EARLYBIRD for an introductory discount of 30% off $67 (+taxes and fees) through May 13, 2025.
Get Make It newsletters delivered to your inbox
Learn more about the world of CNBC Make It
© 2025 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Division of NBC Universal
Credit Cards
Loans
Banking
Mortgages
Insurance
Credit Monitoring
Personal Finance
Small Business
Taxes
Help for Low Credit Scores
Investing
SELECT
All Credit Cards
Find the Credit Card for You
Best Credit Cards
Best Rewards Credit Cards
Best Travel Credit Cards
Best 0% APR Credit Cards
Best Balance Transfer Credit Cards
Best Cash Back Credit Cards
Best Credit Card Welcome Bonuses
Best Credit Cards to Build Credit
SELECT
All Loans
Find the Best Personal Loan for You
Best Personal Loans
Best Debt Consolidation Loans
Best Loans to Refinance Credit Card Debt
Best Loans with Fast Funding
Best Small Personal Loans
Best Large Personal Loans
Best Personal Loans to Apply Online
Best Student Loan Refinance
SELECT
All Banking
Find the Savings Account for You
Best High Yield Savings Accounts
Best Big Bank Savings Accounts
Best Big Bank Checking Accounts
Best No Fee Checking Accounts
No Overdraft Fee Checking Accounts
Best Checking Account Bonuses
Best Money Market Accounts
Best CDs
Best Credit Unions
SELECT
All Mortgages
Best Mortgages
Best Mortgages for Small Down Payment
Best Mortgages for No Down Payment
Best Mortgages with No Origination Fee
Best Mortgages for Average Credit Score
Adjustable Rate Mortgages
Affording a Mortgage
SELECT
All Insurance
Best Life Insurance
Best Homeowners Insurance
Best Renters Insurance
Best Car Insurance
Travel Insurance
SELECT
All Credit Monitoring
Best Credit Monitoring Services
Best Identity Theft Protection
How to Boost Your Credit Score
Credit Repair Services
SELECT
All Personal Finance
Best Budgeting Apps
Best Expense Tracker Apps
Best Money Transfer Apps
Best Resale Apps and Sites
Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) Apps
Best Debt Relief
SELECT
All Small Business
Best Small Business Savings Accounts
Best Small Business Checking Accounts
Best Credit Cards for Small Business
Best Small Business Loans
Best Tax Software for Small Business
SELECT
All Taxes
Filing For Free
Best Tax Software
Best Tax Software for Small Businesses
Tax Refunds
Tax Brackets
Tax Tips
Tax By State
Tax Payment Plans
SELECT
All Help for Low Credit Scores
Best Credit Cards for Bad Credit
Best Personal Loans for Bad Credit
Best Debt Consolidation Loans for Bad Credit
Personal Loans if You Don't Have Credit
Best Credit Cards for Building Credit
Personal Loans for 580 Credit Score or Lower
Personal Loans for 670 Credit Score or Lower
Best Mortgages for Bad Credit
Best Hardship Loans
How to Boost Your Credit Score
SELECT
All Investing
Best IRA Accounts
Best Roth IRA Accounts
Best Investing Apps
Best Free Stock Trading Platforms
Best Robo-Advisors
Index Funds
Mutual Funds
ETFs
Bonds
DETROIT — As President Donald Trump's 25% tariffs on imported vehicles remain in effect despite a pullback this week on other country-based levies, analysts are expecting massive global implications for the automotive industry due to the policies.
They're expecting to see a drop in vehicle sales in the millions, higher new and used vehicle prices, and increased costs of more than $100 billion for the industry, according to research reports from Wall Street and automotive analysts.
"What we're seeing now is a structural shift, driven by policy, that's likely to be long-lasting," Felix Stellmaszek, Boston Consulting Group's global lead of automotive and mobility, told CNBC. "This may well be the most consequential year for the auto industry in history – not just because of immediate cost pressures, but because it's forcing fundamental change in how and where the industry builds."
BCG expects tariffs to add $110 billion to $160 billion on an annual run rate basis in costs to the industry, which could impact 20% of U.S. new-vehicle market revenues, increasing production costs for both U.S. and non-U.S. manufacturers.
The Center for Automotive Research, a Michigan-based nonprofit think tank, believes costs for automakers in the U.S. alone will increase by $107.7 billion. That includes $41.9 billion for Detroit automakers General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler parent Stellantis.
Both analyses take into account the 25% tariffs on imported vehicles implemented by Trump on April 3 as well as forthcoming levies of the same amount on automotive parts that are set to begin by May 3.
Automakers and suppliers may be able to bear some of the cost increases, but they're also expected to pass them along to U.S. consumers, which could in turn lower sales, according to analysts.
"We believe the tariffs as proposed will raise the cost of both importing and manufacturing vehicles in the US by at least a low to mid single digit thousand dollar level on average, and we believe it will be hard for the auto industry to fully pass this on, especially with softening consumer demand more generally," Goldman Sachs analyst Mark Delaney said in a Thursday investor note.
Goldman Sachs assumes new vehicle net prices in the U.S. will rise by roughly $2,000 to $4,000 over the next six- to 12-month timeframe to better reflect tariff costs.
Automakers have responded to the tariffs in a variety of ways. Manufacturers that are mostly domestic, such as Ford and Stellantis, have announced temporary deals for employee pricing, while others, such as British carmaker Jaguar Land Rover, have ceased U.S. shipments. Hyundai Motor also has said it would not raise prices for at least two months to ease consumer concerns.
Consumer sentiment grew even worse than anticipated in April as the expected inflation level hit its highest since 1981, a closely watched University of Michigan survey showed Friday.
Sam Abuelsamid, vice president of insights at auto advisory firm Telemetry, expects many automakers have at least a roughly two-month supply of non-tariff impacted vehicles that they will be able to sell down before needing to increase prices due to tariffs.
Telemetry expects the higher costs for production, parts and other factors to result in upward of 2 million fewer vehicles sold annually in the U.S. and Canada, which will have ripple effects on the broader economy.
"A couple million-unit reduction in sales will have a broad impact economically," Abuelsamid said. "That's driven by higher prices, not just for vehicles, but across the board … which is going to limit people's' spending power."
Affordability of new and used vehicles has been a problem for several years. On average, Cox Automotive reports new vehicles cost nearly $50,000. That figure doesn't include the cost of financing such a vehicle, which has risen significantly in recent years in an attempt to combat inflation.
Auto loan rates remain near decades-high levels of more than 9.64% for a new vehicle and nearly 15% for a used car or truck, according to Cox.
"We expect to see declining discounting and then accelerated price increases as the tariffs are passed through and supply tightens, leading to price increases on all types of most new vehicles," Cox Automotive Chief Economist Jonathan Smoke said during a virtual event Monday. "Over the longer term, we expect production and sales to fall, newly used prices to increase, and some models to be eliminated."
Expected price increases vary based on vehicle, but Cox estimates a $6,000 increase to the cost of imported vehicles due to the 25% tariff on non-U.S. assembled vehicles, as well as a $3,600 increase to vehicles assembled in the U.S. due to upcoming 25% tariffs on automotive parts. Those are in addition to $300 to $500 increases as a result of previously announced tariffs on steel and aluminum.
Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you.
Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox
Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.
© 2025 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Division of NBCUniversal
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes.
Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data
and Analysis.
Data also provided by
Credit Cards
Loans
Banking
Mortgages
Insurance
Credit Monitoring
Personal Finance
Small Business
Taxes
Help for Low Credit Scores
Investing
SELECT
All Credit Cards
Find the Credit Card for You
Best Credit Cards
Best Rewards Credit Cards
Best Travel Credit Cards
Best 0% APR Credit Cards
Best Balance Transfer Credit Cards
Best Cash Back Credit Cards
Best Credit Card Welcome Bonuses
Best Credit Cards to Build Credit
SELECT
All Loans
Find the Best Personal Loan for You
Best Personal Loans
Best Debt Consolidation Loans
Best Loans to Refinance Credit Card Debt
Best Loans with Fast Funding
Best Small Personal Loans
Best Large Personal Loans
Best Personal Loans to Apply Online
Best Student Loan Refinance
SELECT
All Banking
Find the Savings Account for You
Best High Yield Savings Accounts
Best Big Bank Savings Accounts
Best Big Bank Checking Accounts
Best No Fee Checking Accounts
No Overdraft Fee Checking Accounts
Best Checking Account Bonuses
Best Money Market Accounts
Best CDs
Best Credit Unions
SELECT
All Mortgages
Best Mortgages
Best Mortgages for Small Down Payment
Best Mortgages for No Down Payment
Best Mortgages with No Origination Fee
Best Mortgages for Average Credit Score
Adjustable Rate Mortgages
Affording a Mortgage
SELECT
All Insurance
Best Life Insurance
Best Homeowners Insurance
Best Renters Insurance
Best Car Insurance
Travel Insurance
SELECT
All Credit Monitoring
Best Credit Monitoring Services
Best Identity Theft Protection
How to Boost Your Credit Score
Credit Repair Services
SELECT
All Personal Finance
Best Budgeting Apps
Best Expense Tracker Apps
Best Money Transfer Apps
Best Resale Apps and Sites
Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) Apps
Best Debt Relief
SELECT
All Small Business
Best Small Business Savings Accounts
Best Small Business Checking Accounts
Best Credit Cards for Small Business
Best Small Business Loans
Best Tax Software for Small Business
SELECT
All Taxes
Filing For Free
Best Tax Software
Best Tax Software for Small Businesses
Tax Refunds
Tax Brackets
Tax Tips
Tax By State
Tax Payment Plans
SELECT
All Help for Low Credit Scores
Best Credit Cards for Bad Credit
Best Personal Loans for Bad Credit
Best Debt Consolidation Loans for Bad Credit
Personal Loans if You Don't Have Credit
Best Credit Cards for Building Credit
Personal Loans for 580 Credit Score or Lower
Personal Loans for 670 Credit Score or Lower
Best Mortgages for Bad Credit
Best Hardship Loans
How to Boost Your Credit Score
SELECT
All Investing
Best IRA Accounts
Best Roth IRA Accounts
Best Investing Apps
Best Free Stock Trading Platforms
Best Robo-Advisors
Index Funds
Mutual Funds
ETFs
Bonds
In this article
If the vision of Larry Fink — CEO of BlackRock, the world's biggest money manager — becomes reality, all assets from stocks to bonds to real estate and more would be tradable online, on a blockchain.
"Every asset — can be tokenized," Fink wrote in his recent annual letter to investors.
Unlike traditional paper certificates signifying financial ownership, tokens live securely on a blockchain, enabling instant buying, selling, and transfers without paperwork or waiting — "much like a digital deed," he wrote.
Fink says it would be nothing short of a "revolution" for investing. Think 24-hour markets and a trading settlement process that can be compacted down into seconds from a process that today can still take days, with billions of dollars reinvested immediately back into the economy.
But there's one big problem, one technology challenge that stands in the way: the lack of a coordinated digital identity verification system.
While technology experts say Fink's idea isn't improbable, they agree that there are cybersecurity challenges ahead in making it work.
Today, it's not easy to verify online that the person you are interacting with is that person because of the prevalence of AI deepfakes and sophisticated cybercriminals, according to Christina Hulka, executive director of the Secure Technology Alliance, an organization focused on identity, access and payments. As a result, having a unified verification system would be useful because there would be cryptographic validation that people are who they say they are.
"The [financial services] industry is focused on how to build a zero-trust framework for identification. You don't trust anything until it's verified," Hulka said. "The challenge is getting everyone together about which technology to use that makes it as simple and as seamless for the consumer as possible," she added.
It's hard to say precisely how a broad-based digital verification system would work but to support a fully tokenized financial structure, a system would, at a minimum, need to meet stringent security requirements, particularly those tied to financial regulations like the Know Your Customer rule and anti-money laundering rules, according to Zulfikar Ramzan, chief technology officer at Point Wild, a cybersecurity company.
At the same time, the system would need to be low friction and quick. There's no shortage of technical tools today, especially from the field of cryptography, that can effectively bind a digital identity to a transaction, Ramzan said. "Fifteen to 20 years ago, this conversation would have been a non-starter," he added.
There have been some successes with programs like this across the globe, according to Ramzan. India's Aadhaar system is an example of a digital identity framework at a national scale. It enables most of the population to authenticate transactions via mobile devices, and it's integrated across both public and private services. Estonia has an e-ID system that allows citizens to do everything from banking to voting online. Singapore and the UAE have also implemented strong national identity programs tied to mobile infrastructure and digital services. "While these systems differ in how they handle issues like privacy, they all share a key trait: centralized government leadership that drove standardization and adoption," Ramzan said.
While a centralized system solves one challenge, the storage of personally identifiable information and biometrics data is a security risk, said David Mattei, a strategic advisor in the fraud and AML practice at Datos Insights, which works with financial services, insurance and retail technology companies.
Notably, there have been reports of data stolen from India's Aadhaar system. And last year, El Salvador's government had the personal data of 80% of its citizens stolen from a centralized, government-managed citizen identity system. "A lot of security experts do not advocate having a centralized security system because it's kind of like the pot at the end of the rainbow that every fraudster is trying to get his hands on," Mattei said.
In the U.S., there's a long-standing preference for decentralized systems for identity. On mobile devices, Face ID and Fingerprint ID are done not by centralizing all of that data in one spot at Apple or Google, but by storing the data in a secure module on each mobile device. "This makes it much harder, if not impossible, for fraudsters to steal that data en masse," Mattei said.
It would take a significant coordinated effort to come up with a national identity system used for identity verification.
Identity systems in the U.S. today are fragmented, Ramzan said, giving the example of state departments of motor vehicles. "To move forward, we will either need a cohesive national strategy or a way to better coordinate identity across the state and federal levels," he said.
That's not an easy task. Take, for example, the effort many states are making to adopt digital driver's licenses. About a quarter of states today, including Utah, Maryland, Virginia and New York, issue mobile driver's licenses, according to mDLConnection, an online resource from the Secure Technology Alliance. Other states have pilot programs in effect, have enacted legislation or are studying the issue. But this undertaking is quite ambitious and has been underway for several years.
To implement a national identity verification system would be a "massive undertaking and would require just about every company that does business online to adopt a government standard for identity verification and authentication," Mattei said.
Competitive forces are another issue to contend with. "There is an ecosystem of vendors who offer identity verification and authentication solutions that would not want a centralized system for fear of going out of business," Mattei said.
There are also significant data privacy hurdles to overcome. States and the federal government would need to coordinate to resolve governance issues, and this might prompt "big brother" concerns about the extent to which the federal government could monitor the activities of its citizens.
Many people have "a bit of an allergic reaction" when anything resembling a national ID comes up, Ramzan said.
The idea is not a brand new one for Fink. At Davos earlier this year, he told CNBC that he wanted the SEC "to rapidly expand the tokenization of stocks and bonds."
There's BlackRock self-interest at work, and potential cost savings for the firm and many others, which Fink has spoken about. In recent years, BlackRock has been dragged into political battles, and lawsuits, over its voting of a massive amount of shares held in its funds on ESG issues. "We'd never have to vote on a proxy vote anymore," Fink told CNBC at Davos, referring to "the tax on BlackRock."
"Every owner would be notified of a vote," he said, adding that it would bring down the cost of ownership of stocks and bonds.
It is clear from Fink's decision to give this issue prominent placement in his annual letter — even if it came in third in the order of issues he covered behind both the politics of protectionism and the growing role of private markets — that he isn't letting up. And what's needed to make this a reality, he contends, is a new digital identity verification system. The letter is short on details, and BlackRock declined to elaborate, but, at least on the surface, the solution for Fink is clear. "If we're serious about building an efficient and accessible financial system, championing tokenization alone won't suffice. We must solve digital verification, too," he wrote.
Blockchain continues to evolve and people are learning to understand it better. Accordingly, there are initiatives underway to think about how the U.S. can achieve a broad-based identity verification system, Hulka said. There are technical ways to do it, but finding the right way that works for the country is more of a challenge since it has to be interoperable. "The goal is to get to a point where there is one way to verify identity across multiple services," she said.
Eventually, there will be a tipping point for the financial services industry where it becomes a business imperative, Hulka said. "The question is when, of course."
Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you.
Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox
Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.
© 2025 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Division of NBCUniversal
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes.
Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data
and Analysis.
Data also provided by
Credit Cards
Loans
Banking
Mortgages
Insurance
Credit Monitoring
Personal Finance
Small Business
Taxes
Help for Low Credit Scores
Investing
SELECT
All Credit Cards
Find the Credit Card for You
Best Credit Cards
Best Rewards Credit Cards
Best Travel Credit Cards
Best 0% APR Credit Cards
Best Balance Transfer Credit Cards
Best Cash Back Credit Cards
Best Credit Card Welcome Bonuses
Best Credit Cards to Build Credit
SELECT
All Loans
Find the Best Personal Loan for You
Best Personal Loans
Best Debt Consolidation Loans
Best Loans to Refinance Credit Card Debt
Best Loans with Fast Funding
Best Small Personal Loans
Best Large Personal Loans
Best Personal Loans to Apply Online
Best Student Loan Refinance
SELECT
All Banking
Find the Savings Account for You
Best High Yield Savings Accounts
Best Big Bank Savings Accounts
Best Big Bank Checking Accounts
Best No Fee Checking Accounts
No Overdraft Fee Checking Accounts
Best Checking Account Bonuses
Best Money Market Accounts
Best CDs
Best Credit Unions
SELECT
All Mortgages
Best Mortgages
Best Mortgages for Small Down Payment
Best Mortgages for No Down Payment
Best Mortgages with No Origination Fee
Best Mortgages for Average Credit Score
Adjustable Rate Mortgages
Affording a Mortgage
SELECT
All Insurance
Best Life Insurance
Best Homeowners Insurance
Best Renters Insurance
Best Car Insurance
Travel Insurance
SELECT
All Credit Monitoring
Best Credit Monitoring Services
Best Identity Theft Protection
How to Boost Your Credit Score
Credit Repair Services
SELECT
All Personal Finance
Best Budgeting Apps
Best Expense Tracker Apps
Best Money Transfer Apps
Best Resale Apps and Sites
Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) Apps
Best Debt Relief
SELECT
All Small Business
Best Small Business Savings Accounts
Best Small Business Checking Accounts
Best Credit Cards for Small Business
Best Small Business Loans
Best Tax Software for Small Business
SELECT
All Taxes
Filing For Free
Best Tax Software
Best Tax Software for Small Businesses
Tax Refunds
Tax Brackets
Tax Tips
Tax By State
Tax Payment Plans
SELECT
All Help for Low Credit Scores
Best Credit Cards for Bad Credit
Best Personal Loans for Bad Credit
Best Debt Consolidation Loans for Bad Credit
Personal Loans if You Don't Have Credit
Best Credit Cards for Building Credit
Personal Loans for 580 Credit Score or Lower
Personal Loans for 670 Credit Score or Lower
Best Mortgages for Bad Credit
Best Hardship Loans
How to Boost Your Credit Score
SELECT
All Investing
Best IRA Accounts
Best Roth IRA Accounts
Best Investing Apps
Best Free Stock Trading Platforms
Best Robo-Advisors
Index Funds
Mutual Funds
ETFs
Bonds
Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you.
Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox
Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.
© 2025 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Division of NBCUniversal
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes.
Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data
and Analysis.
Data also provided by
Credit Cards
Loans
Banking
Mortgages
Insurance
Credit Monitoring
Personal Finance
Small Business
Taxes
Help for Low Credit Scores
Investing
SELECT
All Credit Cards
Find the Credit Card for You
Best Credit Cards
Best Rewards Credit Cards
Best Travel Credit Cards
Best 0% APR Credit Cards
Best Balance Transfer Credit Cards
Best Cash Back Credit Cards
Best Credit Card Welcome Bonuses
Best Credit Cards to Build Credit
SELECT
All Loans
Find the Best Personal Loan for You
Best Personal Loans
Best Debt Consolidation Loans
Best Loans to Refinance Credit Card Debt
Best Loans with Fast Funding
Best Small Personal Loans
Best Large Personal Loans
Best Personal Loans to Apply Online
Best Student Loan Refinance
SELECT
All Banking
Find the Savings Account for You
Best High Yield Savings Accounts
Best Big Bank Savings Accounts
Best Big Bank Checking Accounts
Best No Fee Checking Accounts
No Overdraft Fee Checking Accounts
Best Checking Account Bonuses
Best Money Market Accounts
Best CDs
Best Credit Unions
SELECT
All Mortgages
Best Mortgages
Best Mortgages for Small Down Payment
Best Mortgages for No Down Payment
Best Mortgages with No Origination Fee
Best Mortgages for Average Credit Score
Adjustable Rate Mortgages
Affording a Mortgage
SELECT
All Insurance
Best Life Insurance
Best Homeowners Insurance
Best Renters Insurance
Best Car Insurance
Travel Insurance
SELECT
All Credit Monitoring
Best Credit Monitoring Services
Best Identity Theft Protection
How to Boost Your Credit Score
Credit Repair Services
SELECT
All Personal Finance
Best Budgeting Apps
Best Expense Tracker Apps
Best Money Transfer Apps
Best Resale Apps and Sites
Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) Apps
Best Debt Relief
SELECT
All Small Business
Best Small Business Savings Accounts
Best Small Business Checking Accounts
Best Credit Cards for Small Business
Best Small Business Loans
Best Tax Software for Small Business
SELECT
All Taxes
Filing For Free
Best Tax Software
Best Tax Software for Small Businesses
Tax Refunds
Tax Brackets
Tax Tips
Tax By State
Tax Payment Plans
SELECT
All Help for Low Credit Scores
Best Credit Cards for Bad Credit
Best Personal Loans for Bad Credit
Best Debt Consolidation Loans for Bad Credit
Personal Loans if You Don't Have Credit
Best Credit Cards for Building Credit
Personal Loans for 580 Credit Score or Lower
Personal Loans for 670 Credit Score or Lower
Best Mortgages for Bad Credit
Best Hardship Loans
How to Boost Your Credit Score
SELECT
All Investing
Best IRA Accounts
Best Roth IRA Accounts
Best Investing Apps
Best Free Stock Trading Platforms
Best Robo-Advisors
Index Funds
Mutual Funds
ETFs
Bonds
Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you.
Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox
Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.
© 2025 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Division of NBCUniversal
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes.
Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data
and Analysis.
Data also provided by
Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman expects the workers of the future to develop close relationships with artificial intelligence agents, to the point of symbiosis.
"I do think your day-to-day workflow just isn't going to look like this in 10 or 15 years time," Suleyman said on a recent episode of the "Big Technology" Podcast.
"It's going to be much more about you managing your AI agent, you asking it to go do things, checking in on its quality, getting feedback, and getting into this symbiotic relationship where you iterate with it," he said.
Suleyman, the cofounder of Google DeepMind, believes that people are too tied up in the "day-to-day" of AI and failing to reckon with its possible long-term impacts.
"After all, it is intelligence that has produced everything that is of value in our human civilization," Suleyman said. "Everything around us is a product of smart human beings getting together, organizing, creating, inventing, and producing everything that you see in your line of sight at this very moment."
Artificial intelligence, shrouded in its fair share of hype, hasn't yet delivered on the vision often painted by tech leaders — such as breakthroughs in medicine, like treatments for deadly diseases, or solutions to the climate crisis.
But the technology has certainly begun to alter the world we live in. In some cases, applications of the technology have drawn concerns — such as AI's use in warfare or companies leaning on AI agents over human workers. Demis Hassabis, who co-founded Google DeepMind with Suleyman, has gone so far as to say he worries about ending up like Robert Oppenheimer.
And there's no going back now — Suleyman, who's particularly optimistic about AI's future effects, only expects the pace of innovation to increase.
"And we're now about to make that very same technique, those set of capabilities, really cheap — if not, like, zero marginal cost," he said.
In order for younger generations to best prepare themselves to inherit a changed world, Suleyman suggests they familiarize themselves with the technology.
"It's a little bit like saying, 'What should young people do when they get access to the internet for the first time?'" he said. "Like, part of it is sort of obvious, where it's like — use it, experiment, try stuff out, do crazy things, make mistakes, get it wrong."
It's technology's users, Suleyman added, rather than its creators, that ultimately help determine the direction of its future development by identifying how it's best used.
"As we've seen over and over in the history of technology, the things that people choose to do with their phones, with internet, with their laptops, with the tools that they have are always like mind-blowing," Suleyman said. "They're always way more inventive and surprising than anything you could possibly think of ahead of time."
"I think the same applies to a 15-year-old who's in high school, thinking about what they do next in college or whatever, or whether or not they go to college," he added.
In order to sort through the noise, Suleyman said, anyone curious should experiment with the models themselves.
"I think the answer is, play with these things," he said. "Try them out, keep an open mind. Try everything that you possibly can with these models, and then you'll start to see their weaknesses as well, by the way, and you'll start to chip away at the hype."
Jump to
Credit Cards
Loans
Banking
Mortgages
Insurance
Credit Monitoring
Personal Finance
Small Business
Taxes
Help for Low Credit Scores
Investing
SELECT
All Credit Cards
Find the Credit Card for You
Best Credit Cards
Best Rewards Credit Cards
Best Travel Credit Cards
Best 0% APR Credit Cards
Best Balance Transfer Credit Cards
Best Cash Back Credit Cards
Best Credit Card Welcome Bonuses
Best Credit Cards to Build Credit
SELECT
All Loans
Find the Best Personal Loan for You
Best Personal Loans
Best Debt Consolidation Loans
Best Loans to Refinance Credit Card Debt
Best Loans with Fast Funding
Best Small Personal Loans
Best Large Personal Loans
Best Personal Loans to Apply Online
Best Student Loan Refinance
SELECT
All Banking
Find the Savings Account for You
Best High Yield Savings Accounts
Best Big Bank Savings Accounts
Best Big Bank Checking Accounts
Best No Fee Checking Accounts
No Overdraft Fee Checking Accounts
Best Checking Account Bonuses
Best Money Market Accounts
Best CDs
Best Credit Unions
SELECT
All Mortgages
Best Mortgages
Best Mortgages for Small Down Payment
Best Mortgages for No Down Payment
Best Mortgages with No Origination Fee
Best Mortgages for Average Credit Score
Adjustable Rate Mortgages
Affording a Mortgage
SELECT
All Insurance
Best Life Insurance
Best Homeowners Insurance
Best Renters Insurance
Best Car Insurance
Travel Insurance
SELECT
All Credit Monitoring
Best Credit Monitoring Services
Best Identity Theft Protection
How to Boost Your Credit Score
Credit Repair Services
SELECT
All Personal Finance
Best Budgeting Apps
Best Expense Tracker Apps
Best Money Transfer Apps
Best Resale Apps and Sites
Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) Apps
Best Debt Relief
SELECT
All Small Business
Best Small Business Savings Accounts
Best Small Business Checking Accounts
Best Credit Cards for Small Business
Best Small Business Loans
Best Tax Software for Small Business
SELECT
All Taxes
Filing For Free
Best Tax Software
Best Tax Software for Small Businesses
Tax Refunds
Tax Brackets
Tax Tips
Tax By State
Tax Payment Plans
SELECT
All Help for Low Credit Scores
Best Credit Cards for Bad Credit
Best Personal Loans for Bad Credit
Best Debt Consolidation Loans for Bad Credit
Personal Loans if You Don't Have Credit
Best Credit Cards for Building Credit
Personal Loans for 580 Credit Score or Lower
Personal Loans for 670 Credit Score or Lower
Best Mortgages for Bad Credit
Best Hardship Loans
How to Boost Your Credit Score
SELECT
All Investing
Best IRA Accounts
Best Roth IRA Accounts
Best Investing Apps
Best Free Stock Trading Platforms
Best Robo-Advisors
Index Funds
Mutual Funds
ETFs
Bonds
Bank of England interest rate-setter Megan Greene said on Saturday it was unclear what U.S. President Donald Trump's import tariffs would do to UK inflation with the unpredictable behaviour of the dollar adding to the puzzle.
Higher barriers to trade were likely to weigh on economic growth in countries in Europe, Greene said during a panel discussion at the Delphi Economic Forum conference in Greece.
"The implications for inflation, though, are somewhat ambiguous," she said, noting the possibility of Chinese exports being diverted away from the U.S. and towards Europe which could push down on prices.
But the most important thing to watch is what happens to currencies, Greene said.
"The key channel, really is exchange rates, and that's been really difficult because exchange rates haven't operated in the past week as the models would suggest," she said. "The dollar has fallen instead of appreciating as you would expect."
A stronger dollar would normally push up inflation in other countries, Greene said.
BoE deputy governors Clare Lombardelli and Sarah Breeden both said earlier this week that it was too early to say what the inflation implications from Trump's tariffs will be.
Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you.
Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox
Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.
© 2025 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Division of NBCUniversal
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes.
Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data
and Analysis.
Data also provided by
Big ambitions clashed with delays, cost overruns, and political controversy.
The lavish Saudi TV drama "Muawiya" debuted in March, just in time to ride the surge in TV viewership that hits the region around Ramadan each year. One of the most expensive Arab series ever made, it portrays seventh-century life in the desert, with sweeping overhead shots, charging armies on horseback, and massive flotillas.
"Muawiya" was a ratings hit, but behind the dazzling visuals, it had problems emblematic of Saudi Arabia's broader TV and movie struggles.
The 30-episode series from MBC Studios, Saudi Arabia's marquee TV and movie studio, faced years of delays and a ballooning budget, two people familiar with the production told Business Insider. The budget had reached more than $50 million by the time of a previously unreported internal audit dated December 2022, which was viewed by BI.
The show also sparked a religious uproar, particularly among Shiite Muslims, and was banned in Iran and Iraq.
"It's super edgy, super sensitive," said Mazen Hayek, who worked for 14 years as a spokesperson for MBC Group — the majority Saudi government-owned parent of MBC Studios — and is now a media consultant based in Dubai.
"Muawiya" centers on the life of Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan, a figure in early Islam who is generally held in high esteem in the Sunni Muslim world — including Saudi Arabia — but loathed by many Shiites. The show, in part, dramatizes the events in the years after the death of the Prophet Muhammad that propelled the two groups into the religious rift that endures to this day.
"Muawiya's" problems are familiar to MBC Studios. Delays, cost overruns, and political land mines have hampered its ambitious projects for years, according to the audit and BI's conversations with people who have worked for and with the company.
MBC Studios was a key part of Saudi Arabia's plan, unveiled in 2018, to spend $64 billion on entertainment projects and venues at home, largely funded by its sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund. But five people close to the company said it hasn't lived up to its aspirations to be a calling card for the country's film and TV prowess.
MBC Group founded the studio in 2018 and brought in a former NBCUniversal exec to run it. MBC Studios soon began to jump into projects at a dizzying pace. By the time of the 2022 audit, it had over 100 projects in various stages of production. The audit, which ran over 50 pages, said that while the studio was growing fast, it was undermined by unclear strategy, disorganization, and a lack of internal controls.
The audit identified a litany of issues, including consultants hired without oversight, conflicts of interest, a lack of market research, and companies chosen outside a competitive process.
It recommended tightening production practices to avoid overspending, hiring competitively, and monitoring projects' performance.
Since that time, MBC Studios has had some wins, particularly with local-language productions.
The five people close to the company told BI it has scaled back some of its original production ambitions, however. They said it's also been plagued by leadership shake-ups and jettisoned a series of Hollywood experts brought on to take its operations to the next level.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's other big entertainment bet besides MBC Studios, Neom Media — the filmmaking facility in its futuristic city of Neom — has seen some similar problems. It has faced leadership turnover and fallen off the radar in Hollywood, multiple industry insiders said.
Neom Media said in a statement that it's hosted 40 productions from Hollywood and elsewhere and has plans for more.
"They have a fast-growing local sector that caters toward a local audience," one person who works in the region said broadly of Saudi Arabia's entertainment efforts, the two most prominent of which are MBC Studios and Neom Media. But, this person added, "They're yet to convince the international community that they can make first-class entertainment on the ground."
MBC Studios didn't provide comment by press time following multiple requests.
MBC Studios' first two big swings in the movie business disappointed.
"Kandahar," the action film the studio funded starring Gerard Butler, and one of the first US films to be shot in Saudi Arabia, was released in 2023 to tepid reviews and a lackluster box office.
Another, the unreleased "Desert Warrior," has been stymied by rising costs and delays.
Directed by British filmmaker Rupert Wyatt, who also made "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," "Desert Warrior" was the first feature film shot at Neom Media. By the time of the 2022 audit, the budget had reached $140 million. People familiar with the financing characterized that as double its original budget.
Some of the added costs, such as COVID protocols, were due to timing. Others were self-imposed. Infrastructure had to be built in the desert, and crew had to be flown in from other countries. The film went big on talent, enlisting Anthony Mackie of Marvel movie fame and Oscar winner Ben Kingsley, in addition to local stars.
Insiders said fights over creative direction and the film's length also hung up production. Filming ended in 2022, but there's been no festival premiere — the film will miss out on another Cannes Film Festival premiere this year — and the movie has yet to get a release date. That type of delay would be virtually unheard of in Hollywood.
MBC Studios has had some local success stories, like "Rashash," a show about a notorious criminal figure in Saudi Arabia that was well received, and "Inheritance," billed as the first Arab soap opera.
But Sheikh Waleed Al Ibrahim — the politically connected founder of MBC Group — also wanted to make projects about historical events, which often courted controversy.
In addition to "Muawiya," there was "Embassy 87," which revisited the deadly 1987 clash between Saudi police and Iranian pilgrims at Mecca. It was shelved. Then there was "Flight 422," about the hijacking of a Kuwaiti flight by Hezbollah. That one was removed from streaming after Kuwait demanded it be taken down.
Hayek, the media consultant, said MBC Studios has to strike a tricky balance. It needs to embrace edgy topics to be relevant to audiences and fend off competitors like Netflix and Amazon Prime. That means standing up to "extremists" and "ultra-conservatives" who want to censor its content, Hayek said. But it can't go too far.
"You don't push the envelope to the extreme of creating turbulence in society," he said.
Despite these challenges, in early 2024, MBC Group undertook an IPO, part of a boom of other Saudi public offerings. It was considered a big success, raising $222 million and valuing the company at nearly $3 billion.
A prospectus promoting the offering touted the studio's relationships with Hollywood and its hiring of international talent. Behind the scenes, however, MBC Studios was pulling away from Hollywood, four people close to the company said.
Since the IPO, MBC Studios has cut ties with many of the international players it leaned on. Those included the former Amazon exec who led its film and TV efforts, its head of global series, an Oscar-nominated producer, its longtime distributor, and talent giant CAA.
The studio is now run by a veteran MBC executive, Samar Akrouk, and has cut back its ambitions to focus on lower-risk dramas and comedies, particularly productions for Shahid, its streaming service.
"They're focused more on local language programs with local language budgets and putting the 'Desert Warriors' and 'Kandahars' on the back burner," a person who has worked with the company said.
It's also a time of transition at parent MBC Group, which replaced its CEO in early April.
As MBC Studios has withdrawn from Hollywood, Neom Media has also faced challenges in attracting global productions.
Industry insiders describe its facilities as top-notch but say its rebate of up to 40% on production costs — cash grants given to incentivize international and other productions to film there — is still unproven and hard to apply for. Those who get it could find the rebate benefit wiped out by the need to fly in crew members. Between Ramadan and the summer months, when the temperature exceeds 100 degrees Fahrenheit, shooting can be difficult for a quarter of the year.
Filmmakers wanting a desert landscape may kick the tires on Saudi Arabia but often end up going to more established filmmaking locales like Jordan, Morocco, or Abu Dhabi, where "Dune: Part Two" was shot. Some are put off by Saudi Arabia's alcohol ban.
Turmoil at the top can't have helped. Wayne Borg, an Australian exec who was tapped to run Neom Media, was replaced in September after a Wall Street Journal report alleged he made racist and sexist comments about workers. Borg did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
"They've created the highway but haven't gotten the cars yet," said one top Hollywood agent who's worked extensively in the region.
Neom Media said it's in advanced discussions with unspecified international productions to film there in 2025. It touted the quality of its facilities and ease of production.
"We're not just attracting international productions; we're also becoming a hub for regional content and international content, with projects in the pipeline," Michael Lynch, another Australian exec who now leads Neom Media, said in a statement.
Some people who have done business in the region preached patience. They compared Saudi Arabia's efforts to China's and Qatar's moves into entertainment and emphasized that it takes decades to build such a business. They said they see progress in Saudi Arabia, especially considering it didn't even have movie theaters until 2018.
"It would be unrealistic to expect fast results," someone who has worked in the country said. "They really are at the start of the journey."
Jump to
Ethereum (ETH) prices have surged by over 3% in the past day in line with a bullish upswing across the broader crypto market. However, Ethereum on-chain data reveals the altcoin has stumbled in a range-bound market hinting at a potentially prolonged sideways movement.
In a recent post on X, prominent blockchain analytics firm Glassnode reports that Ethereum is trading in a tight range between $1,548 and $1,599. This development is revealed by the asset's cost basis distribution (CBD), which shows the various price levels at which current ETH holders bought their coins.
CBD is an important on-chain metric used to identify potential support or resistance levels based on the accumulation levels seen at price zones. According to Glassnode, a combined 1.53 million ETH, valued at $2.4 billion, was acquired between $1,548 and $1,599 indicating a high level of investor interest at these price regions.
In particular, 793,900 ETH currently in circulation was purchased at $1,548, ultimately transforming this price floor into a major support zone for the current Ethereum price. Meanwhile, 732,400 ETH is held by investors at $1,599 representing a significant price barrier to any upward price movement.
Interestingly, Ethereum has tested both price zones over the past day failing to produce either a price breakout or breakdown. Considering the accumulation level at both prices, the altcoin might maintain a range-bound movement barring the introduction of a market catalyst. Interestingly, such price behavior would align with the broader market uncertainty amidst unstable macroeconomic factors and tightening liquidity conditions.
In other developments, Glassnode also notes that Ethereum bulls are building a critical support zone at $1,461 at which 380,000 ETH, valued at $595.8 million have been acquired. In the case of any breakdown from the current consolidation zone, this price level is expected to act as the next major support preventing any further downside. However, a daily price close below $1,461 could cause ETH to trade as low as $1,400 or $1,200.
At the time of writing, Ethereum trades at $1,562 reflecting a 3.35% gain in the past 24 hours. However, the ETH market remains in a deep corrective phase with 14.56% and 18.45% losses in the last seven and thirty days, respectively. Meanwhile, the asset's daily trading volume has declined by 34.06%, indicating a fall in market participation and a potential reversal of the recent rally, which would allow Ethereum to maintain a range-bound movement.
* References, analysis, and trading strategies are provided by the third-party provider, Trading Central, and the point of view is based on the independent assessment and judgement of the analyst, without considering the investment objectives and financial situation of the investors.
Risk Warning: Trading may result in the loss of your entire capital. Trading OTC derivatives may not be suitable for everyone. Please consider our legal disclosure documents before using our services and ensure that you understand the risks involved. You do not own or have any interest in the underlying assets.
Mitrade does not issue advice, recommendations or opinion in relation to acquiring, holding or disposing of our products. All of our products are over-the-counter derivatives over global underlying assets. Mitrade provides execution only service, acting as principal at all times.
Mitrade is a brand jointly used by multiple companies and it operates through the following companies:
Mitrade International Ltd is the issuer of the financial products that are described or available on this website. Mitrade International Ltd is authorised and regulated by Mauritius Financial Services Commission (FSC) and the licence number is GB20025791. The registered office address is 6 St Denis Street, 1st Floor River Court, Port Louis 11328, Mauritius.Mitrade Global Pty Ltd with ABN 90 149 011 361 holds an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL 398528).Mitrade Holding is authorised and regulated by Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) and the SIB licence number is 1612446.
The information on this site is not intended for residents of the United States, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, United Kingdom or use by any person in any country or jurisdiction where such distribution or use would be contrary to local law or regulation. Please note that English is the main language used in our services and is also the legally effective language in all of our terms and agreements. Versions in other langauges are only for reference. In the event of any discrepancy between the English version and the other versions, the English version shall prevail.
Secured by SSL. © Mitrade Copyright, All rights reserved.
He got rich off pixelated punks — and punked the Internal Revenue Service in the process.
A Pennsylvania man faces federal prison after pleading guilty to flipping more than $13 million worth of digital art from the infamous CryptoPunks NFT collection — and reporting none of it to the IRS, prosecutors said Friday.
Waylon Wilcox, 45, of Dillsburg, pleaded guilty Tuesday to filing false tax returns in 2021 and 2022. Over those two years, Wilcox sold 97 CryptoPunks — tiny, pixelated avatars from a 10,000-piece digital series — and made $7.4 million one year and $4.9 million the next.
Advertisement
But on his tax returns, he told the government he hadn't touched crypto at all — checking “no” on both years when asked about virtual asset income. The omission allegedly cost the IRS over $3.2 million in unpaid taxes.
CryptoPunks, created in 2017, became breakout stars of the NFT craze. At the peak, one sold for $11.8 million at Sotheby's in June 2021, and a set of nine fetched $17 million at Christie's one month before. Even in recent months, two individual punks sold for $6.1 million and $2.33 million, according to nftpricefloor.com.
Advertisement
“When a taxpayer sells an NFT, including a Punk, then the taxpayer must report sales proceeds and any gains or losses from the sale of the NFT on their tax return,” the Justice Department wrote in a press release Friday.
Wilcox, who filed the bogus returns from his quiet home in Cumberland County, now faces up to six years in prison, plus supervised release and a hefty fine.
Advertisement
And one more accessory, courtesy of the feds — an orange jumpsuit.
It is not immediately clear when he will be sentenced, according to a review of his court records.
Blockchain is no longer just a buzzword tossed around during bull runs. It's evolving, maturing, and branching into sectors that were previously untouched—global privacy, cross-border finance, decentralized identity, and app-layer scalability. With this shift comes a new breed of crypto projects that are built to handle real-world demands, not just speculative hype. For those paying attention, the question isn't whether crypto will return in 2025—it's which coins will be leading the next breakout. Spoiler alert: it's probably not the same old players.
A handful of projects are already building the rails for what's coming next—systems that prioritize privacy, user control, and seamless chain interoperability. Among them is Qubetics, an ambitious Layer 1 that's quickly becoming known for its focus on Decentralized VPN infrastructure and frictionless cross-chain access. Unlike legacy coins stuck in echo chambers, these new leaders are forging use cases that extend beyond crypto natives and into the mainstream. So if the hunt is on for the Best cryptos to Invest In right now, this curated list is the starting line.
Below are four projects that are setting new standards in blockchain. Whether it's privacy, scalability, or Web3 usability—these powerhouses are shaping the crypto landscape in ways that actually matter. Let's break them down, starting with the one that's redefining privacy and performance.
Qubetics isn't just another altcoin riding the narrative wave. It's a Web3 aggregator that brings together the best of blockchain in one platform—and at the heart of it lies a decentralized VPN solution that could revolutionize how privacy works online. Most VPNs today rely on centralized nodes, exposing users to single points of failure and censorship. Qubetics' decentralized VPN model flips the script. It allows individuals and enterprises to route traffic through encrypted peer-to-peer nodes on-chain—meaning no third-party control, no usage tracking, and no backdoors. For a world increasingly obsessed with digital sovereignty, this alone makes Qubetics one of the Best cryptos to Invest In right now.
But that's just the beginning. The project also integrates full-blown interoperability through its QubeQode IDE—a low-code development environment that lets anyone build, deploy, and scale dApps across multiple chains without switching platforms. Imagine launching a privacy-based messenger that leverages BNB Chain's low fees for microtransactions, Ethereum's security for identity verification, and Solana's speed for content delivery. With Qubetics, this all happens seamlessly under one roof. It's not just Web3-ready—it's Web3-easy. For solo developers, small businesses, and enterprise platforms alike, this kind of all-in-one accessibility is a game-changer—and another reason why Qubetics leads the pack of Best cryptos to Invest In right now.
Qubetics isn't slowing down—it's charging ahead. The presale is in its 29th stage with a token price of $0.1573, and it's raised more than $16 million so far. Over 507 million tokens have been distributed, and the community now exceeds 24,600 holders. Each presale stage runs for just 7 days before prices climb 10%, making now the smartest entry point. The return potential is staggering. If $TICS hits $1 post-presale, the ROI is 535.65%. A move to $5 means over 3,078% returns. And for those aiming high—$10 and $15 would mean gains of 6,256.47% and 9,434.71%, respectively. That's a potential $9,500 from just $100. It's no surprise Qubetics is being labeled the best crypto presale opportunity this year. The vision is massive, and the numbers support the hype.
XRP is the comeback story of the year. After spending years entangled in regulatory uncertainty, the recent U.S. court ruling clarified that XRP is not a security in certain contexts, reigniting global interest in the project. This legal milestone removed a massive cloud over XRP and paved the way for the return of institutional adoption. RippleNet's core use case—facilitating instant, cross-border payments—is now back in focus, and its On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) solution is already in active use across several payment corridors globally.
XRP's technical model is all about speed, low fees, and finality. With transaction settlements in under 5 seconds and minimal gas costs, it remains one of the most scalable and enterprise-ready digital assets. Banks and fintech platforms in countries like Japan, the UAE, and the Philippines are already using XRP for real-world transfers. And with stablecoins and CBDCs gaining momentum, XRP's infrastructure could serve as the connective tissue between fiat and crypto economies.
XRP may not have the flashiest DeFi ecosystem or the loudest community anymore, but its fundamentals are solid and its real-world integrations are growing. As the demand for cross-border efficiency and regulatory-friendly crypto rails increases in 2025, XRP stands tall as a battle-tested asset with a clear use case.
Cosmos isn't trying to be the “one chain to rule them all.” Instead, it's empowering blockchains to specialize, communicate, and thrive together through a modular, interoperable framework. At the core of Cosmos' architecture is the Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol (IBC), which allows different chains to talk to each other, send assets, and execute commands—no bridges, no wrappers, just native-level performance. It's already being used by dozens of independent chains including Osmosis, Juno, and Cronos.
ATOM, the native token, is evolving. With upgrades like Interchain Security and Liquid Staking Derivatives (LSDs), the Cosmos Hub is becoming more integral to the broader ecosystem's success. Rather than operating in isolation, chains are now being secured by ATOM while also contributing value back to its economy. This creates a new layer of tokenomics that's more sustainable than what we've seen in earlier boom cycles.
Cosmos may not always dominate headlines, but it's building the foundation of Web3 infrastructure with surgical precision. As the crypto world fragments into ecosystems and appchains, Cosmos has the blueprint—and the working model—to connect them all. For those looking past flashy metrics and into long-term architecture, ATOM is worth a deep look.
Polkadot remains one of the most forward-thinking blockchain projects, thanks to its Layer 0 architecture that supports multiple parachains with specialized use cases. Built by Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood, Polkadot takes a different approach to scaling. Instead of fighting over one congested chain, Polkadot's parachain model allows each connected blockchain to operate independently while sharing security, governance, and communication protocols. It's an ecosystem with diversity at its core.
DOT, the native token, serves multiple purposes—governance, staking, bonding for parachain slots, and fee payments. With more parachains launching and auctioning for limited slots, demand for DOT continues to grow. Projects like Moonbeam (Ethereum compatibility), Astar (dApp support), and Acala (DeFi hub) are all active within the Polkadot ecosystem, building services that can scale beyond the limits of traditional smart contract chains.
Polkadot's long-term value proposition is its ability to connect purpose-built blockchains in one cohesive network. As the crypto landscape shifts from monolithic to modular, Polkadot is poised to play an essential role in creating the multi-chain universe. It may not always get the same attention as Ethereum or Solana, but its architecture is among the most advanced in the space.
There are plenty of promising blockchain projects in the space right now, but very few are solving the biggest problems with such precision and accessibility as Qubetics. While others are still catching up to the concept of interoperability, Qubetics is combining it with user privacy, real-world VPN applications, and developer-friendly tooling through its QubeQode IDE. The platform doesn't just talk decentralization—it delivers it in a way that makes onboarding seamless and growth inevitable. For anyone looking seriously at the Best cryptos to Invest In right now, Qubetics doesn't just stand out—it leads. It's easy to see why Qubetics is dominating lists of the Best cryptos to Invest In right now. The crypto presale is still open—but it won't stay that way for long.
So, as new narratives emerge and the next market cycle builds steam, Qubetics may be one of the few tokens that not only rides the wave—but builds it.
For More Information:
Qubetics: https://qubetics.com
Presale: https://buy.qubetics.com/
Telegram: https://t.me/qubetics
Twitter: https://x.com/qubetics
Qubetics delivers real interoperability and privacy through a decentralized VPN model and a cross-chain developer IDE that simplifies Web3 app deployment.
Because of its innovative decentralized VPN solution, $16M+ raised, high ROI potential, and real-world blockchain application, Qubetics leads this cycle's early movers.
Disclaimer: This content is provided by a sponsor. FinanceFeeds does not independently verify the legitimacy, credibility, claims, or financial viability of the information or description of services mentioned. As such, we bear no responsibility for any potential risks, inaccuracies, or misleading representations related to the content. This post does not constitute financial advice or a recommendation and should not be treated as such. We strongly advise seeking independent financial guidance from a qualified and regulated professional before engaging in any investment or financial activities. Please review our full disclaimer for more details.
Subscribe
Unit No: BA857 DMCC Business Centre Level No 1 Jewellery & Gemplex 3 Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
International House, 10 Admirals Way, London, England, E14 9XL.
Tech executives and investors feared the effect of sweeping tariffs impacting tech products at multiple stages of the supply chain.
United States President Donald Trump has exempted an array of tech products including, smartphones, chips, computers, and select electronics from tariffs, giving the tech industry a much-needed respite from trade pressures.
According to the US Customs and Border Protection, storage cards, modems, diodes, semiconductors, and other electronics were also excluded from the ongoing trade tariffs.
"Large-cap technology companies will ultimately come out ahead when this is all said and done," The Kobeissi letter wrote in an April 12 X post.
US Customs and Border Protection announces tariff exemptions on select tech products. Source: US Customs and Border Protection
The tariff relief will take the pressure off of tech stocks, which were one of the biggest casualties of the trade war. Crypto markets are correlated with tech stocks and could also rally as risk appetite increases on positive trade war headlines.
Following news of the tariff exemptions, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) broke past $85,000 on April 12, a signal that crypto markets are already responding to the latest macroeconomic development.
Related: Billionaire investor would ‘not be surprised' if Trump postpones tariffs
President Trump walked back the sweeping tariff policies on April 9 by initiating a 90-day pause on the reciprocal tariffs and lowering tariff rates to 10% for countries that did not respond with counter-tariffs on US goods.
Bitcoin surged by 9% and the S&P 500 surged by over 10% on the same day that Trump issued the tariff pause.
Macroeconomic trader Raoul Pal said the tariff policies were a negotiation tool to establish a US-China trade deal and characterized the US administration's trade rhetoric as "posturing."
Bitcoin advocate Max Keiser argued that exempting select tech products from import tariffs would not reduce bond yields or further the Trump administration's goal of lowering interest rates.
Yield on the 10-year US government bond spikes following sweeping trade policies from the Trump administration. Source: TradingView
The yield on the 10-year US Treasury Bond shot up to a local high of approximately 4.5% on April 11 as bond investors reacted to the macroeconomic uncertainty of a protracted trade war.
"The concession just given to China for tech exports won't reverse the trend of rates going higher. Confidence in US bonds and the US Dollar has been eroding for years and won't stop now," Keiser wrote on April 12.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.
Magazine: Trump's crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions
It's been an exceptionally volatile week, but one measure may be signaling longer-term bullish sentiment for bitcoin.
The sell-off in equities began on April 3, spurred by President Donald Trump's tariff-led uncertainties. Each day since then has been marked by sharp moves in both directions. The panic has hit both the equities and bond markets, while gold has surged to new all-time highs, and the DXY Index has broken below 100 for the first time since July 2023.
In response, the S&P Volatility Index (VIX)—often called Wall Street's "fear gauge" —has surged to its highest level since last August and this is where things get interesting for bitcoin.
The ratio of bitcoin to VIX has hit 1,903 currently, touching a long-term trendline that last time coincided with market volatility around the unwinding of the yen carry trade. At the time, bitcoin had reached a bottom of around $49,000.
In fact, this is the fourth time this ratio has hit the trendline and then found the bottom. Previously, it touched the line in March 2020 during the peak COVID-19 crisis and initially in August 2015, both times followed by a rally in prices.
If this trendline continues to serve as reliable support, it could suggest that bitcoin might have once again found a long-term bottom.
Read more: Bitcoin's Recent Drawdown Proves Its More Than Just a Leveraged Tech Play
James Van Straten is a Senior Analyst at CoinDesk, specializing in Bitcoin and its interplay with the macroeconomic environment. Previously, James worked as a Research Analyst at Saidler & Co., a Swiss hedge fund, where he developed expertise in on-chain analytics. His work focuses on monitoring flows to analyze Bitcoin's role within the broader financial system.
In addition to his professional endeavors, James serves as an advisor to Coinsilium, a UK publicly traded company, where he provides guidance on their Bitcoin treasury strategy. He also holds investments in Bitcoin, MicroStrategy (MSTR), and Semler Scientific (SMLR).
About
Contact
Credit Cards
Loans
Banking
Mortgages
Insurance
Credit Monitoring
Personal Finance
Small Business
Taxes
Help for Low Credit Scores
Investing
SELECT
All Credit Cards
Find the Credit Card for You
Best Credit Cards
Best Rewards Credit Cards
Best Travel Credit Cards
Best 0% APR Credit Cards
Best Balance Transfer Credit Cards
Best Cash Back Credit Cards
Best Credit Card Welcome Bonuses
Best Credit Cards to Build Credit
SELECT
All Loans
Find the Best Personal Loan for You
Best Personal Loans
Best Debt Consolidation Loans
Best Loans to Refinance Credit Card Debt
Best Loans with Fast Funding
Best Small Personal Loans
Best Large Personal Loans
Best Personal Loans to Apply Online
Best Student Loan Refinance
SELECT
All Banking
Find the Savings Account for You
Best High Yield Savings Accounts
Best Big Bank Savings Accounts
Best Big Bank Checking Accounts
Best No Fee Checking Accounts
No Overdraft Fee Checking Accounts
Best Checking Account Bonuses
Best Money Market Accounts
Best CDs
Best Credit Unions
SELECT
All Mortgages
Best Mortgages
Best Mortgages for Small Down Payment
Best Mortgages for No Down Payment
Best Mortgages with No Origination Fee
Best Mortgages for Average Credit Score
Adjustable Rate Mortgages
Affording a Mortgage
SELECT
All Insurance
Best Life Insurance
Best Homeowners Insurance
Best Renters Insurance
Best Car Insurance
Travel Insurance
SELECT
All Credit Monitoring
Best Credit Monitoring Services
Best Identity Theft Protection
How to Boost Your Credit Score
Credit Repair Services
SELECT
All Personal Finance
Best Budgeting Apps
Best Expense Tracker Apps
Best Money Transfer Apps
Best Resale Apps and Sites
Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) Apps
Best Debt Relief
SELECT
All Small Business
Best Small Business Savings Accounts
Best Small Business Checking Accounts
Best Credit Cards for Small Business
Best Small Business Loans
Best Tax Software for Small Business
SELECT
All Taxes
Filing For Free
Best Tax Software
Best Tax Software for Small Businesses
Tax Refunds
Tax Brackets
Tax Tips
Tax By State
Tax Payment Plans
SELECT
All Help for Low Credit Scores
Best Credit Cards for Bad Credit
Best Personal Loans for Bad Credit
Best Debt Consolidation Loans for Bad Credit
Personal Loans if You Don't Have Credit
Best Credit Cards for Building Credit
Personal Loans for 580 Credit Score or Lower
Personal Loans for 670 Credit Score or Lower
Best Mortgages for Bad Credit
Best Hardship Loans
How to Boost Your Credit Score
SELECT
All Investing
Best IRA Accounts
Best Roth IRA Accounts
Best Investing Apps
Best Free Stock Trading Platforms
Best Robo-Advisors
Index Funds
Mutual Funds
ETFs
Bonds
Watch Daily: Monday - Friday, 3 PM ET
AUSTIN — On a Friday morning last spring, Mark Suman called out sick from his job as a senior engineering project manager at Apple and made his way downtown to a place called the Bitcoin Commons, a sort of clubhouse for enthusiasts of the world's largest cryptocurrency, situated a few blocks south of the Texas State Capitol.
At the time, Suman was, in his words, "an active hobbyist," tinkering with the technology in his spare time. "I actually played around with it a bit within Apple as well," he says. "There's not a lot I can say, other than we were always exploring new technologies, and so I was playing around with some of the open-source bitcoin tools within Apple and doing some exploratory work."
Suman was there for the annual 'Bitcoin Takeover' event. He had followed many of the speakers online and when he saw the gathering pop up on his feed, he took the day off to see it for himself.
"I was sitting in the crowd wanting to get into the space and really build something new and build something novel," Suman recalled.
What happened instead was the beginning of a professional pivot: he struck up a conversation with a developer after a talk at the Commons, and was introduced to other coders who were winding down a project called Mutiny. Within a few months, Suman handed in his notice at Apple and with the developers he'd met, pivoted into something bigger — co-founding Open Secret, a startup reimagining how user data is stored in the cloud. Instead of relying on centralized databases, the company encrypts data to each individual user — even after it's uploaded. So if there's a breach, there's nothing to steal, Suman explained. No honeypot.
The leap was not without stakes.
"There are plenty of sleepless nights," he said. "I've got a family, I've got kids, I've got a kid off at university."
He had spent years working on privacy infrastructure — tackling tough technical problems around user protection at scale — but saw a way to do it better with blockchain. "Apple likes to talk a big game about privacy," he says. "And having been there, I've seen very deep within a lot of their systems that they do care about privacy at every level."
That vision — and the Commons — helped give him conviction. The builders there were all laser focused on creating something that mattered.
Bitcoin Commons sits on the second floor of the Littlefield Building at the corner of Congress Avenue and Sixth Street — where the broad boulevard to the Capitol collides with the noisy sprawl of Austin's nightlife district. It's an apt metaphor for the space itself.
By day, it serves as a clean, open-plan coworking hub for bitcoin operators and builders. At night, it transforms into a gathering place for rogue developers and off-the-record meetups. Events here draw a blend of venture capitalists, open-source contributors, off-grid energy technicians, and Lightning engineers — developers who build software to make bitcoin faster and cheaper to use. On some afternoons, once happy hour hits, the kitchen in the back converts into a bar.
"Bitcoin is the most important technological innovation in any of our lifetimes, and it needs its due," said Parker Lewis, one of the stewards of the Commons and the author of a new book on bitcoin called "Gradually, Then Suddenly."
"And so while bitcoin has no CEO and no marketing team, we here at the Bitcoin Commons and Bitcoiners all over the world help educate people about bitcoin, why it's important, what's being built, and present a vision for the future," continued Lewis.
"The vibe, it's always high signal," said Dan Lawrence, CEO of OBM, which manages energy use for industrial-scale mining farms. Lawrence said he was "thankful" that the U.S. government had become a little more pro-bitcoin under the new administration, but added, "No matter what happens anywhere, everybody here is always going to bleed bitcoin."
This year, the Commons feels different — not because bitcoiners have changed, but because the world around them has. The mood is bullish. Strategic. Triumphant, even.
Bitcoin's price mirrored this optimism, surging to an all-time high of nearly $110,000 in January, coinciding with Trump's inauguration. By early April, it had retraced to the low $70,000s before rebounding to nearly $85,000 as of Saturday morning — volatility that underscores the market's sensitivity to political developments and investor sentiment.
Just a year ago, the vibe in the Commons was cautious. Even bitcoin — the asset largely spared by securities law — felt the chill of an aggressive regulatory regime. Developers were being arrested around the world. Wallet providers were being pressured. Open-source projects landed on sanctions lists. The question then was, who would be next?
Then came the election. Trump's return to the White House brought with it a full-court press of pro-bitcoin policy moves. Within his first 100 days, he'd pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht and three co-founders of the BitMEX crypto exchange, established a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, and appointed a "crypto czar" to oversee the federal government's digital asset efforts. Even skeptics found themselves nodding.
"I was in Nashville when Trump spoke," Suman recalled of the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Tennessee, where Trump made his first major address to the crypto industry. "I wasn't planning on going. But you know, when someone like that is in town, you go see it."
Suman says he feels Trump has delivered on his promises to the crypto community for the most part. Still, he remains cautious. "I am not one who embraces politicians," Suman said. "I'm kind of apolitical as far as which side. So I only trust them until I see how it's actually playing out in our life. So far, I think it's going well, but it could really change."
Kevin Hurley, CTO at Lightspark, says Washington's stance toward crypto appears to be shifting, with regulators like the SEC taking a less combative approach — moving away from lawsuits and toward clearer capital markets rules. "Hopefully now we're actually going to have some clarity on what is and what isn't a security, what can actually be done," he said.
But even in a friendlier political climate, caution over government involvement remains a feature, not a bug, of the crypto community.
Joe Kelly, CEO of Unchained — a startup that helps clients store bitcoin securely by holding their own private keys — said it's smart to be careful what you wish for when it comes to the U.S. government owning a lot of bitcoin. "That can go other ways," he said.
To date, the government's so-called Strategic Bitcoin Reserve has underwhelmed some digital asset advocates, since it's limited to bitcoin previously seized in enforcement actions — not newly purchased assets or sovereign investment. Still, the administration has directed the Treasury and Commerce Departments to explore budget-neutral ways to acquire more bitcoin.
Kelly acknowledges a shift in the regulatory atmosphere, but he's also wary of premature celebration, even with big market wins like the launch of exchange-traded funds that allow investors widespread access to bitcoin.
"If something like the ETF had launched too soon, I think it could have distracted from the people building on the actual technology itself," Kelly said. "We've had the fortune that for most of Unchained's life there wasn't an ETF," he added of the firm's efforts to educate investors on how to store their crypto.
The shift has had ripple effects across the industry, including insurance.
Becca Rubenfeld, COO of Anchor Watch, says regulatory movement is opening the door for bitcoin to be treated like any other financial asset. Traditional insurers don't cover bitcoin directly — they insure the infrastructure around it. But if bitcoin becomes an admitted asset on insurance company balance sheets, that changes everything.
"Currently, the industry is extremely underserved," Rubenfeld told CNBC. "But what Anchor Watch is doing is specifically insuring the asset itself. So we built a proprietary custody solution. And when customers use us for custody services, Lloyd's of London backed insurance is included in those services."
The demand is growing. So is the pressure to build — and secure — the technical infrastructure that makes bitcoin work.
Mike Schmidt, executive director of Brink, which funds open-source bitcoin developers through a nonprofit structure, emphasized the importance of supporting the engineers maintaining bitcoin's underlying infrastructure. "Bitcoin needs engineers," he said.
"We have a $2 trillion asset. We have strategic reserves of bitcoin being held by countries, and there's just this small group of engineers that are keeping this thing together at the code base," Schmidt said. "There's only maybe 40 full-time engineers working on this. So we want to make sure that the engineering growth can keep pace with its broader adoption."
Lisa Neigut started as a back-end engineer at Cash App, where she worked on their internal bitcoin product, before moving to Blockstream and spending six years as an open-source developer on the Lightning Network. These days, she runs Bitcoin++, one of the largest technical conference series in the space, with six events planned across six countries this year.
"Bitcoin++ is focused on bringing together bitcoin developers and builders to talk about what they're working on — the frontier of bitcoin," Neigut said. "You can get an idea of what bitcoin is going to look like tomorrow."
That sense of momentum resonates with filmmaker Alana Mediavilla, who spent five years at Google working on films about big data and cloud infrastructure. She screened her new documentary, Dirty Coin, a feature-length project looking at bitcoin's energy footprint and the people behind the infrastructure, at the Commons.
"I had put in my time in the cloud space," she says. "I understood what data centers were, I understood where it was going, and I also understood how much energy it takes to run these huge facilities that right now are running the backbone of our society."
Her goal wasn't to necessarily defend bitcoin mining but to broaden the conversation. "I just want to get everybody's data center literacy up to a certain point where we can continue to have conversations about it, because it's not going away."
She describes the crowd in Austin as a coming together of people "very committed to their craft" — and in her view, driven more by shared ideals than by profit-seeking.
"People think that it's like a get-rich-quick," she said. "Maybe those were the old days for bitcoin. Now, if you want 100x you should look at altcoins and meme coins and other stuff, but you're probably not going to get that with bitcoin."
"What brings them together is that they want to have better money, and they want to have a more fair world," she added. "So the principles are solid. How we implement those principles — that's where the variety and spice of life comes in."
A surge of new funding is also reshaping bitcoin's builder economy.
Venture investment in bitcoin-related startups soared in 2024 alongside the crypto market's rally. The number of pre-seed deals in the space climbed 50% last year, according to research from Trammell Venture Partners, an Austin-based VC firm focused on bitcoin-native startups. Across all early-stage funding rounds, nearly $1.2 billion has been invested in bitcoin companies since 2021.
The renewed interest comes after years of technical upgrades to the bitcoin protocol and growing confidence in its long-term resilience.
"Serious people no longer question whether bitcoin will remain 15 or 20 years into the future," said Christopher Calicott, managing director at Trammell. "So the next question becomes: Is it possible to build what the founder is trying to achieve on bitcoin? Increasingly, the answer is yes."
PitchBook projects that crypto venture funding will surpass $18 billion in 2025 — nearly doubling the annual average from the previous two-year cycle. Much of that capital is flowing into bitcoin infrastructure and applications — payments, privacy tools, custody solutions — rather than the speculative trading platforms of previous cycles.
This self-driving car technology stock could pop by more than 400%, say three analysts
Looking for alternatives to Nvidia? Futurum CEO names 3 he's bullish on for 2024
Bernstein tech analyst's best idea for 2024 is to short Tesla
Morgan Stanley picks 'alpha' opportunities in China tech - giving one 52% upside
Turning ideals — and venture dollars — into reality still requires real-world infrastructure. And that's where entrepreneurs like Steve Barbour, the founder of Canadian firm Upstream Data, come in. He's spent years building off-grid mining containers for remote oilfields, but this spring, he's expanding operations into Wyoming, a bet he attributes directly to the Trump administration's rollback of energy regulations and renewed push for domestic production.
Wyoming — home to both sprawling coal operations and some of the country's most permissive crypto laws — has emerged as a hub for bitcoin miners and the lawmakers who support them.
The administration's latest executive orders loosen environmental restrictions and encourage more fossil fuel development — a boon for oilfield miners like Barbour, even as critics warn it could come at a steep climate cost.
"I'm extremely optimistic and bullish on Trump's administration," Barbour said. "The EPA finally came out with a new stance on all these things they've been doing to just destroy the energy sector in America, which has affected us very negatively. I'm seeing a lot of things going the right way now with the decisions the Trump administration is making, and clearly they're trying to attract investment in America and manufacturing."
Zaprite's Lewis, one of the Commons' most vocal policy thinkers, agrees that things are moving in the right direction — particularly around the government's decision to establish a formal national bitcoin reserve.
While a crypto executive order is an important first step, "codifying it with law will help drive further regulatory clarity that the U.S. is open for bitcoin," Lewis said. "It will also be good for the country ... the biggest priority would be for the regulatory clarity piece, pushing Sen. Lummis' Bitcoin Act to codify and make permanent."
Senator Lummis, a longtime advocate for the industry, is pushing legislation to codify bitcoin protections into federal law. Her proposed legislation outlines a plan for the U.S. to buy bitcoin with "existing funds" of the Treasury Department, which includes tax revenue. The idea, in part, is to position bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset — one that could appreciate over time and reduce reliance on debt. The senator has said that the ultimate goal is to reduce the federal deficit, as well as position bitcoin alongside gold and other hard assets as a way to strengthen the dollar over time.
Without the Bitcoin Act becoming law, Lewis warns that today's tailwinds could reverse with a single administration change.
But while Washington debates bitcoin's role in the future of the U.S. economy, Suman was already betting his own on it.
"Why did I leave this really cushy job at Apple, where I was getting paid a lot and had stock and that kind of stuff, to come here, where my future is uncertain?" he said. "It's the possibility of building something new that I think is really needed in the world. And I hope that it pans out. ... If it doesn't, and we go down in a glory of fire, at least I will have tried something that I really believe in."
Even after he accepted the offer to join Mutiny — later pivoting into Open Secret — things didn't calm down. "That was right when a prominent group of developers were arrested," he recalled. "They were developing an app called Samurai, and they got arrested. I had accepted my offer with Mutiny, but I had not yet left Apple."
The gamble wasn't just career-based. It was emotional. Existential.
"Knowing that people were being arrested and there was a lot of uncertainty, I still dove in," he said. "The guys said, 'Listen, if you're worried, we can just call this off and you can stay at Apple,'" Suman recalled. "But I said, 'No, I really believe in what we're building. Let's make this thing scale.'"
Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you.
Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox
Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.
© 2025 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Division of NBCUniversal
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes.
Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data
and Analysis.
Data also provided by
Credit Cards
Loans
Banking
Mortgages
Insurance
Credit Monitoring
Personal Finance
Small Business
Taxes
Help for Low Credit Scores
Investing
SELECT
All Credit Cards
Find the Credit Card for You
Best Credit Cards
Best Rewards Credit Cards
Best Travel Credit Cards
Best 0% APR Credit Cards
Best Balance Transfer Credit Cards
Best Cash Back Credit Cards
Best Credit Card Welcome Bonuses
Best Credit Cards to Build Credit
SELECT
All Loans
Find the Best Personal Loan for You
Best Personal Loans
Best Debt Consolidation Loans
Best Loans to Refinance Credit Card Debt
Best Loans with Fast Funding
Best Small Personal Loans
Best Large Personal Loans
Best Personal Loans to Apply Online
Best Student Loan Refinance
SELECT
All Banking
Find the Savings Account for You
Best High Yield Savings Accounts
Best Big Bank Savings Accounts
Best Big Bank Checking Accounts
Best No Fee Checking Accounts
No Overdraft Fee Checking Accounts
Best Checking Account Bonuses
Best Money Market Accounts
Best CDs
Best Credit Unions
SELECT
All Mortgages
Best Mortgages
Best Mortgages for Small Down Payment
Best Mortgages for No Down Payment
Best Mortgages with No Origination Fee
Best Mortgages for Average Credit Score
Adjustable Rate Mortgages
Affording a Mortgage
SELECT
All Insurance
Best Life Insurance
Best Homeowners Insurance
Best Renters Insurance
Best Car Insurance
Travel Insurance
SELECT
All Credit Monitoring
Best Credit Monitoring Services
Best Identity Theft Protection
How to Boost Your Credit Score
Credit Repair Services
SELECT
All Personal Finance
Best Budgeting Apps
Best Expense Tracker Apps
Best Money Transfer Apps
Best Resale Apps and Sites
Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) Apps
Best Debt Relief
SELECT
All Small Business
Best Small Business Savings Accounts
Best Small Business Checking Accounts
Best Credit Cards for Small Business
Best Small Business Loans
Best Tax Software for Small Business
SELECT
All Taxes
Filing For Free
Best Tax Software
Best Tax Software for Small Businesses
Tax Refunds
Tax Brackets
Tax Tips
Tax By State
Tax Payment Plans
SELECT
All Help for Low Credit Scores
Best Credit Cards for Bad Credit
Best Personal Loans for Bad Credit
Best Debt Consolidation Loans for Bad Credit
Personal Loans if You Don't Have Credit
Best Credit Cards for Building Credit
Personal Loans for 580 Credit Score or Lower
Personal Loans for 670 Credit Score or Lower
Best Mortgages for Bad Credit
Best Hardship Loans
How to Boost Your Credit Score
SELECT
All Investing
Best IRA Accounts
Best Roth IRA Accounts
Best Investing Apps
Best Free Stock Trading Platforms
Best Robo-Advisors
Index Funds
Mutual Funds
ETFs
Bonds
Watch Daily: Monday - Friday, 3 PM ET
AUSTIN — On a Friday morning last spring, Mark Suman called out sick from his job as a senior engineering project manager at Apple and made his way downtown to a place called the Bitcoin Commons, a sort of clubhouse for enthusiasts of the world's largest cryptocurrency, situated a few blocks south of the Texas State Capitol.
At the time, Suman was, in his words, "an active hobbyist," tinkering with the technology in his spare time. "I actually played around with it a bit within Apple as well," he says. "There's not a lot I can say, other than we were always exploring new technologies, and so I was playing around with some of the open-source bitcoin tools within Apple and doing some exploratory work."
Suman was there for the annual 'Bitcoin Takeover' event. He had followed many of the speakers online and when he saw the gathering pop up on his feed, he took the day off to see it for himself.
"I was sitting in the crowd wanting to get into the space and really build something new and build something novel," Suman recalled.
What happened instead was the beginning of a professional pivot: he struck up a conversation with a developer after a talk at the Commons, and was introduced to other coders who were winding down a project called Mutiny. Within a few months, Suman handed in his notice at Apple and with the developers he'd met, pivoted into something bigger — co-founding Open Secret, a startup reimagining how user data is stored in the cloud. Instead of relying on centralized databases, the company encrypts data to each individual user — even after it's uploaded. So if there's a breach, there's nothing to steal, Suman explained. No honeypot.
The leap was not without stakes.
"There are plenty of sleepless nights," he said. "I've got a family, I've got kids, I've got a kid off at university."
He had spent years working on privacy infrastructure — tackling tough technical problems around user protection at scale — but saw a way to do it better with blockchain. "Apple likes to talk a big game about privacy," he says. "And having been there, I've seen very deep within a lot of their systems that they do care about privacy at every level."
That vision — and the Commons — helped give him conviction. The builders there were all laser focused on creating something that mattered.
Bitcoin Commons sits on the second floor of the Littlefield Building at the corner of Congress Avenue and Sixth Street — where the broad boulevard to the Capitol collides with the noisy sprawl of Austin's nightlife district. It's an apt metaphor for the space itself.
By day, it serves as a clean, open-plan coworking hub for bitcoin operators and builders. At night, it transforms into a gathering place for rogue developers and off-the-record meetups. Events here draw a blend of venture capitalists, open-source contributors, off-grid energy technicians, and Lightning engineers — developers who build software to make bitcoin faster and cheaper to use. On some afternoons, once happy hour hits, the kitchen in the back converts into a bar.
"Bitcoin is the most important technological innovation in any of our lifetimes, and it needs its due," said Parker Lewis, one of the stewards of the Commons and the author of a new book on bitcoin called "Gradually, Then Suddenly."
"And so while bitcoin has no CEO and no marketing team, we here at the Bitcoin Commons and Bitcoiners all over the world help educate people about bitcoin, why it's important, what's being built, and present a vision for the future," continued Lewis.
"The vibe, it's always high signal," said Dan Lawrence, CEO of OBM, which manages energy use for industrial-scale mining farms. Lawrence said he was "thankful" that the U.S. government had become a little more pro-bitcoin under the new administration, but added, "No matter what happens anywhere, everybody here is always going to bleed bitcoin."
This year, the Commons feels different — not because bitcoiners have changed, but because the world around them has. The mood is bullish. Strategic. Triumphant, even.
Bitcoin's price mirrored this optimism, surging to an all-time high of nearly $110,000 in January, coinciding with Trump's inauguration. By early April, it had retraced to the low $70,000s before rebounding to nearly $85,000 as of Saturday morning — volatility that underscores the market's sensitivity to political developments and investor sentiment.
Just a year ago, the vibe in the Commons was cautious. Even bitcoin — the asset largely spared by securities law — felt the chill of an aggressive regulatory regime. Developers were being arrested around the world. Wallet providers were being pressured. Open-source projects landed on sanctions lists. The question then was, who would be next?
Then came the election. Trump's return to the White House brought with it a full-court press of pro-bitcoin policy moves. Within his first 100 days, he'd pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht and three co-founders of the BitMEX crypto exchange, established a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, and appointed a "crypto czar" to oversee the federal government's digital asset efforts. Even skeptics found themselves nodding.
"I was in Nashville when Trump spoke," Suman recalled of the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Tennessee, where Trump made his first major address to the crypto industry. "I wasn't planning on going. But you know, when someone like that is in town, you go see it."
Suman says he feels Trump has delivered on his promises to the crypto community for the most part. Still, he remains cautious. "I am not one who embraces politicians," Suman said. "I'm kind of apolitical as far as which side. So I only trust them until I see how it's actually playing out in our life. So far, I think it's going well, but it could really change."
Kevin Hurley, CTO at Lightspark, says Washington's stance toward crypto appears to be shifting, with regulators like the SEC taking a less combative approach — moving away from lawsuits and toward clearer capital markets rules. "Hopefully now we're actually going to have some clarity on what is and what isn't a security, what can actually be done," he said.
But even in a friendlier political climate, caution over government involvement remains a feature, not a bug, of the crypto community.
Joe Kelly, CEO of Unchained — a startup that helps clients store bitcoin securely by holding their own private keys — said it's smart to be careful what you wish for when it comes to the U.S. government owning a lot of bitcoin. "That can go other ways," he said.
To date, the government's so-called Strategic Bitcoin Reserve has underwhelmed some digital asset advocates, since it's limited to bitcoin previously seized in enforcement actions — not newly purchased assets or sovereign investment. Still, the administration has directed the Treasury and Commerce Departments to explore budget-neutral ways to acquire more bitcoin.
Kelly acknowledges a shift in the regulatory atmosphere, but he's also wary of premature celebration, even with big market wins like the launch of exchange-traded funds that allow investors widespread access to bitcoin.
"If something like the ETF had launched too soon, I think it could have distracted from the people building on the actual technology itself," Kelly said. "We've had the fortune that for most of Unchained's life there wasn't an ETF," he added of the firm's efforts to educate investors on how to store their crypto.
The shift has had ripple effects across the industry, including insurance.
Becca Rubenfeld, COO of Anchor Watch, says regulatory movement is opening the door for bitcoin to be treated like any other financial asset. Traditional insurers don't cover bitcoin directly — they insure the infrastructure around it. But if bitcoin becomes an admitted asset on insurance company balance sheets, that changes everything.
"Currently, the industry is extremely underserved," Rubenfeld told CNBC. "But what Anchor Watch is doing is specifically insuring the asset itself. So we built a proprietary custody solution. And when customers use us for custody services, Lloyd's of London backed insurance is included in those services."
The demand is growing. So is the pressure to build — and secure — the technical infrastructure that makes bitcoin work.
Mike Schmidt, executive director of Brink, which funds open-source bitcoin developers through a nonprofit structure, emphasized the importance of supporting the engineers maintaining bitcoin's underlying infrastructure. "Bitcoin needs engineers," he said.
"We have a $2 trillion asset. We have strategic reserves of bitcoin being held by countries, and there's just this small group of engineers that are keeping this thing together at the code base," Schmidt said. "There's only maybe 40 full-time engineers working on this. So we want to make sure that the engineering growth can keep pace with its broader adoption."
Lisa Neigut started as a back-end engineer at Cash App, where she worked on their internal bitcoin product, before moving to Blockstream and spending six years as an open-source developer on the Lightning Network. These days, she runs Bitcoin++, one of the largest technical conference series in the space, with six events planned across six countries this year.
"Bitcoin++ is focused on bringing together bitcoin developers and builders to talk about what they're working on — the frontier of bitcoin," Neigut said. "You can get an idea of what bitcoin is going to look like tomorrow."
That sense of momentum resonates with filmmaker Alana Mediavilla, who spent five years at Google working on films about big data and cloud infrastructure. She screened her new documentary, Dirty Coin, a feature-length project looking at bitcoin's energy footprint and the people behind the infrastructure, at the Commons.
"I had put in my time in the cloud space," she says. "I understood what data centers were, I understood where it was going, and I also understood how much energy it takes to run these huge facilities that right now are running the backbone of our society."
Her goal wasn't to necessarily defend bitcoin mining but to broaden the conversation. "I just want to get everybody's data center literacy up to a certain point where we can continue to have conversations about it, because it's not going away."
She describes the crowd in Austin as a coming together of people "very committed to their craft" — and in her view, driven more by shared ideals than by profit-seeking.
"People think that it's like a get-rich-quick," she said. "Maybe those were the old days for bitcoin. Now, if you want 100x you should look at altcoins and meme coins and other stuff, but you're probably not going to get that with bitcoin."
"What brings them together is that they want to have better money, and they want to have a more fair world," she added. "So the principles are solid. How we implement those principles — that's where the variety and spice of life comes in."
A surge of new funding is also reshaping bitcoin's builder economy.
Venture investment in bitcoin-related startups soared in 2024 alongside the crypto market's rally. The number of pre-seed deals in the space climbed 50% last year, according to research from Trammell Venture Partners, an Austin-based VC firm focused on bitcoin-native startups. Across all early-stage funding rounds, nearly $1.2 billion has been invested in bitcoin companies since 2021.
The renewed interest comes after years of technical upgrades to the bitcoin protocol and growing confidence in its long-term resilience.
"Serious people no longer question whether bitcoin will remain 15 or 20 years into the future," said Christopher Calicott, managing director at Trammell. "So the next question becomes: Is it possible to build what the founder is trying to achieve on bitcoin? Increasingly, the answer is yes."
PitchBook projects that crypto venture funding will surpass $18 billion in 2025 — nearly doubling the annual average from the previous two-year cycle. Much of that capital is flowing into bitcoin infrastructure and applications — payments, privacy tools, custody solutions — rather than the speculative trading platforms of previous cycles.
This self-driving car technology stock could pop by more than 400%, say three analysts
Looking for alternatives to Nvidia? Futurum CEO names 3 he's bullish on for 2024
Bernstein tech analyst's best idea for 2024 is to short Tesla
Morgan Stanley picks 'alpha' opportunities in China tech - giving one 52% upside
Turning ideals — and venture dollars — into reality still requires real-world infrastructure. And that's where entrepreneurs like Steve Barbour, the founder of Canadian firm Upstream Data, come in. He's spent years building off-grid mining containers for remote oilfields, but this spring, he's expanding operations into Wyoming, a bet he attributes directly to the Trump administration's rollback of energy regulations and renewed push for domestic production.
Wyoming — home to both sprawling coal operations and some of the country's most permissive crypto laws — has emerged as a hub for bitcoin miners and the lawmakers who support them.
The administration's latest executive orders loosen environmental restrictions and encourage more fossil fuel development — a boon for oilfield miners like Barbour, even as critics warn it could come at a steep climate cost.
"I'm extremely optimistic and bullish on Trump's administration," Barbour said. "The EPA finally came out with a new stance on all these things they've been doing to just destroy the energy sector in America, which has affected us very negatively. I'm seeing a lot of things going the right way now with the decisions the Trump administration is making, and clearly they're trying to attract investment in America and manufacturing."
Zaprite's Lewis, one of the Commons' most vocal policy thinkers, agrees that things are moving in the right direction — particularly around the government's decision to establish a formal national bitcoin reserve.
While a crypto executive order is an important first step, "codifying it with law will help drive further regulatory clarity that the U.S. is open for bitcoin," Lewis said. "It will also be good for the country ... the biggest priority would be for the regulatory clarity piece, pushing Sen. Lummis' Bitcoin Act to codify and make permanent."
Senator Lummis, a longtime advocate for the industry, is pushing legislation to codify bitcoin protections into federal law. Her proposed legislation outlines a plan for the U.S. to buy bitcoin with "existing funds" of the Treasury Department, which includes tax revenue. The idea, in part, is to position bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset — one that could appreciate over time and reduce reliance on debt. The senator has said that the ultimate goal is to reduce the federal deficit, as well as position bitcoin alongside gold and other hard assets as a way to strengthen the dollar over time.
Without the Bitcoin Act becoming law, Lewis warns that today's tailwinds could reverse with a single administration change.
But while Washington debates bitcoin's role in the future of the U.S. economy, Suman was already betting his own on it.
"Why did I leave this really cushy job at Apple, where I was getting paid a lot and had stock and that kind of stuff, to come here, where my future is uncertain?" he said. "It's the possibility of building something new that I think is really needed in the world. And I hope that it pans out. ... If it doesn't, and we go down in a glory of fire, at least I will have tried something that I really believe in."
Even after he accepted the offer to join Mutiny — later pivoting into Open Secret — things didn't calm down. "That was right when a prominent group of developers were arrested," he recalled. "They were developing an app called Samurai, and they got arrested. I had accepted my offer with Mutiny, but I had not yet left Apple."
The gamble wasn't just career-based. It was emotional. Existential.
"Knowing that people were being arrested and there was a lot of uncertainty, I still dove in," he said. "The guys said, 'Listen, if you're worried, we can just call this off and you can stay at Apple,'" Suman recalled. "But I said, 'No, I really believe in what we're building. Let's make this thing scale.'"
Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you.
Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox
Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.
© 2025 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Division of NBCUniversal
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes.
Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data
and Analysis.
Data also provided by
Real Vision's chief crypto analyst, Jamie Coutts, is highlighting the outperformance of Bitcoin (BTC) amid a correction experienced by stocks and crypto assets.
Coutts says that even though Bitcoin has traditionally been more volatile than stocks, it has recently witnessed a relatively lower level of correction than would be expected based on its historical levels of price swings.
“Folks don't understand what is happening with Bitcoin during this risk-asset panic. BTC with 2.5x the volatility of the S&P 500 experienced a drawdown of 28% vs. the S&P 500's 19%. That is a massive OUTPERFORMANCE.
Perhaps it's not just BTC's strength, but a reflection of the increasing fragility of the fiat system and its asset markets – complex systems inherently trend toward entropy/chaos. Bitcoin is mirroring this unraveling.”
Going forward, Coutts says that Bitcoin will grow in importance as two of its use cases gain prominence across the globe.
“What is happening right now is epic. Things are breaking. The fiat fractional reserve credit-based system's fragility is on full display, yet again. Look through the next couple of days and understand Bitcoin's ascendancy as a global settlement layer and collateral asset is accelerating. Fast.
Before it was the plebs who understood this, this time it will be nation states.”
Bitcoin is trading at $83,227 at time of writing.
Generated Image: Midjourney
Covering the future of finance, including macro, bitcoin, ethereum, crypto, and web 3.
Categories
Bitcoin • Ethereum • Trading •
Altcoins • Futuremash • Financeflux •
Blockchain • Regulators • Scams •
HodlX • Press Releases
ABOUT US | EDITORIAL POLICY | PRIVACY POLICY
TERMS AND CONDITIONS | CONTACT | ADVERTISE
JOIN US ON TELEGRAM
JOIN US ON X
JOIN US ON FACEBOOK
COPYRIGHT © 2017-2025 THE DAILY HODL
© 2025 The Daily Hodl
April—a month marked by extreme market volatility—saw intensifying U.S.-China tensions and a broad selloff in global markets that led to panic selling of almost all asset classes.
Amid the chaos, one of the most improbable winners emerged from the strange depth of the crypto market: Fartcoin (FART).
The Solana-based memecoin, has rallied nearly 90% in the past week and roughly 300% over the past month, leaving traditional assets — and much of the crypto market— far behind.
By comparison, bitcoin (BTC)—the largest and most established cryptocurrency—has been roughly flat over the past week and month, while riskier altcoins like ether (ETH), Solana (SOL) and XRP are in the red. Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index has slid around 2% over the past week and is down nearly 5% over the month as rising bond yields and geopolitical tensions weigh on risk assets.
It has even outperformed gold, which recently hit an all-time high driven by safe-haven demand, gaining 6.5% in a week and up 12% in a month.
“Fartcoin's absurd outperformance is the perfect metaphor for this market," said Kirill Kretov, trading automation expert at CoinPanel, in a message on Telegram. "A joke wrapped in volatility, where escalating U.S.-China tariffs make 'rational' trading a fantasy."
By design, memcoins are cryptocurrencies that occupy an extreme corner of the crypto market. Unlike more established digital currencies, they have no utility or scarcity. These tokens, like Fartcoin, are unapologetically speculative, driven largely by social media hype, online communities and the momentum of short-term traders.
Read more: Crypto for Advisors: Memecoins
Launched in October, Fartcoin quickly gained prominence as one of the tokens propagated by Truth Terminal, an autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) agent created by Andy Ayrey, and became a viral hit amid the crypto-AI speculative wave driven by launchpad Pump.fun. Popularized with joke community slogans like "hot air rises" and "billions must fart," the token's market cap swelled from zero to just shy of $2.5 billion by mid-January.
Then, it all came crashing down with the crypto market as Donald Trump's inauguration, and the TRUMP token launch marked the peak of speculative froth. FART, similarly to other small and risky cryptocurrencies, tumbled over 90% to a $200 million market value by March. But, since then, it bottomed out and has staged a staggering comeback, becoming one of the best tokens in the digital assets sector.
What makes fartcoin's rally dumbfounding is that it completely decouples from other speculative memecoins. Since Fartcoin has already quadrupled in price, other prominent meme tokens like dogecoin (DOGE), pepecoin (PEPE), dogwifhat (WIF) and TRUMP languished near their lows.
"I have never seen such relative strength during macro uncertainty and no signs of animal spirits for altcoins," said pseudonymous crypto trader Smiley Capital, who has gained a substantial following for his blunt commentary. "It takes a special kind of retardation paired with conviction to simply size up into an asset named Fartcoin whilst the global economy is imploding."
The token's outperformance could also be an early signal of risk-on sentiment returning to markets—at least amid crypto traders—after past week's extreme fear, Smiley Capital speculated.
"It's also a barometer and frontrunner for broader risk assets," he pointed out. "That's a statement most of you are not ready to hear yet, or even grasp."
Whether the unpredictable and absurd nature of the new financial order is highlighted by Fartcoin's rise or simply another chapter in the memecoin market remains to be seen.
But Fartcoin's stunning rally, outperforming most of the asset classes, serves as a reminder that virality often trumps fundamentals in the current market, regardless of how absurd it may sound.
Read more: TRUMP Token Pops 12% After U.S. President Calls It 'The Greatest of Them All'
Krisztian Sandor is a U.S. markets reporter focusing on stablecoins, tokenization, real-world assets. He graduated from New York University's business and economic reporting program before joining CoinDesk. He holds BTC, SOL and ETH.
About
Contact
The crypto market is evolving at lightning speed, and altcoins are no longer just alternatives to Bitcoin. They've become innovation hubs, powering ambitious initiatives in blockchain, AI, gaming, decentralized infrastructure (DePIN), and beyond. If you're looking for the best altcoins to buy now, the key lies in diversifying smartly and recognizing early-stage opportunities.
This April 2025, several trends are converging, from memecoin culture to AI-powered utilities. Whether you're a seasoned investor or a crypto newcomer, this guide will walk you through the top picks, including rising stars like Dawgz AI, and help you build a diversified and strategic portfolio.
Altcoins have transitioned from speculative tokens to the core of blockchain innovation. Today, they serve as building blocks for projects harnessing AI, gaming, DeFi, and more. The trick? Don't chase trends blindly. Instead, focus on smart diversification:
“Smart” is about intentional exposure. For instance, Dawgz AI not only capitalizes on meme virality but integrates cutting-edge AI technology, making it a rare blend of entertainment and robust utility.
Here are the best altcoins for April 2025, catering to different investment strategies:
Price: $0.004 (next jump to $0.00438)
With $3.23 million already raised in presale, Dawgz AI is the altcoin crypto enthusiasts can't stop buzzing about. Built on Ethereum, this token goes beyond typical meme coins, introducing AI-powered trading bots that maximize profits and staking rewards designed to reward long-term holders.
Dawgz AI is tailored for those seeking accessible, low-cap altcoins with compelling narratives. It blends cultural relevance with technical innovation, making it a must-watch as its presale approaches its next milestone.
It's rare to find an altcoin that does it all. Dawgz AI combines meme culture's community-building potential with real-world AI-powered tech. If you're tired of empty promises in the meme coin space, Dawgz AI might just surprise you with robust long-term utility.
A veteran in the crypto landscape, XRP continues to prove its worth, especially in global payments and enterprise-level blockchain solutions. Trading at $1.88 with a $110 billion market cap (as of April 2025), XRP is an established option for investors prioritizing liquidity and stability.
For investors seeking a safe and functional altcoin with a battle-tested track record since 2012, XRP remains a solid choice.
Cardano appeals to long-term investors looking for innovation, decentralization, and practical use cases. Trading at $0.5833 with a market cap exceeding $20.5 billion, ADA is proof that scalability and sustainability can coexist in blockchain.
Unlike meme-driven coins, Cardano is built for sustainability and growth. Its structured, research-backed approach makes it a powerhouse in the altcoin ecosystem.
With such a vibrant altcoin market, how do you choose where to invest? Here's a checklist:
By prioritizing these factors, you can build a portfolio that blends stability with high-upside opportunities.
Making the right picks in cryptocurrency often comes down to timing. With the market rebounding from recent lows, the best altcoins to buy now are those that balance short-term momentum with long-term utility.
Diversify smartly across trends like AI, meme coins, and enterprise solutions. Keep an eye on low-entry gems like Dawgz AI while grounding your portfolio with reliable giants like XRP and Cardano.
Remember, it's not about chasing hype but about understanding what's building for the future. Start exploring altcoins today, and make the most of what this dynamic market has to offer.
One rising option is Dawgz AI. It's gaining momentum with its innovative AI trading bots and strong presale demand, offering potential for growth in a market recovering from recent volatility.
While no investment guarantees returns, Dawgz AI stands out due to its innovative mix of token utility and meme-inspired culture. With the right market conditions, it could see significant gains.
Tokens that align with high-impact narratives like AI and blockchain transparency hold promise. Dawgz AI's unique combination of AI and meme culture positions it well for growth.
Dawgz AI at $0.004 in presale offers early-stage investors a rare opportunity. Its low-cost entry point, staking rewards, and AI-powered features make it one to watch.
Disclaimer: This is a Press Release provided by a third party who is responsible for the content. Please conduct your own research before taking any action based on the content.
Editor-in-Chief of CoinCentral and founder of Kooc Media, A UK-Based Online Media Company. Believer in Open-Source Software, Blockchain Technology & a Free and Fair Internet for all. His writing has been quoted by Nasdaq, Dow Jones, Investopedia, The New Yorker, Forbes, Techcrunch & More. Contact Oliver@coincentral.com
Ethereum (ETH) remains the focus of traders who wonder if the coin is set to…
Never Miss Another Opportunity. Get hand selected news & info from our Crypto Experts so you can make educated, informed decisions that directly affect your crypto profits!
Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.
BC Game Crypto: 100% Bonus & 400 Free Casino Spins, Claim Here!
Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum co-founder, published a privacy roadmap to increase security for the Ethereum ecosystem. Responding to calls from community members to address privacy concerns involving crypto mixers, transparency, and regulation, Buterin outlined a brief plan to tackle the problem of balancing privacy with decentralization.
Tornado Cash, the Ethereum mixing service, was sanctioned by the U.S. government in 2022. Tornado mixes different transactions together to disguise a token's history. The U.S. government contended that the mixer facilitated money laundering and stamped down on anyone connected to the network. For that matter, many Ethereum developers steered clear of Tornado to protect themselves from the government. Moreover, ethereum validators and block builders limited their use of Tornado, making the blockchain slower.
In his roadmap, Buterin relied heavily on zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP) to solve the privacy problem. ZKP uses cryptographic algorithms to verify transactions without uncovering the underlying data. Algorithms that enhance privacy, especially at the lower layers (e.g., L1), are being sought after, providing security for both customers and businesses.
Buterin's roadmap includes four main areas of privacy: on-chain privacy, partial anonymization of applications, safeguarding privacy of ‘reads' to the blockchain, and network-level anonymity. He suggests this could be achieved by introducing privacy functions to wallets, including a user-friendly interface and security features activated by default. He further indicates that modularity could be used to enhance privacy, such as with the ‘one address per application model', where an address links to itself rather than to other addresses in the network.
The roadmap includes a plan to simplify operations, with FOCIL and EIP-7701 standards, so that unnecessary metadata is reduced to a bare minimum, disallowing censors from filtering out content. Eavesdropping will be reduced by incorporating the short term TEE based Remote Protocol Calls (RPC), until Private Information Retrieval becomes more viable. Eavesdropping will be reduced by using multiple RPC, so that sensitive data is not exposed on the network. By lowering the attack space, Buterin aims to increase the security of blockchain users. Private transactions, moreover, will be made more secure and cost-effective by using proof aggregation protocols. Private wallets should have added features to keep private keys safe and should keep user data private to avoid data leakage. And links between applications should remain concealed so that RPC nodes, by accident or on purpose, cannot access metadata.
Pascal Caversaccio, an Ethereum security researcher, pointed out that trustless technology opens the door to surveillance and a lack of privacy. A graph could be mined from the Ethereum metadata to detect the flow of money through the blockchain and view an individual's balance.
EIP-7701 simplifies security protocols by increasing their modularity, restructuring them so they don't need relays or public broadcasters. RPC nodes could be used to eavesdrop on a user's transaction. Security, therefore, can be enhanced by using programming techniques such as modularity to decrease the amount of data roaming around on the blockchain. Buterin seems to propose a programming approach to improving anonymity, with the added benefit of improving speed and efficiency. Ethereum has a very modular structure, and this strategy could fit in with the overall direction and expertise of the Ethereum community.
Blockchain transactions have had increased scrutiny regarding privacy concerns. Ethereum has always stressed the importance of transparency, being an open-source project. But now, transparency is proving to be a double-edged sword, with increased accountability on one side and the dangers of censorship on the other side. Many enterprises prefer Ethereum because it has a strong development team. But various sectors like healthcare and finance require more secure transactions to preserve the privacy of their customers.
Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world
Americas+1 212 318 2000
EMEA+44 20 7330 7500
Asia Pacific+65 6212 1000
Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world
Americas+1 212 318 2000
EMEA+44 20 7330 7500
Asia Pacific+65 6212 1000
Trump digital trading card nonfungible tokens.
Source: collecttrumpcards.com
President Donald Trump and his family have taken a interest in just about every corner of the crypto industry.
There are nonfungible tokens and digital collectibles; a decentralized finance project; a proposed stablecoin; an effort at Bitcoin mining; and a pair of memecoins, one for the president and one for First Lady Melania Trump.
About us
Copy link
Disclaimer: The following is paid partner content. DL News and DL Research have not conducted independent analysis into the content of this article.
The best crypto to buy now might not just be about hype, it could be about timing.
As US lawmakers push to accelerate blockchain-friendly legislation, the stage is quietly being set for a new wave of innovation and investment.
Projects with real utility, strong narratives, and community momentum like Dawgz AI are well-positioned to benefit from this policy shift.
With regulators easing off the brakes and Washington finally showing signs of support, the crypto space is getting a much-needed green light.
For years, crypto in the US has been in regulatory limbo, too big to ignore, yet too risky to embrace fully. But that's changing.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is now working to fast-track crypto legislation to create clearer rules around digital assets, blockchain infrastructure, and decentralized technologies.
And the Department of Justice is signalling a softer stance on crypto enforcement, focusing more on collaboration than crackdowns.
Here's why that matters:
Clear regulations mean institutional investors, fintech partnerships, and long-term capital.Innovation without fearDevelopers and startups can build without fear of shutdowns or lawsuits.US-based projects get a boostAs the environment becomes more welcoming, domestic projects can grow, and global crypto startups may choose to move to the US.What makes crypto worth buying in a pro-innovation climate?Regulatory Compliance. Credits/Source: Client. As regulation becomes an opportunity rather than an obstacle, not every project will win. The best crypto to buy now won't be the loudest or cheapest, it'll be the ones built to survive and scale in a more structured, legitimised market.Here's what to look for:Regulatory readinessProjects that play nice with compliance, whether through audits, transparency, or clear use cases, will have an advantage. Dawgz AI has already had a smart contract audit via SolidProof, so it's got credibility out of the gate.Real functionality, not just vibesTokens that offer staking, AI integration, or actual products will outperform those built on hype alone. $DAGZ merges meme culture with AI trading bots and real-time yield strategies, so it's more than just another dog in the park.Community and cultureWith retail investors still a big driver, projects that know how to build (and keep) a community will go further. Dawgz AI leans hard into meme-powered engagement without losing sight of product development.Cross-platform flexibilityWith mainstream finance now stepping in, interoperability is key. ERC-20 tokens like $DAGZ are already compatible with major wallets, exchanges, and potentially even debit cards in the near future.Why Dawgz AI could be a natural fit for this new crypto eraAs lawmakers move from enforcement to innovation, the focus is on projects that offer both creativity and real-world functionality. Dawgz AI fits that bill. While it uses meme culture for community growth, it's backed by a functional core, AIdriven trading algorithms, staking ecosystem, and transparent, audited smart contracts.That mix of tech, accessibility, and community appeal is what makes it a good example of the kind of project that could benefit from a more structured, pro-crypto US landscape. It's early, but it's aligned with where the market is heading.For a more in-depth overview for Dawgz AI, you can check Crypto Chino's YouTube video where he explains why Dawgz AI is one of the top cryptos to buy right now.ConclusionThe best cryptos to buy now may be the ones that are aligned with where policy and innovation are headed. As US lawmakers push for clearer blockchain legislation and ease enforcement pressure, the door is opening for projects that blend compliance, creativity, and utility. Whether it's infrastructure, AI integration, or community-driven ecosystems like Dawgz AI, this shift means a new chapter for the crypto space, one where being built to last matters more than hype. Frequently asked questionsWhat crypto is best to invest in right now?The best crypto to invest in right now depends on your risk tolerance and what trends you believe in. Projects like Dawgz AI are gaining attention for blending AI tech with a strong community and early-stage momentum, especially as US regulation turns more favourable.What crypto under $1 will explode?Several under-$1 tokens are showing serious breakout potential. Dawgz AI, currently priced under $0.01, stands out for its AI trading tools and strong presale traction.What crypto has 1000x potential?High-risk, high-reward plays like Dawgz AI often carry that elusive 1000x potential, especially when paired with strong narratives and early adoption. While no outcome is guaranteed, low-cap tokens with actual use cases, staking, and audited smart contracts are where many investors start hunting for those rare gains.Which coin will boom in 2025?2025 could be a breakout year for coins that combine utility, community, and regulatory readiness. Dawgz AI is one to watch as it aligns with trends in AI and decentralisation.
Clear regulations mean institutional investors, fintech partnerships, and long-term capital.
Developers and startups can build without fear of shutdowns or lawsuits.US-based projects get a boostAs the environment becomes more welcoming, domestic projects can grow, and global crypto startups may choose to move to the US.What makes crypto worth buying in a pro-innovation climate?Regulatory Compliance. Credits/Source: Client. As regulation becomes an opportunity rather than an obstacle, not every project will win. The best crypto to buy now won't be the loudest or cheapest, it'll be the ones built to survive and scale in a more structured, legitimised market.Here's what to look for:Regulatory readinessProjects that play nice with compliance, whether through audits, transparency, or clear use cases, will have an advantage. Dawgz AI has already had a smart contract audit via SolidProof, so it's got credibility out of the gate.Real functionality, not just vibesTokens that offer staking, AI integration, or actual products will outperform those built on hype alone. $DAGZ merges meme culture with AI trading bots and real-time yield strategies, so it's more than just another dog in the park.Community and cultureWith retail investors still a big driver, projects that know how to build (and keep) a community will go further. Dawgz AI leans hard into meme-powered engagement without losing sight of product development.Cross-platform flexibilityWith mainstream finance now stepping in, interoperability is key. ERC-20 tokens like $DAGZ are already compatible with major wallets, exchanges, and potentially even debit cards in the near future.Why Dawgz AI could be a natural fit for this new crypto eraAs lawmakers move from enforcement to innovation, the focus is on projects that offer both creativity and real-world functionality. Dawgz AI fits that bill. While it uses meme culture for community growth, it's backed by a functional core, AIdriven trading algorithms, staking ecosystem, and transparent, audited smart contracts.That mix of tech, accessibility, and community appeal is what makes it a good example of the kind of project that could benefit from a more structured, pro-crypto US landscape. It's early, but it's aligned with where the market is heading.For a more in-depth overview for Dawgz AI, you can check Crypto Chino's YouTube video where he explains why Dawgz AI is one of the top cryptos to buy right now.ConclusionThe best cryptos to buy now may be the ones that are aligned with where policy and innovation are headed. As US lawmakers push for clearer blockchain legislation and ease enforcement pressure, the door is opening for projects that blend compliance, creativity, and utility. Whether it's infrastructure, AI integration, or community-driven ecosystems like Dawgz AI, this shift means a new chapter for the crypto space, one where being built to last matters more than hype. Frequently asked questionsWhat crypto is best to invest in right now?The best crypto to invest in right now depends on your risk tolerance and what trends you believe in. Projects like Dawgz AI are gaining attention for blending AI tech with a strong community and early-stage momentum, especially as US regulation turns more favourable.What crypto under $1 will explode?Several under-$1 tokens are showing serious breakout potential. Dawgz AI, currently priced under $0.01, stands out for its AI trading tools and strong presale traction.What crypto has 1000x potential?High-risk, high-reward plays like Dawgz AI often carry that elusive 1000x potential, especially when paired with strong narratives and early adoption. While no outcome is guaranteed, low-cap tokens with actual use cases, staking, and audited smart contracts are where many investors start hunting for those rare gains.Which coin will boom in 2025?2025 could be a breakout year for coins that combine utility, community, and regulatory readiness. Dawgz AI is one to watch as it aligns with trends in AI and decentralisation.
Developers and startups can build without fear of shutdowns or lawsuits.
As the environment becomes more welcoming, domestic projects can grow, and global crypto startups may choose to move to the US.What makes crypto worth buying in a pro-innovation climate?Regulatory Compliance. Credits/Source: Client. As regulation becomes an opportunity rather than an obstacle, not every project will win. The best crypto to buy now won't be the loudest or cheapest, it'll be the ones built to survive and scale in a more structured, legitimised market.Here's what to look for:Regulatory readinessProjects that play nice with compliance, whether through audits, transparency, or clear use cases, will have an advantage. Dawgz AI has already had a smart contract audit via SolidProof, so it's got credibility out of the gate.Real functionality, not just vibesTokens that offer staking, AI integration, or actual products will outperform those built on hype alone. $DAGZ merges meme culture with AI trading bots and real-time yield strategies, so it's more than just another dog in the park.Community and cultureWith retail investors still a big driver, projects that know how to build (and keep) a community will go further. Dawgz AI leans hard into meme-powered engagement without losing sight of product development.Cross-platform flexibilityWith mainstream finance now stepping in, interoperability is key. ERC-20 tokens like $DAGZ are already compatible with major wallets, exchanges, and potentially even debit cards in the near future.Why Dawgz AI could be a natural fit for this new crypto eraAs lawmakers move from enforcement to innovation, the focus is on projects that offer both creativity and real-world functionality. Dawgz AI fits that bill. While it uses meme culture for community growth, it's backed by a functional core, AIdriven trading algorithms, staking ecosystem, and transparent, audited smart contracts.That mix of tech, accessibility, and community appeal is what makes it a good example of the kind of project that could benefit from a more structured, pro-crypto US landscape. It's early, but it's aligned with where the market is heading.For a more in-depth overview for Dawgz AI, you can check Crypto Chino's YouTube video where he explains why Dawgz AI is one of the top cryptos to buy right now.ConclusionThe best cryptos to buy now may be the ones that are aligned with where policy and innovation are headed. As US lawmakers push for clearer blockchain legislation and ease enforcement pressure, the door is opening for projects that blend compliance, creativity, and utility. Whether it's infrastructure, AI integration, or community-driven ecosystems like Dawgz AI, this shift means a new chapter for the crypto space, one where being built to last matters more than hype. Frequently asked questionsWhat crypto is best to invest in right now?The best crypto to invest in right now depends on your risk tolerance and what trends you believe in. Projects like Dawgz AI are gaining attention for blending AI tech with a strong community and early-stage momentum, especially as US regulation turns more favourable.What crypto under $1 will explode?Several under-$1 tokens are showing serious breakout potential. Dawgz AI, currently priced under $0.01, stands out for its AI trading tools and strong presale traction.What crypto has 1000x potential?High-risk, high-reward plays like Dawgz AI often carry that elusive 1000x potential, especially when paired with strong narratives and early adoption. While no outcome is guaranteed, low-cap tokens with actual use cases, staking, and audited smart contracts are where many investors start hunting for those rare gains.Which coin will boom in 2025?2025 could be a breakout year for coins that combine utility, community, and regulatory readiness. Dawgz AI is one to watch as it aligns with trends in AI and decentralisation.
As the environment becomes more welcoming, domestic projects can grow, and global crypto startups may choose to move to the US.
Regulatory Compliance. Credits/Source: Client.
As regulation becomes an opportunity rather than an obstacle, not every project will win.
The best crypto to buy now won't be the loudest or cheapest, it'll be the ones built to survive and scale in a more structured, legitimised market.
Here's what to look for:
Regulatory readiness
Projects that play nice with compliance, whether through audits, transparency, or clear use cases, will have an advantage. Dawgz AI has already had a smart contract audit via SolidProof, so it's got credibility out of the gate.
Real functionality, not just vibes
Tokens that offer staking, AI integration, or actual products will outperform those built on hype alone. $DAGZ merges meme culture with AI trading bots and real-time yield strategies, so it's more than just another dog in the park.
Community and culture
With retail investors still a big driver, projects that know how to build (and keep) a community will go further. Dawgz AI leans hard into meme-powered engagement without losing sight of product development.
Cross-platform flexibility
With mainstream finance now stepping in, interoperability is key. ERC-20 tokens like $DAGZ are already compatible with major wallets, exchanges, and potentially even debit cards in the near future.
As lawmakers move from enforcement to innovation, the focus is on projects that offer both creativity and real-world functionality.
Dawgz AI fits that bill. While it uses meme culture for community growth, it's backed by a functional core, AIdriven trading algorithms, staking ecosystem, and transparent, audited smart contracts.
That mix of tech, accessibility, and community appeal is what makes it a good example of the kind of project that could benefit from a more structured, pro-crypto US landscape. It's early, but it's aligned with where the market is heading.
For a more in-depth overview for Dawgz AI, you can check Crypto Chino's YouTube video where he explains why Dawgz AI is one of the top cryptos to buy right now.
The best cryptos to buy now may be the ones that are aligned with where policy and innovation are headed.
As US lawmakers push for clearer blockchain legislation and ease enforcement pressure, the door is opening for projects that blend compliance, creativity, and utility.
Whether it's infrastructure, AI integration, or community-driven ecosystems like Dawgz AI, this shift means a new chapter for the crypto space, one where being built to last matters more than hype.
What crypto is best to invest in right now?
The best crypto to invest in right now depends on your risk tolerance and what trends you believe in. Projects like Dawgz AI are gaining attention for blending AI tech with a strong community and early-stage momentum, especially as US regulation turns more favourable.
What crypto under $1 will explode?
Several under-$1 tokens are showing serious breakout potential. Dawgz AI, currently priced under $0.01, stands out for its AI trading tools and strong presale traction.
What crypto has 1000x potential?
High-risk, high-reward plays like Dawgz AI often carry that elusive 1000x potential, especially when paired with strong narratives and early adoption. While no outcome is guaranteed, low-cap tokens with actual use cases, staking, and audited smart contracts are where many investors start hunting for those rare gains.
Which coin will boom in 2025?
2025 could be a breakout year for coins that combine utility, community, and regulatory readiness. Dawgz AI is one to watch as it aligns with trends in AI and decentralisation.
By Isabella Flores
Key Takeaways:
According to TRONSCAN data, TRON's global user base has now crossed the 300 million mark. As of April 12, 2025, the network's reach is no longer merely impressive — it's historic.
TRON founder Justin Sun called the milestone just the beginning, emphasizing that the ultimate mission is to build a single blockchain network serving all 8 billion people. The network adds over 200,000 new accounts daily, which makes it one of the fastest-growing blockchain ecosystems globally.
This isn't just a flashy statistic — it reflects real-world impact. DeFi, NFTs, GameFi, global payments, and more have been built on the backbone that TRON has provided over the past several years. Its low fees and high throughput have made it a popular choice for users looking for a fast, inexpensive transaction — from micro-tipping and rent payments to billion-dollar mints of tokens. Retail users and institutions alike are drawn to the combination of reliability, speed, and affordability.
TRON's ascent has also been paralleled by the growing popularity of TRON-based decentralized applications (dApps), including JustLend, SunSwap, and WinkLink, all of which have added to the stickiness of the ecosystem. Several gaming platforms have also begun integrating TRON-based assets for in-game economies and player-owned content.
As the web3 boom takes off in its wake, TRON has become a global value network—bridging people, platforms, and the flow of capital for a cross-border economy. Its infrastructure has been instrumental in reshaping financial inclusion — most notably in areas where conventional banking is unreliable or simply out of reach. By removing intermediaries and delays, TRON enables near-instant payments even in areas with minimal fintech infrastructure.
It was once just a blockchain content-sharing project, and now it's a game-changing platform for finance, entertainment, even governance. Developers continue to build on TRON Virtual Machine (TVM), harnessing the scale of TRON with ETH compatibility to avoid congestion and high gas fees. Developers migrating from Ethereum often find TRON's environment more scalable and cost-effective for launching dApps.
TRON's ambition doesn't stop at 300 million. The next challenge is clearly defined: reaching 8 billion people. It's an ambitious goal, but one that fits in with TRON's historical vision of creating a decentralized internet.
TRON is targeting several core sectors to get there:
More News: TRX Set to Launch on Solana: Justin Sun Signals Major Blockchain Integration
The symbolic weight of 300 million accounts is hard to ignore. Reaching that number demonstrates how blockchain has moved beyond a niche tool for crypto natives and is now becoming part of everyday infrastructure. Whether it is tipping creators on social platforms or sending remittances home, users are witnessing real value creation in the TRON ecosystem.
TRON's success may also put pressure on other blockchain platforms to optimize for speed, low cost and simplicity — attributes that have allowed it to flourish even as competitors have faltered over scalability.
More News: Tron Preparing to Introduce ‘Gas-Free' USDT Transactions: A Killer Feature?
Isabella Flores
Blockchain Adoption Reporter
Isabella specializes in tracking how blockchain technology is transforming industries worldwide. She previously worked as a business analyst for a fintech startup before pivoting to journalism. Her pieces explore the real-world applications of blockchain, from supply chain to healthcare. Isabella is passionate about highlighting underrepresented use cases in the crypto space.
The latest news, articles, and resources, sent to your inbox weekly.
News
News
Crypto
Referral Code
Crypto
Crypto
News
News
Exchange
Crypto
News
Exchange
CryptoNinjas is a global news and research portal that supplies market and industry information on the cryptocurrency space, bitcoin, blockchains. CryptoNinjas aims to expand knowledge and understanding of the cryptocurrency and blockchain space.
The latest news, articles, and resources, sent to your inbox weekly.
ByBilly Bambrough
ByBilly Bambrough,
Senior Contributor.
04/12 update below. This post was originally published on April 11
Bitcoin has swung wildly over the last week as traders ride U.S. president Donald Trump's tariff rollercoaster (with Michael Saylor's Strategy issuing a shock warning).
Front-run Donald Trump, the White House and Wall Street by subscribing now to Forbes' CryptoAsset & Blockchain Advisor where you can "uncover blockchain blockbusters poised for 1,000% plus gains!"
The bitcoin price is holding up following the latest tariff shots fired by Trump and China after plunging along with stock markets in early April—even as Wall Street grapples with a looming “existential threat” from crypto.
Now, while traders bet on a Federal Reserve game-changer, the bitcoin price is braced for a dollar "confidence crisis" as the ICE U.S. dollar index plummets to its worst day since 2022.
Sign up now for the free CryptoCodex—A daily five-minute newsletter for traders, investors and the crypto-curious that will get you up to date and keep you ahead of the bitcoin and crypto market bull run
“The question of a potential dollar confidence crisis has now been definitively answered—we are experiencing one in full force,” ING analysts including Francesco Pesole wrote in a note seen by Bloomberg. “The dollar collapse is working as a barometer of ‘sell America' at the moment.”
The escalating Trump-led global trade war saw the ICE U.S. Dollar Index, which measures the U.S. dollar against a basket of global currencies, fall sharply this week, dropping under the 100 level and putting it on course to return to its 2022 range.
04/12 update: The U.S. dollar has fallen to its lowest level in three years as U.S. president Donald Trump's hot-and-cold approach to global tariffs drives extreme volatility on U.S. financial markets.
"What we are going through now is worse than when former President Nixon took us off the gold standard in August 1971," Marc Chandler, the New York-based chief market strategist for Bannockburn Global Forex, told MarketWatch. “The biggest damage right now is to the U.S. brand.”
Meanwhile, the chaos and uncertainty of the escalating tariff war could help bitcoin close the gap on gold's $22 trillion market capitalization, according to a report from bitcoin and crypto asset manager Grayscale.
“In our view, disruptions to the dollar-centric international trade and financial system could result in more reserve diversification by central banks, including into bitcoin,” Grayscale analysts wrote.
“Bitcoin is too young for us to know how it would have behaved in past episodes, but historical data shows that stagflation tends to be negative for traditional asset returns and favorable for scarce commodities like gold,” the researchers wrote, adding that during the 1970s, "the price of gold appreciated at an annualized rate of about 30%, significantly above the rate of inflation."
Bitcoin, sometimes called digital gold due to its scarcity, has so far failed to follow gold higher as traders panic-sell assets in the face of a looming global trade war, with the gold price hitting a record, all-time high this week.
“The market is re-assessing the structural attractiveness of the dollar as the world's global reserve currency and is undergoing a process of rapid de-dollarisation,” Deutsche Bank's global head of FX research George Saravelos wrote in a note seen by City AM.
The dollar's decline is seen by some as boosting the bitcoin price as traders bet bitcoin will follow in gold's footsteps, performing as a safe haven asset.
"Like a rising tide, the dollar's decline is lifting other assets," Alex Kuptsikevich, the FxPro chief market analyst, said in emailed comments, adding “a falling dollar supports cryptocurrencies.”
Sign up now for CryptoCodex—A free, daily newsletter for the crypto-curious
“Bitcoin's correlation with U.S. equities may have garnered excessive attention, while its ties to Federal Reserve policy and the U.S. dollar's trajectory deserve greater scrutiny,” LMax Group's market strategist Joel Kruger said via email.
Trump has been pushing Fed chair Jerome Powell to cut interest rates as he embarks on his global trade war, fuelling expectations the Fed could be forced to cut interest rates through 2025, either in response to a tariff-led economic slow down or because Trump has fired Powell.
“Market dynamics are shifting as the Fed's outlook adjusts to pressures from U.S. trade policy, with expectations of steeper rate cuts in 2025 now taking hold. This pivot toward a more accommodative stance is poised to narrow yield differentials, weakening the dollar's appeal and, in turn, creating a supportive tailwind for bitcoin," Kruger said.
TronWeekly
Crypto World News
April 12, 2025 by Vaigha Varghese
Crypto is cooking up another bull run, and if history's taught the space anything, it's that momentum favors the well-prepped. This next leg up won't just reward hype coins and memecoins—it's going to favor projects with utility, traction, and tech that fits the times. And with everything from macro trends to layer upgrades taking shape, the setup for 2025 is already looking spicy.
One altcoin making serious waves is Qubetics. It's not some recycled project with new branding—it's a fresh play on solving one of crypto's oldest headaches: interoperability. Qubetics is giving people from all walks of life, from solo hustlers to full-scale enterprises, the tools to move value and data across blockchains without breaking a sweat.
For folks looking to make moves before the next breakout, here are the 3 best altcoins to buy for next bull run: Qubetics, Stellar, and EOS. Let's dig in.
Qubetics is bringing something real to the table—interoperability that makes sense for regular folks, not just developers. Think about it like this: a freelance developer in Chicago gets paid in ETH, but needs to use funds on a Solana-based platform. Qubetics makes that seamless. No bridges, no clunky swaps, no wallet headaches.
For small businesses, it's even bigger. A boutique in Austin running its loyalty tokens on Avalanche can interact with a supply chain dApp on Ethereum without writing a single line of code. Even Web2 businesses are jumping in. A digital agency in Toronto is already using Qubetics to let clients pay in the token of their choice while the agency settles in stablecoins. That level of frictionless value flow is what blockchain's been missing for years.
This isn't just talk. Qubetics is running an advanced interoperability layer that connects blockchains natively, with real-world support for compliance, multi-sig, and scalability. It's built for the folks who need tools that just work.
Stage 29 of the Qubetics top crypto presale is live, and the numbers are wild. Over 507 million $TICS tokens have already been scooped up by more than 24,600 holders, with $16 million raised so far. Each token is going for $0.1573, but good luck grabbing that price much longer.
Analysts are throwing out bold predictions—and they're not off base. If $TICS hits $1 after launch, that's a 535% return. At $5? A 3,078% ROI. Some are calling for $10–$15 after mainnet hits, which would land early backers a sky-high ROI of 9,434%.
And this isn't some hopium fantasy. With working interoperability tech, community buzz, and real-world integration, it's shaping up to be one of the most anticipated launches of the cycle.
Why did this coin make it to this list Qubetics made the list because it's solving interoperability in a way that real people and businesses can use—without all the confusing layers. Its presale success, combined with cross-chain functionality, makes it one of the best altcoins to buy for next bull run.
Stellar is making a serious comeback—quietly but powerfully. The rise of stablecoins has pulled XLM right back into the spotlight. With nearly $300 million in USDC now circulating on Stellar, the network's usage has jumped across fintech, peer-to-peer payments, and even NGO disbursements.
For community members and small businesses, this means fast, cheap payments without dealing with complex wallet setups or unpredictable fees. In New York, independent service providers are using Stellar wallets to accept global payments instantly. In parts of Latin America, Stellar's being tapped for remittances that beat traditional banking by a mile in speed and cost.
And devs love it, too. New wallet integrations and developer tools have made building on Stellar faster and easier, especially for financial tools. The chain recently updated its AMM and token issuance frameworks to support stablecoin-based DeFi—something that could bring in serious traction in 2025.
The numbers are solid. Stellar has processed over 70 million transactions in just the last month, with active addresses jumping 15% in North America alone. Price-wise, XLM is rebounding off long-term support at $0.22. A clean break above $0.25 could kick off a rally toward $0.40 or higher.
On-chain activity keeps rising while the price still floats below historical averages. That kind of divergence is usually a recipe for a bullish breakout.
Why did this coin make it to this list Stellar made the cut because it's still the king of low-cost global transactions. With stablecoin demand booming and cross-border payments on the rise, XLM is right in the sweet spot for the next bull run.
EOS has been counted out before, but it's quietly laying the groundwork for a big return. With one of the fastest consensus mechanisms out there, EOS is built for apps that need high throughput, low latency, and real scalability. In 2025, that's not optional—it's a requirement.
The EOS community is also doing something rare in crypto: overhauling governance in a way that actually makes it more decentralized. The EOS Network Foundation (ENF) has been rolling out tools to give DAOs and users more say over resources, upgrades, and validator actions. That builds trust, and in crypto, trust is currency.
And developers are coming back. With new grants and performance upgrades, EOS is seeing growth in Web3 gaming, DeFi, and enterprise tooling—especially in areas that Ethereum still struggles with, like real-time transactions.
After bottoming out near $0.60, EOS has started forming higher lows and building volume. Traders are watching for a break above $1.00, which could ignite a run toward $1.80 or more. The big play? The ecosystem is getting leaner and more focused—and that sets it up for real momentum if the market turns bullish.
The EOS comeback story isn't loud, but it's happening. And when it clicks, it'll surprise a lot of people.
Why did this coin make it to this list EOS earned its spot because it's still one of the fastest, most scalable chains out there. With a governance revamp and ecosystem upgrades underway, it could be a sleeper hit in the next bull run.
Qubetics, Stellar, and EOS aren't just buzzy names. They're platforms with real features, active communities, and growth potential that isn't tied to market noise. Whether it's Qubetics' game-changing interoperability, Stellar's cross-border dominance, or EOS's high-speed enterprise focus—these altcoins are built for what's coming.
When the market heats up again, the ones building now will be the first to pop. These three should be at the top of the watchlist for anyone looking for the best altcoins to buy for next bull run.
Qubetics: https://qubetics.com
Presale: https://buy.qubetics.com/
Telegram: https://t.me/qubetics
Twitter: https://x.com/qubetics
1.What makes Qubetics stand out from other altcoins?
Qubetics delivers real cross-chain interoperability that works for small businesses, professionals, and enterprises without tech complexity.
2.How much has Qubetics raised so far in its top crypto presale?
Over $16 million, with 507 million tokens sold across 24,600+ buyers.
3.Why is Stellar gaining traction again?
Stellar's low-fee transactions and growing USDC activity have made it a go-to network for stablecoin payments and remittances.
4.Is EOS still relevant in 2025?
Yes. EOS is gaining momentum through its governance upgrades, speed, and performance-based features tailored to real-world applications.
5.What kind of ROI can early $TICS buyers expect?
Analyst predictions suggest $TICS could return anywhere from 535% to 9434% depending on the price after launch.
Filed Under: News, Press Release
Copyright © 2025 · Tron Weekly. All Rights Reserved. NOTE: Tron Weekly is an independent crypto news site that adheres to the strict journalism policy anchored on transparency, trust, and objectivity, we have no affiliation with the TRON Foundation, its founder Justin Sun or any other cryptocurrency firm.
During the recent Paris Blockchain Week on April 9, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson revealed plans for a significant airdrop associated with the Midnight sidechain project.
During the recent Paris Blockchain Week on April 9, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson revealed plans for a significant airdrop associated with the Midnight sidechain project. This initiative aims to reach approximately 37 million users across eight prominent blockchains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Solana, Binance Smart Chain, Avalanche and Polygon.
The Midnight project focuses on enhancing user privacy through the use of zero-knowledge proofs, allowing seamless interaction across different blockchains without requiring token conversion. Hoskinson referred to this capability as "chain abstraction."
The upcoming airdrop will distribute two types of tokens: the governance token, NIGHT, and the privacy transaction token, DUST. Unlike traditional airdrops, which typically target early funders and select users, the Midnight airdrop will encompass a much broader audience, significantly expanding the reach of Cardano's ecosystem.
In his keynote address, Hoskinson also discussed the evolution of blockchain technology, outlining four distinct phases. The first phase, exemplified by Bitcoin, emphasized decentralization. The second phase, represented by Ethereum, introduced smart contracts—self-executing programs that operate under specific conditions.
The third phase focused on scalability and interoperability, enhancing transaction throughput and network interactions.
Hoskinson noted that blockchain technology is currently entering its fourth phase, which prioritizes privacy. This shift reflects an increasing awareness of user confidentiality in the rapidly evolving digital landscape.
A medico... but a crypto geek.
Join the thousands already learning crypto!
The SEC and Binance have recently had “productive discussions” in their nearly two-year legal battle, a court filing says.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and crypto exchange Binance have asked a US federal judge for an additional two-month pause in their nearly two-year legal battle.
“Since the Court stayed this case, the Parties have been in productive discussions, including discussions concerning how the efforts of the crypto task force may impact the SEC's claims,” both parties said in an April 11 joint status report with the US District Court for the District of Columbia.
According to the filing, the SEC requested and Binance agreed to another 60-day extension as the regulator continues to seek permission to “approve any resolution or changes to the scope of this litigation.”
“The Defendants agreed that continuing the stay is appropriate and in the interest of judicial economy,” the filing said.
The request comes not long after the SEC dropped a string of crypto-related lawsuits against crypto exchanges Coinbase, Kraken, and Gemini, as well as Robinhood and Consenys.
At the end of the 60-day period, the SEC and Binance plan to submit another joint status report. This marks the second 60-day pause the SEC and Binance have requested this year, following a previous extension granted by the judge on Feb. 11.
The recently launched crypto task force was a key reason behind the request for the second extension. Source: CourtListener
The request in February came just days after crypto skeptic Gary Gensler stepped down as SEC chair on Jan. 20, with crypto-friendly SEC commissioner Mark Uyeda taking over as acting chair.
At the time, the SEC and Binance also cited the establishment of the SEC's Crypto Task Force as a reason for the pause.
Related: Crypto Biz: Ripple's ‘defining moment,' Binance's ongoing purge
Formed just a day after Gensler resigned on Jan. 21, the task force said it aims to “help the Commission draw clear regulatory lines, provide realistic paths to registration, craft sensible disclosure frameworks, and deploy enforcement resources judiciously.”
The SEC's legal battle with Binance has dragged on for almost two years. It began in June 2023 when the agency filed a lawsuit against Binance, its US platform, and CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao.
The US regulator pressed 13 charges against Binance, including unregistered offers and sales of the BNB and Binance USD tokens, the Simple Earn and BNB Vault products, and its staking program.
Magazine: Memecoin degeneracy is funding groundbreaking anti-aging research
According to a recent X post by seasoned crypto analyst Ali Martinez, Ethereum (ETH) may have already gone through its capitulation phase for this market cycle. Notably, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap is down more than 55% over the past year.
Is Ethereum Capitulation Over?
Unlike Bitcoin (BTC) and altcoins such as XRP, Solana (SOL), and SUI, Ethereum has endured a challenging two-year stretch. The cryptocurrency was trading at $1,892 exactly two years ago, on April 11, 2023, and is now priced around $1,560 – over 17% lower.
In contrast, BTC has surged from approximately $41,000 two years ago to $82,127 at the time of writing – an increase of nearly 100%. While SOL currently trades below its April 2023 price, unlike ETH, it did manage to reach a new all-time high (ATH) of $293 earlier this year in January.
Understandably, sentiment toward ETH – among both retail and institutional investors – is hovering near all-time lows. However, Martinez believes that “smart money” may be accumulating at current levels, anticipating a near-term reversal.
The analyst pointed out that Ethereum's Entity-Adjusted Dormancy Flow has recently dropped below one million. Martinez added:
This historically indicates a macro bottom zone, meaning $ETH might be undervalued and long-term holders are less inclined to sell. It also suggests: sentiment is low, capitulation may have occurred, smart money might be accumulating.
For the uninitiated, Ethereum's Entity-Adjusted Dormancy Flow is an on-chain metric that compares the market cap to the dormancy – the average age of ETH being moved – adjusted for unique entities instead of raw addresses. The metric helps identify whether the market is overheated or undervalued by tracking the behavior of long-term holders.
If ETH follows historical trends, it may be approaching a momentum reversal. In a separate X post, crypto trader Merlijn The Trader suggested that Bitcoin Dominance (BTC.D) is nearing a peak, which could shift capital into altcoins and trigger a short-term rally.
At the time of writing, BTC.D stands around 63.5%. A potential pivot by the US Federal Reserve toward quantitative easing (QE) could inject fresh liquidity into the market, possibly sparking a mini altcoin rally.
ETH Demands Cautious Optimism
While there are multiple signs that ETH may be close to bottoming out, some indicators suggest that there could be continued weakness for the digital asset before any meaningful momentum shift.
In a recent analysis, Martinez warned that ETH could fall as low as $1,200 if the current sell-off continues. Further, ongoing capital outflows from US-based spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETF) remain a concern for the asset's short-term outlook.
That said, crypto analyst NotWojak recently noted that ETH may be on the verge of a breakout, with a potential upside target of $1,835. At press time, ETH is trading at $1,557, down 2.3% in the past 24 hours.
Traders and investors use our platform.
Top website in the world when it comes to all things investing.
Mobile reviews with 4.9 average rating. No other fintech apps are more loved.
Custom scripts and ideas shared by our users.
@binary_trading_strategy_ebook
@k.jmcmillan__binary__expert
@maurice.method
@akamenyar
@quantfurian
@__paid__with__kevin__
@fx.today
@milagnes
@tanhef
@miahouse9
@WaltherCrypto
@Mizar (💙,🧡)
@isra3l_vergara
@joey_vittorelli
@smart_traderx
@linda.cooper0
@matg.fxt
@ice.sef
Whatever the trade
The cryptocurrency market is always changing, and one of the most critical aspects to pay attention to is funding rates. Binance's recent decision to change the frequency of its funding rate settlement may have a significant impact on investor confidence and the stability of the market as a whole.
Funding rates are essential for perpetual contracts within the cryptocurrency space. They represent the cost to hold a position, which can shift based on market conditions. If funding rates soar, long positions may suffer, leading to a decline in investor confidence. On the flip side, negative funding rates can benefit long positions but usually suggest bearish sentiment, which can also impact confidence.
In the world of financial technology and banking, these rates are key indicators of market sentiment. High funding rates signal bullishness, while negative rates suggest bearish trends. Such dynamics can sway investor behavior, making it crucial for traders to monitor these rates closely.
Investor confidence is everything in crypto, where price swings can be swift. Funding rates play an integral role in shaping this confidence. Understanding what funding rates signal can help traders manage risk and make informed choices.
For example, Binance's adjustment of the funding rate settlement frequency for its USDⓈ-M ORCAUSDT perpetual contract from four hours to two hours aims to boost investor confidence. More rapid updates allow traders to react quickly to market shifts, minimizing the chances of unexpected costs during volatile times.
Funding rates also significantly influence overall market stability. They help maintain price parity between perpetual futures contracts and spot prices, essential for preventing drastic price deviations that could disrupt the market. By encouraging traders to align their positions with market trends, funding rates foster market participation and stability.
However, rapid fluctuations in funding rates can lead to increased volatility, particularly when liquidity is low. Sudden funding rate changes may trigger abrupt shifts in market sentiment and trading activity, potentially destabilizing the market. Understanding and managing these rates is crucial for preserving a stable trading environment.
The long-term consequences of changes in funding rates extend beyond immediate market responses. Traders will likely adapt by creating strategies that account for funding rate costs. This adaptation can lead to a more stable market as traders become more skilled at managing funding rate risks.
Furthermore, consistently using funding rates as a sentiment indicator may help traders better predict market movements. This foresight can contribute to long-term market stability by mitigating the effects of rapid sentiment changes. As the crypto landscape evolves, funding rates will remain an important factor in shaping investor confidence and market dynamics.
In summary, Binance's funding rate adjustments impact both investor confidence and market stability. While they may raise costs and influence sentiment, they also maintain price parity and encourage market participation, which are essential for long-term stability. As the crypto market matures, comprehending the role of funding rates will be vital for investors navigating this complex landscape.
By keeping an eye on funding rates and their effects on market dynamics, investors can refine their trading strategies and help build a more stable cryptocurrency ecosystem. Adapting to these changes will enable traders to make informed decisions and thrive in the fast-paced world of digital assets.
Get started with Crypto effortlessly. OneSafe brings together your crypto and banking needs in one simple, powerful platform.
Meme coins are reshaping Solana's market dynamics, driving volatility and opportunities. Discover their impact on stability and investor strategies.
Discover the advantages of one bill payment systems for seamless payments, cost savings, and improved financial management in today's fast-paced world.
Interest rate cuts could ignite a crypto revolution, impacting market sentiment and prompting DAOs to adopt risk mitigation strategies.
Begin your journey with OneSafe today. Quick, effortless, and secure, our streamlined process ensures your account is set up and ready to go, hassle-free
The world of cryptocurrency never stands still, and the recent success of Qubetics' presale serves as a pivotal moment for emerging financial technology startups. It's fascinating to see how they managed to pull in over $16 million, and their strategies may just provide a roadmap for others in the space. If you're looking at the bank for cryptocurrency world, here's what you might want to take away from Qubetics' journey.
One of the first things that caught my eye was Qubetics' dedication to clear communication. They didn't just throw a bunch of jargon at potential investors; they explained their blockchain goals in plain language and kept everyone updated regularly. Transparency like this is crucial for any financial technology startup looking to attract crypto payments for business. Plus, having a strong media presence can help build trust—after all, who doesn't want to get paid with crypto without a headache?
Qubetics' partnership with 1inch Network was a masterstroke. Tapping into a leading DeFi aggregator not only improved liquidity but also boosted trading efficiency. It's a reminder that collaborating with established players in the crypto space can enhance your project's utility. For those of us in finance tech startups, these partnerships can make navigating cryptocurrency transfers a lot easier.
Another key factor was community engagement. Qubetics used platforms like Telegram and Discord to connect directly with potential investors, offering educational resources to help them understand the technology. This kind of engagement builds a loyal community and positions your startup as a friendly crypto bank—one that actually cares about educating its users.
Let's not forget the importance of innovation. Qubetics tackled pressing industry challenges by providing solutions like a multi-chain wallet and QubeQode IDE. These tools simplify blockchain interactions and enhance interoperability. Focusing on real-world problems can set your financial technology startup apart and make it more attractive to investors interested in crypto banking solutions.
Qubetics employed a structured presale model with regular price increases, creating urgency among investors. This approach not only spurred early participation but also kept the momentum going. Finance tech startups would do well to adopt a similar model to drive interest in their projects.
As we look to the future, the role of cryptocurrency in financial technology startups is becoming more significant. Crypto banking solutions can streamline payments in crypto, enhance security, and give users more control over their assets. By learning from Qubetics, startups can place themselves at the forefront of this transformation, tapping into the increasing demand for digital currency in the world.
Qubetics' presale is more than just a success story; it's a blueprint for how future crypto projects can thrive in the financial technology sector. Clear communication, strategic partnerships, community engagement, innovation, and well-structured presale models are the keys to navigating the complex crypto landscape. With the demand for crypto banking services on the rise, now is the time to seize the moment and learn from Qubetics.
Get started with Web3 Busineses effortlessly. OneSafe brings together your crypto and banking needs in one simple, powerful platform.
Meme coins are reshaping Solana's market dynamics, driving volatility and opportunities. Discover their impact on stability and investor strategies.
Discover the advantages of one bill payment systems for seamless payments, cost savings, and improved financial management in today's fast-paced world.
Interest rate cuts could ignite a crypto revolution, impacting market sentiment and prompting DAOs to adopt risk mitigation strategies.
Begin your journey with OneSafe today. Quick, effortless, and secure, our streamlined process ensures your account is set up and ready to go, hassle-free
The announcement of Donald Trump's poorly named reciprocal tariffs has in recent weeks set off a period of extreme volatility in global markets. Wall Street closed last week having lost more than 10% in two days. On Wednesday, the official announcement of a 90-day tariff pause sparked stock market euphoria, with double-digit rebounds on the Nasdaq (12.6%). While the stock market suffered constant large fluctuations, its most volatile asset par excellence, bitcoin, registered fewer trades. Despite so much disruption, it has remained stagnant, holding steady in recent weeks, and is now trading at $81,000.
The slightest oscillations of the pioneering cryptocurrency are noteworthy, it being an asset that historically has correlated closely with U.S. indexes, particularly the Nasdaq. “Normally, it had a multiplier effect of two or three; in 2020 and 2021, when the stock market fell by 10%, bitcoin tended to do much worse, falling by between 25% and 30%. And the behavior of the altcoins was even more exaggerated, with falls of 40% to 50%,” explains Javier Pastor, Bit2Me's training director.
In the first week of November, which coincided with Trump's election victory, bitcoin shot up 15.6% against the Nasdaq, with the pioneering cryptocurrency advancing by 7.94%. “In the early years, it had even bigger movements,” says Pastor. On November 11, 2024, when it exceeded $86,000 for the first time in history, bitcoin rose by 11.52%.
Analysts consulted agree that the correlation between these assets has changed over time, primarily due to the change in their user profile. Javier Molina, an analyst at eToro, points out that long-term investors, who hold bitcoin in their portfolios for more than a year and who represent 72% of all those investing in the asset, are not getting rid of their positions. Those who are selling are savers who bought more in the short term and are now trading.
“There have also been many liquidations, but with a lower volume than in previous sharp falls. The market seems to have less appetite and there is a rotation of investors: now the short-term speculator is not in bitcoin, but in Tesla. That is why volumes have risen sharply on the Nasdaq, while bitcoin is left waiting around,” Molina says.
Pastor agrees with this assessment, and pegs the beginning of the trend to the approval of bitcoin ETFs and the increased interest of institutional investors, typified by the purchases of companies like Strategy, governments (like that of El Salvador), and large investors like BlackRock and Fidelity. “The market seems more mature and legitimate,” he says.
Javier Cabrera, a market analyst, points to another factor: tariffs fall mainly on companies, rather than on cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin has no major event hanging over its head, while for U.S. companies, there is still great uncertainty, hence that market's more abrupt movements. Molina agrees with this reading and points out that while bitcoin maintains its behavior, the volatility of other assets has increased.
“Right now Tesla, Apple and Google are showing more volatility than bitcoin, because that's where the tariffs have a direct impact,” Molina says. In the case of the bitcoin industry, there are no direct consequences — apart from those on bitcoin mining, whose companies have supply chains in Asian countries subject to tariffs — while other U.S. companies do suffer from levies on their business and the macroeconomic ramifications they bring.
There has also been some recent good news for the cryptocurrency sector, such as the SEC's dismissal of lawsuits against crypto companies, the confirmation of Paul Atkins as chairman of the agency and the letter to investors from Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, who warned of the possibility that investors may begin to see bitcoin as a safter bet than the dollar. Such developments have also supported the asset's price.
In the short term, experts make clear, volatility is to be expected. However, if tariffs lead to a recession and force governments to launch economic stimulus measures, it would increase liquidity, a factor that benefits bitcoin. “More than with the Nasdaq, bitcoin now has more of a relationship with liquidity and has a time lag of approximately 60 days. That means that it reacts after the fact to increase (or reduction) in global liquidity,” says Pastor.
Faced with an increase in global liquidity, investors tend to invest in different types of assets, such as the stock market, gold, and bitcoin. “And bitcoin captures liquidity very well,” Pastor adds.
But in the medium term they have different views. Manuel Villegas, an analyst at Julius Baer, considers bitcoin unlikely to be recession-proof. “The only certainty is volatility,” he asserts. Instead, escalating tensions and a more aggressive trade war between the U.S. and China could benefit bitcoin, according to Pastor.
If China has to remain competitive, exporting its products to other markets or to the U.S. with tariffs of more than 100%, it will most likely devalue the yuan. “Chinese citizens are going to try to seek refuge in alternatives such as gold. Bitcoin would be another option. We already saw that with the tariff war of 2017-2018, when it absorbed a lot of the positions that Chinese citizens wanted to hold in reserve assets. And that explains the rally that year. If the trade war continues, we're going to see a second derivative, which is a currency war. The yuan is going to depreciate, China is going to try to impose capital controls, and the Chinese are going to try to take refuge in gold and bitcoin. And that could be another element to favor the de-correlation of the traditional market with reserve assets such as bitcoin,” Pastor concludes.
Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition
¿Quieres añadir otro usuario a tu suscripción?
Si continúas leyendo en este dispositivo, no se podrá leer en el otro.
¿Por qué estás viendo esto?
Si quieres compartir tu cuenta, cambia tu suscripción a la modalidad Premium, así podrás añadir otro usuario. Cada uno accederá con su propia cuenta de email, lo que os permitirá personalizar vuestra experiencia en EL PAÍS.
¿Tienes una suscripción de empresa? Accede aquí para contratar más cuentas.
En el caso de no saber quién está usando tu cuenta, te recomendamos cambiar tu contraseña aquí.
Si decides continuar compartiendo tu cuenta, este mensaje se mostrará en tu dispositivo y en el de la otra persona que está usando tu cuenta de forma indefinida, afectando a tu experiencia de lectura. Puedes consultar aquí los términos y condiciones de la suscripción digital.
Suscríbete y lee sin límites
A fast-tracked temporary crypto regulatory framework could bolster innovation within the US crypto industry while permanent regulations are still in the works, says acting US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Mark Uyeda.
“A time-limited, conditional exemptive relief framework for registrants and non-registrants could allow for greater innovation with blockchain technology within the United States in the near term,” Uyeda said at the SEC's April 11 Crypto Task Force roundtable titled “Between a Block and a Hard Place: Tailoring Regulation for Crypto Trading.”
Relief measures may address immediate challenges
Uyeda said this might be the short-term answer as the SEC works toward a “long-term solution” at the roundtable with SEC members and crypto industry executives, including Uniswap Labs' Katherine Minarik, Cumberland DRW's Chelsea Pizzola and Coinbase's Gregory Tusar.
He flagged state-by-state regulation of crypto trading as a concern, warning it could lead to a “patchwork of state licensing regimes.”
Uyeda said that a favorable federal regulatory framework would ease the burden for market participants wishing to offer tokenized securities and non-security crypto assets, allowing them to operate under a single SEC license instead of navigating “fifty different state licenses.”
He urged crypto market participants to share feedback on areas where “exemptive relief” could be appropriate.
Uyeda also reiterated the benefits of blockchain technology in financial markets during the roundtable discussion.
“Blockchain technology offers the potential to execute and clear securities transactions in ways that may be more efficient and reliable than current processes,” Uyeda said.
Uyeda to fill chair position until Atkins is sworn in
“Blockchains can be used to manage and mobilize collateral in tokenized form to increase capital efficiency and liquidity,” he added.
Uyeda will continue serving as acting SEC chair until US President Donald Trump's nominee, Paul Atkins, is officially sworn in.
On April 10, the US Senate confirmed Atkins as chair of the SEC in a 52-44 vote largely along party lines.
Uyeda has served as acting SEC chair since Jan. 20, succeeding former chair and crypto skeptic Gary Gensler. He's been widely seen within the industry as a pro-crypto advocate.
On March 18, Cointelegraph reported that Uyea said the SEC could change or scrap a rule proposed under the Biden administration that would tighten crypto custody standards for investment advisers.
“I have asked the SEC staff to work closely with the crypto task force to consider appropriate alternatives, including its withdrawal,” Uyeda said.
Traders and investors use our platform.
Top website in the world when it comes to all things investing.
Mobile reviews with 4.9 average rating. No other fintech apps are more loved.
Custom scripts and ideas shared by our users.
@binary_trading_strategy_ebook
@k.jmcmillan__binary__expert
@maurice.method
@akamenyar
@quantfurian
@__paid__with__kevin__
@fx.today
@milagnes
@tanhef
@miahouse9
@WaltherCrypto
@Mizar (💙,🧡)
@isra3l_vergara
@joey_vittorelli
@smart_traderx
@linda.cooper0
@matg.fxt
@ice.sef
Whatever the trade
Here's how we might potentially detect technological signals from extraterrestrial civilizations.
The SETI Institute uses a worldwide network of large radio telescopes to seek signals that might hold patterns indicating intelligent communication. But the problem with this particular method to search for extraterrestrial intelligence is that the signal could be blocked. Electromagnetic waves, whether visible light or radio, could encounter planets, stars, or other cosmic objects that block the waves from reaching our instruments on Earth.
The solution could be to add a new way to search the skies for aliens, one scientist proposes. Harvard University's astrophysicist, Avi Loeb, who is joining New York-based physics think tank Applied Physics, along with astrophysicist Shaun D. B. Fell of Heidelberg University in Germany, thinks there's a novel way to find potential alien technosignatures.
Loeb and Fell, both experts on gravitational waves, will work with Applied Physics to develop practical technologies for detecting certain kinds of objects and signals from space. Gravitational waves are generated when distant black holes or neutron stars collide. Like ripples in a pond when a rock hits it, the gravitational disturbance starts large at the point of collision, but spreads outward in smaller and smaller ripples.
The think tank's research, which includes looking for a warp drive solution that could allow interstellar travel, may be unconventional. However, it aims to transform theory into practical technologies. The team is now ramping up research on gravitational waves and how to better measure them—which could be a pathway to learning more about the mysterious, undetectable dark matter that makes up 85 percent of our universe. The inclusion of Loeb and Fell will accelerate the pace and scope of research, says Applied Physics co-founder and CEO, Gianni Martire in a press release.
Arguably one of the world's leading experts on black holes and spacetime structures, Loeb is also a controversial figure in his field because he wants to hunt for alien technosignatures. In 2018, he suggested that a mysterious asteroid-like interstellar object that had entered our solar system, named “Oumuamua,” had unique characteristics that could qualify it as a technological artifact of an alien civilization.
A novel way to find aliens might be through gravitational wave detection, Loeb says. He is interested in laser interferometry, a technique used to measure gravitational waves. By the time they reach Earth, these distortions in spacetime are so diminished that we need a large, highly sensitive network of detectors working together to find them.
Caltech and MIT's LIGO and NASA and the European Space Agency's LISA are such detectors, and Loeb's collaboration with Applied Physics involves using these instruments to better understand gravitational phenomena.
Before joining Popular Mechanics in 2022, Manasee Wagh worked as a science journalist, a newspaper reporter, a technical writer, and an engineer. She has a bachelor's degree in computer engineering and a master's degree in journalism. Her favorite stories are about the discoveries that unearth even deeper mysteries, and she enjoys helping people understand the science behind the remarkable world we live in. She lives in the Northeast with her two favorite people and one curious, feisty feline, but always seeks to combine her love of food, nature, and travel into memorable journeys away from home.
Scientists: The New Dire Wolves Are an Abomination
Psychedelics Could Change If We Even Need Sleep
Animal Consciousness Mirrors Parts of Our Own
Did Consciousness Develop Before Life Itself?
Humanity Is Closer Than Ever to Living Underwater
This Strange Stuff May Be Older Than the Cosmos
Scientists May Have Killed Alien Life 50 Years Ago
Could Salt Help Power Floating Nuclear Reactors?
‘Dinosaur' Sightings Are on the Rise in the Congo
This Battery Has Practically Unlimited Energy
Conscious ‘Alien Minds' Could Be Living Among Us
Did Human Consciousness Come From Stoned Apes?
A Part of Hearst Digital Media
We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back.
©2025 Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Advertisement
Nature Communications
volume 16, Article number: 3484 (2025)
Cite this article
Metrics details
The rapid evolution of portable electronics and electric vehicles necessitates batteries with high energy density, robust cycling stability, and fast charging capabilities. High-voltage cathodes, like LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 (NCM-811), promise enhanced energy density but are hampered by poor stability and sluggish lithium-ion diffusion in conventional electrolytes. We introduce a metal-organic framework (MOF) liquid-infusion technique to fully integrate MOF liquid into the grain boundaries of NCM-811, creating a thoroughly coated cathode with a thin, rigid MOF Glass layer. The surface electrically non-conductive MOF Glass layer with 2.9 Å pore windows facilitating Li-ion pre-desolvation and enabling highly aggregative electrolyte formation inside the Glass channels, suppressing solvated Li-ion co-insertion and solvent decomposition. While the inner Glass layer composes of Li-ion conducting components and enhancing fast Li-ion diffusion. This functional structure effectively shields the cathode from particle cracking, CEI rupture, oxygen loss, and transition metal migration. As a result, Li | |Glass@NCM-811 cells demonstrate good rate capability and cycling stability even under high-charge rates and elevated voltages. Furthermore, we also achieve a 385 Wh kg-1 pouch-cell (19.579 g, for pouch-cell), showcasing the practical potential of this method. This straightforward and versatile strategy can be applied to other high-voltage cathodes like Li-rich manganese oxides and LiCoO2.
The proliferation of various electronic devices and electric vehicles (EVs) eagerly calls for batteries with high energy density, long cycle life, and excellent fast-charging performance1,2. Cathode materials with high specific capacities and high voltage are essential for constructing batteries with high energy density and long cycle life properties3,4,5. However, those high-voltage and high-capacity cathode materials usually suffered from poor stability and slow lithium-ion diffusion when coupled with electrolyte, which make it difficult to construct batteries with high energy density, long cycle life, and fast-charging properties6,7,8,9. Take LiNixCoyMn1-x-yO2 (NCM) as an example: during electrochemical cycles, NCM cathodes undergo various detrimental processes, including significant phase transformations, extensive cracking along grain boundaries of secondary particles, continuous rupture of cathode electrolyte interphases (CEIs), and violent side reactions induced by constant electrolyte decomposition (accelerated by catalytic NCM cathode)10,11,12. Those annoying detrimental problems are closely related to the co-insertion of solvated Li-ion/solvent into the structure of cathodes, consequently lead to the generation of gases (oxygen, carbon dioxide etc.) and transition metals (TM) dissolution and migration13,14,15. It is important to note that the migration of TM to the anode and the production of gases can severely degrade the anode and pose significant safety concerns16,17,18. Even worse, these issues become more severe when electrolytes penetrate the interior of secondary cathode particles, accelerating particle cracks, CEI rupture, gases production, and transition metal dissolution/migration, ultimately leading to premature cell failure and potential safety hazards11,12,19,20.
Significant research efforts have been made to stabilize high-voltage cathodes, including heterogeneous element doping21,22, structural engineering23,24,25,26,27, electrolyte modification8,28,29,30,31, and surface coating32,33. Among these strategies, surface coating is considered the simplest yet most effective method for markedly improving the stability of high-voltage cathodes. By constructing highly stable and catalytically inert coating layer on cathode surfaces, those afore-mentioned detrimental issues induced by the co-insertion of solvated Li-ion/solvent can be effectively addressed34,35,36. However, several inherent defects significantly counteract the positive effects of surface coating strategies for high-voltage cathodes. First, achieving complete coating coverage is still challenging37. Most coatings remain only on the surface of secondary cathode particles, making it difficult to penetrate and coat the interiors and grain boundaries of primary particles38. Second, many coating processes are complex, time/energy-consuming, and conducted in solutions, which may adversely affect the stability of the cathode materials37. Additionally, the introduction of a common type of coating layer may impedes lithium-ion transport to some extent, which is detrimental to the rate performance of the cathode materials. Lastly, although most coatings can partially block direct contact between the electrolyte and cathode particles, they often have large gaps which typically larger than solvated lithium ions38. This limitation makes it difficult to fundamentally inhibit electrolyte penetration, thus failing to effectively prevent electrolyte decomposition and the co-intercalation of solvated lithium ions into the cathode materials32. Optimized coating strategies have been developed to address these issues, yet few can simultaneously resolve all the aforementioned limitations. Therefore, it is highly desirable to develop a simple but effective coating strategy to address those limitations simultaneously.
In this work, we present a straightforward metal-organic framework (MOF, Zn-P-dmbIm) liquid-infusion strategy for high-voltage cathodes like (LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2/NCM-811). The process involves heating MOF powder to 175 °C, transforming it into a flowable MOF liquid that thoroughly infuses into the inner primary cathode particles before rapid cooling to room temperature. This process ensures the MOF Glass thoroughly coats both the grain boundaries and the surfaces of the primary NCM-811 particles, achieving complete (100%) MOF Glass coverage (Glass@NCM-811). This strategy significantly outperforms conventional coating techniques by forming a unique double-layer structure: the surface electrically non-conductive MOF Glass layer with 2.9 Å pore windows facilitating Li-ion pre-desolvation and enabling highly aggregative electrolyte formation inside the Glass channels, suppressing solvated Li-ion co-insertion and solvent decomposition. The inner Glass layer consists of Li-ion conductive components, which significantly enhance fast Li-ion diffusion. This Glass coating shields the NCM-811 cathodes from particle cracks, CEI rupture, gas generation, and transition metal dissolution/migration while demonstrating fast Li-ion diffusion (Fig. 1a, b). Consequently, Li||Glass@NCM-811 cells demonstrate good rate capability and cycling stability, even under harsh conditions of high charge rates (5 C) and elevated voltages (4.6 V). The versatility of this MOF Glass coating strategy can also be extended to other high-voltage cathodes, such as Li-rich manganese oxides (LRMO) and LiCoO2 (LCO). The practical application of this strategy is evidenced by a 385 Wh kg−1 pouch-cell assembled with Glass@NCM-811, showcasing its effectiveness and potential for advancing high-energy-density batteries.
a, b A double-layer coating is applied to the surface of the high-voltage cathode material, featuring an outer layer of non-conductive porous material with sub-nanometer channels which can promotes Li-ion pre-desolvation and an inner layer that facilitates rapid Li-ion conduction. c Schematic of the transformation of Zn-P-dmbIm MOF powder to MOF liquid and MOF Glass and the corresponding XRD patterns of Zn-P-dmbIm MOF powder and MOF Glass. d Schematic illustration of using MOF liquid-infusion strategy to prepare MOF Glass infused cathode, with the MOF liquid uniformly coated the surface of NCM secondary particle and infused into GBs between the NCM primary particles before MOF liquid vitrificated into MOF Glass. SEM and TEM images of (e) Zn-P-dmbIm MOF powder and (f) MOF Glass. SEM image of (g) bare NCM-811 and (h) Glass coated NCM-811 (Glass@NCM-811). i Contact angles of the MOF liquid on NCM-811 electrode. TEM images of (j, k) bare NCM-811 and (l, m) Glass@NCM-811. The TEM in (m) verified the uniform MOF Glass outer layer and the formation of inner layer. n In-depth etching XPS of the prepared Glass@NCM-811. XPS results confirmed that the inner layer was composed of components that accelerate Li-ion conduction.
In their previous studies, researchers demonstrated that coating electrode surfaces with porous materials featuring sub-nanochannels can facilitate the pre-desolvation of Li-ions39,40,41. This approach effectively suppresses electrolyte decomposition and prevents the co-intercalation of solvated Li-ions into electrode materials. Yet, these benefits were achieved only on electrode level as the porous materials were directly coated on the electrode surface, which means it cannot achieve real particle-level Li-ions pre-desolvation42. However, attempts to thoroughly mix cathodes with porous materials like metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) face significant challenges. Due to the powdery nature of MOFs, achieving comprehensive and uniform coverage of the cathode particles is difficult. Furthermore, this method only coats the surface of secondary particles, leaving the inner primary particles uncoated, thus failing to ensure complete coverage38. Additionally, the introduction of a coating layer can often impede lithium-ion transport to some extent, which can negatively impact the rate performance of the cathode materials. Complex and time-consuming liquid phase methods, which involve water or other solvents to coat cathodes with MOFs, introduce further complications. These processes can adversely affect the stability of the cathodes due to the presence of additional solvents.
To achieve effective Li-ion pre-desolvation, the pore windows of porous materials should be smaller than the size of solvated Li-ions, which is approximately 7.0 Å42,43. Ideally, the porous coating material should also be capable of transforming into a flowing liquid state. This allows the liquid MOF to diffuse into the inner voids of the secondary cathode particles and infuse into the grain boundaries between the primary cathode particles, thus ensuring 100% MOF coverage. Taking into account the above two prerequisites, a unique MOF namely Zn-P-dmbIm comes into our consideration (Supplementary Fig. 1)44. Besides its narrow 3.4 Å pore window and the one-dimensional (1D) sub-nanochannels, the Zn-P-dmbIm MOF powder can easily transform into liquid state (MOF liquid) upon heating under low temperature of 175 oC (Supplementary Fig. 2). The MOF liquid would transform into glass state (MOF Glass) after a rapid cooling process (Fig. 1c, the top panel). It worth noting that there are several differences between the Zn-P-dmbIm MOF powder and the MOF Glass. Even both of them all possess 1D channels, the MOF Glass exhibits much narrower pore windows of about 2.9 Å (Supplementary Fig. 3 and Supplementary Table 1). On the other hand, unlike crystalline Zn-P-dmbIm MOF powder with long-range ordered channels, MOF Glass possesses only short-range ordered channels, giving it an amorphous characteristic (Fig. 1c, the bottom panel, Supplementary Fig. 4). The MOF liquid demonstrates quite similar amorphous characteristic as that of the MOF Glass. These results inspired us to preparing MOF Glass infused high-voltage cathode using MOF liquid-infusion strategy. By melting the mixture of Zn-P-dmbIm MOF powder and cathode material, the low-viscosity and flowable MOF liquid can easily diffuse into the inner voids of the secondary cathode particles and constantly infuse into the grain boundaries between the primary cathode particles (Supplementary Fig. 5). Before a rapid cooling process, MOF liquid can completely wet the cathode from inside to outside (100% MOF coverage), and finally obtain cathode coated with rigid and thin MOF Glass (Fig. 1d, Supplementary Fig. 6). This unique coating effect cannot be achieved through typical strategies, such as simply mixing MOF particles with cathode materials. For example, when the MOF Glass is physically mixed with the NCM-811 cathode without further low-temperature treatment, it fails to successfully coating the NCM-811 (Supplementary Fig. 7). This highlights the importance of the MOF liquid-infusion strategy with further low-temperature treatment for achieving even coverage. The seamless MOF Glass is expected to facilitate the particle-level Li-ions pre-desolvation (Fig. 1e, f, Supplementary Figs. 8-10). It was found that the thickness of the MOF Glass layer can be controlled by adjusting the amounts of MOF particles added. Obviously, NCM-811 materials with relatively lower MOF additions (0.25, 0.5 and 1 wt%) demonstrate a much thinner and less uniform MOF Glass coating (Supplementary Fig. 11, with parts of the NCM-811 particles left uncovered), while increasing the MOF additions (2, 5 and 10 wt%) leads to a thicker and much uniform MOF Glass layer (Fig. 1g, h, Supplementary Figs. 12-16). We find that a uniformly and thoroughly covered MOF Glass layer would effectively suppress direct contact between the electrolyte and cathode, thus significantly preventing particle cracks (Supplementary Fig. 17) and reducing transition metal dissolution and migration (defined as TM loss) (Supplementary Fig. 18). Notably, batteries utilizing NCM-811 cathodes coated with 5 wt% and 10 wt% MOF glass exhibited nearly the same TM loss as those with a 2 wt% MOF Glass coating. Additionally, NCM-811 cathodes with 2 wt%, 5 wt%, and 10 wt% MOF glass coatings all maintained good stability without significant cracking. These findings highlight the critical importance of a uniform and complete MOF Glass coating. However, increasing the thickness of the MOF Glass coating beyond 2 wt% does not lead to a further reduction in TM loss, likely because the cathodes are already effectively coated. We also find that Glass@NCM-811 cathode material with 2 wt% Glass coating demonstrates almost the same electrochemical performance as Glass@NCM-811 cathode material with 5 wt% and 10 wt% Glass coating (Supplementary Fig. 19). In general, a high mass loading of the MOF Glass coating on the NCM-811 cathode increases fabrication costs and reduces the energy density of batteries utilizing the Glass@NCM-811 cathode material. Therefore, based on these afore-mentioned results, we think that a 2 wt% MOF Glass coating is the optimal thickness, and finally selected 2 wt% MOF Glass coated NCM-811 (shorted as Glass@NCM-811) as the as our main sample. In this article, for consistency, unless specified otherwise, Glass@NCM-811 refers to this configuration thereafter (Fig. 1h, Supplementary Fig. 20 and 21). The MOF Glass coating did not noticeably reduce the electrical conductivity of the cathode material, nor did it contribute additional capacity to the batteries with MOF Glass-coated cathodes. (Supplementary Fig. 22). More importantly, the MOF liquid, heated to 175 °C, can quickly wet the electrodes in just several seconds (Fig. 1i, Supplementary Fig. 23 and 24) benefits from the low viscosity of the MOF liquid44. This rapid wetting highlights the high efficiency of MOF liquid for quick infiltration and complete coating towards cathode primary/secondary particles. The corresponding TEM images and the corresponding Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR)/X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results verify the successful complete MOF Glass coating on NCM-811 (Fig. 1j–m, Supplementary Figs. 25-27). For the pristine bare NCM-811, only apparent layered structure can be clearly observed (Fig. 1j, k). For sharp contrast, a thin 15 nm Glass layer can be clearly found on the Glass@NCM-811 material (Fig. 1l). More importantly, we also find that a special inner region II within the MOF Glass layer (Fig. 1m, highlighted by the green rectangle line) can be clearly observed. Based on the high-resolution TEM (HR-TEM) image, the inner region II that directly attached with the NCM-811 demonstrates slightly narrower layered structure than that of the bare NCM-811. This unique structure is further verified by in-depth etching XPS measurements (Fig. 1n, Supplementary Fig. 28). In the P 2p XPS spectrum collected after the first etching, despite a weak peak related to Zn 3 s, only a single peak corresponding to O-P-O (green curve, situated at about 133.3 eV) is observed45. This peak can be attributed to the P-O interactions within the MOF Glass (Fig. 1n). We also compare the XPS results collected after the first-time etching with that of the pristine MOF Glass and the surface of the Glass@NCM-811 cathode material without etching (Supplementary Fig. 29). The clear overlap of these three curves indicates that the outer layer (surface and after one-time etching) of the Glass@NCM-811 still belongs to the electrically non-conductive MOF Glass. As the etching progresses, two new peaks appear at about 130.9 and 134.7 eV, which can be assigned to Li-P and O-P-Li interactions, respectively (Fig. 1n). It has been reported that Li-P and O-P-Li components can accelerate Li-ion diffusion and enhance the rate performance of batteries46. Therefore, based on these results, we conclude that this MOF liquid-infusion strategy successfully constructs a unique double-layered Glass structure on the surface of the NCM-811, with the outer-layer consisting of electrically non-conductive porous MOF Glass with 2.9 Å pore windows and the inner-layer comprising Li-ion conducting components. It is believed that chemical reactions occurred during the MOF liquid phase at 175 oC and the MOF glass formation process (rapid cooling to 25 oC), leading to the formation of a Li-ion conductive layer containing Li-P and Li-P-O components.
To study the functions of this unique MOF Glass coating, further characterizations are conducted. In the XRD pattern, the intensity ratio between (003) and (104) peaks (I(003)/I(104)) of the Glass@NCM-811 is nearly the same as that of the bare NCM-811, which indicates the Glass coating does not severally damage the layered structure of NCM-811 (Fig. 2a)47. Both the bare NCM-811 and Glass@NCM-811 are coupled with metallic Li to evaluate their rate performances. Compared with the cell based on bare NCM-811 which demonstrates poor rate performance, the Li||Glass@NCM-811 battery exhibits much good rate performance from 0.1 C to as high as 5 C current rates. The biggest difference comes from the capacity obtained under 5 C, in where the Li||Glass@NCM-811 battery delivers about 165 mAh g−1 capacity, while the bare NCM-811//Li battery sustains only 80 mAh g−1 (Fig. 2b). This indicates that the MOF Glass constructs on NCM-811 surface can remarkably enhance the Li-ion transporting rate during battery discharge/charge processes. The state of charge (SoC) vs. time curves of bare Li||NCM-811 and Li||Glass@NCM-811 cells are also tested under constant current-constant voltage (CC-CV) mode (see Experimental Section for detail). As shown in Fig. 2c, the Li||Glass@NCM-811 cell reaches 100% state of charge (SoC) in just 1080 seconds, much faster than the bare Li||NCM-811 cell, which takes 1400 seconds. Additionally, under CC mode, the Li||Glass@NCM-811 cell achieves a much higher SoC of 75%, compared to only 41% for the bare Li||NCM-811 cell. This is benefits from the remarkably low interfacial resistance of Li||Glass@NCM-811 cell38,46. Then, galvanostatic intermittent titration technique (GITT) measurements of two cells are measured after 100 cycles (same cells in Fig. 2b after rate performance test). Obviously, the bare Li||NCM-811 cell exhibits significantly higher battery polarization, with an average voltage loss approximately 3.5 times higher than that of the Li||Glass@NCM-811 cell (0.14 V vs. 0.04 V, Fig. 2d). The corresponding Li+ diffusion coefficient of the battery based on Glass@NCM-811 is one order of magnitude higher than that of the cell assembled with pristine NCM-811 cathode (Supplementary Fig. 30), demonstrates that the MOF Glass coating significantly enhances lithium diffusion kinetics. These results collectively verify the crucial role of the MOF Glass coating, particularly the inner-layer of the Glass, in promoting fast Li-ion diffusion in the NCM-811 cathode. The outer-layer of MOF Glass is also under further investigation by FTIR and Raman spectroscopy. In order to facilitate our data collection, we increase the thickness of the MOF Glass layer (see Experimental Section for detail). Then, by etching away the surface MOF Glass layer (about 2 nm, see Experimental Section for detail), we detect the electrolyte information inside the MOF Glass. Compared with the FTIR result of typical electrolyte (1 M LiPF6-EC/DMC, the bottom panel in Fig. 2e), electrolyte signals detect from inside the surface MOF Glass demonstrate much stronger Li+-solvent interactions (Li-EC and Li-DMC, the top panel in Fig. 2e). This indicates that the electrolyte forms an aggregative configuration inside the MOF Glass41, highlighting the crucial role of MOF Glass in facilitating Li-ion pre-desolvation and accelerating Li-ion migration before reaching the NCM-811 cathode surface46. Raman data of electrolyte inside MOF Glass layer and LiPF6-EC/DMC electrolytes with different concentrations consists well with the FTIR result (Supplementary Fig. 31), which further verifies the effectiveness of MOF Glass in promoting pre-desolvation of Li-ions. Considering the average pore window of the MOF Glass and the sizes of solvent molecules and PF6−, we propose that the pre-desolvated Li-ions confined inside the MOF Glass channel maintain configuration as schematically illustrated in in Supplementary Fig. 32.
a XRD patterns of bare NCM-811 and Glass@NCM-811 cathodes. b Rate performances of batteries based on bare NCM-811 and Glass@NCM-811 cathodes (defined 1 C = 220 mA/g). c The state of charge (SoC) vs. time curves of Li||NCM-811 and Li||Glass@NCM-811 cells. This indicated the much faster Li-ion desolvation and transport of Li||Glass@NCM-811 cell due to the much lower interfacial resistance. d Discharge curves of the GITT measurements conducted after the 100th cycle (same cells used in Fig. 2b). Inset: average voltage loss and its standard deviation over different GITT steps. e FTIR spectra of typical electrolyte (LiPF6-EC/DMC, the bottom panel) and electrolyte formed inside the Glass layer (the top panel). The aggregative electrolyte inside the Glass layer suggested the successfully pre-desolvation enabled by the sub-nanochannels of the Glass layer. f Comparison of activation energies during Li-ion desolvation and its migration across the cathode electrolyte interphase (CEI) for Li||NCM-811 and Li||Glass@NCM-811 cells. g Comparison of the kinetics of desolvation/pre-desolvation and Li-ion transport through the cathode electrolyte interphase (CEI) in Li||NCM-811 cell (the top panel) and Li||Glass@NCM-811 cell (the bottom panel). h Schematic illustration of solvated Li-ions penetrating through the typical CEI formed on cycled bare NCM-811 cathode (top panel) and Glass layer on cycled Glass@NCM-811 cathode (bottom panel).
EIS measurement is used to calculate the activation energy during Li-ion (pre) desolvation and its migration/transport across the cathode electrolyte interphase (CEI) (Supplementary Figs. 33 and 34). To simplify the calculation process, we combine the activation energies from both processes for a unified calculation. Clearly, the activation energy (Ea) of Li||Glass@NCM-811 cell is 45.7 kJ mol−1, which is much lower than 104.3 kJ mol−1 of bare Li||NCM-811 cell (Fig. 2f). The facile Li-ion pre-desolvation and fast Li-ion transport is further verified by data shown in Fig. 2g. Compared with the energy barrier (42.6 kJ mol−1) of Li-ion desolvation within bare NCM-811, the much lower energy barrier (19.3 kJ mol−1) during Li-ions pre-desolvation of the Glass@NCM-811 further verifies the facile Li-ion pre-desolvation inside the 2.9 Å pore windows of MOF Glass outer-layer. Additionally, the significantly lower energy barrier for Li-ion transport in Glass@NCM-811 (26.4 kJ mol−1 compared to 61.7 kJ mol−1 for bare NCM-811) indicates much faster Li-ion diffusion through the dual-layer structure of Glass on NCM-811 surface. We attribute the significantly reduced pre-desolvation and Li-ion transport activation energy of Li||Glass@NCM-811 to the narrow 2.9 Å pore windows of the MOF Glass outer layer, which facilitate facile Li-ion pre-desolvation and create an aggregated electrolyte with a low-solvent-coordination solvation structure46. Additionally, the inner-layer, containing Li-ion transport-accelerating components (Li-P and O-P-Li), promotes fast Li-ion transport. Based on those obtained results, we propose how Li-ions passing through the typical CEI (mainly solvent-derived organics) on bare NCM-811 and Glass layer of Glass@NCM-811 cathode (Fig. 2h).
The cycled bare NCM-811 and Glass@NCM-811 cathodes underwent further characterization to study the additional positive effects of the MOF Glass coating. After cycling, the bare NCM-811 cathodes show extensive side-reaction byproducts covering their surface (Fig. 3a, Supplementary Fig. 35). In sharp contrast, the cycled Glass@NCM-811 cathodes exhibit much smoother surfaces without various byproducts accumulation (Fig. 3c, Supplementary Fig. 36), indicating significantly suppressed electrolyte decomposition. Elemental mapping results corroborate the SEM images of the two cycled cathodes (Supplementary Figs. 37 and 38). Furthermore, apparent cracks are observed inside the cycled bare NCM-811 cathodes (Fig. 3b, Supplementary Figs. 39 and 40), whereas no obvious cracks were found inside the cycled Glass@NCM-811 cathodes (Fig. 3d, Supplementary Figs. 41 and 42). The TEM elemental mapping of the two cycled cathodes shows substantial differences, with disorganized and uneven distributions of elements, especially P and F, in the cycled bare NCM-811 cathodes, indicating severe byproduct accumulation from electrolyte solvent decompositions (Supplementary Fig. 43). In sharp contrast, the cycled Glass@NCM-811 cathode demonstrates uniform distributions of elements (Fig. 3e–j). The Glass coating remains intact even after various discharge/charge processes, further verifying the MOF Glass's role in protecting the NCM-811 cathode. Notably, the F element mapping is slightly smaller than the cycled Glass@NCM-811 cathode, and its shape corresponds well with the NCM-811 under the MOF Glass coating (Fig. 3j). Since the only source of F is the LiPF6 salt, we attribute this to the decomposition of the PF6 anion under the electrically non-conductive MOF Glass layer, further confirming the pre-desolvation of Li-ions through the MOF Glass sub-nanochannels. Additionally, the cycled Glass@NCM-811 demonstrates much higher I(003)/I(104) value than the cycled NCM-811 cathode, which suggest it does not experience serious structural degradation even after multiple electrochemical cycles (Fig. 3k). The differential capacity (dQ/dV) curves of two cells based on pristine NCM-811 and Glass@NCM-811 cathode are also recorded (Supplementary Fig. 44). For bare NCM-811 based cell, the H2/H3 (second hexagonal to third hexagonal) gradually disappear and the other redox peaks (hexagonal to monoclinic, H1/M; monoclinic to second hexagonal, M/H2) diminish, which was closely related to cracks apparition48. This indicates that mechanical stress generated cracks in the cathode along the grain boundaries, and the layered structure collapse over 100 cycles. Compared with that of the battery based on bare NCM-811, the cell assembled with Glass@NCM-811 cathode exhibits a reversible redox peak for the H2/H3 transition even after 100 cycles. This indicates the MOF Glass helping in protecting the cathode from structural volume changes, which again underscoring the significant role of MOF Glass in stabilizing the NCM-811 cathode. Most cathode materials are highly susceptible to degradation when exposed to water, with even minimal contact severely impacting their electrochemical performance. Remarkably, the Glass@NCM-811 cathode exhibits good water resistance, maintaining its performance even under such conditions (Supplementary Fig. 45). Specifically, the battery assembled with water-immersed Glass@NCM-811 cathode (after 7 days of immersion) exhibits almost the same electrochemical performance as a battery with a fresh Glass@NCM-811 cathode (Supplementary Fig. 46).
a SEM image and b cross-sectional SEM image of the cycled NCM-811 after 200 cycles. c SEM image and d cross-sectional SEM image of the cycled Glass@NCM-811 after 400 cycles. e–j TEM image and the corresponding elemental mapping images of the cycled Glass@NCM-811. k XRD of cycled Glass@NCM-811 and cycled bare NCM-811. l–n High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) images of the cycled bare NCM-811. o–q HR-TEM images of the cycled Glass@NCM-811. r In-depth etching FTIR of the cycled bare NCM-811 cathode (the top panel) and the cycled Glass@NCM-811 (the bottom panel).
TEM studies of the two cycled cathodes reveal further insights. For the cycled bare NCM-811 cathode, thick and uneven cathode electrolyte interphase (CEI) layers, varying from 30 to 60 nm and in some cases reaching up to 80 nm, are distinctly observed (yellow arrows highlighted in Fig. 3l and Supplementary Figs. 47, 48). More importantly, various cation-mixed rock-salt phases are observed after cycling (Fig. 3m, n and Supplementary Fig. 47e, 47f, highlighted with yellow circles), indicating serious cation mixing originating from surface oxygen loss followed by surface cation densification. In stark contrast, the layered structure of the cycled Glass@NCM-811 and the Glass layer is well preserved, with no obvious cation-mixed rock-salt phases detected (Fig. 3o–q and Supplementary Figs. 49, 50). This further confirms the MOF Glass coating's critical role in preventing cation mixing and stabilizing the cathode. In-depth etching FTIR measurement is used to investigate the surface information of cycled two cathodes. For the cycled bare NCM-811 cathode (Fig. 3r, the top panel), tremendous EC electrolyte solvent decomposition induced byproducts (carboxylics (C-O), alkyl carbonates (ROCO2Li) and carbonyls (C = O)) can be clearly found during the whole etching process. Interestingly, during the initial etching of the cycled Glass@NCM-811 cathode, only faint peaks corresponding to the PVDF binder and MOF Glass layer components (P-O, C-N, and N-H) are detected. Notably, there are almost no peaks related to the decomposition products of the EC solvent (Fig. 3r, the bottom panel). Those results together verify the significant role of non-conductive MOF Glass coating in suppressed cathode cracks, CEI growth, cation mixing and side-reactions.
In-situ differential electrochemical mass spectrometry (In-situ DEMS) measurements are employed to investigate gas generation in cells based on bare NCM-811 and Glass@NCM-811 cathodes. The bare Li||NCM-811 battery produces significant amounts of carbon dioxide and oxygen (CO2/O2) (Fig. 4a, b and Supplementary Fig. 51a, 51b), whereas the Li||Glass@NCM-811 battery generates only negligible amounts of gas during the electrochemical cycling process (Fig. 4c, d). The corresponding 1H Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analysis results of cycled electrolytes collected from the two batteries suggest that the Li||Glass@NCM-811 cell exhibits greatly suppressed electrolyte decomposition than its counterpart (Supplementary Fig. 51c). These results suggest that the MOF liquid infusion coating strategy effectively lowers surface and grain boundary oxygen activity and suppresses electrolyte solvent oxidation. The complete MOF Glass coverage effectively prevents electrolyte penetration into the interior of the NCM-811 cathode, and the aggregative electrolyte formation inside the MOF Glass sub-nanochannels during Li-ion pre-desolvation together contributing to the suppression of electrolyte oxidation and gas generation. We also observe distinct differences in the morphologies of the cycled Li anodes collected from the two batteries. The cycled Li anode from the bare Li||NCM-811cell exhibits a porous layer consisting of mossy Li and unevenly distributed byproducts (Fig. 4e), whereas the Li anode from the Li||Glass@NCM-811 cell maintains a smooth surface without any dendrites and byproducts (Fig. 4f). This smooth, dendrite-free Li anode is likely due to the greatly suppressed transition metal dissolution/migration. Generally, the deposited TM would degrade the performance of the Li anode. To further support this, we assembled Li//Li symmetric cells using electrolytes with/without 400 ppm Ni(TFSI)2 salt (see Experimental Section for detail). As shown in Supplementary Fig. 52, the Li//Li symmetric cell with 400 ppm Ni(TFSI)2 salt added electrolyte short-circuited much faster than the cell without Ni(TFSI)2 salt addition, indicating that the deposited Ni-induced morphological instability would degrade the performance of the lithium-metal anode. Corresponding ICP results of bare Li||NCM-811 and Li||Glass@NCM-811 batteries are also recorded. As shown in Fig. 4g, the bare Li||NCM-811 battery (right panel) experiences more than 20 times higher TM loss than its Li||Glass@NCM-811 counterpart (left panel) after 200 and 500 cycles, respectively. Obviously, the Li anode collected from the bare Li||NCM-811 cell showed significantly higher TM deposits than the Li anode from the Li||Glass@NCM-811 battery (Fig. 4g, the gap between fully-dyed and semi-dyed rectangles). Additionally, we also evaluate the electrochemical performance and transition metal (TM) loss in a bare Li||NCM-811 battery with MOF Glass directly coated on the NCM-811 electrode, termed Glass-NCM-811 (Supplementary Fig. 53a-c). The Li||Glass-NCM-811 cell demonstrates significantly improved cycling stability and considerably reduced TM loss compared to the bare Li||NCM-811 battery (Supplementary Fig. 53d-f). Notably, the cycled Glass-NCM-811 cathode also exhibits much thinner and more uniform CEI layers across various cycles (Supplementary Fig. 54) compared to the bare NCM-811 cathodes (Fig. 3l–n, Supplementary Fig. 48), underscoring the benefits of electrode-level Glass coating. Nevertheless, despite these advantages, the TM loss of Li||Glass-NCM-811 cell is slightly higher and the electrochemical stability lower than that of the Glass@NCM-811//Li battery, emphasizing the superior performance provided by particle-level Glass coating (Supplementary Fig. 53d-f). The XPS of Li anodes from two batteries also demonstrate the same results. By using XPS measurement, we find the SEI of Li anode from Li||Glass@NCM-811 battery exhibits much weaker Ni element signals than the Li anode pairs with bare Li||NCM-811 battery (Fig. 4h). Based on those results we have obtained in Figs. 2–4, we conclude that the MOF liquid infusion strategy effectively suppresses cathode particle cracks, CEI rupture, gas generation, and TM loss. By implementing this perfect particle-level pre-desolvation method, both the stability of cathode and Li anode can be greatly enhanced (Fig. 4i).
a, b Charge curve of bare Li||NCM-811 cell cycled for in-situ Differential Electrochemical Mass Spectrometry (in-situ DEMS) test and the corresponding DEMS data. c, d Charge curve of Li||Glass@NCM-811 cell cycled for in-situ DEMS test and the corresponding DEMS data. SEM of the cycled Li anode harvested from the cycled (e) bare Li||NCM-811 cell and (f) Li||Glass@NCM-811 cell after 400 cycles. g Dissolved transition metals inside the cycled electrolyte and on the cycled Li anode from Li||Glass@NCM-811 (the left panel) and Li||NCM-811 cell (the right panel) by ICP-OES after different cycles. h Ni XPS results collected on the cycled Li anode from Li||Glass@NCM-811 (the top panel) and Li||NCM-811 cell (the bottom panel). i Schematic illustration of the MOF Glass infusion strategy shows stabilization of the NCM-811 cathode by suppressing issues induced by electrolyte penetration and solvated Li-ion/solvent co-insertion, including cathode particle cracks, CEI rupture, oxygen loss, and transition metal migration. By implementing the perfect particle-level pre-desolvation method, both the stability of cathode and Li anode can be greatly enhanced.
The cycling stability and energy density are evaluated in both coin-cell and pouch-cell configurations by pairing MOF Glass-coated high-voltage cathodes with Li anodes. When cycles at a 1 C rate under a 4.4 V cut-off charge voltage, the bare Li||NCM-811 coin-cell demonstrates rapid capacity decay (Fig. 5a, c) after only 400 cycles. In sharp contrast, the Li||Glass@NCM-811 coin-cell exhibits remarkably enhanced cycling performance, retaining 80% of its capacity (calculated from the fourth cycle) after a long 1000 cycles (Fig. 5b, c). This trend is even more apparent when the cells are cycled under an elevated 4.6 V cut-off charge voltage. The bare Li||NCM-811 coin-cell fails quickly after only 300 cycles, while the Li||Glass@NCM-811 coin-cell delivers a high specific capacity of 180 mAh g−1 after 400 cycles (Fig. 5d–f). It worth noting that the MOF Glass layer within Glass@NCM-811 remains intact without any apparent morphological changes, even after cycling at a high voltage of 4.6 V (Supplementary Fig. 55a). The XPS data of the cycled Glass@NCM-811 closely matches that of the uncycled sample, further indicating the good structural stability of the MOF Glass (Supplementary Fig. 55b, 55c). Two other typical high-voltage cathodes, Li-rich manganese (LRMO) and LiCoO2 (LCO), are also coated with MOF Glass and paired with Li anodes to evaluate their cycling stability. Similarly, the Glass@LRMO and Glass@LCO coin-cells demonstrated superior performance compared to cells without MOF Glass coating. It is widely acknowledged that LRMO cathodes tend to suffer from severe voltage attenuation, rapid capacity decay, and poor cycling stability during electrochemical cycling, especially under high cut-off voltage. This is evidenced by the poor cycling performance of the Li||LRMO coin-cell under a high 4.8 V cut-off voltage, which maintains a capacity of 158.3 mAh g−1 after 260 cycles (only 56% capacity retention, calculated from the 3rd cycle). Remarkably, the Li||Glass@LRMO coin-cell demonstrates good cycling performance (Fig. 5g), retaining a high capacity of 237.8 mAh g−1 after 400 cycles (82% capacity retention, calculated from the 3rd cycle). The same trend was observed for the Li||Glass@LCO coin-cell, which also showed much more stable cycling than the Li|| LCO coin-cell (Fig. 5h). The corresponding first galvanostatic curves of different coin cells demonstrated in Fig. 5a-h can also be found as shown in Supplementary Fig. 56. These results further underscore the universality and importance of using MOF Glass coating to improve the stability of high-voltage cathode materials.
Cycling performances and the corresponding discharge/charge curves of Li||Glass@NCM-811 cell (blue/green curves) and Li||NCM-811 cell (light grey curves) cycled under the range of (a-c) 2.7–4.4 V and (d–f) 2.8–4.6 V (defined 1 C = 220 mA/g for NCM-811 based batteries). g Cycling performance of Li||Glass@LRMO cell and Li||LRMO cell under 4.8 V cut-off voltage (defined 1 C = 280 mA/g for LRMO based batteries). h Cycling performance of Li||Glass@LCO cell and Li||LCO cell under 4.6 V cut-off voltage (defined 1 C = 220 mA/g for LCO based batteries). i 385 Wh kg−1-level Li||Glass@NCM-811 pouch-cell and cycling performance of pouch-cell based on bare Li||NCM-811. Inset: the digital photo of the Li||Glass@NCM-811 pouch-cell.
Inspired by these promising results, a 2.0 Ah-level pouch-cell consisting of Glass@NCM-811 and a Li anode was fabricated (Fig. 5i, inset). The Li||Glass@NCM-811 pouch-cell exhibits improved cycling stability, retaining 86.9% of its capacity (calculated from the 2nd cycle) after 300 cycles (Supplementary Fig. 57), compared to 37.6% capacity retention (calculated from the 2nd cycle) after 58 cycles for the bare Li||NCM-811 pouch-cell (grey curve in Fig. 5i, Supplementary Fig. 58). Based on the pouch-cell parameters (Supplementary Table 2), the output energy density of the Li||Glass@NCM-811 pouch-cell is calculated to be as high as 385.5 Wh kg−1 (calculates from the 2nd cycle, 19.579 g for the whole pouch-cell). These electrochemical performances achieved with this MOF liquid infusion strategy rank among the highest compared to other state-of-the-art coating strategies (Supplementary Tables 3-6). Noting that all these performances are achieved on a laboratory scale, we believe that the pouch-cell energy density and cycling stability can be further improved to over 400 Wh kg−1 by optimizing the pouch-cell parameters, especially electrolyte modification. In addition, the MOF liquid infusion strategy used to create MOF glass-coated cathodes in this work is fundamentally different from other studies employing MOF glasses. And the key novelty of our work lies in its unique structure and specialized functions (Supplementary Fig. 59, Supplementary Table 7)49,50,51,52. The MOF liquid infusion strategy for preparing highly stable high-voltage cathodes offers promising prospects for practical industrial battery production, thanks to its good electrochemical performance and its simple, cost-effective, and time-efficient synthesis process.
In summary, we introduce a straightforward and efficient metal-organic framework (MOF, Zn-P-dmbIm) liquid-infusion strategy that fully infuses MOF liquid into the grain boundaries of high-voltage cathodes like NCM-811, LRMO, and LCO, achieving complete MOF Glass coverage (e.g., Glass@NCM-811). The surface electrically non-conductive MOF Glass layer with 2.9 Å pore windows facilitating Li-ion pre-desolvation and enabling highly aggregative electrolyte formation inside the Glass channels, suppressing solvated Li-ion co-insertion and solvent decomposition. While the inner Glass layer attaches with cathode composes of Li-ion conducting components and enhancing fast Li-ion diffusion. This MOF Glass coating prevents cathode particle cracks, CEI rupture, gas generation, and transition metal migration, while promoting rapid Li-ion transport. Consequently, Li||Glass@NCM-811 cells exhibit superior electrochemical performance, with remarkable rate capability and cycling stability, even at high charge rates (5 C) and elevated voltages (4.6 V). Similarly, Li||Glass@LRMO and Li||Glass@LCO batteries demonstrate good cycling stability over 400 cycles at 4.8 V and 4.6 V, respectively. The practical viability of this strategy is underscored by successfully achieving a 385 Wh kg−1-level pouch cell using Glass@NCM-811.
All the chemicals employed in this synthesis section were purchased without additional exception.
Typically, Zn(OAc)2 ∙ 2H2O (439 mg, 2 mmol, Sigma-Aldrich), 5,6-dimethylbenzimidazole (584.8 mg, 4 mmol, Sigma-Aldrich), and phosphoric acid (420 μL, 6 mmol, Sigma-Aldrich) were placed in a mortar and manually ground for 15 minutes. The powder was washed with dichloromethane three times and dried at 70 oC for 10 h. Then, the Zn-P-dmbIm MOF powder was obtained.
The as-prepared Zn-P-dmbIm MOF powder was heated under 175 oC under vacuum for 30 minutes before fast cooling to room temperature (25 oC). During this low temperature heating process, Zn-P-dmbIm MOF powder transformed into MOF liquid and went rapid vitrification to form MOF Glass (Zn-P-dmbIm Glass). The as-prepared MOF Glass was then used for further physical/chemical measurements.
MOF Glass film was also prepared for diffusion test to verify its crack-free property. Typically, the as-prepared Zn-P-dmbIm MOF powder was mechanically pressed into pellets with diameter of 15 mm under 2 MPa for 60 seconds, and the obtained pellets were heated under 175 oC under vacuum for 30 minutes to melt the Zn-P-dmbIm MOF powder into MOF liquid and then MOF Glass. The self-standing film was obtained after rapid cooling to room temperature. The prepared MOF Glass film was then sandwiched between a home-made V-type device, with one side filled by LiTFSI-G3 (lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (LiTFSI) solvated by triethylene glycol dimethyl ether(G3), Sigma-Aldrich, 2 mL) and the other side injected with LiTFSI-Pyr13TFSI (Aladdin Scientific Corp., 2 mL). Certain trace amount of electrolyte (40 µL per time) can be taken out for IR observation after aging to verify the crack-free property of the MOF Glass with sub-nano pore windows of 2.9 Å.
The LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 (NCM-811) cathode was purchased from Tianjin Lishen Battery Joint-Stock Co., LTD. Li-rich manganese oxides (LRMO) and LiCoO2 (LCO) cathode was purchased from Dodochem Co,. Ltd. To prepare MOF Glass coated cathodes, the as-prepared Zn-P-dmbIm MOF powder was mixed with cathode materials (including NCM-811, LRMO, LCO etc.). And the weight ratio between cathodes and Zn-P-dmbIm MOF powder were varies from 2 wt% to 5 wt%, and 10 wt% in a mortal and manually ground for 10 minutes. The mixtures were then heated under 175 oC under vacuum for 30 minutes before fast cooling to room temperature (25 oC). Finally, the MOF Glass coated cathode materials were successfully obtained, and defined as Glass@NCM-811, Glass@LRMO, and Glass@LCO, respectively. Based on the results obtained, we found the 2 wt% MOF Glass coating demonstrated nearly the same performances as that of the 5 wt% and 10 wt% MOF Glass coating samples. Considering the advantages of cost and energy density, we finally selected the sample with 2 wt% coating as the main samples. Therefore, unless otherwise specified, the Glass@Cathode (Glass@NCM-811, Glass@LRMO, and Glass@LCO) in this article refers to cathodes with 2 wt% MOF Glass coating.
Generally, 1.0 g Glass@NCM-811, Glass@LRMO, and Glass@LCO powders were mixed with Carbon black (Dodochem Co,. Ltd.) and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF, Aladdin Scientific Corp.) powder in a ratio of 8:1:1 and then directly stirring in 1-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP, Sigma-Aldrich) for 4 hours to get a viscous solution, respectively. For comparisons, uncoated cathodes (bare NCM-811, LRMO and LCO) were also fabricated following the same processes. MOF Glass electrode was prepared by mixing MOF Glass, Carbon black and PVDF in a ratio of 8:1:1. Carbon black electrode was prepared by mixing Carbon black and PVDF in a ratio of 9:1. The obtained slurry was then homogeneously coated onto Al foil current collector by a scraper. After tiny pressing procedure, the active materials-loaded Al foil was vacuum dried at 110 °C overnight. The mass loading of the cathodes used for coin-cells was about 7.0 mg/cm2 (corresponding to NCM-811, LRMO and LCO, electrode size: 12 mm in diameter), the mass loading of the Glass@NCM-811 cathode materials was about 31.8 mg/cm2 for pouch-cell fabrication (to improve the energy density of pouch-cell, the ratio between Glass@NCM-811, carbon black and PVDF was 9:0.5:0.5, corresponding to 28.0 mg/cm2 NCM-811). It is worth noting that for Li||Glass@NCM-811, Li||Glass@LRMO, and Li||Glass@LCO half-cell, thick unlimited lithium metal (400 µm Li) was used as anode, while for the Li||Glass@NCM-811 pouch-cell, thin limited lithium metal (negative to positive areal capacity equals to 3.89:1, N/P ratio ~ 3.9:1) was used as anode.
CR2032 coin cells were assembled in an argon-filled glove box, in which both the moisture and oxygen contents were controlled to be less than 1 ppm. Glass@NCM-811, Glass@LRMO, Glass@LCO, MOF Glass electrode and Carbon black electrode were employed as cathodes, Celgard 2500 (purchased from Neware) as separators (18 mm in diameter for coin-cells, 4.5 × 9.5 cm2 for pouch-cells), and lithium foils were employed as anodes. For comparisons, bare NCM-811, LRMO and LCO were also coupled with lithium metals to fabricate coin-cells. Typical carbonate electrolyte (1 mol/L LiFP6-EC/DMC, 60 µL, Dodochem Co,. Ltd.) was used for all those coin-cells. For Li||Glass@NCM-811 pouch-cell assembling, 2.6 g liquid typical electrolyte (corresponding to an low E/C ratio of 1.3 g Ah−1) was added. The low E/C ratio can be ascribed to the greatly suppressed electrolyte decomposition. The Li||Glass@NCM-811 coin-cells and bare Li||NCM-811 coin-cells were operated with a potential limit between: 2.7-4.4 V, 2.7-4.6 V, respectively (defined 1 C = 220 mA/g, for NCM-811 based battery). The Li||Glass@LRMO coin-cell and bare Li||LRMO coin-cell were operated with a potential limit between 2.0-4.8 V (defined 1 C = 280 mA/g, for LRMO based cells). The Li||Glass@LCO coin-cells and bare Li||LCO coin-cells were operated with a potential limit between 3.0-4.6 V (defined 1 C = 220 mA/g, for LCO based cells). The Li||Glass@NCM-811 pouch-cell was measured under a potential limit between: 2.7-4.4 V. It worth noting that the prepared Li||Glass@NCM-811 pouch-cell was measured under external pressure. Enclosure for applying stack pressure, pouch cells are uniaxially constrained in a steel enclosure with an adjustable wall which can be tightened to apply varying uniaxial pressures (the stack pressure was about 10 MPa). Glass@NCM-811 cathode material immersed in water after 7 days was also coupled with Li metal to fabricate Li||Glass@NCM-811 coin-cell following the afore-discussed process to evaluate the water stability of the Glass@NCM-811 cathode material. The bare Li||NCM-811 battery with MOF Glass directly coated on the cathode electrode (defined as Li||Glass-NCM-811) was also assembled and test for comparison. The state of charge (SoC) vs. time plots of cells were collected at a CC charging rate of 6 C, followed by CV charging with a 0.2 C cut-off current. Rates performances of both Li||Glass@NCM-811 coin-cell and bare Li||NCM-811 coin-cell were measured under 2.7-4.4 V for 100 cycles (from 0.1 C to 5 C). After the rate performance test, GITT measurements were then conducted after 100th cycle of rate performance cycling between 3.0 and 4.4 V (versus Li/Li+) with a titration step at 0.5 C of 8 min and a relaxation step of 1 h. Before each electrochemical characterization, the cells were kept on open circuit for 16 hours. All the potentials in this study were referenced to Li/Li+. The galvanostatic electrochemical measurements were carried out under potential control using the battery tester system HJ1001SD8 (Hokuto Denko) at room temperature (25 °C in a climatic chamber). For the EIS tests, the electrochemical experiments were carried out under the control of a potentiostat (Potentiostat/Galvanostat PGSTAT30, Autolab Co. Ltd., Netherlands). Nickel-containing electrolytes were prepared by dissolving 400 ppm Ni(TFSI)2 salt (Sigma-Aldrich) in the base electrolyte (1 M LiPF6-EC/DMC). Li||Li symmetric cells were assembled in the glove box with 60 µL of the prepared electrolyte for each cell. Galvanostatic cycling was performed on a symmetric Li||Li cell at a Li plating/stripping current density of 1.0 mA cm−2 with a cycling capacity of 1.0 mAh cm−2 (1 h for each step). It should be noted that in order to obtain more accurate results, at least 8-10 batteries (fabricated and measured following the same procedure) were tested in one electrochemical experiment, and the data finally reported in this study were selected from the average performance of these batteries.
The morphology of the as-prepared Zn-P-dmbIm MOF powder, MOF Glass, bare NCM-811 cathode material, Glass@NCM-811 cathode material, and the corresponding cycled bare NCM-811 cathode material, Glass@NCM-811 cathode material, cycled Li anodes were characterized with scanning electron microscopy (SEM, JEOL JSM-6380LV FE-SEM), focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM, TESCAN-AMBER) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM, ARM300, JEOL). X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements were performed on a Bruker D8 Advanced diffractometer fitted with Cu-Kα X-rays (λ = 1.5406 Å) radiation at a scan rate of 0.016 °/s to investigate the structure information of the as-prepared Zn-P-dmbIm MOF powder, MOF Glass, bare NCM-811 cathode material, Glass@NCM-811 cathode material, and the corresponding cycled bare NCM-811 cathode material, Glass@NCM-811 cathode materials. For the pre-treatment procedures: The cycled cells were transferred into an Ar glove box once the electrochemical treatments were finished, and the electrodes were extracted from the cell and placed in a glass bottle. The electrodes were twice rinsed by dimethoxyethane (DME, Sigma Aldrich, 99%) to wash off the electrolyte salt and the residual solvent, and then evaporated in a vacuum chamber, connected to the glove box, for 12 hours. Note that, in order to restrain the exposure time to the ambient, samples (cycled electrodes) were tightly sealed into a glass bottle (fill with Ar gas), and transferred to the related chambers (SEM) as quickly as possible. Thus, we assumed the morphology and the component of electrode surface would not obviously change for such a short time exposure to the open air. FIB-SEM (TESCAN-AMBER) was also used to characterize the inside morphology of the cycled NCM-811 and cycled Glass@NCM-811 cathodes. HR-TEM (ARM300, JEOL) was conducted at 150 and 300 keV to collect scanning transmission electron microscopy images of Zn-P-dmbIm MOF powder, MOF Glass, bare NCM-811 cathodes, Glass@NCM-811 cathodes, and the corresponding cycled bare NCM-811 cathodes, Glass@NCM-811 cathodes for the atomic and structural analysis. The corresponding SEM/TEM EDS mapping of the cycled cathodes were also recorded.
DSC of Zn-P-dmbIm powder was carried out on a thermal analyzer (NETZSCH, STA 409) from 30 to 300 °C at the rate of 5 °C min−1 under dry flow of Ar.
The pore size of Zn-P-dmbIm MOF powder and the corresponding MOF Glass was estimated by PALS. The Zn-P-dmbIm MOF powder was pelleted into a cylinder with a radius of 1.5 cm and thickness of ~1 mm, and the MOF Glass film was larger than 1 × 1 cm2 square with a thickness of ~1 mm. The source of positrons was provided by 22Na. The PALS measurements were carried out at 25 oC and the experimental data were analyzed by a four-finite lifetime component using LT 9.0.
Attenuated Total Reflection Fourier-transform Infrared (ATR-FTIR) Characterization for Typical Electrolyte and Electrolyte Inside MOF Glass
ATR-FTIR measurements were carried out on a FT/IR-6200 spectrometer (JASCO Corp.) coupled with Platinum Diamond ATR, which consists of a diamond disc as an internal reflection element. The typical electrolyte (1 M LiPF6-EC/DMC) and cycled Glass@NCM-811 cathode with thick MOF Glass coating (weight ratio of MOF Glass and NCM-811 was about 1:1) were placed on the ATR crystal. Then the spectrum was recorded to detect the liquid electrolyte peaks of typical electrolyte. The washed cycled Glass@NCM-811 cathode was attached on the plate of O2 plasma etching instrument. By etching away the surface MOF Glass layer (etching for two times, about 5 nm), we detected the electrolyte information inside the MOF Glass by using the ATR-FTIR measurement.
Liquid electrolytes under different concentrations (0.5 M, 1.0 M and saturated LiPF6-EC/DMC electrolyte) were prepared for Raman measurement. The Raman spectra were recorded using a JASCO microscope spectrometer (NRS-1000DT). Electrolyte inside MOF Glass layer was also recorded following the same procedure as discussed in the ATR-FTIR test towards electrolyte inside MOF Glass layer.
For pretreatment, the cycled cells were transferred into an Ar glove box once the discharge finished, and the cathodes were extracted from the cell and twice rinsed by dimethoxyethane (DME, Sigma Aldrich, 99%) to wash off the electrolyte salt and the residual solvent, and then evaporated in a vacuum chamber, connected to the glove box, for ~15 min. The washed cycled cathodes were attached on the plate of O2 plasma etching instrument. And the FTIR spectra were collected after each etching process. As a result, 10 points were recorded. The cycled bare NCM-811 cathode and the cycled Glass@NCM-811 cathode were tested using the etching FTIR following the aforementioned experiment processes.
XPS measurement was performed using a VG scientific ESCALAB 250 spectrometers with monochromic Al Kα Ka source (1486.6 eV) under high vacuum. Similarly, to prevent long-time exposure to air environment, the samples (after rinsing and dry) were tightly sealed into an Ar-filled bottle and then soon transferred into XPS chamber as quickly as possible. The XPS was equipped with etching with different depth to analysis the component distribution.
The NMR spectra were recorded using a spectrophotometer (500 MHz Ultra-ShieldTM, Bruker). Typically, 256/128 (1H/19F) times were accumulated for one spectrum. The electrodes and separators were extracted from the cycled cells without further pretreatment. 750 µL of D2O (99.9 atom % D, Sigma Aldrich) was used to extract the residual electrolyte and soluble parasitic products (mainly carboxylates and fluorides) from the electrodes and the separators, then the solution was transferred to septa-sealed NMR tube. To quantify the number of related components, 1 µL of benzene (C6H6, Sigma Aldrich, 99%) and 1 µL of fluorobenzene (C6H5F, Sigma Aldrich, 99%) were mixed and injected through the septa and employed as an internal standard. The method here was very similar as the ones introduced in our previous works.
ICP-OES (optical emission spectroscopy) results were recorded using Thermo Scientific iCAP 5600 and PerkinElmer Optima 4300 DV. Metal dissolutions from cycled batteries were quantitatively confirmed measuring the Mn, Co and Ni-ion concentrations both in the electrolyte solutions and on the lithium-metal anode. The cycled separators (infiltrated by cycled electrolyte solutions) and lithium electrodes were bathed in DME solvent for 4 hours aging. The separator was salvaged out then the DME solution and Li anode were mixed with a mixture of concentrated hydrochloric acid and nitric acid mixture (3:1 in volume ratio). The solution was heated in a microwave for 2 hours (150 oC).
In-situ DEMS analysis was conducted to monitor gases generated during the initial charge process. NCM-811 and Glass@NCM-811 cathodes (22 mm diameter, prepared as described in the Electrode Preparation section, ~8 mg/cm2 NCM-811 mass loading) were used with 1 mol/L LiPF6-EC/DMC electrolyte (150 µL per cell) and glass fiber separators (Whatman GF/D). The electrodes were assembled into Swagelok-type cells with metallic lithium as the counter and reference electrode. The Swagelok-type cells were connected to a mass spectrometer, continuously purged with argon, which carried evolved gases for MS analysis. In-situ DEMS cell operation was performed using a VSP electrochemical workstation (Biologic), with mass signals recorded as a function of time and cell voltage. Temporal resolution of ion current intensity was optimized by selectively scanning m/z 32 and 44 signals.
The data generated in this study are provided in the Supplementary Information/Source Data file. Source data are provided with this paper.
Tarascon, J. & Armand, M. Issues and challenges facing rechargeable lithium batteries. Nature 414, 359–367 (2001).
Article
ADS
CAS
PubMed
Google Scholar
Armand, M. & Tarascon, J. M. Building better batteries. Nature 451, 652–657 (2008).
Article
ADS
CAS
PubMed
Google Scholar
Etacheri, V., Marom, R., Elazari, R., Salitra, G. & Aurbach, D. Challenges in the development of advanced Li-ion batteries: a review. Energy Environ. Sci. 4, 3243–3262 (2011).
Article
CAS
Google Scholar
Goodenough, J. B. & Kim, Y. Challenges for Rechargeable Li Batteries. Chem. Mater. 22, 587–603 (2010).
Article
CAS
Google Scholar
Wang, G., Zhang, L. & Zhang, J. A review of electrode materials for electrochemical supercapacitors. Chem. Soc. Rev. 41, 797–828 (2012).
Article
CAS
PubMed
Google Scholar
Li, W., Erickson, E. M. & Manthiram, A. High-nickel layered oxide cathodes for lithium-based automotive batteries. Nat. Energy 5, 26–34 (2020).
Article
ADS
CAS
Google Scholar
Xue, W. et al. Ultra-high-voltage Ni-rich layered cathodes in practical Li metal batteries enabled by a sulfonamide-based electrolyte. Nat. Energy 6, 495–505 (2021).
Article
ADS
CAS
Google Scholar
Xue, W. et al. FSI-inspired solvent and “full fluorosulfonyl” electrolyte for 4 V class lithium-metal batteries. Energy Environ. Sci. 13, 212–220 (2020).
Article
CAS
Google Scholar
Liu, Y., Zhu, Y. & Cui, Y. Challenges and opportunities towards fast-charging battery materials. Nat. Energy 4, 540–550 (2019).
Article
ADS
Google Scholar
Niu, C. et al. Balancing interfacial reactions to achieve long cycle life in high-energy lithium metal batteries. Nat. Energy 6, 723–732 (2021).
Article
ADS
CAS
Google Scholar
Niu, C. et al. High-energy lithium metal pouch cells with limited anode swelling and long stable cycles. Nat. Energy 4, 551–559 (2019).
Article
ADS
CAS
Google Scholar
Fan, X. et al. Non-flammable electrolyte enables Li-metal batteries with aggressive cathode chemistries. Nat. Nanotechnol. 13, 715–722 (2018).
Article
ADS
CAS
PubMed
Google Scholar
Cao, X. et al. Monolithic solid–electrolyte interphases formed in fluorinated orthoformate-based electrolytes minimize Li depletion and pulverization. Nat. Energy 4, 796–805 (2019).
Article
ADS
CAS
Google Scholar
Liu, D. et al. Atomically dispersed platinum supported on curved carbon supports for efficient electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution. Nat. Energy 4, 512–518 (2019).
Article
ADS
CAS
Google Scholar
Li, J. et al. Structural origin of the high-voltage instability of lithium cobalt oxide. Nat. Nanotechnol. 16, 599–605 (2021).
Article
ADS
CAS
PubMed
Google Scholar
Yu, Z. et al. Molecular design for electrolyte solvents enabling energy-dense and long-cycling lithium metal batteries. Nat. Energy 5, 526–533 (2020).
Article
ADS
CAS
Google Scholar
Shadike, Z. et al. Identification of LiH and nanocrystalline LiF in the solid–electrolyte interphase of lithium metal anodes. Nat. Nanotechnol. 16, 549–554 (2021).
Article
ADS
CAS
PubMed
Google Scholar
Yan, P. et al. Coupling of electrochemically triggered thermal and mechanical effects to aggravate failure in a layered cathode. Nat. Commun. 9, 2437 (2018).
Article
ADS
PubMed
PubMed Central
Google Scholar
Liu, T. et al. Understanding Co roles towards developing Co-free Ni-rich cathodes for rechargeable batteries. Nat. energy 6, 277–286 (2021).
Article
ADS
CAS
Google Scholar
Zhang, J. et al. Multifunctional solvent molecule design enables high-voltage Li-ion batteries. Nat. Commun. 14, 2211 (2023).
Article
ADS
CAS
PubMed
PubMed Central
Google Scholar
Xie, Q., Li, W. & Manthiram, A. A Mg-doped high-nickel layered oxide cathode enabling safer, high-energy-density Li-ion batteries. Chem. Mater. 31, 938–946 (2019).
Article
CAS
Google Scholar
Schipper, F. et al. From surface ZrO2 coating to bulk Zr doping by high temperature annealing of nickel‐rich lithiated oxides and their enhanced electrochemical performance in lithium ion batteries. Adv. Energy Mater. 8, 1701682 (2018).
Article
Google Scholar
Kim, J. et al. A highly stabilized nickel-rich cathode material by nanoscale epitaxy control for high-energy lithium-ion batteries. Energy Environ. Sci. 11, 1449–1459 (2018).
Article
CAS
Google Scholar
Zhang, S.-D. et al. Surface engineering of LiCoO2 by a multifunctional nanoshell for stable 4.6 V electrochemical performance. Energy Storage Mater. 57, 289–298 (2023).
Article
Google Scholar
Cui, C. et al. Structure and interface design enable stable Li-rich cathode. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 142, 8918–8927 (2020).
Article
CAS
PubMed
Google Scholar
Fan, X. et al. Crack-free single-crystalline Ni-rich layered NCM cathode enable superior cycling performance of lithium-ion batteries. Nano Energy 70, 104450 (2020).
Article
CAS
Google Scholar
Lu, J. et al. Microstructures of layered Ni-rich cathodes for lithium-ion batteries. Chem. Soc. Rev. 53, 4707–4740 (2024).
Article
CAS
PubMed
Google Scholar
Fan, X. et al. All-temperature batteries enabled by fluorinated electrolytes with non-polar solvents. Nat. Energy 4, 882–890 (2019).
Article
ADS
CAS
Google Scholar
Fan, X. & Wang, C. High-voltage liquid electrolytes for Li batteries: progress and perspectives. Chem. Soc. Rev. 50, 10486–10566 (2021).
Article
CAS
PubMed
Google Scholar
Lu, D. et al. Ligand-channel-enabled ultrafast Li-ion conduction. Nature 627, 101–107 (2024).
Article
ADS
CAS
PubMed
Google Scholar
Jie, Y. et al. Progress and Perspectives on the Development of Pouch‐Type Lithium Metal. Batteries. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 136, e202307802 (2024).
Article
Google Scholar
Lu, S.-Q. et al. Surface lattice modulation through chemical delithiation toward a stable nickel-rich layered oxide cathode. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 145, 7397–7407 (2023).
Article
CAS
PubMed
Google Scholar
Yu, H. et al. Surface enrichment and diffusion enabling gradient-doping and coating of Ni-rich cathode toward Li-ion batteries. Nat. Commun. 12, 4564 (2021).
Article
ADS
CAS
PubMed
PubMed Central
Google Scholar
Liu, J. et al. Tuning Interphase Chemistry to Stabilize High‐Voltage LiCoO2 Cathode Material via Spinel Coating. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 61, e202207000 (2022).
Article
CAS
Google Scholar
Ding, X. et al. An ultra‐long‐life lithium‐rich Li1.2Mn0.6Ni0.2O2 cathode by three‐in‐one surface modification for lithium‐ion batteries. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 59, 7778–7782 (2020).
Article
CAS
Google Scholar
Bao, W. et al. Simultaneous enhancement of interfacial stability and kinetics of single-crystal LiNi0.6Mn0.2Co0.2O2 through optimized surface coating and doping. Nano Lett. 20, 8832–8840 (2020).
Article
ADS
CAS
PubMed
Google Scholar
Xu, G.-L. et al. Building ultraconformal protective layers on both secondary and primary particles of layered lithium transition metal oxide cathodes. Nat. Energy 4, 484–494 (2019).
Article
ADS
CAS
Google Scholar
Yoon, M. et al. Reactive boride infusion stabilizes Ni-rich cathodes for lithium-ion batteries. Nat. Energy 6, 362–371 (2021).
Article
ADS
CAS
Google Scholar
Chang, Z. et al. A liquid electrolyte with de-solvated lithium ions for lithium-metal battery. Joule 4, 1776–1789 (2020).
Article
CAS
Google Scholar
Feng, Y. et al. Achieving high-power and dendrite-free lithium metal anodes via interfacial ion-transport-rectifying pump. Adv. Energy Mater. 13, 2203912 (2023).
Article
CAS
Google Scholar
Xu, Y. et al. Ion-transport-rectifying layer enables Li-metal batteries with high energy density. Matter 3, 1685–1700 (2020).
Article
Google Scholar
Chang, Z. et al. Tailoring the solvation sheath of cations by constructing electrode front‐faces for rechargeable batteries. Adv. Mater. 34, 2201339 (2022).
Article
CAS
Google Scholar
Xuan, X., Wang, J. & Wang, H. Theoretical insights into PF6− and its alkali metal ion pairs: geometries and vibrational frequencies. Electrochim. Acta 50, 4196–4201 (2005).
Article
CAS
Google Scholar
Li, J. et al. Coordination Polymer Glasses with Lava and Healing Ability for High‐Performance Gas Sieving. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 133, 21474–21479 (2021).
Article
ADS
Google Scholar
Marino, C., El Kazzi, M., Berg, E., He, M. & Villevieille, C. Interface and safety properties of phosphorus-based negative electrodes in Li-ion batteries. Chem. Mater. 29, 7151–7158 (2017).
Article
CAS
Google Scholar
Tu, S. et al. Fast-charging capability of graphite-based lithium-ion batteries enabled by Li3P-based crystalline solid–electrolyte interphase. Nat. Energy 8, 1365–1374 (2023).
Article
ADS
CAS
Google Scholar
Duan, Y. et al. Insights into Li/Ni ordering and surface reconstruction during synthesis of Ni-rich layered oxides. J. Mater. Chem. A 7, 513–519 (2019).
Article
CAS
Google Scholar
Feng, Z. et al. A Three in One Strategy to Achieve Zirconium Doping, Boron Doping, and Interfacial Coating for Stable LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 Cathode. Adv. Sci. 8, 2001809 (2020).
Article
Google Scholar
Yan, J. et al. Encapsulation of nano-Si into MOF glass to enhance lithium-ion battery anode performances. Nano Energy 103, 107779 (2022).
Article
CAS
Google Scholar
Gao, C. et al. Metal-Organic Framework Glass Anode with an Exceptional Cycling-Induced Capacity Enhancement for Lithium-Ion Batteries. Adv. Mater. 34, 2110048 (2022).
Article
CAS
Google Scholar
Liu, S. et al. Vitrified Metal−Organic Framework Composite Electrolyte Enabling Dendrite-Free and Long-Lifespan Solid-State Lithium Metal Batteries. ACS Nano 18, 14907–14916 (2024).
Article
CAS
PubMed
Google Scholar
Xiang, Y. et al. Continuous Amorphous Metal−Organic Frameworks Layer Boosts the Performance of Metal Anodes. ACS Nano 17, 19275–19287 (2023).
Article
CAS
PubMed
Google Scholar
Download references
This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2024YFB3814200), National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 92372201, 22209208), NSF of China (grant no. U1801251).
These authors contributed equally: Lishun Bai, Yan Xu.
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Electronic Packaging and Advanced Functional Materials of Hunan Province, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, Hunan, China
Lishun Bai, Yan Xu, Yue Liu, Danni Zhang, Shibin Zhang & Zhi Chang
Center of Energy Storage Materials & Technology, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, National Laboratory of Solid State Micro-structures, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, PR China
Wujie Yang & Haoshen Zhou
You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
Z.C. and H.Z. contributed to the design of the research. L.B. and Y.X. performed the experimental data analysis. L.B. and Y.X. conducted the electrochemical and spectroscopic characterizations. Y.X., Y.L., D.Z. performed the SEM and the XRD characterizations. Y.L., S.Z. and W.Y. helped with the XPS, ATR-FTIR/Etching FTIR and other measurements related to the physicochemical properties of separators. All authors co-wrote the manuscript. Z.C. and H.Z. supervised the work. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.
Correspondence to
Zhi Chang or Haoshen Zhou.
The authors declare no competing interests.
Nature Communications thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
Publisher's note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
Reprints and permissions
Bai, L., Xu, Y., Liu, Y. et al. Metal-organic framework glass stabilizes high-voltage cathodes for efficient lithium-metal batteries.
Nat Commun 16, 3484 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58639-z
Download citation
Received: 04 January 2025
Accepted: 26 March 2025
Published: 12 April 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58639-z
Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:
Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.
Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative
Advertisement
Nature Communications (Nat Commun)
ISSN 2041-1723 (online)
© 2025 Springer Nature Limited
Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.
Latest
AI
Amazon
Apps
Biotech & Health
Climate
Cloud Computing
Commerce
Crypto
Enterprise
EVs
Fintech
Fundraising
Gadgets
Gaming
Google
Government & Policy
Hardware
Instagram
Layoffs
Media & Entertainment
Meta
Microsoft
Privacy
Robotics
Security
Social
Space
Startups
TikTok
Transportation
Venture
Events
Startup Battlefield
StrictlyVC
Newsletters
Podcasts
Videos
Partner Content
TechCrunch Brand Studio
Crunchboard
Contact Us
Posted:
Safe Superintelligence (SSI), the AI startup led by OpenAI's co-founder and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, has raised an additional $2 billion in funding at a $32 billion valuation, according to the Financial Times.
The startup had already raised $1 billion, and there were reports that an additional $1 billion round was in the works. SSI did not comment on the new funding, which was reportedly led by Greenoaks.
Sutskever left OpenAI in May 2024 after he appeared to play a role in an ultimately failed attempt to oust CEO Sam Altman. He founded SSI with Daniel Gross and Daniel Levy, and they said the company had “one goal and one product: a safe superintelligence.”
That product is presumably still in the works, with SSI's website little more than a placeholder with a mission statement.
Topics
Subscribe for the industry's biggest tech news
Every weekday and Sunday, you can get the best of TechCrunch's coverage.
TechCrunch's AI experts cover the latest news in the fast-moving field.
Every Monday, gets you up to speed on the latest advances in aerospace.
Startups are the core of TechCrunch, so get our best coverage delivered weekly.
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice.
© 2025 Yahoo.
It's scary to see protective relays for power systems with embedded web servers. "IEEE C37.118 synchrophasor measurement, DNP3 Outstation, Modbus TCP/RTU, Telnet, FTP, Simple Network Time Protocol (SNTP), built-in web server, and IEC 61850" [1][1] https://selinc.com/products/351/#
[1] https://selinc.com/products/351/#
reply
I have a question for people more familiar with these. What exactly happens at the isolation stage. They say it includes a high frequency transformer (HFT). But its input and out put is DC. And classic transformers operate on AC. So in order to get the transformer working, one would have to chop up the incoming dc power into a square wave or a sine wave. But what transistors can you use to do this, considering you are dealing both with very high power and very high frequencies?
reply
No, I'm not joking. For these kinds of voltages, you need to use highly homogenous doped silicon, and the only way to produce it is to irradiate silicon with neutrons. It transmutes some of the silicon atoms into phosphorus: https://nrl.mit.edu/facilities/ntds/
reply
it is interesting to think about human made object in terms of how much materials they use, for example big old transformer contains 2 tons of iron, new solid-state transformer with same capacity uses only 300 kg of silicon (Si), 120kg kg of plastics and 50 kg of copper.
reply
Packaged semiconductors are going to be more metal interconnect / plastic encapsulation / ceramic insulation than silicon by weight.These systems will also have a significant weight fraction in magnetic materials, either ferrite ceramics or amorphous metals.Still a huge weight savings, but the weight fractions you are giving see off and are missing some important materials.
These systems will also have a significant weight fraction in magnetic materials, either ferrite ceramics or amorphous metals.Still a huge weight savings, but the weight fractions you are giving see off and are missing some important materials.
Still a huge weight savings, but the weight fractions you are giving see off and are missing some important materials.
reply
[1] https://www.powermag.com/contact-us/
reply
reply
reply
reply
Latest
AI
Amazon
Apps
Biotech & Health
Climate
Cloud Computing
Commerce
Crypto
Enterprise
EVs
Fintech
Fundraising
Gadgets
Gaming
Google
Government & Policy
Hardware
Instagram
Layoffs
Media & Entertainment
Meta
Microsoft
Privacy
Robotics
Security
Social
Space
Startups
TikTok
Transportation
Venture
Events
Startup Battlefield
StrictlyVC
Newsletters
Podcasts
Videos
Partner Content
TechCrunch Brand Studio
Crunchboard
Contact Us
The Trump administration is carving out big tariff exemptions for the tech industry.
While President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he would delay many of the market-shaking tariffs that he'd announced the previous week, he kept a universal baseline 10% tariff in place, while also increasing tariffs on Chinese goods to 125% (on top of a 20% tariff that he'd already imposed on goods from China).
There's been plenty of speculation about what the tariffs will mean for the tech industry, which manufactures many consumer electronics in China and elsewhere abroad. One of Trump's stated goals is to bring manufacturing back to the United States, but others believe the dream of an American-made iPhone is a fantasy.
Those debates may be paused after Friday evening, when U.S. Customs and Border Protection posted a list of product categories that are “excluded from the reciprocal tariffs imposed under Executive Order 14257,” with the exclusions backdated to April 5.
Those categories appear to include smartphones, laptops, hard drives, and semiconductors. Those products will all be exempt from both the 125% tariff on goods from China, as well as the universal baseline tariff. (Other tariffs, such as the previous 20% tariff on Chinese goods, would presumably still apply.)
Notable Silicon Valley figures led by Elon Musk have joined the Trump administration, while other tech CEOs have been courting Trump, most visibly with millions of dollars donated to his inauguration. Those efforts seemed to bear little fruit — until last night's announcement, which Daniel Ives, global head of technology research at Wedbush Securities, described as “a dream scenario for tech investors.”
Tech giants like Apple and Nvidia are likely celebrating the news, as are U.S. consumers who will avoid a big markup on their next iPhone. But the industry could still be hit with more targeted tariffs and other restrictions. For example, The New York Times reports that the Trump administration is preparing a national security-related investigation into semiconductors.
Topics
Anthony Ha is TechCrunch's weekend editor. Previously, he worked as a tech reporter at Adweek, a senior editor at VentureBeat, a local government reporter at the Hollister Free Lance, and vice president of content at a VC firm. He lives in New York City.
The most interesting startups showcased at Google Cloud Next
Hacked documents reveal guide to serving Elon Musk on private jets
OpenAI will soon phase out GPT-4 from ChatGPT
Lucid Motors wins bankruptcy auction for Nikola's Arizona factory and other assets
Fintech founder charged with fraud after ‘AI' shopping app found to be powered by humans in the Philippines
The US Secretary of Education referred to AI as ‘A1,' like the steak sauce
WhatsApp introduces new features across chats, calls, and channels
© 2025 Yahoo.
This is good news for the tech sector as tariff impacts continue.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's how it works.
Amidst the flurry of tariffs imposed by the Trump administration over the last few weeks, we finally have some exemptions that should significantly impact the tech sector. While the initial reciprocal tariffs will remain for imports, U.S. Customs and Border Protection shared some new exemptions on tech-related goods.
The update was announced yesterday evening and follows various tariff increases, particularly on Chinese imports. The exemptions include many products we're excited to see get some relief. The complete list is available in the official bulletin, but it includes computers, smartphones, semiconductor chips, and other tech goods like flat panel TVs, solar cells, and flash drives.
The most recent tariff increase from Trump was 145% on Chinese goods. This sent waves across the tech industry, as many realized the significant impact it would have on many tech products that we rely on, including laptops, desktops, CPUs, semiconductor chips, and any PC component. Large companies like Apple, HP, Dell, and more preemptively imported extra stock before the tariff announcement to skirt some of the impact.
These exemptions should benefit industry leaders and consumers alike, who have been anticipating serious price hikes on imported products. This should offset the price increases for customers and manufacturers who rely on imports for construction materials.
The United States imports around 66% of its tech goods from China, which caused significant concern when tariffs were first announced and subsequently raised on Chinese imports. We recently reported expectations that consoles, monitors, and laptops would be among the most impacted.
Many tariffs initially imposed on April 5th will be reduced for 90 days, but tariffs on China have continued to increase. This exemption list is the first we've seen concerning the tariff situation with China. That said, tariffs will remain in place for all other imports not included in the exemption list.
The situation is subject to change, but we'll report any significant updates on the tariff situation as things progress, so be sure to check back regularly for more information.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Ash Hill is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware with a wealth of experience in the hobby electronics, 3D printing and PCs. She manages the Pi projects of the month and much of our daily Raspberry Pi reporting while also finding the best coupons and deals on all tech.
Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.
©
Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street,
New York,
NY 10036.
Broadcast Positioning System (BPS) replaces satellites with ATSC 3.0 digital TV signal data.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's how it works.
Progress in developing the Broadcast Positioning System (BPS) was recently charted at the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) show. CNX Software reports that BPS is being positioned as a backup, alternative, or confirmation data source for the Global Positioning System (GPS). However, BPS has its particular strengths and weaknesses.
GPS can be as vital to some portable smart device users as mobile and Wi-Fi network data. However, this satellite-based system, which provides precise location, velocity, and time information, is not always available and can be interfered with by bad actors. Recent reports of GPS interference over the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea, and the eastern Mediterranean make for worrying reading. On the other side of the conflict, Ukraine is known to have used GPS spoofing to repel Russian drone attacks.
GPS is under attack, and its reliability is easily put into question, so a backup positioning technology seems like a great idea. Being able to reuse existing infrastructure would be a bonus, and what is more widespread and suitable than TV broadcast antennae?
BPS uses TV signals for timing and positioning data, but the base stations must be broadcasting ATSC 3.0 'Next Gen TV' signals, specifically for this technology. The BPS tech works by adding an ATSC frame to the output, and this will usually provide timing accuracy to 100ns, which is good but not quite as good as GPS (~10ns). However, for BPS positioning, you will need to be in the signal range of four transmitters, and even then, accuracy will be in the order of a 100-meter radius...
According to the source report, BPS is currently being tested and is approaching the fourth (of six) development phases. At the latest, by 2027, we should see ATSC 3.0-based timing become available to the public. Then, by 2029, ATSC 3.0-based timing should be added to the mix. Of course, some kind of BPS receiver will be needed to use this positioning system, whether public or not.
While the BPS technology doesn't impress in its stats, compared to the dominant GPS (for example), it is hard to argue against its use for verifying GPS data. Also, it is always good to be able to reuse existing infrastructure to add value. Hopefully, the U.S. won't need this GPS backup in its home turf, where ATSC 3.0 digital TV signals are found. Currently, coverage is fair, with around 75% of U.S. households capable of receiving ATSC 3.0 signals, which can deliver 4K HDR visuals. We assume that percentage will improve over time.
Different digital TV standards exist in other regions, such as the popular DVB-T/T2. However, we don't know if positioning data can be added to those broadcast signals. The Russians might be interested in melding DVB-T with their Glonass satellite positioning system for backup/verification. Likewise, Europeans may find implementing some non-satellite backup/verification for their Galileo satellites worthwhile.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.
Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.
©
Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street,
New York,
NY 10036.
This article is part of Gizmodo Deals, produced separately from the editorial team.
We may earn a commission when you buy through links on the site.
What's the point of having a Netflix or an Amazon Prime Video subscription in 4K if your TV can't support that resolution? If you're looking to enjoy your favorite shows and movies in stunning Ultra HD at a reasonable price point, the LG C3 65-inch OLED TV is an absolute gem.
This high-end smart TV debuted in 2023 and it is currently selling at an all-time low price of $1,196 on Amazon which is a whopping 20% off its list price of $1,499.
See at Amazon
The LG C3 smart TV is crafted to provide a best-in-class viewing experience that competes with higher-priced alternatives. Its 10.9-inch OLED evo panel showcases stunning picture quality with self-emitting pixels that render perfect blacks, limitless contrast and rich colors. From the newest release on Disney+ to streaming a nature show on Netflix, every image leaps to life with incredible sharpness and depth. The TV also supports more elaborate HDR formats like Dolby Vision and HDR10 so you can reap the maximum benefit of your 4K content.
Powered by LG's α9 AI Processor Gen6, this LG TV uses advanced AI technology to upscale picture and sound in real-time. Whether it's sports viewing, gaming, or simply browsing through apps such as YouTube or Hulu, the processor provides very smooth performance and exceptional image processing. Brightness Booster Max technology is also added to the brightness of the screen which makes this screen ideal for both bright and dark rooms.
For gaming enthusiasts, the LG C3 is an absolute dream: It has a 120Hz refresh rate, ultra-low input lag and compatibility with features like VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) and ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode) to give you the ultimate best gaming experience. From quick shooters to open-world RPGs, every movement is smooth. And with its four HDMI 2.1 ports, it is also compatible with next-gen consoles like the PS5 and Xbox Series X.
The C3's intelligent features are no less impressive. Driven by LG's webOS platform, the C3 provides easy access to all of your go-to streaming services and apps. Thanks to built-in Alexa support, you can even navigate your TV with voice commands, while the Magic Remote in the box ensures navigation is a doddle. Wi-Fi 6 connectivity allows for fast and reliable streaming performance, even in homes where multiple devices are connected.
The reality that this Amazon deal has arrived at a moment when heightened tariffs are very likely going to drive up the cost of electronics in the following weeks (and months) makes the deal all the more exciting. Despite these challenges, Amazon has managed to reduce the price of this incredible LG OLED TV to its lowest ever, and it is a steal for anyone looking to upgrade their home entertainment. That being said, with the situation in the market as is, it's likely that the discount won't last long—so it's best to snag it before prices go back up again.
See at Amazon
Get the best tech, science, and culture news in your inbox daily.
News from the future, delivered to your present.
Please select your desired newsletters and submit your email to upgrade your inbox.
We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our sites.
©2025 GIZMODO USA LLC. All rights reserved.
Mode
Follow us
Mode
Follow us
This article is part of Gizmodo Deals, produced separately from the editorial team.
We may earn a commission when you buy through links on the site.
If you're looking for a device that can seamlessly replace your computer for streaming Netflix, browsing Google, or using Microsoft 365, the Apple iPad has become the go-to choice for millions of users. The 10th-generation iPad is equipped with advanced features and it is now available at an incredible price point—its lowest ever.
Originally launched at $599 a few years ago, this premium tablet has seen previous discounts drop it to $459 during major shopping holidays like Black Friday. However, Amazon has now dropped the price even further and offers it for just $349 which is an absolute steal (30% down from its previous price, and 42% off its original price).
See at Amazon
This price drop is even more attractive given the ongoing rise in tariffs that have reached electronics across the board. Apple continues to offer incredible value with this discount and the 10th-generation iPad is more budget-friendly than ever. With that said, it's likely a good idea to act sooner rather than later—tariffs will probably impact future pricing and discounts like these won't be available for long.
The 10th-generation iPad is feature-packed to be a great option for private and professional use: It is equipped with the A14 Bionic chip which delivers great performance and smooth multitasking. Whether it is editing files on Office 365 or switching between apps while streaming videos, this chip makes everything smoothly. The 10.9-inch Liquid Retina Display provides stunning graphics with vivid colors and clear detail which is perfect for watching movies or playing games.
The 256GB of storage allows you to have as many apps, photos, videos and files as you want without ever having to concern yourself with running out of space. This makes the iPad perfect for those who want a device that can serve as both an entertainment and productivity tool. Its high-speed Wi-Fi 6 connection also means you get quicker internet and more reliable connections—ideal for streaming or downloading bigger files.
With a 12MP rear and front camera setup, you can also capture quality images and videos or enjoy clear video calls with friends and business associates. Touch ID adds another layer of security while keeping access simple and quick. And with all-day battery life, you can rely on this tablet to keep up with your active lifestyle without your needing to search for a charger every now and then.
The current $349 price point is not only lower than Black Friday but also the all-time low for this model since it was first released in 2022. For a product that originally launched at $599, this offers a unique opportunity to acquire one of Apple's most powerful tablets for a fraction of its launch price.
See at Amazon
Get the best tech, science, and culture news in your inbox daily.
News from the future, delivered to your present.
Please select your desired newsletters and submit your email to upgrade your inbox.
We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our sites.
©2025 GIZMODO USA LLC. All rights reserved.
Mode
Follow us
Mode
Follow us
Latest
AI
Amazon
Apps
Biotech & Health
Climate
Cloud Computing
Commerce
Crypto
Enterprise
EVs
Fintech
Fundraising
Gadgets
Gaming
Google
Government & Policy
Hardware
Instagram
Layoffs
Media & Entertainment
Meta
Microsoft
Privacy
Robotics
Security
Social
Space
Startups
TikTok
Transportation
Venture
Events
Startup Battlefield
StrictlyVC
Newsletters
Podcasts
Videos
Partner Content
TechCrunch Brand Studio
Crunchboard
Contact Us
When Elon Musk announced that his AI startup, xAI, had acquired his social media company, X (formerly known as Twitter), in an all-stock deal, it raised some eyebrows. But in many ways, the deal made sense. xAI's chatbot, Grok, was already deeply integrated with X, X was floundering financially, and Musk needed a way to make his $44 billion Twitter acquisition look less like an impulsive takeover and more like a strategic play for AGI dominance.
It also pointed to something deeper about how Musk's empire works: investing in any one of his companies isn't about a quick return on investment. It's about buying into the mysticism around Musk and swallowing whole a narrative of success that outpaces the actual numbers.
Some call it a grift, pointing to Musk's history of overpromising and underdelivering. But the market is increasingly more tolerant – welcoming, even – of narrative-led investments, particularly when the thread that ties the tale together is one of the president's right-hand men.
“All of Elon's companies today are basically one company,” Yoni Rechtman, a principal at Slow Ventures, told TechCrunch. “It's all already Elon, Inc. There are people who work across multiple companies simultaneously. They share a web of capital connections. They do business with one another, and he treats them all effectively as one company. So [the xAI-X merger] just ends some of the fiction that the two businesses were separate.”
The thinking among Musk bulls like Ron Baron, the founder of investment management firm Baron Capital, is that “every single thing [Musk] does is helping everything else he does,” as Baron phrased it. Other businesses under Musk's control include Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Company, and Neuralink – some of which reportedly share resources.
“When [Musk] bought Twitter, did he have in his mind that there's an opportunity to have this data, a tremendous value for licensing? When he decided he wanted to go to Mars with SpaceX, did he really think initially that there's a real opportunity here for the internet around the world, and there's gonna be hundreds of billions of dollars of revenue opportunity? When he started off with EVs for Tesla, did he really think that this is gonna merge into self-driving, where you can make hundreds of billions of dollars a year of extra profits, and Grok […] and you're gonna have connected cars all around the world? […] All these businesses link up. It's the ecosystem. It's the Elon ecosystem, and I think it's really interesting when you look at it that way.”
Baron Capital has invested across Musk's ecosystem, an example of the investor crossover between the billionaire's various companies. Firms like 8VC, Andreessen Horowitz, DFJ Growth, Fidelity Investments, Manhattan Venture Partners, Saudi Arabia's PIF, Sequoia Capital, Vy Capital, and others also hold positions throughout Musk's corporate web.
That brings us back to the xAI-X deal. Pundits questioned how the acquisition could value X at $33 billion, more than triple its valuation just a few months ago, and how it could value xAI at $80 billion considering the AI company reportedly has little in the way of revenue. But valuations aren't always based on what exists today. Rather, they take into account what investors are hoping for – and that's particularly true when it comes to Musk's ventures.
Just look at Tesla. The electric vehicle maker has been treated like a tech stock for years despite the fact that it has automaker margins, based largely on the belief that Tesla will one day unlock groundbreaking autonomy in the form of self-driving cars and humanoid robots.
“The reason why [Tesla's] stock trades at 80 times earnings and the comp group trades at 25 times earnings is that people are making a bet on the long term, and it's not about what happens to numbers this year,” Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, told TechCrunch. “That's one of Elon's superpowers, this ability to keep investors engaged for the long term.”
Munster's firm has invested in X, xAI, and Tesla. It's exactly the type of all-in Musk backer that stands to benefit the most from a deal like xAI buying X, assuming Musk can indeed deliver on his pledge of marrying X's real-time data trove and distribution platform with xAI's infrastructure and AI expertise.
Of course, consolidated value also comes with increased risk.
Dan Wang, a professor at Columbia Business School whose research lies at the intersection of business and society, told TechCrunch that the biggest immediate risk factor for investors is the ongoing lawsuit that X is facing from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The suit accuses Musk of misleading investors by delaying the disclosure of his previous investments in Twitter. The SEC has argued that this allowed Musk to buy more Twitter shares at artificially low prices.
Wang listed a few other risk considerations, such as anticompetition and user privacy concerns, particularly regarding how X quietly opted all users into data collection for AI model training. The opt-in change has already raised the ire of one regulator, Ireland's DPC, which recently began investigating it as a potential breach of Europe's GDPR law.
“Another kind of risk here is that there isn't a consensus framework for how the AI market is going to be regulated, but you're already seeing traces of this in Europe and, up until recently, in California,” Wang said. “A lot of these frameworks have to do with how AI models are deployed in terms of distributing information […] They ascribe responsibility to the companies that are creating AI models, as well as providing access to those models.”
Musk might also simply lose interest in a project, Rechtman said.
“I think that is what a lot of Tesla shareholders are feeling right now,” he said, “where for the last several months, Elon's number one company has been the Trump campaign, and his other projects have languished.”
When asked about some of these risk factors, Munster appeared nonplussed. He suggested they're inconsequential given the enormity of, for example, xAI's value proposition and potential to become a dominant player in AI.
“We're betting the firm on the belief that AI is going to be more transformative than what people think,” he said. “What is the value […] of one of the four brains that the world is going to run on?”
Rechtman said that Musk bulls aren't blindly loyal, per se, but simply trust in Musk's superpower to “bend capital markets to his will” in a way that allows him to do things and build businesses that nobody else can.
“The people who are in these businesses have just gone long Elon, and they will continue to go long Elon,” Rechtman said. “So it's not surprising to me that they will just continue to tell you that the emperor is wearing clothes.”
Not for nothing, buying into Musk's more speculative bets, like X, is one way to potentially unlock more investment opportunities in the Muskverse, Rechtman said.
“SpaceX is a real thing, and it will never go public,” he said. “So the only way to invest in SpaceX is to get access to the tenders. And the only way to get access to the tenders is to be in Elon's good graces.”
Topics
Senior Reporter
Rebecca Bellan is a senior reporter at TechCrunch, where she covers Tesla and Elon Musk's broader empire, autonomy, AI, electrification, gig work platforms, Big Tech regulatory scrutiny, and more. She's one of the co-hosts of the Equity podcast and writes the TechCrunch Daily morning newsletter.
Previously, she covered social media for Forbes.com, and her work has appeared in Bloomberg CityLab, The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, Mother Jones, i-D (Vice) and more.
Rebecca has invested in Ethereum.
The most interesting startups showcased at Google Cloud Next
Hacked documents reveal guide to serving Elon Musk on private jets
OpenAI will soon phase out GPT-4 from ChatGPT
Lucid Motors wins bankruptcy auction for Nikola's Arizona factory and other assets
Fintech founder charged with fraud after ‘AI' shopping app found to be powered by humans in the Philippines
The US Secretary of Education referred to AI as ‘A1,' like the steak sauce
WhatsApp introduces new features across chats, calls, and channels
© 2025 Yahoo.
This article is part of Gizmodo Deals, produced separately from the editorial team.
We may earn a commission when you buy through links on the site.
Having a power bank on hand is now essential if you spend most of your time on social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. Live streaming and videos can quickly drain your smartphone battery within hours which makes you miss out when you need your device the most.
For those who use their phones a lot, the INIU 10000mAh power bank is a must-have accessory—and now, it's even cheaper than it was on Black Friday. Originally priced at $24, this fast charger is available for $15, which is a 36% discount. Last year, the lowest price was $17.
See at Amazon
What's so amazing about this deal is that it comes at rising tariffs that are purported to impact the cost of electronics in the coming weeks. Despite this challenge, INIU continues to come up with great deals on their items, so it's the ideal time to obtain this power bank prior to the prices might increase.
The INIU charger performs very well and thoughtful design: It has a 10,000mAh capacity and it can charge most smartphones to full capacity several times. Whether you own an iPhone 16 or a Samsung Galaxy S25, this power bank will have your phones charged all day long. Its high-speed charging is 3A output compatible, so you can charge your phone up to 78% in just one hour which is much faster than regular chargers. In addition, its USB-C output and input guarantee compatibility across an enormous range of devices including tablets like the iPad and peripherals like AirPods and smartwatches.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about this power bank is just how thin it is: Despite its lofty-capacity power, it is light and portable enough to be pushed into your pocket or bag without consuming any additional space. That renders it ideal for use on-the-go, if you're just commuting, on a trip or simply using a day away. INIU charger also offers pass-through charging capability, with which you may charge your gadgets and the power bank simultaneously.
Besides its speed and portability, the INIU power bank boasts state-of-the-art safety functions that protect your devices and charger. Its TempGuard technology scans charging temperatures a massive 3 million times daily to prevent overheating or overcharging. This yields optimum performance and maintains your device's battery well-being in the long term—a function that comes in handy to anyone concerned with long-term electronics wear.
With tariffs on electronics (and Chinese imports) steadily rising, discounts like this will become increasingly rare. Experts predict that these price hikes will soon affect popular brands like Anker and INIU more significantly which makes it unlikely that such low prices will persist for long. If you've been looking at upgrading your portable charging solution or simply want a backup for emergencies, now is the time to act.
See at Amazon
Get the best tech, science, and culture news in your inbox daily.
News from the future, delivered to your present.
Please select your desired newsletters and submit your email to upgrade your inbox.
We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our sites.
©2025 GIZMODO USA LLC. All rights reserved.
Mode
Follow us
Mode
Follow us
All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
6/10
I love me a Breville smart oven. Ever since I began testing toaster ovens for a living, the ovens from Breville have been at the top of our rankings. At the highest end of the Aussie appliance line, the flagship Joule (8/10, WIRED Recommends) and the almost-equivalent Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro can make you forget you even have a full-sized oven.
This sounds like hyperbole, but isn't. Breville's highest-end countertop ovens are far more precise in temperature, preheat faster, don't toast the whole house when you just want to roast some potatoes, and quite simply do more things better. What's more, Breville's takeover of the ChefSteps brand, and partnerships with other recipe makers, mean the phone app offers a huge repertoire of tested recipes and techniques for your countertop cookers.
But the air fryer capability of each Breville device has never been as impressive as the ovens' other many good qualities. They don't tend to crisp up a wing like my top-pick Instant Pot basket fryer, or even the little Cuisinart TOA-70 oven, which seems to add a light crispness to kinda everything. I always wondered whether the much larger size of each Breville oven's interior didn't allow air to whip around well enough, the way it does in a little basket air fryer that's basically a single-purpose catch-basin for hot air. If Breville made a smaller oven air fryer, I figured, the basket could get better circulation.
Enter the Smart Oven Air Fryer Compact, Breville's smallest and lowest-cost air fryer model yet. The company began rolling the device out softly at the beginning of March. The 1,800-watt Compact is a good oven overall, with a number of very smart features, especially on the preset front. I don't often like preset buttons for individual dishes, but I actually kinda love them here. The Compact is also versatile for its size, with three (or really kinda six) rack positions, an air fryer basket, a roasting pan that doubles as a grease catcher, and a broiler rack.
But size didn't turn out to be the answer when it came to crispy fries and wings.
First off, here's what's great about the Smart Oven Air Fryer Compact. Across its appliance line, Breville has made an art out of the elegant hand-hold, little smart bits of automation, and convenience that offer genuine utility to home cooks. This compact air fryer oven is no different.
The air fryer presets are the exact three things that an American audience will most often want in an air fryer oven preset: wings, fries, bacon. These are the food of the Rust Belt and the Midwest, of plains states and football fans. This is air fryer country. The correct rack position for each preset is helpfully marked on the interior of the oven, but especially what's helpful is the customization of each dish.
Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Compact
Rating: 6/10
If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. Learn more.
In the case of bacon, which catches an air fry in the roasting pan at 325 degrees Fahrenheit, cook times might range from 13 to 20 minutes depending on both the desired crispiness and the thickness of the bacon. Wings catch 425 degrees Fahrenheit, but times vary by as much as 10 minutes depending on whether you'd like your wings fried hard, and how many you threw in the basket.
On multiple thicknesses of bacon, crisp meant crisp. Fries, from fresh, caught a little char and needed to be rotated a bit, but results were on point as regards cook times. Wings consistently needed “a bit more” time to get to desired doneness, and weren't necessarily as crisp as you'd get from a basket fryer. That said, they significantly outperformed Breville's similar-sized convection model, as judged by family members in a blind taste test.
The same customization for darkness and quantity applies for toast and bagel settings, though this is all pretty standard issue on the toaster oven side of things. As with all Breville's ovens, the “a bit more” button allows you to tack a little bit more time on at previous settings, without having to remember what they were. And the “superconvection” button lets you manually add crisping air at the end of a cook, without otherwise changing your settings.
The pizza preset is a bit of an outlier, and I'll admit I haven't played around with it as much. But essentially, it toggles suggested cook times based on whether you want to use superconvection to get a crisper crust, and whether your pizza is frozen.
But that said, unlike other Breville ovens whose temperature is sometimes even more precise than the thermometers I used to test them, the Compact is a little glitchy when it comes to airflow and maintaining even temperature around the oven.
Toast often ends up a little uneven in terms of browning, not just at different locations around the oven but also between the top and bottom of each slice. When cooking meats with a thermometer inserted, I consistently ended up measuring temperatures about 20 degrees lower than expected. Not the worst result compared to many toaster ovens, but not as good as top-line Brevilles.
Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Compact
Rating: 6/10
If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. Learn more.
But especially, the oven's smaller size doesn't seem to be a magic bullet in terms of airflow and superconvection. One potential reason is that the oven's tight quarters don't leave a lot of room for the air to move around when a roasting tray's in the oven to catch grease. The end effect is that french fries get leopard spotting rather than uniform brownness when air frying. And because this oven doesn't have a light, I sometimes add my own temperature inconsistency by opening the door to check browning.
The tight confines of the oven also end up meaning the broiler rack is pretty high up against the heating elements, which seems also to impede airflow across the food. This is a fast-charring broiler, great for precisely this purpose but difficult to use for longer cooks on, say, Brussels sprouts without getting a mix of burnt leaves and underdone centers. I fared better air frying the Brussels sprouts instead in the oven's basket.
Among the grand scheme of air fryer toaster ovens, already a genre built on compromise, Breville's Air Fryer Compact remains a pretty solid entrant. The device packs wild versatility into a very small space. Its smartly designed presets for individual dishes—frankly useless on most company's ovens—are here deftly managed and customized.
But even with the Compact's crispier wings and fries, and its smaller countertop footprint, Breville's comparably priced Smart Oven Pro still takes the prize among Breville's budget-friendly options south of $300. The Pro has a more predictable cook, precise temperature control, and a still-powerful convection fan. And it's been tried and tested over years. This Air Fryer Compact may still need a little time to iron out its bugs.
Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Compact
Rating: 6/10
If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. Learn more.
More From WIRED
Reviews and Guides
© 2025 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Ad Choices
Just because a security researcher can discover things about a program that its own developers missed, doesn't mean they've understood the entire picture. If you find one bug, you need to spend time making sure that it doesn't represent an entire class of bugs. Once the advisory is announced, that's blood in the water that will attract other predators. Only idiots and tourism companies chum the water before they expect more people to go into it.Back when PHP was objectively awful, I joined the pitchforks and torches mob based on the litany of CERT advisories against it. I had an argument with a coworker about whether PHP was irresponsible to use, and the very next day someone defaced the phpBB instance he maintained because of an unpatched injection attack. I pointedly did not comment because 1) smug and 2) the timing made me nervous of being accused of having been the perpetrator.But I did look at the patch that either just came out or that he missed, and was frustrated to find that the same pattern they fixed existed in two other functions.I really think that it says more about a community, not in what mistakes they make, but how they learn from those mistakes. And I'd like to say it seems like SAP didn't, but we all know what a beast that thing is. How many tens of millions of lines of code is that thing now? The chances that a person made a mistake and two people they've never met copied it are essentially 0.99 repeating.
Back when PHP was objectively awful, I joined the pitchforks and torches mob based on the litany of CERT advisories against it. I had an argument with a coworker about whether PHP was irresponsible to use, and the very next day someone defaced the phpBB instance he maintained because of an unpatched injection attack. I pointedly did not comment because 1) smug and 2) the timing made me nervous of being accused of having been the perpetrator.But I did look at the patch that either just came out or that he missed, and was frustrated to find that the same pattern they fixed existed in two other functions.I really think that it says more about a community, not in what mistakes they make, but how they learn from those mistakes. And I'd like to say it seems like SAP didn't, but we all know what a beast that thing is. How many tens of millions of lines of code is that thing now? The chances that a person made a mistake and two people they've never met copied it are essentially 0.99 repeating.
But I did look at the patch that either just came out or that he missed, and was frustrated to find that the same pattern they fixed existed in two other functions.I really think that it says more about a community, not in what mistakes they make, but how they learn from those mistakes. And I'd like to say it seems like SAP didn't, but we all know what a beast that thing is. How many tens of millions of lines of code is that thing now? The chances that a person made a mistake and two people they've never met copied it are essentially 0.99 repeating.
I really think that it says more about a community, not in what mistakes they make, but how they learn from those mistakes. And I'd like to say it seems like SAP didn't, but we all know what a beast that thing is. How many tens of millions of lines of code is that thing now? The chances that a person made a mistake and two people they've never met copied it are essentially 0.99 repeating.
reply
When left a fortune 500 company 2 years ago, many SAP processes were running in background on UN*X with these arguments:-u USERID -p PWAs a developer I informed the admins a couple of times over the years, the response was "wow, will check it out". But they ran into a mountain of red tape and gave up. So nothing was ever done.But as a developer and support person, at least I had a way to fix things without falling into the bureaucracy quicksand. FWIW, I only had to do that twice over a 10 year period around Q/E.
-u USERID -p PWAs a developer I informed the admins a couple of times over the years, the response was "wow, will check it out". But they ran into a mountain of red tape and gave up. So nothing was ever done.But as a developer and support person, at least I had a way to fix things without falling into the bureaucracy quicksand. FWIW, I only had to do that twice over a 10 year period around Q/E.
As a developer I informed the admins a couple of times over the years, the response was "wow, will check it out". But they ran into a mountain of red tape and gave up. So nothing was ever done.But as a developer and support person, at least I had a way to fix things without falling into the bureaucracy quicksand. FWIW, I only had to do that twice over a 10 year period around Q/E.
But as a developer and support person, at least I had a way to fix things without falling into the bureaucracy quicksand. FWIW, I only had to do that twice over a 10 year period around Q/E.
reply
I'll be honest, I've never been on the other side dealing with red tape. It'd probably drive me mad. But from the researcher/consultant side, it's definitely gotten easier to report vulnerabilities. Vendors now have security contacts, coordinated disclosure policies, and even bug bounty programs. Not all vendors, of course. But compared to 10 years ago, it's night and day.
reply
They do not care.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's how it works.
Multiple publicly traded Chinese companies have notified their investors that the recently imposed tariffs from the trade war do not concern them, reports the South China Morning Post, largely because US sanctions have already prevented them from selling into the US. China's high-tech industry has a number of world-class companies that develop products that are competitive far beyond Chinese borders. However, given the sanctions imposed against these entities in recent years, it is hard to find products from Huawei, Loongson, or Longsys outside of China.
Cambricon Technologies (an AI processor developer), Loongson (CPU designer), Leaguer Microelectronics (an IoT IC designer), Longsys Electronics (a maker of storage systems), and Maxscend Microelectronics (an RF chip developer) all said that they were not going to be impacted by massive tariffs imposed by the U.S. government in their filings for investors, according to SCMP.
Based on the SCMP report, these companies will indeed not suffer from the punitive tariffs the U.S. has imposed on products from China:
Hardware makers from China ship tons of hardware, including domestically developed chips and domestically developed systems on those chips. That industry has been aimed mostly internally so far though, so no financial impact on the aforementioned companies at this point. However, what about indirect impacts? That remains to be seen.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom's Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.
Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.
©
Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street,
New York,
NY 10036.
In 2021, when the Democrat-controlled Congress and the Biden administration were attempting to set up a new domestic terrorism program, human rights groups—ones that had typically fretted over the rightwing militia groups that the program was designed to combat—were the first to express dismay. “We write to express our deep concern regarding proposed expansion of terrorism-related legal authority,” wrote 157 different signatories, in a letter to Congress. “We must meet the challenge of addressing white nationalist and far-right militia violence without causing further harm to communities already disproportionately impacted by the criminal-legal system.” Meanwhile, a swell of CIA and national security officials eagerly urged the government to create new legal authorities to treat Americans like terrorists.
Now, as Trump's second term gets underway, the new rightwing government appears to be using the legal and operational infrastructure set up during the Biden years to go after leftwing protesters. Independent journalist Ken Klippenstein is out with a new article on the Trump administration's blossoming counterterrorism strategy, which, according to government insiders, is poised to target Americans who express discontent about the president or his wealthy allies.
“So-called Tesla terrorism and potential anti-Trump violence is driving new articulations of the threat,” a senior intelligence official told Klippenstein.
Indeed, in recent weeks, the Justice Department has pivoted federal law enforcement away from more traditional enemies and towards people who vandalize Tesla dealerships. Several people arrested and accused of having firebombed the cars will likely be charged with “domestic terrorism” charges, Attorney General Pam Bondi has said. Meanwhile, critics of Israel have also become a target for the government's roving eye.
As previously noted, the precedent for much of this was set by the previous administration. Under Biden, the government developed its first National Strategy to counter “domestic terrorism.” The strategy, which was designed with input from America's national security agencies, set up a broad variety of new programs to counter what it perceived as extremism in the homeland, including new task forces and liaisons with state and local law enforcement.
However, as Klippenstein points out, the full scale of the program is not publicly known. He points to a recently published Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on America's counterterrorism strategy that notes “officials from DHS, DOJ, and State told us that the classified implementation plan includes some additional guidance for classified activities” and that “DHS and DOJ officials told us that they conduct additional activities to respond to the 2021 Strategy that are classified.” In other words: a secret program that spies on Americans and treats them like terrorists is not available for public consumption.
That secret program is now being helmed by the Trump administration, which has very different ideas about who and what poses a danger to this country than its predecessor. The administration is busy revising the strategy to better suit Trump's needs. Klippenstein writes:
…the rewrite of the National Strategy document is shaping up to comport with Trump's view of the country, the GAO hints and others say, rescinding the previous approach and altering the focus of counterterrorism actions over the next four years. That includes focusing more on Trump's political opponents and framing petty crimes taking place at day-to-day protests as terrorism.
Worse still, the head of America's counterterrorism strategy, Sebastian Gorka, is described as an Israel-loving gun nut who is fond of “secret operations” and “special operators.” Gorka is tasked with overseeing all of America's counterterrorism operations—both international and domestic.
Klippenstein quotes from a federal counterterrorism manual published in 2021 that lists various so-called “mobilization indicators.” These indicators, he writes, are considered “characteristics that could move people to carry out acts of extremist violence.” Under the government's domestic counterterrorism mandate, Americans who demonstrate such indicators could find themselves the subject of a suspected terrorism probe—even if they have never committed a crime. Klippenstein writes:
Ever had a heated argument expressing sympathy for Luigi Mangione or HAMAS? Or bought military-style tactical equipment? Or withdrawn from family? If so, you meet the government's criteria listed in its 2021 “Mobilization Indicators” booklet, a document intended to help local and state police to spot a terrorist. These criteria might strike you as creepy because, as the booklet itself concedes, “many of the mobilization indicators included in this booklet may also relate to constitutionally protected activities.”
In short, if you've ever been a super-vocal critic of the current administration or its allies, you could end up being a target of the government's national security state.
Lots of people—myself included—saw this coming. In 2021, when the Biden administration began pushing for a new domestic terrorism program, I thought it was a really, really bad idea. At the time, I wrote:
For all the wailing and gnashing of teeth the Democrats did about Trump's authoritarian style, it seems deeply ironic that they would kick off this new moment of party ascendance by pushing for such overwhelming new powers for the nation's security agencies. Such proposals seem destined to do little except further disfigure the already mutilated corpus of civil liberties that Americans used to take such pride in—but which they now ever more sleepily deride as outdated, impractical, and unsafe.
Now, here we are, some four years later, and a program that offers the government way too much power could easily be weaponized against peaceful political protesters. It's not a happy time, though perhaps Americans might learn something from it.
Donald TrumpJoe BidenTESLA
Get the best tech, science, and culture news in your inbox daily.
News from the future, delivered to your present.
Please select your desired newsletters and submit your email to upgrade your inbox.
The destruction of the Trump regime will be felt for generations.
Tesla's factory in Shanghai only produces the carmaker's more affordable models, with the Model S and X imported from the U.S.
A senior official describes the billionaire as an awkward and obnoxious asshole.
On again, off again.
As the Trump administration continues to play hardball with China, American businesses are raising their prices.
Trump said autism was caused by "a shot" or something "artificial" that people are consuming.
We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our sites.
©2025 GIZMODO USA LLC. All rights reserved.
Mode
Follow us
Mode
Follow us
If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. Learn more.
I've always been a sweatpants and leggings girl. Maybe it's a hallmark of having worked from home for eight years and counting, or the burden I bear from being a millennial, but to me, blue jeans are an occassion pant. Even when I'm out in a skirt or dress, the second I get home, I'm putting on sweatpants.
My favorite pair has been the Vuori Performance Joggers, ever since I first tried them back in 2020 for a now-defunct buying guide. These sweatpants have been beloved across the internet since then and probably before it. Influencers, reviewers, and redditors sing their praises. I'm not saying anything new. These pants have 4.8 out of 5 stars based on over 46,000 customer reviews. But if you haven't heard the gospel, please do yourself the courtesy of listening to me proselytize for just one moment.
I know a ton of differently shaped people who love these sweatpants. I'm short and curvy, but friends and colleagues with different body types swear by these sweatpants. Be you tall or short, slim or thick, no matter your gender, your weight, or where you like to wear your loungewear, these'll work for you. They're like magic.
Photograph: Vuori
Some people might think sweatpants are basic. How hard can it be to get it right? So perhaps my love for the Vuori Performance Joggers is best illustrated with details about what they don't get wrong. I spoke with Sarah Carlson, vice president of design at Vuori, to lift the curtain a bit.
Let's start with the fabric. The Vuori's DreamKnit fabric is special. Carlson says it's made with advanced knitting techniques to promote a second-skin feel, and she says it is meant to “provide a buttery-soft feel while delivering the durability and functionality needed for active lifestyles.” I'll be the first to admit I'm skeptical of any marketing claims, but these sweatpants genuinely are so soft and stretchy.
DreamKnit is made with 89 percent recycled materials. It has four-way stretch, which keeps it flexible, and it's designed to keep you cool and dry. It's not too thin or too thick. If I wear these sweatpants in the fall, they keep me pretty warm. If I wear them in the summer, I don't get too hot. I can regulate my own body temperature. They're not aggressively lined or bulky or thick. They just work. In the winter, or on particularly windy days, they aren't the warmest, but that breathability is a feature and not a bug.
Carlson says, "The initial concept for DreamKnit came from our desire to create a fabric that felt as good as it performed.” And it does! She adds that each iteration was wear-tested by athletes, yogis, and everyday users to get feedback on fit, feel, and functionality. Vuori also conducted lab tests to ”ensure the fabric could withstand repeated washing and activity without losing its shape or softness.”
The slash pockets are thoughtfully designed, too, with enough depth that I can stash my phone, wallet, and other essentials inside—and, most importantly, nothing falls out when I sit down or shift around. This is a surprisingly common issue I've found while testing sweatpants. What's the point in a pocket if things don't stay inside it? Again, the Performance Joggers have pockets that work as intended. And they don't stick out or show an obvious outline while I walk around—another added benefit that other sweatpants haven't managed to achieve. Carlson says that “fit is everything, and we spent countless hours perfecting the cut of the Performance Joggers. They're designed to be relaxed but not sloppy, with a tapered leg that flatters the body without restricting movement. The elastic waistband with an adjustable drawstring ensures a customizable, secure fit.”
Even the drawstring is well designed. It doesn't slip too easily out of its sleeve, and it's not too thick or obvious. It's soft on my skin. It's flat and therefore easy to tie, and it stays tied throughout the day. I can adjust the sweatpants to sit high on my natural waist or sling them low around my hips. The drawstring doesn't create an obvious outline or get twisted up over time. It simply works as intended.
And the length of the pants is just right. On my 5'1” frame, I don't find them to be too long or too short. But reviewers who are taller than me have said the same thing. Like I said—these are like magic. The actual inseam length is 25 inches. The sweatpants keep their shape throughout the day, and the cuff loosens imperceptibly if at all. The ankle cuff is tight enough to help the pants maintain their shape but not so tight that it pulls them down or restricts movement.
And finally, the silhouette. Vuori suggests ordering a size up if you want an oversized fit. I wear my usual size, and I find that the pants are tight and loose in all the right places. They hug my hips and butt, they nip in my waist, and they're a little tight toward the ankles. The shape is downright flattering, and I feel just as comfy wearing them with a gigantic fleece-lined hoodie while lounging as I do pairing them with a bodysuit and some cute sneakers while going out or over my shorts to the gym. I've worn these to chill on the couch during the holidays at my parents' house. I've worn these while hanging out around the campfire. I've worn these to my favorite bar. I've worn these on a date. They just work. If you conjure a pair of sweatpants in your head, they‘d probably be the Vuori Performance Joggers—whether or not you realize it yet.
I appreciate the wide variety of colors (14 at press time) and sizes (XXS to XXL in Regular or Long lengths). I appreciate the way these hold up over time, maintaining their softness and shape over nearly five years of wear. But mostly, I appreciate that they absolutely nail everything a pair of comfy pants should be. They're expensive, but to me, they're worth every penny.
10% Off Wayfair Promo Code with sign-up
20% off Dyson Promo Code
$50 Off In-Person Tax Prep When You Switch From Your Tax Current Provider
Up to $500 off cameras at Canon
Save extra 10% Off TurboTax
Exclusive: Up To 50% Off 6 Boxes With Factor Promo Code
More From WIRED
Reviews and Guides
© 2025 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Ad Choices
If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. Learn more.
An iPad Instagram app might be on the horizon. According to The Information, a Meta employee claims the long-asked-for app is finally in development, fueled by Meta's desire to ramp up user activity on Instagram as a whole.
Right now, Instagram is available on the iPad, but it's the iPhone version and is designed for smaller, narrower displays—so it doesn't take up the full screen. Images and Reels maintain the same aspect ratio, resulting in an awkward experience.
But the terrible user interface hasn't been enough for Instagram chief Adam Mosseri to green-light a version designed for the iPad. Still, Mosseri hasn't been quiet on the topic—despite past pleas, he's taken to posting on X multiple times over the last few years to explain that there's not a big enough group to make an Instagram iPad app a priority. But as TikTok's future remains unclear, Mosseri might have changed his tune.
As the report outlines, Instagram is using the looming ban as an opportunity to drive more users to its app. Before the short-lived ban in January, Instagram released an update centered solely on enhancements to Reels—its short-form video feature—to steer users from TikTok to its app. The company extended the maximum length of videos, changed the profile grid to a rectangular format (specifically a 4:5 aspect ratio), and launched a new video app called Edits (similar to CapCut from TikTok's parent company, ByteDance).
Instagram hasn't confirmed the iPad app's development, and so we don't have a release window. The TikTok ban has been extended for another 75 days, so keep your eyes peeled on the App Store. —Brenda Stolyar
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
All the top gear news of the week in one place. Here's more you may have missed this week:
Motorola has given us a date for the launch of the next Razr: April 24. This folding flip phone follows on the success of the Razr and Razr+ from 2024, and while the teaser video shows us a silhouette of a phone that looks identical (in multiple colors), the words “AI” flash on the screen at the end. Motorola's Moto AI has been in beta since late 2024—it's an AI companion that can remember things about you, summarize notifications, and transcribe and summarize recordings. Maybe it'll finally come out of beta with the Razr 2025?
The Razr isn't the only phone Motorola announced this week. There's a new Moto G Stylus 2025, which retains the $399 price of its predecessor. It remains the only smartphone that comes with a stylus under $500, and Motorola is putting a little more emphasis on it this time around. You'll be able to turn basic sketches into AI-generated art, write down math problems and have them convert to text with the solution in tow, and you can even use it with Google's Circle to Search.
The Moto G Stylus is also IP68 water resistant now, is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 chipset, and still features a headphone jack, OLED 120-Hz screen, and wireless charging. It launches on April 17 for $399.
Last year, the CMF Phone 1 blew me away with its stellar performance and design—it outperformed several phones that cost more money, all while looking far more stylish. CMF is Nothing's sub-brand that focuses on affordable tech, and we're about to get a successor to the Phone 1 at the end of the month.
A teaser was posted on Nothing's Community forum, with video glimpses of the CMF Phone 2 Pro. The focus seems to be on the phone's build, with Nothing stating, “Ultra-slim. Ultra-light. Ultra-sleek.” Nothing also highlighted a new finish that's textured. We'll be able to glean more details on April 28 at 9 am ET, where Nothing will also take the wraps off three new wireless earbuds: CMF Buds 2, Buds 2a, and Buds 2 Plus.
Got a Google Pixel 9 or Samsung Galaxy S25? If you're on Google's Gemini Advanced subscription, you now have a new perk: camera sharing with Gemini Live. Rolling out this week, this feature supposedly lets you have a free-flowing conversation with Gemini when it's in Gemini Live mode with your phone camera open. Gemini will be able to see everything you show it. That means you can ask it for a product's name by just pointing the camera at it, or ask for inspiration or ideas on how to redecorate your office.
This is powered by Google's Astra technology, which will soon be inside Google's smart glasses. If you don't want to use Gemini Live, you can also attach photos, files, and documents to the standard version of Gemini and ask questions about them. While the new live video function is rolling out to Pixel 9 and Galaxy S25 users now, it'll be broadly available to all Gemini Advanced subscribers on Android devices later on.
If you like mountain biking but don't have the free time to get out and get as strong as you used to be, then it's time to get an electric mountain bike. It's been several years since Specialized updated its pedal-assist Levo line, so I'm excited to see the announcement of a full-power electric S-Works Levo 4 this week.
The new bike has a 720-watt S-Works motor with 111 Nm of torque, promising 27 percent more power than its predecessor, and the ability to haul you up much steeper, more technical climbs, with a huge 1,120-Wh onboard battery so that you don't find yourself stranded powerless in the middle of nowhere.
The bike also purports to offer much more refined power assist, so that you don't accidentally bike yourself into a tree on technical terrain, and there's even downtube storage inside the bike for easy access to the battery and an extra tube for your tires. It weighs about 52 pounds (23.6 kg), which, although not light, is comparable to its competitors like the Trek Slash. We're excited to take it out on some singletrack soon. —Adrienne So
If you've ever felt your portable speaker has let you down in either bass or vibes, Sony's new party speakers are promising to deliver both, with a trio of newcomers joining the ULT Power Sound series—tagline: “Maximum Bass. Ultimate Vibe.”
They are all quite different—starting with size. With its detachable shoulder strap and compact size, the ULT Field 3 is probably the kind of portable speaker you think of when you hear “portable speaker,” and promises a powerful sound from the two-way active driver design. It'll last 24 hours and is IP67 rated.
The ULT Field 5 is a bigger speaker that stands upright and has the ability to access two different kinds of bass boost for more low-end wobble. It has the addition of Sony's 360° Party Lights, and 25 hours of battery life, plus it's IP66 rated for outside play. Both the ULT Field 3 and Field 5 are additionally salt-water resistant, making them a safe option for beach parties.
The ULT Tower 9, on the other hand, is the kind of portable speaker I imagine you might own if you really disliked your neighbors. This enormous speaker is officially portable because it comes with wheels and a handle, but that is the beginning and end of its portability. Wheeling it much further than your garden feels unlikely, but it has karaoke and guitar inputs for turning the party up to 11 and more volume than most people will know what to do with. The speakers will cost $200, $320, and $900 respectively, and are available now. —Verity Burns
One thing that's a rarity in the world of portable music-making gear is proper software updates. That changes with Teenage Engineering's K.O. II sampler. The company, a purveyor of gorgeous music-making tools for creative nerds, has dropped a big software update for its sampler that offers owners and new buyers cool new features.
You can now resample things for remixing, chop sounds up, and side-chain your beats for more pump-y mixes, among even larger changes to the playback engine. Folks who want to make more use of playing stuff first and putting it together later will enjoy that you can now arrange tracks of up to 9,801 bars, and will enjoy that there is increased polyphony (the number of samples you can play at once) and better MIDI support for live performances with a laptop and DAW.
That's … a lot of changes for a $299 sampler and portable recorder that looks like a calculator from the 1980s. If TE supports its affordable products this well after launch, it makes us want to keep buying. —Parker Hall
In your inbox: Upgrade your life with WIRED-tested gear
How to avoid US-based digital services, and why you might want to
The Big Story: Inside Elon Musk's ‘digital coup'
‘Airport theory' will make you miss your flight
Special Edition: How to get computers—before computers get you
10% Off Wayfair Promo Code with sign-up
20% off Dyson Promo Code
$50 Off In-Person Tax Prep When You Switch From Your Tax Current Provider
Up to $500 off cameras at Canon
Save extra 10% Off TurboTax
Exclusive: Up To 50% Off 6 Boxes With Factor Promo Code
More From WIRED
Reviews and Guides
© 2025 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Ad Choices
This week, as part of the process to develop a budget for fiscal-year 2026, the Trump White House shared the draft version of its budget request for NASA with the space agency.
This initial version of the administration's budget request calls for an approximately 20 percent overall cut to the agency's budget across the board, effectively $5 billion from an overall top line of about $25 billion. However, the majority of the cuts are concentrated within the agency's Science Mission Directorate, which oversees all planetary science, Earth science, astrophysics research, and more.
This story originally appeared on Ars Technica, a trusted source for technology news, tech policy analysis, reviews, and more. Ars is owned by WIRED's parent company, Condé Nast.
According to the "passback" documents given to NASA officials on Thursday, the space agency's science programs would receive nearly a 50 percent cut in funding. After the agency received $7.5 billion for science in fiscal-year 2025, the Trump administration has proposed a science top-line budget of just $3.9 billion for the coming fiscal year.
Among the proposals were a two-thirds cut to astrophysics, (down to $487 million), a greater than two-thirds cut to heliophysics (down to $455 million), a greater than 50 percent cut to Earth science (down to $1.033 billion), and a 30 percent cut to Planetary science (down to $1.929 billion).
Although the budget would continue support for ongoing missions such as the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope, it would kill the much-anticipated Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, an observatory seen as on par with those two world-class instruments that is already fully assembled and on budget for a launch in two years.
"Passback supports continued operation of the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes and assumes no funding is provided for other telescopes," the document states.
Other significant cuts include ending funding for Mars Sample Return as well as the DAVINCI mission to Venus. The budget cuts also appear intended to force the closure of Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland where the agency has 10,000 civil servants and contractors.
The cuts are in line with what Ars Technica exclusively reported last month, that the Trump administration was considering a massive 50-percent cut to NASA's science programs. Publicly, some officials downplayed these concerns. As recently as this week, NASA's acting administrator, Janet Petro, characterized this reporting as "rumors from really not credible sources."
However, science policy experts have been more alarmed, characterizing such cuts as an "extinction level" event for what is seen as the crown jewel of the space agency. Nearly all of NASA's most significant achievements over the past 25 years have been delivered by the science programs, including feats such as the Ingenuity helicopter flying on Mars, New Horizons swooping by Pluto, and Cassini's discovery of water plumes on Enceladus.
This passback document represents just the opening salvo of the process to establish a federal budget for fiscal-year 2026, which begins on October 1 of this year. The budget is produced by the White House Office of Management and Budget, which is overseen by Russell Vought, who has long made his anti-science budgeting priorities clear through his Center for Renewing America.
The Trump administration nominee to lead NASA, private astronaut Jared Isaacman, said during a confirmation hearing this week that he strongly supported NASA's science programs. It is unlikely that Isaacman was involved in drafting this document, as he has not yet been confirmed by the US Senate. Nominees, typically, are excluded from policy prior to confirmation.
After receiving passback documents, NASA usually has 72 hours to review the materials and then submit appeals and justification for changes. Any modifications are then incorporated into a final document that becomes the "President's Budget Request" for the next fiscal year. It is not clear when the Trump administration plans to release this budget request, a public document. It could happen within the next four to six weeks.
Following this, the White House will work with Congress to actually set the budget. The US House and Senate each have separate appropriations committees that consider (or not) the White House priorities in establishing a final budget that the president must then sign into law. Fierce opposition to some of these NASA cuts is likely in Congress.
"This massive cut to NASA Science will not stand," Representative George Whitesides, a California Democrat, told Ars. "For weeks we have been raising the alarm about a rumored 50 percent cut to NASA's world-leading science efforts. Now we know it is true. I will work alongside my colleagues on the Science Committee to make clear how this would decimate American leadership in space and inflict great damage to NASA centers across the country."
One concern, however, is that should the budgeting process be delayed—as is often the case with the federal budget—the White House could force agencies to make operational plans based on the president's budget request once the new fiscal year begins on October 1. Again this will depend on negotiations with Congress, but, using a process called impoundment, some Trump officials believe it may be possible to turn the budget request into an actual budget for all intents and purposes.
This story originally appeared on Ars Technica.
In your inbox: Upgrade your life with WIRED-tested gear
How to avoid US-based digital services, and why you might want to
The Big Story: Inside Elon Musk's ‘digital coup'
‘Airport theory' will make you miss your flight
Special Edition: How to get computers—before computers get you
More From WIRED
Reviews and Guides
© 2025 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Ad Choices
Minecraft is a viral smash hit, but the auteur-drive Mickey 17 very much was not—and now, the top executives at Warner Bros. Pictures are looking to franchise popularity to allow them to continue to balance out original swings. With strong pre-opening buzz for next week's Sinners, Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy hope Ryan Coogler's moody vampire movie will continue to drive ticket sales for their summer slate in the lead-up to James Gunn's Superman.
In an interview with Deadline, De Luca shared his excitement over the DC Studios release. “I love Superman. I think James Gunn has crushed it. It's got tons of his trademark heart and humor and the action is jaw dropping. It's the Superman I grew up with, so I get choked up when I watch it. I think it's so epic and visually arresting and emotional. The performances are great. It is a five-star movie to me, and I can't wait for the world to see it. Yeah, we're really excited about Superman, James crushed it.”
De Luca agreed its tone carries on the legacy of Richard Donner's Superman films. “I would say in spirit, it is closer to that, but it's also a big hunk of epic sci-fi. It has a little bit of what I loved about Guardians of the Galaxy, but it's true-blue Superman. The comic book sources that he uses for inspiration, All-Star Superman and the like, are in there, too. It is really a love letter to what has made Superman endure for almost a hundred years. He managed to get it all in there.”
The execs were also asked about Matt Reeves' long-awaited Batman sequel, but they couldn't give much of an update, noting that it's in the hands of the director and DC Studios at this point. “We're not in the weeds on the Batman stuff,” Abdy said. “It's really James [Gunn] and Peter Safran who run DC. We have a bit of other collaboration with Matt Reeves, but Peter and James know he is a writer-directing auteur in his own right, and that it will come when he's written his best Batman script and is ready.”
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Get the best tech, science, and culture news in your inbox daily.
News from the future, delivered to your present.
Please select your desired newsletters and submit your email to upgrade your inbox.
It's been a long time coming, but the Minecraft movie is here and building mountains of cash for Warner Bros.
James Gunn's superhero tale starring David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, a bunch of other humans, and one really cute dog lands in theaters July 11.
The Warner Bros. and DC Studios CinemaCon presentation gave a new peek at DC's upcoming superhero movie.
The vaulted live-action/animated hybrid Looney Tunes movie is expected to see the light of day in 2026.
According to YouTube, Screen Culture and KH Studio's AI-made trailers violate policies by letting studios take a revenue cut.
As AI only gets better at fooling audiences, major studios have opted to take a disappointing course of action.
We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our sites.
©2025 GIZMODO USA LLC. All rights reserved.
Mode
Follow us
Mode
Follow us
Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center have found that tapping into the body's own immune system and activating a type of immune cell known as B cells, could be the key to boosting the effectiveness of tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte, or TIL therapy. Results of their study were published in the Journal for Immunotherapy of Cancer.
TIL therapy starts with doctor's removing tumors from the patient. These tumors are sent to a lab, where they are dissected to collect immune cells that have infiltrated the tumor, known as tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs). These TILs are then grown in large quantities and reinfused into the patient's body to seek out and attack cancer cells. While it's already FDA-approved for melanoma, new Moffitt research shows that a simple tweak in the lab could make it work even better for more patients. The key is a natural immune protein called CD40L.
We discovered that by adding CD40L to the immune cells in the lab, we could dramatically improve the number and quality of cancer-fighting T cells we're able to grow. It's like flipping a switch that helps these cells become stronger and healthier."
Daniel Abate-Daga, Ph.D., scientific director of the Cell Therapies Core at Moffitt and lead author of the study
Results of the study showed that in more challenging specimens, TIL cultures grew successfully in 67% of samples when CD40L was used, compared to 33% without it. The approach also shaved up to one week off the manufacturing time, potentially getting the cellular immunotherapy to patients sooner. Finally, the enhanced cells were more "stem-like," a trait linked to longer-lasting cancer fighting capabilities.
"TIL therapy is one of the most promising treatments we have for solid tumors," said Abate-Daga. "This discovery could help more patients benefit and do so more quickly."
Moffitt is currently leading a clinical trial to test this approach in patients with non-small cell lung cancer. Researchers hope CD40L-enhanced TILs will become a next-generation standard in TIL therapy.
This study was funded by the National Cancer Institution (P30CA076292), the SuzyQ Melanoma Fund, Moffitt Cancer Center's Lung Cancer Center of Excellence and Donald A. Adam Skin Cancer and Melanoma Center of Excellence, the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation and the Mark Foundation ASPIRE program.
H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute
Rossetti, R. A. M., et al. (2025). CD40L stimulates tumor-infiltrating B-cells and improves ex vivo TIL expansion. Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer. doi.org/10.1136/jitc-2024-011066.
Posted in: Medical Science News | Medical Research News | Medical Condition News
Cancel reply to comment
Roya Amini-Naieni
Dr. Allotey
Dr. Pascale Allotey advocates for comprehensive maternal health policies, stressing the importance of women's voices in shaping effective healthcare solutions.
Dr. Jian
Dr. Yifan Jian explores the evolution of OCT, challenges in retinal imaging, and AI's potential in biophotonics, shaping the future of ophthalmic diagnostics.
News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance
with these terms and conditions.
Please note that medical information found
on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship
between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide.
Last Updated: Saturday 12 Apr 2025
News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site
Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2025
Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant
Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net.
To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account.
Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content.
A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue.
Please check the box above to proceed.
Great. Ask your question.
Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses.
Read the full terms.
Terms
While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena
answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses.
Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or
authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for
medical information you must always consult a medical
professional before acting on any information provided.
Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with
OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their
privacy principles.
Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential
information.
Read the full Terms & Conditions.
Provide Feedback
The hosts struggled for creativity and a cutting edge and were made to pay as they dropped more points in what's proving a futile chase of Liverpool
Mikel Arteta rolled the dice as he made multiple changes to his starting XI in an attempt to get the job done against Brentford, only to be held to a 1-1 draw that gives Liverpool the chance to move 13 points clear at the top.
The likes of Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and Mikel Merino were all named on the bench as Arteta attempted to keep his star names fresh and ready for Wednesday night's Champions League quarter-final second leg with Real Madrid, seemingly convinced the tie is far from over, despite holding a commanding 3-0 lead.
It took until the 21st minute for a slow burning first half to see some goalmouth action here as first Kristoffer Ajer forced David Raya into a save at his near post before Kieran Tierney headed home soon after, only for the new automated VAR system to correctly rule that the Scot was clearly offside.
Arsenal racked up 10 corners in the opening 45 minutes but failed to find a breakthrough, with Leandro Trossard stinging Mark Flekken's palms shortly before half-time - one of only two shots on target in the opening period for the hosts as the Brentford backline contained their opponents.
With the Gunners lacking inspiration in attack, it would take some urgency from goalkeeper David Raya to spark them into the life. The Spaniard caught Bryan Mbeumo's corner and quickly bowled the ball out to Declan Rice, with Tuesday night's free-kick hero galloping forward unopposed before laying off to Thomas Partey to finish the move off and find the corner of the net.
Brentford had rarely threatened Raya's goal but they would find the equaliser 17 minutes from time - Michael Kayode's lofted cross to the far post finding Nathan Collins, who headed back across to allow Yoane Wissa to swivel on the ball and divert it in for 1-1.
Arteta had already brought the likes of Saka and Odegaard on as substitutes before Brentford had found a way back into it, and although the former probably ought to have done better with a chance after rounding Flekken, there was no way through as the hosts dropped more points in what is proving a limp attempt at pushing Liverpool all the way in the Premier League title race.
GOAL rates Arsenal's players from the Emirates Stadium...
Manage your account
...
Trinity Rodman is back with the U.S. women's team for the first time since last summer's Paris Olympics.
Rodman had been nursing a back injury and was left out of both the U.S. team's January camp and the recent SheBelieves Cup tournament. She made her return to her club team, the Washington Spirit, last weekend in an National Women's Soccer League match.
U.S. coach Emma Hayes added her to a 24-player roster announced Tuesday in advance of a pair of friendly matches against Brazil next month.
Rodman was part of the U.S. team's “Triple Espresso” front line with Mallory Swanson and Sophia Wilson that helped lead the team to its fifth Olympic gold medal in Paris.
Neither Swanson nor Wilson were on the latest squad. Swanson has been taking time off for personal reasons and did not start the season with the Chicago Stars. Wilson, formerly known by her maiden name Smith, is on maternity leave.
Hayes said she'd be cautious with Rodman's return.
“You can go from a position of a managed return to play to too much. So, I have to try and find the sweet spot in camp to reintegrate her back in the team but also to manage her, because she has a long season ahead,” Hayes said.
The roster includes 19 of the players that were included for the SheBelieves Cup. Hayes said she is still evaluating players with an eye on Women's World Cup qualification next year.
The matches against Brazil are set for April 5 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles and April 8 at PayPal Park in San Jose, California. The United States defeated Brazil 1-0 on Swanson's goal for the gold medal in Paris.
Mia Fishel, who tore her ACL last year but recently returned to play for Chelsea, will be included in camp as a training player, along with Angel City goalkeeper Angelina Anderson.
Houston Dash defender Avery Patterson earned her first call-up to the team.
Naomi Girma, who was injured in her first game with Chelsea after a record-breaking transfer from the San Diego Wave, remained unavailable. Midfielder Rose Lavelle remains sidelined by offseason ankle surgery.
The roster with club affiliation:
Goalkeepers: Jane Campbell (Houston Dash), Mandy McGlynn (Utah Royals), Phallon Tullis-Joyce (Manchester United).
Defenders: Alana Cook (Kansas City Current), Tierna Davidson (Gotham FC), Crystal Dunn (Paris Saint-Germain), Emily Fox (Arsenal FC), Tara McKeown (Washington Spirit), Avery Patterson (Houston Dash), Emily Sams (Orlando Pride), Emily Sonnett (Gotham FC).
Midfielders: Korbin Albert (Paris Saint-Germain), Sam Coffey (Portland Thorns), Lindsey Heaps (Olympique Lyon), Claire Hutton (Kansas City Current), Jaedyn Shaw (North Carolina Courage), Lily Yohannes (Ajax).
Forwards: Michelle Cooper (Kansas City Current), Ashley Hatch (Washington Spirit), Catarina Macario (Chelsea FC), Trinity Rodman (Washington Spirit), Yazmeen Ryan (Houston Dash), Ally Sentnor (Utah Royals), Alyssa Thompson (Angel City).
___
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Manage your account
...
Nerazzurri President Beppe Marotta says that it's “an honour” for Inter Milan to represent Italy at the Club World Cup this summer.
Marotta spoke to Italian broadcaster DAZN, via FCInterNews. He gave his thoughts on the upcoming competition.
Inter Milan will participate in the Club World Cup this summer.
It is a completely new format for the competition.
For one thing, FIFA have greatly expanded the number of teams competing. There will be 32 teams from the different confederations.
Inter are one of two teams from Serie A to have qualified for the Club World Cup. Juventus are the other.
Meanwhile, the Club World Cup will take place in the summer.
That means that, rather than happening midway through the European season as has been the case in the past, the Club World Cup will happen at the end of the campaign for European teams.
Inter Milan President Beppe Marotta commented that “this is a global event, with 32 teams from all continents.”
“That means that we honour it, not just for the history of our club and our fans. But also our nation.”
As far as how the tournament will go, Marotta cautioned that “it's difficult to make predictions.”
“Particularly because the tournament will be played between two seasons.”
The Inter President noted that “there's the gruelling season about to end, and then the one to come.”
“This is a new situation,” said Marotta. “But the motivation will never diminish.”
“If legs can keep up with motivation, then we could have a great tournament.”
Meanwhile, Marotta called facing new opponents at the Club World Cup “the beauty of football.”
“The unknown, the unpredictable, it's all a part of this world.”
“There are stronger teams than Inter,” the Nerazzurri President then admitted. “But we'll play for it all the way to the end.”
Patrick Vieira has stayed tight-lipped on AS Roma links, asserting that his only priority right now is ensuring Genoa's survival in the Serie A.
Article continues below
Article continues below
Article continues below
Nerazzurri President Beppe Marotta has no doubt that Inter Milan want to win the FIFA Club World Cup this summer.
Speaking at the Club World Cup trophy presentation, via FCInterNews, Marotta also declared that it is “not my chance” that Inter have been winning trophies in recent seasons.
Inter Milan will participate in the Club World Cup this summer.
It is a completely new format for the competition.
For one thing, FIFA have greatly expanded the number of teams competing. There will be 32 teams from the different confederations.
Inter are one of two teams from Serie A to have qualified for the Club World Cup. Juventus are the other.
Meanwhile, the Club World Cup will take place in the summer.
That means that, rather than happening midway through the European season as has been the case in the past, the Club World Cup will happen at the end of the campaign for European teams.
In the meantime, Inter have other aims. The Nerazzurri are still fighting to win the Serie A title, Coppa Italia, and Champions League.
But in just a couple months' time, Inter's focus will shift to the Club World Cup.
Inter Milan President Beppe Marotta called participation in the tournament “a source of pride.”
“It's a reward for the professionalism that the team has shown. And also those behind the scenes.”
“We're satisfied with it,” Marotta said. “But we also have a strong motivation to win it.”
“It will be an important event on a sporting level,” the Inter President said of the Club WOrld Cup.
“And certainly anachronistic, because it will be played between the two seasons.”
“We'll have to manage an unprecedented period of time,” Marotta said. “The staff and the club will have to find new levels of energy to deal with it on a psychological level.”
“Lifting this trophy would be a dream,” he added. “And sometimes dreams come true.”
The Nerazzurri President declared that “we have the absolute will to win.”
“Then, a lot will depend on motivation.”
“In Italy, we're not winning trophies by chance,” Marotta added. “But because we've earned them with work.”
Welcome to our Live Comments section, where new comments will appear automatically
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Comment *
Name *
Email *
Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
Notify me of follow-up comments by email.
Notify me of new posts by email.
Sign me up for the newsletter
Inter Milan news in English 24/7 from SempreInter.com, the world's biggest newssite covering the Nerazzurri.
To make sure you never miss out on your favourite NEW stories, we're happy to send you some reminders
Click 'OK' then 'Allow' to enable notifications
Home> Football> Football News> Man Utd
Ben McCrum
A former Manchester United star has suggested that Cristiano Ronaldo wouldn't hesitate to make a controversial move that would divide fans.
It's been 22 years since Ronaldo first arrived at Old Trafford as an 18-year-old with something to prove to the world under the guidance of legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson.
Since then, the Portuguese striker established himself as a legend of the club, winning nine trophies and scoring 145 goals in 346 appearances across his two spells for United.
Advert
As he enters the final years of his career, the 40-year-old now plays for Saudi Pro League side Al Nassr, but he has now been tipped to make a huge move back to England in a deal that would not make United fans happy.
Ahead of his spectacular return to United back in 2021, Ronaldo was heavily linked with a move to his former club's local rivals Manchester City, causing chaos within his fanbase.
Ultimately, the striker decided to return to Old Trafford, while City waited another year to instead sign Erling Haaland, but according to United legend Teddy Sherringham, Ronaldo would happily take the chance to join City if they pursued him again.
Advert
"I mean, Man United fans wouldn't be happy. If the figures add up, Ronaldo would probably jump at the chance," Sherringham told CasinoApps.
"He can definitely score a goal, can't he? That, there's no denying."
"Wow, I've not even thought about that, Ronaldo would definitely be excited by it. That would be funny. I bet if you offered him the chance to go to Man City, he would bite your hand off."
Advert
With City's star striker Haaland currently sidelined for several weeks because of an ankle injury sustained in the FA Cup win over Bournemouth, Sherringham suggested that City could look to bring in a new striker ahead of this summer's Club World Cup.
"They looked a little bit lost without their focal point (in the Manchester derby), didn't they? They didn't have that same flow to their team, but I don't know," he added.
And with Ronaldo's contract with Al Nassr set to expire at the end of the season, a move when the transfer window opens early on June 1 could make sense for City if they fancy bringing the United great back to Manchester.
Topics: Cristiano Ronaldo, Manchester United, Manchester City, Football, Premier League, Transfers, Transfer News, FIFA Club World Cup
Ben is a sports journalist who specialises in football and MMA.
He has written for publications such as Manchester Evening News, WiganToday, Manchester World and beIN Sports. Throughout his career he has interviewed top athletes in MMA including Tom Aspinall and Michael Bisping.
@benmcc14
Advert
Advert
Advert
Nigerian forward Victor Osimhen during SSC Napoli s 2024-25 preseason training camp. Photo by IMAGO
Chelsea have stepped up their efforts to secure Victor Osimhen's signature, with the Super Eagles striker also attracting interests from many of Europe's elite clubs, Soccernet.ng reports.
According to Sportface, Premier League giants Chelsea are looking to finalise the deal early enough to include the Nigerian striker in their squad for the FIFA Club World Cup this summer.
Those plans have placed the Blues in the driving seat in the race for the 26-year-old striker, who is currently on loan at Galatasaray from Napoli.
Osimhen has rediscovered his best form in Turkey, scoring 21 goals in the Super Lig and 29 overall across all competitions this season.
Napoli still retain his rights, but with a €75m release clause for clubs outside Italy, the Serie A side are open to cashing in this summer.
READ MORE
Chelsea are working behind the scenes to reach an agreement before the market gets too crowded.
Napoli's sporting director Giovanni Manna has reportedly flown to London to meet Chelsea representatives, underlining the seriousness of the negotiations.
Osimhen came close to joining Chelsea last summer, but the deal fell through late in the window, prompting his loan move to Galatasaray.
Now, with the Club World Cup looming, Chelsea are determined not to miss out again. They view Osimhen as a marquee addition who could transform their attacking line.
Juventus have also expressed interest, especially with Dusan Vlahovic's future uncertain. But Osimhen is unlikely to prioritise a return to Italy with the Premier League his dream destination, ruling the Turin giants out of the running.
Elsewhere, Arsenal and Manchester United have long been admirers, while Saudi club Al Hilal are reportedly ready to offer a mega-money package for both transfer and wages.
However, Osimhen is believed to be reluctant to move to the Middle East at this stage of his career, preferring to remain at the highest level of European football.
Galatasaray, for their part, are exploring creative ways to fund a permanent deal and hope to convince Osimhen to stay in Istanbul, where he has achieved near-cult status among fans. But matching the financial power of Premier League clubs remains a huge challenge.
However, speaking after scoring in Galatasaray's 2-0 win over Samsunspor on Friday night, Osimhen said he is focused solely on the present.
“There are always rumours about me, of course. But I prefer to live in the moment. I am enjoying myself right now. I am enjoying both the club and my life here,” he told Galatasaray's official website.
“The fans have also been incredibly supportive since the first day, all stakeholders within Galatasaray, everyone has helped me. They have always been there for me, not just me, but also my friends and family.
“Now I will fight for the fifth star with my team, and a decision will be made at the end of the season about what will be best for everyone. Galatasaray will forever be in my heart.”
With Napoli ready for a big summer sale and Osimhen in red-hot form, a major move is on the horizon. Chelsea remain in pole position, hoping to wrap up the deal swiftly and make the Nigerian frontman the face of their Club World Cup challenge.
Imhonlamhen Eronmhonsele turns into a ball of passion when writing about Nigerian football and its talents, whether rising stars or established legends, locally and abroad.
From the deepest corners of the Middle East, to the green fields of the Americas, to the celebrated grounds in Europe, and the rich soils of Africa, Imhons is more than glad, usually with a glass of a tasty drink nearby, to capture the essence of the game, by connecting the dots between culture, identity, and football.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Comment *
Name *
Email *
Website
Copyright © 2024 Soccernet Media Limited.
Copyright © 2024 Soccernet Media Limited.
Manage your account
...
FIFA, soccer's global governing body, on Thursday delivered fans a “first-of-its-kind offer” to the 2025 Club World Cup, which will debut in the United States this summer, with ticket packs that include “guaranteed” access to the 2026 men's World Cup — the grander international tournament that will also be held in the U.S. a year later.
Per the “Terms of Sale” document, here's how it works:
Buyers of a standard “pack,” which features tickets to two or three Club World Cup matches, “will be granted a guaranteed option to buy one ticket to a FIFA World Cup 26 match in the United States (excluding the final),” FIFA said in a Thursday release.
In clause 4.2 of the Terms of Sale, is that FIFA can determine which 2026 World Cup match(es), and what type of ticket(s), the fan will have access to. Clause 2.4 also says: "Tickets available to be included within Ticket Packages shall be subject to availability and available for purchase on a first-come first-served basis. By way of these Terms of Sale, FIFA Ticketing makes no guarantees as to the availability of Tickets and any indication on the availability of Tickets by FIFA Ticketing is for guidance purposes."
First, fans mustn't resell those tickets, and must actually use them — meaning they or a family member or friend must go to the game. They will then be offered the chance to buy a 2026 World Cup ticket — match and seat specifics to be revealed later.
The second offering is the “Super Ticket Pack.” This package “features one ticket per match to 20 FIFA Club World Cup 2025 matches,” and then “a guaranteed option to buy one ticket” to the 2026 World Cup final, the most prestigious event in all of sports.
The buyer of a “super ticket pack” must “use all [20] tickets to attend all [20] matches,” and the matches must be on 20 different days. (There are only 22 distinct Club World Cup matchdays.)
Alternatively, per the terms, they could share the pack with “guests” — someone with whom they're “capable of demonstrating a pre-existing relationship.” Those guests could attend some of the 20 matches in their place. Among the fans and their guests, they'd get the right to buy one 2026 World Cup ticket.
Ticket prices for 2026 have not yet been announced, and tickets won't go on sale until the fall. FIFA has closely guarded all details.
Ticket prices for the 2025 Club World Cup, meanwhile, are roughly the same as they were when first released in December, both on Ticketmaster and within this “ticket pack” promotion via FIFA. “Category 1” seats — those in lower levels — cost anywhere from $100 to upward of $200, before taxes and fees, in the group stage; they cost $2,600, plus taxes and fees, for the final.
“Category 2” seats — typically those in a stadium's upper deck along the sideline — range from roughly $60 to $140 before taxes and fees in the group stage. Some cheaper tickets have been sold to supporters of the participating clubs.
However, the prices are far higher than those charged by the biggest European soccer clubs and have caused some consternation among fans. Bailey Brown, president of the Independent Supporters Council, a group representing soccer fans across the U.S. and Canada, told Yahoo Sports in December that she was worried that “many of the most passionate fans will be priced out of enjoying the sport.”
With two months of the opener, between Inter Miami and Al Ahly at Hard Rock Stadium in South Florida, many seats remain available.
In an effort to sell them, FIFA president Gianni Infantino has been holding promotional events alongside soccer dignitaries and celebrities.
Last month, he leveraged his relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump to bring the Club World Cup trophy into the Oval Office, and leave it there on display. He used a media session alongside Trump to pump up the tournament and place it on par with the big World Cup.
Infantino's Instagram account is with filled posts promoting the Club World Cup. FIFA and its partners, in messages to everyone from soccer fans to NFL season ticket holders, have been marketing the event as “the most prestigious club soccer tournament in history.” They have been telling stakeholders that it will be “as big as the last [men's] World Cup,” according to multiple people who've heard FIFA's pitch.
After attempting to drum up interest, FIFA and Infantino ultimately struck a global broadcast deal with DAZN, which soon thereafter announced an equivalent investment from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund.
And so, after years of uncertainty, the Club World Cup is happening. It will pay out $1 billion in appearance fees and prize money to the 32 participating clubs.
Manage your account
...
FIFA, soccer's global governing body, on Thursday delivered fans a “first-of-its-kind offer” to the 2025 Club World Cup, which will debut in the United States this summer, with ticket packs that include “guaranteed” access to the 2026 men's World Cup — the grander international tournament that will also be held in the U.S. a year later.
Per the “Terms of Sale” document, here's how it works:
Buyers of a standard “pack,” which features tickets to two or three Club World Cup matches, “will be granted a guaranteed option to buy one ticket to a FIFA World Cup 26 match in the United States (excluding the final),” FIFA said in a Thursday release.
In clause 4.2 of the Terms of Sale, is that FIFA can determine which 2026 World Cup match(es), and what type of ticket(s), the fan will have access to. Clause 2.4 also says: "Tickets available to be included within Ticket Packages shall be subject to availability and available for purchase on a first-come first-served basis. By way of these Terms of Sale, FIFA Ticketing makes no guarantees as to the availability of Tickets and any indication on the availability of Tickets by FIFA Ticketing is for guidance purposes."
First, fans mustn't resell those tickets, and must actually use them — meaning they or a family member or friend must go to the game. They will then be offered the chance to buy a 2026 World Cup ticket — match and seat specifics to be revealed later.
The second offering is the “Super Ticket Pack.” This package “features one ticket per match to 20 FIFA Club World Cup 2025 matches,” and then “a guaranteed option to buy one ticket” to the 2026 World Cup final, the most prestigious event in all of sports.
The buyer of a “super ticket pack” must “use all [20] tickets to attend all [20] matches,” and the matches must be on 20 different days. (There are only 22 distinct Club World Cup matchdays.)
Alternatively, per the terms, they could share the pack with “guests” — someone with whom they're “capable of demonstrating a pre-existing relationship.” Those guests could attend some of the 20 matches in their place. Among the fans and their guests, they'd get the right to buy one 2026 World Cup ticket.
Ticket prices for 2026 have not yet been announced, and tickets won't go on sale until the fall. FIFA has closely guarded all details.
Ticket prices for the 2025 Club World Cup, meanwhile, are roughly the same as they were when first released in December, both on Ticketmaster and within this “ticket pack” promotion via FIFA. “Category 1” seats — those in lower levels — cost anywhere from $100 to upward of $200, before taxes and fees, in the group stage; they cost $2,600, plus taxes and fees, for the final.
“Category 2” seats — typically those in a stadium's upper deck along the sideline — range from roughly $60 to $140 before taxes and fees in the group stage. Some cheaper tickets have been sold to supporters of the participating clubs.
However, the prices are far higher than those charged by the biggest European soccer clubs and have caused some consternation among fans. Bailey Brown, president of the Independent Supporters Council, a group representing soccer fans across the U.S. and Canada, told Yahoo Sports in December that she was worried that “many of the most passionate fans will be priced out of enjoying the sport.”
With two months of the opener, between Inter Miami and Al Ahly at Hard Rock Stadium in South Florida, many seats remain available.
In an effort to sell them, FIFA president Gianni Infantino has been holding promotional events alongside soccer dignitaries and celebrities.
Last month, he leveraged his relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump to bring the Club World Cup trophy into the Oval Office, and leave it there on display. He used a media session alongside Trump to pump up the tournament and place it on par with the big World Cup.
Infantino's Instagram account is with filled posts promoting the Club World Cup. FIFA and its partners, in messages to everyone from soccer fans to NFL season ticket holders, have been marketing the event as “the most prestigious club soccer tournament in history.” They have been telling stakeholders that it will be “as big as the last [men's] World Cup,” according to multiple people who've heard FIFA's pitch.
After attempting to drum up interest, FIFA and Infantino ultimately struck a global broadcast deal with DAZN, which soon thereafter announced an equivalent investment from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund.
And so, after years of uncertainty, the Club World Cup is happening. It will pay out $1 billion in appearance fees and prize money to the 32 participating clubs.
South American football's governing body, which goes by the acronym CONMEBOL, has officially proposed to expand the 2030 FIFA World Cup to 64 teams.
A Uruguayan delegate first introduced the proposal in March during a FIFA council meeting. Conmebol president Alejandro Domínguez urged the world body on Thursday to add 16 teams to the existing 48-nation tournament so that the 2030 World Cup can be a ‘party' for all.
“We are convinced that the centennial celebration will be unique because 100 years are celebrated only once,” Domínguez said during his opening speech at the Conmebol Congress.
Days before, during the UEFA congress, the European football association's president Aleksander Ceferin called it a ‘bad idea', saying it ‘won't be good for the World Cup or the qualification process'. “I do not support it,” he told Serbia's Mozzart Sport.
Critics say expanding the World Cup to 64 teams will severely dilute the quality of the tournament. For instance, all 10 South American football federation members, including Venezuela who have never qualified for the World Cup, will likely earn direct spots without having to go through qualification.
The 2030 World Cup will already be the most sprawling edition, with matches spread across six nations on three continents. Celebrating the century of the first World Cup, held in Uruguay in 1930, the commemorative matches will be held in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay while Spain, Portugal and Morocco will jointly host the rest of the competition.
“That is why we are proposing, for the first time, to hold this anniversary with 64 teams, on three continents simultaneously,” added Domínguez. “This will allow all countries to have the opportunity to live the world experience and so nobody on the planet is left out of the party.”
The veteran centre-half has looked unusually vulnerable in recent weeks but he remains the most influential defender in the Premier League
Virgil van Dijk stopped to talk to reporters after Liverpool's Premier League loss at Fulham on Sunday afternoon. For the umpteenth time this season, quizzed about his future. On his occasion, he actually had an update.
"There is progress," Van Dijk said in response to a question about a possible contract extension. When asked if that meant he was saying beyond the end of the season, Van Dijk replied, "I don't know, we'll see. Listen (laughs), these are internal discussions and we'll see."
Van Dijk hadn't given away much, yet it still felt like a lot in the circumstances. Liverpool supporters have been kept completely in the dark throughout the club's ongoing contract talks with not only Van Dijk, but also Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold. So, the mere mention of the word "progress" came as a massive boost to an increasingly anxious fanbase - particularly as it came after a bitterly frustrating defeat.
However, the fact that Van Dijk had contributed to a dreadful defensive display at Craven Cottage prompted some pundits to question whether giving the 33-year-old a bumper new deal would really be a good idea. After all, Fulham wasn't the first time Van Dijk had looked vulnerable during Liverpool's first real wobble of the 2024-25 campaign...
Manage your account
...
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — After Thursday's stunning loss to Panama, the U.S. men's national team promised a response. Head coach Mauricio Pochettino assured fuming fans that a sleepy CONCACAF Nations League semifinal “didn't describe, or doesn't describe, how we are.” Players said they'd “look in the mirror” and “raise the bar.” And yet, in Sunday's third-place match against Canada, they did none of that.
They lost 2-1 to their northern neighbors, and deserved every last ounce of the defeat.
They managed one solitary shot on goal over the game's first 84 minutes.
In the face of criticism and doubts, they talked about how, “if we want to be praised, we have to give people something to praise us about,” as midfielder Tyler Adams said Saturday. Instead, they regressed, and further disillusioned their supporters, and inflamed doubts about their readiness for a World Cup on home soil next summer.
All involved promised that, after the 1-0 loss to Panama, Sunday's performance would be better. This Nations League consolation match would “be an important game to see how we react,” Pochettino said Saturday.
“Mentality obviously needs to change,” Adams said hours later.
“We're gonna come out with that fighting spirit,” Tim Weah added.
In the interim, they had one-on-one talks and a “beautiful meeting,” Weah said, in which Pochettino pleaded for “killer mentality” and more. The message, Weah said: “We have to want it. We have to want to be here 100%. We have to fight.”
But on Sunday, they floundered. For most of the first half, they didn't take the risks nor show the “aggression” they said they would. In a stadium that was once again nine-tenths empty at kickoff, they played dull soccer, and conceded a 27th-minute goal before they'd even taken a shot of their own.
Soon thereafter, Diego Luna tried to inject life into the USMNT, and into another snoozefest. Playing in his first competitive match for the national team, he started an attacking move from the right side of midfield, and, with a driving off-ball run, propelled it into the penalty box. It was the exact type of initiative that the U.S. lacked Thursday — and has often lacked under multiple managers.
"The desire and the hunger that he showed is what we want," Pochettino said postgame.
At the end of his run, Luna received a pass in stride. He poked a clever square ball to Patrick Agyemang, who equalized with a firm finish.
The two Major League Soccer attackers, two of five changes to the U.S. starting lineup, seemed to lift a lagging team back into the game.
Neither, though, could erase the mediocrity around them. Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie, the team's two Italy-based stars, were quiet. Adams and Weah looked nothing like their typically active selves. The USMNT was once against stagnant. Why?
"I think we need to have every single person buy into exactly what we're doing and what we're trying to do," Adams said postgame. "It's just the little things ... duels, tackles, leaving your mark on the field, not being naive in certain moments, being a little bit more clever — all the details of the game that, I feel like, when I watch people play with their clubs, we do. And then when we come here, sometimes I think we forget a little bit what the games are gonna give us."
Not long after halftime, they receded again. They nearly conceded two penalties. (Canada head coach Jesse Marsch was red carded for protesting one of the no-calls.) Then, in the 59th minute, they conceded again. Jonathan David put Canada up 2-1.
And that's how it ended, just as a friendly between these two teams ended in September, with the U.S. beaten — and with all sorts of questions swirling about the talent, passion, ceiling and capabilities of these U.S. players.
It ended with Pochettino "disappointed," again, and reaching for reasons that the medium-term future, in 2026, could still be bright.
"I want to send the message to the fans: Don't be pessimistic," Pochettino said.
But he couldn't offer clear rationale for why they shouldn't be, other than: "In football, anything can happen."
And as he rose to depart his postgame press conference, he apologized to everyone present, saying that he felt "shame" after the two losses, and promising, again, that "next time" would be different.
Later, as Pochettino slumped in his shotgun seat on the team bus, Adams was asked whether he, like fans, is concerned one year out from the World Cup.
"I'm never concerned, man. It's football," he said. "You gotta show up in big moments, when the moments matter. We didn't show up in this window here. We've showed up in the past, in moments when we needed to."
“If you don't want to deal with some transportation issues, don't come to the game," Alex Lasry, CEO of the regional host committee for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, said Thursday during a panel at the Meadowlands Chamber of Commerce's annual tourism conference after explaining that his family takes no chances with traffic, joking that his father left the 1996 World Series Game 6 in the eighth inning to dodge the traffic.
Lasry also explained that there will be “probably none or close to no” parking at MetLife Stadium during the tournament.
“The World Cup is a massive security perimeter and a huge security risk so I would imagine there will be very limited parking if any at MetLife,” Lasry said at the chamber's Lyndhurst headquarters.
Instead, the host committee is setting up park and rides around New Jersey, “where people can park somewhere nearby” and then be shuttled to the stadium, he said.
Lasry said people should “price in the fact that transportation is going to be a lot” and that while the host committee is still waiting for final approval of its mobility plan from FIFA, it is hoping to make transportation to and from MetLife Stadium as “efficient and easy as possible.”
Lasry said when it comes to train crowds, the host committee wanted to make sure the event is not overly annoying to daily commuters, so that people can “get to work and do what they need to do” while others can “get to the games while not putting too much of a stress on the transit system.”
But the transit system will — almost certainly — be pushed to its limits.
Some 80,000 fans will be traversing to MetLife and more than 16,000 other people, like FIFA staff, volunteers and contractors, are estimated to work the eight games at the stadium.
If parking is limited, the vast majority of those people will likely rely on NJ Transit, which has designed a system of trains and buses to move 20,000 people an hour. That is double what it was 11 years ago when MetLife hosted the Super Bowl and experienced an unexpected onslaught of 35,000 riders after the game. But the World Cup is the biggest sports spectacle in the world and soccer fans — whether they're going to the game or not — will want to be near the excitement.
Figuring out how to transport those fans safely and efficiently to the matches and fan fests around the region is the job of the region's host committee and transportation partners, including NJ Transit, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Amtrak and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
As Lasry put it, FIFA is responsible for what happens inside the stadiums and the host committees handle everything else, meaning they are the boots-on-the-ground planners for organizing the World Cup, which will be played in 16 cities in the U.S., Mexico and Canada, with the final at MetLife.
With just about a year to go before the six-week tournament begins in June 2026, the New York-New Jersey host committee is waiting for final approval of its mobility plan from FIFA.
One major difference Lasry noted between the World Cup in 2026 and the 2014 Super Bowl debacle is that the final soccer match will likely be played in the afternoon to accommodate overseas viewership.
This, he said, should help spread out the crowds leaving the match instead of 80,000 people making a mad dash for trains, buses and shuttles.
“We will try to set up activations and things around the stadium to ensure that …. there's not just a massive rush of everyone trying to get on a train, everyone trying to get an Uber, everyone trying to get on a bus all at the same time,” Lasry said.
Ultimately, Lasry's message was this: Try not to “drive anywhere near the stadium on a match day because it's going to be a nightmare.”
Rafael Nadal has gone down in tennis history for his extraordinary feats, having called time on his career last year.
Alex de Minaur has just outshone Nadal at the Monte Carlo Masters, although it is the latter who remains the king of that competition.
Nadal won a stunning 11 Monte Carlo Masters titles during his glittering career, having really come alive on clay.
The former ATP number one also won 14 French Open titles, with a total of 22 Grand Slam titles won during his time on the court.
The undisputed King of Clay, Nadal never dreamt of such success, with only Novak Djokovic ahead of him in the all-time men's Grand Slam list.
Djokovic has 24 to his name, and once again has the opportunity to extend that tally at the French Open next month.
The tournament fittingly represents Nadal's last-ever Grand Slam success, having beaten Casper Ruud in the 2022 French Open final.
Along with being congratulated, the champion was asked post match about his many practice matches with Ruud, and if the Norwegian ever had any success in those.
READ MORE: The three ATP players who could fly on clay without Rafael Nadal playing for the first time since 2002
“I don't remember, no,” said the Spaniard. “Sorry. I don't know the practices. But Casper is a great player. He's going to be the fourth in the race now.
“Very high position in the ranking, improving every year, because in the past has been only a great player on clay.
“Now he's winning titles and fighting for the most important events in the other surfaces too. That's, for me, that's the most important thing in the sport, no?
“The value of the daily work. He has it. He's improving all the time, and even if today probably was a tough day for him, I'm sure that he's very proud and his team is very proud of him, no?
“All the things that he's achieving are huge, no? So very happy for him, for his family. We know each other very well. I know how healthy and good people they are. I would love to see him with a trophy in the future.”
Nadal remarkably won a 22nd and final Grand Slam title at the 2022 French Open, with Ruud having only just started his journey in that regard.
The Norwegian made his first-ever Grand Slam final in Paris that year, in which he suffered a 3–6, 3–6, 0–6 loss.
READ MORE: Holger Rune picks who he thinks is ‘possibly the best player in the world' on clay courts right now
But his heartbreak at that level hasn't ended there, with Ruud also losing the 2022 US Open and 2023 French Open finals.
He has, however, been tipped for success at Roland Garros this time around, with Sam Querrey backing Ruud to win the French Open.
The 26-year-old has enjoyed huge success in his career amid those final losses, having won 12 ATP titles overall.
Currently ranked seventh in the world, he has managed to reach number two, and is a formidable figure on clay.
But after reaching last year's Monte Carlo Masters final, Ruud did suffer a disappointing round of 16 loss to Alexei Popyrin earlier this week.
Tennis
Carlos Alcaraz makes it through to the Monte-Carlo Masters final, where he will face Lorenzo Musetti; watch all the action from the ATP and WTA Tours on Sky Sports Tennis and Sky Sports+, NOW and the Sky Sports app
Saturday 12 April 2025 18:12, UK
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz reached his first ATP Masters 1000 final in 13 months with a hard-fought 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 victory over countryman Alejandro Davidovich Fokina at the Monte-Carlo Masters.
Alcaraz, the reigning French Open champion, made it through to his first final at this level since winning Indian Wells in March 2024.
The 21-year-old came out on top in a quality contest against the world No 42 to become the 12th different Spaniard to make the Monte-Carlo final, where Lorenzo Musetti awaits.
The Italian came through a three-setter with Alex de Minaur 1-6 6-4 7-6 (4).
✅7th Masters final
✅2nd final of 2025
"It's been a long time," said Alcaraz of his 13-month absence from Masters 1000 finals. "I just had to be patient and believe that this moment was going to come again.
"Sometimes the people are not patient, they want me to make the final in every tournament. I'm really happy to give them the chance to watch one of my finals again."
"I think I played really good tennis from the beginning until the last point," added Alcaraz.
Stream tennis and more sport with NOW
Download the Sky Sports app
Latest tennis scores and upcoming matches
Tennis videos - highlights and best shots
"I tried to take the chances he gave me in the match. He saved a lot of break points and match points, but I'm really happy to [have] thought about myself. The most important thing is that I'm feeling great physically."
Second seed Alcaraz found it difficult to break Davidovich Fokina, succeeding only three times in 19 attempts, and he also wasted three set points in an opening set that lasted over an hour.
Davidovich Fokina was imperious in his defensive game but Alcaraz lifted his service in the second set, in which he did not face a single break point, but not before his Spanish compatriot saved five match points in a gruelling encounter.
He sealed the win with a sizzling forehand winner down the line to move into his first final in Monte Carlo.
Victory at the Rotterdam Open in February remains Alcaraz's only title of 2025, but a sixth Masters triumph would help the Spaniard return to No 2 in the world.
Watch the ATP and WTA Tours, as well as the US Open in New York, live on Sky Sports in 2025 or stream with NOW and the Sky Sports app, giving Sky Sports customers access to over 50 per cent more live sport this year at no extra cost. Find out more here.
© 2025 Sky UK
Veteran player Reilly Opelka said the ATP chairman sent a player to threaten him financially over adding his name to a lawsuit that seeks to reshape tennis.
Last month, a group of tennis players sued the ATP and WTA in New York, London, and Brussels, accusing the tennis “cartel” of suppressing player wages, disregarding player health, and a wide range of antitrust violations.
That group, the Professional Tennis Players Association, recently alleged that the ATP is coercing players to rebuke the lawsuit. The PTPA's motion to gag the ATP from discussing the lawsuit with players was heard over an explosive three hours in a lower Manhattan federal courtroom Friday.
Veteran tennis player Reilly Opelka testified that ATP Tour chairman Andrea Gaudenzi sent an unnamed player to warn him that if he didn't take his name off the lawsuit, Opelka would lose his pension and be bogged down with millions of dollars in legal fees.
Opelka called into the courtroom from Barcelona, where he's set to play in a tournament next week.
The ATP denies his allegation. Board member Luben Pampoulov said Opelka's account was untrue, and the ATP participated in Friday's hearing while objecting that the story is “hearsay.” Judge Margaret Garnett overruled the tour's lawyers.
The PTPA filed the case on March 18, and the next day Pampoulov testified he asked players at the Miami Open to sign a statement disavowing the lawsuit; he says the ATP stopped circulating it when the gag motion was filed. The only player who Pampoulov named who signed it is Ben Shelton.
Opelka testified that he was on an exercise bike March 18 in the Miami Open locker room when a member of the Players Council got on to the one next to him. Nine players sit on the council; Opelka said he would not name the player because he feared ATP retribution. According to Opelka, the unnamed player aid Gaudenzi had instructed him at a Players Council meeting that day to warn Opelka he risked losing his pension and being burdened with legal fees.
Opelka testified he had two other conversations with this player.
Pampoulov testified he was in the meeting room and denied Gaudenzi made the remarks. In fact, Gaudenzi ceded the stage and let ATP staff talk about the lawsuit, the board member said.
The ATP emphasized that few players have publicly supported the lawsuit, with tour lawyer Brad Ruskin calling it a “sophisticated PR campaign.” Vasek Pospisil, one of 12 tennis players who put their name on the suit, said that he spoke with 150 players who largely supported the litigation; he had earlier said that 300 players supported the suit.
Pospisil, who appeared in the courtroom, said players feared retribution from the powerful tour.
Notably, PTPA co-founder Novak Djokovic did not put his name on the lawsuit, and in Miami last month said there were parts of it he did not support. Asked about this, Pospisil admitted Djokovic's words were confusing. “I was surprised,” he said. “I don't know why he said that…it was not in line with our previous conversations.”
ATP lawyers also asked Pospisil about Carlos Alcaraz saying he had never been approached by the PTPA and knew nothing about the lawsuit until it was filed. Pospisil expressed regret, saying he passed over Alcaraz because of his youth. “I didn't want to distract him,” Pospisil said. Shortly after Alcaraz's comments, Pospisil texted him, and the Spaniard responded. “He replied enthusiastically and said he would love to know more about it,” Pospisil said.
The ATP's bylaws require members who sue the tour and lose to pay its legal fees. According to locker room talk, the ATP is prepared to spend $50 million to $100 million defending the case, Pospisil said. The ATP's Pampoulov did not deny the bylaw, but was not asked about the number the PTPA's side cited several times Friday.
There is clearly no love lost between the ATP and PTPA. ATP counsel Ruskin said the PTPA, which formed in 2020, had “self-anointed” itself representative of the players when in fact the players were in an equal partnership with tournaments in the ATP. The PTPA “undermines” the ATP, Ruskin said.
Another ATP lawyer brought up Pospisil's 2021 on-court rant against Gaudenzi at the Miami Open. PTPA counsel Jim Quinn told Front Office Sports that the ATP has filed exhibits that includes dozens of images of PTPA members smashing rackets and the like.
The case is still in its very early stages, with initial reply from the defendants not due until May 20. Garnett, the judge, gave both sides a week to file new briefs on the motion to gag the ATP. She said she would rule shortly after.
Δ
Designed to mimic real gameplay, the innovative ball machine delivers personalized practice sessions with cutting-edge, AI technology.ByJon LeveyPublished Apr 12, 2025 copy_link
Published Apr 12, 2025
© Morgan Cohn
The Partner lives up to its name. Whereas traditional ball machines are static and follow preset routines, this innovative model reads and reacts. With AI-powered advanced tracking it's capable of analyzing a player's shots in real time and automatically adjusting the speed and difficulty of the feeds to match performance. No more lather, rinse and repeat—the machine recognizes if you're crushing or rushing and makes the necessary adjustments to customize the workout.In addition to matching your level, the Partner can also move like a real opposing player. Instead of feeds coming from the same location, it can motor around to provide a wider array and more realistic series of shots. This allows it to better simulate game conditions and engage all areas of the court. It's not exactly like playing against an actual human, but it's close.Created by Auburn, AL-based Tennibot, the roots of the Partner grew out of necessity. Back in 2018, CEO and co-founder Haitham Eletrabi was working on his PhD in civil engineering at the university. A tennis player in his youth, he picked it up again for recreation in his limited spare time outside the classroom. There was only one problem.“Tennis is an amazing sport. I love it,” says Eletrabi. “But one of the worst parts is picking up the balls.”That frustration spurred the creation of the Rover. Using computer vision and navigation algorithms, it autonomously wheels around the court picking up stray balls. It traverses all obstacles including net posts, fences and players to collect up to 80 balls in a removable bag. It's like a Roomba for the tennis court. A sweeper attachment lets it smooth out a clay court.
In addition to matching your level, the Partner can also move like a real opposing player. Instead of feeds coming from the same location, it can motor around to provide a wider array and more realistic series of shots. This allows it to better simulate game conditions and engage all areas of the court. It's not exactly like playing against an actual human, but it's close.Created by Auburn, AL-based Tennibot, the roots of the Partner grew out of necessity. Back in 2018, CEO and co-founder Haitham Eletrabi was working on his PhD in civil engineering at the university. A tennis player in his youth, he picked it up again for recreation in his limited spare time outside the classroom. There was only one problem.“Tennis is an amazing sport. I love it,” says Eletrabi. “But one of the worst parts is picking up the balls.”That frustration spurred the creation of the Rover. Using computer vision and navigation algorithms, it autonomously wheels around the court picking up stray balls. It traverses all obstacles including net posts, fences and players to collect up to 80 balls in a removable bag. It's like a Roomba for the tennis court. A sweeper attachment lets it smooth out a clay court.
Created by Auburn, AL-based Tennibot, the roots of the Partner grew out of necessity. Back in 2018, CEO and co-founder Haitham Eletrabi was working on his PhD in civil engineering at the university. A tennis player in his youth, he picked it up again for recreation in his limited spare time outside the classroom. There was only one problem.“Tennis is an amazing sport. I love it,” says Eletrabi. “But one of the worst parts is picking up the balls.”That frustration spurred the creation of the Rover. Using computer vision and navigation algorithms, it autonomously wheels around the court picking up stray balls. It traverses all obstacles including net posts, fences and players to collect up to 80 balls in a removable bag. It's like a Roomba for the tennis court. A sweeper attachment lets it smooth out a clay court.
“Tennis is an amazing sport. I love it,” says Eletrabi. “But one of the worst parts is picking up the balls.”That frustration spurred the creation of the Rover. Using computer vision and navigation algorithms, it autonomously wheels around the court picking up stray balls. It traverses all obstacles including net posts, fences and players to collect up to 80 balls in a removable bag. It's like a Roomba for the tennis court. A sweeper attachment lets it smooth out a clay court.
That frustration spurred the creation of the Rover. Using computer vision and navigation algorithms, it autonomously wheels around the court picking up stray balls. It traverses all obstacles including net posts, fences and players to collect up to 80 balls in a removable bag. It's like a Roomba for the tennis court. A sweeper attachment lets it smooth out a clay court.
The Rover autonomously seeks out and picks up stray balls on the court, while a sweeper attachment lets it smooth out a clay court.
Initially Eletrabi thought the Rover would be solely for personal use, but when he saw how many of his fellow players wanted it for themselves his sights grew bigger. It took about six years to develop the first full-featured model. Once the technology was in place, it took only six months to apply it to a ball machine that works for tennis, pickleball and padel.Both devices sync with a small device (the Station) affixed to the net post to calibrate movement and can be operated by the Tennibot app. That's where you will also find the hundreds of pre-loaded drills available for the Partner. Or you can create unlimited custom drills using various speeds (up to 70 mph), spins (topspin, slice or flat) and placements. It's even capable of mixing in delicate drop shots and high overhead lobs.The machine holds up to 140 balls and gets 4-5 hours of run time from a full battery charge. It has a compact footprint of less than 2-feet in height, width and length and weighs around 35 pounds. If that doesn't make transport easy enough, you can use the Follow Me mode—simply activate the feature, put the Partner on ground and it shadows you on or off the court.The only thing it won't do? Climb stairs.The Partner is currently available for pre-order at the Tennibot website. Players can place a deposit ($499) to reserve a unit and pay the remainder ($1595) before it ships in May. This price includes a limited-time 30% discount for early adopters. The Rover can be purchased immediately for $2995 or rent-to-own for $95/month.
Both devices sync with a small device (the Station) affixed to the net post to calibrate movement and can be operated by the Tennibot app. That's where you will also find the hundreds of pre-loaded drills available for the Partner. Or you can create unlimited custom drills using various speeds (up to 70 mph), spins (topspin, slice or flat) and placements. It's even capable of mixing in delicate drop shots and high overhead lobs.The machine holds up to 140 balls and gets 4-5 hours of run time from a full battery charge. It has a compact footprint of less than 2-feet in height, width and length and weighs around 35 pounds. If that doesn't make transport easy enough, you can use the Follow Me mode—simply activate the feature, put the Partner on ground and it shadows you on or off the court.The only thing it won't do? Climb stairs.The Partner is currently available for pre-order at the Tennibot website. Players can place a deposit ($499) to reserve a unit and pay the remainder ($1595) before it ships in May. This price includes a limited-time 30% discount for early adopters. The Rover can be purchased immediately for $2995 or rent-to-own for $95/month.
The machine holds up to 140 balls and gets 4-5 hours of run time from a full battery charge. It has a compact footprint of less than 2-feet in height, width and length and weighs around 35 pounds. If that doesn't make transport easy enough, you can use the Follow Me mode—simply activate the feature, put the Partner on ground and it shadows you on or off the court.The only thing it won't do? Climb stairs.The Partner is currently available for pre-order at the Tennibot website. Players can place a deposit ($499) to reserve a unit and pay the remainder ($1595) before it ships in May. This price includes a limited-time 30% discount for early adopters. The Rover can be purchased immediately for $2995 or rent-to-own for $95/month.
The only thing it won't do? Climb stairs.The Partner is currently available for pre-order at the Tennibot website. Players can place a deposit ($499) to reserve a unit and pay the remainder ($1595) before it ships in May. This price includes a limited-time 30% discount for early adopters. The Rover can be purchased immediately for $2995 or rent-to-own for $95/month.
The Partner is currently available for pre-order at the Tennibot website. Players can place a deposit ($499) to reserve a unit and pay the remainder ($1595) before it ships in May. This price includes a limited-time 30% discount for early adopters. The Rover can be purchased immediately for $2995 or rent-to-own for $95/month.
Tennis - ATP Masters 1000 - Monte Carlo Masters - Monte Carlo Country Club, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France - April 12, 2025 Spain's Carlos Alcaraz in action during his semi final match against Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina REUTERS/Manon Cruz
Carlos Alcaraz has set the tennis world on fire by storming into his first-ever Monte-Carlo Masters final, leaving fans in awe of his remarkable performance. The young Spanish sensation outplayed his compatriot Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in a thrilling semi-final clash that had spectators on the edge of their seats.
In a display of sheer talent and determination, Alcaraz dominated the court, showcasing why he is quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with in the world of tennis. The ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Monte-Carlo witnessed a fierce battle between two Spanish stars, but it was Alcaraz who emerged victorious, cementing his rise to the top.
With this incredible feat, Alcaraz not only secured a spot in the final but also surpassed Jannik Sinner to claim the coveted No. 1 position in the Race to the ATP Finals. His meteoric rise through the ranks has been nothing short of spectacular, captivating fans and experts alike.
As Alcaraz gears up for the final showdown in Monte-Carlo, tennis enthusiasts around the globe are eagerly anticipating a thrilling clash that is sure to keep everyone on the edge of their seats. Stay tuned as the young prodigy looks to etch his name in the annals of tennis history with a potential maiden Masters title within his grasp.
Boris Becker's Shocking Reaction to Tsitsipas' Coaching Change In a surprising turn of events, former world number one Boris Becker had a brief but impactful response to the...
Serena Williams: The Untold Stories of a Tennis Legend's Unstoppable Mindset In a jaw-dropping display of resilience, Serena Williams showcased her unrivaled determination and prowess on the tennis...
Young Tennis Sensation Carlos Alcaraz Crushes Competition to Secure Spot in Monte-Carlo Masters Finals! In a thrilling display of talent and determination, Spain's rising star Carlos Alcaraz has...
Emma Raducanu, the rising star of tennis, is gearing up for a monumental shift in her career trajectory as she embarks on her clay court campaign for 205....
Elena Rybakina Slams Tennis Schedule as She Misses WTA Stuttgart Title Defense Tennis star Elena Rybakina has taken a swipe at the grueling tennis schedule after being forced...
© 2025 M Sports - Premium news & magazine M Sports.
Login to your account below
Remember Me
Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.
© 2025 M Sports - Premium news & magazine M Sports.
Mar 9, 2024; Indian Wells, CA, USA; Emma Raducanu (GBR) hits a shot during her second round match against Dayana Yastremska (UKR) in the BPN Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. Yastremska retired with an injury in the first set. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Emma Raducanu, the rising star of tennis, is gearing up for a monumental shift in her career trajectory as she embarks on her clay court campaign for 205. But that's not all – rumors are swirling about a potential coaching change that could catapult her to even greater heights.
The 2021 US Open champion is set to showcase her skills at the Madrid Open, with whispers suggesting that Mark Petchey might step in as her new coach. Petchey previously worked with Raducanu before her historic Grand Slam victory and made a cameo appearance in her camp during the Miami Open, where she delivered a stellar performance reaching the quarter-finals.
With just 10 ranking points to defend throughout the clay court season, Raducanu has a golden opportunity to ascend the rankings ladder. By participating in the Madrid Open and the Italian Open, she could potentially compete for a whopping 2,000 ranking points. The French Open also presents a chance for her to earn significant points and solidify her position in the top 32 of the WTA Rankings, securing a coveted seed for the prestigious tournament.
Although Raducanu's prowess on clay courts remains uncertain, her prospects on the grass courts of Wimbledon are undeniably promising. A strong showing at the French Open could pave the way for her to be among the top 32 seeds at Wimbledon, positioning her as a formidable force to be reckoned with in the upcoming season.
As speculations swirl and anticipation mounts, one thing is certain – Emma Raducanu is poised to shake up the WTA Tour and prove her critics wrong. With the right team and a clear path ahead, the young tennis sensation is on the brink of a breakthrough that could redefine her career and establish her as a major contender in the tennis world.
Stay tuned as Raducanu's journey unfolds, promising excitement, drama, and perhaps a few surprises along the way.
Boris Becker's Shocking Reaction to Tsitsipas' Coaching Change In a surprising turn of events, former world number one Boris Becker had a brief but impactful response to the...
Carlos Alcaraz has set the tennis world on fire by storming into his first-ever Monte-Carlo Masters final, leaving fans in awe of his remarkable performance. The young Spanish...
Serena Williams: The Untold Stories of a Tennis Legend's Unstoppable Mindset In a jaw-dropping display of resilience, Serena Williams showcased her unrivaled determination and prowess on the tennis...
Young Tennis Sensation Carlos Alcaraz Crushes Competition to Secure Spot in Monte-Carlo Masters Finals! In a thrilling display of talent and determination, Spain's rising star Carlos Alcaraz has...
Elena Rybakina Slams Tennis Schedule as She Misses WTA Stuttgart Title Defense Tennis star Elena Rybakina has taken a swipe at the grueling tennis schedule after being forced...
© 2025 M Sports - Premium news & magazine M Sports.
Login to your account below
Remember Me
Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.
© 2025 M Sports - Premium news & magazine M Sports.
Emma Raducanu is preparing to kick-start her clay court campaign for 205 and she could have a new coach alongside her when she steps onto the red clay.
The 2021 US Open champion is scheduled to play at the Madrid Open later this month, with Mark Petchey rumoured to be weighing up an offer to take over as her coach.
Petchey worked briefly with Raducanu before her famous Grand Slam win in New York and he also stepped into her camp for the Miami Open, after she parted company with Vlado Platenik shortly before her opening match in the WTA 1000 tournament.
Petchey's influence certainly appeared to have a positive impact, with Raducanu playing her best tennis since her US Open win as she made it through to the quarter-finals in a run that included wins against top ten player Emma Navarro and recent WTA 1000 tournament winner Amanda Anisimova.
Now opportunity is about to knock for Raducanu, as she is entering a period of the season that gives her a huge chance to make a big rankings leap.
Emma Raducanu and Iga Swiatek decisions spark significant concern for historic competition
Emma Raducanu ‘made the right decision' after making a big schedule change
By the time she returns to action, Raducanu will have just 10 ranking point to defend over the rest of the clay court season.
If she plays at the Madrid Open and the Italian Open, that will offer her a chance to compete for 2,000 ranking points.
That same haul of points will be on offer at the French Open and any wins at Roland Garros will be extra points added to her current total as she failed to play at the second major of the year in 2024.
Raducanu would need to be in the top 32 of the WTA Rankings to be seeded for the French Open and she will not need to many wins on clay to make that happen.
A couple of victories in Madrid would propel her up towards the top 40 of the rankings and two more wins in Rome would take her close to that rankings goal.
If she could string together three wins in both events, she would be knocking on the door of a seeding for Roland Garros.
Raducanu's uncertainty on clay courts may make the ambition of being seeded for the French Open a little ambitious, but she could have a better chance of being among the seeds when she gets onto grass courts at Wimbledon.
Two or three wins at the French Open would give Raducanu a boost in her ranking and if she is among the top 32 seeds at the All England Club in July, she will be a threat to have a long run once again.
Raducanu has made it through to the last-16 at Wimbledon on two occasions and had a big chance to go further last year as she blew her chance to make it through to the quarter-finals with a disappointing defeat against Lulu Sun.
Raducanu struggled to kick on after that Wimbledon run last July, but the mood around her is very different after those sparkling wins in Miami.
If Petchey is added to Raducanu's team and she can steer clear of injuries over the next few weeks, there is every reason to believe a player who had been written off by too many of her critics could be a big contender on the WTA Tour in the second half of this year.
READ NEXT: Emma Raducanu closing in on huge coaching appointment as ‘talks' progress
Emma Raducanu is 'in talks' over a coaching appointment that appeared to be unlikely last month.
Emma Raducanu, Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek are among the star names skipping the Billie Jean King Cup - what comes next?
The full Rome WTA entry list has been confirmed.
"I really hope Emma will be part of this again in the future."
© Planet Sport Limited 2025 • All Rights Reserved
Reilly Opelka has just finished a busy hard-court spell on the ATP Tour, with last month's Miami Open his most recent tournament.
Opelka lost in the round of 32 to Tomas Machac, having previously lost his opener at Indian Wells to Roman Safiullin.
The American has been very vocal off the court alongside those displays on it, with Opelka reiterating his criticism of doubles players recently.
Taylor Fritz thinks Opelka is one of the best servers he has ever faced, with the latter having once reached 17th in the ATP Tour rankings.
The 27-year-old currently occupies 105th place, and has now shared his verdict on a key aspect of the current scene in men's tennis.
Discussing a change that he thinks could really transform tennis, Opelka said on the Nothing Major Show: “I would say the one clear fix is that we don't have a massive media rights deal.
“Of all the big sports we are the one that don't and it's because all the Grand Slams operate independently from one another.
READ MORE: Andy Roddick says what he really thinks of Reilly Opelka after his controversial comments about doubles recently
“The easy answer which every single person would agree with is that if all the tournaments could aggregate as one and fall under one large entity we could do a massive media rights deal, just like other sports have.
“Then you can monetise off of that. We are the second most bet upon sport in the world. We would be able to sell this massive group deal to either Amazon or whoever would buy it, just like every other sport.
“That would change the structure of tennis. I think that would change a lot of things. The sport would evolve so much more.
“I think guys ranked 150 or 250 would be able to have a coach and a physio and the level would just start to increase.
“That is just never going to happen, as you know. Wimbledon would rather burn money than partner with the ATP.”
Returning this summer, Wimbledon is, of course, one of the most traditional tournaments not just in tennis but in global sports.
Predominantly white attire for players and court etiquette are among the rules that are strictly enforced at the All England Club.
READ MORE: Angry tennis fans react after Wimbledon makes rule change for 2025 tournament
Opelka may, however, one day have his wish granted by the powers that be at Wimbledon, who have shown in recent times that they are willing to sway from tradition.
For the first time in the 147-year history of the grass-court Grand Slam, line judges have been abolished, with human officials set to be replaced by artificial intelligence.
In recent years, the intersection of traditional sporting events and emerging digital financial technologies has created new opportunities and partnerships across the athletic landscape. The prestigious tennis tournaments held in the United States, particularly the major championship in New York, have begun exploring the potential of blockchain-based currencies and technologies, marking a significant shift in … Continued
In recent years, the intersection of traditional sporting events and emerging digital financial technologies has created new opportunities and partnerships across the athletic landscape. The prestigious tennis tournaments held in the United States, particularly the major championship in New York, have begun exploring the potential of blockchain-based currencies and technologies, marking a significant shift in how these historic sporting institutions approach financial innovation. The conversion rates from USD to BTC have become increasingly relevant conversation topics among tournament organizers as they consider the implications of accepting digital currencies for tickets, merchandise, and other purchases.
This evolution reflects broader trends across the sports industry, where digital assets have gradually moved from novel curiosities to legitimate business considerations. The tennis world, with its global audience and substantial commercial interests, represents fertile ground for these technologies to demonstrate their utility beyond speculative investment. Tournament organizers recognize the potential for blockchain applications to enhance operational efficiency while creating new revenue streams and fan engagement opportunities.
The adoption process has been methodical rather than revolutionary. Tournament organizers have approached these new technologies with appropriate caution, implementing them in controlled ways that complement rather than replace established financial systems. Initial forays have focused on areas like digital collectibles, enhanced fan experiences, and streamlined payment options for attendees and viewers.
For spectators attending major tennis events, the presence of digital currency options has begun changing how they experience tournaments. From purchasing merchandise to upgrading seats, these new payment rails offer alternatives to traditional transaction methods. The technology behind these currencies enables faster settlement times and potentially reduces fees associated with cross-border payments—a meaningful benefit for international sporting events that attract global audiences.
The tournament experience itself is evolving through blockchain applications beyond simple payment mechanisms. Digital collectibles celebrating memorable moments from matches offer fans new ways to connect with the sport's history and their favorite tournaments. Unlike physical memorabilia, these digital assets can contain embedded media, interactive elements, and verifiable authenticity—features particularly appealing to younger tennis enthusiasts who have grown up in a digital-first world.
Behind the scenes, tournament operations have also begun incorporating these technologies. Ticketing systems enhanced with blockchain verification help reduce counterfeiting while creating more transparent secondary markets. Digital tokens have been explored as vehicles for loyalty programs, rewarding regular attendees with benefits ranging from exclusive content to priority access for future events.
The professional players themselves have shown varying degrees of interest in these technological developments. Some have embraced digital currencies as personal investments or brand extension opportunities, while others maintain a more traditional approach to their financial affairs. The generation gap is sometimes apparent, with younger competitors generally demonstrating greater comfort in exploring these new financial territories.
Tournament sponsors have taken notice of this technological shift as well. Companies operating in the digital currency space have begun appearing alongside more traditional sponsors, reflecting their growing mainstream acceptance and desire to associate with premium sporting events. These new commercial relationships bring fresh capital into the sport while exposing traditional tennis audiences to emerging financial concepts.
Regulatory considerations remain an important factor in how extensively these technologies can be integrated into major sporting events. Tournament organizers must navigate complex and evolving regulatory frameworks that vary significantly across jurisdictions. This regulatory uncertainty has encouraged a measured approach to adoption, with organizations carefully assessing compliance requirements before implementing new initiatives.
The environmental considerations associated with certain digital currencies have also influenced implementation decisions. Tennis tournaments, particularly those with established environmental commitments, have generally favored technologies with lower energy requirements. This preference aligns with broader sustainability goals that many sporting events have adopted in response to climate concerns.
Educational initiatives have emerged alongside these commercial developments. Some tournaments have introduced informational resources to help attendees understand the basics of digital currencies and blockchain technology. These efforts recognize that many tennis fans may be encountering these concepts for the first time within the context of their favorite sport.
Looking forward, the relationship between major tennis tournaments and digital financial technologies appears poised for continued development. The complementary needs of these sporting events—seeking innovation and new revenue streams—and blockchain applications looking for mainstream use cases suggest further integration is likely. However, this evolution will likely maintain its measured pace, with each new implementation carefully assessed for its practical benefits and alignment with tournament traditions.
The global nature of tennis, with its international player base and worldwide audience, makes it particularly well-suited for technologies designed to operate across borders. As digital currencies continue maturing beyond their initial speculative phase, their utility for international sporting events may become increasingly apparent.
While skeptics remain, pointing to the volatility and technical complexity of many blockchain systems, proponents see significant untapped potential. They envision futures where these technologies could fundamentally transform aspects of how tennis tournaments operate, from prize money distribution to broadcasting rights management.
As major tennis tournaments continue their careful exploration of digital financial technologies, we're witnessing the early stages of what could become a significant transformation in how these sporting events operate and engage with fans. The integration of blockchain-based solutions offers promising opportunities to enhance tournament experiences, streamline operations, and create new forms of connection between the sport and its global audience.
What remains clear is that major tennis tournaments are approaching this technological frontier thoughtfully, balancing innovation with their responsibilities as stewards of a beloved sport. While the full impact of these technologies on tennis may take years to materialize fully, the initial steps taken by tournament organizers suggest a recognition that digital currencies and blockchain applications will play an increasingly important role in the future of this storied sport.
As fans return to the stands of major tournaments each year, they participate in a sporting tradition that honors its rich history while embracing technological innovations that may reshape how we experience, interact with, and support the game for generations to come.
"*" indicates required fields
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Comment *
Website
Comment for robots
Please empty this comment field to prove you're human.
Name *
Email *
Website
Organisers of the Monte-Carlo Masters have been forced to reschedule Sunday's final to avoid a washout. Rainy weather threatened to wreak havoc on the singles championship match, and the tournament has now moved the start time forward by three hours.
The Monte-Carlo Masters issued a statement after making the late decision on Friday evening. The doubles tie will now take place after the singles, with the tournament already guaranteed a first-time champion.
There were fears that the Monte-Carlo final could be heavily delayed and postponed to Monday when the forecast showed rain throughout Sunday afternoon.
But tournament bosses have tried to get ahead of the curve, making the drastic decision to reschedule the men's singles final to 12pm local time (11am BST) after it was initially slated to begin at 3pm local.
Organisers shared a statement on their social media accounts and official app on Friday once the quarter-finals had been completed, confirming they had consulted the ATP before changing the order of play.
“Due to the weather forecast for Sunday, in consultation with ATP officials, the tournament organisers have decided to schedule the singles final at 12pm on Court Rainier III in order to give the best opportunity to successfully complete this incredible 2025 edition,” it read.
Just in Emma Raducanu 'in discussions' with Mark Petchey as Brit sets sights on coach
Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. Read our Privacy Policy
We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. Read our Privacy Policy
“The doubles final is now scheduled to start after the singles final.”
The tournament is set to crown a new first-time champion, with Carlos Alcaraz, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Alex de Minaur, and Lorenzo Musetti through to the semis.
Last year's winner, Stefanos Tsitsipas, who also lifted the trophy in 2021 and 2022, was dumped out by Musetti in the last quarter-final on Friday.
Of the last four, only Davidovich Fokina has previously made it to the championship match in Monte-Carlo, finishing runner-up in 2022. Alcaraz is the only man who has any titles at Masters 1000 level.
With the singles semi-finals starting at 1pm local time on Saturday, players will have less than 24 hours to recover in time for the rescheduled winner-take-all contest.
The organisers' decision to rejig Sunday's line-up comes after rain severely delayed the latest Masters 1000 final at the Miami Open. Two weeks ago, Novak Djokovic and Jakub Mensik took to the court more than five hours later than planned after play was suspended.
Monte-Carlo Masters officials will be hoping they can complete the singles and doubles matches on Sunday, avoiding carrying over any play to Monday.
All four of the singles semi-finalists are set to compete in the ATP 500 in Barcelona next week, and will want to get straight to their next tournament without any delays.
TODAY'S PAPER
Saturday, 12th April 2025See today's front and back pages, download the newspaper, order back issues and use the historic Daily Express newspaper archive.
CONNECT WITH US
Would you like to receive news notifications from Daily Express?
The ATP Tour and WTA Tour schedules have marched into the clay season, having breezed through a busy hard-court spell.
Alex de Minaur is shining on clay, having just secured a double bagel win over Grigor Dimitrov at the Monte Carlo Masters.
The ATP Masters 1000 tournament is now into its latter stages, with the WTA now preparing for the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.
Madrid is arriving shortly in the calendar, with the men's and women's stars then set to turn their focus to the French Open.
Casper Ruud has been tipped to win the French Open, with the Norwegian having impressed on clay throughout his career.
He did, however, suffer a shock loss to Alexei Popyrin in the round of 16 of the Monte Carlo Masters this week.
And that is a tournament that has really impressed former professional John Isner, who said on the Nothing Major Show: “Great tournament.
READ MORE: The three ATP players who could fly on clay without Rafael Nadal playing for the first time since 2002
“It's one of the marquee events on the ATP Tour. We talked about being jealous of not having a tournament in Charleston.
“I think the WTA would love to have a tournament in Monte Carlo. A lot of tennis players on the men's and women's side live there for tax reasons as we know.
“The guys train there in the offseason before they go to Australia because the weather can be quite warm in December. They have this big tournament there right now. So huge event.”
The Monte Carlo Masters really kickstarts the ATP Masters 1000 clay season, representing one of three such events.
It is followed by the Madrid Open and the Rome Open, with the latter perhaps set to steal the limelight this season.
READ MORE: Holger Rune picks who he thinks is ‘possibly the best player in the world' on clay courts right now
A post shared by Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters (@rolexmontecarlomasters)
That is because it is very likely to represent the first tournament back for Jannik Sinner, who is currently serving a doping ban.
But fans and indeed the players still involved in the Monte Carlo Masters are fully focused on that event, with the action taking place amid a stunning backdrop.
And the tournament also boasts an iconic history in terms of its champions, with King of Clay Rafael Nadal fittingly boasting a record 11 titles.
And history will now be made in Monaco, with the Monte Carlo Country Club to welcome a new champion this year, with Carlos Alcaraz, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Alex de Minaur and Lorenzo Musetti having all now reached the semi-finals.
Two exciting semifinal matches are on the cards at the 2025 ATP Monte Carlo Masters, featuring two top 10 players and two dangerous dark horses. As always, we here at Last Word on Sport preview and predict both matches, with a spot in a Masters 1000 final on the line. But who will come out on top?
Head-to-head: Musetti 1-1 de Minaur
Not many tennis players worldwide can say that they're playing than Alex de Minaur right now. Coming off a 6-0 6-0 quarterfinal rout against Grigor Dimitrov, the Australian is into his first Masters 1000 semifinal of his career on clay. De Minaur has adapted well to the high-bouncing clay courts, and his speed works well on the slower surface. Lorenzo Musetti, meanwhile, upset Monte Carlo's defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas, 1-6 6-3 6-4 in the quarterfinals, coming off a third three-set match of the week. I see De Minaur being able to wear down the likely fatigued Musetti, and the world #10 is playing with too much confidence at the moment.
Prediction: De Minaur in 2
Head-to-head: Alcaraz 1-0 Davidovich Fokina
After a difficult Sunshine Double, Carlos Alcaraz seems to be playing better tennis this week on the clay. An up-and-down first match against Francisco Cerundolo exposed some of his tendencies to hit unforced errors, and his quarterfinal win over Arthur Fils featured some disappointing patterns of play. However, the Spaniard finished strong to win 4-6 7-5 6-3 against Fils, digging deep when it mattered.
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina has been back to his best from a tough end to the 2024 season, reaching his third semifinal of the year in Monte Carlo. He swept past Alexei Popyrin 6-3 6-2 in the quarterfinals, and has taken out big names historically in Monte Carlo: Novak Djokovic and a then top-10 ranked Matteo Berrettini in 2022 and 2021, respectively. Davidovich Fokina will have to play strong tennis from the baseline and force Alcaraz into unforced errors. It wouldn't be a shock for Davidovich Fokina to pull off the upset, but he often struggles late in tournaments, and Alcaraz seems to turning a corner with his form this week.
Prediction: Alcaraz in 3
Main photo credit: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports
ATP Masters 1000 Monte Carlo semifinals Davidovich Fokina – Alcaraz: 12.04.2025 Time TBA H2H: 0-1 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina has won four of his last five
Goran Ivanisevic's partnership with Elena Rybakina ended shortly, and people were speculating about Ivanisevic's next partnership. According to Gazzetta, the Croatian is set to coach
With the tennis season almost reaching its halfway point, it is already shaping up to be a year of transition for some of the Tour's
Eight players remain in contention for the title at the first clay-court ATP 1000 of the season in Monte Carlo. Carlos Alcaraz remains the main
Tennis - ATP Masters 1000 - Monte Carlo Masters - Monte Carlo Country Club, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France - April 11, 2025 Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas in action during his quarter final match against Italy's Lorenzo Musetti REUTERS/Manon Cruz
Stefanos Tsitsipas, the rising star of tennis, is about to make a strategic move that could shake the tennis world to its core. Rumors are swirling that Tsitsipas is on the brink of enlisting the expertise of none other than Novak Djokovic's former coach, Goran Ivanisevic, into his coaching team after the conclusion of Roland Garros.
Ivanisevic, known for his successful partnership with Djokovic that led to the Serbian player clinching nine out of his 24 Grand Slam titles, is now set to bring his wealth of experience and knowledge to guide the 26-year-old Tsitsipas. This potential collaboration has sent shockwaves through the tennis community, sparking high expectations for Tsitsipas under the mentorship of the seasoned 53-year-old coach.
Tsitsipas, who is currently competing in Monte Carlo, has been showcasing his talent and determination, aiming to secure his fourth tournament title. Having triumphed in the Dubai Open earlier this season, Tsitsipas is eager to continue his winning streak with the support of Ivanisevic by his side.
The Greek tennis sensation's decision to part ways with his father as his coach last year signified a new chapter in his career, paving the way for fresh opportunities and strategic partnerships. Tsitsipas' prowess on the court has been evident as he overcame challenges in Monte Carlo, setting up a thrilling quarterfinal showdown with Lorenzo Musetti.
Furthermore, Ivanisevic's insights into Djokovic's meticulous approach to the game shed light on the Serbian player's unparalleled skills and dedication. The coach's observations on Djokovic's ability to maintain a high level of play even after extended breaks underscore the unique talent and work ethic of the 22-time Grand Slam champion.
As Djokovic navigates through a season marked by ups and downs, including unexpected defeats and missed opportunities, the tennis world eagerly anticipates his next moves on the clay court. Despite facing setbacks in recent tournaments, Djokovic remains a formidable force in the tennis arena, with fans and analysts closely monitoring his performance leading up to the Madrid Open.
With Tsitsipas poised for a potential game-changing collaboration with Ivanisevic and Djokovic navigating the complexities of elite tennis competition, the sport is brimming with excitement and anticipation for the upcoming matches and tournaments. Stay tuned for more updates on the dynamic world of tennis as these top players continue to make headlines and push the boundaries of excellence on the court.
Boris Becker's Shocking Reaction to Tsitsipas' Coaching Change In a surprising turn of events, former world number one Boris Becker had a brief but impactful response to the...
Carlos Alcaraz has set the tennis world on fire by storming into his first-ever Monte-Carlo Masters final, leaving fans in awe of his remarkable performance. The young Spanish...
Serena Williams: The Untold Stories of a Tennis Legend's Unstoppable Mindset In a jaw-dropping display of resilience, Serena Williams showcased her unrivaled determination and prowess on the tennis...
Young Tennis Sensation Carlos Alcaraz Crushes Competition to Secure Spot in Monte-Carlo Masters Finals! In a thrilling display of talent and determination, Spain's rising star Carlos Alcaraz has...
Emma Raducanu, the rising star of tennis, is gearing up for a monumental shift in her career trajectory as she embarks on her clay court campaign for 205....
© 2025 M Sports - Premium news & magazine M Sports.
Login to your account below
Remember Me
Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.
© 2025 M Sports - Premium news & magazine M Sports.
There will be a first-time winner at the Principality on Sunday.
After a chaotic fortnight, we are down to four at the Principality. The competition is extremely fierce as we enter the final stretch of the 2025 Monte Carlo Masters. The semifinals will feature an all-Spanish face off, as well as a match-up between two Top-20 players. Who has the best shot at capturing their first trophy at this illustrious event?
The Monte Carlo Masters remains one of the most highly anticipated Masters tournaments during the course of the season. Stefanos Tsitsipas was the defending champion, and was defeated in the quarterfinal stage. Alcaraz is the highest seed left in the draw after Alexander Zverev was ousted by Matteo Berrettini. The surprise of the tournament has been Alejandro Davidovich Fokina – the unseeded star reached his second semifinal at the Monaco-based event.
Then there were four 👀Who will contest the 2025 #RolexMonteCarloMasters final? pic.twitter.com/GSh9RHTPyD
Carlos Alcaraz came into the Monte Carlo Masters searching for some form and momentum. However, he is known to shift gears when the clay court season arrives. It is the surface where he has won the most titles (8), including the Roland Garros championship in 2024. “Real champions find the right level when needed,” he said in his press conference after beating Arthur Fils in the quarterfinal.
Alcaraz will take on Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the semifinal, against whom he has an advantageous 1-0 record. If he can scrape through, he will face either Lorenzo Musetti or Alex de Minaur in the final – he has a superior record against both players.
Odds to Win the Title: 8/13
Displaying an immaculate level of clay court tennis, Alex de Minaur served a double bagel to Grigor Dimitrov in his quarterfinal. Spending under 45 minutes on court, the Australian will be fresh and gunning to go when he steps onto Court Rainier III on Saturday.
READ ALSO: Alex de Minaur vs. Lorenzo Musetti Head to Head Record, Preview and Prediction for ATP Monte Carlo Masters 2025 Semifinal
Extending his record for most outright wins on the 2025 ATP calendar, de Minaur is 20-6. “As the years have gone by, I have grown to understand the things I can do well to become a tough opponent on this surface,” he said after beating Dimitrov. He also beat Daniil Medvedev in the Round of 16, and has a 1-1 record against semifinal opponent Lorenzo Musetti.
Odds to Win the Title: 10/3
Italian Lorenzo Musetti overcame the gritty challenge of beating Stefanos Tsitsipas in Monte Carlo after a three-set thriller in the quarterfinals. In the process, he entered his maiden ATP Masters-1000 semifinal. If he can capture the crown at the Principality, a Top-10 ranking will be guaranteed for the Olympic bronze medalist.
Musetti was on the verge of breaking into tears after his last eight win vs Tsitsipas. “It's really beautiful to cry together and win together. It's really nice,” he emoted after earning his ninth Top-10 victory. Earlier, Musetti toppled Matteo Berrettini (who beat top seed Zverev). The 23-year-old will face Alex de Minaur for a spot in the summit clash.
Odds to Win the Title: 5/1
A former finalist at this event, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina vowed to keep his emotions under check after a roller-coaster encounter against Jack Draper. He did so with the composure and maturity shown by true champions – the Spaniard beat Alexei Popyrin in his quarterfinal. With his 18th win of the season, ‘Foki' matched his 2024 record of 18-22 – and we are still in April.
READ MORE: Carlos Alcaraz vs. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina Head to Head Record, Preview and Prediction for ATP Monte Carlo Masters 2025 Semifinal
“When you can control [things] off the court, it's going to be easier to control your emotions [on the court]. Today it has proved [the progress] I am making this year,” asserted the 25-year-old. Having already reached two finals earlier this year, ADF's deep run in Monte Carlo will see him rise to No. 8 in the Race to ATP Finals.
Odds to Win the Title: 15/2
A passionate sports fan through and through, I am currently pursuing my MA in Global Sports Journalism. I specialise in tennis and football writing at The PlayOffs, and I have prior experience working at EssentiallySports and Sportskeeda. Born and raised in Bengaluru, India, sport was my safe space right from my childhood. After trying my hand at multiple sports and representing my educational institutions in cricket, badminton and table tennis, I found sports media to be my calling.
My message to the readers is don't be shy to express yourself - regardless of whether it's playing, talking or writing about sport. And if you're a fan Roger Federer, Lionel Messi and/or Stephen Curry - I'm your guy.
🏈🏀⚾️🏒 All Sports, Playoffs & You
🎯 Keeping Fans Ahead of the Game
📰 Breaking Sports News & Hot Takes Daily
👇 Stay in the Game – Follow & Click Below!
Get the biggest stories delivered straight to you - for free!
By signing up, you consent to our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy, nad to receive marketing and account-related emails from The Playoffs. You can subscribe at any time.
For over 10 years, The Playoffs has been a go-to source for sports and sports betting enthusiasts.
Our mission: To help bettors make the best choices with in-depth analysis, reliable data, and passionate expertise.
Our motto: Share our passion for sports and betting. At The Playoffs, we live and breathe sports. Every day, our editorial teams work to deliver the most accurate and relevant information so you can place bets with confidence—and most importantly, enjoy the experience.
Gambling can be fun and exciting, but it's essential to keep it responsible. Set limits on your time and spending, never chase your losses, and understand that betting is a form of entertainment—not a way to earn money. If gambling stops being enjoyable or starts affecting your life negatively, don't hesitate to seek support or take advantage of self-exclusion tools provided by betting platforms. Remember, responsible betting is the key to a safe and enjoyable gaming experience.
DISCLAIMER: This site is 100% for entertainment purposes only and does not involve real money betting. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-Gambler.
COPYRIGHT © 2025 - THE PLAYOFFS - SHARE THE PASSION FOR SPORTS AND BETTING
BREAKING NEWS
‘I feel like I've never driven an F1 car' – Norris left searching for answers after disappointing P6 result in Bahrain Qualifying
‘We need to investigate' – Verstappen reveals struggles with ‘inconsistent' Red Bull after P7 in Bahrain Qualifying
FACTS AND STATS: Piastri the first repeat polesitter of 2025 as he takes second Grand Prix pole in Bahrain
Piastri thrilled to ‘deliver when it mattered' after securing pole position for 50th race start in Bahrain
HIGHLIGHTS: Piastri claims brilliant Bahrain pole as Norris finishes down in sixth
Mercedes drivers George Russell and Kimi Antonelli have both been hit with one-place grid penalties for the Bahrain Grand Prix, following rule breaches in Saturday's Qualifying session.
Russell and Antonelli had qualified second and fourth respectively in an encouraging session for the Silver Arrows at the Bahrain International Circuit, but will now drop to third and fifth.
READ MORE: Piastri beats Russell and Leclerc to pole position during Bahrain Grand Prix Qualifying
The stewards penalised the pair after they were sent into the fast lane in the pit lane before a session restart time – after Esteban Ocon's crash early in Q2 – was confirmed.
More to follow.
Qualifying Highlights: 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix
Don't miss your chance to experience F1 racing under the lights in Sakhir...
Piastri beats Russell and Leclerc to pole position during Bahrain Grand Prix Qualifying
HIGHLIGHTS: Piastri claims brilliant Bahrain pole as Norris finishes down in sixth
Vowles feels Williams getting ‘more than I paid for' from Sainz as he cites where he's been ‘very impressed'
F1 EXPLAINS: Ask an F1 Team Principal with Williams boss James Vowles
What the teams said – Friday in Bahrain
HIGHLIGHTS: Piastri claims brilliant Bahrain pole as Norris finishes down in sixth
AS IT HAPPENED: Follow the action from Qualifying for the Bahrain GP as Piastri takes pole
Norris plays down McLaren's practice pace as he claims rivals ‘didn't turn up' on first day in Bahrain
HIGHLIGHTS: Relive the action from FP2 in Bahrain as Piastri sets the pace from Norris
© 2003-2025 Formula One World Championship Limited
Video
Russell and Antonelli hit with grid penalties after Qualifying rule breaches in Bahrain
‘I feel like I've never driven an F1 car' – Norris left searching for answers after disappointing P6 result in Bahrain Qualifying
‘We need to investigate' – Verstappen reveals struggles with ‘inconsistent' Red Bull after P7 in Bahrain Qualifying
FACTS AND STATS: Piastri the first repeat polesitter of 2025 as he takes second Grand Prix pole in Bahrain
Piastri thrilled to ‘deliver when it mattered' after securing pole position for 50th race start in Bahrain
Oscar Piastri claimed a brilliant pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix, as McLaren team mate Lando Norris could only manage sixth.
The Australian posted a 1m 29.841s with his second and last run in the final part of Qualifying at the Bahrain International Circuit to claim just his second Grand Prix pole position.
READ MORE: Piastri beats Russell and Leclerc to pole position during Bahrain Grand Prix Qualifying
He finished just 0.168s clear of George Russell as the Mercedes driver pushed the practice pacesetters, with the second Silver Arrows machine of Kimi Antonelli fourth before both were demoted one spot after being sent into the pit lane too early during Q2.
Drivers' Championship leader Norris finished sixth – more than four tenths behind Piastri – after a scruffy Q3 as reigning World Champion Max Verstappen will start immediately behind in seventh after complaining of brake problems throughout.
Haas' Esteban Ocon also brought out the red flags during Q2 following a heavy crash.
Watch the highlights from Qualifying in Sakhir by hitting go on the video player above.
‘I feel like I've never driven an F1 car' – Norris left searching for answers after disappointing P6 result in Bahrain Qualifying
AS IT HAPPENED: Follow all the action from second practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix
WATCH: Ride onboard with Piastri for the fastest lap of Friday in Bahrain
FACTS AND STATS: Piastri the first repeat polesitter of 2025 as he takes second Grand Prix pole in Bahrain
F3: Camara beats Voisin to take pole position in Sakhir
© 2003-2025 Formula One World Championship Limited
Red Bull's Yuki Tsunoda made it through to Q3 and qualified 10th in Bahrain, which he called a “good recovery” after struggling throughout practice.
Related
Tsunoda reflects on ‘massive roller coaster' of a weekend after making Q3 in Bahrain
Qualifying Highlights: 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix
FP3 Highlights: 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix
FP1 Highlights: 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix
2025 Bahrain Grand Prix: Weekend Warm-Up
Top 10 Onboard Moments: 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix
© 2003-2025 Formula One World Championship Limited
Report
Russell and Antonelli hit with grid penalties after Qualifying rule breaches in Bahrain
‘I feel like I've never driven an F1 car' – Norris left searching for answers after disappointing P6 result in Bahrain Qualifying
‘We need to investigate' – Verstappen reveals struggles with ‘inconsistent' Red Bull after P7 in Bahrain Qualifying
FACTS AND STATS: Piastri the first repeat polesitter of 2025 as he takes second Grand Prix pole in Bahrain
Piastri thrilled to ‘deliver when it mattered' after securing pole position for 50th race start in Bahrain
McLaren driver Oscar Piastri grabbed pole position during Qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix, getting the better of Mercedes rival George Russell and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc in a thrilling conclusion – with team mate Lando Norris only sixth.
Practice pace-setters McLaren had been in control through the Q1 and Q2 phases but had to work hard to remain at the top of the timesheets in Q3 – Piastri's final 1m 29.841s lap putting him a couple of tenths up on Russell.
Leclerc was another tenth-and-a-half back in third, with Kimi Antonelli completing a strong Qualifying performance for Mercedes, even if both Silver Arrows drivers are to be investigated post-session for potential rule breaches.
Pierre Gasly claimed a fine fifth in his Alpine, taking advantage of a below par second effort for championship leader Norris, who will line up just ahead of main rival Max Verstappen amid the Red Bull driver's own brake issues.
Carlos Sainz delivered his strongest Qualifying session of the season so far to take eighth, with Lewis Hamilton ninth in the sister Ferrari after one of his laps was deleted over track limits, and Yuki Tsunoda completing the top 10 after putting his Red Bull in Q3.
Qualifying results
Jack Doohan shone during the early stages of Qualifying, featuring as high as fifth in Q1, but just missed out on making it a double Q3 showing for Alpine with a run to 11th, from Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar and the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso.
Esteban Ocon was leading the Haas charge after making it through to Q2, only to crash heavily exiting the second corner and bring out the red flags, leaving him 14th on the grid for Sunday's race.
After such a competitive start to 2025, Alex Albon suffered his first big setback with a Q1 exit – the Williams driver unable to match the pace of new team mate Sainz – though Nico Hulkenberg's delayed deleted lap time saw him promoted to 15th. In contrast, the Kick Sauber racer placed 16th.
Liam Lawson was another disappointed driver in 17th, having experienced an apparent Drag Reduction System problem aboard his Racing Bulls car, with Sauber youngster Gabriel Bortoleto and Aston Martin's Lance Stroll following in 18th and 19th.
Haas racer Ollie Bearman celebrated his first Q3 appearance at last weekend's Japanese Grand Prix, but this time finished 20th and last on the Qualifying timing screen after a compromised final Q1 lap, which featured a couple of costly mistakes.
Qualifying Highlights: 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix
After three practice sessions around the Bahrain International Circuit, all topped by McLaren, attention turned to Saturday evening's Qualifying hour – but would the likes of Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari have any answers for the papaya cars?
It was a relatively calm start to the grid decider, with only Alonso, Stroll and Hulkenberg hitting the track in the first couple of minutes, bringing a low 1m 32s banker lap from the Spaniard, before more cars gradually trickled out and clocked times.
Ocon became the 20th and final driver to emerge from the pits thanks to some last-minute adjustments to the cockpit of his Haas machine, while Stroll and the Red Bulls of Verstappen and Tsunoda all lost early laps for exceeding track limits.
“There's something really wrong with the car,” added Verstappen in a frustrated radio message to the Red Bull pit wall, with the reigning four-time World Champion seen running extremely wide at the final corner and then crawling back to his garage.
Up front, usual suspects Norris and Piastri slotted into P1 and P2 respectively with their opening Qualifying runs, reinforcing McLaren's strong practice pace – the Briton producing a 1m 31.107s to lead his team mate by just under three-tenths of a second.
Norris set the pace as Qualifying began at the Bahrain International Circuit
Leclerc held third position at this point, from Antonelli, Alonso and a charging Doohan, but at the other end of the order Stroll, Hadjar, Bortoleto, Verstappen and Tsunoda found themselves in the drop zone and needing improvements.
As the final laps rolled in, amid a blur of purple and green sectors on the timing screen, Verstappen and Tsunoda both did enough to get themselves out of danger – Verstappen shooting to third and Tsunoda going a far less comfortable 14th.
Bortoleto and Stroll were ultimately unable to clear that first hurdle, dropping out in 18th and 19th, with Albon a surprise elimination in 16th, Lawson encountering apparent DRS issues en route to 17th and Bearman placing last after a scrappy final lap.
Hulkenberg scraped through in 15th and went on to take part in Q2, but an unusual turn of events as Qualifying progressed saw the German demoted to 16th, behind Albon, when a track limits violation was belatedly applied.
Norris remained on top in a statement of intent from himself and McLaren, followed by Hamilton, Verstappen and Piastri, with Doohan holding on to a top-five spot over Antonelli, Leclerc, Gasly, Russell and Hadjar.
Knocked out: Albon, Lawson, Bortoleto, Stroll, Bearman
Albon had a tough session, dropping out in the Q1 phase at the wheel of his Williams
Only moments after the second phase had begun, red flags were thrown for a sizeable crash involving Ocon – replays showing the Frenchman losing control of his Haas over the kerbs through Turn 2, sliding across the track and thumping the barriers.
Several minutes later, with Ocon's car cleared and barrier checks complete, the green light was switched back on at the end of the pit lane to release a queue of eager drivers – some 11 minutes remaining to secure spots in the pole position shootout.
McLaren again caught the eye on their initial Q2 runs, which saw Piastri produce an impressive 1m 30.454s and team mate Norris deliver a time just one tenth slower, putting the pair around half a second clear of nearest rivals Leclerc and Antonelli.
However, a handful of drivers, including Hamilton and the Red Bull racers, opted to complete just one flying lap much later in the segment, setting up another thrilling finale as improvements came in thick and fast beyond the chequered flag.
Gasly found a chunk of time on his final lap to go third behind the McLarens, while Russell and Antonelli went fourth and fifth over Leclerc, Sainz, Hamilton, Verstappen and Tsunoda – although the Mercedes drivers were both noted for lining up at the end of the pit lane before a session resumption time had been announced.
Doohan just missed out on Q3 after a battling performance in the second Alpine, a week on from his heavy practice crash at Suzuka, with Hadjar, Alonso, the sidelined Ocon and Hulkenberg – who also did not get a lap in – completing the Q2 order.
Knocked out: Doohan, Hadjar, Alonso, Ocon, Hulkenberg
2025 Bahrain GP Qualifying: Ocon crashes out of Q2 and triggers red flags
Following another short break between Qualifying segments, it was time for Q3 and the eagerly awaited battle for pole position, with Piastri and McLaren continuing where they left off in Q2 via a provisional P1 time of 1m 30.233s from the Australian.
However, a brilliant lap from Russell put the Mercedes man just a tenth behind Piastri, and ahead of Norris' McLaren, with Leclerc, Hamilton and Antonelli completing the top six – until the latter two drivers lost times for exceeding track limits.
Further back, there was more trouble for Verstappen, who lamented that “I can't brake at all”, leaving him slowest after the opening runs – behind new team mate Tsunoda, Gasly and Sainz – and with plenty of work to do next time around.
Then came a flurry of improvements and position changes as McLaren's rivals stepped it up a gear – Antonelli and Russell both briefly taking over at the top, before Leclerc split them, and piling the pressure on the McLaren drivers.
While Piastri pulled out a stunning 1m 29.841s to move back ahead of that trio and secure pole position, Norris experienced a tricky final lap en route to sixth, just behind Gasly's Alpine – meaning he was left to ponder what might have been.
Sitting one point behind Norris in the Drivers' Championship, Verstappen worked through his brake woes to take seventh, as Sainz, Hamilton and Tsunoda – making his first Q3 appearance for Red Bull – rounded out the top 10.
Piastri got the job done during the decisive final Q3 runs to claim pole position
“I felt confident out there pretty much all weekend,” said pole-sitter Piastri. “FP1 was an experience for us all, I think, it felt more like a rally car than an F1 car, but from then on I've felt really comfortable with the car. FP3 we had good pace. [In] Qualifying the others caught up a little bit closer than what I wanted, but [I] still delivered the laps when it mattered which was the most important thing, so [I'm] very, very happy.”
The 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix is set to begin at 1800 local time on Sunday. Head to the RACE HUB to find out how you can catch the action from Sakhir.
What the teams said – Friday in Bahrain
F2: Marti storms through from 11th to win Sakhir Sprint Race
Hadjar optimistic for Q3 fight in Bahrain after ‘good feeling' in P6 during Friday practice
HIGHLIGHTS: Relive the action from FP2 in Bahrain as Piastri sets the pace from Norris
AS IT HAPPENED: Follow all the action from final practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix
© 2003-2025 Formula One World Championship Limited
Report
Piastri beats Russell and Leclerc to pole position during Bahrain Grand Prix Qualifying
WATCH: Ocon brings out the red flags after heavy crash in Bahrain Qualifying
AS IT HAPPENED: Follow the action from Qualifying for the Bahrain GP as Piastri takes pole
HIGHLIGHTS: Catch the FP3 action from Bahrain as Piastri completes McLaren's practice clean sweep
FP3: Piastri tops the timesheets from Norris and Leclerc during final practice in Bahrain
Josep Maria Marti made a final lap pass to take an incredible Sprint Race victory for Campos Racing, fighting through from 11th on the grid.
The Red Bull Junior Team driver battled with several drivers in the middle phase of the race, but a Safety Car closed the pack up for an unpredictable and enthralling final few minutes.
F3: Tsolov outduels Slater to claim record-equalling victory in Sakhir Sprint
Three different drivers led at various points in the last five laps, but it was a dive into Turn 1 by Martí on Joshua Duerksen that proved to be the race-winning move, earning him his first win of 2025.
Richard Verschoor made a last lap overtake of his own as Duerksen ran slightly wide at Turn 11, opening the door for the MP Motorsport driver to claim second just a few corners from the chequered flag. The AIX Racing driver had to settle for third position in the end after leading the early laps comfortably.
Having led at the Safety Car restart, Dino Beganovic came across the line in fourth position for Hitech TGR, narrowly ahead of a resurgent Oliver Goethe, who made it two MPs in the top five with his own stellar performance.
The Red Bull junior pitted for fresh Soft tyres at the final Safety Car, rejoining 15th for the restart. He climbed through the order to earn an unlikely top five, a three-wide pass at Turn 12 the stand-out moment of his charge.
READ MORE: Formula 2 racer Victor Martins joins Williams Driver Academy
Arvid Lindblad, Rafael Villagómez and Gabriele Minì completed the points-paying positions in sixth, seventh and eighth places.
For an in-depth report of the Formula 2 Sprint Race, head to the official website here.
HIGHLIGHTS: Watch the action from Bahrain as Norris tops FP1 from Gasly
Formula 1 welcomes Barilla Pasta as an Official Partner
AS IT HAPPENED: Follow all the action from first practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix
HIGHLIGHTS: Catch the FP3 action from Bahrain as Piastri completes McLaren's practice clean sweep
Red Bull Racing simulator in 2025 Japanese Grand Prix-winning livery goes up for auction
© 2003-2025 Formula One World Championship Limited
Report
Piastri beats Russell and Leclerc to pole position during Bahrain Grand Prix Qualifying
WATCH: Ocon brings out the red flags after heavy crash in Bahrain Qualifying
F2: Marti storms through from 11th to win Sakhir Sprint Race
AS IT HAPPENED: Follow the action from Qualifying for the Bahrain GP as Piastri takes pole
HIGHLIGHTS: Catch the FP3 action from Bahrain as Piastri completes McLaren's practice clean sweep
Oscar Piastri set the pace during the third and final practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix, the Australian leading the way by a stunning margin of more than half a second from Lando Norris while Charles Leclerc took third.
Amid another day of hot and sunny conditions in Sakhir – with air temperatures reaching 33 degrees Celsius – the drivers returned to action at 1530 local time for a last opportunity to fine-tune their cars and prepare for Qualifying, which will take place later on Saturday.
PRACTICE DEBRIEF: Are McLaren really on 'another planet' in the Bahrain desert?
It was a quiet start when the green light was displayed, with just Ollie Bearman initially taking to the track for Haas on the hard tyre while the likes of Norris and Max Verstappen were seen chatting to members of their respective teams in the pit lane.
Bearman and team mate Esteban Ocon were soon joined on the circuit by the Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Leclerc, both sporting the soft compound. And with Bearman reporting that the difference in grip from the day and night sessions was “crazy”, it appeared that the tricky conditions experienced in Friday's FP1 were again at play.
Practice 3 results
While most of the pack opted for the soft or hard tyre for their opening runs, Alpine bucked the trend by choosing the medium. But it was Piastri who had set the pace on a soft-shod run by the halfway point of the session, the McLaren man going quickest on a lap of 1m 33.324s to put him four-tenths clear of team mate Norris with Fernando Alonso third for Aston Martin.
Verstappen, meanwhile, aborted his flying run after going wide and returned to the pits for some set-up changes to his Red Bull, while George Russell joined the action with 30 minutes left on the clock, the Briton having seemingly been content to wait for slightly cooler conditions to arrive.
HIGHLIGHTS: Relive the action from FP2 in Bahrain as Piastri sets the pace from Norris
There was trouble for Nico Hulkenberg as the German was forced to stop his Kick Sauber at Turn 8 after going into anti-stall, triggering the yellow flags before a brief Virtual Safety Car was called. As the green flags were thrown and the action picked up, Verstappen moved up to second despite another slightly wide moment out on track.
An unusual problem hit Leclerc as one of the Monegasque's wing mirrors was seen flying off his Ferrari. Liam Lawson, meanwhile, was unhappy at being overtaken by Russell, the Racing Bulls driver telling his engineer that the move was “so annoying”.
Speaking of Russell, the Briton brought out the yellow flags for a moment following a spin at Turn 10 before going on to declare that the conditions offered the “least amount of grip” he had ever experienced in an F1 car.
Hulkenberg was forced to stop his Kick Sauber out on track, triggering a brief Virtual Safety Car phase
As the clock ticked down, attentions turned to flying runs and a flurry of quick times saw the order on the timesheets rapidly evolve. When this had shaken out, Piastri had set an impressive benchmark of 1m 31.646s – and while others tried to challenge, team mate Norris was still 0.668s back as the closest rival in second.
Leclerc took the accolade of being the only other car within a second of Piastri in third, with Russell and Kimi Antonelli further off for Mercedes in fourth and fifth respectively. Pierre Gasly was an eye-catching sixth for Alpine, while Racing Bulls' Isack Hadjar, Verstappen, Williams' Carlos Sainz and Hamilton completed the top 10.
READ MORE: Vowles feels Williams getting ‘more than I paid for' from Sainz as he cites where he's been ‘very impressed'
Ocon led Haas' charge in P11, from Jack Doohan in the Alpine, Lawson, Alonso and the Williams of Alex Albon. Bearman claimed P16, leading the way from Aston Martin's Lance Stroll and Bortoleto in P17 and P18, while Hulkenberg was P19 after being unable to rejoin the action. Yuki Tsunoda, meanwhile, brought up the rear in 20th place for Red Bull.
With the final practice session of the weekend now complete, the drivers and teams will have a final chance to debrief before returning to action for Qualifying at 1900 local time.
What the teams said – Friday in Bahrain
FIA Team Principals press conference – Bahrain
F1 EXPLAINS: Ask an F1 Team Principal with Williams boss James Vowles
‘We're just too slow' – Verstappen not happy as he reflects on ‘massive' gap to McLaren in Bahrain FP2
Piastri beats Russell and Leclerc to pole position during Bahrain Grand Prix Qualifying
© 2003-2025 Formula One World Championship Limited
News
Russell and Antonelli hit with grid penalties after Qualifying rule breaches in Bahrain
‘I feel like I've never driven an F1 car' – Norris left searching for answers after disappointing P6 result in Bahrain Qualifying
‘We need to investigate' – Verstappen reveals struggles with ‘inconsistent' Red Bull after P7 in Bahrain Qualifying
FACTS AND STATS: Piastri the first repeat polesitter of 2025 as he takes second Grand Prix pole in Bahrain
Piastri thrilled to ‘deliver when it mattered' after securing pole position for 50th race start in Bahrain
Williams chief James Vowles feels that he and the team are getting “more than I paid for” from Carlos Sainz, with the Spaniard leaving his new boss “very impressed” by how he has worked with the whole squad to find more pace.
After Sainz ended up on the driver market for 2025 following Ferrari's signing of Lewis Hamilton, Vowles made no secret of his desire to sign the four-time race winner – a wish that subsequently came true when a multi-year deal was agreed between the two parties.
F1 EXPLAINS: Ask an F1 Team Principal with Williams boss James Vowles
While Sainz is continuing to adjust to his new car since arriving at the squad, Vowles believes that his decision to recruit Sainz is already paying dividends and has backed the 30-year-old to adapt to the FW47 in the near future.
“I think we're getting more than I paid for [from Sainz],” Vowles explained during the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend. “The reason why I say that is because there's two different ways to assess performance – number one is obviously what you see in the car, driving around.
Sainz has left Vowles "very impressed" with the work he is putting in to finding extra pace at Williams
“In that regard he's making steps forward; I'm very comfortable that he will be on the pace shortly, but it takes time to acclimatise – we are quite a different car to the Ferrari.
“But the second element is where I've been very impressed; what he's doing with working with our aerodynamicist team, with our race engineering team, with pretty much everyone throughout our organisation on finding those last milliseconds – that's the reason why I wanted him as part of this team, and he's delivering absolutely above my expectations.”
READ MORE: ‘We are not as far as it seems' – Sainz reflects on process of adapting to Williams as he singles out ‘biggest change'
Williams have enjoyed a solid start to the campaign, with the Grove-based outfit currently sitting in P5 of the Teams' standings after scoring points at all three of the opening rounds. This has seen Alex Albon score a top-10 result in each weekend, while Sainz also added to the tally in China.
In terms of how satisfied he is with the team's early performance, Vowles sounded a positive note whilst also suggesting that the squad will become even stronger when Sainz has fully acclimatised to the FW47.
Carlos Sainz ‘delivering above my expectations' – Vowles
“[I'm] really pleased [with our start to the season], because this is a really competitive grid now,” Vowles acknowledged. “Gone are the days where there's large gaps – we're down into milliseconds.
“And what I'm really pleased about is that our focus has been on 2026; I've been very clear on that, but we've still been able to produce a car that's moved us up to the top end of the midfield and in contention for fighting for points every weekend, which is what our target was going into it.
HIGHLIGHTS: Relive the action from FP2 in Bahrain as Piastri sets the pace from Norris
“There's some elements though [where] we have work to do to help Carlos get comfortable in the car, because I think then once you have both of them there we'll be a force to be reckoned with, really, against the midfield fight.
“But otherwise I'm happy that we've got most of what we could get out of the beginning of the season. I think there's some points here and there that could have been picked up.”
Don't miss your chance to experience F1 racing under the lights in Sakhir...
Piastri beats Russell and Leclerc to pole position during Bahrain Grand Prix Qualifying
HIGHLIGHTS: Piastri claims brilliant Bahrain pole as Norris finishes down in sixth
Vowles feels Williams getting ‘more than I paid for' from Sainz as he cites where he's been ‘very impressed'
F1 EXPLAINS: Ask an F1 Team Principal with Williams boss James Vowles
Russell believes Mercedes ‘fighting for the next best' position behind McLaren in Bahrain
PRACTICE DEBRIEF: Are McLaren really on 'another planet' in the Bahrain desert?
What the teams said – Friday in Bahrain
F3: Camara beats Voisin to take pole position in Sakhir
WATCH: Ride onboard with Piastri for the fastest lap of Friday in Bahrain
© 2003-2025 Formula One World Championship Limited
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
As much as the overall success of “A Minecraft Movie” has taken many industry pundits by surprise, what's perhaps even more confounding is the intense reaction to the film going on inside theaters across the country. Quickly establishing itself as the “Chicken Jockey” trend, fans have been recording themselves freaking out upon the appearance of a unique figure from the original video game. Often this will involve kids throwing popcorn and climbing on their friends' shoulders in revelry — nothing too dissimilar from what takes place at many midnight screenings.
While theater owners are having to get creative in convincing their clientele not to lose their minds amidst showings, the director of “A Minecraft Movie,” Jared Hess, is coming out in support of the trend. Speaking in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Hess shared how he felt kids deserved to let loose rather than have the police get involved, as many seem to wish.
Popular on IndieWire
Related Stories Bowen Yang Praises John Waters as a ‘Timeless Shocker' While in the Criterion Closet How ‘Warfare' Created the Ultimate ‘You Are There' Experience of Combat Through Sound
“It's weird when you're having too much fun and the cops get called,” Hess said. “It's funny because I think it's just literally cheering and throwing popcorn, which is so funny to me that cops are getting called for popcorn. Yeah, it's hilarious. I've seen so many funny videos. It's great, especially when people are climbing on their friends' shoulders and standing up and cheering for those moments. It's like this crazy anticipation. But, man, I'm just glad people are making memories with their friends and families.”
Not having to directly deal with the mess that's left behind by these audiences, Hess has been able to revel in the outpouring of support the film has received instead. Many continue to post videos from scenes playing in theaters and Hess has been watching all of them.
“It's been so bananas. It's been way too fun,” he said. “People are sending me these really hilarious speeches that a lot of teenagers are giving right before the movie. It's so hysterical, man. I'm staying up way too late.”
Ironically, Hess was more annoyed by the concept of a “Chicken Jockey” trend before the movie came out, as his college-aged son, Elliot, would not stop shouting it during his time at home. Apparently it had already become a popular trend on campus due to students playing the video game.
“My wife and daughters were like, ‘Elliot! Be quiet! We're so sick,' because he was quoting ‘chicken jockey' all the time… but [we] had no clue that it would then evolve into what's been happening at theaters,” Hess told EW. “It's just a bonanza.”
“A Minecraft Movie” is currently in theaters from Warner Bros. Pictures.
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Bow down, bitches. After years of speculation, “Yellowjackets” Season 3 finally unmasked the series' “antler queen” — and despite plenty of viable candidates, the answer was hiding in plain sight.
The Season 3 finale, written by Ameni Rozsa and directed by Bart Nickerson, is titled “Full Circle” in a direct reference to its pilot parallels. After over a year in the wilderness, this episode brings the stranded Yellowjackets right up to the deadly flashback in the series premiere — and sets up the terrifying uncertainty of what's next.
The Wiskayok High School varsity girls soccer team crashed somewhere in the Canadian Rockies during the spring of 1996, probably somewhere around mid- or late-May based on the weather, timing with Nationals, and the freshman pouting about missing prom. They end up spending 19 months out there, which means they're rescued not long after the midwinter madness depicted in Episodes 101 and 310.
Popular on IndieWire
Related Stories Join IndieWire and Disney for TV FYC Music Panel April 15 at Vidiots Foundation in Los Angeles 2025 Emmy Predictions: Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
After the first outsiders showed up in Episode 306, our teen protagonists were of two minds: either get the fuck out of Dodge and back to civilization, or stay in the wilderness because something about returning felt off. Taissa (Jasmine Savoy Brown) made practical points: The scientists caught them in the midst of ritual cannibalism, of their own coach and protector, no less. The girls may have left society behind, but Tai remembers enough to know that their actions won't be well-received. Though less explicit in her reasoning, Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) agrees; the finale leaves no doubt as to why she clings to the wilderness, or Lottie (Courtney Eaton), whose “powers” were enough for her own parents to institutionalize her after getting home.
In the wilderness of “Full Circle,” all the animals that were supposed to last through winter have died. (I realize this is probably sad for Akilah, but from the practical side — what's the problem? Weren't they going to be killed and eaten anyway? Are they not basically living in a refrigerator for the next few months?) So the girls resolve to have a hunt and placate the wilderness. Visuals from the pilot sneak in sporadically — a mask here, a fur there, and, of course, the thick coat of snow that Shauna wakes up to on the day of.
Eventually Nickerson (who serves as co-showrunner with Ashley Lyle and Jonathan Lisco) starts peppering the episode with actual footage from the pilot as the girls hunt down their sacrifice. Mari (Alexa Barajas) has long been the top suspect for “Pit Girl” but it's still a transfixing reveal. The girls don their coverings and start to screech and run through the forest. In order to camouflage herself with the snow, Mari removes all her outer layers to reveal Pit Girl's silky white dress. Glitchy video effects delineate pilot footage from the Season 3 finale itself, but the scenes would blend together without. The transitions instead mirror how the girls' memories are actively glitching in and out, repressing the events as they occur.
As Shauna realizes Natalie's (Sophie Thatcher) secret, there's a shot of Misty (Samantha Hanratty) not from the pilot, but composed very close to it; she removes her mask, dons her glasses, and breaks into a small smile. In Episode 101, this reveals a lot about Misty, who is mostly in the periphery before the wilderness; now, she's clearly about to thrive. In 310, it functions as definitive redemption. Misty is no stranger to questionable behavior, but now we know that she came clean about destroying the transponder, and she displays plenty of loyalty and decisiveness as an adult. As someone who was once the show's de facto villain, she now smiles directly and defiantly in the face of her true enemy.
Looking back, it's actually not surprising at all that Shauna's journey leads here. Even before the plane crashed, she was a person who hungered for power and reveled in self-righteousness when she couldn't have the authority she craved. She spent Season 1 coming out of Jackie's (Ella Purnell) shadow, Season 2 stewing because no one understood her pain, and Season 3 turning that pain and resentment into something else — a violent rage that no longer hides behind smiles or tears. In the wilderness, she leans into the impulses that stem from her suffering, and everyone around her cowers.
The hunt itself exemplifies this; while it was orchestrated by Lottie to re-invoke the wilderness (not to mention her own relevance as the group's spiritual leader), death has been a staple of Shauna's queenship since the death of Coach Scott (Steven Kreuger). He, Edwin (Nelson Franklin), and Kodi (Joel McHale) died in quick succession. The queen requires blood. She commands the circle as the they all draw cards, confidently intervening when she suspects the deck has been tampered with, and she's the ultimate reason Mari picks the queen and ends up being hunted. It may have been the luck of the draw, but she was marked by Shauna long ago.
As of this article's publication, “Yellowjackets” Season 4 has yet to be confirmed — but in the world where it happens, the possibilities are endless. I have refrained from mentioning “Lost” for the past 500 words and that ends now; the ABC plane crash drama devoted a full season to the events leading up to and including its survivors' rescue in a truncated and potent 13 episodes (including the universally beloved “The Constant” and a pulse-pounding season finale). By catching up with the pilot, “Yellowjackets” answered a lot of questions, but leaves things in a place where no one is safe while rescue approaches. How long before someone comes for them? What happens to Hannah, who never made it out of the wilderness, or to the remaining Yellowjackets whose survival hasn't been confirmed? What sort of agreement do they come to, and how, about what story to tell?
Even then, the wilderness has definitive answers. We know who makes it out and where they end up — but what about the present timeline? Travis (Andres Soto), Lottie (Simone Kessell), and Van (Lauren Ambrose) all made it back but died 25 years later. Now that adult Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) has unleashed her true self, will she hunt down her fellow survivors until she is, as the show states, the last one standing? Or will they team up and tear down the queen, which they were too afraid to do as teenagers? What about her family — and Taissa's (Tawny Cypress) family, and Walter (Elijah Wood) — and what about Melissa (Hilary Swank), who's on the run after murdering Van in cold blood?
There's also the matter of what Lottie told Callie (Sarah Desjardins) in her last moments — that whatever lives inside Shauna is in her daughter as well; “It” or the wilderness or something else that made Shauna who she was long before her plane crashed. Could it be true that Shauna is jealous of her daughter for being “just like her but more?” What if this character's eventual fate is not to hold on to her power, but to cede it to another?
With so much in the air (not to mention Natalie literally on top of a mountain), Season 4 can't come soon enough.
“Yellowjackets” is available on Paramount+ with Showtime.
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
When Iam Tongi won “American Idol” in 2023, he was just a high school student and still reeling from losing his dad, who'd died months before his heart-wrenching “Idol” audition. Although winning the competition was a thrill, Tongi struggled to feel truly happy about all the “blessings” happening in his life, he wrote in a vulnerable social media post on April 10, 2025.
“When I won American Idol in 2023 my life changed forever,” Tongi captioned a video of highlights from the last two years. “So many amazing things were happening so quickly….I was in the studio recording music, traveling to places most dream about, performing for huge audiences and living a life only a few get to experience.”
“But I still felt a sadness and an emptiness I could not escape,” Tongi continued. “I still had a lot of pain from losing my dad and that made it so hard to appreciate all the blessings God was giving me.”
Tongi, now 20, revealed that he eventually recognized he needed to take a “step back” and make some important changes, from taking better care of his health to allowing himself to grieve, he said. The resulting personal and creative growth now have Tongi pumped about his future, including new music.
A post shared by Iam Tongi (@wtongi)
In his April 10 post, Tongi shared that less than a year before, “God made some changes in my life that allowed me to see things differently from a personal and emotional perspective. I woke up and realized it was time for me to take charge of my life and make the changes I had to make to be the best version of myself I could be.”
The result of working out daily with help from a trainer, Tongi wrote, “has been a blessing but also one of the toughest things I've ever done,” adding that “getting stronger physically has helped me get stronger mentally and emotionally and also musically.”
“I decided to take a step back to reassess my life and my career,” Tongi continued. “I decided to prioritize myself. I started writing my own songs and telling my own stories and surrounding myself with positivity and people who genuinely cared about me and my well being.”
Now thrilled about the direction his life and music are going, including the release of his latest single “Sunshine” on April 25, Tongi wrote, “I have so much to be grateful for and so much to share with you over the coming months.”
A post shared by Iam Tongi (@wtongi)
Fans rallied around Tongi, with more than 24,000 liking his candid post and hundreds praising his honesty in the comment section, including someone who wrote, “SO proud of you Iam!! it takes so much strength to wake up and choose yourself every single day! can't wait to hear all the new music 💖🤙🏼”
Over the video of recent highlights, including footage from his workouts and attending “Idol” runner-up Megan Danielle's wedding in March, Tongi wrote, “POV: You've been working for an entire year and it's finally all coming together.”
Of the new song he's releasing, Tongi shared, “It's a simple message about chasing the light and celebrating the gift of each day. If it brings a smile to your face or makes your day a little bit brighter, then I've done what I set out to do.”
In addition to releasing “Sunshine,” Tongi is also scheduled to perform at CMA Fest from June 5 through 8, and then make his Grand Ole Opry debut on June 11 — a dream come true for him.
In a video about the Opry invitation, he shared, “My dad introduced me to country music when I was young and I grew up listening to artists like Kenny Rogers. So the fact that I get to perform on the Opry stage is a dream come true. Thank you to the Grand Ole Opry for inviting me to make my @opry debut on June 11!”
Previous
About
Contact US
Privacy Policy
Terms Of Service
Editorial Guidelines
Sitemap
Copyright © 2025 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. Powered by WordPress VIP
When actress Lyndie Greenwood was diagnosed with breast cancer in September 2024, she was on a roll making Hallmark movies, having just co-starred in Hallmark Mystery's “Crimetime: Freefall” with Luke Macfarlane. It was her fifth movie role at the network since 2021, but her work as an actress came to an abrupt halt as she began an intense cancer treatment plan in the fall, including a double mastectomy and chemotherapy.
“I haven't been able to work during this time,” Greenwood, 42, wrote in a blog update on April 8, 2025. “In most ways – because I have enough savings and a comfortable home with a supportive partner – this has been an unbelievable blessing. I imagine sometimes how difficult this would be if those things weren't true, and it shatters my heart.”
But Greenwood, married to producer Ben Jamieson for six years, admitted it's also been hard to step back from acting and adjusting to her new normal, writing, “No one is ever prepared for cancer. It's not something we're taught how to deal with in advance. Coping with everything that a cancer diagnosis ignites in your life is not something that comes naturally, whether it's your diagnosis or that of someone you love.”
A post shared by Lyndie Greenwood (@lyndiegreenwood)
In her latest blog post, Greenwood expressed gratitude for having the ability to focus on treatment and healing, “but in some ways,” she wrote, “it has been emotionally taxing to not have work – and my savings won't last forever. I would have loved the distraction on the days that it was physically possible, but acting doesn't really work that way. You're all in, or you're out. And the logistics of cancer come first when trying to organize one's life-schedule.”
Noting that it's been the longest stretch of time she's ever stayed at home, not traveling for a project, the “Girlfriendship” star wrote, “I've had nothing but time to stew and to worry and to pull my hair out (literally), and to also find ways to learn and to ground and to hope and to laugh.”
Greenwood shared that, to feel productive each day, she made two goals for herself in 2025. First, she wrote, “to write something everyday (even just a sentence)” and, second, “to meditate everyday (even for just a minute).”
“Being able to check these tiny, achievable things off my to-do list gives me a sense of accomplishment each day, but it also helps me to fully relax,” Greenwood shared. “Like if I do just those little things I said I would do, then I can justify doing ‘nothing' else. As if one needs to justify simply existing. But I am not immune to our cultural standard of worth = productivity, even as I am trying to be more conscious of it.”
A post shared by Lyndie Greenwood (@lyndiegreenwood)
In 2021, before Greenwood landed a supporting role in her first Hallmark movie, “Every Time a Bell Rings” starring her longtime friend Erin Cahill, the actress had decided to give up on acting.
Writing on her blog that she was “miserable” and not booking any new acting jobs, Greenwood quit — and the freedom it provided seemed to usher in a new era of opportunity for her.
“I quit, and the simple act of doing so immediately brightened my mood,” she wrote. “It felt like I gained control of my life again. I had been spinning out, desperately waiting for someone to tell me I was good enough for their stupid (expletive) show (they weren't all stupid), and now I could drop all the weight of that self-judgement and shame.”
“I started teaching yoga and guiding plant walks, and I was peaceful and content for the first time maybe ever in my life,” Greenwood continued. “And just when I thought to myself that maybe I could go back to acting in a way that was healthier for me, I started getting offers. It sounds made up, I know, but it's true. Since then I have been living this way, accepting offers and doing specific audition requests, and it has lead to the most rewarding work of my career.”
In addition to “Girlfriendship” in 2022, she also co-starred with Holly Robinson Peete in “Holiday Heritage” that year. In 2023, she starred in one season of a Canadian TV show called “Shelved,” now available to stream on Tubi, and Hallmark's “Magic in Mistletoe.” In 2024, she appeared in “Crimetime: Freefall” and worked with fellow Hallmark actor Brooks Darnell on the sci-fi short “Embryo,” per IMDb.
Before Greenwood went public with her cancer journey in March 2025, there was hope from fans and online reviewers for “Crimetime: Freefall” to become a franchise. Macfarlane even told TVGoodness that director Stacey N. Harding always planned on it becoming a franchise — which is still possible once Greenwood feels well enough to act again.
“Stacey said to me right at the beginning, ‘I'm shooting this with all the preparation one would do as if they were making a pilot,'” Macfarlane told TVGoodness. “She did a wonderful job and I want it to come back. I really do. We wait and see how it does. I am certainly moving forward with the hope that we get to do it again.”
Previous
Next
About
Contact US
Privacy Policy
Terms Of Service
Editorial Guidelines
Sitemap
Copyright © 2025 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. Powered by WordPress VIP
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
As he makes his transition from “Saturday Night Live” into cinema with films like “Wicked” and Andrew Ahn's upcoming re-imagining of Ang Lee's “The Wedding Banquet,” Bowen Yang is taking time out to pay homage to the filmmakers who have shaped his tastes. Taking a quick trip to the Criterion Closet, he offered his praise to filmmakers such as Wim Wenders and Whit Stillman, but reserved his highest appreciation for the “pope of trash” himself, John Waters.
Describing Waters as “probably my favorite director ever,” Yang took home his film “Multiple Maniacs” and highlighted the filmmaker's ability to turn the “abject” into something “beautiful and elevated and filmic.”
Popular on IndieWire
Related Stories The Director of ‘A Minecraft Movie' Is OK with Chaos During Screenings: ‘People Are Making Memories' How ‘Warfare' Created the Ultimate ‘You Are There' Experience of Combat Through Sound
“What Divine and Mink Stole do in the church, kind of the most shocking thing I've ever seen,” said Yang. “I'm not a pearl-clutcher. It takes a lot to shock me. John Waters is a timeless shocker.”
Moving a little further back in time, Yang selected Joseph Mankiewicz's 1950 Oscar-winning drama, “All About Eve,” which follows Bette Davis as an aging Broadway star whose career becomes threatened by a young fan played by Anne Baxter. The conceit for the film has been revisited in many subsequent projects including Olivier Assayas' “Clouds of Sils Maria.”
“I am a gay man after all,” said Yang in choosing to highlight the classic. “Bette Davis — of course, there's, ‘Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night,' but the line for me, for some reason, has always been — I'll never forget the way she says this — it's… She turns and goes, ‘As it happens, there are certain aspects of my life to which I want the sole and exclusive rights,' or something. And then Bill says, ‘For instance, what?' ‘For instance, you.' And it's… indelible. It's burned into my brain.”
Not often getting a lot of love inside the Criterion Closet, Stillman's “The Last Days of Disco” was Yang's next choice. It stars Kate Beckinsale and Chloë Sevigny as a pair of yuppie friends who fall in and out of the New York nightclub scene during the 1980s.
“I feel like we don't talk about this movie enough, especially as it relates to a nightlife movie, which is so hard to pull off,” Yang said. “I've had fantasies about, like, doing a nightlife film in any capacity, and they're just hard to make. They're hard to write. They're hard to make feel authentic. You can't capture the feeling of going out to the club.”
Other items chosen by Yang include Jim Jarmusch's “Mystery Train,” as well as Jackie Chan's “Police Story” set. Watch Yang's entire Criterion Closet visit below.
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
It's a “Below Deck” and “Real Housewives” fans' dream come true.
On April 11, Bravo revealed in an Instagram post, “ALL CREW, ALL CREW… Little Girl! Below Deck Down Under Season 4 just started filming with a first-ever Real Housewives crossover charter featuring the full cast of #RHOSLC.”
“Captain Jason has enlisted the help of some familiar faces for the upcoming season … Daisy as Chief Stew and Chef Ben!”
The post featured a picture of Mary Cosby and Angie Katsenevas from “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City,” Captain Jason Chambers and Daisy Kelliher of “Below Deck Down Under,” and chef Ben Robinson of “Below Deck.”
Bravo producer Andy Cohen replied, “[We] have waited too long for this.”
Elena Dubaich of “Below Deck Mediterranean” wrote, “Aaaahhh EPIC does not even begin to cover this!!! HOOOOOWWW ARE WE MEANT TO WAIT A YEAR.”
A post shared by Chef Ben Robinson (@benstogram)
Robinson was a mainstay of “Below Deck” since season 1 until he departed after his fourth year on the show.
He then made an appearance on “Below Deck Mediterranean” season 4 to replace chef Mila Kolomeitseva after she failed to meet the boat's culinary expectations.
Since then, Robinson has been absent from the franchise, and he told the Mirror in 2020 just how hard working as a yacht chef was. “When I got off the first season, I said that felt like a year. I got three hours sleep a night. I didn't get a break, I just worked all the time,” he said.
The chef continued, “I would be cooking for guests until 6 a.m. after a night out, then another guest would want breakfast at 7 a.m. My position is isolated. I just had no outlet, and you were on camera all the time. It's nuts. Six weeks is a long time to be watched. It's like you're mentally in jail. It's tough, you've got to be really hardcore.”
A post shared by Chef Ben Robinson (@benstogram)
On March 20, Robinson hinted at his upcoming season of “Below Deck Down Under” and “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” crossover with a cryptic Instagram post featuring a Rubik's cube.
“Everything is solvable… #cheers #life #chef #seeyousoon #,” he wrote. Fans immediately caught on, and one replied, “You're back on Below Deck for a new season.”
Another wrote, “So looking forward to this!!”
One fan posted on X after the announcement, “Omg…I am dying to see Chef Ben again!! I think it'll be awesome to see him and Daisy work together. I want it now!!!!!”
Previous
About
Contact US
Privacy Policy
Terms Of Service
Editorial Guidelines
Sitemap
Copyright © 2025 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. Powered by WordPress VIP
It's been two years since actors Stephen Huszar and Katie Cassidy met and fell in love on the set of the Hallmark Channel's movie “A Royal Christmas Crush,” filmed in Ottawa in March 2023. So, are the love birds still together?
Both actors have confirmed in recent weeks that their romance is still going strong, with Cassidy calling Huszar her “forever and always” in a social media post on March 31, 2025. Fans were thrilled by the update, hoping the real-life Hallmark couple have found their happily ever after.
Huszar, who stars in “The Jane Mysteries” with Jodie Sweetin, told Us Weekly in June 2023 that how and why he and Cassidy fell for each other on the set of “A Royal Christmas Crush” was “sort of hard to explain.”
“I just think the more we got to know each other, we realized we're basically the same person, just in different skin,” he said. “Which was odd. I've never met someone that's so similar in ways that I am. It's been quite a journey.”
On April 8, he posted a photo of them together at the red carpet premiere of “The Handsmaid's Tale” final season and gushed, “Everyday I am so incredibly grateful to be by your side @katiecassidy.. and playing dress-up when everything seems to match is just icing on the cake! I love you so much and I'm so proud of you!❤️”
Fans and friends have loved seeing the couple's recent updates, flooding their comment sections with praise, including one who wrote on Huszar's post, “The two of you are absolutely beautiful together. Congratulations Katie . And Stephen you bring us so much joy with all your movies so very happy for you. Both 🙌❤️”
A post shared by KATIE CASSIDY (@katiecassidy)
Although Cassidy called Huszar “my forever and always” and he has called her “the love of my life,” the couple has not confirmed an engagement or wedding plans.
But in June 2024, Huszar told EntertainmentNOW that he was definitely open to walking down the aisle one day with Cassidy.
“I am open to a lot of things,” he smiled. “Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah. Certainly, certainly that's in the cards. Absolutely.”
The couple lives together and travels extensively when not working on their own projects. His thriller “Fatal Exposure” is currently streaming on Tubi, and “The Jane Mysteries: Inheritance Lost” re-airs on Hallmark Mystery on April 11 (it's also available to stream on Hallmark+). Cassidy, meanwhile, is busy filming the psychological thriller “Nanny Cam,” directed by “Jersey Shore” alum Jenni “JWoww” Farley.
Previous
Next
About
Contact US
Privacy Policy
Terms Of Service
Editorial Guidelines
Sitemap
Copyright © 2025 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. Powered by WordPress VIP
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
While finishing “Civil War,” sound designer Glenn Freemantle and supervising sound editor Ben Barker were informed by director Alex Garland that his next film — “Warfare” — based on a real-life mission in Iraq, would be even smaller and contain no music. They were all in. But little did Freemantle and Barker realize what a subjective and immersive sound experience they were in for.
The passion project of Iraq vet Ray Mendoza, who served as military advisor on “Civil War,” “Warfare” recounts the enemy surveillance mission that Mendoza was on as a young Navy SEAL communications officer that turned into an Al Qaeda ambush in Ramadi, Iraq, in 2006. Writing and directing with Garland, Mendoza took a uniquely forensic approach to the harrowing 24-hour ordeal, relying on the collective memories of everyone involved to achieve visceral authenticity.
Related Stories Bowen Yang Praises John Waters as a ‘Timeless Shocker' While in the Criterion Closet ‘The Bodyguard' Remake in the Works at Warner Bros.
“We just knew it was an absolute, brilliant opportunity for us,” Freemantle told IndieWire. “Everything was going to be realistic and in real-time. We really looked forward to going down to the set. It was a great atmosphere. It was complete military mode all day, every day, even during breaks. So you knew how it was gonna be.”
Filmed north of London in a studio set recreation of the apartment building where the platoon was deployed, “Warfare” was shot chronologically with the camera running in blocks of 12-minute takes. The platoon was taken by surprise by Al Qaeda operatives next door. The soldiers were first hit by a grenade hurled through a sniper hole in the wall, and then an IED exploded outside the building, gravely injuring medic and sniper Elliott Miller (Cosmo Jarvis), to whom the movie is dedicated, and leading petty officer Joe Hildebrand, renamed Sam (Joseph Quinn). From there, the platoon has to hold on for reinforcements to help them evacuate from the building.
Freemantle and Barker had many conversations with Mendoza about the sounds of the gunfire “Everything was real and the knowledge we got from Ray was unbelievable about how their perception of sound was, their perception of the bullets,” Barker told IndieWire.
“Like the snap that you hear was really important,” Freemantle added. “Because they hear the snap before they hear the bang. Ray was very specific about the sound of the snap, which was the bullet passing overhead, and that was his sound memory.”
“And Ray's team are reacting to that snap sound,” added Barker. “And you'll hear it quite a lot during the film. And whenever there's a snap, they would then turn and fire and fire and fire. And that would be the key. So whenever there's a volume of fire from the U.S. troops, that's when they were moving. It was always short, sharp taps of the weapon.
At Mendoza's request, they provided realistic sound effects that were piped in through the PA system during the shoot to enhance the realism for the actors. “On the first few takes [Mendoza and Garland] didn't let them know that the shots or bangs or explosions were going to happen,” Barker said.
Freemantle and Barker went to Czechoslovakia to shoot live rounds of ammo, piecing together every separate element within the gunshot. They shot live ammo through metal doors and through walls. “Everything was how it should be and the sounds of the airplanes coming above and firing,” said Freemantle. “We actually had previous recordings of the correct jets, so we were lucky to use those sounds again. But from Ray's memory was the sound of the sonic boom. That's when you really feel the impact of that noise. And Ray said, ‘I think that sound is slightly a bit too early.' From his perception of where they were, it was right down to those sort of details.”
It all began with the surprise of the IED explosion in the apartment. This was the concussive blast that set the warfare in motion. Each soldier responded differently like they were in their own individual fog of war.
“Again, Ray gave us such knowledge: a grenade had a certain crack sound or a bigger boom sound for the IED,” Freemantle said. “So we got good insight into how that sounded. And then we started to build up different layers to do that. So it was getting that really tight sound on the IED impact, the metal, and the phosphorus. And the weight, how the sound wave would hit them, and the air pressure as well, not only in that moment, but it was also when the guns fired.
“The perception of how they heard these things was quite interesting,” Freemantle continued. “So doing it from the perspective of not just seeing into the film but how each one perceived things as it was happening, was part of a massive thing.”
In terms of the mix (particularly for Dolby Atmos and IMAX), it was a special immersion in which every sound was created with precision and accuracy. In fact, there's one scene where Mendoza is overwhelmed by the radios coming on all at once while they're under attack. “They're on the left, then right, left, right, left, right,” Freemantle said. “Basically, it's from inside his ears and it's driving him insane.
“You can say there's no music, but that moment does a musical thing,” Freemantle continued. “It carries you with those radios flying around and everything to that moment of silence again. That took a long time to get to that point. And a lot of work beforehand to get those radios to work.”
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
By
David Fear
In 1972, ABC aired an exposé on the Willowbrook State School in Staten Island, New York, which had been accused of abusing and neglecting its intellectually challenged wards. A young, hungry investigative reporter named Geraldo Rivera took a camera crew inside the institution, and gave the country a firsthand look at the appalling conditions the underage patients were forced to endure. Thousands upon thousands of viewers reacted with shock, anger and demands for Willowbrook to close its doors forever. Two of them, sitting in a cluttered apartment in Greenwich Village, decided to put on two benefit concerts to help these children out.
The resulting double-shot of Madison Square Garden shows that took place August 30th, 1972 — organized by and featuring recent NYC émigrés John Lennon and Yoko Ono — have become legendary for being the last full live shows that the former Beatle would perform. When ABC broadcast the concert, however, the reaction was mixed; Live in New York City, the 1986 album and video release of the event, did little to burnish its reputation. But Sean Lennon had long wanted to remaster the recordings, knowing that these shows played a huge part in the legacy of his parents. It was also a pivot point in Lennon and Ono's relationship to both the city they now called home and the political radicalization they'd experienced since moving to downtown New York the previous year. The concert deserved a second chance. And the context leading up to that night in the summer of '72 deserved a much deeper look.
Named after the benefit shows, One to One: John & Yoko focuses on the couple's first few years in NYC, when they moved into a small, one-bedroom apartment at 105 Bank Street, befriended activists such as Jerry Ruben and John Sinclair, spent a lot of time watching TV, and begin figuring out how to live a post-Beatles life. (It opens in a special IMAX run this weekend, before going wide on April 18th.) Directed by Oscar-winner Kevin Macdonald — who's also made docs on Bob Marley and Whitney Houston — it utilizes a huge amount of their home movies, personal phone recordings (which a justifiably paranoid Lennon taped because he believed he was being surveilled by the FBI) and a lot of largely unseen archival footage. Macdonald also painstakingly recreated the couple's Greenwich Village flat, down to the debris strewn out on the floor. If you've ever wanted to hang out in a bohemian crash pad in the early '70s, or listen in on Lennon arguing with manager Allen Klein about an Attica benefit or the couple's assistant May Pang negotiate with a fly wrangler for Yoko's art exhibits, you'll feel like you've gone to Plastic Ono Heaven.
Editor's picks
The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time
The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time
Yet the idea, the director says, was not to simply add to the already overflowing Beatles Nonfiction Industrial Complex so much as shed light as what he believes is one of the most crucial, transformative periods of John and Yoko's life together. “Why not try to give someone a look back that's more experiential,” he said, “and let them see what life was like for this couple, in this city, at this time?”
Over the course of two conversations — one at the Sundance Film Festival in January, where One to One played in the fest's “Spotlight” section, and one in Los Angeles in February — Macdonald opened up about why he was initially reluctant to make the movie, how they managed to reconstruct Lennon and Ono's apartment, the idea that this project is as much about the present as it is the past, and why it helped him see both of these iconic figures in a whole new light. The interviews have been edited for length and clarity.
You were approached by Mercury Studios with the idea of just doing a concert film, right?I was actually approached by Peter Worsley, who's the producer who had spent a long time getting the rights to use the concert. Mercury were already attached at that time.Were they in the process of remastering the audio at that point?Basically, the order of things is that Sean Lennon wanted to remaster the audio [of the “One to One” concert], which was terribly recorded. I don't know if you've seen any of clips of what was originally broadcast; there are a few on YouTube from the videotape release of the show they did in 1986. It was never given a proper re-release or whatever, because the quality wasn't great and I think the family felt like it wasn't a fair representation of John. So only in the last few years did they think that, with the current technology and the incredible advances in digital remixing, that they could isolate the different tracks sufficiently enough to do a proper remix of it. My understanding is that he was in the process of remixing the show, and Peter and Mercury said, “Oh, we should make a film to put this in its context.”So like a concert film with benefits?Something like that. When they came to me, they asked: Do you want to do a film about this concert? And I looked at the original footage, and thought, No, this looks and sounds terrible. It wasn't until they took me to where it was being remixed, and I heard what they were able to do with it, that I was like, Wow. Okay. There's something here.
Related Content
He Said He Wanted a Revolution. He Tried to Find It in New York
'It's Funny How People Are Intimidated by Him': Daryl Hannah on Her New Neil Young Doc and More
George Harrison's Quiet Love Affair With Formula One
Beatles Biopics Reveal Fab Four Casting, 2028 Release Date
I was nervous about making another John Lennon or Beatles film, to be honest. I was 13 when Lennon died, and I grew up obsessed with him. Admittedly, there was part of me that thought, “Oh, it's my childhood dream, to make a film about John Lennon.” But how do you do something different? There's just been so much said and done. And then I thought, why not try to give the audience something that isn't just, “Here are the facts, laid out in front of you. Here are more of the people you've seen a million times, if you're a Lennon fan, talking about these things. Enjoy!” Why not try to give someone a look back that's bit more experiential, and let them see what life was like for this couple, in this city, at this time?
The 18 months that you're concentrating on is really fertile ground, because no one has really dug into that period this intensely before, have they?It happens to be very fertile if you're taking the approach that we've taken, yeah. When you look at the home movies, the photos, the shards of their shared life that are left behind in the attic — this is the period you want to do it in. Because they had their own cameras. They had their own film crews who often went with them when they were out at protests, or they're doing the exhibitions. They recorded their phone calls. So this is probably the only period in his life, I think, where there's enough material that you could pull this approach off.It fills in the gaps of the traditional narrative, which always felt like: “John and Yoko came to New York. There was a lost weekend. He came back. And then they moved into Dakota, John started baking bread…”“And then he was murdered.” Which leaves a lot of vital stuff out! That's what I found so interesting. The more you dig into this period, the more you understand just how transformative this period was for both of them, but especially for John. This is when he's going from being the guy who was a Beatle and is being hounded to death, and whose wife's is being unfairly blamed for breaking up this band, to being the peacenik John Lennon of the 1970s. This is when he's trying to figure out: Who am I? How do I reinvent myself? How should I use my power? How should I be relating to Yoko, and women and feminism in general? And because we had access to this great material, it feels intimate in a way that's unique. I don't think the world's biggest Beatles fans will learn loads of new stuff. I just want them to feel like they've hung out with John and Yoko.
How much about this period of John and Yoko's life did you know going in, or was this a pretty steep learning curve?It was a steep learning curve because, finally, because… I was a big fan, but, for instance, I did not know about Kyoko [Ono Cox, Yoko's daughter]. How is it possible that I've read so many books on Lennon, and I did not know this? I've been amazed how many real big, nerdy fans didn't seem to know about her and the struggle John and Yoko went through in relation to her, either. It's such a defining thing in their lives. It's one of the main reasons they've really come to America — to look for her. They know that she's been kidnapped by Yoko's ex-husband. They're sending out private detectives. And most importantly, it makes you understand Yoko a lot better. This is a woman who's actually mourning for the loss of her child, and who, in that beautiful song at the end —The “Age 39” song … [“Looking Over From My Hotel Window,” from Ono's 1973 album Approximately Infinite Universe]— She's s talking about being heartbroken by losing a child, and she's asking the question, “Am I a bad mother? Was it right that she was taken away from me?” And that makes me care for Yoko and see her in a light that I hadn't considered before, you know?
In the film, the moment where you highlight that song comes right after you've shown Lennon performing “Mother.” It's almost like the two songs are in conversation with each other.Well, I think you could argue that the theme of this film — or one of the themes, in my opinion — is about children and unhappy childhoods. Lennon has always talked about the fact that his mother was killed had left him with a chip on shoulder, and it's probably the thing that drove him to be who he is. Not to mention the difficult character that we know he could be! And Yoko is searching for the child she's lost. So when they both see the Willowbrook footage, and they see those children in pain, that's why I think that they have this huge outpouring of empathy for them.
I think Yoko specifically says, when they're asked why they're doing this benefit concert for Willowbrook, “As a mother…”Yes! And that's why it seemed appropriate to end it with Sean's birth at the end. Because it's kind of like, it's this moment of completion, in a way. They are ready to devote this energy to being a family. I also find the Willowbrook story is just so incredible. I think some people know about the news report that exposed the conditions there, and Lennon fans know about the concert, but I don't know that the connection between the two is well-known.
I'm just curious, because Lennon's “Lost Weekend” has become such a massive part of his history, and feels like a key part of John & Yoko's story as a couple, why there's no mention of it at all here, even though you end on their reconciliation and Sean's birth?Well, to be honest, it's less about not wanting to get into that split and more about the structure of the film. Which was: They move into that apartment, they move out of that apartment. I deliberately felt like, I'm not going to bring in stuff from earlier and I'm not going to bring in stuff from later. This is their life in New York; I'm not going to do an extra chapter on him in Los Angeles. I was restricting myself formally. I'm not interviewing anyone. Other than the montages that represent what John and Yoko were watching on TV during that period, I'm not bringing in outside material. It was really, what does this archive tell us about their lives during this concentrated period?
It was also about the recordings and footage I was working with as well. If I had had phone calls of her yelling at him and whatever, I would have put it in. If I had had great material on the Lost Weekend from John and Yoko's perspective, I probably would have extended the period covered in the film a little bit. I don't think the estate would have minded, to be honest — trust me, I've had my battles with musical estates before over material. But they were extremely generous and very hands-off overall. It was really down to, John and Yoko move into the into 105 Bank Street in October 1971, they move out in April 1973, and that's the movie. The only thing I have from after that period is them arriving at the Dakota, it's half-empty and he's playing the piano, and that's the end of the movie. I felt like you needed one small moment of their continuing life in New York after that tumultuous period of them arriving and finding their footing.
Did the estate have veto power on stuff?They gave me access to everything they had, so if there was something controversial they had been sitting on and there was some sort of idea that they could say “No” to stuff later, I wasn't aware of it. When I told Sean my original idea, his immediate response was: “My mother would love this idea! Go ahead and do it.” As someone who's a musician himself and a creative person, he loved the fact that it was playful and creative and not just a document of a performance, or reducing things to “John was this, Yoko was that.” But he did say something interesting to me. After I showed him a cut, he said “This is the only film I've seen that captures who my mother really was.” So that felt good to hear.
Let's talk about recreating the Bank Street apartment, and how you convinced your wife [production designer Tatiana Macdonald] to come out of retirement to do it?[Laughs] She'd retired about three years prior to us starting the documentary, and originally, I mentioned this idea to recreate the Bank Street apartment with as much fidelity as we could, and she thought, well, that doesn't sound like it would be that bad. You know, a couple working on a movie about a couple: “It'd be nice to work together.” And by the end of it, she was very much like, “Yeah, I remember why I retired now.” She said it was the hardest thing she's ever had to do.
I'm impressed that you're still married.I am, too. [Laughs] The thing is, when you're making a movie about a fictional pop star of the 1970s, you can decorate that star's apartment however you want, so long as it's period accurate. But we got a list of all the books and records and everything that was in their place, because the archive was so well-catalogued. And the actual apartment they lived in was just about to be demolished, plus the insurance rates of getting things over to where we'd built the apartment to exact specifications in England was prohibitively expensive. So we had to rely on a lot of problem-solving. For example, we had that quilt on their bed remade by hand — the real one still exists, but to get it shipped over from the United Sates was going to cost too much. We managed to get the guitars from collectors in the U.K. We had to go to Poland to find the exact amp Lennon had at the time. We couldn't find the exact TV they had, so we had to rebuild one from various components.
But you had the real blueprint of the apartment and photographs to work from?Yes, except there actually aren't a lot of photographs of the apartment itself — I mean, we probably had every one in existence, but there aren't that many. From what we had, however, we were able to recreate every bit of clutter, from the newspapers stuffed into the end of the bed to everything that's lying around on the floor. It was a pretty messy place, and I'm awe of the way my wife made you think you were walking into this messy apartment that had been preserved for the last 50 years.
There's also a big emphasis on what John and Yoko were watching on TV during that time frame.I just thought, Okay, this is going to be about their experience of America through television. John famously about his love for TV, and how they spent so much of those early years in that apartment taking in this view of America through the lens of TV. Keep in mind that in Britain, you had three channels, and everything switched off at midnight every night. Also, there was virtually no programming on in the afternoon. Then suddenly you're in a country like this fucking crazy proliferation of 120 channels. My grandparents are American, so I spent a good deal of time in the United States as a kid. And I just would spend my time in front of their television going click click, click, and looking at all the different things that were on. I thought with him being British, John obviously felt that same thing. There are lots of photographs of them meeting people in that apartment, everyone's sitting on that big bed, and the TV is on in the background. So I thought, let's make that place the center of the film. What's ironic is that television is partially responsible for them becoming more politicized, as they're seeing what America is up against, but —— It's also responsible for Lennon becoming extremely disillusioned about the idea of a rock star trying to change the world, which you emphasize by putting coverage of Nixon's election win in 1972 into the movie.Exactly! The fact that the newscaster is emphasizing not just that Nixon took the popular vote, he had something like 53% of the youth vote — that gutted Lennon, I think. And it's so weird how so much of what he's going through in the film resonates so much with the political situation right now. Isn't it so weird?
You read a lot about George Wallace's presidential campaign, but you kind of forget about just how populist his speeches were. And when the footage of them comes up in One to One and you hear them now…They sound very familiar, don't they. This is this sort of history on some sort of rinse and repeat cycle. What's struck me is that, as we were taking this film around on the festival circuit, a lot of young audiences, a lot of viewers in their teens and early 20s, have really responded to the film. There were post-screening Q&As where they said to me, this feels like this is about our world. There was a lot of that, as well: My God, I didn't know celebrities could be so politically engaged, and actually be on the front line and be at marches, and so on.
The entire idea of the connection between celebrity engagement and activism — using fame for “good” — is a huge part of the film, right? Yes. It's a big part of Lennon's “second act,” I guess you'd call it.
After spending years sifting through this material and thinking about Lennon's political radicalization, do you feel like the relationship between Lennon and Jerry Ruben was totally transactional, or do you feel that's too simplistic?That's now kind of the accepted understanding of their relationship, though, isn't it? That Ruben was using Lennon, and Lennon's using him. But Lennon is also quite naïve about so much of what's happening. I think you really hear that on the recordings of his phone calls with Allen Klein. They become quite hilarious after a while. But I think that John — throughout his life, but particularly in this period — is trying to figure out who he is and what do you once you've been a Beatle? You know, you're 31 years old and one of the most famous people in the world. What the hell do you do next? How do you use that? Where do you go from there?
I think he comes to this conclusion that political radicals are the new rock stars, and he's trying to figure out if Jerry is actually somebody who can teach him about political activism. I think the enthusiasm with which he embraces Ruben and brings him into the band, and when they're gonna do this whole idea of going on that “Free the People” tour. When he becomes part of the effort to free John Sinclair, he gets a taste of, Oh, maybe we actually can change the world. Then he becomes disillusioned politically, and rejects Jerry over the idea of political violence being some sort of end game.“But if you talk about destruction, then don't you know that you can count me out.”[Laughs] It's right there in the song! We actually toyed with adding “Revolution” into the film at one point, possibly as an end track. I don't want to say it felt a little too on the nose, but….Good call.When you have access to the full catalogue of Lennon's music, it's tempting to put a lot of songs in. There's a very kid-in-a-candy-store feeling that comes over you. I think the only Beatles track we use is “Come Together,” which makes a lot more sense. And I think in the version we use, he not talking about the Beatles coming together but about everyone coming together to make things work. Getting back to the disillusionment factor… yeah, I think John felt that the movement was a failure. And then he eventually figures out that hey, I can do something about making the world a better place — which is, you know, raise money for these kids.
The “One to One” show did a lot to help raise both money and awareness for the institution, correct? Even if Lennon never performed a full solo concert again, he felt like this was both a personal and professional success?Yeah, it was a success in terms of raising money for the cause. But the reaction threw him a little bit, I think. When the reviews came back after ABC had broadcasted the show, the sort of general feeling was: Why does this look so bad? Why does this sound so muddy? And why the hell isn't he playing all the Beatles' tunes?! Those were the measures it was being judged on at the time. Which is insane, because you watch the footage now, and you see that he's so fucking good onstage up there, and so charismatic and entertaining, you really do think, “Why the hell didn't he do this more?”
Did you ever come up with an answer for that?Lennon himself said that he was suffering from stage fright during the show, which is partially why I think he never really did a full concert again. But I also think that when he saw the reviews tearing it apart, he thought, I'm not going to put myself through this if they can't appreciate what I'm trying to say up there. I will say that this was the one instance in which I seriously considered breaking the rule about not bringing in something from outside of the estate. If I'd found a TV interview where John had discussed his feelings about the show, I would have loved to have used that. We could only find written reviews from the New York Times and such, and I didn't just want to cut to a static headline.
Speaking of which: Can you talk a little bit about the way you visualized the phone calls, with that combination of the recordings and text on the screen?The idea was always that the more textures we have in the film, the better. And I thought that it's quite nice to take a break from the sort of the mayhem of all the archival stuff. So obviously, the conventional way to do it would be, you'd play those recordings over a clip of period footage, right? But I thought that actually, you want an audience to concentrate on what's being said and not be distracted. So we kept it simple. Plus there's enough wit and fun in all that back and forth that the conversations do engage you on their own. Not to mention that you're eavesdropping on these monumental figures. It's kind of like, Oh, I'm getting to hear Lennon talk to Allen Klein about organizing a tour or listen in on Yoko's assistant speaking to a gallery owner about one of her upcoming shows. This is kind of fascinating.
You learn so much about flies.Honestly, there were so many fucking calls about the flies. It went on and on. I've just got a tiny proportion of them in there. It's sort of shaggy dog story, isn't it? But it totally makes narrative sense.
Trending Stories
Are Em Dashes Really a Sign of AI Writing?
Team Trump Is Gaming Out How to Ship U.S. Citizens to El Salvador
Menendez Brothers Prevail at Key Hearing, Resentencing Bid Will Proceed
Lady Gaga Proves Why She's a Once-in-a Generation Pop Icon During Coachella Set
Go on.Well, again, everyone had this idea of who Yoko was or is. But first and foremost, she's a real artist, who was very well-known in that world before she met John. And she's the sort of dedicated artist that is totally fixated on something like, “I have this idea, I want to have flies calling over a naked woman,” for whatever reason. What did that mean? I don't know what it meant. But then why should it mean anything? It's installation art, isn't it?! And to hear them debating the logistics of keeping these flies alive is hilarious, but it's also insightful. This is part of being a conceptual artist.
I should say, it took a while to clean up the recordings — they were old, the quality wasn't great and because everyone was talking so fast, it made it impossible to hear things clearly. But like I said earlier, it's amazing what technology can do nowadays, and once we started going through them… I mean, it's a gold mine. To hear Yoko talking about what she went through in London, and the way she was treated, it's like, Well, of course they had to get out of London. Of course they had to come to a place where people weren't going fixate on them in that way. And that was New York City. That was they actually felt like they could be at home.
We want to hear it. Send us a tip using our anonymous form.
Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2025 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.
The superstar headlined the festival's first night, leaning heavily on Mayhem material and leaving fans with much to dissect.
By
Lyndsey Havens
Almost a decade ago, in 2017, Lady Gaga headlined Coachella — but not on purpose. The superstar stepped in to replace Beyoncé, who had then just revealed her pregnancy to the public. Beyoncé returned to headline the festival in 2018 but tonight, on the first night of Coachella 2025, it was Gaga's turn. And this time, everything was intentional.
On Friday (April 11), Gaga celebrated “Mayhem In the Desert” — as her own on-site merchandise pop-up teased — with a spellbinding and ominous set. Titled “The Art Of Personal Chaos,” the two-hour show may have been disguised as a concert, but what took place was nothing short of a carefully crafted commentary on fame and performance — and the toll of keeping both up.Or, as two Gagas from different eras said on screens bookending the stage, staring at one another but speaking to the masses: “This is the manifesto of mayhem.”
It's a fitting concept for a headlining show that follows an album of the same name; Gaga's Mayhem arrived in March and debuted atop the Billboard 200. And for an artist like Lady Gaga, it's a concept that is rich in inspiration. It seems she was so inspired, in fact, that the only way to clearly organize and present her ideas was through five distinct acts, including an anticipated finale — but all seamlessly woven together thanks to stunning and challenging choreography from Parris Goebel. And, of course, Gaga's catalog.
Trending on Billboard
Her set naturally leaned heavy on new material, especially since her Coachella gigs across the festival's two weekends unofficially kick-off her upcoming The Mayhem Ball tour. But the way in which Gaga reimagined or perhaps recontextualized some of her older hits made them feel impressively fresh and forced fans to reexamine the idea of fame – all the while spotlighting Gaga's genius.
Fame is a concept that has long fascinated the artist — hell, she named her debut album The Fame. And it featured breakout hit “Paparazzi.” It doesn't get more on-the-nose than that. While Mayhem dives back into the familiar subject, it does so in an unfamiliar fashion by bringing a gritty and industrial edge to Gaga's electro-pop.
That sonic universe came to life on Coachella's main stage, with an expansive set design that depicted an opera house — though it looked just as much like a medieval castle hosting a demonic rave (feeding into another of Gaga's taglines for the weekend: “Dance or die”).
The entire performance felt like a living, breathing entity — in large part because Gaga wore a headset, which captured each and every controlled breath she took. But also because of the storyline, which across its five acts revisited various Lady Gagas of the past — all of whom, as the show proved, are still very much alive in Gaga despite being dormant. Or, in the case of this performance, despite being left for dead.
In Act 1: Velvet and Vice, fans are greeted by present-day Gaga wearing a black bob. And yet, she opens with “Bloody Mary,” a song off 2011's Born This Way. The rest of the act continued to balance old and new, sandwiching “Judas” between Mayhem tracks “Abracadabra” and “Garden of Eden” before ending with The Fame standout “Poker Face.” For the lattermost's performance, Gaga simulated a high-stakes chess game — one that felt reminiscent of the infamous Wizard's Chess scene from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Only here, Gaga is playing against herself — and it's present-day Gaga who prevails.
After declaring, “off with her head,” to a fallen blonde Gaga of decades past, her vision for this show snaps into focus as the acts that follow examine the darker sides of fame. In Act 2: And She Fell Into a Gothic Dream, the slain blonde Gaga is seen buried among skeletons — only she's very much alive. Both she and the corpses next to her slowly come alive — including another past Gaga, this one from 2009 wearing a red lace bodysuit reminiscent of the one she wore to the Video Music Awards that year.
Act 2 fittingly opens with “Perfect Celebrity,” which is followed by “Disease” and a stunning, stripped-back rendition of “Paparazzi” that serves as the emotional arch of the entire set — sensing the theme? “Sometimes I feel like I went into a dream when I was 20 years old… and I didn't know if I wanted to wake up, because what if you weren't there?” Gaga asked of her fans, still as her blonde self.
Her question begged another: Is fame the byproduct of a co-dependent relationship between artist and fan?
Enter Act 3: The Beautiful Nightmare That Knows Her Name. Accompanied by Mayhem collaborator Gesaffelstein, Gaga ripped into “Killah” and “Zombieboy,” tossing in a condensed “Die With a Smile” (her chart-topping collaboration with Bruno Mars) before returning to more recent releases with “How Bad Do U Want Me.” In Act 4: To Wake Her Is To Lose Her, Gaga returns to her new form, black bob and all.
Before performing the lively “Born This Way” — which felt like it could be the finale, complete with a firework display — Gaga told the crowd: “You are who you choose to be, you always will be.” And as Gaga showed all night long, each and every version of herself got here where she stands today — they are all her. And they always will be. But that doesn't mean she chooses them any more.
As a parting gift, for a set that prioritzed new music and storytelling over the hits, Gaga performed the soaring “Shallow” alone at the piano, positioned at the end of the stage's runway. As she surveyed the packed field, she mused, “As far as I can see, there's people everywhere….I hope one day I'll just vanish right into you.” She then performed “Vanish Into You” while walking alongside fans pressed against the barricades, stopping to hold hands and even sing into their faces as she made her way back to the stage. And true to her word, she soon after disappeared.
Minutes passed and the stage lights remained dim – but on. As some attendees started to peel off, the majority remained firmly planted, trusting Mother Monster wouldn't leave them like that. Sure enough, after five minutes it was time for the final act: Finale: Eternal Aria Of the Monster Heart.
“We are monsters – and monsters never die,” said Gaga, before ending with an extended version of “Bad Romance.” And after the last two hours of such high-value, intentional performance art, the song took on new meaning. “I want your love,” sang Gaga, as she had so many times before. Only tonight, it felt like a direct plea to her fans. “You know that I want you, you know that I need you,” she continued.
And while at times fame, and all that comes with it, may feel like Gaga is stuck in a bad love story, tonight she made it her own. Tonight, she delivered a poignant and entertaining take on what it means to be a superstar — and did so while further solidifying her own role as one of the biggest.
Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox
A daily briefing on what matters in the music industry
Send us a tip using our anonymous form.
A daily briefing on what matters in the music industry
Send us a tip using our anonymous form.
Billboard is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2025 Billboard Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
By
Tomás Mier
Gothic gargoyles appeared, lights dimmed, and the crowd chanted the prima donna's name at the desert operahouse. It was Friday night at Coachella and Lady Gaga was about to tell the story of Mayhem — and give the performance of a lifetime.
Over two hours and four acts, Gaga brought to life the inner battle between two sides of herself: lightness (an angelic, innocent Gaga monster with blonde hair) and darkness (the shadowier “lady in red” she sings about in “Abracadabra”).
In the first act of her headlining Coachella set, she took the stage while wearing a massive, three-story dress and performed “Bloody Mary,” embracing the new life given to the Born This Way favorite on TikTok. Then came “Abracadabra,” where she channeled a Victorian-era opera singer in a dark parallel universe. Fittingly, next came “Judas,” which saw Gaga deliver the original choreography from the uproar-provoking video.
“How you feeling tonight… welcome to my house of mayhem,” Gaga said, addressing the crowd for the first time after a “Scheiße” interlude and “Garden of Eden.”
Popular on Rolling Stone
She ended the first act with a direct face-off between her evil and good sides to the beat of “Poker Face” from her mid-crowd B stage — seemingly killing off Gaga of Light. But fear not: By the second act, she had risen, literally crawling out of a pile of dirt in a corseted white dress, surrounded by dancers in skull masks, who moved to “Perfect Celebrity.” It seemed to be a poignant, yet clear acknowledgement that the only way stars reach perfection is once they've left us.
“I love you so much. I wanted to make a romantic gesture to you this year amid these times of mayhem. I decided to build you an opera house in the desert,” Gaga told the audience in a touching speech before “Alejandro.” “For all the love and all the joy and all the strength you've given me my whole life. Sometimes I feel like it went into a dream when I was like 20 years old and I've been in a dream ever since then. I didn't know if I wanted to wake up… what if you weren't there?”
Editor's picks
The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time
The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far
For the third act, Gesaffelstein took the stage adding his futuristic allure to a performance set centuries before. He DJed during “Killah,” which Gaga performed in a silver and royal blue leotard reminiscent of her first “Just Dance” performances. (She told Rolling Stone she was most excited to play that song live.)
On “Zombieboy,” it felt like Gaga was channeling a Wednesday Addams-esque narrative, twirling alongside skeletons with her dancers. By the end, some of the provocative moves with the rattling bone piles will likely fuel criticism from the usual close-minded detractors.
Throughout the performance, Gaga gently sprinkled in the must-dos that might not have fit her concert storyline, like a shortened “Die with a Smile” and tear-jerking performance of “Shallow” that brought out human Gaga.
“You are who you choose to be. You always will be and thank you for teaching me something,” she said to the crowd before blowing a kiss to one special person in the audience: her fiancé Michael Polansky. “Babe I love you,” she said. “And thank you for bringing me my man,” she said to the crowd.
Most touching of all was Lady Gaga high-fiving and embracing her little monsters who just wanted to receive Mother's blessing. She took her time celebrating her fans while singing “Vanish into You,” dedicating the track to those in the crowd who survived 100-degree desert hell to see her. Ask anyone: It was worth it.
Trending Stories
Team Trump Is Gaming Out How to Ship U.S. Citizens to El Salvador
Are Em Dashes Really a Sign of AI Writing?
Menendez Brothers Prevail at Key Hearing, Resentencing Bid Will Proceed
Lady Gaga Proves Why She's a Once-in-a Generation Pop Icon During Coachella Set
For the grand finale, Gaga took the stage as a feathered angel, revived from the afterlife, all while “Bad Romance” began to play and colorful fireworks exploded in the background. “We are monsters, and monsters never die,” read a message onscreen. Gaga's Mayhem didn't end in tragedy: Both light and dark will always exist within Gaga. It's up to her who she'll embrace.
Gaga's storytelling — creative-directed with Parris Goebel — was transformative, and a spectacle that cemented her status as a once-in-a-lifetime pop icon.
We want to hear it. Send us a tip using our anonymous form.
Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2025 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.
Donald Trump and his White House have moved to deport green-card holders for espousing pro-Palestinian views, shipped hundreds of migrants to a notorious Salvadoran mega-prison without due process (in defiance of a judge's order), and are now publicly musing about sending United States citizens to prison in El Salvador.
Trump said last weekend he would “love” to send American criminals there — and would even be “honored” to, depending on “what the law says.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed this week that the president has discussed this idea privately, too, adding he would only do this “if it's legal.” El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele, has for months been offering to hold U.S. citizens in his country's prison system, which he has turned into “a judicial black hole” rife with “systematic torture,” as one human rights advocate recently told Rolling Stone.
Legal experts agree that sending American citizens to prison in El Salvador would be flagrantly illegal under both U.S. and international law — and that the idea itself is shockingly authoritarian, with few parallels in our nation's history.
The Trump administration is indeed discussing this idea behind the scenes, two sources familiar with the matter confirmed to Rolling Stone. In their most serious form, these conversations have revolved around attempting to denaturalize American citizens and deport them to other countries, including El Salvador.
“You can't deport U.S. citizens. There's no emergency exception, there's no special wartime authority, there's no secret clause. You just can't deport citizens,” says Steve Vladeck, a legal commentator and law professor at Georgetown. “Whatever grounds they try to come up with for denaturalization or expatriation, the one thing that is absolutely undeniable is that people are entitled to individualized processes, before that process can be effectuated.”
Editor's picks
The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time
The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time
In the United States, the grounds to strip a naturalized individual of their citizenship encompass serious material offenses. They include: committing treason or terrorism, enlisting in a foreign military engaged in opposition to the United States, or lying in applications for citizenship or as part of the naturalization process.
Experts say any effort from the Trump administration to denaturalize citizens is unlikely to succeed in court. “Denaturalization is not an easy process,” says Sirine Shebaya, executive director of the National Immigration Project. “To the extent that there is Supreme Court precedent on it … nobody has been inclined to give expansive powers to strip people of their citizenship without any kind of due process. So that is a place where it feels a little bit more like an aspirational effort or something that's more about sowing fear in communities, and making people feel insecure, and making people from certain parts of the world feel like they're not welcome here.”
Stephen Yale-Loehr, a retired immigration law professor at Cornell University, tells Rolling Stone he worries Trump could try to deport citizens anyway, court precedent be damned, given how the administration seems to be “attacking on all fronts and worrying later whether their actions are legal. So unfortunately, it would not surprise me if we saw at least one plane load of incarcerated U.S. citizens being shipped off to El Salvador.”
Shortly after stepping back into office, Trump personally directed at least one lawyer working in his administration to look into deporting American citizens via denaturalization processes, telling aides that it is a “good idea” for certain cases, according to one of the sources, who is a Trump appointee. In one of his many Day One executive orders, Trump instructed his administration to move on cases described in a federal statute regarding “revocation of naturalization.”
Related Content
Trump Says He Will 'Respect' SCOTUS Decision to Return Man He Mistakenly Deported
White House Is Pressing for Xi to Call Trump as China Trade War Spirals: Report
Trump Wants to 'Terminate' Legal Immigrants' Social Security Numbers
Supreme Court Rules 9-0 That Trump Has to Bring Back Man Accidentally Sent to El Salvador
Several of Trump's most important advisers, including White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, continue to internally advocate for mass-denaturalization initiatives that they believe were squandered in Trump's first stint in the Oval Office.
For instance, the sources add, Trump administration officials have discussed possibly denaturalizing and deporting activists and other individuals whom they label as having committed so-called “fraud” on their applications for citizenship by subsequently supporting what Team Trump decides are “pro-terrorist” causes or groups — similar to the specious arguments they've made to justify stripping pro-Palestine student activists of their green cards or visas.
According to these sources, Trump administration attorneys and some senior appointees have also discussed potential legal justifications and technicalities they can exploit for denaturalizing citizens who are accused or convicted of certain crimes, especially if the Justice Department or other offices deems their offenses to be gang-related.
The administration has already tried to justify deporting Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act — the notorious 1798 law used to justify the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II — by claiming the men had ties to gangs. As CBS News' 60 Minutes has reported, the vast majority of the men who were sent to El Salvador “have no apparent criminal convictions or even criminal charges.” Some of the allegations appear to have been based entirely on the migrants' completely anodyne tattoos and apparel.
In recent weeks, largely due to the president's influence, some of the discussions among Trump officials and administration lawyers have touched on the idea of potentially sending some of these denaturalization targets to brutal facilities in El Salvador, the sources add.
“It's not like we would send everybody there — but depending on the case, it can be an option,” says one of the people familiar with the matter, adding that “this is a standard process of exploring legal options, as all administrations do one way or another.”
What's to stop the administration from using the same pretext they used to send people to El Salvador — and claiming “that these U.S. citizens are the worst offenders?” asks Kica Matos, president of the National Immigration Law Center. “They could start engaging in the same kind of pretextual deportation of people, for whom the offenses at the end of the day might have something to do with what you say, how you live your life, what tattoos you have on your body.”
She adds that “this is all about this administration testing the bounds of the law and trying to consolidate their power by advancing unconstitutional laws and policies, starting with immigrants.”
There are some influential figures in Trump's orbit — a number of whom the president himself listens to and solicits advice from — who want him to use the hammer of state and executive power to do something big and truly unprecedented.
Mike Davis, a close Trump ally and a fixture among the MAGA legal elite, tells Rolling Stone, “I have advocated very publicly that if you are a current Hamas supporter and you were naturalized within the last 10 years, the Justice Department should move forward with denaturalization proceedings to get them the hell out of our country. Denaturalization has been on the books for a very long time. If you lie on your citizenship application, denaturalization is a consequence.”
When asked if there is any precedent in the last several decades for this kind of crackdown effort, he replies: “I hope this is groundbreaking. I hope Trump and his team are trail blazers on this. Hamas supporters can go to hell and in the meantime they need to get the hell out of our country.”
Though he declined to get into his private conversations with Trump or his administration officials, Davis says: “The president and his team appreciate both my private and public recommendations.”
It would not be Trump's first attempt to carry out a broad denaturalization policy. In February of 2020, the first Trump administration authorized the creation of a “Denaturalization Section” under the Civil Division of the Department of Justice aimed at — according to a DOJ press release — bringing “justice to terrorists, war criminals, sex offenders, and other fraudsters who illegally obtained naturalization.”
The program was not shuttered by the Biden administration — which instead deprioritized it to the point of obscurity — but its structure and priorities reflect the current playbook that Trump officials are using to justify their disregard for civil rights law in their immigration agenda. The Trump administration's assertions that the hundreds of migrants it dumped in El Salvador's prison system were hardened criminals affiliated with transnational gangs and terrorist groups were shaky to begin with, and have continued to crumble in the weeks since their deportations.
Clashes with federal courts — and now the Supreme Court — are teeing up a battle of wills between the presidency and the judiciary.
After a judge ruled that the Trump administration needed to secure the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia — a man they said they erroneously sent to El Salvador despite a protection-from-removal order barring him from being sent there — the Justice Department took the matter to the Supreme Court.
The conservative-dominated court ruled unanimously, 9-0, that the Trump administration must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia's release in El Salvador and return to the United States. The justices told the Justice Department to “be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken” to bring back Abrego Garcia. (The justices did take issue with the lower court's demand that the Trump administration additionally “effectuate” Abrego Garcia's return, calling that wording “unclear.”)
“You had the Supreme Court unanimously reaffirming that [the] federal courts have the power to look into cases like Abrego Garcia's,” Vladeck says of the decision. Despite the ruling, the Trump administration is now, as Vladeck puts it, “trying to drive a Mack truck through a five inch wide remand.”
On Friday, Trump's Justice Department refused to comply with the lower court's demand that it provide an update on its efforts to bring Abrego Garcia back to America. The administration complained in a court filing Friday that it had been afforded an “insufficient amount of time” to review the Supreme Court's order, and additionally argued the lower court “has not yet clarified what it means to ‘facilitate'” Abrego Garcia's release.
Leavitt, the White House press secretary, was separately asked Friday if the administration would time Abrego Garcia's return to a high-profile visit by Bukele, the Salvadoran president, to the White House on Monday. Leavitt countered that “the Supreme Court made their ruling last night very clear that it's the administration's responsibility to facilitate the return, not to effectuate the return.”
Trump, for his part, suggested Friday evening on Air Force One that he would follow the Supreme Court's ruling to bring Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. “If the Supreme Court said bring somebody back, I would do that,” Trump said. “I respect the Supreme Court.”
To this point, his administration has not yet followed the high court's order to “facilitate” return of a man whom, by the government's own admission, it wrongfully deported and imprisoned in a foreign gulag.
“The problem that we've seen over the last week is a series of Supreme Court rulings that have gone out of their way to not endorse what Trump is doing, but also created these procedural artifices that have in some respects thwarted what the lower courts are doing,” Vladeck explains. “At this point, what is it going to take for a majority of the Supreme Court to treat the government's behavior with the kind of contempt that the government is treating the lower courts?”
Trending Stories
Team Trump Is Gaming Out How to Ship U.S. Citizens to El Salvador
Are Em Dashes Really a Sign of AI Writing?
Menendez Brothers Prevail at Key Hearing, Resentencing Bid Will Proceed
Lady Gaga Proves Why She's a Once-in-a Generation Pop Icon During Coachella Set
“Maybe that's the Supreme Court's end game here is to exhaust every other possibility before provoking a direct confrontation [with the president],” Vladeck adds. “But I think two things should be said about that. One, that's a dangerous game unto itself; and two, in the interim, real people suffer.”
On a related note, Politico reported Friday evening that former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince and other government contractors are urging the Trump administration to hire them to transport tens of thousands of immigrants in U.S. custody to prison in El Salvador — and that this idea will likely be discussed when Trump and Bukele meet on Monday. Plenty more suffering could be on the way.
We want to hear it. Send us a tip using our anonymous form.
Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2025 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.
Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter
Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter
On 'Real Time,' the host said he learned "a crazy person doesn't live in the White House," however, "a person who plays a crazy person on TV a lot lives there, which I know is f***ed up. It's just not as f***ed up as I thought it was."
By
Carly Thomas
Associate Editor
Bill Maher said “you can hate” him for his new perspective on President Donald Trump following their meeting at the White House, but that he's “not a liar.”
On the latest episode of HBO's Real Time, the host and longtime foe of the president took some time to recall his recent visit with Trump and Kid Rock. Following his trip, Maher came to the conclusion that Trump was actually “gracious and measured,” and not like the “person who plays a crazy person on TV.”
“Let me first say that to all the people who treated this like it was some kind of summit meeting, you're ridiculous. Like I was gonna sign a treaty or something. I have no power,” Maher began. “I'm a fucking comedian and he's the most powerful leader in the world. I'm not the leader of anything, except maybe a contingent of centrist-minded people who think there's got to be a better way of running this country than hating each other every minute.”
Related Stories
News
Joe Rogan Scolded by Own Guest for Pushing Conspiracy Theories
TV
Michelle Wolf on White House Correspondents' Dinner Disinviting Amber Ruffin: "They Didn't Want to Make Trump Mad"
The comedian then noted that he had his staff “collect and print out this list of almost 60 different insulting epithets that the president has said about me,” so that Trump could sign it, which he did “with good humor.”
The host said he's going to “report exactly what happened” during his White House visit with the president and that “you decide what you think about it, and if that's not enough pure Trump hate for you, I don't give a fuck.”
After noting that the president gave him several MAGA hats, he continued, “The guy I met is not the person who the night before the dinner shit tweeted a bunch of nasty crap about how he thought this was a bad idea and what a deranged asshole I was. I read it and thought, ‘Oh, what a lovely way to welcome someone to your house.' But when I got there, that guy wasn't living there.”
As an example, a seemingly surprised Maher said that Trump laughs. “I've never seen him laugh in public, but he does, including at himself, and it's not fake. Believe me, as a comedian of 40 years, I know a fake laugh when I hear it,” he said.
The host also recalled “walking through an amazing tour of the whole house, and I don't remember exactly what we were talking about, but it must have been something with the 2020 election because I know he used the word lost, and I distinctly remember saying, ‘Wow, I never thought I'd hear you say that.' He didn't get mad. He's much more self-aware than he lets on in public.”
“I've had so many conversations with prominent people who are much less connected, people who don't look you in the eye, people who don't really listen because they just want to get to their next thing, people whose responses to things you say just doesn't track,” Maher continued. “None of that was him. And he mostly steered the conversation to, ‘What do you think about this?' I know your mind is blown, so is mine.”
The comedian added, “There were so many moments when I hit him with a joke or contradicted something and no problem.”
Maher said at one point he even corrected the president when “he tweeted the night before that I was critical of all things Trump.”
“Not true. Check the tapes,” the host explained. “Moving Israel's embassy to Jerusalem, loved it. The border did need to be controlled. I'm glad the cops are getting their morale back. DEI had gone too far. Biological men shouldn't be playing women's sports. Europe should pay for their defense, and of course, it makes sense that Arab countries should take in Arab refugees like the millions of Syrians who wound up in Germany when Saudi Arabia took none.”
Maher noted how he “never felt I had to walk on eggshells around” Trump during his visit, adding, “Honestly, I voted for [Bill] Clinton and [Barack] Obama, but I would never feel comfortable talking to them the way I was able to talk with Donald Trump. That's just how it went down, make of it what you will.”
He said the “most surreal part of the whole night” was when he got back home and turned on 60 Minutes from the night before. “There's Trump in one of their stories, standing at a podium in a room that looked to me like one of the rooms we'd just been in, and he's ranting, ‘Disgusting. You're a terrible person,' and I'm like, ‘Who's that guy? What happened to Glinda the Good Witch? And why can't we get the guy I met to be the public guy?'”
Maher emphasized that he was “just reporting exactly what I saw over 2.5 hours” and learned “a crazy person doesn't live in the White House.” However, he said, “A person who plays a crazy person on TV a lot lives there, which I know is fucked up. It's just not as fucked up as I thought it was.”
The comedian noted he's still going to be “critical about a lot of what he's doing,” but that his perspective on Trump did change post-visit.
“You can hate me for it, but I'm not a liar,” Maher said. “Trump was gracious and measured and why he isn't that in other settings, I don't know and I can't answer, and it's not my place to answer. I'm just telling you what I saw and I wasn't high.”
He added, “So MAGA fans, don't worry, your boy gave me nothing, just hats and a very generous amount of time and a willingness to listen, accept me as a possible friend, even though I'm not MAGA, which was the point of the dinner.”
Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day
Inside the business of TV with breaking news, expert analysis and showrunner interviews
Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter
Send us a tip using our anonymous form.
HGTV star Tarek El Moussa is sharing how is dynamic with his ex-wife Christina Haack has improved.
While speaking to Us Weekly in April 2025, Tarek El Moussa, who shares his older children Brayden, 9, and Taylor, 14, with Haack, said filming the series, “The Flip Off,” alongside his ex-wife bettered their relationship. The HGTV series, which premiered in January 2025, featured Tarek El Moussa and his wife, Heather Rae El Moussa, competing against Haack to see who could make a better profit when flipping a house. Haack's estranged husband, Josh Hall, was originally her partner until he left the series following their July 2024 split.
Tarek El Moussa said filming the series “was more fun than [he] thought it was going to be.”
“It was better for our family. It was better for our relationship. It brought everybody closer and, in the end, it did such amazing things for our family. I wouldn't change a thing,” said Tarek El Moussa to the publication.
He also said that he and Haack were able to positively communicate with each other during the production of the show.
“The show gave me and Christina an opportunity to apologize for things we did to each other. It gave Christina and Heather an opportunity to bond even closer. I mean, we're going to dinners now. So, honestly, it's just about working together, spending time together and creating some really fun TV together,” said Tarek El Moussa during the interview.
A post shared by Tarek El Moussa (@therealtarekelmoussa)
Tarek El Moussa spoke about filming with Haack for “The Flip Off” during a January 2025 Us Weekly interview, alongside his wife. He said he was not worried about working with his ex-wife again because they have “been in a really good place” for “the last couple of years.”
“It took us almost 10 years to get there, so going back into shooting together, it's a lot more of an intimate relationship. There were some reservations. But as the show has gone on, we've realized it's just business,” said Tarek El Moussa during the interview.
He also said that he and Haack did argue while filming the HGTV series. According to Tarek El Moussa, he took issue with Haack “because she always wants to get her way.”
“She doesn't want to have rules,” said Tarek El Moussa to Us Weekly.
Heather Rae El Moussa also shared that he and Haack's dynamic is similar to how siblings fight.
A post shared by Heather Rae El Moussa (@theheatherraeelmoussa)
During a November 2024 interview with Entertainment Tonight, Haack said Hall took issue with her dynamic with Tarek El Moussa while filming “The Flip Off.”
According to Haack, Hall viewed her relationship with her ex-husband as flirty. She said, however, that she views Tarek El Moussa like a sibling.
Previous
Next
About
Contact US
Privacy Policy
Terms Of Service
Editorial Guidelines
Sitemap
Copyright © 2025 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. Powered by WordPress VIP
By Glenn Garner
Associate Editor
Although Bill Maher swears he “didn't go MAGA” during his visit to the White House, he seems to have a new favorite dinner host.
On Friday's episode of Real Time, the comedian shared his “book report on my visit to the White House,” after their mutual friend Kid Rock previously extended the invitation out of their shared belief “that there's gotta be something better than hurling insults from 3,000 miles away.”
“Lemme first say to all of the people who treated this like it was some kind of summit meeting, you're ridiculous… like I was gonna sign a treaty or something,” he said. “I have no power, I'm a f—ing comedian, and he's the most powerful leader in the world.
Watch on Deadline
“I'm not the leader of anything, except maybe a contingent of centrist-minded people who think there's got to be a better way to run this country than hating each other every minute,” added Maher.
Maher said he “never felt I had to walk on eggshells around him,” adding: “And honestly, I voted for Clinton and Obama, but I would never feel comfortable talking to them the way I was able to talk to Donald Trump. That's just how it went down, make of it what you will.”
“I'm just reporting exactly what I saw over two and a half hours,” he noted. “I went into the mine, and that's what's down there. A crazy person doesn't live in the White House. A person who plays a crazy person on TV a lot lives there, which I know is f—ed up. It's just not as f—ed up as I thought it was.”
In addition to challenging him on topics like Iran, Gaza, the Syrian refugee crisis and his proposed third term, Maher said he heard Trump admit he lost the 2020 election.
“I don't remember exactly what we were talking about but it must have been something about the 2020 election, because I know he used the word ‘lost,'” he recalled. “And I distinctly remember saying, ‘Wow, I never thought I'd hear you say that.' He didn't get mad. He's much more self-aware than he lets on in public.”
Maher clarified he still doesn't “have a good feeling” about the Trump administration “and will be critical about a lot of what he's doing … But I also think he now understands that I have a job to do.”
He praised Trump for giving him a “generous amount of time, and a willingness to listen and accept me as a possible friend even though I'm not MAGA, which was the point of the dinner.”
“Trump was gracious and measured, and why he isn't that in other settings, I don't know and I can't answer and it's not my place to answer,” added Maher. “I'm just telling you what I saw, and I wasn't high.”
Get our Breaking News Alerts and Keep your inbox happy.
Signup for Breaking News Alerts & Newsletters
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Get our latest storiesin the feed of your favorite networks
We want to hear from you! Send us a tip using our annonymous form.
Sign up for our breaking news alerts
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2025 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
By
Nancy Dillon
Eric and Lyle Menendez appeared by video in a California courtroom Friday and scored a legal victory when a judge said their resentencing hearing will move forward as planned next week, despite fierce opposition from Los Angeles County's recently elected district attorney, Nathan Hochman.
At a lengthy court hearing in Van Nuys, Judge Michael Jesic ruled that Hochman's decision last month to pull back on his predecessor's support for resentencing lacked a sufficient basis. After Deputy District Attorney Habib Balian argued that the brothers were still “hunkered down in their bunker of deception,” the judge said it wasn't enough to revoke the court's jurisdiction over the mater.
“There's no new information. You presented all this argument [but] none of this is really new. They've stuck with their story since the beginning. None of this shocked me,” Judge Jesic said. “My decision is to deny the motion to withdraw. We're going to move forward.”
Erik and Lyle did not address the court and looked straight ahead with serious expressions during most of the hearing. They were seated next to each other in front of a white cinderblock wall wearing matching blue shirts. When they heard the resentencing hearing would move ahead, Lyle nodded in the affirmative and Erik appeared to smile.
The judge made his ruling shortly after watching a defense video in which Diane VanderMolen, one of the brothers' cousins, recalled staying at the Menendez home one summer when she was 16. She said an 8-year-old Lyle came into her room and said he was afraid to sleep alone because his father would come in and touch his genitals. VanderMolen also testified about the incident during the brothers' first trial. She was seated in the courtroom Friday along with more than a dozen other relatives supporting Erik and Lyle's release.
“Wow, that really got me. I didn't know they were going to play that. I got really emotional,” VanderMolen told Rolling Stone after the hearing. “I'm so overjoyed with the judge's decision. This really is all about rehabilitation. I cannot imagine two better examples of people who deserve release. The programs for other inmates and the counseling they've done, it's amazing.”
Editor's picks
The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time
The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time
Hochman's predecessor, George Gascón, set the stage for possible resentencing and release when he made the bombshell announcement last October that he believed the brothers had paid their “debt” to society and should be given new sentences of 50 years to life. Erik and Lyle previously were sentenced to life without parole for killing parents José and Kitty Menendez inside the family's Beverly Hills mansion. If granted the sentence previously sought by Gascón, the brothers would be eligible for immediate parole.
During the full-day hearing on Friday, Balian argued that Gascón's administration sought resentencing as a political stunt last October when he was 30 points down in the polls during his reelection bid against Hochman. Mark Geragos, the brothers' lead defense lawyer, countered that Hochman was the one playing politics. He claimed that once Hochman was sworn into office last December, he quickly “banished” the two deputy district attorneys who authored Gascón's resentencing motion and appointed Kathleen Cady — the private attorney who represented the brothers' lone relative opposed to resentencing — as head of the DA's Department of Victim Services. Geragos said Hochman then tried to pass the buck by holding a press conference where he essentially sent a “message” to California Gov. Gavin Newsom to “take this off my plate. I'm going to be the Nineties-ass Neanderthal.” (Newsom is weighing a separate clemency request from the brothers and has scheduled parole board hearings for June 13. Judge Jesic's ruling Friday does not affect the clemency effort.)
Related Content
Soulja Boy Must Pay $4.25 Million for Assault, Sexual Battery of Former Assistant, Jury Finds
Director James Toback Ordered to Pay $1.68 Billion to 40 Women in Sexual Misconduct Suit
Former Def Jam President Kevin Liles Wants Sexual Assault Lawsuit Dismissed: 'Entirely False'
Wife of Weezer's Bassist Shot in Officer-Involved Shooting, Booked for Attempted Murder: Police
Geragos called Balian's two hours of argument Friday a “dog and pony show” from a “DA elected as a throwback to the Nineties.” The tense hearing reached a boiling point shortly after Balian flashed a photo on the courtroom screen showing José and Kitty's dead bodies inside the den where they were killed. José was seated lifeless on a couch with his knee blown off. Kitty was on the floor beside him, covered in blood.
“I think it's outrageous, with the victims' family populating this courtroom, that he flashed up a photo of the crime scene without any warning. He has no consideration whatsoever for the victims. I object on their behalf. They're being retraumatized by the DA for political purposes,” Geragos stood up and protested.
“They're horrible photos, and I apologize,” Balian said. But he didn't back down. “These two caused it,” he said, referring to Erik and Lyle. He called the photo “important” evidence of the brothers' “carnage.”
When the photo appeared on the screen, Sylvia Bolock, a niece of José Menendez, shut her eyes tight. Other relatives looked aghast. The courtroom was packed, with actor Cooper Koch, who played Erik in Ryan Murphy's 2024 Netflix series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, seated in the back row.
For most of his presentation, with Hochman watching from the courtroom gallery, Balian argued the brothers aren't rehabilitated because they've yet to take full accountability for “the severity and depravity of their conduct.” He said regret was not the same as “responsibility.”
“Have they expressed regret? Absolutely. It can't be easy to look down the barrel of a shotgun at your parents and pull the trigger. I'm sure they regret that,” Balian said. “I'm sure Lyle regrets re-loading and pressing the barrel into his mom's cheek. He pressed it into her flesh and released a hail of buckshot through her face.” Balian accused the brothers of still trying to “minimize” what they did. He claimed they've never owned up to writing “scripts” for witnesses to lie on their behalf. He pointed out that Lyle's ex-girlfriend testified that she refused to go along with his request that she accuse José of drugging and raping her. “They have not changed in the way they need to change,” Balian argued.
But defense lawyer Alexandra Kazarian played yet another video that was a montage of Erik and Lyle speaking with news reporters after their convictions. In one clip, Erik said, “what we did was awful.” In another clip, Lyle said he had tremendous remorse.
“It's just not true they have no insight or remorse,” Kazarian argued. She said the prosecution “has made up” the narrative they won't take responsibility. Geragos, meanwhile, said the whole point of California's resentencing law is to offer “hope” and a “carrot” to people incarcerated for crimes, so they have incentive to do the “hard work” to rehabilitate and not become every warden's worst nightmare. He said Erik and Lyle have become “remarkable human beings” behind bars, working on programs to teach meditation to other inmates, train guide dogs, paint murals, and create green spaces.
Judge Jesic said the resentencing hearing set for next Thursday and Friday will give both prosecutors and the defense a chance to present their “phenomenal” arguments about whether the brothers deserve resentencing. He said his ruling Friday was not on the merits of the resentencing effort, just a reflection of his view the court should let the matter proceed.
“Justice won over politics,” Geragos told reporters after the hearing. He was surrounded by Menendez family members who traded information about the flights they had to catch to get back home. Many have attended multiple hearings or meetings with prosecutors since October.
At a hearing and in Jesic's courtroom last November, Kitty's 92-year-old sister Joan Andersen VanderMolen testified that she believes the brothers were molested by their father. “No child should have to endure what Erik and Lyle lived through at the hands of their father. It breaks my heart that my sister Kitty knew what was happening and did nothing about it, that we knew of,” she said under questioning by Geragos. “They never knew if tonight would be the night when they would be raped. … It's time for them to come home. No child should have to live day by day [wondering] if that night, their dad would come and rape them.”
José's older sister, Teresita Baralt, 85, also testified in November. She said she loved her “baby brother” and that Kitty was her “best friend.” Still, through tears, she said “it's time for [her nephews] to come home.”
“We miss those that are gone, tremendously, but we miss the kids too,” Baralt said on the witness stand in the Van Nuys courtroom. “I would like some leniency to have them back. Thirty-five years, it's a long time [to be in prison]. I think they have been rehabilitated. They have done a lot of good things. They went to college. They could have done a lot of bad things [while incarcerated]. They didn't.”
Baralt said Lyle lived with her family when he attended Princeton and that Erik was only three months older than her youngest daughter. She said visiting the brothers while they're housed at a California prison in San Diego is very difficult for her. “I would like to be able to see them and hug them, not in the jail. I want them to come home so I can hug them and see them. They were raised with [my four daughters]. It's been difficult,” she said.
Lyle, 57, and Erik, 54, were young men at the time of the murders — 21 and 18, respectively. Gascón said he considered their ages at the time, as well as their good behavior behind bars, when he recommended re-sentencing.
The brothers were convicted of firing more than a dozen shotgun shells at their parents inside the den of their mansion, including a blast to the back of their dad's head and the one to their mom's face. An initial televised trial ended with two hung juries — one for each brother. The brothers claimed during the first trial they were sexually abused by their entertainment-executive father and feared for their lives before opening fire because they'd had a heated confrontation with both parents that night regarding the family's alleged incest secret. “I thought my dad was going to come up to my room and have sex, and I thought they were going to kill us,” Erik testified at the first trial. Prosecutors told jurors the brothers were lying and had conspired to kill their parents with shotguns purchased two days earlier in San Diego using false identification. They said the brothers were greedy and wanted access to their parents' considerable wealth through early inheritance.
At a second trial, the judge declined to allow cameras and ruled the brothers would share a single jury. He also limited the number of defense witnesses who could testify about the alleged abuse. On March 20, 1996, the jury on the second trial convicted Lyle and Erik of the first-degree murders of both parents with the special circumstance of lying in wait. It also found them guilty of conspiracy to commit murder. After a subsequent penalty phase, the jury spared the brothers the death penalty.
After the convictions, journalist Robert Rand obtained a letter that Erik allegedly wrote to his cousin, Andy Cano, eight months before the murders, when he was 17. In the letter excerpted in a subsequent habeas petition, Erik described being abused by his father and how fearful he was. “It's still happening Andy but it's worse for me now,” Erik wrote. “I never know when it's going to happen and it's driving me crazy. Every night I stay up thinking he might come in. … He's warned me a 100 times about telling anyone.” (Andy Cano is now deceased.)
Trending Stories
Team Trump Is Gaming Out How to Ship U.S. Citizens to El Salvador
Are Em Dashes Really a Sign of AI Writing?
Menendez Brothers Prevail at Key Hearing, Resentencing Bid Will Proceed
Lady Gaga Proves Why She's a Once-in-a Generation Pop Icon During Coachella Set
In his 2023 Peacock docuseries, Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed, Rand also detailed new allegations from Roy Rossello, a former member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo. In the documentary, Rossello claimed that José had sexually abused him, too.
Speaking in court Friday, Geragos said he planned to call Rossello as a witness next week.
We want to hear it. Send us a tip using our anonymous form.
Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2025 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.
By
Charisma Madarang
A day after the Supreme Court ordered that President Donald Trump's administration return an innocent Maryland man wrongfully deported to a notorious El Salvadoran mega-prison, the president said that he would respect the high court's decision.
“If the Supreme Court said bring somebody back I would do that. I respect the Supreme Court,” Trump told reporters on Friday. He added, “I have great respect for the Supreme Court.” Despite the president's remarks, his administration has yet to provide information regarding Kilmar Abrego Garcia's location and any details they have taken towards ensuring his release.
The conservative-controlled court's ruling was unanimous on Thursday, with all nine justices backing a lower-court order to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia from El Salvador. The ruling sent the case back to U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, who ordered the government to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia's release and return to the U.S.
However, the justices separately stated that the district court's order to “effectuate” Abrego Garcia's release may have been a step too far. Trump's Justice Department issued a statement attempting to cast the decision as a win for its position, writing: “As the Supreme Court correctly recognized, it is the exclusive prerogative of the President to conduct foreign affairs. By directly noting the deference owed to the Executive Branch, this ruling once again illustrates that activist judges do not have the jurisdiction to seize control of the President's authority to conduct foreign policy.”
Popular on Rolling Stone
When speaking to reporters, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared to seize on this distinction. “The Supreme Court made their ruling last night very clear that it's the administration's responsibility to facilitate the return, not to effectuate the return,” said Leavitt.
Earlier this month, Trump's Department of Homeland Security admitted that it had wrongfully deported Abrego Garcia to the El Salvadoran prison due to an “administrative error.” Abrego Garcia had been granted protection from removal to El Salvador, making it illegal to send him there. Xinis last week ordered the administration return Abrego Garcia to the U.S., but the Trump administration appealed the ruling, arguing that they did not have the authority to bring back Abrego Garcia since he is in the custody of El Salvador.
Editor's picks
The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time
The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far
Following the Supreme Court's ruling, in an order on Thursday, Judge Xinis said the government must “take all available steps to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia to the United States as soon as possible.” The judge gave the Justice Department until 9:30 a.m. ET on Friday, and then 11:30 a.m., to detail where Abrego Garcia is located and what steps have been taken to bring him back.
Despite the judge's demand, the Trump administration did not provide even “basic” details to Kilmar Abrego Garcia's whereabouts, and Xinis denounced the government's lack of information as “extremely troubling.”
Trending Stories
Team Trump Is Gaming Out How to Ship U.S. Citizens to El Salvador
Are Em Dashes Really a Sign of AI Writing?
Menendez Brothers Prevail at Key Hearing, Resentencing Bid Will Proceed
Lady Gaga Proves Why She's a Once-in-a Generation Pop Icon During Coachella Set
“I'm asking a very simple question. Where is he?” Xinis asked Justice Department lawyers at Friday's court hearing, Politico reported.
In reply, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign answered, “I do not have that information.”
We want to hear it. Send us a tip using our anonymous form.
Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2025 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.
By Nellie Andreeva
Co-Editor-in-Chief, TV
Apple TV+‘s Mythic Quest has come to an end. The streamer has opted not to renew the gaming workplace comedy series for a fifth season. The decision comes days after the Season 4 finale dropped March 26.
Since it had not been conceived as a series finale, the Season 4 finale will now get a new ending to give fans closure. The updated episode will be made available next week.
“Endings are hard. But after four incredible seasons, Mythic Quest is coming to a close. We're so proud of the show and the world we got to build — and deeply grateful to every cast and crew member who poured their heart into it,” series creators/executive producers Megan Ganz, David Hornsby and Rob McElhenney said in a statement Friday. “To all our fans, thank you for playing with us. To our partners at Apple, thank you for believing in the vision from the very beginning. Because endings are hard, with Apple's blessing we made one final update to our last episode — so we could say goodbye, instead of just game over.”
The news is not entirely surprising. The well-reviewed comedy, which got off to a buzzy starts in 2020, had a quiet Season 4 run.
Watch on Deadline
The latest season brings stars McElhenney, Charlotte Nicdao, Hornsby, Danny Pudi, Ashly Burch, Imani Hakim, Jessie Ennis and Naomi Ekperigin back together under the same fluorescent office lights. The reunited team at Mythic Quest confronts new challenges amongst a changing video game landscape as stars rise, egos clash, relationships bloom and everyone tries to have a little more work-life balance.
Mythic Quest, whose cast early on included F. Murray Abraham, was produced by Lionsgate, 3 Arts Entertainment and Ubisoft. It was executive produced by McElhenney and Charlie Day under their RCG banner, Michael Rotenberg and Nicholas Frenkel on behalf of 3 Arts, and Boykin, Austin Dill and Gérard Guillemot for Ubisoft Film & Television. Hornsby and Ganz also executive produce.
The series spawned offshoot Side Quest, which explores the lives of employees, player and fans who are impacted by the game in an anthology format. The four-episode series stars McElhenney, Anna Konkle, Derek Waters, William Stanford Davis, Bria Samoné Henderson, Rome Flynn, Leonard Robinson, Gary Kraus, Annamarie Kasper, Esai Morales, Shalita Grant and more.
The news of Mythic Quest‘s cancellation was first reported by Variety.
Get our Breaking News Alerts and Keep your inbox happy.
Signup for Breaking News Alerts & Newsletters
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Get our latest storiesin the feed of your favorite networks
We want to hear from you! Send us a tip using our annonymous form.
Sign up for our breaking news alerts
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2025 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
By Katie Campione
TV Reporter
The Writers Guild of America West on Friday publicly announced disciplinary action against six members for alleged unauthorized work during the union's 2023 strike, as well as one additional member for an alleged violation of the guild's constitution.
Four of those disciplined, which the WGAW named in a memo to members today, are appealing the decision.
Julie Bush, Tim Doyle, Edward Drake and Roma Roth are all pushing back against the union board's disciplinary rulings, which were determined via hearings before five-member trial juries. Bush, Drake and Roth are accused of writing during the strike.
Bush, whose credited as a consulting producer on Manhunt, has been suspended from the guild until next year and has been barred for life from holding non-elected guild office after being found guilty of violating Working Rule 8 and writing for a non-signatory company during the strike. Drake was expelled for allegedly writing during the strike and “failing to cooperate” with the Strike Rules Compliance Committee. Roth, an executive producer of Sullivan's Crossing and Virgin River, has also been expelled for writing for a non-signatory company during the strike.
Watch on Deadline
Last Man Standing showrunner Doyle's discipline is in regards to a Facebook post that the union called “racist and offensive depiction of a lynching.” Deadline previously reported on this matter, when Doyle was censured last year.
In a statement to Deadline, Drake called the board's decision to publicly announce the group's discipline “an alarming pattern of overreach and public shaming.”
“After reading the appeal documents for the other writers, it's disturbing to see that the WGAW Board in each of the four cases being appealed disregarded their own investigators, SRCC and/or Trial Committee recommendations to push for harsher, and public, punishments,” the statement continued. “Why have governance systems, like investigators and committees, in place to protect members if their findings and recommendations can just be ignored by the Board?”
Edward added that “hyphenate members face different challenges than their peers,” saying that the accusations are in regard to script changes he made in his capacity as a director, not as a writer.
“The Board punished me for being transparent, denied my right to due process and a fair trial, and pressured me to ‘name names' while refusing to provide protection from legal retaliation. When I withheld, the Board branded me a scab. That's not justice — it's coercion,” he added.
Bush, in a statement of her own, said the WGA should have handled this matter at the guild's in-person, annual meeting, per the guild constitution. Instead, she argued, the board “unilaterally voted to do whatever they want.”
“Loudly demanding members be punished for violating our Constitution while simultaneously ignoring and violating that same Constitution's requirement the Board face the membership and explain themselves is not a good look,” she added.
Deadline has reached out to Roth for comment. Representatives for Doyle could not be reached.
Under guild rules, disciplined members are offered the opportunity to appeal the board's decision to the membership at large. Members in good standing will vote to decide whether to uphold the disciplinary action or adopt “an alternative action proposed by the appellant,” as the guild states.
WGAW members will be able to vote on the four appeals online from 10 a.m. PT on May 6 until 2 p.m. PT on May 9.
Get our Breaking News Alerts and Keep your inbox happy.
Signup for Breaking News Alerts & Newsletters
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Get our latest storiesin the feed of your favorite networks
We want to hear from you! Send us a tip using our annonymous form.
Sign up for our breaking news alerts
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2025 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Jelly Roll‘s acting debut on “Fire Country” was deeply personal for the singer. The “American Idol” artist-in-residence shared why he connected with the role in such a meaningful way.
A post shared by Fire Country (@firecountrycbs)
Jelly Roll dipped his toe into the acting pool with a role in “Fire Country” season 3 episode 17, titled “Fire and Ice.”
In a video posted on the “Fire Country” Instagram on April 10, Jelly Roll gave some insight into his character, Noah.
“First day ever acting, I like it a lot,” Jelly Roll said of his big debut. “What's up, y'all, it's your boy Jason ‘Jelly Roll' DeFord, but today I am known as Noah.”
He continued, “I'm playing a guy who's a second chance man, who's been in and out of prison, but lost his mother due to dementia. So my form of rehabilitation for myself and to give back as a man of service was I came to work at the local nursing home.”
“I really found myself in this guy,” Jelly Roll explained. “When I came home from my last time being incarcerated, where I was so determined to change who I was as a human. If music didn't work, I have a feeling that I wouldn't have been far fetched from being Noah working somewhere at some place, just trying to help people.”
He noted, “What I do and what Max [Thieriot, co-creator and star of ‘Fire Country'] does is the same thing. I think we're both storytellers.”
Thieriot explained, “The moment we first kind of met and started talking about this and it felt so right because what you are doing, what you're putting out there, and the message that you're spreading is, obviously, making a huge impact on a lot of people.”
Jelly Roll expressed his gratitude for the show, telling the actor, “Thank you for building an entire show around second chance humans. I mean, I think it's the heartbeat of America and I think that's why this show has been such a success.”
He added, “And I'm just honored to be able to bring my style of storytelling to it.”
A post shared by Fire Country (@firecountrycbs)
In an April 4 interview with Us Weekly, Thieriot shared the interesting way that Jelly Roll got the part — a conversation in the bathroom at the CMT Music Awards kicked things off.
“I said, ‘Thank you for letting us have some of your songs on the show.' And he's like, ‘Dude, how do I get on the show? I've been petitioning online and talking to my people and you got to get me on that show,'” the actor recalled.
Thieriot noted, “He said ‘Fire Country' is what he really represents … He called me the next day and it showed how sincere he was.”
They developed a character for Jelly Roll and, of course, the singer was on board. “It tells some of the story about second chances and what he really represents,” Thieriot said. “But [it] also feels different from who he is and how people see him day to day as a country singer.”
Previous
Next
About
Contact US
Privacy Policy
Terms Of Service
Editorial Guidelines
Sitemap
Copyright © 2025 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. Powered by WordPress VIP
By
Charisma Madarang
As Your Friends & Neighbors debuted on Friday, Olivia Munn opened up about her starring role alongside Jon Hamm and Amanda Peet, while also sharing her experience fighting and recovering from cancer.
When speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Munn recalled nearly stepping away from acting all-together before landing the role on the Apple TV+ series. “I called my agents and my manager and said, ‘I'm done being in front of the camera — don't put me up for anything,'” recalled Munn, who had considered transitioning into editing, producing, or writing after feeling unfulfilled in her acting career.
However, Munn was intrigued by the idea of taking part in a sharp commentary of America's uber-wealthy. “There's a carelessness with which they live their life,” Munn told The Times. “They feel impervious to the world and it's so fascinating to watch these people crumble.” She called her newly single character Sam — who is going through a bitter divorce and is Andrew Cooper's (played by Hamm) friends-with-benefits — a “survivor,” explaining that she'll “do anything to maintain her place and take care of her children.”
Show creator Jonathan Tropper told The Times that Munn will joining Season Two of Your Friends & Neighbors. “We had originally planned for that character as a one-season character,” he shared, “but after working with her for a little while, I think we had consensus across the board, we wanted her.”
Popular on Rolling Stone
Munn also discussed overcoming her insecurities while filming sex scenes with Hamm after going public about her cancer diagnoses and receiving treatment. “I was really nervous about doing any sex scenes because I have a lot of scars,” she said. “Scars that can be seen in clothing and scars that you wouldn't know unless I was completely nude.”
However, Munn said the scenes were key to portraying the relationship between the two characters, and wanted to show that her character “wants something so much more from him than he's willing to give and their only connection is through sex.” She added, “I wanted the sex scenes to feel like sex scenes — I wanted them to feel visceral and intense and not hold back at all.”
While working with an intimacy coordinator, Munn filmed the scenes and said, “I did feel insecure, but each time I did it, I felt better.”
Trending Stories
Team Trump Is Gaming Out How to Ship U.S. Citizens to El Salvador
Are Em Dashes Really a Sign of AI Writing?
Menendez Brothers Prevail at Key Hearing, Resentencing Bid Will Proceed
Lady Gaga Proves Why She's a Once-in-a Generation Pop Icon During Coachella Set
Elsewhere in the interview, Munn, who shares two children with her husband, comedian John Mulaney, opened up about her fight with cancer. “Going through a year of battling cancer and five surgeries, the goal is not to be known as a sick person,” she told the publication. “The goal is to get to the other side and be back to normal.”
Munn, who is now cancer-free, said, “I'm so grateful for my body because it got me through this.”
We want to hear it. Send us a tip using our anonymous form.
Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2025 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.
Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter
Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter
The ‘Saturday Night Live' star shared the ultimatum his parents gave him as a teenager in a preview for NBC's 'Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist.'
By
Nicole Fell
Saturday Night Live star Bowen Yang is opening up about the “painful and detrimental” experience of going to conversion therapy.
In a preview for NBC's Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist, Yang and the Sunday Today host discussed how The Wedding Banquet actor was put into gay conversion therapy by his parents when he was a teenager. “I ‘came out' in a sense that my parents just sort of stumbled upon something, and they were like ‘Oh, we didn't realize this is what we were dealing with,'” Yang told Willie Geist in the video preview.
Related Stories
TV
Bowen Yang Wants Lorne Michaels to Recast J.D. Vance on 'SNL': "Please Don't Make Me Do This"
TV
'Saturday Night Live' Local Adaptation Coming to the U.K. With Sky
Yang said his parents didn't know how to handle the situation. “I give them a lot of grace for that because they just had no context for it,” he said.
Related Video
The comedian and actor explained that he was given an ultimatum by his parents that if he went to conversion therapy, he could then go to New York University and live with his older sister. “Those poor people did not realize that that's one of the gayest schools in the country,” Yang joked, adding that the only way he could leave Denver was if he went to conversion therapy.
“I kind of played along, and I kind of just humored them and myself into seeing what it was,” the Las Culturistas podcast host said. Wang said at the time he didn't realize how painful the situation would be, but that he's had a large amount of healing since then.
Yang has opened about his experience multiple times in the past. The podcaster recently spoke about it with his co-host Matt Rogers and guest Lady Gaga after explaining how important the latter's music was in his own queer identity journey. “I think I had come out of the closet again when ‘Born This Way' came out because I went to conversion therapy, obviously did not work out,” he said on the podcast.
Yang's full Sunday Sitdown episode is expected to air on April 13.
Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day
Send us a tip using our anonymous form.
By Glenn Garner
Associate Editor
SPOILER ALERT: This post contains details about the Yellowjackets, Season 3 finale episode “Full Circle“
After an eventful Season 3 finale, Yellowjackets fans no doubt have plenty of questions. Did Natalie reach help? Where did Jeff and Callie go? Does Shauna have a soul?
Leading up to this week's episode “Full Circle,” co-creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson spoke with Deadline about the “spiritual symmetry” of the finale, which reveals the identities of “Pit Girl” and “Antler Queen” after they were teased in the 2021 Karyn Kusama-helmed pilot.
“In terms of bringing it full circle, there is always something exciting and maybe sort of daunting, because the entirety of — a large portion at least, in terms of narrative weight of the finale, is sort of starting where we began,” said Nickerson, who directed the episode. “The show's obviously not over, but to sort of like land back at the beginning in a way that sort of like closes the loop, but also it kind of opens a door to a path moving ahead, was really fun and really challenging.”
Watch on Deadline
In the '90s timeline, a series of events conspired between two opposing factions of the stranded titular soccer team, which led to them carrying out another hunt. Although some of the girls attempted to rig the drawing, Teen Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) throws a wrench in their plan, which ends up making Mari (Alexa Barajas) their prey. The scene soon overlaps with the event of the pilot opening scene, revealing Mari as the doomed “Pit Girl” and Shauna as the “Antler Queen” that presides over the cannibalistic feast of her body.
Meanwhile, in the present, Adult Lottie's (Simone Kessell) killer is exposed after Misty (Christina Ricci) does some citizen-detecting and finds out Shauna's daughter Callie (Sarah Desjardins) committed the killing out of fear.
“I think it asks sort of a philosophical question about Callie, and for Callie, in terms of who is she with respect to her mother,” explained Lyle. “I don't wanna say too much about this, but I don't think Callie is her mother, I think Callie is her own person, and that's something that we think is really interesting to explore.”
With the discovery, Jeff (Warren Kole) and Callie take off to get some space from Shauna (Melanie Lynskey), who is left in the ruins of her own existential crisis.
“I think she's both grieving and finally allowing herself to recognize who she is,” said Lyle, adding: “I think there is both a grief to that and also a letting go. I think that it's liberating for her in a certain way.”
As the two timelines begin to merge, Teen Nat's (Sophie Thatcher) call home in the eleventh hour provides hope for a potential rescue, and with it, a return to '90s civilization and an era-appropriate toxic media landscape.
“Just to clarify, not to say that we're gonna get there very soon,” noted Nickerson. “But we've always said that we do think that there is a portion of the story that wants to be told upon their return, we just don't know when we're gonna get there.”
Read on for Lyle and Nickerson's recap of the Season 3 finale, which is now available to stream on Paramount+ with Showtime before airing Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on Showtime.
DEADLINE: One thing that was exciting about the finale was that Pit Girl is revealed finally. Can you tell me about bringing that story full circle? Was Mari always the one you wanted to be Pit Girl?
BART NICKERSON: In terms of bringing it full circle, there is always something exciting and maybe sort of daunting, because the entirety of — a large portion at least, in terms of narrative weight of the finale, is sort of starting where we began. The show's obviously not over, but to sort of like land back at the beginning in a way that sort of like closes the loop, but also it kind of opens a door to a path moving ahead, was really fun and really challenging. Because a lot of it is sort of held in the aesthetics of the finale, so just getting footage that was shot six or seven years ago to match, in a very different place and time, and with different people, was very exciting but very challenging.
DEADLINE: Also the fact that Callie killed Lottie, that's another big bombshell from this episode. Can you tell me what that means for her character and her relationship with her mom?
ASHLEY LYLE: That certainly doesn't mean great things for her character, which is sort of a broken record message of this show, something good for our characters. But I think it asks sort of a philosophical question about Callie, and for Callie, in terms of who is she with respect to her mother. We have Misty saying earlier on in the season, “apple, tree, I'm afraid to say,” and I think that that is the question for Callie moving forward. How much is she like her mother, and is it nature versus nurture to some extent? I think that's what she's going to be asking herself moving forward, is who am I, what kind of person am I? And I think that we've seen Shauna's true colors this season. I don't wanna say too much about this, but I don't think Callie is her mother, I think Callie is her own person, and that's something that we think is really interesting to explore.
DEADLINE: Shauna has really become kind of the villain this season, and in the finale, she has this big breakdown. Can you tell me a little bit about what's going through her mind in that moment?
NICKERSON: I think that a lot of what's going through her mind is what has been maybe going through her mind and her spirit on the periphery a very long time, just in that way that I think that there are kind of aspects of ourselves that we push to the back for a variety of reasons, for both good and bad. The story of Shauna is very much to take what is in the background and make it foreground, and so I think that there is kind of an energetic release that can almost feel like a coming home to yourself, even when some of the aspects are kind of negative. So, I think drinking from the fire hose of emotions of a fuller experience of yourself is kind of what's going through her mind, if that makes sense.
LYLE: I think she's both grieving and finally allowing herself to recognize who she is. In the beginning of the season, we felt it was very important—it was very funny to see fan reactions and they're like, “oh, it's a slow build,” which we always get every season—but to see Shauna take a moment and go, “I can be a good mother, I can be a good wife. I'm gonna make smoothies for my husband. I'm going to tutor Callie. I'm going to commit to the role that I've chosen for myself.” In the final scenes in the final episode of this [season], she is coming to the very clear realization that that is not who she is, and I think there is both a grief to that and also a letting go. I think that it's liberating for her in a certain way.
DEADLINE: You mentioned last time we talked that Hannah, of the trio, is the most prepared going into this, having been a teen girl herself. And I really saw that shine through in the end where she's been playing Shauna the whole time and she helps Nat call for help. Can you tell me about her arc this season and how it lends to the team possibly getting home?
NICKERSON: I think that her arc is just one of her own survival and going through maybe a non-linear compressed version of what a lot of the other girls have kind of been going through, which is namely having to find some parts kind of herself that are able to do some things that she wouldn't normally be able to do/get to do back at home, in order to preserve her own life. So, her contribution to them potentially getting home is a huge one, but also an incredibly dangerous one. And it is a question for the fourth season of, is this gambit gonna work? And a big part of the gambit, in its technical definition is that you give up something in order to hopefully gain something, and so, what she will have lost and will it be worth it, will be something that we're excited to explore in Season 4.
DEADLINE: I'm so curious if they're gonna end up getting back to civilization, just with Nat getting the signal at the end. Part of me is excited to see more of like the '90s style and just get back to the '90s pop culture and all that.
LYLE: I think that that is something that will be very fun for us. We realized very early on, making the show, as we were even shooting the pilot, we were like, “Oh, this is our one chance for now, for a very long time, to actually dig into the '90s.” And we like to have little pops here and there, even in episode two of Season 1 when they're using the Sea Breeze toner as an antiseptic. But once they're there, the '90s is more in them and and how they're reacting to the world and their references and all of that, but I think it will be very fun in the future to actually be in the '90s and get to play around. That's our time, man. We're '90s kids.
DEADLINE: Yeah, I loved that line when Hannah gets there and Van's asking, “Do Scully and Mulder hook up?”
NICKERSON: Just to clarify, not to say that we're gonna get there very soon but we've always said that we do think that there is a portion of the story that wants to be told upon their return, we just don't know when we're gonna get there.
DEADLINE: Yeah, and Liv Hewson was saying that they're very excited to explore the media reaction to the these young women. The media is still such a volatile place, but in the '90s, it was awful.
LYLE: Oh my God, Hard Copy? [laughs] We've always had this sort of dream version of the quick Hard Copy montage of like, “the return of the Yellowjackets,” and obviously, the media would be very interested in covering that story, and at the same time, obviously our girls are very interested in the media not covering that story.
DEADLINE: I'm also excited to see what comes from Melissa now that we have established Hilary Swank's side of it, as well as Jenna Burgess' side. Another thing that Van brought up was the potential of what happened between their characters before Melissa ultimately kills Van. I think that's an interesting thing I'm excited to see more of.
NICKERSON: There's still a lot of dynamic kind of unfolding in the past kind of and the present. Just to go back to the question about returning to the pilot, we see sort of a closing kind of of a loop, but a pretty wild up path ahead. So, we're not really close to the final version of either timelines' character or the character dynamics. There's gonna be a lot of shifting and changing still to come.
LYLE: They're not out of the woods yet, both literally and proverbially.
DEADLINE: Is there anything else that you can tell me about Season 3 or looking ahead to Season 4?
LYLE: We're just very hopeful and excited to keep telling the story of these characters, and I just love that final moment with Natalie on the cliff. It was very exciting to shoot. We actually had to take a helicopter up there, and so it was a very small crew, it was Bart and Sophie Thatcher and just a skeleton crew up on the top of a damn mountain, that was very real. So, it was really fun.
DEADLINE: And Bart, can you tell me about like directing the finale?
NICKERSON: It was very fun, very challenging. I feel like it was also just, emotionally to get to revisit the pilot so many years later, and getting to direct that, just had a sort of a spiritual symmetry that I really enjoyed. And then just getting to explore a slightly different facet and that kind of relationship to the show has just been a joy and kind of a dream come true, and definitely something I hope will be a part of my journey and practice in the future.
Get our Breaking News Alerts and Keep your inbox happy.
Signup for Breaking News Alerts & Newsletters
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Get our latest storiesin the feed of your favorite networks
We want to hear from you! Send us a tip using our annonymous form.
Sign up for our breaking news alerts
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2025 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Is it possible to build a Dyson sphere that isn't catastrophically unstable? New research says yes, but only in one type of star system.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's how it works.
Dyson spheres, the hypothetical mega-structures that advanced alien civilizations might use to enclose a star and harness its energy, suffer from a fatal flaw: They are catastrophically unstable. But now an engineer claims to have figured out a way to stabilize these structures — and all it takes is two stars.
In the 1960s, physicist and polymath Freeman Dyson cooked up the idea of these eponymous spheres. He envisioned that a sufficiently advanced society would have an insatiable need for living space and energy. And if they were industrious enough, they could solve both challenges by taking apart a planet and turning it into an enormous spherical shell. This sphere would enclose a star, providing billions of planets' worth of surface area and capturing vast amounts of solar energy.
Dyson calculated that a shell made from a planet with the mass of Jupiter could completely enclose the sun at roughly the orbit of Earth. But the gravity inside a hollow shell cancels out, which means there's nothing tethering the shell to the star. They are free to move in independent directions, which means that soon enough a star hosting a Dyson sphere will simply crash into the shell, destroying it.
In a paper published Jan. 29 in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Colin McInnes, an engineer at the University of Glasgow, found a way to theoretically stabilize a Dyson sphere. The trick is that you need a system with at least two stars.
McInnes started by searching for any points within a binary star system that could host a stable Dyson sphere arrangement, where the sphere could stay in place and the gravitational forces exerted on it would be uniform. He found one arrangement, where the sphere surrounds both stars. But that situation was only mildly stable and likely to suffer the same problem as the single-star case.
Another stable point arises when the sphere orbits independently, surrounding neither star. While this might be useful for space station outposts, it doesn't provide the energy-capturing benefits of englobing a star.
Related: 'Perhaps it's only a matter of time': Intelligent life may be much more likely than first thought, new model suggests
Get the world's most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.
But McInnes did find one stable — and useful — configuration. This only happens in binary systems in which one star is much smaller than the other. In that specific case, the Dyson sphere can enclose the smaller of the two stars. The motion of that smaller star acts like a gravitational anchor, keeping the Dyson sphere in motion with the same orbit around the larger star, preventing a catastrophic collision.
There are several caveats to this. The smaller star has to be no bigger than around one tenth the mass of the larger companion, otherwise the gravitational stable point disappears. And the sphere has to be extremely light and thin compared with the two stars, otherwise its own gravitational influence mixes into the dynamics of the system and destroys the stability.
—Alien 'Dyson sphere' megastructures could surround at least 7 stars in our galaxy, new studies suggest
—First contact with aliens could easily end in genocide, scholars warn
—12 strange reasons humans haven't found alien life yet
And, of course, this analysis ignores any practical engineering considerations, like the stresses and tensions the sphere might experience, or how to build the thing in the first place.
While it's unlikely humans will build a Dyson sphere in the distant future — if ever — this research does help inform searches for extraterrestrial civilizations. Presumably, a sufficiently advanced civilization would have made the same realization before building its own Dyson sphere, and so we shouldn't look for them around solitary stars.
Instead, scientists could look for large, bright stars with a diffuse, infrared companion — the telltale sign of the heat leaking out of a Dyson sphere enclosing the smaller star of a larger companion.
Paul M. Sutter is a research professor in astrophysics at SUNY Stony Brook University and the Flatiron Institute in New York City. He regularly appears on TV and podcasts, including "Ask a Spaceman." He is the author of two books, "Your Place in the Universe" and "How to Die in Space," and is a regular contributor to Space.com, Live Science, and more. Paul received his PhD in Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2011, and spent three years at the Paris Institute of Astrophysics, followed by a research fellowship in Trieste, Italy.
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
Intelligent aliens would need a power supply to jump-start their civilization — would they require fossil fuels?
Extraterrestrials quiz: Are you an alien expert, or has your brain been abducted?
Viking quiz: How much do you know about these seaborne raiders, traders and explorers?
Live Science is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.
©
Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street,
New York,
NY 10036.
ROCKFORD, Ill. (WIFR) - Kathi Kresol, local author, historian and paranormal investigator presents tales of haunted libraries.
A related video is attached to this article.
Spooky Stacks takes place from 2-3 p.m. April 12, at the Rockford Public Library's East Branch, Kresol will share spine-chilling stories and unexplained phenomena from haunted libraries across the country.
The event is free to attend.
Copyright 2025 WIFR. All rights reserved.
A settlement dating back around 3,400 years has been discovered near the Mediterranean Sea in Egypt.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's how it works.
Archaeologists in Egypt have uncovered the remains of a "major" 3,400-year-old town dating to the New Kingdom that was possibly built by King Tutankhamun's father and later added to by Ramesses II, a new study finds.
The settlement was found at the site of Kom el-Nugus in northern Egypt, about 27 miles (43 kilometers) west of Alexandria on a rocky ridge between the Mediterranean Sea and Lake Mariout. Previously, Egyptologists thought the site was not inhabited until later times, when the Greeks founded their own settlement and necropolis there around 332 B.C., during Egypt's Hellenistic period.
Researchers found the older ancient Egyptian settlement while they were studying the Greek one. An unexpected discovery of mudbrick dating to the New Kingdom (circa 1550 to 1070 B.C.) revealed the earliest known Egyptian settlement north of Lake Mariout, according to the study, which was published Jan. 23 in the journal Antiquity.
It's not clear exactly how large the settlement was, "but the quality of the remains, their planned organization around a street, could suggest a fairly large-scale occupation," study author Sylvain Dhennin, an archaeologist with the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), told Live Science in an email. The street was designed to drain surface water and protect buildings from water erosion.
"There was a temple, built by King Ramses II, as well as private funerary chapels, which mention military personnel," said Dhennin, who is leading excavations at the site. "If the settlement was indeed military in nature, it's possible that there was also a fortified wall and administrative buildings."
Related: What did King Tut look like?
One particularly interesting find is a stamp on part of an amphora jar that has the name of Merytaton (also spelled Meritaten) on it. Merytaton was the daughter of the pharaoh Akhenaten (reign 1349 to 1336 B.C.) and his wife Nefertiti. Akhenaten unleashed a religious revolution that tried to focus Egypt's religion around the worship of Aten, the sun disk. His son, King Tutankhamun (ruled circa 1336 to 1327 B.C.), later brought back Egypt's traditional polytheistic religion.
Get the world's most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.
"The presence of this stamp probably indicates the production of wine belonging to a royal estate" that dates back to the time of Merytaton, Dhennin said. "The vineyards on the margins of Egypt were probably protected by the military and formed part of a pioneering front to occupy this region towards the desert," he said, noting that it's possible that this settlement was founded during the reign of Akhenaten.
—Mysterious artifacts from King Tut's tomb might have been used in 'awakening Osiris' ritual
—Ancient Egyptian pyramids, thought to contain only the elite, may also hold low-class laborers
—The first evidence of 'head cones' found in 3,300-year-old Egyptian tomb
Roger Forshaw, an honorary lecturer at the KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology at the University of Manchester who was not involved with the research, praised the team's work and noted that the "the presence of a temple underscores its strategic and cultural importance."
Forshaw also noted the sophisticated design of the street. "This street was ingeniously designed with a water-collecting system to drain surface water and protect the fragile mudbrick walls," Forshaw said.
Excavations at the site are ongoing, and Dhennin said they may help reveal how large the settlement was and when exactly it was founded. Another question is what Egyptians called the settlement in ancient times.
Owen Jarus is a regular contributor to Live Science who writes about archaeology and humans' past. He has also written for The Independent (UK), The Canadian Press (CP) and The Associated Press (AP), among others. Owen has a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Toronto and a journalism degree from Ryerson University.
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
Ancient Egypt: History, dynasties, religion and writing
Mysterious artifacts from King Tut's tomb might have been used in 'awakening Osiris' ritual
Dracula parrot: The goth bird whose piercing screams echo through New Guinea forests
Live Science is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.
©
Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street,
New York,
NY 10036.
Tucked away in the Pennines lies the quaint market town of Todmorden, once a thriving hub of the cotton industry during the Industrial Revolution.
Fast forward to modern times, and it's not the echoes of its bustling past that are causing a stir but rather its newfound reputation as a centre for unexplained UFO phenomena.
It all began back in 1980 with a rather macabre incident: the body of coalminer Zigmund Adamski from Tingley turned up on a Todmorden coal pile seven days after he vanished, bearing unexplained burns on his head, shoulder, and neck, leaving the cause of these injuries shrouded in mystery.
The extraterrestrial whispers started when Police Constable Alan Godfrey commented that Adamski seemed to have been "frightened to death."
Confronted with speculation about alien abduction, Godfrey responded to press queries saying, "I am open-minded. I can't rule it out."
Just half a year on from the Adamski conundrum, Godfrey himself encountered the inexplicable. While investigating reports of stray cattle on a Todmorden estate, the now ex-officer witnessed an enigmatic bright light in the skies, which he likened to a "rotating diamond-shaped object.", reports the Express.
Attempting to call for assistance was futile; his radio refused to function. Suddenly, the object disappeared, and Godfrey realized he was standing 30 yards from where he had been moments before, sporting a torn boot and a peculiar, itchy red mark on his foot.
He also had a half-hour memory gap. Later, under hypnosis, he alleged that he briefly woke up in a room where he was being medically examined by what seemed to be extraterrestrials - though he conceded in 2018 that this was likely a dream.
Following his UFO encounter and assertions of potential alien abduction of Adamski, Godfrey says he was introduced to a man who professed to be "from the ministry" and made him pledge under the Official Secrets Act not to disclose what he had witnessed.
Godfrey then alleges to have encountered this man several more times until he finally confronted him in a pub, telling him to "clear off."
He never saw the man again but later expressed his belief that this enigmatic individual had been an MI5 Agent.
In the years following these events, Godfrey claims he was compelled to resign from the police force. He has since penned a self-published book detailing his alien encounters.
However, UFO sightings in the area have persisted, and 40 years after Godfrey's account of the "spinning diamond", local resident Vicky Dinsdale asserts that she too spotted this UFO just a few months after the former police officer.
At Reach and across our entities we and our partners use information collected through cookies and other identifiers from your device to improve experience on our site, analyse how it is used and to show personalised advertising. You can opt out of the sale or sharing of your data, at any time clicking the "Do Not Sell or Share my Data" button at the bottom of the webpage. Please note that your preferences are browser specific. Use of our website and any of our services represents your acceptance of the use of cookies and consent to the practices described in our Privacy Notice and Cookie Notice.
Manage your account
Liam Coen was one of the top head coaching candidates on the market this year after an impressive year as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' offensive coordinator. The Jaguars showed strong interest in Coen during their search for a head coach, setting up an interview with him on Wednesday.
He turned down that opportunity and was set to sign a lucrative three-year deal with the Bucs to make him the highest-paid coordinator in the NFL, but he never put pen to paper.
That's when the Jaguars pulled the “break glass in case of emergency” card and fired GM Trent Baalke, making one last push to hire Coen as their head coach. Fast-forward to Thursday and they've landed their guy.
According to reports, Coen is expected to be hired as the Jaguars' next head coach. It was a bizarre turn of events, particularly considering the Buccaneers were unable to reach Coen on Thursday after he left to take the interview with the Jaguars.
Furthermore, his contract with the Buccaneers was reportedly contingent on him not taking a second interview with Jacksonville – but he never signed it, so he never breached the contract.
Coen had two different stints with the Rams. He was the assistant wide receivers coach from 2018-2019 before being promoted to assistant quarterbacks coach in 2020. He then left for Kentucky in 2021, returned to the Rams as Sean McVay's offensive coordinator in 2022, went back to Kentucky in 2023 and then landed with the Buccaneers in 2024.
So, yeah, he's made a few stops in the last five years.
This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Former Rams OC Liam Coen lands head coaching job after bizarre turn of events
Produced by: Mohsin Shaikh
A new 2023 Navy-recorded video shows a sleek, wingless object darting over the California coast—eerily similar to past military sightings.
Representative pic
Oval, white, and featureless—the “Tic-Tac” UFO glides with no visible propulsion, rewriting our idea of how flight is supposed to work.
Representative pic
The object's motion defies known physics—hovering, shifting, accelerating. Experts say no known aircraft could mimic these moves.
Representative pic
Captured aboard a Navy ship, the footage adds credibility to claims that UAPs are monitored regularly by trained military observers.
Documentary filmmaker Jeremy Corbell, a key voice in UAP disclosure, emphasizes this sighting's strange and urgent significance.
This video follows a string of declassified clips released by the Pentagon—an official pivot toward transparency and public awareness.
Lawmakers are paying attention. UAP hearings are now routine, with military officials breaking decades of silence under oath.
Gone are the tinfoil hats—credible sightings like these are shifting public perception and pushing policy toward serious investigation.
Representative pic
Are they drones, foreign tech, or something else entirely? With every new video, the UAP mystery deepens—and answers feel closer.
Time: 03/27/2025 8:27-9:00 pm
Location: Southern NH
This is a screen recording of me swiping through a bunch of videos taken on the same night. Moving light balls, possible drones, etc.
I have been seeing a couple of types of things for about a year now. Moving light balls, and three to five light drones/crafts.
Anyone can view, post, and comment to this community
Daybreak Anchor
Sam Fristed joined the WQOW team in February of 2023.
He attended the University of Wisconsin-River Falls where he
graduated with a degree in journalism.
Sam Fristed joined the WQOW team in February of 2023.
He attended the University of Wisconsin-River Falls where he
graduated with a degree in journalism.
EAU CLAIRE (WQOW) - People will head to the Chippewa Valley Expo Center this weekend for all things unexplained at the first annual paranormal conference held in Eau Claire called 'Metaparacon'.
Inside the venue guests can find booths and speakers from all over the country with experiences in various fields of spirituality. People can view paranormal equipment as well as find spiritual items such as crystals and bracelets.
People will head to the Chippewa Valley Expo Center this weekend for all things unexplained at the first annual paranormal conference held in Eau Claire called 'Metaparacon'.
According to Event Manager Terry Flick, the paranormal community has been growing over the last few years. He understands some people may be skeptical but explained the goal of this event is to bring like-minded people together under one roof.
"We chose not to do it in a place that serves alcohol or a casino because all family can come this way so it's babies to... I mean we've had 80, 90-year-old people walk through those doors," he explained.
Metaparacon runs through Sunday. Tickets can be purchased at the door. More information about it can be found here.
Have a story idea? Let us know here
Daybreak Anchor
Sam Fristed joined the WQOW team in February of 2023.
He attended the University of Wisconsin-River Falls where he
graduated with a degree in journalism.
Sam Fristed joined the WQOW team in February of 2023.
He attended the University of Wisconsin-River Falls where he
graduated with a degree in journalism.
Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.We recommend switching to one of the following browsers: