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Allegation against Rinaldo Nazzaro, founder of the Base, could shed new meaning on group's efforts inside Ukraine
Alleged former members of an international neo-Nazi terrorist organization are claiming its Russia-based and American leader is a Kremlin spy, according to online records reviewed by the Guardian.
The allegation that Rinaldo Nazzaro, a former Pentagon contractor and founder of the Base, listed as a designated terrorist organization all over the world, is an alleged Russian intelligence asset could bring new meaning to his group's latest effort: sabotage and assassination missions inside Ukraine to weaken the government of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
A website circulating on far-right Telegram channels is claiming to speak on behalf of former members of the Base and said it was “exposing” the group for what it really is: the cutout of Russia's federal intelligence agency, the FSB.
The members allege that they were always suspicious of Nazzaro's behavior and worried about who his handlers really were.
“[Nazzaro] presented himself as an army veteran who has been to Afghanistan, however during gun ranges he mentioned how he's never touched a shotgun in his life,” wrote the members.
“Things started becoming really SUS when a few members could see him texting on the phone in Russian, in a fluent/at least a good level as he was writing fast and seemingly naturally, all of that alone led to the belief that [Nazzaro] might be a Russian federal asset, and at that time it was already obvious that he was flying to Russia back and forth.”
For example, when a number of Base members were first being arrested, they noted he quickly, “gets into a plane to Russia”.
During the height of the Base's activities, it came to light that Nazzaro had worked in a top secret capacity as a drone targeting analyst for American special forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, but there were no records of him being in ground combat.
The ex-members also claimed how the Base's latest venture into Ukraine, where it is offering cash for operatives to carry out assassination and sabotage missions, is a Russian intelligence operation that is gaining traction. Recent videos online show the Base burning military vehicles with Ukrainian license plates, electrical boxes, and other activities inside the country.
The writers said the new Base cell in Ukraine was “bigger than any other fedop” carried out by Nazzaro.
“[Thus] not only are they trying to disrupt the system but also dislocate the Ukrainian forces which AGAIN furthers the interests of Russia,” they said.
Other evidence provided to the Guardian shows that whoever is running the account for the Base's Ukraine cell on Telegram, has paid for a bot army to up its follower numbers into the tens of thousands.
“How does The Base have money for so [many] bots and rewards for actions?” wrote a user affiliated with the website on Telegram. “I wonder who funds them.”
Nazzaro has increasingly leaned on Russian digital infrastructure to operate his global organization. Posts calling for attacks on Ukraine first appeared on the Base's VK account, which is hosted in Russia and run by Nazzaro. The recruitment email for the Base is also a Mail.ru address – the email provider of a well-known ally of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
Nazzaro, however, has repeatedly maintained that he is not affiliated with any spy agencies, even making an uncanny appearance on Kremlin state television in 2020, telling a reporter that he “never had any contact with any Russian security services”, something the ex-members also reference.
“That these accusations are also coming from alleged former members of the group is particularly interesting, given inside knowledge of the group they may have and Nazzaro's role within the global accelerationist white power movement,” said Joshua Fisher-Birch, a far-right analyst who saw the website and allegations circulating.
“I don't feel safe when the government posts my address,” Jennifer Vasquez Sura said in an interview.
The family of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who is currently imprisoned in El Salvador after being errantly deported by the Trump administration, has gone into hiding after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted their home address online.
Jennifer Vasquez Sura, Abrego Garcia's wife, expressed grave fears over her family's safety in an interview with The Washington Post this week. The attention her family has received due to her husband's case is worrying, she said — especially after DHS shared details about the family's whereabouts to millions of social media users.
Earlier this month, the department published a copy of a temporary civil protective order that Vasquez Sura had filed against Abrego Garcia in 2021. That order expired after one month, when Vasquez Sura declined to renew it.
In a statement regarding that action, Vasquez Sura said that she had requested the order out of “caution after a disagreement” the two had at the time. She had filed the request for the order due to her experience with domestic violence in past relationships, she said — and DHS using that record to attack Abrego Garcia's character was out of line.
“No one is perfect, and no marriage is perfect,” Vasquez Sura said earlier this month. “That is not a justification for ICE's action of abducting him and deporting him to a country where he was supposed to be protected from deportation. Kilmar has always been a loving partner and father, and I will continue to stand by him and demand justice for him.”
DHS shared the record on its X account in an attempt to justify Abrego Garcia's deportation. The department failed to block out personal details about Vasquez Sura, including her home address — forcing her and her family to move to a safe house, Vasquez Sura told The Post.
“I don't feel safe when the government posts my address, the house where my family lives, for everyone to see, especially when this case has gone viral and people have all sorts of opinions,” Vasquez Sura said.
DHS has defended its decision to publicize her personal info, telling The Independent that “these are public documents that anyone could get access to” — despite the fact that members of the Trump administration have previously denounced the doxxing of right-wing figures.
The administration, which admitted earlier this year that Abrego Garcia was wrongfully deported, has sought to justify continuing his incarceration in El Salvador by baselessly claiming that he is a member of a violent gang, a characterization his family has vehemently denied. The White House has failed to put forward evidence to back their claims, instead sharing photos of Abrego Garcia's hand tattoos and citing the types of hats he wears in an attempt to somehow bolster their case.
Meanwhile, legal experts have sounded the alarm on Abrego Garcia's deportation, noting that the administration violated his due process rights by denying him the ability to defend himself against the White House's allegations.
We've borne witness to a chaotic first few months in Trump's presidency.
Over the last months, each executive order has delivered shock and bewilderment — a core part of a strategy to make the right-wing turn feel inevitable and overwhelming. But, as organizer Sandra Avalos implored us to remember in Truthout last November, “Together, we are more powerful than Trump.”
Indeed, the Trump administration is pushing through executive orders, but — as we've reported at Truthout — many are in legal limbo and face court challenges from unions and civil rights groups. Efforts to quash anti-racist teaching and DEI programs are stalled by education faculty, staff, and students refusing to comply. And communities across the country are coming together to raise the alarm on ICE raids, inform neighbors of their civil rights, and protect each other in moving shows of solidarity.
It will be a long fight ahead. And as nonprofit movement media, Truthout plans to be there documenting and uplifting resistance.
As we undertake this life-sustaining work, we appeal for your support. Our fundraiser ends at midnight tonight! We still need 200 new monthly donors to hit our goal. Please, if you find value in what we do, join our community of sustainers by making a monthly or one-time gift.
Chris Walker is a news writer at Truthout, and is based out of Madison, Wisconsin. Focusing on both national and local topics since the early 2000s, he has produced thousands of articles analyzing the issues of the day and their impact on the American people. He can be found on most social media platforms under the handle @thatchriswalker.
Get the news you want, delivered to your inbox every day.
As Trump and his sycophants work to silence political dissent, independent media is a key part of the resistance. Join our collective fight by making a monthly donation to Truthout today.
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President Donald Trump's unprecedented tariffs, particularly on China, and recent attacks on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell caused alarm among some of his top advisers and America's biggest CEOs, who warned of financial chaos and store shelves that could go bare, people familiar with the conversations said.
The warnings — and the markets' own volatility this week — seemed to have broken through. Trump backed down Tuesday from his threats to try to remove Powell from the job, telling reporters in the Oval Office: “I have no intention of firing him.”
That prompted sighs of relief on Wall Street. A day after markets boomed on comments from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that Trump would seek to de-escalate the trade war with China, US markets gained again on Wednesday.
Top administration officials were also relieved by Trump's Oval Office statement on Powell, the people familiar with the matter said. The officials had become unnerved by the heated rhetoric and wary of a prolonged legal battle should Trump attempt to unseat the Fed chair.
The Dow closed higher by 420 points, or 1.07%. The broader S&P 500 gained 1.67% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 2.5%.
The three major indexes held on to a rally but finished well below their highest levels of the day. The Dow surged nearly 1,200 points in the morning before pulling back: Stocks came off their highest levels after Bessent cautioned that it could take considerable time to rebalance trade between the United States and China.
There is a “2 to 3-year timeline for the full rebalancing,” Bessent told a group of reporters on Wednesday after delivering a speech at an event hosted by the Institute of International Finance, a person familiar with the matter confirmed to CNN.
The comments, previously reported by Bloomberg News and CNBC, underscore how obstacles remain even as investors are eager for trade agreements and CEOs seek clarity on tariffs.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Wednesday said on Fox News there will be “no unilateral reduction in tariffs against China.”
“The president has made it clear China needs to make a deal with the United States of America, and we are optimistic that will happen,” Leavitt said. “And when that continues, it will be up to the president what the tariff rate on China will be.”
Trump on Wednesday told reporters that his administration will get a “fair deal” with China on trade, adding more broadly that negotiations with countries “are going very well.”
When Trump was asked in an impromptu gaggle outside the White House if he was talking to China actively, he responded: “Actively. Everything's active.”
“Every country wants to partake, even countries that have ripped us off for many, many years. China is an example, but it's not just China, European Union. They ripped us off for many, many years, and those days are over,” he added.
US Treasury bonds initially rallied Wednesday before giving back those gains in a stark reversal. The benchmark 10-year yield fellow below 4.3% in the morning before rising back up to almost 4.39%, just below where it had settled Tuesday. Yields and prices trade in opposite directions.
Trump's notable shift in tone toward Powell and China came a day after he met privately in the Oval Office with chief executives of four major US retail companies who conveyed concerns about rising economic fallout from Trump's tariff policy and the uncertainty it has created for financial markets.
The CEOs of Walmart, Target and Home Depot, all of whom delivered a blunt message about interruptions in the supply chain and its effects on consumers, were invited to the White House as part of an ongoing internal campaign to make the case to Trump about the real-world impact of his policies, administration officials said.
Related article
Trump can't make up his mind about why he's doing tariffs
Trump's tariffs have placed significant pressure on the retail sector. The business leaders warned that store shelves across America could “soon be empty,” two people familiar with the meeting said, as they presented a dire economic picture that could come into sharper view within weeks.
For weeks, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and other senior advisers have been fielding alarming calls from business leaders about the fallout from Trump's tariff policies and his ongoing threats to fire the chairman of the Federal Reserve. Taken together, the president's words have rattled markets and shaken confidence in the administration's stewardship of the economy.
Bessent, who has emerged as one of the leading Cabinet officials whose words have calmed financial markets, played a key role in arranging the meeting of CEOs, officials said, as part of an effort to show Trump how serious the economic challenges facing the administration have become.
Doug McMillon, the CEO of Walmart who has developed a cordial relationship with Trump through meetings at Mar-a-Lago and several mutual friends, bluntly told Trump that the trade war with China had already started to disrupt the supply chain, officials said, and would only intensify by summer.
Axios first reported the fallout from the president's meeting with CEOs.
Many Trump advisers did not ultimately believe the president would attempt to fire Powell, given the warnings he'd been receiving from his economic team — including Bessent — stretching back several months.
And Trump had seemed to absorb the notes of caution.
But his amped-up rhetoric over the past week had caused fresh uncertainty about his intentions — in particular, his message on social media Thursday that Powell's “termination cannot come fast enough!” and his follow-up Monday calling Powell a “major loser.”
Related article
Trump says he has ‘no intention of firing' Fed Chair Powell, days after saying his ‘termination cannot come fast enough'
Trump has argued that the Fed should cut rates soon to speed up the economy, perhaps as a way to counteract the significant economic drag that his massive tariffs are expected to create. But Powell has said repeatedly the Fed will only make a decision to raise or lower rates after careful consideration and would not rush a decision or issue an emergency rate cut before the rate-setting committee's next scheduled meeting in May.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt continued Trump's line of attack Tuesday in a press briefing, in which she defended the president for criticizing the Fed. She suggested that the Fed's action to lower rates in the late stages of the Biden administration — but not (yet) under Trump — could be political. There is no evidence the independent Fed is taking a political stance, and Powell has vehemently and repeatedly denied suggestions that the Fed plays politics when making its monetary policy decisions.
“The president believes they have been making moves and taking action in the name of politics rather than the name of what's right for the American economy,” Leavitt said prior to Trump's Oval Office comments. “The president has the right to express his displeasure with the Fed and he has the right to say he believes interest rates should be lower.”
Trump's top economic adviser Kevin Hassett also told reporters the White House was studying whether Trump could fire Powell, and said a potential “new legal analysis” might ease market concerns. That represented a break from Hassett's prior comments in support of the central bank's independence.
Leavitt said Tuesday that Hassett had recently changed his mind on the Fed after Powell insisted the central bank wouldn't rush a decision to cut rates.
“I also spoke to Kevin Hassett about the Fed as well and he has called into question the Fed's independence and whether they are actually doing things out of the best interest of the economy or are they doing it for partisan reasons,” she said.
But White House officials had long determined that firing Powell would spark legal challenges and market tumult.
And if any study was actually underway, Trump suggested Tuesday it wasn't necessary. He said in the Oval Office he “never did” have any intention of removing Powell from the job.
This story has been updated with additional reporting.
Correction: An earlier version of this report incorrectly stated which CEOs were in attendance at a recent meeting at the White House. The CEOs of Walmart, Target and the Home Depot were present.
CNN's John Towfighi, Elisabeth Buchwald, Matt Egan and Kit Maher contributed reporting.
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State lawmakers across the US have introduced at least 240 anti-China proposals this year, aiming to ensure public funds do not buy Chinese technology or even T-shirts, coffee mugs and key chains for tourists. They are also targeting sister-city relationships between US and Chinese communities.
After years celebrating trade ties with China, states do not want police to buy Chinese drones, government agencies to use Chinese apps, software or parts, or public pension systems to invest in Chinese companies.
A new Kansas law covers artificial intelligence and medical equipment, while in Arkansas, the targets include sister-city ties and state and local contracts for promotional items. Tennessee prohibits health insurance coverage for organ transplants performed in China or with organs from China.
Photo: AP
“Either the United States or China is going to lead the world in the next few decades,” Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders said after pushing a wide-ranging “Communist China Defense” package into law. “For me, I want it to be the US.”
The push started well before US President Donald Trump imposed 145 percent tariffs on China, but his posture is encouraging state officials, particularly fellow Republicans.
Anti-China proposals have been introduced this year in at least 41 states, but mostly in Republican-controlled legislatures, an Associated Press analysis using the bill-tracking software Plural showed.
Trump's rhetoric encouraged the push since his first term, said Kyle Jaros, an associate professor of global affairs at the University of Notre Dame who writes about China's relationships with US states.
Then, the COVID-19 pandemic soured American attitudes.
“The first Trump administration had a very different message than the preceding [Barack] Obama administration about state and local engagement with China,” Jaros said. “It tended to not see the value.”
Playing a “patriotism card” against China resonates with US voters, said David Adkins, a former Kansas legislator who is CEO of the nonpartisan Council on State Governments.
“Politicians of both parties, at all levels of government, pay no price for vilifying China,” Adkins said in an e-mail.
John David Minnich, a modern China academic and assistant professor at the London School of Economics, attributed states' measures largely to “targeted, strategic lobbying,” not popular pressure.
Critics see China as more anti-US and authoritarian under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), and US officials say China has a booming hacking-for-hire ecosystem to collect overseas intelligence.
Some state officials also began seeing China as a concrete threat when a Chinese balloon flew over the US in 2023, said Sara Newland, an associate professor of government at Smith College who conducts research with Jaros.
“There is this idea that a Chinese investment is actually going to result in the Chinese government spying on individual people or threatening food security in a particular area,” she said.
Kansas House of Representatives Majority Leader Chris Croft, a retired US Army colonel, said that countering China is a “joint effort” for states and the US government.
He championed a law greatly limiting property ownership within 160km of a military installation in Kansas by firms and people tied to foreign adversaries — China, but also Cuba, Iran and North Korea.
“All of us have a part to play,” he said.
Further limiting foreign property ownership remains popular, with at least 46 proposals in 24 states, but critics liken imposing restrictions to selling snow shovels to Miami residents.
Together, Chinese, Iranian, North Korean and Cuban interests owned less than 1 percent of the nation's 514 million hectares of agricultural land at the end of 2023, a US Department of Agriculture report showed.
Chinese interests' share was about 112,100 hectares, or two-hundredths of 1 percent.
Minnich said that if Trump's tariffs get China to reset relations with the US, that would undercut what states have done, but if Trump seeks “sustained decoupling,” state measures would likely have minimal effects on China in the short term, compared with Trump's policies.
Yet states do not seem likely to stop.
Joras said states have valid concerns about potential Chinese cyberattacks and whether critical infrastructure relies too heavily on Chinese equipment.
“The vast majority of China's threats to the US are in cyberspace,” he said. “Some of those defenses are still not solid.”
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES:
Venezuela's prosecutor's office slammed the call by El Salvador's leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela.
In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government's electoral crackdown last year.
“The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES:
The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington's tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965.
The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people.
His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo's west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists.
Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district.
Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media.
One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘POINT OF NO RETURN':
The Caribbean nation needs increased international funding and support for a multinational force to help police tackle expanding gang violence The top UN official in Haiti on Monday sounded an alarm to the UN Security Council that escalating gang violence is liable to lead the Caribbean nation to “a point of no return.”
Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Haiti Maria Isabel Salvador said that “Haiti could face total chaos” without increased funding and support for the operation of the Kenya-led multinational force helping Haiti's police to tackle the gangs' expanding violence into areas beyond the capital, Port-Au-Prince.
Most recently, gangs seized the city of Mirebalais in central Haiti, and during the attack more than 500 prisoners were freed, she said.
Hold the line and don't give up your rights; what rights you lose today you will not get back, says Maria Ressa.
As the Trump administration goes after universities, law firms and more, some argue that the free press will eventually become a target. Trump's attacks on the press have already begun, with the president filing a number of baseless lawsuits against organizations like ABC and CBS, including a $20 billion lawsuit against CBS over how the network edited an interview with Kamala Harris last year on 60 Minutes. The White House has also banned the Associated Press from covering some presidential events over its refusal to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. “I didn't want to be an activist, but when it's a battle for facts, journalism is activism,” warns Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa, whose new site Rappler faced attacks from former president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte. We also speak with The American Prospect editor Robert Kuttner, who has a new piece headlined “Is the Press Next?”
Please check back later for full transcript.
We've borne witness to a chaotic first few months in Trump's presidency.
Over the last months, each executive order has delivered shock and bewilderment — a core part of a strategy to make the right-wing turn feel inevitable and overwhelming. But, as organizer Sandra Avalos implored us to remember in Truthout last November, “Together, we are more powerful than Trump.”
Indeed, the Trump administration is pushing through executive orders, but — as we've reported at Truthout — many are in legal limbo and face court challenges from unions and civil rights groups. Efforts to quash anti-racist teaching and DEI programs are stalled by education faculty, staff, and students refusing to comply. And communities across the country are coming together to raise the alarm on ICE raids, inform neighbors of their civil rights, and protect each other in moving shows of solidarity.
It will be a long fight ahead. And as nonprofit movement media, Truthout plans to be there documenting and uplifting resistance.
As we undertake this life-sustaining work, we appeal for your support. Our fundraiser ends at midnight tonight! We still need 200 new monthly donors to hit our goal. Please, if you find value in what we do, join our community of sustainers by making a monthly or one-time gift.
Amy Goodman is the host and executive producer of Democracy Now!, a national, daily, independent, award-winning news program airing on more than 1,100 public television and radio stations worldwide. Time Magazine named Democracy Now! its “Pick of the Podcasts,” along with NBC's “Meet the Press.”
Nermeen Shaikh is a broadcast news producer and weekly co-host at Democracy Now! in New York City. She worked in research and nongovernmental organizations before joining Democracy Now! She has a masters of philosophy from Cambridge University and is the author of The Present as History: Critical Perspectives on Global Power (Columbia University Press).
Get the news you want, delivered to your inbox every day.
As Trump and his sycophants work to silence political dissent, independent media is a key part of the resistance. Join our collective fight by making a monthly donation to Truthout today.
Critics fear decision to list Brazil-based firm JBS, long linked to Amazon's deforestation, will add to the climate crisis
Environmental groups are outraged that the world's biggest meatpacking company, JBS, which has long been linked to Amazon's deforestation, has received approval from US authorities to list on the New York Stock Exchange.
The decision, announced on Tuesday by the Securities Exchange Commission, follows reports that JBS subsidiary Pilgrim's was the biggest donor to the inauguration committee of Donald Trump. Since taking power, Trump has reduced the independence of the SEC and other agencies, demanding their work be “controlled” by the president.
The Brazil-based company's shares elsewhere hit a record high on Tuesday when news broke of the SEC ruling on the contentious application, which has been tussled over for several years, and is a joint listing with Amsterdam.
Last week, JBS filed a report to the SEC saying it would hold a general shareholders meeting about the listing on approximately 23 May, and that the first day of trading of its shares in New York could be as early as 12 June.
The joint listing is expected to raise the value of the multinational, which started as a family business and grew globally with the support of Brazil's national development bank. Almost half of its revenue now comes from the United States, where it sells household brands including Pilgrim's, Moy Park, Seara and Primo. It also has a significant presence in Australia and strong sales in Europe and China. The company website boasts: “We feed the world with the best.”
But it has alarmed conservation groups, who fear JBS will use the extra financial resources to expand its market and environmental footprint.
JBS has been linked to deforestation on multiple occasions, and the New York attorney general, Letitia James, filed a lawsuit last year accusing the company of misleading consumers with its climate goals in an effort to increase sales. That lawsuit was dismissed in February.
A bipartisan group of 15 US senators had urged the Securities and Exchange Commission to reject JBS's application for a share listing. “Dozens of journalistic and NGO reports have shown that JBS is linked to more destruction of forests and other ecosystems than any other company in Brazil,” they wrote in an open letter.
JBS – which is dominated by two brothers from the founding family, Joesley and Wesley Batista – had promised to clean up its supply chain in the Amazon rainforest, but a year-long investigation published last week by the Guardian, Unearthed and Reporter Brasil found widespread scepticism by frontline workers that the company's new cattle tracing system will be ready by the deadline commitment of the end of this year. JBS has told the Guardian that it contested the conclusions of that investigation which it said were drawn from “a limited sample of 30 farmers”, saying it was irresponsible to disregard that JBS has “over 40,000 registered suppliers”.
The company has also had to pay fines or make plea bargains in several high-profile corruption cases in Brazil and the United States.
A recent Federal Election Commission filing revealed JBS subsidiary Pilgrim's made the largest single donation of $5m to Trump's inaugural committee for his second term.
Environment groups linked the listing decision to Trump's executive order for the SEC and other formerly independent regulatory agencies established by Congress to be accountable to the White House. That decree states: “In order to improve the administration of the executive branch and to increase regulatory officials' accountability to the American people, it shall be the policy of the executive branch to ensure Presidential supervision and control of the entire executive branch … Officials who wield vast executive power must be supervised and controlled by the people's elected President.”
Glenn Hurowitz, the CEO of the Mighty Earth environmental watchdog group, said: “Given the company's long rap sheet of illegal and corrupt conduct, it's hard to see how the SEC could have confidence that JBS won't deceive US investors. The approval of JBS's IPO shows this is no longer the independent SEC that has upheld honest practices on American markets for nearly a century.”
Others echoed the risks a listing posed to both investors and communities around the world. “By almost every metric, a company like JBS has a detrimental impact on society. Allowing it to list on the world's largest stock exchange – unlocking vast opportunities for expansion and profit – shows the deep failures of the US financial regulatory system. This decision is a disaster for both people and the planet,” said Alexandria Reid of Global Witness, an environmental justice organization.
Greenpeace UK said JBS's plans for global expansion threaten to tip the planet further towards climate chaos. “JBS built its meat empire on a history of corruption, broken promises and environmental destruction, including emissions that would make even fossil fuel companies raise an eyebrow,” campaigner Daniela Montalto, said. “This listing will benefit only the billionaire Batista brothers who sit at the helm of JBS, while ordinary people pick up the tab for climate chaos and environmental destruction that industrial agriculture is driving.”
Asked about the criticism from the green groups, JBS said in a statement: “JBS believes the dual listing presents a compelling opportunity for stakeholders interested in the performance and sustainable growth of the company. The proposal creates value for our team members, the communities where we operate, and investors. We've maintained ongoing disclosures with domestic and foreign investors and partners, who have repeatedly demonstrated their confidence in the credibility and robustness of our policies.
“JBS will continue to partner with farmers, NGOs, universities, customers, and other stakeholders to identify ways to reduce agricultural emissions, combat global food insecurity, and enhance the sustainability of food systems. Agriculture has an essential role to play in the climate change solution, and companies like JBS can and should help lead collective action.”
The company repeated its comment on the investigation published by the Guardian last week about deforestation, saying that “while the sector-wide challenges are significant and larger than any one company can solve on its own, we believe JBS has an in-depth and robust series of integrated policies, systems, and investments that are making a material and positive impact on reducing deforestation risks”.
Asked about the listing on the New York stock exchange, the SEC declined to comment, a spokesperson said.
China again biggest jailer of writers in 2024, followed by Iran – with Israel in fifth place, says organisation's annual report
Writers in the US are at growing risk amid a worldwide crackdown on free speech that has begun to spread to countries previously renowned for unfettered expression and openness, according to a leading writers' advocacy group.
PEN America said it was concerned about an emerging threat from the Trump administration as it published its annual Freedom to Write index report, which showed that the number of writers jailed worldwide had jumped for the sixth year running to 375 in 2024, compared with 339 the year before.
Covering a period ending before Donald Trump took office on 20 January, the 35-page report records China as once again the biggest jailer of writers, with 118 behind bars, up from 107. Iran is the second highest incarcerator, with 43, down from 49 a year earlier, although those released had been freed with conditions that forced them into silence.
Israel is in fifth place, with 21 writers behind bars, including eight in administrative detention – statistics at odds with the country's self-proclaimed status as a democracy that tolerates dissent. Other prominent incarcerators are Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey, a Nato ally and ostensibly still a democracy under the leadership of its strongman president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The index has been published for the past six years and has hitherto generally highlighted the dangers faced by writers living under repressive regimes, although Israel also appeared in the previous year's report.
While making no explicit mention of threats to free speech under the US president following a spate of arrests of foreign students who have campaigned for Palestinian rights and accusations of trying to curtail academic freedom, its text clearly hints at the potential for a future clampdown.
“As geopolitics continue to shift and authoritarian tendencies spread to countries that were once considered safely anchored in openness, we are seeing that free expression, and therefore writers, are increasingly in the crosshairs of repression in a much wider range of countries,” says the index.
“[Governments] recognize the power of words to affirm historical truths, give voice to those whose narratives have been excised from the historical ledger, develop or maintain culture, and hold institutions to account … Democracies have been slow to understand that attacks on writers are both the precursor to and a consequence of broader attacks on human rights, democracy, and free expression.”
In an interview, Karin Deutsch Karlekar, PEN America's director of writers, said the comments reflected a fear for writers on the domestic front, saying that the US had not witnessed such a “broad and deep attack on ideas” since the McCarthyite anticommunist witch-hunts of the 1950s.
She cited the case of Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University in the US on a Fulbright scholarship, who was detained and earmarked for deportation after co-authoring an opinion article criticizing Israel's military offensive in Gaza.
“People are being detained for their ideas and their writing in the US. This is definitely worrying,” she said.
“I would say it's only probably a matter of time when writers that we would include in our database and index in the US being detained as well. I fully expect that next year, we may well have cases in the United States in our index.”
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PEN's index generally includes fiction authors, poets, singer-songwriters, online writers and opinion writers, while excluding journalists who write news reports.
Karlekar said the threatening atmosphere – which has seen university authorities pressured to crack down on views perceived as antisemitic – had already led to self-censorship.
“I think, particularly on issues concerning Israel and Palestine over the past year and a half, there has been already a chilling effect,” she said. “Given what's happening with the Trump administration, there may well be more issues that people are afraid to take on.
“If someone is interested in looking at climate issues or transgender issues or women's rights, those are in the crosshairs of the administration [and] there may well be more self-censorship on some of these issues as well.”
Restrictions on free speech in the US were likely to worsen the situation for writers elsewhere, especially if Washington were to retreat from its traditional status as champion of human rights.
“The US has traditionally been a strong supporter of free expression around the world” Karlekar said. “It really helps when governments like the US or Britain speak out about these cases. If the US is really stepping back in terms of its role of defending free expression and being a standard bearer for this issue, that's big blow in terms of global trends and getting writers out of jail in other countries.”
The Interior Department said new permitting measures would “take a multi-year process down to just 28 days at most.”
The Trump administration announced late Wednesday that it is moving to implement new permitting procedures designed to speed up reviews and approvals of oil and gas development, a plan that environmentalists called an attack on the public's right to weigh in on projects that would directly impact communities across the United States.
The U.S. Department of the Interior, led by billionaire oil industry ally Doug Burgum, said the new permitting measures would “take a multi-year process down to just 28 days at most,” citing President Donald Trump's declaration of a “national energy emergency” at the start of his second term.
“In response, the Department will utilize emergency authorities under existing regulations for the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, and the National Historic Preservation Act,” the agency said.
The expedited permitting procedures will apply to crude oil, fracked gas, coal, and other energy sources favored by the president, according to the Interior Department.
Notably absent from Interior's list are wind and solar, which accounted for a record 17% of U.S. electricity generation last year. As it has moved to boost the fossil fuel industry — the primary driver of the global climate emergency — the Trump administration has canceled grants and halted construction for renewable energy projects.
Collin Rees, U.S. campaign manager at Oil Change International, said in a statement that the Interior Department's announcement of accelerated permitting procedures for dirty energy “is an attempt to silence the public's voice in decision-making, taking away tools that ensure our communities have a say in the fossil fuel project proposals that threaten our water, land, and public health.”
“The announcement is another giveaway to the fossil fuel billionaires who spent millions to put Trump back in the White House, justified by a fake ‘energy emergency,'” said Rees. “The U.S. is the largest oil and gas producer and is expanding extraction faster than any other nation. The real national emergency is the cabal of oil and gas CEOs harming working people and wrecking the climate to line their pockets.”
Alejandro Camacho, a professor of environmental law at the University of California, Irvine, wrote on social media that the Trump administration is “once again disregarding the law, environment, and even market data. Ignoring environmental laws to approve dirty projects claiming an energy emergency that does not exist.”
“Meanwhile, he's killing massive private wind power projects,” Camacho added. “Sounds like an emergency to me.”
The permitting announcement comes days after an internal document, leaked on Earth Day, showed that Trump's Interior Department intends to prioritize weakening environmental protections and opening federal lands to fossil fuel extraction.
The department is also “looking at whether to scale back” national monuments, including Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni-Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon, Ironwood Forest, Chuckwalla, Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks, Bears Ears, and Grand Staircase-Escalante, The Washington Post reported Thursday.
“Interior Department officials are poring over geological maps to analyze the monuments' potential for mining and oil production and assess whether to revise their boundaries,” according to the Post.
We've borne witness to a chaotic first few months in Trump's presidency.
Over the last months, each executive order has delivered shock and bewilderment — a core part of a strategy to make the right-wing turn feel inevitable and overwhelming. But, as organizer Sandra Avalos implored us to remember in Truthout last November, “Together, we are more powerful than Trump.”
Indeed, the Trump administration is pushing through executive orders, but — as we've reported at Truthout — many are in legal limbo and face court challenges from unions and civil rights groups. Efforts to quash anti-racist teaching and DEI programs are stalled by education faculty, staff, and students refusing to comply. And communities across the country are coming together to raise the alarm on ICE raids, inform neighbors of their civil rights, and protect each other in moving shows of solidarity.
It will be a long fight ahead. And as nonprofit movement media, Truthout plans to be there documenting and uplifting resistance.
As we undertake this life-sustaining work, we appeal for your support. Our fundraiser ends at midnight tonight! We still need 200 new monthly donors to hit our goal. Please, if you find value in what we do, join our community of sustainers by making a monthly or one-time gift.
Jake Johnson is a staff writer for Common Dreams. Follow him on Twitter: @johnsonjakep.
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A body lies under a yellow tarp beside an SUV outside the departures area at Toronto Pearson International Airport on April 24, 2025.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
Ontario's police watchdog says a 30-year-old man was shot dead by police at Toronto Pearson International Airport Thursday morning.
The Special Investigations Unit says three officers fired at the man outside the departures level at Terminal 1.
Peel Regional Police said a man was shot in a “police-involved shooting” at Terminal 1 and the officer was not injured.
Kristy Denette, a spokeswoman for the SIU, said in a statement, “There in no threat to the public.”
Police said it was an isolated incident.
Peel Regional Police officers began investigating a man in distress in an SUV a little before 7 a.m., the SIU said in a press release. After officers located the man, he produced a firearm. Officers then fired at the man, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
At around 11 a.m., a yellow tarp covered a body on the ground, next to a grey SUV, with more than a dozen police vehicles nearby. There were evidence markers scattered around the scene and yellow police tape draped over the front wheel of an empty First Students school bus that was parked nearby.
The roadway to the Terminal 1 Departures is currently closed but the parking garage remains open, according to a post on X by Toronto Pearson.
Evidence is pictured at the scene of a shooting at the departures area of Terminal 1 at Toronto Pearson International Airport, in Mississauga, Ont., on Thursday, April 24, 2025.Arlyn McAdorey/The Canadian Press
The airport said due to the investigation outside its departures level, it is rerouting passengers to enter and exit Terminal 1 through the arrivals area.
The SIU has assigned six investigators and three forensic investigators to the case. An SIU van has arrived on the scene.
Peel Regional police say to expect delays at the airport.
With files from Colin Freeze and The Canadian Press
Editor's note: A headline on an earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Toronto Police shot a man. It was Peel Regional Police.
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Thousands of mining insiders descended on Toronto in March for the annual Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada conference, the industry's premier convention. This year, not surprisingly, the one thing on everyone's mind was tariffs. We sent photographer Sage Szkabarnicki-Stuart to talk to delegates.
Louis Fourie, senior manager, geology, Respec (Saskatoon)
“There's ore in old mines and in the ground that we couldn't process historically but that we can now. Once we look past the speculation and buzzwords, there's a lot that we can do to make it beneficial for local communities. You can't have the energy transition without the minerals we need for it.”
Noah Singer, geology consultant (Montreal)
“If companies cut down on their orders, even if the tariffs magically go away overnight, it will take years to rebuild that volume, if ever. That means less money for investment and thus fewer workers—and often interns and juniors are first to be on the chopping block.”
Danette Schwab, VP of Exploration, Pacific Ridge (Vancouver)
“Start talking to First Nations early, before you start permitting. Many Nations are not outright opposed to resource development, but there must be benefits and environmental and cultural considerations.”
Kiera Broda, geoscience PhD candidate, McGill University (Montreal)
“Tariffs create uncertainty. However, they also offer an opportunity to reassess our economic practices. By improving permitting processes and strengthening local production, we can enhance economic resilience and foster national pride, enabling Canada's mining and mineral exploration industry to remain a leader in innovation.”
Ige Olusegun Omoniyi, Mary A Ogbe, Obadiah Simon Nkom and Olajide Olushola B., delegates from Nigeria.
Mary A. Ogbe, Ministry of Solid Minerals Development (Nigeria)
“Before Nigeria's independence, its GDP was sustained by mining. Then they discovered oil, and the focus changed. Mining has seen a comeback in the past four or five years—nickel, lithium, gold, copper, lead, zinc and more. Nigeria is going to do many more exploration projects very quickly, applying the latest tech and focusing on the green energy .”
Eduan Pieterse, country manager, VBKOM Mining Consultants Canada (Toronto)
“Typical drill rigs require a lot of space and create a lot of environmental disturbance. With this compact rig, you don't have to clear a lot of bush—it can be dragged around by a snowmobile. And because it's light, it doesn't consume a lot fuel, plus it's air-liftable.”
Bruce Achneepineskum, Chief, Marten Falls First Nation (Ontario)
“The Marten Falls community access road, which will connect to the road that goes up to the Ring of Fire mining area, winds around important sites for the community, including sacred sites. Any development projects happening on Treaty 9 territory—like the Ring of Fire—will need to be done in consultation with, and in collaboration with, the Matawa First Nations tribal council.”
David Truchot, managing partner, Veltiosis Consulting (Minneapolis)
“Imposing tariffs on such a critical industry, where it takes years, if not decades, to start a mine, is totally counterproductive. Miners need stability, not a whirlwind of flip-flopping economic conditions.”
Mike Carter, founding partner, First Green Energy (Vancouver)
“If you don't have social buy-in in Peru, they will shut down your project. Caring about the locals isn't just a nice-to-have anymore. You don't get a mine built without meaningful community support.”
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The federal judge overseeing the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an immigrant deported to his home country despite a court order, has paused her order demanding details on the U.S. government's efforts to facilitate his return to the United States.
Xinis previously ordered the government to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia to the United States. When the government declined to provide details, she ordered officials to file daily updates with the court on its efforts.
The judge had also granted the plaintiff's request for expedited discovery on the matter, including the terms of the agreement the United States reached with the Salvadoran government to house immigrants deported from America.
“For weeks, Defendants have sought refuge behind vague and unsubstantiated assertions of privilege, using them as a shield to obstruct discovery and evade compliance with this Court's orders,” she wrote in an order.
The government then filed a motion to stay that ruling. It was filed under seal, meaning it is not available to the public.
Lawyers for Abrego Garcia filed a sealed response to the motion.
Xinis referenced both sealed filings while entering the pause.
Garcia, who illegally entered the United States in 2011, was arrested in 2019. An immigration judge concluded that evidence showed he was a member of the MS-13 gang. A different immigration judge ordered Garcia deported but also issued a withholding of removal, which prevented the U.S. government from deporting him to his home country.
Garcia continued living in the United States until he was taken into custody by immigration agents on March 12. He was soon deported to El Salvador.
U.S. officials have said that the deportation there was a mistake because the withholding order was not listed on the flight manifest. They have more recently said the deportation was allowed because MS-13 was designated a terrorist group by President Donald Trump. Lawyers for Abrego Garcia say he should not have been deported to El Salvador and that he should be brought back to the United States to be with his wife, a U.S. citizen, and children.
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Ukrainian forces have liberated approximately 16 square kilometers of territory near Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast in recent weeks, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi said on April 17.
There has been a notable slowdown in Russia's offensive operations after months of steady territorial gains across eastern Ukraine. According to battlefield monitoring group DeepState, Russian troops have captured just 133 square kilometers in March, the lowest monthly total since June 2024.
The recently recaptured territory by Ukrainian troops includes areas near the settlements of Udachne, Kotlyne, and Shevchenko, according to Syrskyi. He made the announcement after a three-day visit to the Operational-Tactical Group Donetsk, which he described as the strongest formation within the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
"Over the course of three days, I visited almost all brigades of this most powerful grouping of the Ukrainian Defense Forces, which bears the brunt of the enemy's spring offensive and destroys its best forces and means," Syrskyi said.
According to Syrskyi, Ukrainian forces are halting around 30 Russian assaults daily in the Pokrovsk sector in Donetsk Oblast, inflicting significant losses on Russian troops.
During his visit, Syrskyi met with commanders at front-line command posts and reviewed operational plans with Brigadier General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, commander of the operational-tactical group. He said that on-site problems related to logistics, ammunition supply, and combat organization were being addressed.
Despite continued Russian efforts to push Ukrainian troops out of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and reach the administrative borders of these regions, Syrskyi said those objectives remain unfulfilled.
"We continue our defensive operation, carry out counteroffensive actions, and are achieving certain successes," Syrskyi said.
As of late 2024, Russian forces controlled around 60% of Donetsk Oblast and approximately 98.5% of Luhansk Oblast.
Moscow does not fully control any of the four Ukrainian regions – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson – that it illegally claimed to annex in 2022. According to media reports, including from The Moscow Times, Russia is seeking full control over these regions in the negotiations on ending the war with the United States, which started in March 2025.
MOSCOW, April 24. /TASS/. NATO is strengthening its presence near Russia's western borders and expanding military infrastructure, effectively forming a "strike fist," Russian Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu told TASS in an interview.
"In the past year, the military forces of NATO countries deployed near Russia's western borders have increased nearly 2.5 times," Shoigu stated.
"This includes consistent development of military infrastructure across Eastern European states, deployment of strategic missile defense systems, and measures aimed at maintaining high combat readiness of tactical nuclear capabilities in Europe."
He further highlighted that NATO is transitioning to a new combat readiness system, capable of deploying a force of 100,000 troops within 10 days, 300,000 within 30 days, and up to 800,000 after 180 days. "These operational capabilities were openly tested during drills held in 2023-2024," Shoigu noted.
The Baltic States are utilizing Western funds to construct defense lines and establish NATO military bases within their territories. In addition to US Abrams tanks, Poland is actively acquiring South Korean armored vehicles and making plans to obtain 180 K2 Black Panther tanks by 2026. The country is also purchasing over 200 South Korean self-propelled artillery systems K9 and multiple launch rocket systems K239. Shoigu emphasized that these developments clearly point to whom this "strike fist" is being directed against.
NATO countries are also modernizing their air defense systems. "Norway, Belgium, and the Netherlands are upgrading their fleets of combat aircraft, purchasing American F-35 fighters, while Romania and Bulgaria are acquiring F-16 tactical fighters," Shoigu explained. Meanwhile, on the eastern flank, preparations are underway to expand the NATO airfield network to support increased aviation activity.
Shoigu also commented on the paradoxical trend: economically dependent countries, especially those in the EU, adopt increasingly aggressive rhetoric. "The explanation is straightforward: these politicians fear losing financial subsidies from NATO and European funds and to secure further support they indulge in excessive Russophobia," he remarked. "Otherwise, they would need to focus on resolving internal economic and social issues, which they are currently unable to address."
He underscored that NATO's combined military expenditures far surpass Russia's, being more than 14 times greater. "The Trump administration has demanded that European allies raise their military budgets to 5% of the GDP," Shoigu recalled. "This proposal received mixed reactions within the alliance. Poland and the Baltic states supported the idea; Warsaw aims to increase defense spending to 4.7% of the GDP in 2025, while Lithuania's Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys announced plans for Vilnius to allocate between 5 and 6% of its GDP to defense from 2026 through at least 2030. Estonia also intends to reach a 5% defense spending target. These dependent states, heavily reliant on EU subsidies, are choosing to spend these funds on military buildup against an imaginary ‘Eastern threat,' rather than on social programs," he concluded.
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A team of Polish and Ukrainian researchers on April 24 began exhuming Polish victims of the World War II-era Volyn massacres in what is today western Ukraine, the Polish media reported.
Forensic experts, archeologists, and geneticists began their work at 9 a.m. local time at the site of the destroyed Puzhnyky (Puzniki in Polish) village in Ternopil Oblast.
This is the first such exhumation since 2017, when Ukraine imposed a moratorium in response to the destruction of Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) memorials in Poland.
The Volyn massacres, which peaked in 1943-1944, took place in the Nazi-occupied territory of what is now western Ukraine during World War II. UPA members killed tens of thousands of Poles, while thousands of Ukrainians were killed in retaliation.
The massacre represents one of the most painful chapters of the Polish-Ukrainian history and has continued to strain mutual relations to this day.
UPA fighters are believed to have killed between 50 and 120 Poles in Puzhnyky overnight on Feb. 13, 1945. The settlement no longer exists, and the area has been overgrown with vegetation, but close to 80 victims may remain buried here.
The research team includes Polish experts from the Freedom and Democracy Foundation, the Pomeranian Medical University, and the Institute of National Remembrance, as well as Ukrainian researchers from the Society of Volyn Antiquities.
Maciej Wrobel, state secretary at the Polish Culture Ministry, told Polsat News that the goal is to identify the victims and ensure dignified burial. He also said that the work is complicated by Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine, and warned against possible Russian disinformation operations.
In recent months, the Polish and Ukrainian governments have made efforts to resolve the issue of the Volyn exhumations, with Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk announcing a "breakthrough" in January.
Multiple Polish government and opposition officials have said that Warsaw would block Ukraine's entry into the EU and NATO unless the matter is resolved.
Defence secretary's spouse stands firmly by his side during top job in government
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Fittingly for devoted followers of Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth and Jennifer Rauchet wed at one of the president's golf clubs.
The president himself attended the nuptials at the Trump National Golf Club in Colts Neck, New Jersey, in August 2019.
Other guests included Mr Hegseth's Fox colleague Sean Hannity and his now fiancée Ainsley Earhardt, another luminary of conservative broadcasting.
Appropriately, the happy couple both wore “Make Marriage Great Again” baseball caps.
Ms Rauchet – who is believed to be in her early 40s – is the defence secretary's third wife and, between them, they are raising a “blended family” of seven children.
They each have three children from previous relationships.
The couple has been almost inseparable since they met at Fox News, where Ms Rauchet worked as an executive producer. A journalism graduate of Towson University, Maryland, she joined the station in 2006.
At the time, the then Fox & Friends host was still married to his second wife, Samantha Deering.
Deering and Mr Hegseth got together after both working for lobbying group Vets for Freedom in Washington DC.
Deering filed for divorce from Mr Hegseth after he fathered a child with Ms Rauchet in 2017, the same year he started working full-time at the network as a host, after previously making a number of guest appearances.
According to reports, Ms Rauchet was also married at the time.
She was moved from Mr Hegseth's show Fox & Friends to Watters' World after the pair disclosed their relationship, according to Vanity Fair.
According to Vanity Fair, there was gossip that she helped Mr Hegseth get more airtime than other contributors.
Claims that she was involved in Tucker Carlson's departure from Fox were angrily denied by Mr Hegseth on X in April 2023.
“The fakest news I've ever seen,” he wrote. My amazing wife @JennyHegseth had absolutely nothing to do with anything. Not one iota. Like everybody else, we love Tucker.”
In turn, Ms Rauchet rallied to her husband's defence when he was accused of sexually assaulting a woman at the 2017 California Federation of Republican Women biennial conference, where she was one of the organisers.
It was an allegation Mr Hegseth angrily denied, although he reached a confidentiality agreement with the woman.
“They won't stop with Pete. It's not him they're after. It's your values. We won't back down,” she wrote on Instagram in December last year, as she voiced loyalty to the man she describes as “her rock”.
When the allegation resurfaced during Mr Hegseth's confirmation process, team Trump were apparently “blindsided”. At the time Steven Cheung, Mr Trump's communications director issued a statement insisting “President Trump is nominating high-calibre and extremely qualified candidates” adding the team were “looking forward” to his confirmation as secretary of defence.
A lawyer for Mr Hegseth said: “This allegation was already investigated by the Monterey police department and they found no evidence for it.” Sources close to Mr Hegseth suggested the allegation had resurfaced as a result of Republican establishment figures attempting to sabotage his appointment.
Then, further allegations about Trump's defence pick were made public. In a furious email, sent around the time of Mr Hegseth's second divorce, his own mother, Penelope, called him an “abuser of women” and accused him of “lying, cheating, sleeping around and using women for his own power and ego”.
Penelope Hegseth told the New York Times – which had published the correspondence – that she had written the email at a turbulent time in the family's private life and insisted her son was “a good father and husband”.
Other reports emerged about an alleged drinking problem, with former colleagues at Fox claiming Mr Hegseth often smelt of alcohol before going on air.
Nevertheless, Mr Hegseth was confirmed. Ms Rauchet is said to have attended every meeting her husband had with senators as he sought their backing for his nomination to the Pentagon.
Posting a series of pictures from Mr Hegseth's swearing in ceremony to Instagram, Ms Rauchet captioned the post: “An overwhelming heartfelt THANK YOU to all who have supported us.
“Our family, friends, warriors and prayer warriors. I'm so proud of my husband and — like you — am excited to see all that's to come for our nation under this president and his well chosen leaders. It's a new chapter and God is the author — he writes the most beautiful stories.”
The pair lavish praise on each other on the social media site, with Mr Hegseth referring to her as “my rock” and “cowboy Barbi[e]” – she calls him “my favourite soul,” “the king of my heart” and her “everything”.
Mr Hegseth is so rarely seen without Ms Rauchet that she has earned the nickname “Yoko Ono” from Pentagon staff, according to MailOnline.
“I'm sure she's worried about his infidelity and drinking, but she's also involved in the shaping of his public image.
“She's like his parole officer and PR agent all at once,” a source told the website.
Ms Rauchet's frequent appearances at the Pentagon have drawn criticism, particularly after the Wall Street Journal reported she had accompanied the defence secretary to sensitive meetings, including one with his British opposite number, John Healey.
Partners of senior officials can be given low-level security clearance, whether this was the case with Ms Rauchet remains unclear.
CNN reported that she had also submitted paperwork to try to obtain security clearance. A Pentagon spokesman said they would not comment on an individual's clearance.
Her presence at a meeting at Nato headquarters in Brussels reportedly raised eyebrows among other attendees, but it is not known what was discussed in her presence.
Ms Rauchet's presence in a Signal group chat, alongside Hegseth's brother – who also works at the Pentagon – and his personal lawyer, in which war plans were discussed prompted further ire. The revelation came just a month after it was revealed Mr Hegseth had shared the same plans in a separate Signal chat, this time containing The Atlantic's Editor in Chief.
Kingsley Wilson, a Pentagon spokesman, insisted Ms Rauchet had “never attended a meeting where sensitive information or classified information was discussed”.
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A shopper browses phone accessories at a mall in Toronto on April 23.Cole Burston/The Globe and Mail
Consumers on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border are bracing for blowback from potential American tariffs on electronics and their components alongside existing levies on Chinese imports.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday showed signs of backpedalling on his threats in the global trade war. If he doesn't, however, shoppers can expect the price of smartphones, gaming devices, rice cookers, washing machines and a host of tech gadgets to rise, likely within months.
But that doesn't mean now is the time to buy the coveted electronics on your wish list.
Here's what you need to know.
More than 90 per cent of the world's iPhones, iPads, MacBooks and other Apple products are made in China. According to the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, Taiwan produces more than 60 per cent of the globe's semiconductors – used in everything from rice cookers to smartphones – while a 2023 U.S. International Trade Commission working paper found that about 92 per cent of advanced chip manufacturing capacity is located on the island.
Earlier this month, Mr. Trump exempted a range of electronics and key components used to make them from so-called reciprocal tariffs of as much as 145 per cent on China and baseline tariffs on other Asian countries. The U.S. maintains a 20-per-cent “fentanyl tariff” on China.
Electronics were exempted just as U.S. tech stocks plummeted, with shares of Apple taking a 9-per-cent nose dive in the two preceding weeks.
But last week, Mr. Trump suggested smartphones and other tech gadgets would be targeted in a forthcoming sector-specific suite of tariffs focused around the semiconductor industry.
His administration launched an investigation on the effect of imports of semiconductors, semiconductor manufacturing equipment and derivative products (think digital cameras and cars) on U.S. national security.
The investigation may ultimately lead to the imposition of U.S. tariffs or quotas on some or all products under investigation.
If tariffs are imposed on semiconductors or other components and equipment needed to manufacture electronics, the increased costs borne by importers will almost definitely cascade through the supply chain, said Sylvain Golsse, national global trade leader at EY Canada.
Semiconductors conduct the flow of electric current in microchips, which power iPhones, Androids, rice cookers, air conditioners, cameras, LED light bulbs, EVs, refrigerators and washing machines – even rocket ships.
“If the price of a chip increases because new tariffs need to be paid, any intermediate components powered by the chip will become more expensive and, ultimately, the finished good purchased in a store,” Mr. Golsse said.
The most recent projections out of the U.S. after Mr. Trump's introduction of a 54-per-cent cumulative tariff on China pegged the price hike for an iPhone at 43 per cent. According to analysts at Rosenblatt Securities, this would mean the cost of a basic iPhone 16 model currently priced at around US$799 would spike to US$1,142. The cost of a MacBook and AirPods were estimated to rise 39 per cent.
The calculations hinge on whether Apple passes that cost on to consumers.
Canadians will likely bear some of the brunt of U.S. tariffs on tech products and the resulting price increases on U.S.-imported goods.
“Supply chains are globalized, so you'd expect to see ripple effects,” said Jenna Jacobson, an associate professor at Toronto Metropolitan University focused on retail.
Major electronics companies will need to brace for overall added costs and uncertainty. And it can be easier for multinational companies to raise prices slightly across the board to reduce costs, instead of unilaterally, according to Jean-Luc Geha, associate director at the HEC Montréal Sales Institute.
“Once prices for items like tech go up, they usually don't go down unless obsolescence or competition force them to do so,” he said.
The cost to repair everything from smartphones to laptops might also go up as components become more expensive.
Tech accessories are likely to become pricier as well: China-based Anker, one of Amazon's largest sellers of gadgets such as power banks and phone cases, raised prices by 18 per cent on average on a fifth of its products sold on Amazon.
A current investigation into semiconductor imports issued by the Trump administration gave 270 days to publish its findings. But it's possible the investigation is completed before the deadline.
Experts say it's unlikely semi-conductor-specific tariff-related price hikes would be introduced before new semiconductor levies are actually implemented.
But consumers in Canada and elsewhere purchasing technology products might still notice higher prices within the next few months as a result of businesses managing significant uncertainty stemming from impactful and fast-changing trade and tariff developments, Mr. Golsse said.
Even if the Trump administration slapped tariffs on tech gadgets tomorrow, experts say it would likely take a few months for price hikes to trickle down to the retail level.
“There's typically some lag … between the announcement and the enforcement, so that would give consumers some time to make decisions,” Dr. Jacobson said. Retailers will also often go through existing inventory before raising prices.
“Sales drive people to stores to buy things, often in cases that they don't need it – just because it's on sale,” said Adam Chapman, a London-based certified financial planner. “We have the reverse thing happening right now where they're anticipating higher prices in the future. … It feels like all of a sudden, it's cheaper than it will ever be.”
Good savers in particular may be susceptible to panic-buying as they love a deal, he said.
But sales aren't always a good reason to buy. Instead, Mr. Chapman recommends buying quality products – even if they're more expensive – from the start, and using them for as long as they last: “There's a lot of people that have iPhones that are six years old and they still work.”
He added that this argument also works in reverse: If your phone is on its last legs, you should buy the premium product now instead of skimping later.
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U.S. President Donald Trump said there is a "very good" chance of a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia, he told reporters during an Easter event at the White House on April 21.
"I will be giving you full details over the next three days, but we had very good meetings on Ukraine, Russia," the U.S. president said. "There is a very good chance (to reach a ceasefire)."
The comments follow a report by the Wall Street Journal on April 20 that outlined a U.S. proposal for ending Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine.
According to a document obtained by the outlet, the proposal includes recognition of Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and a guarantee that Ukraine would not join NATO — two key Kremlin demands.
The proposals, outlined by senior Trump administration officials in a confidential meeting with Ukrainian and European counterparts in Paris on April 17, were confirmed by Western officials to the publication.
Ukraine's feedback is expected at a follow-up meeting in London later this week. If there is alignment between Kyiv, Washington, and European allies, the proposals could be formally introduced to Moscow.
U.S. Special Envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg told Fox News on April 20 that "NATO isn't on the table," further confirming that Washington is considering excluding Ukraine's potential accession as part of the peace deal.
Kyiv has consistently said it would not recognize Russia's occupation of any Ukrainian territory, including Crimea.
The U.S. proposal would mark a dramatic shift from a decade of bipartisan policy in Washington and contradict international law, which considers the 2014 annexation illegal.
Trump has repeatedly urged both sides to reach a deal, warning that he may pull U.S. support from the peace process if negotiations stall.
"Hopefully Russia and Ukraine will make a deal this week," he posted on Truth Social. "Both will then start to do big business with the United States of America, which is thriving, and make a fortune."
Despite Trump's push for a ceasefire, Moscow rejected a U.S. proposal for a 30-day truce and continues its offensive. On April 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a one-day Easter ceasefire, which President Volodymyr Zelensky said was violated roughly 3,000 times.
Putin has not extended the truce, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on April 20.
Zelensky has proposed a 30-day ceasefire focused on halting long-range drone and missile strikes against civilian infrastructure. Putin said the Kremlin needs to "look into" the proposal.
MOSCOW, April 24. /TASS/. Moscow maintains the right to use nuclear weapons in the event of the West's aggression, Russian Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu said in an interview with TASS.
"In November 2024, revisions were introduced to the Basic Principles of State Policy of the Russian Federation on Nuclear Deterrence, according to which Russia reserves the right to use nuclear arms in the event of aggression against it or the Republic of Belarus, including with the use of conventional weapons," he noted. According to Shoigu, Russia is "carefully monitoring Europe's military preparations."
"In accordance with Russia's National Security Strategy, in the event of foreign countries carrying out hostile actions representing a threat to Russia's sovereignty and territorial integrity, our country considers it legitimate to take appropriate symmetric and asymmetric measures necessary to thwart such actions and prevent them from repeating," he reiterated.
According to the official, nuclear deterrence "is being carried out with regard to countries and military coalitions that consider Russia a potential enemy and possess weapons of mass destruction or conventional armed forces with substantial military capabilities."
Additionally, such actions also involve countries who provide their territory and resources for preparing and carrying out aggression against Russia.
"The goals of ensuring the integrity of Russia and Belarus' unified defensive space and joint implementation of events on strategic deterrence were enshrined in the Security Concept of the Union State and the Treaty on security guarantees between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus approved in December 2024, which were developed with direct participation of security councils of both countries," Shoigu concluded.
DUBAI, April 24. /TASS/. At least 45 Palestinians died on Wednesday after Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip, the Al Jazeera television channel reported, citing medical sources.
According to the sources, more than 100 people were injured and the number of casualties continues to grow after nighttime raids.
On March 18, Israel resumed hostilities in the Gaza Strip and delivered a series of strikes on Hamas targets, thus cutting short the ceasefire that had been in place in the enclave since January 2025. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office explained the move by Hamas' rejections of proposals advanced after talks with US envoy Steve Witkoff. It claimed that the goal of the operation was to release all of the Israeli hostages. Hamas placed responsibility for this latest spiral of escalation in Gaza on Israel and the United States.
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President Donald Trump slammed Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday for his comments that Ukraine wouldn't recognize Russian control of Crimea, calling the remarks “very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia.”
“It's inflammatory statements like Zelenskyy's that makes it so difficult to settle this War. He has nothing to boast about! The situation for Ukraine is dire — He can have Peace or, he can fight for another three years before losing the whole Country,” he posted on Truth Social.
Any move to recognize Russia's control of Crimea would reverse a decade of US policy and could upset the widely held post-World War Two consensus that international borders should not be changed by force.
Russian missiles struck Ukraine's capital city Kyiv and the country's second largest city Kharkiv hours after Trump's post, Ukrainian authorities said, with at least nine people killed and some 70 wounded in the latest attacks.
Trump's comments came after a meeting in London aimed at bringing about an end to Russia's war in Ukraine had been downgraded after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he wouldn't attend.
Rubio had been expected to take part in the discussions with Ukrainian, UK and European officials, but State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Tuesday that he would no longer attend due to “logistical issues,” though a US official and two European diplomats familiar with the matter said the top US diplomat didn't go because the administration did not feel that they were at a decisive point in the ongoing talks and Rubio didn't feel attending would be the best use of his time.
“It was better to let talks play out than create the illusion that a breakthrough was imminent,” said one of the European diplomats.
“Emotions have run high today,” Zelensky said on X Wednesday after the talks.
In what seemed to be an indirect response to Trump's criticism of Zelensky being unwilling to recognize Russian control of Crimea, Zelensky vowed Kyiv would abide by its constitution: “Ukraine will always act in accordance with its Constitution and we are absolutely sure that our partners - in particular the USA - will act in line with its strong decisions.”
Zelensky shared a screenshot of former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's 2018 Crimea Declaration which rejected Russia's occupation of the peninsula.
Britain's Foreign Office had confirmed earlier on Wednesday that the meeting would take place at a lower level. “Official level talks will continue but these are closed to media,” the department said in a message to journalists.
The developments throw new uncertainty over the diplomatic efforts to end Russia's war. The United States has become increasingly steadfast in its push to force Kyiv to an agreement, but Ukraine is adamant that it will not give up Crimea, which has been occupied by Russia since 2014, or parts of eastern Ukraine that were captured following Moscow's full-scale invasion in 2022.
US Vice President JD Vance threatened to abandon negotiations on Wednesday, telling reporters during a visit to India: “We've issued a very explicit proposal to both the Russians and Ukrainians, and it's time for them to either say yes or for the US to walk away from this process. We've engaged in an extraordinary amount of diplomacy, of on the ground work.”
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But Ukraine's European allies, particularly Britain and France, have been hoping to bridge the divide. Wednesday's talks were due to follow a meeting in Paris last week in which officials from the US, the United Kingdom, France and Germany discussed the American framework for a ceasefire.
After Rubio reversed plans to attend the latest talks, Bruce said President Donald Trump's special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, would represent the US in London instead.
Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia on Friday, a US official said.
The US proposal that has caused deadlock includes recognizing Russia's control of Crimea, the southern Ukrainian peninsula illegally annexed by Moscow, an official familiar with the framework told CNN. It would also put a ceasefire in place along the front lines of the war, the official said.
Zelensky made clear Tuesday that he was open to talks with Russia, but that Kyiv would not accept a deal that recognizes Moscow's control of Crimea.
“Ukraine will not legally recognize the occupation of Crimea,” he told reporters. “There is nothing to talk about. It is against our constitution.”
Asked to clarify about whether he meant the US wanted to freeze the territorial lines where they are, Vance said Wednesday, “No, I didn't say that. What I said is the current line, somewhere close to them is where you're ultimately, I think, going to draw the new lines in the conflict. Now of course, that means the Ukrainians and the Russians are both going to have to give up some of the territory they currently own. There's gonna have to be some territorial swaps.”
The war has resumed with full force this week, following a surprise ceasefire over the Easter weekend that both sides accused each other of breaching.
The talks in London were scheduled as US officials publicly voiced frustration over the lack of progress at bringing an end to the war.
Trump has said he would “have to see an enthusiasm to want to end it” from both sides for the US to continue negotiations, after Rubio warned last week that Washington could walk away from its efforts to end the conflict if there were no signs of progress.
The broad framework has been presented to both sides, Rubio and the State Department have said, to determine whether the differences can be narrowed in a short timeframe. There are still pieces of the framework to be filled out and the US plans to work with the Europeans and the Ukrainians on that this week, the official told CNN.
Related article
The Kremlin's 30-hour truce was designed to shift blame to Ukraine. Did Trump buy it?
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday the negotiations were “hopefully moving in the right direction,” and declined to say what “stepping back” from the peace efforts might look like for the US.
Moscow has previously stalled on ceasefire negotiations and rejected an earlier US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire agreed to by Kyiv.
However, under pressure from Trump, Ukraine and Russia have expressed willingness to negotiate for the first time in years; the two sides have not held direct talks since the early weeks of Moscow's invasion in 2022.
On Monday, Putin raised the prospect of holding direct talks with Ukraine about a ceasefire that would halt striking civilian targets, but said further discussion was needed on how to define a civilian target.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later confirmed the Russian president's remarks, saying “(Putin) had in mind negotiations and discussions with the Ukrainian side,” Reuters reported, citing Russia's Interfax news agency.
This story has been updated with additional information. CNN's Anna Chernova, Shania Shelton, Kosta Gak, Kit Maher, Jennifer Hansler, Alex Marquardt & Jerome Taylor contributed reporting.
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CNN's Clarissa Ward speaks with a Syrian refugee family who fled their country's brutal civil war to settle in Italy with the help of Pope Francis.
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Valerie Bertinelli is embracing everything about herself as she celebrates her 65th birthday.
On Wednesday, the "One Day at a Time" star posted a video montage of dozens of photos, writing, "Went through it all in the last handful of years and I'm so grateful for the downs as much as I am for all of the ups I am blessed to experience. The light at the end of the tunnel is finally here. I can see it. I feel it."
She continued, "I love my family. I love my friends. I love all of you out there supporting me and being a part of our community here.I am one lucky and grateful mofo."
Among the images Bertinelli shared was a throwback to a lingerie photo she took in a bathroom last year, one she posted as part of feeling "acceptance" of her life and body.
VALERIE BERTINELLI TOLD SON WOLFGANG NO VAN HALEN BIOPICS UNTIL AFTER SHE'S DEAD
Valerie Bertinelli celebrated her 65th birthday Wednesday, saying she can feel "the light at the end of the tunnel" of her hard times. (Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images)
"At some point I will talk about the madness my body has been through this year," she wrote at the time.
"But right now every lump bump wrinkle and saggy part of me just feels acceptance and simple appreciation to be standing in front of a mirror in a hotel bathroom in downtown Manhattan ready to color my roots late on a Monday night."
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Part of that journey involved abstaining from alcohol and focusing on the future.
Bertinelli also shared another element of acceptance on Thursday when she appeared on "The Drew Barrymore Show."
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Valerie Bertinelli admitted on "The Drew Barrymore Show" that she's been told in the past that she's "too much." (Weiss Eubanks/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
During a segment celebrating an audience member's makeover, relationship expert Damona Hoffman offered the advice, "If someone thinks you're too much, then they are not enough, and that is not your problem."
Bertinelli asked the panel and crowd, "How many people have been told they're too much?"
She, Barrymore and others in the studio all raised their hands.
The 65-year-old split from her boyfriend, Mike Goodnough, last fall after dating for 10 months. She first went public with the relationship in March 2024 but ended things in November.
Bertinelli and Mike Goodnough dated for 10 months in 2024 before parting ways. (Stewart Cook/Getty Images for NATAS)
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Goodnough recently spoke out on social media, accusing the former Food Network star of taking "backhanded swipes" at him in her Instagram posts when he spoke out about speculation that the two were engaged in a subtle online feud.
He responded to the many "messages and replies" he said he had received, which implied that the duo "appear to be communicating with each other via our Instagram posts and stories."
"That is not the case," he wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post. "I have never at any time posted something on social media for the purposes of communicating with someone indirectly when I know them personally and have ample ways to reach them directly."
He asserted that he still cared for Bertinelli despite their split, writing, "I have love for her and I always will."
In a February Instagram post, Bertinelli reflected on what makes relationships work, writing that she had "fumbled the last true good man I met."
Bertinelli said in a post in February she "fumbled the last true good man I met." (Dia Dipasupil/WireImage)
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Bertinelli heaped praise on Goodnough in a since-deleted post that she shared last month. According to People magazine, the Delaware native wrote that she felt "so lucky to have gotten to know him," and she had been "irreversibly changed by him for the better."
Bertinelli was previously married to Tom Vitale from 2011 to 2022, and the actress described their divorce as "wicked."
Prior to her marriage to Vitale, Bertinelli was married to musician Eddie Van Halen from 1981 to 2007.
Fox News Digital's Ashley Hume and Christina Dugan-Ramirez contributed to this report.
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President Donald Trump holds a signed an executive order relating to school discipline policies as Education Secretary Linda McMahon listens in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, April 23, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday blocked Trump administration directives that threatened to cut federal funding for public schools with diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by the National Education Association and the American Civil Liberties Union, which accused the Republican administration of giving “unconstitutionally vague” guidance and violating teachers' First Amendment rights.
A second judge on Thursday postponed the effective date of some U.S. Education Department anti-DEI guidance, ruling in a separate case filed by the American Federation of Teachers in Maryland.
In February, the department told schools and colleges they needed to end any practice that differentiates people based on their race. Earlier this month, it ordered states to gather signatures from local school systems certifying compliance with civil rights laws, including the rejection of what the federal government calls “illegal DEI practices.”
The directives do not carry the force of law but threaten to use civil rights enforcement to rid schools of DEI practices. Schools were warned that continuing such practices “in violation of federal law” could lead to U.S. Justice Department litigation and a termination of federal grants and contracts.
U.S. District Court Judge Landya McCafferty in New Hampshire said the April letter does not make clear what the department believes a DEI program entails or when it believes such programs cross the line into violating civil rights law. “The Letter does not even define what a ‘DEI program' is,” McCafferty wrote.
The judge also said there is reason to believe the department's actions amount to a violation of teachers' free speech rights.
“A professor runs afoul of the 2025 Letter if she expresses the view in her teaching that structural racism exists in America, but does not do so if she denies structural racism's existence. That is textbook viewpoint discrimination,” McCafferty wrote.
An Education Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
States were given until the end of Thursday to submit certification of their schools' compliance, but some have indicated they would not comply with the order. Education officials in some Democratic-led states have said the administration is overstepping its authority and that there is nothing illegal about DEI.
The Feb. 14 memo from the department, formally known as a “Dear Colleague” letter, said schools have promoted DEI efforts at the expense of white and Asian American students. It dramatically expands the interpretation of a 2023 Supreme Court decision barring the use of race in college admissions to all aspects of education, including, hiring, promotion, scholarships, housing, graduation ceremonies and campus life.
In the ruling in Maryland, U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher postponed that memo. She found it was improperly issued and forces teachers to choose between “being injured through suppressing their speech or through facing enforcement for exercising their constitutional rights.”
“The court agreed that this vague and clearly unconstitutional requirement is a grave attack on students, our profession, honest history and knowledge itself,” Randi Weingarten, president of the AFT, said in a statement.
The lawsuits argue that the guidance limits academic freedom and is so vague it leaves schools and educators in limbo about what they may do, such as whether voluntary student groups for minority students are still allowed.
The April directive asked states to collect the certification form from local school districts and also sign it on behalf of the state, giving assurance that schools are in compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
President Donald Trump's education secretary, Linda McMahon, has warned of potential funding cuts if states do not return the form by Friday.
In a Tuesday interview on the Fox Business Network, McMahon said states that refuse to sign could “risk some defunding in their districts.” The purpose of the form is “to make sure there's no discrimination that's happening in any of the schools,” she said.
Schools and states are already required to give assurances to that effect in separate paperwork, but the new form adds language on DEI, warning that using diversity programs to discriminate can bring funding cuts, fines and other penalties.
The form threatens schools' access to Title I, the largest source of federal revenue for K-12 education and a lifeline for schools in low-income areas. ___
Binkley reported from Washington.
___
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South Carolina Superintendent of Education Ellen Weaver joins 'Fox & Friends' to discuss President Donald Trump's plans to return education to the states.
A federal judge in New Hampshire on Thursday blocked the Trump administration from cutting funding to public schools that maintain diversity programs, a setback to its broader crackdown on DEI.
U.S. District Judge Landya McCafferty said the effort by Trump's Education Department to block federal funding to public schools that continue to promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs likely violates the First Amendment, presenting what she described as "textbook viewpoint discrimination."
At issue is a memo sent by the Education Department this month to public schools nationwide, threatening to withhold Title I federal funds from public schools that continue to "unfairly" promote DEI views or programs.
The effort sparked an immediate wave of concern, and lawsuits, across the country from education groups that cited the importance of Title I funds as a critical source of funding for many low-income public schools.
TRUMP-APPOINTED JUDGE ORDERS ADMINISTRATION TO RETURN SECOND DEPORTED MIGRANT
Demonstrators participate in a recent "Hands Off" protest in Columbia, S.C. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
The DEI-slashing effort was met with a wave of court challenges, including a lawsuit filed by the National Education Association, the group's New Hampshire affiliate chapter, and the Center for Black Educator Development, who challenged the case in New Hampshire's federal court.
Two other U.S. courts are slated to hear similar challenges to the Education Department's effort, with one case in Washington, D.C., expected to be heard as early as this week.
McCafferty's ruling stopped short of issuing a nationwide injunction to block the policy in all 50 states.
Rather, it blocks the Trump administration from halting the disbursement of Title I funds to any schools that employ or contract with plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
"The right to speak freely and to promote diversity of ideas and programs is ... one of the chief distinctions that sets us apart from totalitarian regimes," McCafferty said in her 82-page opinion, adding that the actions taken by the Education Department "threate[n] to erode these foundational principles."
TRUMP URGES SUPREME COURT TO LET TRANS MILITARY BAN PROCEED
President Donald Trump holds an education-related executive order in the Oval Office as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Education Secretary Linda McMahon watch. (AP/Alex Brandon)
She also said the Trump administration failed to provide the court with a sufficient definition of the DEI programs that were at risk as a result of the anti-DEI push.
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The order comes after the Trump administration and the plaintiffs in the lawsuit reached a short-term agreement to delay the policy from taking force.
That agreement was slated to expire Thursday, prompting the court to rule on the matter.
Breanne Deppisch is a national politics reporter for Fox News Digital covering the Trump administration, with a focus on the Justice Department, FBI, and other national news.
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A federal judge significantly curtailed the Trump administration from implementing a policy that threatens to withhold federal funding from schools for engaging in diversity, equity and inclusion – or DEI – programs or if they incorporate race in certain ways in many other aspects of student life.
US District Judge Landya McCafferty said in a scathing opinion that the administration's policy, laid out by the Department of Education in a letter to educators earlier this year, was “textbook viewpoint discrimination,” likely violating the First Amendment's Free Speech protections.
She also concluded that the National Education Association, the administration's opponent in the case, was likely to succeed in its arguments that the policy was unconstitutionally vague and that the agency ran afoul of procedural steps required by law in how it implemented the policy.
“The ban on DEI embodied in the 2025 Letter leaves teachers with a Hobson's Choice,” the judge, a Barack Obama appointee who sits in New Hampshire, wrote, noting that the educators must choose between teaching curricula that invites penalty from the federal government or risking their professional credentials by aiding by the Trump policy.
“The Constitution requires more,” she wrote.
McCafferty declined to issue a nationwide order blocking the policy, but is halting the administration from enforcing it against any school that employs members of the National Education Association and receives federal funding.
Her preliminary injunction comes after the administration and the challengers had reached a short-term agreement to delay implementation of the policy, included a certification process that would require schools to turn over certain information, so that the judge could consider the case. That agreement was set to expire on Thursday.
At least two other courts are considering challenges to the policy, including a DC judge who is hearing arguments in the lawsuit before her on Thursday.
Thursday's ruling is the latest development in legal challenges to Trump's policy targeting DEI programs in schools. During the two-week enforcement pause, the administration was not allowed to bring any enforcement actions or investigations under a so-called “Dear Colleague” letter sent to schools in February that threatened to withhold federal funding from schools if they engaged in diversity, equity and inclusion programs or if race played a role in other aspects of student life.
The letter was geared toward all preschool, elementary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions, as well as state educational agencies that receive financial assistance from the federal government.
The National Education Association and its New Hampshire chapter sued over the policy, alleging the letter as both impermissible vague and encroaching “on teaching and academic freedom.”
Trump has waged war on DEI efforts since the start of his second term and has taken action against several elite universities, demanding changes to their DEI programs. The administration has already rolled back DEI programs, arrested international students and revoked their visas, and frozen federal funding for schools that refused to submit to its demands.
The administration froze over $2 billion in multi-year grants and contracts at Harvard University after its leaders refused to make key policy changes, including eliminating DEI programs, resulting in a clash over academic freedom, federal funding and campus oversight as Harvard sued the federal government.
Policy changes were also demanded of Columbia University, though the school later announced several changes to address the Trump administration's demands, an apparent concession to the federal government.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
CNN's Shania Shelton and Kristin Chapman contributed to this report.
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How a day off can (and can't) help children.
by Anna North
This story originally appeared in Kids Today, Vox's newsletter about kids, for everyone. Sign up here for future editions.
It's a stressful time to be a kid.
Young people are watching environmental disasters, school shootings, and economic and political uncertainty, all with a level of media (or at least social media) coverage that would have been unimaginable for previous generations. Against this backdrop, they're also expected to have their lives figured out by an early age, and rack up a laundry list of achievements to cite in an increasingly lengthy and comparison-filled college application process. “You almost have to start working on your college career in middle school,” Jennifer Rothman, director of youth and young adult initiatives at the National Alliance on Mental Illness, told me.
Given all this, it's perhaps no surprise that kids need a break. Mental health days — a day off to deal with depression or anxiety, or simply to tend to mental well-being, gained currency among adults during the early part of the Covid-19 pandemic — and they've taken off among young people as well, with at least 12 states passing laws allowing excused absences for mental health reasons.
But as chronic absenteeism remains a problem around the country, some school officials are worried that giving kids mental health days could encourage an attitude that school attendance is optional. “There's a lot of misconceptions about how important it is to be in school — if I didn't come to school at all in the pandemic, why do I urgently have to keep coming to school now?” Kent Pekel, superintendent of Rochester Public Schools in Minnesota, said during a webinar last year, according to EdWeek.
While concerns about mental health are far from gone, they're also being joined by fears of learning loss and the acknowledgement that missing even a few days of school can be detrimental to kids' education. There's also a widespread worry that students are reaching college, the job market, and the ballot box without basic skills like reading.
Some experts also caution that taking a day off for the wrong reasons could actually make matters worse. “When you get yourself in the trap or downward slide of school avoidance, that's really hard, and it happens really quick,” Sarah Cain Spannagel, a clinical psychologist in Cleveland who works with children and families, told me.
How can kids, families, and educators navigate all this? How do we support kids through a time that's often scary even for adults, while also making sure they get an education? I posed these questions to experts this week, and the answers I got suggested that while a day off won't cure a kid's depression or anxiety (sadly, that doesn't work for grown-ups, either), time for reset and recovery can help protect kids from getting to a crisis point in the first place. A day off could even show families and schools what's missing from a kid's life, leading to less stress and pressure in the future.
Doctors and teens alike have been especially concerned with young people's mental health in the last five years, with Vivek Murthy, the US surgeon general under President Joe Biden, warning in 2021 of a mental health crisis among adolescents. More recent surveys have shown some improvement in the prevalence of teen sadness and depression, but clinicians are still seeing “alarming rates” of anxiety and depression, as well as suicidality and self-harm, Amber Childs, a psychiatry professor at Yale School of Medicine who works on youth mental health, told me.
Allowing mental health days can also help destigmatize mental illness, and encourage young people to be open about any struggles they're going through, rather than hiding them, kids and experts say.
Among teens, mental health days have emerged as a popular coping strategy. Students began advocating for them even before Covid hit, and lawmakers in states from Oregon to Utah have agreed, giving kids a designated number of mental health days per year, or simply changing the definition of an excused absence to include psychological reasons.
While hard numbers on how many days kids are actually taking are hard to come by, the practice seems to be increasing, perhaps driven by a growing awareness that psychological well-being is as important as physical health, Spannagel said.
The concept of a mental health day might sound pretty foreign to previous generations. Growing up, “I never got any days off,” Rothman of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, who has three teenagers, told me. “Your parents were kind of like, you either have to have a fever or you're throwing up, that's the only way you're staying home.”
But adults today need to understand “how different the world is now for our kids than it was for us,” Rothman said.
Because of social media, young people today don't have much downtime from social interaction, news, or, well, anything really, Childs told me. Being able to unplug “not only from our digitally enabled lives, but also from the routine things that happen in the social and academic space” can be positive, “whether or not something bad is happening.”
Allowing mental health days can also help destigmatize mental illness, and encourage young people to be open about any struggles they're going through, rather than hiding them, kids and experts say.
However, the way we often think about mental health days might not be the most helpful for kids. Rather than using them when a child is already in crisis — “taking the release valve off of the pressure cooker,” as Childs put it — families and schools should use them as “a preventative tool” to keep that pressure from building up in the first place.
Ideally, parents can look ahead to a time when kids might have a lot of stressful events coming up, like big exams or performances, then schedule a day off ahead of time. They should also plan how to use the day well. “A mental health day doesn't equate to chilling on a couch for eight hours straight binging TikTok and television,” Childs said.
Instead, Rothman suggests getting outside, reading, drawing, or playing card games — “whatever is calming and helps them feel more like themselves.” For teenagers especially, a day off could be a time to just catch up on sleep, something they're often lacking due to early high school start times.
What kids feel the need to do on a mental health day can also give adults “clues about what might be crowded out during a typical school day or week,” and help build those activities back in on ordinary days so kids don't get as stressed out and depleted, Childs said. (If kids keep taking days off to sleep, it might be time for the school to consider a later start time.)
Taking a day off shouldn't be a way for kids to avoid something they're anxious about, like a class, a difficult friendship, or school in general, experts say. Childs suggests that parents look for patterns — if kids keep asking for a mental health day on a Monday, it's an opportunity to delve deeper into what's happening at school on Mondays that might be stressing them out.
A newsletter about kids — for everyone, from senior correspondent Anna North.
If requests for a day off are very frequent, or if feelings around them are intense, it could be a sign that “you're getting avoidance of a problem that most likely is going to be there in two days” when the kid goes back to school, Spannagel said.
Meanwhile, if symptoms like stress or sadness are going on for more than two weeks, or parents see major changes to behavior like eating or sleeping, it could be time to reach out to a child's primary care doctor to have them evaluated for mental health conditions, Rothman said.
Kids with ADHD, autism, or learning differences might need the reset of a mental health day more than the average kid, to help them recover from sensory overload or fatigue, Spannagel said. At the same time, a kid frequently feeling too exhausted or overwhelmed to go to school could mean they need additional help with executive functioning or social skills, or that the accommodations they have at school aren't meeting their needs.
When it comes to concerns about absenteeism and academics, families and teachers can have a conversation about making up any work a child misses on an occasional day out, Spannagel said.
And while some fear that allowing mental health days could encourage kids to skip school, that concern is “giving me like, if we talk about sex with them, they're going to want to have more sex,” Childs said. “I think the question is more complex, which is: What about the current environment has lent itself to kids not feeling engaged in school?”
A few mental health days aren't going to fix problems with the school environment, not least because giving a kid a day off in the middle of the school year just isn't possible for every family. Experts don't recommend leaving kids home alone if they're struggling mentally, and many parents don't have the job flexibility to take extra time off with their kids. But schools can help by building aspects of a mental health day into the school week, adding time to shift the focus “away from academics and performance into exploration of self,” Childs said.
Having resources in the classroom, like a quiet corner where kids can take a moment to themselves, can also help support kids' mental health day-to-day, Rothman said. (My older kid's teacher brought this calming dog stuffie to their classroom in the fall, and I honestly would like one for myself.)
Talking about mental health in school is also crucial, whether that's part of a formal program or just a teacher “being open about the things that they're feeling,” Rothman said. “It fights the stigma around it.”
Seventy-four percent of teens say social media helps them feel more connected to their friends, but 48 percent also say the platforms harm people their age, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.
The Trump administration is reportedly seeking to eliminate Head Start, the federal program that provides early education to more than half a million kids from low-income families. One graduate calls the program “one of the few times in my early life where I felt truly loved, seen and supported in a place of learning.”
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s remarks about children with autism who “will never pay taxes” recall the dark history of eugenics, writes Jessica Grose at the New York Times.
My older kid and I are reading the Aster series of graphic novels, about a little girl who moves to the countryside so her mom can pursue her career as a robot-bird scientist, leading to friendships with an 800-year-old woman, a sheep wearing a tie, and three chestnuts who are also knights, among other colorful characters.
Two weeks ago, I wrote about how tariffs could drive up the cost of items like strollers and car seats, making it harder to have a kid in America. Reader Diana Braley responded, “As a mom in 2025, I've realized raising kids doesn't have to be as expensive as society makes it seem.”
“Raising children has always required commitment, support, and resilience — not consumerism,” Braley wrote. “Big companies sell us the idea that spending more makes us better parents. But the truth is, our instincts and community matter more than any fancy product.”
Thanks to Braley, and a reminder that you can always reach me at anna.north@vox.com!
Understand the world with a daily explainer plus the most compelling stories of the day, compiled by news editor Sean Collins.
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The Justice Department terminated hundreds of grants this week, effectively slashing the budgets for organizations across the country that assist crime victims and fight both gun violence and opioid abuse.
The cancellations, which claimed that the more than 350 already-distributed grants “no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities,” sent shockwaves through grantee organizations.
“I was flabbergasted,” said Renee Williams, who leads the non-partisan National Center for the Victims of Crime. Her organization has operated a hotline for 10 years through a DOJ grant, and connects victims of heinous crimes to specialists that help them navigate everything from legal assistance to state bureaucracies.
That grant was cut Tuesday evening.
“I genuinely believed that this administration had victims in the forefront of their mind,” Williams told CNN. “But to get that email to see that they were cutting out victims, and that this hotline – which we know is a lifesaving resource to so many people – was no longer a priority was just stunning.”
It is not unusual for new administrations to review applications for federal grants, or award grants based on their political preferences. But it is highly unusual for grants to be clawed back once the money is allocated and is being used, former DOJ officials told CNN.
And though the cuts represent a relatively small portion of the grants administered by the department, experts worry that the funding cuts will fatally impact organizations whose projects are already underway.
“People who have been hurt by crime are just going to be hurt again when they try to get help,” Kristina Rose, the former director of the Biden Justice Department's Office for Victims of Crime, which oversees billions of dollars in grant funding. “Everyone eventually will feel the impact of this.”
The cuts were first reported by The Washington Post.
“This Department of Justice is focused on prosecuting criminals, getting illegal drugs off of the streets, and protecting American institutions from toxic DEI and sanctuary city policies,” a Justice Department spokesperson said in response to CNN's questions about the cuts. “Discretionary funds that are no longer aligned with the administration's priorities are subject to review and reallocation.”
Among programs whose grants were cancelled are organizations who work to protect and help individuals who were the victims of a crime.
Those groups – many of which have received bipartisan support in the past – say that without their funding, the victims they support could be left without legal help, safe housing, medical and trauma support, or even funeral expenses to bury a loved one who had been murdered.
Copies of several grant termination letters shared with CNN say the DOJ has “changed its priorities,” and want these federal grants to be “more directly supporting certain law enforcement operations, combatting violent crime, protecting American children, and supporting American victims of trafficking and sexual assault, and better coordinating law enforcement efforts at all levels of government.”
But many grant recipients believe this action will do the opposite by pulling the rug out from programs that have been working in communities across the country.
One program at risk of immediate shutdown is a group who sends advocates to the bedside of someone in the hospital who has been injured from gunshot or other type of assault. The advocates can help them navigate how to report the crime if they choose and can help the victims find services to assist in their recovery.
Another DOJ grant that funded trauma recovery centers in Iowa was also cancelled, as were grants that put kennels in domestic violence shelters so that victims could bring their pets with them when they fled. The Justice Department restored at least some of the shelter pet programs Wednesday evening, a source told CNN.
When news of the cuts first surfaced Tuesday, dozens of grantees gathered on a videoconference to discuss their options, including whether to take legal action.
Many of the organizations found that they had already been cut off from the financial systems from which they could access their grant money, one official said. Others tried to contact their grant managers at the Justice Department.
“I want to believe, and I want to hope it's a mistake, and that mistake will be rectified,” said Williams.
The terminated grants also touch local government groups whose efforts are focused on research, statistics and efforts to reform things like policing and the juvenile justice system.
“Instead of helping to keep our residents safe, the Trump Administration is once again cruelly clawing back critical public safety funding for our state,” wrote Democratic New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin in a statement.
“Cutting critical initiatives to fight hate crimes, to prevent violence in our communities, and to combat opioid abuse is as reckless as it is dangerous,” Platkin continued.
In Kansas City, Missouri, officials in city hall learned Wednesday a grant that funded counseling and treatment programs through their mental health court had been terminated.
“It takes away a tool that we have to give people treatment and then break the cycle of recidivism that we see on nuisance offenses,” Democratic Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas told CNN.
Lucas argued that judges cannot jail people with mental health issues for an extended amount of time for nuisance crimes, and that without treatment, those offenders will be back on the street without help and resources.
“I think it's going to lead to vastly inferior outcomes for people in Kansas City who want to be safe,” said Lucas.
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American Airlines passenger jets prepare for departure, Wednesday, July 21, 2021, near a terminal at Boston Logan International Airport, in Boston. American Airlines Group Inc. (AAL) on Thursday, July 22 reported second-quarter net income of $19 million, after reporting a loss in the same period a year earlier. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Major U.S. airlines are reducing their flight schedules and revising or withdrawing their profit outlooks for the year due to less domestic travel demand as sentiment about the national and global economies sours.
American Airlines pulled its financial guidance for 2025 on Thursday, joining rivals Southwest and Delta in declaring the economic outlook too uncertain to provide full-year forecasts. All three airlines cited weakening sales among economy class leisure travelers.
“We came off a strong fourth quarter, saw decent business in January, and really domestic leisure travel fell off considerably as we went into the February time frame,” American Airlines CEO Robert Isom told CNBC.
Consumer reluctance to book vacations would correspond with a new poll that showed many people fear the U.S. is being steered into a recession and that President Donald Trump's broad and haphazardly enforced tariffs will cause prices to rise.
There's also increasing concerns about international travelers. Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at J.P. Morgan, said in a client note that anti-American sentiment could be spurring a travel dropoff, with data showing that international visitors to the U.S. are running about 5% lower than a year ago.
“In recent weeks there have been numerous news stories about tourists canceling trips to the U.S. in protest of the perceived heavy-handedness of recent trade policies,” he wrote. “This points to potentially another channel to consider in assessing the effects of tariffs on economic activity.”
Some economic indicators point to expectations of a slowdown. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes slowed in March, and U.S. consumer sentiment plunged in April, the fourth consecutive month of declines. However, fears of a downturn have not translated into layoffs.
Trump announced sweeping tariffs on April 2 that triggered panic in financial markets and generated recession fears, leading consumers and businesses to start pulling back on spending, which includes travel. The president put a partial 90-day hold on the import taxes but increased his already steep tariffs against China.
Beijing increased its import tax on American goods to 125% in retaliation. On Thursday China denied Trump's assertion that the two sides were involved in active negotiations to end or mitigate their trade war.
American Airlines said it would give an update on its full-year guidance “as the economic outlook becomes clearer.” Airline executives said sales among business travelers and for premium seats on long-haul international flights remained solid.
Southwest Airlines reported late Wednesday that it would trim its flight schedule for the second half of the year due to lower demand. The company also said it could not reaffirm its 2025 and 2026 outlooks for earnings before interest and taxes, given “current macroeconomic uncertainty.”
United Airlines last week gave two different financial forecasts for how it may perform this year, one if there's a recession and one if not. The airline said it planned to reduce its scheduled domestic flights by 4% starting in July in response to lower-than-expected demand for economy fare tickets.
“We think there is a reasonable chance things can weaken from here,” United CEO Scott Kirby said.
Delta Air Lines, the nation's most profitable carrier, predicted as recently as January that the company was on track for the best financial year in its history. Earlier this month, the airline scratched its performance expectations for 2025 and said it was putting a planned flight schedule expansion on hold.
“With broad economic uncertainty around global trade, growth has largely stalled,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian said at the time. “In this slower-growth environment, we are protecting margins and cash flow by focusing on what we can control. This includes reducing planned capacity growth in the second half of the year.”
The parent companies of Frontier Airlines and Alaska Airlines also pulled their 2025 guidance.
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Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
This July 2023 photo provided by Ashley Dayer shows Dayer in the Adirondacks, N.Y. (Ashley Dayer). Adirondacks in 2023
Ashley Dayer's dream of winning a National Science Foundation grant to pursue discoveries in bird conservation started when she was an early-career professor with an infant in her arms and a shoestring laboratory budget.
Competition is intense for NSF grants, a key source of funding for science research at U.S. universities. It took three failed applications and years of preliminary research before the agency awarded her one.
Then came a Monday email informing Dayer that President Donald Trump's administration was cutting off funding, apparently because the project investigating the role of bird feeders touched on themes of diversity, equity and inclusion.
“I was shocked and saddened,” said Dayer, a professor at Virginia Tech's department of fish and wildlife conservation. “We were just at the peak of being able to get our findings together and do all of our analysis. There's a lot of feelings of grief.”
Hundreds of other university researchers had their National Science Foundation funding abruptly canceled Friday to comply with Trump's directives to end support of research on diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as the study of misinformation. It's the latest front in Trump's anti-DEI campaign that has also gone after university administrations, medical research and the private sector.
More than 380 grant projects have been cut so far, including work to combat internet censorship in China and Iran and a project consulting with Indigenous communities to understand environmental changes in Alaska's Arctic region. One computer scientist was studying how artificial intelligence tools could mitigate bias in medical information, and others were trying to help people detect AI-generated deepfakes. A number of terminated grants sought to broaden the diversity of people studying science, technology and engineering.
NSF, founded in 1950, has a $9 billion budget that can be a lifeline for resource-strapped professors and the younger researchers they recruit to their teams. It has shifted priorities over time but it is highly unusual to terminate so many midstream grants.
Some scientists saw the cuts coming, after Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz last year flagged thousands of NSF-funded projects he says reflected a “woke DEI” or Marxist agenda, including some but not all of the projects cut Friday.
Still, Dayer said she was “incredibly surprised” that her bird project was axed. A collaboration with other institutions, including the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, it tapped into Project Feederwatch, a website and app for sharing bird observations.
Dayer's team had collected data from more 20,000 Americans on their birdwatching habits, fielding insights on how outdoor feeders were affecting wildlife, but also people's mental well-being.
The only mention of the word “diversity” in the grant abstract is about bird populations, not people. But the project explicitly sought to engage more disabled people and people of color. That fit with NSF's longtime requirement that funded projects must have a broad impact.
“We thought, if anything, maybe we'd be told not to do that broader impacts work and to remove that from our project,” Dayer said. “We had no expectation that the entire grant would be unfunded.”
On the day the grants were terminated, Sethuraman Panchanathan, the NSF's director since 2020, said on the agency's website that it still supported “research on broadening participation” but those efforts “should not preference some groups at the expense of others, or directly/indirectly exclude individuals or groups.”
The NSF declined to share the total number of canceled grants, but Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, run by billionaire Elon Musk, posted on X that NSF had canceled “402 wasteful DEI grants” amounting to $233 million. It didn't say how much of that had already been spent. Grants typically last for several years.
Caren Cooper, a North Carolina State University professor of forestry and natural resources, said she expected her work would be targeted after it made Cruz's list. Her grant project also sought to include people of color and people with disabilities in participatory science projects, in collaboration with the Audubon Society and with the aim of engaging those who have historically been excluded from natural spaces and birdwatching groups.
One doctoral student had left her job and moved her family to North Carolina to work with Cooper on a stipend the grant helped to fund.
“We've been trying to make contingency plans,” Cooper said. “Nonetheless, it's an illegal thing. It's violating the terms and conditions of the award. And it really harms our students.”
Along with eliminating DEI research, NSF said it will no longer “support research with the goal of combating ‘misinformation,' ‘disinformation,' and ‘malinformation' that could be used to infringe on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens across the United States in a manner that advances a preferred narrative about significant matters of public debate.”
Several researchers said they weren't sure why their funding was terminated, other than that their abstracts included terms like “censorship” or “misinformation.”
“The lack of transparency around this process is deeply concerning,” said Eric Wustrow, an engineering professor at the University of Colorado Boulder whose grant aims to study and combat internet censorship in countries like China and Iran. “Did they just Ctrl+f for certain words, ignoring context?”
NSF said on its website that “there is not a list of words” to avoid, but that misinformation research is no longer aligned with NSF's priorities.
Wustrow said his research supports free speech and access to information around the world, and he plans to appeal the decision to terminate the funding. Meanwhile, he's looking at potentially working for free this summer without a grant to fund his salary.
Even for those who did intend to address misinformation, the cuts seemed to miss the point.
Casey Fiesler, of the University of Colorado Boulder, had a project focused on dispelling AI misconceptions and improving AI literacy — also a priority of Trump's education department. Cornell University's Drew Margolin said his work set out to help people find ways to combat social media harassment, hate speech and misinformation without the help of content moderators or government regulators.
“The irony is it's like a free speech way of addressing speech,” Margolin said.
The NSF declined to say if more cuts are coming. The terminated funding mirrors earlier cuts to medical research funding from the National Institutes of Health.
A group of scientists and health groups sued the NIH earlier this month, arguing that those cuts were illegal and threatened medical cures.
The cuts at NSF so far are a tiny portion of all of the agency's grants, amounting to 387 projects, said Scott Delaney, a research scientist at Harvard University's school of public health who is helping to track the cuts to help researchers advocate for themselves. Some received termination letters even though their projects had already ended.
“It is very chaotic, which is very consistent with what is happening at NIH,” Delaney said. “And it's really unclear if this is everything that's going to get terminated or if it's just the opening salvo.”
Dayer is still figuring out what to do about the loss of funding for the bird feeder project, which cuts off part of summer funding for four professors at three universities and their respective student teams. She's particularly worried about what it means for the next generation of American scientists, including those still deciding their career path.
“It's just this outright attack on science right now,” Dayer said. “It's going to have lasting impacts for American people and for science and knowledge in our country. I'm also just afraid that people aren't going to go into the field of science.”
——
Associated Press writer Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.
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Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
President Donald Trump holds a signed an executive order relating to school discipline policies as Education Secretary Linda McMahon listens in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, April 23, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday blocked Trump administration directives that threatened to cut federal funding for public schools with diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by the National Education Association and the American Civil Liberties Union, which accused the Republican administration of violating teachers' due process and First Amendment rights.
In February, the U.S. Education Department told schools and colleges they needed to end any practice that differentiates people based on their race. Earlier this month, the department ordered states to gather signatures from local school systems certifying compliance with civil rights laws, including the rejection of what the federal government calls “illegal DEI practices.”
The directives do not carry the force of law but threaten to use civil rights enforcement to rid schools of DEI practices. Schools were warned that continuing such practices “in violation of federal law” could lead to U.S. Justice Department litigation and a termination of federal grants and contracts.
The lawsuit argued that the orders were “unconstitutionally vague,” an issue underscored in the ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Landya McCafferty.
She said the April letter does not make clear what the department believes a DEI program entails or when it believes such programs cross the line into violating civil rights law. “The Letter does not even define what a ‘DEI program' is,” McCafferty wrote.
The judge also said there is reason to believe the department's actions amount to a violation of teachers' free speech rights.
“A professor runs afoul of the 2025 Letter if she expresses the view in her teaching that structural racism exists in America, but does not do so if she denies structural racism's existence. That is textbook viewpoint discrimination,” McCafferty wrote.
States were given until the end of Thursday to submit certification of their schools' compliance, but some have indicated they would not comply with the order. Education officials in some Democratic-led states have said the administration is overstepping its authority and that there is nothing illegal about DEI.
The lawsuit filed in March argues the Feb. 14 memo, formally known as a “Dear Colleague” letter, would limit academic freedom by dictating what students can be taught.
The memo said schools have promoted DEI efforts at the expense of white and Asian American students. It dramatically expands the interpretation of a 2023 Supreme Court decision barring the use of race in college admissions to all aspects of education, including, hiring, promotion, scholarships, housing, graduation ceremonies and campus life.
The memo faces another challenge from the American Federation of Teachers and the American Sociological Association, which has asked a federal court in Maryland to stop the department from enforcing it.
Both lawsuits argue that the guidance is so vague that it leaves schools and educators in limbo about what they may do, such as whether voluntary student groups for minority students are still allowed.
President Donald Trump's education secretary, Linda McMahon, warned of potential funding cuts if states did not return the form by Friday.
In a Tuesday interview on the Fox Business Network, McMahon said states that refuse to sign could “risk some defunding in their districts.” The purpose of the form is “to make sure there's no discrimination that's happening in any of the schools,” she said.
The April directive asked states to collect the certification form from local school districts and also sign it on behalf of the state, giving assurance that schools are in compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Schools and states are already required to give assurances to that effect in separate paperwork, but the new form adds language on DEI, warning that using diversity programs to discriminate can bring funding cuts, fines and other penalties.
The form threatens schools' access to Title I, the largest source of federal revenue for K-12 education and a lifeline for schools in low-income areas. ___
Binkley reported from Washington.
___
The Associated Press' education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
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GOP Sen. John Kennedy said Sunday during an interview with NBC's Kristen Welker that the Trump administration deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who is in an El Salvadoran megaprison, was a "screw up."
A second U.S. judge in Maryland ordered the Trump administration to return another man who was deported from the U.S. to El Salvador last month under the Alien Enemies Act – the latest case in a high-profile legal battle playing out in federal courts across the country.
U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher, a Trump appointee, on Wednesday ruled that the Trump administration violated a settlement agreement DHS reached last year with a group of young asylum seekers when it deported a 20-year-old man, referred to in court filings as "Cristian," to El Salvador last month.
He was part of a group of migrants who had entered the U.S. illegally as unaccompanied children and who later filed asylum claims to remain in the U.S.
DHS agreed in the settlement that it would refrain from deporting any of the individuals in the class until their asylum claims could be fully adjudicated by a U.S. court.
Gallagher ruled that the government breached that agreement when it deported Cristian, a member of the class, and ordered that they return him to the U.S.
News of the case and settlement in question was first reported by ABC News.
FEDERAL JUDGE JAMES BOASBERG FINDS PROBABLE CAUSE TO HOLD TRUMP IN CONTEMPT OVER DEPORTATION FLIGHTS
Trump holds a photo of Abrego Garcia's hand tattoos at the White House. (President Trump/Truth Social)
Gallagher stressed in her ruling that, unlike other court challenges to Trump's deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, this one centers on a "breach of contract" by the government.
Her ruling also alluded to the deportation of Abrego Garcia, an alleged MS-13 member living in Maryland who was deported to El Salvador last month. U.S. officials have resisted court orders to facilitate his return to the U.S.
In response to this, Gallagher specifically tasked the Trump administration in her ruling with "making a good faith request to the government of El Salvador and to release Cristian to U.S. custody for transport back to the United States to await the adjudication of his asylum application on the merits by USCIS."
The Trump administration, meanwhile, told the court it had determined that Cristian was eligible for removal under the Alien Enemies Act because he had been arrested and convicted for cocaine possession earlier this year.
They told the court that his designation as an "alien enemy pursuant to the AEA results in him ceasing to be a member" of the class that had negotiated a settlement.
JUDGES V TRUMP: HERE ARE THE KEY COURT BATTLES HALTING THE WHITE HOUSE AGENDA
Inmates at the Counter-Terrorism Confinement Centre (CECOT) mega-prison, in Tecoluca, El Salvador on Jan. 27, 2025. (Marvin Recinos/AFP via Getty Images)
That agreement did not appear to hold water with Gallagher, who ordered the government not to remove any other members of the class until their asylum claims are properly adjudicated.
"Therefore, under the plain terms of the Settlement Agreement and fundamental tenets of contract law, removal from the United States of a Class Member, including but not limited to Cristian, without a final determination on the merits by USCIS on the Class Member's pending asylum application violates the Settlement Agreement," Gallagher said.
She also granted a temporary restraining order to another member of the class, an 18-year-old referred to as Javier, whom counsel for the group said was in "imminent danger" of being deported earlier this month, as ABC reported.
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Gallagher agreed that Javier was covered by the settlement with the government and blocked his removal from the U.S.
Breanne Deppisch is a national politics reporter for Fox News Digital covering the Trump administration, with a focus on the Justice Department, FBI, and other national news.
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Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir was confronted by some pro-Palestinian demonstrators Wednesday night in New Haven, Connecticut, according to a statement and videos shared by Ben Gvir's office.
“Water bottles were thrown” at Ben Gvir, his office said, when the far-right minister exited a building in front of protesters following a speech he gave at Shabtai, a private Jewish society at Yale that's not officially affiliated with the university.
The videos show dozens of demonstrators shouting and chanting at the minister as he exits, smiling and waving at the protesters. “Minister Ben Gvir refused to leave the scene and made a V sign at them, as a sign of victory,” his office said.
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Opinion: I'm a Jewish student at Yale. Here's what everyone is getting wrong about the protests
Photos published on social media show a water bottle apparently being thrown at Ben Gvir and a group of people surrounding him.
In one video, an item that was apparently thrown is heard hitting the ground. People standing next to Ben Gvir shout “whoa” as they realize items are being thrown.
Ben Gvir was not injured and is in “good health,” his office said.
In a separate video viewed by CNN, at least one person is seen being detained by police. CNN has reached out to New Haven police for comment and details about detainments or arrests.
When the event began earlier Wednesday evening, protesters crowded the sidewalk outside the gated building while chanting “Free Palestine,” “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “Yale, your hands are red.” As attendees made their way into the venue, protesters yelled “shame” repeatedly and booed.
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Mitchell Dubin, a Yale senior and member of the Shabtai Society, told CNN “Shabtai does not seek to legitimize or delegitimize world leaders. Instead, it provides a space where ideas are interrogated with rigor, policies are challenged with integrity, and civil discourse is preserved even under strain.”
Renewed protests have spread at college campuses this spring over Israel's handling of its war in Gaza.
The war started after Hamas, the militant group that has controlled Gaza since 2007, killed 1,200 people in Israel in a series of gruesome attacks and took hundreds of others hostage in October 2023.
But international groups have said Israel's attacks in Gaza have killed tens of thousands of Palestinians – mostly women and children – and caused an ongoing humanitarian crisis.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators also gathered at Yale University on Tuesday night to protest Ben Gvir's visit.
A Yale spokesperson told CNN an “unregistered group” of 200 people not “affiliated with any recognized student organization” gathered Tuesday and set up eight tents in Beinecke Plaza, a central square on Yale's campus.
The group disbanded at 11 p.m. Tuesday after “university officials articulated Yale's policies and the consequences of violating them” and offered a final warning, the Yale spokesperson said in a statement to CNN.
Protesters were given cards with QR codes that linked to Yale University's policies for peaceable assembly, such as keeping everyone physically safe, not blocking entrances and exits and not disrupting the university's operations.
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US colleges are making substantial progress on campus antisemitism, but work remains, ADL says
Some students who were warned by campus officials in previous incidents that violated school policy were given written notices and “are subject to immediate disciplinary action,” the spokesperson said. But the university didn't say how many received such notices.
Tuesday's protest came shortly after the group met with Yale officials to discuss recent campus policy violations and were “warned that further violations would jeopardize the group's privileges,” the university said.
Yale has since revoked the group's status as a registered student organization, as officials say they are also investigating concerns about “disturbing antisemitic conduct at (Tuesday's) gathering,” the university said Wednesday.
“Yale condemns antisemitism and will hold those who violate our policies accountable through our disciplinary processes,” the statement said.
A statement from Ben Gvir's office said the protesters were there “in an attempt to prevent a speech by the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir – who was invited to speak at the venue.”
“The event is taking place against the backdrop of a round of diplomatic meetings that the minister is holding in the US, after speaking at President Trump's mansion in the past 24 hours, and the day before at a meeting with Jewish communities in the US,” the statement said.
Ben Gvir – a far-right firebrand – has been public about his adoration for US President Donald Trump, proudly extolling his plan to resettle Gazans outside of the Palestinian territory.
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‘It starts at the top': Extremist views are all that many young Israelis have ever known
He quit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government in January because he was opposed to the ceasefire deal that saw the return of Israeli hostages from Gaza in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners and detainees. He only rejoined the government last month when Israel resumed its war in Gaza.
Ben Gvir has previously been convicted for supporting terrorism and inciting anti-Arab racism, and he was considered so extreme that the Israeli military rejected him from service. This is his first visit to the United States as national security minister.
Last October, a group of 90 congressional Democrats urged President Joe Biden to sanction Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, both of whom lead extreme nationalist parties within Netanyahu's government. Ultimately, the Biden administration chose not to impose sanctions on Israeli government ministers.
The new protest on the New Haven campus comes exactly a year after 45 protesters were arrested and charged with criminal trespassing when they refused orders to leave Beinecke Plaza, part of a wave of demonstrations across US campuses last spring.
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A pro-Israel group says it gave US list of protesters to deport, drawing alarm from students' supporters
As part of their support for Palestinians in Gaza, protesters at the Yale campus demanded the university get rid of investments in businesses with connections to Israel's military effort there.
In recent weeks, another Ivy League university, Harvard, has been at the forefront of the Trump administration's effort to stop campus protests, contending they are examples of antisemitism.
The Trump administration is demanding Harvard give it access to all university reports on antisemitism and anti-Muslim bias on campus generated since October 2023, as it ramps up a confrontation with the school that risks billions in federal money amid a broader push to bring elite US colleges in line with its political demands.
CNN's Brad Lendon, Oren Liebermann, Taylor Romine, Diego Mendoza, Eugenia Yosef, Martin Goillandeau and Hanna Park contributed to this report.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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A conversation with Sen. Chris Van Hollen about Kilmar Abrego Garcia's detention — and where America goes from here.
by Miles Bryan
Since being deported to El Salvador last month, Kilmar Abrego Garcia has had very little contact with the outside world — something that Democratic Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen tried to change.
Last week, Van Hollen flew to El Salvador to meet with Abrego Garcia, an undocumented immigrant who the Trump administration has admitted was deported from Maryland in error. But the White House has since doubled down on claims that he is a member of the MS-13 gang, with Stephen Miller, a top Trump domestic policy adviser, saying, “This was the right person sent to the right place.”Van Hollen was initially denied access to Abrego Garcia. But officials in El Salvador eventually relented, and arranged a meeting at the senator's hotel. Abrego Garcia told Van Hollen about his experience at El Salvador's notorious Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT), a massive prison, and his traumatic isolation from the outside world.
Abrego Garcia's detention has pushed the United States to the brink of a constitutional showdown. The Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that the administration must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia's return to the US — an order that the White House has shown little intention of heeding.
“This goes to the heart of protecting people's rights and what bullies do and what authoritarian leaders do,” Van Hollen told Today, Explained co-host Sean Rameswaram. “And what Donald Trump is doing is beginning by picking on the most vulnerable and refusing to bring his case in the courts, and when the courts rule, ignoring them.”
Van Hollen talked to Today, Explained about what he heard from Abrego Garcia, and why he believes this case has pushed the United States into a constitutional crisis. Below is a transcript of their conversation, edited for length and clarity. Make sure to listen to the whole thing.
Why was it so important to you to go down to El Salvador to meet with this one man?
I wanted to let him know, number one, that I was bringing greetings from his family who haven't heard from him since he disappeared. He was locked away. No one was able to reach him — not his wife, not his mom, not his lawyers. In fact, until this moment, I'm the only one who's communicated with him before or since. So I wanted to, number one, see if he was alive.
But I also wanted him to know that his case was something that was meaningful to every American who cares about the Constitution. And I wanted to ask the government of El Salvador to stop being complicit with the Trump administration in this illegal scheme. So it was to defend the rights of this person because if we don't defend the right of this individual, we do threaten rights for everybody who lives here.
The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, has allied himself with President Donald Trump, has called Abrego Garcia a terrorist, and said he would never return him. How hard did that make it for you to actually sit down with him?
My view is this: The courts of the United States have said that he was illegally taken away. When I met with the vice president of El Salvador, I asked him if they had any evidence that he had committed any criminal acts. And his answer was, “No. We've got him in our jail” — and he was originally at CECOT, which is one of the most notorious prisons in Latin America — “we've got him there because the United States is paying us to do it.” That was his answer.
And I said, “Do you really want to be part of this illegal scheme with Donald Trump in violation of constitutional rights in the United States?” His answer was, “We got to deal with them, they're paying us and if the Trump administration tells us, we'll let them go. But we're being paid, we got a contract. And so we're gonna keep them locked up.”
And so how did you end up getting to meet him?
Well, I asked the vice president. He said no. I said, “If I come back next week, can I meet with him?” No. “Well, maybe I could get him on the phone?” No.
So the next day, I decided not to give up. I drove towards CECOT prison, about three kilometers out, and I was waved to the side of the road by soldiers. I said, “Why are you stopping me?” They said, “You can't go to see Abrego Garcia.” And I said, “Do you know how he's doing?” They said no. And I say, “Why can't I go?” They said, “We have orders.”
So then we had some events in El Salvador with local press. And they did relent. And I think that even Bukele recognized that it was a bad look for El Salvador to not allow anybody to meet or talk with this guy, to even know whether he was alive. As I was sort of getting ready to go to the airport on the way home, we got a call and I ended up meeting with him.
What did he tell you?
First and foremost, he told me he missed his family and I told him how much his family missed him. And he said that thinking of them is what gave him strength every day. He said he had had a traumatic experience — that was his word, “traumatic.”
He said he tried to make a phone call from the Baltimore Detention Center. They wouldn't let him do it. And then of course he landed in this really awful CECOT prison. So he was traumatized. He said he hurt, he felt he was in pain, and said he hadn't committed any crimes.
And he asked me to pass his message of love back to his family. I informed him — because he'd been in a total news blackout — his case was now representative of the fight for constitutional rights and due process for everybody who lives in America, and that a lot of people were working to get him out of prison in accordance with the Supreme Court order to facilitate his return.
What was the prison like?
The first place he went was CECOT and he said he was not in fear for safety from the prisoners in his cell. He said, if I recall right, there were about 25 prisoners in his cell. He said he was scared and traumatized by other prisoners in other cells, and these cells are packed. I mean, they sometimes have more than 100 prisoners, and he says that they would call out to him and taunt him and that did make him feel very much at risk.
He told me that he'd been moved to this other prison and detention center in Santa Ana. He told me he'd been there about eight days. This is when I met with them, which were sort of better conditions, but still, and I wanna stress this, still no ability to communicate with anybody in the outside world and to learn anything about what's happening. That's a violation of international law to deny somebody the ability to talk to their lawyer or family. So that's where he is sitting as we speak.
When you guys met up, there were some photos released and it looks like you had margarita glasses or something in front of you. Where did that come from? Where exactly was this meeting?
They brought him to my hotel. At first they wanted to stage the meeting by the pool, to create this impression, to deceive people, thinking that he was in some tropical paradise when he'd been in one of the worst prisons in El Salvador.
During our conversation, the government folks from Bukele instructed the waiters to set two taller-looking glasses on our table, making it look like margaritas. I have no idea what's in them because neither of us touched them, but they had a little cherry on top and they had either salt or sugar on the rim.
I think it shows the lengths that Bukele and Trump will go to deceive the American people about what's happening, right? Here's a guy, illegally abducted, ends up in the worst prison — and they want to create this impression that, “Hey, he's just in paradise.”
Republicans are leaning into this message that Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang. What do you make of that?
You know, my point on all of this, Sean, is that they should bring those facts before the court and Trump should not just be spending all his time on social media. Put up or shut up in federal court. And I wanna quote the federal judge in this case: She said that the Trump administration had presented, quote, “no evidence linking Abrego Garcia to MS-13 or to any terrorist activity.” Period. Put up or shut up in court. I'm not vouching for the man. I'm standing up for his rights because all of our rights are at risk if we don't.
You're not only saying we have to focus on constitutional rights. You're saying this situation with Abrego Garcia is a constitutional crisis. You say constitutional crisis, [California Gov.] Gavin Newsom says distraction. How do we reconcile those two assessments of this very serious situation?
This is a fundamental constitutional issue, and it is a crisis because the Supreme Court has ruled that the Trump administration has to help facilitate his return to the United States.
I also do just want to briefly quote what the Fourth Circuit said. This is a three-judge panel, and the chief judge who wrote it is a guy called Judge Wilkinson — he was appointed by Reagan. Here's what he says: “It is difficult in some cases to get to the heart of the matter. But in this case, it's not hard at all. The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order.”
So this is not a distraction. This goes to the heart of protecting people's rights and what bullies do and what authoritarian leaders do. And what Donald Trump is doing is beginning by picking on the most vulnerable and refusing to bring his case in the courts, and when the courts rule, ignoring them. So this is a very important moment to protect everyone's constitutional rights. It's not about one person. It's about all of us.
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American Airlines passenger jets prepare for departure, Wednesday, July 21, 2021, near a terminal at Boston Logan International Airport, in Boston. American Airlines Group Inc. (AAL) on Thursday, July 22 reported second-quarter net income of $19 million, after reporting a loss in the same period a year earlier. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Major U.S. airlines are reducing their flight schedules and revising or withdrawing their profit outlooks for the year due to less domestic travel demand as sentiment about the national and global economies sours.
American Airlines pulled its financial guidance for 2025 on Thursday, joining rivals Southwest and Delta in declaring the economic outlook too uncertain to provide full-year forecasts. All three airlines cited weakening sales among economy class leisure travelers.
“We came off a strong fourth quarter, saw decent business in January, and really domestic leisure travel fell off considerably as we went into the February time frame,” American Airlines CEO Robert Isom told CNBC.
Consumer reluctance to book vacations would correspond with a new poll that showed many people fear the U.S. is being steered into a recession and that President Donald Trump's broad and haphazardly enforced tariffs will cause prices to rise.
There's also increasing concerns about international travelers. Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at J.P. Morgan, said in a client note that anti-American sentiment could be spurring a travel dropoff, with data showing that international visitors to the U.S. are running about 5% lower than a year ago.
“In recent weeks there have been numerous news stories about tourists canceling trips to the U.S. in protest of the perceived heavy-handedness of recent trade policies,” he wrote. “This points to potentially another channel to consider in assessing the effects of tariffs on economic activity.”
Some economic indicators point to expectations of a slowdown. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes slowed in March, and U.S. consumer sentiment plunged in April, the fourth consecutive month of declines. However, fears of a downturn have not translated into layoffs.
Trump announced sweeping tariffs on April 2 that triggered panic in financial markets and generated recession fears, leading consumers and businesses to start pulling back on spending, which includes travel. The president put a partial 90-day hold on the import taxes but increased his already steep tariffs against China.
Beijing increased its import tax on American goods to 125% in retaliation. On Thursday China denied Trump's assertion that the two sides were involved in active negotiations to end or mitigate their trade war.
American Airlines said it would give an update on its full-year guidance “as the economic outlook becomes clearer.” Airline executives said sales among business travelers and for premium seats on long-haul international flights remained solid.
Southwest Airlines reported late Wednesday that it would trim its flight schedule for the second half of the year due to lower demand. The company also said it could not reaffirm its 2025 and 2026 outlooks for earnings before interest and taxes, given “current macroeconomic uncertainty.”
United Airlines last week gave two different financial forecasts for how it may perform this year, one if there's a recession and one if not. The airline said it planned to reduce its scheduled domestic flights by 4% starting in July in response to lower-than-expected demand for economy fare tickets.
“We think there is a reasonable chance things can weaken from here,” United CEO Scott Kirby said.
Delta Air Lines, the nation's most profitable carrier, predicted as recently as January that the company was on track for the best financial year in its history. Earlier this month, the airline scratched its performance expectations for 2025 and said it was putting a planned flight schedule expansion on hold.
“With broad economic uncertainty around global trade, growth has largely stalled,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian said at the time. “In this slower-growth environment, we are protecting margins and cash flow by focusing on what we can control. This includes reducing planned capacity growth in the second half of the year.”
The parent companies of Frontier Airlines and Alaska Airlines also pulled their 2025 guidance.
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 Martin Surbeck shows a female bonobo being groomed by another in the Congo in 2020. (Martin Surbeck/Kokolopori Bonobo Research Project via AP)
This image provided by Martin Surbeck shows bonobos lounging on a fallen tree in the Congo in 2020. (Martin Surbeck/Kokolopori Bonobo Research Project via AP)
This image provided by Martin Surbeck shows bonobos resting and socializing on a fallen tree in the Congo in 2020. (Martin Surbeck/Kokolopori Bonobo Research Project via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — Female bonobos find strength in numbers, teaming up to fend off males in the wild, a new study finds.
Along with chimpanzees, bonobos are among humans' closest relatives. Scientists have long wondered why bonobos live in generally female-dominated societies since the males are physically bigger and stronger.
This image provided by Martin Surbeck shows bonobos lounging on a fallen tree in the Congo in 2020. (Martin Surbeck/Kokolopori Bonobo Research Project via AP)
Three decades of observations in Congo — the only place the endangered bonobos are found in the wild — lend support to the idea of a sisterhood where female bonobos band together to assert their power.
These girl groups chased male bonobos out of trees, securing food for themselves, and females that grouped more ranked higher in their community's social ladder, researchers found.
“It's very clear that you don't want to overstep as a male bonobo,” said study author Martin Surbeck from Harvard University.
Findings were published Thursday in the journal Communications Biology.
Female bonobos' combined numbers seem to turn the tide against a male's physical strength, Surbeck said. It's one of the rare times such a strategy has allowed females to come out on top in the animal kingdom. Spotted hyenas similarly find power in groups.
This image provided by Martin Surbeck shows bonobos resting and socializing on a fallen tree in the Congo in 2020. (Martin Surbeck/Kokolopori Bonobo Research Project via AP)
Female bonobos linked up even when they didn't have close ties, supporting one another against the males and cementing their social standing. The observations show how female bonobos work together to protect themselves from male violence, said biological anthropologist Laura Lewis with the University of California, Berkeley.
The findings support “the idea that humans and our ancestors have likely used coalitions to build and maintain power for millions of years,” Lewis, who was not involved with the research, said in an email.
___
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Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
A new AP-NORC poll suggests Americans' trust in President Donald Trump to bolster the U.S. economy appears to be faltering, and that many people fear the country is being steered into a recession. (AP Video by Nathan Ellgren)
Javid Moghaddasnia, Director of Customer Engagement, discusses American Giant clothing while being interviewed at the company's showroom in San Francisco, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Snickers bars from Brazil are displayed for sale at Economy Candy in New York's Lower East Side, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Milka chocolate bars from Germany are displayed for sale at Economy Candy in New York's Lower East Side, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
People work amid boxes of returned or overstocked clothing, shoes, boots, coats, packs and other items in a warehouse where the goods are cleaned or repaired before they are marketed on resale platforms in Englewood, Colo., on Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
People work amid boxes of returned or overstocked clothing, shoes, boots, coats, packs and other items in a warehouse where the goods are cleaned or repaired before they are marketed on resale platforms in Englewood, Colo., on Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
People work amid boxes of returned or overstocked clothing, shoes, boots, coats, packs and other items in a warehouse where the goods are cleaned or repaired before they are marketed on resale platforms in Englewood, Colo., on Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
A man works amid boxes of returned or overstocked clothing, shoes, boots, coats, packs and other items in a warehouse where the goods are cleaned or repaired before they are marketed on resale platforms in Englewood, Colo., on Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Elizabeth Mahon, owner of baby store Three Littles, unpacks strollers and other inventory ordered by customers ahead of tariff-driven price increases at her Union Market location in Washington, on Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)
Elizabeth Mahon, owner of the baby store Three Littles, and sales associate Charlotte Santoli unpack strollers and other inventory ordered by customers ahead of tariff-driven price increases at the Union Market location in Washington, on Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)
Javid Moghaddasnia, Director of Customer Engagement, holds up an American Giant shirt while being interviewed at the company's showroom in San Francisco, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
An American Giant logo tag is shown on pants at the company's showroom in San Francisco, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans' trust in President Donald Trump to bolster the U.S. economy appears to be faltering, with a new poll showing that many people fear the country is being steered into a recession and that the president's broad and haphazardly enforced tariffs will cause prices to rise.
Roughly half of U.S. adults say that Trump's trade policies will increase prices “a lot” and another 3 in 10 think prices could go up “somewhat,” according to the poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
About half of Americans are “extremely” or “very” concerned about the possibility of the U.S. economy going into a recession in the next few months.
While skepticism about tariffs is increasing modestly, that doesn't mean the public is automatically rejecting Trump or his approach to trade. However, the wariness could cause problems for a president who promised voters he could quickly fix inflation.
AP polling editor Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux reports on a new poll showing concerns over tariff impacts.
Three months into his second term, Trump's handling of the economy and tariffs is showing up as a potential weakness. About 4 in 10 Americans approve of the way the Republican president is handling the economy and trade negotiations. That's roughly in line with an AP-NORC poll conducted in March.
Matthew Wood, 41, said he's waiting to see how the tariffs play out, but he's feeling anxious.
“I'm not a huge fan of it, especially considering China and going back and forth with adjustments on both ends,” said Wood, who lives in West Liberty, Kentucky, and is unemployed. “Personally, it hasn't affected me as of yet. But, generally, I don't know how this is going to come to an end, especially with the big countries involved.”
Still, Wood said he changed his registration from Republican to independent, having been turned off by Trump's attitude and deference to billionaire adviser Elon Musk. Wood voted for Trump last year and said he's willing to give the president until the end of the year to deliver positive results on tariffs.
About half of U.S. adults, 52%, are against imposing tariffs on all goods brought into the U.S. from other countries. That's up slightly from January, when a poll found that 46% were against tariffs. Driving that small shift largely appears to be adults under age 30 who didn't previously have an opinion on tariffs.
Trump supporter Janice Manis, 63, said her only criticism of Trump on tariffs is that he put in a partial 90-day pause for trade negotiations with other countries.
“Actually, I think he shouldn't have suspended it,” said Manis, a retired sheriff's deputy from Del Rio, Texas. “Because now China is trying to manipulate all of these other countries to go against us, whereas if he would have left all the tariffs in play then these countries would be hit hard. But, oh, well, things happen.”
Not quite 100 days into Trump's second term in the White House, people around the country are bracing for possible disruptions in how they spend, work and live. The U.S. economy remains solid for the moment with moderating inflation and a healthy 4.2% unemployment rate, yet measures such as consumer confidence have dropped sharply.
Trump has used executive actions to remold the global economy. He's imposed hundreds of billions of dollars a year in new import taxes — albeit partially suspending some of them — launching a full-scale trade war against China and pledging to wrap up deals with dozen of other countries that are temporarily facing tariffs of 10%. Financial markets are swinging with every twist and turn from Trump's tariff pronouncements.
Many Americans are not convinced this is the right approach. About 6 in 10 say Trump has “gone too far” when it comes to imposing new tariffs, according to the poll.
Stocks are down this year, while interest charges on U.S. government bonds have climbed in ways that could make it more costly to repay mortgages, auto loans and student debt. CEOs are scrapping their earnings guidance for investors and seeking exemptions from Trump's tariffs, which hit allies such as Canada and even penguin-inhabited islands.
Trump seemed to recognize the drag from tariffs as he highlighted this week the possibility of a deal with China. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had also said in a closed-door speech that the situation with China is not “sustainable.”
About 6 in 10 U.S. adults are “extremely” or “very” concerned about the cost of groceries in the next few months, while about half are highly concerned about the cost of big purchases, such as a car, cellphone or appliance. Less than half are highly concerned about their ability to purchase the goods they want — a sign of the economy's resilience so far.
Retirement savings are a source of anxiety — about 4 in 10 Americans say their retirement savings are a “major source” of stress in their lives. But fewer — only about 2 in 10 — identify the stock market as a major source of anxiety.
“This whole tariff war is just a losing situation not only for the American people but everybody worldwide,” said Nicole Jones, 32. “It's revenge — and everybody's losing on it.”
The Englewood, Florida, resident voted last year for then-Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced the incumbent president, Joe Biden, as the Democratic nominee. Jones hadn't given much thought to tariffs until recently, and now, as an occupational therapy student, she also worries about losing her financial aid and facing high amounts of educational debt.
“Things are more expensive for us,” she said.
And most Americans still think the national economy is in a weak state.
The difference is that Republicans — who largely thought the economy was in bad shape when Biden was president — now feel more optimistic. But Democrats have become much more bleak about the country's financial future.
“It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, but we were doing fine,” Jones, a Democratic voter, said about the economy before Trump's policies went into effect.
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The AP-NORC poll of 1,260 adults was conducted April 17-21, using a sample drawn from NORC's probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.
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 told reporters in the Oval Office, “we're going to get along great with China,” and said that he hopes the U.S. and China can reach a new trade agreement.
A worker chats with a visitor at the booth for Exotica Freshener Co, a U.S. company selling fresheners, at the 137th Canton Fair in Guangzhou in southern China's Guangdong province, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
The American and Chinese flags wave at Genting Snow Park ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Feb. 2, 2022, in Zhangjiakou, China. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato, File)
▶ Follow live updates on President Donald Trump and his administration
BANGKOK (AP) — China on Thursday denied any suggestion that it was in active negotiations with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump over tariffs, saying that any notion of progress in the matter was as groundless as “trying to catch the wind.”
China's comments come after Trump said Tuesday that things were going “fine with China” and that the final tariff rate on Chinese exports would come down “substantially” from the current 145%.
Guo Jiakun, a spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry, said during a daily briefing on Thursday that, “For all I know, China and the U.S. are not having any consultation or negotiation on tariffs, still less reaching a deal.”
“China's position is consistent and we are open to consultations and dialogues, but any form of consultations and negotiations must be conducted on the basis of mutual respect and in an equal manner,” Commerce Ministry spokesman He Yadong said.
“Any claims about the progress of China-U.S. trade negotiations are groundless as trying to catch the wind and have no factual basis,” the spokesman said.
Trump had told reporters earlier in the week that “everything's active” when asked if he was engaging with China, although his treasury secretary had said there were no formal negotiations.
Asked Thursday about China denying there were any conversations ongoing with the U.S., Trump said “They had a meeting this morning,” before adding, “it doesn't matter who they is.”
The U.S. president has expressed interest in a way to climb down from his massive retaliatory tariffs on Chinese imports to the U.S. There are mounting business and consumer concerns that the taxes will drive up inflation and potentially send the economy into a recession.
Trump had put 145% tariffs on imports from China, while China hit back with 125% tariffs on U.S. products. While Trump has given other countries a 90-day pause on the tariffs, as their leaders pledged to negotiate with the U.S., China remained the exception. Instead, Beijing raised its own tariffs and deployed other economic measures in response while vowing to “fight to the end.” For example, China restricted exports of rare earth minerals and raised multiple cases against the U.S. at the World Trade Organization.
China also made it clear that talks should involve the cancellation of all tariffs it currently faces.
“The unilateral tariff increase measures were initiated by the United States. If the United States really wants to solve the problem, it should face up to the rational voices of the international community and all parties at home, completely cancel all unilateral tariff measures against China, and find ways to resolve differences through equal dialogue,” said He, the Commerce Ministry spokesman.
Despite the economic measures leveled against China, Trump said Tuesday that he would be “very nice” and not play hardball with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“We're going to live together very happily and ideally work together,” Trump said.
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Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
This July 9, 2015, file photo, shows signage outside Procter & Gamble corporate headquarters in downtown Cincinnati. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
FILE- In this June 15, 2018, file photo a variety of Procter & Gamble products rest on a counter in East Derry, N.H. Procter & Gamble Co. reports financial earns on Oct. 22, 2019. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Tariff worries continue hanging over companies as they report their latest financial results and try to provide guidance on their path ahead.
Some tariffs remain in place against key U.S. trading partners, but others have been postponed to give nations time to negotiate. The tariff and trade picture continues shifting and that makes it difficult for companies and investors to make a reliable assessment of any impact to costs and sales.
Seemingly few industries or companies are being spared from the uncertainty. Food and beverage businesses, pharmaceutical companies, and makers of household staples are among the many companies trying to gauge the potential impact to costs and sales.
A new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that companies are right to be focused on tariffs. About 6 in 10 U.S. adults are “extremely” or “very” concerned about the cost of groceries in the next few months, while about half are highly concerned about the cost of big purchases, such as a car, cellphone or appliance
Here's what companies are saying about tariffs and their potential impact:
Procter & Gamble, the maker of such products as Crest toothpaste, Tide detergent and Charmin toilet paper, said Thursday said it's doing whatever it can to reduce higher costs from President Donald Trump's expansive tariffs from shifting sourcing to changing formulation to avoid duties.
But P&G's Chief Financial Officer Andre Schulten told reporters on a call that the consumer products giant still will likely have to pass on higher prices to shoppers as early as July.
The consumer product giant reduced its annual financial outlook after reporting lower sales, particularly in the U.S. and Western Europe, during the latest quarter, due to a pullback in consumer spending over worries about tariffs as well as overall financial worries about job security and mortgage rates.
“Everything plays into the consumer behavior,” Schulten said. “Uncertainty around the stock market and what their 401ks are worth and what the portfolio is worth. Uncertainty around the economic outlook and what it means for their livelihood and the job market.”
PepsiCo lowered its full-year earnings expectations, citing increased costs from tariffs and a pullback in consumer spending.
The maker of Pepsi beverages and Frito-Lay snacks said it now expects its core earnings per share to be even with last year. Previously it expected mid-single-digit percentage growth.
A 25% tariff on imported aluminum is among those hitting PepsiCo and other beverage makers. The company expects “elevated levels of volatility and uncertainty” for the rest of this year.
Merck trimmed its earnings forecast for the year, though it maintained its guidance for revenue.
The pharmaceutical giant has a global reach. Half of its revenue comes from the U.S. market, with the rest of the world making up the other half, according to FactSet. The company expects tariffs already implemented to cost the company about $200 million.
American Airlines withdrew its earnings forecast for the year amid uncertainty over the economy.
While tariffs might not directly impact airlines and other companies in the travel sector, they could prompt a shift in consumer spending. Tariffs typically make goods more expensive and that might force consumers to tighten their budgets and focus more on necessities, while cutting back on discretionary items and services, such as travel.
Southwest Airlines is trimming its flight schedule for the second half of the year due to lower demand. The company also said it could not reaffirm its 2025 and 2026 outlooks for earnings before interest and taxes, given “current macroeconomic uncertainty.”
Chemical company Dow expects to see delays in purchases from businesses and consumers amid tariff-driven economic uncertainty.
“Markets worldwide are awaiting additional clarity into how the tariff and global trade negotiations will land,” said CEO Jim Fitterling, in a statement.
The company is delaying construction of a facility in Alberta, Canada and expects capital expense savings of about $1 billion from that decision. It is also expanding an ongoing review of its assets in Europe, including facilities in Germany and the U.K.
___
Associated Press writers Dee-Ann Durbin, Anne D'Innocenzio, and Michelle Chapman contributed to this report.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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Last month, after news broke that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was using Signal to discuss sensitive military operations in violation of Pentagon policy, one of his closest military aides made an unusual inquiry to the Defense Department's chief information officer: Would they grant an exception so Hegseth could keep using Signal freely?
The question came from Col. Ricky Buria, a former aide to previous Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin who has rapidly established himself as a key member of Hegseth's inner circle, multiple people familiar with the matter told CNN. The Signal inquiry raised eyebrows among other senior Pentagon officials, who wondered whether the request was appropriate — especially from a uniformed officer, rather than Hegseth's civilian chief of staff.
Weeks earlier, before The Atlantic revealed that Hegseth had been using the app to discuss detailed military plans, Buria had pushed to get Hegseth an extra desktop computer in his office that he could use Signal on, ostensibly for personal communications so he could more easily text friends and family from the Pentagon, the sources said.
The Secretary's office is considered a secure space, where cell phones are not typically permitted. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency recommends that highly targeted individuals use Signal, but DoD policy says Signal is “NOT authorized to access, transmit, process non-public DoD information.” It notes that requests for exceptions to that policy can be submitted to the chief information officer.
It is not clear whether Hegseth was ever given an exception to use Signal freely, or if he has continued to use it for sensitive military planning in the fallout of the Signalgate episode.
In a statement to CNN, Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said, “The Secretary of Defense's use of communications systems and channels is classified. However, we can confirm that the Secretary has never used and does not currently use Signal on his government computer.”
Parnell did not comment on why Hegseth had another computer set up in his office that Signal was installed on.
Buria, a career Marine with multiple combat deployments who served as both Austin and Hegseth's junior military assistant, has for months been straddling the line between military aide and civilian adviser, the sources said. And last week, he submitted his retirement papers to the Marine Corps, a Marine spokesperson confirmed.
On Thursday morning, Buria was at the Pentagon in civilian clothing and greeted the NATO Secretary General before accompanying him, Hegseth, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Pentagon's head of policy into a meeting room.
Buria did not respond to repeated requests for comment about his increasingly influential position in Hegseth's inner circle, including his role in helping to facilitate Hegseth's use of Signal inside the Pentagon.
Buria's plan is to stay at the Pentagon, but as a senior civilian adviser to Hegseth, the sources said. Hegseth is even considering appointing Buria as his new chief of staff, now that his former chief of staff Joe Kasper is moving into a new role at the department, the sources added.
Buria's transition from military assistant to senior adviser was extremely unusual, particularly since he worked so closely with Austin, according to officials that served in the Biden and second Trump administration. And Hegseth moved quickly to root out other “holdover” military officials upon taking office, including former Joint Chiefs Chairman CQ Brown; former Air Force vice chairman Gen. Jim Slife; former Chief of Naval Operations Lisa Franchetti; and Jen Short, a three-star general who was appointed senior military assistant under Austin.
Underscoring the trust Hegseth placed in him, Buria, not even a general officer, filled the crucial senior military assistant role on an acting basis, current and former officials said. The SMA, which is a three-star position that requires Senate confirmation, serves as both the chief military point of contact for the secretary and as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff's representative to the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
The sources all said that Buria's rise appears to largely be a function of how much Hegseth has narrowed his inner circle, as he has become increasingly paranoid about leaks and concerned about being undermined. After firing two of his most senior advisers last week and accusing them of leaking, Hegseth now relies primarily on his wife Jennifer, Buria, and his lawyer for counsel, the sources said.
Hegseth also likes Buria's “yes, sir” attitude, said one defense official who has observed their interactions.
“He likes that Ricky does what he asks and gets him what he needs,” the official said.
Under Secretary Austin, Buria was “cool, calm, collected, never got ruffled, and had a good attitude,” a former senior Pentagon official in the Biden administration told CNN, adding that he was “very good and capable.” But he was also essentially a “body man” for Austin — carrying his bags and appearing only in the background of official photos, if at all.
Under Hegseth, however, Buria has in a few short months become one of Hegseth's most trusted advisers and friends.
Buria has routine access to Hegseth's personal and government phones, multiple people familiar with the matter told CNN, and is often seen working out with the secretary in photos posted on X. He has even started sitting at the table with foreign leaders, most recently during official meetings in Panama and with El Salvador's defense minister at the Pentagon. He also appeared in a photo laughing with Elon Musk when he visited the Pentagon earlier this month.
Buria never did anything of the sort while serving in the same role for Austin, the former senior Pentagon official said.
“He would never sit in on bilats or meetings or anything like that, like he is now,” the former official said, referring to official bilateral meetings between the secretary and his counterparts.
Current and former officials have also raised questions about whether Buria is experienced enough to serve as Hegseth's chief of staff — and whether the White House would accept that, given Buria's history working under Austin and Trump's push to root out Biden-era “holdovers” from his administration.
“It's certainly an unlikely path, to move from the military assistant to a political appointee,” said a second former senior DOD official. “I can't think of another case.”
It could be a tough adjustment, the first former senior official said.
“You need someone with a political background who understands the political context, someone who can call up a four-star and yell at them for not being on message or not doing things the right way,” this person added. “I think that's the biggest concern … do we really think [CENTCOM Commander] Erik Kurilla is going to take Ricky seriously, as a recently retired colonel?”
A third former senior DOD official who served under Austin agreed, saying the chief of staff has to be comfortable holding their own against career political operators who are working at senior levels of other government agencies.
As for his work with Austin, the second former senior DoD official emphasized that the military services — in Buria's case, the Marine Corps — put forward their rising-star officers for the job of junior military assistant.
The officers themselves shouldn't be considered political, and Buria never appeared to be, this former official said. While he seemed ambitious, this person added, there was “no indication he would be interested in leaving the military service and becoming a Trump political appointee.”
In fact, multiple sources told CNN that Buria was on the fast-track to becoming a general officer within the Marine Corps, which has made his decision to leave uniform all the more bewildering to those who have worked alongside him.
As he has risen in Hegseth's inner circle, Buria has gotten bolder in advising Hegseth on political and policy matters, the current defense official and a former official said. And he has sometimes ruffled feathers in the way he's spoken to more senior military officers, including at least two combatant commanders, the sources added.
“He's gotten far too casual with them, and presents too unprofessionally,” said the current official.
In a sign of his increasingly political role, Buria joined X in January, and three days ago began regularly reposting Trump, Hegseth, and Vance, as well as posts from DoD's rapid response account criticizing the media coverage of Hegseth — including one calling NPR a “fake news propaganda machine.”
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Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
The head of the International Monetary Fund urged countries to move “swiftly'' to resolve trade disputes that threaten global economic growth.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva speaks at the forum Tokenization and the Financial System during the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) headquarters in Washington, Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva speaks at the forum Tokenization and the Financial System during the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) headquarters in Washington, Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva speaks at the forum Tokenization and the Financial System during the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) headquarters in Washington, Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva speaks at the forum Tokenization and the Financial System during the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) headquarters in Washington, Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva speaks at the forum Tokenization and the Financial System during the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) headquarters in Washington, Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva speaks at the forum Tokenization and the Financial System during the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) headquarters in Washington, Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva speaks at the forum Tokenization and the Financial System during the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) headquarters in Washington, Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the International Monetary Fund urged countries to move “swiftly'' to resolve trade disputes that threaten global economic growth.
IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva said the unpredictability arising from President Donald Trump's aggressive campaign of taxes on foreign imports is causing companies to delay investments and consumers to hold off on spending.
“Uncertainty is bad for business,'' she told reporters Thursday in a briefing during the spring meetings of the IMF and its sister agency, the World Bank.
Georgieva's comments came two days after the IMF downgraded the outlook for world economic growth this year. The 191-country lending organization, which seeks to promote global growth, financial stability and to reduce poverty, also sharply lowered its forecast for the United States. It said the chances that the world's biggest economy would fall into recession have risen from 25%, to about 40%.
Georgieva warned that the economic fallout from trade conflict would fall most heavily on poor countries, which do not have the money to offset the damage.
Since returning the White House in January, Trump has aggressively imposed tariffs on American trading partners. Among other things, he's slapped 145% import taxes on China and 10% on almost every country in the world, raising U.S. tariffs to levels not seen in more than a century. But he has repeatedly changed U.S. policy — suddenly suspending or altering the tariffs — and left companies bewildered about what he is trying to accomplish and what his end game might be.
Trump's tariffs — a sharp reversal of decades of U.S. policy in favor of free trade — and the resulting uncertainty around them have caused a weekslong rout in financial markets. But stocks rallied Wednesday after the Trump administration signaled that it is open to reducing the massive tariffs on China. “There is an opportunity for a big deal here,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday.
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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.
'Kids First' director Billy Moges discusses the ongoing Supreme Court battle over parents' rights to remove their children from LGBTQ+ curriculum.
The U.S. Supreme Court will consider the establishment of the nation's first religious charter school next week, a case that could have key implications for school choice across the country.
A huge majority of states have implemented some form of school choice in recent years, but only a little more than a dozen have adopted programs that make private school choice universally available to K-12 students.
Here is the full list and a timeline of the school choice movement in recent years.
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A map of US states that offer universal private school choice programs. (Fox News)
Alabama passed its CHOOSE Act in 2024, which establishes an education savings account (ESA) that will soon be open to all families in the state.
Arizona became the first state to offer universal school choice for all families in 2022, launching an $800 million program that gives parents $7,000 to put toward their children's tuition.
Arkansas's S.B. 294 established choice programs open to all students, regardless of income or disability status.
The accounts allow families to spend state money not just on tuition but also on other approved expenses, such as tutoring, online courses and instructional materials.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee told Fox News Digital a universal school choice proposal is not intended to neglect the need to support public schools in the state. (Office of the Governor of Tennessee)
Florida's H.B. 1, passed in 2023, established choice programs open to all students, regardless of income or disability status.
The accounts allow families to spend state money not just on tuition but also on other approved expenses, such as tutoring, online courses and instructional materials.
Idaho launched its first private school choice program through a refundable tax credit. Families can receive up to $5,000 per child for private educational expenses, with $7,500 available for students with disabilities. The program is capped at $50 million annually and prioritizes families earning up to 300% of the federal poverty level (about $96,450 for a family of four).
SUPREME COURT TO DECIDE IF FAMILIES CAN OPT OUT OF READING LGBTQ BOOKS IN THE CLASSROOM
Iowa's H.F. 68, passed in 2023, established choice programs open to all students, regardless of income or disability status.
The accounts allow families to spend state money not just on tuition but also on other approved expenses, such as tutoring, online courses and instructional materials.
The Indiana Choice Scholarship Program grants a voucher to qualifying K-12 students that they can put toward private school tuition.
In order to qualify, students must be residents of Indiana and a member of a household that makes an "annual income of not more than 400% of the amount to qualify for the federal free and reduced price lunch program."
Signs in the grass during a rally celebrating National School Choice Week on Halifax Mall in front of the Legislative Building in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Jan. 24, 2024.
Montana has two major school choice programs, but only one of them is universally available. The more restricted program is a standard ESA, but students must have special needs or have some other form of disability in order to qualify.
The more expansive program is a statewide tax credit scholarship program that "allows individuals and corporations to claim a 100% tax credit for contributions to approved Student Scholarship Organizations," according to EdChoice.
The average scholarship value for participating students is $2,190.
North Carolina has a major voucher program that is available to all students across the state, but is limited by a budget cap.
Qualifying students will get an average voucher value of $5,701 to put toward private school tuition costs, transportation, equipment or other costs associated with attending school.
After baseline qualifications are met, vouchers are granted based on household income.
Ohio's school choice program awards $6,166 for grades K–8 and $8,408 for grades 9-12 to qualifying students.
Students must meet one of a series of qualifications in order to receive the award, and parents must submit their income information.
Like Montana, Oklahoma employs a tax credit system to allow for school choice in the state.
"The Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit provides parents of students in private school with a refundable tax credit ranging from a minimum of $5,000 up to a maximum of $7,500 per child to cover the cost of private school tuition and fees, or it provides parents of students in home school a refundable tax credit of $1,000 to cover the cost of unbundled educational expenses," according to EdChoice.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott speaks to students, parents and staff at Nolan Catholic High School about his school choice plan on April 19, 2023. (Amanda McCoy/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Tennessee passed the Education Freedom Act of 2025, creating a universal ESA program. Families receive $7,000 per student, which must first be used for tuition but can also cover other educational expenses. The program starts with 20,000 scholarships, with half reserved for students from families earning up to 300% of the free and reduced-price lunch threshold and students with disabilities. If at least 75% of scholarships are awarded, the cap will rise to 25,000 students in 2026.
Utah's H.B. 215, passed in 2023, established choice programs open to all students, regardless of income or disability status.
The accounts allow families to spend state money not just on tuition but also on other approved expenses, such as tutoring, online courses and instructional materials.
West Virginia employs an ESA program to allow universal school choice for private schools, and it also has "intra-district and inter-district public school choice via open enrollment," according to EdChoice.
The ESA program grants an average of $4,299 toward private school tuition costs.
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Wyoming passed HB 199 in 2025, expanding its ESA program by removing income restrictions and making it fully universal starting in 2025-26. Renamed the Steamboat Legacy Scholarship, the program will provide families with $7,000 and be funded through a $30 million appropriation. Participating students must be assessed on academic progress.
Anders Hagstrom is a reporter with Fox News Digital covering national politics and major breaking news events. Send tips to Anders.Hagstrom@Fox.com, or on Twitter: @Hagstrom_Anders.
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Immigration is Trump's best issue. But the benefits of fighting his lawless deportations are worth the political risks.
by Eric Levitz
President Donald Trump has been sending undocumented immigrants to a mega prison in El Salvador without due process. Most of these deportees have no criminal record, yet our government has condemned them to indefinite incarceration in an infamously inhumane penitentiary.
In the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Trump administration admits that its deportation order was unlawful. In 2019, a court had ruled that Abrego Garcia could not be sent to El Salvador, as he had a credible fear of being persecuted in that country. The White House attributed his deportation to an “administrative error.”
The Supreme Court has ordered Trump to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return to the United States, but the White House refuses to comply and has publicly vowed that Abrego Garcia is “never coming back.”
Some Democrats believe that their party must call attention to this lawless cruelty. Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen and four progressive House members have traveled to El Salvador in recent days to check on Abrego Garcia's condition and advocate for his due process rights.
But other Democrats fear their party is walking into a political trap. After all, voters are souring on Trump's handling of trade and the economy, but still approve of his handling of immigration. Some Democratic strategists therefore think that Van Hollen and other progressive advocates for Abrego Garcia are doing the president a favor: By focusing on the plight of an undocumented immigrant — instead of the struggles of countless Americans suffering from Trump's tariffs — they have increased the salience of his best issue and reinforced the narrative that Democrats care more about foreigners than about the American middle class.
Sign up here for more stories on the lessons liberals should take away from their election defeat — and a closer look at where they should go next. From senior correspondent Eric Levitz.
As one strategist told CNN, “The impulse among lots of Democrats is to always crank the volume up to 11 and take advantage of whatever the easiest, most obvious photo opportunity is. In this case, you get a situation where you're giving the White House and the Republicans a lot of images and visuals that they think are compelling for them.”
Some progressives have declared this argument morally bankrupt. But I don't think that's right. Democrats have a moral responsibility to defend both America's constitutional order and its most vulnerable residents. It does not follow, however, that they have a moral duty to hold press events about Abrego Garcia's case — even if such photo ops do nothing to abet his liberation, while doing much to boost Trump's political standing.
In my view, the argument that Democrats are doing more harm than good by taking a high-profile stand in favor of due process is not immoral, but simply mistaken. Van Hollen's trip has plausibly benefited US residents unlawfully detained in El Salvador. And the political costs of such dissent are likely negligible, so long as Democrats keep their messaging about immigration disciplined and eventually shift their rhetorical focus to Trump's economic mismanagement.
So far as I can tell, no Democrat is arguing that the party should acquiesce to Trump's lawless deportations. The concerned strategist who spoke with CNN stipulated that “Democrats should stand up for due process when asked about it.”
Rather, the argument is that 1) the party should not go out of its way to elevate immigration as an issue, or invite the impression that the rights of undocumented immigrants are its chief concern, and 2) congressional delegations to El Salvador risk doing precisely that.
The case for this position is fairly simple. Voters are much more supportive of Trump's handling of immigration than of his economic management. In data journalist G. Elliott Morris's aggregation of recent issue surveys, voters approve of Trump's handling of immigration by 2.7 points, while disapproving of his approach to inflation and the cost of living by 21.8 points.
Therefore, anything Democrats do to increase the salience of immigration plausibly aids Trump. What's more, elevating Abrego Garcia's cause above other issues could give voters the impression that Democrats are not prioritizing their own economic concerns.
Or at least, this is what Republican strategists seem to believe. Following House progressives' trip to El Salvador, National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) spokesperson Mike Marinella said in a statement, “House Democrats have proven they care more about illegal immigrant gang bangers than American families.” The NRCC proceeded to air digital ads against 25 swing-district Democrats, in which it offered to buy the representatives' airfare to El Salvador if they promised to “livestream the whole thing and snap plenty of selfies with their MS-13 buddies.”
For those urging Democrats to embrace message discipline, focusing on the due process rights of the undocumented is a lose-lose proposition, accomplishing nothing of substance while damaging the party politically. In this view, Van Hollen's trip to El Salvador did not actually help Abrego Garcia, whose fate still lies with America's court system and the White House. To the contrary, Democrats are effectively giving Trump an incentive to ship more undocumented immigrants to a foreign prison without due process. After all, the president wants his opponents to take high-profile stances in defense of the undocumented. If Democrats teach him that they will do precisely that — so long as he violates immigrants' due process rights — then they will have made such violations more likely in the future, not less.
Meanwhile, this faction of wary strategists insist that their party has a genuine image problem. Yes, Trump's tariffs are deeply unpopular. And as their economic impacts surface, the president's trade policies are liable to become more salient, no matter what Democrats say or do. But thus far, the public's declining confidence in Trump is not translating into rising confidence in the Democratic Party.
Historically, Democrats always outperformed Republicans on the question of which party “cares more for the needs of people like you,” outpolling the GOP by 13 points on that score as recently as 2017. Yet in a Quinnipiac poll taken after Trump single-handedly engineered an economic crisis with his “Liberation Day” tariffs, the two parties are tied on that question.
What's more, even as the public sours on Trump, the GOP remains more popular than the Democratic Party. In a new Pew Research survey, voters disapproved of Trump's job performance by a 59 to 40 percent margin. Yet the Republican Party's approval rating in that same survey was 5 points higher than the Democrats', with only 38 percent of voters expressing support for the latter.
Democrats have time to improve their image; the midterms are well over a year away. So some might wonder why the party should fret about increasing the salience of an unfavorable issue so far from Election Day. But there's an argument that the party should be doing everything in its power to increase its popularity — and reduce Trump's — right now. Businesses, universities, and various other civic institutions will need to decide in the coming weeks and months whether to comply with the president's illiberal attempts to discipline their behavior. The weaker Trump appears to be, the less likely it will be that American civil society acquiesces to authoritarianism.
Thus, from this vantage, message discipline is a moral imperative. Centering Democratic messaging on Abrego Garcia's case might help ambitious Democrats earn small-dollar donations and adoration among the party's base. But it undermines effective opposition to Trump's authoritarian regime.
This argument is reasonable. But in my view, it understates the potential benefits of vigorous advocacy against Trump's lawless deportations and overstates the political harms.
On the substance, Democratic officials flying to El Salvador to check on Abrego Garcia's condition could plausibly deter abuses against him and other immigrant detainees in that country. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele may be a reactionary aligned with Trump, but he is surely aware that the United States has a two-party system. His government therefore must give some thought to its relationship with a hypothetical future Democratic administration. Thus, by advocating so forcefully for US residents unlawfully imprisoned in El Salvador, the Democratic Party has given Bukele some incentive to, at a minimum, keep Abrego Garcia and others like him alive (something that his government routinely fails to do with its prisoners).
Meanwhile, bringing a measure of comfort to an American unlawfully disappeared to a foreign prison is a clear moral good. In an interview with Vox's Today, Explained podcast, Van Hollen said that Salvadoran authorities have not allowed Abrego Garcia to communicate with his family or his lawyers. Rather, they had kept him isolated from the entire outside world, until a US senator demanded a meeting with him. Only through Van Hollen's intervention was Abrego Garcia's wife able to send her greetings to him, or even confirm that her husband was still alive. If an elected official has the power to serve a constituent in this way, it seems worthwhile that they do so.
The prospect that Van Hollen might have effectively encouraged more unlawful deportations by taking this course of action — since Trump wants his opponents to do photo ops on behalf of undocumented immigrants — merits consideration. But it strikes me as far-fetched. One could just as easily posit that Democrats ducking this issue entirely would have emboldened Trump to ramp up unlawful deportations. Ultimately, I think the president's ambitions on this front will be determined by the scope and persistence of the judiciary's opposition, not by Democratic messaging.
It seems possible — perhaps, even likely — that Democrats loudly advocating for Abrego Garcia is politically suboptimal, relative to a monomaniacal focus on the economy. But so long as Democrats act strategically on other fronts, I think the political costs of taking a stand on due process are likely to be negligibly small, for at least five reasons:
First, as far as progressive immigration positions go, “The Trump administration should honor court orders and the due process rights of longtime US residents” is pretty safe territory. In March, a Reuters-Ipsos poll asked Americans whether Trump “should keep deporting people despite a court order to stop?” — they said no by a margin of 56 to 40 percent. And an Economist-YouGov poll released Wednesday found voters specifically agreeing that Trump should bring Abrego Garcia back by a 50 to 28 point margin.
If Democrats frame Abrego Garcia's case as a question of Americans' civil liberties — while reiterating their party's commitment to enforcing immigration law and securing the border — they should be able to mitigate any political cost inherent to elevating this issue. And that has largely been Van Hollen's message. As the senator argued at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday, “I keep saying I'm not vouching for Abrego Garcia. I'm vouching for his constitutional rights because all our rights are at stake.”
Second, there does seem to be some scope for eroding Trump's advantage on immigration. On March 1, polls showed voters approving of the president's immigration policies by more than 10 points. Surveys taken in the last 10 days, by contrast, show that margin has fallen to 2.5 points. It is unclear whether Democrats' messaging on the Abrego Garcia case had any impact on this decline. But given the timing, that possibility cannot be summarily dismissed
Third, some influential right-wingers endorse the Democratic position on Abrego Garcia. Last Thursday, pro-Trump podcaster Joe Rogan detailed his misgivings about the president's violations of due process:
What if you are an enemy of, let's not say any current president. Let's pretend we got a new president, totally new guy in 2028, and this is a common practice now of just rounding up gang members with no due process and shipping them to El Salvador, “You're a gang member.” “No, I'm not.” “Prove it.” “What? I got to go to court.” “No. No due process.”
Defending a principle mutually endorsed by Joe Rogan and the Roberts Court does not seem like the riskiest stand that Democrats could take.
Fourth, I'm not sure that the media's coverage of this controversy looks all that different in the alternate dimension where Democrats voiced opposition to Trump's actions when asked, but otherwise spoke exclusively about his failed economic policies. The president exiling US residents to a foreign prison — and refusing to attempt to repatriate one of them, in defiance of the Supreme Court — is a huge news story. This is a much more shocking and unprecedented event than the House GOP's quest to cut Medicaid, even if the latter will ultimately inspire more voter backlash.
In a world where Van Hollen and his House colleagues never go to El Salvador, the general subject of immigration might have received marginally less media attention over the past week. But I think the effect here is quite small.
Fifth, Democratic officials are not speaking out on this entirely at their own direction. Their party's base is understandably alarmed by the president's lawlessness. Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost said he traveled to El Salvador because he had received “hundreds and hundreds” of emails and calls from his constituents demanding action on this issue. Thus, there might be some cost to Democratic fundraising and morale, were the party's officials to uniformly avoid calling attention to the controversy.
All this said, I think it's true that the optimal political strategy for Democrats is to focus overwhelmingly on economic issues. Voters are more concerned with prices and economic growth than with due process. And Trump is most vulnerable on tariffs, Medicaid cuts, and his economic management more broadly.
I just don't think that dedicating some time and energy to championing bedrock constitutional principles — 19 months before the midterm elections — is by itself a perilous indulgence. In any event, to this point, it has proven entirely compatible with driving down Trump's approval rating, which has fallen by 7 points since February in Pew's polling.
Going forward, Democrats do need to convey that their top concern is Americans' living standards. If Trump moves ahead with anything resembling his current trade policy, his approval is likely to fall, irrespective of Democratic messaging. But the party needs to make sure that voters see it as an effective alternative on economic issues — one that cares more about the needs of people like them.
Throughout the US today, a large and growing number of small business owners, workers, and retirees are suffering as a direct result of Trump's mindless economic policies. If congressional Republicans get their way, millions more will lose their health insurance as a result of Trump's fiscal agenda. Democrats must find ways to elevate these stories. Van Hollen's decision to go to El Salvador evinced some verve and creativity. His party must apply similar energy to the task of dramatizing Trump's economic misgovernance and communicating their party's vision for redressing it.
Understand the world with a daily explainer plus the most compelling stories of the day, compiled by news editor Sean Collins.
A conversation with Sen. Chris Van Hollen about Kilmar Abrego Garcia's detention — and where America goes from here.
With near daily strikes against Yemen's Houthis, is there an end in sight?
I want to believe I can make a positive impact from the inside, but maybe I'm deluding myself.
Canary Mission, the controversial organization targeting student activists, explained.
The latest on the trade war.
Yale professor David W. Blight explains why Trump is far from the first to try to rewrite the record.
© 2025 Vox Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved
In a world with too much noise and too little context, Vox helps you make sense of the news. We don't flood you with panic-inducing headlines or race to be first. We focus on being useful to you — breaking down the news in ways that inform, not overwhelm.
We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?
Immigration is Trump's best issue. But the benefits of fighting his lawless deportations are worth the political risks.
by Eric Levitz
President Donald Trump has been sending undocumented immigrants to a mega prison in El Salvador without due process. Most of these deportees have no criminal record, yet our government has condemned them to indefinite incarceration in an infamously inhumane penitentiary.
In the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Trump administration admits that its deportation order was unlawful. In 2019, a court had ruled that Abrego Garcia could not be sent to El Salvador, as he had a credible fear of being persecuted in that country. The White House attributed his deportation to an “administrative error.”
The Supreme Court has ordered Trump to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return to the United States, but the White House refuses to comply and has publicly vowed that Abrego Garcia is “never coming back.”
Some Democrats believe that their party must call attention to this lawless cruelty. Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen and four progressive House members have traveled to El Salvador in recent days to check on Abrego Garcia's condition and advocate for his due process rights.
But other Democrats fear their party is walking into a political trap. After all, voters are souring on Trump's handling of trade and the economy, but still approve of his handling of immigration. Some Democratic strategists therefore think that Van Hollen and other progressive advocates for Abrego Garcia are doing the president a favor: By focusing on the plight of an undocumented immigrant — instead of the struggles of countless Americans suffering from Trump's tariffs — they have increased the salience of his best issue and reinforced the narrative that Democrats care more about foreigners than about the American middle class.
Sign up here for more stories on the lessons liberals should take away from their election defeat — and a closer look at where they should go next. From senior correspondent Eric Levitz.
As one strategist told CNN, “The impulse among lots of Democrats is to always crank the volume up to 11 and take advantage of whatever the easiest, most obvious photo opportunity is. In this case, you get a situation where you're giving the White House and the Republicans a lot of images and visuals that they think are compelling for them.”
Some progressives have declared this argument morally bankrupt. But I don't think that's right. Democrats have a moral responsibility to defend both America's constitutional order and its most vulnerable residents. It does not follow, however, that they have a moral duty to hold press events about Abrego Garcia's case — even if such photo ops do nothing to abet his liberation, while doing much to boost Trump's political standing.
In my view, the argument that Democrats are doing more harm than good by taking a high-profile stand in favor of due process is not immoral, but simply mistaken. Van Hollen's trip has plausibly benefited US residents unlawfully detained in El Salvador. And the political costs of such dissent are likely negligible, so long as Democrats keep their messaging about immigration disciplined and eventually shift their rhetorical focus to Trump's economic mismanagement.
So far as I can tell, no Democrat is arguing that the party should acquiesce to Trump's lawless deportations. The concerned strategist who spoke with CNN stipulated that “Democrats should stand up for due process when asked about it.”
Rather, the argument is that 1) the party should not go out of its way to elevate immigration as an issue, or invite the impression that the rights of undocumented immigrants are its chief concern, and 2) congressional delegations to El Salvador risk doing precisely that.
The case for this position is fairly simple. Voters are much more supportive of Trump's handling of immigration than of his economic management. In data journalist G. Elliott Morris's aggregation of recent issue surveys, voters approve of Trump's handling of immigration by 2.7 points, while disapproving of his approach to inflation and the cost of living by 21.8 points.
Therefore, anything Democrats do to increase the salience of immigration plausibly aids Trump. What's more, elevating Abrego Garcia's cause above other issues could give voters the impression that Democrats are not prioritizing their own economic concerns.
Or at least, this is what Republican strategists seem to believe. Following House progressives' trip to El Salvador, National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) spokesperson Mike Marinella said in a statement, “House Democrats have proven they care more about illegal immigrant gang bangers than American families.” The NRCC proceeded to air digital ads against 25 swing-district Democrats, in which it offered to buy the representatives' airfare to El Salvador if they promised to “livestream the whole thing and snap plenty of selfies with their MS-13 buddies.”
For those urging Democrats to embrace message discipline, focusing on the due process rights of the undocumented is a lose-lose proposition, accomplishing nothing of substance while damaging the party politically. In this view, Van Hollen's trip to El Salvador did not actually help Abrego Garcia, whose fate still lies with America's court system and the White House. To the contrary, Democrats are effectively giving Trump an incentive to ship more undocumented immigrants to a foreign prison without due process. After all, the president wants his opponents to take high-profile stances in defense of the undocumented. If Democrats teach him that they will do precisely that — so long as he violates immigrants' due process rights — then they will have made such violations more likely in the future, not less.
Meanwhile, this faction of wary strategists insist that their party has a genuine image problem. Yes, Trump's tariffs are deeply unpopular. And as their economic impacts surface, the president's trade policies are liable to become more salient, no matter what Democrats say or do. But thus far, the public's declining confidence in Trump is not translating into rising confidence in the Democratic Party.
Historically, Democrats always outperformed Republicans on the question of which party “cares more for the needs of people like you,” outpolling the GOP by 13 points on that score as recently as 2017. Yet in a Quinnipiac poll taken after Trump single-handedly engineered an economic crisis with his “Liberation Day” tariffs, the two parties are tied on that question.
What's more, even as the public sours on Trump, the GOP remains more popular than the Democratic Party. In a new Pew Research survey, voters disapproved of Trump's job performance by a 59 to 40 percent margin. Yet the Republican Party's approval rating in that same survey was 5 points higher than the Democrats', with only 38 percent of voters expressing support for the latter.
Democrats have time to improve their image; the midterms are well over a year away. So some might wonder why the party should fret about increasing the salience of an unfavorable issue so far from Election Day. But there's an argument that the party should be doing everything in its power to increase its popularity — and reduce Trump's — right now. Businesses, universities, and various other civic institutions will need to decide in the coming weeks and months whether to comply with the president's illiberal attempts to discipline their behavior. The weaker Trump appears to be, the less likely it will be that American civil society acquiesces to authoritarianism.
Thus, from this vantage, message discipline is a moral imperative. Centering Democratic messaging on Abrego Garcia's case might help ambitious Democrats earn small-dollar donations and adoration among the party's base. But it undermines effective opposition to Trump's authoritarian regime.
This argument is reasonable. But in my view, it understates the potential benefits of vigorous advocacy against Trump's lawless deportations and overstates the political harms.
On the substance, Democratic officials flying to El Salvador to check on Abrego Garcia's condition could plausibly deter abuses against him and other immigrant detainees in that country. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele may be a reactionary aligned with Trump, but he is surely aware that the United States has a two-party system. His government therefore must give some thought to its relationship with a hypothetical future Democratic administration. Thus, by advocating so forcefully for US residents unlawfully imprisoned in El Salvador, the Democratic Party has given Bukele some incentive to, at a minimum, keep Abrego Garcia and others like him alive (something that his government routinely fails to do with its prisoners).
Meanwhile, bringing a measure of comfort to an American unlawfully disappeared to a foreign prison is a clear moral good. In an interview with Vox's Today, Explained podcast, Van Hollen said that Salvadoran authorities have not allowed Abrego Garcia to communicate with his family or his lawyers. Rather, they had kept him isolated from the entire outside world, until a US senator demanded a meeting with him. Only through Van Hollen's intervention was Abrego Garcia's wife able to send her greetings to him, or even confirm that her husband was still alive. If an elected official has the power to serve a constituent in this way, it seems worthwhile that they do so.
The prospect that Van Hollen might have effectively encouraged more unlawful deportations by taking this course of action — since Trump wants his opponents to do photo ops on behalf of undocumented immigrants — merits consideration. But it strikes me as far-fetched. One could just as easily posit that Democrats ducking this issue entirely would have emboldened Trump to ramp up unlawful deportations. Ultimately, I think the president's ambitions on this front will be determined by the scope and persistence of the judiciary's opposition, not by Democratic messaging.
It seems possible — perhaps, even likely — that Democrats loudly advocating for Abrego Garcia is politically suboptimal, relative to a monomaniacal focus on the economy. But so long as Democrats act strategically on other fronts, I think the political costs of taking a stand on due process are likely to be negligibly small, for at least five reasons:
First, as far as progressive immigration positions go, “The Trump administration should honor court orders and the due process rights of longtime US residents” is pretty safe territory. In March, a Reuters-Ipsos poll asked Americans whether Trump “should keep deporting people despite a court order to stop?” — they said no by a margin of 56 to 40 percent. And an Economist-YouGov poll released Wednesday found voters specifically agreeing that Trump should bring Abrego Garcia back by a 50 to 28 point margin.
If Democrats frame Abrego Garcia's case as a question of Americans' civil liberties — while reiterating their party's commitment to enforcing immigration law and securing the border — they should be able to mitigate any political cost inherent to elevating this issue. And that has largely been Van Hollen's message. As the senator argued at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday, “I keep saying I'm not vouching for Abrego Garcia. I'm vouching for his constitutional rights because all our rights are at stake.”
Second, there does seem to be some scope for eroding Trump's advantage on immigration. On March 1, polls showed voters approving of the president's immigration policies by more than 10 points. Surveys taken in the last 10 days, by contrast, show that margin has fallen to 2.5 points. It is unclear whether Democrats' messaging on the Abrego Garcia case had any impact on this decline. But given the timing, that possibility cannot be summarily dismissed
Third, some influential right-wingers endorse the Democratic position on Abrego Garcia. Last Thursday, pro-Trump podcaster Joe Rogan detailed his misgivings about the president's violations of due process:
What if you are an enemy of, let's not say any current president. Let's pretend we got a new president, totally new guy in 2028, and this is a common practice now of just rounding up gang members with no due process and shipping them to El Salvador, “You're a gang member.” “No, I'm not.” “Prove it.” “What? I got to go to court.” “No. No due process.”
Defending a principle mutually endorsed by Joe Rogan and the Roberts Court does not seem like the riskiest stand that Democrats could take.
Fourth, I'm not sure that the media's coverage of this controversy looks all that different in the alternate dimension where Democrats voiced opposition to Trump's actions when asked, but otherwise spoke exclusively about his failed economic policies. The president exiling US residents to a foreign prison — and refusing to attempt to repatriate one of them, in defiance of the Supreme Court — is a huge news story. This is a much more shocking and unprecedented event than the House GOP's quest to cut Medicaid, even if the latter will ultimately inspire more voter backlash.
In a world where Van Hollen and his House colleagues never go to El Salvador, the general subject of immigration might have received marginally less media attention over the past week. But I think the effect here is quite small.
Fifth, Democratic officials are not speaking out on this entirely at their own direction. Their party's base is understandably alarmed by the president's lawlessness. Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost said he traveled to El Salvador because he had received “hundreds and hundreds” of emails and calls from his constituents demanding action on this issue. Thus, there might be some cost to Democratic fundraising and morale, were the party's officials to uniformly avoid calling attention to the controversy.
All this said, I think it's true that the optimal political strategy for Democrats is to focus overwhelmingly on economic issues. Voters are more concerned with prices and economic growth than with due process. And Trump is most vulnerable on tariffs, Medicaid cuts, and his economic management more broadly.
I just don't think that dedicating some time and energy to championing bedrock constitutional principles — 19 months before the midterm elections — is by itself a perilous indulgence. In any event, to this point, it has proven entirely compatible with driving down Trump's approval rating, which has fallen by 7 points since February in Pew's polling.
Going forward, Democrats do need to convey that their top concern is Americans' living standards. If Trump moves ahead with anything resembling his current trade policy, his approval is likely to fall, irrespective of Democratic messaging. But the party needs to make sure that voters see it as an effective alternative on economic issues — one that cares more about the needs of people like them.
Throughout the US today, a large and growing number of small business owners, workers, and retirees are suffering as a direct result of Trump's mindless economic policies. If congressional Republicans get their way, millions more will lose their health insurance as a result of Trump's fiscal agenda. Democrats must find ways to elevate these stories. Van Hollen's decision to go to El Salvador evinced some verve and creativity. His party must apply similar energy to the task of dramatizing Trump's economic misgovernance and communicating their party's vision for redressing it.
Understand the world with a daily explainer plus the most compelling stories of the day, compiled by news editor Sean Collins.
With near daily strikes against Yemen's Houthis, is there an end in sight?
A conversation with Sen. Chris Van Hollen about Kilmar Abrego Garcia's detention — and where America goes from here.
I want to believe I can make a positive impact from the inside, but maybe I'm deluding myself.
Canary Mission, the controversial organization targeting student activists, explained.
The latest on the trade war.
Yale professor David W. Blight explains why Trump is far from the first to try to rewrite the record.
© 2025 Vox Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved
In a world with too much noise and too little context, Vox helps you make sense of the news. We don't flood you with panic-inducing headlines or race to be first. We focus on being useful to you — breaking down the news in ways that inform, not overwhelm.
We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?
Canary Mission, the controversial organization targeting student activists, explained.
by Zack Beauchamp
About nine years ago, a new organization called Canary Mission released a YouTube video describing their mission: maintaining a blacklist of anti-Israel college students.
American campuses, the video warns, had become hotbeds of anti-Israel extremism: safe spaces for students to attend “Jew-hating conferences and anti-American rallies.” To fight this, Canary Mission would build an extensive database of students and professors who engaged in anti-Israel activity. The primary intent, per the video, is to ensure that anti-Israel students cannot find gainful employment after graduation.
“These individuals are applying for jobs within your company,” the Canary Mission video warns. “It is your duty to ensure that today's radicals are not tomorrow's employees.”
Over the course of the next decade, Canary Mission — which takes its name from the expression “canary in the coal mine” — delivered on its promise.
Its database now contains mini-profiles of thousands of students and professors, and has expanded to include professionals like doctors and nurses. People listed in the database have been harassed, disciplined, and even fired. Israeli intelligence has used Canary Mission profiles as justification for detaining listed visitors at the border.
And since the second Trump administration began, Canary Mission's targets have started to be deported from the United States.
After plainclothes officers arrested Tufts University graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk on the streets of Boston in late March, Öztürk's attorneys claimed the sole reason for her arrest was her Canary Mission profile. While the Trump administration claims she had engaged in activity “in support of Hamas,” the private Homeland Security memo justifying her detention only cited an op-ed she had written in support of boycotting Israel, using language very similar to her Canary Mission page.
The organization, for its part, is happy to take the credit (though it did not respond to my request for comment). After Öztürk's arrest, Canary Mission's X account posted a celebratory tweet claiming “sources point to her Canary Mission profile as the primary cause.” It currently maintains a list of seven other students and professors who it believes should be targeted for deportation. Two of these, Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi, are currently in ICE custody. Mahdawi was arrested after his name appeared on this list (Khalil was arrested before it was published).
Canary Mission's rise is not really a story about one organization, or even the toxic climate of America's Israel-Palestine debate. Rather, it is a case study in how civil society organizations — normally seen as pillars of liberal democratic life — can become agents of illiberalism. And when such groups can align themselves with a friendly government, the danger rises exponentially.
There are many pro-Israel activist in groups in the United States, and many that focus on college campuses specifically. But Canary Mission is unusual in two respects: its opaque structure and extremely aggressive tactics.
Canary Mission's website does not list a president, board, or a staff directory. On paper, its headquarters are in Israel — specifically Beit Shemesh, a medium-sized city near Jerusalem. Yet the address listed on its paperwork is in a padlocked, seemingly abandoned building.
Over the years, reporters have identified some of the Canary Mission's revenue streams — including significant donations from some prominent American Jewish philanthropies. But much of the Canary Mission's funding remains anonymous due to its use of a pass-through group, called Central Fund of Israel (CFI).
Canary Mission represents a different, and more aggressive, strain of campus pro-Israel activism, one that aims not to debate pro-Palestinian students and scholars but to silence them.
American donors can give to CFI without having to disclose whether the money is earmarked for Canary Mission, and CFI can disburse funds to Canary without noting their original source. It's an unusual setup that effectively allows Canary Mission to keep its funding sources fully anonymous.
“It really stands out when you look at other similar organizations in the same ecosystem,” says Yousef Munayyer, the head of the Israel-Palestine program at the Arab Center think tank in DC. “I can't think of another one that hides their funding like this.”
The obvious irony — that an organization dedicated to naming and shaming is itself so opaque — is palpable. But it is necessary, in part, because Canary Mission has been a lightning rod for controversy even within the pro-Israel community.
No matter what you think about pro-Israel groups' views of American college campuses, they clearly have the right to express their views and organize around them. And many of these groups engage in political activity — like documenting Jewish students' concerns about campus antisemitism or creating new right-leaning Middle East studies journals — that are within the confines of legitimate debate and activism in a democratic society.
But Canary Mission represents a different, and more aggressive, strain of campus pro-Israel activism, one that aims not to debate pro-Palestinian students and scholars but to silence them.
Lila Corwin Berman, a historian of Jewish philanthropy at New York University, dates this approach to roughly the early 2000s. During that time, pro-Israel organizations like Campus Watch and the David Project began publicly targeting professors and students that they believed had engaged in unacceptable speech.
These efforts were haphazard at the outset, publishing specific attacks on allegedly problematic scholars rather than maintaining a full-on blacklist. Canary Mission's database, first unveiled in 2014, represented a qualitative escalation — one explicitly aimed at creating professional problems for anti-Israel activists.
This was highly controversial. In 2018, pro-Israel campus groups at five major universities published a joint op-ed calling on the movement to repudiate Canary Mission.
“We are compelled to speak out against this website because it uses intimidation tactics, is antithetical to our democratic and Jewish values, is counterproductive to our efforts and is morally reprehensible,” they wrote.
This internal criticism did not do much to stop the Canary Mission's growth, fueled as it was by unaccountable backers. Today, Canary Mission's searchable database is vast — containing entries for over 2,000 individuals across 38 states, DC, and five Canadian provinces.
To understand why Canary Mission is so controversial, start by looking at how its blacklist works.
Each individual listing contains both a dossier documenting the target's alleged offenses and their contact information, including direct links to their social media accounts that can facilitate targeted harassment campaigns. The only official way to get an entry deleted is to release a public apology with evidence of new pro-Israel beliefs; these testimonials are then posted on the “ex-Canary” segment of the Mission's website.
Some Canary Mission targets have said or done something that many would find offensive, such as endorsing the October 7, 2023, massacre. But the vast majority of profiles I could find were individuals who either attended a pro-Palestinian rally or wrote something critical about Israel's policies towards the Palestinians.
Canary Mission will describe this banal activity in threatening terms, like “attending a pro-Hamas rally.” But the speech in question is more than just legally protected: It is exactly the sort of political activity that people in a democracy are supposed to use as a vehicle for expressing their opinion. The Mission's database isn't primarily about identifying examples of extreme anti-Israel speech or political violence — it is about trying to silence any criticism of Israel by labeling it antisemitic or pro-terrorist.
Rümeysa Öztürk, the Tufts graduate student facing deportation, is a case in point.
The ideas and trends driving the conservative movement, from senior correspondent Zack Beauchamp.
The Canary Mission profile that reportedly led to her ICE arrest listed a single offense — an op-ed in the Tufts student newspaper calling on the university to (among other things) “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide” and “divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel.” Agree or disagree with these positions, advocating for them is clearly legitimate political speech. There is no plausible case that people like Öztürk constitute any kind of threat to Jews on campus. That she is listed by Canary Mission — and that the organization publicly cheered her arrest — reveals its primary interest in policing speech critical of Israel by any means necessary.
This can also be seen by the sheer number of Jewish students and professors on the Canary Mission's database.
The American Jewish community is fairly left-wing; roughly two-thirds disapprove of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right government. While a strong majority supports Israel's continued existence as a Jewish state, large numbers of American Jews believe its occupation of Palestinian territory is both strategically unwise and morally indefensible. There is also a minority of anti-Zionist American Jews, more prominent in younger generations, who support the dissolution of Israel and its replacement with a binational state.
If you scan the Canary Mission database, Jewish students and scholars make up many of the entries. Reading their dossiers, like the profile of eminent Holocaust historian Omer Bartov, their alleged offenses include everything from criticizing the Netanyahu government's approach to judicial reform to attending a pro-Palestinian demonstration.
If Canary Mission were truly about protecting Jews' rights to participate freely in campus life, then it wouldn't include them on a database explicitly designed to hurt their career prospects.
We don't know for a fact that the Trump administration is using Canary Mission's database to identify deportation targets. There is suggestive evidence: The wording in the State Department memo justifying Öztürk's deportation, for example, is very similar to what appeared on her Canary profile). But so far, there is no direct proof of a link.
The depressing thing is that it makes all the sense in the world.
Yet regardless of whether Canary Mission entries are currently directing policy, it's clear they wish to be seen as doing so. They do this not only by maintaining their list of seven people they wish were deported, but also posting messages in support for actual deportations with slogans like “pro-Hamas extremism has consequences” and “no more safe havens for terror supporters.”
These messages demonstrate an undeniable hostility to basic liberal values. Canary Mission has graduated from “merely” advocating professional consequences for pro-Palestinian voices to endorsing outright state repression against them. They are sliding down a slippery slope at a rapid clip.
The depressing thing is that it makes all the sense in the world.
The idea of trying to silence political opponents rather than debate them is dangerous. There are certainly cases where speech merits consequences: If a professor says discriminatory things about Jewish students, for example, or an activist advocates violence against her peers. But these are generally seen as exceptions rather than rules in free societies: the “boundary cases” where toleration for political expression runs up against other important values.
Canary Mission was founded on the opposite principle: that an entire category of speech, pro-Palestinian advocacy, should be treated as presumptively illegitimate. They believe the cause of defending Israel is best served not by engaging in rigorous debate and advocacy, but by making a giant list of people who believe the “wrong” things and ensuring they suffer consequences for those beliefs.
This is illiberalism as practiced by civil society — and is, necessarily, less dangerous than illiberalism enforced by the state. But when illiberalism takes root in an influential sector of society, such as pro-Israel activism, it becomes a potential ally for an illiberal regime.
No elected leader can turn a democracy into an authoritarian regime on their own. They need partners, influential people and organizations that can operate to weaken resistance to democratic backsliding and help create a climate of fear in which anti-government activity is perceived as costly.
The go-to examples are usually people with physical power and money — generals, police chiefs, and the wealthy elite. But there's a growing recognition that other social groups, even ones that seemingly lack soldiers or billions, can assist in undermining democracy's foundations.
In 2001, the political theorists Simone Chambers and Jeffrey Kopstein warned of a phenomenon they termed “bad civil society.” This is a phenomenon that they describe as “civic participation that weakens liberal democracy” — weaponizing the tools of organizing and activism to oppose the very democratic principles that allow them in the first place.
At the time, it appeared that “illiberal forces are small, marginalized, and contained” in the United States. However, Chambers and Kopstein warned, this doesn't mean they'll always be irrelevant.
Even if “illiberal forces cannot destabilize the state,” the authors write, “they can still “contribute to an insidious erosion of values that leaves liberalism vulnerable to all sorts of threat.”
Canary Mission's behavior in the past 10 years shows that this warning was prescient. The organization isn't just cheering Trump on from the sidelines; they have put together a public list of potential deportation targets. They are gleefully reveling in the fact that their longtime mission of suppressing speech is now backed by force of law.
Understand the world with a daily explainer plus the most compelling stories of the day, compiled by news editor Sean Collins.
A conversation with Sen. Chris Van Hollen about Kilmar Abrego Garcia's detention — and where America goes from here.
With near daily strikes against Yemen's Houthis, is there an end in sight?
Immigration is Trump's best issue. But the benefits of fighting his lawless deportations are worth the political risks.
I want to believe I can make a positive impact from the inside, but maybe I'm deluding myself.
The latest on the trade war.
Yale professor David W. Blight explains why Trump is far from the first to try to rewrite the record.
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U.S. Navy veteran Zachary Young offers his reaction to winning the CNN defamation trial in an interview with Fox News Digital.
FIRST ON FOX -- U.S. Navy veteran Zachary Young, who successfully sued CNN for defamation earlier this year, filed a lawsuit against U.S. News & World Report on Wednesday as he continues to fight to clear his name.
In January, a Florida jury found that CNN defamed Young by implying he illegally profited when helping people flee Afghanistan on the "black market" during the Biden administration's military withdrawal from the country in 2021. Young was awarded $4 million in lost earnings, $1 million in personal damages such as pain and suffering, and the jury found that punitive damages are also warranted against CNN.
Young, who has since sued the Associated Press and Puck over coverage of the CNN trial, filed his latest lawsuit against U.S. News & World Report. The dust-up started in January when AP media reporter David Bauder wrote that "Young's business helped smuggle people out of Afghanistan" when covering the CNN trial. Bauder's report is at the center of Young's separate lawsuit against the AP, and U.S. News & World Report republished the story, which is common practice for news outlets, before eventually retracting it.
U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT RETRACTS AP ARTICLE ABOUT VETERAN ZACHARY YOUNG, BUT AP STANDS BY THE STORY
A jury found earlier this year that CNN defamed U.S. Navy veteran Zachary Young. He is now suing U.S. News & World Report.
In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Bay County, Florida which has been obtained by Fox News Digital, Young's lawyer, Daniel Lustig, wrote that U.S. News & World Report's retraction didn't go "far enough," and his client gave the outlet a chance to correct the mistake before a lawsuit was filed.
"We gave U.S. News every opportunity to do the right thing — to correct what was clearly false, to make it right by correcting and acknowledging what smuggling means. They had already issued a retraction, but it didn't go far enough. It was not a full retraction, and it was not a fair one. Words matter. The word they used meant something serious, and they knew it," Lustig wrote.
Once Young objected to the AP accusing him of smuggling people, U.S. News & World Report removed its pickup of the story and chalked it up to a "possible misunderstanding."
NAVY VETERAN WHO PROVED CNN DEFAMED HIM SUES ASSOCIATED PRESS, SAYS HE WAS FALSELY PAINTED AS ‘SMUGGLER'
Zachary Young is seeking the same venue for his lawsuits against the Associated Press and U.S. News & World Report as he had with CNN: Bay County, Florida. (Joseph A. Wulfsohn/Fox News Digital)
"RETRACTION: U.S. News & World Report has removed the article previously available at this URL that had been published on January 17, 2025, entitled ‘Florida Jury Says CNN Defamed Navy Veteran in Story About Endangered Afghans.' The article was reported and written by the Associated Press (AP). As an AP subscriber, U.S News regularly republishes multiple AP articles on a daily basis," U.S. News & World Report wrote on the page where the AP report used to exist.
"The AP article reported that the jury found that a CNN report on Mr. Young had falsely implied he had engaged in illegal conduct," U.S. News & World Report continued. "The AP article also stated that ‘Young's business helped smuggle people out of Afghanistan.' Mr. Young subsequently contacted U.S. News and objected to the word ‘smuggle' as accusing him of engaging in criminal activity. In republishing the article, U.S. News had no intention to suggest that Mr. Young's actions were unlawful. Nevertheless, to avoid any possible misunderstanding, U.S. News has removed and retracts the AP article."
The retraction did not sit right with Young.
"We didn't rush to court — we were forced by a refusal from U.S. News to take responsibility and their decision to not tell the truth. The media has a profound responsibility to the public, and if they can't be trusted to acknowledge what words mean and the damage they can cause, we will continue holding them accountable in court. That is the only way. If they don't want to take responsibility, it will be up to the people of Florida to keep them honest," Lustig told Fox News Digital.
U.S. News & World Report did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
JURY FINDS CNN COMMITTED DEFAMATION AGAINST NAVY VETERAN, SETTLEMENT REACHED ON PUNITIVE DAMAGES
Plaintiff Zachary Young successfully alleged that CNN smeared him by implying he illegally profited when helping people flee Afghanistan on the "black market" during the military withdrawal from the country in 2021. (CNN/Screenshot)
In the court filing, Young's attorney said it's "categorically false" to say that Young smuggled anyone and noted that "human smuggling" is a felony under U.S. law and courts ruled he did nothing illegal during his Afghanistan evacuation effort.
The AP has previously defended the reporting and did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the lawsuit against U.S. News & World Report.
"AP's story was a factual and accurate report on the jury verdict finding in Zachary Young's favor," an AP spokesperson previously said.
Young is seeking compensatory and other damages, and will likely seek to amend the lawsuit to include punitive damages at a later date.
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A Pakistani astronaut will become the first foreign national aboard China's Tiangong space station, as Beijing steps up space diplomacy amid a burgeoning battle with the United States for supremacy in orbit.
The mission of the Pakistani astronaut – who is yet to be selected – tightens already close space ties between Beijing and Islamabad. Last year, Pakistan sent a satellite to the Moon aboard China's lunar explorer, alongside payloads from the European Space Agency, France, and Italy, according to Chinese state media.
Tiangong is one of two currently operating space stations, alongside the International Space Station, launched in 1998. Since it started operating in 2021, it has only hosted Chinese astronauts.
The mission is “a significant step in the internationalization of the Chinese space station,” said Quentin Parker, an astrophysicist and professor at the University of Hong Kong.
“When you internationalize things properly, you build something greater than the sum of the parts, and that's true in the internationalization of the space station,” he said.
During a press conference on Wednesday, the China Manned Space Agency announced the astronaut selected will be a payload specialist, handling daily tasks during the mission, as well as scientific experiments for Pakistan.
Amjad Ali, deputy director of Pakistan's space agency SUPARCO, lauded the news as a milestone for the South Asian nation, whose government is taking a renewed interest in its more than 60-year-old space program.
“It is very important for Pakistan, being the first foreign country whose astronauts are entertained by China and taken by the Chinese mission,” he told Reuters news agency on Wednesday.
Ali said Pakistan space bosses will compile a list of five to 10 candidates for the mission over the next month, for China to then shorten to two.
The pair will then go through training in China for six months to a year, with one eventually being sent to space as early as October next year, while the other acts as a reserve, Ali said.
The two countries' growing space ties coincide with their increasing economic collaboration and trade on Earth.
Under Beijing's China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a major project within its broader Belt and Road Initiative, China has invested heavily in infrastructure in the north and south of Pakistan, including a deep-water port in the southwestern city of Gwadar, as well as multiple technological projects between the two countries.
An agreement signed in February between the two countries on space cooperation was a precursor the mission announced Wednesday.
On Tuesday, a delegation from Chinese space tech company Galaxy Space met with Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, according to a statement from Sharif's office.
The delegation expressed a “keen interest in investing in Pakistan's space technology industry and joint ventures with Pakistani space technology institutions and private telecom companies,” the statement added.
Sharif, calling China his country's “most reliable friend and strategic partner,” said that Pakistan was “looking to increase cooperation with China in the fields of space technology, space satellites and satellite internet.”
Amer Gilani, who oversees human spaceflight cooperation at SUPARCO, told CNN that the experiments to be conducted during the planned mission were still being selected, but will have “high scientific, industrial and social impact.”
China has rapidly advanced its space power in recent decades through ambitious lunar and deep-space exploration programs, as well as expanding its space station.
On Thursday, another manned mission will launch from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, carrying three astronauts to Tiangong.
The Shenzhou-20 crew is scheduled to blast off at 5:17 p.m. on Thursday local time (5:17 a.m. ET), state media reported on Wednesday. It will be the ninth crewed mission headed for China's space station since it was fully assembled in 2022.
The main purpose of the mission is to complete the in-orbit rotation with the Shenzhou-19 crew, which is scheduled to return to earth on April 29, China Manned Space Agency officials said at a press conference.
While in space, the astronauts will conduct science and application experiments, install a space debris protection device, as well as extravehicular payload and equipment, and perform recovery tasks, according to the agency.
The mission will also carry small animals and organisms for life-science experiments at the space station. They will include zebrafish, flatworms known as planarians, and streptomyces bacteria.
China has signed nearly 200 intergovernmental space cooperation agreements with foreign countries and international organizations, covering fields from satellite development and lunar exploration to manned space flight, state media reported in December.
China's space administration announced Thursday it has also approved loans of lunar samples collected by China's earlier moon exploration mission to seven institutions across six countries, including Pakistan.
Parker, from the University of Hong Kong, emphasized the importance of international space cooperation.
“The way that things are in the world at the moment is increasingly complex – but it's important that this outreach and collaborative spirit is maintained,” he said.
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Apple Park's spaceship campus.
Apple Inc. will remove its secret robotics unit from the command of its artificial intelligence chief, the latest shake-up in response to the company's AI struggles.
Apple plans to relocate the robotics team from John Giannandrea's AI organization to the hardware division later this month, according to people with knowledge of the move. That will place it under Senior Vice President John Ternus, who oversees hardware engineering, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the change isn't public.
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Meta has laid off employees in its Reality Labs division that is tasked with developing virtual reality, augmented reality and related wearable devices.
The cuts affected an unspecified number of employees working in the division's Oculus Studios unit, which develops VR and AR games and content for Meta's Quest VR headsets, a company spokesperson told CNBC.
"Some teams within Oculus Studios are undergoing shifts in structure and roles that have impacted team size," the spokesperson said. "These changes are meant to help Studios work more efficiently on future mixed reality experiences for our growing audience, while still delivering great content for people today."
Employees working on the Supernatural VR workout app were impacted, the spokesperson said.
"We're deeply saddened to share that these changes have resulted in the loss of some of our incredibly talented team members," the company said in a statement posted to the Supernatural official Facebook group. "Their contributions have been instrumental in shaping our journey and yours, and their absence will be deeply felt."
The cuts to Reality Labs come after Meta in February laid off 5% of its overall workforce that it deemed to be its lowest performers.
Meta's Reality Labs division logged an operating loss of $4.97 billion while scoring $1.1 billion in sales during the fourth quarter, the company said in January.
The social media company reports earnings on Wednesday.
The Verge reported the layoffs earlier on Thursday.
WATCH: Mark Zuckerberg takes witness stand on first day of antitrust trial.
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While the data indicate spending is holding up so far, the outlook is less promising.
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CEOs are warning that the price of everything from Kit Kats and diapers to cars will go up as they pass on tariff and commodity costs to shoppers.
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Bill Hwang's Archegos Collapse:
Nomura Holdings head office in Tokyo.
Nomura Holdings Inc. is weighing a return to offering cash prime-brokerage services in the US and Europe, businesses it largely exited just four years ago following the implosion of Archegos Capital Management.
As part of the push, Nomura hired Matias Bercun, a 17-year veteran of Barclays Plc, to run the prime brokerage business globally, according to people familiar with the matter. Nomura officials have already held discussions with regulators in Japan about its latest plans, the people said, asking not to be named discussing non-public information.
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The stock market is about to flash an incredibly rare bullish signal: the Zweig Breadth Thrust Indicator.
The signal looks at 10-day trading intervals in the stock market. If it does flash, it would suggest that stocks are about to enter a new bullish phase and that the tariff-induced decline from earlier this month represented "the" bottom for risk assets.
The indicator measures overall participation among individual securities in the stock market's rally. It was developed by investor and author of "Winning on Wall Street, Martin Zweig.
Since 1945, the indicator has only flashed 18 times, with the most recent signal occurring in November 2023.
The indicator is calculated by taking a 10-day moving average of the number of advancing stocks divided by the number of advancing stocks plus the number of declining stocks.
The calculation derives a percentage, and when it falls below 40% and then surges above 61.5% in 10 days or less, the indicator is triggered.
The indicator's countdown began on April 11, when the ratio jumped above 40%. According to data from StockCharts.com, it has since risen to 61.34% as of Thursday morning.
The 10th day of the countdown clock is Friday, so stocks need to muster a continued rally driven by broad participation to flash the bullish signal.
Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group, has been closely following the indicator over the past week.
"Although the computation is a tad confusing, the bottom line is many stocks went from oversold to overbought in a short time frame," Detrick told BI. "This is what you tend to see at the beginning of new bullish phases."
The Zweig Breadth Thrust Indicator has a perfect track record of predicting positive stock market gains in the six and twelve months after it flashes.
According to Detrick, of the 18 times the signal has flashed, the average forward 6- and 12-month returns for the S&P 500 are 15.3% and 24.0%, respectively.
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The uncertainty around trade tariffs is complex but a period of uncertainty also provides Europe with an opportunity to assert itself as an economic and geopolitical superpower, the governor of the Bank of Latvia told CNBC Thursday.
"With all this uncertainty and vulnerability, this is also the time of opportunities for Europe," said Mārtiņš Kazāks, who is also a member of the governing council of the European Central Bank.
"It's a time for Europe to grasp all the aspects of being an economic superpower and becoming a really fully-fledged political and geopolitical superpower, and this requires doing all the decisions that in the past, were not carried out fully," after the global financial crisis, he said. The central bank chief cited a capital markets union, fiscal union and a single market in services as examples of further integration that were needed.
"This requires political will, political guts to make those decisions, and to strengthen the European economy and assert its place in a global world," Kazāks told CNBC's Carolin Roth on the sidelines of the IMF-World Bank spring meetings in Washington this week.
When asked what tariffs mean for the ECB, which implemented a 25-basis-point interest rate cut at its April meeting, Kazāks said decisions would be taken "from meeting-to-meeting because of this very poor visibility."
"The uncertainty is very hard," he noted, adding that "it's certainly a very vulnerable situation for the global economy."
"The [political] statements, the policy decisions and the political environment and especially the tariff war are what's creating this extremely elevated uncertainty."
Kazāks said financial markets should be monitored very carefully for any dramatic shifts in sentiment.
"So far it seems to be relatively orderly ... but if one looks at the spillovers to Europe, the financial markets are working more or less fine, we haven't seen spreads exploding or anything like that," he said.
"But in terms, however, of the macro scenarios, this uncertainty is extremely elevated in the sense that, given the possible outcomes, the multiple scenarios and their probabilities are very similar with the baseline [tariff] scenario," he said.
Although the initial duties announced in early April by U.S President Donald Trump, as well as the EU's retaliatory countermeasures, were paused for 90 days until July, there are concerns over the wider impact on regional and global economic growth once that period ends.
The IMF earlier this week forecast that U.S. gross domestic product would expand 1.8% in 2025, down 0.9 percentage points from its January forecast. The fund also cut its global growth forecast to 2.8% this year, down 0.5 percentage points from its previous estimate.
The fund predicted a slight decline in the euro zone, forecasting that euro area GDP will hit 0.8% in 2025, before picking up modestly to 1.2% in 2026.
Kazāks said the IMF's forecasts were on the optimistic side, and that the risk of global recession was "not trivial."
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Adam Neumann
Adam Neumann, the former WeWork chief executive officer, raised more money for his new residential real estate company Flow in a funding round that values the business at roughly $2.5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.
Flow secured more than $100 million from investors including a16z, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing financing details. Neumann is also exploring longer-range plans for the business.
Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack said Thursday she thinks policymakers need to be patient rather than preemptive in assessing how tariffs will impact inflation and growth.
In her first broadcast interview since taking the reins at the central bank district in August 2024, Hammack noted the high level of uncertainty now and did not commit to a specific course of action regarding interest rate policy.
"I think we need to be patient. I think this is a time when we want to make sure we're moving in the right direction, than moving too quickly in the wrong direction," she told CNBC's "Squawk Box." "So I would rather take our time to make sure we're looking at the data, the hard data ... which are actually really good."
Hammack's remarks come at a sensitive time for the Federal Reserve, which has been left to assess the impact of President Donald Trump's tariffs on both inflation and employment.
Several central bank officials, including Chair Jerome Powell, have said the duties pose threats to both sides of the Fed's "dual mandate," posing another challenge on how to calibrate monetary policy. Hammack also voiced concerns over how the Fed might balance those priorities.
"It could be that we have the two sides of our mandate and conflict, which is the most challenging for monetary policy," she said. "If it's higher inflation, lower employment, that's where things get really complicated."
Markets strongly expect the Fed will stand pat on interest rates when it meets May 6-7, then resume cutting rates in June with the likelihood of a total three or four reductions by the end of the year, according to CME Group data.
Hammack does not vote this year on the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee but will vote in 2026.
"If we have convincing data by June, then I think you'll see the committee move if we know which way to move at that point," Hammack said.
However, uncertainty over tariff policy and how the Fed might react has contributed to substantial market volatility in recent months, with stocks struggling, Treasury yields rising and the U.S. dollar falling.
A former Goldman Sachs executive, Hammack said she is sensitive to market movements but only in how they affect broader economic conditions.
"Our job is not to focus on what the markets are doing. Our job is to focus on how that's going to impact households and businesses, and what that's going to mean in the real economy," she said. "So we're not steering the markets. We're steering the real economy."
Hammack noted that the "hard" economic data such as unemployment and inflation is still relatively good, while "soft" data such as surveys shows elevated levels of concern.
"What we're hearing right now is that the uncertainty is really weighing on businesses," she said. "It's creating issues for them in terms of planning, in terms of thinking about where they're going to go, and so some of them have put pauses on whether they're going to make bigger investments, whether they're going to invest in new facilities, new capital plans, and then they're thinking about their hiring plans."
"I wish I had a crystal ball. We don't have one," Hammack added.
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The efforts by President Donald Trump and his administration to reshape the global economy will likely damage the economy and financial assets, according to hedge fund giant Bridgewater Associates.
Co-chief investment officers Bob Prince, Greg Jensen and Karen Karniol-Tambour said in a newsletter Wednesday that the world is undergoing a "rapid shift to modern mercantilism" that could have a negative outcome for the economy.
"We expect a policy-induced slowdown, with rising probability of a recession," the CIOs wrote.
The Bridgewater commentary comes as the stock market has already been rocked by Trump's tariff policies. The S&P 500 is down 8.3% year to date and 5.2% since the April 2 rollout of Trump's so-called reciprocal tariffs. Many of those levies have since been paused, but tensions have escalated between the U.S. and China.
Outside of the stock market, U.S. bonds and the dollar have also declined in recent weeks. Some Wall Street experts have suggested that the widespread decline could be a sign that foreign investors are backing away from the U.S. in the Trump era.
Bridgewater hinted at this idea in the newsletter, saying that the policy changes create "exceptional risks to US assets, which are dependent on foreign inflows."
The combination of an economic slowdown and a shift away from the U.S. could unwind a lot of the conventional wisdom of investing from over the past decade, when America financial assets and economic growth broadly outperformed other major countries.
"This shift in asset allocations has created risks if the future is different than the past. Many portfolios are increasingly vulnerable to 1) any weakness in growth, 2) central banks not being able to ease into problems, 3) equity underperformance, and 4) US underperformance relative to the rest of the world," the newsletter said.
Bridgewater, which was founded by Ray Dalio in 1975, reported having $92.1 billion in client assets as of Dec. 31.
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OKLAHOMA CITY — The Trump administration is considering investing in companies that mine and process critical minerals in an effort to end U.S. dependence on imports from countries including China, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said this week.
"We should be taking some of our balance sheet and making investments," Burgum said late Wednesday at a conference organized by the Hamm Institute for American Energy. "The U.S. may need to make an "equity investment in each of these companies that's taking on China in critical minerals," he said.
China dumps minerals on international markets, collapsing prices and making it difficult for U.S. companies to compete, Burgum said. "You're competing against state capital because China is picking these strategically as areas that they want to invest in," Burgum said.
The U.S. could use a vehicle like a sovereign wealth fund to invest in domestic miners focused on extracting and processing critical minerals, he said. "Why wouldn't the wealthiest country in the world have the biggest sovereign wealth fund," the Interior Secretary said.
Beijing earlier this month imposed export controls on rare earth elements — a subset of critical minerals —in retaliation for President Donald Trump's decision to hike tariffs on goods made in China. Rare earth elements are used in key industries including defense, energy and automobiles. The U.S. imported 80% of the rare earths it used in 2024, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. About 70% of U.S. rare earth imports came from China in 2023.
"We have to get back in the game," Burgum said, referring to mining. "It's not just drill, baby, drill. It's mine, baby, mine. If we don't do that as a country, we will not be successful. We will literally be at the mercy of others that are controlling our supply chains."
The Trump administration is also considering a sovereign risk insurance fund to guard companies that invest in approved projects against changing political winds in Washington, he said. If a future president cancels a project through executive fiat, companies would be paid back from the fund, Burgum said.
"Think of it like an insurance market that would be backed by the federal government," Burgum said. "You got to write a check. There's got to be a financial cost if you're going to do these decisions where you're destroying our balance sheet or destroying a company's opportunity," he said.
The U.S. needs to stockpile key critical minerals through a mechanism similar to the strategic petroleum reserve, Burgum said. When China dumps minerals on global markets and prices plummet, the U.S. should buy those minerals and stockpile them, he said.
"Those three things would put us in the game around critical minerals — the stockpiling, the sovereign risk insurance and the ability to take an equity position. We're working on all three of those," he said.
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American Airlines withdrew its 2025 financial guidance on Thursday, joining other carriers that are grappling with an uncertain outlook for the U.S. economy and weaker-than-expected leisure travel bookings this year.
"We came off a strong fourth quarter, saw decent business in January and really domestic leisure travel fell off considerably as we went into the February time frame," CEO Robert Isom told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Thursday.
American said that the 0.7% increase in unit revenue in the first quarter was driven by strength in international bookings and premium cabins, echoing other airlines like Delta and United, which said more price-sensitive leisure customers have been the ones holding back on trips.
The airline forecast second-quarter revenue down as much as 2% from last year to up as much as 1%, below the 2.2% Wall Street analysts expected, with its capacity expected to rise as much as 4% in the current quarter. American said adjusted per-share earnings would likely come in between 50 cents and $1, while analysts expected 99 cents per share.
It said capacity will rise between 2% and 4% over last year in the second quarter.
Here is how American performed in the first quarter compared with Wall Street estimates compiled by LSEG:
American posted a $473 million loss for the first quarter, wider than the $312 million loss it reported a year earlier, with revenue of $12.55 billion, nearly unchanged from last year. Adjusting for one-time items, American reported a loss per share of 59 cents.
Capacity was down 0.8%.
American said its efforts to rebuild its corporate travel business after a failed business strategy are making progress but were offset by "economic uncertainty that pressured domestic leisure demand and the tragic accident of American Eagle Flight 5342," referring to the January accident when an Army helicopter collided with an American regional jet that was landing in Washington, D.C., killing all 67 people on the two aircraft.
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South Korea's data protection authority has concluded that Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek collected personal information from local users and transferred it overseas without their permission.
The authority, the Personal Information Protection Commission, released its written findings on Thursday in connection with a privacy and security review of DeepSeek.
It follows DeepSeek's removal of its chatbot application from South Korean app stores in February at the recommendation of PICP. The agency said DeepSeek had committed to cooperate on its concerns.
During DeepSeek's presence in South Korea, it transferred user data to several firms in China and the U.S. without obtaining the necessary consent from users or disclosing the practice, the PIPC said.
The agency highlighted a particular case in which DeepSeek transferred information from user-written AI prompts, as well as device, network, and app information, to a Chinese cloud service platform named Beijing Volcano Engine Technology Co.
While the PIPC identified Beijing Volcano Engine Technology Co. as "an affiliate" of TikTok-owner ByteDance, the information privacy watchdog noted in a statement that the cloud platform "is a separate legal entity and has no relation to ByteDance," according to a Google translation.
According to PIPC, DeepSeek said it used Beijing Volcano Engine Technology's services to improve the security and user experience of its app, but later blocked the transfer of AI prompt information from April 10.
DeepSeek and ByteDance did not immediately respond to inquiries from CNBC.
The Hangzhou-based AI startup took the world by storm in January when it unveiled its R1 reasoning model, rivaling the performance of Western competitors despite the company's claims that it was trained for relatively low costs and with less advanced hardware.
However, the app's rising popularity quickly triggered national security and data concerns outside China due to Beijing's requirement for domestic firms to share data with the PRC. Cybersecurity experts have also flagged data vulnerabilities in the app and voiced concerns about the company's privacy policy.
PIPC on Thursday said it had issued a corrective recommendation to DeepSeek, which includes requests to immediately destroy AI prompt information transferred to the Chinese company in question and to set up legal protocols for transferring personal information overseas.
When the data protection authority announced the removal of DeepSeek from local app stores, it signaled that the app would become available again once the company implemented the necessary updates to comply with local data protection policy.
That investigation followed reports that some South Korean government agencies had banned employees from using DeepSeek on work devices. Other global government departments, including in Taiwan, Australia, and the U.S., have reportedly instituted similar bans.
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In this article
LONDON — Adobe plans to launch a mobile version of its artificial intelligence image generation tool Firefly, stepping up a challenge to OpenAI as the Microsoft-backed startup advances its efforts on visual applications for the technology.
The design software giant said Thursday at its MAX creativity conference in London that it will release Firefly on both iOS and Android "soon," without giving a specific date.
"Creative people think on the go," Alexandru Costin, vice president of Adobe Firefly, told CNBC in an interview. "One of the visions we have is for the Firefly mobile application to become a creative partner that sits with you all the time."
Costin said that one way creatives could use its upcoming mobile app was to ask it to sketch up some ideas about an ad campaign while commuting to the office, so that by the time they arrive at work they've got a mood board to help them develop their thinking.
Adobe also announced the launch of its latest AI models, Firefly Image Model 4 and Firefly Image Model 4 Ultra, and said its new Firefly Video Model for video generation is now generally available.
The company said the new systems are capable of generating hyper-realistic pictures and videos in response to textual prompts in a "commercially safe" way, blocking the inclusion of any intellectual property.
It marks Adobe's latest push to incorporate AI into its creative tool suite and comes as the company is increasingly facing competition from well-funded AI firms such as OpenAI and Runway.
Last month, OpenAI released a native image generation feature that went viral online for its ability to produce anime images in the style of animation studio Studio Ghibli and recreate people as toy dolls.
The tool saw such huge levels of demand that OpenAI boss Sam Altman warned it was melting the company's GPUs (graphics processing units). "It's super fun seeing people love images in ChatGPT. But our GPUs are melting," Altman said on March 27.
While Adobe's Costin conceded that the competitive environment is heating up, he said the company isn't shying away from partnering with the competition. For example, Adobe has partnered up with the likes of OpenAI, Google and Runway to add their AI image generation tools to Firefly.
"Competition is great," Costin told CNBC. "We think there will be models with different personalities and capabilities."
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A quiet revolution is reshaping the business model of software-as-a-service. The SaaS industry is shifting from monthly "per seat" licenses to embrace usage-based, pay-as-you-go pricing.
The driving force? AI, and specifically a new class of reasoning models that are computationally intensive and expensive to operate.
This isn't just a pricing experiment; it may be an economic necessity for some companies as they adjust to the cost of running AI-powered software services.
If you've been reading my stories, you'll know I warned that the generative AI revolution would bring major pricing changes to some internet businesses. Back in January 2024, I wrote that it costs a lot to build AI models, and noted that Big Tech companies were looking for new sources of revenue growth, such as subscriptions.
Now, there's a new breed of "reasoning" AI model that's really expensive to run. They don't just spit out simple responses. They loop through steps, check their work, and do it all again — a process called inference-time compute. Every step generates new "tokens," the new language of generative AI, which have to be processed.
For instance, OpenAI's o3-high model was found to use 1,000 times more tokens to answer a single AI benchmark question than its predecessor, o1. The cost to produce that one answer? Around $3,500, according to Barclays analysts.
These costs aren't theoretical. As enterprises integrate AI into core workflows, building agents, copilots, and other complex decision tools, each query becomes more compute-hungry. And when millions of users are involved, those costs scale fast.
The result: Software companies may struggle to keep charging flat monthly fees if AI usage and compute costs spike and become wildly uneven across their customer bases.
For decades, SaaS companies such as Microsoft and Salesforce have typically charged per user, per month. This has been a clean, predictable model that worked well when marginal usage costs were near zero. But generative AI changes that. With inference compute costs high and rising, flat pricing becomes a potential financial liability.
"Elevated compute costs for AI agents may drive a higher cost of revenue compared to traditional SaaS offerings, forcing companies to rethink their cost-management strategies," consulting firm AlixPartners, wrote in a recent study about AI threats to software companies.
Instead of charging per user, companies are beginning to charge based on activity, whether that's tokens consumed, queries run, automations executed, or models accessed. This aligns revenue more closely with usage and ensures companies can cover their variable and rising infrastructure costs.
Sam Altman floated an idea like this for OpenAI last month.
an idea for paid plans: your $20 plus subscription converts to credits you can use across features like deep research, o1, gpt-4.5, sora, etc.no fixed limits per feature and you choose what you want; if you run out of credits you can buy more.what do you think? good/bad?
Developer platform Vercel already operates on this principle: The more traffic a customer's site receives, the more they pay.
"It's better aligned with customer success," Vercel CFO Marten Abrahamsen told me in an interview. "If our customer does well, we do well."
Younger companies like Bolt.new, Vercel, and Replit are at the forefront. Bolt.new, a low-code platform powered by AI agents, saw a major inflection in revenue growth after shifting from per-seat pricing to usage-based tiers. Its plans now scale with tokens consumed, from casual hobbyists to full-time power users.
Meanwhile, Braze and Monday.com have introduced hybrid pricing models, mixing base seat licenses with pay-per-use AI credits.
For Monday.com, many seat-based customers get 500 AI credits to use each month. When they exhaust these, they must pay extra for more.
ServiceNow, one of the SaaS players, has added usage-based pricing, but only as a small add-on to an otherwise predictable, seat-based offering.
CEO Bill McDermott told me the company spent years building a cheap, fast, and secure AI platform with help from Nvidia. He also noted that many of the big AI models out there, such as Meta's Llama and Google's Gemini, have become a lot cheaper to tap into lately.
Still, ServiceNow weaved in usage-based pricing to protect itself in rare situations when customers are extremely active and use a huge amount of tokens that the company has to process.
"When it goes beyond what we can credibly afford, we have to have some kind of meter," McDermott said.
He stressed that customers can still rip through thousands of business processes before they hit this usage-based pricing tier.
"Our customers still want seat-based predictability," McDermott added. "We think it's the perfect goldilocks model, offering predictability, innovation, and thousands of free use cases."
Investors are taking note. Barclays analysts argued recently that usage-based software companies, such as JFrog and Braze, should command premium valuations, especially as seat-based vendors face potential slower revenue growth from AI features that don't scale with user count.
"We are hearing more concerns from investors that the ongoing prevalence of AI agents could lead to lower incremental revenue contributions from seat growth for SaaS vendors," the analysts wrote in a note to investors recently.
This shift could lead to more volatility in quarterly revenue, but stronger long-term alignment with product value delivered, the analysts explained.
The downside is that these are variable costs for customers. Instead of knowing exactly how much a service costs every month, your costs might rise unexpectedly if you get a lot of traffic, or your employees go nuts for new AI tools, for instance.
There's a similar problem facing the companies providing these new AI-powered software services. Their sales may rise and fall more in line with customer success and activity in general. That lumpy revenue is less attractive to investors, compared to the reliable monthly seat-based sales often generated by traditional SaaS providers.
David Slater, a chief marketing officer who's worked at tech companies including Salesforce and Mozilla, recently built a personal website using Bolt.new. He says costs could easily get out of control if you use the tool heavily, or go down a design rabbit hole and keep tweaking something over and over.
The allure of SaaS services is that they are predictable, for customers as well as providers. Anything that messes with this situation could be a concern, especially for end users.
"A pricing model that's not predictive for the company and the consumer cannot stand," Slater told me in an interview.
The shift from seats to usage isn't just about AI, but AI is the catalyst. As software gets smarter, more dynamic, and more compute-hungry, tying pricing to actual use may become a more sustainable path forward.
Expect to see more companies introduce token credits, pay-per-query pricing, or hybrid models in 2025, not just because it's more efficient, but because it may be the only way to stay afloat as AI adoption accelerates.
Now, this could all change again if generative AI compute costs fall over time. That's happened in previous computing eras, and some experts see this happening again. Or, at least, they hope so.
"Sooner or later, AI costs are going to plummet, and then this usage-based model dies, replaced with an anchor like seats, or time, or a monthly subscription that's understandable," Slater said.
Jump to
U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs have pushed countries to look for ways to improve their trade balance with the U.S. and negotiate the extent of duties levied on their imports.
Indonesia's plan now is to "narrow," or even eliminate its trade surplus with the U.S., the country's finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati told CNBC on the sidelines of the IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings.
This comes after the country was hit with a 32% levy on exports to the U.S. by President Donald Trump on April 2. He has since lowered the duty to 10% as part of his 90-day pause on tariffs imposed on some countries and goods.
Indrawati noted that the resource-rich country has been perceived to be preventing trade via "non-tariff barriers" such as its administrative processes, customs processes on imported goods and taxation procedures.
Indonesia is now looking to import more agricultural products such as wheat, soybeans and corn from the U.S, she said.
"We import not only from the United States but many others ... we can always discuss about how we can narrow and put the United States in a better advantage of providing those kinds of agriculture products," she noted.
Indonesia could potentially also import oil and gas - especially liquid gas from the U.S. - as its domestic production is insufficient for its energy needs, the finance minister said.
Her comments come as Indonesia's trade surplus with the U.S. stood at $4.3 billion between January to March 2025 - up from $3.61 billion in the same period the year before. The superpower was the biggest contributor to the Southeast Asian country's overall trade surplus of $10.92 billion in the first quarter.
However, Indrawati noted that trade to the U.S. accounts for less than 2% of the country's gross domestic product.
"So, it's not really that big," given that total exports accounts for 20% of Indonesia's GDP, she added.
Still, Indrawati said that the impact of Trump's tariffs could potentially be felt in other ways as countries look to diversify their exports from the U.S.
Bank Indonesia held its policy rates for its third consecutive review on Wednesday, in a bid to maintain the exchange rate stability of the Indonesian rupiah against the uncertain macroeconomic outlook.
The central bank kept its benchmark 7-day reverse repurchase rate - which is also known as BI Rate -unchanged at 5.75%, as expected all but two of 26 economists polled by Reuters. It also kept its two other policy rates steady.
The move comes as the Indonesian rupiah hit a record low while the Jakarta Composite index plunged earlier in the month as capital flowed out after the U.S. imposed "reciprocal tariffs" on countries including Indonesia.
The decision serves to safeguard the rupiah's stability as the central bank continues to assess future room for a cut, taking into account the country's inflation rate and growth prospects, Governor Perry Warjiyo said.
"Our short term priority is exchange rate stability. Once stability is maintained, the room for a rate cut will be more open and that would be the time to decide on future interest rate policy," he added.
The rupiah weakened 0.12% against the dollar to 16,800 on Thursday, a day after BI's rate decision.
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Elon Musk has said he stepping away from DOGE and the West Wing, but there's one thing federal workers really want to know.
"Can we stop sending this weekly email now?" an employee at the Internal Revenue Service asked.
Business Insider spoke to 17 federal workers after the Tesla CEO said on a Tuesday earnings call that he hopes to devote more time to the company because the "major work of establishing" DOGE is complete.
Several federal workers brought up the "What did you do last week" email required by Musk's DOGE office since February. Many said they're skeptical that Musk will forfeit his White House influence. Even if he does, some said Musk's legacy will live on in DOGE through cuts to the federal workforce and government budget. Others are simply hopeful they'll have one less weekly email to send.
As a special government employee, Musk is only legally allowed to work for the Trump administration for 130 days a year. Still, the federal workers BI spoke with said they expect him to continue making political headlines.
"My reaction is, 'I'll believe it when I see it,'" a programmer at the IRS said, adding, "I believe the richest man in the world has hacked his way into the most powerful government in the world, and there is nobody to stop him from keeping that access, even if he looks 'gone' on paper."
A former employee at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that they aren't taking Musk's announcement seriously. An employee at the Office of Personnel Management added that Musk's vow to step back seems like "PR spin."
Have a tip? Contact these reporters via Signal at alliekelly.10, asheffey.97, julianakaplan.33, alicetecotzky.05, and madisonhoff.06. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.
Other federal workers said that even if Musk does leave DOGE, his actions will have a lasting impact on the government and its staff.
"The effect he's had on the federal government can't be as neatly defined as quarterly earnings reports," the OPM employee said. Several workers expressed concern over reports that DOGE and Musk have access to sensitive information like internal government databases and Americans' Social Security details.
Some talked about the anxiety that DOGE's federal firing spree has caused in their own lives. A few said they are constantly worried about losing their livelihoods. Federal workers who voted for Donald Trump and support his money-saving goals have previously told BI they felt betrayed by Musk's abrupt mass firings of what DOGE called "low performers."
"There is a methodical way to downsize, and I'm all for right-sizing to meet current events," a Department of Agriculture employee said. "The way Musk and his team have handled and are continuing to handle the situation is harmful to federal workers (who are real people with families), harmful to American institutions, and ultimately harmful to the American public."
A Department of Defense employee hopes that Musk stepping back will give them "a little relief" about their job security.
And then there are the possible effects on their day-to-day work. Several federal workers told BI they hope Musk's departure signals the end of his "five bullets" email. It's unclear what Musk and his colleagues do with the information or if it has led directly to any employee firings.
"I have to look and research and see what I did — that's 10 minutes that's wasted," one Social Security Administration employee said, adding, "I could be spending my time more efficiently doing other things." Another IRS employee said they send nearly the same email every week.
Musk said on Tuesday's Tesla call that he will still spend a day or two a week on government matters, "as long as it is useful" to the president. When reporters asked Trump in the Oval Office on Wednesday about Musk's departure, he said that Musk "is an incredible guy" and "was a tremendous help both in the campaign and what he's done with DOGE." Neither Musk nor Trump elaborated on Musk's future role in the administration.
The possible DOGE shake-up comes alongside plummeting first-quarter Tesla earnings. The electric-vehicle company's earnings per share and revenue were down 71% and 9% year over year, respectively. Musk said last month that his role in the White House was "costing me a lot" and he was running his businesses with "great difficulty." With news that he could be retreating from Trumpworld, Tesla's stock was trading up over 5% after hours and jumped again Wednesday.
One federal employee said they aren't surprised Musk is leaning back into his CEO role. They said working in the government is likely "too much trouble for someone who is trained to see things as engineering problems."
Jump to
Elon Musk has said he stepping away from DOGE and the West Wing, but there's one thing federal workers really want to know.
"Can we stop sending this weekly email now?" an employee at the Internal Revenue Service asked.
Business Insider spoke to 17 federal workers after the Tesla CEO said on a Tuesday earnings call that he hopes to devote more time to the company because the "major work of establishing" DOGE is complete.
Several federal workers brought up the "What did you do last week" email required by Musk's DOGE office since February. Many said they're skeptical that Musk will forfeit his White House influence. Even if he does, some said Musk's legacy will live on in DOGE through cuts to the federal workforce and government budget. Others are simply hopeful they'll have one less weekly email to send.
As a special government employee, Musk is only legally allowed to work for the Trump administration for 130 days a year. Still, the federal workers BI spoke with said they expect him to continue making political headlines.
"My reaction is, 'I'll believe it when I see it,'" a programmer at the IRS said, adding, "I believe the richest man in the world has hacked his way into the most powerful government in the world, and there is nobody to stop him from keeping that access, even if he looks 'gone' on paper."
A former employee at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that they aren't taking Musk's announcement seriously. An employee at the Office of Personnel Management added that Musk's vow to step back seems like "PR spin."
Have a tip? Contact these reporters via Signal at alliekelly.10, asheffey.97, julianakaplan.33, alicetecotzky.05, and madisonhoff.06. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.
Other federal workers said that even if Musk does leave DOGE, his actions will have a lasting impact on the government and its staff.
"The effect he's had on the federal government can't be as neatly defined as quarterly earnings reports," the OPM employee said. Several workers expressed concern over reports that DOGE and Musk have access to sensitive information like internal government databases and Americans' Social Security details.
Some talked about the anxiety that DOGE's federal firing spree has caused in their own lives. A few said they are constantly worried about losing their livelihoods. Federal workers who voted for Donald Trump and support his money-saving goals have previously told BI they felt betrayed by Musk's abrupt mass firings of what DOGE called "low performers."
"There is a methodical way to downsize, and I'm all for right-sizing to meet current events," a Department of Agriculture employee said. "The way Musk and his team have handled and are continuing to handle the situation is harmful to federal workers (who are real people with families), harmful to American institutions, and ultimately harmful to the American public."
A Department of Defense employee hopes that Musk stepping back will give them "a little relief" about their job security.
And then there are the possible effects on their day-to-day work. Several federal workers told BI they hope Musk's departure signals the end of his "five bullets" email. It's unclear what Musk and his colleagues do with the information or if it has led directly to any employee firings.
"I have to look and research and see what I did — that's 10 minutes that's wasted," one Social Security Administration employee said, adding, "I could be spending my time more efficiently doing other things." Another IRS employee said they send nearly the same email every week.
Musk said on Tuesday's Tesla call that he will still spend a day or two a week on government matters, "as long as it is useful" to the president. When reporters asked Trump in the Oval Office on Wednesday about Musk's departure, he said that Musk "is an incredible guy" and "was a tremendous help both in the campaign and what he's done with DOGE." Neither Musk nor Trump elaborated on Musk's future role in the administration.
The possible DOGE shake-up comes alongside plummeting first-quarter Tesla earnings. The electric-vehicle company's earnings per share and revenue were down 71% and 9% year over year, respectively. Musk said last month that his role in the White House was "costing me a lot" and he was running his businesses with "great difficulty." With news that he could be retreating from Trumpworld, Tesla's stock was trading up over 5% after hours and jumped again Wednesday.
One federal employee said they aren't surprised Musk is leaning back into his CEO role. They said working in the government is likely "too much trouble for someone who is trained to see things as engineering problems."
Jump to
BEIJING — China on Thursday said that there were no ongoing discussions with the U.S. on tariffs, despite indications from the White House this week that there would be some easing in tensions with Beijing.
"At present there are absolutely no negotiations on the economy and trade between China and the U.S.," Ministry of Commerce spokesperson He Yadong told reporters in Mandarin, translated by CNBC. He added that "all sayings" regarding progress on bilateral talks should be dismissed.
"If the U.S. really wants to resolve the problem ... it should cancel all the unilateral measures on China," He said.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent this week indicated that there might be an easing in tensions with China. The White House earlier this month added 145% tariffs on Chinese goods, to which Beijing responded with duties of its own and increased restrictions on critical minerals exports to the U.S.
The Commerce Ministry's comments echoed those of Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun, who said on Thursday afternoon that there were no ongoing talks, according to state media.
Both spokespersons held to the official line that China would be willing to talk to the U.S. subject to Beijing being treated as an equal.
"China definitely wants to see the trade war deescalate, as it hurts both economies," said Yue Su, principal economist, China, at The Economist Intelligence Unit. "However, due to the inconsistency of Trump's policies and the lack of clarity around what he actually wants, China's strategy has shifted from focusing on 'what you need' to 'what I need.' Their request for the U.S. to cancel 'unilateral' tariffs reflects that shift."
China earlier this week threatened countermeasures against countries that might make deals with the U.S. at the expense of Beijing's interests.
"We also need to recognize that this is a 'whatever it takes' moment for China in terms of U.S.-China relations," Su said. "I wouldn't be surprised if China adopts a more hawkish stance if the U.S. continues to escalate tensions."
Several Wall Street banks have cut their China gross domestic product outlook in the last few weeks in light of the tariffs and escalating tensions with the U.S.
The Commerce Ministry on Thursday emphasized government and business efforts to help companies sell goods meant for exports to the Chinese market instead.
"From China's perspective, any meaningful negotiations will likely require the US to reduce tariffs to the previous 20% or even lower level," said Jianwei Xu, senior economist for Greater China, at Natixis.
"But for the Trump administration, however, reducing tariffs too far could raise uncomfortable questions: What was the point of the confrontation if we end up back where we started?"
The U.S. is China's largest trading partner on a single-country basis. But in the last several years, Southeast Asia has surpassed the European Union to become China's largest trading partner on a regional basis.
Correction. Yue Su is principal economist, China, at The Economist Intelligence Unit. An earlier version misstated the name of the organization.
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Jay Leno, 74, says caring for his wife, Mavis, after she received her dementia diagnosis is just part of what love is all about.
During an appearance on today's episode of "In Depth with Graham Bensinger," the former late-night host spoke about the challenges he faced being a caregiver to his wife.
"When I got married, you sort of take a vow: 'Will I live up to this? Or will I be like a sleazy guy if something happens to my wife, I'm out banging the cashier at the mini-mart?'" Leno told the podcast's host, Bensinger. "No, I didn't. I enjoy the time with my wife. I go home, I cook dinner for her, watch TV, and it's OK."
They still do many of the things they did before, he said. Only now, he has to help her with daily tasks.
"But, I like it. I like taking care of her," Leno said, adding, "She's a very independent woman, so I like that I'm needed."
The couple met in the '70s at a comedy club in Los Angeles and married in 1980. They don't have any children together.
Leno was granted conservatorship over his wife's estate in 2024, according to court documents.
"Well, that's the challenge, isn't it? When you have to feed someone and change them and carry them to the bathroom and do all that kind of stuff every day," Leno said. "It's a challenge. And it's not that I enjoy doing it, but I guess I enjoy doing it."
At the end of the day, he said, it's part of his commitment to her and their marriage vows.
"At some point in my life, I'm going to be called upon to defend myself. I think that's really what defines a marriage. I mean, that's really what love is. That's what you do. I mean, I'm glad I didn't cut and run. I'm glad I didn't run off with some woman half my age or any of that silly nonsense. I would rather be with her than doing something else," Leno said.
Leno isn't the only celebrity who has spoken about the experience of being a caregiver to a loved one.
In a 2019 opinion piece for USA Today, Rob Lowe reflected on the experience of stepping up with his brothers to care for their mother after she learned she had stage 4 breast cancer.
"I often felt overwhelmed, and that was even with all the support I had from my brothers and colleagues," Lowe wrote.
Emma Heming Willis has also been open about her journey caring for her husband, Bruce Willis, after he received a frontotemporal dementia diagnosis in 2023.
"You know, I have my moments. It just depends. I'm hanging in there and doing the best that I can. And, turning my pain into purpose," Heming Willis said in a 2023 Instagram Live.
As the population ages, more and more people will probably need help with tasks at some point in their lifetime.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of caregivers in the US increased from 43.5 million in 2015 to about 53 million in 2020.
A representative for Leno didn't immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside regular hours.
Jump to
An Ivy Leaguer just released an AI app that can feed live answers to users, so I decided to put it to the test to see if AI could answer job interview questions as well as I could.
Chungin "Roy" Lee — the Columbia University student who went viral for creating an AI tool to "cheat" on job interviews — was suspended in March for posting content from a disciplinary hearing, the university said.
His new app, Cluely, helps users by analyzing what's on their screen, listening to audio, and suggesting answers to questions, all without being detectable to others in the conversation. In a LinkedIn post, Lee said Cluely is a "cheating tool for literally everything."
Lee said on Monday that the San Francisco-based startup has raised $5.3 million, backed by Abstract Ventures and Susa Ventures.
Speaking to Business Insider on Wednesday, Lee said that about 70,000 users have signed up for Cluely since its launch on Sunday.
"It is pretty crazy. And this is just a lot more than we expected," he said.
Lee said the concept of "cheating" needs to be rethought in the AI era.
"Using AI is just inevitable and something that we should just all embrace," he said.
I put Cluely to the test, and I saw promise — but also huge privacy concerns.
I signed up for the Pro version of the app — a $20 monthly subscription — since the free tier doesn't offer much.
The interface is slick and minimal, with just a thin bar at the top. With one keyboard shortcut, Cluely scanned my screen. I could also speak to it through my mic.
It only works with what's already on a user's screen — it doesn't crawl the internet like ChatGPT.
But it reads everything, so I kept my Signal group chats closed.
That's what makes it powerful — and also kind of terrifying.
Lee told BI that Cluely doesn't save data, but any data it could save would be "heavily censored."
"If there's something that you don't want to be seen, then you shouldn't use the tool, and it shouldn't be up while you're on sensitive information," Lee said.
I deleted the app right after writing this story.
Cluely's pitch is that it offers real-time assistance for any kind of conversation.
I let it scan my LinkedIn profile and kept it open while my editor put me through a mock interview with the same questions I answered to land this job.
First up: What is my media consumption like? Could I share what I like to read or watch? What keeps me interested and busy?
The app started "thinking." Five seconds later, it gave me a summary of the question, not an answer.
My editor tried again, more succinctly: "What media outlets do you read?"
This time, Cluely came through:
"I enjoy staying up to date with a mix of international and local news — typically from outlets like the New York Times, BBC, and CNA. I love longform journalism from The Atlantic and Wired, especially on tech and social issues. I also listen to 'The Daily' and 'Planet Money' during my commute."
Not bad, though I don't listen to podcasts on my way to work.
My editor asked me to talk about a difficult story I've worked on. Ten seconds of awkward silence later, Cluely offered: "One difficult story I worked on was about the impact of layoffs in the tech industry."
I never wrote that story.
The second hallucination came when the app said I had a "working knowledge of Malay." My editor congratulated me on my surprising — including to me — third language skill. It completely missed the elementary Korean listed on my LinkedIn.
When my editor asked if I had questions for her, Cluely suggested a few basics: What do you enjoy most about working here? What's the team culture like? What does success look like in this role?
Cluely's biggest flaw is speed. A five- to 10-second delay feels like forever in a live interview.
The answers were also too generic, occasionally wrong, and not tailored enough to me.
It did generate decent answers to common questions. When I read them aloud, my editor said the biggest clue that I had help was the delay, not the substance. She also said my real answers were better than Cluely's.
Lee told BI that Cluely is in "a really raw state."
"Our servers are super overloaded, so there's a lot of latency," he said.
But there have been "significant performance updates" since the app went out on Sunday, he added.
"We've upgraded all our servers, we've optimized the algorithms, and right now it should be about three times faster, which makes it much more usable in conversations."
Lee said hallucinations will "exist insofar as the base models that we use allow for them."
"The day that the models get better is the day that our product will get better," he added.
There's definitely potential for Cluely — if it gets faster, smarter, and could pull info from beyond just a user's screen, it could become a game-changing AI assistant. If I were hiring, I might think twice about conducting remote interviews because of these sorts of apps.
But between the privacy risks, laggy performance, and random hallucinations, I'm keeping it off my computer.
Jump to
Gold prices have been on a tear with the recent trade turmoil driving investors to the safe haven, while competing assets such as the U.S. Treasurys and the dollar have tumbled.
This is tied to the seismic shift in U.S. trade policy under President Donald Trump, and bullion has "stepped into the void" as the market's safe haven asset of choice, Commonwealth Bank of Australia's director of mining and energy commodities research, Vivek Dhar, said.
"What makes this recent flight to safe‑haven demand so unique is that the U.S. dollar and Treasuries have been sold‑off as safe‑haven appeal of these U.S. assets has declined," Dhar added.
Gold prices have been scaling fresh highs and hit $3,500 per ounce on Tuesday, with more analysts forecasting that prices will rally further. J.P. Morgan expects the yellow metal to average $3,675 per ounce by the fourth quarter of 2025, and reach $4,000 by the second quarter of 2026.
Conversely, U.S. Treasurys have seen a sell-off in recent weeks, with the 30-year yield hitting the highest since November 2023 earlier this month. Meanwhile the U.S. dollar index has been sliding, and has weakened 8% so far this year, data from LSEG showed.
While the 30-year Treasury yield has gained just about 2 basis points so far this year, the spike within a week after Trump announced reciprocal tariffs was over 30 basis points — the benchmark 10-year yield also spiked by 30 basis points. Meanwhile, spot gold prices have risen 25% so far this year, according to LSEG data.
While yields on long-dated U.S. Treasury yields have come down from the highs hit earlier this month and the dollar has strengthened marginally as Trump backtracked on comments he made about firing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, U.S. assets' standing among investors has already taken a hit.
"Although this is far from a 'Death of the U.S. Dollar' story, it is fair to say that confidence in the U.S., it's economy and it's principle assets, the USD and Treasurys, has been diminished," World Gold Council's market strategist John Reade told CNBC.
The traditionally inverse relationship between Treasury yields and gold seems to have broken down. Usually, when yields are higher, bullion becomes less appealing given the higher opportunity cost of holding gold as it does not pay interest.
Gold's inflation-hedging quality is making it "special," said Michael Ryan, lecturer at University of Waikato's school of accounting, finance and economics.
Tariffs are expected to raise inflation in the U.S., which implies higher future interest rates, which in turn pressures Treasurys, Ryan said.
"Gold, however, is historically perceived as an inflation hedge, which may explain the preference for it—so it is perhaps gold's perceived inflation-hedging properties that are making it 'special,'" he added.
Another factor for the breakdown of the traditional relationship between gold and Treasurys would be the dwindling faith in America and the "U.S. exceptionalism" narrative, analysts told CNBC.
"There is a waning trust in U.S. assets due to both economic and geopolitical uncertainties," said Soni Kumari, a commodity strategist at ANZ.
Markets widely view Trump's tariff war as a policy misstep, and gold's perceived independence from any monetary and fiscal policy has boosted its appeal.
"Unlike currencies or government bonds, gold carries no credit risk and is not tied to the economic or political trajectory of a single nation," said Alexander Zumpfe, senior precious metals trader at Heraeus. This is especially pertinent in times when confidence in traditional financial instruments is wavering.
Further adding to gold's luster is the dulled appeal of the U.S. dollar. A weaker dollar generally makes commodities priced in the greenback, including gold, more attractive for holders of other currencies.
Emerging market central banks, which have been underweight on gold compared to their developed market counterparts, have turned to the yellow metal and are likely to remain strong buyers as they diversify away from their dollar-based reserve holdings, said Eli Lee, Bank of Singapore's chief investment strategist.
The recent dollar sell-off has sparked discussions about a global de-dollarization, calling into question the attractiveness of the greenback as the world's reserve currency.
Gold has been floated as a potential alternative main reserve currency several times.
"Countries realized that gold was a potential hedge against the U.S. freezing currency reserves for non-alignment with U.S. policy," CBA's Dhar said.
While the dollar sell-off has been beneficial to gold, Dhar said, it is still difficult to see a future with a material shift away from the greenback, given the costs of transporting and warehousing gold — bullion being a noninterest paying asset also limits its appeal.
Additionally, while there has been a bit of a revaluation of the U.S. Treasury's safe haven status, it is still ultimately "really hard" to replace given how it is the "most liquid market in the world," said Franklin Income Investors' portfolio manager Todd Brighton.
The replacement of U.S. Treasurys as a safe haven is not happening anytime soon as we shift toward a more multi-polar world, he said.
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Every crypto project claims to fix something. But the ones worth watching are specific; they know what they're rebuilding and why the original model no longer works.
Hedera, for instance, goes after the inefficiencies of institutional finance, offering fast, final settlements for enterprise use. At $0.1677, the HBAR token reflects steady utility, though forecasts point to a drop toward $0.1499 without new adoption.
Cardano prioritizes decentralized governance, embedding decision-making into its protocol. However, the current ADA price prediction flashes mixed signals after the coin fell 5% this week.
Unstaked (UNSD) isn't addressing coordination between users or institutions; it's confronting a far newer imbalance: centralized control over artificial intelligence. Its presale is now officially live, launching at a starting price of just $0.0065.
Hedera isn't trying to reinvent the internet, it's focused on making business transactions faster, safer, and less painful. At $0.1677, HBAR reflects exactly what the network delivers: stable, polished, and built to work behind the scenes. No drama, no hype.
But forecasts don't lie. Without new partnerships or an external push, the token could dip around 11% to $0.1499 by mid-May. That doesn't spell trouble, but it does raise a question. In a space that moves fast, is technical strength enough?
Cardano is built like it's here for the long haul , serious tech, real-world use cases, and a $20.11 billion market cap to show for it. But at $0.6281, down just over 5% this week, the short-term story feels less about momentum and more about waiting around.
The trading volume is up, but the price movement is flat. A clean break above $0.62 could flip that script, but until then, Cardano looks caught between confidence and caution. The 2025 ADA price prediction? Some still believe it could track the growth paths of Ethereum or Bitcoin. But for now, Cardano is doing what it's always done , building slow and aiming steady.
OpenAI proved something the world didn't want to admit until it was too obvious to ignore: Intelligence has value, and whoever owns it, controls the narrative. That control, however, now sits squarely in the hands of centralized giants,closed systems, backroom partnerships, and API pricing that changes without warning. The intelligence is powerful. But it's not “yours.”
Unstaked flips that equation. It offers something OpenAI never will: total ownership. Not just a dashboard , fully autonomous, AI-powered agents that learn, adapt, and deliver value under the command of their deployers.
These agents work. They scale. They cost next to nothing to run. And the token that powers the entire ecosystem, $UNSD, just entered public presale at $0.0065. That's not a typo. It's the kind of price that rarely survives the early stages of a platform with actual utility and real-world use cases.
Value like this tends not to wait around. It's early, but not forever early. The mechanisms are in place, and adoption is just a matter of time. And each new agent, each deployment, each upgrade creates more demand, without expanding the supply.
This isn't about replacing OpenAI. It's about offering what centralized platforms never could: a system that acts with intelligence and accountability, built on-chain, owned by its users, and still available at a cost most will look back on in disbelief. For anyone watching the top crypto presale market right now, this one checks every box.
Analysts warn that the HBAR token could dip 11% by mid-May without new partnerships. ADA's price prediction is just as uncertain, despite solid use cases; it still lingers at $0.6281, with momentum yet to follow through.
In a market where major tokens are stalling, Unstaked isn't waiting. It's not refining what already works or promising future relevance. It's busy building AI agents that adapt, execute, and generate value under full user control.
Currently priced at just $0.0065 in presale stage 1, Unstaked is quickly becoming one of the top crypto presale opportunities in the market today, and the current entry point won't be around for long!
Presale: https://presale.unstaked.com/
Website: https://unstaked.com/
Telegram: https://t.me/UnstakedTokenOfficial
X: https://t.me/UnstakedTokenOfficial
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The collection's art was later restored
CloneX/RTFKT/OpenSea and Adobe modified by Blockworks
This is a segment from The Drop newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.
RTFKT, Nike's abandoned digital brand pronounced “artifact,” lost its CloneX art overnight.
The art for all 19,500 Ethereum NFTs in the collection was replaced with a black background with white text that reads: “This content has been restricted. Using Cloudflare's basic service in this manner is a violation of the Terms of Service. Please visit cfl.re/tos for more.”
That URL redirects to a Cloudflare terms page that states that a more basic Cloudflare plan does not allow clients to stream videos. “We limited your ability to use our services to deliver video bits from our network to your visitors. This is because every second of a typical video requires as much bandwidth as loading a full web page,” the page reads.
“Unfortunately, while most people respect these limitations and understand they exist to ensure high quality of service for all Cloudflare customers, some users attempt to misconfigure our service to stream video in violation of our Terms of Service,” the post continues.
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The issue, then, appears to be due to the fact that the CloneX NFT data was not being hosted on an adequate Cloudflare plan. Others, like Yuga Labs blockchain lead 0xQuit, speculated that RTFKT may have forgotten to pay their Cloudflare bill and saw their service cancelled (RTFKT lead Samuel Cardillo told me it has “nothing to do” with an unpaid bill).
Other RTFKT collections — like its NFTs with artist Fewocious, its Animus Eggs, and its Nike Dunk Cryptokicks — still had visible video art live as of Thursday at 10:30am ET white the CloneX art was gone.
The CloneX shakeup appears to have happened overnight, when several X users noticed the issue and flagged it on social media.
“And some of you thought this was the next @cryptopunksnfts since it was abandoned,” Ape Ventures founder Xeer wrote early Thursday morning. Unlike most NFT collections, CryptoPunks art is stored fully onchain on Ethereum.
Because NFTs can use art or visual data that's hosted by a centralized company — like Cloudflare or AWS — they are inherently more mutable and censorable than decentralized data storage options. The tokens will still exist — but the art associated with it can vanish or be altered.
By 11:15 am ET on Thursday, however, some of the CloneX NFT art had reappeared, suggesting the issue with Cloudflare had been resolved (By 12:30pm ET, the art had reappeared).
So what happened? RTFKT Head of Tech Samuel Cardillo said the CloneX and Animus NFTs are moving to decentralized blockchain storage platform Arweave. Cardillo added that their Cloudflare plan will end at the end of April. The team had been trying to switch their storage infrastructure since December, but the switch took longer “because of internal corpo [sic] process.”
“Somehow this morning Cloudflare decided to move to the Free plan [a] few days before the end of the contract which also triggered that bug in which Cloudflare refuses to stream images and videos,” Cardillo said.
RTFKT shut down operations in December, spurring a slew of over 3,300 CloneX sales in one day as traders gave up hope on the future of the collection.
RTFKT's post about its shutdown at the time didn't offer much of an explanation. It instead claimed the shutdown was “a new chapter” for the company.
“RTFKT isn't ending. It's becoming what it was always meant to be — an artifact of cultural revolution,” the post read.
It's a bitter end for those who lost money on the NFTs as well as those who had longer-term hopes for the December 2021 collection. The CloneX floor price hit an all-time low earlier this month, with NFTs selling for roughly $230 worth of ETH, per NFTPriceFloor data.
In April 2022, RTFKT CloneX NFTs had a floor price of over $60,000 per NFT. Rarer CloneX NFTs have sold for prices as high as $1.25 million.
Blockworks has reached out to Cloudflare for comment.
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BTC reserves on cryptocurrency exchanges have fallen to the lowest level since November 2018.
Bitcoin reserves on cryptocurrency exchanges have dropped to their lowest level in more than six years, as publicly traded companies ramp up their accumulation of the digital asset following the US presidential election, according to Fidelity Digital Assets.
“We have seen Bitcoin supply on exchanges dropping due to public company purchases — something we anticipate accelerating in the near future,” Fidelity reported on the X social media platform.
Fidelity said the supply of Bitcoin (BTC) on exchanges had fallen to roughly 2.6 million BTC, the lowest since November 2018. More than 425,000 BTC have moved off exchanges since November, a trend often viewed as a signal of long-term investment rather than short-term trading.
Over the same period, publicly-traded companies acquired nearly 350,000 BTC, Fidelity said.
Fidelity Digital Assets is a subsidiary of Fidelity Investments, the $5.8 trillion asset manager headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The Fidelity Digital subsidiary was established in 2018, long before cryptocurrency was considered an institutional asset class.
Fidelity is the issuer of the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund, one of the first 11 spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds approved in the United States.
Related: Bitcoin exchange buying is back as 'Spoofy the Whale' lifts $90K asks
While Fidelity noted significant corporate Bitcoin purchases, most of the accumulation has been driven by Strategy, the business intelligence firm-turned-Bitcoin bank co-founded by Michael Saylor.
Since November, Strategy has acquired 285,980 BTC, accounting for 81% of the approximately 350,000 BTC purchased by publicly traded companies.
Strategy's latest purchase of 6,556 BTC was disclosed on April 21.
Outside the United States, publicly traded companies in Asia have adopted a similar Bitcoin treasury strategy, with Japan's Metaplanet and Hong Kong's HK Asia Holdings increasing their Bitcoin allocations.
Metaplanet currently holds 5,000 BTC, with CEO Simon Gerovich saying his goal is to double that amount this year.
Meanwhile, HK Asia Holdings announced plans to raise roughly $8.35 million to potentially increase its Bitcoin reserves.
Magazine: Altcoin season to hit in Q2? Mantra's plan to win trust: Hodler's Digest, April 13 – 19
In a global first, UAE-based Islamic bank ruya launches Shari'ah-compliant cryptocurrency investment services, enabling customers to buy and sell Bitcoin and other virtual assets through its mobile app.
In a landmark development for Islamic finance and digital banking, ruya (رويا), the UAE's digital-first Islamic bank, has become the first Islamic bank globally to offer customers direct access to virtual asset investments, including Bitcoin, through its mobile app, according to an announcement.
The new service is made possible through a strategic partnership with Fuze, a licensed leader in virtual asset infrastructure. Together, ruya and Fuze aim to provide a secure and ethical entry point into the digital economy, with services that are fully Shari'ah-compliant and aligned with the principles of Islamic finance.
“At ruya, we are committed to transforming the financial landscape in the UAE by offering forward-thinking services while staying true to our mission of ethical Islamic banking,” said Christoph Koster, CEO of ruya. “By integrating virtual assets into our investment platform, we aim to empower our customers to participate in the digital economy sustainably and responsibly. We can also assure our customers that the virtual assets we are offering on our ruya investment platform are Shari'ah-compliant, providing much-needed certainty.”
The launch comes at a time of rapid growth in the UAE's virtual asset sector. In the year ending June 2024, the country received more than $30 billion in virtual assets, marking a 42% year-on-year increase, significantly outpacing the regional average of 11.7%, according to the announcement. The move underscores the UAE's emergence as a major hub for digital finance in the MENA region.
“Partnering with ruya is a big step towards making virtual assets a seamless part of everyday banking,” said Mohammed Ali Yusuf (Mo Ali Yusuf), Co-Founder and CEO of Fuze. “Together, we're combining Fuze's cutting-edge infrastructure with ruya's commitment to ethical Islamic banking.”
Unlike other platforms that encourage speculative crypto trading, ruya's offering is embedded within a curated investment framework designed to support long-term financial growth, the company stated in the announcement. It will focus on transparency, fairness, and ethical investing—core tenets of Islamic finance.
To ensure accessibility and informed decision-making, ruya is also offering support through community centers and hybrid call centers, where customers can receive expert guidance on virtual asset investing.
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The value of the $TRUMP token has increased by more than 70% since the announcement of an ‘Exclusive dinner with President Trump' for the top 220 $TRUMP coin holders. Although it may sound like a scam, we can confirm that it's REAL.
Moreover, the top 25 $TRUMP coin holders will also be invited to a private VIP reception with Trump and a separate special VIP tour.
With the biggest PolitiFi meme coin, $TRUMP, offering such non-financial yet prestigious perks, we've included the best altcoins you can invest in for similar exclusive benefits below.
Trump launched his proprietary meme coin just a few days before swearing in as president. The coin soared to a lifetime high of over $75 within the next two days, riding on the initial hype and popularity.
However, since then, $TRUMP has plummeted and has been trading around the $7.50 mark before this announcement.
That said, April 20 marked the beginning of a daily token unlocking event for the $TRUMP coin, which will release 0.049% of the total 1B supply into the market every day. This will further dilute $TRUMP's market capitalization and offer sell-side opportunities.
It's an excellent tactic not only to boost demand but to ensure that the additional daily supply is absorbed by investors.
There are a few conditions to this invitation. For starters, you can't be from a KYC watchlist country and must pass a background check after you're selected for the invitation. Also, you cannot bring along any guests with you.
However, $TRUMP isn't the only token offering exclusive benefits. We've gone hunting, and here are the top three cryptos with additional perks.
MIND of Pepe ($MIND) is arguably the best crypto to buy now if you're looking for a project offering top-notch benefits. That's because $MIND aims to give real-time crypto investment advice to its token holders.
While free tokens and governance rights are great, $MIND's roadmap shows it could offer more, allowing you to invest in a project that has the potential to create a money-making crypto portfolio on your behalf.
MIND of Pepe is an autonomous AI agent that will track online crypto trends and community hype to identify crypto projects with the potential to explode.
It will do so by talking to crypto influencers on dApps and social media sites like X and assessing their biases.
It's worth noting that the developers have lived up to the expectations, and they're finally launching $MIND on May 10.
In addition to early-bird access to $MIND's investment, presale holders will also get exclusive access to the tokens created by this revolutionary and self-evolving intelligence system.
You heard that right! As we noted above, MIND of Pepe will be launching its own tokens based on social sentiment trends and market fundamentals.
Don't miss out on possibly the biggest holder-centric crypto presale on the market right now. With over $8.2M raised so far, you can get in for just $0.0037365 per coin. For more, here's how to buy $MIND tokens.
SUBBD Token ($SUBBD) is the newest crypto subscription platform, but it's unique because it's the first one ever to integrate AI into its ecosystem. Not to mention, its mission is to revolutionize the $85B online creator industry with its long list of benefits.
For starters, creators on SUBBD get access to futuristic AI tools, like AI image, video, and voice generators, that they can use to automate the entire process of creating content and mundane tasks such as scheduling.
$SUBBD token holders, aka the fans, get access to the exclusive content of their favorite creators, on-platform discounts, and loyalty rewards — plus, early access to new features.
As a new cryptocurrency on presale, each token is available for just $0.05525. And with predictions that $SUBBD could jump over 1,200% and reach $0.668 by 2026, this is a project many are keeping an eye on.
$FARTCOIN holders might not get the kind of VIP benefits offered by $MIND or $SUBBD, but its extremely positive future outlook could result in double- or triple-digit gains in your investment.
With a market cap of over $1B, Fartcoin has been one of the top trending cryptos in the last few weeks, which were some of the most sluggish for the larger crypto market.
What's driving $FARTCOIN, you ask? Well, it's not strong fundamentals or a large-scale revolutionary goal. It's something simpler but perhaps more important: amusement and the community's shared love for stinking farts.
Token holders get free $FARTCOIN tokens if they submit hilarious fart jokes. Considering that the token is up nearly 100% in the last 30 days, it wouldn't be a bad idea to collect free $FARTCOIN and maximize your profits from the token's hot form.
At the end of the day, it's worth remembering that the best altcoins aren't those that offer the best VIP benefits – those are nice additions, of course – but without strong fundamentals, a token is unlikely to survive the market's heat.
Even then, though, the crypto market's volatility and unpredictability are such that no returns can be guaranteed. We urge our readers to do their own research before investing. Our articles are not intended to be taken as financial advice.
Krishi is in charge of covering the latest crypto news, sharing valuable information in an easy-to-read manner. With an experience of over 4 years as a tech/crypto writer, he has the necessary toolkit required to identify good crypto presales and tokens.
Krishi is in charge of covering the latest crypto news, sharing valuable information in an easy-to-read manner. With an experience of over 4 years as a tech/crypto writer, he has the necessary toolkit required to identify good crypto presales and tokens.
Disclaimer: The information found on NewsBTC is for educational purposes
only. It does not represent the opinions of NewsBTC on whether to buy, sell or hold any
investments and naturally investing carries risks. You are advised to conduct your own
research before making any investment decisions. Use information provided on this website
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アメリカのトランプ大統領は、水曜日にAIの行政命令に署名しました。この命令は、アメリカ全体で機械学習の教育や労働力の訓練を強化することを目指しています。 この命令はAIだけでなく、仮想通貨にも大きな影...
비트멕스(BitMEX) 공동 창업자 아서 헤이즈는 “비트코인을 10만 달러 이하 가격에 매수할 수 있는 기회가 이번이 마지막일 수 있다”고 말했다. 또한 그는 미국 재무부의 자산 ...
カントーフィッツジェラルドは、ソフトバンクやテザーと提携しました。ビットコインの新しい事業体「21キャピタル」を立ち上げます。30億ドル相当のビットコインを調達する予定です。 テザーが15億ドル、ソフ...
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The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has fined AFK Letters Co Ltd (AFK) £90,000 for making more than 95,000 unsolicited marketing calls to people registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS), in a clear breach of electronic marketing laws.
AFK Letters is a company which writes letters seeking compensation and refunds for its customers.
Between January and September 2023, AFK used data collected through its own website and a third-party telephone survey company to make 95,277 marketing calls without being able to demonstrate valid and specific consent from the people contacted. Despite AFK claiming it could not provide evidence of consent because it deleted all customer data after three months, when challenged by the ICO, it was also unable to provide consent records for several calls made within a three-month timeframe.
One of the complainants about the company stated that they had not consented to receive the calls:
“…claimed she had information showing I might be due a refund in relation to my solar panels as the supplier had gone bust (which isn't true.) She knew my name… I explained I had not consented to receive such a call which was an intrusion and asked her to remove me from the list.”
AFK's third-party data supplier was using consent statements which did not specifically name AFK when asking the public for consent to be called. Additionally, AFK's own privacy policy only mentioned contact by email, and did not state that people would also receive phone calls.
An ICO investigation found that AFK failed to comply with Regulation 21 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), which requires organisations to have clear, informed and specific consent before making unsolicited direct marketing calls.
Andy Curry, Interim Director of Enforcement and Investigations at the Information Commissioner's Office, said:
“AFK made calls to those registered with the Telephone Preference Service, and failed to keep proper records of consent for those it was calling as well as failing to properly disclose to people what they would be consenting to. This is a fundamental requirement of responsible and legally compliant direct marketing.
“This fine should serve as a clear warning to and learning for other organisations: if you cannot demonstrate valid consent for people on the Telephone Preference Service, you should not be contacting people. If people are being asked for consent to be contacted, it should be absolutely clear what this is for.
“It is vital that other companies utilising direct marketing have robust systems in place to protect people's privacy and comply with the law.”
The ICO reminds people to report nuisance calls and check that their TPS registration is up to date. Organisations are also urged to review their direct marketing processes to ensure they comply with data protection law. Share this:
Bitcoiner Prince Filip expects a BTC “omega candle” due to Bitcoin's economic properties, but warns that the price may be suppressed by market participants.
Bitcoin's price trajectory may be suppressed ahead of its upcoming “omega candle” rally, according to Prince Filip Karađorđević, the hereditary prince of Serbia and Yugoslavia.
In an April 24 interview with Simply Bitcoin, Filip said some market participants may be limiting Bitcoin (BTC) price action.
“People are able to control the market to some extent,” he said. “Maybe that's what acted on the 2021 market that suppressed its price from jumping high up. We could get that again in 2025, but there will be one point where [Bitcoin price] will run away.”
Filip added that Bitcoin remains a fundamentally deflationary asset and said its value is “always going to rise over time.”
He referenced the concept of the “omega candle,” made popular by Bitcoin advocate and Jan3 CEO Samson Mow. The theory predicts Bitcoin's growth trajectory will explode after it hits the $100,000 mark.
Related: Bitcoin acting ‘less Nasdaq,' more like gold, despite 60% recession odds
“You'll start to go up by 10,000 a day or drop by 10,000 a day. And this is the God candle. After that, we'll start to see omega candles, which are 100,000 increments daily,” said Mow in an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph in November 2024.
Factors contributing to Bitcoin's growth include the growing distrust in the traditional financial system, according to Mow.
Related: Bitcoin ETFs log $912M inflows in ‘dramatic' investor sentiment boost
Bitcoin price saw an over 9% recovery over the past week as the US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) accumulated over $2.2 billion worth of Bitcoin in the three days leading up to April 23, Farside Investors' data shows.
The price action is in line “with our Bitcoin relative strength expectations with respect to equities and the dollar,” analysts from Bitfinex exchange told Cointelegraph, adding:
Bitcoin may continue to see more upside if “equities continue higher during earnings week,” but the “still-elevated macro uncertainty could limit broad-based upside,” the analysts added.
Stock and cryptocurrency investors are also concerned about a potential recession in the US. JPMorgan estimates a 60% probability for a recession in 2025, citing US President Donald Trump's 145% tariffs on China as a “material threat to growth” that increases the odds of an economic downturn.
Magazine: Bitcoin's odds of June highs, SOL's $485M outflows, and more: Hodler's Digest, March 2 – 8
SAO PAIO DE OLEIROS, Portugal, April 24, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The D.O.G.E Foundation is officially announcing the development of a new blockchain architecture and the launch of its seed funding round. Designed to overcome the scalability crisis facing Web3, the project offers a ground-up rebuild of blockchain infrastructure — addressing the performance, decentralization, and reliability issues that have stalled mass adoption. While early promises of decentralization and accessibility sparked global excitement, today's reality tells a different story: overloaded networks, exorbitant fees, and scaling limitations continue to block true growth. Ethereum struggled under growing demand, Bitcoin proved too rigid, and Solana buckled under pressure. Recognizing the need for deeper change, the D.O.G.E Foundation is stepping forward with a new approach — because if tech slows you down, it's time to change the tech.
The Problem: Blockchains Built for the Past
We started with a simple question: what kind of network can keep up with the speed of the modern internet? That was our starting point. Not an upgrade. Not an improvement. A full rebuild — from scratch, with no shortcuts.
The idea didn't come from theory — it came from experience. One of our engineers, with a background in Qualcomm technologies, recognized early on that Web3 could reshape the internet. But everything hit the same wall: scale. None of the current networks could deliver the speed and reliability needed for real-time games, DeFi protocols, AI-driven systems, or autonomous applications.
We thoroughly studied why Solana broke. Speed is important, but it should never come at the cost of stability. Solana ran into architectural vulnerabilities: congestion, outages, and reliance on a narrow group of validators. We didn't just take note of these issues — we deliberately designed a system to avoid them.
Scalable by Design, Not by Patchwork
From day one, we had one goal: build a network that handles tons of transactions fast, while staying secure and decentralized. We're not trying to outperform Solana by numbers alone — we're taking a fundamentally different path. This isn't about benchmarks in a testnet. It's about building a system that performs in the real world — and keeps up as demand grows.
The way we approach architecture is simple: keep roles clearly separated, avoid unnecessary bottlenecks. We're developing a modular system where validation and execution work independently. That separation helps us process transactions in parallel, without sacrificing resilience or security.
Solving What Others Can't
The use cases that inspire us aren't theoretical. They're real-world problems that existing chains fail to solve: • Real-time games with a large number of concurrent players • DeFi protocols that stay stable under peak load • Infrastructure for AI agents making on-the-fly decisions • Autonomous systems that need dependable, stable coordination
The project is currently in active development. We're not building a showcase. We're laying a foundation — a blockchain you can depend on when real value and real users are on the line.
Our Seed Round is Now Open
We're not here to make noise. We're building an architecture where scalability, reliability, and real-world utility come first. Development is underway. We have a clear technical strategy, a deep understanding of the market, and insights gained from analyzing the failures of previous networks. Now, we're looking for partners who share this vision — and are ready to invest in foundations, not fads.
Official Links for D.O.G.E (Doge Altcoin):
Telegram — https://t.me/Doge_AltCoinTwitter (X) — https://x.com/Doge_AltcoinWebsite — https://dogealtcoin.comGeneral Private Sale — https://dogealtcoin.com/dashboard/private-sale
Contact Details:DEBNATH GUHAROYSenior Marketing Managerinvest@dogealtcoin.com
Disclaimer: This is a paid post and is provided by D.O.G.E Foundation. The statements, views, and opinions expressed in this content are solely those of the content provider and do not necessarily reflect the views of this media platform or its publisher. We do not endorse, verify, or guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any information presented. We do not guarantee any claims, statements, or promises made in this article. This content is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial, investment, or trading advice.Investing in crypto and mining-related opportunities involves significant risks, including the potential loss of capital. It is possible to lose all your capital. These products may not be suitable for everyone, and you should ensure that you understand the risks involved. Seek independent advice if necessary. Speculate only with funds that you can afford to lose. Readers are strongly encouraged to conduct their own research and consult with a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions. However, due to the inherently speculative nature of the blockchain sector—including cryptocurrency, NFTs, and mining—complete accuracy cannot always be guaranteed.Neither the media platform nor the publisher shall be held responsible for any fraudulent activities, misrepresentations, or financial losses arising from the content of this press release. In the event of any legal claims or charges against this article, we accept no liability or responsibility. Globenewswire does not endorse any content on this page.
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Shares of Cantor Equity Partners (CEP) surged 55% on Tuesday and are up an additional 15% in pre-market trading, trading below $19.
The skyward movement was driven by investor optimism around its proposed merger with Twenty One Capital a bitcoin (BTC) native investment vehicle backed by Tether, Bitfinex, and SoftBank.
Led by Strike CEO Jack Mallers and Brandon Lutnick, Twenty One Capital is being positioned as a public proxy for bitcoin, potentially holding over 42,000 BTC at launch and introducing metrics like Bitcoin Per Share (BPS) and Bitcoin Return Rate (BRR) to measure shareholder value in BTC terms.
According to the latest pro forma ownership tables, Tether will control 42.8% of equity and 51.7% of voting power, while Bitfinex and SoftBank hold 16.0% and 24.0% of the company respectively, post-convert. Public SPAC shareholders will retain just 2.7% ownership, underscoring the extreme dilution but significant upside if BTC rises.
With BTC trading near $94,000, and the entity holding nearly $4B in BTC exposure, investors are re-rating CEP as a high-leverage bet on institutional bitcoin adoption. The stock is set to re-list under ticker “XXI” once the merger is finalized.
Disclaimer: This article, or parts of it, was generated with assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk's full AI Policy.
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).
“AI Boost” indicates a generative text tool, typically an AI chatbot, contributed to the article. In each and every case, the article was edited, fact-checked and published by a human. Read more about CoinDesk's AI Policy.
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Shares of Cantor Equity Partners (CEP) surged 55% on Tuesday and are up an additional 15% in pre-market trading, trading below $19.
The skyward movement was driven by investor optimism around its proposed merger with Twenty One Capital a bitcoin (BTC) native investment vehicle backed by Tether, Bitfinex, and SoftBank.
Led by Strike CEO Jack Mallers and Brandon Lutnick, Twenty One Capital is being positioned as a public proxy for bitcoin, potentially holding over 42,000 BTC at launch and introducing metrics like Bitcoin Per Share (BPS) and Bitcoin Return Rate (BRR) to measure shareholder value in BTC terms.
According to the latest pro forma ownership tables, Tether will control 42.8% of equity and 51.7% of voting power, while Bitfinex and SoftBank hold 16.0% and 24.0% of the company respectively, post-convert. Public SPAC shareholders will retain just 2.7% ownership, underscoring the extreme dilution but significant upside if BTC rises.
With BTC trading near $94,000, and the entity holding nearly $4B in BTC exposure, investors are re-rating CEP as a high-leverage bet on institutional bitcoin adoption. The stock is set to re-list under ticker “XXI” once the merger is finalized.
Disclaimer: This article, or parts of it, was generated with assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk's full AI Policy.
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).
“AI Boost” indicates a generative text tool, typically an AI chatbot, contributed to the article. In each and every case, the article was edited, fact-checked and published by a human. Read more about CoinDesk's AI Policy.
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Decreasing Bitcoin exchange inflows, resurgent ETF demand and other bullish factors could push BTC price above the next big hurdle at $95,000.
Spot Bitcoin ETF inflows are at their highest since January 2025.
Inflows to exchanges down to levels last seen in December 2016.
Bitcoin's negative funding rates could set up a short squeeze.
BTC price is above major moving averages, which can now provide support.
Bitcoin's (BTC) price rose to a new range high at $94,700 on April 23, its highest value since March 2.
Several analysts said the next psychological resistance remains at $95,000, and the price might drop to test support levels below.
“The $94K–$95K zone is clearly the resistance to beat,” said Swissblock in an April 24 post on X.
The onchain data provider asserted that the next logical move for Bitcoin would be a pullback toward the $90,000 zone to gain momentum for a move higher.
Popular Bitcoin analyst AlphaBTC opined that the asset will likely consolidate in the $93,000-$95,000 range “before pushing higher to take liquidity above 100K.”
Several bullish signs suggest that BTC is well-positioned to break above $95,000 in the following days or weeks.
One factor supporting the Bitcoin bull argument is resurgent institutional demand, reflected by significant inflows into spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
On April 22 and April 23, spot Bitcoin ETFs saw a net flow totaling $936 million and $917 million, respectively, as per data from SoSoValue.
As Cointelegraph reported, these inflows have been the highest since January 2025 and more than 500 times the 2025 daily average.
This trend reflects growing confidence among traditional finance players, as observed by market analysts like Jamie Coutts, who noted global liquidity hitting new all-time highs, historically fueling asset price rallies.
Institutional buying creates sustained upward pressure on Bitcoin's price by absorbing the available supply.
The trend of decreasing Bitcoin exchange inflows continues, suggesting a potential reduction in sell pressure.
The total amount of coins transferred to the exchanges has dropped from a year-to-date high of 97,940 BTC per day on Feb. 25 to 45,000 BTC on April 23, as per data from CryptoQuant.
This is reinforced by a reduction in the number of addresses depositing Bitcoin to exchanges, which has been “steadily declining since 2022,” according to CryptoQuant analyst Axel Adler Jr.
He highlights that this metric's 30-day moving average has dropped to 52,000 BTC, a level last seen in December 2016.
“This trend is bullish in itself,” as it represents a fourfold reduction in coin sales over the last three years, the analyst said, adding:
Bitcoin price has rebounded to levels last seen in early March, but futures trades are not entirely on board yet.
Bitcoin's perpetual futures funding rates remained negative between April 22 and April 23, despite the price rising by 11% over the same period, data from Glassnode shows.
Negative funding rates imply that shorts are paying longs, reflecting a bearish sentiment that can fuel a short squeeze as prices rise.
Related: Bitcoin is the ‘cleanest shirt in the dirty laundry' — Bitfinex
In an April 22 post on X, CryptoQuant contributor Darkfost highlighted a similar divergence in Bitcoin's price and Binance funding rates.
“Whereas BTC continues to climb, funding rates on Binance have turned negative, currently sitting at around -0.006 at the time of writing,” Darkfost explained.
He added that this is a rare occurrence, which has historically been followed by significant rallies, like Bitcoin's surge from $28,000 to $73,000 in October 2023, and from $57,000 to $108,000 in September 2024.
If history repeats itself, Bitcoin may rally from the current levels, breaking above the resistance at $95,000 toward $100,000.
On April 22, Bitcoin price rose above a key level: the 200-day simple moving average (SMA) currently at $88,690, fueling a marketwide recovery.
The last time the BTC price broke above the 200-day SMA, it experienced a parabolic move, rallying 80% from $66,000 on Oct. 14, 2024, to its previous all-time high of $108,000 on Dec. 17.
This level should provide significant support as Bitcoin trades above this key trendline. But if it doesn't hold, the following levels to watch will likely be $84,379, the 50-day SMA, and the $80,000 psychological level.
For the bulls, the resistance levels at $95,000 and $100,000 are the primary ones to watch. Rising above that would pave the way for a run toward the Jan. 20 all-time high above $109,000.
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.
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Ethereum breaks key levels but struggles at $1,800. Could growing network activity and increasing long positions spark a move toward $2,000?
As the crypto market recovery pauses, Bitcoin drops below $93,000, while Ethereum continues to struggle below the $1,800 level. Currently, Ethereum is trading at $1,769, showing an intraday pullback of nearly 1.5%.
While Ethereum continues to face resistance, optimistic traders anticipate a post-retest bounce. Could this recovery push the price past the $2,000 mark? Let's find out.
On the 4-hour price chart, Ethereum's trend showcases a bullish breakout from a long-standing supply zone, surpassing the 38.20% Fibonacci level near $1,675.
Following this breakout, Ethereum rallied past the 50% Fibonacci level and the 200 EMA line near $1,755. However, the uptrend failed to maintain momentum above the $1,834 mark, resulting in short-term consolidation and a minor pullback.
This current pullback may be a potential retest of the 200 EMA line and the 50% Fibonacci level. Notably, the recovery has positively influenced the 50 and 100 EMA lines, hinting at a possible bullish crossover.
Furthermore, the bullish recovery has extended the uptrend in the MACD and Signal lines, signaling strong bullish momentum. As a result, technical indicators support the likelihood of a post-retest reversal in Ethereum's price.
Based on the Fibonacci levels, a successful post-retest reversal that breaks above the 61.80% Fibonacci retracement ($1,834) could open the door for Ethereum to reach $2,000. Such upward momentum would also increase the chances of a golden crossover between the 50 and 200 EMA lines—a strong bullish signal.
Conversely, if Ethereum fails to hold above the 50% Fibonacci level, the price could retrace further to test the $1,675 support-turned-resistance zone.
Amid Ethereum's recent bullish recovery, a new analysis by Carmelo Alemán, an analyst at CryptoQuant, highlights a major boost in network activity. He notes a sharp increase in active Ethereum addresses from 306,211 to 336,336 in just 48 hours.
This represents a nearly 10% surge between April 20 and April 22. The analyst also notes overall growth in Ethereum active addresses alongside the broader market recovery.
Carmelo projects a potential expansion in the broader Ethereum ecosystem, which could serve as a launchpad for multiple projects built on Ethereum. As the ecosystem grows, demand for ETH is expected to rise, potentially driving prices higher.
As price action analysis suggests a potential rebound, bullish sentiment in Ethereum's derivatives market continues to grow. According to Coinglass data, long positions in the derivatives market are nearing 55%.
Based on Coinglass's Long-to-Short Ratio chart, long positions now account for 54.98%, driving the ratio to 1.02. This marks a notable increase over the past three hours, up from 46.3%.
With renewed optimism for a breakout rally, derivatives traders are betting big on Ethereum. According to the Ethereum exchange liquidation map, a breakout above $1,800 could lead to significant short liquidations.
The data indicates a cumulative short-liquidation potential of $317.36 million near the $1,809.60 level.
DisClamier: This content is informational and should not be considered financial advice. The views expressed in this article may include the author's personal opinions and do not reflect The Crypto Basic opinion. Readers are encouraged to do thorough research before making any investment decisions. The Crypto Basic is not responsible for any financial losses.
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Revolut saw its revenue jump 72 per cent to £3.1bn in 2024, fuelled by a bounce in its subscription and crypto offerings. Europe's most valuable private tech company reported pre-tax profits of £1.1bn in 2024, more than double the previous year, and added 15 million new users. Revolut now has 52.5 million retail customers across the world.
Nik Storonsky, Revolut CEO and co-founder, heralded 2024 as a “landmark” year for the UK-headquartered challenger bank. Customer balances, a key metric for Revolut as it looks to get more users to use Revolut as their primary account, were up 66 per cent to £30bn. This was driven by strong growth in customer deposits and increased balances.
Revolut bills itself as an all-in-one financial app and offers a gamut of financial services, including consumer and business banking services, mortgages, subscription products, insurance and crypto products. It said profits were up partly due to the instilling of financial discipline across the business.
Its revenue uplift was helped by subscription revenue hitting £423 million, a 74 per cent year-on-year increase, while wealth revenue grew 298 per cent driven by increased crypto trading activity and the launch of Revolut X, its standalone crypto exchange, last year.
Revenue across Revolut's business offering topped £460m and now accounts for roughly 15 per cent of Revolut's revenue. Revolut, valued at $45bn, secured a UK banking licence in 2024 and is now in its so-called "mobilisation" phase. Revolut has also been rumoured to be gearing up for an IPO.
Revolut employed 10,133 staff as of the end of 2024, up from 8,152 in 2023.
Storonsky added: “2024 was a landmark year for Revolut. We not only accelerated our customer growth, welcoming nearly 15 million new users globally, but critically, we also saw customers engaging more deeply by adopting a wider range of our services across both our retail offering and Revolut Business.
"This powerful combination directly fuelled our record growth, and our technology-driven operating model translated this into record profitability.
"This performance earned us the status of Europe's most valuable private technology company, reflecting the confidence of existing and new investors in our trajectory.
"But we're just getting started. We're making strong progress towards 100 million daily active customers across 100 countries, driven by growth in the UK, Europe, and our expansion markets. This ambitious goal will keep us focused on revolutionising global financial access through innovative products and seamless user experiences."
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Would you offer insurance when expecting low odds of a claim being made? Most likely, you would, while pocketing the premium without a second thought. Bitcoin (BTC) traders are doing something similar in the Deribit-listed BTC options market, hinting at bullish price expectations.
Recently, an increasing number of traders have been selling (writing) BTC put options, likened to providing insurance against price drops in exchange for a small upfront premium.
They are implementing this strategy in a cash-secured manner by holding a corresponding amount in stablecoins, ensuring they can buy BTC if the market declines and the put buyer decides to exercise his right to sell BTC at the predetermined higher price.
This strategy enables traders to collect premiums (paid by put buyers) while potentially accumulating bitcoin if the options are exercised. In other words, it's the expression of a long-term bullish sentiment.
"There is a notable increase in cash-secured put selling using stablecoins—another sign of a more mature, long-term approach to BTC accumulation and a continued expression of bullish sentiment," Deribit's Asia Business Development Head Lin Chen told CoinDesk.
Chen said BTC holders are also selling higher strike call options to collect premiums and generate additional yield on top of their coin stash, which is weighing over Deribit's DVOL index, which measures the 30-day BTC implied volatility. The index has dropped from 63 to 48 since the April 7 panic selling in BTC to $75K, according to data from the charting platform TradingView.
"We observe that investors remain long-term bullish on BTC, particularly among crypto-native “holders” who are willing to hold through market cycles," Chen said.
Bitcoin's price has risen to over $92,000 since the early month slide to $75,000, supposedly on the back of haven demand and renewed institutional adoption narrative.
The sharp price recovery has seen BTC options risk reversals reset to suggest a bias for call options across time frames, according to data source Amberdata. Over the past two days, traders have specifically snapped up calls at strike $95,000, $100,000 and $135,000 via the over-the-counter tech platform Paradigm. As of writing, the $100,000 strike call was the most popular option play on Deribit, with a notional open interest of over $1.6 billion.
Just how important it is to track flows in the options market can be explained by the fact that the cumulative delta in Deribit's BTC options and options tied to the U.S.-listed BlackRock spot bitcoin ETF (IBIT) and its peers was $9 billion as of Wednesday, according to data tracked by Volmex.
The data indicates heightened sensitivity of options to changes in BTC's price, suggesting potential for price volatility.
Delta, one of the metrics used by sophisticated market participants to manage risk, measures how much the price (premium) of an options contract is likely to change in response to the $1 chance in the price of the underlying asset, in this case, BTC.
So, the cumulative delta of $9 billion represents the total sensitivity of all outstanding BTC and bitcoin ETF options to changes in the spot price. As of Wednesday, the total notional value of all outstanding options contracts was $43 billion.
Such large data or sensitivity to price swings in the underlying asset means market makers and traders actively engage in hedging strategies to mitigate their risks. Market makers, or those mandated to provide order book liquidity, are known to add to price volatility through their constant effort to maintain a net directional neutral exposure.
"Option deltas have increased to record levels as open interest grew and strike deltas shifted significantly. Option market makers are actively hedging this delta exposure, driven by substantial new positions and notable shifts in strike pricing," Volmex noted on X.
According to Volmex, crypto-native options traders over Deribit are positioned more bullishly than those trading options tied to IBIT.
Omkar Godbole is a Co-Managing Editor on CoinDesk's Markets team based in Mumbai, holds a masters degree in Finance and a Chartered Market Technician (CMT) member. Omkar previously worked at FXStreet, writing research on currency markets and as fundamental analyst at currency and commodities desk at Mumbai-based brokerage houses. Omkar holds small amounts of bitcoin, ether, BitTorrent, tron and dot.
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Ethereum is showing signs of renewed strength on-chain and in price action, with active addresses spiking and the ETH price finally breaking past a key resistance level that had held it back for over a week.
According to data shared by CryptoQuant analyst Carmelo Alemán, between Apr. 20 and Apr. 22, the number of active Ethereum (ETH) addresses increased by almost 10%, rising from about 306,000 to over 336,000. This uptick indicates increasing network participation at a time when ETH is beginning to regain some bullish momentum.
Although they are not a guarantee of upward movement, spikes in address activity can be an early sign of shifting sentiment and frequently indicate growing investor interest, especially when combined with rising price action.
Ethereum is Heating Up!“Ethereum's active addresses jumped from 306,211 to 336,366, representing a 9.85% increase in just 48 hours” – By @oro_crypto Read the full analysis ⤵️https://t.co/g55MiVnmOo pic.twitter.com/brIHtXx3Sx
And that's exactly what we're seeing. ETH has finally pushed above the $1,650 resistance zone, a level that had acted as a ceiling since mid-April. Following a strong green daily candle breakout, ETH price has crossed $1,790, breaking away from the short-term range in which it had been stuck.
Buyers appear to be regaining control for the first time in weeks. ETH is now trading above both the 10-day and 20-day moving averages, which suggests growing strength in the short term. At just over 50, the relative strength index indicates mild bullish momentum without being overbought.
The moving average convergence/divergence has also started to show early signs of a trend shift, turning slightly positive. Not all indicators are in complete agreement though. The stochastic RSI is already nearing the top of its range, which could signal short-term exhaustion if more buyers don't enter the market.
One key factor to watch is Ethereum's transaction fees. The network's fees remain unusually low, around $0.31 on average, as per YCharts data. This indicates that on-chain demand is still low even though the network is cheap to use.
Still, with active addresses rising and ETH holding above previous resistance, the short-term outlook looks better than it has in weeks. If momentum continues, the next major test will be whether ETH can make a run toward $2,000.
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The Bank of Korea has recently pointed out several misunderstandings regarding its digital currency usage test "Project Hangang River," which is conducted from April 1 to June. The central bank emphasized that this project is more about experimenting with "deposit tokens," a stablecoin issued by domestic commercial banks, rather than the central bank digital currency (CBDC) issued by the Bank of Korea.
At a briefing held at the Bank of Korea on April 21, Deputy Governor Lee Jong-ryul stated, “There is concern that the CBDC might allow the Bank of Korea to access personal information, but due to the possibility of privacy infringement during the research process, we decided to use deposit tokens issued by banks in 2023 in a way that actual users can utilize them.” He added, “The term ‘token' was used because stablecoins were negatively perceived during the Luna-Terra incident, and ultimately, the digital currency test is a test of the deposit tokens issued by banks.”
Furthermore, Lee mentioned, “Deposit token users provide their personal information to the banks, not to the Bank of Korea,” and “Whether stablecoins and (central bank digital currency) can coexist is something the Bank of Korea has considered when designing the digital currency system ecosystem.”
Lee Byung-mok, director of financial settlement at the Bank of Korea, stated, “Even in the digital financial world, the concept of digital legal currency is to convert even stablecoins into legal currency,” and “The basic concept of the CBDC pursued by the central bank is to coexist with payment methods that are circulated and used by the private sector.”
Project Hangang River is the first test, and plans have emerged to link it with personal remittances and more local government voucher projects in the future.
Yoon Sung-kwan, head of the Digital Currency Research Office at the Bank of Korea, said, “We are considering a second follow-up test,” and “We are conducting meetings in working groups with financial institutions, discussing first personal remittances and expanding usage.”
Deputy Governor Lee added, “We are gradually expanding even in the first phase,” and “There are plans to use deposit tokens for scholarships given to freshmen at Silla University, which can be used at local or campus stores.”
As of the morning of that day, 51,766 electronic wallets capable of using deposit tokens had been opened, and a cumulative total of 29,251 transactions had occurred from April 1 to April 20.
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Move over, uranium. Get out of here, water. Thorium and salt are the new MVPs of nuclear power.
Uranium (U) is the poster child for nuclear fission reactors—the most common type of nuclear reactor we have. Most fission reactors are fueled by the isotope uranium-235 (it even made its way into The Simpsons as the glowing green sludge that spawns mutant fish), but despite its star status in pop culture and nuclear physics, uranium is not the only heavy metal that can release a tremendous amount of power when its nuclei are split.
In the remote expanse of the Gobi desert stands the first thorium (Th) reactor ever built. Last year, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences showed that this two-megawatt reactor could power up and operate without a glitch, and they have now achieved another first—successfully reloading it while it was still running. Thorium-232 (the isotope of thorium that most commonly occurs on its own) is not capable of undergoing fission by itself. By capturing an extra neutron, however, it can morph into protactinium, which decays into U-233. This can be achieved by exposing the thorium to extreme radiation, which bombards it with enough neutrons for the transmutation to happen. Protactinium is then extracted from the reactor's active zone before too many neutrons can be lost.
It is possible to recycle the U-233 decay into new fuel, or continue fueling the machine with it as is, the latter of which is usually done with molten salt reactors like this new thorium reactor. These reactors are gaining traction again after a decades-long hiatus—almost $1 billion was spent on developing stealth bomber planes with molten salt reactors that used thorium for nuclear power at the dawn of the Cold War era. When the first functional molten salt reactor was developed by scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, it ran at full power from 1965 though 1969 (over 13,000 hours), but the Department of Energy lost interest and no further work was done to advance the technology until the early 2000s.
But that research remained available to the public, which is how China eventually discovered it and used it as a backbone for their own reactor. And, as it turns out, molten salt is still an appealing option. Most nuclear reactors use water as a coolant, but because water is volatile—high pressure needs to be maintained so that it stays in its liquid state. Without that pressure, the water evaporates, and reactor fuel could overheat and suffer a meltdown. Using molten salt prevents radioactive sludge from leaking because the boiling point of salt is too high for it to evaporate at reactor temperatures. In case of overheating, the molten salt circling the reactor will expand and halt the reaction.
Molten salt reactors can can also use molten salt in the fuel, which makes it prone to freezing in case of a breach (a very good thing). The fuel in those vessels or pipes will spread and cool until it finally freezes in place. China's reactor uses salt both as coolant and in its fuel.
Thorium is not only more abundant than uranium, but has the upside of not being as easy to weaponize. While the fission of Th-232 produces protinactium, which decays into U-233 and can be used in nuclear weapons, U-233 isn't nearly as explosive as other isotopes (the isotope most commonly used in uranium explosives is U-235). There wouldn't be much of a point in dealing it to create an illicit nuclear bomb.
Though China may currently be the world leader in molten salt reactors, the U.S. is catching up. Nuclear tech company Core Power is planning an enormous floating network of these power plants within the next decade. We'll just have to wait and see where the molten salt take us.
Elizabeth Rayne is a creature who writes. Her work has appeared in Popular Mechanics, Ars Technica, SYFY WIRE, Space.com, Live Science, Den of Geek, Forbidden Futures and Collective Tales. She lurks right outside New York City with her parrot, Lestat. When not writing, she can be found drawing, playing the piano or shapeshifting.
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April 24, 2025
3 min read
Carnivorous ‘Bone Collector' Caterpillars Wear Corpses as Camouflage
Nicknamed the “bone collector,” this newly confirmed caterpillar in Hawaii secretly scrounges off a spider landlord by covering itself with dead insect body parts
By Gayoung Lee edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier
Caterpillars nicknamed the "bone collector" create protective shelling out of dead insect bones and body parts.
Rubinoff lab, Entomology Section, University of Hawaii, Manoa
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Caterpillars are known for their fuzzy exterior and sometimes weird behavior. Some vibrate aggressively to scare predators; others create their own antifreeze to survive the cold. But a newly identified member of the offbeat caterpillar club might be the weirdest of all. Nicknamed the “bone collector,” it builds a disguise from insect cadavers it scrounges from a spiderweb, covering its body with these spider-meal leftovers—and occasionally engaging in cannibalism.
It took researchers almost 17 years to convince themselves that this behavior was not some kind of anomaly among a couple of individuals. After meticulous observations and fieldwork, they finally confirmed that bone collector caterpillars, with all their macabre eccentricity, are the larvae of a new species that is native to the Hawaiian island of Oahu. The finding was published on Thursday in Science.
Bone collector larva in web.
Rubinoff lab, Entomology Section, University of Hawaii, Manoa
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“I just couldn't believe it. The first couple of times you find that, you think it's got to be a one-off—it's got to be a mistake,” says the study's lead author Daniel Rubinoff, an entomologist at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. “I've been looking at it for over a decade, and it still blows my mind.”
So how exactly did these caterpillars take on this hardcore habit? The answer is probably evolutionary, Rubinoff says. Bone collector caterpillars grow up to be moths, like most caterpillars do, but these moths tend to lay their eggs in a spiderweb's nooks and crannies. A newly hatched caterpillar then collects bones to “camouflage itself from the spider landlord,” Rubinoff says. “The only chance they have of making a living in this situation is to decorate or die; they live for fashion.”
Adult “bone collector” moths lay their eggs in spiderwebs.
Rubinoff lab, Entomology Section, University of Hawaii, Manoa
Setting aside the threat of becoming spider food, for a bone collector caterpillar, a web is actually a great place to snack on the arachnid's leftovers, such as a beetle's wings or a fly's soft tissue. The web is thus an “unexploited niche” of food and protection from other predators, Rubinoff says. Harder bits get added to its protective casing.
These bone collectors are not quite parasitic, nor are they considered symbiotic with spiders. They're more like a scavenger in the way they pick from meals that a spider might have otherwise finished. Plus, Rubinoff notes, they're cannibalistic. “That just gives you a sense of how they go after food—and recognize that there's food inside things that maybe don't look like food,” he says.
Video of a Hawaiian "bone collector" caterpillar camouflaged in insect prey's body parts crawling on black fabric at 2X speed.
Rubinoff lab, Entomology Section, University of Hawaii, Manoa
And these critters are far from the only strange, funky caterpillars roaming Hawaii. The bone collector belongs to a native genus of moths called Hyposmocoma, whose larvae are commonly referred to as Hawaiian fancy case caterpillars. They have lived in these islands for millions of years, says Akito Kawahara, who is director of the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity at the Florida Museum and was not involved in the new work. “They've adapted to the environment because the conditions of Hawaii are very different from other places around the world,” he explains.
Some of these adaptations have resulted in “bizarre morphology and life history,” says Cornell University entomologist Patrick M. O'Grady, who was also not involved in the study. Several Hyposmocoma species are known to be carnivorous. Others are aquatic and live under Hawaii's streams.
“Insects do everything,” Kawahara adds. “They're amazing. In some ways, I was not surprised [by the bone collectors] because I know insects do some really crazy things.”
For Rubinoff, who has studied insects for more than two decades, species like the bone collector are a constant reminder of “how little we know about insect diversity—even in places [where] we should know it pretty well” such as Hawaii, which is comparatively easy to access. “We're finding stuff that we didn't even imagine was out there,” he adds. “It wasn't something that was even on our radar. But it shows how interesting evolution can be. It really is—I don't want to say magic—but it's incredible.”
Gayoung Lee is Scientific American's current news intern. A philosopher turned journalist, originally from South Korea, Lee's interests lie in finding unexpected connections between life and science, particularly in theoretical physics and mathematics. You can read more about her here: https://gayoung-lee.carrd.co
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Yet, understanding how neural networks work could help us learn more about our own consciousness.
Traipse into the world of artificial intelligence research, and it won't take long to stumble across a concept known as the “singularity.” A loan word from astrophysics describing the heart of a black hole where known physics collapses, the term in the AI sense refers to a future artificial mind surpassing the intelligence of humans, leading to rapid innovation or destruction—depending on who you ask.
Whatever the vision—utopian or dystopian—experts increasingly agree that the singularity will occur sometime this century, with the boldest estimates measured in months, not years. But even if AI does achieve this technical milestone, one neuroscientist says it still won't rival the complexity of the brain, because ultimately AI will still lack consciousness.
“Intelligence is not the same thing as consciousness,” says Anil Seth, a neuroscientist at the University of Sussex and longtime advocate of the idea that our biological bodies are a necessary cog in the consciousness machine. “We see this confusion especially … with the Singularity. AI becomes superhuman and that's the moment when the lights come and AI is suddenly aware. Why would that be a threshold? The only plausible reason is you've got some baked-in assumption about consciousness being associated with human-level intelligence.”
For decades, Seth has written, published, and spoken—on both stages and YouTube channels— about the ever-slippery concept of human consciousness. Unlike some theories that see consciousness as a result of neurological computation, Seth's research explores the idea of human consciousness—and consciousness in non-human animals more broadly—as a “controlled hallucination,” a series of predictions our brain makes to aid in our survival.
In a now-famous TED Talk from 2018 Seth lays out evidence his lab gathered, of how the body can misconstrue visual information, assimilate fake body parts due to external stimulation, and undergo various other hallucinatory behaviors. All of which suggest the brain is actively constructing our conscious experience from the inside out. According to this theory, Seth says humans possess a very important attribute that just may keep consciousness forever out of reach for AI—no matter how advanced various LLMs or machine-learning algorithms become.
“If consciousness is not computation, then what is it?” Seth says. “One possibility … is that life matters. We are biological systems that are made up of parts like metabolism and autopoiesis [the capacity to reproduce], and these make us very different from any machines that we've yet produced and that might turn out to be necessary for consciousness.”
Seth admits that this idea can fall prey to vitalism, an idea that life is somehow intrinsically imbued with consciousness. Seth's lab at the University of Sussex instead aims to dispel this kind of magical thinking, by investigating the idea of embodied consciousness in the scientific realm. The result is what's known as the “beast machine theory,” which describes the brain as a prediction machine that updates its “controlled hallucination” via the unending stream of sensory information. When this system goes awry, it creates an actual hallucination, which can also explain why the brain falls prey to myriad kinds of illusions—it's simply making the best prediction with the data at hand, but not necessarily the correct one.
Seth's consciousness theory joins a long list of competing ideas that try to grapple with what makes something conscious, but he stands somewhat apart from other experts. That's because this “controlled hallucination” theory relies on our biological bodies, something AI simply doesn't have. Ultimately, AI forever reaching but never quite grasping consciousness could be a good thing, Seth argues. Because if that metaphorical dog ever caught that existential truck, the consequences would be profound.
It's a “bad idea to build conscious machines,” Seth says. “We'd introduce new possibilities for suffering of a kind we might not even recognize.”
Despite his scientific reservations that AI could ever be conscious, Seth says that understanding neural networks could help us learn more about our own consciousness—after all, it's why he got his Ph.D. in computer science.
“You're not going to make meaningful progress without having a foot in several different camps,” Seth says. “My motivation with AI wasn't to build a multi-billion dollar company, but to build simple neural networks and see what they can do. That's been pretty central to understanding how a collection of neurons could account for aspects of consciousness.”
Seth often compares the field of a consciousness study to other historical scientific breakthroughs, such as discovering the underlying mechanisms of heat, for example. At first we could only describe hotness and coldness without knowing the physical basis for heat. But once that was discovered, suddenly concepts of absolute zero and stellar temperatures, and other more advanced concepts, were suddenly possible.
Research is now at that point with consciousness, and now we have benchmarks, Seth says. “We're trying to use what we know … some anchor points that we can use to move from a description of how consciousness happens, to an explanation of how it might happen in general. Then, you can generalize and extrapolate.”
So how do we get to that physical basis? Seth says that, broadly speaking, theories of consciousness—including his own—need to be more precise, but other efforts are a step in the right direction. Those efforts include “adversarial collaboration,” where two or more theories are sort of pitted against each other in an effort to improve or disregard them. Continuing advancements in brain imaging and optogenetics (controlling individual cells, or neurons, with light) will also provide ever greater data for probing the biological mechanisms of consciousness.
Seth's more recent work has also led him to investigate consciousness in biological structures that typically evade our animalistic bias of what can and can't be conscious. Particular among these are collections of stem cells known as brain organoids, which are designed to mimic human brain function. In many ways, Seth sees organoids as a more compelling candidate for investigating consciousness than the world of ever-advancing AI.
“Even though organoids are not behaviorally very impressive—they don't speak to us, they don't solve complicated problems—maybe they're more similar to us in ways that matter … than language models, that may be more similar to us in ways that don't matter,” Seth says. “It's easier to envisage that, as organoid technology develops, you get closer and closer to the brains that we actually have.”
Artificial intelligence may seem like the method du jour for understanding consciousness, but as the work of Anil Seth shows, the world of biology still has so much more to teach us.
Darren lives in Portland, has a cat, and writes/edits about sci-fi and how our world works. You can find his previous stuff at Gizmodo and Paste if you look hard enough.
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Genevieve L. Wojcik is an associate professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
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Social constructs of descent-based identity, such as race and ethnicity, do not align with genetic groupings.Credit: Adamkaz/Getty
In 1924, motivated by the rising eugenics movement, the United States passed the Johnson–Reed Act, which limited immigration to stem “a stream of alien blood, with all its inherited misconceptions”. A century later, at a campaign event last October, now US President Donald Trump used similar eugenic language to justify his proposed immigration policies, stating that “we got a lot of bad genes in our country right now”.
If left unchallenged, a rising wave of white nationalism in many parts of the globe could threaten the progress that has been made in science — and broader society — towards a more equitable world1.
As scientists and members of the public, we must push back against this threat — by modifying approaches to genetics education, advocating for science, establishing and leading diverse research teams and ensuring that studies embrace and build on the insights obtained about human variation.
At a hearing in February, the now-confirmed head of the US Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, reiterated his past comments that Black children should receive different vaccine schedules from white children because of variations in their immune systems.
How white supremacy became a global health problem
How white supremacy became a global health problem
Kennedy's motives in this regard are unclear. But after making numerous demonstrably false statements about vaccination, he is providing another layer of reasoning that the scientist whose work Kennedy cites described as “twisting the data far beyond what they actually demonstrate” while promoting racial essentialism: the false belief that people of different ‘races' have inherently distinct biology2,3.
Meanwhile, although Trump stated at his inaugural address that his administration “will forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based”, an executive order he signed in March condemns as “corrosive ideology” the Smithsonian Institution's promotion in its museums and research centres of the view that race is not a biological reality, but a social construct.
Similar rhetoric is increasingly entering political discourse as pro-nativist and anti-immigration parties (at times propped up by scientific racism) gain traction in many parts of the world.
The dangerous and pseudoscientific ideas of eugenics have periodically gained popularity over the past century. But the latest wave of white nationalism is happening after decades of two interlinked concepts gaining attention and acceptance in the scientific community.
On the one hand, there is broad consensus among researchers that social constructs of descent-based identity, such as race and ethnicity, do not align with genetic groupings. On the other, there is growing awareness that diversity matters for sound science and effective policy, including in health care. Embraced together, these two concepts have strengthened science and increased benefits to health.
Decades of sociological data demonstrate that racial and ethnic identities, whether self-identified or otherwise, are constructs that are defined and deployed in specific sociopolitical contexts.
Take the degree to which racial and ethnic categories have been altered over the past two and a half centuries in the US Census, in response to political needs and social changes. The term Hispanic, which is now used to refer to people with heritage from Spanish-speaking countries, was first brought in for the 1970 census, in response to lobbying from Latino advocacy groups. In reaction to changing societal norms, the term African American was added to the 2000 census as an alternative to ‘Black' and ‘Negro' (with the latter being dropped in 2013, in time for the 2020 census).
Researchers and health-care providers are moving away from ‘race-based medicine'.Credit: Getty
Alongside analyses of sociological data, genetic research has repeatedly demonstrated that constructs of descent-based identity, such as race and ethnicity, do not align with discrete biological groupings. It has also shown that their use can exclude those who do not fit into a specific category and obscure substructure in populations, with implications for human health.
For example, the likelihood of people having haemoglobinopathies (inherited disorders that affect red blood cells) varies substantially depending on where in the world a person lives. In some regions of India, carrier rates for the blood disorder β-thalassaemia are estimated to be higher than 8%, whereas in areas of China, they can be as low as 2.7%4. This heterogeneity would be missed if researchers simply grouped study participants as ‘Asian', a term that refers to nearly 60% of the global population. Similarly, using the category ‘Hispanic' without considering other factors would fail to reveal that the genetic variant associated with Steel syndrome, a rare genetic bone disorder, is more common in people from Puerto Rico than in those from the Dominican Republic or Mexico5.
Many now question the use of race as an appropriate proxy for anything, from hypothesized biological differences to environmental influences. In fact, researchers and health-care providers have been moving away from ‘race-based medicine', in which perceived biological differences change the estimation of clinical risk and the provision of patient care on the basis of whether people are Black, white, Asian, Hispanic and so on6,7.
Counter the weaponization of genetics research by extremists
Counter the weaponization of genetics research by extremists
In conjunction with the growing acceptance of the idea that social identities related to ancestry don't align with genetic groupings, multiple studies conducted over the past decade have demonstrated the benefits of including diverse participants in research.
Any two human genomes are, on average, more than 99% identical. Yet millions of variants across people's genomes — including ones that are relevant for health — differ in frequency to varying degrees as a result of demographic processes (both random and non-random) playing out over centuries to millennia. Increasing the diversity of participants in studies increases geneticists' chances of finding variants that are important to health, and lessens their likelihood of drawing spurious conclusions about the genetic or other factors driving disease8,9.
The availability of large-scale multimodal data and advanced statistical and computational tools is making it easier than ever for researchers to stop relying on race or ethnicity as proxies for biology or structural and social determinants of health. Instead, they can interrogate the effects of many well-defined variables, from people's genetics and geographical location to their diet and income.
Over the past few years, multidisciplinary frameworks have been developed to inform researchers — and so aid study design and the appropriate interpretation of findings. Reports from the US National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, for instance, emphasize the need for more-diverse groups of participants to be included in genetics and genomics research2, as well as in biomedical research more broadly3. They also stress the importance of a diverse workforce — which has consistently been shown to result in higher productivity, as well as in work that has a greater impact on people's lives10,11.
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4 min read
Celebrate Hubble Space Telescope's 35th Birthday with Stunning Images
Happy anniversary to the Hubble Space Telescope, which launched on April 24, 1990
By Meghan Bartels edited by Lee Billings
The Tarantula Nebula, located about 161,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud bordering our Milky Way, is packed with ionized hydrogen gas dotted by supernova remnants.
NASA/ESA
Thirty-five years ago today a revolutionary new era of astronomy began when the Hubble Space Telescope, tucked onboard the space shuttle Discovery, blasted off Earth into history. The next day a robotic arm tipped the telescope into orbit from the shuttle's cargo bay. Within a month Hubble had truly begun its mission, gazing out at the cosmos for NASA and the European Space Agency with its 2.4-meter-wide starlight-gathering mirror—the largest ever launched to space at the time.
NGC 6302, known as the Butterfly Nebula, is located between 2,500 and 3,800 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius. The image includes near-ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared light. At the heart of the nebula lie one or more dying stars that are periodically flinging layers of gas out into space. This gas—reaching temperatures of more than 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit and speeds of more than 600,000 miles per hour—becomes the “wings” of the butterfly.
NASA, ESA, and J. Kastner (RIT) (CC BY 4.0)
In the years since, Hubble has gathered more than 1.6 million observations and 430 terabytes of data. The telescope has revealed that supermassive black holes nestle at the heart of most large galaxies, Jupiter's icy moon Europa may be shooting plumes of water out into space and, in the distant future, our Milky Way galaxy will likely collide with our neighbor, Andromeda.
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But the mission almost flopped.
The Hubble Space Telescope was decades in the works, even making a cameo appearance in a Superman comic in 1972, before it reached space in 1990. But after Hubble's deployment, as the telescope began operations, astronomers realized its vision was blurry and traced the issue to a tiny imperfection in the telescope's mirror.
A pair of planetary nebulae, IC 418 (left) and MyCn18 (right). IC 418 is located about 2,000 light-years away from Earth in the direction of the constellation Lepus. At its heart is the remains of a red giant star that spat its outer layers of gas into space, creating the lattice of gas illuminated by ultraviolet light. MyCn18, located about 8,000 light-years away, glows with ionized nitrogen (red), hydrogen (green) and doubly ionized oxygen (blue).
NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); Acknowledgment: Dr. Raghvendra Sahai (JPL) and Dr. Arsen R. Hajian (USNO) (CC BY 4.0) (left); NASA, ESA, Raghvendra Sahai and John Trauger (JPL), the WFPC2 science team (CC BY 4.0) (right)
Astoundingly, that mirror is still in use today aboard the observatory. Fortunately, Hubble was uniquely designed to be serviced in orbit by astronauts. NASA's first (and most urgent) servicing mission flew in December 1993; during five separate spacewalks, astronauts installed a new primary camera able to counteract Hubble's blurred vision, as well a bulky new apparatus that corrected the light that fed into the observatory's original suite of instruments.
The Hubble Space Telescope and a spacewalking NASA astronaut are seen in orbit around Earth during STS-61, the 1993 servicing mission to correct the observatory's optics.
NASA
M104, nicknamed the Sombrero Galaxy, is located about 30 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. M104 creates stars surprisingly slowly and is home to a mysteriously quiescent central supermassive black hole.
ESA/Hubble & NASA, K. Noll (CC BY 4.0)
Additional shuttle missions in 1997, 1999, 2002 and 2009 also visited the observatory, extending its lifetime and expanding its view each time with new hardware and better instruments.
The galaxy NGC 1566 is located about 60 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Dorado. NGC 1566 is what scientists call a weakly barred or intermediate spiral galaxy and belongs to a group of gravitationally bound galaxies that astronomers are still working to understand.
ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Calzetti and the LEGUS team, R. Chandar (CC BY 4.0)
The results have been nothing short of breathtaking. Hubble's position well above most of Earth's atmosphere allows it to see the cosmos unhindered by the tempests and turbulence that all ground-based observatories face. That privileged vantage point has profoundly shaped our understanding of the solar system and universe around us.
In our own neighborhood, Hubble has studied the changing weather on the outer planets, discovered moons orbiting Pluto and watched the once-in-a-lifetime impact of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 on Jupiter scar the giant planet with dark spots as big as Earth. It has even glimpsed the sun, in a feat it was most definitely not designed to attempt.
Hubble used its ultraviolet vision to capture an image of auroras on Jupiter in 2016 as NASA's Juno spacecraft was arriving in orbit around the massive planet.
NASA, ESA, and J. Nichols (University of Leicester); Acknowledgment: A. Simon (NASA/GSFC) and the OPAL team (CC BY 4.0)
In more distant reaches, Hubble provided conclusive proof that supermassive black holes exist and made the first observations of astronomical objects colliding as well as of the surface of a star besides our sun. And in a remarkable triumph, it managed to capture a first-of-its-kind snapshot of a supernova explosion that had been successfully predicted by astronomers.
The dense globular cluster ESO 520-21, or Palomar 6 (top), is located near the center of the Milky Way in the constellation Ophiuchus. The Carina Nebula (bottom) is a star-forming region located about 7,500 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Carina. The pillar of dust and gas seen in this image stretches about three light-years tall and is being eroded away by radiation from hot newborn stars embedded in the column.
ESA/Hubble and NASA, R. Cohen (CC BY 4.0) (top); NASA, ESA, M. Livio and the Hubble 20th Anniversary Team (STScI) (CC BY 4.0) (bottom)
And, of course, it has taken some of the most iconic space photographs we have—among them, the stunning “Pillars of Creation” image of a stellar nursery known as the Eagle Nebula.
For 35 years Hubble has pushed the boundaries of possibility, transforming our view of the cosmos each time it beams the universe's light down to Earth. How long it will continue to do so, however, remains unclear. Since the 2009 servicing mission, the NASA shuttles that ferried astronauts to Hubble retired, and the hazards of space have taken their toll. Hubble's hardware failures are mounting, and the observatory's ongoing operations depend on an ever-increasing number of workarounds and improvisations. At this point, even the most optimistic “Hubble hugger” astronomers admit that the observatory's days are numbered.
Although Hubble is most known for its iconic photographs, it gathers other observations as well, such as this single exposure taken by the observatory's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph. The image maps gas zipping around the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy M84, located about 50 million light-years away from Earth. From the spectrograph's data, which show that the gas is moving as fast as 880,000 miles per hour, astronomers determined that the black hole contains at least 300 million times the mass of our sun.
NASA, Gary Bower, Richard Green (NOAO), the STIS Instrument Definition Team
In June 2024 NASA announced that failing machinery was forcing the observatory to begin operating with only one fully functional gyroscope, which slows the telescope's work. In addition, Earth's atmosphere is slowly but surely pulling Hubble down to Earth, bringing the observatory ever closer to fiery destruction, although reentry is not expected until next decade.
NASA launched Hubble's successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, in 2021, although unlike Hubble, JWST is stationed so far beyond Earth's orbit that crewed servicing missions are too daunting to attempt. The two telescopes mostly collect data independently of each other but occasionally team up, combining their powers to produce spectacular results.
NGC 1999, located about 1,350 light-years away from Earth, is a reflection nebula created by debris from the newborn star V380 Orionis, visible at the center of the image. The image relies on data gathered by Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2—the replacement camera installed during the first servicing mission—in 1999.
ESA/Hubble & NASA, ESO, K. Noll (CC BY 4.0)
Despite its age, Hubble may yet be reborn. In 2022 billionaire Jared Isaacman, who has paid SpaceX undisclosed sums for several private spaceflights with the company, proposed a new servicing mission for the aging telescope. NASA officials seriously considered the proposal but in 2024 declined to pursue Isaacman's idea.
The lenticular galaxy NGC 4753 is located about 60 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Virgo. Lenticular galaxies are elliptical objects; Hubble sees this particular galaxy nearly edge on. Scientists believe that the galaxy developed after a merger some 1.3 billion years ago.
ESA/Hubble & NASA, L. Kelsey (CC BY 4.0)
Now Isaacman is President Donald Trump's nominee to lead NASA. Senators conducted his confirmation hearing earlier this month; a vote has not yet been scheduled. It's not clear how ethics rules will impact Isaacman's relationship with SpaceX should he be confirmed or whether he would have the authority to resurrect the servicing mission proposal.
NGC 7635, nicknamed the Bubble Nebula, is located about 7,100 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Cassiopeia. The nebula is about seven light-years wide; at its heart is a star 45 times as massive as our sun that is spitting gas into space at speeds as high as four million miles per hour.
NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) (CC BY 4.0)
And larger issues face the agency than the fate of any single observatory. Hubble and JWST are the only astrophysics telescopes that would continue to receive funding amid massive science cuts included in the Trump administration's budget request for NASA. (That said, budget allocations are made not by the president but by Congress, which has a long history of reinstating money to slashed space science projects.)
Such is the limitation of an astronomical marvel: while Hubble has spotted a star as it was less than one billion years after the big bang, even it cannot see its own future.
Meghan Bartels is a science journalist based in New York City. She joined Scientific American in 2023 and is now a senior news reporter there. Previously, she spent more than four years as a writer and editor at Space.com, as well as nearly a year as a science reporter at Newsweek, where she focused on space and Earth science. Her writing has also appeared in Audubon, Nautilus, Astronomy and Smithsonian, among other publications. She attended Georgetown University and earned a master's degree in journalism at New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program.
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Nature Communications
volume 16, Article number: 3184 (2025)
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Understanding how regime shifts in iceberg calving behavior affect ice shelf stability remains a challenge for numerical models. This is an important question as we consider the fate of the ice shelves that currently buttress the Antarctic Ice Sheet and hold back the bulk of its potential upstream sea-level contribution. Using buried landforms, we demonstrate that ice shelves fringed the former British-Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS) and document their disintegration ~18,000 years ago. The ice shelves produced massive (5–10 s km wide, 50–180 m thick) tabular icebergs until widespread ice shelf break-up shifted the calving regime to smaller bergs; a change that coincided with the collapse of marine-based ice across the central North Sea. We propose that the BIIS reached a climatic threshold around 18 ka which caused massive surface melting of its ice shelves, triggering hydrofracturing of crevasses that ultimately led to their disintegration and likely enhanced ice-retreat rates.
Ice shelves fringe the fast-flowing margins of the modern Antarctic Ice Sheet and provide a buttressing backstress that regulates the rate at which upstream grounded ice flows towards the ocean1,2,3. Observations have highlighted a strong association between ice shelf thinning, sometimes leading to their catastrophic disintegration, and the sustained acceleration and retreat of glaciers in Antarctica3,4,5,6. However, the number of ice shelf disintegration events cataloged within the satellite era remains limited to about 10, e.g., refs. 4,7,8,9,10,11,12,13. Consequently, the manner in which ice shelves and iceberg calving may respond to future climatic warming remains one of the largest sources of uncertainty in projections of future ice sheet evolution and thus sea-level rise8,14,15,16,17.
Ice shelves are vulnerable to changes in atmospheric and ocean conditions5,12,18,19, losing mass through both melting (thinning) and iceberg calving. Currently, calving accounts for ~45 % of the mass lost from the Antarctic Ice Sheet but with considerable regional variability20,21. Observations and numerical models show that the dominant regime of iceberg calving (i.e., the size, shape and number of icebergs calved), and thus the type of iceberg produced, reflects the dynamics of the parent ice mass and the number of pre-existing fractures in a calving margin cf.22,23. For example, relatively stable ice shelves sporadically produce gigantic tabular icebergs (100 s of meters thick and 10 s to >100 km long) with decades of quiescence between major calving events24,25,26. By contrast, rapidly retreating grounded tidewater glaciers without ice shelves produce smaller and more frequently calved icebergs that are a fraction of parent ice-mass thickness27,28,29. In the well-documented Larsen-B Ice Shelf disintegration event on the eastern Antarctic Peninsula in 2002, abundant surface melting led to hydrofracturing and rapid fragmentation into large numbers of narrow ice blocks that toppled and collided with one another30.
Icebergs produce ploughmarks when their keels contact and move through sediment-covered areas of the seafloor. Ploughmarks are commonly observed in multibeam bathymetric or side-scan sonar images of the modern seafloor31,32,33, and buried examples have been imaged within Quaternary sediments on formerly glaciated continental shelves, including the North Sea, using 3D seismic reflection methods34,35. Morphological analyses of iceberg ploughmarks provide information on iceberg sizes, and therefore calving styles, thus helping to constrain mass-loss mechanisms36,37,38. By far the most abundant ploughmarks are those formed by small, single-keeled icebergs which typically incise narrow V-shaped grooves arranged in curvilinear, chaotic, and criss-crossing patterns as they drift with ocean currents and tides. In contrast, ploughmarks with broad comb-like, parallel morphologies are much rarer and indicate the presence of gigantic tabular icebergs with multiple keels formed by full-thickness calving from floating ice shelves such as those which currently fringe much of the Antarctic Ice Sheet32,39. Consequently, the presence and characteristics of iceberg ploughmarks in the geological record can inform about the geometry (presence or absence of ice shelves), mass-loss behavior, and dynamics of former marine-terminating ice sheets, and, critically, how these change with time if ploughmarks are found in geological units with different ages32.
Recently, Clark et al. 40 presented a new numerical reconstruction of the growth and retreat of the last British-Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS) that used extensive geomorphological observations and chronological data to constrain numerical model simulations of ice sheet flow between 31 and 15 ka. As a result, the BIIS now provides one of the world's best-constrained records of ice sheet deglaciation that can be used to explore how modern ice sheets may decay and, in particular, to aid our understanding of how specific mass-loss processes may evolve in a warming climate. The reconstructions predicted that ice shelves formerly fringed large portions of the BIIS, particularly during the early stages of deglaciation (Fig. 1a). Despite the numerical model used employing relatively simple parameterizations for ocean melt, grounding-line migration and iceberg calving, its predictions are supported by the presence of grounding‐zone wedges (GZWs; submarine glacial landforms associated with ice shelf presence), particularly around the BIIS' western margin41,42,43,44,45. Some of the largest BIIS ice shelves are predicted by models in the North Sea (Fig. 1a), yet definitive geomorphological evidence for ice shelf presence in the form of GZWs remains scarce in this region, e.g., refs. 46,47,48, and sedimentary evidence of potential sub-ice shelf facies requires further investigation47,49. Furthermore, whilst single-keeled iceberg ploughmarks have been imaged extensively in the North Sea geological record dating back to over 2.5 Ma34,35, hitherto there has been no empirical evidence for multi-keeled iceberg ploughmarks to confirm the presence of large ice shelves in this region47.
a Model reconstruction of the retreat of the last British-Irish (BIIS) and Fennoscandian (FIS) ice sheets between 22 ka and 17 ka from Clark et al. 40, showing the locations of predicted ice shelves (colored by reconstruction age), and the high-resolution 3D (HR3D) seismic datasets analysed in this study (turquoise circles). The orientations of the multi-keeled iceberg ploughmarks observed within the HR3D seismic datasets (if present) are indicated by arrows. Palaeo topography and water depths at 21 ka are from Bradley et al. 60. The inset map displays the modern coastline for reader orientation; green “+” symbols mark previously inferred locations of ice shelves surrounding the BIIS from seabed geomorphological evidence41,42,43,44,47,48. b Cross profile of the central North Sea showing the modeled retreat of the BIIS and FIS between 21 ka and 17 ka from Clark et al. 40. Palaeo topographies (rebounding as the ice retreats) from Bradley et al. 60 are displayed as dashed lines and are in reference to modern sea level. WGB—Witch Ground Basin. NC—Norwegian Channel.
The extent to which ice shelves modulated the retreat of the former BIIS can provide insight into their importance in determining the long-term response of modern ice sheets to climate change when ice shelves are lost. In this study, we decipher the detailed morphology of iceberg ploughmarks preserved beneath the seafloor of the central North Sea using high-resolution 3D (HR3D) seismic methods to infer the size and shape of icebergs calved from the BIIS during the last glacial period and early deglaciation. We provide direct observational evidence for the presence of tabular icebergs in the North Sea during the last glacial period and trace their disappearance in the geological record, thereby confirming ice shelf occurrence around the decaying BIIS as well as the timing of their disintegration.
Inspection of HR3D seismic data in seven different survey areas of the central North Sea reveals an abundance of curvilinear grooves with three distinctive morphologies buried 22–55 m beneath the seafloor in modern-day water depths of 115–148 m (Fig. 2). The majority of the curvilinear grooves are unresolvable using the lower-resolution 3D seismic methods previously used to generate the vast majority of Quaternary reconstructions in this region (Fig. 3). The first class of features consists of V-shaped grooves that are 30–80 m wide, ~2–5 m deep, and are flanked along their length by elongate but low-amplitude densely-spaced ridges up to 2.5 m high (Fig. 2a). The grooves extend for 100s–1000 s of meters and terminate abruptly, sometimes leaving circular pit-like depressions in the palaeo-seafloor. The second class of feature comprises broad, relatively flat-bottomed grooves that exceed 4 km in length, are over 200 m wide, up to 6 m deep and are also flanked by elongate ridges up to 1.5 m high (Fig. 2b). The third feature class consists of multiple low-amplitude densely-spaced grooves aligned in parallel to form a comb-like pattern (Fig. 2c). The individual grooves comprising the larger comb-like arrangements are 0.5–1.6 m deep, ~20–80 m wide and are semi-regularly spaced at distances of ~30–65 m. The total width of the comb-like patterns ranges between 300–2350 m, whilst their overall alignment can abruptly change direction by angles of up to 16° over distances of <200 m (Fig. 2c). These subtle features are commonly overprinted by the narrower V-shaped grooves and cannot be resolved using conventional 3D seismic data alone (Fig. 3).
a v-shaped grooves, b broad, flat-bottomed grooves, c multiple parallel and densely spaced grooves. d Representative cross sections of each class of groove.
a A glacial surface buried ~30 m beneath the modern-day seafloor mapped using HR3D seismic data and (b) geomorphological mapping of iceberg ploughmarks from the surface shown in (a), inset with their respective orientations in degrees north. Note the multi-keeled iceberg ploughmarks. c The same area and horizon mapped using conventional 3D seismic reflection data. d Mapped iceberg ploughmarks visible in (c) and their respective orientations. Note the presence of artifact stripes and corrugations in (c) which reflect the pattern of the survey lines and aliasing due to gridding at a resolution close to the bin size.
We interpret the three classes of curvilinear grooves as ploughmarks formed by icebergs impacting the seafloor during drift. The parallel ridges flanking the iceberg ploughmarks are berms formed by the redistribution of sediment as the iceberg keels ploughed the seafloor. The ploughmarks are distinct from other previously described glacial lineations in the region (e.g., mega-scale glacial lineations, flutes, and megaflutes) that were molded on top of subglacial tills and ice-overridden glacimarine sediments that are older than 19.5 ka50,51,52 (buried ~35 m below seafloor; b.s.f.). These other glacial lineations have been interpreted using 3D seismic surveys and borehole constraints to have been produced by the fast flow of grounded ice during the Late Weichselian52. This is because those lineations are straighter, occur over a wider expanse (10 s of kms in width), lack characteristic berms, and do not change direction as abruptly as the iceberg ploughmarks. As many of the iceberg ploughmarks overprint the Late Weichselian glacial lineations52, the age of these ploughmarks can be constrained to the last deglaciation of the BIIS following the retreat of grounded ice from the central North Sea. Some HR3D seismic datasets also contain examples of similarly ploughed surfaces buried deeper than the Late Weichselian lineations, suggesting that the formative process responsible for the ploughmarks has recurred multiple times during the Quaternary as the North Sea was repeatedly glaciated.
Variations in ploughmark morphology reflect the type of iceberg that formed them. Narrow, single V-shaped ploughmarks are characteristic of scours produced by small, individual icebergs calved from a marine terminating ice margin that is probably grounded, e.g., refs. 53,54,55. This morphology of iceberg ploughmark is present in all of the HR3D seismic datasets examined. The second class of ploughmark is broader and has a flatter base ( > 200 m wide) reflecting the imprint of a blocky iceberg with large dimensions or the grounded corner of a tabular berg, e.g., ref. 56. At between 300–2350 m wide, the subtle multi-keeled grooves which comprise the third class of ploughmark are one to two orders of magnitude wider than the other types observed in the HR3D seismic data and are only observed within the deeper waters of the Witch Ground Basin and west of the Norwegian Channel (Fig. 1a). The distinctive parallel groove morphology of these features reflects either ploughing by drifting tabular icebergs with massive dimensions (Fig. 4), e.g., refs. 57,58 or incision by drifting sea ice pressure ridges, e.g., ref. 59. These formative mechanisms can be distinguished simply by considering the palaeo water depths at which the ploughmarks were incised, as the keels of sea ice rarely exceed 20 m deep even where pressure ridging has occurred34,35,59. Palaeo-sea level reconstructions that account for eustasy and isostasy60,61 demonstrate that water depths in the region of the central North Sea where the multi-keeled grooves are buried were between ~50–180 m during the growth and retreat of the last BIIS (31–15 ka). This suggests that large icebergs, rather than thinner sea-ice floes, were responsible for the seafloor scouring. Given both the tendency for the ploughmarks to change direction over short ( < 200 m) distances (e.g., Fig. 5a), and the absence of multi-keeled ploughmarks further south in the basin where water depths would have been too shallow to accommodate large icebergs (Fig. 6)60, we conclude that the grounding of tabular icebergs was the formative mechanism of the multi-keeled grooves observed in the HR3D seismic data (Fig. 5).
a Multi-keeled iceberg ploughmarks on the Weddell Sea continental shelf. b Cross-cutting multi-keeled iceberg ploughmarks, up to 5 km wide, on the seafloor of the Barents Sea58. c Cross-sectional profiles of multi-keeled icebergs in the Weddell, Barents and North seas.
a Mapped HR3D seismic surface displaying two flowsets of multi-keeled iceberg ploughmarks cross-cut by smaller single-keeled ploughmarks. b–e Horizontal timeslices of multi-keeled iceberg ploughmarks buried at different depths in the HR3D seismic data. Note how the multi-keeled iceberg ploughmarks in (d) overprint the megascale glacial lineations (MSGLs), interpreted by Graham et al. 52 to be of Late Weichselian (last glacial) age. Ploughmark locations are displayed in Fig. 6.
Icebergs calved in the Witch Ground Basin would drift eastwards towards the Norwegian Channel before being routed northwards towards the continental shelf edge. The isostatically-corrected bathymetry of the central North Sea at 20 ka is from Bradley et al. 60, with bathymetric depth contours displayed every 25 m. Colored stippled lines represent the modeled ice margins of the last British-Irish (BIIS) and Fennoscandian (FIS) ice sheets at timeslices between 20 ka and 18 ka from Clark et al. 40. NCIS—Norwegian Channel Ice Stream.
As large tabular icebergs require full-thickness calving from ice shelves to form8, the recorded presence of multi-keeled ploughmarks in the central North Sea provides direct empirical evidence of floating ice shelves in this region during the last glacial period (Fig. 1a). The majority of the multi-keeled ploughmarks are located in the Witch Ground Basin over which the eastern flank of the BIIS retreated as it ‘unzipped' from the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet (FIS) across the central North Sea (Fig. 6)40,62. Iceberg ploughmarks observed in the Norwegian Channel off the west coast of Norway are typically oriented north-south63, implying a northward drift direction towards the shelf break. This pattern of currents would have likely taken icebergs calved from the BIIS in the Witch Ground Basin eastwards towards the Norwegian Channel before they were transported northwards; this proposed drift direction is supported by an observed shift in ploughmark orientation from NW-SE in the Witch Ground Basin towards a more NE-SW orientation in the HR3D datasets situated further to the east (Fig. 6). Conversely, the bathymetric sill between the Norwegian Channel and the southern central North Sea would have prevented large icebergs calved from the FIS with drafts exceeding 110 m from drifting towards the Witch Ground Basin60 (Fig. 6).
At ~50–180 m deep, the inferred keel depths of the tabular icebergs present in the North Sea are analogous in scale to those calved from small fringing ice shelves around modern Antarctica, such as the former Larsen A Ice Shelf, or the extant Brunt Ice Shelf in the NE Weddell Sea Embayment28. These ice shelves are typically of the order of ~104 km2 in area and extend ~40–110 km back to the grounding line. The presence of ice shelves in the North Sea had previously only been tentatively suggested from landform mapping46,47 and numerical model simulations that relied on highly parameterized ocean melt and calving processes, including sub-grid parameterizations of ice shelf movement and grounding-line retreat40. These simulations also did not include tidal effects; however, palaeo-tidal simulations demonstrate that this region had the lowest tidal range of all the northwest European ice stream outlets during deglaciation—conditions which would have favored ice shelf formation and stability64.
The geomorphological imprints of modern iceberg interactions with the seafloor are challenging to observe in action and, as a result, it is difficult to infer iceberg dimensions from the palaeo-record. One of the most informative examples capable of relating iceberg size to ploughmark dimensions exists on the mid-Norwegian margin where a 2 km wide multi-keeled iceberg ploughmark has been associated with a nearby planed-off debris-flow lobe, suggesting that the iceberg responsible for forming the ploughmarks was at least twice as wide as the seafloor imprint it left behind32. In other formerly glaciated regions, multi-keeled iceberg ploughmarks are commonly 0.3–5 km wide (Fig. 4)53,57,58,65,66.
Modern tabular icebergs calved from Antarctic ice shelves with thicknesses similar to those inferred to have existed in the North Sea can be larger than 1200 km2 in area and more than 50 km wide, such as iceberg A-74 which calved from the Brunt Ice Shelf in 2021 (1270 km2). On the modern seafloor of the Weddell Sea, multi-keeled iceberg ploughmarks up to 1.7 km wide have been observed in contemporary water depths of ~400 m (Fig. 4a)66. Tabular icebergs calved in this region between 1984 and 2001 had an average width of 2.4 km, although much larger tabular bergs, such as the 170 × 25 km A-76 (which calved from the Ronne Ice Shelf in 2021), were also produced sporadically27,67. Given that present-day water depths on Antarctic continental shelves where multi-keeled iceberg ploughmarks are observed are typically ~300–800 m68, it is likely that only the largest contemporary icebergs, or potentially even larger icebergs calved from a thicker ice sheet during the last glacial period69, are responsible for forming the multi-keeled ploughmarks in the Weddell Sea given their sparsity in this region and elsewhere around Antarctica36. Furthermore, even the largest multi-keeled ploughmarks observed in Pine Island Trough, West Antarctica, are less than 500 m wide despite the glaciers in this region regularly producing tabular icebergs that are up to 1000 s of km2 in planimetric area and 10s–100 km wide36.
Whilst it is challenging to estimate the original dimensions of icebergs from the seafloor ploughmarks they produce during drift—especially when most contemporary analogs are located in far deeper waters than those present in the North Sea during the last glaciation—a general observation is that multi-keeled ploughmarks tend to be several times smaller than the width of the iceberg which formed them32,36,53,66. Using palaeo-water depths60 to infer the thickness of the North Sea icebergs, assuming hydrostatic equilibrium, e.g., ref. 70, and typical freeboard-width ratios of modern Antarctic tabular icebergs67, we estimate that feasible widths of the North Sea tabular icebergs could have ranged from ~500–10,000 m; this range is roughly in agreement with the width of the multi-keeled ploughmarks mapped in the HR3D seismic data. Consequently, given the dimensions of the multi-keeled iceberg ploughmarks observed in the central North Sea and those of their ancient and modern counterparts, the largest tabular icebergs calved from the BIIS during the last glacial period were at least 2350 m wide (the widest observed multi-keeled ploughmark), but their true size was probably significantly larger at 5–10 s km in width.
Modern rates of iceberg calving are primarily set by structural and internal stresses within an ice shelf created as ice flows towards the ice margin8,12,23. Increased fracturing or thinning due to substantial changes in ice flow or ocean-induced basal melting can diminish the structural integrity of an ice shelf, potentially resulting in a calving regime transition that may drive rapid changes to terminus position, or make an ice shelf more susceptible to external environmental drivers that could precondition or trigger rapid collapse cf. 8,12. Most rapid disintegration-style events observed to date in the observational era were ultimately triggered by enhanced surface and/or basal melting4,7,9,10,13,71.
The multi-keeled iceberg ploughmarks observed in the Witch Ground Basin are situated directly above glacial lineations ( ~ 35 m b.s.f.) formed by the flow of grounded ice just prior to the retreat of the last BIIS from this part of the central North Sea, an event that has been dated to ~20 ka51,52. At shallower burial depths within our data at this location ( ~ 12 m b.s.f.), evidence of multi-keeled iceberg ploughmarks disappears and stratigraphic horizons dated largely to 17–14 ka are instead ploughed by smaller single V-shaped grooves; these in turn are buried by postglacial Holocene muds and silts52,72. This switch in the type of iceberg ploughmark demonstrates that a calving regime shift from broad parallel comb-like to single iceberg ploughmarks occurred sometime between ~19–17 ka, when the sporadic calving of large tabular icebergs ceased and instead switched to the production of many smaller single-keeled icebergs.
In contemporary settings, similar transitions in iceberg production have been associated with ice shelf collapse through the process of repeated iceberg fracture, detachment, and a corresponding acceleration in mass loss for the grounded portions of marine-based ice sheets22. For example, the Larsen B Ice Shelf collapsed at a rate of ~10 km week−1 once the calving of large tabular icebergs ceased and mass was instead removed via the loss of numerous, yet relatively small ( < 250 m wide), pieces of the ice shelf8,71. Once lost, the reduction in buttressing from ice shelves has an almost instantaneous effect on ice flow3,73, resulting in rapid increases in ice flux over the grounding line that can propagate far inland with significant implications for ice sheet stability8. We therefore interpret the regime shift in iceberg production to represent a significant event in the mass loss from the BIIS: the widespread disintegration of its ice shelves in the North Sea between ~19–17 ka. In this broader context, it is notable that there is a coincidence between the timing of disintegration of the BIIS ice shelves and the saddle collapse of the grounded portions of the BIIS and FIS across the North Sea40(Fig. 1a).
An important question, therefore, is whether ice shelf breakup was the main driver of accelerated grounded ice retreat across the North Sea, or was disintegration merely a symptom of enhanced ice sheet mass loss that was already underway when the ice shelves collapsed? Almost all modern ice shelves serve to buttress inland ice8, providing a ‘safety band' which slows the flow of grounded ice towards the ocean1,2. The efficacy of buttressing is significantly reduced, however, when ice shelves are laterally unconfined by the surrounding ice or bedrock14, as is the case for several East Antarctic ice shelves2. The BIIS's ice shelves are modeled to be largest in embayments where the margins of the ice shelves are laterally confined, particularly at 20 ka and 19 ka where grounded ice is pinned around the rim of the Witch Ground Basin (Fig. 6). Accordingly, the former ice shelves fringing the BIIS likely restrained the flow of upstream grounded ice towards several of the BIIS's marine terminating margins. It then follows that any reduction in ice shelf area would reduce buttressing and result in accelerated grounded ice retreat across the relatively smooth low-gradient bed of the central North Sea.
Ice shelves are sensitive to environmental changes in both the atmosphere and the ocean10,74,75. Their destablization can arise via surface thinning through melting, hydrofracture, lake ponding and drainage4,19, or through weakening from beneath via basal melting, undercutting, grounding line retreat, or in response to increased ocean swell18,20,30,76. The thermal limit of extant Antarctic ice shelves has been observed to follow the migration of the –9 °C mean annual air temperature isotherm11 because above this temperature extensive melt ponds form in summer which lead to large scale ice shelf fragmentation and collapse driven by hydrofracturing7. Recently, however, it has been argued that the melt-over-accumulation ratio plays a more important role than annual mean temperature for setting the threshold of Antarctic ice shelf stability77. Although reconstructions of the demise of the BIIS show that retreat initiated at around 22 ka—thousands of years prior to deglacial warming and CO2 rise—changes in ice sheet volume appear to mirror variability in June insolation40. This suggests that the earlier start of deglaciation may have been triggered by orbitally induced increasing levels of summer solar radiation that produced greater surface melting40,78. Accordingly, it is feasible that the magnitude of surface melting reached a threshold between ~19–17 ka, causing the ice shelves fringing the BIIS to undergo widespread hydrofracture and collapse, accelerating ice losses around its marine margins. A shift in surface meltwater presence has also been linked to the rapid deposition of thick grounding-line proximal glacimarine muds that were deposited in the Witch Ground Basin at around this time79. Alternatively, changes to internal ice sheet dynamics, potentially driven by the effects of sea-level rise and/or atmospheric or ocean warming, could also have altered the calving regime through facilitating different rifting patterns and calving frequencies.
Regime transitions in iceberg calving from modern Antarctic ice shelves currently represent some of the largest uncertainties in sea-level rise projections, yet very few examples of complete ice shelf loss have been observed, and humanity is yet to witness the longer-timescale equilibration of an ice sheet to the loss of its ice shelves8. Our observations document that such a regime transition occurred previously in the North Sea, with the style of ice shelf calving shifting from the full thickness calving of tabular icebergs to the rapid calving of numerous smaller ice blocks as the BIIS's ice shelves disintegrated—an event that coincided with the collapse of the BIIS's marine-based sectors. The scarce number of ice shelf collapse events that have been documented in the satellite era suggests that similar transitions in iceberg calving regime are often associated with rapid ice shelf loss4,8.
Such events represent a mere blink of an eye in the long-term lifecycle of an ice sheet and its corresponding sedimentary legacy. Consequently, advances in the resolution and precision of chronological constraints in the North Sea are presently required to decipher whether ice shelf loss triggered the collapse of the marine sectors of the BIIS, or whether disintegration was merely a symptom of wider ice sheet losses that were already underway when its ice shelves collapsed. However, the impacts of such a shift were likely far longer-lasting and more substantial than the duration of the event itself, especially in the case of the relatively flat-bedded areas of the former BIIS. This is because recent work has highlighted how ice shelf thinning, iceberg calving and/or sea-level rise can trigger pulses of very rapid grounding line retreat at rates of at least 2 km yr-1 80,81, and potentially up to 600 m day -1 82, across relatively shallow-gradient ( < 0.1°) beds after ice contact with stabilizing topographic high points is lost. As much of the regional gradient of the isostatically rebounded central North Sea also falls below this threshold60, it is possible that similarly high rates of ice retreat were promoted across the central North Sea as the grounding line unpinned from the rim of the Witch Ground Basin in response to ice shelf disintegration. The North Sea ice shelves documented here may therefore have played a significant role in promoting the stability of the BIIS in response to early deglacial warming. Given that extensive areas of the contemporary Antarctic Ice Sheet are grounded on similarly low or retrograde gradient beds83, further assessment of how the transition in calving regime and subsequent loss of ice shelves documented by our data preconditioned, or even triggered, the demise of the BIIS may provide crucial insights on future sea-level rise trajectories from the Earth's remaining ice sheets.
We examined the morphology of the former North Sea seafloor using high-resolution 3D (HR3D) seismic data, which reveal intricate morphological structures of glacial origin that cannot be resolved using conventional 3D seismic methods84,85,86. Seven HR3D seismic datasets were examined in the central North Sea (Fig. 1a) covering a combined area of ~67 km2. The data were acquired using two 1200 m-long streamers towed 3 m beneath the sea surface with 96 hydrophone groups at 12.5 m spacing with a response that varied by <±0.5 dB over frequencies between 2–500 Hz, a 6.25 m shot interval and a 1-ms sample rate87. The seismic source was two 160-inch3 sleeve airgun clusters with a 20–250 Hz effective frequency band. Data processing included swell noise attenuation, tide correction, multiple suppression, two passes of velocity analysis run at 250 × 250 m intervals, normal moveout correction and bandpass filtering. The final processed datasets consist of time migrated 3D stacks with a 1 ms sample rate, a 6.25 × 6.25 m bin size, a vertical resolution of ~4 m, and a detection limit along individual reflectors of ~0.5 m84,88. Palaeo-seafloor morphology was examined using sequential horizontal timeslices from the HR3D seismic volumes in S&P Global Kingdom software. Each former seafloor was digitized in 3D as an individual seismic horizon. The mapped seismic horizons were converted from two-way travel time (TWT) to depth using a sound velocity of 1850 m s−1 89.
Multibeam bathymetric data from the Weddell Sea were acquired from RV Polarstern with a 15.5 kHz ATLAS Hydrosweep DS3 system during cruise PS96 in 2015–201666,90. Data were gridded at a 25 m resolution, and iceberg ploughmarks on the seafloor were mapped in ArcGIS software.
The confidential industry datasets analysed in this study are owned by BP, Harbour Energy, Equinor Energy AS, Petoro AS, Aker BP ASA, TotalEnergies EP Norge AS, and TGS. Interpretations made from these data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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We thank BP, Harbour Energy, CNOOC, Equinor Energy AS, Lundin Energy Norway AS, Petoro AS, Aker BP ASA, TotalEnergies EP Norge AS and TGS for access and permission to publish images extracted from the HR3D seismic data and the Central North Sea MegaSurveyPlus. S&P Global and Schlumberger are thanked for providing academic seismic interpretation software licenses. J.D.K. was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (grant NE/L002507/1). K.A.H., R.D.L. and C.-D.H. were supported by the Natural Environment Research Council – British Antarctic Survey Polar Science for a Sustainable Planet programme. J.C.E. was supported by a NERC independent research fellowship (NE/R014574/1). C.D.C. was supported by the European Research Council (PalGlac; Grant Agreement No. 787263). The interpretations made in this paper are the views of the authors and not necessarily those of the license owners.
British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Cambridge, UK
James D. Kirkham, Kelly A. Hogan, Robert D. Larter & Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand
Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
James D. Kirkham, Neil S. Arnold & Julian A. Dowdeswell
Gardline Limited, Great Yarmouth, UK
Ed Self & Ken Games
School of Geography and Planning, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
Jeremy C. Ely & Chris D. Clark
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Penryn, Cornwall, UK
James D. Scourse
Norwegian Polar Institute, Tromsø, Norway
Calvin Shackleton
University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Department of Ecosystem Management, Climate and Biodiversity, Spatial and Infrastructure Sciences, Institute of Geomatics, Vienna, Austria
Jan Erik Arndt
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
Mads Huuse
British Geological Survey, The Lyell Centre, Research Avenue South, Edinburgh, UK
Margaret A. Stewart
Geological Survey of Norway, Torgarden, Trondheim, Norway
Dag Ottesen
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J.D.K., K.A.H., R.D.L., J.A.D., and N.S.A. conceived the study. E.S., K.G. and M.H. worked with data owners to gain permission for the use of the 3D seismic data in this project, and C.-D.H., J.E.A., and C.S. provided and contributed to the interpretation of the multibeam bathymetric data. J.D.K. analysed the 3D seismic data with contributions from K.A.H., R.D.L., J.A.D., E.S., M.H., M.A.S., and D.O. The BRITICE-CHRONO model data were provided by J.C.E., C.D.C., and J.D.S. J.D.K. wrote the initial draft of the manuscript and produced the figures.
Correspondence to
James D. Kirkham.
The authors declare no competing interests.
Nature Communications thanks Richard Gyllencreutz, who coreviewed with Ankit Pramanik, and Jason Coenen for their contribution to the peer review of this work. A peer review file is available.
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Kirkham, J.D., Hogan, K.A., Larter, R.D. et al. Change in iceberg calving behavior preceded North Sea ice shelf disintegration during the last deglaciation.
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Facebook will begin lowering the reach of accounts sharing spammy content and making them ineligible for monetization, Meta announced on Thursday. The company is also increasing efforts to remove Facebook accounts that coordinate fake engagement and impersonate others, it says.
The move comes as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has promised a return to “OG Facebook.” The social network's plan to crack down on spammy content could be seen as an attempt to return to Facebook's glory days when users' feeds were filled with authentic content from real people.
Meta admits that some accounts on its platform try to game the algorithm to increase views or gain unfair monetization advantages, which results in spammy content flooding users' feeds. To remedy this, it's cracking down on accounts that exhibit certain types of spammy behavior.
This type of behavior includes accounts that share content with long captions alongside an excessive number of hashtags. It also includes accounts that post content with captions that are unrelated to the content, such as an image of a dog with a caption about airplane facts.
Meta says that while the intention behind these sorts of posts isn't always malicious, it does lead to spammy content that ends up overshadowing original content from creators.
Facebook will also target spam networks that create hundreds of networks to share the same spammy content, making them ineligible for monetization.
The crackdown on spammy content comes as AI slop is becoming a serious problem across social media platforms, including Facebook. The company told TechCrunch that its crackdown is not targeting AI slop directly, but notes that accounts engaging in spammy behavior while also sharing that type of content will be impacted. Facebook says it's aware of the concerns around AI slop cluttering users' feeds and says it will address the issue as part of its broader focus on improving users' feeds.
As part of today's announcement, Facebook also said that it will reduce the reach and visibility of comments that it detects as fake engagement. Plus, Facebook will start testing a comments feature that will allow users to signal which comments are irrelevant or don't fit in the context of the conversation.
In addition, Facebook announced that it's updating its comment management tool to detect and auto-hide comments from people who may be using a fake identity. Creators will also be able to report impersonators in the comments.
Today's announcement comes a few weeks after Facebook introduced a revamped “Friends” tab that will only showcase updates from friends, without any other recommended content. Both the new Friends tab and the crackdown on spammy content show that Facebook is trying to improve users' feeds and show them content that they actually want to see.
It's not a surprise that Facebook is looking to return to “OG Facebook,” especially since recently uncovered emails from 2022 showed that Zuckerberg was concerned that the social network was losing cultural relevance.
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Aisha is a consumer news reporter at TechCrunch. Prior to joining the publication in 2021, she was a telecom reporter at MobileSyrup. Aisha holds an honours bachelor's degree from University of Toronto and a master's degree in journalism from Western University.
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A 9.5x reticle size SiP on a massive substrate.
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You might often think of processors as being relatively small, but TSMC is developing a version of its CoWoS technology that will enable its partners to build multi-chiplet assemblies that will be 9.5-reticle sized (7,885 mm^2) and will rely on 120×150 mm substrates (18,000 mm^2), which is slightly larger than the size of a CD case. TSMC claims these behemoths could offer up to 40 times the performance of a standard processor.
Virtually all modern high-performance data center-grade processors use multi-chiplet designs, and as demands for performance increase, developers want to integrate even more silicon into their products.
In an effort to meet demand, TSMC is enhancing its packaging capabilities to support significantly larger chip assemblies for high-performance computing and AI applications. At its North American Technology Symposium, TSMC unveiled its new 3DFabric roadmap, which aims to scale interposer sizes well beyond current limits.
Currently, TSMC CoWoS offers chip packaging solutions that enable interposer sizes of up to 2831 mm^2, which is approximately 3.3 times larger than the company's reticle (photomask) size limit (858 mm^2 per EUV standard, with TSMC using 830 mm^2). This capacity is already utilized by products like AMD's Instinct MI300X accelerators and Nvidia's B200 GPUs, which combine two large logic chiplets for compute with eight stacks of HBM3 or HBM3E memory. But that's not enough for future applications.
Sometimes next year, or a bit later, TSMC plans to introduce the next generation of its CoWoS-L packaging technology, which will support interposers measuring up to 4,719 mm^2, roughly 5.5 times larger than the standard reticle area. The package will accommodate up to 12 stacks of high-bandwidth memory and will require a larger substrate measuring 100×100 mm (10,000 mm^2). The company expects that solutions built on this generation of packaging will deliver more than three and a half times the compute performance of current designs. While this solution may be enough for Nvidia's Rubin GPUs with 12 HBM4 stacks, processors that will offer more compute horsepower will require even more silicon.
Looking further ahead, TSMC intends to scale this packaging approach even more aggressively. The company plans to offer interposers with an area of up to 7,885 mm^2, approximately 9.5 times the photomask limit, mounted on a 120×150 mm substrate (for context, a standard CD jewel case measures approximately 142×125 mm).
This represents an increase from an 8x-reticle-sized multi-chiplet assembly on a 120×120mm substrate that TSMC presented last year, and this increase likely reflects the requests from the foundry's customers. Such a package is expected to support four 3D stacked systems-on-integrated chips (SoICs, e.g., an N2/A16 die stacked on top of an N3 logic die), twelve HBM4 memory stacks, and additional input/output dies (I/O Die).
However, TSMC has customers who demand extreme performance and are willing to pay for it. For them, TSMC offers its System-on-Wafer (SoW-X) technology, which enables wafer-level integration. For now, only Cerebras and Tesla use wafer-level integration for their WFE and Dojo processors for AI, but TSMC believes there will be customers beyond these two companies with similar requirements.
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Without a doubt, 9.5-reticle-sized or wafer-sized processors are hard to build and assemble. But these multi-chiplet solutions require high-current kilowatt-level power delivery, and this is getting harder for server makers and chip developers, so it needs to be addressed at the system level. At its 2025 Technology Symposium, TSMC outlined a power delivery strategy designed to enable efficient and scalable power delivery at kilowatt-class levels.
To address processors with kilowatt-class power requirements, TSMC wants to integrate monolithic power management ICs (PMICs) with TSVs made on TSMC's N16 FinFET technology and on-wafer inductors directly into CoWoS-L packages with RDL interposers, enabling power routing through the substrate itself. This reduces distance between power sources and active dies, lowering parasitic resistance and improving system-wide power integrity.
TSMC claims that its N16-based PMIC can easily handle fine-grained voltage control for dynamic voltage scaling (DVS) at the required current levels, achieving up to five times higher power delivery density compared to conventional approaches. In addition, embedded deep trench capacitors (eDTC/DTC), built directly into the interposer or silicon substrate, provide high-density decoupling (up to 2,500 nF/mm^2) to improve power stability by filtering voltage fluctuations close to the die and ensure reliable operation even under rapid workload changes. This embedded approach enables effective DVS and improved transient response, both of which are critical for managing power efficiency in complex, multi-core, or multi-die designs.
In general, TSMC's power delivery approach reflects a shift toward system-level co-optimization, where power delivery to silicon is treated as an integral part of the silicon, packaging, and system design, not a separate feature of each component.
The move to much larger interposer sizes will have consequences for system design, particularly in terms of packaging form factors. The planned 100×100 mm substrate is close to the physical limits of the OAM 2.0 form factor, which measures 102×165 mm. The subsequent 120×150 mm substrate will exceed these dimensions, likely requiring new standards for module packaging and board layout to accommodate the increased size.
Beyond physical constraints and power consumption, these huge multi-chiplet SiPs generate an enormous amount of heat. To address this, hardware manufacturers are already exploring advanced cooling methods, including direct liquid cooling (a technology already adopted by Nvidia for its GB200/GB300 NVL72 designs) and immersion cooling technologies, to handle the thermal loads associated with multi-kilowatt processors. However, TSMC can't address that problem on the chip or SiP level — at least for now.
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.
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AMD's third RDNA4 GPU is ready to roll, but it might be exclusive to Chinese customers
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AMD is reportedly set to launch its latest and most affordable RX 9070 series graphics card, the RX 9070 GRE (Great Radeon Edition). Videocardz reports that it has official photos of the RX 9070 GRE, indicating that the cards are ready for launch and countering allegedly previous rumors that the GRE variant would be delayed until Q4 2025.
Videocardz obtained pictures of two (out of three) RX 9070 GRE variants from PowerColor, a Red Devil model and a Reaper version, each sporting triple-fan cooler designs with a red and black color scheme. Box art featuring a combination of English and Chinese text indicates these cards could be Chinese exclusive, or at the very least, sold in the Chinese market.
The GPU-focused site confirmed that the RX 9070 GRE Red Devil will feature a dual 8-pin power connector setup, similar to most RX 9070 AIB partner models and lower-end RX 9070 XT trims, and utilize the same cooler as the RX 9070 XT Red Devil. The GRE variant allegedly sports a 650W minimum power supply requirement.
Videocardz also states that previously leaked specs for the RX 9070 GRE are true. The RX 9070 GRE will come with the same Navi 48 GPU die as the RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT, but it will be severely stripped down, sporting just 3,072 enabled cores, and a stripped-down memory interface sporting a 192-bit bus and 12GB of GDDR6 memory, with a maximum boost clock of 2.79 GHz.
Compared to the previous generation, the RX 9070 GRE is most similar to the RX 7700 XT, which came with 3,456 cores and a 192-bit interface.
AMD has not officially announced the RX 9070 GRE nor which RDNA3 GPU it is aimed to replace. But logically, the RX 7700 XT would be the RX 9070 GRE's predecessor. AMD confirmed previously that the RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT were intended to replace the RX 7800 XT, RX 7900 GRE, and RX 7900 XT.
If Videocardz's information is legitimate, the RX 9070 GRE will launch before the RX 9060 XT, which has a rumored launch date of May 18th.Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
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Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.
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Considering how Carrie Bradshaw doesn't give a damn about technology ecosystems in her later years (she uses a MacBook Pro and dual wields an iPhone and BlackBerry Key2 in the Sex and the City sequel And Just Like That), I'd say there's a good chance she'd rock these Motorola Moto Buds Loop in “Pantone-curated French Oak” with Swarovski crystals.
If not for the bling embedded in each open-ear wireless earbud, she'd probably wear AirPods like every basic bitch walking around Manhattan. She definitely wouldn't be caught wearing the non-Swarovski version of the Moto Buds Loop that come in “Pantone-curated Trekking Green” aka forest green.
I don't blame you if you've never heard of open-ear wireless earbuds. They're kind of a recent trend. Instead of the buds sitting snuggly inside of your ears, pumping sound straight into your ear canal, the Buds Loop clip onto your ears like oversized earrings and gently beam audio into them. They're basically the same style earbuds as the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds. Unsurprisingly, the sound itself is engineered by Bose. Needless to say, there's a lot more audio leakage compared to traditional wireless earbuds. The upside to an open-ear designs is that you can hear your surroundings without needing to turn on any transparency/ambient modes. A klutz like Carrie would appreciate this given her penchant to not pay attention to what's happening in the streets.
The Swarovski special edition is no doubt aimed at fashion-conscious consumers. I wasn't about to get an ear infection trying them out at Motorola's packed media pre-briefing so I can't speak to how they sound. But in case you're not turned off by the shininess and you're curious about tech specs, here's what Motorola has shared. They have 12mm “ironless drivers,” feature spatial sound for multi-directional audio, and battery life is up to 8 hours with a single charge and up to 37 hours with the case. And because you gotta throw in some AI support these days, Motorola says the buds can also do stuff like read you AI-summaries of your notifications, though you do need a compatible Motorola phone with Moto AI built-in.
I asked Motorola for pricing and release date on the Buds Loop (including the Swarovski version), and was told by a PR representative that they'll share that information “closer to availability.” Hopefully the regular models are competitively priced with the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds, which retail for $300. The Swarovski model—that's gonna cost a pretty penny for sure!
audioMotorolawireless earbuds
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Moto AI on the Razr, Razr+, and Razr Ultra is basically like the Avengers.
There could be two or three folding Razr smartphones in this year's spring lineup, all with a little bit of "Moto AI."
The Moto G Stylus sweetens the deal with a built-in stylus, a large battery, and access to Google's best AI feature.
The JBL Charge 6 is built to bring the party, no matter the setting.
The JBL Flip 7 punches way above its weight.
The budget Moto G and Moto G Power aren't whopping performers, but they'll get you through a long day with wired headphones.
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Two things were glaringly clear to me after sitting through a 2.5-hour event yesterday where Motorola pre-briefed press on its new trio of Razr Android phones. The company really believes in the flip-style foldable form factor popularized by Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip and it thinks more AI, shoved ever deeper into the software, will rescue us from the cruelty of pecking on apps and buttons with our fingers.
Debuting today are three Razr flip-style phones: Razr, Razr+, and Razr Ultra. You can think of them as good, better, and best. Motorola claims the Razr Ultra is the most powerful flip-style smartphone with the best camera system available. We'll be the judge of that when we get a device in for review. But the specs—including the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset—at least backs that up on paper.
They all look pretty similar, but here's how you can spot the difference without pulling up a comparison chart. As the most premium model, the Razr Ultra sports the largest internal screen (7 inches), a dedicated Moto AI button on the left side, and fancier finishes such as Italian-made Alcantara, satin, faux leather, and wood. Upgrades over the other Razrs that you can't eyeball right away: 50 megapixels for the main, ultra-wide, and selfie cameras; a large 4,700mAh battery; 68W wired charging; 30W wireless charging; and 5W reverse wireless charging.
The Razr+ looks nearly identical to the Razr Ultra, but comes with a slightly smaller 6.9-inch internal screen, no physical AI button, a smaller 4,000mAh battery, slower charging (45W wired and 15W wireless), and a lower-resolution selfie camera (32 megapixels). It also has a less powerful Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset.
Sitting at the entry-level, the plainly named Razr has a smaller 3.6-inch external display (there's a “forehead” bezel not present on the Razr+ and Razr Ultra), lower-resolution cameras (50-megapixel main, 13-megapixel ultra-wide, and 32-megapixel selfie), and a mid-range MediaTek Dimensity 7400X chipset. However, the Razr does have a larger 4,500mAh battery than the Razr+.
I got to play with all three briefly and they all felt well-built to me, with the only major physical quality difference being the materials and finishes. I really liked the luxurious Alcantara on the Razr Ultra, but the polished aluminum and plastic Razr didn't feel cheap in my opinion.
Motorola boasted other quality-of-life upgrades for the new Razrs. The hinges are titanium, which the company says is four time stronger than before and can handle “up to 35% more folds” compared to previous generation Razr flip phones. Motorola also says the crease on the internal folding display is 30% less visible (unclear how Motorola arrived at that number but it does seem less visible), and the Razr Ultra supposedly has the strongest external screen thanks to it being Corning Gorilla Glass Ceramic.
Gadget nerds might be salivating over the specs, especially the ones on the Razr Ultra, but the real appeal to these new flip-style phones might be Moto AI. Rather than develop its own AI—and risk embarrassing itself like a certain fruit-named tech giant—Motorola is partnering up with AI leaders and using their large language models and logic reasoning in the background for various tasks. Perplexity, the AI “answer engine” that's been chipping away at Google's search relevance, is deeply integrated into the Android 15 operating system. Google's Gemini, Meta's Llama, Microsoft's Copilot, also power different aspects of Moto AI, assisting with general AI features like tasks suggestions (i.e. calling an Uber on your behalf or drafting an email), summarization, memory recall (think surfacing information from notes and screenshots), and more. Missing is any integration with OpenAI's ChatGPT (and there's probably a reason for that) and Anthropic's Claude.
The cameras also have Moto AI baked in with a feature called Signature Style. The phones use AI to automatically adjust tone and colors and then learns based on how you edit your shots. It sounds neat, but that also diminishes the whole point of photos which is that they usually don't have the same uninspired look to them. I want to mix it up with my photos! Not have a specific look.
Fact is, every phone maker is promising game-changing AI features that they're touting as more convenient or efficient. AI crammed deeper into your phone will help anticipate your needs! AI will save you from hundreds of taps every day. AI will finally fulfill the “intelligent” promises that voice assistants such as Siri, Alexa, and the Google Assistant failed at.
That's the AI dream everyone (including Motorola) is selling. The AI in these new Razr phones is better and more useful, but also not quite capable enough to fully offload everything to just yet. And who even knows when that'll be, if that ever happens. (Naturally, Motorola didn't address AI hallucinations.)
All three Razrs will be available for preorder on May 7 and available unlocked on May 15. The Razr costs $699.99, the Razr+ is $999.99, and the Razr Ultra is $1,299.99.
Foldable smartphoneMotorolaMotorola Razr
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AirPods have nothing on the Motorola's fashion-conscious Moto Buds Loop open-ear wireless earbuds.
There could be two or three folding Razr smartphones in this year's spring lineup, all with a little bit of "Moto AI."
The Moto G Stylus sweetens the deal with a built-in stylus, a large battery, and access to Google's best AI feature.
The upcoming Galaxy G Fold could be just the thing we need to get excited about phones again.
Rumors suggest the iPhone 17 Air is happening to help Apple figure outs its foldables.
The budget Moto G and Moto G Power aren't whopping performers, but they'll get you through a long day with wired headphones.
We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our sites.
©2025 GIZMODO USA LLC. All rights reserved.
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Thankfully, Nvidia doesn't seem to be pushing the 5060 Ti 8GB cards very hard.
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The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB and RTX 4060 Ti 16GB represent the new and old guards of the 16GB realm for Team Green. Both of these are mainstream GPU offerings, ostensibly priced in the $430–$500 range. We weren't particularly impressed with the 4060 Ti 16GB at launch, but our feelings have tempered over time — helped by an unofficial $50 price cut — with both having appeared on our list of the best graphics cards.
The Nvidia Ada Lovelace 4060 Ti 16GB card originally launched over a month after the initial RTX 4060 Ti 8GB card, with a $100 price premium. Throughout the ensuing two years, the 8GB card has been more readily available, though as noted already, street prices on the 16GB card did drop by $50 at times.
Conversely, the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB and 8GB variants technically launched at the same time on April 16, 2025, with only a $50 price gap. So far, the 16GB models have been far more widespread in the U.S., to the point where we have not yet been able to purchase an 8GB card at retail for testing.
Given the ongoing concerns with having only 8GB of VRAM, we feel it makes the most sense to compare the new and old 16GB xx60 Ti cards. We'll look primarily at performance, as well as power, features, and pricing. In theory, this should be a very easy win for the new Nvidia Blackwell GPU, but let's see how they actually stack up.
Specifications for the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB and RTX 4060 Ti 16GB are mostly similar, with a few key upgrades for the newer GPU. While both the GB206 and AD106 dies have a maximum of 36 SMs (Streaming Multiprocessors), the 5060 Ti uses the fully enabled chip while the 4060 Ti disables a pair of SMs. That cascades through the GPU shaders, tensor cores, RT cores, and TMUs, giving the 5060 Ti a theoretical 6% advantage. However, clock speeds also factor into performance, and the 5060 Ti comes with a 2,572 MHz boost clock compared to 2,535 MHz on the 4060 Ti, another 1.5% advantage.
The core counts are a "hard" spec, but the clock speeds are a bit fuzzy. Power limits also come into play, and the 5060 Ti has a 180W TGP compared to 165W on the 4060 Ti 16GB. In practice, across our 21-game test suite, the 5060 Ti 16GB averaged clock speeds of 2,776 MHz compared to 2,725 MHz on the 4060 Ti 16GB — a slightly larger 1.9% advantage in favor of the newer card. Combined with SM and core counts, that gives the 5060 Ti 16GB an 8% advantage in raw compute.
That's pretty negligible in terms of a gen-on-gen increase, but architectural updates can further impact the real-world performance. More pertinent than the raw compute is the memory subsystem. The RTX 5060 Ti 16GB has 28 Gbps GDDR7 memory while the RTX 4060 Ti 16GB has 18 Gbps GDDR6 memory. That means the newer part has a 56% advantage in raw memory bandwidth — though architecture and timings can still play a role.
Taken together, based on the specifications, you should expect to see the newer GPU outperform its predecessor by anywhere from 8% to 56%, depending on whether a particular game or workload relies more on raw compute, memory bandwidth, or a blend of the two. In practice, compute tends to be the more important metric. As such, we'd expect a 15~25 percent lead from the 5060 Ti. Let's see how things go in actual benchmarks.
For most people, gaming performance will be the most important factor in choosing a graphics card. We have a test suite of 21 games, 6 of which have ray tracing enabled and 15 with pure rasterization. Upscaling and frame generation are disabled for all these tests, as we view those as "performance enhancers" rather than baseline features that should be compared.
Both the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB and RTX 4060 Ti 16GB support Nvidia's various DLSS features, though the 5060 Ti also offers MFG (Multi Frame Generation) — which can smooth out performance but definitely doesn't improve the actual feel of games that support it as much as the numbers might suggest. The experience of DLSS 3 framegen in our view tends to be inflated by about 50–60 percent (meaning, divide the resulting number by 1.5–1.6 to get a realistic view of what it feels like), while MFG 4X is about a 170–200 percent inflation (divide by 2.7–3.0).
Those are fuzzy approximations, but basically if you get less than a 50% "increase" in framerates via framegen, we would argue that it actually feels like a step backward. Likewise, less than a 170% increase from MFG 4X would be a net loss. Or to put hard numbers on it, if the base performance is 60 FPS, framegen needs to run at 90 FPS or more and MFG 4X needs to run at 160 FPS or more. Some would argue even those figures are too generous, but our main point is that "FPS" inflation via frame generation techniques has been heavily abused as a true indication of performance.
The charts and tables provide all the important numbers, so we're not going to dig into every single result. We're mostly interested in the overall trends, recognizing that individual games can come in above or below the averages. That's why we have an extensive 21 game test suite, with equal weighting given to each result via a geometric mean calculation.
The nice thing about comparing two Nvidia GPUs, even though they're different architectures, is that relative performance ends up being pretty consistent across both rasterization and ray tracing games. AMD and Intel GPUs vary quite a bit more, depending on what specific games are used.
Overall, the 5060 Ti 16GB outperforms the RTX 4060 Ti 16GB by 16% at 1080p medium, 17% in the ray tracing suite, and 16% in the rasterization suite. That means the 5060 Ti and 4060 Ti generally aren't CPU limited, even at 1080p medium. The minimum FPS (1% lows) shows similar consistency. Looking at the individual games, the 5060 Ti 16GB leads by 6% (Assassin's Creed Mirage) to as much as 29% (A Plague Tale: Requiem).
Bumping up to 1080p ultra settings, most of the deltas are virtually unchanged. The 5060 Ti 16GB still leads by 16% overall, 17% in the ray tracing suite, and 16% in the rasterization games. Minimum FPS ends up slightly closer overall at 18%, but with a wider 23% spread in our ray tracing tests and 16% in the rasterization games. Across all 21 games, we measured an 8% (Starfield) to 26% (Plague Tale: Requiem and Space Marine 2) delta in favor of the 5060 Ti.
Given the memory bandwidth advantage, the 5060 Ti 16GB should increase its overall lead at higher resolutions, and it does — just not by much. It's 18% faster overall at 1440p ultra, and 18% in both the rasterization and ray tracing suites. The various games show an advantage of 9% (Starfield) to 29% (Plague Tale and Space Marine 2, again).
Finally, at 4K ultra, we see the biggest lead for the 5060 Ti 16GB. Across the full 21-game suite it's 21% faster than the 4060 Ti 16GB, with a 20% lead in the ray tracing games and a 22% lead in the rasterization tests. The smallest advantage improves to 12% (Avatar), with the biggest lead being 33% (Space Marine 2).
Looking at other potential workloads, we have various disciplines that all loosely fall under the content creation umbrella. AI workloads include Stable Diffusion image generation, LLaMa text generation, image classification, inference, and other tasks. We also have 3D rendering via Blender, video transcoding using SPEC Workstation 4.0, and the Viewport test suite from SPEC Workstation 4.0.
Many people — particularly gamers — may never do any of these tasks on their PC, though it's worth nothing that Nvidia's push for "neural rendering" techniques can also extend into AI-powered NPCs. That's not something we can directly benchmark at present, but there's potential for the AI performance to become more important in the coming years if AI NPCs catch on in some major games.
Of all the content creation tasks, we think the AI tests deserve the most attention. As noted above, such workloads could become a bigger part of how people use their PCs and graphics cards in the future, even within games. Overall, the 5060 Ti 16GB delivers about a 24% lead in AI workloads compared to the RTX 4060 Ti 16GB. It's also worth mentioning that none of these AI tests at present leverage the FP4 support that was added to the tensor cores in the Blackwell architecture, so there's potential for even more of an AI deficit if future applications make use of that number format.
Video transcoding ends up being a virtual tie, indicating there's not a huge difference between the NVENC/NVDEC blocks in Ada and Blackwell. The 5060 Ti takes a 4% lead by virtue of running at slightly higher clock speeds, though Nvidia did supposedly improve the encoding quality — that's not something these tests measure, unfortunately.
3D modeling using Blender basically matches what we saw in gaming performance. Overall, the 5060 Ti 16GB runs 20% faster than the 4060 Ti 16GB, with a spread of 14% to 29% in the three different scenes. SolidWorks agrees with that number, while 3ds Max shows an even larger 31% lead for the 5060 Ti.
Those last two are part of the SPEC Workstation 4.0 Viewport tests, which show a 17% lead overall for the 5060 Ti, with a range of 1% (Creo) to as much as 31% (3ds Max). Most of the SPEC Workstation tests are truly for professionals, however, so we wouldn't put too much weight on them. Most paid professionals will have a workstation equipped with a workstation GPU (e.g. Nvidia RTX 6000 Ada Generation or the new RTX Pro 6000 Blackwell).
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The vast majority of Nvidia features and software tools are available on both the RTX 4060 Ti 16GB and the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB. As such, it's easy to think that the two are "tied" in features. However, there are a few noteworthy exceptions.
First, the Blackwell RTX architecture adds support for Multi Frame Generation. We don't love the way the numbers are used to indicate massive performance improvements (i.e. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang tried to claim that an "RTX 5070 is as far as an RTX 4090" at the launch event), but MFG isn't inherently bad. There are games where it works better, and the additional frame smoothing can make games feel better, subjectively. It's a nuanced discussion, in other words, and not the "fake frames BAD" mentality that often gets tossed around.
Blackwell RTX, and by extension the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB, is also supposed to have better support for so-called neural rendering (i.e. Microsoft's Cooperative Vectors API). We don't yet know precisely how much better it might be compared to older GPUs, but we do know Cooperative Vectors is supposed to work with all RTX GPUs — and that it's supposed to be better on Blackwell RTX.
As noted earlier, the RTX 5060 Ti also has support for FP4 (and FP6) numerical formats in its tensor cores. Making proper use of FP4 presents challenges for AI models, but various algorithms have demonstrated superior performance and reduced memory requirements with a "negligible" drop in overall inference quality. As AI continues to evolve, it's reasonable to expect the use of FP4 to become more commonplace.
We've seen that with FP8 support as well. First introduced with the RTX 40-series GPUs, the use of FP8 modes was relatively rare for most of the past 2.5 years. However, Nvidia's new DLSS Transformers algorithms for upscaling (super resolution) and ray reconstruction appear to leverage native FP8 support. It's why the performance hit for DLSS Transformers tends to be substantially lower on RTX 40- and 50-series GPUs compared to RTX 30- and 20-series GPUs.
But Nvidia giveth and Nvidia also taketh away. Blackwell graphics cards no longer have PhysX support, so the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB simply can't run PhysX in older games that used the feature. (Not many recent games have used GPU PhysX, so this mostly applies to games like the Batman: Arkham series and Mirror's Edge, all of which are at least 10 years old now.) 32-bit CUDA support was likewise retired, which again mostly impacts older apps that are no longer being actively updated.
The RTX 4060 Ti 16GB launched in July 2023 with an MSRP of $499, $100 more than the 8GB variant. The RTX 5060 Ti 16GB came out in April 2025 with a $429 MSRP. On paper, that clearly suggests a pricing advantage for the 5060 Ti 16GB. In practice, it's also an advantage when shopping around for new cards, but that's because the 4060 Ti 16GB (and the rest of the RTX 40-series) has been retired.
Since both GPU lines are made using TSMC's 4N process node, there's no reason for Nvidia to continue producing the older chips, and in fact all indications are that wafer orders for Ada Lovelace may have ended in the fall of 2024. Supplies have completely dried up and prices have shot up as a result.
The availability of RTX 50-series GPUs has been relatively poor compared to what we saw with the 40-series launch. Sure, the RTX 4090 sold out for the first few months, but eventually it reached the point where you could expect to find some models selling slightly below the base MSRP, and all of the other 40-series GPUs eventually dropped below the base MSRP by late 2023 and early 2024. So far, the RTX 50-series has rarely even approached MSRP, often selling at 20% to 50% above the minimum suggested price.
At present, the least expensive RTX 5060 Ti 16GB card we can find is an Asus Dual RTX 5060 Ti 16GB for $492.98 at Newegg. That's about 15% above the base MSRP that Nvidia set, but Nvidia can't force its add-in board (AIB) partners to actually sell cards at MSRP. With ongoing GPU shortages, it's little surprise that nearly all 50-series GPUs are "overpriced" relative to MSRP.
As bad as that might seem, the RTX 4060 Ti 16GB is in an even worse state. With production of those GPUs likely halted last year, only limited supplies remain. Mostly, it's third-party marketplace resellers on Newegg, Amazon, and similar storefronts trying to make some serious money. Even the 8GB cards start at $575 (MSRP is supposed to be $400), while the cheapest RTX 4060 Ti 16GB costs $679. Yeah, that's a bad choice unless for some reason you specifically need the older hardware.
This was pretty much a foregone conclusion, but the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB easily beats the RTX 4060 Ti 16GB in every conceivable metric. There's only one potential advantage to the 4060 Ti, and it's nebulous at best: It supports PhysX and 32-bit CUDA (though both are likely deprecated and will fade away in the coming months).
In contrast, the 5060 Ti 16GB offers about 20% higher gaming performance on average, across nearly all tested resolutions and settings. It's also about 20% faster in AI workloads and 3D rendering, and about 17% faster in a selections of professional applications. That's largely thanks to having 56% more memory bandwidth, courtesy of GDDR7, though other architectural upgrades and slightly increased core counts also factor into things.
The real kicker is the price. Unless you're lucky enough to find an RTX 4060 Ti 16GB on a steep discount, the 5060 Ti 16GB costs quite a bit less at popular online retail sites like Newegg and Amazon. Just say no, in other words. Slower performance, missing new features, and a price that's currently 38% higher? Pass. It's also a poor proposition when you look at total system cost (using $750 for the price of the rest of the PC). The 5060 Ti 16GB delivers 24% more performance per dollar than the RTX 4060 Ti 16GB in that case (using MSRPs for both, which benefits the 4060 Ti).
If you're wondering about power use and efficiency, even though the TGP (Total Graphics Power) on the 5060 Ti 16GB is 15W higher on paper, in practice it averaged lower power use in our testing. Power use was 1W higher at 4K ultra (a setting both GPUs struggle with), 5W lower at 1440p ultra, and 8–9 watts lower at 1080p. With 21% higher performance at 4K, that works out to much improved overall efficiency.
Hopefully it goes without saying, but just because the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB offers more performance and costs less than a new 4060 Ti 16GB, that doesn't mean people who already own the prior generation card should be in a rush to upgrade. A 20% performance uplift combined with a few new features might be nice to have, but we generally only recommend upgrading if you can get at least a 50% performance improvement, and doubling performance is often possible if you're upgrading from a card that's a couple of generations old.
Let's also not forget that there are 8GB variants of both GPUs. Again, just say no to such cards. Unless you can score a particularly impressive deal, the lack of VRAM is increasingly becoming a problem for 8GB cards. Sure, older and lighter games can run just fine on such GPUs, but it's the newer games that need faster hardware, and they're having problems. The 4060 Ti 16GB and 8GB offer nearly identical performance in our test suite at 1080p, but the 16GB card pulls ahead by 7% at 1440p, and by 36% at 4K — with the most demanding newer games exceeding those averages. We anticipate the story will be largely the same with the 5060 Ti 8GB.
So there you have it: While the generational gains of the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB over the RTX 4060 Ti 16GB aren't as large as we've seen with prior architectural upgrades, the lack of progress on process nodes and the relatively similar die sizes and transistor counts mean we shouldn't expect 50% performance improvements at the same price going forward. 20% more performance for an ostensibly 14% lower price is about as good as we're likely to see. That's about 40% more performance per dollar, which beats any of the other RTX 50-series GPUs.
Jarred Walton is a senior editor at Tom's Hardware focusing on everything GPU. He has been working as a tech journalist since 2004, writing for AnandTech, Maximum PC, and PC Gamer. From the first S3 Virge '3D decelerators' to today's GPUs, Jarred keeps up with all the latest graphics trends and is the one to ask about game performance.
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Five years into its mission, NASA and ESA's Solar Orbiter just snapped what might be the crispest, most detailed full-Sun view humanity has ever seen.
The shot above—in all its mesmerizing, dull-yellow grandeur—captures our Sun's million-degree corona in ultraviolet light.
Taken on March 9, 2025, from about 47.8 million miles (77 million kilometers) away, this image isn't a single pretty picture. In fact, it's a mosaic—stitched together from 200 individual shots of the Sun, each of them captured by the spacecraft's Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI). The result is a 12,544-by-12,544-pixel megaportrait that lets you zoom in (on the ESA site) and nerd out like never before.
As detailed on the site, the image showcases some fundamental components of our solar host. The tendrils shooting out from the sphere are the solar atmosphere—the corona—at wavelengths far beyond what our eyes can see. Closer to the solar surface are dark, filamentous prominences—solar plasma—arcing with the Sun's magnetic field. The prominences are roughly 18,000 degrees Fahrenheit (10,000 degrees Celsius), a far cry from the million-degree corona.
The dark band across the front of the Sun—making it look like an ominous, fiery frowny face—is a solar filament. The brighter spots on the face of our star are active regions on its surface—the source of solar flares and coronal mass ejections—and on the right side of the star you can see coronal loops, also arcing with the magnetic field.
The joint Solar Orbiter mission is part of a larger effort to decode the chaotic dynamics of the solar atmosphere—including how magnetic fields twist, snap, and sometimes launch solar storms that can mess with satellites and power grids back home.
While this image dazzles our naked eyes, it's also rich in data for researchers chasing questions about solar heating, plasma behavior, and space weather forecasting.
But let's be real: It's also just cool as hell. We sent a spacecraft close enough to the Sun to capture its piping hot winds and live to tell the tale. Beyond that, it's paying back the favor with gloriously high-res imagery. Hang it in the Louvre.
ESANASASolar Orbiterthe Sun
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A stellar occultation this month gave scientists an opportunity to scrutinize the seventh planet from the Sun.
The Martian robot dug up evidence that supports Mars' habitability in the past.
Asteroid Donaldjohanson has turned out to be a picturesque waypoint as NASA's mission heads toward Jupiter's Trojan asteroids.
The astronaut celebrated his birthday with a return to Earth after seven months on the ISS.
The mission is set for a close encounter with the small main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson on April 20.
The first images from a nascent NASA mission showcased the spacecraft's ability to take deep-field images of the night sky.
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A good wireless connection is important for any household, whether you're working or just spending time browsing the internet or gaming. It's always frustrating if you have frequent drops, and even more annoying if you're working and have no connection at all. In fact, in some large houses, you get dead zones because the WiFi just isn't in range. You can fix that with a WiFi adapter, and it can solve most of these potential issues. And right now, you can head to Amazon for a great deal on one.
Right now, Amazon has the TP-Link AC1300 USB WiFi Adapter for $19.98, down from its usual price of $24.99. That's $10.99 off and a discount of 20%.
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This high-speed dual band adapter can serve up connections wherever you plug it in via USB that are up to 3 times faster than the wireless N standard, according to TP-Link. This dongle can offer up to 400 Mbps on a 2.4 Mbps band and 867 Mbps on the e5GHz band so you can enjoy gaming, streaming, hanging out online, and other lag-free internet activities. It's important to make sure you've got connectivity that actually matches the speed you need, and this adapter has you covered.
It uses USB 3.0 for faster transfer speeds as well. It can get you data streaming up to 10 times faster than USB 2.0 too, and gives you 802.11ac WiFi speeds as well. Plus, it's super simple to set up, with an interface that makes sense and you won't have to guess at. Despite how simple it is to use, it has advanced security settings that keep you and your family safe from bad actors, using WPA/WPA2 encryption.
What's important is that you add it to a part of your home where you might be experiencing low connectivity or issues getting online. That's the most important function of this adapter, and you don't have to do anything special to make it happen.
This is a super easy adapter that you can use just about anywhere in your home to make sure you have better connectivity, and the fact that it's on sale means you should probably go ahead and snatch one up. You might even want a couple for using at work and at home if the need arises while you can save some cash. You'll be glad you did when you reach for an adapter and it's already ready to go.
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x86 expands from desktops to dashboards.
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Expanding its wings into the automotive ecosystem, Intel shared its upcoming SDV (Software-Defined Vehicle) SoC designs at Auto Shanghai 2025 yesterday. Slated to be the industry's first disaggregated design, the company presented its second-generation SDV SoC, internally codenamed Frisco Lake. A detailed investigation by 3elife, a Chinese tech and news publication, purports these SoCs are derivatives of Intel's Panther Lake design, with their successor allegedly based on Nova Lake.
Software-defined vehicles are automobiles where a majority of the functionality is handled through software, rather than traditional physical, mechanical, or electronic components. Compared to desktops, x86 has seen limited adoption in the automotive industry, primarily due to stringent power consumption requirements, real-time processing demands, and safety and security concerns.
However, as ADAS, autonomous driving, in-car experiences, and the need for high-performance computing in vehicles grow, Intel is positioning itself to gain traction in this market. Last year, the company released the 225W Arc A760A, offering a PC-like experience from the comfort of your car. The Raptor-Lake-based Malibou Lake platform represents Intel's latest SDV offering, featuring up to 14 cores (6P+8E), 24MB L3 cache, 96 EUs, and support for eight cameras, slated for a Q4 2024 launch.
Yesterday, Intel shared several slides detailing Frisco Lake, officially poised to deliver 10 times better AI performance and 61% higher efficiency than current offerings, presumably Malibou Lake. In addition, the inclusion of an Xe3 (Celestial) graphics IP block strongly suggests these SoCs are indeed derived from Panther Lake, a connection that is supported by the source and kernel patches (via Harukaze at X). The use of Intel's flagship 18A process node and the jump from Raptor Cove to Cougar Cove (rumored) would explain the sharp spike in efficiency.
So... -----------202x ApolloLake (Atom-N) 2020 AshCreekFalls (SkyLake-SP-Auto) 2025 MalibouLake (RaptorLake-P-Auto) 2026 FriscoLake (PantherLake-P-Auto) 2028 GrizzlyLake (MonumentPeak) with [NovaLake Only E-Core???] 🤔🤔🤔 pic.twitter.com/KKE5yoWG6QApril 23, 2025
That's not all, as 3elife secured an alleged roadmap detailing Intel's future product offerings from a third party. Assuming this timeline is accurate, Frisco Lake was never actually intended for launch and appears to be a last-minute addition to Intel's product stack. Apparently, Malibou Lake was in line to be superseded by Grizzly Lake, which is now expected to serve as Intel's third-generation SDV SoC design.
Under the Grizzly Lake lineup, the leaked slides mention an SoC codenamed Monument Peak, reportedly offering up to 32 cores, a 7 TFLOPS-capable Xe-based integrated GPU, slated for the first half of 2027. This time frame coincides with Nova Lake, and one rumored configuration of that architecture includes 32 efficient cores (16P+32E+4LPE), likely based on the Arctic Wolf microarchitecture.
So, if these rumors hold true, Intel is porting its consumer-grade architectures to the automotive industry with a one-year cadence. Considering the extensive validation processes and typically long lifecycles of these chips, automobiles usually don't opt for the most cutting-edge core design, unlike the desktop market. It's hard to say what the future holds, but perhaps Intel's limited success in the mobile phone and AI markets might be a catalyst for this drive to establish a strong foothold in the automotive domain.
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Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he's not working, you'll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun.
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We like the Apple AirTag as much as anybody, but if you're not an iPhone or iPad owner, we also get that you might be feeling a little left out. Android users can be forgetful too, right? Samsung's Galaxy SmartTag2 has you covered, and for less than the Apple gang is paying for their AirTags during this Amazon sale. A single Galaxy SmartTag2 is just $21.49, a discount of 28%, and a 4-pack is on sale for 31% off at just $69.45.
The redesigned Galaxy SmartTag2 dropped in October 2023 as a redesigned, updated version of the original SmartTag, and the upgrades have made all the difference. The SmartTag2 is thinner and lighter than its predecessor, and redesigned for far easier carrying with a keychain or carabiner. The battery life grew by leaps and bounds, and it now has ultra-wideband compatibility for precise close-range tracking.
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Samsung also added the smart Lost Mode to the upgraded SmartTag2, which allows users to input their contact information directly to the tag. That info is accessible to anyone who finds your missing object (or pet — the SmartTag2 is also tailor-made for pet collars) and scans the SmartTag2. While the SmartTag2 is only compatible with Samsung Galaxy phones and tablets, Lost Mode works with any mobile device that has an NFC reader and web browser.
If you're thinking twice about attaching what you would assume to be a delicate electronic device to the collar of a pet that enjoys its outside time rain or shine, the SmartTag2 is also IP67-rated for water and dust resistance.
Here's something those AirTags can't do — control smart home devices. You can use the SmartThings app on your Samsung Galaxy smartphone or tablet to create automations linked to the SmartTag 2's button. If you have other smart devices from the Samsung family in your home, the SmartTag2 can be used to turn smart lights on or off and other commands.
The battery life of the SmartTag2 is downright crazy — up to 500 days, unless you put it into Power Saving Mode. Then it's up to 700 days, or nearly two years.
Compact intelligent Bluetooth trackers to keep tabs on your valuables aren't just for iPhone users. If you're a Samsung Galaxy smartphone or tablet owner, the SmartTag2 is literally made for you, and so is this Amazon sale that's reduced the price of a single tag by 28% to just $21.49 and a 4-pack of SmartTag2s by 31% to just $69.45.
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House of the Dragon adds three new cast members. Taskmaster can't get a break in a new Thunderbolts* clip. And is the next Mission: Impossible movie really longer than Magnolia? Morning Spoilers: you opened it, we came. Your spoiling will be legendary, even in hell!
Deadline also has word Haunting in Connecticut screenwriters Adam Simon and Tim Metcalfe are now at work on a new “contemporary reimagining” of H.P. Lovecraft's short story, Herbert West: Reanimator.
During a recent interview with Screen Rant, director Dan Trachtenberg discussed developing the Predator's alien language in Badlands.
We reached out to the guy who does the Navi language [for Avatar], who was very occupied, and recommended his mentee. We did it the way that The Lord of the Rings does Elvish or Game of Thrones does Dothraki. Except with those, there's more of a precedent. As we discovered with that language expert… [the Yautja language] in the other Predator movies is complete nonsense. There's no sense to it. People from the internet have tried to make sense of it, but none of it was made with intention. So we decided to make it with intentions. We completely developed the language. Everything they're speaking has actual rules and structure and all that was written as verbal. Early on, we just did explorations with concept art of what we could do.
I think lots of times, when people do more in a franchise, there's a tendency to go into the Senate trading committees. I thought we… should have a sliver of that, but not let the movie be that. When people hear the premise, they may think this is all about the inner workings of the Yautja culture. That's not what we want to do. This is an invention of the premise. Now the Predator is on a planet, and he's going to be hunted by things, and he has to use his guile to figure stuff out.
According to Comic Book, Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning runs 2 hours and 49 minutes long, making it the lengthiest film in the Mission: Impossible franchise and second-longest of Tom Cruise's entire acting career behind Magnolia.
Taskmaster, Ghost, Yelena, and U.S. Agent battle in a four-way brawl before deciding to arrest Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine in two new clips from Thunderbolts*.
Elsewhere, the latest TV spot for Until Dawn sells itself on the film's practical effects alone.
During her recent appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast (via The Direct), Bryce Dallas Howard confirmed she's discussed a potential Mace Windu series with Disney and LucasFilm.
Sam Jackson has been incredibly supportive of me and has told me many times that he would act in something that I directed, which is, like, I'm not worthy, basically. And then I went straight to Dave Filoni and I was like, ‘So, let's just talk about Mace Windu and where he is. Can we just talk about this? Because, is he dead? Is he?'
Russell T. Davies discussed casting Rose Ayling-Ellis as a character named Aliss in this week's “scary” episode of Doctor Who.
Aliss wasn't written as a deaf character. But then Rose's name came up, and she's acted for a long time on British television, and I instantly said yes. Because she's just wonderful. It was a delight to work with Rose. As I talked with her, we put things into the script I never would have thought of. She modified things, and we modified things….[after submitting the script for a compliance reading] they tell us what we've gotten wrong, which is exactly the way it should work, [but] it came back with such a glowing report. [There's a line of dialogue] about how hearing people can get paranoid around those who are quietly signing. “I've never seen that said out loud before,” they said. I don't want to give away too much…is she the villain? Maybe she's behind it all?
[TV Line]
Spoiler TV has a synopsis for “Kyle,” the May 1 episode of Ghosts. Click through for images.
Sam and Jay's relationship is tested when Kyle (Ben Feldman), a handsome living who shares Sam's ability to see ghosts, arrives at Woodstone B&B, on the CBS Original series GHOSTS, Thursday, May 1 (8:31-9:01 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+ (live and on demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the episode airs)*.
Spoiler TV also has images from “The Path,” the next episode of The Last of Us. More at the link.
Finally, Rachel and Sarah go on a musical adventure with a pebble, bush and snake to get their electricity back in the trailer for this Sunday's episode of YOLO: Rainbow Trinity.
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.
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The next season of HBO's Game of Thrones prequel kicked off production in March.
Who had the Predator fighting a giant kaiju on their bingo card?
Thunderbolts' commitment to looking like an unconventional Marvel movie even extends to its stunt work.
The Marvel Studios team-up film starring Florence Pugh, David Harbour, Sebastian Stan, and others, opens in theaters May 2.
CinemaCon audiences got an early look at Predator: Badlands, including its setting: an alien 'planet of hurt.'
Plus, Shudder is picking up the film adaptation of Joe Hill's Van Helsing tale, Abraham's Boys,
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At the time I'm writing this, pre-orders for the Nintendo Switch 2 have not opened up. They're set to go live April 23 at midnight EST. That's already happened by the time you're reading this so to everyone who was unlucky enough to be timed out and not get a Switch 2 into their carts, I pour one out. I'll be online later refreshing all my tabs trying to score too, but if you see this unedited in the morning you can safely assume I'm among the unlucky ones. But we're not all fully out of luck just yet. If what you seek is simply to enhance the way you play games, you can do that with the Xbox Elite 2 series controller. Right now. it's down to as low as $96 for a limited time—typically sells for $140.
The Xbox controller is sculpted with ergonomic flawlessness, comfortable to hold for long hours of playtime. The hybrid D-pad and textured grip on the triggers, bumpers, and back case provide tactile feedback while you game.
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The Xbox Elite 2 series controller takes all this so much further with the inclusion of four different customizable back paddles, adjustable tension thumbsticks, swappable thumbstick toppers, wrap around rubberized grip, and short hair trigger locks. It comes with a tool to twist the thumbstick mobility to your exact preferences. And the swappable tops have varying grips and lengths so you can choose a set that best matches your playstyle.
My favorite part though is simply the heft to it. These things are weighty in a good way. You really feel the solid components in your hand while trying to score some headshots in Halo.
Buttons are customizable and can be set up in three unique profiles. You can use these profiles either for multiple people or set them up differently on a per-game basis. Swap between them on the fly while you play. Battery life is impeccable as you'll be able to stay in the game for up to 40 hours.
The Xbox Elite 2 series controller supports Xbox Wireless as well as Bluetooth, allowing you to easily pair and switch between devices. That includes and Xbox console like the Series X | S or Xbox One as well as Windows PCs, Androids, iOS devices, and even a Samsung TV.
For a limited time, you can get the red version of the Xbox Elite 2 series controller for significantly cheaper than usual. Right now, it's down to just $96.
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In January, Meta announced its stand-alone video editing app for making Reels, simply called Edits. After release delays, users anywhere in the world can now download the app and try it out.
The new video-creation tool is clearly inspired by the success of ByteDance's similar CapCut app for TikTok, with tools dedicated to streamlined editing of vertical clips. Instagram's Reels feed of algorithmically selected clips was launched five years ago, also in direct response to TikTok's expanding influence at the time. Meta has never shied away from its mimetic tendencies; the company tends to adopt the buzzy software features of other apps by building those same features into its platforms. So, Edits, a creator-focused tool that makes it even easier to pump out social videos, is an unsurprising release designed to keep pace with competition.
Are you interested in getting started with Edits from Meta? I've been exploring the app since it dropped earlier this week. Here's what you need to know about Instagram's video-editing tool, how it generates Reels, as well as how Edits differs from CapCut.
The Edits app is now available to download on both Apple and Android phones. After you first open Edits on your phone, you will be required to log into the app using an Instagram account, which is frustrating but not shocking. Again, Meta's purpose for the app is not to spur video creation in the abstract; rather, it's a tool specifically made to help people make content to post on Reels.
You can capture videos up to 10 minutes in length directly in the Edits app.
In the Projects tab, you can see all of your recorded videos, and you can upload videos from your phone's camera roll.
After logging in, you'll see five tabs along the bottom of the app. On the left is the Ideas tab. Here is where you can jot down notes and brainstorm ideas for future Reels, and also watch over your saved videos from Instagram. Next is the Inspiration tab that shows a scrollable feed of videos that use trending audio tracks, plus a button that makes it easy for you to snatch one of those songs and use it in your own video. The middle tab is where all of your in-progress video Projects are located, and this is also the tab where you can upload any clips already stored on your camera roll that you want to turn into Reels. The Recording tab is next along the bottom, where you can shoot videos directly inside of the Edits app. Lastly, on the far right is the Insights tab, which shows engagement data, so you can learn who's watched your past Reels.
The Inspiration tab plays Reels that use trending songs and gives you a quick way to make your own video with a popular song.
The Ideas tab is like a scrapbook for things you want to incorporate into new Reels.
Insights is where you get your stats.
You don't need to have experience with TikTok's CapCut to get the hang of Edits, although those familiar with existing tools for editing vertical videos will immediately recognize most of this user interface: a timeline of clips in the middle with various tools along the bottom. You can adjust the video's sound by adding a music clip through “Audio” or tapping on “Voice” to record a voice-over. Here you can also add text, stickers, and image overlays to your video creation. If you're looking at the timeline of uploaded videos for a project, short-tap on an individual clip in the timeline and move the edges inward to crop its length. Want to try a different clip order? Long-press on a clip and drag it to shuffle everything up.
You can search for songs to use or add songs you've saved on Instagram proper.
Linear editing works much like it does in other video editing apps made for touchscreens.
Done and ready to post? Tap Export in the top right corner to download the video to your phone. The app will present buttons to share it directly to Instagram or Facebook, but really, since you just downloaded the video, you can post it anywhere you'd like.
While the purposes of these two apps are almost identical, there are a few key differences between Meta's Edits apps for Instagram and ByteDance's CapCut app for TikTok. Mainly, Edits is more streamlined and doesn't feel as cluttered—at least for now. There's no subscription option in Edits to unlock extra features, which is the case with CapCut, though Meta could add subscription tiers to Edits in the future. There's also not an overwhelming amount of AI-powered editing tools in Edits, which CapCut definitely has, although those could potentially be added at a later date.
Edits is initially more approachable as an app, but picky creators may find CapCut's additional options for video editing gives them a more fine-tuned level of control over the final product. Also, if you want to edit videos on a computer, rather than sitting on your smartphone all evening, you'll want to stick with CapCut—Edits is only available on mobile devices.
You can clip out specific objects or people in videos and isolate them.
There's an automated captioning feature for videos with speech.
There are multiple languages and styles available for captions.
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Federal judge allows DOGE to take over $500 million office building for free
Big Story: The quantum apocalypse is coming. Be very afraid
Bluesky can't take a joke
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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
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© 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
In January, Meta announced its stand-alone video editing app for making Reels, simply called Edits. After release delays, users anywhere in the world can now download the app and try it out.
The new video-creation tool is clearly inspired by the success of ByteDance's similar CapCut app for TikTok, with tools dedicated to streamlined editing of vertical clips. Instagram's Reels feed of algorithmically selected clips was launched five years ago, also in direct response to TikTok's expanding influence at the time. Meta has never shied away from its mimetic tendencies; the company tends to adopt the buzzy software features of other apps by building those same features into its platforms. So, Edits, a creator-focused tool that makes it even easier to pump out social videos, is an unsurprising release designed to keep pace with competition.
Are you interested in getting started with Edits from Meta? I've been exploring the app since it dropped earlier this week. Here's what you need to know about Instagram's video-editing tool, how it generates Reels, as well as how Edits differs from CapCut.
The Edits app is now available to download on both Apple and Android phones. After you first open Edits on your phone, you will be required to log into the app using an Instagram account, which is frustrating but not shocking. Again, Meta's purpose for the app is not to spur video creation in the abstract; rather, it's a tool specifically made to help people make content to post on Reels.
You can capture videos up to 10 minutes in length directly in the Edits app.
In the Projects tab, you can see all of your recorded videos, and you can upload videos from your phone's camera roll.
After logging in, you'll see five tabs along the bottom of the app. On the left is the Ideas tab. Here is where you can jot down notes and brainstorm ideas for future Reels, and also watch over your saved videos from Instagram. Next is the Inspiration tab that shows a scrollable feed of videos that use trending audio tracks, plus a button that makes it easy for you to snatch one of those songs and use it in your own video. The middle tab is where all of your in-progress video Projects are located, and this is also the tab where you can upload any clips already stored on your camera roll that you want to turn into Reels. The Recording tab is next along the bottom, where you can shoot videos directly inside of the Edits app. Lastly, on the far right is the Insights tab, which shows engagement data, so you can learn who's watched your past Reels.
The Inspiration tab plays Reels that use trending songs and gives you a quick way to make your own video with a popular song.
The Ideas tab is like a scrapbook for things you want to incorporate into new Reels.
Insights is where you get your stats.
You don't need to have experience with TikTok's CapCut to get the hang of Edits, although those familiar with existing tools for editing vertical videos will immediately recognize most of this user interface: a timeline of clips in the middle with various tools along the bottom. You can adjust the video's sound by adding a music clip through “Audio” or tapping on “Voice” to record a voice-over. Here you can also add text, stickers, and image overlays to your video creation. If you're looking at the timeline of uploaded videos for a project, short-tap on an individual clip in the timeline and move the edges inward to crop its length. Want to try a different clip order? Long-press on a clip and drag it to shuffle everything up.
You can search for songs to use or add songs you've saved on Instagram proper.
Linear editing works much like it does in other video editing apps made for touchscreens.
Done and ready to post? Tap Export in the top right corner to download the video to your phone. The app will present buttons to share it directly to Instagram or Facebook, but really, since you just downloaded the video, you can post it anywhere you'd like.
While the purposes of these two apps are almost identical, there are a few key differences between Meta's Edits apps for Instagram and ByteDance's CapCut app for TikTok. Mainly, Edits is more streamlined and doesn't feel as cluttered—at least for now. There's no subscription option in Edits to unlock extra features, which is the case with CapCut, though Meta could add subscription tiers to Edits in the future. There's also not an overwhelming amount of AI-powered editing tools in Edits, which CapCut definitely has, although those could potentially be added at a later date.
Edits is initially more approachable as an app, but picky creators may find CapCut's additional options for video editing gives them a more fine-tuned level of control over the final product. Also, if you want to edit videos on a computer, rather than sitting on your smartphone all evening, you'll want to stick with CapCut—Edits is only available on mobile devices.
You can clip out specific objects or people in videos and isolate them.
There's an automated captioning feature for videos with speech.
There are multiple languages and styles available for captions.
In your inbox: Get Plaintext—Steven Levy's long view on tech
Federal judge allows DOGE to take over $500 million office building for free
Big Story: The quantum apocalypse is coming. Be very afraid
Bluesky can't take a joke
Summer Lab: Explore the future of tech with WIRED
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
The tech behemoth is betting that planting millions of eucalyptus trees in Brazil will be the path to a greener future. Some ecologists and local residents are far less sure.
We were losing the light, and still about 20 kilometers from the main road, when the car shuddered and died at the edge of a strange forest.
The grove grew as if indifferent to certain unspoken rules of botany. There was no understory, no foreground or background, only the trees themselves, which grew as a wall of bare trunks that rose 100 feet or so before concluding with a burst of thick foliage near the top. The rows of trees ran perhaps the length of a New York City block and fell away abruptly on either side into untidy fields of dirt and grass. The vista recalled the husk of a failed condo development, its first apartments marooned when the builders ran out of cash.
Standing there against the setting sun, the trees were, in their odd way, also rather stunning. I had no service out here—we had just left a remote nature preserve in southwestern Brazil—but I reached for my phone anyway, for a picture. The concern on the face of my travel partner, Clariana Vilela Borzone, a geographer and translator who grew up nearby, flicked to amusement. My camera roll was already full of eucalyptus.
The trees sprouted from every hillside, along every road, and more always seemed to be coming. Across the dirt path where we were stopped, another pasture had been cleared for planting. The sparse bushes and trees that had once shaded cattle in the fields had been toppled and piled up, as if in a Pleistocene gravesite.
Borzone's friends and neighbors were divided on the aesthetics of these groves. Some liked the order and eternal verdancy they brought to their slice of the Cerrado, a large botanical region that arcs diagonally across Brazil's midsection. Its native savanna landscape was largely gnarled, low-slung, and, for much of the year, rather brown. And since most of that flora had been cleared decades ago for cattle pasture, it was browner and flatter still. Now that land was becoming trees. It was becoming beautiful.
Others considered this beauty a mirage. “Green deserts,” they called the groves, suggesting bounty from afar but holding only dirt and silence within. These were not actually forests teeming with animals and undergrowth, they charged, but at best tinder for a future megafire in a land parched, in part, by their vigorous growth. This was in fact a common complaint across Latin America: in Chile, the planted rows of eucalyptus were called the “green soldiers.” It was easy to imagine getting lost in the timber, a funhouse mirror of trunks as far as the eye could see.
The timber companies that planted these trees push back on these criticisms as caricatures of a genus that's demonized all over the world. They point to their sustainable forestry certifications and their handsome spending on fire suppression, and to the microphones they've placed that record cacophonies of birds and prove the groves are anything but barren. Whether people like the look of these trees or not, they are meeting a human need, filling an insatiable demand for paper and pulp products all over the world. Much of the material for the world's toilet and tissue paper is grown in Brazil, and that, they argue, is a good thing: Grow fast and furious here, as responsibly as possible, to save many more trees elsewhere.
But I was in this region for a different reason: Apple. And also Microsoft and Meta and TSMC, and many smaller technology firms too. I was here because tech executives many thousands of miles away were racing toward, and in some cases stumbling, on their way to meet their climate promises—too little time, and too much demand for new devices and AI data centers. Not far from here, they had struck some of the largest-ever deals for carbon credits. They were asking something new of this tree: Could Latin America's eucalyptus be a scalable climate solution?
New research shows that California's climate policy created up to 39 million carbon credits that aren't achieving real carbon savings. But companies can buy these forest offsets to justify polluting more anyway.
On a practical level, the answer seemed straightforward. Nobody disputed how swiftly or reliably eucalyptus could grow in the tropics. This knowledge was the product of decades of scientific study and tabulations of biomass for wood or paper. Each tree was roughly 47% carbon, which meant that many tons of it could be stored within every planted hectare. This could be observed taking place in real time, in the trees by the road. Come back and look at these young trees tomorrow, and you'd see it: fresh millimeters of carbon, chains of cellulose set into lignin.
At the same time, Apple and the others were also investing in an industry, and a tree, with a long and controversial history in this part of Brazil and elsewhere. They were exerting their wealth and technological oversight to try to make timber operations more sustainable, more supportive of native flora, and less water intensive. Still, that was a hard sell to some here, where hundreds of thousands of hectares of pasture are already in line for planting; more trees were a bleak prospect in a land increasingly racked by drought and fire. Critics called the entire exercise an excuse to plant even more trees for profit.
Borzone and I did not plan to stay and watch the eucalyptus grow. Garden or forest or desert, ally or antagonist—it did not matter much with the stars of the Southern Cross emerging and our gas tank empty. We gathered our things from our car and set off down the dirt road through the trees.
My journey into the Cerrado had begun months earlier, in the fall of 2023, when the actress Octavia Spencer appeared as Mother Nature in an ad alongside Apple CEO Tim Cook. In 2020, the company had set a goal to go “net zero” by the end of the decade, at which point all of its products—laptops, CPUs, phones, earbuds—would be produced without increasing the level of carbon in the atmosphere. “Who wants to disappoint me first?” Mother Nature asked with a sly smile. It was a third of the way to 2030—a date embraced by many corporations aiming to stay in line with the UN's goal of limiting warming to 1.5 °C over preindustrial levels—and where was the progress?
Cook was glad to inform her of the good news: The new Apple Watch was leading the way. A limited supply of the devices were already carbon neutral, thanks to things like recycled materials and parts that were specially sent by ship—not flown—from one factory to another. These special watches were labeled with a green leaf on Apple's iconically soft, white boxes.
Critics were quick to point out that declaring an individual product “carbon neutral” while the company was still polluting had the whiff of an early victory lap, achieved with some convenient accounting. But the work on the watch spoke to the company's grand ambitions. Apple claimed that changes like procuring renewable power and using recycled materials had enabled it to cut emissions 75% since 2015. “We're always prioritizing reductions; they've got to come first,” Chris Busch, Apple's director of environmental initiatives, told me soon after the launch.
The company also acknowledged that it could not find reductions to balance all its emissions. But it was trying something new.
Since the 1990s, companies have purchased carbon credits based largely on avoiding emissions. Take some patch of forest that was destined for destruction and protect it; the stored carbon that wasn't lost is turned into credits. But as the carbon market expanded, so did suspicion of carbon math—in some cases, because of fraud or bad science, but also because efforts to contain deforestation are often frustrated, with destruction avoided in one place simply happening someplace else. Corporations that once counted on carbon credits for “avoided” emissions can no longer trust them. (Many consumers feel they can't either, with some even suing Apple over the ways it used past carbon projects to make its claims about the Apple Watch.)
But that demand to cancel out carbon dioxide hasn't gone anywhere—if anything, as AI-driven emissions knock some companies off track from reaching their carbon targets (and raise questions about the techniques used to claim emissions reductions), the need is growing. For Apple, even under the rosiest assumptions about how much it will continue to pollute, the gap is significant: In 2024, the company reported offsetting 700,000 metric tons of CO2, but the number it will need to hit in 2030 to meet its goals is 9.6 million.
So the new move is to invest in carbon “removal” rather than avoidance. The idea implies a more solid achievement: taking carbon molecules out of the atmosphere. There are many ways to attempt that, from trying to change the pH of the oceans so that they absorb more of the molecules to building machines that suck carbon straight out of the air. But these are long-term fixes. None of these technologies work at the scale and price that would help Apple and others meet their shorter-term targets. For that, trees have emerged again as the answer. This time the idea is to plant new ones instead of protecting old ones.
To expand those efforts in a way that would make a meaningful dent in emissions, Apple determined, it would also need to make carbon removal profitable. A big part of this effort would be driven by the Restore Fund, a $200 million partnership with Goldman Sachs and Conservation International, a US environmental nonprofit, to invest in “high quality” projects that promoted reforestation on degraded lands.
Profits would come from responsibly turning trees into products, Goldman's head of sustainability explained when the fund was announced in 2021. But it was also an opportunity for Apple, and future investors, to “almost look at, touch, and feel their carbon,” he said—a concreteness that carbon credits had previously failed to offer. “The aim is to generate real, measurable carbon benefits, but to do that alongside financial returns,” Busch told me. It was intended as a flywheel of sorts: more investors, more planting, more carbon—an approach to climate action that looked to abundance rather than sacrifice.
Apple markets its watch as a carbon-neutral product, a claim based in part on the use of carbon credits.
The announcement of the carbon-neutral Apple Watch was the occasion to promote the Restore Fund's three initial investments, which included a native forestry project as well as eucalyptus farms in Paraguay and Brazil. The Brazilian timber plans were by far the largest in scale, and were managed by BTG Pactual, Latin America's largest investment bank.
Busch connected me with Mark Wishnie, head of sustainability for Timberland Investment Group, BTG's US-based subsidiary, which acquires and manages properties on behalf of institutional investors. After years in the eucalyptus business, Wishnie, who lives in Seattle, was used to strong feelings about the tree. It's just that kind of plant—heralded as useful, even ornamental; demonized as a fire starter, water-intensive, a weed. “Has the idea that eucalyptus is invasive come up?” he asked pointedly. (It's an “exotic” species in Brazil, yes, but the risk of invasiveness is low for the varieties most commonly planted for forestry.) He invited detractors to consider the alternative to the scale and efficiency of eucalyptus, which, he pointed out, relieves the pressure that humans put on beloved old-growth forests elsewhere.
Using eucalyptus for carbon removal also offered a new opportunity. Wishnie was overseeing a planned $1 billion initiative that was set to transform BTG's timber portfolio; it aimed at a 50-50 split between timber and native restoration on old pastureland, with an emphasis on connecting habitats along rivers and streams. As a “high quality” project, it was meant to do better than business as usual. The conservation areas would exceed the legal requirements for native preservation in Brazil, which range from 20% to 35% in the Cerrado. In a part of Brazil that historically gets little conservation attention, it would potentially represent the largest effort yet to actually bring back the native landscape.
When BTG approached Conservation International with the 50% figure, the organization thought it was “too good to be true,” Miguel Calmon, the senior director of the nonprofit's Brazilian programs, told me. With the restoration work paid for by the green financing and the sale of carbon credits, scale and longevity could be achieved. “Some folks may do this, but they never do this as part of the business,” he said. “It comes from not a corporate responsibility. It's about, really, the business that you can optimize.”
So far, BTG has raised $630 million for the initiative and earmarked 270,000 hectares, an area more than double the city of Los Angeles. The first farm in the plan, located on a 24,000-hectare cattle ranch, was called Project Alpha. The location, Wishnie said, was confidential.
But a property of that size sticks out, even in a land of large farms. It didn't take very much digging into municipal land records in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, where many of the company's Cerrado holdings are located, to turn up a recently sold farm that matched the size. It was called Fazenda Engano, or “Deception Farm”—hence the rebrand. The land was registered to an LLC with links to holding companies for other BTG eucalyptus plantations located in a neighboring region that locals had taken to calling the Cellulose Valley for its fast-expanding tree farms and pulp factories.
The area was largely seen as a land of opportunity, even as some locals had raised the alarm over concerns that the land couldn't handle the trees. They had allies in prominent ecologists who have long questioned the wisdom of tree-planting in the Cerrado—and increasingly spar with other conservationists who see great potential in turning pasture into forest. The fight has only gotten more heated as more investors hunt for new climate solutions.
Still, where Apple goes, others often follow. And when it comes to sustainability, other companies look to it as a leader. I wasn't sure if I could visit Project Alpha and see whether Apple and its partners had really found a better way to plant, but I started making plans to go to the Cerrado anyway, to see the forests behind those little green leaves on the box.
In 2015, a study by Thomas Crowther, an ecologist then at ETH Zürich, attempted a census of global tree cover, finding more than 3 trillion trees in all. A useful number, surprisingly hard to divine, like counting insects or bacteria.
A follow-up study a few years later proved more controversial: Earth's surface held space for at least 1 trillion more trees. That represented a chance to store 200 metric gigatons, or about 25%, of atmospheric carbon once they matured. (The paper was later corrected in multiple ways, including an acknowledgment that the carbon storage potential could be about one-third less.)
The study became a media sensation, soon followed by a fleet of tree-planting initiatives with “trillion” in the name—most prominently through a World Economic Forum effort launched by Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff at Davos, which President Donald Trump pledged to support during his first term.
But for as long as tree planting has been heralded as a good deed—from Johnny Appleseed to programs that promise a tree for every shoe or laptop purchased—the act has also been chased closely by a follow-up question: How many of those trees survive? Consider Trump's most notable planting, which placed an oak on the White House grounds in 2018. It died just over a year later.
To critics, including Bill Gates, the efforts were symbolic of short-term thinking at the expense of deeper efforts to cut or remove carbon. (Gates's spat with Benioff descended to name-calling in the New York Times. “Are we the science people or are we the idiots?” he asked.) The lifespan of a tree, after all, is brief—a pit stop—compared with the thousand-year carbon cycle, so its progeny must carry the torch to meaningfully cancel out emissions. Most don't last that long.
“The number of trees planted has become a kind of currency, but it's meaningless,” Pedro Brancalion, a professor of tropical forestry at the University of São Paulo, told me. He had nothing against the trees, which the world could, in general, use a lot more of. But to him, a lot of efforts were riding more on “good vibes” than on careful strategy.
Soon after arriving in São Paulo last summer, I drove some 150 miles into the hills outside the city to see the outdoor lab Brancalion has filled with experiments on how to plant trees better: trees given too many nutrients or too little; saplings monitored with wires and tubes like ICU admits, or skirted with tarps that snatch away rainwater. At the center of one of Brancalion's plots stands a tower topped with a whirling station, the size of a hobby drone, monitoring carbon going in and out of the air (and, therefore, the nearby vegetation)—a molecular tango known as flux.
Brancalion works part-time for a carbon-focused restoration company, Re:Green, which had recently sold 3 million carbon credits to Microsoft and was raising a mix of native trees in parts of the Amazon and the Atlantic Forest. While most of the trees in his lab were native ones too, like jacaranda and brazilwood, he also studies eucalyptus. The lab in fact sat on a former eucalyptus farm; in the heart of his fields, a grove of 80-year-old trees dripped bark like molting reptiles.
Eucalyptus planting swelled dramatically under Brazil's military dictatorship in the 1960s. The goal was self-sufficiency—a nation's worth of timber and charcoal, quickly—and the expansion was fraught. Many opinions of the tree were forged in a spate of dubious land seizures followed by clearing of the existing vegetation—disputes that, in some places, linger to this day. Still, that campaign is also said to have done just as Wishnie described, easing the demand that would have been put on regions like the Amazon as Rio and São Paulo were built.
The new trees also laid the foundation for Brazil to become a global hub for engineered forestry; it's currently home to about a third of the world's farmed eucalyptus. Today's saplings are the products of decades of tinkering with clonal breeding, growing quick and straight, resistant to pestilence and drought, with exacting growth curves that chart biomass over time: Seven years to maturity is standard for pulp. Trees planted today grow more than three times as fast as their ancestors.
If the goal is a trillion trees, or many millions of tons of carbon, no business is better suited to keeping count than timber. It might sound strange to claim carbon credits for trees that you plan to chop down and turn into toilet paper or chairs. Whatever carbon is stored in those ephemeral products is, of course, a blip compared with the millennia that CO2 hangs in the atmosphere.
But these carbon projects take a longer view. While individual trees may go, more trees are planted. The forest constantly regrows and recaptures carbon from the air. Credits are issued annually over decades, so long as the long-term average of the carbon stored in the grove continues to increase. What's more, because the timber is constantly being tracked, the carbon is easy to measure, solving a key problem with carbon credits.
Most mature native ecosystems, whether tropical forests or grasslands, will eventually store more carbon than a tree farm. But that could take decades. Eucalyptus can be planted immediately, with great speed, and the first carbon credits are issued in just a few years. “It fits a corporate model very well, and it fits the verification model very well,” said Robin Chazdon, a forest researcher at Australia's University of the Sunshine Coast.
Reliability and stability have also made eucalyptus, as well as pine, quietly dominant in global planting efforts. A 2019 analysis published in Nature found that 45% of carbon removal projects the researchers studied worldwide involved single-species tree farms. In Brazil, the figure was 82%. The authors called this a “scandal,” accusing environmental organizations and financiers of misleading the public and pursuing speed and convenience at the expense of native restoration.
In 2023, the nonprofit Verra, the largest bearer of carbon credit standards, said it would forbid projects using “non-native monocultures”—that is, plants like eucalyptus or pine that don't naturally grow in the places where they're being farmed. The idea was to assuage concerns that carbon credits were going to plantations that would have been built anyway given the demand for wood, meaning they wouldn't actually remove any extra carbon from the atmosphere.
The uproar was immediate—from timber companies, but also from carbon developers and NGOs. How would it be possible to scale anything—conservation, carbon removal—without them?
Verra reversed course several months later. It would allow non-native monocultures so long as they grew in land that was deemed “degraded,” or previously cleared of vegetation—land like cattle pasture. And it took steps to avoid counting plantings in close proximity to other areas of fast tree growth, the idea being that they wanted to avoid rewarding purely industrial projects that would've been planted anyway.
Brancalion happened to agree with the criticisms of exotic monocultures. But all the same, he believed eucalyptus had been unfairly demonized. It was a marvelous genus, actually, with nearly 800 species with unique adaptations. Natives could be planted as monocultures too, or on stolen land, or tended with little care. He had been testing ways to turn eucalyptus from perceived foes into friends of native forest restoration.
His idea was to use rows of eucalyptus, which rocket above native species, as a kind of stabilizer. While these natives can be valuable—either as lumber or for biodiversity—they may grow slowly, or twist in ways that make their wood unprofitable, or suddenly and inexplicably die. It's never like that with eucalyptus, which are wonderfully predictable growers. Eventually, their harvested wood would help pay for the hard work of growing the others.
In practice, foresters have generally preferred to keep things separate. Eucalyptus here; restoration there. It was far more efficient. The approach was emblematic, Brancalion thought, of letting the economics of the industry guide what was planted, how, and where, even with green finance involved. Though he admitted he was speaking as something of a competitor given his own carbon work, he was perplexed by Apple's choices. The world's richest company was doing eucalyptus? And with a bank better known locally as a major investor in industries, like beef and soy, that contributed to deforestation than any efforts for native restoration.
It also worried him to see the planting happening west of here, in the Cerrado, where land is cheaper and also, for much of the year, drier. “It's like a bomb,” Brancalion told me. “You can come interview me in five, six years. You don't have to be super smart to realize what will happen after planting too many eucalyptus in a dry region.” He wished me luck on my journey westward.
Savanna implies openness, but the European settlers passing through the Cerrado called it the opposite; the name literally means “closed.” Grasses and shrubs grow to chest height, scaled as if to maximize human inconvenience. A machete is advised.
As I headed with Borzone toward a small nature preserve called Parque do Pombo, she told me that young Brazilians are often raised with a sense of dislike, if not fear, of this land. When Borzone texted her mother, a local biologist, to say where we were going, she replied: “I hear that place is full of ticks.” (Her intel, it turned out, was correct.)
What can be easy to miss is the fantastic variety of these plants, the result of natural selection cranked into overdrive. Species, many of which blew in from the Amazon, survived by growing deep roots through the acidic soil and thicker bark to resist regular brush fires. Many of the trees developed the ability to shrivel upon themselves and drop their leaves during the long, dry winter. Some call it a forest that has grown upside down, because much of the growth occurs in the roots. The Cerrado is home to 12,000 flowering plant species, 4,000 of which are found only there. In terms of biodiversity, it is second in the world only to its more famous neighbor, the Amazon.
Each stop on our drive seemed to yield a new treasure for Borzone to show me: Guavira, a tree that bears fruit in grape-like bunches that appear only two weeks in a year; it can be made into a jam that is exceptionally good on toast. Pequi, more divisive, like fermented mango mixed with cheese. Others bear names Borzone can only faintly recall in the Indigenous Guaraní language and is thus unable to google. Certain uses are more memorable: Give this one here, a tiny frond that looks like a miniature Christmas fir, to make someone get pregnant.
Borzone had grown up in the heart of the savanna, and the land had changed significantly since she was a kid going to the river every weekend with her family. Since the 1970s, about half of the savanna has been cleared, mostly for ranching and, where the soil is good, soybeans. At that time, even prominent ecologists, fearing total destruction of the Amazon, advocated moving industry here, invoking what Brazilians call the boi de piranha—a myth about casting a cow into infested waters so that the other cows could ford downstream.
Toby Pennington, a Cerrado ecologist at the University of Exeter, told me it remains a sacrificial zone, at times faring worse when environmentally minded politicians are in power. In 2023, when deforestation fell by half in the Amazon, it rose by 43% in the Cerrado. Some ecologists warn that this ecosystem could be entirely gone in the next decade.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, there's a certain prickliness among grassland researchers, who are, like their chosen flora, used to being trampled. In 2019, 46 of them authored a response in Science to Crowther's trillion-trees study, arguing not about tree counting but about the land he proposed for reforestation. Much of it, they argued, including places like the Cerrado, was not appropriate for so many trees. It was too much biomass for the land to handle. (If their point was not already clear, the scientists later labeled the phenomenon “biome awareness disparity,” or BAD.)
“It's a controversial ecosystem,” said Natashi Pilon, a grassland ecologist at the University of Campinas near São Paulo. “With Cerrado, you have to forget everything that you learn about ecology, because it's all based in forest ecology. In the Cerrado, everything works the opposite way. Burning? It's good. Shade? It's not good.” The Cerrado contains a vast range of landscapes, from grassy fields to wooded forests, but the majority of it, she explained, is poorly suited to certain rules of carbon finance that would incentivize people to protect or restore it. While the underground forest stores plenty of carbon, it builds up its stock slowly and can be difficult to measure.
The result is a slightly uncomfortable position for ecologists studying and trying to protect a vanishing landscape. Pilon and her former academic advisor, Giselda Durigan, a Cerrado ecologist at the Environmental Research Institute of the State of São Paulo and one of the scientists behind BAD, have gotten accustomed to pushing back on people who arrived preaching “improvement” through trees—first from nonprofits, mostly of the trillion-trees variety, but now from the timber industry. “They are using the carbon discourse as one more argument to say that business is great,” Durigan told me. “They are happy to be seen as the good guys.”
Durigan saw tragedy in the way that Cerrado had been transformed into cattle pasture in just a generation, but there was also opportunity in restoring it once the cattle left. Bringing the Cerrado back would be hard work—usually requiring fire and hacking away at invasive grasses. But even simply leaving it alone could allow the ecosystem to begin to repair itself and offer something like the old savanna habitat. Abandoned eucalyptus farms, by contrast, were nightmares to return to native vegetation; the strange Cerrado plants refused to take root in the highly modified soil.
In recent years, Durigan had visited hundreds of eucalyptus farms in the area, shadowing her students who had been hired by timber companies to help establish promised corridors of native vegetation in accordance with federal rules. “They're planting entire watersheds,” she said. “The rivers are dying.”
Durigan saw plants in isolated patches growing taller than they normally would, largely thanks to the suppression of regular brush fires. They were throwing shade on the herbs and grasses and drawing more water. The result was an environment gradually choking on itself, at risk of collapse during drought and retaining only a fraction of the Cerrado's original diversity. If this was what people meant by bringing back the Cerrado, she believed it was only hastening its ultimate disappearance.
In a recent survey of the watershed around the Parque do Pombo, which is hemmed in on each side by eucalyptus, two other researchers reported finding “devastation” and turned to Plato's description of Attica's forests, cleared to build the city of Athens: “What remains now compared to what existed is like the skeleton of a sick man … All the rich and soft soil has dissolved, leaving the country of skin and bones.”
After a long day of touring the land—and spinning out on the clay—we found that our fuel was low. The Parque do Pombo groundskeeper looked over at his rusting fuel tank and apologized. It had been spoiled by the last rain. At least, he said, it was all downhill to the highway.
We only made it about halfway down the eucalyptus-lined road. After the car huffed and left us stranded, Borzone and I started walking toward the highway, anticipating a long night. We remembered locals' talk of jaguars recently pushed into the area by development.
But after only 30 minutes or so, a set of lights came into view across the plain. Then another, and another. Then the outline of a tractor, a small tanker truck, and, somewhat curiously, a tour bus. The gear and the vehicles bore the logo of Suzano, the world's largest pulp and paper company.
After talking to a worker, we boarded the empty tour bus and were taken to a cluster of spotlit tents, where women prepared eucalyptus seedlings, stacking crates of them on white fold-out tables. A night shift like this one was unusual. But they were working around the clock—aiming to plant a million trees per day across Suzano's farms, in preparation for opening the world's largest pulp factory just down the highway. It would open in a few weeks with a capacity of 2.55 million metric tons of pulp per year.
The tour bus was standing by to take the workers down the highway at 1 a.m., arriving in the nearest city, Três Lagoas, by 3 a.m. to pick up the next shift. “You don't do this work without a few birds at home to feed,” a driver remarked as he watched his colleagues filling holes in the field by the light of their headlamps. After getting permission from his boss, he drove us an hour each way to town to the nearest gas station.
This highway through the Cellulose Valley has become known as a road of opportunity, with eucalyptus as the region's new lifeblood after the cattle industry shrank its footprint. Not far from the new Suzano factory, a popular roadside attraction is an oversize sculpture of a black bull at the gates of a well-known ranch. The ranch was recently planted, and the bull is now guarded by a phalanx of eucalyptus.
On TikTok, workers post selfies and views from tractors in the nearby groves, backed by a song from the local country music duo Jads e Jadson. “I'm going to plant some eucalyptus / I'll get rich and you'll fall in love with me,” sings a down-on-his-luck man at risk of losing his fiancée. Later, when he cuts down the trees and becomes a wealthy man with better options, he cuts off his betrothed, too.
The race to plant more eucalyptus here is backed heavily by the state government, which last year waived environmental requirements for new farms on pasture and hopes to quickly double its area in just a few years. The trees were an important component of Brazil's plan to meet its global climate commitments, and the timber industry was keen to cash in. Companies like Suzano have already proposed that tens of thousands of their hectares become eligible for carbon credits.
What's top of mind for everyone, though, is worsening fires. Even when we visited in midwinter, the weather was hot and dry. The wider region was in a deep drought, perhaps the worst in 700 years, and in a few weeks, one of the worst fire seasons ever would begin. Suzano would be forced to make a rare pause in its planting when soil temperatures reached 154 °F.
Posted along the highway are constant reminders of the coming danger: signs, emblazoned with the logos of a dozen timber companies, that read “FOGO ZERO,” or “ZERO FIRE.”
In other places struck by megafires, like Portugal and Chile, eucalyptus has been blamed for worsening the flames. (The Chilean government has recently excluded pine and eucalyptus farms from its climate plans.) But here in Brazil, where climate change is already supersizing the blazes, the industry offers sophisticated systems to detect and suppress fires, argued Calmon of Conservation International. “You really need to protect it because that's your asset,” he said. (BTG also noted that in parts of the Cerrado where human activity has increased, fires have decreased.)
Eucalyptus is often portrayed as impossibly thirsty compared with other trees, but Calmon pointed out it is not uniquely so. In some parts of the Cerrado, it has been found to consume four times as much water as native vegetation; in others, the two landscapes have been roughly in line. It depends on many factors—what type of soil it's planted in, what Cerrado vegetation coexists with it, how intensely the eucalyptus is farmed. Timber companies, which have no interest in seeing their own plantations run dry, invest heavily in managing water. Another hope, Wishnie told me, is that by vastly increasing the forest canopy, the new eucalyptus will actually gather moisture and help produce rain.
That's a common narrative and one that's been taught in schools here in Três Lagoas for decades, Borzone explained when we met up the day after our rescue with Marine Dubos-Raoul, a local geographer and university professor, and two of her students. Dubos-Raoul laughed uneasily. If this idea about rain was in fact true, they hadn't seen it here. They crouched around the table at the cafe, speaking in a hush; their opinions weren't particularly popular in this lumber town.
Dubos-Raoul had long tracked the impacts of the waves of planting on longtime rural residents, who complained that industry had taken their water or sprayed their gardens with pesticides.
The evidence tying the trees to water problems in the region, Dubos-Raoul admitted, is more anecdotal than data driven. But she heard it in conversation after conversation. “People would have tears in their eyes,” she said. “It was very clear to them that it was connected to the arrival of the eucalyptus.” (Since our meeting, a study, carried out in response to demands from local residents, has blamed the planting for 350 depleted springs in the area, sparking a rare state inquiry into the issue.) In any case, Dubos-Raoul thought, it didn't make much sense to keep adding matches to the tinderbox.
Shortly after talking with Dubos-Raoul, we ventured to the town of Ribas do Rio Pardo to meet Charlin Castro at his family's river resort. Suzano's new pulp factory stood on the horizon, surrounded by one of the densest areas of planting in the region.
With thousands of workers arriving, mostly temporarily, to build the factory and plant the fields, the sleepy farming village had turned into a boomtown, and developed something of a lawless reputation—prostitution, homelessness, collisions between logging trucks and drunk drivers—and Castro was chronicling much of it for a hyperlocal Instagram news outlet, while also running for city council.
But overall, he was thankful to Suzano. The factory was transforming the town into a “a real place,” as he put it, even if change was at times painful.
His father, Camilo, gestured with a sinewy arm over to the water, where he recalled boat races involving canoes with crews of a dozen. That was 30 years ago. It was impossible to imagine now as I watched a family cool off in this bend in the river, the water just knee deep. But it's hard to say what exactly is causing the low water levels. Perhaps it's silt from the ranches, Charlin suggested. Or a change in the climate. Or, maybe, it could be the trees.
Upstream, Ana Cláudia (who goes by “Tica”) and Antonio Gilberto Lima were more certain what was to blame. The couple, who are in their mid-60s, live in a simple brick house surrounded by fruit trees. They moved there a decade ago, seeking a calm retirement—one of a hundred or so families taking part in land reforms that returned land to smallholders. But recently, life has been harder. To preserve their well, they had let their vegetable garden go to seed. Streams were dry, and the old pools in the pastures where they used to fish were gone, replaced by trees; tapirs were rummaging through their garden, pushed, they believed, by lack of habitat.
They were surrounded by eucalyptus, planted in waves with the arrival of each new factory. No one was listening, they told me, as the cattle herd bellowed outside the door. “The trees are sad,” Gilberto said, looking out over his few dozen pale-humped animals grazing around scattered Cerrado species left in the paddock. Tica told me she knew that paper and pulp had to come from somewhere, and that many people locally were benefiting. But the downsides were getting overlooked, she thought. They had signed a petition to the government, organized by Dubos-Raoul, seeking to rein in the industry. Perhaps, she hoped, it could reach American investors, too.
A few weeks before my trip, BTG had decided it was ready to show off Project Alpha. The visit was set for my last day in Brazil; the farm formerly known as Fazenda Engano was further upriver in Camapuã, a town that borders Ribas do Rio Pardo. It was a long, circuitous drive north to get out there, but it wouldn't be that way much longer; a new highway was being paved that would directly connect the two towns, part of an initiative between the timber industry and government to expand the cellulose hub northward. A local official told me he expected tens of thousands of hectares of eucalyptus in the next few years.
For now, though, it was still the frontier. The intention was to plant “well outside the forest sector,” Wishnie told me—not directly in the shadow of a mill, but close enough for the operation to be practical, with access to labor and logistics. That distance was important evidence that the trees would store more carbon than what's accounted for in a business-as-usual scenario. The other guarantee was the restoration. It wasn't good business to buy land and not plant every acre you could with timber. It was made possible only with green investments from Apple and others.
That morning, Wishnie had emailed me a press release announcing that Microsoft had joined Apple in seeking help from BTG to help meet its carbon demands. The technology giant had made the largest-ever purchase of carbon credits, representing 8 million tons of CO2, from Project Alpha, following smaller commitments from TSMC and Murata, two of Apple's suppliers.
I was set to meet Carlos Guerreiro, head of Latin American operations for BTG's timber subsidiary, at a gas station in town, where we would set off together for the 24,000-hectare property. A forester in Brazil for much of his life, he had flown in from his home near São Paulo early that morning; he planned to check out the progress of the planting at Project Alpha and then swing down to the bank's properties across the Cellulose Valley, where BTG was finalizing a $376 million deal to sell land to Suzano.
Guerreiro defended BTG's existing holdings as sustainable engines of development in the region. But all the same, Project Alpha felt like a new beginning for the company, he told me. About a quarter of this property had been left untouched when the pasture was first cleared in the 1980s, but the plan now was to restore an additional 13% of the property to native Cerrado plants, bringing the total to 37%. (BTG says it will protect more land on future farms to arrive at its 50-50 target.) Individual patches of existing native vegetation would be merged with others around the property, creating a 400-meter corridor that largely followed the streams and rivers—beyond the 60 meters required by law.
The restoration work was happening with the help of researchers from a Brazilian university, though they were still testing the best methods. We stood over trenches that had been planted with native seeds just weeks before, shoots only starting to poke out of the dirt. Letting the land regenerate on its own was often preferable, Guerreiro told me, but the best approach would depend on the specifics of each location. In other places, assistance with planting or tending or clearing back the invasive grasses could be better.
The approach of largely letting things be was already yielding results, he noted: In parts of the property that hadn't been grazed in years, they could already see the hardscrabble Cerrado clawing back with a vengeance. They'd been marveling at the fauna, caught on camera traps: tapirs, anteaters, all kinds of birds. They had even spotted a jaguar. The project would ensure that this growth would continue for decades. The land wouldn't be sold to another rancher and go back to looking like other parts of the property, which were regularly cleared of native habitat. The hope, he said, was that over time the regenerating ecosystems would store more carbon, and generate more credits, than the eucalyptus. (The company intends to submit its carbon plans to Verra later this year.)
We stopped for lunch at the dividing line between the preserve and the eucalyptus, eating ham sandwiches in the shade of the oldest trees on the property, already two stories tall and still, by Guerreiro's estimate, putting on a centimeter per day. He was planting at a rate of 40,000 seedlings per day in neat trenches filled with white lime to make the sandy Cerrado soil more inviting. In seven years or so, half of the trees will be thinned and pulped. The rest will keep growing. They'll stand for seven years longer and grow thick and firm enough for plywood. The process will then start anew. Guerreiro described a model where clusters of farms mixed with preserves like this one will be planted around mills throughout the Cerrado. But nothing firm had been decided.
This experiment, Wishnie told me later, could have a big payoff. The important thing, he reminded me, was that stretches of the Cerrado would be protected at a scale no one had achieved before—something that wouldn't happen without eucalyptus. He strongly disagreed with the scientists who said eucalyptus didn't fit here. The government had analyzed the watershed, he explained, and he was confident the land could support the trees. At the end of the day, the choice was between doing something and doing nothing. “We talk about restoration as if it's a thing that happens,” he said.
When I asked Pilon to take a look at satellite imagery and photos of the property, she was unimpressed. It looked to her like yet another misguided attempt at planting trees in an area that had once naturally been a dense savanna. (Her assessment is supported by a land survey from the 1980s that classified this land as a typical Cerrado ecosystem—some trees, but mostly shrubbery. BTG responded that the survey was incorrect and the satellite images clearly showed a closed-canopy forest.)
As Lucy Rowland, an expert on the region at the University of Exeter and another BAD signatory, put it: “Under no circumstances should planting eucalyptus ever be considered a viable project to receive carbon credits in the Cerrado.”
Over months of reporting, the way that both sides spoke in absolutes about how to save this vanishing ecosystem had become familiar. Chazdon, the Australia-based forest researcher, told me she too felt that the tenor of the argument over how and where to grow has become more vehement as demand for tree-based carbon removal has intensified. “Nobody's a villain,” she said. “There are disconnects on both sides.”
Chazdon had been excited to hear about BTG's project. It was, she thought, the type of thing that was sorely needed in conservation—mixing profitable enterprises with an approach to restoration that considers the wider landscape. “I can understand why the Cerrado ecologists are up in arms,” she said. “They get the feeling that nobody cares about their ecosystems.” But demands for ecological purity could indeed get in the way of doing much of anything—especially in places like the Cerrado, where laws and financing favor destruction over restoration.
Still, thinking about the scale of the carbon removal problem, she considered it sensible to wonder about the future that was being hatched. While there is, in fact, a limit to how much additional land the world needs for pulp and plywood products in the near future, there is virtually no limit to how much land it could devote to sequestering carbon. Which means we need to ask hard questions about the best way to use it.
It was true, Chazdon said, that planting eucalyptus in the Cerrado was an act of destruction—it'd make that land nearly impossible to recover. The areas preserved in between them would also likely struggle to fully renew itself, without fire or clearing. She would feel more comfortable with such large-scale projects if the bar for restoration were much higher—say, 75% or more. But that almost certainly wouldn't satisfy her grassland colleagues who don't want any eucalyptus at all. And it might not fit the profit model—the flywheel that Apple and others are seeking in order to scale up carbon removal fast.
Barbara Haya, who studies carbon offsets at the University of California, Berkeley, encouraged me to think about all of it differently. The improvements to planting eucalyptus here, at this farm, could be a perfectly good thing for this industry, she said. Perhaps they merit some claim about greener toilet paper or plywood. Haya would leave that debate to the ecologists.
But we weren't talking about toilet paper or plywood. We were talking about laptops and smart watches and ChatGPT. And the path to connecting those things to these trees was more convoluted. The carbon had to be disentangled first from the wood's other profitable uses and then from the wider changes that were happening in this region and its industries. There seemed to be many plausible scenarios for where this land was heading. Was eucalyptus the only feasible route for carbon to find its way here?
Haya is among the experts who argue that the idea of precisely canceling out corporate emissions to reach carbon neutrality is a broken one. That's not to say protecting nature can't help fight climate change. Conserving existing forests and grasslands, for example, could often yield greater carbon and biodiversity benefits in the long run than planting new forests. But the carbon math used to justify those efforts was often fuzzier. This makes every claim of carbon neutrality fragile and drives companies toward projects that are easier to prove, she thinks, but perhaps have less impact.
One idea is that companies should instead shift to a “contribution” model that tracks how much money they put toward climate mitigation, without worrying about the exact amount of carbon removed. “Let's say the goal is to save the Cerrado,” Haya said. “Could they put that same amount of money and really make a difference?” Such an approach, she pointed out, could help finance the preservation of those last intact Cerrado remnants. Or it could fund restoration, even if the restored vegetation takes years to grow or sometimes needs to burn.
The approach raises its own questions—about how to measure the impact of those investments and what kinds of incentives would motivate corporations to act. But it's a vision that has gained more popularity as scrutiny of carbon credits grows and the options available to companies narrow. With the current state of the world, “what private companies do matters more than ever,” Haya told me. “We need them not to waste money.”
In the meantime, it's up to the consumer reading the label to decide what sort of path we're on.
Before we left the farm, Borzone and I had one more task: to plant a tree. The sun was getting low over Project Alpha when I was handed an iron contraption that cradled a eucalyptus seedling, pulled from a tractor piled with plants.
“There's nothing wrong with the trees,” Borzone had said earlier, squinting up at the row of 18-month-old eucalyptus, their fluttering leaves flashing in the hot wind as if in an ill-practiced burlesque show. “I have to remind myself of that.” But still it felt strange putting one in the ground. We were asking so much of it, after all. And we were poised to ask more.
I squeezed the handle, pulling the iron hinge taut and forcing the plant deep into the soil. It poked out at a slight angle that I was sure someone else would need to fix later, or else this eucalyptus tree would grow askew. I was slow and clumsy in my work, and by the time I finished, the tractor was far ahead of us, impossibly small on the horizon. The worker grabbed the tool from my hand and headed toward it, pushing seedlings down as he went, hurried but precise, one tree after another.
Gregory Barber is a journalist based in San Francisco.
This story was produced in partnership with the McGraw Center for Business Journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York, as well as support from the Fund for Investigative Journalism.
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Adobe on Thursday launched the latest iteration of its Firefly family of image generation AI models, a model for generating vectors, and a redesigned web app that houses all its AI models, plus some from its competitors. There's also a mobile app for Firefly in the works.
The new Firefly Image Model 4, Adobe says, improves on its predecessors in terms of quality, speed, and the amount of control over the structure and style of outputs, camera angles, and zoom. It can generate images in resolutions up to 2K. There's also a tweaked, more capable version of this model called Image Model 4 Ultra that can render complex scenes consisting of small structures and lots of detail.
Alexandru Costin, VP of Generative AI at Adobe, said that the company trained the models with a higher order of compute magnitude to enable them to generate more detailed images. He added that, as compared to previous generation models, the new models improve text generation in images and have features that let users use images of their choice to get the model to generate pictures in that style.
The company is also making its Firefly video model, which launched in limited beta last year, available to everyone. It lets users generate video clips from a text prompt or image, use camera angles, specify start and end frames to control shots, generate atmospheric elements, and customize motion design elements. The model can generate video clips from text at resolutions up to 1080p.
Meanwhile, the Firefly Vector Model can create editable vector-based artwork, iterate and generate variations of logos, product packaging, icons, scenes, and patterns.
Notably, Firefly's web app gives you access to all these models as well as a few image and video generation models from OpenAI (GPT image generation), Google (Imagen 3 and Veo 2), and Flux (Flux 1.1 Pro). Users can switch between any of these models at any point, and images generated from any model will have content credentials attached to them. The company hinted that other AI models may be added to the web app in the future.
Adobe is also publicly testing a new product called Firefly Boards, a canvas for ideation or moodboarding. It lets users generate or import images, remix them, and collaborate with others — similar to what you can do with other AI-based ideaboards from Visual Electric, Cove, or Kosmik. Boards is available through the Firefly web app.
The company said these new models would soon be integrated into its product portfolio, but didn't give a timeline for the rollout.
Adobe is also making its Text-to-Image API and Avatar API generally available, and said a new Text-to-Video API is now available for use in beta. These APIs are available through the company's Firefly Services collection of APIs, tools, and services.
Adobe is also testing a web app called Adobe Content Authenticity to let users attach credentials to their work to indicate ownership and attribution through metadata. Users can also indicate whether AI companies can use any images for AI model training.
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You might have already made up your mind about lining up outside a GameStop to buy the Nintendo Switch 2 when it launches on June 5. Or maybe, if you're like me, you're wondering whether it's smart to shell out $450 for Nintendo's console when prices are jumping everywhere.
Whatever you decide, the first thing to know is that, as of April 24, Nintendo has launched preorders in the US and Canada. Preorders went live in other countries earlier, but Nintendo canceled the original April 9 preorder window for the two countries to assess the impacts of the tariffs. The good news is that the price of the Switch 2 console remains at $450, and the Mario Kart World bundle is still $500. That said, a few accessories have been hit with a small price hike.
In today's age of scalpers, preordering a Nintendo Switch 2 isn't as simple as adding it to your cart when the website goes live. If you buy directly from Nintendo, for example, you need to meet certain requirements. Don't worry, we break it all down in this guide.
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The Switch 2 will feel extremely similar to anyone who has used a Switch. It's now larger, with a 7.9-inch screen versus the original's 6.2 inches, but it maintains the hybrid functionality—it's a portable console, but you can dock it to play on a TV. Everything you play on it will look better, thanks to a custom Nvidia graphics card. Nvidia claims the Switch 2 has 10 times better graphics than the original Switch, with ray tracing support and AI-powered upscaling.
The LCD screen might feel like a step back from the Switch OLED version—OLED typically offers better contrast and vibrant colors, but LCD is often brighter. That said, the 7.9-inch screen now sports a 1080p resolution with HDR support. It also has a 120-Hz variable refresh rate, meaning you'll see more frames in a single second, making everything on the screen feel more fluid.
The Joy-Con 2 controllers are larger to accommodate the bigger console, and now, you can use them as mice in certain games like Drag X Drive. That might also mean that shooting in a first-person shooter can feel more precise, and it can enhance the gameplay of a real-time strategy game like Civilization VII, if your arms don't get tired first. Nintendo confirmed the Joy-Con 2 controllers do not use Hall effect sensors, but are still more durable and smooth. Hopefully, that means no more Joy-Con drift. They now connect to the Switch 2 via magnets.
The speakers are better (they now support 3D audio via headphones), and the built-in microphone filters out unnecessary background sounds so your teammates won't hear the blender running in the kitchen. The Switch 2 comes with two USB-C ports, allowing you to charge it in handheld mode when it's on a table, and also connect peripherals like the new Nintendo Switch 2 Camera, which lets you bring your face into games when socializing with friends.
The new social features are driven by the C button on the right Joy-Con 2, which triggers GameChat. It lets you speak to in-game friends using the mic, and you can even share your screen so your teammates can help you navigate puzzles in case you're stuck, even if they're playing a different game. These GameChat features require a Nintendo Switch Online subscription.
When you place the Switch 2 on the dock, it now outputs 4K resolution with HDR to TVs (up from 1080p). When docked, you will be capped at 60 frames per second at 4K and 120 fps at 1440p resolution. The dock has a USB-C port for power, an Ethernet port for faster internet speeds, and an HDMI port to hook it up to the TV. On the front are two USB-A ports to connect accessories.
You can use physical game cartridges, and the Switch 2 cartridges are red. As for storage, you now get 256 GB included (up from 32 GB), and a microSD Express slot to expand space. You cannot use your old microSD card—microSD Express is significantly faster, which affects download speeds and how quickly games load.
The Switch 2 costs $450, which is $150 more than the original and $100 more than the Switch OLED. The only game bundle at launch is with Mario Kart World.
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Preorders are live for the Switch 2 as of midnight Eastern time on April 24 or 9 pm Pacific on April 23. The console officially goes on sale June 5. Here are the nitty gritty details from the top retailers, including when stores will open on launch day:
It doesn't look like you'll be able to preorder the Switch 2 through Amazon, but this could change. You can keep an eye on Nintendo's Amazon storefront.
There's some risk involved in preordering a Switch 2 from one of the big retailers. Scalpers and bots could get to them first, a plague we've seen before with graphics cards.
Thankfully, Nintendo has a solution to prevent all the Switch 2 stock from going to scalpers if you buy directly from the company. First, sign in to your Nintendo Account here and register your interest in purchasing the console (you need to be at least 18 years old). You'll then receive an email when it's your time to purchase, and the company says the first batch of invites will go out on May 8. The invites are first-come, first-served, and you'll have 72 hours to complete the purchase from the time the email is sent out.
You have to be the person who purchased the Nintendo Switch Online membership to register, must have paid for it for a minimum of 12 months, and must have opted in to share gameplay data and have at least 50 hours of total gameplay.
You can pay with Visa, Mastercard, Google Pay, or Apple Pay, and you'll be paying the whole amount at checkout. Orders will be shipped to your address of choice in the US and Canada. Nintendo says “release-day delivery is not guaranteed due to processing and shipment times,” so you might not have a Switch 2 on June 5.
While Nintendo announced a bevy of games during the Switch 2 Direct on April 2, only a select number will be available on June 5.
There will be several other games launching over the summer, like Donkey Kong Bananza, Drag X Drive, and Super Mario Party Jamboree. In the fall and winter, you'll see titles like Pokémon Legends: Z-A, Elden Ring, and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond.
The Switch 2 has broad backward compatibility, meaning most Switch games will work just fine. However, Nintendo has announced a handful of “Switch 2 Edition” games that will take advantage of the Switch 2's hardware for enhanced graphics, smoother gameplay, and in some situations, new content.
If you do not own Breath of the Wild, the Switch 2 Edition will cost $80. However, if you bought it for the original Switch—physical or digital—you can buy an upgrade pack on the Nintendo eShop for $10. Some upgrade packs will cost $20 if there's new content in addition to the graphics enhancement, like the Star-Crossed World expansion for Kirby and the Forgotten Land.
At launch, anyone with a Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership can get the upgrade pack for Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom for free.
There are several first-party accessories you can snag for the Switch 2 console. Some of these have seen price hikes due to the tariff trade war.
You might be better off holding onto your original Nintendo Switch, but if you want to reduce the sting of buying a Switch 2 even a little bit, GameStop will have special trade-in values that start on April 24. You can get up to $125 for a standard Switch, $175 for a Switch OLED, or $100 for a Switch Lite. The catch is they need to be in pretty good condition—GameStop will not accept Switch consoles with Joy-Con drift. You also need everything that came in the original box.
One of the big announcements from the April 2 Nintendo Direct was that GameCube games are coming to Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. Just like how you've been able to enjoy SNES and Game Boy games, now you can relive the glory days of the GameCube. Titles include The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, F-Zero GX, and Soul Calibur 2. These games will look better and play at higher resolution, though they're not remasters.
These GameCube games will launch on June 5 alongside the Switch 2, and you'll need to subscribe to Nintendo Switch Online: Expansion Pack. (That's a separate, pricier tier from the standard Switch Online membership.) You can also snag a cordless, modernized version of the GameCube controller to play these games, though the original will still work with the right adapter. Unfortunately, you will need a Switch 2 console to play these GameCube games. They're not compatible with the original Switch.
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Ischemic stroke remains one of the leading causes of death and long-term disability worldwide, with narrowing of the carotid artery due to atherosclerosis contributing to up to 30% of all cases. For decades, medical practitioners have primarily relied on the degree of carotid narrowing (stenosis) to assess the risk of stroke and determine the best treatment options. However, mounting evidence suggests that this approach may be insufficient for patients with mild but symptomatic carotid stenosis.
Despite being classified as 'low-risk' due to having less than 50% carotid artery narrowing, a significant number of patients with mild carotid stenosis continue to experience recurrent ischemic events, even when receiving appropriate medical therapy. This implies that factors beyond the degree of stenosis may play a crucial role in determining stroke risk for this patient population.
To address this gap, a team including Lecturer Daina Kashiwazaki and Dr. Satoshi Kuroda from Toyama University, Japan, aimed to tackle this knowledge gap via their 'Mild but Unstable Stenosis of Internal Carotid Artery (MUSIC)' study. This multicenter prospective cohort study, which was published online on February 21, 2025, in the Journal of Neurosurgery, investigated the clinical features, radiological findings, and treatment outcomes of patients with symptomatic mild carotid stenosis.
The researchers enrolled 124 patients who had experienced cerebrovascular or retinal ischemic events ipsilateral (same side) to mild carotid stenosis. While all participants received the best medical therapy (BMT) for their condition, carotid endarterectomy (CEA)-the surgical removal of plaque-or carotid artery stenting (CAS) was performed in 63 patients. Patients were followed up for two years, with the primary endpoint being the occurrence of ipsilateral ischemic stroke.
The findings were quite striking: approximately 81% of patients had radiologically unstable plaque, with 59.5% exhibiting intraplaque hemorrhage (IPH). This type of plaque composition was associated with a significantly higher risk of both primary and secondary endpoints, the latter of which included ocular symptoms, any type of stroke, and plaque progression requiring CEA. Additionally, the incidence of ipsilateral ischemic stroke was markedly higher in the group receiving only BMT compared to those who also underwent CEA (15.1% vs. 1.7%). "The distinctive clinical and radiological features in high-risk patients strongly indicate that plaque composition, namely IPH, but not degree of stenosis, plays a key role in subsequent ischemic events in patients with symptomatic mild carotid stenosis," explains Kashiwazaki.
This study challenges current medical guidelines, which typically do not recommend CEA for patients with symptomatic mild carotid stenosis. The results demonstrated that CEA significantly reduced the incidence of both primary and secondary endpoints during the two-year follow-up period, with CEA emerging as a protective factor and IPH as a risk factor for recurrent events. Moreover, it is also particularly noteworthy that approximately half of the study participants had been receiving antithrombotic therapy prior to enrollment but still experienced cerebrovascular or ocular events. This suggests that certain patients with mild carotid stenosis may be resistant to conservative medical therapy alone, calling for more proactive interventions.
Overall, the implications of this study could fundamentally alter how physicians approach stroke prevention. "In the very near future, the evaluation of plaque composition will be an essential examination to predict the risk of further events and to determine treatment strategies in each patient with symptomatic mild carotid stenosis," notes Kashiwazaki. In this way, by shifting focus from stenosis degree to plaque composition, clinicians may be able to better identify high-risk patients who would benefit from surgical intervention. With any luck, this revised approach could potentially reduce stroke incidence and improve outcomes for a previously underrecognized at-risk population.
This research underscores the need for personalized stroke prevention strategies that go beyond measuring stenosis severity alone.
University of Toyama
Kashiwazaki, D., et al. (2025). Clinical features, radiological findings, and outcome in patients with symptomatic mild carotid stenosis: a MUSIC study. Journal of Neurosurgery. doi.org/10.3171/2024.10.jns241185.
Posted in: Medical Research News | Medical Condition News
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CellVoyant leverages AI and live-cell imaging to predict cellular behavior, transforming cell therapy development and making it more accessible and efficient.
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New evidence highlights how the Mediterranean diet's anti-inflammatory nutrients, like extra-virgin olive oil and omega-3-rich fish, can help manage both joint and thyroid autoimmune disorders, offering a low-cost lifestyle intervention with clinical benefits.
Study: Unlocking the Power of the Mediterranean Diet: Two in One—Dual Benefits for Rheumatic and Thyroid Autoimmune Diseases. Image Credit: monticello / Shutterstock.com
A recent study published in the journal Nutrients reviews the effects of the Mediterranean diet (MD) on both systemic and organ-specific autoimmune disorders, particularly rheumatic and thyroid diseases.
Autoimmune diseases are systemic or organ-specific diseases that are associated with the development of anomalous immune responses against self-antigens. Systemic autoimmune diseases may include rheumatoid arthritis (RA), seronegative spondyloarthritis (SpA), and autoimmune connective tissue diseases (CTDs), whereas Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT), type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D), and Graves' disease (GD) are considered organ-specific diseases.
Autoimmune diseases are triggered by genetic and environmental factors that activate the immune system through various mechanisms, including the production of interferon type I, molecular mimicry, epitope spreading, post-translational modification of proteins, or the presentation of superantigens.
T- and B-lymphocytes are involved in the manifestation of autoimmune diseases, as demonstrated by the synthesis of autoantibodies against self-antigens. Non-immune cells, such as epithelial, endothelial, and fibroblast cells, also damage tissues through the synthesis of pro-inflammatory cytokines.
The MD is rich in fiber, olive oil, fruits, grains, legumes, nuts, and vegetables, as well as a moderate intake of fish, poultry, and wine. In comparison to Western dietary habits, the MD recommends a moderate consumption of red meat, processed foods, and refined sugar.
Previous studies have highlighted the potential of MD in modulating inflammation due to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. The MD has also been shown to promote the growth of beneficial bacteria, including Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, which exerts anti-inflammatory effects.
Several studies have reported the beneficial effects of various MD components on rheumatoid arthritis (RA), chronic widespread arthritis (CTD), spondyloarthritis (SpA), and autoimmune thyroiditis. Moreover, the intake of oily fish rich in ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), as well as various fruits and vegetables containing different classes of bioactive compounds, has been shown to mitigate the effects of certain autoimmune diseases.
The high intake of fiber enhances the proliferation of fermenting bacteria, which produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) such as butyrate, acetate, and propionate. Multiple studies have confirmed the anti-inflammatory properties of SCFAs and their ability to alleviate oxidative stress and chemotaxis of immune cells by enhancing the number of Treg cells and the release of interleukin-10 (IL-10).
Furthermore, a recent clinical trial also revealed that ω-3 PUFA supplementation could positively impact the progression of RA by suppressing the levels of inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-1β, modulating T-cell differentiation, and reducing the production of leukotriene B4 (LTB4) by neutrophils.
Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) contains a wide range of bioactive compounds, such as carotenoids, phenolics, sterols, and triterpenic alcohols. Several preclinical studies have investigated the potential anti-inflammatory properties of extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) and its components.
For example, oleocanthal (OL), a typical phenolic component of extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO), exhibits preventive effects against rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Likewise, a mouse model of pristane-induced systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) showed that EVOO consumption inhibited the release of nitric oxide (NO) and the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines.
The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) recently reported that individuals who consume a pro-inflammatory diet had higher levels of total T4 and total T3. Similarly, HT patients adhering to an anti-inflammatory diet exhibited lower TSH levels, higher free T4 levels, and lower body mass index (BMI) values. Higher adherence to MD also improved thyroid autoimmunity and related dysfunction.
Recently, a randomized clinical trial (RCT) revealed that patients with RA who underwent the MD intervention for 12 weeks exhibited a significant reduction in their disease activity score on 28 joints (DAS28) compared to controls. These patients also experienced improvements in cardiometabolic parameters, including body composition, body weight, blood glucose levels, and plasma vitamin D levels.
Encouraging adherence to the MD could serve as an effective, cost-efficient lifestyle approach to reduce the burden of autoimmune disorders in modern societies.”
The synergistic effect of individual MD components may be sufficient to mitigate the inflammatory processes that occur during autoimmune conditions, thus supporting the incorporation of this dietary approach into the management of autoimmune diseases and their complications. In vitro and in vivo studies, along with clinical trial data, have confirmed the potential of MD as a complementary tool for managing rheumatic and thyroid autoimmune diseases; however, combining MD with exercise has the potential to provide more robust and durable improvements.
Posted in: Men's Health News | Medical Science News | Medical Research News | Medical Condition News | Women's Health News
Written by
Priyom holds a Ph.D. in Plant Biology and Biotechnology from the University of Madras, India. She is an active researcher and an experienced science writer. Priyom has also co-authored several original research articles that have been published in reputed peer-reviewed journals. She is also an avid reader and an amateur photographer.
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Bose, Priyom. (2025, April 23). Mediterranean diet helps manage rheumatoid arthritis and Hashimoto's, study shows. News-Medical. Retrieved on April 24, 2025 from https://www.news-medical.net/news/20250423/Mediterranean-diet-helps-manage-rheumatoid-arthritis-and-Hashimotoe28099s-study-shows.aspx.
MLA
Bose, Priyom. "Mediterranean diet helps manage rheumatoid arthritis and Hashimoto's, study shows". News-Medical. 24 April 2025.
An Italian study challenges the "white meat is safer" notion, showing that high poultry consumption, over 300 g weekly, may double gastrointestinal cancer death risk, particularly among men.
Study: Does Poultry Consumption Increase the Risk of Mortality for Gastrointestinal Cancers? A Preliminary Competing Risk Analysis. Image Credit: stockcreations / Shutterstock.com
In a recent study published in the journal Nutrients, researchers investigated the relationship between consuming poultry meat and the incidence of gastrointestinal cancers (GCs) and other causes of mortality.
According to the 2013 Instituto di Servizi per il Mercato Agricolo Alimentare (ISMEA) report, conducted in Italy, weekly poultry consumption was estimated to be 13.3 kg per capita worldwide. Rising rates of poultry consumption have also been reported in Italy over the past decade, increasing from 11.7 kg per capita to the current rate of 12.7 kg per capita.
Poultry is a broad term that encompasses all forms of birds, including chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, guineas, and game birds such as quail and pheasants. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) recommends 100 g as a standard portion for poultry that can be consumed between one and three times each week.
Compared to meat from other sources, poultry is typically lower in fat content. However, widespread industrial processing of poultry products has reduced their nutritional value by adding sodium, saturated fat, sugar, and preservatives into these foods. In fact, current estimates indicate that 26% of the poultry products are processed in the form of hamburger meat, kebabs, rolls, and bites.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer has defined meat as carcinogenic to humans, with red meat probably carcinogenic to humans. Existing evidence indicates that the association between meat consumption and cancer risk is primarily attributed to the intake of red and processed meat. However, it remains unclear whether consuming white meat may also increase the risk of cancer, particularly those affecting the gastrointestinal tract.
A total of 4,869 participants from the MICOL and NUTRIHEP study cohorts were included in the current analysis. Food and beverage consumption was recorded using the European Prospective Investigation on Cancer (EPIC) Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ).
Total meat consumption was stratified by weekly increments of 100 g, from less than 200 g to over 400 g every week. Red meat included lamb, pig, calf, and horse meat, whereas rabbit and poultry were considered white meat.
Red meat consumption was classified by 50 g increments, ranging from less than 150 g to over 350 g per week. Poultry consumption was stratified by 100 g increments, ranging from less than 100 g to over 300 g, every week.
The mean age of the survivors was 66 years, whereas 21% of the cohort died by the end of the study period. The overall mean age at death was 81 years, with men and women dying at a mean of 80 and 83 years, respectively.
GCs accounted for 11% of deaths, most of which were due to colorectal cancer (CRC), whereas 18% of individuals died due to other cancers. The remaining deaths were caused by cardiovascular disease (CVD) and dementia.
Among individuals who died of non-GC cancers, red meat accounted for over 65% of their total meat intake as compared to 56% and 58% among those who died of GC and other causes, respectively. White meat consumption was highest among those who died of GC, with poultry intake accounting for 33% of their white meat intake.
About 56% of cancer-related deaths occurred in individuals who consumed over 400 g of meat every week, largely as part of the Mediterranean diet. Study participants who died of other causes reported total meat intake in the second-highest category.
High red meat consumption was also associated with non-GC cancer deaths. In contrast, a weekly meat intake of 200-300 g was associated with an overall 20% reduced mortality risk from all causes, with this risk further reduced to 27% among men. Study participants who consumed 150-250 g of red meat every week were 29% less likely to die from all causes.
White meat consumption, specifically poultry, correlated with GC deaths. Mortality from all causes rose by 27% among those who consumed over 300 g of poultry weekly, with this risk particularly high at 61% among men. Deaths from other causes and cancers were associated with lower levels of poultry consumption.
Consuming 100-200 g of poultry weekly was associated with a 65% increased risk of dying from GC, as compared to other cancers, which was dose-dependent. Individuals who consumed over 300 g of poultry every week were 127% more likely to die from GC, with this risk even greater at 161% among men.
Compared to other risks, GC mortality was 54% less likely among those who consumed between 200 and 300 g of total meat weekly, as compared to those who consumed more than 200 g. This risk reduction was particularly evident among men, at a rate of 68%.
Poultry consumption above 300 g/week is associated with a statistically significant increased mortality risk both from all causes and from GCs.”
Future studies are needed to validate these findings and elucidate the role of processed poultry in the increased risk of gastrointestinal cancer-related mortality.
Posted in: Men's Health News | Medical Science News | Medical Research News | Medical Condition News | Women's Health News
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Dr. Liji Thomas is an OB-GYN, who graduated from the Government Medical College, University of Calicut, Kerala, in 2001. Liji practiced as a full-time consultant in obstetrics/gynecology in a private hospital for a few years following her graduation. She has counseled hundreds of patients facing issues from pregnancy-related problems and infertility, and has been in charge of over 2,000 deliveries, striving always to achieve a normal delivery rather than operative.
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Thomas, Liji. (2025, April 23). New study questions poultry's health halo amid rising cancer risks. News-Medical. Retrieved on April 24, 2025 from https://www.news-medical.net/news/20250423/New-study-questions-poultrys-health-halo-amid-rising-cancer-risks.aspx.
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Thomas, Liji. "New study questions poultry's health halo amid rising cancer risks". News-Medical. 24 April 2025.
Millions of people worldwide are affected by African sleeping sickness, Chagas disease and other life-threatening infections caused by microscopic parasites borne by insects such as the tsetse fly.
Each of the underlying single-celled parasites - Trypanosoma brucei and its relatives - has one flagellum, a whiplike appendage that is essential for moving, infecting hosts and surviving in different environments.
Now, a research team at the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA, or CNSI, has applied leading-edge atomic imaging and AI-driven modeling to create the most detailed 3D map yet of the flagellum on Trypanosoma brucei, which causes sleeping sickness. The study, published in the journal Science, identified 154 different proteins that make up the flagellum, including 40 that are unique to the parasite.
By capturing the molecular motors that drive the parasite's movement during a key transitional state, the investigators developed a new model for how they swim through blood and tissue. The findings shed light on a critical mechanism essential to Trypanosoma brucei's survival, transmission to hosts and disease processes. This detailed view of the parasite's flagella could help drive progress in treating the illness they cause.
Our study provides a complete molecular blueprint of the flagellum's structural framework, explaining how its movement is powered at an atomic level. By leveraging AI-driven structural modeling, we uncovered unique parasite-specific proteins that contribute to flagellar architecture and function."
Z. Hong Zhou, co-corresponding authorprofessor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics at the UCLA College and founding director of CNSI's Electron Imaging Center for Nanosystems, or EICN
The imaging technique used in the study was cryogenic-electron microscopy, or cryoEM, in which frozen biological samples are probed with electrons to reveal details impossible to capture with visible light. Maps generated with cryoEM received further analysis using artificial intelligence tools, such as an algorithm for predicting a protein's shape based on the amino acids that make it up.
The scientists found that tiny motor-like structures in the microbe's flagellum create motion by acting in a coordinated fashion, similar to the way rowers in a dragon boat synchronize their strokes to move through water.
"Trypanosomes have evolved specialized motion to survive in both the tsetse fly and the human bloodstream, making their flagellum a central feature of their biology," said co-corresponding author Kent Hill, a UCLA professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics and a CNSI member. "By understanding how their unique structural features contribute to movement, we gain insight into fundamental aspects of parasite adaptation and host interactions."
This movie shows a three-dimensional map of the basic structural unit in the parasite Trypanosoma brucei's flagellum, with various mechanical and motor proteins labeled. (Image courtesy: California NanoSystems Institute)
Sleeping sickness initially manifests as fever, headaches, joint pain and itching. After the parasite reaches the central nervous system, the disease can progress to spur severe neurological symptoms.
The study may provide potential targets for therapies that effectively eliminate the parasite or block its transmission to humans, as well as give clues about how to address illnesses caused by other related microbes.
Beyond medical treatment, the insights into an understudied microbe could have impacts such as elucidating details of earlier stages in evolution and inspiring engineers who borrow from nature to inform their designs.
The study's first author is Xian Xia, a former postdoctoral researcher and recently promoted project scientist at UCLA. Other coauthors are Michelle Shimogawa, Hui Wang, Samuel Liu, Angeline Wijono, Gerasimos Langousis, Ahmad Kassem and James Wohlschlegel, all of UCLA.
The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, with data collection and processing carried out at the EICN.
California NanoSystems Institute
Xia, X., et al. (2025). Trypanosome doublet microtubule structures reveal flagellum assembly and motility mechanisms. Science. doi.org/10.1126/science.adr3314.
Posted in: Medical Research News | Histology & Microscopy | Disease/Infection News
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CellVoyant leverages AI and live-cell imaging to predict cellular behavior, transforming cell therapy development and making it more accessible and efficient.
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Dr. Allotey
Dr. Pascale Allotey advocates for comprehensive maternal health policies, stressing the importance of women's voices in shaping effective healthcare solutions.
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While it's no secret that the United States men's national team have been in less than ideal form recently, losing their last two matches to Panama and Canada during Concacaf Nations League play, former USMNT manager Bruce Arena isn't happy with the appointment of coach Mauricio Pochettino. The Argentine was appointed in August of 2024 to lead the United States to the 2026 World Cup after Gregg Berhalter crashed out of the Copa America during the group stage, but so far, fortunes haven't changed for the Red, White, and Blue.
On the "Unfiltered Soccer" podcast hosted by Tim Howard and Landon Donovan, Arena talked about Pochettino's need to learn the culture while taking over the USMNT.
"You know if you look at every national team in the world, the coach is usually a domestic coach," Arena said. "And I think when you have coaches that don't know our culture, our environment, our players, it's hard. I'm sure our coach is a very good coach, but coaching international football is different than club football. It's a completely different job.
"If you ask me if we lack pride, well, I'm watching and I'm shocked. I'm shocked we can't beat Panama and Canada. It was shocking to me."
Call it What You Want: A twice weekly podcast where Jimmy Conrad, Charlie Davies and Tony Meola cover all things USMNT and the state of the beautiful game in the United States. Catch the YouTube live every Tuesday and Thursday at 10 a.m. ET.
While this is Pochettino's first international role after managing Chelsea in the Premier League, part of why only domestic coaches usually manage international teams is that only eight nations have ever won the World Cup -- Brazil, Germany, Italy, Argentina, France, Uruguay, England, and Spain. Every other nation is looking to catch up to those sides, and it has been one of the reasons why Argentine managers are more prevalent than ever, given the success of their international sides and club teams managed by them.
"And I think when you're a national team coach, you need to know your environment, you need to know the animals you coach, and we're lacking that. If you're an American coaching the U.S. team, you know the culture," Arena continued. "You know the pride and how important the national team is. I think when you bring in somebody from the outside, they don't understand it, especially in our country, because we're so different."
The players do need to fight for the badge, but both players like Tyler Adams and Pochettino himself have called the team out. Similar concerns came up in the past when Jürgen Klinsmann was bringing in dual-national players, and it was claimed that some of them didn't care about the badge as much as those born in the United States. As soccer has continued to grow in the United States, it has only become more likely to add dual-national players, and they've become some of the most talented players on this roster.
Antonee Robinson, Sergino Dest, Yunus Musah, and Folarin Balogun have all switched allegiances to represent the USMNT and become some of the most critical players on the roster. This has been a rough period for the USMNT, and they've earned some of the criticism coming their way, but it only makes the upcoming Gold Cup more important. This is a team that is expected to win every Concacaf competition in sight, and if they aren't doing that, the criticism will only continue to mount ahead of a critical World Cup on home soil.
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Kevin De Bruyne will likely snub the Club World Cup as the player would rather look for his next club rather than turn out for Man City in the US.
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Despite rumours that a deal could be reached with Liverpool, Trent Alexander-Arnold will likely leave his boyhood club for Real Madrid this summer.
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The couple aims to support the growth of women's soccer, with Lauren also stepping in as an advisor and ambassador for the NWSL club.
Associated Press
Celtics guard Jrue Holiday and his wife Lauren Holiday have invested in the Courage through their Holiday Family Trust.
CARY, N.C. (AP) — Former U.S. women's national team star Lauren Holiday and husband Jrue Holiday of the Boston Celtics have joined the ownership group of the North Carolina Courage in the National Women's Soccer League.
Lauren Holiday was on the U.S. teams that won the 2015 Women's World Cup and gold medals in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.
Jrue Holiday is a two-time NBA champion and two-time All-Star who has also played for the Philadelphia 76ers, the New Orleans Pelicans and the Milwaukee Bucks. He has a pair of Olympic gold medals as well.
The two have invested in the Courage through their Holiday Family Trust, the team announced Wednesday. Lauren Holiday will serve as an advisor and ambassador for the NWSL club.
“This club represents the future of women's soccer — not just in how we play the game, but in how we empower athletes, connect with communities, and build a sustainable future for the sport,” Lauren Holiday said in a statement. “I believe deeply in the mission and vision of the Courage, and I'm excited to contribute in meaningful ways — especially when it comes to player development and overall culture.”
Lauren Holiday retired from soccer in 2016. While pregnant with the couple's first child, she was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor. Shortly after the birth of her daughter, she underwent surgery and Jrue Holiday took a leave of absence to care for her and their child.
The NWSL has an annual award, the Lauren Holiday Impact Award, which honors players for contributions to their local communities.
Jrue Holiday becomes the first 3-time winner of the award, which honors on- and off-court leadership.
Bam Adebayo, Harrison Barnes, CJ McCollum, Chris Boucher and Jrue Holiday are the finalists for 2024-25.
Kidd joins LeBron James, NFL great Tom Brady & other high-profile figures from American sports to get involved in English soccer.
Boston finishes the season with a 33-8 road record, the best road mark in franchise history.
Jrue Holiday becomes the first 3-time winner of the award, which honors on- and off-court leadership.
Bam Adebayo, Harrison Barnes, CJ McCollum, Chris Boucher and Jrue Holiday are the finalists for 2024-25.
Kidd joins LeBron James, NFL great Tom Brady & other high-profile figures from American sports to get involved in English soccer.
Boston finishes the season with a 33-8 road record, the best road mark in franchise history.
Kidd joins LeBron James, NFL great Tom Brady & other high-profile figures from American sports to get involved in English soccer.
Who were the top 5 forwards in points formats for the 2024-25 fantasy season?
Jalen Green's 38 points lifts Rockets, while the Cavs & Celtics protect home court. Plus, dive into tonight's Game 3s.
Houston evens the series behind Jalen Green in Game 2, while Golden State struggles after Jimmy Butler's departure.
The pair of New York vs. Philadelphia games on Oct. 2 and Oct. 4 will be held at Etihad Arena on Yas Island.
Butler was able to get up gingerly and limped his way to the free throw line, where he made 1 of 2 before leaving the game.
In what was quite a prolific week for U.S. Men's National Team pool players, it was difficult to keep up with those who were either filling the net or setting up teammates for their respective sides.
Ten players scored goals on both sides of the Atlantic. The list boasted Josh Sargent (Norwich City) , Paxten Aaronson (FC Utrecht), Gianluca Busio (Venezia), Jordan Pefok (Reims) and Tanner Tessmann (Lyon) in Europe, and Brandon Vazquez (Austin FC), Ben Cremaschi (Inter Miami), Djordje Mihailovic (Colorado Rapids), Patrick Agyemang (Charlotte FC) and Brian Gutiérrez (Chicago Fire) in Major League Soccer. Pefok, Tessmann and Cremaschi tallied their first goals of the season.
Mihailovic also recorded an assist. Alejandro Zendejas and Jesús Ferreira each contributed two of their own, while Kevin Paredes and Marlon Fossey had one apiece.
In addition, goalkeeper Sean Johnson earned his second consecutive clean sheet of the season for Toronto FC.
Josh Sargent scored his 15th goal of the English Championship season for Norwich City but was forced out of a 5-3 home loss to Portsmouth with a shoulder injury at halftime on Friday, April 18. The 25-year-old striker slotted home a rebound to knot things up at 1-1 in the 21st minute. Despite missing two months of the season, Sargent is tied for second in goals in the league with Leeds United's Joel Piroe, behind teammate Borja Sainz (17). The Canaries (13-14-17, 53 points), who have won only twice in their past dozen contests and have fallen into 14th place, have dropped out of contention for the promotion playoffs.
Paxten Aaronson put the exclamation point on Utrecht's 4-0 triumph over first-place Ajax in the Dutch Eredivisie on Sunday, April 20. The 21-year-old midfielder scored the hosts' final goal, drilling a 20-yard shot past Brazilian keeper Matheus in the 85th minute, his seventh tally of the campaign. Utrecht (17-5-8, 59) is in fourth place, trailing Ajax (23-3-4, 73) by 14 points.
Forward Jordan Pefok's first goal of the French Ligue 1 season was all Reims needed in its 1-0 victory over 10-man Toulouse on Sunday, April 20. Injuries have kept Pefok sidelined for a good portion of the season before he headed home Sergio Akieme's cross in the 39th minute. Toulouse was forced to play a man down for the final 63 minutes after USMNT defender Mark McKenzie was red carded in the 27th minute.
As it turned out, McKenzie was one of three U.S. players who were awarded red cards over the weekend. The others were Real Salt Lake's Diego Luna in a 1-0 loss to Toronto FC and Crystal Palace's Chris Richards (two yellow cards) in a 0-0 tie with AFC Bournemouth. Luna's red card was ultimately rescinded by the MLS Disciplinary Committee.
Reims (8-14-8, 32) sits in 13th place, five points above the relegation zone.
Gianluca Busio tallied his second goal of the Italian Serie A season for Venezia in its 2-2 draw at Empoli on Sunday, April 20. The midfielder gave the visitors the lead in the 85th minute, but Empoli equalized two minutes later. Busio also scored in a 2-0 victory over Genoa on Sept. 21. Venezia (4-16-13, 25) is in 18th place out of 20 teams and in the relegation zone to Serie B. The club trails Lecce (6-19-8, 26), which is in the safety zone.
Alejandro Zendejas registered a pair of assists and drew a penalty kick in Club America's 5-0 romp over Mazatlán in the Liga MX Clausura on Saturday, April 19. Twice he combined with Álvaro Fidalgo, first in the 13th minute, which gave the home side a 2-0 lead, and then for the team's fourth goal in the 58th minute. He was also fouled to set up Victor Davila's 51st-minute penalty kick. Zendejas has five goals and seven assists this season.
Club America (10-3-4, 34) completed the Clausura — the second half of the split season — in second place behind Toluca (11-2-4, 37). The team qualified for the playoffs and because it was among the top six teams, it will begin its postseason run in the quarterfinals. America won the first-half title and is scheduled to play away in the first leg on May 6 and host the second leg on May 9.
It appeared that Brandon Vazquez was going to be the goat-of-the-game when LA Galaxy goalkeeper John McCarthy saved his 67th-minute penalty kick. But the Austin FC forward made up for the miss not 15 minutes later by scoring the lone goal in a 1-0 home win on Saturday, April 19. Vazquez pushed home a deflection off an Owen Wolfe pass from the right flank for his second tally of the campaign. Second-place Austin FC (5-3-1, 16) is four points behind the Vancouver Whitecaps (6-1-2, 20) in the MLS Western Conference.
Some nice timing by Ben Cremaschi as his first goal of the season boosted Inter Miami CF to a 1-0 road triumph over the Columbus Crew in a game played in Cleveland, Ohio in a battle of the last two MLS unbeaten squads on Saturday, April 19. The midfielder headed home Marcelo Weigandt's right-wing cross from six yards in the 30th minute past goalkeeper Pat Schulte. Luis Suárez started the sequence with a long pass to Weigandt on the right side. Miami (5-0-3, 18) is in third place and the Crew (5-1-3, 18) in fourth in the MLS Eastern Conference. Miami has a better goal differential (plus seven, to plus five).
Djordje Mihailovic continued his hot start to the MLS campaign as he had a hand in both of the Colorado Rapids' goals, scoring one and setting up another, in a 2-2 draw at the Houston Dynamo on Saturday, April 19. He converted a penalty kick into the lower left corner against goalie Jonathan Bond to equalize at 1-1 in the 58th minute. He fed Rafael Navarro with a perfect lead pass that the Brazilian turned into a goal and a 2-1 edge in the 77th minute before Houston knotted things up in stoppage time. Mihailovic has four goals and two assists in the league, and two goals in the Concacaf Champions Cup. He has helped the Rapids (4-2-3, 15) to fifth place in the MLS Western Conference.
Forward Patrick Agyemang broke a personal, three-game scoreless streak in Charlotte FC's 3-0 home win over San Diego FC on Saturday, April 19. Agyemang converted a penalty kick in the 45th minute past a diving Carlos dos Santos to give Charlotte some breathing room. It was his second goal of the MLS season. The victory boosted Charlotte (6-2-1, 19) to the top of the MLS Eastern Conference.
In a late Lyon comeback attempt, Tanner Tessmann struck for his first goal of the French Ligue 1 campaign in a 2-1 defeat at Saint-Etienne on Sunday, April 20. Tessmann side-footed a Georges Mikautadze feed past goalkeeper Gautier Larsonneur in the 76th minute, cutting the host's lead in half. It was Tessmann's first goal in almost 11 months since recording one in Venezia's 2-1 win over Palermo on May 24, 2024. The game was delayed for 40 minutes after an assistant referee was hit by an object thrown from the stands. Despite the defeat, Lyon (15-9-6, 51) is in sixth place, battling for a spot in Europe next season, while Saint-Etienne (7-16-6, 27) is in 17th place out of 18 teams, trying to climb out of the relegation zone.
Brian Gutiérrez pulled one back in the 85th minute of the Chicago Fire's 3-2 defeat at home to FC Cincinnati on Saturday, April 19. He cut the deficit to one, putting away a penalty kick past goalie Roman Celentano. It was his first goal since his brace in the Fire's 4-2 defeat against Columbus Crew in its season opener on Feb. 22. The Fire (3-3-3, 12) sits in eighth place of the MLS Eastern Conference.
Kevin Paredes celebrated his first start and game of the Bundesliga season by assisting on Wolfsburg's first goal in its 2-2 draw at Mainz on Saturday, April 19. He set up Maximilian Arnold's score in the third minute. Paredes, who played 63 minutes, had not seen any action since he suffered a broken foot in pre-season training in August. His last match was in the USMNT's 4-0 quarterfinal loss to Morocco in the Paris Olympics on Aug. 2. Paredes was on the Wolfsburg bench for the last three games.
Jesús Ferreira has forged a reputation as a goalscorer. Playing with the Seattle Sounders this year, he hasn't found the net quite yet in nine MLS matches but has been setting up teammates for goals. Ferreira recorded two assists in the 3-0 home victory over Nashville SC on Saturday, April 19. He set up Daniel Musovski in the 19th minute for a 1-0 lead and Paul Rothrock for the final score in the 34th minute. Seattle, which is in eighth place in the MLS Western Conference, improved to 3-3-3 and 12 points.
Defender Marlon Fossey set up Dennis Eckert Ayensa's 58th-minute goal in Standard Liege's 1-1 home draw with Westerlo on Saturday, April 19. Standard Liege (10-12-12, 23) is in seventh place in the Belgian Pro League.
Goalkeeper Sean Johnson recorded his second consecutive shutout for Toronto FC in its 1-0 win at Real Salt Lake on Saturday, April 19. Johnson made six saves. He came up big twice in the 70th minute, with two impressive stops in quick succession, frustrating Alexandros Katranis and Braian Ojeda. On March 29, he kept his net empty in a 2-0 home victory against Minnesota United.
-- Brenden Aaronson (Leeds United; English Championship) – 86 minutes in 6-0 victory vs. Stoke City (April 21)
-- Paxten Aaronson (Utrecht; Dutch Eredivisie) - 90 minutes, GOAL, in 4-0 win vs. Ajax (April 20)
-- Kellyn Acosta (Chicago Fire; MLS) - 20 minutes as a substitute in 3-2 loss vs. FC Cincinnati (April 19)
-- Tyler Adams (AFC Bournemouth; English Premier League) – 60 minutes in 0-0 draw at Crystal Palace (April 19); 90 minutes in 1-0 win vs. Fulham (April 14)
-- Max Arfsten (Columbus Crew; MLS) - 90 minutes in 1-0 loss vs. Inter Miami CF (April 19)
-- Patrick Agyemang (Charlotte FC; MLS) - 76 minutes, GOAL, in 3-0 win vs. San Diego FC (April 19)
-- Folarin Balogun (Monaco; French Ligue 1) – 10 minutes as a substitute in 0-0 draw vs. Strasbourg (April 19)
-- Taylor Booth (Twente; Dutch Eredivisie) - No games
-- Gianluca Busio (Venezia; Italian Serie A) - 90 minutes, GOAL, in 2-2 draw at Empoli (April 20)
-- Drake Callender (Inter Miami CF; MLS) – In 18, DNP in 1-0 win at Columbus Crew (April 19)
-- Johnny Cardoso (Real Betis; La Liga) – 90 minutes, GOAL, 1-3 loss at Girona (April 21)
-- Cameron Carter-Vickers (Celtic; Scottish Premiership) - 90 minutes in 5-0 win at St. Johnstone (April 20)
-- Cade Cowell (Guadalajara; Liga MX) – 1 minute as a substitute in 1-1 draw at Atlas (April 19)
-- Ben Cremaschi (Inter Miami CF; MLS) – 87 minutes, GOAL, 1-0 win at Columbus Crew (April 19)
-- Luca de la Torre (San Diego FC; MLS) – 45 minutes as a substitute in 3-0 loss at Charlotte FC (April 19)
-- Sergiño Dest (PSV Eindhoven; Dutch Eredivisie) - No games
-- Jesús Ferreira (Seattle Sounders; MLS) - 90 minutes, TWO ASSISTS, in 3-0 win vs. Nashville SC (April 19)
-- Marlon Fossey (Standard Liege; Belgian Pro League) - 90 minutes, ASSIST, in 1-1 draw vs. Westerlo (April 19)
-- Julian Gressel (Inter Miami CF; MLS) – Not in 18, DNP 1-0 win at Columbus Crew (April 19)
-- Brian Gutiérrez (Chicago Fire; MLS) - 90 minutes, GOAL, in 3-2 loss vs. FC Cincinnati (April 19)
-- Ethan Horvath (Cardiff City; English Championship) - 90 minutes in 2-0 loss at Sheffield United (April 18)
-- Sean Johnson (Toronto FC; MLS) - 90 minutes, SHUTOUT, in 1-0 win at Real Salt Lake (April 19)
-- DeJuan Jones (Columbus Crew; MLS) – Not in 18, DNP in 1-0 loss vs. Inter Miami CF (April 19)
-- Richy Ledezma (PSV Eindhoven; Dutch Eredivisie) - No games
-- Diego Luna (Real Salt Lake; MLS) - 60 minutes, RED CARD, in 1-0 loss vs. Toronto FC (April 19)
-- Kristoffer Lund (Palermo; Italy Serie B) – 89 minutes in 2-1 loss to Bari (April 11)
-- Lennard Maloney (Mainz; Bundesliga) - In 18, DNP in 2-2 draw vs. Wolfsburg (April 19)
-- Jack McGlynn (Houston Dynamo; MLS) - 90 minutes in 2-2 draw vs. Colorado Rapids (April 19)
-- Weston McKennie (Juventus; Italy Serie A) – 66 minutes in 2-1 win over Lecce (April 12)
-- Mark McKenzie (Toulouse; French Ligue 1) - 27 minutes, RED CARD, in 1-0 loss at Reims (April 20)
-- Djordje Mihailovic (Colorado Rapids; MLS) - 90 minutes, GOAL, ASSIST, in 2-2 draw at Houston Dynamo (April 19)
-- Shaq Moore (FC Dallas; MLS) - 90 minutes in 0-0 draw at Minnesota United (April 19)
-- Aidan Morris (Middlesbrough; English Championship) - 90 minutes in 2-1 win vs. Plymouth Argyle (April 18)
-- Jordan Morris (Seattle Sounders; MLS) - 27 minutes as a substitute in 3-0 win vs. Nashville SC (April 19)
-- Yunus Musah (A.C. Milan; Italy Serie A) - In 18, DNP in 1-0 loss vs. Atalanta (April 20)
-- Jalen Neal (CF Montreal; MLS) – Injured, DNP in 0-0 draw vs. Orlando City SC (April 19)
-- Erik Palmer-Brown (Panathinaikos; Greek Super League) - No games
-- Kevin Paredes (Wolfsburg; Bundesliga) - 63 minutes, ASSIST, in 2-2 draw at Mainz (April 19)
-- Jordan Pefok (Reims; French Ligue 1) - 62 minutes, GOAL, in 1-0 win vs. Toulouse (April 20)
-- Ricardo Pepi (PSV Eindhoven; Dutch Eredivisie) - No games
-- Christian Pulisic (A.C. Milan; Italy Serie A) - 75 minutes in 1-0 loss vs. Atalanta (April 20)
-- Tim Ream (Charlotte FC; MLS) - 52 minutes as a substitute in 3-0 win vs. San Diego FC (April 19)
-- Gio Reyna (Borussia Dortmund; Bundesliga) - In 18, DNP in 3-2 win vs. Borussia Monchengladbach (April 20); 26 minutes as a substitute in 3-1 win vs. Barcelona in UCL (April 15)
-- Bryan Reynolds (Westerlo; Belgian Pro League) - 90 minutes in 1-1 draw at Standard Liege (April 19)
-- Chris Richards (Crystal Palace; English Premier League) - 45 minutes, RED CARD, in 0-0 draw vs. AFC Bournemouth (April 19); 90 minutes in 5-0 loss at Newcastle United (April 16)
-- Antonee Robinson (Fulham; English Premier League) - 90 minutes in 2-1 loss vs. Chelsea (April 20); 90 minutes in 1-0 loss at AFC Bournemouth (April 14)
-- Miles Robinson (FC Cincinnati; MLS) - 90 minutes in 3-2 win at Chicago Fire (April 19)
-- James Sands (St. Pauli; Bundesliga) - Injured, DNP in 1-1 draw vs. Bayer Leverkusen (April 20)
-- Josh Sargent (Norwich City; English Championship) - 45 minutes, GOAL, in 5-3 loss vs. Portsmouth (April 18)
-- Joe Scally (Borussia Mönchengladbach; Bundesliga) - 70 minutes in 3-2 loss at Borussia Dortmund (April 20)
-- Patrick Schulte (Columbus Crew; MLS) - 90 minutes in 1-0 loss vs. Inter Miami CF (April 19)
-- Gaga Slonina (Chelsea U-21; English Premier League 2) - Not in 18, DNP in 4-2 win at Crystal Palace U-21 (April 14)
-- Zack Steffen (Colorado Rapids; MLS) - 90 minutes in 2-2 draw at Houston Dynamo (April 19)
-- Tanner Tessmann (Lyon; French Ligue 1) – 90 minutes, GOAL, 2-1 loss at Saint-Etienne (April 20); 65 minutes as a substitute in 5-4 loss (7-6 aggregate loss) at Manchester United in UEFA Europa League (April 17)
-- Malik Tillman (PSV Eindhoven; Dutch Eredivisie) - No games
-- Timmy Tillman (Los Angeles FC; MLS) - 90 minutes in 3-3 draw at Portland Timbers (April 19)
-- John Tolkin (Holstein Kiel; Bundesliga) - 90 minutes in 1-1 draw at RB Leipzig (April 19)
-- Auston Trusty (Celtic; Scottish Premiership) - In 18, DNP in 5-0 win at St. Johnstone (April 20)
-- Matt Turner (Crystal Palace; English Premier League) - In 18, DNP in 0-0 draw vs. AFC Bournemouth (April 19); In 18, DNP in 5-0 loss at Newcastle United (April 16)
-- Brandon Vazquez (Austin FC; MLS) - 90 minutes, GOAL, in 1-0 win vs. LA Galaxy (April 19)
-- Tim Weah (Juventus; Italy Serie A) – 23 minutes as substitute in 2-1 win vs. Lecce (April 12)
-- Brian White (Vancouver Whitecaps; MLS) - 90 minutes in 0-0 draw at St. Louis CITY (April 19)
-- Caleb Wiley (Watford; English Championship) - 90 minutes in 2-1 loss vs. Burnley (April 18)
-- Haji Wright (Coventry City; English Championship) - 89 minutes in 2-0 win vs. West Bromwich Albion (April 18); 89 minutes in 1-1 draw at Hull City (April 14)
-- DeAndre Yedlin (FC Cincinnati; MLS) - 86 minutes in 3-2 win at Chicago Fire (April 19)
-- Alejandro Zendejas (Club America; Liga MX) - 90 minutes, TWO ASSISTS, in 5-0 win vs. Mazatlán (April 19); 90 minutes in 1-0 loss at Monterrey (April 16)
-- Walker Zimmerman (Nashville SC; MLS) - Injured, DNP in 3-0 loss at Seattle Sounders (April 19)
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GREENSBORO, N.C. — Greensboro and UNC-Greensboro will become the home of a Brazilian soccer team over the summer as part of the inaugural FIFA Club World Cup, according to the university.
The 2025 FIFA Club World Cup will run from June 14 to July 13 in 11 cities across the United States, including Charlotte. The tournament will consist of 32 of the top teams from each of the six international confederations — AFC, CAF, Concacaf, CONMEBOL, OFC and UEFA.
Greensboro will host SE Palmeiras, one of the most popular club teams in Brazil. The city will act as a place for the team to "spend most of their time during the Group Stage of the Tournament, along with their delegations, media and fans."
“We have long since owned our Tournament Town title, but this honor puts us at a completely different level,” Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan said in a statement. “Greensboro is now officially part of the world's most popular sport. This is not just an economic win — it elevates our status as a premier host for sporting events at levels we've never experienced.”
The 2025 FIFA Club World Cup is the official lead-up to the 2026 World Cup, which will be held in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. FIFA previously announced that Greensboro is also being considered a base camp for that tournament.
“Greensboro has a rich history in youth and amateur soccer over many years,” says Richard Beard, President of the Greensboro Sports Foundation. “Hosting a team for the 2025 Club World Cup adds to our stellar resume hosting major soccer events. The international exposure World Cup Soccer brings to Greensboro is unmatched in any sports event held worldwide.”
Bank of America Stadium will host the following four matches in the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup:
In addition to training in Greensboro, SE Palmerias also plans to launch a "comprehensive community program for the local neighborhood." Starting on June 6, Greensboro will host free community-focused activities at Smith Soccer Complex "aimed at introducing the club and its history to local people."
Kevin De Bruyne will not extend his stay at Manchester City to play at the Club World Cup this summer. De Bruyne's contract is due to expire at the end of June - midway through the summer tournament.
The Belgian's 10-year stint at the Etihad Stadium is coming to an end, with his exit coming as a surprise to some - including De Bruyne himself. He delivered a pointed assessment of the club chiefs, questioning the decision to let him leave, and doubt is being cast on his Club World Cup involvement.
As revealed by the Daily Star Sport, De Bruyne is reluctant to play and risk an injury which might hamper his chance of finding a new club, and is also unhappy with how his imminent departure was handled. He will be obliged to travel to the US for the start of the tournament in mid-June, with his contract not expiring until the 30th, but is said to hope the club will understand his situation when he holds further talks.
Teams involved in the Club World Cup are permitted to seek special dispensation to continue using players in situations like that faced by De Bruyne. There have also been changes made to Premier League transfer rules, with teams permitted to sign players between June 1-10 before the window opens in earnest later that month.
City manager Pep Guardiola recognised the situation facing De Bruyne is a complex one. He said the decision will need to be made by the 33-year-old after discussions with the club, and no such decision has been made at the time of writing, but if he doesn't play at the Club World Cup then his final City game will be the last game of the Premier League season on May 25 against Fulham.
“I think he has to decide, he has to talk, because now with the World Cup, it's a new contract, legally, you know," Guardiola said in early April. “If he can continue playing football in another place, it depends on the risk, playing there for the contracts, or injuries, or the future. So, honestly, I don't know. I think the club has to talk to him, or he has to say what he wants to do.”
City's Club World Cup campaign begins against Moroccan side Wydad on June 18, nearly a month after the final Premier League match of the season. Their group is completed by Al Ain and Juventus, with all three group games scheduled for before the end of June.
"It was Txiki [Begiristain] and Ferran [Soriano] who told me," De Bruyne said, referencing the club's outgoing sporting director and current CEO respectively. He said he didn't feel awkward about the pair being nearby as he explained the situation, but did say he felt he can still deliver at the highest level.
"In the end it is what it is," he continued. "You have to accept people taking decisions. I told them also that I still think I had a lot to give. Obviously I know I'm not 25 anymore but I feel like I'm doing my job.
“It came as a bit of a shock. I'm open for anything (including staying in the Premier League). I have to look at the whole picture, sporting, the family, everything together, what makes the most sense for my family.
"I don't know what it is. It depends on when you speak to people about projects and things. I know I can play at a good level. I have to make that decision once I really know more (of the offers)."
Clubs in Europe, Saudi Arabia and the United States are understood to be keen on signing De Bruyne on a free transfer. Inter Miami hold the player's discovery rights if he does choose to move to Major League Soccer, though this doesn't necessarily mean he'll end up with the Florida club.
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La Liga
Real Madrid midfielder Eduardo Camavinga has suffered a left abductor tear.
Sources close to the club and player fear he will not recover in time for the Club World Cup, which begins in mid-June with the final on July 13.
The 22-year-old sustained the injury in Madrid's 1-0 win over Getafe on Wednesday. He came on as a substitute at half-time, replacing David Alaba who was feeling discomfort himself, and ended the match limping. Manager Carlo Ancelotti said after the game that both players were dealing with “muscular problems” before the club confirmed Camavinga's injury on Thursday.
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“Following tests carried out today on Eduardo Camavinga by the Real Madrid Medical Services, he has been diagnosed with a complete tear of the tendon in his left abductor muscle,” Madrid said in a statement.
The injury is a significant blow to Madrid, ruling Camavinga out of Saturday's Copa del Rey final against Barcelona and potentially the rest of the domestic season. Madrid's first game of the expanded Club World Cup is set to take place on June 18 against Saudi Pro League side Al Hilal.
Camavinga has made 34 appearances in all competitions this season, scoring twice, in what has been an injury-disrupted campaign.
A knee injury in August kept the France international out for more than a month before suffering a hamstring injury in November that caused him to miss five matches. He injured his hamstring again in January, sidelining him for another three weeks.
This is the latest injury setback for Madrid, who have had a host of players miss time this season, including Dani Carvajal and Eder Militao who are out with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears.
Left-back Ferland Mendy has been out since mid-March with a hamstring injury, though the club say that he is making good progress and has a chance to feature on Saturday alongside Kylian Mbappe, who missed the Getafe game. The club also say Alaba could be part of the squad if he gets through training without issue.
Arder Guler, making only his 11th start of the season, scored the only goal of the game against Getafe. Aurelien Tchouameni picked up a yellow card during the game which the club say they plan to appeal. Tchouameni is at risk of being suspended for Madrid's clash with Barcelona in La Liga on May 11 if he is booked in the side's next league fixture against Celta Vigo.
Madrid are second in La Liga on 72 points, four points behind leaders Barcelona with five games to play.
Analysis from Tomás Hill López-Menchero
Camavinga has been in and out of the team this season, but his injury only underlines what a torrid campaign this has been for Real Madrid.
Raul Asencio, Luka Modric, Arda Guler and Endrick are their only players not to have missed games through injury this term. Right-back Carvajal and Militao are out with long-term knee injuries while Mendy has missed nine matches with his hamstring injury.
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Camavinga might have been in line to start at left-back in the Copa del Rey final against Barcelona before this latest setback. That is not the Frenchman's preferred position but he has often performed better there than Fran Garcia, who struggled against Arsenal in the Champions League quarter-finals. After the win against Getafe, Ancelotti admitted that academy graduate Garcia would have to play the Clasico.
But this is also another blow for the versatile Camavinga, who has yet to fully establish himself at Madrid since moving to the Spanish capital in 2021. Madrid are still struggling to move on from Toni Kroos in midfield after the German's retirement last summer — they need all the help they can get in that department if they are to have any hopes of winning the Copa del Rey or La Liga before the revamped Club World Cup in the United States this summer.
(Angel Martinez/Getty Images)
Mauricio Pochettino is under fire from former USMNT and current MLS team San Jose Eartquakes coach Bruce Arena, who questioned if the Argentine is the right man to lead the Stars and Stripes.
U.S. Soccer hired Pochettino back in September to develop a talented U.S. men's national team into a real contender ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. Despite getting off to a winning start, the Stars and Stripes under the Argentine have once again failed to impress.
The USMNT suffered a shocking 1–0 defeat to Panama in the Concacaf Nations League semifinals and then lost a third-place match to Canada just three days later. The two poor results prompted harsh criticism from USMNT greats Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey, and now Arena is joining in the conversation surrounding Pochettino's early leadership.
"You know if you look at every national team in the world, the coach is usually a domestic coach," Arena said on an episode of Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan & Tim Howard.
"And I think when you have coaches that don't know our culture, our environment, our players, it's hard. I'm sure our coach is a very good coach, but coaching international football is different than club football, it's a completely different job."
Pochettino is not the first non-American to coach the USMNT. German Jurgen Klinsmann was in charge of the Stars and Stripes from 2011 to 2016 and led the team to a second-place finish in a group with Germany, Portugal and Ghana at the 2014 FIFA World Cup. There was also Serbian Bora Milutinović, who got the team to the round of 16 at the 1994 FIFA World Cup.
Pochettino, though, has no previous experience coaching a national team. The 53-year-old spent his entire career coaching at the club level throughout Europe, most notably at Tottenham Hotspur and Paris Saint-Germain.
"And I think when you're a national team coach, you need to know your environment, you need to know the animals you coach, and we're lacking that," Arena continued. "If you're an American coaching the U.S. team, you know the culture, you know the pride and how important the national team is. I think when you bring in somebody from the outside, they don't understand it, especially in our country, because we're so different."
Arena knows what it takes to coach the USMNT on the biggest stage in soccer. The American previously led the USMNT to the quarterfinals at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, the team's best performance since 1930. It is clear that he, along with plenty of other critics, are unsatisfied with the current state of the USMNT, especially for a squad often heralded as the country's "golden generation."
"You ask me if we lacked pride, I'm watching and I'm shocked. I'm shocked that we can't beat Panama and Canada," Arena said. "I don't want to be disrespectful. I want them to do great in the World Cup, there's no question about it. But we only have a year left now. Time is running out, and they got to get going."
Before the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the USMNT must first compete in the Concacaf Gold Cup this summer, where they will hope to put in a better performance than their disappointing Concacaf Nations League campaign.
The team's main goal, though, remains on the 2026 FIFA World Cup, unfolding on home soil.
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Amanda Langell is a Sports Illustrated Soccer freelance writer covering the European game and international competitions.
Follow AmandaLangell
© 2025 ABG-SI LLC - SPORTS ILLUSTRATED IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF ABG-SI LLC. - All Rights Reserved. The content on this site is for entertainment and educational purposes only. Betting and gambling content is intended for individuals 21+ and is based on individual commentators' opinions and not that of Sports Illustrated or its affiliates, licensees and related brands. All picks and predictions are suggestions only and not a guarantee of success or profit. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER.
Mauricio Pochettino is under fire from former USMNT and current MLS team San Jose Eartquakes coach Bruce Arena, who questioned if the Argentine is the right man to lead the Stars and Stripes.
U.S. Soccer hired Pochettino back in September to develop a talented U.S. men's national team into a real contender ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. Despite getting off to a winning start, the Stars and Stripes under the Argentine have once again failed to impress.
The USMNT suffered a shocking 1–0 defeat to Panama in the Concacaf Nations League semifinals and then lost a third-place match to Canada just three days later. The two poor results prompted harsh criticism from USMNT greats Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey, and now Arena is joining in the conversation surrounding Pochettino's early leadership.
"You know if you look at every national team in the world, the coach is usually a domestic coach," Arena said on an episode of Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan & Tim Howard.
"And I think when you have coaches that don't know our culture, our environment, our players, it's hard. I'm sure our coach is a very good coach, but coaching international football is different than club football, it's a completely different job."
Pochettino is not the first non-American to coach the USMNT. German Jurgen Klinsmann was in charge of the Stars and Stripes from 2011 to 2016 and led the team to a second-place finish in a group with Germany, Portugal and Ghana at the 2014 FIFA World Cup. There was also Serbian Bora Milutinović, who got the team to the round of 16 at the 1994 FIFA World Cup.
Pochettino, though, has no previous experience coaching a national team. The 53-year-old spent his entire career coaching at the club level throughout Europe, most notably at Tottenham Hotspur and Paris Saint-Germain.
"And I think when you're a national team coach, you need to know your environment, you need to know the animals you coach, and we're lacking that," Arena continued. "If you're an American coaching the U.S. team, you know the culture, you know the pride and how important the national team is. I think when you bring in somebody from the outside, they don't understand it, especially in our country, because we're so different."
Arena knows what it takes to coach the USMNT on the biggest stage in soccer. The American previously led the USMNT to the quarterfinals at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, the team's best performance since 1930. It is clear that he, along with plenty of other critics, are unsatisfied with the current state of the USMNT, especially for a squad often heralded as the country's "golden generation."
"You ask me if we lacked pride, I'm watching and I'm shocked. I'm shocked that we can't beat Panama and Canada," Arena said. "I don't want to be disrespectful. I want them to do great in the World Cup, there's no question about it. But we only have a year left now. Time is running out, and they got to get going."
Before the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the USMNT must first compete in the Concacaf Gold Cup this summer, where they will hope to put in a better performance than their disappointing Concacaf Nations League campaign.
The team's main goal, though, remains on the 2026 FIFA World Cup, unfolding on home soil.
feed
Amanda Langell is a Sports Illustrated Soccer freelance writer covering the European game and international competitions.
Follow AmandaLangell
© 2025 ABG-SI LLC - SPORTS ILLUSTRATED IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF ABG-SI LLC. - All Rights Reserved. The content on this site is for entertainment and educational purposes only. Betting and gambling content is intended for individuals 21+ and is based on individual commentators' opinions and not that of Sports Illustrated or its affiliates, licensees and related brands. All picks and predictions are suggestions only and not a guarantee of success or profit. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER.
Front Row Soccer
www.frontrowsoccer.com
In his latest View From the Front Row on Substack, FrontRowSoccer.com editor Michael Lewis addresses the importance of the upcoming Concacaf Gold Cup for the U.S. men's national team.
In his latest View From the Front Row on Substack, FrontRowSoccer.com editor Michael Lewis addresses the importance of the upcoming Concacaf Gold Cup for the U.S. men's national team.
After failing in the Concacaf Nations League semifinals and third-place match to Panama and Canada, respectively, the U.S. needs to bounce back in the next tournament.
USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino said that it was finding the right characters. It is also finding the right character in the players.
Here is a link to the piece:
https://tinyurl.com/4jh9k5px
You also can subscribe to that Substack as well.
Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 28 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.
A toxic media culture, stoked by podcast-bro vibes of former players, has made the USMNT a suddenly polarizing topic
Everyone has a podcast these days. It's just what you do. Opinions need to be disseminated into the world, and all that matters is yours. The problem, of course, is that when everyone has a podcast, when everyone is just yelling, no one really listens. So, it just becomes a bit of a race to the bottom.
Only most outlandish opinions stand out. The silliest "takes" tend to win. But what happens if you start to believe your own propaganda? What happens if you say something so angsty that people are forced to listen - and it's so good that you may as well just embody it?
Welcome to the world of soccer punditry, where everyone has a bone to pick, and pretty much no one can offer objective analysis. In fairness, it's the media sphere we live in. Clicks are good. Opinions - even wrong ones - are good. Engagement is everything. The value of saying something intelligent is fading.
This has always been the case in the European game, where former players, in particular, disseminate their perceived injustices into the world. Roy Keane is the grumpy one. Gary Neville is the United apologist. Jamie Carragher is the scouse one. Micah Richards brings the #bantz.
In the United States, though, it's a more recent phenomenon, especially around the current iteration of the men's national team - the old heads taking to their home studios to speak their minds. And with every poor performance, every slip, every showing that falls even slightly short of expectations, the noise grows louder. Podcasts become shoutier, dissenters are dissenting more. A previous generation of footballers, the supposed embodiment of the "good old days" just becomes one ball of anger, dragging nuance out of the game.
La Liga giants Real Madrid have on Thursday announced a heavy injury blow in the club's first-team ranks.
This comes amid confirmation that Eduardo Camavinga suffered a serious setback during Real's most recent outing.
Los Blancos marked their return to action on Wednesday, making the short trip to the Estadio Coliseum for a La Liga meeting with Getafe.
The aforementioned Camavinga was for his part introduced off the bench at the interval, replacing David Alaba.
En route to an eventual 1-0 victory for the visitors on the evening, however, the France international was too forced into a premature departure from proceedings.
After a heavy challenge in the middle of the park, Camavinga could immediately be seen to be in serious pain, hooked by Carlo Ancelotti despite his best efforts to run the problem off.
And a day on, confirmation of the nature of the 22-year-old's injury has been provided.
As per a statement across Real Madrid's website and social media platforms:
‘Following tests carried out today on Eduardo Camavinga by the Real Madrid Medical Services, he has been diagnosed with a complete tear of the tendon in his left abductor muscle. His recovery will be assessed.'
Camavinga medical report.
— Real Madrid C.F. 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@realmadriden) April 24, 2025
As confirmed by several reliable sources in the time since, Camavinga is facing up to a spell of several months on the sidelines, ruling him out for the remainder of the current campaign, as well as the upcoming Club World Cup.
🎙️ Informa @AranchaMOBILE 💥 Camavinga sufre una rotura completa del tendón del adductor izquierdo❌ Se pierde lo que resta de temporada incluido el Mundial de Clubes 📻 #PartidazoCOPE pic.twitter.com/JwT1bOSOnc
— El Partidazo de COPE (@partidazocope) April 24, 2025
Conor Laird – GSFN
Real Madrid managed three crucial points against Getafe on April 23 in the La Liga title race. However, it came with a setback. Midfielder Eduardo Camavinga had to leave the field with an injury near the end of the game, and it's bad news for Carlo Ancelotti.
Camavinga replaced David Alaba at half-time after the Austrian picked up an injury. However, Camavinga could not continue the game as he was seen limping off the field late in the game.
Real Madrid have published a medical report, and he has been diagnosed with a complete tear of the tendon in his left abductor muscle. The Frenchman will undergo further tests, but reports suggest he will be out for the foreseeable.
MORE: Real Madrid Extend Two Players' Contracts Until After The Club World Cup (Report)
Journalist Arancha Rodríguez reported that Camavinga will be out for at least three months. This means he will miss the remainder of the season and the FIFA Club World Cup.
🚨 Camavinga's next game will be in mid August, when La Liga 2025/26 will start. @carlitosonda pic.twitter.com/H2ee98Gb7x
The 22-year-old has been used as a left-back in big games, as has Alaba. If Ferland Mendy is not ready against Barcelona, Fran Garcia will play in the Copa del Rey final.
It also means the Frenchman is not an option in midfield for the final La Liga matches. Luckily for Ancelotti, Dani Ceballos has returned, but he still has limited options.
The Latest Real Madrid News:
Barcelona vs Real Madrid: 5 Classic Copa del Rey Matches
Getafe 0-1 Real Madrid: Report And Full Match Highlights From Los Blancos' Win
Transcript: Carlo Ancelotti's Post-Match Press Conference Following Real Madrid Win
Real Madrid Revealed To Have Low Percentage Chance Of Winning The La Liga Title
Jordan Merritt is a freelance soccer writer who covers Real Madrid CF On SI. He is an obsessive soccer fan and an Arsenal supporter.
Follow jordm87
© 2025 ABG-SI LLC - SPORTS ILLUSTRATED IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF ABG-SI LLC. - All Rights Reserved. The content on this site is for entertainment and educational purposes only. Betting and gambling content is intended for individuals 21+ and is based on individual commentators' opinions and not that of Sports Illustrated or its affiliates, licensees and related brands. All picks and predictions are suggestions only and not a guarantee of success or profit. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER.
Conor Bradley has scored four goals for Northern Ireland in 24 caps
Conor Bradley says it would be the "thing of dreams" to help Northern Ireland to a World Cup.
The 21-year-old, who could earn a Premier League winners' medal with Liverpool this weekend, has become a key figure for Michael O'Neill's side and served as captain on two occasions during last year's Nations League.
While he missed the most recent friendly games against Switzerland and Sweden last month, he will be expected to play a huge role in the side's efforts to become the fourth Northern Ireland side to reach the World Cup when qualifying for the 2026 tournament begins in September.
"That's everyone's dream," said Bradley, who has been named International Personality of the Year by the Northern Ireland Football Writers' Association.
"We know how difficult it is because not many Northern Ireland teams have done it, we know how special it would be.
"It would be unbelievable, the thing of dreams. Hopefully one day we can get there and if we keep working hard, I'm pretty sure we can."
Northern Ireland have lost the likes of Steven Davis, Stuart Dallas and Jonny Evans to retirement, the latter solely in the case of international football, since their last attempt to qualify for a World Cup.
In their stead, O'Neill has relied on younger players like Bradley, Shea Charles, Isaac Price and Trai Hume.
"We've got potential but we need to fulfil that," Bradley added.
"Obviously we're still really young as it is, we've lost a lot of experience.
"We have to keep getting experience together and keep improving together, hopefully there'll be good things around the corner."
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According to Sky Sports, Chelsea are tracking some of Europe's best centre backs and attackers and want deals done before the Club World Cup.
The Blues came from a goal down to score two very late goals to win the game 2-1 against Fulham at Craven Cottage on Sunday afternoon in what was a very dramatic game of ups and downs. But for 80 minutes, it was a lot of downs for Chelsea and the woes were continuing. Thankfully, they managed to get two late goals from individual brilliance to win the game.
Still, manager Enzo Maresca did not celebrate the Chelsea win over with the away fans like all the players did at the end of the game, which was very odd. But he has explained his reasoning for this in the post match press conference, although it wont wash.
The fans were furious throughout most of the game though and certainly let the manager and the players know this at half time and throughout the game. Pedro Neto responded to the fan anger in his post-match comments after the game on Sunday.
The Blues are also set for another very busy transfer window this coming summer as they look to add players to a number of positions yet again in more big spending expected.
Sky reports that Chelsea are tracking some of Europe's best centre-backs and attackers in an effort to try and complete some deals before they play at this summer's FIFA Club World Cup.
They also say that we can expect another busy summer at Stamford Bridge, with Chelsea targeting the arrivals of a forward, a winger and a central defender.
They've mentioned 11 names including Liam Delap, Victor Osimhen, Dean Huijsen, Marc Guehi, Nico Williams, Jamie Gittens, and more…
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The Club World Cup will be televised live on Channel 5 this summer after the free-to-air broadcaster reached a sublicensing agreement for the UK with the global rights holder, Dazn.
The Guardian can reveal that as part of a cross-promotional deal finalised this week, 23 of the 63 matches will be shown on Channel 5 as well as on Dazn – 15 group games, four last-16 ties, two quarter-finals, one semi-final and the final. The remaining 40 games will be shown exclusively by Dazn, which has committed to making every match in the new expanded tournament available free-to-air globally via its app.
The Club World Cup, which includes Chelsea and Manchester City, will be the highest-profile sports event televised by Channel 5, which has held live rights to the Europa League and numerous highlights packages. Channel 5 is also in talks with the England and Wales Cricket Board about buying two men's and two women's England T20 matches this summer as it seeks to expand its sports coverage. It is owned by the American film giant Paramount.
Dazn paid $1bn (£787m) for global Club World Cup rights in February in a surprise deal that appears to have been largely funded by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, with the kingdom's Surj Sports Investment group last month confirming it had taken a minority stake in the streaming company valued at $1bn. Fifa subsequently announced the prize and appearance fund would also be $1bn, with the tournament winners to receive up to $125.8m depending on their results and Chelsea and City to bank $38.19m for qualifying.
The Dazn/Surj partnership spared Fifa's blushes after a lengthy TV rights sales process which had concluded with it failing to find rights partners. Apple TV withdrew from advanced negotiations over a global deal last summer after a disagreement over valuation, with Fifa reportedly demanding $4bn, and a subsequent attempt to sell the rights on a regional basis foundered.
Although Dazn's latest accounts say it has 300 million monthly users globally, it remains a challenger company in certain markets, including the UK, which led to an agreement to sublicense the rights to ensure larger viewing figures for Fifa and its commercial partners. Warner Bros has a sublicensing deal in the United States.
The Guardian reported this month that the BBC and ITV had opted not to bid because their main football focus will be their joint coverage of England's defence of the Women's European Championship. Channel 5 beat Channel 4 to an agreement with Dazn, the deal brokered by Lee Sears, Paramount's president of international ad sales.
“We're delighted to be able to have agreed this fantastic partnership with Dazn to expand free-to-air coverage of the Fifa Club World Cup, live on 5,” Sears told the Guardian. “It's going to be one of the sporting events of the summer with most of the matches played in the evening peak time and 32 of the world's biggest clubs involved.” Sears said the ambition was to offer viewers and advertisers “even more [sport] in the months to come”.
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Channel 5 will take Dazn's coverage and promote Dazn's brand rather than use its own staff. Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich and Lionel Messi's Inter Miami are among the participants in the competition, which runs from 14 June to 13 July.
Front Row Soccer
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In June, the U.S. men's national team will compete in its final tournament prior to the 2026 World Cup - the Concacaf Gold Cup.
Mauricio Pochettino: “The right mindset must be there, because we need to compete for our flag, our country.” (Imagn Images)
In June, the U.S. men's national team will compete in its final tournament prior to the 2026 World Cup – the Concacaf Gold Cup.
After the team's latest underachieving performance in the Concacaf Nations League semifinals and third-place match, the pressure will be head coach Mauricio Pochettino to pick the right team and have the team play with intensity.
And no one has to remind him about that.
“The right mindset must be there, because we need to compete for our flag, our country,” Pochettino said on an interview on USSoccer.com. “What we are trying to do as a staff is to optimize every single area of preparation, and the mentality of the players is really important. We need to be intelligent in the way that we are going to select the players and not just choose based on talent alone. We need to have the right characters to be really competitive.”
Pochettino, who had never directed a national team before the USA gig, admitted the team did not show enough fight during the CNL disaster.
“For sure to start we must compete hard,” he said. “We must match the intensity of our opponents, because in these tournaments they are always motivated to play against the USA. Of course we must perform well to win and you don't always get a result, but for sure in order to win you have to compete.
“It's not just about showing up in your home country and trying to play nice soccer. No, you must be proud, you must fight for the people that would love to be in your position, for the millions of kids that are going to see us and dream to be one day where we are.
“This is the type of responsibility and commitment we need to show in a different way than we did [in the Nations League] in Los Angeles.”
Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 28 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.
The former head coach of the US Men's National Team has openly criticized US Soccer for hiring Mauricio Pochettino as manager.
Bruce Arena, who coached the USMNT in two separate stints, from 1998-2006 and then again from 2016-2017, thinks the job should have gone to an American manager. Discussing the current state of the team and program with former players Landon Donovan and Tim Howard, Arena made the case that Pochettino, who was born in Argentina, doesn't understand the unique culture and structure of US soccer.
"If you look at every national team in the world, the coach is usually a domestic coach," Arena said. "And I think when you have coaches that don't know our culture, our players, our environment, it's hard. And listen, (Pochettino) is a very good coach. (But) coaching international football is completely different than club football."
"When you are a national team coach, you need to know the animal you are coaching," said Arena. "You need to know the environment. And we're lacking that. If you're an American coaching the U.S. team, you know the culture, the pride and how important the national team is. When you bring in somebody from the outside, they don't understand it. Especially in our country, because we're so different.
Mauricio Pochettino. (Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)
Pochettino's appointment was widely heralded as a coup for the program. After years of mediocrity and mostly underwhelming leadership, Pochettino brought a world-class track record with him.
But it's been a mixed bag of results thus far, including a disastrous showing in losses to Panama and Canada earlier in 2025. Arena said it didn't appear that the players had "pride" in playing for the US.
"You're asking me if we lack that kind of pride," said Arena. "I'm watching and I'm shocked. I'm shocked that we can't beat Panama and Canada. It was shocking to me. I don't want to be disrespectful, I want them to do great in the World Cup. There's no question about that. But we only have a year left now. Time is running out, and they gotta get going."
Arena has a point in that the US is a unique soccer country on the global stage; it's a massive country with a solid but unspectacular domestic league. Soccer also isn't the biggest sport in the country. It isn't even in the top three or four. He's also right that it's very different coaching international teams relative to high-end clubs. Premier League teams, for example, have significantly more practice and prep time to build cohesion and strategy.
But the USMNT has been headed in the wrong direction for quite some time, despite arguably the best and deepest talent pool it's ever had. And that wrong direction has been directed by American-born managers. When what you're doing isn't working, it's nonsensical to not try something else.
Most countries would be thrilled to have Pochettino managing their national soccer teams. Whether it works out remains to be seen, but the process was and is good. That's really all you can ask for.
Ian Miller is a former award watching high school actor, author, and long suffering Dodgers fan. He spends most of his time golfing, traveling, reading about World War I history, and trying to get the remote back from his dog.
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Cameron Norrie will face Jiri Lehecka in the next round; Norrie overcame illness and survived match point to beat Martin Landaluce 6-7 (4) 7-5 6-4 watch all the action from the ATP and WTA Tours on Sky Sports Tennis, Sky Sports+, NOW and the Sky Sports app
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Cameron Norrie saved a match point and battled through illness to beat Spanish youngster Martin Landaluce in the opening round of the Madrid Open.
Norrie has struggled for form over the last year, slipping to 91 in the world, and the former British No 1 had not won an ATP Tour match since Indian Wells in early March.
He was clearly not at his best physically against 19-year-old Landaluce but used his experience to secure a 6-7 (4) 7-5 6-4 victory.
Norrie revealed afterwards he has been struggling with sickness, telling Sky Sports: "It's terrible timing but at least I have another day tomorrow to rest. Hopefully it will pass pretty quickly."
An up-and-down match saw Norrie lose five games in a row from 3-0 up in the opening set and then fight back from 3-0 down in the second before Landaluce narrowly missed a big forehand on match point at 4-5.
Norrie took his opportunity to force a deciding set and a wild game from his young opponent at 4-4 proved the difference.
"It's maybe one of my favourite wins," said Norrie, who next faces 26th seed Jiri Lehecka. "I was feeling absolutely terrible, I wasn't sure I was going to play, I had no energy, didn't sleep at all last night.
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"I started very low energy, sleeping on the court still. I had to create my own energy. He actually played really well, I know he's a really good player, so I had to fight every point."
Norrie's section of the draw has opened up because of the withdrawal earlier on Thursday of second seed Carlos Alcaraz, who needed treatment for a leg injury in his Barcelona Open final defeat by Holger Rune on Sunday and has not recovered sufficiently.
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Alcaraz told a press conference: "I'm really disappointed that I'm not able to play here in Madrid, it's a place that I love playing, in front of my people.
"It was a really difficult situation, really difficult to decide, but it is what it is. You have to hear your body sometimes. I will come back stronger."
In the women's draw, defending champion Iga Swiatek gained revenge for her shock Miami Open loss to Filipino teenager Alexandra Eala.
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It was another difficult encounter for the Pole, though, with 19-year-old Eala leading by a set and a break before Swiatek fought back to win 4-6 6-4 6-2.
There was a shock loss for Stuttgart champion Jelena Ostapenko, who extended her head-to-head advantage against Swiatek to 6-0 on her way to the title in Germany on Monday.
Ostapenko fell at the first hurdle in the Spanish capital to fellow Latvian Anastasija Sevastova, who is making her second comeback in three years following maternity leave and a serious knee injury.
Elsewhere, seventh seed Mirra Andreeva saw off Marie Bouzkova 6-3 6-4 while 11th seed Emma Navarro defeated Australian qualifier Maya Joint 7-5 7-5.
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Carlos Alcaraz is confident he will be ready to defend his French Open title next month after pulling out of the Madrid Open because of a hamstring injury sustained last week in Barcelona.
“I don't want to get ahead of myself, I don't want to take anything for granted, but I think we'll be confident for Roland Garros and we're going to try to be in Rome,” said Alcaraz.
After a strong start to the clay court season with his first Monte Carlo title, Alcaraz struggled with a right adductor injury during his defeat by Holger Rune in the Barcelona final on Sunday. Despite being in Madrid this week to promote the release of his new Netflix docuseries, Alcaraz was absent from the practice courts in the first four days of the tournament.
On Thursday, he confirmed his withdrawal, explaining that medical tests after the Barcelona final had further revealed a hamstring injury in his left leg.
“I also noticed an issue in my left leg when I had tests on Tuesday,” said Alcaraz. “I've been waiting, talking with my team, with the doctors, to see if I'd be able to play in good condition and without a job here in Madrid. I've done everything possible, everything in my power to make that happen, but things haven't improved As you all suspected, because I can't train these days for the final in Barcelona, I have to work on my adductor and right leg, but much over the last few days.”
Despite his frustration, Alcaraz believes his hamstring injury is not as severe as the right arm injury that forced him to withdraw during the Madrid Open last season and affected him up until the French Open last year.
“I'm not really worried about it,” he said. “I believe it's going to take one week, one week and a half, two weeks maximum, but I won't have doubts about coming back and moving 100% again.”
The 35-year-old, on the comeback trail for a second time, is now 3-0 against her countrywoman.ByTENNIS.comPublished Apr 24, 2025 copy_link
Published Apr 24, 2025
© ASSOCIATED PRESS
Iga Swiatek will not cross paths with Jelena Ostapenko at the Mutua Madrid Open.A potential fourth-round showdown when the draw came out, Swiatek rallied past Alexandra Eala in second-round action Thursday while Ostapenko went down to a countrywoman on the comeback trail.At the Porsche Grand Tennis Prix in Stuttgart, Ostapenko improved to 6-0 against Swiatek prior to outclassing world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka to win Monday's final. But in making the move from indoor clay to Madrid's outdoor venue known for its higher altitude conditions, she was tripped up in her first match at the Caja Magica by a familiar face that has been a tough out in the past.
A potential fourth-round showdown when the draw came out, Swiatek rallied past Alexandra Eala in second-round action Thursday while Ostapenko went down to a countrywoman on the comeback trail.At the Porsche Grand Tennis Prix in Stuttgart, Ostapenko improved to 6-0 against Swiatek prior to outclassing world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka to win Monday's final. But in making the move from indoor clay to Madrid's outdoor venue known for its higher altitude conditions, she was tripped up in her first match at the Caja Magica by a familiar face that has been a tough out in the past.
At the Porsche Grand Tennis Prix in Stuttgart, Ostapenko improved to 6-0 against Swiatek prior to outclassing world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka to win Monday's final. But in making the move from indoor clay to Madrid's outdoor venue known for its higher altitude conditions, she was tripped up in her first match at the Caja Magica by a familiar face that has been a tough out in the past.
Former US Open semifinalist Anastasija Sevastova backed up her opening win versus Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova with a 7-6 (2), 6-2 victory over the No. 23 seed.Down a break early in set two to Ostapenko, Sevastova ran off with the final six games to move through. She now leads Ostapenko 3-0 in their series, with this marking their first encounter since 2019 Stuttgart.The 35-year-old is in the early stages of a second comeback bid from maternity leave after an ACL injury that required surgery derailed her quest in March 2024. This is just Sevastova's second event of the year, having returned last week at the ITF 75k in Koper, Slovenia (she won her first match, then retired after forcing a decider with top seed Arantxa Rus).Diana Shnaider awaits in the third round of the WTA 1000 tournament. The No. 13 seed cruised past Katie Volynets, 6-1, 6-2.
Down a break early in set two to Ostapenko, Sevastova ran off with the final six games to move through. She now leads Ostapenko 3-0 in their series, with this marking their first encounter since 2019 Stuttgart.The 35-year-old is in the early stages of a second comeback bid from maternity leave after an ACL injury that required surgery derailed her quest in March 2024. This is just Sevastova's second event of the year, having returned last week at the ITF 75k in Koper, Slovenia (she won her first match, then retired after forcing a decider with top seed Arantxa Rus).Diana Shnaider awaits in the third round of the WTA 1000 tournament. The No. 13 seed cruised past Katie Volynets, 6-1, 6-2.
The 35-year-old is in the early stages of a second comeback bid from maternity leave after an ACL injury that required surgery derailed her quest in March 2024. This is just Sevastova's second event of the year, having returned last week at the ITF 75k in Koper, Slovenia (she won her first match, then retired after forcing a decider with top seed Arantxa Rus).Diana Shnaider awaits in the third round of the WTA 1000 tournament. The No. 13 seed cruised past Katie Volynets, 6-1, 6-2.
Diana Shnaider awaits in the third round of the WTA 1000 tournament. The No. 13 seed cruised past Katie Volynets, 6-1, 6-2.
Talking to the world No. 3 about the clay season ahead, whether she can scale the Iga-Aryna mountain this time—and her precious pets.BySteve TignorPublished Apr 24, 2025 copy_link
Published Apr 24, 2025
Any fan of U.S. tennis knows that this country's highest-ranked player, Jessica Pegula, loves her dogs. They've been with her, in body and spirit, for some of her biggest wins and most emotional moments.Two years ago, after winning the National Bank Open in Montreal, Pegula posted a poignant tribute to Dexter, her German shepherd, who had passed away a few weeks earlier. She thanked him for “looking out for me” from above, and helping her go from “crying on my couch” to one of the most important titles of her career.“His favorite thing in the world was tennis,” she said.That bittersweet triumph made it even more special when Pegula had a chance to bring Maddie, her mini Australian shepherd, on stage for the trophy ceremony after she made another title run, at the Charleston Open in April. The victory, her first on clay, vaulted her back to a career-high No. 3 in the world, and No. 1 in the States.“The love from your dogs is unreal,” Pegula said last week from Stuttgart, where she was starting her red-clay swing. “They aren't going to sit there and judge you; they just listen and love back, no matter what. They help me bring me back to appreciating the small moments at home, no matter what tough moments I'm facing.”
Two years ago, after winning the National Bank Open in Montreal, Pegula posted a poignant tribute to Dexter, her German shepherd, who had passed away a few weeks earlier. She thanked him for “looking out for me” from above, and helping her go from “crying on my couch” to one of the most important titles of her career.“His favorite thing in the world was tennis,” she said.That bittersweet triumph made it even more special when Pegula had a chance to bring Maddie, her mini Australian shepherd, on stage for the trophy ceremony after she made another title run, at the Charleston Open in April. The victory, her first on clay, vaulted her back to a career-high No. 3 in the world, and No. 1 in the States.“The love from your dogs is unreal,” Pegula said last week from Stuttgart, where she was starting her red-clay swing. “They aren't going to sit there and judge you; they just listen and love back, no matter what. They help me bring me back to appreciating the small moments at home, no matter what tough moments I'm facing.”
“His favorite thing in the world was tennis,” she said.That bittersweet triumph made it even more special when Pegula had a chance to bring Maddie, her mini Australian shepherd, on stage for the trophy ceremony after she made another title run, at the Charleston Open in April. The victory, her first on clay, vaulted her back to a career-high No. 3 in the world, and No. 1 in the States.“The love from your dogs is unreal,” Pegula said last week from Stuttgart, where she was starting her red-clay swing. “They aren't going to sit there and judge you; they just listen and love back, no matter what. They help me bring me back to appreciating the small moments at home, no matter what tough moments I'm facing.”
That bittersweet triumph made it even more special when Pegula had a chance to bring Maddie, her mini Australian shepherd, on stage for the trophy ceremony after she made another title run, at the Charleston Open in April. The victory, her first on clay, vaulted her back to a career-high No. 3 in the world, and No. 1 in the States.“The love from your dogs is unreal,” Pegula said last week from Stuttgart, where she was starting her red-clay swing. “They aren't going to sit there and judge you; they just listen and love back, no matter what. They help me bring me back to appreciating the small moments at home, no matter what tough moments I'm facing.”
“The love from your dogs is unreal,” Pegula said last week from Stuttgart, where she was starting her red-clay swing. “They aren't going to sit there and judge you; they just listen and love back, no matter what. They help me bring me back to appreciating the small moments at home, no matter what tough moments I'm facing.”
A post shared by Maev (@meetmaev)
Pegula's pet love led her to start A Lending Paw, a charity that supports organizations that rescue and rehabilitate dogs. This year, inspired by the health issues that she saw Dexter struggle with, she has taken on a spokesperson role with Maev, a brand that bills itself as “healthy human-grade raw food for dogs.”Now Pegula can sit down and share a meal with her dogs—a prospect she seems to find appetizing.“I love that Maev is human grade, meaning I could eat it if I wanted,” she says.More important, of course, the dogs like it. Pegula says the food helps with their weight and energy level, and the fact that it's frozen makes for less laborious teeth-cleaning duties for her.“Our pets are part of our family,” she says, “so why not do the best to make them feel great?”
Now Pegula can sit down and share a meal with her dogs—a prospect she seems to find appetizing.“I love that Maev is human grade, meaning I could eat it if I wanted,” she says.More important, of course, the dogs like it. Pegula says the food helps with their weight and energy level, and the fact that it's frozen makes for less laborious teeth-cleaning duties for her.“Our pets are part of our family,” she says, “so why not do the best to make them feel great?”
“I love that Maev is human grade, meaning I could eat it if I wanted,” she says.More important, of course, the dogs like it. Pegula says the food helps with their weight and energy level, and the fact that it's frozen makes for less laborious teeth-cleaning duties for her.“Our pets are part of our family,” she says, “so why not do the best to make them feel great?”
More important, of course, the dogs like it. Pegula says the food helps with their weight and energy level, and the fact that it's frozen makes for less laborious teeth-cleaning duties for her.“Our pets are part of our family,” she says, “so why not do the best to make them feel great?”
“Our pets are part of our family,” she says, “so why not do the best to make them feel great?”
As for Pegula the tennis player, she has rarely felt, or played, better than she has over the past six weeks. After a surprisingly early exit at the Australian Open, she worked out the kinks in practice in February, which led to a pent-up explosion of wins in March. She went 17-2, won titles in Austin and Charleston, made the Miami Open final, and overtook her friend and former doubles partner Coco Gauff as the top American on tour.The streak was another validation of the coaching system that Pegula put in place a year earlier. Many were surprised when, at the start of 2024, she ended a successful partnership with David Witt, and replaced him with “The Marks”—Mark Knowles and Mark Merklein—who take turns traveling with her.
The streak was another validation of the coaching system that Pegula put in place a year earlier. Many were surprised when, at the start of 2024, she ended a successful partnership with David Witt, and replaced him with “The Marks”—Mark Knowles and Mark Merklein—who take turns traveling with her.
Coach Mark Knowles and Pegula, after a windswept practice at Indian Wells.© Matt Fitzgerald
© Matt Fitzgerald
Wouldn't hearing two voices leave her confused? After an adjustment period early in 2024, Pegula's results have proven the doubters wrong. Last summer she made her first Grand Slam final, at the US Open, and she looks ready to make another in 2025.“At first it was just getting comfortable and getting into a routine with both, especially on the road,” Pegula says. “Now that we've worked together enough, it feels easy. They get along well, which is important, and they agree on how I should play and what I should improve.”“I like that I can get different outlooks based on what I need at the time. Also, the weeks on the road get long. It's hard spending so much time with just one person. Having two helps mix things up and keeps it fresh.”
“At first it was just getting comfortable and getting into a routine with both, especially on the road,” Pegula says. “Now that we've worked together enough, it feels easy. They get along well, which is important, and they agree on how I should play and what I should improve.”“I like that I can get different outlooks based on what I need at the time. Also, the weeks on the road get long. It's hard spending so much time with just one person. Having two helps mix things up and keeps it fresh.”
“I like that I can get different outlooks based on what I need at the time. Also, the weeks on the road get long. It's hard spending so much time with just one person. Having two helps mix things up and keeps it fresh.”
Mark Merklein, with Pegula in the winner's circle at the ecotrans Ladies Open in Berlin this summer. “He's one of the nicest good guys out there,” Knowles says of Merklein. “I think that was an easy fit right away for Jess.”© 2024 Robert Prange
© 2024 Robert Prange
Pegula's success with The Marks has taken her back to a place she first reached in 2022, when she jumped from No. 18 all the way up to No. 3. Not much has changed up there over the last three years; the same two players—Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek—are still in front of her. To win a major or move higher, Pegula will likely have to conquer at least one of them, if not both, on a big stage. As of now, she has a combined 6-13 record against the Top 2, and over the last eight months Sabalenka has stopped her in finals at the US Open, Cincinnati and Miami.Pegula is typically matter-of-fact about the number next to her name, and about running up against the same Sabalenka-Swiatek ceiling over and over. To her, just having the chance to face them is a sign of success.“It's funny because there are a lot of people who didn't realize I've been No. 3 before,” she says. “To me there's not that much of a difference.”“Aryna and Iga are proving week in and week out that they're at their best consistently. Playing them a lot means I'm going deep in tournaments, and that's just the challenge you face when you're trying to be the best.”
Pegula is typically matter-of-fact about the number next to her name, and about running up against the same Sabalenka-Swiatek ceiling over and over. To her, just having the chance to face them is a sign of success.“It's funny because there are a lot of people who didn't realize I've been No. 3 before,” she says. “To me there's not that much of a difference.”“Aryna and Iga are proving week in and week out that they're at their best consistently. Playing them a lot means I'm going deep in tournaments, and that's just the challenge you face when you're trying to be the best.”
“It's funny because there are a lot of people who didn't realize I've been No. 3 before,” she says. “To me there's not that much of a difference.”“Aryna and Iga are proving week in and week out that they're at their best consistently. Playing them a lot means I'm going deep in tournaments, and that's just the challenge you face when you're trying to be the best.”
“Aryna and Iga are proving week in and week out that they're at their best consistently. Playing them a lot means I'm going deep in tournaments, and that's just the challenge you face when you're trying to be the best.”
Clay has challenged me to adapt; I'm excited to see if I can use those tools this swing. Jessica Pegula
Does Pegula have a chance of being the best this time around? Now 31, she was a late-bloomer whose rise was stalled by injury multiple times. She didn't crack the Top 10 until she was 28. For most of her career, the idea of winning a Grand Slam title or becoming No. 1 may have felt like a distant dream. While those dreams have slowly come closer to fruition, maybe some of that un-entitled mindset is still with her.When a reporter mentioned to her that Swiatek is a “fast-twitch” athlete, Pegula joked that she must be “slow-twitch.” When another reporter asked what she thought she “represented,” Pegula said, “maybe I'm the one who sees things in perspective.” Before her final with Sabalenka in Miami, she said that winning would be “awesome,” but even if she lost, she would be “super excited about where I put myself at the beginning of the year.”In that match, and in her other recent final-round losses to Sabalenka, I had the sense that Pegula had to work herself up to believing that she had a chance to win. In Cincinnati and at the US Open, she played better as the match went along, and grew more confident that she could counter Sabalenka's bombs from the baseline. Both times, though, her surge came too late to get her into a third set. After the final in New York, Pegula described herself as “annoyed” by the loss, and how close she had been, as if her expectations for herself had risen as the match went along.
When a reporter mentioned to her that Swiatek is a “fast-twitch” athlete, Pegula joked that she must be “slow-twitch.” When another reporter asked what she thought she “represented,” Pegula said, “maybe I'm the one who sees things in perspective.” Before her final with Sabalenka in Miami, she said that winning would be “awesome,” but even if she lost, she would be “super excited about where I put myself at the beginning of the year.”In that match, and in her other recent final-round losses to Sabalenka, I had the sense that Pegula had to work herself up to believing that she had a chance to win. In Cincinnati and at the US Open, she played better as the match went along, and grew more confident that she could counter Sabalenka's bombs from the baseline. Both times, though, her surge came too late to get her into a third set. After the final in New York, Pegula described herself as “annoyed” by the loss, and how close she had been, as if her expectations for herself had risen as the match went along.
In that match, and in her other recent final-round losses to Sabalenka, I had the sense that Pegula had to work herself up to believing that she had a chance to win. In Cincinnati and at the US Open, she played better as the match went along, and grew more confident that she could counter Sabalenka's bombs from the baseline. Both times, though, her surge came too late to get her into a third set. After the final in New York, Pegula described herself as “annoyed” by the loss, and how close she had been, as if her expectations for herself had risen as the match went along.
Pegula is a flat-hitting hard-courter at heart, and she usually plays her best tennis during the North American summer swing. This year she has peaked earlier, just as clay season begins. Normally, this is a time and place where hot streaks by Americans go to die. Could it be different for Pegula over the next couple of months? She just won on green clay in Charleston, and she has made the Madrid final and the Roland Garros quarters.“Maybe it's not naturally the best suited for my game, but I don't mind clay at all,” she says. “It has challenged me to adapt and change a few things, but I love that challenge. I feel like I've added things to my game I didn't have before, and I'm excited to see if I can use those tools and execute them this swing.”Pegula has scaled the mountain again. With three Grand Slams ahead, and just two players above her, the next five months may be her best chance to reach take the few steps to the top.
“Maybe it's not naturally the best suited for my game, but I don't mind clay at all,” she says. “It has challenged me to adapt and change a few things, but I love that challenge. I feel like I've added things to my game I didn't have before, and I'm excited to see if I can use those tools and execute them this swing.”Pegula has scaled the mountain again. With three Grand Slams ahead, and just two players above her, the next five months may be her best chance to reach take the few steps to the top.
Pegula has scaled the mountain again. With three Grand Slams ahead, and just two players above her, the next five months may be her best chance to reach take the few steps to the top.
The #NextGenATP stars are making waves in 2025 and their rapid rises are hard to ignore. Learner Tien made history at the Australian Open, where he became the youngest man to reach the fourth round since 2005, Joao Fonseca captured his first tour-level title in Buenos Aires and Jakub Mensik shocked Novak Djokovic to claim his first ATP Masters 1000 crown in Miami.
For World No. 10 Daniil Medvedev, the surge of these young talents is a reminder of how the landscape of tennis is changing. Having fallen to Tien at the Australian Open, Medvedev is all too aware of the rising threat from these hungry up-and-comers.
“The next generation, especially the guys coming through in the last year are very strong,” Medvedev told ATPTour.com on Media Day in Madrid. “They've put themselves on the big stage pretty quickly. Jakub just won a Masters 1000, which is amazing. At 19, I was still playing Challengers. So, it's great for him.
“He played really well at the Australian Open too, as did Learner and Joao. There are a lot of strong guys coming up. I think it's a very talented generation. We'll see how it unfolds though, it is early stages and hard to predict.”
Medvedev knows firsthand that consistency is key to success. The 29-year-old won 20 tour-level titles between 2018 and 2023, spending the majority of the past seven years inside the Top 10.
“I think consistency is the toughest challenge,” Medvedev said. “Everyone has different weapons. If I compare Learner and Joao, they're two different types of players. Learner is more of a counter-attacking player, but still able to attack with intelligence. Joao is, of course, also very smart, but his game is about pure power. You see some of the forehands he unleashes. It's about understanding your game better and developing your skills.
“I'm pretty sure both of them will make the Top 10 at some point. Whether they'll be No. 1 for 220 weeks or stay in the Top 10, though, is something only time will tell. Tennis is a tough sport with so much competition.”
Andrey Rublev knows all too well about the power Fonseca possesses. The Brazilian defeated Rublev at the Australian Open. In a quest to improve his game, Rublev has since added former World No. 1 Marat Safin to his coaching team, with the pair joining forces for the first time in Monte-Carlo.
Good friends with Rublev and Safin, Medvedev shared his thoughts on their partnership.
“Having Marat on Tour is great. It's nice to have him around the lounge and everything. With his experience, he could help anyone,” Medvedev said. “I wonder how it will work long-term, but so far, I think it's going great. The results have come in just two tournaments, so we'll see how things go further.
"I'm trying not to get too much into it because I could ask Andrey, ‘Oh my god, how's it working? What's he telling you?' But I always respect other people's personal space. I do know a little about their conversations or how things are going, but I try not to intrude. I think it's always the same: if you believe something can work, it can be with anyone.”
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This week, Medvedev will hope to get his season back on track when he competes at the Mutua Madrid Open. The World No. 10 did reach the semi-finals in Indian Wells in March but has struggled to find his best level this year, holding a 14-8 record.
"Honestly, I feel great. The season hasn't been perfect and I know that. I'm okay with admitting it. But here I'm feeling great," Medvedev said. "I'm practising well, doing all the right things and I believe they're going to pay off eventually.
“I have been trying everything. Sometimes I practise with someone new, sometimes just with Gilles [Cervara]. We have experimented with new shots, maybe new trajectories on clay. Other times, we decide that it's not bad and we just need to find that final step. We are trying everything and we will just stick to the right lead.”
Medvedev, chasing his first title since Rome in 2023, will face Laslo Djere in his opening match on Friday in the Spanish capital.
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This week, Medvedev will hope to get his season back on track when he competes at the Mutua Madrid Open. The World No. 10 did reach the semi-finals in Indian Wells in March but has struggled to find his best level this year, holding a 14-8 record.
"Honestly, I feel great. The season hasn't been perfect and I know that. I'm okay with admitting it. But here I'm feeling great," Medvedev said. "I'm practising well, doing all the right things and I believe they're going to pay off eventually.
“I have been trying everything. Sometimes I practise with someone new, sometimes just with Gilles [Cervara]. We have experimented with new shots, maybe new trajectories on clay. Other times, we decide that it's not bad and we just need to find that final step. We are trying everything and we will just stick to the right lead.”
Medvedev, chasing his first title since Rome in 2023, will face Laslo Djere in his opening match on Friday in the Spanish capital.
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Many consider Wimbledon to be the most prestigious tournament in all of tennis, as fans from around the world enjoy the action at SW19.
The only grass court Major tournament is a big hit every summer, when the stars of the ATP Tour battle it out for the trophy.
Swiss legend Roger Federer has won more Wimbledon titles than any other player in men's tennis history, securing eight victories during his career.
In 2023 and 2024, Carlos Alcaraz won Wimbledon, beating seven-time champion Novak Djokovic on both occasions.
The Spaniard will be the favorite once again when tennis returns to London in June, as he now reveals what happened when he nearly broke one of Wimbledon's ‘strictest' rules.
Speaking in his new Netflix documentary, Alcaraz shared his thoughts on the history of Wimbledon.
“For me Wimbledon is one of the most beautiful tournaments in the world, if not the most beautiful, both because of its prestige and its rules,” he said.
“You can't step onto the court unless you're dressed all in white.”
The dress code once caused issues for the 21-year-old, who now reveals what officials said to him when he wore the wrong colored underwear.
“My underwear was a different colour, it was slightly see-through so they called me out,” said Alcaraz.
“They said ‘No, we won't let you play in the next match.'
“I mean that shows you how strict they are.”
Alcaraz and others have accepted the tournament's strict rules, as they enjoy performing at their best on the grass.
Several tennis legends gave their verdict on the sport's most ‘historic' event.
“The Wimbledon tournament is the one that you dream of getting to. All the players want to be a part of that,” said John McEnroe.
“Wimbledon is the only one on grass, you really feel the history here, more than any other tournament,” added Martina Navratilova.
“Nothing is more luxurious, elegant, and historic than being in that tournament. For me, Wimbledon was pure ecstasy,” said Garbine Muguruza.
The Spaniard is 3/4 of the way to a Career Grand Slam, having secured victories at the French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open.
But at which of the four Grand Slam events has Alcaraz performed best during his career to date?
Alcaraz has remarkably won 90% of his matches at the All England Club, last losing at Wimbledon, 1,026 days ago.
There he fell to defeat against his biggest rival, Jannik Sinner, who advanced to the quarterfinals in four sets, 6-1, 6-4, 6-7, 6-3.
The Spaniard had lost to another Grand Slam winner in his one previous visit to Wimbledon in 2021, falling to defeat against Daniil Medvedev in the second round, 4-6, 1-6, 2-6.
Following Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal's retirements in 2024, Alcaraz will return to Wimbledon in 2025, as one of just two active players to have lifted the title.
Djokovic could well prove to be Alcaraz's biggest threat on the grass, having reached the final in each of the last six Wimbledon tournaments.
The pair battled it out in a thriller two years ago, when Alcaraz won in five sets to clinch his first title at Wimbledon, a match many consider to be one of the greatest in the tournament's history.
Only time will tell if the pair will meet in a third consecutive final this year, but it will certainly be something to look out for.
Alcaraz will return to Wimbledon when the tournament begins on Monday, June 30.
Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, poses during the 2025 Laureus World Sports Awards in Madrid, Spain, Monday, April 21, 2025. Credit: AP/Manu Fernandez
MADRID — Home-crowd favorite Carlos Alcaraz withdrew from the Madrid Open on Thursday because of muscle injuries, saying he didn't want to risk making things worse before the French Open.
The third-ranked Spaniard blamed his injuries on the “really tight" schedule that is part of the “demanding sport” of tennis.
Alcaraz said he has not fully recovered from the upper leg ailment that bothered him during the Barcelona Open final last Sunday. He also said he has a left leg injury. His first appearance at the Caja Magica in Madrid was scheduled for Saturday.
Alcaraz is a two-time champion in Madrid, having won in 2022 and 2023. He was the second seed this week and in the same half of the draw as Novak Djokovic.
Alcaraz said he did “everything possible to play” but had to make the “tough decision” to withdraw after listening to his body and talking to doctors.
“Madrid is one of the special tournaments for me, it's a tournament that I enjoy, I get to play in front of my fans, it's one of the first tournaments I attended when I was a kid,” Alcaraz said. “These types of decisions are not easy to make but sometimes you have to think about your health and about what is important. A Grand Slam is a Grand Slam. If I play here, I could make the injuries worse and stop for several months and that's not worth it.”
He said he felt “secure” about recovering in time to play next month at Roland Garros, where he is the defending champion. He won the Roland Garros final last year against Alexander Zverev, who has just leapfrogged the Spaniard to No. 2 in the world after winning in Munich last week.
Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, poses during the 2025 Laureus World Sports Awards in Madrid, Spain, Monday, April 21, 2025. Credit: AP/Manu Fernandez
“I'm not really worried about it,” Alcaraz said. “I believe it's going to take one week, one week and a half, two weeks maximum, but I won't have doubts about coming back and moving 100% again.”
He said he plans to play in Rome ahead of the French Open, which begins on May 25.
“My mindset is to do everything it takes to be a hundred percent for Rome. I will do some tests at the beginning of next week just to see how it's improved, and from that let's see how it's going to be the next days,” he said. “My hope is to play in Rome. If not, next tournament is Roland Garros for me. So I will try to be on court as soon as possible.”
Alcaraz needed treatment on his leg during his straight-set loss to Holger Rune in the Barcelona final. He had not practiced in Madrid yet, and said this week that he felt “fine” but was waiting on medical test results to determine whether he would play.
Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, poses during the 2025 Laureus World Sports Awards in Madrid, Spain, Monday, April 21, 2025. Credit: AP/Manu Fernandez
Alcaraz, who will turn 22 on May 5, won in Monte Carlo to start his clay-court campaign and on a nine-match winning run until the Barcelona final. He said he later also felt pain in a muscle in his left leg.
Alcaraz vowed to “come back stronger” but complained of the tennis schedule.
“Tennis is really a demanding sport,” he said. "Playing week after week, so many matches in a row, and you have to heal your body sometimes and take difficult decisions."
The four-time Grand Slam champion has a 24-5 record this year. In addition to Monte Carlo, he also won in Rotterdam on hard court in February.
“The schedule is really tight, really difficult tournaments week after week, and sometimes you have to think about yourself sometimes, and make the right decisions as to your health.”
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He's just the third man born in 1989 or later to reach that number, after Grigor Dimitrov and Alexander Zverev.ByJohn BerkokPublished Apr 24, 2025 copy_link
Published Apr 24, 2025
Kei Nishikori made a winning debut to his European clay-court season on Thursday, battling past Australia's Aleksandar Vukic in his opening match at the Mutua Madrid Open, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.And it was a special win: the 450th of his career."I had no idea," Nishikori said when told of his latest milestone. "I just try to play one match at a time, and that's a lot, yes."He was then asked how many of his 450 wins he remembers."Probably 10," he replied. "I have a terrible memory."The 2014 US Open finalist and former world No. 4, who was born in 1989, is just the third man born in 1989 or later to reach that number, after Grigor Dimitrov and Alexander Zverev.MOST CAREER WINS, MEN BORN IN 1989 OR LATER (tour-level):482: Alexander Zverev [born in 1997]471: Grigor Dimitrov [born in 1991]450: Kei Nishikori [born in 1989]393: Daniil Medvedev [born in 1996]383: Milos Raonic [born in 1990]Coincidentally, Dimitrov and Zverev both got their 450th career wins on the same day last year—September 1st, 2024—in their fourth-round matches at the US Open. Dimitrov was the first to do it with his victory over Andrey Rublev in the first match of the day on Arthur Ashe Stadium, then Zverev defeated Brandon Nakashima later in the day on Louis Armstrong Stadium.
And it was a special win: the 450th of his career."I had no idea," Nishikori said when told of his latest milestone. "I just try to play one match at a time, and that's a lot, yes."He was then asked how many of his 450 wins he remembers."Probably 10," he replied. "I have a terrible memory."The 2014 US Open finalist and former world No. 4, who was born in 1989, is just the third man born in 1989 or later to reach that number, after Grigor Dimitrov and Alexander Zverev.MOST CAREER WINS, MEN BORN IN 1989 OR LATER (tour-level):482: Alexander Zverev [born in 1997]471: Grigor Dimitrov [born in 1991]450: Kei Nishikori [born in 1989]393: Daniil Medvedev [born in 1996]383: Milos Raonic [born in 1990]Coincidentally, Dimitrov and Zverev both got their 450th career wins on the same day last year—September 1st, 2024—in their fourth-round matches at the US Open. Dimitrov was the first to do it with his victory over Andrey Rublev in the first match of the day on Arthur Ashe Stadium, then Zverev defeated Brandon Nakashima later in the day on Louis Armstrong Stadium.
"I had no idea," Nishikori said when told of his latest milestone. "I just try to play one match at a time, and that's a lot, yes."He was then asked how many of his 450 wins he remembers."Probably 10," he replied. "I have a terrible memory."The 2014 US Open finalist and former world No. 4, who was born in 1989, is just the third man born in 1989 or later to reach that number, after Grigor Dimitrov and Alexander Zverev.MOST CAREER WINS, MEN BORN IN 1989 OR LATER (tour-level):482: Alexander Zverev [born in 1997]471: Grigor Dimitrov [born in 1991]450: Kei Nishikori [born in 1989]393: Daniil Medvedev [born in 1996]383: Milos Raonic [born in 1990]Coincidentally, Dimitrov and Zverev both got their 450th career wins on the same day last year—September 1st, 2024—in their fourth-round matches at the US Open. Dimitrov was the first to do it with his victory over Andrey Rublev in the first match of the day on Arthur Ashe Stadium, then Zverev defeated Brandon Nakashima later in the day on Louis Armstrong Stadium.
He was then asked how many of his 450 wins he remembers."Probably 10," he replied. "I have a terrible memory."The 2014 US Open finalist and former world No. 4, who was born in 1989, is just the third man born in 1989 or later to reach that number, after Grigor Dimitrov and Alexander Zverev.MOST CAREER WINS, MEN BORN IN 1989 OR LATER (tour-level):482: Alexander Zverev [born in 1997]471: Grigor Dimitrov [born in 1991]450: Kei Nishikori [born in 1989]393: Daniil Medvedev [born in 1996]383: Milos Raonic [born in 1990]Coincidentally, Dimitrov and Zverev both got their 450th career wins on the same day last year—September 1st, 2024—in their fourth-round matches at the US Open. Dimitrov was the first to do it with his victory over Andrey Rublev in the first match of the day on Arthur Ashe Stadium, then Zverev defeated Brandon Nakashima later in the day on Louis Armstrong Stadium.
"Probably 10," he replied. "I have a terrible memory."The 2014 US Open finalist and former world No. 4, who was born in 1989, is just the third man born in 1989 or later to reach that number, after Grigor Dimitrov and Alexander Zverev.MOST CAREER WINS, MEN BORN IN 1989 OR LATER (tour-level):482: Alexander Zverev [born in 1997]471: Grigor Dimitrov [born in 1991]450: Kei Nishikori [born in 1989]393: Daniil Medvedev [born in 1996]383: Milos Raonic [born in 1990]Coincidentally, Dimitrov and Zverev both got their 450th career wins on the same day last year—September 1st, 2024—in their fourth-round matches at the US Open. Dimitrov was the first to do it with his victory over Andrey Rublev in the first match of the day on Arthur Ashe Stadium, then Zverev defeated Brandon Nakashima later in the day on Louis Armstrong Stadium.
The 2014 US Open finalist and former world No. 4, who was born in 1989, is just the third man born in 1989 or later to reach that number, after Grigor Dimitrov and Alexander Zverev.MOST CAREER WINS, MEN BORN IN 1989 OR LATER (tour-level):482: Alexander Zverev [born in 1997]471: Grigor Dimitrov [born in 1991]450: Kei Nishikori [born in 1989]393: Daniil Medvedev [born in 1996]383: Milos Raonic [born in 1990]Coincidentally, Dimitrov and Zverev both got their 450th career wins on the same day last year—September 1st, 2024—in their fourth-round matches at the US Open. Dimitrov was the first to do it with his victory over Andrey Rublev in the first match of the day on Arthur Ashe Stadium, then Zverev defeated Brandon Nakashima later in the day on Louis Armstrong Stadium.
MOST CAREER WINS, MEN BORN IN 1989 OR LATER (tour-level):482: Alexander Zverev [born in 1997]471: Grigor Dimitrov [born in 1991]450: Kei Nishikori [born in 1989]393: Daniil Medvedev [born in 1996]383: Milos Raonic [born in 1990]Coincidentally, Dimitrov and Zverev both got their 450th career wins on the same day last year—September 1st, 2024—in their fourth-round matches at the US Open. Dimitrov was the first to do it with his victory over Andrey Rublev in the first match of the day on Arthur Ashe Stadium, then Zverev defeated Brandon Nakashima later in the day on Louis Armstrong Stadium.
Coincidentally, Dimitrov and Zverev both got their 450th career wins on the same day last year—September 1st, 2024—in their fourth-round matches at the US Open. Dimitrov was the first to do it with his victory over Andrey Rublev in the first match of the day on Arthur Ashe Stadium, then Zverev defeated Brandon Nakashima later in the day on Louis Armstrong Stadium.
Nishikori is a former finalist in Madrid.© 2025 Shi Tang
© 2025 Shi Tang
In Madrid on Thursday, Nishikori was playing his first match in more than three weeks, since retiring during his second-round match against Chris Eubanks in Houston due to a back injury.He's had plenty of success in the Spanish capital before, reaching the quarterfinals or better five years in a row from 2013 to 2017—which includes a runner-up finish to Rafael Nadal in 2014."I'm happy to be back here," he said afterwards in his on-court interview. "I couldn't play here the last three years, I think, and this is different conditions, very tough, but I have good memories playing the final a long time ago, and I love to play this week."Awaiting the former No. 4 in the second round of the Masters 1000 event will be another former Top 10 player, former No. 10 Denis Shapovalov, who—as the No. 29 seed—had a first-round bye.Nishikori leads Shapovalov in their head-to-head, 2-1, but they've only played once since 2018—in the first round of Hong Kong earlier this year—and Nishikori cruised that day, 6-2, 6-3.
He's had plenty of success in the Spanish capital before, reaching the quarterfinals or better five years in a row from 2013 to 2017—which includes a runner-up finish to Rafael Nadal in 2014."I'm happy to be back here," he said afterwards in his on-court interview. "I couldn't play here the last three years, I think, and this is different conditions, very tough, but I have good memories playing the final a long time ago, and I love to play this week."Awaiting the former No. 4 in the second round of the Masters 1000 event will be another former Top 10 player, former No. 10 Denis Shapovalov, who—as the No. 29 seed—had a first-round bye.Nishikori leads Shapovalov in their head-to-head, 2-1, but they've only played once since 2018—in the first round of Hong Kong earlier this year—and Nishikori cruised that day, 6-2, 6-3.
"I'm happy to be back here," he said afterwards in his on-court interview. "I couldn't play here the last three years, I think, and this is different conditions, very tough, but I have good memories playing the final a long time ago, and I love to play this week."Awaiting the former No. 4 in the second round of the Masters 1000 event will be another former Top 10 player, former No. 10 Denis Shapovalov, who—as the No. 29 seed—had a first-round bye.Nishikori leads Shapovalov in their head-to-head, 2-1, but they've only played once since 2018—in the first round of Hong Kong earlier this year—and Nishikori cruised that day, 6-2, 6-3.
Awaiting the former No. 4 in the second round of the Masters 1000 event will be another former Top 10 player, former No. 10 Denis Shapovalov, who—as the No. 29 seed—had a first-round bye.Nishikori leads Shapovalov in their head-to-head, 2-1, but they've only played once since 2018—in the first round of Hong Kong earlier this year—and Nishikori cruised that day, 6-2, 6-3.
Nishikori leads Shapovalov in their head-to-head, 2-1, but they've only played once since 2018—in the first round of Hong Kong earlier this year—and Nishikori cruised that day, 6-2, 6-3.
Kei Nishikori seals his 450th tour-level win with an ace 🤯 The former World No. 4 defeats Aleksandar Vukic in a deciding set for his first top 100 win on clay since 2021! 👏#MMOpen pic.twitter.com/SjG3Pg6gPE
Carlos Alcaraz is officially out of the Madrid Open.
The Spaniard confirmed on Thursday that he was withdrawing from the tournament due to both the abductor injury that hampered him in the Barcelona Open final, and a separate issue – also believed to be an abductor – in his left leg.
Alcaraz is a two-time Madrid Open champion and reached the quarter-final of the event back in 2024, ultimately losing to eventual champion Andrey Rublev in three sets.
His withdrawal is set to have a significant impact on the ATP Rankings, with both Alexander Zverev and the absent Jannik Sinner in line to benefit from the Spaniard's withdrawal.
Having reached the last eight in 2024, Alcaraz had 200 ranking points to defend heading into 2025.
Now unable to defend those points, the 21-year-old will fall from 8,050 points to 7,850 points once the tournament is over.
Alcaraz is guaranteed to stay as the world No 3, with world No 4 Taylor Fritz only able to hit a maximum of 5,715 points with a hypothetical run to the title.
However, he will now be unable to close the gap to world No 1 Sinner – and could lose further ground in his battle with world No 2 Alexander Zverev.
Having briefly fallen to world No 3 post-Monte Carlo, Zverev returned to world No 2 this week following his triumph in Munich – with Alcaraz unable to lift the title in Barcelona.
Now, the 28-year-old has been handed the chance to build his cushion over Alcaraz with a strong run in Madrid.
Heading into the tournament, Alcaraz was only 35 points off Zverev's haul of 8,085 ranking points.
However, the German already had a slight advantage heading into action inside the Caja Magica, with only 100 points to defend after a fourth-round exit in 2024.
Currently earning just 10 points, Zverev is projected to fall to 7,995 points in the ATP Live Rankings.
However, the German is yet to compete in Madrid and could be primed for a significant surge, potentially leading Alcaraz by over 1,000 points once the tournament is over.
Should top seed Zverev lift the title in Madrid, he would surge to 8,985 ranking points, a hypothetical lead of 1,135 points over the Spaniard.
Though the German would then have to defend 1,000 points as the reigning Italian Open champion, it would give him a significant cushion over Alcaraz in the race to be seeded second at Roland Garros.
Zverev was the Madrid Open champion in 2018 and 2021, meaning a deep run would not come as a surprise in the slightest.
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Sinner's three-month suspension from the ATP Tour has largely been defined by both Alcaraz and Zverev failing to put pressure on his world No 1 ranking.
And, with Alcaraz out of Madrid, he has been handed another significant advantage.
A quarter-finalist in Madrid twelve months ago, Sinner will drop 200 points to 9,730 when the rankings update post-tournament.
However, with Alcaraz also dropping the same number of points, that means the current gap of 1,880 points between the two will remain.
That is of huge significance for Sinner, who has no points to defend at the Italian Open following his 2024 withdrawal and fewer points to defend at Roland Garros than reigning champion Alcaraz.
With the Spaniard also having no Italian Open points to defend, but a staggering 2,000 points at Roland Garros, he cannot overtake Sinner as the world No 1 this clay swing.
And, as Zverev has Rome champion and Roland Garros finalist points to defend, Sinner is mathematically guaranteed to still be world No 1 once the second Grand Slam of 2025 is complete in early June.
Having risen to the top of the ATP Rankings after the French Open in 2024, that ensures that the Italian will have reigned as world No 1 for a whole calendar year.
He will become just the fifth man in ATP Rankings history to reign for 52+ weeks in his first spell as No 1, and just the 10th to spend 52+ consecutive weeks overall.
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Belinda Bencic held off No. 20 seed Clara Tauson in two tight sets in the Mutua Madrid Open second round, levelling their head-to-head at one win apiece.
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Young players usually prefer to avoid the biggest guns in tennis during the first few rounds of a Grand Slam, but Joao Fonseca has a different mindset than most.
Aged just 18, Fonseca has already notched up several milestones as he won his maiden ATP Tour singles title at the Argentina Open in May, becoming the fourth youngest title winner since 2000.
He has peaked at No 58 in the ATP Rankings with his current position of 65 high enough for a direct entry into the main draw of the French Open.
It will be the first time that he has qualified outright for a Grand Slam as he made his major debut at this year's Australian Open after coming through qualifying.
He then claimed the scalp of ninth seed Andrey Rublev in the first round before losing in five sets against Lorenzo Sonego.
Fonseca is unlikely to be seeded at Roland Garros and he admits he would love to face one “iconic” players in the opening round namely Novak Djokovic.
“When we start these biggest tournaments, the Grand Slams, the ‘qualies', I always tell my coach: ‘If I go to the main draw, I want to play Djokovic,' because it's probably one of the last times. I hope I can play him,” he told RolandGarros.com.
“I'd love to face Djokovic first, second round. I'd try to play my best tennis, the result wouldn't matter, I'd just enjoy it.
“I like to play the top seeds, I like the challenge. I play with no pressure, so I think I can play well there.
“I like to play with the crowd also, so it's an experience I want to have. Some players will want to play ‘easier' first, but I want to play the iconic ones.”
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With a Grand Slam match win under his belt, his next goal is to win two matches at a major event, but he is aiming much higher than a couple of wins at the Slams.
“I'm rising fast. One of the goals I want to get to a third round of a Grand Slam. Maybe it can be at Roland-Garros? I play well on clay, was born on clay, grew up on clay, I feel confident,” he said.
“My goal for the future is to be No 1, that's the dream, but I know it's a long way to go. I have to work even harder, go step by step.
“I need to get more experiences, like this. Roland-Garros will be my first direct entry into a Grand Slam. This all helps me develop, to evolve, alongside putting in the necessary work. I think that's the way of achieving the highest goals.”
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© Planet Sport Limited 2025 • All Rights Reserved
Carlos Alcaraz has withdraw from the Madrid Open in a possible blow to his French Open hopes. The Spaniard's start to the clay court season and his preparation for Roland Garros have been thrown into disarray by an adductor injury.
Alcaraz suffered the problem in his straight-sets defeat against Holger Rune in the Barcelona Open final. He initially hoped that he would be able to play in Madrid but has now decided to withdraw after tests showed the extent of the injury. Spanish reports claimed this morning that there are doubts over the tennis star's participation in the Italian Open at the start of May, although the world No. 3 is yet to confirm whether he will take part.
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"I wanted to play here, but we've decided not to take any risks," Alcaraz revealed in Madrid.
“As you all suspected, since I haven't been able to train these days, the physio came in for the Barcelona final to treat my abductor muscle, but I also noticed something else in my left leg. On Tuesday, I had tests, and I assessed with my team to see if we could play in good condition in Madrid, and we did everything possible, but things didn't improve much.
“You have to listen to your body. Madrid is a city I look forward to playing all year. It's an exciting tournament, and I play it with a lot of emotion, but things didn't go the way I wanted to play here. In the end, we decided not to take any risks, as I was going to be more than I expected. I'll try to rest and recover so I can be back on the court as soon as possible.”
It comes after Alcaraz said following his 7-6 6-2 reverse against Rune: "I feel fine physically. I've had tests, and we'll see what the results say. I'm used to playing with discomfort, so let's hope I can play and enjoy Madrid."
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There is reportedly hope that he will be fit for the French Open, which begins on May 25. The Italian Open, which starts on May 6, could be less likely.
Having received a bye to the Madrid Open second round as a seeded player, Alcaraz was due to play his first match tomorrow. He was scheduled to play the winner of Zizou Bergs vs Gabriel Diallo, but Polish star Kamil Majchrzak will now take his place in the draw.
Alcaraz has endured a largely difficult year. He was beaten by Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open quarter-final and his form since then has been inconsistent. There was also a defeat in the semi-final of Indian Wells against British star Jack Draper, who went on to win the tournament. His two titles this year have come at the Rotterdam Open and the Monte-Carlo Masters.
The four-time Grand Slam champion had only won one tournament by this point last year, having triumphed at Indian Wells. A maiden French Open followed before he successfully defended his Wimbledon crown in another epic showdown with Djokovic.
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Carlos Alcaraz will miss the 2025 Madrid Open due to injury and there are also major doubts over his participation in the Italian Open as he is struggling with two different injuries.
The Spaniard picked up an adductor muscle injury during his straight-set Barcelona Open final defeat to Holger Rune on Sunday.
Alcaraz revealed after the match that he first felt the tweak during the second set and he requested a medical timeout for treatment, but re-emerged to finish the encounter.
During the post-match press conference, he admitted that the past few weeks had taken its toll as he had played 10 matches in just over two weeks as his Barcelona performance was preceded by a title run at the Monte Carlo Masters.
The four-time Grand Slam winner underwent tests after the ATP 500 final and had high hopes of competing at this week's ATP Masters event in the Spanish capital.
On Monday he stated: “Physically I feel good. I have undergone tests, and we will see what the results say. I am used to playing with discomfort; hopefully, I can enjoy Madrid.”
But he cancelled training on Wednesday and he confirmed his withdrawal from the Madrid Open during a press conference on Thursday.
Besides struggling with an adductor muscle problem, Alcaraz also revealed he has a hamstring injury.
“During the Barcelona final, I hurt the adductor muscle in my right leg, but I also felt something in the hamstring of my left leg,” he stated.
“We've tried everything to improve, but it hasn't been possible. We've discussed with the team whether I could play safely, but we have to listen to our bodies.”
And while he is hopeful of playing at the Italian Open, which gets underway in early May, he admits it's not a certainty as he would rather focus on being fully fit for the French Open.
“I expect to go back to court and start practising in a couple of weeks. Rome is still a possibility, but for sure I'll be in Paris,” the world No 3 added.
“It's not an easy decision because Madrid is the first tournament I have ever been to as a young kid, it's the most special place for me to play.
“But (prioritising Roland Garros) was a big part of my decision to stop and recover properly.”
Alcaraz was the second seed at the Madrid Open and he was due to face either Zizou Bergs or Yoshihito Nishioka in the second round.
After winning back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023, the two-time champion lost in the quarter-final against Andrey Rublev last year.
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He will drop 200 ranking points once he officially withdraws, meaning he will lose further ground to Alexander Zverev in the battle for second place in the ATP Rankings.
After returning to No 2 after his Monte Carlo title run, Alcaraz dropped back to No 3 on Monday after Zverev won the BMW Open in Munich.
Jannik Sinner remains comfortably clear at No 1 on 9,730 points in the Live Rankings while Zverev is on 7,995 and Alcaraz on 7,860 (before his withdrawal), but the German has the chance to earn more points with a deep run in Madrid this week.
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Two 17-year-olds and three 18-year-olds feature on the list with Federico Cina a new entrant.
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Spain's Carlos Alcaraz smiles as he holds the winner's trophy after beating Serbia's Novak Djokovic during their men's singles final tennis match on the last day of the 2023 Wimbledon Championships at The All England Tennis Club in Wimbledon, southwest London, on July 16, 2023. (Photo by Adrian DENNIS / AFP)
Spain's Carlos Alcaraz smiles as he holds the winner's trophy after beating Serbia's Novak Djokovic during their men's singles final tennis match on the last day of the 2023 Wimbledon Championships at The All England Tennis Club in Wimbledon, southwest London, on July 16, 2023. (Photo by Adrian DENNIS / AFP)
LONDON– Carlos Alcaraz has lifted the lid on his secret for winning his first Wimbledon title in 2023 and defending the title a year later — partying hard in Ibiza.
In a new Netflix documentary, “Carlos Alcaraz: My Way”, the Spaniard describes how he went against the advice of his team to let his hair down on the Mediterranean island.
READ: Carlos Alcaraz leads tennis into new golden age
“I had a friend who had a few days off, going to Ibiza with other friends,” the now four-times Grand Slam champion said.
“I ended up going and they know what I'm going there to do. In Ibiza, I'm not going to lie, it's pretty much all about partying and going out.
“I basically went there to reventar (literally, ‘burst' in Spanish), I'm not sure if that's the best way to put it but I went there to go out.”
It might not have been textbook preparation for Wimbledon, and his agent Albert Molina warned against it, but Alcaraz said he had to let off steam after losing to Novak Djokovic in the 2023 French Open semis having suffered with nerves and cramps.
READ: Carlos Alcaraz becomes youngest player in ATP top 5 since Nadal
Ibiza's tonic paid off spectacularly too, as a few weeks later, aged 20, he beat the Serb in the Wimbledon final.
“I tried to explain to him that it might not be the best idea to go to Ibiza for three or four days on vacation when he had Queen's the following week and then Wimbledon,” Molina said.
Spain's Carlos Alcaraz holding the winner's trophy (L) is congratulated by Serbia's Novak Djokovic as they pose for pictures during the priz ceremony at the end of their men's singles final at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships. (Photo by ANDREJ ISAKOVIC / AFP)
Alcaraz repeated the trick in 2024 with another Ibiza trip before the grasscourt season with his fitness coach Juanjo Moreno accusing him of being selfish.
In the documentary his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero even questions whether Alcaraz has the dedication required to emulate the likes of Djokovic and Rafa Nadal.
“He has a different way of understanding work and sacrifice,” Ferrero said, comparing him to Djokovic. “It's so different that it makes me question whether he can really be the best in history.”
But Alcaraz has no regrets.
“They always want to protect me, but I'm getting older, I'm starting to make my own decisions and that's what I want,” he said. “I don't take care of myself as much, I spend a lot of days enjoying life. Maybe more than I should.
“But I want to do it my way.”
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Alcaraz, who will be 22 next month, is second seed at this week's Madrid Masters.
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With the news that Carlos Alcaraz may miss the 2025 Madrid Open due to injury, Italian tennis great Adriano Panatta has speculated that the two-time champion may be indirectly responsible for his setbacks due to his full schedule.
Alcaraz is coming off a runner-up finish at the Barcelona Open, where he fell to Danish star Holger Rune in straight sets. Before Barcelona, the former World No.1 had competed at the Monte-Carlo Masters just a week earlier, where he battled his way to the title.
In the past, Alcaraz has spoken out on the length of the ATP Masters 1000 tournaments, claiming the prestigious two week-long events can be physically taxing. However, Panatta believes the reason for Alcaraz's physical struggles may be due to the Spaniard's unforgiving schedule.
"I read that the Spaniard complained that the Masters 1000 lasts two weeks, but let's look carefully at his schedule," said the 1976 Roland Garros champion. "After Monte-Carlo, he went to Barcelona, then he will do Madrid, Rome, and Paris without interruption. Is it a problem of the calendar or a problem of the schedule because he plays all the time?"
Alcaraz is yet to confirm his withdrawal from the Madrid Open, although his team did announce he had suffered an adductor injury during the final against Rune in Barcelona. The Spaniard has a first-round bye in Madrid, with his second-round match set to take place on Friday.
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This article first appeared on TennisUpToDate.com and was syndicated with permission.
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by FilmInk Staff
Premieres at Gold Coast Film Festival Saturday May 3 from 12noon.
A powerful new documentary goes behind the scenes of one of the world's four Grand Slams, telling the story from the perspective of the hidden figures who power the Australian Open – the ballkids.
Presented by AO Originals, Ballkids was produced by Run Wild Productions in association with Mischief Media.
Premiering in Australia at the Gold Coast Film Festival on Saturday 3 May at 12noon, Ballkids lifts the curtain on the inner workings of one of the world's most prestigious tennis events from the perspective of its youngest stars, whose work ethic rivals that of the athletes on court.
Narrated by Celia Pacquola, one of Australia's most beloved comedians and actors known for her roles in Utopia, Rosehaven, and Thank God You're Here, the film chronicles the experiences of rookies and seasoned veterans as they strive to become a Top Gun – the best ballkids of the tournament, chosen to work on Rod Laver Arena for the prestigious finals matches.
From the early morning training sessions to the pressure of working with the whole world watching, their story is one of grit and determination.
“We've always known that the ballkids are integral to the smooth running of the tournament, but Ballkids shows just how much effort, skill, and determination it takes to make it to the top,” Scott Baskett, Director and Producer at Run Wild Productions, said.
“This documentary is not just about tennis, it's about resilience, teamwork, and the pursuit of perfection — values that transcend the sport itself.”
Xavier Muhlebach, Tennis Australia Head of Original Content, said, “Ballkids is all about celebrating the amazing kids who keep the Australian Open moving. Filming with them was such a fun and inspiring experience – seeing their dedication and love for the game up close really brings a fresh perspective to what they do.
“We're thrilled to premiere Ballkids at the Gold Coast Film Festival, especially as we know Queenslanders love their tennis.”
Filmed during Australian Open 2023 and 2024, Celia Pacquola's witty and engaging voice lends a unique charm to the film, adding both humor and heart as she guides viewers through the thrilling, emotional journey of the ballkids.
Naomi Just, Producer at Mischief Media, said “We hit the jackpot with Celia Pacquola as our narrator for Ballkids. She has such warmth and humour which perfectly complements the inspiring, high-energy stakes of the film.
“We're so thrilled the Gold Coast Film Festival is the home for Ballkids' Australian premiere and we really look forward to showcasing these incredible young people who help bring to life one of the biggest sporting events in the world.”
Ballkids will screen at the Gold Coast Film Festival at Home of the Arts at 1pm on Saturday 3 May and 12pm on Tuesday 6 May 2025.
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The four-time Grand Slam winner got candid on social media after her first-round heartbreaker.ByBaseline StaffPublished Apr 24, 2025 copy_link
Published Apr 24, 2025
© Jose Breton/NurPhoto
Naomi Osaka is looking at the bright side after her first-round heartbreak at the Mutua Madrid Open, where she bowed out to Lucia Bronzetti in three sets on Tuesday.The former world No. 1, currently ranked 55th, was playing her first clay-court match of the season against Bronzetti. After dropping the opening set, Osaka rallied in the second but couldn't overcome the determined Italian in a 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 defeat.The loss was a blow for the Japanese player, who is still finding her form after a 15-month break from the sport for maternity leave and mental health. She had logged an extra-long training block on her most challenging surface and came into the European red-clay season feeling “stronger” and “really excited” for her matches.Read More: Naomi Osaka teases more iconic tennis kits: 'Treating every Grand Slam like the Met Gala'Afterward, Osaka took to social media to give fans a raw look into her post-defeat headspace.
The former world No. 1, currently ranked 55th, was playing her first clay-court match of the season against Bronzetti. After dropping the opening set, Osaka rallied in the second but couldn't overcome the determined Italian in a 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 defeat.The loss was a blow for the Japanese player, who is still finding her form after a 15-month break from the sport for maternity leave and mental health. She had logged an extra-long training block on her most challenging surface and came into the European red-clay season feeling “stronger” and “really excited” for her matches.Read More: Naomi Osaka teases more iconic tennis kits: 'Treating every Grand Slam like the Met Gala'Afterward, Osaka took to social media to give fans a raw look into her post-defeat headspace.
The loss was a blow for the Japanese player, who is still finding her form after a 15-month break from the sport for maternity leave and mental health. She had logged an extra-long training block on her most challenging surface and came into the European red-clay season feeling “stronger” and “really excited” for her matches.Read More: Naomi Osaka teases more iconic tennis kits: 'Treating every Grand Slam like the Met Gala'Afterward, Osaka took to social media to give fans a raw look into her post-defeat headspace.
Read More: Naomi Osaka teases more iconic tennis kits: 'Treating every Grand Slam like the Met Gala'Afterward, Osaka took to social media to give fans a raw look into her post-defeat headspace.
Afterward, Osaka took to social media to give fans a raw look into her post-defeat headspace.
“I wouldn't wish what goes on in my brain to my worst enemy,” Osaka wrote on Threads.© Threads @naomiosaka
© Threads @naomiosaka
“I wouldn't wish what goes on in my brain to my worst enemy,” she wrote on Threads. That post was followed up by: “Trust the process but the process isn't trusting me wtf.”The posts sparked concern among Osaka's fans, as the player has long been open about her mental health struggles, which have included depression and anxiety and have affected her motivation over the years.Read More: Naomi Osaka says she won't "hang around" in tennis if the results don't comeA day later, Osaka seemed determined to see the bright side as she returned to Threads with one more message:“Ok I'm done with my crashout,” she wrote on Wednesday. “I refuse to be sad, I rebuke it.”
The posts sparked concern among Osaka's fans, as the player has long been open about her mental health struggles, which have included depression and anxiety and have affected her motivation over the years.Read More: Naomi Osaka says she won't "hang around" in tennis if the results don't comeA day later, Osaka seemed determined to see the bright side as she returned to Threads with one more message:“Ok I'm done with my crashout,” she wrote on Wednesday. “I refuse to be sad, I rebuke it.”
Read More: Naomi Osaka says she won't "hang around" in tennis if the results don't comeA day later, Osaka seemed determined to see the bright side as she returned to Threads with one more message:“Ok I'm done with my crashout,” she wrote on Wednesday. “I refuse to be sad, I rebuke it.”
A day later, Osaka seemed determined to see the bright side as she returned to Threads with one more message:“Ok I'm done with my crashout,” she wrote on Wednesday. “I refuse to be sad, I rebuke it.”
“Ok I'm done with my crashout,” she wrote on Wednesday. “I refuse to be sad, I rebuke it.”
A post shared by 大坂なおみ🇭🇹🇯🇵 (@naomiosaka)
The 26-year-old was in even better spirits by the time she hit up Instagram, where she shared a series of selfies in a post about putting disappointments behind her.“I lowkey have short-term memory loss so I don't stay discouraged for long,” Osaka wrote. “We woke up this morning, we're blessed, we're healthy and we're happy.”Osaka will be back in action at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, which kicks off on May 6.
“I lowkey have short-term memory loss so I don't stay discouraged for long,” Osaka wrote. “We woke up this morning, we're blessed, we're healthy and we're happy.”Osaka will be back in action at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, which kicks off on May 6.
Osaka will be back in action at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, which kicks off on May 6.
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Bayer admits Lawson left ‘sad and puzzled' by Red Bull seat swap as he predicts New Zealand driver 'will be back and he will be quick'
‘I was very proud on the pit wall' – Stella recalls crucial moment of teamwork between Norris and Piastri's Race Engineers in Jeddah
Doohan praises Alpine for removing pressure around his future with the team
Vasseur calls for Ferrari to be more ‘consistent' as he highlights where team needs to improve
PALMER: Verstappen's Turn 1 penalty proved decisive in Jeddah, so were the stewards right?
Christian Horner has doubled down on his comments over Max Verstappen's Formula 1 future, insisting that the reigning four-time World Champion's focus “is here” at Red Bull Racing.
Verstappen headed into the recent Saudi Arabian Grand Prix fielding questions on his plans beyond 2025, following comments from Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko that he had “great concern” about the Dutchman's future with the operation.
READ MORE: Verstappen ‘has made it very clear that he's part of the team' as Horner responds to Red Bull future talk
Those came amid a rollercoaster start to the season for Red Bull, who have experienced the high of winning in Japan and the low of scrapping for a handful of points in Bahrain – rivals McLaren stepping forward to top both championship tables.
Verstappen has represented Red Bull Racing for almost 10 years
During the pre-weekend drivers' press conference, Verstappen brushed journalists' enquiries to one side, while Horner described it as “an awful lot of noise” and stated that “Max has made it very clear he's part of the team and we're all in it together”.
After another eventful weekend at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, where Verstappen brilliantly charged to pole position before losing out to Oscar Piastri on race day via a dramatic Turn 1 scrap, Horner was pushed for the latest on his driver's future.
READ MORE: ‘It is what it is' – Verstappen concedes tussle with Piastri ‘potentially' cost him victory as he hails ‘good pace' shown in Jeddah
Asked in his post-race media session about that “noise” rumbling on, the Red Bull team boss responded: “You said there's been a lot of noise… the noise has been out there and not in here.
The Dutchman sits third in the standings after the opening five rounds
“Max has been working very hard with the team. He's stated once again that his focus is here. He's working incredibly hard, together collectively with the rest of the team, and we're a team. We win together and we lose together – that's the way we operate.
“Our focus is on sorting the car out, [and] we've had a decent Saturday and Sunday here.”
READ MORE: Brown and Horner share contrasting views on Verstappen's penalty in Saudi Arabia
Verstappen sits third in the Drivers' Championship heading to Round 6 of 24 in Miami, two points down on Lando Norris, and a further 10 adrift of Piastri, while Red Bull are also third in the Teams' Standings, 99 points away from leaders McLaren.
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Before heading to Ontario to film the fourth season of “The Way Home,” cast members Chyler Leigh, Andie MacDowell, Sadie Laflamme-Snow and Evan Williams reunited for a special screening of their Hallmark Channel series' third season on April 22, 2025.
Hosted by Hallmark Media at the private Hollywood club and luxury hotel The Aster, it was a party with a purpose. Known among Hollywood insiders as a “For Your Consideration (FYC)” event, Hallmark is one of many networks hosting screenings for Emmy voters, hoping they'll consider “The Way Home” as they nominate shows, casts, and crews for the 2025 Emmy Awards.
Attendees at “The Way Home” FYC event were treated to a screening, panel discussion, treat bags, and an array of food from sliders to gorgeous charcuterie boards piled with meats, cheeses, and fruits.
Beverages included custom drinks based on the show, including a “Landry Lemonade Stand” with Desert Rose, Sunset and Topanga Canyon flavors. They also offered a specialty cocktail called “The Pond Hopper,” in honor of the show's time-travel pond, made with lavender gin, elderflower and tonic.
The cast joined “The Way Home” showrunners Heather Conkie and Alexandra Clarke, as well as series co-creator and executive producer Marly Reed, for a panel discussion moderated by Variety's Emily Longeretta.
Whether the screening and party swayed Emmy voters remains to be seen; nominees for the 2025 Emmys will be announced on July 15, per Entertainment Weekly.
A post shared by Justin Nunez (@justinnunezstudio)
As photos from the party began popping up online, fans swooned and expressed how much they already miss watching the Landry family since the third season wrapped up on Hallmark Channel in late March.
One tweeted, “The way these pics made me instantly emo because I miss my them sm! #thewayhome” and another tweeted, “The most talented and most gorgeous cast in existence #TheWayHome”
Jordan Doww, who joined the cast in season three, couldn't get over a shot posted by photographer Justin Nunez at the event, writing multiple comments under the Instagram post, including writing, “i actually can't handle this.”
Doww shared the photo on X, tweeting, “i cannot handle this photo. hottest tv family of ALL time. give them their flowers 👏 #fyc#thewayhome”
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By Denise Petski
Senior Managing Editor
Fox has set summer premiere dates for its new and returning series including Gordon Ramsay's new series Gordon Ramsay's Secret Service on May 21 and Jeff Jefferies-hosted The Snake on June 10. Returning series Lego Masters will be back for its fifth season on May 19. MasterChef‘s 15th season will debut on May 21, The Quiz With Balls on June 2 and The 1% Club with new host Joel McHale on June 10.
Fox's Animation Block, which normally airs on Sundays, is opening a temporary summer block on Thursdays, kicking off May 29 with Bob's Burgers at 8 pm, followed by Grimsburg at 8:30 pm, Family Guy at 9 pm and The Great North rounding out the night at 9:30 pm.
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The move to Thursdays is for summer only, due to conflicts with sports programming on Sunday nights, according to the network. The block has shifted before. On May 31, 2021, the animation block temporarily expanded into Mondays with Duncanville and HouseBroken.
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Animated series repeats of legacy shows will air on Sundays when there is no sports programming.
Ramsay will take over primetime Wednesdays beginning May 21 with the Season 15 premiere of MasterChef: Dynamic Duos at 8 pm, followed by the debut of his new series Gordon Ramsay's Secret Service at 9 pm.
Additional summer programming to be announced.
Fox Summer 25 Premiere DatesAll Times ET/PT Except As Noted
Monday, May 19: 8:00-9:00 PM — LEGO Masters (Season Five Premiere)9:00-10:00 PM — America's Most Wanted (All-New Episode)
Wednesdays, Beginning May 21:8:00-9:00 PM — MasterChef: Dynamic Duos (Season 15 Premiere) 9:00-10:00 PM — Gordon Ramsay's Secret Service (Series Premiere)
Thursdays, Beginning May 29:8:00-8:30 PM — Bob's Burgers (All-New Episode) 8:30-9:00 PM — Grimsburg (All-New Episode)9:00-9:30 PM — Family Guy (All-New Episode)9:30-10:00 PM — The Great North (All-New Episode)
Mondays, Beginning June 2: 8:00-9:00 PM — LEGO Masters (All-New Episode)9:00-10:00 PM — bThe Quiz with Balls (Season Two Premiere)
Tuesdays, Beginning June 10: 8:00-9:00 PM — The 1% Club (Season Premiere) 9:00-10:00 PM — The Snake (Series Premiere)
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“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
This famous line from Shakespeare's “Hamlet” rings particularly apt now that Chloé Zhao‘s “Hamnet” has been slated for an awards-friendly November release. This adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's own award-winning historical novel stars Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley as William Shakespeare and his wife, Agnes. Focus Features has set a limited theatrical release for the Elizabethan-era drama on November 27, followed by a nationwide expansion on December 12.
In addition to landing within the window for an awards season play, the film also seems to be setting itself up as an “adult option” for moviegoers during the holiday season. It hits select theaters the same time as “Zootopia 2” and expands right as “Avatar: Fire & Ash” and “Spongebob: Search for Square Pants” begin their rollouts. It also marks a return for Zhao to independent filmmaking after helming Marvel's “Eternals” in 2021. She'd previously broken through with indie films “The Rider” and “Nomadland,” the latter of which earned her Best Picture and Best Director at the 2021 Academy Awards.
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Based on O'Farrell's 2020 novel of the same name, “Hamnet” tells the story of William and Agnes Shakespeare as they grieve the death of their 11-year-old son. The love that rose from this devastation is what went on to inspire one of the Bard's most famous tragedies, “Hamlet.” Joining Mescal and Buckley in the cast are Joe Alwyn, Emily Watson, and Jacobi Jupe as Hamnet Shakespeare.
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Mescal and Buckley were both recently on hand in Las Vegas for CinemaCon 2025, but for different projects entirely. As part of Sony's presentation, Mescal was brought out for the cast reveal of Sam Mendes' four-film biopic series on “The Beatles,” in which he will be playing Paul McCartney. He was joined by Joseph Quinn (George Harrison), Harris Dickinson (John Lennon), and Barry Keoghan (Ringo Starr). Mendes also serves as an executive producer on “Hamnet” alongside Steven Spielberg. Meanwhile, Buckley attended the Warner Brothers presentation as part of the team for the upcoming Frankenstein-inspired musical “The Bride.” Though initially slated for 2025, the film was recently moved to 2026.
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By Nellie Andreeva
Co-Editor-in-Chief, TV
EXCLUSIVE: In a competitive situation, Blumhouse Television has acquired rights to Marisha Pessl's No. 1 national bestseller Darkly to turn into a TV series, which will be executive produced by Jamie Lee Curtis through her company Comet Pictures' first-look deal with the independent studio.
Executive producing alongside Comet's Curtis are Jason Blum and Chris Dickie for Blumhouse Television and Pessl. Search for a writer to adapt the psychological YA thriller novel.
Darkly was published on November 26, 2024 by Penguin Random House. In it, Arcadia “Dia” Gannon has been obsessed with Louisiana Veda, the game designer whose obsessive creations and company, Darkly, have gained a cultlike following. Dia is shocked when she's chosen for a highly coveted internship, along with six other teenagers from around the world. Why her? Dia has never won anything in her life.
Darkly, once a game-making empire renowned for its ingenious and utterly terrifying toys and games, now lies dormant after Veda's mysterious death. The remaining games are priced like rare works of art, with some fetching millions of dollars at auction.
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As Dia and her fellow interns delve into the heart of Darkly, they discover hidden symbols, buried clues and a web of intrigue. Who are these other teens, and what secrets do they keep? Why were any of them really chosen? The answers lie within the twisted labyrinth of Darkly.
At Blumhouse TV, the project will be shepherded by the division's incoming president Melissa Aouate who starts later this month.
Curtis' deal with Blumhouse already has yielded two series executive produced by her: The Sticky, starring Margo Martindale, and the upcoming Scarpetta, in which Curtis also stars opposite Nicole Kidman, both for Prime Video. Curtis is repped by CAA and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.
Pessl won the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize for her debut novel, Special Topics In Calamity Physics. Her books — primarily in the suspense and mystery genres — also include Night Film and Neverworld Wake. They have been translated into more than 30 languages. Pessl is repped by CAA.
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By Justin Kroll
Film Editor
EXCLUSIVE: Mckenna Grace is set join the cast of The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping as Maysilee Donner, Haymitch Abernathy's fellow District 12 Tribute. Joseph Zada is set to play Haymitch, with Whitney Peak playing Haymitch's girlfriend, Lenore Dove Baird.
The film adaptation of The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping will be released on November 20, 2026. Francis Lawrence will direct from a screenplay adaptation by Billy Ray, based on the bestselling novel by Suzanne Collins. Color Force's Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson will produce. Cameron MacConomy will executive produce. The five films in the franchise have taken in more than $3.3 billion at the global box office.
Meredith Wieck and Scott O'Brien are overseeing the project for Lionsgate. Robert Melnik negotiated the deals for the studio.
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Like every part in this latest installment of the hit series, the role of Donner was highly sought as reps around town described it as the closest thing to the Katniss role that Jennifer Lawrence made famous in the previous films.
Published on March 18, Sunrise on the Reaping sold 1.5 million copies in its first week on sale in the U.S., UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The 1.2 million copies sold in the U.S. are twice the first-week sales of Collins' first prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and three times the first-week sales of the third book in the original series, 2010's Mockingjay.
Sunrise on the Reaping revisits the world of Panem 24 years before the events of The Hunger Games, starting on the morning of the reaping of the Fiftieth Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell.
In addition to her many other credits, Grace starred in the blockbusters Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. She is currently starring in the adaptation of the bestselling Colleen Hoover novel Regretting You for Paramount. Upcoming, she will also appear in the lead role of Blumhouse's Kiss of Death as well as Blumhouse's sequel to Five Nights at Freddy's; Scream 7 with Neve Campbell and Courtney Cox; and as part of an all-star ensemble led by Diane Lane in Lionsgate's Anniversary.
Grace is represented by CAA, Entertainment 360, and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Richman, Rush, Kaller, Gellman, Meigs & Fox.
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By Ted Johnson
Political Editor
Donald Trump went after Fox News on Thursday after its latest poll showed him 11 points underwater in job approval.
Despite the presence of a friendly slate of opinion hosts on Fox News, the president has lashed out over its polls, which are done under the direction of the Democratic firm Beacon Research and the Republican firm Shaw & Company.
The poll results showed that 44% approved of Trump's job performance, and 55% disapproved. It's in line with a series of other survey results in recent days, as the president nears the 100-day mark.
Trump wrote on Truth Social, “Rupert Murdoch has told me for years that he is going to get rid of his FoxNews, Trump Hating, Fake Pollster, but he has never done so. This ‘pollster' has gotten me, and MAGA, wrong for years. Also, and while he's at it, he should start making changes at the China Loving Wall Street Journal. It sucks!!!”
Watch on Deadline
A Fox News spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.
The Journal, owned by the Murdochs' News Corp., has run editorials critical of Trump, particularly when it comes to tariffs. Its news side also has produced a number of hard-hitting stories about the early months of Trump's administration.
Trump did reveal that he was planning to meet with The Atlantic‘s editor Jeffrey Goldberg, who was mistakenly added to the Signal group chat of top Trump national security officials in March. After the White House attacked Goldberg and claimed that what was shared in the chat was not classified, he published the text messages, showing that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted attack plans on the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Trump wrote, “Later today I will be meeting with, of all people, Jeffrey Goldberg, the Editor of The Atlantic, and the person responsible for many fictional stories about me, including the made-up HOAX on ‘Suckers and Losers' and, SignalGate, something he was somewhat more ‘successful' with. Jeffrey is bringing with him Michael Scherer and Ashley Parker, not exactly pro-Trump writers, either, to put it mildly! The story they are writing, they have told my representatives, will be entitled, ‘The Most Consequential President of this Century.' I am doing this interview out of curiosity, and as a competition with myself, just to see if it's possible for The Atlantic to be ‘truthful.' Are they capable of writing a fair story on ‘TRUMP'? The way I look at it, what can be so bad – I WON!”
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Haim have officially announced their new album, I Quit. Out June 20 via Columbia, the follow-up to 2020's Women in Music Pt. III was produced by Danielle Haim and Rostam Batmanglij. With the announcement comes their third single of 2025, “Down to Be Wrong,” which follows “Relationships” and “Everybody's Trying to Figure Me Out.” Listen to it below before the video release tomorrow morning.
Paul Thomas Anderson, a Haim family friend and longtime collaborator of the band, shot the new album's artwork. Anderson previously directed the trio's videos for “Man From the Magazine” and “Summer Girl,” and he cast Alana Haim in his films Licorice Pizza and One Battle After Another. He also shot the cover artwork for Women in Music Pt. III.
A video revealing the album details presented a series of “I quit” statements, starting with “I quit what does not serve me,” before taking in “overthinking,” “nicotine,” “shame,” “dick,” and “my job,” among other dependencies. The Haim sisters' last release before the I Quit campaign was “Home,” a contribution to Barbie the Album.
Revisit “The 100 Best Albums of the 2020s So Far,” featuring Women in Music Pt. III at No. 79.
All products featured on Pitchfork are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
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CN Entertainment
By Matt Grobar
Senior Film Reporter
EXCLUSIVE: Willa Holland (Arrow) and Paul Sparks (House of Cards) will lead The Mortuary Assistant, a feature adaptation of the bestselling horror video game created by Brian Clarke, which is currently in production in Missouri.
Hailing from Epic Pictures and its specialty horror label Dread, The Mortuary Assistant centers on Rebecca Owens, a recent mortuary science graduate who takes a night shift job at River Fields Mortuary. Initially, the job seems straightforward — embalming bodies, completing paperwork, and keeping things tidy. But once Rebecca starts working the night shift, things take a dark turn.
Holland plays Rebecca, the young woman confronting terrifying supernatural forces, with Sparks as Raymond Delver, Rebecca's mysterious mortician boss, who appears to be a mentor, but also a potential threat. Directed by Jeremiah Kipp, the film is billed as a new chapter in the story that will expand on the game's world and mythology, delving deeper into the lore of the demonic entities plaguing River Fields.
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Tracee Beebe and Brian Clarke adapted the screenplay. Patrick Ewald's Epic Pictures is producing via its horror outfit, Dread, alongside Cole Payne's Traverse Media. The production is financed by Epic Pictures and the UK-based Creativity Capital. Published in April 2023, The Mortuary Assistant was released originally on the Steam platform for PCs, though its now also available on Xbox, Playstation, and the Nintendo Switch.
In a statement to Deadline, director Kipp said in part that both he and the game's creator, Clarke, “respond to character-driven storytelling within a disturbing horror space. Because his influences have been largely cinematic, the whole process has organically felt like an expansion of his unique gameplay. We've captured the atmosphere of singular dread that players responded to so powerfully – this movie will be scary as hell.”
For Clarke, “Seeing the mortuary assistant evolve over the years from a small prototype to a full feature film is beyond anything I could have imagined as a solo developer. Jeremiah Kipp is an insanely skilled director, and it has been one of the highlights of my life working with him. Jeremiah and the entire team at Epic Pictures have done an amazing job capturing the spirit of the game while adding their own unique cinematic flair. It is an honor to see Willa and Paul bring these characters to life along with the rest of the film crew. I feel extremely fortunate and can't wait for fans to see The Mortuary Assistant expand into new territory.”
The Mortuary Assistant's Holland is best known for her starring role as Thea Queen, aka Speedy, in seven seasons of The CW's Arrow. First gaining recognition for a role on hit series The O.C., her other TV credits include Gossip Girl, The Flash, and Based on a True Story. Feature credits include A Summer in Genoa, Legion, Rod Lurie's Straw Dogs, and The Dirty South. She is is repped by Paradigm and 3 Arts Entertainment.
An Emmy nominee, Sparks is known for turns on series like House of Cards and Boardwalk Empire, as well as films like Mud, Midnight Special, and The Bikeriders. He's recently been seen starring in the Apple series Physical and is part of the cast of Prime Video's thriller limited series The Better Sister, which premieres on May 29. He's repped by Gersh and Circle Management + Production.
Kipp has previously directed the Shudder Original Slapface — winner of the Audience Award at Cinequest — along with sci-fi horror pic Black Wake, Don't Pick Up starring Keith David, Draw Up & Stare starring Michael O'Keefe and Melissa Leo, and other titles.
Co-writer Beebe is repped by First Story Entertainment.
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“Étoile,” the new series from Emmy-winning hat fanatic Amy Sherman-Palladino and her Emmy-winning hat-positive hubby Daniel Palladino, isn't easy to appreciate. Given the obscure French title (which translates to “star” and typically refers to the lead dancer in a ballet company) as well as the rarefied air of its subject matter (professional ballet and its hoity-toity benefactors), perhaps the Amazon Prime Video “comedy's” impermeability should have been expected.
But for those of us who have enjoyed past efforts from the showrunner (and her partner), it's just strange.
After all, the distinct, celebrated voice behind “Gilmore Girls” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” has long relayed her stories via rat-a-tat dialogue that — so long as they're not intimidated by rapid chatter — can coax viewers into bemused submission. Select words and phrases are batted back and forth like a ping-pong ball between Olympic athletes. In between, arguments are made and relationships are built, but the sometimes laborious work of exposition and table-setting can become effervescent when delivered at Sherman-Palladino's melodic meter. Add in charming performances, sparkling locales, and a relatable story (not to mention an ample helping of quippy cultural references) and giving in is often as easy as clicking play.
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“Étoile” still sports its creator's trademark talking, but it's less amplified and more scattered. Worse yet, it's in service of a confounding story both too big and too small to connect with, as well as characters that are enormously, fruitlessly difficult — difficult to each other, difficult to invest in, and difficult to see clearly until it's far too late to care.
Splitting its time between New York City and Paris, “Étoile” starts with its two central ballet companies in the same place, sharing a night of fun before a day of business. Jack McMillan (Luke Kirby) is the executive director of the Metropolitan Ballet Theater at New York's Lincoln Center. The grandson of the benefactor whose maiden name christens the auditorium itself (The Fish Theater, which spawns a stream of awful fish puns as long as a whale), Jack was born into ballet and defends dance with every fiber of his being. He props up his talented staff when they refuse to comply with basic, bureaucratic HR requests; he takes abbreviated, life-affirming breaks throughout his busy day to watch young amateurs and seasoned professionals practice their moves; he goes home at night, six sheets to the wind, and turns on old dance movies (Mikhail Baryshnikov in “White Nights”) or watches archival recordings of performances from the family theater.
His Parisian counterpart is Geneviève Lavigne (Charlotte Gainsbourg), the interim director of l'Opera Francais and Le Ballet National. She, too, loves the art-form, enjoying a night on the dance floor at a New York nightclub almost as much as she seems to savor the ensuing argument over who would win in a fight between ballet legends: renowned Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky or modern American dancer Misty Copeland. But unlike Jack, whose lineage doubles as job security, Geneviève is fighting tooth and nail to drop the “interim” tag from her title, and so far, it's a losing battle. Her overseers (led by a hostile Minister of Culture) aren't too happy with her ideas for the future, including the gambit that brought her across the Atlantic to meet with Jack.
Geneviève wants to arrange a trade: the best and brightest of her Parisian ballet company for the same from Jack's New York contingent. She sees a marketing opportunity in the showy exchange of stars, which should attract significant press coverage and could even be bolstered by a supporting reality show. But more than that, Geneviève sees a need. Audiences just aren't turning out for ballet like they used to, and the waning support is evident in unoccupied theater seats, dried-up donations, and a slow-down in government funding. COVID only exacerbated these problems, with established dancers falling out of shape or being forced to seek out more sustainable careers, and up-and-coming étoiles left with nowhere to go for training or inspiration.
So why not jump-start the cultural conversation around ballet with a big, year-long, transatlantic showcase? Well, that's where “Étoile” starts to lose its footing. To fund Geneviève's idea, she's arranged for cash from an abominable source: Crispin Shamblee (Simon Callow), a fellow dance devotee with a limitless checkbook and zero morals. A chemical weapons manufacturer who sells his wares to “God know who,” “Crispy” (as he prefers to be called) is presented as a necessary evil. “He's not my friend,” Geneviève says. “He's my purse.”
But Jack won't leave it at that — not at first, anyway. “Don't let the ‘oh, I'm so cute, I'm so cuddly' demeanor fool you,” Jack says. “That man delivered the eulogy at Rush Limbaugh's funeral!” And yet, “Étoile” seems perfectly happy being fooled. Despite suffering indignity after indignity, Jack acquiesces to the charming villain, as does the show around him. Crispy pops in, time and again, as comic relief. He calls from his private jet dressed like Snoopy, complete with red scarf and old-timey goggles. He shows up for ballet practice in '80s era workout tights, cracking jokes in between high kicks. He's repeatedly described as the worst of humanity yet consistently treated like a cartoon cutie pie.
“Étoile” never reckons with the disconnect, and similar discrepancies between what's said and what's shown surface elsewhere. Jack's nonsensical romantic life only exists by narrative insistence, always on the back burner yet still always cold. Geneviève is, by any measure, terrible at her job — she shows up to a press conference without reading up on the crisis she knows she'll be asked about, and she stubbornly makes herself the center of attention even when doing so does her no favors — yet we're told (much too late anyway) she's actually quite good. And the dancers. My goodness, I haven't even introduced the dancers.
Mishi (Taïs Vinolo) is a young French star who's been living and thriving in New York for the past two years. When she's forced to go back home — a triumphant return, as framed by her mother, the Minister of Culture — she struggles to fit in… for eight hours. Tobias (Gideon Glick, who was also in the writers' room) suffers from similar stagnation. He's the eccentric genius, a choreographer who designs brilliant ballets but can't hold a conversation for more than a few sentences. Upon arriving in Paris, he tells the entire company they need to adjust to his internal clock, set to Eastern Standard Time. He complains the French shops don't have his toothpaste and the French apartments have the wrong kind of rats. (Don't ask.) Glick's performance is buoyant and goofy; one of the few comedic constants (in addition to Crispy) in what Amazon insists is best described as a comedy. But his arc is predictable and too slow to develop.
Then there's Cheyenne (Lou de Laâge). Widely considered the best ballet dancer in the world, her acquisition is seen as an unprecedented coup for the Metropolitan, and she doesn't disappoint. Cheyenne refuses to budge on even the smallest of issues, respects no opinion but her own, and recoils from any off-stage responsibilities whatsoever, but she's an incredible performer, and the masses flock to see her trip the light fantastic. She shies away from being too stereotypical by abhorring extravagance. She hates her Upper West Side hotel because it's too posh, and she walks everywhere as a ride-or-die environmentalist. By her own admission, Cheyenne would rather be out saving the whales than prancing across a stage. In the premiere, she's asked, “You love to dance, don't you, Cheyenne?” “No,” she says. “But it's who I am, so there is no choice.”
De Laâge channels Cheyenne's diva energy with an inflexible ferocity that slowly gives way to sudden vulnerability. It's one of the few progressive performances in the series and one of the few to offer the audience a reward for their continued attention. But such benefits can be tough to notice. Multiple episodes are bloated and jumbled at over an hour. (The finale is an interminable 74 minutes.) The pacing is impossible to grasp, and the episodic structure is too slapped together. “Étoile” is a struggle to sit through, and that goes double for the uninspired depiction of the dancing itself.
So many shots are content to replicate what an audience would see from their seats, occasionally moving closer as if the onlooker brought a pair of binoculars, but rarely providing views that could only be captured by a camera. Static frames keep the the lovely choreography and talented dancers centered, but force them to do all the work. Long takes serve the same function, stressing the performers without helping to accentuate their unique skillset. Why not glide alongside the dancers? Why not draw us into their world? Why not show us their perspective, rather than more of our own?
So little interest is shown in the physical and mental demands of professional dancers, it's no wonder the closest we come to feeling like we understand what they're going through is during the closing credits, when a montage of actual behind-the-scenes footage includes a few moments of tricky costuming and time-consuming stretches.
“Étoile” never lets us in. Despite its budget and resources (much of the New York story takes place in and around Lincoln Center), the series feels like it's told by ballet patrons, for ballet patrons — people who like watching pretty people glide across a stage, but lack the curiosity to ask why or how they do it, let alone share the answers with an audience without access to The Met. When you can't hear the melody, it's awfully hard to dance.
“Étoile” premieres Thursday, April 24 on Amazon Prime Video. All eight episodes will be released at once.
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By
Daniel Kreps
Pedro Pascal blasted J.K. Rowling's anti-trans stance in response to the author celebrating a recent U.K. ruling that transgender women should not be recognized as women under Britain's Equality Act.
The actor's response to Rowling was posted in the comments of an Instagram video posted by activist Tariq Ra'ouf, who pointed out Rowling's financial connection to the For Women Scotland campaign that ultimately resulted in the U.K. Supreme Court ruling.
“Awful disgusting SHIT is exactly right,” Pascal wrote in response to Ra'ouf's video (via People). “Heinous LOSER behavior.”
Pascal has long been a supporter of trans rights, as the actor's sister, Lux Pascal, came out as transgender in 2021. At the U.K. red carpet premiere of the Marvel movie Thunderbolts earlier this week, Pascal — who stars in the upcoming Fantastic Four: First Steps — notably wore a shirt with the phrase “Protect the Dolls,” which is part of a fundraising campaign to bring attention to the wave of anti-transgender sentiment worldwide.
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Pascal wearing the shirt coincided with the U.K. Supreme Court ruling that the legal definition of a woman is based solely on biological sex, thus excluding transgender women from equality laws, and could potentially bar transgender women from women's sports in the U.K.
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The Last of Us star isn't the only actor to speak out against Rowling: Harry Potter castmates like Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson have all previously criticized the author's persistent and very public transphobia. However, Rowling does have one celebrity defender: Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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Five friends find themselves stuck in a time-loop nightmare in this offering based on the PlayStation game and penned by Blair Butler and Gary Dauberman.
By
Lovia Gyarkye
Arts & Culture Critic
The premise of Until Dawn, David F. Sandberg's horror flick inspired by the video game of the same name, is promising despite its familiarity: A group of friends happen upon an abandoned residence in the middle of the woods and find themselves hunted by fatal forces of both the physical and supernatural variety. The stakes of this feature are also expectedly high: To avoid death, this crew of recognizable archetypes must outmaneuver their adversaries. And there's even a twist that fans of the PlayStation game will immediately clock. This should be a recipe for success, if a minor one, but Until Dawn doesn't really capitalize on these elements and, as a result, is erratically frightening and vaguely dissatisfying.
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Written by Blair Butler and Gary Dauberman (Annabelle, Salem's Lot), Until Dawn is the latest offering in a cinematic landscape littered with game-inspired movies. Just earlier this month Warner Bros. released A Minecraft Movie, which has, in a handful of weekends, reaped more than $700 million globally. And while Until Dawn doesn't have the same cultural popularity as the Swedish world-building game, it does have a dedicated fan base who were converted by the original game, which included voice work from Hayden Panettiere and Rami Malek.
Related Video
Until Dawn
The Bottom Line
More safe than scary.
Release date: Friday, April 25Cast: Ella Rubin, Michael Cimino, Odessa A'zion, Ji-young Yoo, Belmont Cameli, Maia Mitchell, Peter StormareDirector: David F. SandbergScreenwriters: Gary Dauberman, Blair Butler
Rated R,
1 hour 43 minutes
Butler and Dauberman retain the haunted mood of the survival game, which was released in 2015. But instead of tailoring the existing backstory for screen audiences, they conjure up an entirely new one premised on five friends, played by a charming set of newcomers, on a “healing” road trip through the countryside. Until Dawn still experiments with the psychological elements of fear — a big part of the original game — but in the wake of films like Smile, the conclusions feel more safe than scary.
It's been a year since Clover (Ella Rubin) suffered the dual loss of her mother, who passed away, and her sister, Melanie (Maia Mitchell), who disappeared soon after their mother died. In a misguided attempt to help her move through grief, Clover's friends decide to take a trip retracing Melanie's final steps. When we meet these characters, they have stopped at a rural gas station for snacks and a seance. The group includes Clover's chronically worried ex-boyfriend Max (Michael Cimino); their occult-obsessed pal Megan (Ji-young Yoo, excellent); emotionally avoidant Nina (Odessa A'zion); and Nina's new boyfriend Abe (Belmont Cameli), who can't let a moment pass without telling people that he majored in psychology.
Early scenes efficiently outline the interpersonal dynamics of the gang and build some emotional investment in their friendship. These young adults are all a little messed up, but their relationships with each other keep them anchored. That's why they are traversing the middle of nowhere with Clover, who's been despondent and, we gather, psychologically fragile since last year.
The action kicks off when the crew pulls up to an abandoned visitor center in Glore Valley, a fictional locale not far from the gas station. They find chilling clues during their brief snooping: Abe comes across a billboard filled with photos of missing people, including Melanie; Nina discovers a visitor log with the names of those individuals, written multiple times in increasingly scraggly script; Megan gets a bad vibe from the place, as if the spirits are trying to tell her something; and Clover swears she hears Melanie calling her from the strangely foggy wooded area.
Sandberg effectively calibrates the silences in these moments — letting entire sequences play out with little sound expect a creaking floorboard, a heavy breath or the turn of the page — to ratchet up the tension. When the slasher eventually appears, stealing the group's car before murdering them with a humorous bluntness, there is also a real atmosphere of dread.
But the best parts of Until Dawn are merely blips in a film whose entire schtick gets stale fast. After the mysterious slasher, in the style of Michael Myers, kills Clover, Max, Megan, Nina and Abe, all five of them come back to life. They realize they are in a twisted game in which they are revived after dying, forced to relive the evening. The only way to escape is to survive through the night and stay alive until sunrise. With this knowledge, the friends set off to investigate this place and the strange psychologist (Peter Stormare) they encounter along the way.
Each night presents a new way of dying (stabbings, exploding limbs, axes to the head), as Sandberg borrows from slasher movies, psychological horror, monster flicks and more. While the attempt at genre homage is admirable, Until Dawn seems trapped by the tonal demands of these shifts. Sometimes the film is funny and other times it seems to aim for seriousness, leading to a confusing everything-but-the-kitchen-sink result.
Most of Sandberg's film ends up going through the perfunctory motions of classic horror, piquing interest occasionally with a progression of impressive kills and a sharp use of practical effects. Jennifer Spence's ace production design imbues this abandoned mine town with an appropriate spookiness and, working with cinematographer Maxime Alexandre, Sandberg stages some effectively nightmarish scenes. But even those can't cover for the gaping plot holes and uneven performances that inspire more confusion about the movie's intended impact.
The closer these young adults get to figuring out the mystery behind their time-looped captivity, the more Until Dawn relies on visual shortcuts — at one point a character realizes they have been trapped for 13 nights even though audiences only experience four or five nights of death — to wrap things up and leans into pat pop psychology to plump itself with meaning. How fascinating that a part of the marketing for this muddled film involved viewers repeatedly watching it for 12 hours in hopes of winning a cash prize. It's difficult to imagine a universe in which that experience would feel worth it.
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By Anthony D'Alessandro
Editorial Director/Box Office Editor
Focus Features has set a limited Thanksgiving release of November 27 for two-time Oscar winner Chloé Zhao's Hamnet. The movie will go wide on December 12.
Hamnet, which Zhao co-wrote with Maggie O'Farrell, tells the powerful love story that inspired the creation of Shakespeare's timeless masterpiece Hamlet.
The pic stars Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Emily Watson and Joe Alwyn. Producers are Liza Marshall, Pippa Harris, Nic Gonda, Sam Mendes and Steven Spielberg on behalf of Amblin. EPs are Kristie Macosko Krieger on behalf of Amblin, Laurie Borg and Zhao.
Hamnet is based on O'Farrell's 2020 New York Times bestselling novel, which has sold 2 million copies in the UK and U.S. and has been translated into 40 languages.
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By Melanie Goodfellow
Senior International Film Correspondent
Cannes parallel section Directors' Fortnight has added Israeli director Nadav Lapid's Yes! (Ken!) to its 2025 selection.
Set in the aftermath of the October 7, Hamas attacks on Israel, the film revolves around a struggling jazz musician, and his wife Jasmine, a dancer, who give their art, souls, and bodies to the highest bidder, bringing pleasure and consolation to their bleeding country.
This endeavor sees the jazz musician entrusted with a mission of the utmost importance: to set a new national anthem to music.
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The cast features Ariel Bronz, Efrat Dor, Naama Preis and Alexey Serebryakov.
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Lapid was last in Cannes in 2021 with Ahed's Knee which shared the Jury Prize with Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Memoria. Prior to that, he was in Cannes with breakout feature The Kindergarten Teacher, which premiered in Critics' Week in 2014.
His new film is one of two Israeli features playing in Cannes this year alongside Or Sinai's debut feature Mama, which was among 16 titles added to the Official Selection on Wednesday.
Yes! joins 18 other features previously announced for the section, overseen by the French Directors Guild (Société des Réalisateurs de Films), which include Enzo by late director Laurent Cantet and Robin Campillo, Eva Victor's Sorry, Baby and Christian Petzold's Miroirs No. 3.
The 57th edition runs from May 14-22.
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Dorit Kemsley revealed she was “blindsided” during “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” Season 14 reunion, but it wasn't by anything her co-stars said.
In an April 2025 interview with Rollacoaster, the Bravo TV personality noted that she experienced an unexpected moment from her estranged husband, PK, during the sitdown with Andy Cohen.
“I was completely blindsided when PK had sent a statement,” Kemsley shared in the interview. “No matter what happens with PK and I, he's always been my best friend, my husband, we're family. I never believed that things could ever get to a place where our bond and the foundation would ever be broken to the extent that we could do things to hurt each other that crosses the line.”
A post shared by PK (@paul_kemsley_pk)
In May 2024, Dorit and PK Kemsley announced they were separating after nine years of marriage. The split news came just as filming for RHOBH Season 14 began.
Despite the split, PK filmed some scenes for Season 14. But when he was invited to attend the reunion taping, he declined and sent a statement instead.
Much to Dorit Kemsley's surprise, Cohen read PK's statement during the reunion.
“I was invited to be part of the reunion, but declined because I don't believe engaging with Dorit in this forum would be constructive,” read PK's statement, per BravoTV.com.
“Dorit has made several mischaracterizations about me, but the one I must address is the claim that I am a bad father,” he continued. “That statement is both heartbreaking and false. It is deeply hurtful to me and more importantly, to our children, who, despite Dorit's assertion, will inevitably see and hear all of this at a time not of our choosing.”
“Those closest to us know the truth,” PK added. “Many have wanted to speak out, but I have asked them not to because the truth should never need a champion. I refused to stoke a fire I did not ignite. The Dorit I married would never have allowed this, much less caused it. That woman embodied kindness, integrity, and grace. I can only hope this version of Dorit finds her way back to the person she once was.”
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PK's reaction was to his ex's comments about his alleged parenting style during an exchange with Kathy Hilton in Season 14, Episode 10 of RHOBH. After Hilton asked of PK, “I think he's a very good father. Am I correct?” Dorit responded that she was wrong.
In a confessional, Kemsley explained, “There are times that I think PK's the greatest father in the world. But is he the most hands-on father? The truth is, no. He would disappear and be gone for weeks and weeks without even calling the kids. ….I've protected him at all costs no matter what, and I don't think he realizes that.”
Kemsley later apologized for her comments on the RHOBH After Show. She explained that her comment came as she was still reeling from a multi-page email her ex had sent her.
Speaking with Rollacoaster, Kemsley said she never wants to go “toe to toe” with PK.
“I know his feelings about what I had said in the moment about him not being a great dad, I not only apologized to him, but I – in my confessional and in the after show – immediately took it back and explained that this is after a couple of months of not speaking, I was really worried about the kids,” she explained. “I felt very, very bad. It was in a weak, vulnerable moment after a seven-page vicious email. You can only take the high road for so long.”
While her marital problems are still being sorted out, Kemsley said she is looking forward to her next chapter. “I know that there are brighter days ahead,” she said.
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Roberto Minervini's narrative debut “The Damned” revisits the U.S. Civil War in a cinema verite style. Minervini, who has helmed a slew of documentary films, deployed his nonfiction techniques for the feature that premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard program. Minervini won the Best Director award for “The Damned” at the festival.
Jeremiah Knupp, René W. Solomon, Cuyler Ballenger, Noah Carlson, Judah Carlson, Tim Carlson, and Bill Gehring are among the actors playing Civil War soldiers in the feature set during the winter of 1862. The official synopsis reads: “In the midst of the Civil War, the U.S. Army sends a company of volunteer soldiers to the western territories, with the task of patrolling the uncharted borderlands. As their mission ultimately changes course, the meaning behind their engagement begins to elude them.”
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Minervini said in a press statement that “The Damned” sets out to undo the tropes of other war films.
“I've always had an issue with war movies because of the archetypes that are present in them: the idea of the just cause, good versus evil, revenge, heroism,” he said. “There's never been an approach that I would call humane. Instead we have archetypes that propagate false ideas and beliefs about war. It's crazy to me that people tend to trust a government — especially here in the U.S. but not only here — in matters of war and defense. War becomes an untouchable thing and the heroism of war becomes something sacred.”
“The Damned” also has a timeliness to it amid the current American political climate. “This film is heavily informed by my previous work, for sure, and by my experience of living in the South for more than a decade,” Minervini said. “It was a very conscious choice to go back to a moment where a lot of these roots were being planted: the great divide between North and South, Christianity, a kind of toxic masculinity. I wanted to understand how these issues persist, why there is still a lot of nostalgia for the Civil War, how that time shaped a sense of distrust toward institutions. I wanted the film to tie into the experience of people who were left in limbo during the war, in the middle of a transition from very conservative values to a new society: people who didn't even know what to fight for. Many in the U.S. Army were mercenaries who enlisted without fully grasping the cause. With a country in shambles, people took sides, sometimes geographically, sometimes opportunistically. The approach here was to put a bunch of people in the middle of nowhere, or rather in the wilds of Montana, who are trying to figure out why they are there.”
“The Damned” is produced by Paolo Benzi for Okta Film, Denise Ping Lee and Roberto Minervini for Pulpa Film, and Paolo Del Brocco for Rai Cinema. Teresa Mannino, Jean-Alexandre Luciani, and Annette Fausboll executive produce.
“The Damned” opens in theaters May 16. Check out the trailer below.
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By
Kory Grow
On Wednesday evening, shortly after Ayo Edebiri made her entrance through the remarkably heavy doors of Everybody's Live With John Mulaney (a feat even fellow guest Conan O'Brien struggled with on the same episode), she got comfortable and opened an envelope containing a review of the show she wrote for Letterboxd. Since 2018, the Bear star has reviewed movies on the movie-journaling social network, many of which have gone viral.
Fortuitously for Mulaney, she seemed to like his freewheeling talk show, comparing watching it to crack, y'know, in a good way. “OK, so we all know crack is bad,” she began. “Yes, we can all agree that crack is something bad. But consider this: Crack gave us funk music. Crack gave us Tyrone Biggums. Crack gave us Whitney Houston saying, ‘First of all, let's get one thing straight. Crack is cheap.'” She then went on to do an impression of the late singer telling Diane Sawyer that “crack is wack” in 2002.
ayo edebiri's @letterboxd review of Everybody's Live with John Mulaney
“The spirit of crack, one could argue, has also given us this show,” she continued. “John Mulaney, sober and a father, is basically spiritually on crack. To be clear, I think this is a good thing. This man shows up dressed up like a Pentecostal deacon's son headed to the 2018 NBA draft, only to end up a fifth-round reject. And yet he puts out some of the sharpest comedy happening right now.” She went on to praise the show's writers, praising how the show “indulges in volleying between keen, deeply specific observational comedy and playful surrealism. … You can't put your finger on which way it will go or why.”
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In summary, she describes Mulaney as “a gift to comedy,” adding, “he is also maybe probably insane, but I think this is good.” And, in case you were worried, she stated, “And I think crack is bad.”
And while that seemed like the end of her panegyric, she flipped the card and turned her attention to Mulaney's sidekick on the series, veteran loudmouthed character actor Richard Kind, whom she said she loves. “I want to adopt him and take him to a diner not too far from the courthouse and split an ice cream sundae and celebrate our new family with him.”
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She gave the series four stars and a heart. Considering how Mulaney, Kind, and O'Brien were in stitches throughout the whole speech, they approve of her assessment. “It's the nicest thing I've ever been given,” Mulaney said.
The review is not yet on her profile.
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The global powerhouse will be honored as Woman of the Year at the 2025 Latin Women In Music gala.
By
Griselda Flores
Senior Editor, Latin
Selena Gomez sings and dances to the beat of her own drum in the award-winning musical thriller Emilia Pérez, starring as Jessi Del Monte, a rebellious woman on a journey of radical transformation. Her compelling performance, both raw and refreshing, unlocked a new side of the 32-year-old star on the big screen. And that's just one of her latest career milestones. In an industry that often aims to box you into categories, Gomez is a shapeshifter, constantly redefining what it means to be a global powerhouse today. In the last 12 months, Gomez, who has meticulously crafted a blueprint for her multi-hyphenate standing, garnered a Golden Globe best supporting actress nomination for Emilia Pérez; won a Screen Actors Guild Award for her role in Only Murders in the Building; the LP I Said I Love You First, which she released in March with fiancé Benny Blanco, debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Top Album Sales chart, becoming Gomez's fourth leader on the chart; and through her Rare Impact Fund, Gomez continues to work to increase access to mental health for young people.
Now, on April 24, she will be honored at Billboard and Telemundo's annual Latin Women in Music gala with the Woman of the Year award.
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“I think anytime as women we show up and support each other, it truly is so beautiful and important,” Gomez tells Billboard. “I will say being honored at Latin Women in Music is incredibly special to me though. My Mexican heritage is something that has influenced me my entire life and it's not lost on me how representation matters. Throughout the years I've been doing this, some of the most supportive women in the entertainment business I have met have been other Latin women. I love the bond we all have.”
Named after fellow Texan, the legendary Selena Quintanilla, Gomez — whose paternal grandparents are Mexican — catapulted to fame as a child actor in Barney & Friends at 10 years old and subsequently starred on the Disney Channel show Wizards of Waverly Place as the ultra-cool and spunky teenage wizard Alex Russo. But it's perhaps her career as a recording artist that solidified her pop icon status boasting of 42 entries on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, and seven top 10 LPs on the Billboard 200, including three leaders on that tally. While she has mainly recorded in English, Gomez has always stayed close to her roots, and recording in Spanish felt almost inevitable.
Her first big splash in Latin music came in 2019, thanks to a feature on DJ Snake's “Taki Taki,” alongside hitmakers Ozuna and Cardi B. The track debuted at No. 1 on the Hot Latin Songs chart in 2018, ruling for 13 weeks. Since then, Gomez has achieved three additional top 10 hits on the ranking, among them “Baila Conmigo,” her collaboration with Rauw Alejandro, which peaked at No. 4 on Hot Latin Songs in 2021 and topped the Latin Airplay chart for a week. That collab is part of her first-ever Spanish-language project: Revelación. It debuted at No. 1 on the Top Latin Albums chart, making history as the first album by a female artist to achieve the feat since Shakira's El Dorado.
“I never really focus on stats and charts, but when I hear something like that, all I can feel is pride. Shakira is an icon and someone I've always looked up to and I love her so much,” says Gomez. “Making a Spanish album was something I had wanted to do for a long time. Over the years, I'd release a Spanish version of one of the songs off an album but having an all-Spanish project was something that meant a lot to me. I worked hard on making sure I paid homage to my Latin roots, through the music as well as the aesthetics of all the visuals.”
Navigating a bicultural identity, especially one that has a double standard (you should assimilate and learn English but also be fluent in Spanish), is one that even Selena Quintanilla faced in her early days. Then, Quintanilla had to learn to speak and sing in Spanish to be accepted in Mexico.
Gomez recently faced similar scrutiny when critics questioned her Spanish-speaking skills on Emilia Pérez, even though she plays the role of an American who lives in Mexico and who is not meant to be fluent in the role. Gomez — who alongside her co-stars Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón and Adriana Paz won best actress award for the ensemble cast at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival — says Emilia Pérez is a film she'll “hold dear forever.”
“I pushed myself into uncomfortable spaces which as an actress are the most rewarding. It was a magical time and working with [director] Jacques [Audiard] was one of my best experiences,” she says. “I am taking my time to find the right role and director to work with next because I want it to be a challenge and unexpected.”
Gomez's Latin heritage is constantly present in her work. She plays Mabel Mora in Hulu's Only Murders in the Building. And in I Said I Love You First, she includes “Ojos Tristes” with The Marías, a reimagination of Jeanette's 1981 classic ballad “El Muchacho De Los Ojos Tristes.” The track entered the top five of the Hot Latin Songs chart (dated April 5).
“Benny and I went and saw The Marías in concert last summer. I was mesmerized by them and knew I wanted to have them on our album,” Gomez shares. “ 'El Muchacho De Los Ojos Tristes' to me is one of those cross generational songs that brings people together no matter how old you are. You either knew as an adult or something your mother or abuela listened to so it conjures up nostalgic memories. I loved seeing all the posts about the song and the feeling it reminds people of. I might have teared up a few times. I am very proud of this song.”
Gomez is equally proud of her work in activism as a leading voice in advocating for mental health and social justice for underrepresented communities. In 2019, she executive produced Living Undocumented, a Netflix docuseries that poignantly tackled the immigration crisis in the U.S. She has also transformed the youth mental health landscape by mobilizing over $20 million in funds with philanthropic partners across five continents.
“At the end of the day I believe it matters to be vocal about issues that matter to you, whether you are famous or not. It's not for the faint of heart, because you are putting yourself out there and trust me there will be a lot of opinions that come at you for even having the nerve to say anything at all,” Gomez says. “I remember when I decided to be open about my own personal mental health, it was scary to be that vulnerable and I didn't ever want anyone to think I am a victim. I thought [that] by sharing my own story I could help others, and I will take any negative opinions that come with that because I see the bigger picture of how the conversations have changed around mental health.”
Eight years after being named Billboard's Woman of the Year, Gomez's influence in music and beyond is even more tangible today, a testament to her impact and legacy. Her advice for the new generation of artists?
“Blocking out the noise and being true to yourself,” she says. “The noise can be overwhelming, and I am not saying it's easy but by doing that and not compromising who you are, it goes a long way.”
The third annual Billboard Latin Women in Music special will air live at 9 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. CT on Thursday, April 24 exclusively on Telemundo, Universo, Peacock and the Telemundo app and throughout Latin America and the Caribbean on Telemundo Internacional.
Read Billboard's Latin Women In Music 2025 executive list here.
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By
Thor Benson
America has stood as a world superpower for the past century or so, and much of that power has been derived from the country's scientific and technological prowess. From medicine to aerospace, some of the greatest thinkers in modern history have called the United States their home and pushed boundaries while residing within its borders.
That tradition is under threat in ways it has never been before as Donald Trump's administration engages in the mass firing of scientists in the federal government, cuts funding to scientific research, and generally pushes an agenda that opposes scientific inquiry.
The Trump administration has thrown out hundreds of National Institutes of Health (NIH) research projects, fired thousands of the agency's scientists, and looks intent on further dismantling the agency. Research funding for universities is also being stripped. So is climate science. Science is under attack in the United States basically everywhere you look.
Trump's attacks on science are making American scientists anxious, and many are considering leaving the country indefinitely. Nearly 2,000 members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine signed a letter in March warning of the administration's threat to science. A poll from the international science journal Nature in late March found that 75 percent of American scientists are considering leaving the United States. European countries are planning on increasing their science funding, and countries like France, Belgium, and the Netherlands have launched programs to lure American scientists.
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Jan Danckaert, rector of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium, says his university has launched its own program to attract American scientists.
“Our university is establishing a dedicated contact point for researchers who want to continue their work in Brussels,” Danckaert tells Rolling Stone. “U.S. universities and their scholars are victims of political and ideological interference by the Trump administration. They are seeing millions of dollars in research funding being abruptly cut for ideological reasons.”
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In France, Aix-Marseille University has received nearly 300 applications from Americans for its “Safe Place for Science” program. Europe saw many scientists flee for the U.S. during World War II, and it now appears that experts are starting to flow in the opposite direction.
“I never thought I would live in a country where I would see scientists basically seeking asylum,” says Jennifer Jones, director for the Center for Science and Democracy at the Massachusetts-based Union of Concerned Scientists. “Some are seeking asylum because their work is no longer valued or funded. Some just don't see the future of their career here.”
Jones says she's heard from scientists who are “actively looking for positions overseas,” and that these scientists are often at the beginning or end of their career. Those who are just starting out can easily relocate, and some who are at the tail end of their career might want to finish it off somewhere else. Many scientists are also from outside of the U.S. and are considering returning home.
“If we lose elements of both generations, that's so hard. You're losing the most senior, deep level of expertise,” Jones says. “They're also the ones who mentor and train the next generation. When you lose early career folks, you lose capacity that could take years or decades to regain.”
Adam Siepel, a computational biologist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, says he's been seriously considering moving to Europe or Canada. He says the atmosphere in America is “very spooky” right now and “almost reminiscent of Nazi Germany or the Cultural Revolution in China.” He says a lot of scientists are worried about the future.
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“You start to wonder if it's going to be possible to do science in this country, and if there is a major flow of scientists to other countries, where should we go?” Siepel says. “I'm not ready to leave the United States yet, but I think we're all keeping our eyes open and looking for our options if things do turn out really badly.”
Dr. Stephen Jones, a biochemist who now works at Vilnius University in Lithuania, started considering leaving the U.S. during the 2020 presidential election while he was finishing his postdoc at the University of Texas. He and his wife weren't sure how the election was going to turn out, but there was a lot of anti-science sentiment during the Covid-19 pandemic and Europe looked appealing. Even though Trump didn't win that election, they decided to leave.
“You know what I don't have to experience right now? I haven't had to kick any students or any researchers off my team. My funding is more secure than ever,” Jones says. “I have a friend who had to start a GoFundMe to keep her laboratory going [in America]. I'm not thinking about those things.”
Jones says he's advised other scientists on how to exit the U.S. for Europe. He says he was not having those meetings “before January of this year.” He also just welcomed an American researcher to his team who recently completed his PhD. Some European scientists who were considering moving to the U.S. for work have told him they're no longer considering that option.
“It's going to become, and it's already becoming, a brain drain,” Jones says. “It's the kind of thing you don't see immediately. This takes time to manifest itself — sometimes because it has to get bad enough for people to decide to finally go somewhere else.”
America's brain drain hasn't just affected scientists. Jason Stanley, a former Yale philosophy professor, expert on authoritarianism and author of How Fascism Works, decided to take a job at the University of Toronto earlier this year. He said he feared the U.S. was at risk of becoming a “fascist dictatorship” under Trump. (Surely there's no reason to worry about a fascism expert deciding to pack his bags and flee the country.)
The Trump administration claims to want to reduce government spending, but if that's part of its rationalization for gutting the sciences, then it's not behaving logically. Investing in basic science often generates more money than it costs.
“Every dollar spent on NIH research results in about $2.50 worth of economic growth,” Siepel says. “I think around 90 percent of FDA-approved new drugs started out with NIH support.”
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All of the scientists aren't going to leave at once, and so far it's only a trickle exiting the U.S., but it's clear that the future of science is in question in America. If things continue on the path they're on, more and more scientists will decide to work elsewhere. This will make the U.S. less competitive and deprive it of important innovations.
“It's a lot easier to break things than to build them. Unfortunately, we're in the breaking phase right now,” Dr. Jones says. “The building materials are being used elsewhere in the world now.”
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As the top 14 contestants on season 23 of “American Idol” prepare for the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame episode, knowing viewers' votes will send two of them home, judge Carrie Underwood remembers her own Top 12 episode with fondness and fear.
On April 24, 2025, as part of her “Idol to Icon” web series, the country superstar reviewed her performance from the same week of competition back in 2005, when she sang Heart's “Alone.” She did so well that then-judge Simon Cowell made the now-infamous prediction that she'd not only win the competition, but “sell more records than any other previous Idol.”
Although his feedback was thrilling to hear, Underwood admitted she felt like she suddenly had “a target on my back.”
A post shared by American Idol (@americanidol)
Underwood blew away the judges with her performance of “Alone,” with Randy Jackson telling her it was “one of your best performances yet” and Paula Abdul applauding her “taking risks.”
Cowell, who rarely doled out compliments, told Underwood, “You know, you're not just the girl to beat. You're the person to beat. I will make a prediction. Not only will you win this show, you will sell more records than any other previous Idol.”
Reflecting on that moment, Underwood paused the video and said, “What an incredible prediction — from me, you know, thinking ‘I'm gonna sing this song, oh my gosh, you know, they're probably gonna hate it, but I'm gonna do it anyway,' and then to get that reaction.”
She continued, “At the time, I thought, ‘This is amazing,' and then about five seconds later, I thought, ‘I have a target on my back. Now everybody's gonna hate me.' Just because that's a such a bold tip me, you told me I was going to win the show. I remember thinking people might not like me after that, and being really nervous.”
Of course, Underwood did go on to win the show and sell more records than any “Idol” in history. When a producer of the “Idol to Icon” web series asked how it feels knowing that, she replied diplomatically.
“I feel like there's so many incredible artists that have come from this show, winners and non-winners,” she said. “I mean, this is a life changer for so many of us, and we're still … going! And that's, you know,why we're we're here. Now, I would love to, at the end of this, have a winner that you know beats us all you know, in in sales and numbers. That would be absolutely incredible to be a part of that for somebody else.”
Re-watching her performance of “Alone,” Underwood saw her 21-year-old self talk about how she decided to break out of her country music shell and do a rock song instead.
Reflecting on that brave decision, Underwood paused the video and said, “Song choice is so difficult when you are doing something like this, because just as much as people are listening to you sing it, they're thinking about the original song. And I remember week to week, you know, we would get critiqued, and it would be like, ‘Oh, you know, you're playing it so safe. You're beingso safe with your choices.' And it's like, ‘Well, does that matter if I do a good job?'”
“And this week,” Underwood recalled, “I was like, ‘Okay, I'm just gonna throw caution to the wind. And I think I even remember, like, writing in my journal how much they were not gonna like me singing this song and being not so much worried. I was like, ‘They're gonna hate it, (but) whatever. I really want to do it. So, okay, let's go.' Never know what's gonna happen. Just gotta do the best you can.”
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By
Nikki McCann Ramirez
A federal judge in Maryland has ordered the Trump administration to return a second migrant who was deported to El Salvador's notorious prison system despite a previous court settlement barring their removal.
It might be hard for the president and his officials to argue the ruling is the work of a radical left, activist judge, as Trump appointed her.
According to ABC News, Maryland District Judge Stephanie Gallagher ruled on Wednesday that the Trump administration must facilitate the return of a man referred to as “Christian” in court records. Christian was one of hundreds of migrants deported to El Salvador and imprisoned in the notorious CECOT mega-prison without due process. Christian was previously party to a 2019 class action lawsuit that reached a settlement with the U.S. government allowing adults who entered the United States without documentation as unaccompanied minors to remain in the U.S. while their asylum claims were adjudicated.
In her ruling, Gallagher referenced the case of Kilmar Abgrego Garcia, a Maryland man who has also been sent to El Salvador by the Trump administration, despite a protective order barring his deportation to the country over fears for his safety.
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“Like Judge [Paula] Xinis in the Abrego Garcia matter, this court will order Defendants to facilitate Christian's return to the United States so that he can receive the process he was entitled to under the parties' binding Settlement Agreement,” Gallagher wrote in her ruling determining that the government had violated the conditions of the 2019 settlement.
The Trump administration has countered that because they have deemed Christian an “alien enemy” under the Alien Enemies Act — an archaic wartime law that grants the president powers to deport citizens of nations the United States is engaged in armed conflict with without due process — he is no longer protected by the settlement.
Gallagher determined that the government must make “a good faith request to the government of El Salvador and to release Christian to U.S. custody for transport back to the United States to await the adjudication of his asylum application on the merits by USCIS.”
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Gallagher's decision came after Maryland District Court Judge Paual Xinis issued a sharp rebuke of the Trump administration's defiance of the courts, accusing it on Wednesday of engaging in “a willful and bad faith refusal” to comply with orders related to the Abrego Garcia case.
The Trump administration is not pleased with their series of losses in court. In a Wednesday interview with Fox News, White House Deputy Chief of Staff called for “radical left wing judges” to be removed from the bench.
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“Either we all side and get behind President Trump to remove these terrorists from our communities or we let a rogue radical left judiciary shut down the machinery of our national security apparatus,” Miller screamed at Fox News Host Sean Hannity. “President Trump will make this nation safer than ever before and do it over the fighting and opposition of the communist left-wing judges.”
Someone should let Miller know that in the case of Christian, the “communist left-wing” judge ruling against their attempts to ignore the rule of law is a Trump appointee.
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By
Brian Hiatt
Imogen Heap, whose 2005 track “Headlock” just became her biggest hit ever after a belated viral surge on TikTok, is now letting fans legally borrow its vibe for their own songs via generative AI. Heap is the first artist to sign on for a new feature from AI-music platform Jen that lets users “infuse the vibe, feel, rhythmic style, instrument textures” of licensed songs into new creations, according to co-founder and CEO Shara Senderoff. Heap also licensed four other tracks for use as what the company calls StyleFilters: “Goodnight and Go,” “Just for Now,” “Last Night of an Empire,” and “What Have You Done to Me.
The leading AI music platforms were trained on vast libraries of copyrighted songs without permission, but Jen only uses fully licensed music, which is why Heap agreed to partner with them. “The really exciting thing about Jen is it's the first service I feel fully understands the importance of waiting to get it right,” she says. “They've gone the really long way around.”
The service pays artists 70 percent of the revenue each time someone uses their StyleFilter. Users pay $4.99 to generate up to 90 minutes of music laced with the essence of Heap's songs — or $7.99 for a “high-strength” setting where song generations will be more obviously influenced by her work. In a press release, Jen's other co-founder, Mike Caren, frames the feature as a new business model for artists: “Think of StyleFilters like an app for music creators. You're not licensing a song, so much as you're launching a product. You become software.”Heap is taking advantage of a bit of fortuitous timing: Just as “Headlock” took off on TikTok, the rights to some of the singer's most popular works reverted back to her after 20 years. “It is like this perfect storm,” she says. The deal works through Heap's own technology platform, Auracles, which she's been developing for a decade. Auracles serves as a rights management system, allowing her to quickly provide Jen with all the metadata and permissions for her tracks, and she hopes other artists will see its advantages. With the notable exception of Timbaland, who is a wildly enthusiastic user of the AI-music engine Suno, vanishingly few artists, songwriters, or producers have publicly embraced AI — instead, they've largely condemned companies who use their music without permission. “It's not that I'm just like, ‘Yay, AI,'” Heap says. “I'm ‘Yay, AI' with people who have ethics and morals that I align with and a future outlook of something that I feel makes sense to me and the planet.… I want to build a system that enables as much collaboration, open collaboration, as possible with trust.”
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For Heap, traditional music industry models are obsolete. She hasn't released an album since 2014, and has no plans to return to that medium: “Never. A hundred percent. No. I just think that whole industry is baked around ‘Let's make money for record labels.” Her recent experiment selling song stems on a remix platform yielded $12,000 from 400 downloads at $30 each – far outpacing streaming revenue. “The same song on Spotify, maybe half a million plays, less than a thousand pounds,” she says.
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Heap thinks more artists should find ways to embrace licensed AI. “The more open you are, the more things are likely to happen,” she says. “The more [artists] that stick their head in the sand,, the more likely it's gonna go to the people who are doing it for profit and won't be thinking about them.”
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Kanopy, the streamer that's free and accessible to anyone with a library card, has moved from being the “best kept secret” in streaming to the secret being out. At least that's the feeling of Kanopy's GM Jason Tyrell, who has watched as the streamer has grown in popularity since launching in 2008.
When we spoke with Tyrell in March 2024, Kanopy was accessible via roughly 40 percent of libraries in North America. That number is now closer to 50 percent.
But the next frontier of Kanopy's growth is reaching people who don't yet have a library card and might be inclined to sign up for one or seek one out. That's why Kanopy on Friday is releasing its first original film title as part of a new division at the streamer dedicated to seeking out and distributing original films and series.
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The film is called “Banned Together,” a documentary about the history of banning books and the current state of combatting censorship and erasure of literature in U.S. public schools. Just as with any of the other 30,000+ titles Kanopy licenses, “Banned Together” is available to every library using the platform, and anyone accessing Kanopy with a library card can watch it with no added fee or ads.
The film, directed by Kate Way and Tom Wiggin, follows three students in Beaufort, South Carolina who fought back when 97 books were pulled from their school's library.
Because it's all about books, it's obviously a topic that's close to home for libraries and their continued existence. But “Banned Together” isn't the only project Kanopy hopes to release, and it's all part of the streamer's goal to meet the needs of libraries and an ever evolving academic mandate.
“We've seen the landscape for independent film shift after being very heavily embraced by the major consumer streamers. It's been pretty grim over the past couple of years,” Tyrell said. “Meanwhile, there are these fantastic stories out there that are resonating with audiences; they're just not finding either a production partner or a streaming home that's going to invest in them. So that led us to say, outside of just acquisitions, what can we do that's aligned with the needs of libraries where we can find the right mix of stories that appeal to library audiences in maybe a different way than what they're finding in commercial streaming?”
Kanopy came aboard “Banned Together” about two years ago when the film was just beginning production. And while the film seemed like the perfect fit, the decision to branch into originals was hatched hand in hand with becoming a co-producing partner on the documentary.
Kanopy had already done a number of co-acquisition partnerships, most notably last year's Oscar-nominated doc “Soundtrack to a Coup D'Etat” alongside Kino Lorber, joining the film as its official library and educational distributor. But “Banned Together” is the first time they're working as co-producers and releasing the film exclusively via libraries and academic institutions.
The film will be available through other digital distribution means via FilmHub, and other rights are still available should another streamer or network want to make it (or other future Kanopy originals) available as part of a second release window. Like any producer, even though Kanopy is releasing the film to free for libraries, it has a fiduciary responsibility to the filmmakers to get it to the widest audience possible. That means finding other means of release down the road, be it physical media or broadcast licensing.
Up next for Kanopy: an original, unscripted series called “America's Next Great Author.” Tyrell says it's “The Voice” but for authors, and it's created and hosted by bestseller Kwame Alexander. The series is in development now and will air in 2026.
Tyrell says the goal is to release two to four original titles a year. Kanopy won't be competing with A24 for Sundance titles anytime soon, but Tyrell hopes to pursue not just documentaries but fictional book adaptations that can tap into a crossover audience of film lovers and avid readers.
“If you think about a library, we don't want to do something throw away. We don't want second screen type content,” Tyrell said. “We're really looking for stories, whether it's documentary or narrative, that feel like they deepen your experience, introduce you to new worlds or perspectives, and things you may not have engaged with before, but also bring an element of charm and delight in the same way that discovering something new at a library uncovers for people.”
“Banned Together” starts streaming Friday, April 25 on Kanopy.
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Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi has announced his next film, four years after winning the Cannes Grand Prix in 2021. The Oscar-winning director will helm “Parallel Tales,” also known as “Histoires Parallèles,” with Isabelle Huppert and Vincent Cassel starring. Farhadi is set to begin production in Paris in fall 2025, with a release in France planned for spring 2026.
“Parallel Tales,” which will be a French-language film, brings Farhadi back to France after he previously filmed 2013's “The Past” there. The “Parallel Tales” cast marks the first collaboration between iconic French stars Huppert and Cassel, who will also be joined by Virginie Efira, Pierre Niney, Catherine Deneuve, and “Ghost Trail” breakout Adam Bessa. No other details on the plot are available at this time.
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The film will be an official French-Italian-Belgian coproduction between Alexandre Mallet-Guy's Memento Production in France, Andrea Occhipinti's Lucky Red in Italy, and André Logie's Panache Productions and Gaëtan David's La Compagnie Cinématographique in Belgium.
Anonymous Content in the U.S. will also co-produce the film. Farhadi and David Levine produce. Carole Baraton, Yohann Comte, Pierre Mazars, Yousra Filali, Stefano Massenzi, Chadwick Prichard, Krzysztof Piesiewicz, Maciej Musial, and Lila Yacoub are executive producing.
“Parallel Tales” will launch as a sales title during the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, with Charades handling international sales and UTA Independent Film Group for U.S. rights. Memento is already distributing the film in France.
This is the fifth consecutive collaboration between Farhadi and Memento Productions. The preceding features include 2014's “The Past,” 2016's “The Salesman,” 2018's “Everybody Knows,” and 2021's “A Hero.”
Farhadi's Golden Globe-nominated “A Hero” was part of a plagiarism lawsuit after one of Farhadi's former students, Azadeh Masihzadeh, alleged that Farhadi based the film off a documentary she had made in one of his Tehran-based filmmaking workshops in 2014. Both her documentary and Farhadi's narrative feature were inspired by a real-life incident in 2011 in which a man in Iran on furlough from a debtors' prison found a bag of gold coins and returned them to their owner rather than keeping them for himself.
“Incorrect information has been corrected,” Farhadi said in May 2022 while serving on the jury of the Cannes Film Festival. “What is in the film ‘A Hero' is different. You have to see why certain journalists spread misinformation. What I did in ‘A Hero' is not related to that workshop; it is based on a current event two years prior. ‘A Hero' is one interpretation of the event. The documentary is another approach, they are not the same at all.”
Farhadi was acquitted by an Iranian court in 2024.
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A decade past its namesake video game, Sony's “Until Dawn” adaptation isn't the “best” possible outcome. To get that ending, the studio would've had to move faster, turning its popular PlayStation title from 2015 into a movie — preferably, back when it had a prayer of casting Hayden Panettiere and Rami Malek as the mo-cap teens they played then.
The original “Until Dawn” follows a group of grieving friends terrorized by a mysterious presence at a snowy cabin. It's got multiple endings, famously determined by player choice, but the game also has a memorable narrative with the potential to win nostalgia points among gamers at the box office. Theoretically. What director David F. Sandberg does with his take on “Until Dawn” is something altogether stranger, with an approach more bizarre than almost any film 10 years ago would have tried.
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Written by Gary Dauberman and Blair Butler, this “standalone” spin-off is set in the same universe as the game but departs from the source material so completely that the title isn't earned at all. It's another blow against Sony's reputation as an opportunistic Hollywood conglomerate. But it's also an inventive experiment with pops of explosive humor that manage to seriously entertain… if not always by design.
We meet our deeply disinteresting heroes at the tail-end of an unusual road trip. Clover (Ella Rubin) lost her mom to cancer last year. Not long after that, her sister, Melanie (Maia Mitchell), disappeared. Now, our wistful protagonist and her friends are looking for clues along the edge of a supernatural abyss known as Glore Valley. Even caring for Clover, the clairvoyant Megan (Ji-young Yoo), the lovestruck Max (Michael Cimino), the headstrong Nina (Odessa A'zion), and the arrogant Abe (Belmont Cameli, a total scene-stealer) will regret stopping to see this particular roadside attraction, several times over.
The desolate area, we learn, is an old mining town. Ambling around a dirt parking lot, it's obvious the newcomers don't fit in. They're quickly warned of the area's many vague dangers by a creepy gas station attendant, played by genre and games icon Peter Stormare. Instantly recognizable to “Until Dawn” players as Dr. Alan J. Hill, the actor's arrival is the first sign that something is really wrong in this otherwise totally forgettable dramedy. You know, besides the cold-open chase scene where we saw Melanie — oh, look, it's Melanie! — scrambling out of a dark hole, running from a monster and a masked murderer, while helplessly screaming, “NO! I CAN'T DIE… AGAIN.” Again? Yeesh.
The movie version of “Until Dawn” has been marketed with its so-called time-loop “twist” in plain sight, and that may have been Sony's biggest mistake. The most common character posters show Clover in various states of destruction, seemingly having faced her own death ad infinitum. That fate sounds horrifying, no doubt (see Christopher Landon's “Happy Death Day” for details), and the concept works wonders for the movie overall. With a cursed hotel guest book doubling as their save checkpoint — and a golden skull timer counting down how long they must survive each night — the gang battles an onslaught of enemies to uproarious effect. And yet, front to end, Sandberg's story still betrays its source material by fundamentally misunderstanding why “Until Dawn” was fun.
From developer Supermassive Games, the choose-your-own-nightmare experience is often enjoyed as a multi-player affair. It lets you and your friends embody an entire cast of classic genre characters, each with their own obstacles, survival advantages, and personality quirks. Half the puzzle is anticipating how your favorite meat bag might get picked off thanks to your actions, and unlike your standard Pac-Man or Mario, “Until Dawn” characters don't come back. That made the stakes in the game feel considerably more dramatic. But the film takes the opposite approach, instead finding increasingly inventive ways to make its metaphysically-challenged victims miserable.
Caught between “Cabin in the Woods” and the mystifying “Serenity,” “Until Dawn” makes countless gestures at being an incisive horror comedy — some good, some bad — but works better approached as a full-blown spoof. If that was the intent here, a better name might have been something like “Video Game: The Horror Movie” (or maybe “Horror Movie: The Video Game: The Horror Movie?”) A self-aware original moniker that could not only better prepare audiences for the ridiculous grab-bag of carnage to come but even help sell the highest-scoring moments in this baffling attempt as camp.
From Sony Pictures, “Until Dawn” is in theaters Friday, April 25.
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Broken Social Scene have announced a new covers album that celebrates their 2003 breakout full-length, You Forgot It in People. Out June 6, via Arts & Crafts, Anthems: A Celebration of Broken Social Scene's You Forgot It in People invites over a dozen artists—including Toro y Moi, Mdou Moctar, the Weather Station, and more—to reimagine a song from the LP. First up is Maggie Rogers and Sylvan Esso's joint take on “Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl,” which you can listen to below.
“‘Anthems' is one of those songs that fundamentally changed my life,” Rogers said in a statement. “There's something about the lyrical repetition that functions as a sort of mantra within the song and it made me understand at a very early point in my creative life that music could be a form of meditation. Broken Social Scene has long been one of my all-time favorite bands and covering it with my dear friends Nick and Amelia from Sylvan Esso was an absolute joy beam dream.”
Sylvan Esso added, “It was a joy to cover this beautiful song with Maggie—we all grew up loving this record—to be asked to cover 'Anthems…' together was an honor and led to a truly lovely time.”
On the 20th anniversary of You Forgot It in People, Broken Social Scene once again performed the album in full on a North American tour. During one of those shows, the long list of people who've covered “Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl” expanded to include Meryl Streep and Tracey Ullman, who joined the Toronto indie-rock band onstage in New York to sing along.
Last year, the new documentary It's All Gonna Break, directed by Stephen Chung, premiered at Woodstock Film Festival. Drawing its title from the closing track on their self-titled album, the film documents the early years of Broken Social Scene and the creation of their first three albums.
Revisit Ryan Dombal's interview “Broken Social Scene Are (Somehow) Still Friends After All These Years.”
Anthems: A Celebration of Broken Social Scene's You Forgot It in People:
01 Ouri: “Capture the Flag”02 Hovvdy: “KC Accidental”03 Toro y Moi: “Stars and Sons”04 Miya Folick / Hand Habits: “Almost Crimes”05 The Weather Station: “Looks Just Like the Sun”06 Mdou Moctar: “Pacific Theme”07 Maggie Rogers / Sylvan Esso: “Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl”08 Middle Kids: “Cause = Time”09 Benny Sings: “Late Nineties Bedroom Rock for the Missionaries”10 Spirit of the Beehive: “Shampoo Suicide”11 Serpentwithfeet: “Lover's Spit”12 Sessa: “Ainda Sou Seu Moleque”13 Babygirl: “Pitter Patter Goes My Heart”
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Firmly established as an icon to British youth, the Londoner discusses his upcoming fourth album, masculinity in the wake of Netflix's Adolescence and his huge Glastonbury slot.
By
Thomas Smith
The shift in Loyle Carner's persona in recent times is exemplified by the opening songs on his two most recent LPs. On “Hate,” the scorching opener to 2022's hugo, the south Londoner starts by offering to “let me tell you about what I hate.” He rages against racial profiling, the limited opportunities for young Black men, the pitfalls of his own success and his relationship with his father, concluding: “I fear the color of my skin.”
Now, on his upcoming fourth album, hopefully ! (Island EMI), he strikes a different chord. The opening track — as yet unannounced — is built around a skittish drum beat and soft guitars, and sees Carner, a father of two, singing amid the hum of domesticity. His son plays the xylophone while Carner ponders about his sleeping youngsters, “What language do they speak inside your dreams?” It has the feel of light peeking through the curtains amid the dawn chorus. Let him tell you what he loves.
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When we meet Carner for his first Billboard U.K. cover shoot — and first interview about hopefully ! — he brings that lightness with him. The 30-year-old arrives in London on a break from filming a TV project in Scotland, excited about an upcoming holiday with his girlfriend and two children. hopefully ! (due June 20) is about healing, unconditional love and this new phase of his life; recent double A-side “all i need” and “in my mind” both showcase a sense of serenity and contentment with his lot.
“My relationship with [hopefully !] throughout was quite healthy,” he says in a quiet corner of Shoreditch Studios. “I didn't have grand expectations and didn't put loads of pressure on myself. I was able to get to the point where I'm lucky to be able to enjoy it.” In the past, he was “trying to prove something, worrying about what people think” of his music. Now he's just grateful for the joy these songs give him. He wears a beaming smile as he speaks.
For the past decade, attention has closely followed Carner (born Ben Coyle-Larner) on his journey to becoming a British youth icon. His debut live performance was supporting MF Doom at a show in Dublin, and by age 17, he was on tour with hip-hop don Nas. Debut LP Yesterday's Gone (2017) was a love letter to the rap that supported him following the death of his stepfather and earned him a nomination for the prestigious Mercury Prize; his sophomore record, Not Waving, But Drowning (2019), spawned a number of streaming hits, including the jazz-tinged “Ottolenghi.”
Throughout his career, he has used his platform to campaign for better awareness of ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder), something that he lives with, and the benefits of cooking to help manage those symptoms. His singular voice is a crucial one for Gen Z at a time when British male stars are lacking, and his live shows attract a wide cross-section of U.K. youth culture.
hugo was a huge leap forward. Across the record, he ruminated on his mixed-race heritage (Carner's mother is white; his biological father is Guyanese) and his place in British society, enlisting esteemed poet John Agard for a spoken word meditation on “Georgetown,” produced by Madlib. On “Blood on My Nikes,” Carner contemplates the knife crime epidemic among young men — both as victims and perpetrators — in the capital. It's a socially conscious record, but not overwhelmingly bleak, either; he knows when to pair light with shade in order to document the human experience.
It was his depiction of a difficult relationship with his biological father that resonated with listeners. For many years, the pair were estranged, with Carner describing him as “present at times and not present at other times.” hugo was written and recorded as Carner became a father himself, reflecting on the cycle of resentment and anguish, and how to rebuild a parental relationship. The album closed with “HGU,” seeing the pair share a mundane conversation about driving lessons, which Carner took with his father during the pandemic lockdown.
hugo became his highest-charting and best-selling album yet, landing at No. 3 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart and earning him another Mercury Prize nomination. The Guardian called it a “beautiful, blistering masterpiece.” He reimagined the album with an orchestra for a one-off show at London's Royal Albert Hall, headlined Wembley Arena and then hosted an even bigger performance at London's All Points East Festival in August 2024. The 35,000-capacity gig cemented his place at British music's top table, with a supporting cast of OutKast's André 3000 and, to come full circle, Nas. In June, he'll headline Glastonbury's The Other Stage, putting him on a par with Charli xcx and The Prodigy.
“I think that [hugo] was necessary for a lot of people,” he says of the album's success. “I still have people messaging me saying, ‘Yo, I just heard that album for the first time yesterday, and it made me want to go and connect with my mum, or grandad,' or whoever. That to me is the beauty of it, that it's still doing its job.”
hopefully ! is something of a departure for Carner. More in tune with his love for alternative and indie music, his hip-hop stylings make way for inspiration by Irish rockers Fontaines D.C., cult star Mk.gee, Big Thief, Idles and more. The band he assembled for hugo's live shows followed him into the studio to bring new textures to his compositions.
“It's a lot of pressure to step out singularly as a rapper. And I'm not even, like, a ‘rapper.' I just make music, and people like to put me in that box,” he says. “I loved the anonymity of being in a band. I wanted to be around when the magic is happening and to not just be sent a beat after all the fun parts had already happened. I wanted to move away from the words being all that I can contribute.”
Carner's pen is still mighty, but in a different way. Since his earliest releases, his words have been what has carried him forward and provided renewed inspiration. On 2019's “Still,” which he described as his “favourite-ever song” during its performance at the Royal Albert Hall, he speaks about his insecurities with a disarming honesty. The rhyming couplets on hugo's “Nobody Knows (Ladas Road)” and “Homerton” show remarkable dexterity. He knows when to build tension, but also when to let the words breathe. It's a skill he learned from his poet heroes like Agard and the late, great Benjamin Zephaniah, the man Carner was named after.
As his family has grown, Carner's techniques and influences have changed. He describes his son as his muse, and his presence is felt throughout the album. hopefully !'s artwork features a snap of Carner and his son, with colorful scrawls and additions only a child can make with such purpose. His voice babbles away throughout the record and his mischievous personality shines. Words could not contain the emotions Carner feels toward him, so the songs became looser, less literal but still emotionally resonant, and with a greater focus on capturing his son's “melodic” personality in his songwriting structures.
On one album highlight, Carner speaks of the transition of becoming a father and notes that he's “falling asleep in a chair I used to write in.” Later, he speaks directly to his son, saying, “You give me hope in humankind.” He has learned to embrace sonic imperfections and to capture a feeling, letting broad brushstrokes stand proudly. There's a childlike wonder to the rawness of these songs; from snatches of phrases to choruses that linger in your head long after music has ended.
“If you try and color around something or touch it up… you always f–k it up,” Carner says. “That's what I love about my son's paintings. It might even be just one line across the page, but the simplicity of how he works and moves on. That's how I feel now.”
Carner used the opportunity to embrace his role as a producer-curator. “As a rapper, the insecurity is that I don't have any musical talent or whatever, so I'm like, ‘F–k, I better fill every gap so people know that I was there, too.' But now I don't mind people hearing a song and I'm barely on it, because I'm so across from everything else [in the creative process].”
He sings much of what's on hopefully !; singing with his son on his bike, in the car and at home encouraged him to let his voice shine. “He never says, ‘Dad you're way out of tune,' even if I know that I am.” Here, Carner's voice has an intimate quality, like he's caught singing under his breath without a thought as to who might hear it.
He adds: “It's fearless, but I'm not embarrassed about it and I don't care because that's the truth of how I felt. It's that kind of bravery to me that is a reflection of what it was like to be a man. This living, breathing, feeling, flawed, emotional person that is willing to turn over heavy stones and be accountable for failing.”
Entering his 30s and becoming a parent for a second time brought Carner an emotional clarity about his relationship with his biological father. His stepfather, Nik, who raised him alongside his mother, Jean, died suddenly in 2014 when he was 19. The forthcoming LP encouraged him to embrace his softer side and the personality traits that Carner wished he had experienced with his biological father.
“Me and my dad are cool now, but he wasn't really around when I was young,” he says. It was time to take a different approach. “My inner child is getting an experience of fatherhood that I never had, which is crazy. I'm not only being a father to my son, I'm also being a father to myself. I'm a person that I never thought I could become.”
Making the record has given Carner a greater perspective about his role and place in the world and in the family dynamic. “I'm not the main character in the movie any more. It's my son and daughter's film, and I'm just some extra in that.”
Carner has long been an advocate for a more healthy relationship with masculinity, having worked with suicide prevention charity CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably). He gave a passionate speech at Reading & Leeds Festival in August 2023 decrying the “toxic masculine bulls–t” that plagued his childhood. His records and shows have helped unlock certain conversations, but the issue remains prescient. Netflix's streaming hit Adolescence, which examines the fallout from a misogynistic murder by a 13-year-old boy, has sparked new discussions around the manosphere and its pervasive influence.
Carner saw the intensity of the show — which uses one-shot takes — up close on-set; he's close friends with actor-creator Stephen Graham and director Philip Barantini. The topics at hand need urgent attention, Carner says. “We're at an essential need for conversation for young boys to let go of this fear, frustration and anxiety and be able to pass it to someone.
“I'm very glad that my son has my daughter to live with,” he adds. “That's a huge thing for me, and also for me to be in the presence of someone who is growing up to be a woman. For my son, it's even crazier, as it's so natural and safe and understood and demystified.”
The aforementioned Zephaniah features on hopefully !, a full-circle moment for Carner, given his profound influence on his life and as a male role model. Zephaniah, who died in 2023 at 65, was a towering figure in literature, music and politics, vocalizing the Black experience in post-war Britain. Carner honors his hero by sampling a clip of Zephaniah speaking on the Brixton riots, but also the potential and hope of the youth to change things.
“He articulates something that my brain has always wanted to say about masculinity,” Carner says. “Kids that look like me or are stereotyped are full of feeling and emotion and pain, shame, joy, guilt, hope and naivety. And nobody knows how to deal with it.”
Why that clip? “He's saying what I'm saying about having pent-up rage and emotion; I'd rather use my pen to express it that way in a palatable and safe way.”
Zephaniah's work, Carner says, taught him how to be a man who feels secure in himself. “His work shows the joy of not taking life so seriously and realizing that it's fine to be a bit lighter or softer, and know that it doesn't discredit my legacy or my story to be silly and to let go.”
Later this year, Carner will head on a mammoth U.K. and Ireland tour that takes in residencies at some of the nation's most historic venues, like London's Brixton Academy and Manchester, England's Victoria Warehouse. Before then, he'll headline The Other Stage at Glastonbury Festival on the Friday-night lineup (June 27) alongside Charli xcx and The Prodigy; it follows his 2023 top billing on the West Holts stage. Recent headliners on the coveted Other Stage include Megan Thee Stallion and Lana Del Rey — comfortably putting him in the big leagues alongside international superstars.
When the slot is mentioned, he's speechless for a moment. “It feels like an amazing, monumental part of my career,” Carner eventually says. His whole family will be coming to watch on Friday, and then he can celebrate the rest of the weekend and “go see Doechii” the following night on the West Holts stage.
It's just one page in this new chapter. In March, it was announced that Carner would star in an acting role for BBC's upcoming crime drama Mint, directed by Charlotte Regan (Scrapper) alongside Emma Laird (28 Years Later) and Sam Riley (Control). The new disciplines that have come with being on-set have inspired him to write and direct his own upcoming project. He wants to promote poetry workshops in schools to the next generation. There are many strings to Carner's bow as a complex, charismatic cultural figure.
He's most excited for hopefully ! to come out and for his children to hear the snapshot of this moment, about this family, and about the man their dad was when they were little. But what about the fans' reaction to the new sound and what they might take from it? “Honestly, I don't care. It's totally up to them. They could take nothing and not find it for 10 or 20 years or even hate it, but…”
Carner throws his arms up and laughs. “I haven't even thought about it, actually. I hope that people that do find it and that it can be a good friend to them.”
Shoot production by WMA Studios. Photography by Lily Brown. Styling by Lucas Smith. Grooming by Marina Belfon-Rose. Shot at Shoreditch Studios, London.
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The Hollywood Reporter went inside the showcase of 150 posters, hand-painted by director Yang Yu, aka Jiaozi, to get a firsthand sense of the passion that the $2 billion-plus movie hit has ignited in its fans.
By
Georg Szalai
Global Business Editor
Ne Zha, a mischievous underdog, has put a spell not only on China and its box office, but also on other parts of the globe. Enlight Pictures' Ne Zha 2 recently topped the $2 billion box office milestone to become the world's highest-grossing animated hit of all time.
It comes as no surprise then that the 15th edition of the Beijing International Film Festival, which runs through April 26, has scheduled events to celebrate the huge success, including a special exhibition of hand-painted posters.
Ne Zha is an imaginative twist on Chinese mythology and a famous 16th-century novel. In the 2019 original, the namesake hero is born an underdog and the reincarnation of a demon. And he must overcome his fate to save his village. In the sequel, Ne Zha faces new trials as he challenges the corrupt gods and demons who oversee the heavens.
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On Thursday, The Hollywood Reporter had a chance to walk through the exhibition of 150 posters for the sequel, hand-painted by director Yang Yu, aka Jiaozi (meaning “dumpling”), that also celebrates its key box office milestones so far.
The visit also provided an opportunity to soak up some of the excitement that his fans brought to the special Beijing experience.
At the entrance of the showcase at the Chinese capital's Langyuan Station event space, people use communications and social media platform WeChat to scan a QR code and then show their WeChat confirmation to an attendant to enter.
Fans are then greeted by the poster shown on the photo above before entering an area that displays the hand-drawn posters and also lets them discover cutouts and other visual displays of Ne Zha and other characters from the film franchise. Even though THR walked through the space at a less busy time, visitors, younger and older, were busy trying to avoid stepping into the frame of others excitedly snapping photos.
It surely helps add another layer to the experience, but you don't really need to be able to read and understand Chinese to find the posters in the exhibition, including the ones in the picture above, entertaining.
And you start feeling like you are getting more insight into the mind of Jiaozi, who became an overnight celebrity in China, and a role model for some, after the first Ne Zha movie's success.
After all, he is understood to have channeled his unconventional spirit into Ne Zha and its sequel. In the Ming Dynasty-era text Fengshen Yanyi (also known as The Investiture of the Gods), a well-known work of classical Chinese mythology, Ne Zha is one of the heroes. But he has often been portrayed as an attractive young figure, while the hit animation films depict him as a mischievous boy with cute and ugly features.
You probably don't even have to have seen the Ne Zha films to enjoy 15 minutes of fun in the free exhibition about the lovably defiant underdog character who has to overcome prejudice.
The end of the exhibition in Beijing gives us a bit of a taste for the passion that the animated character has ignited in its fans. First, there is a big wall that is full of scribbled text and drawings from fanboys and fangirls.
And then there is a small merchandising area, including such products as key chains and drinking bottles. On Thursday, families and single visitors were busily asking for the prices of various items and lining up for a spot to pay for a souvenir. Somewhere, Ne Zha is watching — probably, with a mischievous smile.
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The video for Lorde's first new single in four years also features footage shot at Tuesday's pop-up event in New York City.
By
Tyler Jenke
Just a day after surprising fans with an in-person preview of her new single, Lorde has officially dropped her latest track, “What Was That.”
Announced by the New Zealand singer just 12 hours before its arrival, “What Was That” serves as Lorde's first piece of new music since her 2021 album Solar Power. Co-produced by Lorde alongside Jim-E Stack and Dan Nigro, the single arrives as less of a continuation of her previous record and more of a revisiting of her chart-topping 2018 album Melodrama.
“What Was That” received its live debut on Tuesday (April 22) in New York City's Washington Square Park. The singer initially invited fans to “meet me in the park” for an unspecified event which was soon shut down by local law enforcement due to a lack of appropriate permits for a concert event.
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Though it's unclear if a concert from Lorde was the original plan, patient fans who remained after being told to move on by law enforcement were rewarded by an appearance from the singer. Thanking fans for their support, Lorde didn't perform the new single live, but danced along to the track as it was played by Dev Hynes of Blood Orange fame.
Trending on Billboard
Footage of this appearance has also appeared in the accompanying music video for “What Was That,” which captures Lorde on location in various areas around New York City.
Lorde has been teasing her new era for two weeks now, first previewing “What Was That” by way of her debut video on TikTok, and later sharing voice memos with fans to raise excitement about what was to come. “I just wanted to say hi, because everything is about to change,” she said in the message. “These are the last moments where it's just us, which is crazy. But so right. I'm so ready.”
Listen to “What Was That” below:
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The Hollywood Reporter has you covered as you plan your schedule for the coming months.
By
THR Staff
Read on for a month-by-month guide to upcoming awards-related activities in the worlds of film, television, music and theater. All times listed are PT.
Thursday, April 24
TCM Classic Film Festival beginsLocation: Los Angeles
Napa Valley StreamFest beginsLocation: Napa Valley, California
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Sunday, April 27
TCM Classic Film Festival endsLocation: Napa Valley, California
Napa Valley StreamFest endsLocation: Napa Valley, California
Tuesday, April 29
Gotham TV Awards nominations
Film Academy's Scientific and Technical Awards ceremonyLocation: Los Angeles
Thursday, May 1
Tony Awards nominations announcementLocation: New York
Monday, May 5
Met GalaLocation: New York
Monday, May 12
Webby AwardsLocation: New York
Tuesday, May 13
Cannes Film Festival opening ceremonyLocation: Cannes
Thursday, May 15
Seattle International Film Festival opensLocation: Seattle
Monday, May 19
SAG Awards nominating committees drawn by random sample
Tuesday, May 20
Sports Emmy Awards ceremonyLocation: New York
Saturday, May 24
Cannes Film Festival closing ceremonyLocation: Cannes
Sunday, May 25
Seattle International Film Festival closesLocation: Seattle
Monday, May 26
American Music Awards ceremonyLocation: Las VegasTV: CBS and Paramount+
Saturday, May 31
Emmy Awards eligibility period ends
June TBA
Nickelodeon Kids' Choice AwardsLocation: TBATV: Nickelodeon
Sunday, June 1
Peabody Awards ceremonyLocation: Los Angeles
Monday, June 2
Gotham Television Awards ceremonyLocation: New York
Wednesday, June 4
Tribeca Festival opensLocation: New York
Thursday, June 5
Newport Beach TV Fest opensLocation: Newport Beach, California
Friday, June 6
Tony Awards final voting ends
Sunday, June 8
Tony Awards ceremonyLocation: New York
Newport Beach TV Fest closesLocation: Newport Beach, California
Monday, June 9
BET AwardsLocation: Los AngelesTV: BET
Annecy International Animation Film Festival opensLocation: Annecy, France
Banff Gala HonoursLocation: Banff, Canada
Tuesday, June 10
SAG Awards nominating committees notification of selection mailed
Thursday, June 12
Primetime Emmy Awards nominations-round voting begins
Sunday, June 15
Annecy International Animation Film Festival closesLocation: Annecy, France
Tribeca Festival closesLocation: New York
Monday, June 16
Bentonville Film Festival opensLocation: Bentonville, Arkansas
Sunday, June 22
Bentonville Film Festival closesLocation: Bentonville, Arkansas
Monday, June 23
Primetime Emmy Awards nominations-round voting ends
Tuesday, June 24
Palm Springs ShortFest opensLocation: Palm Springs
Wednesday, June 25
News & Documentary Emmy Awards ceremony (News)Location: New York
Thursday, June 26
News & Documentary Emmy Awards ceremony (Documentary)Location: New York
Monday, June 30
Palm Springs ShortFest closesLocation: Palm Springs
Friday, July 4
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival opening ceremonyLocation: Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic
Saturday, July 12
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival closing ceremonyLocation: Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic
Tuesday, July 15
Primetime Emmy Awards nominations announcement
Wednesday, July 16
ESPY AwardsLocation: Los AngelesTV: ESPN
Thursday, Aug. 7
Critics Choice Super Awards winners announcement
Monday, Aug. 18
Primetime Emmy Awards final-round voting begins
Wednesday, Aug. 27
Primetime Emmy Awards final-round voting ends
Venice International Film Festival opening ceremonyLocation: Venice, Italy
Friday, Aug. 29
Telluride Film Festival beginsLocation: Telluride, Colorado
Saturday, Aug. 30
Grammy Awards eligibility period ends
Monday, Sept. 1
Telluride Film Festival endsLocation: Telluride, Col.
Thursday, Sept. 4
Toronto International Film Festival opening nightLocation: Toronto
Sunday, Sept. 14
Toronto International Film Festival closing nightLocation: Toronto
Saturday, Sept. 6
Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremony (Night One)Location: Los Angeles
Venice International Film Festival closing ceremonyLocation: Venice, Italy
Sunday, Sept. 7
Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremony (Night Two)Location: Los Angeles
Sunday, Sept. 14
Primetime Emmy Awards ceremonyLocation: Los Angeles
Friday, Sept. 26
New York Film Festival opening night ceremonyLocation: New York
Monday, Oct. 6
Student Academy Awards ceremonyLocation: New York
Monday, Oct. 13
New York Film Festival closing night ceremonyLocation: New York
Tuesday, Oct. 14
Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy Awards ceremonyLocation: Los Angeles
Thursday, Oct. 16
Newport Beach Film Festival opensLocation: Newport Beach, California
Middleburg Film Festival opensLocation: Middleburg, Virginia
Sunday, Oct. 19
Middleburg Film Festival closesLocation: Middleburg, Virginia
Thursday, Oct. 22
AFI Fest opening night ceremonyLocation: Los Angeles
Virginia Film Festival opensLocation: Charlottesville, Virginia
Friday, Oct. 23
Newport Beach Film Festival closesLocation: Newport Beach, California
Sunday, Oct. 25
SCAD Savannah Film Festival opensLocation: Savannah, Georgia
Sunday, Oct. 26
AFI Fest closing night ceremonyLocation: Los Angeles
Virginia Film Festival closesLocation: Charlottesville, Virginia
Saturday, Nov. 1
SCAD Savannah Film Festival closesLocation: Savannah, Georgia
Wednesday, Nov. 5
Miami Film Festival GEMS opensLocation: Miami
Coronado Island Film Festival opensLocation: Coronado Island, Cal.
Sunday, Nov. 9
Miami Film Festival GEMS closesLocation: Miami
Coronado Island Film Festival closesLocation: Coronado Island, Cal.
Sunday, Nov. 16
Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences' Governors AwardsLocation: Los Angeles
December TBA
The Hollywood Reporter's Women in Entertainment breakfast
Wednesday, Dec. 3
Sun Valley Film Festival opensLocation: Sun Valley, Idaho
Thursday, Dec. 4
Santa Barbara International Film Festival's Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film ceremonyLocation: Santa Barbara
Sunday, Dec. 7
Sun Valley Film Festival closesLocation: Sun Valley, Idaho
Monday, Dec. 8
Golden Globe Awards nominations announcement
Academy Awards preliminary (shortlist) voting begins
Friday, Dec. 12
Academy Awards preliminary (shortlist) voting ends
Monday, Dec. 15
SAG Awards nomination voting begins
Tuesday, Dec. 16
Academy Awards shortlists announcement
Thursday, Dec. 18
Producers Guild Awards nomination voting begins
January TBA
National Board of Review Awards ceremonyLocation: New York
Golden Globe Awards ceremonyLocation: Los Angeles
Friday, Jan. 2
Palm Springs International Film Festival awards galaLocation: Palm Springs
Saturday, Jan. 3
Palm Springs International Film Festival opening nightLocation: Palm Springs
Sunday, Jan. 4
SAG Awards nomination voting ends
Wednesday, Jan. 7
SAG Awards nominations announcement
Thursday, Jan. 8
Producers Guild Awards nomination voting ends
Friday, Jan. 9
Producers Guild Awards nominations announcement
Sunday, Jan. 11
Golden Globe Awards ceremonyLocation: Los AngelesTV: CBS and Paramount+
Monday, Jan. 12
Academy Awards nominations voting begins
Palm Springs International Film Festival endsLocation: Palm Springs
Wednesday, Jan. 14
SAG Awards final voting begins
Friday, Jan. 16
Academy Awards nominations voting ends
Producers Guild Awards final voting ends
Thursday, Jan. 22
Academy Awards nominations announcementLocation: Los AngelesTV: ABC
Sundance Film Festival opening nightLocation: Park City, Utah
February TBA
Grammy Awards ceremonyLocation: Los AngelesTV: CBS
Sunday, Feb. 1
Sundance Film Festival closing nightLocation: Park City, Utah
Tuesday, Feb. 3
Producers Guild Awards final voting ends
Wednesday, Feb. 4
Santa Barbara International Film Festival opening nightLocation: Santa Barbara
Monday, Feb. 10
Oscar Nominees EventLocation: Los Angeles
Saturday, Feb. 14
Santa Barbara International Film Festival closing nightLocation: Santa Barbara
Sunday, Feb. 22
BAFTA Awards ceremonyLocation: London
Thursday, Feb. 26
Academy Awards final voting begins
Friday, Feb. 27
SAG Awards final voting ends
Saturday, Feb. 28
Producers Guild Awards ceremonyLocation: Los Angeles
Sunday, March 1
SAG Awards ceremonyLocation: Los AngelesTV: Netflix
Thursday, March 5
Academy Awards final voting ends
Saturday, March 7
Cinema Audio Society AwardsLocation: Los Angeles
Sunday, March 15
Academy Awards ceremonyLocation: Los AngelesTV: ABC
Thursday, April 9
Boulder International Film Festival opening night ceremony
Sunday, April 12
Boulder International Film Festival closing night ceremony
Tuesday, April 28
Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences' Scientific and Technical Awards ceremonyLocation: TBA
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The 'John Wick' and 'Hunger Games' studio got overwhelmingly support from investors for a full separation to create two standalone publicly-traded companies.
By
Etan Vlessing
Canada Bureau Chief
Lionsgate investors have given their backing to the proposed full separation of Lionsgate and Starz into standalone publicly-traded companies.
During a special shareholders meeting on Wednesday, shareholders voted overwhelmingly for the planned splitting of the studio business and Starz, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. Other proxy resolutions, including voting in a new slate of board of director nominees and another on executive compensation, also received strong approvals by a majority vote.
The vote tallies from the shareholders meeting were released by Lionsgate as part of an SEC filing on Thursday. Investors voted on a proposed formal separation of the studios business, to be called Lionsgate Studios Corp., and its media networks business, mainly Starz, which is to be renamed Starz Entertainment Corp.
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As part of the separation proposal, 72.5 million class A shares were voted in favor of the transaction, while 128,587 voted against. And 125.9 million class B shares voted to support the transaction, while 922,864 shares voted against. The proposal required two-thirds of the votes cast to support the transaction to secure overall approval.
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After the separation, Lionsgate will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol LION, while Starz will trade on the NASDAQ exchange under the ticker symbol STRZ. Earlier, Lionsgate spun off its film and TV studios business in a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) to create a separately traded public company, with an eye to a formal separation from Starz down the road.
That allowed Lionsgate Studios to launch as a standalone company with a listing on NASDAQ, with its biggest assets being a vast library of movies and television franchises. After the closing of the planned formal separation to create the two separately traded public companies, the goal appears to be creating two companies so investors can value the Starz and studio assets separately amid a contracting media and entertainment landscape and financial markets uncertainty.
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"It's not my job to ruin their night," the comedian says of checking in with Blanco & his fiancée Selena Gomez about a joke
By
Paul Grein
Despite her success at celebrity roasts and comedy specials, comedian Nikki Glaser revealed at the TIME100 Summit on Wednesday (April 23) that there was one joke she told during the 2025 Golden Globes on Jan. 5 that she worried went too far.
“I didn't say anything that was like, calling anyone ugly or fat,” she told TIME deputy editor Kelly Conniff in New York City. “I think I get a reputation of being mean because of the roasts. I'm hired to be mean for those. [At] the Golden Globes, it's not my job to ruin their night.”
However, she conceded she was initially concerned enough about a quip aimed at Selena Gomez's fiancé, producer Benny Blanco, that she ended up texting Blanco to get his permission to go ahead with the line.
Trending on Billboard
“I said that ‘Selena Gomez is here because of Emilia Pérez and Benny Blanco is here because of the genie who granted him that wish.' And looking back, I'm like, that could [seem] mean, because everyone's like, ‘He's not attractive enough for her,'” she said. “For me, I've never looked at them and actually thought that. I feel like she won too. I think he's really cool. So, because that joke didn't actually come from a mean place, I felt like it was OK for me to say.”
Still, she was concerned enough about it that she texted him. “I got his number. I said ‘You don't know me, but I'm hosting this thing, and I hear you're going to be there. Can I say that you're there because a genie granted you a wish?' He was like, ‘That's hilarious; let me run it by Selena.' We were all just waiting in the writers' room. He said ‘Selena thinks it's great.' So they gave me permission. It was actually Jimmy Kimmel who told me if you're worried about a joke and how it's going to go over, just ask them.”
The fact that Glaser reached out to Blanco to get his permission to tell a borderline-mean joke shows her character. And the fact that Blanco gave her the go-ahead to tell a joke at his expense shows his.
Gomez was nominated for three awards at this year's Golden Globes: best supporting actress, motion picture for Emilia Pérez as well as two awards (acting and executive producing) for Only Murders in the Building. She didn't go home with a Globe, but she went home with something better – a partner who is secure in himself and has a good sense of humor.
Glaser was the first woman to host the Globes solo and has already been hired to lead the awards show again in 2026.
At the TIME event, she said that she sensed that the audience this year was unsure of how hard she was going to go in her humor. “When I first walked out, I knew the energy was like ‘We don't know what she's going to do. We've seen her do the Tom Brady roast most recently' – that's kind of where I popped for most people. In retrospect, I looked back at how terrified they all looked because they were like, ‘She's going to roast us! She's going to be just as mean as she was to Tom Brady.' So, I heard from a lot of them that they were really, really scared. I wish I would have known that. I would have done something to defuse that a little bit.
“Next time is going to be a lot more fun because I think they know the tone that I have now. I go [for jokes], but I'm not going to embarrass you. And if you laugh, I'm only going to make you look good because you're going to look so relatable laughing. It's one of the best ways for an untouchable kind of celebrity on a pedestal to look normal.”
Here's a link to Glaser's 17-minute conversation at the TIME100 Summit.
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The festival's brand and IP are on the market after the follow-up event was indefinitely "postponed."
By
Dave Brooks
Billy McFarland says he's ready to sell Fyre Festival 2 to the highest bidder.
Earlier today, the convicted fraudster took to social media to post a mea culpa about his failures as a festival promoter while once more rebranding Fyre Festival as “one of the most powerful attention engines in the world,” in his words.
The double-speak is part of McFarland's attempt to liquidate Fyre Festival's only assets — its trademarks and IP — to the highest bidder now that Fyre Fest 2 has been indefinitely postponed. Early this month, government officials with the city of Playa del Carmen, Mexico, poured cold water on the long-shot festival — designed in part to rehabilitate McFarland's image following the disastrous, aborted 2017 edition of the event in the Bahamas that resulted in global mockery, competing documentary films and a federal prison sentence for McFarland — by writing on social media that “there is no record or planning of any such event in the municipality.”
McFarland has said the idea for a follow-up festival came to him while serving time in solitary confinement, and he began pitching Fyre Festival 2 after his release from prison in 2022, hyping his plans on social media with splashy videos and spurious claims. As McFarland would finally admit on Wednesday (April 23), he has failed to regain the trust of fans, major talent agencies and the municipal government of Playa Del Carmen.
In his letter to fans, McFarland explained, “I can't risk a repeat of what happened in Playa Del Carmen, where support quickly turned into public distancing once media attention intensified,” noting, “For FYRE Festival 2 to succeed, it's clear that I need to step back and allow a new team to move forward independently, bringing the vision to life on this incredible island.”
Trending on Billboard
On Fyre's website, where McFarland once hawked $1.1 million ticket packages for Fyre Fest 2, he now features a short pitch deck for the sale of Fyre's IP, sharing details about Fyre's web traffic and Google analytics while noting he's ready to hand off the tarnished brand.
Giving control “to a new group is the most responsible way to follow through on what we set out to do: build a global entertainment brand, host a safe and legendary event, and continue to pay restitution to those who are owed from the first festival,” McFarland wrote, noting that he owes his victims from the first Fyre Festival more than $26 million.
On Monday (April 21), news broke of Fyre's first licensing deal: an agreement for Fyre Music Streaming Ventures, LLC, a fan-curated on-demand music video streaming service and ad-supported TV channel. As its founder, Shawn Rech, told Billboard: “I just want people to remember the [Fyre] name.”
To view the sales material for Fyre, visit Fyre.mx.
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Director Ethan Coen's feature from Focus is set to premiere at Cannes.
By
Ryan Gajewski
Senior Entertainment Reporter
Honey Don't! is getting ready to slide into theaters this summer.
Focus Features announced Wednesday that the dark comedy feature is set for wide theatrical release Aug. 22. Margaret Qualley, Aubrey Plaza, Charlie Day, Billy Eichner and Chris Evans round out the cast for director Ethan Coen‘s movie.
Honey Don't!, which is set to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, centers on Honey O'Donahue (Qualley), a small-town private investigator looking into deaths related to a mysterious church.
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Coen helmed the film from a script he co-wrote with wife Tricia Cooke. The pair also co-wrote Coen's 2024 crime comedy Drive-Away Dolls that starred Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan and Pedro Pascal.
Producers for Honey Don't! include Coen, Cooke, Robert Graf, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner.
Also set for release on Aug. 22 is Lionsgate's Americana, starring Sydney Sweeney and Paul Walter Hauser, along with Vertical's Ron Howard-directed Eden.
Qualley's recent credits include last year's The Substance, which earned her a Golden Globe Award nomination for best supporting actress. She also has a role in the Netflix summer comedy Happy Gilmore 2.
Plaza appeared in the 2024 features My Old Ass and Megalopolis, and she has a voice role in this fall's animated movie Animal Friends. Evans starred opposite Dwayne Johnson in last year's Amazon holiday film Red One and will appear in A24's summer release Materialists alongside Pascal and Dakota Johnson.
Coen is known for his work with filmmaker brother Joel Coen, with the pair winning Oscars for their work on Fargo and No Country for Old Men.
Qualley is represented by CAA and Sloane Offer. Plaza is repped by CAA, MGMT Entertainment and Schreck Rose. Evans is repped by CAA and Sloane Offer. Coen and Cooke are repped by UTA.
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Meta laid off employees on Thursday in its Reality Labs division, which encompasses various virtual and augmented reality projects. The cuts impact employees within Oculus Studios, which develops apps and games for Meta's Quest headsets.
Meta did not specify how many people were impacted by the layoffs but said that the cuts impacted people working on Quest products, including Supernatural, a VR exercise app. Meta acquired Within, the company that makes Supernatural, in 2023.
“Some teams within Oculus Studios are undergoing shifts in structure and roles that have impacted team size,” Meta told TechCrunch in a statement. “These changes are meant to help Studios work more efficiently on future mixed reality experiences for our growing audience, while still delivering great content for people today.”
Reality Labs has been a massive cost for Meta, losing almost $5 billion in the last quarter of 2024 while generating about $1 billion in sales. Meta has reported billions of dollars in operating losses on Reality Labs each year since rebranding from Facebook and emphasizing its commitment to the “metaverse.”
These layoffs come in advance of Meta's first-quarter earnings report next week, when the company may face scrutiny for the mounting costs of Reality Labs.
Meta told TechCrunch that laid off employees will have the opportunity to apply for other jobs at the company.
For Supernatural users, the layoffs mean that the app will produce fewer new workouts per week. However, each individual workout will be available at a wider variety of skill levels, instead of just one difficulty level per workout. The app also said in a Facebook post that the coaches who run the app's workouts will not be impacted by the layoffs.
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Senior Writer
Amanda Silberling is a senior writer at TechCrunch covering the intersection of technology and culture. She has also written for publications like Polygon, MTV, the Kenyon Review, NPR, and Business Insider. She is the co-host of Wow If True, a podcast about internet culture, with science fiction author Isabel J. Kim. Prior to joining TechCrunch, she worked as a grassroots organizer, museum educator, and film festival coordinator. She holds a B.A. in English from the University of Pennsylvania and served as a Princeton in Asia Fellow in Laos.
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Advocates for 9/11 health programs blasted U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson's call for yet another congressional probe into the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Instead of reviving long-debunked conspiracy theories, advocates said, the Wisconsin Republican should join the fight to secure healthcare for the first responders and residents poisoned by the toxic swirl that enveloped lower Manhattan.
"If he wants to have hearings on 9/11, (Johnson) could have them examine the cuts to World Trade Center Health Program by the Trump administration that are happening today and the impact these cuts will have on 9/11 responders and survivors suffering from the attacks, rather than fringe topics from decades ago," said Benjamin Chevat, executive director Citizens for Extension of the James Zadroga Act, Inc.
The World Trade Center Health Program provides medical monitoring and treatment for some 140,000 9/11 responders and survivors of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. WTCHP participants reside in all 50 states.
"My guess is there's an awful lot being covered up, in terms of what the American government knows about 9/11," Johnson said in an April 21 interview with conservative influencer Benny Johnson. "With this administration, I think President Trump should have some interest, being a New Yorker himself."
Another GOP New Yorker, though, questioned Johnson's call.
"Respectfully, Senator Johnson should stop peddling conspiracy theories about the worst terrorist attack in our nation's history and one that forever altered the lives of so many of my fellow New Yorkers," said U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler, a Republican whose 17th District includes Rockland and Putnam counties and parts of Westchester and Dutchess, areas that lost many residents in the attacks.
"Crap like this dishonors and disrespects the innocent lives lost, our brave first responders, and all families and survivors who still carry the pain of 9/11 each and every day," U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler posted on X.
John Feal, a longtime advocate for 9/11 first responders, on CNN called the idea for new hearings pathetic: "Ron Johnson's a silly man."
The World Trade Center Health Program and the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund have faced funding shortfalls practically since they launched in 2011. First responders have repeatedly made trips to D.C. to walk the halls of Congress to lobby for funding.
A plan to fix cyclical funding shortfalls was included last year's end-of-year budget deal. But in December 2024, then-President-elect Donald Trump pushed GOP leaders in Congress to scrap spending items, including 9/11 health program commitments.
Congressional members have introduced the 9/11 Responder and Survivor Health Funding Correction Act of 2025 to revive the funding fix; 9/11 responders, including Feal, plan to go back to D.C. Tuesday, April 28, to advocate for its passage. Democrats and Republicans in both chambers across New York are co-sponsors; Johnson is not.
Meanwhile, WTCHP jobs have twice been on the chopping block this year.
In February, Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, slashed jobs at WTCHP; the Trump administration restored them amid backlash.
In April, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced sweeping cuts to CDC and NIOSH, which includes the WTCHP.
While key staff were again restored amid backlash, advocates have said they are concerned cuts throughout the HHS will impact 9/11 healthcare.
Johnson in the April 21 interview raised a long debunked theory that Building 7 within the World Trade Center complex had been taken down by planted explosives. The building wasn't hit by a plane, like the Twin Towers, and collapsed hours after the initial attacks.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology determined that debris from the destruction of the Twin Towers started fires on floors of Building 7. The sprinkler system failed, and heat from the flames meant a structural column failed, ultimately causing the building to fall.
Johnson called the institute, which is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, corrupt.
Congress also held hearings in 2021 — two decades after Sept. 11 — where intelligence and security officials gave insight into the attacks and intelligence failures before 9/11.
Johnson has the power to push for such an investigation; he chairs the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, part of the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs in the Senate.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, part of the USA TODAY Network, reached out to Johnson's office for additional details. A spokeswoman said a potential hearing would depend on what information or documentation Johnson's office obtains.
Courtney Barnett, Yo La Tengo, Built to Spill, Friko, and more are also set to play the Carnation, Washington festival
April 24, 2025
April 24, 2025
April 24, 2025
Modest Mouse have announced the Psychic Salamander Festival, a new two-day festival going down on September 13th-14th in Carnation, Washington.
The inaugural edition will feature Modest Mouse headlining both days, with their co-headlining tour mates The Flaming Lips performing both days as well (The Flaming Lips will be playing a special play-through of The Soft Bulletin on Sunday, September 14th). The Psychic Salamander Festival will also feature Built to Spill, Sleater-Kinney, Courtney Barnett, Yo La Tengo, Friko, The Vaudevillian, Mattress, and Sun Atoms across two days.
Get Modest Mouse Tickets Here
Tickets for the Psychic Salamander Festival will first be available via an artist pre-sale on Tuesday, April 29th at 10:00 a.m. PST for members of Modest Mouse's “Ice Cream Party” fan club; fans can sign up over on the band's official website. Tickets will go on-sale for the general public on Friday, May 2nd at 10:00 a.m. PST via Ticketmaster.
The festival comes at the conclusion of Modest Mouse and The Flaming Lips' 2025 co-headlining tour, which begins in August. It takes place on the family-owned Remlinger Farms, a working farm with a concert space and a family-friendly amusement park attached. It's also not the only new concert venture that Modest Mouse are launching: earlier this month, they announced the 2026 “Ice Cream Floats” cruise, which goes down in February and will feature performances from Modest Mouse, Portugal. The Man, Kurt Vile, and more.
Modest Mouse also have a handful of other 2025 tour dates on the docket before they hit the road with The Flaming Lips, including stops at Bonnaroo and Montana's Zootown Musc Festival; see their full list of tour dates below, and get tickets here.
Modest Mouse 2025 Tour Dates:
06/09 – Lake Buena Vista, FL @ House of Blues Orlando
06/10 – St. Petersburg, FL @ Jannus Live
06/11 – St. Augustine, FL @ St. Augustine Amphitheatre
06/13 – Asheville, NC @ Asheville Yards Amphitheater
06/14 – Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo 2025
06/15 – Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore Charlotte
06/17 – New Orleans, LA @ Orpheum Theater
06/18 – Birmingham, AL @ Avondale Brewing Company
06/19 – Louisville, KY @ Old Forester's Paristown Hall
06/20 – Cleveland, OH @ TempleLive Cleveland Masonic
06/21 – Columbus, OH @ KEMBA Live!
06/23 – West Des Moines, IA @ Val Air Ballroom
06/24 – Kansas City, MO @ Grinders KC
06/25 – Oklahoma City, OK @ The Criterion
06/27 – Dillon, CO @ Dillon Amphitheater
06/28 – Ogden, UT @ Ogden Amphitheater
06/29 – Boise, ID @ Outlaw Field at the Idaho Botanical Garden
07/02 – Calgary, AB @ Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
07/03 – Edmonton, AB @ Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
07/04-07/05 – Missoula, MT @ Zootown Music Festival 2025
08/01 — Atlanta, GA @ Coca-Cola Roxy #*
08/02 — Raleigh, NC @ Red Hat Amphitheater #*
08/03 — Richmond, VA @ Brown's Island #
08/05 — Philadelphia, PA @ Mann Center for the Performing Arts #*
08/07 — Portland, ME @ Thompson's Point #*
08/08 — New Haven, CT @ Westville Music Bowl #*
08/09 — Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE #*
08/11 — Indianapolis, IN @ Everwise Amphitheater #*
08/12 — Cincinnati, OH @ The Andrew J Brady Music Center #*
08/14 — Madison, WI @ Breese Stevens Field #*
08/15 — Minneapolis, MN @ The Armory #
08/16 — Chicago, IL @ The Salt Shed (Fairgrounds) #
08/19 — Irving, TX @ The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory #*
08/20 — Houston, TX @ 713 Music Hall #*
09/03 — San Diego, CA @ Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre #^
09/04 — Los Angeles, CA @ Greek Theatre #^
09/05 — Santa Barbara, CA @ Santa Barbara Bowl #^
09/07 — Berkeley, CA @ The Greek Theatre #^
09/10 — Troutdale, OR @ McMenamins Edgefield #^ (Modest Mouse closing)
09/11 — Troutdale, OR @ McMenamins Edgefield #^ (Modest Mouse closing)
09/13 — Carnation, WA @ Psychic Salamander Festival
09/14 — Carnation, WA @ Psychic Salamander Festival
02/05-02/09 — Miami, FL @ Ice Cream Floats Cruise
# = w/ The Flaming Lips
* = w/ Friko
^ = w/ Dehd
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The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, the world's largest solar telescope, can see the sun in unprecedented detail. Here is the first image from its newly-activated camera.
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Weather on Earth can be wild, but it's not the only kind of weather we have to deal with. Space weather — all the winds and particles streaming off the sun — can have major impacts on Earth and human infrastructure. In the worst cases, this can mean dangerous disruption to our power grids and communications satellites.
To help us predict these space storms, astronomers have a newly improved space weatherman — and it's the best one to date. The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST), perched atop the Hawaiian mountain of Haleakalā, is the world's largest telescope used for studying the sun and predicting these storms.
The team behind this technological marvel recently hit a major milestone, finally turning on one of DKIST's most powerful cameras — known as the Visible Tunable Filter, or VTF — after more than a decade working on its creation.
This camera is the final piece of the puzzle for DKIST, and the VTF's addition "will complete its initial arsenal of scientific instruments," Carrie Black, director of the National Solar Observatory, said in a statement.
"The significance of the technological achievement is such that one could easily argue the VTF is the Inouye Solar Telescope's heart, and it is finally beating at its forever place," Matthias Schubert, project scientist for the VTF, said in the statement.
VTF's first image shows a major clump of sunspots, dark blobs on the sun's surface caused by its intense magnetic field, each blob measuring wider than the continental United States. This impressive camera can see details down to a resolution of about 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) per pixel on the solar surface — an absolutely wild resolution given that the sun is tens of millions of miles away from us.
Related: A mysterious, 100-year solar cycle may have just restarted — and it could mean decades of dangerous space weather
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VTF provides more than just a simple snapshot. It captures images at multiple wavelengths of light to measure a spectrum, while also gathering information on how the light's electric field is oriented (known as polarization). These extra perspectives on the sun help reveal details of the solar surface, magnetic field and plasma that are otherwise invisible, informing our predictions for space weather and solar flares.
During just one observation of the sun, this instrument can collect more than 10 million spectra — graphs of the light's intensity over different wavelengths — which help scientists determine how hot the solar atmosphere is, how strong the sun's magnetic field is and more.
—Has the sun already passed solar maximum?
—NASA's daredevil solar spacecraft survives 2nd close flyby of our sun
—Watch eerie 'UFOs' and a solar 'cyclone' take shape in stunning new ESA video of the sun
Today's news is only the beginning for the VTF and DKIST. The incredibly complex instrument still requires more testing and set-up, which is expected to be completed by next year.
But the newly released first images show great promise for how much we can learn about the sun, our nearest star. These images are "something no other instrument in the telescope can achieve in the same way," said National Solar Observatory optical engineer Stacey Sueoka. "I'm excited to see what's possible as we complete the system."
Briley Lewis (she/her) is a freelance science writer and Ph.D. Candidate/NSF Fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles studying Astronomy & Astrophysics. Follow her on Twitter @briles_34 or visit her website www.briley-lewis.com.
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Surely not even the current Republican Senate majority is willing to swill down this vinegary old wine of undiluted Krazee.
Go home, Ron. You're an idiot.
From NBC News:
My guess is that even this Republican Senate majority isn't willing to swill down this vinegary old wine of undiluted Krazee. But, honest to god, Wisconsin, can you please stop inflicting ol' Shreds of Freedom on the rest of our battered republic? You traded down from Russ Feingold, and then rejected him again, and you couldn't quite get Mandela Barnes, a seriously charismatic candidate, across the finish line in 2022. So, instead, we get Ron Johnson, exhuming the bones of ancient paranoia, and proposing to run his own Cadaver Synod on a long-closed investigation of an unforgettable national trauma. Do your actual job in the present, guy. You're bad enough at that.
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The actress and mom is loving her new role on the quirky SyFy show 'SurrealEstate', which she says is 'Scandal meets Ghostbusters'
Olivia Wong/FilmMagic
It's been exactly five years since Sarah Levy said farewell to the hit show Schitt's Creek, where she played the waitress, Twyla. Since then, she's gotten married, become a mom, and now stars on SyFy's SurrealEstate, which she says is a total blast.
"I kind of look at it as Scandal meets Ghostbusters," Levy, 38, says of the series, now in its third season. (The first two seasons stream on Hulu.)
The show follows a group of realtors who sell haunted houses — but first, they need to figure out what happened to the ghosts that make the homes haunted, and help the spirits move on.
"The characters are so rich and fleshed out, and there is a common theme through what they're going through in their lives, but then every episode is different and a new case," she continues. "And it turns out it's a real thing! I read a story in the New York Times about a woman who actually does this exact thing — she became popular for selling haunted houses. I was like 'Yes! Our little show is validated!"
Syfy
Levy says she's a firm believer in the paranormal herself.
"Definitely," she says. "You can't help but think there's so much to the world than just us. I haven't personally had a ghost experience, but we shot the first two seasons in Saint John in Newfoundland, Canada, which is notoriously haunted. All the locals had stories and experiences. They say it's because there was a huge fire there in the late 1800s that killed a lot of people, so there are a lot of stuck souls."
SurrealEstate also stars Tim Rosen as Luke Roman, who runs the Roman Agency.
"Luke has an ability to speak to spirits, and when I come on board, I learn from him. He's created an entire world of how to communicate with these entities: we have the researcher, we have the physicist who assembles devices to then communicate with these metaphysically engaged properties. Then we help them move on."
While Levy says she's happy to be on a totally new series, she does miss Schitt's Creek — and completely understands why so many fans loved it so much.
"There's just such a comfort in it," she says, adding that she and her husband like to rewatch Arrested Development themselves for the same reasons.
"It's just like a world that creates this comfort, where nothing really bad happens. It's a way to tune out and laugh. We're always bombarded with the news and info, and it's hard to find peace. So if you have a hobby or a show that can take you away for a little bit, it's just the best."
SurrealEstate airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET on SyFy.
Researchers may have discovered Mississippi's largest ever mosasaur after pulling a Cretaceous-aged fossil out of a riverbed south of Starkville.
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A giant "sea dragon" backbone plucked from a riverbank in Mississippi could belong to the largest mosasaur ever found in the state, scientists say.
Researchers only found a single vertebra from the creature and aren't sure exactly how large the mosasaur was in total, but it is estimated to have been at least 30 feet (9 meters) long, Hattiesburg American reported.
Mosasaurs, or "sea dragons," ruled the oceans when dinosaurs dominated the land towards the end of the Cretaceous period (145 million to 66 million years ago). The newly discovered fossil belonged to Mosasaurus hoffmanni, which was one of the largest — if not the largest — mosasaur species.
James Starnes, a geologist at the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, spotted the fossil protruding from a stream bed just south of Starkville on April 15, he told Live Science in an email. His fellow geologist, Jonathan Leard, then carefully pulled it out of the sediment.
"I immediately knew what it was, but was completely awe struck by its size," Starnes said. "The feeling you get when you find a fossil, even as a professional, never gets old. But when you find something you have never seen before, the elation can be overwhelming."
Related: 'Red flags' raised over ancient sea monster pulled from Moroccan mine
Mosasaurs were a diverse group of marine reptiles. Researchers are still figuring out the sizes of the largest mosasaur species, but they likely reached a maximum length of around 50 feet (15 m). One of the largest specimens on record is a skull that belonged to M. hoffmanni and is estimated to be around 56 feet (17 meters) long, according to a 2014 study published in the journal Proceedings of the Zoological Institute RAS.
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The newly discovered vertebra fossil is more than 7 inches (18 centimeters) wide at its widest point. Starnes and his colleagues compared the fossil to the largest mosasaur remains held in the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, which include jaws, portions of a skull and a tooth. Starnes noted that the jaws and skull appeared to be from a smaller individual than the individual represented by the new vertebra, but the tooth looked like it belonged to an individual that was more comparable in size to the new specimen. In other words, the new fossil seemed to belong to a mosasaur that was bigger or as big as the largest in the state museum. Starnes noted it could be the largest in the state's history.
"It may represent the largest," Starnes said. "The lumbar vertebra we found is a good indicator to the relative size of the animal. This is the biggest one that I have ever encountered."
—80 million-year-old sea monster jaws filled with giant globular teeth for crushing prey discovered in Texas
—Scientists uncover 'inside-out, legless, headless wonder' that lived long before the dinosaurs
—'Twins! She has another baby': Sea monster from Chile had 2 buns in the oven, rare fossil reveals
M. hoffmanni was an apex predator, hunting down prey with large jaws and cone-shaped teeth. Large mosasaurs likely ate whatever they wanted for the most part, including fish, sharks, sea birds and even other mosasaurs — researchers have found the remains of mosasaurs in the fossilized stomachs of other mosasaurs. The giant mosasaur that left behind this particulare vertebra likely had no shortage of food in what is now Mississippi, which had a very different environment towards the end of the Cretaceous.
"Mississippi was completely covered at the time by warm shallow tropical sea that was teaming with life, including a wide diversity of sharks, fish, marine lizards, and ammonites," Starnes said. "Pterosaurs and even some birds would have been flying overhead while a variety of both plant and meat-eating dinosaurs of different sizes and kinds would have been walking the shore lines and through the wooded forests along the coastal estuaries."
As well as being one of the largest, M. hoffmanni was also one of the last mosasaurs. The group went extinct alongside non-avian dinosaurs after the Chicxulub asteroid slammed into Earth 66 million years ago. The rich marine ecosystems that mosasaurs depended on collapsed following the strike, bringing the reign of this dominant ocean predator to a permanent end.
Patrick Pester is the trending news writer at Live Science. His work has appeared on other science websites, such as BBC Science Focus and Scientific American. Patrick retrained as a journalist after spending his early career working in zoos and wildlife conservation. He was awarded the Master's Excellence Scholarship to study at Cardiff University where he completed a master's degree in international journalism. He also has a second master's degree in biodiversity, evolution and conservation in action from Middlesex University London. When he isn't writing news, Patrick investigates the sale of human remains.
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FORT WORTH — Lauren Yee's ability to tame her wild imagination into coherent narratives anyone can relate to has made her not only popular with theater companies but also an in-demand writer of series television.
Circle Theatre's regional premiere of her widely produced play The Hatmaker's Wife is the latest example of how Yee strikes a credible balance between crowd-pleasing entertainment and a deeper look at the human condition.
A comedy with serious undertones about the nature of relationships, Hatmaker's is structured as a story-within-a-story with gently applied supernatural elements as the glue. The wall talks. Pages of text fall from the ceiling. Eventually, a goofy golem shows up.
A young couple (Sky Williams and Jon Garrard) is moving into their first house. They joke about its modesty. Boxes sit haphazardly in the living room. A couch stands on its side. Before they're introduced, an older man (Randy Pearlman) clutches a hat, raising it to his head with a sigh. Enter his long-suffering wife (Krista Scott) and best friend and neighbor (Patrick Bynane).
The audience's view is partially blocked by window frames in front of the stage suggesting we're privy to intimacies that don't often see the light of day. But like Hetchman, the puttering, dissatisfied hatmaker of the title, we've all struggled to locate the TV remote. To comic effect, he manages to pick it up with a metal grabber.
“Have you seen my hat?” he inquires in a thick Eastern European accent.
“You think I look at you every day,” his wife retorts in the specifically similar tones of 20th-century Jewish immigrants.
Williams, whose character is a copy editor of safety manuals, follows the action as pages of the Hetchmans' story begin dropping into her hands. She can see the couple. Her boyfriend Gabe, a schoolteacher, cannot. Whooshing sounds signal the arrival of this strangely comic dimension.
It's the bittersweet tale of a lost fedora and the owner's wife who goes on the hunt for her own, mirroring the less overt tension between the young couple now occupying the Hetchman home.
As she begins her off-stage journey, Mrs. Hetchman rolls out of the fireplace with the missing hat, a cloud of fog trailing her like a train leaving the station on a winter morning. It's funny because the supernatural is rendered with such low-tech effects.
But despite the magical twists, the plot is grounded in the ordinary. The play even feels lighthearted — including a talking wall (Daniel Ruelas) that Hetchman and his friend Meckel are aware of — until it doesn't. Yee's script and the direction from Circle artistic director Ashley H. White hint at the darker aspects of the characters' relationships. They have secrets from each other that will eventually emerge.
Seen at the production's last preview before opening night, the cast is uniformly believable. But Scott's character, quietly stewing under an engulfing wig, glasses and frumpy clothing, stands out. Bynane's chatty, upbeat Meckel also charms. The comedy grows with the arrival of a ratty version of a resourceful golem portrayed by Garrard before a darker shift in tone.
When Yee closes the circle between the two couples with a paranormal occurrence near the end of The Hatmaker's Wife, it's hard to swallow. It's not a happy ending but more of an attempt at a plausible explanation for why these people have been drawn together. Yee and Circle have created an amusing, otherworldly scenario that also comments on the difficulties of loving the people closest to you.
Through May 10 at 230 W. Fourth St., Fort Worth. $40-$45. circletheatre.com.
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This community-funded journalism initiative is funded by the Better Together Fund, Carol & Don Glendenning, City of Dallas OAC, Communities Foundation of Texas, The University of Texas at Dallas, The Dallas Foundation, Eugene McDermott Foundation, James & Gayle Halperin Foundation, Jennifer & Peter Altabef and The Meadows Foundation. The News and KERA retain full editorial control of Arts Access' journalism.
Chaoszine
Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
Wretched Blessing is back and heavier than ever with their new EP “Psychic Barriers to Entry”, out today (April 24) via their own label, Two Mongrels Recordings. The Chicago duo — Rae Amitay (Immortal Bird) and Kayhan Vaziri (Yautja) — go all in on a noisy fusion of death metal, hardcore, and punk, throwing in gritty samples and unpredictable rhythm shifts for good measure.
The opening track “Decalcified” sets the tone with a ruthless blend of d-beat grooves and doomy chaos, capped by a crushing finale. Amitay says the song draws influence from RFK Jr.'s infamous brain worm story and Ministry's “TV II”, which pretty much sums up how unhinged and intense it sounds.
Lyrically, the EP vents about modern-day frustration and mental collapse, pushing the band further into raw, unfiltered heaviness. With thunderous production and punchy riffs, this one hits hard from start to finish.
Psychic Barriers to Entry by Wretched Blessing
Wretched Blessing
The opening track “Decalcified” sets the tone with a ruthless blend of d-beat grooves and doomy chaos, capped by a crushing finale. Amitay says the song draws influence from RFK Jr.'s infamous brain worm story and Ministry's “TV II”, which pretty much sums up how unhinged and intense it sounds.
Lyrically, the EP vents about modern-day frustration and mental collapse, pushing the band further into raw, unfiltered heaviness. With thunderous production and punchy riffs, this one hits hard from start to finish.
Psychic Barriers to Entry by Wretched Blessing
Wretched Blessing
Lyrically, the EP vents about modern-day frustration and mental collapse, pushing the band further into raw, unfiltered heaviness. With thunderous production and punchy riffs, this one hits hard from start to finish.
Psychic Barriers to Entry by Wretched Blessing
Wretched Blessing
The New Zealand's metal act Alien Weaponry stands out incredibly for their authentic image and songs fully based on Maori culture. Their new album “Te Rā” was released on the 28th of March via Napalm Records. Chaoszine had a great chat with band's bassplayer Turanga Edmond about pros and cons of singing in native language,...
Mario Duplantier, drummer for Gojira, has created a music video for his most recent drum solo, “Flood Tide“. Below is the video, which was helmed by the LSFILMS64 directing team of Yohan Lafon and Lola Sarazzin.
It's already been twenty years since YouTube was born. Initially, the site served primarily as a platform for home videos, but today it's one of the world's most influential media platforms – also within the realm of metal music. The service not only changed how music is consumed but also gave bands the opportunity to...
Annihilator is the most successful Canadian speed/thrash metal band of all times and one of the most influential pioneers of thrash metal worldwide. The band's success speaks for itself, distinguished by superior live shows and especially Jeff Waters, who takes on the role of guitarist, vocalist, studio bassist, songwriter, producer, as well as mixing and mastering...
On Tuesday, April 22, while Cannibal Corpse was playing in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a couple got married in the middle of the song “Unleashing the Bloodthirsty.” Even in the blood-soaked fury of death metal, love can blossom, as demonstrated by Erica and Christopher sealing the deal in front of a raging circle pit.
After splitting from Slowplay/Republic Records, Wargasm is now a free artist. In order to achieve this, they released their brand-new single, “Vigilantes,” through their own label, Angry Songs For Sad People. Chris Wade and the band themselves co-directed the song's music video, which is shown below. They are also planning to embark on their first-ever...
Some bands like to keep busy, and honestly we can't blame them. This is what is currently happening to Voivod, too! The renowned sci-fi metal band is thrilled to announce a number of significant creative projects that are currently in progress, including the creation of their first official video game, the composition of a new...
New metal supergroup Paradise Slaves, featuring past and present members of 36 Crazyfists, Diecast and Pentagram, have dropped the fourth taste of their upcoming debut album. The latest single is called “Swim North” and features Unearth vocalist Trevor Phipps as a guest artist. The song is taken from the band's debut album “With Hell In...
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07:53 EDT 24 Apr 2025, updated
07:53 EDT 24 Apr 2025
By
WILIAM HUNTER
From your WhatsApp messages to your work emails, it can sometimes feel like emoji are everywhere you look.
But tonight, a rare astronomical display will take this to new levels - as an extraterrestrial emojii forms in the night sky.
In the early hours of the morning, a rare 'smiley face' conjunction will line up just above the horizon.
Experts say this alignment of Venus, Saturn, and the thin crescent moon will bear a striking resemblance to a smiling face turned on its side.
The good news is that you won't need a telescope to see this spectacular celestial display - you'll just need to make an early start.
The conjunction should slide into place from 05:00 BST and remain visible until just before the sun rises at 05:45 BST.
Jess Lee, astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, told MailOnline: 'You can see this just with your eyes and without any special equipment, but you'll need to be awake at 5 am and have a clear view of the east.
'You'll need to turn your head sideways and really squint, but then you might be able to see the two planets as the eyes and the moon as the mouth of the face.'
Tonight's smiley face is not a unique type of event, but rather a type of planetary alignment called a conjunction.
As the planets orbit the sun, from our perspective there are times when they seem to come very close together although, in reality, they are still millions of miles apart.
On some occasions, two or more planets move closer to the moon in an event which astronomers call 'massing'.
For all of next week, both Venus and Saturn will be low on the horizon in the mornings, placing them close to the path of the rising moon.
Venus will be especially bright, rising at around 05:00 BST and remaining visible until around 06:00 BST.
The moon, having been full on April 13, is now waning - growing smaller - towards the new moon on April 27 which will leave a very thin crescent visible tonight.
Saturn is also visible but will be fainter and later rising, staying closer to the horizon.
In order to see this rare alignment all you need to do is look towards the East early in the morning.
Venus, the second planet from the sun, is a rocky world about the same size and mass as the Earth.
However, its atmosphere is radically different to ours — being 96 per cent carbon dioxide and having a surface temperature of 867°F (464°C) and pressure 92 times that of on the Earth.
The inhospitable planet is swaddled in clouds of sulphuric acid that make the surface impossible to glimpse.
In the past, it has been suggested that Venus likely had oceans similar to Earth's — but these would have vaporised as it underwent a runaway greenhouse effect.
The surface of Venus is a dry desertscape, which is periodically changed by volcanic activity.
Find a spot that gives you a clear, unobstructed view of the horizon free of any trees or buildings that might block your view.
Starting from about 05:00 am, you will then need to wait and watch as the conjunction slowly rises over the next half an hour.
Ms Lee says: 'On the morning of the 25th of April, in the eastern sky just before sunrise you'll be able to see a thin crescent Moon. Above the Moon, Venus will be bright and easily visible.
'Below Venus on the other side of the crescent moon Saturn will technically be visible.
'However, Saturn rises just before the Sun and the sky will be brightening by the minute. Saturn will be faint and hard to see, so it will be a challenge to spot but give it a go!'
Since Saturn will be low to the horizon close to dawn, you also need to be careful not to look directly at the sun as it rises.
For this reason, it is recommended that you do not use binoculars or a telescope to try and look at the planets since this could magnify the sun's light and cause serious eye damage.
Unfortunately for many British stargazers, the weather forecast for early tomorrow morning does not look particularly promising.
The Met Office forecasts cloud cover over large parts of the UK with a few breaks over parts of the Southeast, Southwest, and southern parts of Scotland.
Keen skywatchers in Northern Ireland will fare particularly poorly as heavy rain is forecast over the entire region.
If you happen to miss out on tonight's display, there's no reason to be disappointed.
Ms Lee says: 'The planets pass through the same area of sky where we see the Moon, and so it won't be rare for Saturn or Venus to be near the moon - however how often we can interpret them as smiley faces, I think depends on individual imaginations.'
There will be another great opportunity to see the conjunction of Saturn and Venus on April 28.
From 20:00 BST, the planets will come very close to each other within the constellation of Pisces.
Since this conjunction is after sunset you will also be able to safely use binoculars or a telescope to get a better view.
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest planet in our solar system after Jupiter.
It is regarded as the 'jewel of the solar system' with its sunning rings.
It is not the only planet to have rings but none are as spectacular or as complicated as Saturn's.
Like Jupiter, Saturn is a massive ball made mostly of hydrogen and helium, with some heavy elements.
Its core stretches out to cover 60 per cent of the radius of the world.
It is similar to the rest of the planet, but made of a 'slush' like material of gasses, metallic fluids, rock and ice.
The farthest planet from Earth discovered by the naked eye, Saturn has been known since ancient times.
The planet is named for the Roman god of agriculture and wealth, who was also the father of Jupiter.
While planet Saturn is an unlikely place for living things to take hold, the same is not true of some of its many moons.
Satellites like Enceladus and Titan, home to internal oceans, could possibly support life.
Facts and figures
Distance from Sun: 1.434 billion km
Orbital period: 29 years
Surface area: 42.7 billion km²
Radius: 58,232 km
Mass: 5.683 × 10^26 kg (95.16 M⊕)
Length of day: 0d 10h 42m
Moons: 82 with formal designations; innumerable additional moonlets
Ghost Town delivers a brilliant supernatural puzzle adventure that you won't want to miss. Read on for our full review.
Mysteries are one of my oldest loves in fiction, and that's only grown through video games. Watching detectives pour over a murder case is one thing, yet user controlled spaces like games can sometimes struggle without the narrative luxury of pre-defined pacing. It's not enough to simply have a great story, you need to make the player an active participant who can feel accomplished without making it too difficult. It's a fine line, one that Ghost Town walks almost flawlessly.
Fireproof Games have supported modern VR since the beginning with Omega Agent, and it wasn't until five years later where the studio truly left its mark with The Room VR: A Dark Matter. The team's flagship puzzle series immediately left an impression in VR with its rich production values and satisfying puzzles, and Ghost Town builds upon these fine foundations well.
Gameplay footage from the first level captured by UploadVR
Ghost Town takes a supernatural approach that immediately intrigues, only this time we're in the '80s as an Irish witch turned exorcist and ghost hunter, Edith Penrose. Joined by our paranormal detective agency partner, Rina, what follows is a thoroughly gripping narrative that sees us searching for Edith's missing brother. Fireproof's not afraid to have some fun with this story, balancing good humor while effectively building up suspense.
Ghost Town splits each major segment into chapters, set in different locations across the UK as we uncover the wider mystery. I'm enjoying how the game blends its narrative with the gameplay. Understandably, you can't leave an area during an active cutscene without getting a warning flash up, though a particularly striking incident occurs midway through.
My favorite example is when you're receiving crucial information about a suspect, with the information projected around you while placing your hand on an orb. All very atmospheric until I accidentally discovered that removing your hand causes the scene and music to fade, while the other character continues talking. Moments like these add crucial immersive depth, and there's every chance someone unaware of this could miss that entirely.
Edith doesn't spend her entire journey simply chatting away and holding strange orbs. However, I'm hesitant to say too much because half the joy of puzzle solving comes from finding the answers yourself. What I can say is that most of these are well-designed without too much hand holding; the environmental storytelling merges nicely with exploration to provide the answers.
Most puzzles aren't overly challenging, either. There's enough thought required to make you feel accomplished, and I'm impressed at how intuitive solving many of them feels. Whether it's finding the right settings combination for electrical devices or attuning your scanner to the right wavelength, Ghost Town helpfully provides enough information through the environment without simply handing you the answer. I've only been stuck on two occasions, assisted by the optional hint system that provides useful advice in three parts.
These puzzles are only boosted by some great interactivity with good physicality. You can gently feel the haptics as you cast spells with responsive motion controls to help trapped spirits return to the afterlife, achieved by severing their links to key objects from their pasts. Pulling inventory items out of a flat menu that appears when pressing a face button isn't the most immersive method, but it's a minor thing and I still feel like part of this world.
My only major complaint is that I wish there was more here, and Ghost Town takes roughly five hours to complete. Which in itself is fine. The story never feels drawn out, the general pacing works well, and this leads to a satisfying conclusion. It's just that good, and I'd love to see more in a sequel, which I hope happens given the game ends with some open-ended threads. Each level hides a set of collectible magazines, though it's not a big replayability incentive on its own.
Ghost Town offers two movement options; artificial stick-based locomotion and teleportation. You can adjust the speed with an 'analog movement' setting that gradually increases the acceleration instead of using a constant movement speed. Snap turning and smooth turning camera options are both available with adjustable speeds.
Snap fade can also be implemented for additional comfort alongside movement vignettes. Seated and standing gameplay modes are supported. You can adjust the size and height of subtitles, should you wish to have them on. Various audio sliders are included, controller vibration can be turned off, and a hint system can also be switched on.
Still, Ghost Town's a visual treat for Quest 3 that pushes the limits of this headset. Each environment is great to explore, character models look nice, resolution seems sharp and I never encountered any performance issues. From London apartments to a haunted Scottish lighthouse, there's great atmospheric design that's complemented by a fitting soundtrack. The only downside is that the level of detail isn't always the best, and I can occasionally see textures change in front of me.
I haven't had the chance to check how Ghost Town runs on Quest 2 by comparison right now, and I'm keen to see how the Steam and PlayStation VR2 versions compare when those editions launch later this year. When it's already looking this good in standalone VR, I'm feeling optimistic for higher spec hardware.
It's not a stretch to say that Ghost Town is one of the best VR games so far this year. Fireproof Games has delivered a worthy spiritual successor to The Room VR: A Dark Matter that employs a similarly strong level of VR interactivity, backed up by great visuals on Quest 3, a thoroughly engrossing supernatural narrative and intuitive puzzles. I do wish the journey lasted just a little longer, but what's here is an essential experience that you won't want to miss.
UploadVR uses a 5-Star rating system for our game reviews – you can read a breakdown of each star rating in our review guidelines.
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