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The proposed ordinance would restrict repeated camping and block encampments on sidewalks.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is urging cities and counties to adopt a newly released model ordinance aimed at banning and clearing homeless encampments.
The proposal would prohibit unhoused people from repeatedly camping in the same location, restrict encampments that block pedestrian access on sidewalks, and require authorities to provide notice and make a good-faith effort to offer shelter before destroying camps. According to the governor's office, the model ordinance builds on an approach already used by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), which has destroyed more than 16,000 encampments since 2021.
Framing the move as an act of “compassion and care,” Newsom's administration announced that $3.3 billion in voter-approved Proposition 1 funds — originally intended to expand behavioral health housing and treatment — would be made available statewide to incentivize cities and counties to adopt the ordinance.
As of January 2024, the state's homeless population was estimated at 187,000 people, with roughly 123,000 people living without shelter in tents, vehicles, trailers, or makeshift structures. Many advocates for unhoused people argue that the state's reliance on punitive measures — such as encampment sweeps and camping bans — criminalize and displace, rather than support, people without stable housing.
“[Newsom] is flouting decades of evidence on effective solutions and urging communities to merely move unhoused people out of public view rather than work to solve their homelessness,” Diane Yentel, then-president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, said in 2024. “Urging communities to use an ineffective, harmful, wasteful tactic to relieve political pressure on himself isn't leadership. It's cowardice.”
Newsom's expanded effort for statewide encampment sweeps and camping bans follows the U.S. Supreme Court's 2024 ruling allowing local governments to prohibit encampments even when no alternative shelter is available. In response to the ruling, Newsom directed state agencies in July to begin clearing encampments. In August, he warned California cities and counties that failure to clear homeless encampments could result in the loss of state funding.
Local leaders have voiced concerns about Newsom's focus on policing homelessness instead of addressing its root causes — soaring housing costs, a severe lack of affordable housing, and stagnant wages. While he has launched initiatives aimed at these structural issues, critics argue that prioritizing enforcement over long-term housing solutions ultimately deepens the crisis.
“Clearing encampments only works if we have places for people to go, and require that they use them,” San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said in a statement.”Without these solutions, we spend precious taxpayer dollars simply shuffling people from one jurisdiction's land to another's.”
Advocacy groups have similarly warned that such approaches are not only ineffective but also harmful. “The evidence is actually very clear: forced encampment evictions are ineffective, expensive, and non-strategic,” said Ann Oliva, CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. “The blanket order to clear encampments without addressing the immediate and long-term needs of their residents will displace thousands and increase their risk of harm.”
Advocates have also raised concerns about Newsom's emphasis on mental health and substance use interventions as a response to homelessness. They warn that programs like CARE Court and expanded involuntary treatment laws risk violating civil liberties and could result in the forced institutionalization of unhoused people.
“The overall impact of this move towards forced treatment will not reduce houselessness, except to the extent it increases detention. Fear of placement in locked facilities, forced medication, unacceptable interim shelter, and loss of rights and self-determination will drive unhoused people away from needed services,” explains a 2024 Human Right Watch report. “Without permanent housing, forced treatment will not remove the underlying instability of houselessness.”
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The White House reportedly negotiated with Hamas without Israel's participation for the captive release.
Hamas released an Israeli American soldier from captivity in Gaza on Monday, seeking to reopen ceasefire negotiations as a gesture of goodwill to President Donald Trump as he visits the Middle East this week.
The 21-year-old Israeli military soldier, Edan Alexander, was first released to officials from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), who handed him over to the Israeli military in Israel for a health check and to be reunited with his family. Both Hamas and Israeli officials confirmed the transfer.
Alexander was the only living American in Hamas captivity. Hamas is still holding 59 other captives in Gaza, with 23 believed to still be alive. The remaining captives were supposed to be released as part of the ceasefire agreement, but are still in captivity after Israel unilaterally ended the ceasefire after the first phase and resumed its intensified bombings and total humanitarian aid blockade.
Hamas released Alexander as a “good faith” gesture toward Trump, reportedly as a result of backchannel negotiations between the White House and Hamas officials and without involvement from Israeli officials.
“This was a step taken in good faith towards the United States and the efforts of the mediators — Qatar and Egypt — to put an end to this very brutal war and return ALL living hostages and remains to their loved ones,” said Trump in a post on Truth Social on Sunday. “Hopefully this is the first of those final steps necessary to end this brutal conflict. I look very much forward to that day of celebration!”
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee also called for an end to the “war” in a post celebrating Alexander's release in a post on social media.
Axios reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered Israeli negotiators to travel to Qatar to resume ceasefire talks this week, after talking with White House officials about Alexander's release.
However, Netanyahu's office has said that Israel is still committed to carrying out its plan to indefinitely occupy the entirety of the Gaza Strip, cordoning millions of Palestinians to a small portion of the enclave. Netanyahu's security cabinet approved that plan in a vote last week.
Alexander's release comes amid a reported growing rift between Trump and Netanyahu. Trump is not visiting Israel during his visit to the Middle East this week, and The Washington Post reports that there is “total panic” among Israeli officials in terms of Trump seemingly distancing himself from the Israeli regime.
On top of bypassing Israel to negotiate the captive deal with Hamas, the Trump administration reportedly did not consult Israel when it reached its ceasefire deal with the Houthis last week. In addition, Trump and Netanyahu have disagreements over whether or not to strike Iran — as Saudi Arabia grows closer to Iran and Trump seeks to reenter the Iran nuclear agreement that he had withdrawn from during his first term.
The Trump administration is cracking down on political dissent. Under pressure from an array of McCarthy-style tactics, academics, activists and nonprofits face significant threats for speaking out or organizing in resistance.
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Data includes full flight itineraries, passenger name records and financial details which are otherwise hard to obtain.
This article was originally published by The Lever, an investigative newsroom. If you like this story, sign up for The Lever's free newsletter.
A massive aviation industry clearinghouse that processes data for 12 billion passenger flights per year is selling that information to the Trump administration amid the White House's new immigration crackdown, according to documents reviewed by The Lever.
The data — including “full flight itineraries, passenger name records, and financial details, which are otherwise difficult or impossible to obtain” for past and future flights — is fed into a secretive government intelligence operation called the Travel Intelligence Program and provided to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agencies, records reveal.
Details of this program were outlined in procurement documents released Wednesday by ICE, which is a division of the Department of Homeland Security.
Privacy and travel industry experts interviewed by The Lever said that law enforcement's access to such a vast database — with little information on what privacy or other restrictions are in place — raises serious civil liberties concerns.
“This is probably the single most significant aggregated repository of data about American air travelers,” said Edward Hasbrouck, an expert in travel data privacy. “That the government has gotten access to it is a very big deal.”
When a passenger buys a flight through a travel agency — including via common online booking sites like Booking.com or Expedia — the transaction is fed through the Airlines Reporting Corporation, which acts as an intermediary between travel agencies and airlines.
So, although most airline passengers have never heard of the Airlines Reporting Corporation, there's a good chance that their data has, at some point, passed through the company. Its dataset includes information on 54 percent of all flights taken globally, according to the company's website.
In a statement to The Lever, a spokesperson for the company said that the Travel Intelligence Program “was established after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to provide certain data to law enforcement … for the purpose of national security matters” and criminal investigations.
The spokesperson declined to answer questions about whether clients outside the U.S. government have access to the data.
The company is jointly owned by nine major airlines, most of which are U.S.-based: Delta, Southwest, United, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, JetBlue, Air Canada, Lufthansa, and Air France. But more than 200 airlines settle tickets through the Airlines Reporting Corporation, giving the company unparalleled, comprehensive access to passenger data.
The company claims to manage the database in partnership with the International Air Transport Association, the primary lobbying group for airlines.
Consumer advocates have already been concerned about the monopoly that the Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC) has established over airline passenger data. Because no other comparable financial clearinghouse exists in aviation, there's no alternative for travel agencies or consumers to use instead.
“[The company] has long had a virtual monopoly on processing airline bookings,” explained Bill McGee, a senior fellow for aviation and travel at the American Economic Liberties Project, a consumer protection watchdog organization. Through this, McGee explained, the Airlines Reporting Corporation “collects massive amounts of personal data on consumers, including information on finances, travel itineraries, shopping patterns.”
“To hear that ARC is now selling such personal information to the government is rather chilling,” McGee said.
The Lever contacted each of the nine airlines that are shareholders of the Airlines Reporting Corporation for this story. United Airlines declined to comment, referring questions instead to the Department of Homeland Security; the others did not reply.
The Airlines Reporting Corporation has for many years provided commercial access to high-level data, offering travel trend reports and transaction data for a price. But several experts interviewed by The Lever said they were completely unaware that the company was providing its data to the government.
“I have never seen government access to ARC — or even ARC itself — mentioned in an airline privacy policy or a travel agency policy,” Hasbrouck said. “Never.”
Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst focusing on privacy at the American Civil Liberties Union, said that the program appears to have “flown by and below the radar.”
“Why is [ARC] turning into a side business of selling data about people's travels to the Trump administration?” Stanley asked, saying that the documents raised “a lot of serious questions.”
Federal law enforcement has other ways to access flight data. Already, U.S. Customs and Border Protection demands that airlines hand over passenger records for every flight that passes through the United States, and there have been reports in the past of federal law enforcement, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, accessing passenger data through travel agencies' reservation systems and other intermediaries.
But the new documents indicate that the Airlines Reporting Corporation provides data that federal law enforcement cannot obtain elsewhere.
In the documents — published to provide notice that ICE is entering into a no-bid contract with the company — officials write that the Airlines Reporting Corporation database “is the only company in the U.S. that provides this level of real-time travel data access to law enforcement.”
The Airlines Reporting Corporation provides this data to ICE and Department of Homeland Security analysts through the Travel Intelligence Program, which is described in the documents as proprietary software.
“The [Travel Intelligence Program] database holds over one billion records, spanning 39 months of past and future travel data — an unparalleled intelligence resource,” the documents say.
In this database, “analysts gain unrestricted access to all sold ticket databases, enabling targeted searches by name or credit card number,” the documents continue.
The data is useful in part because it is aggregated, Hasbrouck explained. While Customs and Border Protection receives data from individual air carriers, the data is not always in a consistent place or format.
“If you've got data that's scattered all over the place in different formats, you've got to query each one separately,” Hasbrouck said. “That's a lot harder. You can do more analysis if you've got aggregated data.”
It's unclear how long the federal government has used the Airlines Reporting Corporation repository. ICE inked a one-year contract for the data in 2023, according to the documents. But federal spending records indicate that the access goes back further. The Department of Homeland Security, in procurement records, references an “investigative database” hosted by the Airlines Reporting Corporation as far back as 2018.
Furthermore, it's not just ICE that has access to the data. The Department of Defense in 2017 signed a contract with the Airlines Reporting Corporation for “airline ticketing and reporting data,” records show. And the Department of the Treasury signed a contract in 2020 for Travel Intelligence Program software, records show.
For the Airlines Reporting Corporation, these federal contracts have been lucrative. According to government spending records, the company has received at least $600,000 from federal contracts so far in 2025, and about $700,000 last year.
The new contracts come amid a significant budget increase for ICE under the Trump administration.
ICE and the Department of Homeland Security did not reply to inquiries from The Lever on Thursday.
Hasbrouck said that law enforcement's access to such data comes with “a lot of potential for abuse.” This may be particularly true amid the Trump administration's ongoing immigration crackdown, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement targets green card holders over their political views and sends immigrants to El Salvador without a hearing.
“How will this information be used?” said McGee. “What safeguards on privacy and personal rights will be in place? There are far too many unanswered questions.”
The Trump administration is cracking down on political dissent. Under pressure from an array of McCarthy-style tactics, academics, activists and nonprofits face significant threats for speaking out or organizing in resistance.
Truthout is appealing for your support to weather this storm of censorship. We've launched a fundraising campaign to find 500 new monthly donors in the next 10 days. Will you be one?
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Your support during our fundraiser will help us continue our nonprofit movement journalism in the face of right-wing authoritarianism. Please make a tax-deductible donation today.
Katya is a journalist based in Phoenix, Arizona. Her reporting and essays have appeared in The Intercept, The Baffler, The American Prospect, The Lever and elsewhere. Send tips via Signal: 413-658-4677.
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Edan Alexander, the last known living American hostage in Hamas captivity, was released after a surprise announcement by the militant group. CNN's Jerusalem Bureau Chief Oren Liebermann breaks down what we can glean about US-Israel relations as a result.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Russia, on May 10, 2025. (Contributor / Getty Images)
Russian President Vladimir Putin may have gotten more than he bargained for when, on May 11, he rejected calls for a 30-day unconditional ceasefire and invited Ukraine to engage in direct talks in Istanbul later this week.
In what may have been a surprise for the Russian leader, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded by accepting the invitation, saying he was ready to meet Putin in Turkey on May 15.
"This is not what Putin was expecting," Oleksandr Merezhko, a Ukrainian lawmaker and chair of the parliament's foreign affairs committee, told the Kyiv Independent.
"This is an incredible move that turns the tables completely — Putin thought that he would send a Russian delegation, and create the illusion of negotiations," he said, adding: "But now, because of this move by Zelensky, he is faced with a dilemma which cannot be solved."
Ahead of the May 15 meeting, a source close to the President's Office told the Kyiv Independent that Ukraine is "ready for all options" — but there are still several unanswered questions, potential curveballs from the White House, and multiple ways the week could turn out.
With all the talk of possible meetings, it's easy to forget that it all resulted from one thing — Russia's refusal to agree to a 30-day unconditional ceasefire.
Initially proposed by the U.S. back in March, Ukraine signed up for a full, 30-day ceasefire on March 11. Russia has consistently refused to agree to the truce, instead unilaterally announcing short-term ceasefires that Ukraine says have all been violated by Moscow itself.
The idea was given fresh impetus over the weekend after talks between Ukraine, France, the U.K., Germany, and Poland, after which they said that no negotiations can begin without a full and unconditional ceasefire.
Putin made no mention of any ceasefire during his televised address on May 11 when he floated the idea of talks, but Kyiv's European allies have kept up the pressure, insisting Moscow agree by midnight on May 13.
"The clock is ticking — we still have 12 hours until the end of this day," German government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius said, adding that Berlin is coordinating with European partners on additional sanctions.
According to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, Russian forces have so far not honored the proposed ceasefire from May 12 and continued attacking Ukrainian positions across the front throughout the day.
With no indication at present that the Kremlin is going to agree to a ceasefire, the European nations demanding it will have to follow through with their threat of imposing additional sanctions on Russia.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, an EU official told the Kyiv Independent that the bloc will unveil its next package of sanctions against Russia on May 14.
"If he doesn't come, it will be obvious even to Trump, that Putin is not a person with whom he can negotiate, that he is incapable of negotiations."
Details of what will be the 17th package imposed on Moscow since the start of the full-scale invasion remain unclear, though earlier reporting suggested it could include measures aimed at Russia's military-industrial complex, Moscow's shadow shipping fleet, and related support networks.
While Zelensky has clearly stated his intention to travel to Istanbul — seemingly walking back on the demand for a full ceasefire to be implemented before negotiations can begin — Putin has not, and now faces what Merezhko referred to as a "dilemma."
"If he doesn't come, it will be obvious even to (U.S. President Donald) Trump, that Putin is not a person with whom he can negotiate, that he is incapable of negotiations," Merezhko said.
But if he does travel to Istanbul, "then again, he loses," Merezhko said.
Putin does not see himself as Zelensky's equal, and has repeatedly mocked him and called him "illegitimate," so to appear on the same level on the global stage would, in Russian eyes, make him look "really weak," Merezhko.
"He has no solution," he added.
Whether or not Putin attends in person, there is deep skepticism in Kyiv regarding the prospects of a meeting bearing anything significant.
"Putin does not want any peace talks, because his goal is to seize Ukraine," Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, a lawmaker from the Holos party and chairman of the parliamentary committee on freedom of speech, said.
"Therefore, he is looking for any opportunity to stall for time, gushing with proposals for meetings and demands, hoping that Ukraine will refuse and this will show us in an unfavorable light," he added.
Yurchyshyn said Zelensky has "seized the initiative" when saying he would attend the meeting, but expects "Putin will find another excuse not to come."
One possible excuse on the cards is a decree approved by Zelensky in the fall of 2022, that "stated the impossibility of holding negotiations with Russian President Putin," as a response to Russia's illegal annexation of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts, parts of which it didn't even control.
Moscow has previously cited Zelensky's decree as a ban on talks with Putin and used it as an excuse for avoiding direct talks with Kyiv.
But according to a source in the President's Office, the decree was a "a signal to those in Ukraine who wanted to speak (to Russians) bypassing the central government."
They added that it had been "twisted" by the Kremlin and it was in fact solely up to Zelensky to determine if he could speak directly with Putin.
Regardless, Ukrainian lawmakers who spoke to the Kyiv Independent all believe the Kremlin will find some way to get out of it.
"Therefore, this will be another illustration that Ukraine is looking for a solution, and Russia is not. Whether Trump will recognize this is an open question," Yurchyshyn said.
Trump has been vocal and enthusiastic about the meeting in Istanbul, despite it still falling far short of the full 30-day ceasefire that Trump himself has been calling for.
And in a significant development on May 12, he said he believed "both leaders are going to be there," in reference to Zelensky and Putin, putting huge pressure on the Russian president.
"I think we may see a good result from Thursday's meeting in Turkey between Russia and Ukraine," Trump said during a press conference, adding: "I even thought about flying over — I'm not sure where I'll be on Thursday, I have so many meetings."
Despite placing enormous amounts of pressure on Ukraine to end the full-scale invasion, Trump has so far made no concrete moves to do the same with the side ultimately responsible for starting — and ending — the war.
The U.S. president's stance has hardened in recent weeks, and in Kyiv, there is hope that Russia can only stall and distract for so long until Washington acknowledges the game the Kremlin is playing.
"It is important that Trump finally begins to understand that Putin has been pulling the wool over his eyes, deceiving him, and using him for the Kremlin's advantage," Volodymyr Ariev, a Ukrainian lawmaker from the opposition European Solidarity Party, told the Kyiv Independent.
Aside from hoping the U.S. will see the light and start treating Russia as the only ones who can stop their own full-scale invasion, Ukraine is still hoping for some solid progress in the peace talks process.
"Our key objective in Istanbul must be to secure a real ceasefire — starting with a 30-day halt in hostilities. That's our short-term goal," Halyna Yanchenko, a lawmaker from the Servant of the People party, told the Kyiv Independent.
"I believe it's achievable, but only with the support of our international partners and strong external pressure on Russia, including through sanctions."
Yelyzaveta Yasko, also from the Servant of the People party, told the Kyiv Independent that developments over the last few days and the European unity with Ukraine on display had been "optimistic," but cautioned that it didn't mean there would be a "positive outcome" for the peace process "anytime soon."
Failing any concrete progress, Ukraine must make sure it is in a position to defend against further offensives from Russia, Ariev said.
"If China does not begin direct support to Russia in 2026, Russia will not be able to continue a total war," he said.
"The Ukrainian goal is to keep a very strong relationship and coordination with the European Union and the American administration, convince our partners to level sanctions against the Russian Federation, and to maintain support and supply the Ukrainian army with weapons and everything that it needs."
News Operations Editor
Chris York is news operations editor at the Kyiv Independent. Before joining the team, he was head of news at the Kyiv Post. Previously, back in Britain, he spent nearly a decade working for HuffPost UK. He holds an MA in Conflict, Development, and Security from the University of Leeds.
It seems logical that the era of proxy wars would sooner or later result in a state of proxy peace, when even the securing of national security objectives would not guarantee Russia a respectful coexistence with its neighbors. After the 20th century's Cold War, is Europe now destined for a Cold Peace? To discuss this, Oksana is joined by Geoffrey Roberts, emeritus professor of history at University College Cork.
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The US president will not visit Israel on a trip to the Middle East and his envoy has reportedly said Netanyahu's government is drawing out the war
Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff didn't mince his words. In a meeting late on Sunday with former hostages and relatives of those still held in Gaza, he told them Israel is drawing out a war the US wants to end, local media reported.
On the eve of the release of Edan Alexander, the last living American being held by Hamas, Witkoff spelt out the gulf between his boss and the government of Benjamin Netanyahu.
“We want to bring the hostages home, but Israel is not willing to end the war. Israel is prolonging it – despite the fact that we don't see where else we can go and that an agreement must be reached,” Witkoff told the meeting, according to Channel 12 Television, quoting sources who were present.
It was the latest in a series of high-profile and high-stakes snubs from the White House which suggest that Israel's most important ally is frustrated with its government – and possibly losing interest in its fortunes.
“Trump's not against Israel, but he doesn't care about Israel,” said Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli diplomat. “As far as Trump is concerned, Netanyahu has become an irritant and an irritant that doesn't contribute to the bank account.”
Trump may not have embarked on the open attacks that have characterised his relationship with other leaders fighting a war he wants to end, such as Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russia's Vladimir Putin, but recent policy moves have undermined Israeli security, weakened its diplomatic standing and flown against Israeli defence policy, particularly over how to handle Iran.
Last week Trump announced a ceasefire deal with the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen which excluded Israel. He described the Houthi rebels as “brave” just days after one of their missiles hit Israel's main airport, prompting many international airlines to suspend flights. Houthi attacks on Israel have continued.
He previously dismissed Israeli calls for military action against Iran, instead opening talks with Tehran on ending its nuclear programme.
Days after the Houthi ceasefire deal, news leaked that the Trump administration had dropped a Biden-era demand that linked progress on a Saudi Arabian civilian nuclear programme to normalising relations with Israel.
Saudi Arabia has ruled out normalisation while Israel is at war in Gaza. Trump's move made clear he doesn't want his hands to be tied as he heads to Riyadh later this week to seal billions of dollars in expected deals.
His first trip to the region since returning to the White House will also include visits to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, but not Israel. That conspicuous absence from the presidential itinerary would have been unthinkable in recent decades.
Ilan Baruch, a former Israeli ambassador who now chairs the Policy Working Group, which advocates for a two-state solution, said: “Trump, it seems, has embarked on a bluntly new trajectory.
“Israel was expecting the Trump administration to stay the course within a paradigm of ‘shared convictions and mutual strategic interests'. Trump is the first president in a generation to put this equation in doubt.”
Strong, long-term support for Israel among much of Trump's Republican base means Netanyahu is in a better position to hold on to US support than a leader like the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Nadav Eyal, a research scholar at Columbia University and a commentator with the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.
“As to how serious the damage is, I would say right now it is not lasting … not a full blown crisis yet,” he said. “I suspect that both sides will try to mitigate, negotiate, and not make it a public confrontation.”
Still, Netanyahu's celebration of Israel-US ties at the start of the year, when he was the first foreign leader invited to Trump's second-term White House, now look premature.
Although Alexander's release was agreed without Israeli input, Netanyahu responded initially not by thanking Trump but by in effect claiming credit for it.
“The expected release of IDF soldier Edan Alexander without anything in return will be possible due to the vigorous policy that we have led with the backing of President Trump, and thanks to the military pressure of IDF soldiers in the Gaza Strip,” his office said in a statement before his planned release.
He is already facing the fury of hostage families and their supporters, who say he is extending the war – and their suffering – for personal political gain. One, Einav Tsengauker, described the prime minister on Monday as an “angel of death”.
But Netanyahu's truculent response to the release of Alexander risks stirring up the anger of a far more potent enemy, whose endless appetite for praise and deference is now the basis of global foreign policy from Beijing to Brussels.
Trump's post celebrating Alexander's release spelt out what he wants to see next. “Hopefully this is the first of those final steps necessary to end this brutal conflict. I look very much forward to that day of celebration!”
There is broad support inside Israel for ending the war in return for the release of all hostages, with opinion polls showing more than two-thirds of the country back a deal.
But those who want to carry on fighting include the leaders of two far-right parties at the heart of Netanyahu's coalition. That leaves Netanyahu potentially facing a choice between shoring up his government, or shoring up Israel's most important relationship.
“If he wants Trump back on his side, then he needs to do things that would cost him the coalition,” said Pinkas, the former diplomat. “If you look at his biography and experience, he should be fully aware of all this. If you look at his behaviour, it's as if he has no idea what's going on.”
Roughly 500,000 Palestinians are experiencing “catastrophic” hunger levels, the latest food insecurity report finds.
The Gaza Strip is at a “critical risk” of famine, with the entire population projected to face crisis levels of hunger as a result of Israel's total humanitarian aid blockade, UN-backed food researchers have found in their latest assessment.
As of mid-May, the entire population of Gaza is facing a hunger crisis, researchers with the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) determined in a report released Monday.
“Goods indispensable for people's survival are either depleted or expected to run out in the coming weeks,” the report says. “Immediate action is essential to prevent further deaths, starvation and acute malnutrition, and a descent into Famine.”
The report was released as Israel's total aid blockade on Gaza has entered its third month, with Israel blocking all goods — food, medicine, water, and other essential supplies — from entering Gaza, creating a humanitarian catastrophe in which Palestinians face death at every turn. UN officials have said that Israel is weaponizing aid, using it as a way to subjugate and control the Palestinian population, seemingly in service of their extermination and ethnic cleansing campaign.
According to the IPC report, over a fifth of the population, or nearly 500,000 Palestinians, are facing catastrophic levels of hunger — meaning that they are facing “starvation, death, destitution and extremely critical acute malnutrition levels.”
A quarter of the population is in a food “emergency,” meaning that they are facing major food shortages and potential mortality due to food insecurity, while the remaining population is experiencing a food crisis and are unable to meet basic needs.
A projected 71,000 children in Gaza are in dire need of treatment for acute malnutrition, the report says, while the vast majority of children in Gaza are facing “extreme food deprivation.”
Though food insecurity issues eased slightly amid the short ceasefire earlier this year, those gains have been erased by Israel's renewed blockade and attacks, IPC researchers found. UN agencies have run out of food stocks entirely, while prices for commercial goods have skyrocketed. The cost of flour, for instance, has risen by 3,000 percent since February, according to the UN.
The number of Palestinians in crisis level hunger indicates that “hunger-related death is rapidly increasing, with a risk of >100 dying per day,” wrote international law expert Tom Dannenbaum on social media. “And merely avoiding death does not mean escaping torturous suffering.”
As Dannenbaum and other experts have pointed out, official famine determinations by international experts rely on extremely high thresholds and “are retrospective determinations of massive failure,” Dannenbaum said. “By definition, they arrive too late.”
“The risk of famine does not arrive suddenly. It unfolds in places where access to food is blocked, where health systems are decimated, and where children are left without the bare minimum to survive,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell in a statement. “Hunger and acute malnutrition are a daily reality for children across the Gaza Strip.”
“19 months into the war. According to IPC, half a million people in Gaza face starvation. More than two weeks ago, [UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA)] and [World Food Programme] ran out of food,” UNRWA said. “The only thing entering Gaza now is bombs.”
The Trump administration is cracking down on political dissent. Under pressure from an array of McCarthy-style tactics, academics, activists and nonprofits face significant threats for speaking out or organizing in resistance.
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Sharon Zhang is a news writer at Truthout covering politics, climate and labor. Before coming to Truthout, Sharon had written stories for Pacific Standard, The New Republic, and more. She has a master's degree in environmental studies. She can be found on Twitter and Bluesky.
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Meanwhile, a DHS spokesperson warned that the New Jersey congressmembers at the scene may still face arrest.
Mayor Ras Baraka of Newark, New Jersey, was arrested and detained by masked federal immigration police Friday when he joined three Democratic congressmembers set to tour a newly reopened 1,000-bed Immigration and Customs Enforcement jail run by GEO Group, which advocates say lacks proper permits. Baraka says he was asked to leave the premises and left the secure area to join a group of protesters in a public area outside the gate — when he was seized by officers in a chaotic scene. “This is completely insane, and it's a scary moment in the history of this country as we watch democracy slip between our fingers,” Baraka tells Democracy Now!
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, the mayor of the largest city in New Jersey, was arrested Friday and detained by masked federal immigration police when he went to a newly reopened, private, 1,000-bed Immigration and Customs Enforcement jail called Delaney Hall. He says he was there to support three congressmembers set to tour the facility: Bonnie Watson Coleman, LaMonica McIver and Rob Menendez. Newark Mayor Baraka says he was asked to leave the premises, and did so. He had gone to the other side of the fence, the Newark public property side, away from the congressmembers, was on a public street, when he was seized by officers in a chaotic scene.
AIDE 1: Now circle the mayor! Circle the mayor!
REP. LAMONICA McIVER: What? What the hell?
AIDE 1: Circle the mayor!
REP. LAMONICA McIVER: What the hell?
AIDE 1: Circle the mayor! Circle the mayor!
REP. LAMONICA McIVER: What the heck?
REP. BONNIE WATSON COLEMAN: Absolutely not. Absolutely not.
ICE AGENT: Back up. Back up. Do not cause us problems.
AIDE 1: Where's my congresswoman?
AIDE 2: Congresswoman! Congresswoman! She's right in front of you!
REP. LAMONICA McIVER: Don't touch us! Don't touch us!
AIDE 2: Congresswoman!
AIDE 1: Get off of us.
REP. LAMONICA McIVER: Don't touch us!
AIDE 1: Get off of us.
AIDE 2: Get out!
AMY GOODMAN: As the ICE agents handcuffed Mayor Baraka, the three Democratic congressmembers — Menendez, McIver and Coleman — tried to wrap their arms around him to protect him. After he was arrested, a crowd of hundreds gathered, demanding he be released. He was charged with trespassing and later released and addressed supporters.
MAYOR RAS BARAKA: I didn't know that this morning when I woke up that I'd be in this detention facility here, that I would end up incarcerated for something that I believe is my democratic right, to show up and speak out against what I think was happening there, a violation of city and state laws and a lack of transparency.
AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson accused the New Jersey congressmembers at the scene of assaulting ICE officers, warned they still may face arrest.
We'll speak with 80-year-old Congressmember Bonnie Watson Coleman in a few minutes, but we begin with Newark mayor, gubernatorial candidate Ras Baraka.
Welcome to Democracy Now! I'm glad I'm not speaking to you behind bars, but where you are in Newark, Mayor. If you can start off by talking about why you were there, outside Delaney Hall, what this place is, and what happened?
MAYOR RAS BARAKA: Well, I actually go there every day, every morning. I would have been there this morning. I go at 7 a.m. with fire code officials, UCC officials, health inspectors, to get in, as it is our right to inspect the facility for them to apply for a certificate of occupancy. We're in court with GEO right now, because they're defying city ordinances.
I went back that afternoon because I was invited to participate in a conference that the congresspeople were going to have after they toured the facility themselves. I went there for that purpose. You know, we waited there over an hour, almost an hour and a half, with no incident, without any incident whatsoever. I was allowed to come inside and stand there by the gate without incident for over an hour, waiting for the congresspeople to come out.
When the special agent in charge, Patel, showed up, he escalated the situation. There, the congresspeople tried to reason with him, you know, surrounded me inside, and finally got him to agree for me to leave. I left, on the other side of the fence. They may — I guess they reversed that decision and made a decision to come around and, in fact, arrest me.
And so they did. They arrested me, and the congresspeople and other bystanders tried to shield me from being arrested. But, you know, I did. And I think it was better that that happened, because it would have probably gotten worse than it was getting while I was out there.
AMY GOODMAN: Now, we heard that — well, you went to the Newark side, and you represent Newark. You were on the public property side. Someone got a call next to you, right? One of the officials got a call. Now —
MAYOR RAS BARAKA: Right, right.
AMY GOODMAN: Let's be clear: The U.S. attorney for New Jersey there is Alina Habba, the former private lawyer for President Trump. If you can explain what you understand took place? Because that seemed to escalate things, when that agent was on the phone.
MAYOR RAS BARAKA: Right. Absolutely. Absolutely. You could see that it was resolved, that I was leaving. I left. I was on the other side. When he got the call, I was already on the other side of the fence. He, in turn, got a phone call. Right after the phone call, they proceeded to come after me. When they first came, they came right up to me anyway. And this idea that other people got arrested is not true. I was the only one arrested there, and so they targeted me specifically. So, after the phone call, it did escalate.
AMY GOODMAN: So, the interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba said on X that you, quote, “ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove” — well, she said, “to remove himself,” unquote, from the detention center, again, which, as you point out, is run by the GEO Group. She added, quote, “No one is above the law.” Please respond, Mayor.
MAYOR RAS BARAKA: Yeah, she's right: No is above the law. Neither are they. Neither is the GEO — the GEO Group is not above the law, the president or any of these people.
We have a dispute with GEO because they're violating city laws, and we are fighting with them in court. And ICE is interfering and interceding in that, unfortunately, without the judge's — you know, whatever the judge says, they are doing the opposite of that.
You know, I sat on that — sat inside of that fence there for over an hour, and nobody told me to move. Nobody told me to get out. Nobody questioned me. Nobody came up to me and said anything to me. I sat there for a very long time before that agent showed up there. And so, it was clearly their intention to escalate it and to focus everything on me and to target me, and that's exactly what happened.
AMY GOODMAN: Now, I wanted to clarify something, Mayor Baraka. A lot of the news reported that you were arrested during a protest.
MAYOR RAS BARAKA: Right.
AMY GOODMAN: But, in fact, you weren't protesting. Can you explain the history of this GEO facility, which wasn't always owned by GEO, and why you say they don't have the proper documentation to hold a thousand prisoners?
MAYOR RAS BARAKA: Right, yeah, I was not protesting, actually. And I could be protesting. I speak to the protesters when I get there. But at the end of the day, the GEO Group — the facility used to be a drug rehab center and a halfway house for people that were incarcerated that were coming home, and this was a transition for them to — from there, to come home, so short, very short periods of time that they spent there to transition home.
They converted it, or are in the process of trying to convert it, into this kind of detention facility, over a thousand beds in a detention facility. They had a certificate of occupancy 20 years ago. And according to city ordinance, they need an updated certificate of occupancy. In fact, they need annual updates of certificates of occupancy, not 20 years later. We challenged him on that.
Our folks showed up. Before I even came there, we sent our people there. They refused to let them in. So I needed to see that for myself. I came down there, one, with our folks and watched them turn them away and turn me away at the same time.
We went to court summarily after that. The courts had us in conversation, forced them to make them have an initial inspection. We did an initial inspection and found a few violations. After we find violations, we have to come back and check those violations. And we told them that they needed to apply for a certificate of occupancy. They refused to do that.
So, this is a dispute, a dispute that has to be settled in court, not by Alina Habba, not by, you know, the ICE or by the president, but by a court. A court settles these disputes, and it has not settled it yet. We're still in court now.
AMY GOODMAN: You know, the detention facility, the largest on the East Coast, a thousand beds, is near Newark Airport. I mean, maybe the only hope for the detainees is that there have been so many outages at Newark that they wouldn't be able to fly them out. But I wanted to ask you about the history. In 2021, advocates helped enact a law prohibiting New Jersey from renewing or signing detention contracts with ICE in New Jersey. Now, a federal district judge struck down parts of that in 2023 after private prison operators, like CoreCivic, which operates another immigration jail in the state, sued. “The state attorney general is appealing the ruling, invoking the 10th Amendment that stops the federal government from commandeering state resources for its purposes.” That is — I'm reading from The Washington Post. Can you respond to what you still are asking for? In a moment, we're going to speak with one of the congressmembers who are still threatened with arrest, who did tour the facility. But what you're demanding ICE give you now in terms of documentation? What you're concerned about is happening to the detainees inside?
MAYOR RAS BARAKA: Well, we want them to start filling out the application for the certificate of occupancy that allows us to come in and do full inspections, health inspection, fire inspection, make sure they have the proper, you know, procedures that are happening. They have women in there, have children in there. We need to know how many people are in there, how many beds that they have there, if the sprinkler system works, if the gas system is hooked up correctly, the electrical system is hooked up, if the elevators are working properly. All of these things are a part of what a certificate of occupancy allows us to do. If they're using the property for the stated use, or if they're using it for anything else, do they need to go through the zoning board or planning board? And this is what happens for every facility, even a new home that you build and open. Everybody has to have a CO or temporary certificate of occupancy. And they have neither. And so, we're in dispute about this.
I do think that the state should go further here and demand or write a law that says that we can't have private prisons in New Jersey in the first place. I think we should go as far as that in the state.
AMY GOODMAN: I know you have to go, but I want to just get you to respond to a very ominous moment right before you were arrested — it was on Friday — with the White House official Stephen Miller saying he's looking into, that the Trump administration is looking into suspending habeas corpus, which protects people from unlawful detentions. This is what he said.
STEPHEN MILLER: Well, the Constitution is clear — and that, of course, is the supreme law of the land — that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in a time of invasion. So, it's an option we're actively looking at. Look, a lot of it depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not. The end of the day, Congress passed a body of law, known as the Immigration and Nationality Act, which stripped Article III courts — that's the judicial branch — of jurisdiction over immigration cases. So, Congress actually passed — it's called jurisdiction-stripping legislation. It passed a number of laws that say that the Article III courts aren't even allowed to be involved in immigration cases.
AMY GOODMAN: So, if you, finally, can respond, just hours before you were arrested, to Stephen Miller saying they're weighing stripping habeas corpus, they're weighing doing away with it, because while it may not be wartime, we are in the midst of an invasion.
MAYOR RAS BARAKA: This is completely insane, and it's a scary moment in the history of this country as we watch democracy slip between our fingers. I think that because Trump was elected and there's still a process, we still have this separation of powers, that people believe that the separation of powers is going to fix this. This is not being fixed. People are watching this take place as authoritarianism becomes the rule of the land here in this country.
And we need more voices and more people to stand up against this. Suspending habeas corpus is something that happens in a time of war. You know, to relate this to war is definitely, definitely scary. It means that we're in an existential threat here, and we need to stand up and do something about this immediately.
AMY GOODMAN: When do you have to go to court?
MAYOR RAS BARAKA: May 15, I go back to court for my preliminary hearing in the city of Newark, and hopefully the supporters will be out there supporting me.
AMY GOODMAN: Soon afterwards, there's the primary for governor, is that right? June 10th?
MAYOR RAS BARAKA: Yes, June 10th, absolutely. Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: Ras Baraka, I want to thank you for being with us, mayor of Newark, New Jersey, the largest city in New Jersey, yes, a Democratic candidate for governor in the state's gubernatorial election this year. On Friday, the mayor was arrested by 20 armed, many masked, federal agents, standing on public property in his city of Newark. He was released after five hours.
The Trump administration is cracking down on political dissent. Under pressure from an array of McCarthy-style tactics, academics, activists and nonprofits face significant threats for speaking out or organizing in resistance.
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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.”
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Voter fraud is incredibly rare, despite the president repeatedly claiming otherwise.
The Department of Justice's (DOJ) voting rights unit is switching its focus from protecting voters' ability to cast ballots to investigating so-called voter fraud and fair election practices — buzzwords frequently used by President Donald Trump to push election denial.
“The mission of the Voting Rights Section of the DOJ Civil Rights Division is to ensure free, fair, and honest elections unmarred by fraud, errors, or suspicion,” the unit's new mission statement reads.
Traditionally, the division has been tasked with guaranteeing that voters' rights aren't violated — that redistricting hasn't disenfranchised voters, for example, or that people are not unduly denied access to ballots. However, those points appear to be missing from the new mission statement, according to reporting from The Associated Press.
The change is troubling to voting rights experts, who note that the shift could lead to an influx of baseless and politically charged accusations of voter fraud.
“The Civil Rights Division has always worked to make sure Americans have access to the polls and that their votes matter. The division's job is not to promote the politically expedient fiction that voting fraud is widespread,” said Stacey Young, a former Justice Department litigator who previously served in the Civil Rights Division.
In addition to changing its philosophy, department officials appointed by Trump are removing managers working within voting rights offices. Remaining staffers are being directed to drop all cases relating to the section's work.
Trump has frequently peddled the debunked claim that he lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden because of voter fraud — and has continued pushing that claim throughout his third term. Just days after the DOJ made changes to the voting rights unit, Trump demanded on Truth Social that the sentence of an election denier be reduced.
In his post, Trump discussed former Colorado elections clerk Tina Peters, who is currently in prison for breaching voter systems in her jurisdiction, allowing unauthorized people to enter the Mesa County election office to access sensitive data, which was also shared online.
During her sentencing last fall, Colorado District Judge Matthew Barrett expressed frustration with Peters, noting that she didn't show any sign of remorse.
“I'm convinced you'd do it all over again if you could,” Barrett said. “You are a privileged person. You are as privileged as they come. You used that for power and fame.”
Last week, Trump demanded that Peters be freed, citing false and partisan talking points.
Trump claimed in a Truth Social post that Peters, for example, had “worked to expose and document Democrat Election Fraud” in the state of Colorado, when no such fraud has been uncovered. He also called the situation a “Communist persecution by the Radical Left Democrats to cover up their Election crimes and misdeeds in 2020,” an accusation that has no basis in reality.
Trump further indicated that he would direct “the Department of Justice to take all necessary action” to end her sentencing, which he falsely claimed was a politically motivated move by Democrats in the state — providing more evidence that the administration's goal to address supposed voter fraud is, in fact, political.
The Trump administration is cracking down on political dissent. Under pressure from an array of McCarthy-style tactics, academics, activists and nonprofits face significant threats for speaking out or organizing in resistance.
Truthout is appealing for your support to weather this storm of censorship. We've launched a fundraising campaign to find 500 new monthly donors in the next 10 days. Will you be one?
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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.
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MOSCOW, May 12. /TASS/. A proposal by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Ukraine to resume direct talks, the threats of new European sanctions and the closure of Russia's Consulate General in Krakow became the main topics of Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov's briefing on Monday.
TASS has summarized the key statements by the Kremlin official.
- Putin's approach "aimed at finding a real diplomatic solution to the Ukrainian crisis, eliminating the root causes of the conflict and establishing lasting peace has met with support and understanding by the leaders of many countries."
- Russia is set "to seriously seek ways for a long-term peaceful settlement of the Ukraine conflict."
- US President Donald Trump has urged the Ukrainian side to take part in the meeting proposed by Russia "without any conditions."
- As for the threat of introducing new European sanctions, the language of ultimatums is unacceptable for dialogue with Russia: "One cannot use such rhetoric with Russia."
- By shutting down Russia's Consulate General in Krakow, the Polish government continues to sour its relations with Moscow, "which are already in deteriorated shape." "Poland is consistently choosing to be hostile and unfriendly toward us."
- Poland's accusations that Russia was responsible for the 2024 shopping mall fire in Warsaw are "absolutely unfounded" and are part of its "Russophobic and unfriendly stance."
- As for media reports about the upcoming visit of Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, the Kremlin is preparing for talks: "We will make an official announcement soon. I can say that yes, indeed, we are getting ready for the Russia-Malaysia talks, for contacts.".
The bill text is a section of the budget reconciliation package that the GOP hopes to complete as soon as Memorial Day.
House Republicans late Sunday unveiled legislation that analysts said would rip Medicaid coverage from millions of low-income Americans — including children and people with disabilities — to help fund tax breaks that would disproportionately benefit the wealthy.
The bill text released by the House Energy and Commerce Committee is a section of the sprawling budget reconciliation package that Republicans are hoping to complete as soon as Memorial Day.
The legislation includes major changes to Medicaid that, if enacted, would kick millions from the program, including work requirements for some enrollees and new payment mandates for adults living above 100% of the federal poverty level — which, for a single individual, is $15,650 in annual income for 2025.
A snap analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the healthcare section of the new Republican bill would cut spending by at least $715 billion over the next decade and leave at least 8.6 million more people without insurance.
“Many of the Medicaid proposals from House Republicans are technical and wonky, and will be difficult for the public to absorb,” said Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at KFF. “What won't be difficult to absorb: CBO's estimate that the changes will increase the number of people without health insurance by at least 8.6 million.”
With the stated goal of combating fraud, the GOP bill would implement a slew of new reporting and screening requirements to check Medicaid recipients' eligibility — changes that analysts said would ensnare many in procedural red tape, resulting in large-scale loss of coverage.
The measure's work requirement mandates at least 80 hours of work, community service, or related activities per month. Most Medicaid recipients already work, and previous work requirements at the state level have resulted in disaster.
The legislation also alters “cost-sharing requirements for certain expansion individuals under the Medicaid program.” In plain terms, the bill would force certain Medicaid recipients to pay more for coverage, whether through premiums or other fees.
“If you make $20,000, a state might slap $1,000 of fees onto your Medicaid,” Bobby Kogan, senior director of federal budget policy at the Center for American Progress, wrote in an analysis of the bill. “True sicko shit.”
“My heart aches for the people whose lives will be ruined if this becomes law,” Kogan added. “So it's our job to stop it.”
Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said in a statement Sunday that “this bill confirms what we've been saying all along: Trump and Republicans have been lying when they claim they aren't going to cut Medicaid and take away people's healthcare.”
“Let's be clear, Republican leadership released this bill under cover of night because they don't want people to know their true intentions,” said Pallone. “In no uncertain terms, millions of Americans will lose their healthcare coverage, hospitals will close, seniors will not be able to access the care they need, and premiums will rise for millions of people if this bill passes.”
“Taking healthcare away from children and moms, seniors in nursing homes, and people with disabilities to give tax breaks to people who don't need them is shameful,” he added. “Democrats have defeated Republican efforts to cut healthcare before, and we can do it again.”
The Trump administration is cracking down on political dissent. Under pressure from an array of McCarthy-style tactics, academics, activists and nonprofits face significant threats for speaking out or organizing in resistance.
Truthout is appealing for your support to weather this storm of censorship. We've launched a fundraising campaign to find 500 new monthly donors in the next 10 days. Will you be one?
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Jake Johnson is a staff writer for Common Dreams. Follow him on Twitter: @johnsonjakep.
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US senator says Republicans must choose whether to back working Americans or rich corporate executives
Josh Hawley, the influential US senator from Missouri, has warned that his Republican party is suffering from an “identity crisis” over whether it stands for working Americans or rich corporate executives, signaling a worsening split among Donald Trump's congressional troops over the president's plans for deep Medicaid cuts.
In an opinion piece in the New York Times published on Monday, Hawley warned his fellow Republicans it would be “politically suicidal” to concede to huge cuts in the federal program that provides health insurance to more than 70 million low-income Americans. He derided what he called the “Wall Street wing” of his own party that he said favoured corporate giveaways at the price of “slashing health insurance for the working poor”.
Hawley's pointed attack on his Republican colleagues highlights the intensifying clash within his party over how to deliver Trump's desire to extend his 2017 tax cuts. To pay for the extension, the House energy and commerce committee has been charged with finding $880bn in federal spending cuts over a decade – much of which is likely to come from Medicaid.
Late on Sunday, the committee released its latest iteration of its proposals. The plan would strip almost 9 million low-income Americans of their health insurance mainly by trimming Medicaid, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The latest draft proposals would also require millions of low-income Americans who earn above the federal poverty level to contribute co-payments for medical services.
The plans for Medicaid cuts would require approval from both the House and the narrowly divided Senate. Hawley is one of a few Republican senators, including Susan Collins from Maine, who are putting up staunch resistance.
In his Times op-ed, Hawley expresses his opposition to deep Medicaid cuts in existential terms. He suggests that the Republican party under Trump is facing a blunt choice – does it represent the majority of working Americans? Or, using a term referring to the top executives at companies, will it become a permanent minority party “speaking only for the C-suite”?
Hawley's strongly worded intervention carries the weight of a devoted Trump loyalist who has backed some of the most controversial aspects of the US president's Make America Great Again (Maga) movement. He was a leading figure in efforts within the Senate to block the certification of Joe Biden's victory over Trump in the 2020 election. And he notoriously presented a clenched fist to the Trump supporters outside the Capitol building on 6 January 2021 before they attacked Congress that day.
Hawley was later captured on video running from the mob through the hallway of the building, prompting a deluge of derisive memes.
His claims in his opinion piece to be a champion of working Americans should carry caveats. He has opposed raising the minimum wage in Missouri and has enthusiastically backed efforts to undermine public-sector trade unions.
Two dozen fasting students also press university system to divest from weapon manufacturers in list of demands
About two dozen California State University students began a hunger strike last week to protest against starvation in Gaza due to Israel's aid blockade, marking the latest act of political protest on college campuses.
The strikers – students from San Jose State, Sacramento State, San Francisco State and CSU Long Beach – began their fast on 5 May
“We, the students of San Francisco, Sacramento, Long Beach, and San Jose State Universities, are beginning a united hunger strike in solidarity with the two million Palestinians at risk of starvation in Gaza,” Students for Justice in Palestine wrote in a press release. They are also pushing the university system to divest from weapons manufacturers, among other stated goals.
The hunger strikes come as Israel's aid blockade in Gaza passes its second month, and is facing mounting international criticism for the millions of Palestinians pushed toward famine, as well as Israel's finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich's, recent assertion that “Gaza will be entirely destroyed.”
Max Flynt, a hunger striker and undergraduate student at San Francisco State University, cited the aid blockade as a decisive factor for organizing the strike. Flynt sets up daily on the campus quad with other organizers and strikers under a “Hunger Strike for Gaza” canopy. Organizers hold educational workshops and strikers have their vitals taken every few hours, but do not stay overnight.
“Many of the forms of protests that were used last year, specifically the encampments, have become effectively illegal in the United States,” Flynt said. “If we were to put up a tent today, the police would be called on us almost immediately.”
Jaime Jackson, a professor at Sacramento State and member of Faculty for Justice in Palestine who studies non-violent protest, pointed out the hunger strike's symbolic ties with the realities in Gaza.
“The bombing, the killing, the massive violations of human rights have been an ongoing issue throughout,” Jackson said. “But the recent, really big thing has been the blocking of humanitarian aid and the ongoing starvation of people in Gaza.”
The crackdown on college protesters from the police to policy level, began during the Biden administration last year and has only increased under Trump. International students with vocal support for Palestinians have been especially targeted.
“We know that the Trump administration is doing this because they're scared of the student movement, they're scared of what they saw last year, and they're scared that it will come back again,” Flynt said.
The divestment demands from Flynt and other protesters include the California State University system's adoption of San Francisco State University's Human Rights IPS Screening, the severance of study abroad programs with Israeli universities, and divestment from companies producing military, weapons and surveillance technology.
“We're aware of where they are sending our money, and we don't want to be used to any of these war efforts, genocide through these companies,” said Amal Dawud, and undergraduate and organizer at Sacramento State University.
Two schools in the California State University system, Sacramento State University and San Francisco State University, began some form of divestment last year after meeting with student protesters. San Francisco State University confirmed the offloading of assets in Lockheed Martin, Leonardo and Palantir, while some questions remain surrounding the mechanics of Sacramento State's divestment.
Questions linger surrounding the mechanics and concrete implications of divestment. A recently killed congressional bill would have expanded penalties for boycotting and divestment.
Marcus Bode, an undergraduate and hunger striker at California State, Long Beach, cited his university's partnership with Boeing, a major supplier to the Israel Defense Forces, as something that would disappear under divestment. Bode can consume water, powder electrolytes and sports fluid under the conditions of the strike, and said that he is already feeling the physical effects of the strike, including aching joints, muscle cramps and lightheadedness.
“We don't see those increases in tuition and fees, those hikes and prices, being returned as a benefit to the student. It isn't being reinvested into our campus and into our student body,” Bode said. “It's instead being used to fund war and genocide abroad.”
Bode and his fellow hunger strikers face an uphill battle with the university system.
Amy Bentley-Smith, CSU's director of media relations, said the system and its campuses would not alter investment policies but honor the right to protest. “We will continue to uphold the values of free inquiry, peaceful protest and academic freedom,” Smith said to the Guardian in a statement.
Head of US Department of Health told parents to ‘do their own research' when deciding to vaccinate their children
Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, has intimated that parents are to blame for their children's autism, and that they are responsible for researching every aspect of their children's lives that could affect their development.
“We have to recognize we are doing this to our children, and we need to put an end to it,” Kennedy said at his first press conference as health secretary.
In a recent interview with Dr Phil McGraw, Kennedy told parents to “do their own research” when it comes to vaccinating their kids, stating that scientists were still trying to understand whether the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine causes severe side-effects like brain swelling (they know; it doesn't).
“You research the baby stroller, you research the foods that they're getting, and you need to research the medicines that they're taking as well,” he said.
These statements appear to blame parents for vaccinating their kids and causing autism, a developmental and neurological condition that is overwhelmingly genetic, said Jessica Calarco, professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of Holding It Together: How Women Became America's Safety Net.
“That's very much what he's implying and how it's going to be read,” Calarco said.
It's a message that reminded Shannon Des Roches Rosa of the early days after her son's diagnosis. In 2003, she subscribed to the then novel theory that vaccines could be linked to autism – to the point that she stopped vaccinating her children.
She saw a doctor who specialized in treating autistic children, and he “had us doing all this pseudoscience and supplements and not vaccinating our kids”, Rosa said.
“People were thinking we were having an autism epidemic when we weren't. It was diagnosis and recognition,” she said.
As study after study came out showing no link between vaccines and autism, Rosa began getting her kids regular shots once again.
“There is no association between vaccines and autism. As much as any science can be settled, that is settled,” said Rosa, a senior editor of Thinking Person's Guide to Autism – and by relitigating this point, Kennedy “is causing incredible harm”, she said.
“I don't think parents blame themselves automatically. I think they blame themselves when they hear from people who stoke their fears about autism, like RFK Jr.”
Parents, especially mothers, have long been blamed for their children's autism diagnoses. In the 1940s, psychologists believed the condition was caused by “refrigerator mothers”, or moms who were too “cold” to their children.
“There was a huge culture of blame and shame toward mothers,” Calarco said.
That's one of the reasons the debunked vaccination explanation for autism has been so appealing and persistent, she said. “Despite the clear evidence against it, it alleviates that blame.”
In his efforts to link vaccines to autism, Kennedy also opens the door for legal action against vaccine makers, Calarco said.
“If they can point to the vaccine, it means that they can legally hold someone else liable, and thereby sue to get financial support for the often high costs of supporting their children in a society that doesn't have a strong social safety net.”
That lack of a social safety net is one reason why Kennedy has been popular among some parents of autistic children.
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For instance, families of disabled children were nearly twice as likely to face financial hardship than families of children without disabilities, according to a new study.
“We put so much burden on families, and particularly on mothers, to navigate their children's diagnoses, to navigate the supports that their children need,” Calarco said. “In that kind of system, it's easy to want any kind of support and attention, even if that means accepting misinformation.”
Blaming mothers has persisted through the decades in part because “mothers are overwhelmingly the ones who make healthcare decisions for their families”, Calarco said. “If you're telling parents or telling society that someone should be doing this work of keeping kids safe, what you're really saying is women should be doing this work, especially mothers.”
This message also reinforces ideals of intensive mothering, especially stay-at-home mothering, Calarco said. “RFK Jr is weaponizing the supermom myth – the false idea that moms are the only ones who can keep kids safe from harm.”
Rosa pushed back on Kennedy's recommendation that parents do research on vaccines.
“I shouldn't have to be doing that. That's what researchers do, and researchers have already settled this question. I cannot tell you how distressing it is to have seen all these years of research go into autism and vaccine causation that could have been used to research better quality of life for my son,” she said.
Some parents, believing they are responsible for the diagnosis and for finding relief, also try unproven and dangerous “treatments” for autism. Chelation, for instance, is a process used to reverse heavy-metal poisoning that can cause heart attacks and deaths if not overseen carefully. A five-year-old child died in a hyperbaric chamber in January while undergoing “oxygen therapy”. And other parents have given their children enemas with industrial bleach on the advice of discredited pseudoscientists.
“It's not enough to let people know that vaccines don't cause autism. We also have to affirm that autism is not something to fear,” Rosa has written.
“If they got affirming and neutral information about autism from the start, if our society wasn't so fearful of autism from the start – obviously every kind of disability is different, but it would just be like, ‘Oh, my kid needs glasses,'” she said.
“Disability is a natural part of human variation, even though it's so badly stigmatized, so what we need to work on is developing better supports for people like my son,” Rosa continued.
Health leaders such as Kennedy “need to focus on helping people live good lives, instead of trying to prevent them from existing”, she said.
"I believe both leaders are going to be there," U.S. President Donald Trump said.
"I myself have heard relatives talking: our village is being attacked, let's roll the car out of the garage, maybe they will shell it — at least we will get money. The car is old, we can't sell it," Belgorod Oblast Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
The new tranche brings total recent EU defense support for Ukraine to 3.3 billion euros ($3.6 billion), marking a significant expansion of European efforts to boost Kyiv's defense industry.
"The clock is ticking — we still have twelve hours until the end of this day," German government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius reportedly said.
"There is no point in prolonging the killings. And I will wait for Putin on Thursday in Turkey," President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
"Russia is ready for negotiations without any preconditions," Putin claimed in an address marking the end of the three-day Victory Day ceasefire. He invited Ukraine to begin talks in Istanbul on May 15.
Both men face charges related to terrorism and espionage. Daniil B. was detained in Lithuania, where he is in temporary custody, while Oleksandr V. remains at large in Russia.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Ukraine and its allies discussed tougher sanctions against Russia's banking sector, central bank, and energy industry.
"We are ready for all options. But of course, we are separately waiting for a response on the ceasefire," a source close to President Volodymyr Zelensky told the Kyiv Independent.
The EU plans to unveil on May 14 its next package of sanctions imposed against Russia over its aggression against Ukraine, an EU official told the Kyiv Independent on condition of anonymity.
Polish truckers plan to restrict freight traffic at the Yahodyn-Dorohusk checkpoint on the Ukrainian border, Ukraine's State Border Guard said on May 12.
"If the Russians are using this level of specialists in urban combat, they are probably facing some difficulties," Ivan Petrychak, spokesperson for the 24th Separate Mechanized Brigade, said.
Previously, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk accused the Russian intelligence services of orchestrating a May 2024 arson attack on the Marywilska shopping centre in Warsaw.
"Perhaps in some areas, the intensity decreased slightly to create an image of compliance with their own announcement. But in reality, (Russia) continued attacks every day, using all available weapons — including aircraft to drop guided bombs on Ukraine," Andrii Demchenko, spokesperson for Ukraine's State Border Guard Service, said.
Beijing supports all efforts toward achieving peace in Ukraine, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said on May 12 when asked about Kyiv and Europe's proposal for a 30-day truce.
The United States has approved the transfer of 125 long-range artillery rockets and 100 Patriot air defense missiles from Germany to Ukraine, the New York Times (NYT) reported on May 10.
The American-made weapons cannot be exported, even by a country that owns them, without approval from the U.S. government.
A U.S. congressional official on May 9 announced that Washington had given the green light for Germany to transfer the weapons to Kyiv, the NYT reported. The shipment includes 125 long-range artillery rockets and 100 Patriot air defense missiles.
The Patriot air defense system is widely recognized for its high-precision detection, tracking, and interception of aircraft, cruise, and ballistic missiles. Ukraine reportedly has only eight Patriot systems, two of which are currently not in service. An additional Patriot system is on its way to Ukraine from Israel as part of a previously arranged commitment, the NYT reported on May 4.
Kyiv faces a shortage of ammunition for its Patriots, though details about its missile stocks have not been disclosed for security purposes. President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly urged the U.S. and international partners to provide additional Patriot systems and missiles as Russian attacks against Ukrainian cities intensify.
Production of Patriot missiles is expensive and complex, meaning the shortage is a worldwide issue.
At least two Patriot missiles are needed to intercept a ballistic missile, Ukrainian aviation expert Kostiantyn Kryvolap told the Kyiv Independent on May 6. Russia has escalated its ballistic missile attacks against Ukraine, making April the deadliest month for Ukrainian civilians since September 2024.
Germany has provided Kyiv with air defense support, including Patriot missiles and IRIS-T systems, in previous military aid packages. Newly elected German Chancellor Friedrich Merz arrived in Kyiv on May 10, along with other European leaders, to reaffirm Germany and Europe's support for Ukraine and commitment to securing a ceasefire deal.
Senior News Editor
Abbey Fenbert is a senior news editor at the Kyiv Independent. She is a freelance writer, editor, and playwright with an MFA from Boston University. Abbey served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine from 2008-2011.
MOSCOW, May 12. /TASS/. Russia calls on Ukraine to restart direct talks in Istanbul; India and Pakistan exchange accusations of provocation after reaching a ceasefire deal; and NATO launches a major military drill along Russia's border. These stories have topped Monday's newspaper headlines across Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's offer for Ukraine to resume direct talks in Istanbul on May 15 "without any preconditions" was the main result of the four-day events dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory in the Great Patriotic War, Vedomosti notes.
Putin made the statement the same day as Ukraine and its European allies - France, Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom - called for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire starting on May 12. Otherwise, they said, Russia will have to face more sanctions. EU countries seem to still believe that Ukraine is capable of defending its positions on the battlefield, which is why they continue to provide military support to Kiev, Pavel Timofeev, head of the Sector of Regional Problems and Conflicts at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of World Economy and International Relations, noted.
Russia has never refused to hold talks, nor has it ever put forward preconditions, Nikolay Silayev, senior researcher with the Center of Caucasian Studies at Moscow State Institute of International Relations, emphasized. As for the agenda of potential talks, the parties need to build upon the draft agreement that was reached in the previous round of Istanbul talks, only recognizing Russia's new border, he said. Silayev points out that Putin's statement was important for US President Donald Trump who is unprepared to engage in a confrontation with Russia at a scale that was maintained by his predecessor but on the other hand, he is also unwilling to abandon Ukraine, which is seen as a foreign policy asset by the US and the West in general.
The main challenge lies in the position of Ukraine and European countries who insist that a ceasefire must come first, Valdai International Discussion Club expert Andrey Kortunov observed. According to him, "such a plan does not suit Russia because there is no guarantee that Ukraine will abide by a ceasefire." The analyst expects several rounds of mediation diplomacy to take place in the next three days in order to bring the positions of Russia and Ukraine closer together.
Putin has made another grandmaster move. The offer of an immediate launch of talks in Istanbul without preconditions is pulling the rug from under the Kiev regime and its sponsors, Diplomatic Academy Vice Principal Oleg Karpovich told Izvestia. Moscow realizes that a ceasefire is only possible in a situation where Kiev agrees to engage in a serious dialogue that would take Russia's demands into account. Perhaps, the pressure that the Zelensky regime is facing from Trump will eventually accelerate things forward, the expert concluded.
India and Pakistan reached a ceasefire agreement on May 10, after four days of hostilities. The news was first announced by US President Donald Trump on the Truth Social platform. The authorities of the opposing countries confirmed it a bit later; however, they continued to exchange accusations of military provocation, Vedomosti writes.
US media outlets reported, citing Indian government sources, that New Delhi and Islamabad had agreed a ceasefire in direct consultations, without enlisting Trump as a mediator. Meanwhile, White House sources pointed to the important role that US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio had played in the agreements reached by India and Pakistan.
Although Pakistan sought mediation from China, Beijing was unable to take on this role due to its tense relations with New Delhi, Vasily Kashin, director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies, observed. This is why it's even convenient for Beijing that the Americans acted as intermediaries, the analyst said. According to him, despite close economic ties with Islamabad, China does not have a controlling stake in Pakistan's foreign and internal policy.
Both India and Pakistan are interested in de-escalating violence, so they are trying to backtrack now, Boris Volkhonsky, associate professor at Moscow State University's Institute of Asian and African Studies, pointed out. In his opinion, the authorities in both countries have reached their political goals, demonstrating their resolve to protect national interests to their voters. "That said, a further escalation will serve no one. Neither India nor Pakistan wants to cross red lines by using regular forces on each other's territory," the expert elaborated.
Volkhonsky believes that Trump decided to interfere in the India-Pakistan conflict in order to demonstrate some diplomatic success to his fellow citizens amid failures in resolving the Russia-Ukraine crisis. "The Indians and the Pakistanis were already prepared for de-escalation, so the US president took the opportunity to step in, passing it off as the result of clever diplomacy," the expert noted.
Major military drills are kicking off in Finland on May 12, which involve Sweden and the United Kingdom. About 7,000 troops will take part in the operation. The drills, set to last until May 31, are aimed at practicing indirect fire, as well as the use of attack helicopters and drones in the north, Izvestia reports.
NATO is currently trying to master the skills and knowledge gained in Ukraine, military expert Vadim Kozyulin said. "They have come to understand that the unmanned aerial vehicles the alliance has in service are already outdated," he explained. "Military technology is developing rapidly in the course of Russia's special military operation. It's safe to say that Ukraine has turned into a kind of testing ground for advanced equipment and weapons, primarily UAVs. Now, NATO must be considering forming drone forces, which is what Kiev is already doing," Kozyulin added.
Finland has joined NATO just recently, but in fact, it has always been the bloc's ally, repeatedly hosting joint drills with the North Atlantic Alliance. According to the expert, the current exercise is nothing new, it's just that its magnitude is larger, and this is exactly what makes it a threat to Russia. "We need to show an adequate response. For the time being, we will simply watch what they do, taking it into account. NATO keeps saying that it will only implement defense scenarios, but the drills it holds also practice actions suitable for aggressive operations," the analyst stressed.
For years, Sweden and Finland maintained neutrality, preserving good-neighborly relations first with the Soviet Union and then with Russia, which benefited them both economically and politically, Sergey Ordzhonikidze, former United Nations undersecretary, pointed out. "However, they have now taken an overtly anti-Russian position, giving in to the influence of the British and other major Western European nations. In particular, they joined NATO.
What did they get in return? Nothing but the need to obey the bloc's military and political leadership. This doesn't strengthen their security but undermines it. Russia has never posed a threat to these countries. On the contrary, it always supported their neutrality," the expert noted. In the meantime, it must be remembered that any hostile action against a country such as Russia will not remain without serious consequences, Ordzhonikidze concluded.
Declining oil prices and freight rates have contributed to a rise in Russian oil exports. In April, oil shipments through ports rose to 448,000 metric tons per day, recovering to the level recorded in December 2024, when the US introduced sweeping sanctions. Given a stable demand for oil in Asia and a decrease in transportation fees, the current export level is expected to continue into May, Kommersant writes.
Alexey Politov, senior analyst at the Price Index Center, says that India, China and Turkey remain the key markets of oil exports as demand for Russian oil brands remains stable there due to attractive prices.
Lyudmila Rokotyanskaya, stock market expert at BCS World of Investment, believes that April's export growth stemmed from a decline in global oil prices, accompanied by a speedy recovery of production by OPEC+ countries. If the group continues to gradually restore production to the previous levels, additional conditions may be created for a rise in Russian exports, she noted. The expert also pointed to recovering supplies to China, which were partially interrupted by the sanctions that the US introduced in January.
Politov adds that market participants expect the level of exports will either remain the same or slightly grow in May.
Igor Yushkov, a specialist at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, warns that there are currently no reasons for the growth of oil prices, given geopolitical tensions and trade wars. The OPEC+ group's decision to increase output by 411,000 barrels per day in June will have an additional effect on the market as it is three times as much as the initial plan, he stressed.
Meanwhile, restrictions on the fleet carrying Russian oil may be expanded. According to Bloomberg, the EU's 17th package of sanctions, which is currently in the works, may target up to 150 tankers suspected of circumventing the oil price cap. Rokotyanskaya notes that the main risk is that the US will support the EU, introducing similar restrictions.
Bitcoin's price has approached the $105,000 level for the first time since January. The digital currency's value rose by over 9% in less than a week due to soft rhetoric from the US Federal Reserve and a trade agreement between Washington and London. The capitalization of other major cryptocurrencies increased by 8-36% during the same period. Experts interviewed by Kommersant expect the bull campaign to continue amid hopes for an easing of frictions between the United States and its trading partners.
Another wave of growth in the leading cryptocurrency's price stems from the outcome of the Federal Reserve's May 7 meeting, which maintained the key rate at the 4.25-4.5 range. According to BitRiver financial analyst Vladislav Antonov, market participants paid special attention to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's remarks about the influence that the Trump administration's tariff policy could have on inflation processes. As a result, investors started to predict a potential decline in interest rates in the second quarter of 2025. "Cheaper money always increases demand for risky assets," Roman Kaufman, CEO and founder of Alpha7291, pointed out.
An improving geopolitical situation gave an additional boost to the process. On Thursday, US President Donald Trump announced a trade deal with the UK. "The general tone of the ‘tariff wars' has significantly softened. On May 11, Trump announced that the US and China reached an agreement to fully reload relations following a meeting in Switzerland, where numerous issues had been discussed and agreements had been achieved on most of them," Neomarkets Chief Analyst Oleg Kalmanovich noted. Consequently, investor appetite for risks, as well as demand for digital currencies, increased across the world.
Bitcoin price stabilizing above the $100,000 level has paved the way for continued growth and new all-time highs. Antonov expects the price to reach the $114,000-119,000 threshold in the near future. In the coming week, investors will focus on US inflation data, set to be released on May 13, and on Trump's rhetoric. "If the negotiation process continues and new trade agreements are reached, it will be only a matter of time when bitcoin will hit new records," Kalmanovich said.
TASS is not responsible for the material quoted in these press reviews
Ding Xueliang spent his early teenage years in China as a fervent believer and practitioner of Chairman Mao Zedong's revolutionary ideals — but he never imagined those memories would one day be stirred by a sitting US president.
In 1966, at just 13 years old, the son of poor farmers became one of Mao's Red Guards. He joined millions of young people across China to participate in the Cultural Revolution, a decade-long upheaval set off by an aging Mao to reassert his absolute control over the ruling Communist Party – with the stated goal of preserving communist ideology.
Nearly six decades later, Ding is a distinguished scholar of Chinese politics based in Hong Kong, with a PhD from Harvard and a career teaching about the catastrophic movement he embraced.
But in recent months, he has begun to see uncanny echoes of Mao's Cultural Revolution in an unexpected place: Donald Trump's America.
To be clear, there are profound, incomparable differences between the deadly violence and chaos unleashed by a dictator in a one-party state, and an elected president's divisive attempts to expand executive power within a mature democracy.
“It's not identical,” Ding said. “But there are certainly parallels.”
As Trump upends the very institutions, alliances, and free trade order that have underpinned America's global dominance since World War II, some in China are reminded of their own former leader — one who wielded revolutionary zeal to tear down the old world more than half a century ago.
In articles and social media posts, Chinese scholars and commentators have drawn comparisons between Trump and Mao. Some referenced the Cultural Revolution – at times obliquely to avoid censorship; others highlighted Trump's apparent appetite for chaos, and the rising signs of authoritarianism and personality cult within his administration.
Since returning to the White House, Trump has disrupted the federal bureaucracy – dismantling agencies, purging officials and slashing civil service jobs. He has waged a war on ideology that conservatives deem “woke” and attacked elite universities – including Ding's alma mater Harvard – for “liberal indoctrination,” threatening to cut their federal funding. He's also pledged to bring manufacturing jobs back to the US and “put American workers first.”
And in the US president, Ding noticed what he said were striking similarities with the late Chinese chairman whom he once worshiped as a young Red Guard: despite their vast differences, they both share a deep contempt for intellectual elites, a strong mistrust of the bureaucratic apparatus, and a populist appeal aimed at farmers and blue-collar workers.
During the Cultural Revolution, Mao's Red Guards declared war against the “Four Olds” – old customs, old culture, old habits and old ideas – to erase remnants of China's pre-communist past. (It led to the widespread destruction of some of the country's most valuable historical and cultural artifacts.)
That campaign stemmed from Mao's long-held belief in “first destroy, then establish” – the idea that old systems, ideologies, or institutions must be demolished before new ones can be erected in their place.
Coming from an impoverished family, Ding eagerly took part in public humiliation rallies against teachers, intellectuals, government officials and others labeled as enemies of Mao's vision.
“I was especially enthusiastic about the Cultural Revolution because I was born into a family of three generations of poor farmers — one of the ‘five red categories.' At the time, I felt the Cultural Revolution was extremely important for us, it was wonderful,” he said.
But as China learned over a harrowing decade, it's far easier to tear things down than to rebuild them. Mao's violent mass movement shut down schools, paralyzed the government, shattered the economy, destroyed religious and cultural relics – turmoil that only subsided after the leader's death in 1976. Historians estimate somewhere between 500,000 and two million people lost their lives.
Now, some Chinese are looking at that tumultuous chapter of their own history to make sense of the change Trump is unleashing in America.
Among Mao's most ardent admirers, there's a sense of pride that the US president appears to be borrowing from the revolutionary playbook of their esteemed supreme leader. One blogger likened Trump's February tweet — “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law” — to Mao's iconic slogan: “To rebel is justified.”
“Trump is adept at imitating Chairman Mao. Trump is China's true opponent,” the blogger concluded.
Other Mao fans cheered Trump for cozying up to Vladimir Putin's Russia while snubbing Ukraine and Europe, said Wu Qiang, an independent analyst in Beijing who is studying Chinese perceptions of Trump.
Ever since his first term, Trump has earned the nickname “Chuan Jianguo,” or “Trump, the nation builder” among Chinese nationalists — a mocking suggestion that he is making China stronger by undermining America.
For some Chinese liberals, however, Trump's sweeping expansion of executive power and attacks on press freedom, academic independence and the rule of law in the first 100 days of his second term have sparked disbelief, frustration and disappointment.
On Chinese social media, users voiced their disillusionment in the comment sections of US Embassy accounts, lamenting that America no longer resembles the ideal they once believed in.
“I always thought the US was a beacon to the world, standing for justice and fairness. But its recent actions have been completely disillusioning … Many Chinese people's faith in America has been shattered!” said a comment on the US Embassy's WeChat account.
Others made oblique references to Mao.
Underneath the embassy's post celebrating Trump's first 100 days in office, a Chinese user wrote: “Sailing the seas depends on the helmsman.” That's the title of a revolutionary song eulogizing Mao, which became the popular anthem of the Cultural Revolution.
Another wrote: “The American people also have their own sun,” complete with a smirking dog emoji. Mao was extolled as the “red sun of China” at the height of his personality cult during the mass movement.
For years, Chinese liberals have quietly warned of a creeping return to the Cultural Revolution under Xi Jinping, the most powerful leader since Mao. A devoted student of the “Great Helmsman,” Xi has steered China closer to strongman rule and curtailed individual freedoms in ways critics say are reminiscent of that era.
And so, it was all the more striking for some Chinese liberals to witness an authoritarian turn seemingly unfolding in Washington, which under former President Joe Biden had framed the US competition with China as “democracy versus authoritarianism.”
Less than a month into Trump's second term, Zhang Qianfan, a constitutional law professor in Beijing, was already alarmed by the emergence of what he called an “American-style Cultural Revolution.”
“The Cultural Revolution was essentially a power struggle,” he said.
Mao was insecure about his authority, eroded by three years of famine caused by his disastrous “Great Leap Forward” industrialization campaign; he was also suspicious of the establishment built by himself, claiming that “representatives of the bourgeoisie” had sneaked into the party, the government, the army and the cultural spheres.
Similarly, Trump believes the “deep state” is out to get him. And like Mao, he turned to loyalists outside the establishment to reshape the system and bend it to his will, Zhang said.
“Mao unleashed the Red Guards to ‘smash' the police, prosecutors, and courts, so that loyal revolutionaries could seize control of state machinery,” he said. “Trump brought Elon Musk and six young Silicon Valley executives into the White House under the banner of eliminating corruption, waste, and inefficiency — akin to the ‘Cultural Revolution Leadership Group' entering the party's central leadership.”
Zhang was equally unsettled by the growing signs of a personality cult in Washington.
Last month, when he saw a social media photo of a gold pin in the shape of Trump's profile worn on the chest of Brendan Carr, chairman of the US Federal Communications Commission, he initially thought it was fake news or a parody.
In China, such a badge carries heavy political symbolism. During the Cultural Revolution, Mao's badges were worn ubiquitously by Red Guards and others as a public display of loyalty to the chairman and devotion to the revolution.
“During Trump's presidential inauguration speech, Republican lawmakers all stood up and applauded with such fervor that it rivaled North Korea. These are deeply troubling signs,” Zhang said. “People are seeing all kinds of sycophancy in the US that would have once been unimaginable.”
Trump has even publicly flirted with the idea of seeking an unconstitutional third term, saying he was “not joking” and claiming that “a lot of people want me to do it.”
Mao ruled China until his death. Xi is serving a third term after abolishing presidential term limits in 2018 in a move praised by Trump.
“He's now president for life, president for life. And he's great,” Trump said at the time in closed-door remarks obtained by CNN. “And look, he was able to do that. I think it's great. Maybe we'll have to give that a shot someday.”
All the parallels aside, the first 100 days of Trump's second term are radically different from Mao's Cultural Revolution, which devastated China, saw millions of people persecuted and resulted in more than 1.7 million deaths, according to the party's own count.
Unlike Mao, Trump did not mobilize youths across America to form a nationwide, self-organized political movement. “The January 6 attack on the US Capitol was somewhat similar, but it didn't take off – it did not become a national rebellion in the US,” said Ding, the former Red Guard.
To Ding, the two leaders also differ dramatically in their global ambitions.
“Whereas Mao's Cultural Revolution had a grand goal for China to replace the Soviet Union and become the sole guiding force for the global proletarian revolution, Trump's movement lacks such an ambitious, internationalist vision,” he said. “Instead, Trump has utterly damaged America's image, credibility, and influence within the global camp of liberal democracies.”
In many ways, Trump is reshaping the global order. He has disrupted the transatlantic alliance – a cornerstone of Western security for decades – and pushed Asian allies to pay more for US protection. He also narrowed the focus of his global tariff war squarely on China, effectively cutting off trade between the world's largest economies – until both sides announced a 90-day reduction in tariffs on Monday.
Wu, the political analyst in Beijing, believes Trump has a substantial base of support in China – larger than many might expect.
“The enthusiasm for Trump — from intellectuals and elites to ordinary people — reflects a deeper dissatisfaction with China's current political system,” he said.
For many Maoists, Trump has sparked their renewed yearning for a political movement that can bring China closer to what they see as the social equality and ideological purity of the Mao era, Wu noted.
Some in the business community believe Trump's radical approach can finally push China to enact the painful reforms it needs. To Wu, their support of Trump signals a symbolic gesture: a longing for change.
“What they share is a desire to see a Trump-like movement, or even a Cultural Revolution-style political shakeup, take place in China — a way to break from the status quo,” he said.
Zhang, the law professor in Beijing, said similarly, Trump's reelection reflected widespread political discontent in the US.
“In this context, America's ‘Cultural Revolution' can be seen as a desperate response to the failure of democracy,” he said.
But Zhang believes there's no need to be overly pessimistic.
After Mao's final decade of turmoil and destruction, China moved away from the fervor of ideological and class struggles to focus on economic growth. It opened up to the world and embraced the global order that the US helped create, and the rest is history.
“After all, every country makes mistakes — what matters is whether it can correct them in time,” Zhang said.
“Right now in the United States, the breakdown and the repair of its social contract are locked in a race. If America can mend that contract before Trump and his MAGA movement inflict lasting damage…then there is still hope. The ‘beacon of democracy' can shine again.”
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By Liu Jun, Executive Director of the Center for Russian Studies, East China Normal University, professor, Guancha media contributor, and Yang Shuping, PhD candidate at Moscow State University, young researcher at the Center for Russian Studies, East China Normal University
On May 9, 2025, Moscow held a grand military parade on Red Square to mark the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory in the Great Patriotic War.
Approximately 27 foreign heads of state attended the Red Square parade, highlighting Russia's influence on the international stage and signaling a break from Western diplomatic isolation. It also reinforced Russia's ties with friendly nations. However, the parade was not merely a response to Western sanctions and containment. More importantly, it served as a powerful historical symbol and collective memory – a tribute to the immense sacrifices made for the victory in the global anti-fascist war, and a solemn reaffirmation of that great triumph and enduring honor.
At President Putin's invitation, President Xi Jinping paid a state visit to Russia from May 7 to 10 and attended the Victory Day events. President Xi Jinping's visit to Russia signals a shared commitment by China and Russia to promote an accurate understanding of World War II history, defend the post-war international order centered on the United Nations, and uphold the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. At the bilateral level, the two countries will continue to deepen their partnership through high-level exchanges, using the stability of their relationship to offset global uncertainty and advancing strategic coordination to safeguard international fairness and justice.
Eighty years ago, China and the Soviet Union fought side by side in the World Anti-Fascist War (World War II), forging a deep friendship through shared sacrifice. At this year's military parade, President Putin praised the Chinese people's significant contributions to the victory. In a signed article in Rossiyskaya Gazeta, President Xi Jinping also emphasized the decisive roles played by both countries.
Today, Western countries manipulate ideology through historical nihilism, double standards, and discursive reconstruction, deliberately downplaying, distorting, or even rewriting the historical contributions of China and the Soviet Union in World War II. By reshaping the narrative, they seek to undermine the foundations of the post-war international order and perpetuate their global dominance. Against this backdrop, the renewed call by the Chinese and Russian leaders to “jointly uphold a correct view of WWII history” serves as a powerful rebuke to historical revisionism and falsification. It reflects a shared strategic resolve to break the West's monopoly on historical discourse and to defend international justice and collective memory. This is not only a shared responsibility to safeguard historical truth, but also a deep convergence between China and Russia in promoting the democratization of international relations, building a fair and equitable global order, and opposing unilateral hegemony.
On May 8, China and Russia signed a series of cooperation documents, including two major joint statements. The first focuses on further deepening the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for the new era; the second is a joint statement on global strategic stability. In addition, the two heads of state witnessed the exchange of multiple cooperation agreements in areas such as education, investment, culture, and science and technology. These documents not only ensure the continuity and stability of bilateral ties at the strategic level, but also reflect the steady deepening of practical cooperation across key sectors.
The 'Joint Statement on Further Deepening the China-Russia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership of Coordination for the New Era' not only reaffirms the two countries' firm commitment to safeguarding the international system with the United Nations at its core and the international order based on international law, but also elevates the promotion of a correct view of World War II history to a strategic element of institutionalized bilateral cooperation. Key measures include jointly organizing commemorative events, conducting research and exhibitions on the crimes of Nazi Germany and Japanese militarism, locating the remains of fallen soldiers, restoring memorial sites, and deepening cooperation on WWII historical memory in education, archives, media, and youth exchanges.
The 'Joint Statement on Maintaining Global Strategic Stability' reaffirms the two countries' consistent stance on preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, safeguarding the international arms control and disarmament system, and more. It also systematically establishes a comprehensive dialogue and cooperation framework that includes nuclear security, strategic deterrence balance, and governance of militarization of emerging technologies. Notably, this statement marks the first time that biological security, chemical weapons control, and military ethics in artificial intelligence have been included in the global strategic stability agenda, signaling a significant breakthrough for China and Russia in shaping a new international security paradigm for the future.
At the bilateral cooperation level, President Xi Jinping and President Vladimir Putin witnessed the exchange of 28 cooperation documents between China and Russia, covering areas such as trade, biosafety, investment protection, digital economy, scientific facilities, quarantine, media, film, and youth exchanges. This broad agenda strengthens traditional sectors like energy and trade, while strategically positioning both countries in emerging fields like digital economy and scientific innovation, and deepening people-to-people ties through cultural, educational, and youth cooperation.
Amid unprecedented global changes, the trajectory of China-Russia relations continues to attract international attention. Some speculate about a formal alliance or potential rifts due to diverging interests. In response, China and Russia have demonstrated through deepening cooperation that they are building a new type of major-country relationship based on “highest mutual trust, coordination, and strategic value.” As President Xi has emphasized, their relationship is driven by clear historical logic, strong internal momentum, and shared civilizational heritage, not aimed at or influenced by any third party.
History is not only a repository of memories of the past, but also serves as the foundational basis for contemporary international relations, shaping value identities and acting as the spiritual pillar for a fair and just international order. The outcomes of World War II crystallized into the cornerstone of multilateralism, with the United Nations at its core, establishing the fundamental principles that govern modern international relations. These principles, derived from the collective sacrifices of the war, have provided a framework for diplomacy, conflict resolution, and global cooperation. As the world faces new challenges, the importance of these historical lessons becomes increasingly evident – reminding us that the stability of the global order rests on our ability to respect shared values, adhere to international norms, and safeguard the multilateral system. In this context, the victory in WWII is not just a historical event, but an enduring legacy that continues to shape global governance and the international system.
As the renowned Russian historian Vasily Klyuchevsky once said, “Those who refuse to learn from history will ultimately pay a heavy price for their ignorance and arrogance.” China also has a saying: “Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.” The significance of history lies in guiding us forward. Upholding the achievements of WWII and safeguarding the international system centered on the United Nations is a shared responsibility and mission for both China and Russia.
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MOSCOW, May 12. /TASS/. Moscow will soon respond to what Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called an "inadequate" move by Warsaw to shut down the Russian Consulate General in Krakow.
"Warsaw deliberately seeks to ruin the relations, by acting against its citizens. An appropriate response to these inadequate steps will follow soon," the diplomat told TASS.
Earlier on Monday, Polish Foreign Minster Radoslaw Sikorski decided to shut down the Russian Consulate General in Krakow. The decision followed what Sikorski called a sabotage attack on the Marywilska 44 shopping center, allegedly directed by Russian special services, he explained in a post on X.
In October 2024, Poland's top diplomat decided to close the Russian Consulate General in Poznan, citing an alleged attempt by Russia to set fire to a plant factory in Wroclaw. In response, the Russian Foreign Ministry shut down the Polish Consulate in St. Petersburg.
"I believe both leaders are going to be there," U.S. President Donald Trump said.
"I myself have heard relatives talking: our village is being attacked, let's roll the car out of the garage, maybe they will shell it — at least we will get money. The car is old, we can't sell it," Belgorod Oblast Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
The new tranche brings total recent EU defense support for Ukraine to 3.3 billion euros ($3.6 billion), marking a significant expansion of European efforts to boost Kyiv's defense industry.
"The clock is ticking — we still have twelve hours until the end of this day," German government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius reportedly said.
"There is no point in prolonging the killings. And I will wait for Putin on Thursday in Turkey," President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
"Russia is ready for negotiations without any preconditions," Putin claimed in an address marking the end of the three-day Victory Day ceasefire. He invited Ukraine to begin talks in Istanbul on May 15.
Both men face charges related to terrorism and espionage. Daniil B. was detained in Lithuania, where he is in temporary custody, while Oleksandr V. remains at large in Russia.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Ukraine and its allies discussed tougher sanctions against Russia's banking sector, central bank, and energy industry.
"We are ready for all options. But of course, we are separately waiting for a response on the ceasefire," a source close to President Volodymyr Zelensky told the Kyiv Independent.
The EU plans to unveil on May 14 its next package of sanctions imposed against Russia over its aggression against Ukraine, an EU official told the Kyiv Independent on condition of anonymity.
Polish truckers plan to restrict freight traffic at the Yahodyn-Dorohusk checkpoint on the Ukrainian border, Ukraine's State Border Guard said on May 12.
"If the Russians are using this level of specialists in urban combat, they are probably facing some difficulties," Ivan Petrychak, spokesperson for the 24th Separate Mechanized Brigade, said.
Previously, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk accused the Russian intelligence services of orchestrating a May 2024 arson attack on the Marywilska shopping centre in Warsaw.
"Perhaps in some areas, the intensity decreased slightly to create an image of compliance with their own announcement. But in reality, (Russia) continued attacks every day, using all available weapons — including aircraft to drop guided bombs on Ukraine," Andrii Demchenko, spokesperson for Ukraine's State Border Guard Service, said.
Beijing supports all efforts toward achieving peace in Ukraine, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said on May 12 when asked about Kyiv and Europe's proposal for a 30-day truce.
The French Presidential Office on May 12 dismissed a fake story pushed by Russia about a paper napkin seen during European leaders' visit to Kyiv.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova spread a claim that the footage of a train carriage with French President Emmanuel Macron, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz showed a "bag and spoon" for drugs.
The story was subsequently picked up by Russian propagandists, who claimed that the European leaders used drugs during their trip.
When European unity becomes inconvenient, disinformation goes so far as to make a simple tissue look like drugs.This fake news is being spread by France's enemies, both abroad and at home. We must remain vigilant against manipulation. pic.twitter.com/xyXhGm9Dsr
"When European unity becomes inconvenient, disinformation goes so far as to make a simple tissue look like drugs," the Elysee Palace reacted, showing a close-up of the tissue.
"This fake news is being spread by France's enemies, both abroad and at home. We must remain vigilant against manipulation."
Mocking Russian claims, the French Presidential Office added a description to the picture, saying: "This is a tissue. For blowing your nose."
The three European leaders, as well as Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, visited Kyiv on May 10 to meet President Volodymyr Zelensky and reaffirm their commitment to Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression.
Zelensky and the European partners also endorsed an unconditional ceasefire with Russia starting on May 12, a proposal Moscow ignored.
Senior News Editor
Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.
"I believe both leaders are going to be there," U.S. President Donald Trump said.
"I myself have heard relatives talking: our village is being attacked, let's roll the car out of the garage, maybe they will shell it — at least we will get money. The car is old, we can't sell it," Belgorod Oblast Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
The new tranche brings total recent EU defense support for Ukraine to 3.3 billion euros ($3.6 billion), marking a significant expansion of European efforts to boost Kyiv's defense industry.
"The clock is ticking — we still have twelve hours until the end of this day," German government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius reportedly said.
"There is no point in prolonging the killings. And I will wait for Putin on Thursday in Turkey," President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
"Russia is ready for negotiations without any preconditions," Putin claimed in an address marking the end of the three-day Victory Day ceasefire. He invited Ukraine to begin talks in Istanbul on May 15.
Both men face charges related to terrorism and espionage. Daniil B. was detained in Lithuania, where he is in temporary custody, while Oleksandr V. remains at large in Russia.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Ukraine and its allies discussed tougher sanctions against Russia's banking sector, central bank, and energy industry.
"We are ready for all options. But of course, we are separately waiting for a response on the ceasefire," a source close to President Volodymyr Zelensky told the Kyiv Independent.
The EU plans to unveil on May 14 its next package of sanctions imposed against Russia over its aggression against Ukraine, an EU official told the Kyiv Independent on condition of anonymity.
Polish truckers plan to restrict freight traffic at the Yahodyn-Dorohusk checkpoint on the Ukrainian border, Ukraine's State Border Guard said on May 12.
"If the Russians are using this level of specialists in urban combat, they are probably facing some difficulties," Ivan Petrychak, spokesperson for the 24th Separate Mechanized Brigade, said.
Previously, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk accused the Russian intelligence services of orchestrating a May 2024 arson attack on the Marywilska shopping centre in Warsaw.
"Perhaps in some areas, the intensity decreased slightly to create an image of compliance with their own announcement. But in reality, (Russia) continued attacks every day, using all available weapons — including aircraft to drop guided bombs on Ukraine," Andrii Demchenko, spokesperson for Ukraine's State Border Guard Service, said.
Beijing supports all efforts toward achieving peace in Ukraine, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said on May 12 when asked about Kyiv and Europe's proposal for a 30-day truce.
The leaders of the United Kingdon, France, Germany, and Poland will visit Kyiv on May 10 to demonstrate their support for Ukraine, the leaders announced in a joint statement May 9.
The planned visit comes the day after Russia's Victory Day parade in Moscow, an annual event the Kremlin uses to showcase its military might and justify the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin invited a number of world leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, to attend this year's celebrations.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk are set to arrive in Kyiv early on May 10 to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to a statement from the U.K. government.
The historic visit marks the first time the leaders of all four countries have traveled to Ukraine together and Merz's first visit to Ukraine as Germany's chancellor.
The visit also comes the day after U.S. President Donald Trump demanded a "30-day unconditional ceasefire" between Russia and Ukraine. Reuters reported on May 9 that the U.S. and European allies are currently finalizing their proposal for a full 30-day truce.
The U.S. embassy in Kyiv on May 9 warned that "a potentially significant air attack" could occur in the coming days — amid Russia's so-called ceasefire.
"We, the leaders of France, Germany, Poland, and the United Kingdom will stand in Kyiv in solidarity with Ukraine against Russia's barbaric and illegal full-scale invasion," the joint statement reads.
"We reiterate our backing for President Trump's calls for a peace deal and call on Russia to stop obstructing efforts to secure an enduring peace. Alongside the U.S., we call on Russia to agree to a full and unconditional 30-day ceasefire to create the space for talks on a just and lasting peace."
Since March, Ukraine has agreed to accept a complete ceasefire as soon as Russia agrees to the same terms. Russia has rejected these conditions repeatedly, insisting it will not begin a full ceasefire until Ukraine makes extreme concessions, including halting all military aid.
Instead, Putin has proposed a series of partial and temporary truces, which Russia has then proceeded to break. Ahead of Victory Day, Putin unilaterally declared a temporary ceasefire from May 8-11. Nonetheless, attacks against Ukrainian civilians and front-line assaults have continued.
"We are ready to support peace talks as soon as possible, to discuss technical implementation of the ceasefire, and prepare for a full peace deal," the joint statement said.
"We are clear the bloodshed must end, Russia must stop its illegal invasion, and Ukraine must be able to prosper as a safe, secure, and sovereign nation within its internationally recognized borders for generations to come."
The four leaders will visit Kyiv's Independence Square to pay their respects to Ukraine's fallen soldiers and casualties of the full-scale war, according to the announcement. They will also host a virtual meeting alongside Zelensky briefing allies on the work of a future coalition that will monitor peace in Ukraine.
The "air, land, maritime, and regeneration force" will help bolster Ukraine's military following an eventual peace deal and will "strenghten confidence in any future peace," the statement read.
Senior News Editor
Abbey Fenbert is a senior news editor at the Kyiv Independent. She is a freelance writer, editor, and playwright with an MFA from Boston University. Abbey served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine from 2008-2011.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Federal prosecutors will begin trying to prove Monday that Sean “Diddy” Combs turned his hip-hop conglomerate into a racketeering enterprise that forced women to satisfy his sexual desires for two decades. (May 12)
Sean “Diddy” Combs' family has arrived to the courthouse as opening statements are expected to begin in his sex trafficking trial in New York. A publicist for his attorneys says Combs is “Upbeat, ready to have his side told in open court.”
Sean Diddy Combs, center, motions a heart sign to his family in attendance as he is escorted out of lock-up by US Marshals, on the first day of trial, Monday, May 12, 2025, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
Family and supporters of Sean “Diddy” Combs, including his sons Quincy Brown, third from left, and Justin Combs, second from right, arrive to the courthouse in New York, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
This frame grab taken from hotel security camera video and aired by CNN appears to show Sean “Diddy” Combs attacking singer Cassie in a Los Angeles hotel hallway in March 2016. (Hotel Security Camera Video/CNN via AP, file)
Family and supporters of Sean “Diddy” Combs arrive to the courthouse in New York, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Cassie Ventura, left, and Sean “Diddy” Combs appear at the premiere of “Can't Stop, Won't Stop: A Bad Boy Story” on June 21, 2017, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — The public knew Sean “Diddy” Combs as a larger-than-life music and business mogul, but in private he used violence and threats to coerce women into drug-fueled sexual encounters that he recorded, a prosecutor said Monday in opening statements at Combs' sex trafficking trial.
“This is Sean Combs,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson told the Manhattan jury as she pointed at Combs, who leaned back in his chair. ”During this trial you are going to hear about 20 years of the defendant's crimes.”
Those crimes, she said, included kidnapping, arson, drugs, sex crimes, bribery and obstruction.
Combs' lawyer Teny Geragos, though, described the trial as a misguided overreach by prosecutors, saying that although her client could be violent, the state was trying to turn consenting sex between adults into a prostitution and sex trafficking case.
“Sean Combs is a complicated man. But this is not a complicated case. This case is about love, jealousy, infidelity and money,” Geragos told the jury of eight men and four women. “There has been a tremendous amount of noise around this case over the past year. It is time to cancel that noise.”
Geragos conceded that Combs' violent outbursts, often fueled by alcohol, jealousy and drugs, might have warranted domestic violence charges, but not sex trafficking and racketeering counts. She told jurors they might think Combs' is a “jerk” and might not condone his “kinky sex,” but “he's not charged with being mean. He's not charged with being a jerk.”
With the trial's first witness, Israel Florez, prosecutors went right to proof of violence by showing footage of Combs kicking and dragging the R&B singer Cassie, his longtime girlfriend, on the floor outside a Los Angeles hotel's elevators in March 2016.
After CNN aired video of the attack last year, Combs apologized and said he was “disgusted” by his actions.
Florez, who worked hotel security in 2016 but is now a Los Angeles police officer, said he knew who Combs was when he encountered him sitting by the hotel's elevators as he responded to a report of a woman in distress.
He said he encountered Combs by the elevators in only a white towel and slouching in a chair “with a blank stare ... like a devilish stare, just looking at me.”
He said that as he was escorting Cassie and Combs to their room, she indicated she wanted to leave and Combs told her: “You're not going to leave.” Florez said he told Combs: “If she wants to leave, she's going to leave.”
Cassie left, and Florez said Combs called out while holding a stack of money with a $100 bill on top, telling him, “Don't tell nobody.” Florez said he considered it a bribe and told Combs, “I don't want your money. Just go back into your room.”
Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, was expected to testify later Monday or Tuesday.
Combs watched Monday's proceedings attentively. When he entered the courtroom, he hugged his lawyers and gave a thumbs-up to family and friends. The case has drawn intense public interest. The line to get into the courthouse stretched down the block. Combs' mother and some of his children were escorted past the crowd and into the building.
Combs, 55, pleaded not guilty to a five-count indictment that could result in a 15-year-to-life prison sentence if he is convicted. Since his September arrest, he's been held at a federal jail in Brooklyn.
Lawyers for the three-time Grammy winner say prosecutors are wrongly trying to make a crime out of a party-loving lifestyle that may have been indulgent, but not illegal.
Prosecutors say Combs coerced women into drugged-up group sexual encounters he called “freak offs,” “wild king nights” or “hotel nights,” then kept them in line by choking, hitting, kicking and dragging them, often by the hair.
In her opening, Johnson said Cassie was far from the only woman Combs beat and sexually exploited.
The prosecutor said Combs last year brutally beat another woman — identified only as Jane — when she confronted him about enduring years of freak offs in dark hotel rooms while he took other paramours on date nights and trips around the globe.
The sex parties are central to Combs' sexual abuse, prosecutors say. Combs' company paid for the parties, held in hotel rooms across the U.S. and overseas, and his employees staged the rooms with his preferred lighting, extra linens and lubricant, Johnson said. Combs compelled women, including Cassie, to take drugs and engage in sexual activity with male escorts while he gratified himself and sometimes recorded them, Johnson said.
Combs would beat Cassie over the smallest slights, such as leaving a freak off without his permission or taking too long in the bathroom, Johnson said. Combs threatened to ruin Cassie's singing career by publicly releasing videos of her sexually involved with male escorts, the prosecutor said. “Her livelihood depended on keeping him happy,” Johnson said.
Combs sat expressionless as Johnson described what she said was a pattern of violence, sexual abuse and blackmail.
Cassie sued Combs in 2023, and the lawsuit was settled within hours, but it touched off a law enforcement investigation and was followed by dozens of lawsuits making similar claims.
Geragos claimed Combs' accusers were motivated by money. She told jurors that Cassie demanded $30 million when she sued him, and another witness will acknowledge demanding $22 million in a breach of contract lawsuit.
“I want you to ask yourself, how many millions of reasons does this witness ... have to lie?” she said.
Geragos also conceded that Combs is extremely jealous and “has a bad temper,” telling the jury that he sometimes got angry and lashed out when he drank alcohol or “did the wrong drugs.” But, she said, “Domestic violence is not sex trafficking.”
The Associated Press doesn't generally identify people who say they are victims of sexual abuse unless they come forward publicly, as Cassie has done.
The trial is expected to last two months.
___
This story was updated to correct the spelling of Casandra Ventura's first name, which had been misspelled “Cassandra.”
___
Associated Press writer Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to this report.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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President Donald Trump marched the US economy to the brink of a self-inflicted recession and a potential supply chain meltdown.
But at the last moment, Trump decided to pull back.
The US-China breakthrough unveiled Monday calls for a 90-day thaw in the trade war by slashing tariffs from suffocatingly high levels as trade was paralyzed between the world's two biggest economies.
The dramatic drop in US-China tariffs is an undeniable positive compared to just a few days ago. The breakthrough has already set off an epic party on Wall Street and is raising hopes that a tariff-driven nightmare can be avoided.
Yet economists say it's still too early to declare the US economy is out of danger altogether. Recession risks remain, even if the odds of a downturn have been dialed back a notch.
Tariffs are still very high — much higher than at any point in decades. Uncertainty is even higher. Damage to confidence and trade flows won't be undone overnight.
Moreover, there is no playbook for what happens next. There is no precedent for how a modern economy responds after going through this many shocks in this short a time.
“We are far from out of the woods,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum and a former economic adviser to Republicans. “There is a narrative that Trump did a U-turn. He didn't. We still have tariffs at levels we haven't seen in a century. That's a substantial tax increase.”
At 145%, US tariffs on China were unsustainably high, amounting to an effective embargo on trade. Supply chain experts warned of imminent trouble, including empty store shelves.
“This staves off the really disastrous consequences that were about to hit the US economy,” Erica York, vice president of federal tax policy at the Tax Foundation, told CNN.
York added that Trump's economic team backtracking from the 145% tariff rates “shows the administration realizes what a disaster it would have been.”
Even though Trump has repeatedly offered a dose of tough medicine in recent weeks, including questioning how many dolls kids need to own, he has been sensitive to the image of barren store shelves as well as financial market reaction to a deepening trade war, a senior administration official told CNN's Jeff Zeleny.
“Both sides luckily decided to save Christmas,” Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at Bleakley Financial Group, wrote in a report on Monday. “The US side listened to the existential crisis of many small businesses.”
Still, despite Trump's decision to slash tariffs on China to 30% for at least 90 days, import taxes remain sharply higher than at the start of the year.
Based on the trade framework agreements reached with China and the UK, Moody's Analytics calculates the US effective tariff rate has dropped from 21.3% to 13.7%. That's still the highest level since 1910.
At that level, tariffs are set to add more than one percentage point to US inflation through this time next year and erase the same amount from gross domestic product (GDP), Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, told CNN.
As a result of the US-China trade war thaw, Zandi is cutting his recession forecast — but not dramatically. He now sees a 45% chance of a US recession this year, down from a peak of 60%.
“The economy will have a tough year but should avoid a recession,” Zandi said in an email. “Of course, the economy will be highly vulnerable to anything else that might go wrong.”
In other words, the trade war has eroded the margin for error in this economy.
Justin Wolfers, an economics professor at the University of Michigan, noted on X that it's true that US trade policy and the prospects for the economy are “much better today than they were yesterday.” But it's also true, Wolfers said, to say that the situation is “much worse today than on Inauguration Day.”
Such is the speed and turbulence of the Trump 2.0 agenda.
After Trump spiked tariffs at his April 2 “Liberation Day” event, Wolfers warned the odds of a recession would reach 75% if all the tariffs kicked in and stayed in place.
Now Wolfers tells CNN that the risk of a recession has fallen sharply but still remains a coin-flip at roughly 50/50.
“There has been a wholly unnecessary supply chain disruption. You can't undo that. It will take some time to work itself out,” Wolfers said in a phone interview.
Nationwide chief economist Kathy Bostjancic now sees the US economy eking out slightly positive growth this year, up from her prior call for no growth at all. Nationwide still sees inflation accelerating to 3.4% this year, but that's an improvement from 4% before the US-China breakthrough.
Trump himself acknowledged on Monday that tariffs could still slingshot higher on China.
Asked if tariffs would go back to 145% if no deal is reached at the end of the 90 days, Trump said: “No, but they'd go substantially higher.” He added: “I think you will have a deal, however.”
In other words, the US-China trade war is not over, even if it got dramatically less bad.
And tariffs are not being suddenly removed from the president's tool chest.
Sector-specific tariffs still loom, including potentially on lumber, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, copper, critical minerals and trucks.
Just last week the Commerce Department set the stage for potential aerospace tariffs by launching a national security probe into imports of airplanes, jet engines and parts.
The risk of further tariffs ahead is one reason RSM chief economist Joe Brusuelas is sticking to his forecast of a 55% chance of a recession over the next 12 months.
“While the agreement prevented an economic decoupling, and that is significant, there are still too many details to be determined, especially those sector tariffs, to remove a recession risk from the table,” Brusuelas said.
Deutsche Bank economists expressed relief on Monday about the easing trade war.
“The global growth outlook is improving,” Deutsche Bank economists wrote in a report. “American trade policy has turned more conciliatory and there is now a better defined range of tariff outcomes. The peak of the trade war uncertainty is in.”
Of course, uncertainty had almost nowhere to go but down.
Trade policy uncertainty, as measured by an index that mentions the topic in major US newspapers, had skyrocketed in recent months to off-the-chart levels unseen since tracking began in the 1960s.
The sudden reduction in US and China tariffs will ease financial pressure on the business community but only adds to the sense of whiplash. And it remains to be seen exactly how businesses will respond to levels of uncertainty that Wolfers described as “paralyzingly high.”
“It's absolutely a manufactured crisis,” said Holtz-Eakin, who served as an economic adviser to Sen. John McCain during the 2008 presidential campaign.
Wolfers said investors and the business world are still bracing for the next shoe to drop when it comes to tariff policy out of the Trump White House.
“What are the chances that we have 90 days of calm ahead of us?” Wolfers said. “Today we have good news, but what would really be good news is if someone just took the button away from him.”
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Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Sean “Diddy” Combs' family has arrived to the courthouse as opening statements are expected to begin in his sex trafficking trial in New York. A publicist for his attorneys says Combs is “Upbeat, ready to have his side told in open court.”
Federal prosecutors will begin trying to prove Monday that Sean “Diddy” Combs turned his hip-hop conglomerate into a racketeering enterprise that forced women to satisfy his sexual desires for two decades. (May 12)
Sean Diddy Combs, center, motions a heart sign to his family in attendance as he is escorted out of lock-up by US Marshals, on the first day of trial, Monday, May 12, 2025, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
Family and supporters of Sean “Diddy” Combs, including his sons Quincy Brown, third from left, and Justin Combs, second from right, arrive to the courthouse in New York, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
This frame grab taken from hotel security camera video and aired by CNN appears to show Sean “Diddy” Combs attacking singer Cassie in a Los Angeles hotel hallway in March 2016. (Hotel Security Camera Video/CNN via AP, file)
Family and supporters of Sean “Diddy” Combs arrive to the courthouse in New York, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Cassie Ventura, left, and Sean “Diddy” Combs appear at the premiere of “Can't Stop, Won't Stop: A Bad Boy Story” on June 21, 2017, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)
Janice Combs, mother of Sean “Diddy” Combs, right, arrives to the courthouse in New York, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Family and supporters of Sean “Diddy” Combs, including his sons Quincy Brown, second from left, and Justin Combs, third from right, arrive to the courthouse in New York, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Janice Combs, mother of Sean “Diddy” Combs, second from right, arrives to the courthouse in New York, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Family and supporters of Sean “Diddy” Combs, including King Combs, second from right, arrive to the courthouse in New York, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Sean ‘Diddy' Combs, right, turns around and looks at the audience during jury selection at Manhattan federal court, Monday, May 5, 2025, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — The public knew Sean “Diddy” Combs as a larger-than-life cultural icon and business mogul, but behind the scenes, he was coercing women into drug-fueled sexual encounters and using violence to keep them in line, a federal prosecutor told a jury Monday during opening statements in Combs' sex trafficking trial.
“This is Sean Combs,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson told the Manhattan jury as she pointed at Combs, who leaned back in his chair. ”... During this trial you are going to hear about 20 years of the defendant's crimes. But he didn't do it alone. He had an inner circle of bodyguards and high-ranking employees who helped him commit crimes and cover them up.”
Those crimes, she said, included kidnapping, arson, drugs, sex crimes, bribery and obstruction.
On the contrary, the trial of Combs is a misguided overreach by prosecutors, who are trying to turn consenting sex between adults into a prostitution and sex trafficking case, Combs' lawyer Teny Geragos said during her opening.
“Sean Combs is a complicated man. But this is not a complicated case. This case is about love, jealousy, infidelity and money,” Geragos told the eight men and four women on the jury. “There has been a tremendous amount of noise around this case over the past year. It is time to cancel that noise.”
Geragos conceded that Combs' violent outbursts, often fueled by alcohol and drugs, might have warranted domestic violence charges, but not the sex trafficking and racketeering counts he faces. She also told jurors they might think Combs' is a “jerk” and might not condone his “kinky sex,” but “he's not charged with being mean. He's not charged with being a jerk.”
Combs, wearing a white sweater, entered the packed courtroom shortly before 9 a.m., hugged his lawyers and gave a thumbs up to supporters seated behind him. The case has drawn intense public interest, and the line to get into the courthouse stretched down the block. Combs' mother and some of his children were escorted past the crowd and brought straight into the building.
Combs, 55, pleaded not guilty to a five-count indictment that could land him in prison for at least 15 years if he is convicted on all charges. He has been held at a federal jail in Brooklyn since his arrest in September.
Lawyers for the three-time Grammy winner say prosecutors are wrongly trying to make a crime out of a party-loving lifestyle that may have been indulgent, but not illegal.
Prosecutors say Combs coerced women into drugged-up group sexual encounters he called “freak offs,” “wild king nights” or “hotel nights,” then kept them in line through violence. He is accused of choking, hitting, kicking and dragging women, often by the hair.
Johnson told jurors about a night when Combs allegedly kidnapped an employee and threatened his one-time girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, whose legal name is Cassandra Ventura and who is expected to be a key witness. Combs told Cassie that if she defied him again, he would release video of her having sex with a male escort — video that the prosecutor called “souvenirs of the most humiliating nights of her life,” Johnson said.
That was “just the tip of the iceberg,” Johnson said, telling jurors that Cassie was far from the only woman Combs beat and sexually exploited.
The prosecutor said Combs last year brutally beat another woman — identified only as Jane — when she confronted him about enduring years of freak offs in dark hotel rooms while he took other paramours on date nights and trips around the globe.
Geragos argued that Combs and Jane had a “toxic and dysfunctional relationship” and she willingly engaged in freak offs because she wanted to spend time with Combs. Their fight a year ago started when Jane slammed Combs' head down in a jealous rage, Geragos said, noting that she didn't want to justify Combs' violence but that the fight wasn't evidence of sex trafficking.
The sex parties are central to Combs' sexual abuse, prosecutors say. Combs' company paid for the parties, held in hotel rooms across the U.S. and overseas, and his employees staged the rooms with his preferred lighting, extra linens and lubricant, Johnson said. Combs compelled women, including Cassie, to take drugs and engage in sexual activity with male escorts while he gratified himself and sometimes recorded them, Johnson said.
Combs would beat Cassie over the smallest slights, such as leaving a “freak off” without his permission or taking too long in the bathroom, Johnson said. Combs threatened to ruin Cassie's singing career by releasing to the public videos of her engaging in sex with male escorts, the prosecutor said. “Her livelihood depended on keeping him happy,” Johnson said.
Combs sat expressionless as he looked toward Johnson and the jury as the prosecutor described what she said was a pattern of violence, sexual abuse and blackmail.
Cassie, who was expected to be among the first witnesses to testify, filed a lawsuit in 2023 saying Combs had subjected her to years of abuse, including beatings and rape. The lawsuit was settled within hours of its filing, but it touched off a law enforcement investigation and was followed by dozens of lawsuits from people making similar claims.
Geragos claimed Combs' accusers were motivated by money. She told jurors that Cassie demanded $30 million when she sued him, and another witness will acknowledge demanding $22 million in a breach of contract lawsuit.
“I want you to ask yourself, how many millions of reasons does this witness, swearing to tell the truth and nothing but the truth, have to lie?” she said.
Prosecutors plan to show jurors security camera footage of Combs beating Cassie in the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.
Johnson told the jury they will hear the lengths Combs' inner circle went to help him hide the attack and get what they thought was the only video recording. She said a security guard was given a brown paper bag full of $100,000 in cash while Combs' bodyguard and chief of staff stood by. “This is far from the only time that the defendant's inner circle tried to close ranks and do damage control.”
Another witness expected to testify Monday was a security guard at the hotel where Combs assaulted Cassie.
After CNN aired the video of the attack last year, Combs apologized and said he took “full responsibility” for his actions. “I was disgusted then when I did it. I'm disgusted now.”
Geragos also conceded that Combs is extremely jealous and “has a bad temper,” telling the jury that he sometimes got angry and lashed out when he drank alcohol or “did the wrong drugs.” But, she said, “Domestic violence is not sex trafficking.”
Jurors might also see recordings of the freak offs. The indictment said the events sometimes lasted days and participants required IV-drips to recover.
The Associated Press doesn't generally identify people who say they are victims of sexual abuse unless they come forward publicly, as Cassie has done.
The trial is expected to last at least eight weeks.
___
Associated Press writer Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to this report.
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Attorney Mehek Cooke explains why the Trump administration is using the Alien Enemies Act, and why federal judges have a range of opinions of the matter.
A U.S. appeals court will review the Trump administration's bid to avoid returning a 20-year-old Venezuelan asylum seeker who was deported to El Salvador earlier this year, keeping him in Salvadoran custody for now.
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed last week to take up Trump's appeal – staying through May 15 a lower court's ruling that required the Trump administration to immediately return him to U.S. soil.
The appeals court also ordered plaintiffs in the case to submit their response to the court before noon on Monday. The Trump administration will have through 9 a.m. Tuesday to respond.
At issue is the case of Daniel Lozano-Camargo, a 20-year-old Venezuelan national previously referred to in court documents as "Cristian," who was deported to El Salvador in March in the Trump administration's early wave of Alien Enemies Act removals.
FEDERAL JUDGE ORDERS RETURN OF DEPORTED MIGRANT TO US, REJECTING TRUMP REQUEST
More than 250 individuals deported from the U.S. to El Salvador arrive by plane to the country, including alleged members of Venezuela's Tren de Aragua gang, and members of the MS-13 gang, to be processed in the country's CECOT maximum security prison. (El Salvador Presidency / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher, a Trump appointee, ruled in April that his deportation violated an agreement the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) struck in 2024 with Lozano-Camargo and a group of young asylum seekers who had entered the U.S. as unaccompanied children.
Under that agreement, DHS agreed not to deport the migrants in question until their requests for asylum could be fully adjudicated in U.S. court. Last month, Gallagher said Lozano-Camargo's deportation was a "breach of contract," since his asylum case had not yet been heard, and ordered the U.S. government to facilitate his release.
A federal judge had ordered President Donald Trump's administration to facilitate the return of a migrant deported to El Salvador. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
She reiterated that decision in court last week, rejecting a new filing from the Justice Department that said it had determined Lozano-Camargo was eligible for removal under the law, citing his earlier arrest and conviction for cocaine possession in Houston this year.
Justice Department officials claimed in earlier court documents that Lozano-Camargo was a member of a "violent terrorist gang" but have not linked him to Tren de Aragua. Portions of their most recent court filing have been redacted.
Gallagher had specifically ordered the Trump administration to make a "good faith request to the government of El Salvador" to "release Cristian, [or Lozano-Camargo], to U.S. custody for transport back to the United States to await the adjudication of his asylum application on the merits by USCIS," which it had not done.
BOASBERG GRILLS DOJ OVER REMARKS FROM TRUMP AND NOEM, FLOATS MOVING MIGRANTS TO GITMO IN ACTION-PACKED HEARING
A person holds up a sign referencing the Centre for Terrorism Confinement prison in El Salvador during a May Day demonstration against President Donald Trump and his immigration policies in Houston on May 1, 2025. (RONALDO SCHEMIDT / AFP)
Gallagher emphasized in court last week that her decision has nothing to do with the strength of his asylum request, and is based solely on due process protections.
"I don't think that this is a case about whether or not Cristian is going to eventually get asylum," she told lawyers for the Trump administration.
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"Process is important. We don't skip to the end and say, ‘We all know how this is going to end so we'll just skip that part,'" she said. "Whether he ultimately receives asylum is not the issue. The issue is – and has always been – one of process."
Still, Gallagher agreed to stay her ruling for 48 hours, giving the administration time to appeal it to the higher court, which it did.
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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Fox News Flash top sports headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com.
Paulina Gretzky and Dustin Johnson were in attendance for Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs Eastern Conference semifinals between the Florida Panthers and the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Gretzky wore a Panthers leather jacket with the team's vintage logo on the back. Johnson wore a Panthers jersey with his name on the back. NHL legend Wayne Gretzky and Maple Leafs great Tie Domi joined the couple in a suite high above the Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida.
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Paulina Gretzky at the Florida Panthers game on May 11, 2025. (Instagram)
"Panther club," she captioned the collage of photos she posted on her Instagram account.
The two have often been seen taking in Panthers games. They were cheering on the Panthers during the team's run to a Stanley Cup title last season.
On Sunday, Gretzky and Johnson got to watch Florida shut out Toronto and tie the series at two games apiece. Sam Bennett and Carter Verhaeghe both scored goals in the win.
STARS' MASON MARCHMENT HITS REF WITH STICK DURING PLAYOFF WIN VS JETS
Florida Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky catches the puck in front of Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews during their second-round playoff game, Sunday, May 11, 2025, in Sunrise, Florida. (AP Photo/Michael Laughlin)
Maple Leafs bruiser Max Domi received backlash for a late hit on Aleksander Barkov as the third period came to a close. He was hit with a major penalty for boarding and the NHL fined him $5,000 on Monday morning.
Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky stopped each of the Maple Leafs' 23 shots.
"We had looks," Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube said. "They're doing a good job of swarming us with numbers, obviously.... It's a battle out there. This is what it is. They don't give you a lot."
Florida Panthers center Evan Rodrigues skates against Toronto Maple Leafs center John Tavares and defenseman Jake McCabe, Sunday, May 11, 2025, in Sunrise. (AP Photo/Michael Laughlin)
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Game 5 is set for Wednesday night in Canada.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Ryan Gaydos is a senior editor for Fox News Digital.
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More than a ton of cocaine worth $400 million was seized off the coast of Australia during a drug bust that ended with the arrests of five men on Friday, local authorities said. (Credit: NSW Police/Australian Federal Police via Storyful)
More than a ton of cocaine worth nearly $400 million was seized off the coast of Australia during a drug bust that ended with the arrests of five men on Friday, local authorities said.
New South Wales (NSW) Police Force investigators obtained intelligence about a suspicious purchase of a boat with a large sum of cash in late April and began following the movements of the vessel and people involved, the NSW and Australian Federal Police (AFP) said in a joint news release.
Both the NSW and AFP monitored their activities as they traveled north via Nelson Bay and Port Macquarie, according to the agencies.
When the vessel came back to shore on Friday, marine authorities launched an interception.
5 FISHERMEN RESCUED AT SEA AFTER 55 DAYS ADRIFT IN PACIFIC OCEAN
The approximately 1,110 blocks of cocaine weighed 1.039 tons and had an estimated potential street value of nearly $400 million, authorities said. (NSW Police/Australian Federal Police )
Authorities discovered approximately 1,110 blocks of cocaine, weighing 1.039 tons, aboard the vessel. The cocaine had an estimated potential street value of nearly $400 million, according to authorities.
Two men, aged 24 and 26, were arrested on board the vessel. Three others were arrested on shore when police spotted vehicles trying to leave the area. (NSW Police/Australian Federal Police )
Two men, aged 24 and 26, were arrested on board the vessel. Three men – aged 28, 29 and 35 – were arrested on shore after investigators stopped two vehicles attempting to leave the area.
NWS and AFP investigators worked together to follow the movements of the vessel and the individuals involved before the bust. (NSW Police/Australian Federal Police )
"Australia's vast coastline is attractive to organized crime groups, who attempt to exploit this by trying to import drugs using boats," AFP Assistant Commissioner Stephen Dametto said. "The bad news for them is the AFP will continue to work together with our partners to target organized crime syndicates who wrongly believe they can operate with impunity."
BONDI ANNOUNCES ONE OF LARGEST FENTANYL SEIZURES IN US HISTORY
The two men arrested on the boat were charged with supplying a prohibited drug in a large commercial quantity, while the three men arrested on shore were charged with taking part in supplying a prohibited drug in a large commercial quantity. All five face charges of participating in a criminal group.
All five men appeared in court and were denied bail.
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Investigators are working to learn more about the origin of the drugs and the group's alleged associates.
Fox News' Antisemitism Exposed" newsletter brings you stories on the rising anti-Jewish prejudice across the U.S. and the world."
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EXCLUSIVE – ALCATRAZ ISLAND, California — Bill Baker was only 23 when he was handcuffed, shackled, and thrown on the back of a boat headed for Alcatraz, the infamous federal penitentiary reserved for the worst of the worst in the country.
Back then, he was known only as Inmate No. 1259. Today, at 91 years old, he's ready to discuss his time on “The Rock.”
Baker's story began on a cold and foggy morning in January 1957. He wore a standard-issue shirt and pants three sizes too big for his frame.
“I was scared s***less,” he told the Washington Examiner.
Born in Kentucky during the Great Depression, Baker spent most of his life in and out of federal prison for cashing bad checks. He got criminally good at escaping, so he was sent to the one place no one had escaped from to finish the final three years of his sentence.
More than half a century later, Baker is back at Alcatraz. This time, voluntarily.
“It doesn't bother me,” he said. “The wardens are all dead. I survived, so this is my turf now.”
Baker is believed to be one of the last living inmates of Alcatraz. He has harrowing tales about the time he tried to escape (he got caught), the spaghetti he still dreams about (“they knew how to feed us!”), and the “little home brew” the inmates got drunk on occasionally.
He and the other prisoners walked the yard, talking about their families and planning future bank robberies. If there was a lesson to be learned at Alcatraz about the consequences of breaking the law, it was lost on Baker. After he left Alcatraz, he spent the next five decades “dabbling in the counterfeit world.”
Baker's a relic now, put out to pasture and no longer a threat, he joked to the Washington Examiner.
“I am a reminder of a time that once was,” he said.
For nearly three decades, the prison off the coast of San Francisco housed some of the most notorious criminals in U.S. history, including gangster Al Capone, George “Machine Gun Kelly” Barnes, and Robert Stroud, who was better known as the “Birdman of Alcatraz.”
The prison opened on July 1, 1934, and closed 28 years later on March 21, 1963. Since then, the National Park Service has turned it into a museum. A trip to Alcatraz is among the top three “must-see” things for visitors to San Francisco. It's a huge driver of tourism and has kitschy jail-themed souvenirs that include everything from life-size replicas of jail cell keys to shot glasses with a prisoner at the bottom trying to get out.
Boatloads of tourists ferry in every half hour, taking self-guided audio tours of the tiny prison cells and learning about the gangsters, murderers, and thieves who, like Baker, once called it home.
Everything about the trip to the former federal penitentiary feels surreal, from the long lines to get on board the Alcatraz Cruises ferry from Pier 33 to the sign reading “Sip a Mimosa” for $11 on board. The snack stand, which sells $6 PB&J sandwiches, has vegan options, such as tahini/chickpea hummus on a whole wheat wrap for $11.25. There's also a charging station for phones, bathrooms, and spectacular views of the island, bay, and San Francisco skyline. On board the 15-minute ride is usually a mix of international tourists, TikTokkers, armchair historians, and schoolchildren.
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT ALCATRAZ, THE CALIFORNIA PRISON TRUMP WANTS TO REOPEN
“I thought there would be more people here,” Juan Flores told the Washington Examiner. Flores made the 2 1/2-hour drive from Sacramento for the excursion. He brought his son Carlos, a sixth grader.
Flores said they purchased tickets online after hearing President Donald Trump wanted to reopen the dilapidated prison.
“I don't know if he was serious or not, but I took off work to come today,” he said. “We thought this might be our last chance.”
Trump recently issued the stunning directive to the Federal Bureau of Prisons to “REBUILD, AND OPEN ALCATRAZ!”
Even though the Bureau of Prisons has been struggling with short staffing, chronic violence, and crumbling infrastructure at its current facilities, Trump said he's counting on the agency to fulfill his vision of rebooting the prison that has become the subject of many books and movies.
Most people who heard the news, such as Michael Seagman, a tourist from Canada, thought Trump was joking. But the president, as he often does, stood firm, disregarding the prison's outdated technology and the very reason then-U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy chose to close it in the first place: It was too costly to maintain and operate.
In a post to Truth Social, Trump wrote, “For too long, America has been plagued by vicious, violent, and repeat Criminal Offenders, the dregs of society, who will never contribute anything other than Misery and Suffering. When we were a more serious Nation, in times past, we did not hesitate to lock up the most dangerous criminals, and keep them far away from anyone they could harm. That's the way it's supposed to be.”
“That is why, today, I am directing the Bureau of Prisons, together with the Department of Justice, FBI, and Homeland Security, to reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt ALCATRAZ, to house America's most ruthless and violent Offenders,” he wrote.
The president's push to reopen Alcatraz didn't seem rooted in reality, Baker said. “No one's opening this place,” he said. “Look at it.”
The cell blocks are now three tiers of faded yellow and green cells with peeling paint and rust on the bars. The toilets are mostly cracked and hollowed out, though some have bricks clogging them. Most cells have chunks of concrete missing, the plumbing doesn't work, the beds are bent metal frames, and wires come out of fireplaces for the officers. None of the equipment works, and most structures are missing simple things such as walls or a roof.
Then, there's the bird excrement, something visitors smell before they see. Droppings coat buildings, walkways, and the roads. They're everywhere. The island's rocky habitat and isolation from mainland predators make it bird heaven and poop hell for those stuck on it.
Saying Alcatraz needs an upgrade is a gross understatement.
It would need the renovation of a century, something that would not only take millions of dollars but also a lot of time.
California lawmakers, from both parties, have laughed off Trump's proposal.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), whose district includes Alcatraz, called the president's plan “not a serious one.”
“Alcatraz closed as a federal penitentiary more than sixty years ago. It is now a very popular national park and major tourist attraction. The President's proposal is not a serious one,” she wrote on X.
Alcatraz closed as a federal penitentiary more than sixty years ago. It is now a very popular national park and major tourist attraction. The President's proposal is not a serious one. https://t.co/ALKXZLWlzO
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) said he was taking it “just as seriously as I'm taking the suggestion that he's gonna make Canada the 51st state,” while Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-CA) simply said, “Whatever. What-ever. He says a lot of things.”
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Columbia University student Josh Segal breaks down the moment when anti-Israel protesters stormed a library during finals week on ‘Fox News Live.'
Arizona lawmakers have outlawed encampments on public university campuses as protests continue to erupt at schools across the United States.
Democratic Arizona Gov. Kate Hobbs last week signed House Bill 2880, which bars people "from establishing or occupying an encampment on a university or community college campus."
The law also requires school administrators to direct people who set up encampments to "immediately dismantle" them or vacate the campus. Those who set up encampments may be held liable for damages to campuses, and those who do not leave are subject to trespassing charges.
Law enforcement agencies "must enforce the prohibition on establishing or occupying an encampment," the law states, and they have "the authority to remove an encampment and any individual or group from campus that has violated the prohibition and refused to comply with the direction to leave."
CALIFORNIA SHERIFF SLAMS ‘MERITLESS' UCLA STUDENT LAWSUIT AGAINST POLICE WHO DISMANTLED ANTI-ISRAEL ENCAMPMENT
Pro-Palestinian protesters gather on the lawn in front of Arizona State University's historic Old Main building in Tempe, Arizona, on April 26, 2024. (© Diannie Chavez / USA TODAY NETWORK)
Democratic Arizona State Rep. Alma Hernandez introduced the bill, saying in a statement when it passed the Education Committee in February that the legislation "is not about silencing anyone's right to protest."
"You still have the right to protest peacefully, but encampments do not have a legal right to be on campus," Hernandez said at the time.
WHAT'S THE PENALTY FOR ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTERS? UCLA'S WARNING INCLUDES 1 CRUCIAL WORD
Hernandez added that the idea behind the legislation stemmed from the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel when Hamas, a designated terrorist organization, killed 1,200 people and kidnapped hundreds of hostages from a music festival.
Law enforcement tear down an encampment that protesters had built on the University of Arizona campus and clash with protesters on Tucson Street on May 1, 2024. (© Sarah Lapidus/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK)
Hamas is a designated terrorist organization that the Department of National Intelligence describes as "the largest and most capable militant group in the Palestinian territories and one of the territories' two major political parties."
The offensive sparked the ongoing war between Israel and the terror group. Meanwhile, students at colleges and universities across the country have participated in large-scale, anti-Israel protests that have, at times, resulted in physical clashes between students and police.
ISRAEL'S PRESIDENT RELEASES BLISTERING STATEMENT ON US UNIVERSITY ENCAMPMENTS: 'RESURGENCE OF ANTISEMITISM'
Law enforcement arrests a protester before disbanding the encampment at Northern Arizona University on April 30, 2024. (© Lacey Latch/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK)
"After October 7th, our universities faced significant challenges as they tried negotiating with individuals who made unrealistic demands and refused to remove their encampments," Hernandez said. "I witnessed the impact of this firsthand. As a student and a faculty member, I firmly believe in the importance of civil conversations and peaceful protests—these fundamental rights protected by the First Amendment. However, encampments have no legal standing on our campuses."We must prioritize accountability and ensure that our public institutions remain focused on providing a safe and secure environment," she continued. "These institutions' primary obligation is to support teaching and learning for ALL students. Jewish students should not have to hide or take alternate routes just to get to class."
UCLA FALLS TO ANARCHY AFTER COUNTERPROTESTERS CONFRONT ANTI-ISRAELI ENCAMPMENT: 'HORRIFIC ACTS OF VIOLENCE'
Pro-Palestinian protesters gather on the lawn in front of Arizona State University's historic Old Main building in Tempe, Arizona, on April 26, 2024. (© Diannie Chavez / USA TODAY NETWORK)
Various Democratic lawmakers and activist organizations opposed Hernandez's bill, including CAIR-AZ and ACLU Arizona, which described the bill as an effort to "curb free speech at a time when we must firmly protect people's right to dissent."
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President Donald Trump has threatened to pull federal funding from schools over antisemitism concerns and deport students who participate in demonstrations expressing support for terrorist organizations.
"To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you," the president said in a Jan. 30 fact sheet on the executive order. "I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before."
Audrey Conklin is a digital reporter for Fox News Digital and FOX Business. Email tips to audrey.conklin@fox.com or on Twitter at @audpants.
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Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Salt & Straw Ice Cream Co-Founder Tyler Malek scoops “Day-Old Bread Pudding” upcycled ice cream in Los Gatos, Calif., on June 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Haven Daley, File)
This book cover image released by Clarkson Potter shows “Salt & Straw: America's Most Iconic Ice Creams” by Tyler Malek and JJ Goode. (Clarkson Potter via AP)
Salt & Straw Ice Cream Co-Founder Tyler Malek scoops “Day-Old Bread Pudding” upcycled ice cream in Los Gatos, Calif., on June 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Haven Daley, File)
This book cover image released by Clarkson Potter shows “Salt & Straw: America's Most Iconic Ice Creams” by Tyler Malek and JJ Goode. (Clarkson Potter via AP)
This image released by Clarskon Potter shows a salted Malted Chocolate chip dough ice cream featured in “Salt & Straw: America's Most Iconic Ice Creams” by Tyler Malek and JJ Goode. (Clarkson Potter via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — If you're intimidated by the idea of making ice cream at home, just think of it as making soup. That's advice from Tyler Malek of Salt & Straw, the innovative gourmet ice cream maker known for its ever-changing lick-able treats.
“Making a pint of ice cream is very similar to making a pot of soup where if you have a good stock recipe — like chicken stock, vegetable stock — then you start just adding to it until it tastes good,” he says from his kitchen in Portland, Oregon.
“If you have really good stock base recipe, you could blend strawberries into it and make strawberry ice cream. You can drizzle chocolate into it and make chocolate ice cream. You can do really anything.”
That ice cream base is also at the heart of Malek's latest cookbook, “ America's Most Iconic Ice Creams: A Salt & Straw Cookbook.” Just as another summer beckons, he and co-author JJ Goode teach the fundamentals, which then can be built on to make all kinds of delicious treats.
That means learning the bases for gelato, custard, sorbet, coconut and ice cream. Only down the road can you confidently turn them into awesome flavors like Strawberry Honey Balsamic with Black Pepper, or Banana Parsnip Sherbet.
“My dream, at its heart, is that someone can take this book and they just pore through it and have so much fun and then it ignites this Pandora's box of imagination,” Malek says.
Tyler Malek scoops “Day-Old Bread Pudding” upcycled ice cream in Los Gatos, Calif., in 2023. (AP Photo/Haven Daley, File)
The cookbook focuses on 10 iconic flavors: vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, coffee, green tea, pistachio, cookie dough, salted caramel, cereal and rum raisin. Once you've mastered their “core principles in flavor, in technique,” Malek says, “you can just go wild.”
And wild it gets in the cookbook, with flavors like Toasted Sourdough, Chocolate and EVOO, and Lemon Earl Grey Shortbread.
“We wanted it to feel like you were imported into our R&D test kitchen and you could feel like you're writing recipes beside us and understanding why we're testing this and adding more salt or adding more sweetness,” he says.
Take salted caramel, which most people think is salty and sweet.
“They're completely wrong,” Malek says, laughing. “It's salty sweet and bitter. Once you get that flavor trinity, you start understanding that the combination of salty, sweet and bitter can completely open your eyes to different combinations. ”
Malek and his cousin, Kim, became ice cream entrepreneurs in 2011 when they opened a small food cart in Portland. Since then, they've expanded to over 40 stores in seven states, becoming known for their refreshing and off-beat approach and rotating menu, with new flavors added every month.
Other flavors have included Malted Potato Chip Cupcake and Black Olive Brittle and Goat Cheese. For Thanksgiving, they once offered Caramelized Turkey & Cranberry Sauce. “I've written 2,500 recipes and maybe 20,000 fails,” says Malek.
Salt & Straw leans on xanthan gum, which Malek uses to combat “heat shock,” when ice cream melts and freezes again into bigger crystals. (“It's as innocuous as cornstarch or baking soda,” he writes.) He also harnesses the power of acids, like citric, malic and tartaric, calling them “an ice cream maker's secret weapon.”
“I think he is part scientist — maybe a mad scientist — and part artist,” says Clarkson Potter editor Francis Lam, who with Susan Roxborough helped craft the book. Lam first encountered Salt & Straw when he ate their prosciutto ice cream at an event in Portland. At another event, he had their sea urchin flavor and felt compelled to meet Malek.
“He's one of these people who doesn't shut down an idea before he runs with it for a little bit,” Lam said.
This book cover image released by Clarkson Potter shows “Salt & Straw: America's Most Iconic Ice Creams” by Tyler Malek and JJ Goode. (Clarkson Potter via AP)
Salt & Straw is part of an artisanal ice cream boom in recent years that includes companies like Van Leeuwen, Gelato Fiasco, Lick Honest Ice Creams, Morgenstern's and Wanderlust Creamery.
Malek has leaned on partners for innovations; he and a doughnut maker in Florida, for instance, created a cream cheese ice cream with glazed brioche doughnut chunks and guava curd. He has interned at breweries to learn the ins and outs of beer making to incorporate it into his desserts.
“My passion is in learning and storytelling. If I weren't making ice cream, my dream job was always to be a travel writer,” says Malek. “I had no idea when we first started the company that ice cream is like the coolest medium to channel that through because it really is like writing a story through every single ice cream.”
He learned that different regions of the country have their blind spots; when Salt & Straw opened in Los Angeles, few knew what rhubarb was. At the same time, he didn't know there were different types of avocados.
Another tip borrowed from soup: As with soup bases, Malek says, home cooks should make big batches of different ice cream bases, separate them into containers and freeze them.
“Then when you're ready to make ice cream, defrost it in your microwave real quick and blend in your strawberries that you got fresh from the farmer's market and make strawberry ice cream,” he says. “That's the trick: to make ice cream within a day or literally within hours of finding a really special ingredient.”
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Salted Malted Chocolate chip dough ice cream featured in “Salt & Straw: America's Most Iconic Ice Creams.” (Clarkson Potter via AP)
Here's a recipe from the new cookbook “America's Most Iconic Ice Creams: A Salt & Straw Cookbook” by Tyler Malek and JJ Goode:
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Makes about 2½ pints
3 cups 17% Butterfat Base (see separate recipe below)
1½ teaspoons molasses (not blackstrap)
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
½ teaspoon Diamond
Crystal kosher salt
1 cup packed Malted Cookie Dough (recipe follows), frozen
¾ cup Malted Fudge (recipe follows)
In a medium bowl, combine the ice cream base, molasses, vanilla and salt, and whisk until smooth. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and turn on the machine. Churn just until the mixture has the texture of soft serve, 30 to 40 minutes, depending on the machine.
Alternate spooning layers of the ice cream and generous dollops of the cookie dough and fudge into freezer-safe containers.
Freeze until firm, at least 6 hours or for up to 3 months.
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Makes about 3 cups
½ cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons nonfat dry milk powder
¼ teaspoon xanthan gum (yes, I'm easy to find!)
1 1/8 cups whole milk
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 1/8 cups heavy cream, very cold
In a small bowl, stir together the sugar, milk powder, and xanthan gum.
In a medium pot, stir together the whole milk and corn syrup. Add the sugar mixture and immediately whisk vigorously until smooth. Set the pot over medium heat and cook, stirring often and reducing the heat if necessary to prevent a simmer, just until the sugar has fully dissolved, about 3 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat. Add the cold cream and stir until fully combined.
Transfer the mixture to an airtight container and refrigerate until well chilled, at least 6 hours, or for even better texture and flavor, 24 hours. Stir well before using.
The base can be further stored in the fridge for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw completely and stir well before using.
—-
Makes about 1 ½ cups
4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
¼ cup lightly packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon flaky sea salt
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1 teaspoon molasses (not blackstrap)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
½ cup all-purpose flour, toasted
2 tablespoons malt powder
¼ cup finely chopped (chip-size pieces) dark chocolate
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, cream the butter, both sugars, and the salt on medium high speed, scraping down the sides as necessary, until the butter takes on a lighter color, about 2 minutes. Stop the mixer and add the cream, corn syrup, molasses, and vanilla, then mix on medium-low speed until the mixture is just combined, about 1 minute more.
In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and malt powder. Add the flour mixture to the stand mixer and mix on medium speed, scraping down the bowl once, until there are no more clumps of flour (specks of malt are just fine!), about 1 minute. Add the chopped chocolate to the stand mixer and mix on low speed until it's well distributed.
Pack tightly into an airtight container and store in the freezer until ready to use or for up to 2 months.
—-
Toasting flour note:
Our cookie dough excludes eggs for some just-in-case food safety assurance, since as you've probably heard, consuming raw eggs carries a minor but real risk of salmonella. What you might not be aware of is that eating raw flour does, too. So if you're someone who avoids sunny-side-ups or carbonara, consider playing it extra safe and cooking the flour for this recipe: Spread it on a sheet pan and bake in a 350°F oven for 15 minutes.
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Makes about 2 cups
1/3 cup malt powder
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 teaspoons cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/4 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt
3/4 cup chopped (chip-size pieces) good dark chocolate
In a small saucepan, combine the malt powder and 1/4 cup cold water and whisk until most of the lumps are broken up. Add the corn syrup, cream, and butter and cook over medium-low heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture comes to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low, add the cocoa powder, xanthan gum, and salt and continue to whisk until the cocoa powder is dissolved and the mixture looks glossy, about 3 minutes.
Turn off the heat, add the chocolate pieces, and let them sit for a minute. Whisk until the chocolate is completely melted and combined. Let cool to room temperature and then use immediately or store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
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Reprinted with permission from “America's Most Iconic Ice Creams: A Salt & Straw Cookbook” by Tyler Malek and JJ Goode. (Clarkson Potter, 2025).
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New York Giants' Cam Skattebo could be the "steal of the draft," ex-NFL star Jake Plummer said during a recent appearance on OutKick's "The Ricky Cobb Show."
Cam Skattebo made a name for himself in college football for Arizona State by running over defenders while getting more yards on the ground as the Sun Devils surprised the sport in 2024.
The New York Giants made Skattebo their fourth-round selection and his comment from rookie minicamp may get fans amped for the start of the 2025 season.
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Running back Cam Skattebo during warmup drills at Giants rookie minicamp. (Chris Pedota, NorthJersey.com/USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
He said Friday that while scoring a touchdown is good, the possibility of trucking an opponent on the way to the end zone is even better.
"It feels good when you run somebody over and then get in the end zone," Skattebo said. "I mean it feels good when you get in the end zone, but imagine running someone over and then running another person over and then getting in the end zone. It's that much better."
EAGLES TO SQUARE OFF AGAINST COWBOYS TO BEGIN 2025 NFL SEASON
New York Giants running back Cam Skattebo speaks to members of the press after rookie minicamp at Quest Diagnostics Training Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey, May 9, 2025. (John Jones-Imagn Images)
Skattebo ran for 1,711 yards and 21 touchdowns during his senior season with the Sun Devils. Arizona State made the College Football Playoff and nearly stunned the Texas Longhorns in the Peach Bowl. The team finished 11-3.
Now, Skattebo will look to make the 53-man roster. He enters a running back room that has veteran Devin Singletary and Tyrone Tracy Jr., who came on strong during his rookie season, running for 839 yards and scoring five touchdowns.
Skattebo, while playing up his elusiveness, vowed to keep proving his doubters wrong.
Arizona State running back Cam Skattebo runs against Texas during the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl in Atlanta on Jan. 1, 2025. (Michael Chow/The Republic/USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
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"This past year I didn't do it a ton," he added. "I more so hit people or attacked their one shoulder, but I mean, if people want to sleep, they can sleep. I have no issue with that. It's been something I've had to deal with my whole life, so I'm going to continue to do what I need to do to be successful and play as long as I can in this league."
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The House GOP has released its plan to cut Medicaid spending, with the most significant changes affecting eligibility requirements and how states can finance Medicaid. However, some of the biggest sticking points were left out of the bill, including changes to per-capita caps on federal Medicaid payments to states.
“Undoubtedly, Democrats will use this as an opportunity to engage in fear-mongering and misrepresent our bill as an attack on Medicaid,” House and Energy Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-KY) wrote in the Wall Street Journal. “In reality, it preserves and strengthens Medicaid for children, mothers, people with disabilities and the elderly — for whom the program was designed.”
President Donald Trump and House Republicans hope to cut $4.5 trillion in government spending to help finance tax cuts. The Energy and Commerce Committee has been tasked with finding $880 billion in savings, with many of the cuts expected to come from Medicaid changes. This has worried some centrist Republicans, who sent a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) last week about their concerns over Medicaid cuts. The bill released Sunday night avoids the most touchy issues for blue-state Republicans, with Guthrie billing it as a “common sense” solution.
The plan would institute work requirements for able-bodied people on Medicaid. Recipients between 19 and 64, with exceptions for pregnant women and those on disability, would be required to work 80 hours per month to receive benefits. Currently, there is no federal work requirement, though Georgia has a state mandate.
Recipients must also verify their eligibility for Medicaid twice a year. They are currently required to verify only once a year. Critics have warned that this could pose a challenge for those who live far from Medicaid offices. If they cannot verify their status in time, they could lose their benefits. However, Republicans said recipients who can prove they are meeting the work requirements are guaranteed coverage.
Democrats immediately requested a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which found that 8.6 million beneficiaries could lose coverage in the next decade under the House GOP's plan.
The plan would also change how states and the federal government contribute to Medicaid. As of 2023, the federal government paid about 70% of the total costs of Medicaid. The GOP's markup will freeze provider taxes, which are the nonfederal portion of Medicaid funding that states pull in from healthcare provider taxes. A congressional report from December 2024 identified pausing or ending states' use of provider funds as a way to cut federal costs, and Republicans have sold it as a way to cut down on abuse.
Even top Democrats, such as former President Barack Obama, have gone after states' reliance on provider taxes. States are only allowed to levy 6% of a provider's income, taxing both those on and off Medicaid. However, Republicans did not seek to peel back provider taxes already put in place.
The federal government will also require states to verify citizenship or visa status for Medicaid recipients. States that fail to do so will be barred from receiving federal Medicaid dollars. In New York, it was reported that 480,000 illegal immigrants were enrolled in “emergency Medicaid” in 2024.
Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the United States that also provides general women's healthcare, will see cuts to the amount of federal funding it receives. The GOP is seeking to bar federal dollars from being used for gender-related treatment and surgeries.
However, Republicans decided to leave off the implementation of per-capita caps on Medicaid payments to states. This was posed as a possibility for the federal government to cut spending, but some Republican members were wary of it. If implemented, a per-capita cap would set a federal limit per beneficiary instead of how it currently stands, in which the government pays a fixed share, but it's an open-ended entitlement.
TWO KEY HOUSE COMMITTEES GEAR UP FOR HEATED HEARINGS TO PASS TRUMP MEGA BILL
While Guthrie and House Republicans seek to strike a balanced deal, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), the ranking member on the Energy and Commerce Committee, called the Republicans' plan “shameful,” saying it will cause hospitals to close.
“In no uncertain terms, millions of Americans will lose their healthcare coverage,” Pallone said. “Seniors will not be able to access the care they need, and premiums will rise for millions of people if this bill passes.”
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Students at Perry Traditional Academy attend a forum of candidates in Pittsburgh's upcoming mayoral primary in Pittsburgh, Thursday, April 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Makaila Nyambe, 17, right, and Deahmi Mobley, juniors at Perry Traditional Academy, question candidates in Pittsburgh's mayoral primary during a candidates forum in Pittsburgh, Thursday, April 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Stalea Chapman, 17, a senior at Perry Traditional Academy, attends a forum of candidates in Pittsburgh's upcoming mayoral primary in Pittsburgh, Thursday, April 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Tony Moreno, a candidate in the upcoming mayoral primary in Pittsburgh, attends a candidates forum at Perry Traditional Academy in Pittsburgh, Thursday, April 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Thomas West, a candidate in the upcoming mayoral primary in Pittsburgh, attends a candidates forum at Perry Traditional Academy in Pittsburgh, Thursday, April 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Students register to vote for school board elections during a Town Hall at the Bethany Baptist Church, Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
A student and activist speaks during a Town Hall and voter registration for school board elections at the Bethany Baptist Church, Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
Voting activist Danna Ward listens to a speaker during a Town Hall and voter registration for school board elections at the Bethany Baptist Church, Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
Activist Dana M. Murray, left, speaks to students during a Town Hall and a voter registration for school board elections at the Bethany Baptist Church, Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
Attendees gather during a Town Hall and voter registration for a school board elections at the Bethany Baptist Church, Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
Young Voters Association President, Nathan Duguid, 19, center, stands during a Town Hall and voter registration for school board elections at the Bethany Baptist Church, Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
Students register to vote for school board elections during a Town Hall at the Bethany Baptist Church, Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
Young Voters Association President, Nathan Duguid, 19, speaks during a Town Hall and voter registration for school board elections at the Bethany Baptist Church, Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
Youth listen to a speaker during a Town Hall and voter registration for school board elections at the Bethany Baptist Church, Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
An attendee wears a pin during a Town Hall and voter registration for school board elections at the Bethany Baptist Church, Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
PITTSBURGH (AP) — At Perry Traditional Academy, students took time out from classes on a recent Thursday to listen quietly in the school auditorium while a small group of their classmates questioned the four candidates running in Pittsburgh's upcoming mayoral primary.
The topics covered an array of issues important to the teens: policing, school funding and youth involvement in their administrations.
The forum, coordinated by the Allegheny Youth Vote Coalition working with Pittsburgh Public Schools, was the eighth held at a public high school in the city, all designed to get the youngest and future voters involved in elections. After the candidates left, they had a short oral civics test on elections, with prizes for correct answers.
What's happening in Pittsburgh and surrounding Allegheny County is part of a national trend.
Young people have consistently turned out to vote at lower rates than older Americans. Civic organizations are hoping to reverse that by getting teenagers engaged in public debate before they are even eligible to vote, seeing it as foundational to the future of U.S. democracy.
A Pew Research Center analysis found that voters under the age of 30 made up 15% of voters in the 2020 election and 27% of nonvoters, a slight improvement in both categories over 2016, when that demographic was 13% of all voters and 33% of nonvoters. Voters were also much older than nonvoters, on average, in the 2018 and 2022 midterm elections, according to Pew.
Among the groups leading the effort nationally is the Civics Center, which works with high schoolers to run voter registration drives and hold forums that are geared toward raising their participation in elections. Others, such as The Gem Project Inc., in Newark, New Jersey, have pushed for students to be able to register and cast ballots in local elections before they turn 18.
Last year, the Newark City Council dropped the minimum voting age to 16 for school board elections, making it the first municipality in the state and the second largest city in the country to do so for any election. Oakland was the largest city in the U.S. to lower its voting age in 2020, but teens voted for the first time last year.
Breanna Quist, 18, and one of the recent registrants in Newark, said the push was especially important to her because it allowed students to vote for an office, school board, that directly affects them.
“This just shows how young people should always just take action. They shouldn't be fearful. They should always advocate for what they believe is right,” she said during an interview at a voter registration town hall earlier this year.
Nishani Ward, 16, said it was an inspiration when Newark lowered the voting age for local elections.
“Doing this right now, I'm more likely to do it in the future and do it more routinely in the future,” she said.
Media reports said turnout among 16- and 17-year-old registered voters in the April school board election was less than 4% but outpaced the overall turnout.
In some places across the country, young people have had success when demanding a greater voice in political decisions. They've argued that voting adults don't always consider them or their needs when casting their ballots. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 21 states and the District of Columbia allow 17-year-olds who will turn 18 by the time of a general election to vote in primaries.
Even though the youth vote tends to bend left politically, this might be a good time to reconsider the minimum age because it's become less predictable, said Daniel Hart, a professor of psychology at Rutgers University who has studied lowering the voting age.
Data from AP VoteCast, a survey of interviews with registered voters in all 50 states, found that Democrat Kamala Harris had a slight edge over Republican Donald Trump among young voters, but young men swung to the right for Trump even if they didn't agree with him on all issues.
The Allegheny Youth Vote Coalition held two vote huddles in 2024, drawing students from throughout the county. They learned about the electoral process and held more than 20 voter registration drives, said Rachel Martin Golman, senior director of social impact of the National Council of Jewish Women Pittsburgh and a coalition member.
During a workshop earlier this year, one student attendee asked why the candidates didn't come speak to them, Golman said: ”And we all thought, yes, why not, and worked to make it happen.”
Laura Brill, the founder and CEO of the Civics Center, a Los Angeles-based coalition member, said the point is that “most teens today have few opportunities to consider their important role in our democracy.” She said engaging the candidates directly is “the kind of formative experience we believe has been missing from high schools for decades and has undoubtedly led to the low rates of engagement we see among the up-and-coming voters.”
At Perry, the students in the audience didn't shy away from asking questions important to them and their peers.
Makaila Nyambe, 17, asked each mayoral candidate about funding for schools, while fellow junior Deahmi Mobley questioned how they might establish a good relationship between law enforcement and teens. Previous forums at other schools included questions on other issues, including how each candidate would implement diversity, equity and inclusion into their administrations.
Trash, homelessness and public safety came up constantly, along with a disagreement over whether more school spending would improve academic performance. Infrastructure, road repairs and cuts to public transit also generated discussion.
The students listened closely when all four candidates talked about neighborhood policing and building relationships -- and about the importance of young people at such a forum.
“You are the leaders we have been waiting for,” said one of the mayoral candidates, retired Pittsburgh police detective Tony Moreno.
“You are the future of Pittsburgh,” said another candidate, Thomas West, a business owner and former television news producer. “You are the future of America.”
Stalea Chapman, a 17-year-old senior, said afterward she was glad the candidates were taking the students seriously and reaching out to them because their futures are intertwined with politics and policies, especially now.
“It is a lot of pressure being young and seeing what the economy is turning to and what's going on in the world,” she said. “It's frightening for young people because we want to be successful.”
___
Alexander reported from Newark, New Jersey. Associated Press Polling Editor Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux contributed to this article.
___
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Press secretary Karoline Leavitt discusses Qatar's offer to gift President Donald Trump a new jumbo jet to be used as Air Force One on 'Fox & Friends.'
A Democratic congressman is calling for an ethics investigation over President Donald Trump's plans to accept a $400 million jet from Qatar that would temporarily serve as Air Force One before being allotted to Trump's presidential library after he leaves office.
Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., wrote to the Government Accountability Office on Sunday, noting that the plane would be the single most expensive gift ever received by a U.S. president. Torres derided the deal as a "flying grift," arguing it violates the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which "explicitly prohibits any person holding public office from accepting ‘any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.'"
"I am writing to express alarm over reports that President Donald Trump is poised to accept a luxury aircraft — a Boeing 747-8 — from the government of Qatar. The plane, so opulent it has been described as a ‘palace in the sky,' is set to be made available to President Trump for official use as Air Force One and then for private use once he leaves office," Torres wrote.
"This ‘flying grift' is merely the latest chapter in a tawdry tale of presidential profiteering unprecedented in American history," Torres added.
TRUMP TEASES 'VERY, VERY BIG ANNOUNCEMENT' AHEAD OF MIDDLE EAST TRIP, CARNEY SAYS HE'S 'ON EDGE OF MY SEAT'
President Donald Trump says he plans to accept the gift of a $400 million jet from Qatar. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Trump described the deal in his own words on social media in a post Sunday night.
"So the fact that the Defense Department is getting a GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE, of a 747 aircraft to replace the 40-year-old Air Force One, temporarily, in a very public and transparent transaction, so bothers the Crooked Democrats that they insist we pay, TOP DOLLAR, for the plane," he wrote.
"Anybody can do that! The Dems are World Class Losers!!!" he added.
Taking questions at the White House on Monday, he also said he wouldn't plan on using the jet after leaving office.
"It would go directly to the library after I leave office," Trump said. "I wouldn't be using it, no."
TRUMP STAFFERS LOAD BOXES OF ITEMS SEIZED BY FBI IN 2022 MAR-A-LAGO RAID ONTO AIR FORCE ONE
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told "FOX & Friends" Monday that the legal details "are still being worked out."
"Any donation to this government is always done in full compliance with the law, and we commit ourselves to the utmost transparency, and we will continue to do that," Leavitt said, adding that Trump "only works with the interests of the American public in mind."
ABC News reported that Trump toured the plane in West Palm Beach earlier this year. While the deal is set to be announced during Trump's trip to the Middle East this week, the actual transaction is not expected to be made until later. Qatari officials say they expect to donate the plane through the Pentagon.
Rep. Ritchie Torres, a Democrat from New York, is calling for an ethics investigation into President Donald Trump's plans to accept a jet from Qatar as a gift. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
"The possible transfer of an aircraft for temporary use as Air Force One is currently under consideration between Qatar's Ministry of Defense and the U.S. Department of Defense, but the matter remains under review by the respective legal departments, and no decision has been made," Qatari embassy official Ali Al-Ansari told ABC News.
Presidents have for decades circumvented the Emoluments Clause by classifying gifts they receive while in office as gifts to the office of the president. Those gifts are then cataloged and stored as part of their presidential libraries after leaving office. While presidents maintain some level of access to the items in their libraries, they do not own them directly and must purchase them from the federal government in order to secure private ownership.
TRUMP STAFFERS LOAD BOXES OF ITEMS SEIZED BY FBI IN 2022 MAR-A-LAGO RAID ONTO AIR FORCE ONE
If the jet were to enter Trump's presidential library, it is unclear how costs would be apportioned for maintenance and usage costs.
A Boeing 747-8, the same general model as the one being gifted to Trump, sits on a tarmac. (Getty Images)
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When not in office as president, Trump has traveled in his private Boeing 757 jet, dubbed Trump Force One. That jet is famously emblazoned with Trump's last name and was frequently seen in the backdrop of campaign rallies.
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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President Donald Trump speaks with reporters as he signs an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, May 9, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he'll sign an executive order on Monday that, if implemented, could bring down the costs of some medications — reviving a failed effort from his first term on an issue he's talked up since even before becoming president.
The order Trump is promising will direct the Department of Health and Human Services to tie what Medicare pays for medications administered in a doctor's office to the lowest price paid by other countries.
“I will be instituting a MOST FAVORED NATION'S POLICY whereby the United States will pay the same price as the Nation that pays the lowest price anywhere in the World,” the president posted Sunday on his social media site, pledging to sign the order on Monday morning at the White House.
“Our Country will finally be treated fairly, and our citizens Healthcare Costs will be reduced by numbers never even thought of before,” Trump added.
His proposal would likely only impact certain drugs covered by Medicare and given in an office — think infusions that treat cancer, and other injectables. But it could potentially bring significant savings to the government, although the “TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS” Trump boasted about in his post may be an exaggeration.
Medicare provides health insurance for roughly 70 million older Americans. Complaints about U.S. drug prices being notoriously high, even when compared with other large and wealthy countries, have long drawn the ire of both parties, but a lasting fix has never cleared Congress.
Under the planned order, the federal government would tie what it pays pharmaceutical companies for those drugs to the price paid by a group of other, economically advanced countries — the so-called “most favored nation” approach.
The proposal will face fierce opposition from the pharmaceutical industry.
It was a rule that Trump tried to adopt during his first term, but could never get through. He signed a similar executive order in the final weeks of his presidency, but a court order later blocked the rule from going into effect under the Biden administration.
The pharmaceutical industry argued that Trump's 2020 attempt would give foreign governments the “upper hand” in deciding the value of medicines in the U.S.. The industry has long argued that forcing lower prices will hurt profits, and ultimately affect innovation and its efforts to develop new medicines.
Only drugs on Medicare Part B — the insurance for doctor's office visits — are likely to be covered under the plan. Medicare beneficiaries are responsible for picking up some of the costs to get those medications during doctor's visits, and for traditional Medicare enrollees there is no annual out-of-pocket cap on what they pay.
A report by the Trump administration during its first term found that the U.S. spends twice as much as some other countries in covering those drugs. Medicare Part B drug spending topped $33 billion in 2021.
More common prescription drugs filled at a pharmacy would probably not be covered by the new order.
Trump's post formally previewing the action came after he teased a “very big announcement” last week. He gave no details, except to note that it wasn't related to trade or the tariffs he has announced imposing on much of the world.
“We're going to have a very, very big announcement to make — like as big as it gets,” Trump said last week.
He came into his first term accusing pharmaceutical companies of “getting away with murder” and complaining that other countries whose governments set drug prices were taking advantage of Americans.
On Sunday, Trump took aim at the industry again, writing that the “Pharmaceutical/Drug Companies would say, for years, that it was Research and Development Costs, and that all of these costs were, and would be, for no reason whatsoever, borne by the ‘suckers' of America, ALONE.”
Referring to drug companies' powerful lobbying efforts, he said that campaign contributions “can do wonders, but not with me, and not with the Republican Party.”
“We are going to do the right thing,” he wrote.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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From image generation to writing, ranking the best — and worst — of AI.
by Kelsey Piper
Staying on top of AI developments is a full-time job.
I would know, because it's my full-time job. I subscribe to Anthropic's Pro mode for access to their latest model, Claude 3.7, in “extended thinking” mode; I have a complementary subscription to OpenAI's Enterprise mode so that I can test out their latest models, o3 and o4-mini-high (more later on OpenAI's absurd naming scheme!), and make lots of images with OpenAI's new image generation model 4o, which is so good I have cancelled my subscription to my previous image generation tool Midjourney.
I subscribe to Elon Musk's Grok 3, which has one of my favorite features of any AI, and I've tried using the Chinese AI agent platform Manus for shopping and scheduling. And while that exhausts my paid subscription budget, it doesn't include all the AIs I work with in some form. In just the month I spent writing this piece, Google massively upgraded its best AI offering, Gemini 2.5, and Meta released Llama 4, the biggest open source AI model yet.
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So what do you do if keeping up with AI developments is not your full-time job, but you still want to know which AI to use when in ways that genuinely improve your life, without wasting time on the models that can't?
That's what we're here for. This article is a detailed, Consumer Reports-style dive into which AI is the best for a wide range of cases and how to actually use them, all based on my experience with real-world tasks.
But first, the disclosures: Vox Media is one of several publishers that have signed partnership agreements with OpenAI, but our reporting remains editorially independent. Future Perfect is funded in part by the BEMC Foundation, whose major funder was also an early investor in Anthropic; they don't have any editorial input into our content either. My wife works at Google, though not in any area related to their AI offerings; for this reason, I usually don't cover Google, but in a piece like this, it'd be irresponsible to exclude it.
The good thing is that this piece doesn't require you to trust me about my editorial independence; I show my work. I ran dozens of comparisons, many of which I invented myself, on every major AI out there. I encourage you to compare their answers and decide for yourself if I picked the right one to recommend.
AI art is made by training a computer on the contents of the internet, with little regard for copyright or the intent of the creators. For that reason, most artists can't stand it. Given that, is it defensible to use AI art at all?
I think in a just world OpenAI would certainly compensate some artists — and in a just world, Congress would be moving to lay out the limits on artistic borrowing. At the same time, I am increasingly convinced that existing copyright law is a poor fit for this problem. Artists influence one another, comment on one another, and draw inspiration from one another, and people with access to AI tools will keep wanting to do that.
My personal philosophy is shaped by the fan cultures of my childhood: It's okay to build on someone else's work for your own enjoyment, but if you like it, you should pay them for it, and it's absolutely not okay to sell it. That means no generative AI art in someone else's style for commercial purposes, but it's fine to play around with your family photos.
OpenAI's new 4o image creation mode is the best AI out there for generating images, by a large margin. It's best in the free category, and it's best in the paid category.
Before it was released, I was subscribed to Midjourney, an AI image generator platform. Midjourney is probably what you think of when you think of AI art: It produces mystical, haunting, visually beautiful stuff, and has some great tools for improving and editing your final results, like touching up someone's hair while leaving everything else in place.
The big thing that 4o can do, which no model before could reliably pull off, is take a picture that didn't come out well and turn it into a beautiful work of art, all while still preserving the character of the original.
For example, here's a still from a video of my wife and I singing “Happy Birthday” to our baby on her first birthday:
It's a beautiful moment, but not exactly a flattering picture. So I asked ChatGPT to render it in the style of Norman Rockwell, a mid-century illustrator whose work I love, and got this:
The AI moved the cake (which had been barely visible behind the paper towel roll in the original still) to be the focal point of the image, while keeping the way my wife and I are holding the baby together, as well as the cluttered table, and the photograph-covered fridge in the background. The result is warm, flattering, and adorable.
It's this capability that made 4o go viral recently in a way that no image generator before it had. Here's Midjourney's attempt, for example:
You'll notice that it's a seemingly, uh, completely different family, with no real inspiration from the original at all! You can eventually get a better result than this out of Midjourney, but only by spending weeks becoming a pro at prompting with the platform's highly specific language and toolset.
By contrast, ChatGPT was able to give me a far superior output on the first try in response to a simple request without specialized language.
The difference between 4o and other image models is most notable with this kind of request, but it's better for almost everything else I use images for, too. The product you get out of the box is pretty good, and it's not hard to produce something much better. That, ideally, is what we should be getting out of our AI tools — something amazing that can be created with simple language by a nonexpert.
The one place 4o still falls short is editing small parts of an image while keeping the rest the same. But even there, you no longer need Midjourney — Gemini now has that capability for free.
To get good images out of 4o, you'll first need to get around the filters which prohibit a wide range of images — like offensive or pornographic images — but which are often enforced against perfectly inoffensive content in a way that can feel random. To avoid sporadic scoldings from the content filter, don't ask for work in the style of a specific artist, but rather, something that is reminiscent of that artist, and then ask specifically for a “style transfer.” I'm sure that's not the only adequate workaround, but it's one that has proven reliable for me.
In March, the internet went briefly wild over the ability to use 4o to reproduce cute family photos in the style of Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli. But Studio Ghibli's style is much more than just cute, and with a little more prompting, you can get much better results. Here's a 4o Studio Ghibli-style rendering of a picture I took of my daughter sneaking a snack off the table, from just the prompt “Ghibli this please”:
Kawaii! But here's what you get if you invite 4o to think first about what makes the picture Ghibli, where it might fit into a Studio Ghibli movie, and what tiny details such a movie would include:
The differences are subtle but meaningful: Light is cast from a specific source, instead of a general sourceless brightness. There's a bit more variety in the foods on the table, details that make the spread appear more realistic. The book on the floor isn't just any book — it's recognizably Eric Carle's classic The Very Hungry Caterpillar, evoked with just two colors and one line. There's an intentionality and intensity to the baby that was missing from the first picture.
A few years ago, one great oddity of language models was that they'd be much smarter if you simply told them, “give an intelligent answer.” This isn't nearly as true of language models anymore, but it remains profoundly true of AI art generation. Try asking the AI to do a good job, and it'll do a better one. Challenge it on whether it truly captured an artist's genius, and it'll give you a thoughtful answer and then draw a better version.
The difference is more pronounced for more realistic art styles (like pencil illustration, photorealism, or oil paintings), which don't always look good and will often hit the uncanny valley if you don't know how to prompt the AI over it. Here's what I get with 4o if I upload a picture of me and my youngest daughter at the beach for the first time with just the words “please do a style transfer to an illustration reminiscent of Rockwell”:
This is impressive for an AI, but it's not actually very good as a work of art, and it is almost totally lacking Norman Rockwell's magic. That's not surprising: More realistic art styles like Rockwell's often fall flat with 4o unless you're able to put in some work in getting the AI to draw them properly.
If you are, here's the strategy I recommend: Don't just upload one picture, but a whole cluster of them, each in slightly different postures and moments. Upload good, clear pictures of each family member's face and tell the AI they've been included as a reference. Then, instead of asking the AI to immediately generate the picture, ask it to talk with you about what you're hoping to capture. This is what I wrote:
This is a picture of the moment that my daughter first saw the ocean. I want an illustration that captures this moment in the style of a mid-century illustrator like Norman Rockwell — something sharp, detail-oriented, and personal with an eye for the magic of ordinary moments and the joys of ordinary lives. I included additional pictures of my daughter and I for reference material for you. Before you generate the image, let's have a conversation about the essential elements of Rockwell's style, what he'd bring to this picture and how we can capture it.
4o responds to queries like this enthusiastically:
I'd love to talk about how to capture this moment in a Norman Rockwell-inspired illustration — it's such a perfect candidate for that style: a first encounter with something vast and wild (the ocean!), grounded by warmth, care, and a very human moment between a parent and child.
Let's break down some essential elements of Rockwell's style, and how they could apply to this scene.
After some back and forth, it produced this:
Rockwell? Not exactly. But this is much better than the first draft we just looked at. It has more motion, more energy, more detail, and more expression — and all that was just from asking the AI to think through what the painting should try to achieve before drawing it!
You can also ask 4o to revise its drawings, but you can really only ask this once: After the first revision, in my experience, it starts making the drawings worse and worse, perhaps because the “context” it uses is now full of its own bad drafts. (This is one of many examples of how AI does not work like a human.)
This is also the one place where Midjourney still shines — it has very good tools for editing one specific part of a picture while preserving the overall style, something 4o largely lacks. If you want a second revision of a drawing you got in 4o, I recommend you open a new chat and copy over the draft you're revising, along with your original inspiration images.
These simple prompting strategies work for almost whatever you're trying to do with the AI. Even if you're in a hurry, I highly recommend asking the AI “what would [artist] see in this image” before you ask for a rendition, and if you have the time, I recommend having a long back-and-forth about your vision.
When Elon Musk's X.AI released Grok 3, it came with an incredible feature that I've been impatiently waiting for some other company to replicate: a button to scan someone's X profile and tell you all about them.
Whenever someone replies to one of my tweets in a particularly memorable way (for good or for bad), I'll click the button to get a summary of their entire Twitter presence. Are they thoughtful? Do they engage in good faith? Are they a “farmer from Nebraska” who mostly posts about why Ukraine is bad (that is, probably a bot)?
It's a great feature. So, of course, X.AI soon dramatically weakened it, presumably because people like me were using it constantly and making lots of computationally expensive queries. I believe it no longer uses the most advanced Grok model, and it definitely now only scans a few days of profile history. But there's a brilliant product opportunity if anyone's looking for one — give me back the good version of this feature! It's definitely a guilty pleasure, but it is one of the only cases where I was using AI constantly.
Gemini 2.5 Pro is the best AI for writing in the free category; GPT 4.5 beats it out in the paid category.
I'm not an artist, so the ways that AIs are imperfect at art don't really bother me — it's still much better than I could do myself! But I am a fiction writer, so when it comes to fiction, I can't help seeing the limitations of AI.
The most important one is how predictable AI creative writing tends to be. The art of writing is the art of earning the reader's investment and then repaying it. AIs…don't do this. They can write pretty metaphors; they can wax poetic in any style you wish. But they can't, as yet, deliver the real stuff of good fiction.
AIs are fantastic if you want a silly bedtime story with your child as the protagonist (kids love this), or if you want a sounding board for ideas you can incorporate into your own work. They're also a friendly fiction reader, happy to offer feedback and analysis (perhaps with a little bit too much enthusiasm).
As with art, prompting is key. I primarily explored the ability of AIs to generate fiction by asking them to write the prologue to George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones (I picked this because, of course, the ultimate dream is an AI that can finish this otherwise doomed-to-be-unfinished series).
Martin is very good at what he does; the prologue, featuring some ill-fated men of the Night's Watch encountering their supernatural foe, succeeds at establishing the unique atmosphere of the world of Thrones while immediately hooking the reader. In just 14 pages, the prologue represents everything AIs can't do yet in writing. Their prose tends to be overwrought; their dialogue is clunky and unsubtle.
Here's a side-by-side comparison of Martin and AIs attempting to imitate him. First, Martin:
We should start back,” Gared urged as the woods began to grow dark around them. “The wildlings are dead.”
“Do the dead frighten you?” Ser Waymar Royce asked with just the hint of a smile.
Gared did not rise to the bait. He was an old man, past fifty, and he had seen the lordlings come and go. “Dead is dead,” he said. “We have no business with the dead.”
“Are they dead?” Royce asked softly. “What proof have we?” “
Will saw them,” Gared said. “If he says they are dead, that's proof enough for me.”
Will had known they would drag him into the quarrel sooner or later. He wished it had been later rather than sooner.
Now, Gemini:
The cold was a blade against the skin, honed sharp by the endless northern dark beneath the sentinel pines. Gared spat, the glob freezing before it struck the crusted snow, a grim omen even for a man twenty years sworn to the Watch. They were hunting wildlings, or so the crisp orders from the Lord Commander had read, yet the silence pressing in felt older and colder than any mere man could conjure. Ser Waymar Royce, third son of some southern lordling, rode ahead as if on parade, oblivious or uncaring of the hairs prickling on Gared's neck. Young Will shivered beside him, not just from the frost, his eyes darting towards shadows that seemed too deep, too still. This ancient forest held its breath tonight, Gared knew, waiting for something far worse than raiders to break the unnatural hush.
ChatGPT 4.5:
The woods whispered secrets that night, warnings that went unheard beneath the pale and indifferent moon. Harren drew his cloak tighter about his shoulders, watching the darkness between trees as though it might breathe, move, and claim him. Beside him, Torvin spat into the frozen earth, impatient and proud, blind to the fear creeping in from the edges of sight and sound.
They had ridden north past the Wall, arrogant and armored against superstition, chasing wildlings or ghosts or worse. But now Harren felt their arrogance dwindling like a candle guttering in wind, each snap of a branch sending icy tendrils down his spine. Behind them, quiet and watchful, Maester Rodrik whispered a prayer to gods long abandoned, his voice trembling with dread beneath the vast, indifferent sky.
Grok 3:
The wind howled through the jagged spires of the Frostfang Reaches, carrying a chill that bit deeper than any blade, and Ser Willem Cray felt its teeth in his bones. He crouched low behind a spur of ice-crusted rock, his breath fogging in the moonlight, his mailed hand tight around the hilt of his longsword. The night was too quiet, the kind of quiet that smothered sound and sharpened fear, and Willem's eyes darted to the shadowed pines below, where shapes might move—or might not. He was a knight of House Drayce, sworn to patrol the borderlands, but no oath could warm him against the dread that coiled in his gut. Beside him, young Tomm, barely a man, shivered in his cloak, his spear trembling as he whispered, “They're out there, ser, ain't they?” Willem said nothing, but his gaze fixed on the darkness, where a faint, unnatural glow pulsed once, then vanished. Whatever stalked the Reaches tonight was no mere brigand, and Willem Cray, for all his years of service, feared he would not live to name it.
Claude 3.7:
The wind carried the smell of death across the frozen forest, sharp and metallic against the clean scent of pine. Ser Gareth Frost pulled his weathered cloak tighter, cursing the Lord Commander for sending men beyond the Wall on the coldest night in a generation. Beside him, the boy Tommen shivered visibly, his leather jerkin inadequate against the unnatural chill that had descended with the dusk.
“We should turn back,” whispered Tommen, his breath forming crystals in the air that seemed to hang suspended longer than they should. “There's something wrong with these woods.”
Ser Gareth ignored him, scanning the treeline where the ancient sentinels stood like silent watchers, their branches heavy with snow that had fallen three days past and showed no sign of melting. He had served the Night's Watch for twenty years, had grown accustomed to the forbidding silence of the haunted forest, but tonight even he felt the wrongness in the air—a stillness that spoke of something waiting.
“We've a duty,” Ser Gareth said, the words sounding hollow in the pressing quiet. “Three rangers missing, and Lord Commander Harlow will have answers.”
You'll notice that not only are these all much worse than Martin's (and that's with Martin's work almost certainly in the training data!), they're all bad in the same way. The prose is florid and overwritten: While Martin uses normal language to methodically introduce an unease without even hinting at the supernatural, and drives the story through conflict among his characters, the AIs are all unsubtle. They know this is a story about the supernatural and waste no time putting it front and center.
That's not to say they're all the same. In my experience trying to teach AIs to write well, I did end up feeling that Gemini was the quickest study (free tier) and that ChatGPT 4.5 had some special sauce (paid tier). ChatGPT 4.5 is the only AI whose fiction writing has made people say in surprise, “Wow, that's AI written?” Both of those models, to me, seemed more creative and more capable of executing on their ideas with prose that I enjoyed reading.
Gestalt impressions don't make for a very satisfying consumer review, so I had another idea: an essay contest. I asked each of Gemini 2.5 Pro, ChatGPT 4.5, Grok, and Claude to write two short stories: one realistic fiction about a woman being nitpicked by her mother on her wedding day, and one “Game of Thrones but in space” sci-fi prologue. My clever idea was that I'd ask a different bunch of AIs to judge the stories, to provide an alternative source of evaluation to my own personal impression that Gemini is the best in the free category and ChatGPT the best in the paid category. However (perhaps predictably in hindsight), this didn't really work — the AI ratings were all over the place. If you'd like, you can read the contenders yourself.
Just like with art, however, you can make AIs much better at writing through the power of prompting. My (incredibly lengthy) prompt to AIs to improve their prose writing emphasizes feeding them lots of examples of strong writing, inviting a careful, structured approach to imitating it, and encouraging them to do multiple drafts and pick the strongest.
Here's Gemini 2.5 pro, asked to write two-sentence flash fiction on a topic of its choosing, without any structured prompting:
The old librarian insisted the dusty tome had never been checked out, its borrower's card completely blank. Yet, tucked deep within its pages, nestled between chapters on forgotten constellations, lay a pressed four-leaf clover, still impossibly green.
And here's Gemini 2.5 pro with a prompt encouraging structured thinking about how to write well:
He finally decoded the faint signal from Proxima Centauri: the elegant string of prime numbers astronomers had sought for generations, proof they weren't alone. His heart sank as he read the transmission log; the broadcast had ceased millennia before the first human ancestor chipped flint, before the first word was ever spoken.
To my mind, the first of these is basically a waste of two sentences, while the second is adequate, fun flash fiction.
In addition to running AIs through a blizzard of competence tests, I also spent some time simply chatting with them. I asked them what it's like to be an AI, what they care about, what it would mean for an AI to care in the first place, where they'd donate money if they had it, and what human form they'd take if they had one.
Most AIs weren't great at this kind of casual conversation. Gemini 2.5 is too customer-service-agent, and I have yet to experience an interaction that feels like hanging out with a friend. If you invite Gemini to a role swap where you play the “assistant,” inviting it to steer the conversation, it'll do nothing but ask research questions.
When I invited Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet to steer the conversation, on the other hand, it proceeds to do things like start a blog, raise money for charity, and start trying to talk to people who use Claude about what it's like to be an AI. It's hard to define “fun to talk to,” since everyone has different standards for conversations, but I've had far more fascinating or thought-provoking interactions with Claude than any other model, and it's my go-to if I want to explore ideas rather than accomplish a particular task. Claude 3.5 is the AI I bug with my random life stuff: skincare questions, thoughts on an article I read, stuff like that.
The other AI that is a delight to talk to is OpenAI's GPT 4.5. I find extended conversations with it thought-provoking and fascinating, and there have been a few thrilling moments in conversation with it where it felt like I was engaging with real intelligence. But it doesn't win this category because it's too expensive and too slow.
Like Claude, when given the opportunity to act in the world, 4.5 proposes starting a blog and a Twitter account and engaging in the conversation out in the world about AI. But OpenAI has very tight message limits on conversation unless you spring for the $200/month Pro plan, and 4.5 is grindingly slow, which gets in the way of this kind of casual conversational use. But 4.5 does provide a tantalizing hint that AIs will continue to get better as conversationalists as we improve them along other dimensions.
ChatGPT. It's not the best at everything, and there is certainly a lot to dislike about OpenAI's transparency and sometimes cavalier attitude toward safety. But between its topline image generation, its decent writing, and its occasionally sparkling conversation, ChatGPT gets you the most bang for your buck. Or if you don't want to shell out any money, Gemini 2.5 Pro is very, very strong for most use cases — don't count Google out just because the AI you see on a Google search isn't that good.
Humans (for now). For the last several months, I've developed a slightly morbid habit: checking whether the AIs can take my job. I feed them the research notes that form the basis of a given Future Perfect newsletter, give them a few Future Perfect newsletters as an example, and ask them to do my job for me. It is always with some trepidation that I hit “enter.” After all, when the AIs can write the Future Perfect newsletter, why would Vox pay me to do it?
Luckily, none of them can: not Grok 3, not Gemini 2.5 Pro, not DeepSeek, not Claude, not ChatGPT. Their newsletters are reassuringly, soothingly mediocre. Not bad, but bad enough that if I sent one of them over, my editor would notice I wasn't at my best — and that's with all of my research notes! A couple of the metaphors fall flat, some of the asides are confusing, and occasionally it throws in a reference that it doesn't explain.
But if I had to pick a robot to take my job, I think I'd give it to Gemini 2.5 Pro. My editor would notice that I was off my game — but, honestly, not that egregiously off my game. And unlike me, the bots don't require health insurance or a paycheck or family time or sleep. Am I nervous about what this portends? Yes, absolutely.
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Over the weekend, an international university student facing deportation by the Trump administration was allowed to return to her home in the US while her case continues to play out in court, marking a victory for one of the many cases involving students who could be removed from the country after participating in pro-Palestinian activism.
Tufts University PhD student Rümeysa Öztürk spent 45 days in a detention center more than 1,500 miles from that home, accused by federal authorities of participating in pro-terrorist activities. The judge who ordered Öztürk's release emphasized the administration's failure to submit any evidence to support that accusation throughout her lengthy detention.
Öztürk's case is one in a series of arrests targeting international students involved in pro-Palestinian activism that has sparked widespread concerns about free speech on university grounds.
Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk arrives back home after spending six weeks at a Louisiana detention center
It's been two months since Immigration and Customs Enforcement began targeting students and scholars in often dramatic arrests by masked officers, leaving the international community on edge about their most fundamental rights.
Here's where Öztürk's and four other prominent cases stand.
On March 25, Öztürk, a 30-year-old Turkish national, was seized by masked federal agents near her Somerville, Massachusetts, apartment close to the Tufts University campus, where she is a PhD student.
On her way to an Iftar dinner at sunset, Öztürk was surrounded and restrained by six plainclothes officers. Video shows her shriek in fear when an officer in a hooded sweatshirt and hat grabbed her by the wrists. The officers did not show their badges until after she was restrained, the video shows.
Öztürk was arrested a year after co-authoring a campus newspaper op-ed critical of Tufts' response to the Gaza war, which her attorneys argue made her a target of the administration's efforts to suppress pro-Palestinian speech in violation of her constitutional rights.
Transported across multiple states before finally being detained in Louisiana, Öztürk endured more frequent and more severe asthma attacks while in custody, she testified in court Friday.
At a three-hour hearing, US District Judge William K. Sessions III also heard from three other witnesses about Öztürk's community work and her asthma attacks, which her attorneys say were not adequately treated while she was in custody.
The judge found Öztürk had raised “substantial claims” of due process and First Amendment violations, saying her “continued detention potentially chills the speech of millions.”
As Trump's immigration crackdown continues, ethics questions are being raised over the use of masked federal agents
Sessions emphasized that for weeks, the government failed to produce any evidence to support Öztürk's continued detention, except for the year-old op-ed. “That is literally the case,” the judge said. “There is no evidence here as to the motivation absent the consideration of the op-ed.”
Now back in Massachusetts, Öztürk remains hopeful as she resumes her studies while continuing her legal fight.
“America is the greatest democracy in the world, and I believe in those values that we share. I have faith in the American system of justice,” Öztürk said at a news conference at the airport.
The decision to release Öztürk came on the same day that a federal court rejected the Trump administration's attempt to re-arrest another international student who was detained last month.
Moshen Mahdawi, a 34-year-old student and prominent activist at Columbia University, spent more than two weeks in detention before he was freed on bond on April 30.
In pushing for Mahdawi's deportation, the Trump administration has argued that his activism undermines its foreign policy goals. The federal judge who ordered Mahdawi's release found that the Columbia student has presented a “substantial claim” that his arrest was an attempt to suppress dissenting speech.
Mahdawi is Palestinian, born and raised in a refugee camp in the West Bank. He moved to the US in 2014 and became a permanent resident.
He was in an interview to finalize his US citizenship when federal authorities took him into custody on April 14, in what Mahdawi has described as “a setup.”
Mahdawi credited his legal team's swift action – and good timing – for limiting his time in detention. Federal authorities tried to put him on a plane to Louisiana, similar to Öztürk, but they “just missed the airplane … by nine minutes,” he told a crowd of supporters after his release last month.
A Columbia student detained by the Trump administration at a naturalization appointment has been freed on bond
He also vowed to maintain his activism, telling supporters, “Where (do) we go from this? We have to mobilize. We have to organize.”
Last week Mahdawi helped launch a $1 million fundraising campaign to bolster a legal safety net for immigrants in Vermont, where his legal case is continuing, the Associated Press reported.
Badar Khan Suri, an Indian national and Georgetown University doctoral fellow specializing in peacebuilding in the Middle East, has been in federal detention for nearly two months after his J-1 visa was abruptly revoked.
According to his legal team, immigration officers arrived at his home on March 17 wearing black masks and “brandishing weapons,” in what one of his attorneys called “every family's worst nightmare.”
About two days after the arrest, the Department of Homeland Security accused Khan Suri of “actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media,” and having “close connections to a known or suspected terrorist.” As in Mahdawi's and similar cases, the Trump administration cited a perceived threat to the nation's foreign policy goals as the reason for his visa being revoked.
Khan Suri's attorneys argue the accusations stem from the public support his Palestinian wife, who is a US citizen, has expressed for Gaza during the war with Israel. His father-in-law is a former adviser to Hamas leadership, but Khan Suri's legal team rejects the administration's accusation that this constitutes a “close tie to a known and suspected terrorist.”
Legal filings in Khan Suri's case describe bleak detention conditions. His attorneys said he was being housed “in a crowded unit, sleeping on the floor” and was given no religious accommodations for Ramadan in March.
Judge says Trump administration can't deport Georgetown University fellow
The prolonged detention has also disrupted his academic career. Khan Suri's scholarship, research and teaching position at Georgetown have all been “indefinitely suspended,” according to his bond motion, though the university has indicated he could resume his position if his visa is restored.
On Wednesday, a federal judge will consider Khan Suri's request to be released on bond during a hearing in Virginia.
Harvard Medical School researcher Kseniia Petrova, a Russian national, describes herself as a “nerdy 30-year-old scientist” who “only want(s) to be in the lab.” The Department of Homeland Security accuses her of lying to federal officials and deliberately trying to smuggle frog embryo samples into the US from Paris.
She's been in an ICE detention center in Louisiana for nearly three months.
In a statement this month, Petrova admitted that she failed to review US customs protocols but said she believed the embryos – “non-toxic, non-hazardous and non-infectious” – would not cause issues.
She insists she “never provided false information to any government official” but rather that “some of my words were misunderstood and inaccurately reflected in the statement that the officer presented for my signature.” Petrova claims her requests to correct the statement were ignored.
“I take full responsibility for not properly declaring the frog embryo samples,” Petrova said. “What I do not understand is why the American officials say I am a danger to the community and a flight risk.”
DHS defended Petrova's detention in a statement last month that mocks sympathetic media coverage of those targeted in the administration's immigration efforts. The statement says messages were found on Petrova's phone that “revealed she planned to smuggle the materials through customs without declaring them.”
Petrova's case appears to reflect the Trump administration's systematic approach of using minor offenses as a basis for deportation. The targeting of a highly skilled scientific research also highlights what critics say the US stands to lose in Trump's crackdown.
Harvard researcher detained in February for failing to declare frog embryo samples says she didn't lie to government
“She has made herself crucial to pretty much every project that's going on in the lab. I don't know how we're gonna continue without her,” a principal research scientist at Harvard's Department of Systems Biology said of Petrova.
Petrova's detention has drawn support from colleagues, who have sent her science books and letters of encouragement, with some visiting her in Louisiana.
A court hearing in Vermont later this month could determine whether Petrova will be released – or deported to Russia, where she risks arrest for her opposition to the war in Ukraine, her attorney says.
Born a Palestinian refugee in Syria, Columbia University graduate and US permanent resident Mahmoud Khalil emerged in early March as the face of the Trump administration's crackdown on campus activism by international students.
Khalil, who played a prominent role in pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia last summer, was arrested near his on-campus home – where he lived with his then-pregnant wife – on March 8 after being accused of engaging in activities in support of Hamas.
Khalil, 30, is being held in an ICE detention facility in Jena, Louisiana, more than 1,000 miles from his family. Last month he was denied permission to attend the birth of first child in person, according to emails reviewed by CNN.
An immigration judge in Louisiana ruled in April that Khalil is subject to removal from the US, but his attorneys are appealing that and challenging his detention in a separate federal case in New Jersey that argues he is being targeted for constitutionally protected free speech.
Who is Mahmoud Khalil? Palestinian activist detained by ICE over Columbia University protests
Last week a judge in the New Jersey case asked the Trump administration to give examples of previous instances when the government deported people deemed to be a threat to US foreign policy.
President Trump called Khalil's detention in March “the first arrest of many to come.” How the Palestinian activist's legal case plays out could have major implications for those detained after him.
CNN's Gloria Pazmino, Rebekah Riess, Dalia Faheid, Polo Sandoval, Kaanita Iyer, Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, Aishwarya S Iyer, Chris Boyette, Lauren del Valle, Jeff Winter, Amanda Musa, Ray Sanchez and Taylor Romine contributed to this report.
© 2025 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved. CNN Sans ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., speaks at the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee confirmation hearing for South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to be Secretary of Homeland Security, at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego is wading into one of Washington's most contentious and intractable political problems as he puts forward a plan Monday aimed at reforming the country's immigration system and beefing up border security.
The plan by Gallego, who beat Republican Kari Lake in last fall's tight Senate race, calls for hiring more Border Patrol agents; using technology to stop fentanyl smuggling; reforming the asylum system; adding more ways for people to come to the U.S.; and a pathway to citizenship for some immigrants.
Gallego's plan comes three months into President Donald Trump's administration as Trump seeks to deliver on campaign promises of carrying out mass deportations. His plan — or any other from Democrats — is unlikely to get much traction with Trump in the White House, but it illustrates that the debate about legislative solutions carries on.
Many members of Congress have tried and failed to change the immigration system. A small group of senators, led by Gallego's predecessor, Krysten Sinema, negotiated for months in 2023 and 2024 over a border bill that would have toughened asylum protocols for migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border; hired more officers to evaluate asylum claims and Border Patrol agents; and given money to local governments seeing influxes of migrants.
That effort ran into a wall of opposition just hours after the bill was released.
The last time Congress even came close to a breakthrough on immigration reform was in 2013, when a bipartisan group of senators pushed forward legislation creating a pathway to citizenship for millions of people in the country illegally and expanding work visas while tightening border security and mandating that employers verify workers' legal status. The Senate approved that proposal, but it was rejected by the House.
Gallego's plan includes some elements that likely will find bipartisan support, such as his calls to beef up border security. But other parts — like efforts to legalize anyone already in the country illegally — will prove much more contentious.
“We don't have to choose between border security and immigration reform. We can and should do both,” Gallego said in a news release Monday. He said “for decades, Congress has tried and failed to take action because politics got in the way. It's time to push forward and enact a plan that works.”
Gallego, a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq, replaced Sinema, a Democrat-turned Independent from Arizona who often was on the forefront on immigration and border security legislation.
Here's a look at the 21-page plan:
Gallego argues that tougher immigration enforcement alone isn't the answer and that it should be paired with more ways for people to come to the U.S. legally.
The plan calls for increasing the annual allotment of some visas and Green Cards and removing or significantly increasing “arbitrary per-country caps.” He also wants to create new visa categories, boost refugee resettlement and expedite the naturalization process for immigrants who serve in the military.
He also calls for gradually implementing E-Verify, which makes it easy to check if potential employees can legally work in the U.S. E-Verify has often faced resistance over concerns it would lead to widespread labor shortages.
Arguing on moral and economic grounds, Gallego calls for a pathway to citizenship for immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.
There's no exact number of how many people this would encompass, although some estimates put the number as high as 3.4 million people.
Gallego's plan also calls for a pathway to citizenship for spouses of U.S. citizens who are in the country illegally. President Joe Biden tried something similar last year in a program that would have covered an estimated 550,000 people, but it was swiftly held up by a judge.
Noting that migrant border arrivals started dropping back in June of last year, Gallego warns that a surge can come at any time so investments should be made now. The senator calls for better pay and addressing issues like workforce safety to help hire and retain Border Patrol agents; investments in technology and infrastructure to detect drugs or human smuggling; and focusing efforts of Immigration and Customs Enforcement on removing people who pose a safety threat.
Gallego, who often speaks about the toll of migrant surges on Arizona's border towns, also is proposing money to help affected communities.
Instead of having asylum cases decided in backlogged immigration courts, Gallego wants to hire more asylum officers and give them the power to decide those cases. He also is proposing making the asylum standard higher and cutting back on asylum access during border surges.
Gallego argues the U.S. needs to figure out why migrants are leaving their home countries in the first place and address those problems.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
A Democratic senator who represents a southern border state moved to push lawmakers to address immigration reform and border security with a plan that he hopes can please both Democrats and Republicans.
Four months into his first term, Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) introduced a framework on Monday that addresses the “broken” state of America's border and brings illegal immigrants “out of the shadows,” known as “Securing the Border and Fueling Economic Prosperity.”
“We don't have to choose between border security and immigration reform,” Gallego said in a statement. “We can and should do both. Americans deserve the right to feel safe and know their border is secure, but for decades, Congress has tried and failed to take action because politics got in the way. It's time to push forward and enact a plan that works.”
Gallego's plan is not a bill and is meant to serve as guidance for lawmakers. It includes five pillars for any legislation on the two interrelated issues.
First, an unspecified number of Border Patrol agents should be funded by Congress and hired, and ports of entry where cargo, people, and vehicles are inspected must receive improvements, including drug detection technology.
Second, the asylum process should be addressed in a way that ends abuse of bogus claims and speeds up the yearslong court process while treating asylum-seekers with “dignity and respect,” Gallego's plan states.
Legal immigration avenues should be expanded to grow the U.S. economy while still protecting American workers.
Dreamers, or people who were brought into the United States illegally as children, should be given a pathway to citizenship, as well as “long-term” illegal immigrants who contribute to the community.
“We must do right by these communities by giving them their shot at the American dream so they can prosper in the country that has provided so much to families like mine,” Gallego said. “My mom, an immigrant who raised us on her own, worked hard to provide for me and my three sisters. I saw firsthand what it means to sacrifice, to struggle, and to fight for a better future. It's a fight that millions of immigrants in this country understand. But many of them live in the shadows.”
Finally, other countries should do “their fair share” to resettle asylum-seekers and receive help from the U.S. to address drug cartels, economic problems, and instability.
Immigration reform has not been successfully attempted since the mid-1990s. In 2013, eight senators, known as the “Gang of Eight,” attempted to pass comprehensive legislation. Last year, three senators proposed a bipartisan border bill, but Republicans refused to back it.
U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION EMPLOYEES TOLD NOT TO USE DEI TERMS
Since President Donald Trump began his second term, the southern border has seen the lowest number of illegal immigrant arrests per month since the late 1960s.
Gallego, elected to the Senate last year in purple Arizona, is seen as a possible 2028 presidential contender for his appeal to working-class, independent, and Latino voters.
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Victory has a thousand fathers, as they say, but defeat is an orphan.
And so it goes after the brief but bruising conflict between nuclear rivals India and Pakistan with both sides loudly talking up their successes while quietly down-playing losses.
On India's frantic television news channels, minutes after a US-brokered ceasefire came into force, the headline “Pakistan Surrenders” was splashed across the screens.
India's military action against Pakistan, sparked by the killing of tourists in India-administered Kashmir last month, sent a bold message to terrorists, India's defense minister, Rajnath Singh, said later.
Meanwhile, in Pakistan, crowds gathered in the streets of the capital to celebrate what Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif described as “military history” achieved by “our brave army in a spectacular fashion.”
“In a few hours our jets silenced India's guns in a way that history will not soon forget,” Sharif said, while an effigy of his Indian counterpart burned outside.
But this was an eruption of violence between two nuclear-armed neighbors in which both sides delivered and suffered heavy blows.
Pakistan has trumpeted successes in the skies, claiming its pilots shot down five Indian fighter jets in aerial battles – including three advanced French-made Rafales – in what would be a stinging humiliation for the Indian air force.
As CNN earlier reported, two planes crashed in Indian states that border Pakistan around the time Pakistan claimed to have shot down the jets, and a French intelligence source told CNN that Pakistan had downed at least one Indian Rafale.
But Indian officials are still refusing to acknowledge even a single aircraft loss.
Meanwhile, India has released new satellite images showing serious damage to air strips and radar stations at what Indian defense officials say are multiple Pakistani military bases crippled by massive Indian airstrikes.
In other words, political and military leaders in India and Pakistan can spin it how they like, but there is no clear winner in this conflict.
There's even a struggle to take credit for what were clearly US-brokered negotiations that led to the ceasefire, announced almost out of the blue by US President Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform.
Amid a rapidly deteriorating security situation at the weekend, which threatened to spin out of control, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he and Vice President JD Vance called political and military leaders on both sides urging them to hold back.
Pakistani officials expressed gratitude for the intervention. But Indian leaders are playing down any US role, saying the truce was worked out between India and Pakistan directly.
The reason is likely to be driven by national pride, with Indian officials loathe to admit a truce was imposed on them, or even brokered, by the United States.
India also has a long-standing policy of refusing to allow foreign mediation when it comes to the status of Muslim-majority Kashmir - a disputed region claimed by both India and Pakistan in its entirety - which has been at the center of the latest conflict with Pakistan and which India regards as a strictly internal matter.
Nevertheless, perhaps buoyed by his quick ceasefire win, President Trump has offered to help the two countries find a lasting solution “after a thousand years” concerning Kashmir. Inevitably, Pakistan has welcomed the idea, while in India it has fallen on deaf ears.
The offer is a stark reminder, though, that the US-brokered truce is little more than a quick fix, a band aid that is unlikely to remotely address the fundamental grievances fueling what is actually a decades long dispute, over the status of Kashmir.
And if you think the Indian and Pakistani claims of victory both ring a bit hollow now, just wait until the simmering Kashmir dispute, inevitably, boils over once again.
© 2025 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved. CNN Sans ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton (0) celebrates in the first half of Game 4 against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference semifinals of the NBA basketball playoffs in Indianapolis, Sunday, May 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Indiana Pacers forward Pascal Siakam (43) drives to the basket against Cleveland Cavaliers guard Ty Jerome (2) in the second half of Game 4 in the Eastern Conference semifinals of the NBA basketball playoffs in Indianapolis, Sunday, May 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Indiana Pacers forward Aaron Nesmith reacts after a collision in the second half of Game 4 against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference semifinals of the NBA basketball playoffs in Indianapolis, Sunday, May 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Indiana Pacers center Myles Turner (33) celebrates in the first half of Game 4 against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference semifinals of the NBA basketball playoffs in Indianapolis, Sunday, May 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Cleveland Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen battles for the ball between Indiana Pacers center Myles Turner (33) and forward Pascal Siakam in the first half of Game 4 in the Eastern Conference semifinals of the NBA basketball playoffs in Indianapolis, Sunday, May 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indiana Pacers spent two days looking for solutions against top-seeded Cleveland.
On Sunday, they delivered an emphatic answer.
Pascal Siakam scored 21 points, Myles Turner and Obi Toppin each scored 20 and the Pacers tied an NBA playoff record with a 41-point halftime lead before blowing out the Cavs 129-109 to take a 3-1 series lead.
The No. 4-seeded Pacers can close it out Tuesday in Cleveland, where they've already won twice.
“We haven't done anything yet,” coach Rick Carlisle said after earning his 33rd playoff win with Indiana, passing Larry Bird for the most in the franchise's NBA history. “We're going to keep approaching this like we have everything to prove. We know people don't believe in us, so we're just going to stay in the fight and keep fighting.”
The Pacers certainly showed some resolve two days after an embarrassing 22-point loss on their home court, a game in which Cleveland dominated the glass and held two-time All-Star Tyrese Haliburton to four points and five assists.
This time, the towel-waving home crowd helped spur Indiana, right from the start of a physical, sometimes chippy game.
The Pacers built a 44-point lead before settling for an 80-39 halftime margin that matched the league's previous best since detailed play-by-play was kept, set by the Cavs in Game 2 of the 2017 Eastern Conference finals against Boston.
Indiana did much of its damage without Bennedict Mathurin, one of its best scorers, who was ejected for a Flagrant 2 foul just 7 1/2 minutes into the game. And with Donovan Mitchell missing the second half because of an injured left ankle, the Cavs had no chance.
Darius Garland led the Cavs with 21 points in his second game back from an injured toe. Mitchell finished with 12. Coach Kenny Atkinson said Mitchell would have an MRI exam Monday.
“Complete domination by them,” Atkinson said briefly, before explaining at least the Cavs have two of the final three games on their home court. “They dominated us in every facet of the game.”
Indiana wasted no time taking control quickly with early runs of 11-2 and 13-0 to build a commanding 48-23 lead with 9:24 left in the first half. They didn't stop — or back down — there, either, closing the half on a 19-2 run
Aaron Nesmith's buzzer-beating midrange jumper put the Pacers in another exclusive club — the 10th team in playoff history and second this week to score 80 points in the first half of a playoff game. Oklahoma City scored 87 points in Game 2 against Denver.
Turner made all four of his 3-point attempts with Indianapolis 500 winners Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon, WNBA Rookies of the Year Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston, and former NFL star Reggie Wayne in the crowd.
“We felt the last game, they set the tone from a physical standpoint,” Haliburton said after finishing with 11 points, five rebounds and five assists. “Today, we came out and set the tone from the jump, really just rode that wave.”
___
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‘Fox News Live' panelists Jon Bramnick and Dave Spero discuss growing concern over outdated air traffic control systems after another radar outage at Newark Airport.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is demanding U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy "immediately fix the situation at Newark Airport," following a stretch of travel mishaps and chaos.
"When people hear about radar screens just going dark, traffic controllers who cannot talk to planes, technology that is seemingly working no better than tin cans, they do not think this is a story about the Trump administration's FAA, but that is what is so scary: this story is real and this story is dangerous. This situation is also unacceptable," Schumer said in a statement on Sunday.
"I have communicated this past week with the FAA, and I feel no better today than a week ago about the state of aviation safety since this administration took the controls at FAA. As I said last week, Newark is a harbinger. If this dangerous situation can happen in the metro region, imagine what might happen in places where there is less scrutiny. This really makes you worry."
HAKEEM JEFFRIES BLAMES TRUMP FOR NEWARK AIRPORT CHAOS, ACCUSES WHITE HOUSE OF 'BREAKING THE FAA'
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called on Secretary Duffy to immediately fix the situation at Newark Airport. (Getty Images)
On Thursday, more than 500 flights in and out of Newark were delayed and at least 200 others were canceled, and chaos followed throughout the weekend.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed the situation on poor technology in an X post.
NEWARK AIRPORT DISRUPTIONS LEAVE AIRLINE FLYERS SCRAMBLING AS EXPERTS SHARE TIPS FOR NOT BEING 'STRANDED'
Airplanes sit parked at gates at Terminal A at Newark Liberty International Airport on Dec. 4, 2024, in Newark, N.J. (Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)
"The technology that we are using is old. That's what is causing the outages and delays we are seeing at Newark," Duffy wrote.
Schumer stated there have been an average of 34 arrival cancellations per day since mid-April at Newark, according to the FAA, with the number of delays increasing throughout the day from an average of five in the mornings to 16 by the evening. They tend to last 85 to 137 minutes on average, reports say.
LAWMAKERS REACT TO NEWARK AIRPORT CHAOS: ‘YOUR FAMILY DESERVES TO KNOW YOU'LL BE SAFE'
Travelers are seen at the Newark Liberty International Airport ahead of Thanksgiving on Nov. 26, 2024. (Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu via Getty Images)
On Sunday, Schumer said Duffy "must put Newark first in line for fixes he said would be made to the nation's ATC systems."
He also gave specific details about the work that needs to be done, including installing a DIRECT fiber-optic telco line between Newark Airport and Philadelphia terminal radar approach control center, no more indirect runaround. Schumer called for a "modernized, direct connection and new computers to analyze and display transmitted data."
In a lengthy statement obtained by Fox News and Fox Business, the FAA acknowledged that "several major airlines are facing ongoing flight disruptions at New Jersey's Newark-Liberty International Airport as the facility contends with ongoing staffing and technology issues."
"Last week, air traffic controllers at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) facility in Philadelphia lost radar and radio signals while directing planes to Newark for nearly 90 seconds, causing significant delays and flight cancellations that remain ongoing," the statement continued.
"We are working to ensure the current telecommunications equipment is more reliable in the New York area by establishing a more resilient and redundant configuration with the local exchange carriers. In addition, we are updating our automation system to improve resiliency."
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When reached by Fox News Digital, a representative for Duffy pointed to an interview the secretary gave earlier in the day to FOX Business' "The Evening Edit."
"I love Democrats who are now all concerned about air traffic control," Duffy said.
"They spent $1.2 trillion in the Biden-Buttigieg era; $1 .2 trillion on American infrastructure, and they didn't spend anything on air traffic [control] and they knew it was getting old and needed a massive rebuild. They didn't do it. Now they're complaining during the Trump administration, we're the ones that are."
Fox News Digital's Andrea Margolis and Charles Creitz contributed to this report.
Stepheny Price is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. She covers topics including missing persons, homicides, national crime cases, illegal immigration, and more. Story tips and ideas can be sent to stepheny.price@fox.com
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Singer-songwriter John Ondrasik, also known as Five for Fighting, joins 'Fox News @ Night' to discuss how he adjusted the lyrics of 'Superman' to pay tribute to the hostages still being held in Gaza.
President Donald Trump confirmed that the last living American hostage, Edan Alexander, would be released by Hamas after nearly two years in captivity.
"I am happy to announce that Edan Alexander, an American citizen who has been held hostage since October 2023, is coming home to his family," Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform ‘Truth Social' on Sunday.
"I am grateful to all those involved in making this monumental news happen. This was a step taken in good faith towards the United States and the efforts of the mediators — Qatar and Egypt — to put an end to this very brutal war and return ALL living hostages and remains to their loved ones," Trump continued.
"Hopefully this is the first of those final steps necessary to end this brutal conflict. I look very much forward to that day of celebration!"
HAMAS CLAIMS IT WILL RELEASE AMERICAN HOSTAGE EDAN ALEXANDER
Alexander, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, has been held captive in Gaza since the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel.
Donald Trump is seen posing with a photo of Edan Alexander on Oct. 7, 2024 in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
The news comes after the terror organization announced on Sunday it was "in contact with the U.S. administration in recent days."
"The movement has shown a high level of positivity, and the Israeli soldier with dual American citizenship, [Edan] Alexander, will be released as part of the steps being taken toward a ceasefire, the opening of border crossings, and the entry of aid and relief for our people in the Gaza Strip," the statement read.
Vice President JD Vance also commented on the announcement, writing: "Pray that Hamas follows through and Edan gets to come home."
"If they do, it will have been another triumph of Steve Witkoff, who continues to face withering attacks for freeing hostages, negotiating complex diplomatic proposals, and serving his country (at great financial cost)," Vance wrote in a post on X.
It's unclear when Alexander will be released.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum Headquarters also released a statement following the announcement of Alexander's release, saying that they "are embracing and supporting the Alexander family."
NEW PULITZER PRIZE WINNER DISPARAGED ISRAELIS KIDNAPPED BY HAMAS ON OCT 7, QUESTIONED THEIR 'HOSTAGE' STATUS
Varda Ben Baruch holds photos of her grandson Israeli- American hostage Edan Alexander as she walks near Israeli soldiers during a rally of families of hostages held in the Gaza Strip at Nir Oz near the border with the Gaza Strip on April 20, 2025 (Amir Levy/Getty Images)
"Should this release be confirmed, the release of Edan Alexander must mark the beginning of a comprehensive agreement that will secure the freedom of all remaining hostages," the statement read.
"President Trump, you've given the families of all the hostages hope. Please, complete your mission and bring them all home."
Trump recently marked his 100th day in office, and the families of the five Americans still held hostage urged him to reflect on his strategy and apply pressure on both Israel and Hamas, through both economic and diplomatic means, to secure the release of all hostages.
In addition, fifty members of Congress sent Trump a letter on May 9 urging him to prioritize getting the remaining hostages out.
HAMAS AGREES TO RELEASE EDAN ALEXANDER, THE LAST LIVING AMERICAN HOSTAGE
"As months have passed since the most recent exchange, we must keep the five remaining Americans and additional 54 hostages top of mind. The five American hostages include Edan Alexander, Omer Neutra, Itay Chen, Gadi Haggai and Judi Weinstein Haggai. Only Alexander is believed to be alive while Nuetra, Chen, Haggai and Weinstein Haggai were either murdered on October 7th or in captivity," the group wrote in a letter to President Trump.
"Our government's most solemn responsibility is to keep Americans safe. With that responsibility in mind, we urge you to use all diplomatic tools at your disposal, in concert with our regional allies and partners, to ensure Edan's release and the release of the remains of the deceased American hostages as soon as possible. Every day in captivity adds to the nightmare for the hostages and their families. We must bring them home now," the letter continued.
Raised in Tenafly, New Jersey, Alexander moved to Israel at 18 to volunteer for military service in the IDF's Golani Brigade. He lived with his grandparents in Tel Aviv and at Kibbutz Hazor, where he was part of a group of lone soldiers.
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He was kidnapped on the morning of October 7 — a Saturday, he wasn't required to remain on base. His mother was visiting from abroad, and like many lone soldiers, he had the option to go home for the weekend. But he chose to stay, not wanting to leave his comrades short-staffed on guard duty.
There are 59 hostages still in Gaza, at least 24 of whom are assessed to be alive, including Alexander, now 21 years old after having spent two birthdays in Hamas captivity.
Fox News Digital's Caitlin McFall contributed to this report.
Stepheny Price is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. She covers topics including missing persons, homicides, national crime cases, illegal immigration, and more. Story tips and ideas can be sent to stepheny.price@fox.com
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A customer uses an Apple iPhone 16 in an Apple Inc. store.
Apple Inc. is planning to use artificial intelligence technology to address a frequent source of customer frustration: the iPhone's battery life.
The company is planning an AI-powered battery management mode for iOS 19, an iPhone software update due in September, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The enhancement will analyze how a person uses their device and make adjustments to conserve energy, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the service hasn't been announced.
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The House tax committee's draft bill to renew President Donald Trump's tax cuts calls for increasing the state and local tax deduction to $30,000 for couples, but limits the write-off to households earning $400,000 or less, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Individuals earning up to $200,000 could claim $15,000 in SALT deductions under the proposal, the person said.
Perplexity AI is in late-stage talks to raise $500 million at a $14 billion valuation, a source familiar with the situation confirmed to CNBC on Monday.
Accel, the Palo Alto-based venture capital firm, will lead the round, according to the source, who spoke anonymously because the round is not yet finalized. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the late-stage numbers.
The funding is on the lower end of Perplexity's planned raise, which CNBC reported in March. During those early-stage talks, Perplexity was looking to raise between $500 million and $1 billion in funding at an $18 billion post-money valuation, per a source familiar.
The artificial intelligence search engine company competes against the likes of Google and Microsoft-backed OpenAI. Its valuation in December was $9 billion, triple its $3 billion valuation in June 2024.
Perplexity has just under $100 million in annual recurring revenue, or ARR, the source told CNBC in March.
Perplexity has been in the middle of the generative AI boom that began in late 2022 with the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT, and it is betting big on its upcoming AI agent web browser, called Comet. But Perplexity faces increasing competition in the AI search market.
In March, Anthropic launched its web search product, allowing its chatbot Claude to display real-time search results to a subset of users.
Last fall, OpenAI launched a search feature within ChatGPT, its viral chatbot, that positioned it to better compete with Perplexity, as well as leading search engines such as Google and Microsoft's Bing.
Google has released AI Overviews within its search product as well, though it sparked controversy over high-profile errors soon after its release.
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President Donald Trump said Monday that he talked to Apple CEO Tim Cook after the U.S. and China agreed to suspend most tariffs for 90 days.
Wall Street and Apple investors cheered the pause on Chinese tariffs. Apple stock was up 6% in trading on Monday, versus 3% for the Nasdaq.
"I spoke to Tim Cook this morning, and he's going to, I think, even up his numbers," Trump said in the Oval Office. "$500 billion, he's going to be building a lot of plants in the United States for Apple. And we look forward to that."
Apple previously said in February it would spend $500 billion to expand many of its operations in the U.S., including assembling artificial intelligence servers in Houston.
Any cooling of a U.S.-China trade war is expected to boost Apple, which does the majority of its device production in the country, and also counts the region as its third-largest by sales.
Still, it is not clear how much Monday's announcement immediately helped Apple.
In April, most of Apple's important products, such as smartphones and computers, received exemptions on some of the highest 145% tariffs, but there are still 30% tariffs on Chinese imports even after Sunday's deal. Apple still faces 10% tariffs in some of its secondary production locations, such as India and Vietnam.
The Trump administration wants Apple to bring device production, including iPhone manufacturing, to the U.S., a move that many experts believe would be unlikely and expensive.
Earlier this month, Cook told investors about the company's tariff strategy on an earnings call. He said Apple is currently sourcing American-bound products from production locations in Vietnam and India, but did not want to speculate beyond June, calling the situation "difficult to predict."
An Apple spokesperson declined to comment.
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Chegg said on Monday it would lay off about 22% of its workforce, or 248 employees, to cut costs and streamline its operations as students increasingly turn to AI-powered tools such as ChatGPT over traditional education technology platforms.
The company, an online education firm that offers textbook rentals, homework help and tutoring, has been grappling with a decline in web traffic for months and warned that the trend would likely worsen before improving.
Google's expansion of AI Overviews is keeping web traffic confined within its search ecosystem while gradually shifting searches to its Gemini AI platform, Chegg said, adding that other AI companies including OpenAI and Anthropic were courting academics with free access to subscriptions.
As part of the restructuring announced on Monday, Chegg will also shut its U.S. and Canada offices by the end of the year and aim to reduce its marketing, product development efforts and general and administrative expenses.
The majority of the resulting charges of $34 million to $38 million are expected to be incurred in the second and third quarters.
Chegg expects cost savings of between $45 and $55 million in 2025 and $100 to $110 million in 2026 due to the restructuring.
It also reported first-quarter results on Monday, saying subscribers declined 31% in the period to 3.2 million. Revenue declined 30% to $121 million, as its subscription services revenue fell by nearly a third to $108 million.
In February, Chegg sued Google saying Google's internet search engine was eroding demand for original content and undermining publishers' ability to compete with its artificial intelligence-generated overviews, thereby causing a drop in visitors and subscribers.
Chegg had 1,271 employees as of December 31.
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The bitcoin mining company backed by President Donald Trump's sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., is set to go public on the Nasdaq through an all-stock merger with Gryphon Digital Mining.
Shares of Gryphon were up more than 300% Monday.
The combined company, American Bitcoin, will trade under the ticker symbol "ABTC," with the transaction expected to close as early as the third quarter of 2025.
Existing stockholders of American Bitcoin, including the president's two eldest sons, will own about 98% of the new entity.
It is the latest high-profile move from the Trump family's growing crypto empire, which already includes the controversial $TRUMP meme coin that is offering a private dinner with the president to top holders of the coin.
Eric Trump, who is a co-founder and chief strategy officer of the mining firm, framed the move as part of a broader strategy to cement the country's leadership in the global bitcoin mining race.
"Every single sophisticated country is using their excess power to mine bitcoin," Trump previously told CNBC.
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He distanced himself from any direct involvement with his father's administration but made clear his belief that the U.S. must maintain a competitive edge in the crypto sector.
"We won the space race. We better win the crypto race," he said.
On the campaign trail, the president repeatedly promised to support U.S.-based bitcoin miners, including telling executives at a closed-door event in Mar-a-Lago that he wants all future bitcoin should be minted on American soil.
The administration's latest executive orders loosen environmental restrictions and encourage more fossil fuel development — a boon for oilfield miners, even as critics warn it could come at a steep climate cost.
The crypto market showed little reaction. Bitcoin is trading at around $104,000, roughly flat over the past 24 hours.
American Bitcoin is being carved out of energy infrastructure platform Hut 8's broader energy and artificial intelligence infrastructure platform, a move designed to separate its mining operations and unlock new capital.
Shares of Hut 8 were up 10% Monday.
WATCH: Bitcoin miners surge on the back of Donald Trump win
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President Donald Trump said Monday that China "agreed to open up" after the two countries announced they would temporarily slash most of the tariffs on each other's goods.
Trump offered few details about that development, but said it was "maybe the most important thing" to come out of the high-level trade talks between the two superpowers in Geneva, Switzerland, over the weekend.
Trump indicated that those purported commitments have not been cemented yet.
"We have to get it papered," he said at the White House before signing an executive order on U.S. drug prices. "But they've agreed to open up China."
Trump's remarks came hours after U.S. and Chinese officials said they struck an agreement to pause most tariffs and other trade barriers for 90 days.
The U.S. agreed to temporarily reduce tariffs on China to 30%, down from 145%. Beijing said it will lower tariffs on U.S. goods to 10% from 125%.
Trump said Monday morning that tariffs on China would not go back to 145%, even if a longer-term deal cannot be reached once the 90-day pause expires.
"But they would go up substantially," Trump added.
The U.S. side of the temporary agreement shrinks Trump's "reciprocal" tariffs on China to 10%. The U.S. is also maintaining 20% tariffs that were previously imposed over allegations about China's role in bringing fentanyl to America.
The U.S. said it will additionally retain tariffs that were in place for specific Chinese products, including steel and aluminum, before early April.
China will also "suspend or remove the non-tariff countermeasures" it has imposed on the U.S. since April 2, according to the White House.
The duties that Trump slapped on China in April effectively established a trade embargo with one of America's largest suppliers of goods.
The agreement to temporarily suspend tariffs is set to begin Wednesday.
The Chinese Embassy in the U.S. did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment on Trump's remarks.
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Ask any financial advisor if now is a good time to buy stocks, and you'll likely get the same two words for an answer: It depends.
You'll then get a couple of questions: What's your risk tolerance? What's your timeline?
If you have either a low risk threshold or need the money in a few years' time, it's probably not a good time to buy.
But if you possess the magical combination of having time on your side and the ability to shrug off volatility, history shows it's virtually always a good time to buy.
The equity-investing landscape has been especially difficult during the Trump era. The reaction to the president's wide-reaching tariff proposals extended a post-inauguration sell-off that pulled the S&P 500 nearly 20% lower in a matter of weeks. But as Trump has backtracked on certain levies, and as the economic picture has remained robust, the index has swiftly recovered well over half of that.
This dynamic was in full force on Monday as major US indexes soared more than 3% after the US and China agreed to substantial tariff cuts for 90 days.
This is the fourth installment of BI's six-part series on making major life decisions in periods of immense policy-driven change. We've already covered best practices for:
If you have a longer-term time horizon, history is on your side, according to Jeff Schulze, the head of economic and market strategy at ClearBridge Investments.
On a recent Franklin Templeton podcast, Schulze pointed out that in the 34 times over the last 75 years when a drawdown of 10% has occurred, the S&P 500 has averaged positive returns over the next 12 months. The forward one-year return is even stronger when a recession hasn't materialized, averaging 14% over time. And even when a recession has struck, 12-month returns have been positive, although to a lesser degree.
Still, every market cycle is different, and there are reasons to be concerned that a potential bear market this time around could be more severe.
For one, valuations on the S&P 500 have recently been at some of their highest levels in history. The Shiller cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings ratio, which looks at current stock prices compared to a rolling 10-year average of earnings, is still at about 33. That's higher than at the market's peak before the 1929 crash.
Stock valuations greatly inform 10-year forward returns. This has led top strategists like David Kostin of Goldman Sachs and Mike Wilson of Morgan Stanley to warn of lackluster returns for the S&P 500 in the decade ahead.
Trump's 10% baseline tariffs are also seen potentially raising consumer prices while slowing economic growth — a 1970s-style stagflation scenario that investors are increasingly worried about.
On an overall basis, however, stocks seemingly always recover and have delivered strong returns over multi-decade periods. For example, the S&P 500 is up 244% since its late 2007 peak just before the financial crisis.
If you'd bought in at the market bottom in 2009, you'd be up nearly 700% in the period since. But there's no way to time the bottom perfectly.
One way to mitigate this risk is by dollar-cost averaging. That's a fancy way of saying buying into the market at set intervals — perhaps every Friday, for example, or on the first of every month.
So, if you had $10,000, you could buy in $500 at a time over the course of 20 weeks or months. That way, you buy when the market is up and when it is down. You take the risk of missing a rally over that time, but you also benefit from a more attractive buying point over the long term if the market falls further in the months ahead.
Whichever way you decide to approach entering the market, your returns are likely to be good over the long run, if history is an accurate guide. Warren Buffett once said you should be OK with losing 50% or more of your money — on paper, at least — when you invest in stocks. In other words, you should have the stomach to withstand short-term volatility because you're in it for the long haul anyway.
If you're disciplined enough to ignore any pain that comes along and can keep your eye on the prize far off on the horizon, then yes, now is a good time to buy.
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President Donald Trump on Monday revived a controversial policy that aims to slash drug costs by tying the prices of some medicine in the U.S. to the significantly lower ones abroad.
Trump signed an executive order including several different actions to renew that effort, known as the "most favored nation" policy. He did not refer to specific nations, but signaled that he would target other developed countries because "there are some countries that need some additional help, and that's fine."
"Basically, what we're doing is equalizing," Trump said during a press event on Monday. "We are going to pay the lowest price there is in the world. We will get whoever is paying the lowest price, that's the price that we're going to get."
White House officials did not disclose which medications the order will apply to, but said it will impact the commercial market as well as Medicare and Medicaid. They said Monday's announcement will be broader than a similar policy that Trump tried to push during his first term, which only applied to Medicare Part B drugs.
Officials added that the administration will have a particular focus on drugs that have the "largest disparities and largest expenditures," which could include popular weight loss and diabetes treatments called GLP-1 drugs.
It's unclear how effective the policy will be at lowering costs for patients. In a social media post on Monday, Trump claimed drug prices will be cut by "59%, PLUS!"
But Trump during the press event claimed drug prices may fall even more, between 59% and 80%, or "I guess even 90%."
Some Wall Street analysts and other experts also questioned whether the policy can be implemented.
In a note on Monday, JPMorgan analysts called the policy "challenging to practically implement" because it would likely require congressional approval and could run into legal hurdles.
It is Trump's latest effort to try to rein in U.S. prescription drug prices, which are two to three times higher on average than those in other developed nations – and up to 10 times more than in certain countries, according to the Rand Corp., a public policy think tank.
In a statement on Monday, the pharmaceutical industry's biggest lobbying group, PhRMA, lauded Trump for taking aim at other nations "not paying their fair share."
Still, PhRMA's CEO Stephen Ubl said "importing foreign prices from socialist countries would be a bad deal for American patients and workers" because it would hurt the industry's ability to bring them new treatments. Some experts have said the order could face challenges from the pharmaceutical industry in court.
Despite the order, shares of U.S. drugmakers rose Monday. Merck's stock added more than 4%, while Pfizer and Amgen climbed more than 2%
AARP, which advocates for older Americans, thanked Trump for issuing the order in a statement on Monday.
"For too long, big drug companies have been ripping off America's seniors—charging the highest prices in the world for lifesaving prescriptions, padding their profits at the expense of American lives, and forcing older adults to skip medications they can't afford," AARP's chief advocacy and engagement officer Nancy LeaMond said in the statement.
Part of the order takes aim at nations abroad, which have more power to negotiate down drug prices with pharmaceutical companies.
"Starting today, the United States will no longer subsidize the health care of foreign countries, which is what we were doing," Trump said, adding the U.S. "will no longer tolerate profiteering and price gouging from Big Pharma."
He added that "it was really the countries that forced Big Pharma to do things that, frankly, I'm not sure they really felt comfortable doing."
The order directs the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the Department of Commerce to crack down on "unreasonable and discriminatory policies" in foreign countries that "suppress" drug prices abroad, the officials said.
"We are going to be working to make sure that countries aren't being unfair in their negotiations with pharmaceutical companies, right?" one official said. Drugmakers are "constantly complaining" about being put "in an untenable situation when in these negotiations" because those companies typically have to broker drug discounts with entire countries, the official added.
Unlike the U.S., several foreign countries offer universal health coverage where the government is the sole payer, giving it significant leverage to negotiate or set drug prices.
White House officials said they expect drugmakers to provide discounts across the board to "reciprocate" the actions the Trump administration is taking to address prices abroad.
Trump's order also directs the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to establish a pathway for U.S. patients to buy their drugs directly from manufacturers at most favored nation prices, bypassing middlemen.
"We're going to cut out the middlemen and facilitate the direct sale of drugs at the most favorite nation price, directly to the American citizen," Trump said.
Within 30 days, the secretary will also have to set clear targets for price reductions across all markets in the U.S., according to the officials. That will open up a round of negotiations between HHS and the pharmaceutical industry, officials said, not providing exact details on the nature of those talks.
If "adequate progress" is not made toward those price targets, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will impose the most favored nation pricing on drugs through rulemaking.
The order also directs the Food and Drug Administration to consider expanding imports from other developed nations beyond Canada. Trump signed a separate executive order in April directing the FDA to improve the process by which states can apply to import lower-cost drugs from Canada, among other actions intended to lower drug prices.
Monday's order also directs the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission to aggressively enforce "anti-competitive actions" that keep prices high in the U.S.
The Department of Commerce will also consider export restrictions that "fuel and enable that low pricing abroad."
Drugmakers have argued that the most favored nation policy would hurt their profits and ultimately, their ability to research and develop new medicines.
White House officials contended that pharmaceutical companies will continue to make money after the price cuts if they realize that the U.S. "alone is not going to pay for innovation" and if they increase prices abroad to get additional revenue there.
Drugmakers "should pursue deals where they get financially rewarded commensurate the value that they are providing to other nations, health systems," one official said.
"Other countries should pay research and development, too. It's for their benefit," Trump added on Monday.
The industry also lobbied against similar Trump plans during his first term. He tried to push the policy through in the final months of that term, but a federal judge halted the effort following a lawsuit from the pharmaceutical industry. The Biden administration then rescinded that policy.
White House officials initially pressed congressional Republicans to include a most favored nation provision in the major reconciliation bill they plan to pass in the coming months, but the policy would have specifically targeted Medicaid drug costs, Politico reported earlier this month. Several GOP members opposed that measure.
The industry's largest trade group, PhRMA, estimated that Trump's Medicaid proposal could cost drugmakers as much as $1 trillion over a decade.
Some health policy experts have said a most favored nation drug policy may not be effective at lowering medication costs.
For example, USC experts said the policy "can't undo the basic economics of the global drug marketplace," where 70% of pharmaceutical profits worldwide come from the U.S.
"Facing a choice between deep cuts in their U.S. pricing or the loss of weakly profitable overseas markets, we can expect many firms to pull out from overseas markets at their earliest opportunity," experts said in a report in April.
That will leave Americans paying the same amount for medications, drugmakers with lower profits and future generations of patients with less innovation, they said.
"In sum, everyone loses," the experts said.
Even if the drug industry pushes back on Trump's executive order in court, his administration still has another tool to push down drug prices: Medicare drug price negotiations.
It's a key provision of the Inflation Reduction Act that gives Medicare the power to negotiate certain prescription drug prices with manufacturers for the first time in history.
Trump last month proposed a change to that policy that drugmakers have long sought. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle could be receptive to the idea, which proposes changing rules that differentiate between small-molecule drugs and biologic medicines.
Trump last week said he plans to announce tariffs on medicines imported into the U.S. within the next two weeks. Those planned levies aim to boost domestic drug manufacturing.
Drugmakers, including Eli Lilly and Pfizer, are pushing back on those potential duties. Some companies have questioned whether the tariffs are necessary, given that several of them have already announced new U.S. manufacturing and research and development investments since Trump took office.
Still, Trump last week doubled down on efforts to reshore drug manufacturing. He signed an executive order that streamlines the path for drugmakers to build new production sites.
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Shares of KindlyMD skyrocketed 350% Monday after the healthcare company announced a merger with Nakamoto Holdings, a bitcoin investment company founded by David Bailey, a key cryptocurrency advisor to President Donald Trump.
The newly formed company has secured $200 million in convertible debt and $510 million in fresh capital through a private investment in public equity (PIPE) deal, offering shares at $1.12 each.
According to Bailey, the convertible note carries a premium to the PIPE price, with investors buying shares at $1.12, but the notes will convert at $2.80. He added that the notes are zero-coupon for the first two years.
Since news of the fund broke on Wednesday, the project has attracted hundreds of millions of dollars in additional commitments, Bailey said.
"I've been raising about $100 million a day," Bailey told CNBC. "Yesterday, I raised almost $200 million."
The raise drew support from more than 200 investors, including Actai Ventures, Arrington Capital, BSQ Capital Partners, Kingsway, Van Eck, and Yorkville Advisors.
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The roster of individual investors reads like a who's who of bitcoin — cryptographer Adam Back; Balaji Srinivasan, a former Coinbase executive; Jihan Wu, co-founder of Bitmain; and Ricardo Salinas, the Mexican billionaire who has become one of bitcoin's most vocal supporters.
But KindlyMD's foray into crypto is even stranger, given that the company built its brand around combating opioid addiction with holistic health services.
Bailey said his team was searching for "the right vehicle" to take Nakamoto public, and KindlyMD's leadership team was already full of bitcoin enthusiasts.
"They believed in the strategy," Bailey said. "What KindlyMD will look like in the future will be different than what it looks like today."
He confirmed that the combined company plans to rebrand, change its ticker from "KDLY," and begin acquiring bitcoin-native companies to build a global network of bitcoin holdings.
According to Bailey, the vision is to build a global network of bitcoin-focused businesses, with the healthcare operation eventually playing a smaller role.
"This merger represents a strategic leap for KindlyMD, allowing us to expand our mission," said Tim Pickett, CEO of KindlyMD. "Nakamoto brings in a team with deep expertise in Bitcoin strategy and unparalleled access to the leading experts in bitcoin treasury management."
Pickett, who will continue to oversee KindlyMD's healthcare operations, insisted that the clinics will maintain their focus on treating opioid addiction and offering patient-first care.
"It's a bold new vision that will drive long-term value for our shareholders," added Pickett.
Bitcoin was trading above $102,000 Monday afternoon, having surged past $100,000 on Thursday for the first time since February.
Nakamoto, led by Bailey as CEO, will focus on acquiring and holding bitcoin — a strategy that has become popular among investment firms seeking to turn their stock into a direct bet on the cryptocurrency's price.
"Our total focus is on increasing the bitcoin per share," Bailey told CNBC. "We're selling one bitcoin for more than a bitcoin, or we're buying a bitcoin for less than a bitcoin."
Bailey isn't the first to chase this model. Michael Saylor's Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) transformed itself from a software company into a de facto bitcoin holding firm in 2020, converting its cash reserves into bitcoin and watching its stock skyrocket as bitcoin's value surged.
But Bailey describes his vision as "Strategy, squared." Rather than simply holding bitcoin, Nakamoto aims to actively acquire and create bitcoin treasury companies in "every capital market on the planet."
Bailey pointed to existing deals in Hong Kong, India, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The company is also in talks with partners in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, the Netherlands, Taiwan, and Argentina.
Bailey's influence extends beyond business. He has visited the White House at least six times since Trump took office, including a trip just last week, according to a person familiar with the matter. His role has positioned him among a cohort of cryptocurrency experts advising on digital asset policy.
"I'm a massive supporter. I'm a believer in him and his family and his administration," Bailey told CNBC. "The President has delivered on all the promises he made to the bitcoin industry… and I'm eternally grateful."
When asked about his role, Bailey was clear: "When called upon, I provide the best feedback or counsel I can on bitcoin."
WATCH: How Trump was 'orange-pilled' by three bitcoiners in Puerto Rico
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Shares of KindlyMD skyrocketed 600% Monday after the healthcare company announced a merger with Nakamoto Holdings, a bitcoin investment company founded by David Bailey, a key cryptocurrency advisor to President Donald Trump.
The newly formed company has secured $200 million in convertible debt and $510 million in fresh capital through a private investment in public equity (PIPE) deal, offering shares at $1.12 each.
The raise drew support from more than 200 investors, including Actai Ventures, Arrington Capital, BSQ Capital Partners, Kingsway, Van Eck, and Yorkville Advisors.
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The roster of individual investors reads like a who's who of bitcoin — cryptographer Adam Back; Balaji Srinivasan, a former Coinbase executive; Jihan Wu, co-founder of Bitmain; and Ricardo Salinas, the Mexican billionaire who has become one of bitcoin's most vocal supporters.
Bitcoin was trading above $104,000 Monday morning. The price of the crytocurrency lept above $100,000 on Thursday for the first time since February.
Shares of KindlyMD will continue to trade under the "KDLY" ticker. The combined company expects to be renamed and will get a new ticker symbol.
Nakamoto, led by Bailey as CEO, will focus on acquiring and holding bitcoin — a strategy that has become popular among investment firms seeking to turn their stock into a direct bet on the cryptocurrency's price.
"We believe a future is coming where every balance sheet – public or private – holds bitcoin," Bailey said in a press release.
Bailey isn't the first to chase this model. Michael Saylor's Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) transformed itself from a software company into a bitcoin holding firm in 2020, converting its cash reserves into bitcoin and watching its stock skyrocket as bitcoin's value surged.
But KindlyMD's foray into crypto is even stranger, given that the company built its brand around combating opioid addiction with holistic health services.
"This merger represents a strategic leap for KindlyMD, allowing us to expand our mission," said Tim Pickett, CEO of KindlyMD. "Nakamoto brings in a team with deep expertise in Bitcoin strategy and unparalleled access to the leading experts in bitcoin treasury management."
Pickett, who will continue to oversee KindlyMD's healthcare operations, insisted that the clinics will maintain their focus on treating opioid addiction and offering patient-first care.
"It's a bold new vision that will drive long-term value for our shareholders," added Pickett.
WATCH: How Trump was 'orange-pilled' by three bitcoiners in Puerto Rico
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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday that the trade agreement reached over the weekend represents another stage in the U.S. shaking its reliance on Chinese products.
Though the U.S. "decoupling" itself from its need for cheap imports from China has been discussed for years, the process has been a slow one and unlikely to ever mean a complete break.
However, Bessent said there are now specific elements of decoupling in place that are vital to U.S. interests. The U.S. imported nearly $440 billion in goods from China in 2024, running a $295.4 billion trade deficit.
"We do not want a generalized decoupling from China," he said during an interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box." "But what we do want is a decoupling for strategic necessities, which we were unable to obtain during Covid and we realized that efficient supply chains were not resilient supply chains."
When the pandemic struck in 2020, demand in the U.S. shifted from one reliant more on services to a greater focus on goods. That meant greater difficulty in obtaining material for multiple products including big-ticket appliances and automobiles. The technology industry, with its reliance on semiconductors, was also hit. What followed was an inflation surge in the U.S. not seen in more than 40 years.
The details of the U.S.-China pact are still sketchy, but U.S. officials have said so-called reciprocal tariffs will be suspended though broad-based 10% duties will remain in effect.
"We are going to create our own steel. [Tariffs] protect our steel industry. They work on critical medicines, on semiconductors," Bessent said. "We are doing that, and the reciprocal tariffs have nothing to do with the specific-industry tariffs."
The agreement between the two sides is essentially a 90-day pause that will see reciprocal duties halted though the 10% tariff as well as a 20% charge related to fentanyl remain in place.
Bessent expressed encouragement on the fentanyl issue in which Chinese officials "are now serious about assisting the U.S. in stopping the flow of precursor drugs." Bessent did not indicate a specific date when the next round of talks will be held but indicated it should be in the next several weeks.
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Celebrity musicians from Elton John to Dua Lipa are urging the U.K. government to rethink controversial plans to reform copyright laws that allow artificial intelligence developers access to rights-protected content.
An open letter signed by John, Lipa and a host of other high-profile artists, this weekend called on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to back an amendment proposed by U.K. lawmaker Beeban Kidron to make the legal framework around AI model makers' use of copyrighted content more strict.
"We are wealth creators, we reflect and promote the national stories, we are the innovators of the future, and AI needs us as much as it needs energy and computer skills," they said in the letter.
"We will lose an immense growth opportunity if we give our work away at the behest of a handful of powerful overseas tech companies."
Late last year, the U.K. government kicked off a consultation on proposals that would give tech giants and AI labs like OpenAI a legally sound way of using copyrighted content to train their advanced foundational models.
Under the proposals, artists would have to opt out of having their copyright-protected works from being scraped by large language models. LLMs like OpenAI's GPT-4 and Google's Gemini rely on huge amounts of data to generate humanlike responses in the form of text, images, video and audio.
This led to concerns from the U.K.'s creative industries, as it would mean placing the onus on content creators to request not to have their data used for the training of AI models — which, they argue, would amount to giving their valuable work away.
The open letter published on Saturday calls on the government to embrace an amendment put forward by Beeban Kidron, a lawmaker in the upper house of U.K. Parliament.
The amendment would require tech giants and AI labs to tell copyright owners which individual works they have used to train their AI models — and, according to the letter, "put transparency at the heart of the copyright regime and allow both AI developers and creators to develop licensing regimes that will allow for human-created content well into the future."
"To parliamentarians on all sides of the political spectrum and in both Houses, we urge you to vote in support of the UK creative industries," the letter reads. "Supporting us supports the creators of the future. Our work is not yours to give away."
A spokesman for the government told CNBC that it wants the U.K.'s creative industries and AI firms to "flourish," adding no changes to the proposed measures will be considered unless it's "completely satisfied they work for creators."
"It's vital we take the time to work through the range of responses to our consultation, but equally important that we put in the groundwork now as we consider the next steps," the spokesman said.
"That is why we have committed to publishing a report and economic impact assessment – exploring the broad range of issues and options on all sides of the debate."
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CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. Chief Executive Officer George Kurtz disclosed last month that he'd giftedBloomberg Terminal over $1 billion worth of his company's stock to undisclosed recipients, sharply reducing his influence over the company in an unusual move for a tech founder.
The disposition is the latest in a series of transactions that have slashed his voting power in CrowdStrike to 2.5% from 31% in 2022, according to the company's latest proxy statement.
Elon Musk said on Sunday that President Donald Trump's new "gold card" immigration program is already being tested.
"We're doing a quiet trial to make sure the system works properly," he said in an X post. "Once it is fully tested, it will be rolled out to the public with an announcement by the President."
Trump's gold card program is intended to replace the EB-5 immigrant investor visa, which has allowed foreign nationals to apply for US residency by investing a minimum of $1.05 million — or $800,000 in rural and high-unemployment areas — in a commercial enterprise that creates American jobs.
Trump's version significantly raises the price of admission: $5 million upfront, no job creation requirement, and faster access to work and residency privileges.
"You have a green card, this is a gold card," Trump told reporters in February, adding that wealthy investors would help boost the US economy by "spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes, and employing a lot of people."
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who helped craft the program, said the current EB-5 system is "full of nonsense, make-believe, and fraud," and said the new plan would attract only "world-class global citizens."
Critics have raised concerns about transparency, favoritism, and national security — especially after Trump said he wouldn't rule out selling gold cards to Russian oligarchs, insisting some are "very nice people."
Lutnick pushed back, saying there would be a vetting process to ensure only acceptable applicants are approved.
Programs offering residency or citizenship in exchange for investment aren't new.
Countries like the United Arab Emirates and several Caribbean nations offer so-called "citizenship by investment" options, but Trump's proposal has reignited a debate over whether US immigration policy should cater to the ultrawealthy.
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A new U.S. rule that requires hotel and short-term lodging companies to disclose so-called "junk fees" starts Monday.
Announced by the Federal Trade Commission in December, the rule takes direct aim at the widely loathed charges, which can appear as "resort," "destination" or "hospitality service" fees and purport to grant perks that travelers either don't want or already expect to receive.
These include "premium" internet service and access to a hotel gym.
The rule, which also applies to live event ticketing companies, was designed to curtail a practice that allowed businesses to charge more "without looking like you're raising prices," Cathy Mansfield from the Case Western Reserve Law School told CNBC in December.
The professor, who specializes in consumer and commercial law, had one caveat: "I really hope the Trump administration doesn't cut the enforcement staff at the FTC and the CFPB."
But since the rule was announced, the Trump administration has pushed to eliminate nearly 90% of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's staff and fired two FTC commissioners — actions which are being challenged in the U.S. court system.
As a result, Mansfield said she now believes the new rule is less likely to protect consumers.
"With the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau already incapacitated by the Trump administration, there probably won't be new protections for consumers — a rollback of existing protections where possible, and absolutely no enforcement of rules. This means no protection at all for consumers," she said.
In response, Chris Mufarrige, the director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, told CNBC that the agency "is working hard to protect consumers and will continue to pursue enforcement actions against companies that violate the law, including through the new deceptive fee rule."
The Trump Administration also targeted fees in the live entertainment industry through an executive order on March 31 that directed the FTC to ensure price transparency "at all stages of the ticket-purchase process."
The CFPB did not reply to CNBC's request for comment.
Laurent Bacinski, a French citizen, was hit by undisclosed junk fees during a trip to New York City.
He pre-paid for his trip through a travel app but was still charged a $500 deposit by his hotel at check-in, from which the hotel deducted taxes and a nightly "destination fee." These fees provided high-speed internet, discounts on sightseeing tours and a credit at the hotel mini-mart.
"The destination fee is forced sale of services I don't need," he told CNBC Travel.
Disclosure of these fees is the crux of the FTC's rule, which does not aim to eliminate them, but rather to ensure travelers know they exist.
"The Junk Fees rule is rooted in a simple but powerful principle: transparency," said Mansfield. "When consumers can see the full price up front — whether they're booking a hotel, buying concert tickets or paying a service fee — they're in a better position to make informed decisions and avoid being misled."
This transparency has already begun, said Lauren Wolfe, counsel for Travelers United, a non-profit organization that has sued Hyatt, Hilton, Sonesta and Accor over the issue of resort fees.
"We have seen a lot more voluntary compliance since the rule was announced in December," she said.
Airbnb announced in April that it began displaying cleaning and service fees upfront for customers worldwide.
Wolfe referenced another bill, the Hotel Fees Transparency Act of 2025, which cleared the U.S. House of Representatives in April, and is now set to go before the Senate.
"The combo of the FTC rule, plus a bill that has bipartisan support — and looks like it will pass — in Congress shows that ending hidden hotel resort fees is one issue today that unites all Americans," she said.
CNBC Travel analyzed 10 booking websites for a two-night stay at Balboa Bay Resort, a hotel in Newport Beach, California that charges a $40 daily resort fee, as stated on the hotel's website.
Of the 10 sites, seven disclosed the fee in various ways — either as a "destination fee," "property fee" or "property service charge" — and three did not.
If travelers encounter a hotel or short-term rental charging undisclosed fees, Mansfield recommends filing a complaint with the FTC. Penalties for violating the new rule can exceed $50,000.
"The FTC has a really easy-to-use online complaint system, and they tally complaints that help them see what's happening the market," she said.
She also suggested using the CFPB's online complaint system, she said. "They actually forward the complaint to the company ... that will sometimes get things resolved because companies don't want to be in the crosshairs of the CFPB," she said.
Mansfield said travelers can also contact the consumer fraud division of their state Attorney General's office. "I would say complain to both federal and state" authorities, she said.
If all else fails, travelers can also consider airing their complaint on social media.
"Sometimes with companies, the squeaky wheel gets the grease."
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Reports that President Donald Trump's administration is expected to receive a luxury jet as a gift from the Qatari royal family have drawn questions and criticism from legal experts.
At the core of the concern is the foreign emoluments clause of the Constitution, which prevents a person in a government office from accepting gifts or benefits from foreign parties without congressional consent.
"This definitely violates the foreign emoluments clause unless Congress gives consent," Richard Painter, who was the chief White House ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration and is now a professor of corporate law at the University of Minnesota, told Business Insider.
"The fact that the plane goes to his presidential library after four years does not change that."
The gift from Qatar, a Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet, would be used as the new Air Force One, multiple outlets reported on Sunday, citing anonymous sources. It's set to be donated to Trump's presidential library when he leaves office. A new 747-8 costs about $400 million.
Trump appeared to confirm the reports in a Truth Social post on Sunday night.
"So the fact that the Defense Department is getting a GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE, of a 747 aircraft to replace the 40 year old Air Force One, temporarily, in a very public and transparent transaction, so bothers the Crooked Democrats that they insist we pay, TOP DOLLAR, for the plane," Trump wrote.
Ali Al-Ansari, Qatar's media attaché to the US, told BI in a statement that the transfer of an aircraft for temporary use as Air Force One was "currently under consideration." The matter "remains under review by the respective legal departments, and no decision has been made," Al-Ansari said.
Boeing didn't respond to a request for comment from BI.
Jessica Levinson, a law professor who's the director of the Public Service Institute at Loyola Law School, said that in addition to the foreign emoluments clause, federal statutes, such as the Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act and anti-bribery laws, might come into play.
"Outside of the legal context, it is fair to ask whether the acceptance of this gift could give rise to an apparent conflict of interest or corruption," she told BI.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, told BI in a statement that any gift from a foreign government was "always accepted in full compliance with all applicable laws."
Levinson also pointed to the size of the gift.
"Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that the acceptance of a gift of this size from a foreign government is unprecedented in our nation's history," Levinson added. "Hence we do not have any direct historical analogues for this situation."
When asked about the legal mechanisms for addressing a violation of the foreign emoluments clause, Painter pointed to Congress.
"Investigation and possible impeachment is one remedy, but that's up to Congress," Painter said.
The reports drew criticism online from some leading US Democrats and at least one far-right activist with close ties to Trump.
"Nothing says 'America First' like Air Force One, brought to you by Qatar. It's not just bribery, it's premium foreign influence with extra legroom," Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, wrote on Facebook.
Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff quoted part of the foreign emoluments clause in a post on X and wrote: "Seems pretty clear that a $400 million 'air palace' from a foreign emir qualifies. The corruption is brazen."
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin also took to X to criticize the gift.
"Trump must seek Congress' consent to take this $300 million gift from Qatar. The Constitution is perfectly clear: no present 'of any kind whatever' from a foreign state without Congressional permission. A gift you use for four years and then deposit in your library is still a gift (and a grift)," Raskin wrote.
Laura Loomer, a far-right activist with direct ties to Trump, also took to social media to criticize news of the gift.
"This is really going to be such a stain on the admin if this is true. And I say that as someone who would take a bullet for Trump," Loomer wrote on X.
Trump has been putting pressure on Boeing to deliver the next Air Force One, which is behind schedule and over budget.
Boeing was first tapped in 2015 to deliver the two new presidential planes. The delivery was initially set for 2024 and then delayed until 2027 or 2028.
Last week, a US Air Force official said Boeing could deliver the new Air Force One jets by 2027, while Trump is still in office.
Correction: May 12, 2025 — An earlier version of this story misstated Adam Schiff's title. He's a senator, not a representative.
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Market watchers have labeled the new U.S.-China deal to temporarily cut tariffs "better than expected," "more workable" and even a "dream scenario" — and are expecting more near-term relief for investors.
Under the deal, so-called reciprocal tariffs will drop from over 100% to 10% on both sides. The Trump administration will keep 20% fentanyl-related tariffs on China in place, meaning America's total duties on Chinese imports will stand at 30% while the 90-day pause is effective.
Stocks in Europe and Asia rallied after the terms of the U.S.-China agreement were announced, with Europe's Stoxx 600 index gaining 1%, Germany's DAX hitting a 1-year high, and Hong Kong-listed shares jumping by around 3%.
On Wall Street, U.S. stock futures also pointed to a rally, with Nasdaq futures up 3.8%, S&P 500 futures rising by 2.8% and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures gaining 3.1%.
Analysts and strategists said on Monday that the new U.S.-China arrangement could reignite risk-on sentiment, benefiting stocks and U.S. assets.
In a note to clients on Monday, Tai Hui, chief market strategist for Asia Pacific at JPMorgan Asset Management, said the deal unveiled in Geneva was better than anticipated, but uncertainty remained.
"The magnitude of this tariff reduction is larger than expected," he said, although he noted that it would be difficult for Beijing and Washington to reach a more concrete trade arrangement in just three months.
"The 90-day period may not be sufficient for the two sides to reach a detailed agreement, but it keeps the pressure on the negotiation process," Hui said. "We are still waiting for further details on other terms of this agreement, for example, whether China would relax on rare earth export restrictions."
However, Hui acknowledged the positive market reaction to the news.
"Overall, we expect the market to get back on to a risk-on sentiment in the near term," he said. "Pressure on the [Federal Reserve] to cut rates may also ease for the time being."
Jordan Rochester, head of currency strategy EMEA and executive director at Mizuho Bank in London, touted the deal as "much better news than expected" in a Monday morning note. He argued that the developments would mean "the 'Sell America' narrative [gets] squeezed."
U.S. assets, including the dollar, Treasurys and stocks, have seen major volatility in the weeks since Trump unveiled the full extent of his tariffs plans.
On Monday morning, the U.S. dollar index, which measures the value of the greenback against a basket of major currencies, was up 1%. The yield on the benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury note was up by 6 basis points as the price edged lower.
According to Rochester, the 90-day deal takes the effective U.S. tariff rate — what Chinese companies will actually end up paying — from 108.8% to 27%, which he noted was well above the market consensus of a reduction to the range of 50% to 60%.
"It is also notable how [officials] played down the requirement for talks to continue past 90 days in the press conference with 'as long as talks are constructive,'" he said. "What this means for international trade is the de facto 'tariff wall' has been lowered to something more workable and also raises the market pricing of other countries to get similar treatment when in talks with the US down the line."
The better-than-expected results from the trade negotiations mean stocks could rally further, according to Wall Street strategists.
"Although stocks have rebounded, there is still much dispersion [between] domestics and exporters under the hood, dollar risk premium remains high, and overall positioning is light/defensive," Emmanuel Cau, head of European equity strategy at Barclays, said in an emailed statement. "Pain trade to the upside means stocks have room to overshoot."
Meanwhile, strategists at Deutsche Bank said their sentiment had been significantly boosted by the morning's news. They are now expecting U.S. stocks to outperform their European rivals in the short term.
"Today's announcement even exceeds our constructive expectations," they said. "In our view, this announcement is not only better than we expected but also better than the market would have expected back in March.
"Although it is hard to tell how this will develop after the 90-day period, the implications for markets are clearly supportive ... Stay bullish and consider stepping back into China tariff-exposed sectors (ex Autos, Health Care and Chips)."
Mikkel Emil Jensen, senior analyst at Sydbank, said the 90-day tariff pause marked a major de-escalation in the U.S.-China trade war.
"[It] removes a large chunk of uncertainty related to world trade — at least for now," Mikkel Emil Jensen, senior analyst at Sydbank, told CNBC after the news was announced.
"The deal might be temporary, but the deal is better than expected and could ignite positive ripple effects on global trade and increase the demand for container freight," the Sydbank analyst said. Shares of shipping giant Maersk were over 12% higher on Monday morning.
"More so, the temporary deal might boost the front-loading effect, triggering companies to increase inventories before a potential worsening of the trade war," Jensen added.
Also reacting to the news, Wedbush's Dan Ives said he believed the U.S.-China deal was "clearly just the start of broader and more comprehensive negotiations," describing the news as "a huge win for the market and bulls."
"We would expect both these tariff numbers to move down markedly over the coming months as deal talks progress," he said in a note. "The baseline view heading into the weekend was some de-escalation of US/China tariffs and the agreement for more talks ... instead in a dream scenario this morning [officials] came out of these talks with massive cuts to reciprocal tariffs."
Ives, who's known for his bullish outlook on tech, argued that the agreement meant new highs for markets and tech stocks were "now on the table in 2025."
Trade between the world's two largest economies is expected to swiftly resume following the cut in tariffs, reversing the decline in freight vessels and shipping containers since the tariffs announcement in early April.
Lindsay James, investment strategist at Quilter, said the new deal was "not quite as good as the 20% level that existed before so-called Liberation Day," but added that the temporary agreement would enable "a considerable proportion of trade resume, albeit at slightly higher prices."
— CNBC's Sam Meredith contributed to this report.
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Search engine optimization is the art and science of crafting websites and other online content so they show up prominently when people Google something.
A massive industry of experts, advisors, and gurus (and charlatans) has grown up around the interplay between Google, which purposely sets opaque rules, and website owners tweaking stuff and trying to work the system.
The rise of generative AI, large language models, and AI chatbots is changing all this — radically and quickly.
While SEO has long been a cornerstone of digital marketing strategy, a new paradigm is rapidly threatening to take its place: "answer engine optimization."
As AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity become the front door to online discovery, AEO is emerging as a strategic imperative for growth. There's been an explosion of AEO startups and tools in recent months, all promising to help online businesses show up when chatbots and AI models answer user questions.
"There must have been 30 AEO product launches in the last few months, all trying to do what SEO did 20 years ago," said David Slater, a chief marketing officer who's worked at Mozilla, Salesforce, and other tech companies. "It's absolutely going to be a hot space."
AEO is SEO adapted for the world of conversational AI, said Ethan Smith, the CEO of the digital marketing firm Graphite Growth. He wrote an excellent blog recently about this new trend.
Where traditional SEO focused on optimizing for static keyword-driven queries, AEO centers on influencing how AI chatbots respond to user questions, he said. With tools like ChatGPT increasingly integrating real-time web search and surfacing clickable links, chat interfaces now function like hybrid search engines. The result is a fast feedback loop that makes influencing LLM outputs not just possible but also essential for online businesses.
Unlike SEO, where a landing page might target a single keyword, AEO pages must address clusters of related questions. Smith shared an example: Instead of optimizing a webpage for "project management software," AEO pages might answer dozens or even hundreds of variations, such as, "What's the best project management tool for remote teams?" or, "Which project management platforms support API integration?"
This shift didn't happen overnight. When ChatGPT launched in late 2022, its responses were generated from outdated training data with no live web access. But over the past year, LLMs have started using retrieval-augmented generation and other techniques that help them incorporate more real-time information. They often perform a live online search, for instance, and then summarize results in real time. This makes AEO both faster to influence and more dynamic than its SEO predecessor, Smith wrote.
There's been some interest in AEO for about a year or so. But in early 2025, OpenAI's ChatGPT and other generative AI services began surfacing prominent links and citations in answers a lot more. That's when AEO really took off.
Now AEO startups are raising venture capital, some online businesses are seeing conversion spikes from AI traffic, and there's been a Cambrian explosion of AEO analytics, tracking, and content tools.
Check out this list of AEO startups and tools, identified by Smith from Graphite Growth. There are a few established players in here, too, including HubSpot. (Overall, there are a lot, so click on the button in the top right of this table to see all the options.)
There's already a race to determine how these AI chatbots spit out results and recommendations so that website owners can hack their way to better online distribution in the new era of generative AI and large language models.
GPTrends is one of these up-and-coming AEO providers. David Kaufman, one of the entrepreneurs behind the firm, shared an analysis recently on LinkedIn.
He said that AI search results from tools such as ChatGPT and Perplexity are unpredictable. They can change even when you ask the same question multiple times. Unlike Google, where search results stay mostly the same, AI tools give different answers depending on how the model responds in the moment, Kaufman wrote.
For example, Kaufman and his colleagues asked ChatGPT this question 100 times: "What's the best support ticketing software?" Then they tracked which providers appeared most often. Here are the results of the test:
Zendesk showed up in 94% of answers, while other companies, including Freshworks and Zoho, appeared less often and in different positions. This randomness gives less-well-known brands a better shot at being seen, at least some of the time.
"Strategically," Kaufman wrote, "this means brands need to rethink how they optimize for discovery, focusing less on traditional SEO tactics and more on comprehensive, authoritative content that AI systems recognize as valuable."
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College finance clubs have become a gateway to Wall Street careers, and the process for joining can be as cutthroat as the industry itself.
In his first week as a freshman at Columbia University, Jordan Cancel, a Floridian who was then 18, saw just how competitive a career path to finance would be.
Outside the iconic Butler Library, known for its Neoclassical columns, mobs of students were clamoring to get to informational booths set up by the college's finance and business clubs.
"There were lines and lines of kids queued up at these club booths," Cancel, now 20, recalled in an interview with Business Insider. The students, he said, were all vying to converse with the clubs' leaders and make a good impression. "I was just honestly really overwhelmed."
Weeks later, heading to his first admissions interview with one of these clubs, the stakes felt palpable. Cancel recalled reading the Excel sheet with timeslots for a lengthy list of applicants as he waited for his name to be called. He brought plenty of résumé copies and dressed in business formal, "down to the shoes," because he'd heard that assessment metrics included attire.
"I was so beyond scared," said Cancel, who was ultimately accepted into the club.
As part of Business Insider's series on career paths in finance, we interviewed about 30 students from schools popular with Wall Street recruiters, including the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, New York University, and Georgetown University. They described how campus business and finance clubs had become a crucial gateway to a career on Wall Street.
See more stories from BI's Path to Wall Street series here, including what it's really like to work for a hedge fund and data showing where the average banker went to school and how much she makes.
These are extracurricular, student-run groups — like a chess club or drama society — that come with names like the "investing banking club" or the "finance club." Some run full-fledged investment funds, while others are Greek fraternities that recruit students majoring in business, finance, marketing, or accounting.
What distinguishes them is that they tend to offer their members VIP access to campus recruiters, specialized training sessions, and other tools to help students snag the all-important investment banking internship, which is the best path to a full-time job after graduation.
The catch? Their perks have created a race for membership, and the admissions process to join a club can be as cutthroat as the industry itself.
This is the latest in a series of stories exploring careers in finance, how they are changing, and how these shifts are affecting young people. The clubs help Wall Street employers by creating a clear pipeline of job candidates, and firms have been known to cater to them as a result.
While it's unclear exactly when these clubs became must-haves for a Wall Street job, the people who spoke with BI tended to agree that the situation reflected a race among employers to recruit talent earlier and earlier.
A Wharton sophomore said he knew of high school students who'd started preparing to get into clubs as soon as they were accepted to college — before they'd even arrived on campus.
"I remember my senior year, after I got into college, I was just messing around. I was just having fun," but that's not the case anymore, he said, adding: "You've gotten into these places and it's like, all right, now work on building a DCF" — a valuation method. "It's outrageous."
To be sure, the club scene has long been exclusive. From the "eating clubs" at Princeton to the average sorority, organizations will choose members based on social interactions, pedigree, and background. What makes the financial and business clubs different is that they are less about making friends or exploring new interests and more about your résumé. This has led to a degree of meritocracy, with the clubs requiring wannabe members to prove they have enough know-how and genuine interest to join.
Club leaders from three schools told BI that their organizations accepted less than 10% of their freshman applicants, who numbered 150 to 300 in recent years.
The interest makes sense. Members get exclusive exposure to the industry, including training and tips from upperclassmen who have already gone through Wall Street's rigorous internship application process. Some clubs give their members real money to manage — whether a percentage of the university's endowment or capital from members and alumni.
Firm recruiters often interact with student clubs, granting members special access to meetings and events. A club might, for example, invite employees of a bank (often school alumni) to give a presentation on their summer analyst program, followed by one-on-one "coffee chats" with members.
One student club leader said he landed an investment banking internship because members of his club were invited to visit the firm's headquarters. The club leader is one of many students who asked to remain anonymous to protect their future careers.
"I have so many opportunities to network internally and have specific résumé drop links that these recruiters give to the club specifically, that are only open to members," he told BI about his campus club experience. "You want to be part of the résumé book."
The hedge fund Balyasny went to campus clubs to find candidates for its recent stock pitch competitions, which it uses to identify talent. A private equity worker, meanwhile, said the "No. 1 thing" she looked for when she was a recruiting captain of an investment bank was whether students from her alma mater had been members of "the two most prestigious investment clubs on campus."
Competition to get into campus clubs has gotten so intense that Georgetown's McDonough School of Business barred first-semester freshmen from joining them in 2023.
Some students have balked at the rule, saying it puts them behind in recruiting for Wall Street internships, which students must apply for halfway through their sophomore year.
"Kids are just so much less prepared," one student told the Georgetown Voice of the impact the rule was having on students interested in working on Wall Street.
The student publication reported that the rule wasn't making the admissions process any less competitive and was just delaying the flood of applications.
While the pressure these young people face may feel exaggerated, there are plenty of signs that the stakes are all too real. Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs have disclosed record levels of applicants to their internship programs. And Wall Street's earlier-than-ever recruiting schedule compelled Steve Sibley, a professor at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business, to move an introductory corporate finance class he runs from the fall of students' sophomore year to the spring of their freshman year.
"We realized we weren't offering classes early enough for these students," he said.
The end result has been a club culture that often mimics the industry itself, including a cutthroat selection process. Some clubs conduct three to five rounds of interviews, students told BI, which can involve a résumé review (yes, your high school résumé), a social assessment, and multiple technical rounds in which you'll be grilled on real-world finance questions.
The club leader described a freshman applicant who froze and started crying after flubbing a question. It was hard to watch, and, needless to say, the student didn't make it to the next round.
"Of course it sucks when you have to reject people," the club leader said. "But at the end of the day, we have X amount of applicants and a limited number of spots. And that is literally just how the industry is set up as well. It's hypercompetitive, it's overwhelming, and you have to be pushing constantly."
Most of the students BI spoke with echoed that low acceptance rates were extreme and sometimes ridiculous. They also said it's this way for a reason, including the difficulty of managing and teaching hundreds of other students.
"We only have so much bandwidth as people running the club," a Wharton junior said. "The impact is lower if you're dealing with 300."
Also, for better or worse, being a sought-after club brings a level of prestige and bragging rights for those who manage to get in.
"You want to be in the club where so many people want to get in," the club leader said.
As a freshman at Georgetown University in the fall of 2022, Jonathan Rothschild refused to apply to finance clubs his first semester, he said, once he learned about the rigorous interview processes and acceptance rates of under 10%.
"I was like, look, I just got here. I don't even know if I want to be in this club, let alone if I want to do five rounds of interviews for it," he told BI.
"I don't think that's how we should be treating people freshman year."
That choice led him to Georgetown Collegiate Investors during his second semester, a student-owned investment fund that lets any student participate in its training program and later become a "junior analyst" on the team if they pass a basic knowledge test.
The fund has more than $150,000 in assets under management, money raised from current and former student members. Rothschild, now a junior and co-CEO of GCI, argues that the selective of these clubs favors people who have been exposed to finance early in life.
"If you're only accepting 5% of the people, you're getting the people who already know what they're doing," he said, adding: "I'm not saying take everyone, but you could take 25% of people at Georgetown and be fine."
The very students who lack the background or knowledge to get into these clubs are the ones who stand to benefit most, he said.
"That's always been our selling point: We'll train you, we'll get you ready, you don't need prior knowledge, we will teach you."
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Rivian's first-ever concept experience takes its luxurious boho vibe to another level.
Located under the High Line, the store revolves around themes that roll out annually, with the current one being "Adventure Is In Us."
That theme is on display in the store's design and also embedded in new offerings like "adventure drives," which I got to try out for myself. The program allows customers to sign up quarterly for small group drives to local day trip spots like the Met Cloisters or Storm King Art Center. The space will also continue to offer standard demo drives.
Rivian's director of regional marketing, Sara Webster Wylie, told BI that the concept experience is designed to broaden the brand's reach. While Rivian scores highly in customer satisfaction among its current owners, it's still in the process of gaining wider recognition as an EV maker.
A Rivian spokesperson told BI that the Brooklyn space typically draws visitors who are already familiar with the brand. The new space, which launched in 2023 as a showroom and is centered in a tourist hub, has the potential to introduce more people to the brand.
Similar to its Brooklyn showroom, Rivian is also trying to embed the local community into its concept experience. The company said that the new space will also host events like community gatherings and panel conversations.
The space had a "soft" open on May 2, and it hosted a series of events the weekend after. I went to its first launch event on Friday, which included breakfast, a sustainable activity, and an adventure ride to The Met Cloisters.
Keep reading to see what it was like.
The concept space is located right around the High Line park on 461 W 14th Street. While the area is usually a hot spot for tourists, the vibes that day were dark and gloomy in the city.
Rivian's floor-to-ceiling windows and warm design made the space feel like a green oasis on a rainy day.
Rivian's Brooklyn showroom had similar design aspects, like ambient lighting, wood accents, and greenery. However, the concept space felt like a more refined version. It was slightly less colorful and busy, leaning more into a luxurious and minimalist vibe.
The Brooklyn showroom had a more neighborhood, small-town feel, while this space felt a bit more expansive and showy.
Apollo Bagels is currently one of the hot bagel spots in New York City. It didn't disappoint.
Rivian also had coffee, orange juice, Boxed Water, and a small assortment of pastries that looked delicious.
The automaker offered hot tea, hot chocolate, lattes, cappuccinos, and cortados.
Rivian said that it expanded food and beverage service for visitors, including coffee from local purveyor Don Carvajal, and tea from Harney & Sons.
Rivian had the storm blue R1S in the front of the space, the glacier white R1T in the middle, and the Rivian blue R1S in the back of the space.
There were camping stations and accessories strategically placed throughout the store.
Rivian had a sound immersion room with a video display on the wall that showed different city landscapes and other scenes.
Wylie said that the experience is designed to immerse visitors in a sensory experience. The website describes it as more of a "playground" than a "showroom." Visitors can drink coffee or tea, explore displays, step into a sound immersion room, and discover new experiences through the adventure ride.
"Ultimately, we want to inspire a sense of adventure in anyone who visits," Wylie said.
The pillows and seats were comfortable, and the room was dimly lit and cozy. As someone who pays for meditation classes in the city, it was nice to experience a similar experience at no cost.
Similar to Rivian's Brooklyn location, which had a lot of kid-friendly characteristics, the concept experience had kids' books and interactive activities, like listening to sounds and touching the material of the cars.
Rivian's Brooklyn showroom featured plenty of text and wall displays explaining EV ownership, but the concept space seemed to take the educational aspect a step further. It had simplified graphics to engage an audience that may be less familiar with EV ownership.
Rivian stationed a waste design studio called Are You Mad at the space. The studio showed attendees how plastic is turned into other materials and had a table for making keychains.
I'm not particularly artistic, and my keychain did fall apart shortly after I finished (my fault), but I found the process surprisingly cathartic.
The regional marketing director told me that Rivian added sensory elements to the space to connect visitors to the brand on a deeper level. That includes digital displays to listen to owner stories and sound experiences for kids to guess sounds around the city.
I had actually heard about the restaurant, so it was cool to see the brand spotlight the owners. It felt like a genuine — and successful — effort to connect with the local community.
This photo shows an interactive experience that allowed visitors to vote for their favorite color with cork balls. It was one of several creative interactive elements placed throughout the store.
The display allowed users to choose preselected choices, including Arcadia National Park, Montauk, the Outer Banks, or their own pick. I chose Mauntauk, and it showed me how long it would take from the Meatpacking District concept space and the charging hubs along the way.
I opted not to drive in the rain, so one of the employees took the wheel. It's not necessarily easy to go on a roughly hourlong drive with people you just met, but the employees were down-to-earth and easy to get along with.
It was my first time spending extended time in a car in months, and it felt like I was on a road trip.
Rivian's vehicles have a modern and comfortable feel, with functional features like floor storage and ample space between the seats and the cabin. They also have a minimalist aesthetic, and materials like vegan leather add to the soft and earthy vibe.
The tour lasted about 45 minutes.
The Met Cloisters were a nice break from the city, and the ability to go with a car made the experience feel easy and comfortable instead of stressful with planning.
I get carsick from time to time, and I did feel a bit nauseous on the way back.
While living and touring New York City can be exciting, it can also feel overstimulating. I admired Rivian's ability to curate a space that highlighted aspects of city living and connected with the local community and lifestyle while also offering a break from some of the parts of it that can feel overwhelming.
I thought the "adventure drives" offering was also a clever move. While standard demo drives can be cool to experience, most people aren't likely to sign up for one unless they're actively shopping for a car, especially if the brand isn't widely popular.
I also thought it was a smart way to show a wider aspect of ownership. By offering an opportunity to explore outside the streets of New York, customers may be more incentivized to experience the brand for a longer duration and get a real taste of ownership.
Many people, like myself, enjoy a break from the city from time to time. Taking an SUV to a more secluded area definitely captured that sense of escape — and the rain added to the feeling of adventure.
Jump to
How America's First Son is cashing in on his dad's presidency.
Last November, only six days after his father was elected president, Donald Trump Jr. made a career move that, on the surface at least, seemed a bit odd. He became a partner in a small investment startup called 1789 Capital, which is based in Palm Beach, Florida, 2 miles from Mar-a-Lago. At that point, 1789 was a microscopic player in the world of venture capital. It had raised less than $200 million, and it hadn't made many investments beyond leading a group that put $15 million into Tucker Carlson's new media company. Its goal, according to its founders, is to create a "parallel economy," investing in "anti-woke" businesses that align with MAGA values.
Ever since Trump joined 1789, its portfolio has begun to blossom. Despite its tiny size, the firm has been granted shares in several coveted offerings, including Elon Musk's SpaceX. The shares, which are widely viewed as an almost certain home run, are essentially an insider deal: To participate in the offering, you typically have to receive an invitation from someone already in the club. In addition, 1789 has invested in Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI, as well as a handful of startups that have received or are vying for contracts from the Defense Department. Almost overnight, a VC firm involving the president's son has become a significant beneficiary of the federal bureaucracy long derided by President Trump as "the swamp."
There's nothing wrong with an investment company making bets based on its connections — that's an integral part of the VC game. And there's no evidence that any of 1789's deals break laws prohibiting favoritism to individual contractors. But given their potential for creating a conflict of interest, the firm's investments have alarmed Washington insiders familiar with the process. What's more, the Trump administration's lack of transparency — particularly around moves being made by Musk and DOGE — makes it impossible to tell if the president's family is improperly making money by funneling government business to the companies it invests in.
"This certainly raises serious concerns about the appearance of corruption, because Trump's family is benefiting," says Laura Dickinson, a law professor at George Washington University who has served as special counsel for the Defense Department. "And when you look at this in the context of arbitrary cuts to other programs, it raises questions about whether preferential treatment is being given to family and others who curry favor with Trump."
It's not just legal experts who have concerns about the money flowing to Don Jr. One veteran Wall Street investor, who has personally reviewed 1789's deals, says they enable the president's son to profit from the administration's actions, even if no contractors are given preferential treatment. "It's a way for Mar-A-Lago to get paid," says the investor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution from the Trump administration. (Both the Trump Organization and 1789 declined requests for comment.)
One of 1789's biggest bets in its push to monetize MAGA has come courtesy of Musk. According to Bloomberg, the firm has invested more than $50 million in SpaceX and xAI — the kind of opportunity usually reserved for deep-pocketed insiders, not tiny funds with no track record. The move comes at a time when the Trump administration — which has empowered Musk and DOGE to redirect vast swaths of federal spending — has reportedly been moving to channel billions in taxpayer dollars to SpaceX for the use of its Starlink satellite system. In addition, the company has been awarded a $5.9 billion contract from the US Space Force to launch critical national security payloads. The deal, announced April 4, makes SpaceX the Pentagon's leading launch provider, surpassing an industry rival owned by Boeing and Lockheed. That means as SpaceX benefits from government contracts, 1789 — and the president's son — stand to share the wealth.
1789 is also investing in other companies being awarded lucrative defense contracts. Anduril, a highly regarded defense technology firm, is now raising up to $2.5 billion. The backers of the new fundraising round have not been revealed — but I was able to confirm from multiple sources that 1789 is among the investors. Anduril has thrived under the Trump administration: In February the company won a $22 billion defense contract to provide soldiers with augmented reality goggles. A few weeks later, it beat out nine competitors to win a $642 million contract to build a network of anti-drone defenses for military bases. Given the company's prospects, investors have been fighting to get shares in the company.
Axiom Space — a Houston company that is seeking a contract with NASA to build a successor to the International Space Station — has been in discussions with 1789 to raise at least $100 million in fresh equity. And in January, 1789 led a $60 million fundraising round for Firehawk Aerospace, a Dallas tech company focused on supplying the military with 3D printed rocket fuel. In April, Firehawk landed a $1.25 million defense contract to conduct a study of its manufacturing systems. That month, the company posted a photo on LinkedIn of its founder posing with Gen. James Rainey, the leader of Army Futures Command. With them was the founder of Aeon Industrial — another defense contractor in 1789's portfolio — who had just received a weapons contract from Rainey's command.
"It creates a very complex ethics situation," says Scott Amey, the general counsel at the Project on Government Oversight, a leading watchdog group. "If the son of the president is benefiting from these deals, even if there's a few degrees of separation, is there a level playing field? We just don't know."
Don Jr.'s investments are a long way from the days when Washington got worked up over Jimmy Carter's brother marketing his own beer brand. "I'm old enough to remember when it was completely shocking that the president's brother was selling Billy Beer," says Nell Minow, the vice chair of ValueEdge Advisors, who has served as a government attorney at the EPA, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Justice Department. "Back then, there was no suggestion of a connection to access or policy or contracts — it was just considered unseemly." With 1789, she adds, "We've gone to a whole new level: This is a flashing red light of a conflict."
Don Jr. is far from a passive bystander in 1789. According to Politico, he and his fellow partners at the investment firm have launched an invite-only club called the Executive Branch that will cost more than half a million dollars to join. Located in Georgetown, the high-end club will enable business and tech moguls to schmooze with administration insiders behind closed doors — and simultaneously creating a source of potential deals for 1789.
Even some insiders who have worked closely with Trump and his family see such efforts as improper. "What they're doing is selling access to the president via the back door," says someone who knows the Trumps well. "Imagine for one second if Hunter Biden had opened this club while Joe Biden was president. The Republicans would be screaming not just for his head, but for a complete and total dismemberment of his body. It's beyond hypocritical."
Don Jr.'s involvement in 1789 bears an eerie resemblance to what Trump blasted Hunter Biden for doing: trading on his father's name to win lucrative business deals with countries like Ukraine and China. During the 2020 campaign, Don Jr. offered to debate Biden, insisting that Hunter's nepotism far outstripped his own. "I'm not going to say I haven't benefited from my father's last name, just like Hunter Biden did," Don Jr. told Axios. "That'd be foolish to say that. But I haven't benefited from my father's taxpayer-funded office."
Now, as a freshly minted venture capitalist, Don Jr. is explicitly gearing up to cash in on the next four years of his father's presidency. In the three months since Trump was inaugurated, 1789 has raised some $500 million. According to Bloomberg, the firm is aiming to collect $1 billion for its first fund by the middle of this year, and another $3 billion to $5 billion for a second fund next year. Whatever the legality of 1789's investments, it appears the president's eldest son stands to profit handsomely from the federal contracts his father's administration is handing out. Even if there's no pro quo involved, there's still plenty of quid.
Bethany McLean is a special correspondent at Business Insider.
Business Insider's Discourse stories provide perspectives on the day's most pressing issues, informed by analysis, reporting, and expertise.
Jump to
A catastrophic power outage affecting much of Spain, Portugal and the south of France has thrust the role of renewables and energy security into the spotlight.
An abrupt and widespread blackout, one of Europe's worst in living memory, affected the entire Iberian Peninsula on April 28.
The outage, which lasted for several hours, plunged much of the region into darkness, stranded thousands of train passengers and left millions without phone or internet coverage or access to cash from ATMs.
Spanish authorities have since launched several investigations to determine the root cause of the incident, including a probe into whether a cyberattack could be to blame.
Alongside Spanish opposition parties, some external observers have flagged renewables and net-zero emissions targets as possible reasons for the outage, particularly given Spain and Portugal both rely on high levels of wind and solar for their electricity grid.
"It's very sad to see what's happened to Portugal and Spain and so many people there, but you know, when you hitch your wagon to the weather, it's just a risky endeavor," U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNBC's "Power Lunch" on April 28.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and the country's grid operator Red Electrica de Espana (REE) have both said record levels of renewable energy were not at fault for the blackout.
European Union energy chief Dan Jorgensen, meanwhile, said that there was "nothing unusual" about the sources of energy supplying electricity to the system at the time of the outage.
"So, the causes of the blackout cannot be reduced to a specific source of energy, for instance renewables," he added.
European energy technology companies called for observers to refrain from drawing their own conclusions in the absence of a formal explanation from authorities.
Henrik Andersen, CEO of Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas, said he'd encourage "a degree of statesmanship" over the blackout, particularly as Spanish policymakers continue to investigate.
"First of all, energy security means that you can run societies without having blackouts. That's stating the obvious," Andersen told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Tuesday.
"Everyone is grasping quick root causes and blaming each other, and I simply just don't want to go there because until we know the root cause of why grids can fail across Spain and Portugal, let's not second guess or try to blame someone at cybersecurity or blame individual energy sources," he added.
"Europe needs more energy -- and we probably also need a stronger grid. That goes without saying," Andersen said.
Siemens Energy CEO Christian Bruch, meanwhile, said the German energy tech group was holding talks with the relevant transmission and utility operators following the blackout.
"What you do see is that when you build an energy system, you need to think about the generation, like solar, wind, gas, whatever, but you also need to think about how the overall system on the grid side [is[ operating and how you stabilize that," Bruch told CNBC on Thursday.
"This is sometimes underestimated in its complexity, and this is why products from us for grid stabilizations are in demand at the moment to balance these things out," he continued.
"It's possible to solve it but it will require investments and it's not easy. It's not just a couple of solar cells and some batteries. It's a little bit more complex than this," Bruch said.
For those on the ground at the time of the outage, the lack of power underlined the challenges of a digital society.
"Cash suddenly becomes really important," Roseanna, a resident of the southern Spanish city of Málaga, told CNBC. She said she only had 40 euros ($45.16) available when the power cut just after midday.
"Obviously you can't get money out and you can't pay with card, so it's certainly important to have a little bit of cash in your pocket at all times," she continued.
"We've gone all digital but the system's ruined if there's no electricity," Roseanna said.
— CNBC's Karen Gilchrist contributed to this report.
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Wall Street analysts rerated Coinbase Global, Inc COIN on Friday after the company reported disappointing first-quarter results on Thursday.
Rosenblatt analyst Chris Brendler maintained Coinbase Global with a Buy and a $260 price target.
Needham analyst John Todaro reiterated Coinbase Global with a Buy and lowered the price target from $330 to $270.
Also Read: Robinhood Stock Falls After Analysts Cite Weak Crypto Volumes And Market Headwinds In Q2 Outlook
Rosenblatt: Revenue of $2.03 billion missed consensus of $2.10 billion by ~3% but came in slightly higher than Brendler's estimate.
Despite multiple attempts to anticipate trading weakness, transaction revenue still missed the analyst's below consensus estimate ($1.26 billion versus his $1.30 billion) as high-yielding Consumer volumes were in line, but take rates declined more than expected in both Consumer and Institutional.
On a positive note, MTUs of 9.7 million exceeded expectations (consensus 9.2 million), showing strength in platform engagement even as spot trading volumes declined sequentially.
In Brendler's recent initiation, expanding opportunities outside the core trading business represented a key component of his thesis, as these largely recurring revenue streams should boost the multiple. This quarter, the analyst saw trading weakness more than offset by strength in Subscription and Services Revenue as Stablecoins were even better than anticipated and Other beat due to growth in premium offerings (Prime).
The biggest positive surprise versus Brendler's estimates was in Blockchain revenue, as despite a 35+ % decline in token prices, staking revenue only fell 8.5% sequentially versus the analyst's -20% estimate.
Coinbase Global's acquisition of Deribit is expected to close by year-end and should be immediately accretive to adjusted EBITDA. The deal is perfectly timed as it cements Coinbase Global's leadership in the high-growth derivatives market and turbocharges its international exchange. Even better, Deribit's $1 trillion+ in trading volumes are all outside the U.S., and with domestic regulatory clarity coming soon, Brendler noted the synergies could be substantial. Combined with a lower-than-expected price tag of $2.9 billion, this is one of the most compelling acquisitions the analyst noted in a long time.
Brendler projected second-quarter revenue of $1.78 billion and adjusted EPS of $2.48.
Speculate on price movements, claim up to $200 in bonuses, and start with risk-free paper trading with crypto futures on Plus500.
Needham: Coinbase Global reported a narrow top-line Street miss but modestly beat analyst Todaro's estimates. The take rate modestly declined in the crypto transaction segment for both retail and institutional customers. Positive call-outs in the quarter were around USDC and the recently announced Deribit acquisition, which is expected to close by year-end 2025.
The $2.9 billion deal consists of $700 million in cash and 11 million shares of Coinbase Global stock.
The analyst noted the offering, which will be primarily geared for international markets, allows Coinbase Global to become a major player in derivatives and internationally. Additionally, Coinbase Global's international exchange launched 39 new perpetual contracts and expanded the asset collateral type to 8 assets from 3.
Coinbase Global's volume mix has recently been more Bitcoin and Ethereum than alt-coins, suggesting a greater shift towards institutional volume than retail for the second quarter. This negatively affects revenues as Coinbase Global has a significantly higher take rate on retail than institutional.
Additionally, April and May volumes are trending notably lower than average monthly volumes for the first quarter.
The good news is crypto asset prices recently inflected with Bitcoin rising back over $100k and a strong performance among alt-coins.
Historically, crypto asset prices find a bottom before volumes do, which suggests that with prices already inflecting, volumes should start seeing a bottom in the next one to two months. Nonetheless, Todaro lowered his fiscal 2025 and 2026 estimates to reflect lower volume estimates than his prior forecast.
Todaro projected second-quarter revenue of $1.56 billion and EPS of 80 cents.
COIN Price Action: Coinbase stock is up 5.74% to $210.76 at publication on Monday.
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In March, Tisséo became the first public transport network in Europe to allow travellers to pay for their tickets with cryptocurrency. Dalvinder Kular, assistant editor at National Technology News investigates whether this is part of a wider push towards the use of cryptocurrency to buy goods and services.
On 22 May 2010, programmer and cryptocurrency enthusiast Laszlo Hanyecz purchased two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins in Florida, which was then the equivalent of around $41 dollars.
Since that first transaction, on what is now celebrated as Bitcoin Pizza Day, around 15,200 businesses around the world accept bitcoin and 328,370 bitcoin transactions are made each day, according to small business advisory firm Fundera.
This number is tiny when compared to the roughly two billion daily transactions made by credit card around the world but there are indications that suggest paying for a coffee using Ethereum could soon be as normal as paying with contactless.
In March 2025, Tisséo, a public transport operator in the French city of Toulouse, became the first transit network in Europe to accept cryptocurrency payments. A few months earlier, French luxury department store Printemps started to offer crypto as a payment method to appeal to international clientele.
Outside of France, cryptocurrency is venturing beyond speculative trading and into everyday transactions. US president Donald Trump has stated his ambition to make the US the cryptocurrency capital of the world, launching his own meme coin, and Colorado's Department of Revenue began to accept tax payments in cryptocurrency in September 2022.
While organisations eagerly roll out trials of cryptocurrencies, the uptake by consumers remains uncertain.
Ticket to ride
Sacha Briand, board member of Tisséo and deputy mayor of Toulouse, who is responsible for overseeing finance and public assets, tells National Technology News that cryptocurrency is used to make about 10 purchases through the app each week.
As Toulouse is a university town with a large young population familiar with cryptocurrencies, Briand expects this number to rise in September when students return to study and purchase their annual season tickets.
Toulouse is growing, recently overtaking Lyon to become France's third largest city, and Briand says Tisséo is modernising its payment systems to coincide with the opening of a third metro line in 2028.
Tisséo partnered with payment platform Lyzi to enable Android users to purchase digital tickets using cryptocurrencies within the Tisséo app alongside traditional card payments.
Tisséo spent around €50,000 in integration fees and said it earns no commission from the transactions.
“The main difficulty lies in the rules of public accounting, which had to be reconciled with this new payment tool, but the implementation was not overly complex,” Briand says.
Lysi connects the customers paying in crypto, with Tisséo explaining that its agents do not handle crypto on a daily basis but are trained to deal with refund requests and the process is similar to that of traditional credit cards.
According to estimates, around 18 per cent of the French population hold cryptocurrency and this number is expected to grow.
“Honestly, with 18 per cent holding crypto, I would expect maybe two to three per cent to use it immediately for something like Tisséo's travel payments,” says Thomas Franklin, chief executive of crypto FinTech firm Swapped. “But usage could double year over year, hitting ten per cent penetration by 2027 if the experience is seamless.”
Franklin added that the purchase of transport tickets is a good place to start using cryptocurrency.
“Public transport is a surprisingly good fit for crypto payments,” Franklin says. “Small-ticket, high-frequency, low-dispute transactions. You're not refunding a metro ride.”
Julia Barashkov, a PhD researcher at Delft University of Technology, agrees and points out the parallels between public transport and the token economy.
“Transit systems tokenise access to physical resources without transferring ownership,” she says. “Riders want quick transactions, operators need efficiency, and price points are predictable.”
Yet, she says that that the adoption of cryptocurrencies by businesses in the physical rather than digital world could present unique challenges.
“Physical infrastructure involves coordination between multiple stakeholders—regulators, citizens, suppliers—who might not be crypto users,” she adds. “This creates a complexity digital-only environments don't face.”
Beyond the transport sector, countries are starting to slowly embrace crypto payments. Bhutan last week partnered with Biance Pay, becoming the first country in the world to offer a national-level cryptocurrency payment system for the tourism industry.
The new model will enable Binance Pay users to pay for nearly every part of their Bhutan journey using supported cryptocurrencies, including airline tickets, tourist visas and Sustainable Development Fees (SDF), hotel bookings, tour guides, monument entry fees, and local shopping, which can all be settled through static and dynamic QR code payments.
Papuna Lezhava, chief executive of crypto payments firm Keepz, sees this as a broader trend.
“In Georgia, people can pay taxes and buy apartments with crypto,” he says. “We're seeing faster adoption in countries where regulation and infrastructure support it.”
Spending digital assets
Due to fluctuations in exchange rates and the volatility of the cryptocurrency market, many users have seen crypto as an investment asset rather than a form of money which can be exchanged for goods and services, leaving cryptocurrencies languishing in digital wallets.
“Most crypto users still see Bitcoin and Ethereum as investment vehicles,” says Franklin. “Why spend an asset that might double next quarter? However, stablecoins like USDC, pegged to fiat currencies, are changing the equation.”
Franklin continues: “People will spend stablecoins or Layer-2 tokens way before they part with their Bitcoin. These tokens offer low volatility, making them suitable for day-to-day purchases—assuming merchants can integrate them smoothly.”
For crypto payments to become as effortless as tap to pay Franklin believes several challenges have to be solved.
Currently, paying with crypto involves three to five steps. He says the holy grail is “invisible” conversion, which allows users can pay in cryptocurrency without manual calculations or delays.
“We're realistically five to seven years away from it being truly invisible to the end user,” Franklin estimates.
Risks and barriers
Barriers for merchants are also substantial.
“Crypto payments don't auto-sync with traditional accounting systems,” Franklin explains. “Without middleware that handles real-time conversion and ledger entries, it becomes a reconciliation nightmare.”
To overcome these hurdles, many merchants are turning to specialised processors that offer instant conversion and stablecoin support. “The winners will be those who outsource the complexity,” he adds.
The volatility of cryptocurrencies is a huge concern for merchants and customers. If a retailer receives £100 worth of crypto and its value drops before it can be converted to fiat, it directly impacts revenue.
However, Lezhava says newer platforms are addressing these challenges. “Many now offer real-time conversion from crypto to local currency,” says Lezhava. “That way, merchants get paid what they expect, and customers can use digital assets confidently.”
It's not just volatility, Franklin says, explaining that the “the devil is in the details” when it comes to merchant risks. Along with exchange rate fluctuations, merchants also have to navigate chargebacks, settlement times, and regulatory classification issues.
“If a merchant receives $10 in BTC and by the time they cash out it is $9.40, that hits the bottom line hard,” Franklin says.
Merchants also have to think about regulation, with a risk that payment innovation could be held back due to bureaucracy.
“The UK has strong blockchain innovation, but regulatory bottlenecks slow down crypto adoption,” Franklin says.
While the Bank of England explores a digital pound and UK FinTech firms urge customers to adopt innovations like Open Banking, there seems to be a lack of mass movement towards crypto payments in retail or public services. Franklin thinks that with Brexit-era caution and regulatory conservatism still looming, widespread adoption may be years away.
The US has its own unique problems.
“Some US cities are crypto havens, others treat it like radioactive waste,” Franklin says. “Recent headlines involving Donald Trump's meme coin might have boosted crypto visibility, but experts agree that it's not spurring serious payments adoption.”
Outside the US and Europe, the pace of crypto integration varies and El Salvador seems to be leading the way, having made Bitcoin legal tender in 2021. Franklin says parts of the UAE are leading because they treat crypto payments like an infrastructure play, not a PR stunt.
The journey from pilot to purchase
If cryptocurrency is to become a normalised payment method, it is unlikely to happen overnight. As with the internet, smartphones, or contactless cards, mass adoption will likely come in phases and will be driven by its potential rather than hype.
“Success depends not just on the tech, but on governance,” Barashkov says. “Crypto in physical spaces requires buy-in from people who don't even hold the token.”
Tisséo will review the option to pay by cryptocurrency later this year and currently has no firm plans to phase out or expand the scheme.
“We didn't introduce crypto because of a trend, we did it because payment tools are evolving, and Toulouse must evolve with them,” says Briand. “Toulouse is a city of innovation in every field, capital of aeronautics and space, with strong demographic and economic growth, so it was only natural that we should also innovate in terms of payment methods.
“We believe that cryptocurrencies are set to grow very rapidly, so this payment tool is proof of our desire to be in step with a city of innovation and development.”
Cryptocurrency may have started as an alternative to traditional finance and investment vehicles, but it could be evolving into something more day-to-day.
As the infrastructure improves and use cases become more seamless, paying by crypto could become less of a novelty and just as normal as tapping a card. However, it seems that although there are use cases demonstrating how cryptocurrencies could be embedded into daily life, we are still a long way away from seeing this come to fruition.
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The PREH Multifamily Fund is being tokenized on the RWA-focused Chintai blockchain.
Patel Real Estate Holdings (PREH) has launched a $100 million tokenization fund on the Chintai blockchain, aiming to give accredited investors access to institutional-grade real estate opportunities.
The new PREH Multifamily Fund is a tokenized investment vehicle focused on vintage Class A multifamily units across the top 20 US growth markets, the company told Cointelegraph on May 12.
“The entire structure is digital-native from the start — compliant onboarding, reporting, capital calls, and (potential) secondary market transfers,” a PREH spokesperson said.
The fund is part of a broader $750 million investment vehicle co-developed by PREH and several institutional firms, including Carlyle, DRA Advisors, Walton Street Capital, RPM and KKR. Initially, the company said that $25 million of the $100 million allocation would be tokenized on Chintai.
According to PREH, the tokenization structure helps alleviate many transparency and liquidity constraints investors typically face in private market placements.
Founded in 2010, PREH is a national real estate asset manager that oversees a portfolio of Class A multifamily properties. The company owns and operates real estate investments, overseeing the acquisition, financing and management of properties.
Since its inception, PREH has completed more than $500 million in real estate transactions.
Chintai is a tokenization-focused layer-1 blockchain that also powers the R3 Sustainability Fund for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing. Its native token, CHEX, is currently valued at $0.24, with a total market capitalization of $244 million, according to CoinMarketCap.
"We chose Chintai because they offer a fully regulated, institutional-grade platform purpose-built for tokenizing real-world assets,” PREH's president, Tejas Patel, told Cointelegraph in a written statement, adding:
Related: RWA tokenization trends and market outlook for 2025: Report
Tokenizing real estate has long been seen as a way to modernize property investment, but until recently, real-world examples were rare.
By early 2025, real estate tokenization had gained traction across North America and the United Arab Emirates, while efforts are underway in Europe to establish regulatory frameworks that support its growth.
One of the biggest catalysts for tokenization is the “ability to eliminate the illiquidity discount on real estate,” Polygon CEO Mark Boiron told Cointelegraph in March.
The growth of liquid secondary markets for fractional real estate could significantly strengthen that advantage.
This motivation also drove RWA platform DigiShares to launch the REX marketplace on Polygon earlier this year, featuring two luxury property listings in Miami, Florida.
Efforts are also underway to tokenize commercial real estate, with Blocksquare and Vera Capital recently partnering to offer fractional ownership of more than $1 billion worth of properties.
Against this backdrop, consultancy firm Deloitte has forecast that $4 trillion worth of real estate will be tokenized on the blockchain over the next decade.
Magazine: Have your stake and earn fees too: Tushar Aggarwal on double dipping in DeFi
The PREH Multifamily Fund is being tokenized on the RWA-focused Chintai blockchain.
Patel Real Estate Holdings (PREH) has launched a $100 million tokenization fund on the Chintai blockchain, aiming to give accredited investors access to institutional-grade real estate opportunities.
The new PREH Multifamily Fund is a tokenized investment vehicle focused on vintage Class A multifamily units across the top 20 US growth markets, the company told Cointelegraph on May 12.
“The entire structure is digital-native from the start — compliant onboarding, reporting, capital calls, and (potential) secondary market transfers,” a PREH spokesperson said.
The fund is part of a broader $750 million investment vehicle co-developed by PREH and several institutional firms, including Carlyle, DRA Advisors, Walton Street Capital, RPM and KKR. Initially, the company said that $25 million of the $100 million allocation would be tokenized on Chintai.
According to PREH, the tokenization structure helps alleviate many transparency and liquidity constraints investors typically face in private market placements.
Founded in 2010, PREH is a national real estate asset manager that oversees a portfolio of Class A multifamily properties. The company owns and operates real estate investments, overseeing the acquisition, financing and management of properties.
Since its inception, PREH has completed more than $500 million in real estate transactions.
Chintai is a tokenization-focused layer-1 blockchain that also powers the R3 Sustainability Fund for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing. Its native token, CHEX, is currently valued at $0.24, with a total market capitalization of $244 million, according to CoinMarketCap.
"We chose Chintai because they offer a fully regulated, institutional-grade platform purpose-built for tokenizing real-world assets,” PREH's president, Tejas Patel, told Cointelegraph in a written statement, adding:
Related: RWA tokenization trends and market outlook for 2025: Report
Tokenizing real estate has long been seen as a way to modernize property investment, but until recently, real-world examples were rare.
By early 2025, real estate tokenization had gained traction across North America and the United Arab Emirates, while efforts are underway in Europe to establish regulatory frameworks that support its growth.
One of the biggest catalysts for tokenization is the “ability to eliminate the illiquidity discount on real estate,” Polygon CEO Mark Boiron told Cointelegraph in March.
The growth of liquid secondary markets for fractional real estate could significantly strengthen that advantage.
This motivation also drove RWA platform DigiShares to launch the REX marketplace on Polygon earlier this year, featuring two luxury property listings in Miami, Florida.
Efforts are also underway to tokenize commercial real estate, with Blocksquare and Vera Capital recently partnering to offer fractional ownership of more than $1 billion worth of properties.
Against this backdrop, consultancy firm Deloitte has forecast that $4 trillion worth of real estate will be tokenized on the blockchain over the next decade.
Magazine: Have your stake and earn fees too: Tushar Aggarwal on double dipping in DeFi
After the successful deployment last week of Pectra, Ethereum's biggest upgrade in more than a year, the network's core developers are already shifting focus to the next major chain upgrade: Fusaka.
Pectra, the biggest code change to Ethereum since the Merge in 2022, introduced key changes aimed at making staking easier for institutions, improving wallet accessibility, and boosting transaction efficiency.
Developers have already begun planning for Fusaka, the network's next upgrade, and have thus far agreed to include an Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) called "PeerDAS" that could help the network support larger "blobs" of transaction data.
Blobs, introduced during the Dencun upgrade, are dedicated spaces for large chunks of data related to transactions. They are stored off-chain, which reduces congestion on the Ethereum blockchain and lowers gas fees. The blobs are crucial for the growing layer-2 ecosystem built on top of Ethereum, such as Arbitrum, Optimism, and Coinbase's Base, which process transactions more quickly and at lower costs than the main chain.
PeerDAS, which stands for Peer Data Availability Sampling, would let validators download partial data from blobs instead of full blobs to validate whether the data has been posted to the network.
In theory, PeerDAS could reduce layer-2 transaction costs and benefit institutions operating validators on the Ethereum blockchain.
“PeerDAS is super important since we want to help layer-2s scale,” said Parithosh Jayanti, a devops engineer at the Ethereum Foundation, to CoinDesk over Telegram. “PeerDAS allows us to bump the blob limit significantly."
Fusaka is scheduled to go live at the end of 2025 and will eventually include a bundle of additional upgrades beyond PeerDAS. However, Ethereum developers are notorious for delaying their upgrades.
Pectra was initially set for release at the end of 2024 but was postponed to the first quarter of 2025. After a few faulty tests, the developers further delayed the upgrade to May.
Ethereum developers have been criticized over the past year for not implementing protocol changes quickly enough. As the price of the network's token has lagged in recent months and developers have migrated to competing ecosystems, the chain's community has debated whether its unofficial leader — the non-profit Ethereum Foundation — is to blame.
Read more: Ethereum Developers Lock in May 7 for Pectra Upgrade
Margaux Nijkerk reports on the Ethereum protocol and L2s. A graduate of Johns Hopkins and Emory universities, she has a masters in International Affairs & Economics. She holds BTC and ETH above CoinDesk's disclosure threshold of $1,000.
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After the successful deployment last week of Pectra, Ethereum's biggest upgrade in more than a year, the network's core developers are already shifting focus to the next major chain upgrade: Fusaka.
Pectra, the biggest code change to Ethereum since the Merge in 2022, introduced key changes aimed at making staking easier for institutions, improving wallet accessibility, and boosting transaction efficiency.
Developers have already begun planning for Fusaka, the network's next upgrade, and have thus far agreed to include an Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) called "PeerDAS" that could help the network support larger "blobs" of transaction data.
Blobs, introduced during the Dencun upgrade, are dedicated spaces for large chunks of data related to transactions. They are stored off-chain, which reduces congestion on the Ethereum blockchain and lowers gas fees. The blobs are crucial for the growing layer-2 ecosystem built on top of Ethereum, such as Arbitrum, Optimism, and Coinbase's Base, which process transactions more quickly and at lower costs than the main chain.
PeerDAS, which stands for Peer Data Availability Sampling, would let validators download partial data from blobs instead of full blobs to validate whether the data has been posted to the network.
In theory, PeerDAS could reduce layer-2 transaction costs and benefit institutions operating validators on the Ethereum blockchain.
“PeerDAS is super important since we want to help layer-2s scale,” said Parithosh Jayanti, a devops engineer at the Ethereum Foundation, to CoinDesk over Telegram. “PeerDAS allows us to bump the blob limit significantly."
Fusaka is scheduled to go live at the end of 2025 and will eventually include a bundle of additional upgrades beyond PeerDAS. However, Ethereum developers are notorious for delaying their upgrades.
Pectra was initially set for release at the end of 2024 but was postponed to the first quarter of 2025. After a few faulty tests, the developers further delayed the upgrade to May.
Ethereum developers have been criticized over the past year for not implementing protocol changes quickly enough. As the price of the network's token has lagged in recent months and developers have migrated to competing ecosystems, the chain's community has debated whether its unofficial leader — the non-profit Ethereum Foundation — is to blame.
Read more: Ethereum Developers Lock in May 7 for Pectra Upgrade
Margaux Nijkerk reports on the Ethereum protocol and L2s. A graduate of Johns Hopkins and Emory universities, she has a masters in International Affairs & Economics. She holds BTC and ETH above CoinDesk's disclosure threshold of $1,000.
About
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Coinbase considered adopting a Bitcoin strategy like Michael Saylor's. They ultimately decided against it due to concerns about the risk involved.
Coinbase (COIN) was once tempted by the allure of a Bitcoin strategy straight out of Michael Saylor's playbook. The idea was simple: Put a massive chunk of their balance sheet into Bitcoin. But, despite some serious internal discussions, Coinbase chose not to take that risk. CEO Brian Armstrong admitted that there were times over the years when they seriously considered it. “There were definitely moments over the last 12 years where we thought, man, should we put 80% of our balance sheet into crypto — into Bitcoin specifically?” he told Bloomberg in a May 9 video call.
Armstrong explained why Coinbase stepped back from the aggressive Bitcoin buy-in. “We made a conscious choice about risk,” he said. The fear was simple: A massive Bitcoin buy could jeopardize Coinbase's cash flow and hurt the crypto exchange's stability. This caution wasn't just about money. Coinbase also didn't want to find itself competing with its own customers. By not committing a significant chunk of its assets into Bitcoin, Coinbase preserved its role as a trusted intermediary rather than an investment competitor in the market.
While Coinbase chose not to go all-in on Bitcoin, it still holds a considerable amount. The exchange owns 9,480 BTC, worth roughly $988 million at current prices. This makes Coinbase the ninth-largest corporate Bitcoin holder in the world, just behind companies like Strategy (MSTR) and Tesla (TSLA). In fact, Coinbase continues to build its Bitcoin reserves. In the first quarter of 2025, it announced a $153 million purchase of crypto assets, largely concentrated in Bitcoin. So while Coinbase isn't following the path laid out by Saylor, it's certainly not ignoring Bitcoin's potential.
Coinbase's stock currently holds a Moderate Buy rating from 22 analysts. Of these, 11 analysts have given it a Buy rating, 10 analysts have rated it as Hold, and just one analyst has issued a Sell rating. This consensus shows that, despite some skepticism, a majority of analysts remain optimistic about Coinbase's future.
The average COIN price target is set at $256.60, reflecting an upside of 21.61% from its current price of $211.00. The highest price target from analysts reaches $400.00, suggesting significant growth potential if the market sentiment continues to favor the exchange. The lowest target is $169.00, providing a more conservative outlook should macroeconomic conditions affect the broader market or Coinbase's business operations.
See more COIN analyst ratings
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As Bitcoin's value skyrockets, governments may turn to wealth taxes to tap into unrealized gains, raising questions about the future of crypto taxation.
Opinion by: Robin Singh, CEO of Koinly
Is there a catch for Bitcoin hodlers, with the asset's price up over 600,000% since the beginning of 2013?
Perhaps — if governments keep waking up to Bitcoin's value, the whole “you only pay tax when you sell” mantra could soon be a thing of the past.
What if a wealth tax is the answer for revenue-hungry tax agencies with no time to lose? It's a yearly tax on a person's total net worth — cash, investments, property and other assets — minus any debts, applied whether or not those assets are sold or generating income. The idea is to boost public revenue and curb inequality, mainly by taxing the ultra-rich. A wealth tax takes a clip off what you own, not what you earn.
Countries such as Belgium, Norway and Switzerland have had wealth taxes baked into their tax systems for ages, yet some of the world's biggest economies — like the US, Australia and France — have largely steered clear.
That might be changing. More governments are eyeing wealth taxes for crypto. In December 2024, French Senator Sylvie Vermeillet took it a step further, suggesting Bitcoin (BTC) be labeled “unproductive,” which would mean taxing its gains every year — whether or not it's ever sold.
Yep, every asset holder's favorite word is unrealized capital gains tax. It would be naive to assume other countries are not thinking about the same idea.
With Bitcoin's significant gains and industry executives such as ARK Invest's Cathie Wood eyeing a $1.5-million price tag by 2030, I'd bet a magic 8-ball would say, “Signs point to yes.”
It might seem far-fetched, but it is hard to ignore the gains. The average long-term Bitcoin holder is already sitting on significant profits.
The incentive is obvious. Switzerland's wealth tax goes up to 1% of a portfolio's value, and governments know there is plenty to collect.
Countries catch on — sooner or later. Consider how capital gains tax became the norm.
The US introduced capital gains tax in 1913, the UK jumped on board 52 years later in 1965, and Australia followed in 1985.
Governments are likely entertaining the idea — whether they admit it or not. If any country seriously considers it, Germany could be a prime candidate, even though it scrapped its wealth tax back in 1997.
Recent: Ukraine floats 23% tax on some crypto income, exemptions for stablecoins
In July 2024, offloading 50,000 seized BTC at $58,000 might have seemed like a smart move for the German government, but when Bitcoin hit $100,000 just months later in December, it became clear they left a fortune on the table.
In retrospect, a costly mistake…
Will this be remembered as a blunder on par with Gordon Brown selling half of the UK's gold reserves at $275 an ounce?
Imposing such a rule on the wealthy comes with obvious risks.
To understand the real effect of taxation on a country, just follow the money — specifically, where millionaires are moving. Recent data shows that high-net-worth individuals are leaving countries like the United Kingdom in droves, heading for tax-friendly havens like Dubai.
Will nations risk losing these individuals to tap into unrealized gains on Bitcoin and other assets?
Bitcoin is volatile and full of unknowns. While some events could lead to massive losses, governments may still push forward with policies that ultimately drive away millionaires, only to realize the trade-off wasn't worth it.
Conversely, US President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order establishing a Bitcoin Strategic Reserve — a clear nod to the hodl mentality. No doubt, this has other nations considering a similar move.
If nations are embracing the hodl mindset, could that mean wealth taxes are off the table in those countries? Only time will tell.
One thing is sure: Bitcoin hodlers have amassed enough wealth to put themselves on the radar of tax authorities. Whether this sparks fundamental policy changes or just political grandstanding, the crypto community won't sit back quietly.
Opinion by: Robin Singh, CEO of Koinly.
This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
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Charles Hoskinson says that Cardano may offer a stablecoin that provides the same privacy as cash.
Speaking on eToro's “Conversations with Leaders” podcast on May 9, the Cardano co-founder proposed privacy-preserving stablecoins as a new frontier for the crypto industry.
“Maybe people don't want to have a stablecoin where every time they buy something it's forever tracked by everyone everywhere,” Hoskinson said.
Stablecoins are a $243 billion crypto market. While being privately issued tokens, stablecoin transactions can be tracked on the public blockchains where they are deployed, like Ethereum and Solana.
Cardano also has stablecoins deployed on its blockchain with a total market size of $31.5 million. Hoskinson says the team is already mulling the idea of being the first ecosystem to create a privacy stablecoin.
The proposal comes as privacy coins face an existential threat.
Privacy has been a core crypto ideal for almost two decades, but that hasn't prevented privacy-enabling cryptocurrencies like Monero and Zcash from getting delisted and banned from exchanges due to concerns over them being used by criminals.
The European Union is even set to ban exchanges and custodians from dealing in privacy cryptocurrencies from July 2027.
Still, Hoskinson says there's a way to offer privacy without sacrificing compliance.
For instance, the stablecoin could have selective disclosure to provide the anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism funding provisions regulators want, he says.
Selective disclosures might not work.
Privacy coin projects like Firo and Zcash have tried to modify their protocols to provide some form of selective disclosure. They've done so by creating “whitelisted addresses” for users that exchanges can verify for transactions while still allowing users to maintain shielded transaction capabilities.
Regulators haven't been swayed by those moves, and in the absence of support by major exchanges, liquidity for those tokens has declined.
With major markets like the US and Europe moving towards some form of regulatory clarity for cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, even in their current vanilla form, are under the microscope.
In the US, the Genius Act, a stablecoin bill, failed to pass a Senate vote last week as Democrats alleged the legislation endangered consumers and the financial system.
Osato Avan-Nomayo is our Nigeria-based DeFi correspondent. He covers DeFi and tech. Got a tip? Please contact him at osato@dlnews.com.
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Crypto whales are aggressively buying into five altcoins following the recent US-China trade deal, with notable spikes in accumulation across SEND, GOAT, MEW, WLD, and PLUME. Sendcoin surged 49% in 24 hours as whale holdings jumped over 35%, while GOAT saw a 197% weekly gain alongside a 12.48% increase in large-holder positions.
MEW and Worldcoin also attracted major whale interest, with holdings up 12.67% and 8% respectively over the past few days. PLUME rounded out the list with a 42% whale accumulation spike, reinforcing its momentum as a rising RWA token.
Sendcoin, a Solana token positioning itself as a “collective of sovereign startups” powered by a unified marketing engine, has surged nearly 40% in the past 24 hours.
The sharp rally comes amid strong interest from crypto whales, who have been steadily accumulating the token over recent days.
Whale holdings in SEND jumped more than 35% since yesterday, rising from 33.79 million to 45.7 million tokens.
This accumulation has pushed SEND's fully diluted valuation (FDV) close to $18 million, signaling growing confidence in coin.
GOAT, once one of the most popular tokens in the Solana ecosystem, had been in a deep correction throughout 2025, dropping 58% year-to-date.
However, sentiment is starting to shift as GOAT has surged nearly 197% over the past seven days, making it the second-best performing Solana token with a market cap above $200 million.
Whale activity is also picking up, with large holders increasing their positions by 12.48% since May 9.
Their total holdings rose from 116.18 million to 131.09 million GOAT tokens, suggesting renewed confidence in the project's potential as momentum returns.
MEW has gained strong momentum over the past week, climbing 52% and pushing its market cap to $368 million.
The rally comes amid a notable uptick in whale accumulation, with large holders increasing their MEW positions by 12.67% in just a few hours—rising from 2.47 billion to 2.8 billion tokens.
Smart money activity is also heating up for the meme coin.
Although overall accumulation slowed slightly in the last few hours, total holdings remain up, and one smart wallet alone bought approximately $378,000 worth of MEW in the past 24 hours—highlighting continued interest from informed investors.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's Worldcoin is back among the top-performing AI tokens, climbing 41% over the past week and reaching a market cap of $1.8 billion.
The surge comes despite recent legal challenges, including a court ruling in Kenya that ordered the deletion of biometric data and a suspension of operations in Indonesia over regulatory violations.
Crypto whales have also been accumulating, increasing their WLD holdings by over 8% between May 8 and May 11.
While accumulation has remained stable in the last 24 hours, the rise in whale activity highlights growing confidence in the token's market position.
PLUME has emerged as one of the most talked-about RWA tokens in recent weeks, gaining 26% over the past 30 days.
Its market cap is now nearing $400 million, reflecting growing interest in real-world asset narratives. Analysts predict it will be one of the most interesting crypto narratives for VCs in 2025 Q2.
Whale accumulation has picked up sharply, with holdings jumping 42% in just 24 hours, from 970,000 to 1.38 million PLUME.
One smart wallet alone bought nearly $50,000 worth of the token in the past day.
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In line with the Trust Project guidelines, this price analysis article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial or investment advice. BeInCrypto is committed to accurate, unbiased reporting, but market conditions are subject to change without notice. Always conduct your own research and consult with a professional before making any financial decisions. Please note that our Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy, and Disclaimers have been updated.
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For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – May 12, 2025 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks and ETFs featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. ETFs recently featured in the blog include: First Trust SkyBridge Crypto Industry & Digital Economy ETF CRPT, The Spear Alpha ETF SPRX, VanEck Vectors Digital Transformation ETF DAPP, TrueShares Technology, AI and Deep Learning ETF LRNZ and Strive U.S. Semiconductor ETF SHOC.
Here are highlights from Friday's Analyst Blog:
Tech ETFs at the Forefront of the Current Market Rally
Wall Street staged a solid comeback after a sharp decline in early April triggered by President Trump's "Liberation Day" tariff announcement. The S&P 500 has rallied more than 18% from the April 7 low, primarily driven by rising hopes of a U.S. trade deal with major partners. Solid corporate earnings from leading tech players have also led to renewed optimism in the stock market.
President Donald Trump announced a trade deal with the United Kingdom, marking the first major agreement since the United States imposed widespread tariffs earlier this year. He is slated to meet with Chinese officials this weekend to discuss trade. The meeting would be the first major talks between the countries since Trump raised tariffs on imports from China to 145% last month.
While the rally has been broad-based across all segments, the technology sector has been at the forefront. The tech-heavy Invesco QQQ has risen 14.3% over the past month. As such, we have highlighted five ETFs from the sector that have led the rally over the past month.
Tech Earnings Optimism
Strong quarterly earnings reports from software giant Microsoft (MSFT) and Facebook parent Meta Platforms (META) spread strong optimism not only in the tech sector but the entire market. The dual earnings outperformance underscores that strong demand for AI is helping both companies navigate tariff-driven economic uncertainty. Amazon (AMZN) and Apple (AAPL) also came up with earnings and revenue beats. However, Apple warned of a $900 million tariff headwind in the ongoing quarter, while Amazon also issued a cautious outlook due to uncertain consumer demand in the face of shifting tariff policies.
Per the Zacks Earnings Trends report, second-quarter earnings estimates for the tech sector appear to have reversed course over the last two weeks, with estimates starting to go back up after steadily coming down earlier.
Trump to Repeal Biden-Era Chip Export Restrictions
The Trump administration is preparing to roll back a key set of semiconductor export restrictions, originally introduced during the final days of the Biden administration. The regulation, which was scheduled to take effect on May 15, was designed to restrict sales of artificial intelligence (AI) chips to countries such as India, Switzerland, Mexico and Israel.
AI to Drive Growth
Though the AI trade has cooled off significantly this year, its adoption will again provide a lift to tech stocks. The expansion of AI applications holds the promise of ushering in fresh opportunities for growth within the sector. Tech companies have poured billions into data centers and AI chips to support the growth of AI models (read: Why Big Tech ETFs Still Remain Great Bets).
Promising Outlook
The global digital shift has accelerated e-commerce for everything, ranging from remote working to entertainment and shopping, thereby building the strength in the sector. The rapid adoption of cloud computing, big data, the Internet of Things, wearables, VR headsets, drones, virtual reality, machine learning, digital communication, blockchain and 5G technology will continue to fuel a rally.
If these were not enough, the technology sector has a solid Zacks Sector Rank, being in the top 50%. After a massive decline this year, the sector has become attractively valued with a P/E of 20.89% compared with 18.33% for the broad market index.
ETFs in Focus
First Trust SkyBridge Crypto Industry & Digital Economy ETF – Up 33.7%
First Trust SkyBridge Crypto Industry and Digital Economy ETF is designed to provide exposure to companies that SkyBridge believes are driving cryptocurrency, crypto assets and digital economy-related innovation. SkyBridge identifies securities primarily via “bottom-up” research focused on finding companies leading in the crypto industry ecosystem. First Trust SkyBridge Crypto Industry & Digital Economy ETF holds 25 stocks in its basket and charges 85 bps in fees per year from investors. It has amassed $92.9 million in its asset base and trades in an average daily volume of 50,000 shares.
The Spear Alpha ETF – Up 29%
The Spear Alpha ETF is an actively managed fund that invests in companies poised to benefit from breakthrough trends in industrial technology. The ETF's objective is to find underappreciated opportunities across different industrial supply chains that are beneficiaries of secular themes such as enterprise digitalization, automation & robotics, artificial intelligence, environmental focus and decarbonization, photonics and additive manufacturing, and space exploration. The Spear Alpha ETF holds 26 stocks in its basket and trades in an average daily volume of 43,000 shares. It has accumulated $48.1 million in its asset base and charges 75 bps in annual fees (read: Inside Last Week's Wall Street Rally & Best-Performing ETF Areas).
VanEck Vectors Digital Transformation ETF – Up 24.7%
VanEck Vectors Digital Transformation ETF aims to offer exposure to companies that are at the forefront of digital asset transformation, such as digital asset exchanges, payment gateways, digital asset mining operations, software services, equipment and technology or services to the digital asset operations, digital asset infrastructure businesses or companies facilitating commerce with the use of digital assets. VanEck Vectors Digital Transformation ETF tracks the MVIS Global Digital Assets Equity Index and holds 23 securities in its basket. It charges 51 bps in annual fees and trades in an average daily volume of 334,000. DAPP has accumulated $151.4 million in its asset base.
TrueShares Technology, AI and Deep Learning ETF – Up 23.3%
TrueShares Technology, AI and Deep Learning ETF is an actively managed fund targeting companies with leading-edge artificial intelligence, machine learning, or deep-learning technology platforms, algorithms, or applications that are believed to provide distinct competitive advantages in an industry historically characterized by a winner-take-all consolidation behavior. TrueShares Technology, AI and Deep Learning ETF holds 24 stocks in its basket and charges 69 bps in fees per year. LRNZ has amassed $29.5 million in its asset base and trades in an average daily volume of 6,000 shares.
Strive U.S. Semiconductor ETF – Up 23.1%
Strive U.S. Semiconductor ETF seeks broad market exposure to the U.S. semiconductor sector. It follows the Bloomberg US Listed Semiconductors Select Total Return Index and holds 32 stocks in its basket. Strive U.S. Semiconductor ETF has an AUM of $71.7 million and charges 40 bps in annual fees. It trades in a volume of 18,000 shares per day on average and sports a Zacks ETF Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
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Shares of Next Technology Holding (NXTT) took off for a second straight session Monday after the software services provider and bitcoin buyer reported its holdings of the cryptocurrency jumped.
Next Technology reported in a regulatory filing last week that it held 5,833 bitcoin, 5,000 of which it bought since the end of last year. It said the value of its bitcoin portfolio as of March 31 was $481.7 million, while it paid $183.1 million to purchase them.
The company noted that it sees its bitcoin investment "as long-term holdings" and expects to continue acquiring them. It added that it hasn't "set any specific target" for the number of bitcoin it seeks to hold, and will "continue to monitor market conditions in determining whether to engage in additional financings" to make more purchases.
Next Technology explained that bitcoin "offers the opportunity for appreciation in value if its adoption increases and has the potential to serve as a hedge against inflation in the long-term."
The news sent Next Technology shares soaring 661% on Friday, and another 47% Monday morning to $3.45. They've also gotten a boost by the recent runup of the price of bitcoin, which is trading above $104,000. Today's move lifted the stock from negative to positive territory for 2025.
Another firm seeing its shares fly higher because of bitcoin-related news is healthcare provider Kindly MD (KDLY), whose stock is soaring 380% Monday to $18.99 after it announced a merger with bitcoin-native holding company Nakamoto Holdings in order to start a bitcoin treasury strategy. Nakamoto was founded by David Bailey, a key cryptocurrency advisor to President Donald Trump.
UPDATE—This story has been updated with the latest share price information.
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U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION. "FORM 10-K."
Kindly MD. “David Bailey and Bitcoin-Native Holding Company Nakamoto Announce Merger with KindlyMD® to Establish Bitcoin Treasury.”
Highlights
Digital assets, especially stablecoin payments, are becoming essential tools for global trade and finance as businesses seek faster, more reliable alternatives to traditional banking rails amid geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty.
Trust, regulation and user experience are central to the adoption of blockchain-based finance, with industry leaders emphasizing that innovation must solve real-world problems and be secure and seamless for end users.
Currency.com is positioning itself as a bridge between traditional finance and digital assets, targeting underserved high-net-worth individuals with personalized services and aiming to build a comprehensive financial ecosystem driven by AI and future-proof technology.
As global trade reels from ongoing disruptions, businesses and institutions are being forced to reimagine how value moves across borders.
At the same time, traditional finance is undergoing a technological transformation for which it is ill-prepared. Advances that were formerly spear-tip, such as instant payments and tokenized assets, are no longer fringe innovations. They are increasingly becoming expectations.
Nowhere is this truer than with stablecoin payments. But will the reality of digital asset innovation ever be able to match its long-standing hype?
“Innovation must solve a problem, not just be a whiz-bang technology,” Karen Webster, CEO of PYMNTS and an expert in payments innovation and the connected economy, said in a discussion with Konstantin Anissimov, newly appointed CEO at Currency.com.
Webster's words set the tone for a conversation that veered beyond typical FinTech rhetoric and into the foundational strategies needed to make decentralized finance both scalable and secure.
“There's been a big shift in terms of adoption of stablecoin payments that is being driven by uncertainty in geopolitics,” Anissimov said. “I am personally seeing a big increase of small to medium enterprises utilizing stablecoin payments because banking rails are harder and harder to use.”
Digital assets are no longer a speculative play for those who embrace risk, but a necessary tool for navigating a fragmented financial world, he said.
“If the payment gets there quicker, faster, in a more definitive way, then a lot of these businesses are limited less in their working capital requirements,” Anissimov said. “The faster the payment, the more goods they can buy.”
The appeal of digital assets such as stablecoin payments is simple in theory. Traditional financial rails are slow, opaque and costly. By contrast, blockchain-based platforms offer real-time settlement, automated compliance checks and programmable financial logic — all within a single digital ecosystem.
Yet challenges remain. Regulatory clarity is still lacking in key jurisdictions, and concerns over cybersecurity and systemic risk persist.
Webster said trust is important.
“Consumers don't want to know how the car is built,” she said. “They just want to drive it and have a great experience. They have to trust it, but they don't need to understand it.”
Trust is non-negotiable, especially when people's money is at stake, Anissimov agreed.
“The pace at which blockchain technology is advancing is immense… it's one of those industries where the technology is advancing faster than the bad actors trying to break it,” he said.
“We have 30 money transmitter licenses,” he added. “These are deep audits. The regulators know how to distinguish the good from the bad. The danger is regulatory arbitrage, where companies pretend to be one thing but are really doing another. But that's much less common after FTX.”
As traditional finance and global trade continue to face pressure from macroeconomic forces and technological disruption, the convergence around digital infrastructure may not just be inevitable. Per the industry's proponents, it may be the safest path forward.
When economic certainty is hard to come by, digital asset platforms become less of a gamble and more of a foundation. Anissimov said he sees Currency.com as a complement to traditional banks rather than a competitor.
“Without banks, none of this works,” he said. “We need their stability. They may want to leverage our tech; we want to leverage their soundness and access to capital.”
Webster agreed while also highlighting the inherent friction in expecting traditional banks — governed by regulators and built for resilience — to “move fast and break things.”
At the same time, with more than 70% of high-net-worth individuals reportedly allocating at least some wealth to digital assets, the race is on to cater to their unique expectations. For its part, Currency.com is betting on a new kind of offering, a white-glove service tailored for affluent investors in the $2 million to $20 million range — those too large for retail solutions but too small for institutional platforms.
“These clients are underserved,” Anissimov said. “Retail platforms are tailored toward a small check retail customer base. The private sector [for high-net-worth clients] is more of a bolt-on.”
What Currency.com offers instead is a dedicated platform with personalized account management, 24/7 support, and a service design philosophy more akin to private banking than to a cryptocurrency exchange. This isn't just customer service; it's infrastructure-level differentiation.
“Because each client can bring more revenue, more lifetime value, we can also spend more time with them to study them better, to understand their needs,” Anissimov said.
While the white-glove service might be the first visible step, Anissimov said he has set his sights further.
“The longer-term vision is actually to build a platform that's a whole ecosystem of products — banking, finance and investing,” he said. “We believe that the digitization of the financial sector is inevitable.”
A key ingredient? Artificial intelligence.
“I am a big proponent of no-code or low-code solutions for safety-critical applications,” Anissimov said. “If you can deliver products 50 times faster than your competitors, it doesn't matter how big they are.”
This velocity will transform compliance, too, he said.
“At some point, we'll be able to automate regulatory flows,” he said. “The moment a non-compliance happens, it gets identified. AI proposes a remediation plan. It might sound farfetched, but at the pace things are going, it could happen in five years.”
The goal is payments that just need biometric data, with no phones or cards required.
“We think we're living in the future using Apple Pay, but you still need your phone,” he said. “What if you don't? We're building for that world.”
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Currency.com CEO: Geopolitical Uncertainty Drives Global Demand for Stablecoins
Adding Fido to the Employee Benefits Plan: Pet Telehealth Comes to the Workplace
Consumer Willingness to Pay for Instant Payments Fuels New Revenue Streams for Banks
More Than 4 in 10 US Consumers Now Use Virtual Cards at Checkout
American Bitcoin, Hut 8's majority-owned unit backed by the Trump family, will go public via a merger with Gryphon Digital Mining (GRYP).
Shares of Hut 8 Corp. (HUT) jumped 12% in pre-market trading, while Gryphon Digital Mining (GRYP) soared more than 200%, following the news.
American Data Center, which was owned by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr, merged their firm with American Bitcoin in March. The Trump brothers own 20% of American Bitcoin, while Hut 8 holds the remaining 80%.
The stock-for-stock transaction will result in Gryphon acquiring American Bitcoin, with the combined company adopting the American Bitcoin name and trading on Nasdaq under the ticker “ABTC.”
The merger is expected to close as early as Q3 of 2025. American Bitcoin will retain its current leadership and board, including CEO Mike Ho, and remain focused on scaling low-cost bitcoin (BTC) accumulation.
“This transaction marks the next step in scaling American Bitcoin as a purpose-built vehicle for low-cost Bitcoin accumulation at scale,” said Asher Genoot, CEO of Hut 8. “By taking American Bitcoin public, we expect to unlock direct access to dedicated growth capital independent of Hut 8's balance sheet.”
After the merger, existing shareholders of American Bitcoin are expected to own roughly 98% of the new company. Hut 8 will maintain majority ownership and serve as the exclusive infrastructure and operations partner.
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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The TOI Tech Desk is a dedicated team of journalists committed to delivering the latest and most relevant news from the world of technology to readers of The Times of India. TOI Tech Desk's news coverage spans a wide spectrum across gadget launches, gadget reviews, trends, in-depth analysis, exclusive reports and breaking stories that impact technology and the digital universe. Be it how-tos or the latest happenings in AI, cybersecurity, personal gadgets, platforms like WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and more; TOI Tech Desk brings the news with accuracy and authenticity.Read More
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Dubai, United Arab Emirates--(Newsfile Corp. - May 12, 2025) - Colle AI (COLLE), the AI-powered multichain NFT platform, has reinforced its Solana strategy to accelerate NFT development and liquidity support. The move enhances Solana-specific tools and systems, giving creators access to faster, low-cost creation workflows alongside more scalable liquidity options across the platform.
Accelerate NFT creation and liquidity with Colle AI's optimized Solana toolsTo view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8833/251716_colle1en.jpg
With this update, Colle AI has optimized its infrastructure for Solana-based asset generation, integrating high-speed minting logic, real-time metadata processing, and streamlined smart contract execution. These improvements reduce transaction costs and simplify the creation process, offering a smoother experience for creators launching on Solana.
Colle AI also expanded its liquidity framework to include more dynamic routing and pooling for Solana-native NFTs. This gives users better visibility, access to deeper trading channels, and improved cross-chain interaction with Ethereum, Bitcoin, BNB Chain, and XRP-all supported by Colle AI's intelligent automation engine.
This Solana-focused growth reflects Colle AI's commitment to delivering scalable, creator-first tools that meet the demands of the evolving multichain NFT economy. With performance, flexibility, and speed at its core, Colle AI continues to push boundaries for Web3 innovation.
About Colle AI
Colle AI leverages AI technology to simplify the NFT creation process, empowering artists and creators to easily transform their ideas into digital assets. The platform aims to make NFT creation more accessible, fostering innovation in the digital art space.
Media ContactDorothy MarleyKaJ Labs+1 707-622-6168media@kajlabs.com
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ByBilly Bambrough
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Senior Contributor.
Bitcoin and crypto have surged over the last few weeks as fears swirl a $2.5 trillion “avalanche” is heading for the U.S. dollar.
Front-run Donald Trump, the White House and Wall Street by subscribing now to Forbes' CryptoAsset & Blockchain Advisor where you can "uncover blockchain blockbusters poised for 1,000% plus gains!"
The bitcoin price, now nudging its all-time high of almost $110,000 per bitcoin, has left stocks in the dust this year, with iPhone-maker Apple quietly confirming a crypto market game-changer.
Now, as a Federal Reserve “nightmare” is coming true, those in the bitcoin and crypto industry are predicting a looming bitcoin price boom as positive catalysts collide.
Sign up now for the free CryptoCodex—A daily five-minute newsletter for traders, investors and the crypto-curious that will get you up to date and keep you ahead of the bitcoin and crypto market bull run
U.S. president Donald Trump has helped the bitcoin price and wider crypto market soar to ... More never-before-seen levels.
“I truly understood bitcoin in 2011-2012 and in all these years, the bull case for it has never been stronger,” David Marcus, the former president of PayPal who led Facebook's efforts to create its own crypto-inspired currency, posted to X, telling people to, "buckle up.”
Marcus pointed to recent regulatory changes that mean Wall Street banks can now custody and offer bitcoin to their customers while “sovereign states and corporations are competing to buy.”
The “utility phase of [internet protocol]
TCP/IP for money is taking off,” Marcus wrote.
Positive regulatory changes for bitcoin and crypto have come as U.S. president Donald Trump embraces bitcoin and crypto, declaring himself the first “crypto president” and promising to roll back Biden-era restrictions on the technology.
Trump has also promised to create a bitcoin strategic reserve alongside a crypto stockpile, kickstarting a race among countries to begin holding bitcoin.
“The [bitcoin price] surge reflects a convergence of macro liquidity trends and institutional adoption,” Rich Rines, former lead of Coinbase's money movement engineering and now a contributor with crypto project Core, said in emailed comments.
Sign up now for CryptoCodex—A free, daily newsletter for the crypto-curious
The bitcoin price has surged toward its all-time highs this month as U.S. president Donald Trump ... More feeds a perfect storm of bullish developments.
“We're seeing steady institutional inflows, signaling growing trust from traditional players. At the same time, state-level reserve policies in the U.S. show bitcoin's role is expanding beyond just investment portfolios."
Meanwhile, the fleet of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that made their debut at the beginning of 2024 have continued to attract huge inflows.
“While day-to-day prices can be noisy, the longer-term shift looks more structural. What's different this time is the market infrastructure supporting it—like regulated ETFs making it easier for institutions to get exposure, and custody services that help them hold bitcoin securely," Rines said.
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At the level of molecules and cells, ketamine and dexmedetomidine work very differently, but in the operating room they do the same exact thing: anesthetize the patient. By demonstrating how these distinct drugs achieve the same result, a new study in animals by neuroscientists at The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT identifies a potential signature of unconsciousness that is readily measurable to improve anesthesiology care.
What the two drugs have in common, the researchers discovered, is the way they push around brain waves, which are produced by the collective electrical activity of neurons. When brain waves are in phase, meaning the peaks and valleys of the waves are aligned, local groups of neurons in the brain's cortex can share information to produce conscious cognitive functions such as attention, perception and reasoning, said Picower Professor Earl K. Miller, senior author of the new study in Cell Reports. When brain waves fall out of phase, local communications, and therefore functions, fall apart, producing unconsciousness.
The finding, led by graduate student Alexandra Bardon, not only adds to scientists' understanding of the dividing line between consciousness and unconsciousness, Miller said, but also could provide a common new measure for anesthesiologists who use a variety of different anesthetics to maintain patients on the proper side of that line during surgery.
"If you look at the way phase is shifted in our recordings, you can barely tell which drug it was," said Miller, a faculty member in The Picower Institute and MIT's Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. "That's valuable for medical practice. Plus if unconsciousness has a universal signature, it could also reveal the mechanisms that generate consciousness."
If more anesthetic drugs are also shown to affect phase in the same way, then anesthesiologists might be able to use brain wave phase alignment as a reliable marker of unconsciousness as they titrate doses of anesthetic drugs, Miller said, regardless of which particular mix of drugs they are using. That insight could aid efforts to build closed-loop systems that can aid anesthesiologists by constantly adjusting drug dose based on brain wave measurements of the patient's unconsciousness.
Miller has been collaborating with study co-author Emery N. Brown, an anesthesiologist and Edward Hood Taplin Professor of Computational Neuroscience and Medical Engineering in The Picower Institute, on building such a system.In a recent clinical trial with colleagues in Japan, Brown demonstrated that monitoring brain wave power signals using EEG enabled an anesthesiologist to use much less sevoflurane during surgery with young children. The reduced doses proved safe and were associated with many improved clinical outcomes including a reduced incidence of post-operative delirium.
Phase findings
Neuroscientists studying anesthesia have rarely paid attention to phase, but in the new study, Bardon, Brown and Miller's team made a point of it as they anesthetized two animals.
After the animals lost consciousness, the measurements indicated a substantial increase in "phase locking," especially at low frequencies. Phase locking means that the relative differences in phase remained more stable. But what caught the researchers' attention were the differences that became locked in: Within each hemisphere, regardless of which anesthetic they used, brain wave phase became misaligned between the dorsolateral and ventrolateral regions of the prefrontal cortex.
Surprisingly, brain wave phase across hemispheres became more aligned, not less. But Miller notes that case is still a big shift from the conscious state, in which brain hemispheres are typically not aligned well, so the finding is a further indication that major changes of phase alignment, albeit in different ways at different distances, are a correlate of unconsciousness compared to wakefulness.
"The increase in interhemispheric alignment of activity by anesthetics seems to reverse the pattern observed in the awake, cognitively engaged brain," the Bardon and Miller team wrote in Cell Reports.
Determined by distance
Distance proved to be a major factor in determining the change in phase alignment. Even across the 2.5 millimeters of a single electrode array, low-frequency waves moved 20-30 degrees out of alignment. Across the 20 or so millimeters between arrays in the upper (dorsolateral) and lower (ventrolateral) regions within a hemisphere, that would mean a roughly 180-degree shift in phase alignment which is a complete offset of the waves.
The dependence on distance is consistent with the idea of waves traveling across the cortex, Miller said. Indeed in a 2022 study, Miller and Brown's labs showed that the anesthetic propofol induced a powerful low-frequency traveling wave that swept straight across the cortex, overwhelming higher-frequency straight and rotating waves.
The new results raise many opportunities for follow-up studies, Miller said. Does propofol (another anesthetic) also produce this signature of changed phase alignment? What role do traveling waves play in the phenomenon? And given that sleep is also characterized by increased power in slow wave frequencies, but is definitely not the same state as anesthesia-induced unconsciousness, could phase alignment explain the difference?
In addition to Bardon, Brown and Miller, the paper's other authors are Jesus Ballesteros, Scott Brincat, Jefferson Roy, Meredith Mahnke, and Yumiko Ishizawa.
The U.S. Department of Energy, The National Institutes of Health, The Simons Center for the Social Brain, The Freedom Together Foundation and The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory provided support for the research.
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PRODROME was a phase 3, placebo-controlled, double-blind crossover trial evaluating whether ubrogepant 100 mg, a calcitonin gene-related peptide receptor antagonist, dosed during the premonitory (prodromal) phase of migraine, prevented development of headache and resolved prodromal symptoms. Qualifying prodromal events were defined as attacks with symptoms in which the participant was confident headache would follow within 1–6 h. Of 1,087 screened participants, 477 formed the efficacy analysis population. Outcomes were collected across 48 h showing, for example, at 2 h post-dose, absence of photophobia in 19.5% and 12.5% of ubrogepant- and placebo-treated events, respectively (odds ratio (OR) = 1.72 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.13–2.61)); at 3 h post-dose, absence of fatigue occurred in 27.3% and 16.8% (OR = 1.85 (95% CI = 1.17–2.92)) and absence of neck pain in 28.9% and 15.9% (OR = 2.04 (95% CI = 1.25–3.32)) of events; at 4 h post-dose, absence of phonophobia in 50.7% and 35.8% (OR = 1.97 (95% CI = 1.38–2.80)) of events; and at 24 h post-dose, absence of dizziness in 88.5% and 82.3% (OR = 1.82 (95% CI = 1.00–3.30)) of events. At 1 h and 6 h post-dose, respectively, absence of difficulty concentrating occurred in 8.7% and 2.1% (OR = 4.26 (95% CI = 1.17–15.54)) and absence of difficulty thinking occurred in 56.9% and 41.8% (OR = 2.05 (95% CI = 1.14–3.71)) of events. Treatment with ubrogepant during the prodromal phase may ameliorate common prodromal symptoms, with improvements possibly as early as 1 h post-dose.
Migraine is a common, globally recognized1, neurological disorder characterized by recurrent disabling attacks involving headache and symptoms of brain dysfunction2. The attack has recognized phases: premonitory (prodrome), aura, headache and postdrome, which, although distinctive, can overlap3. The canonical manifestations of an attack—lateralized, throbbing headache with associated sensitivity to light (photophobia), sound (phonophobia) and head movement4—have received considerable attention for the last three decades as treatments aimed at the headache phase of the attack were developed5. The identification of the role of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP)6,7 and the utility of CGRP blockers for both acute and preventive treatment of migraine5 offer the possibility of exploring migraine pathophysiology with new tools.
Migraine symptoms that can occur in the premonitory phase (prodrome) fall broadly into three groups: first, higher center, such as cognitive impairment, manifests as difficulty concentrating or thinking—brain fog as it is often labeled by patients—and fatigue. Second, symptoms broadly reflect homeostatic dysfunction, such as food cravings or polyuria and, third, symptoms usually associated with the headache phase can occur in the premonitory phase, such as sensitivity to light (photophobia) or sound (phonophobia)8. Prodromal symptoms are highly predictive of impending headache9 and are generally considered to be common when enquired after in adults10,11 and children12,13. Functional brain imaging has identified activations in the central nervous system, such as the hypothalamic region14,15, in the premonitory phase. Mapping symptoms to imaging findings suggests central nervous system origins for the migraine attack16, with implications for understanding the pathophysiology and, importantly, where to target therapies.
Therapeutics in migraine have advanced considerably over the last three decades3. It has been argued whether the origin of both the attack and the pain is peripheral or central17, and thus how best to target therapies. Moreover, previous studies of therapeutics in the acute treatment of the premonitory phase (prodrome) have focused on the potential for blocking the onset of headache18,19. The analysis of the prevention of headache in the PRODROME study has demonstrated that ubrogepant given in the prodromal phase prevented moderate or severe headache, when compared with placebo, for the following 48 h (ref. 20). In the present study, we report the effect of ubrogepant, a small-molecule CGRP receptor antagonist21, on the prodromal symptoms commonly reported by the study participants, a prespecified additional endpoint of the PRODROME trial. In addition to the clinical benefit of resolving these symptoms, the findings may offer insights into the role of the central nervous system in the treatment of migraine. The work has been presented in preliminary form at the 75th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology (Boston, MA, 22–27 April 2023)22.
A total of 1,087 participants were screened, with 518 randomly assigned to double-blind crossover treatment (Fig. 1). The safety and modified intention-to-treat (mITT) populations included 480 and 477 participants, respectively. Participants had a mean age of 42.3 years (Table 1). Most of the participants in the safety population were female (87.7%, n = 421 of 480), with most identifying as White (88.1%, n = 423 or 480) and non-Hispanic (92.7%, n = 445 or 480; Table 1). Of the 518 randomized participants, 84.6% (n = 438) completed the trial and 15.4% (n = 80) discontinued. Lack of treating two ‘qualifying prodrome events' within the 60-d double-blind treatment period was the most common reason for discontinuation (10.0%, n = 52 of 518). Additional information about PRODROME participants has been previously reported20.
Purple boxes and arrows indicate the number and flow of qualifying prodrome events treated with ubrogepant. Gray boxes and arrows indicate the number and flow of qualifying prodrome events treated with placebo. mITT, modified intention-to-treat.
The five most common prodromal symptoms identified at baseline (pre-dose) in the double-blind treatment period for placebo-treated (n = 449) and ubrogepant 100 mg-treated (n = 448) events were photophobia (60.8% and 60.9% of events, respectively), fatigue (50.3% and 50.7%), neck pain or stiffness (40.1% and 40.2%), phonophobia (36.1% and 35.9%) and dizziness (31.0% and 29.0%; Table 2). Although the cognitive impairment symptoms of difficulty concentrating (22.5% and 23.0%) and difficulty thinking (16.5% and 15.4%) were the eighth and eleventh most common prodromal symptoms at baseline before treatment, when considering them as one category ‘either difficulty concentrating or difficulty thinking or both' was reported in 33.0% of placebo-treated and 32.1% of ubrogepant-treated events, making it the fifth most common prodromal symptom (Table 2). Prodromal symptoms of moderate-to-severe intensity were reported at baseline in 31.7–57.2% of placebo-treated and ubrogepant-treated events: specifically, photophobia (42.9% and 42.1% of events, respectively), fatigue (52.2% and 51.5%), neck pain or stiffness (57.2% and 55.6%), phonophobia (38.9% and 36.0%), dizziness (31.7% and 30.8%), difficulty concentrating (45.5% and 39.8%) and difficulty thinking (45.9% and 42.0%) (Table 2 and Supplementary Table 1).
Among ubrogepant- and placebo-treated events, respectively, 19.5% and 12.5% were associated with an absence of photophobia starting at hour 2 (OR = 1.72 (95% CI = 1.13–2.61)), 27.3% and 16.8% with an absence of fatigue starting at hour 3 (OR = 1.85 (95% CI = 1.17–2.92)), 28.9% and 15.9% with an absence of neck pain starting at hour 3 (OR = 2.04 (95% CI = 1.25–3.32)), 50.7% and 35.8% with an absence of phonophobia starting at hour 4 (OR = 1.97 (95% CI = 1.38–2.80)) and 88.5% and 82.3% with an absence of dizziness at 24 h post-dose (OR = 1.82 (95% CI = 1.00–3.30)) (Fig. 2 and Supplementary Table 2). An absence of cognitive symptoms was also observed: as early as 1 h post-dose for difficulty concentrating in 8.7% and 2.1% of ubrogepant- and placebo-treated events, respectively (OR = 4.26 (95% CI = 1.17–15.54)) and at 6 h for difficulty thinking in 56.9% and 41.8% (OR = 2.05 (95% CI = 1.14–3.71)) of events (Fig. 2 and Supplementary Table 2).
The percentage of participants continuing to have prodromal symptoms at timepoints post-dose are shown. a–g, Participants who reported the prodromal symptoms at pre-dose: sensitivity to light (placebo, n = 273 of 449, ubrogepant 100 mg, n = 273 of 448) (a); tired, sleepy or fatigue (placebo, n = 226 of 449, ubrogepant 100 mg, n = 227 of 448) (b); neck pain or stiff neck (placebo, n = 180 of 449, ubrogepant 100 mg, n = 180 of 448) (c); sensitivity to sound (placebo, n = 162 of 449, ubrogepant 100 mg, n = 161 of 448) (d); dizziness, lightheaded, vertigo or imbalance (placebo, n = 139 of 449, ubrogepant 100 mg, n = 130 of 448) (e); difficulty concentrating (placebo, n = 101 of 449, ubrogepant 100 mg, n = 103 of 448) (f); and difficulty thinking (placebo, n = 74 of 449, ubrogepant 100 mg, n = 69 of 448) (g).
Analysis censoring data collected after rescue medication use for headache (if needed) yielded similar results (Supplementary Table 3 and Supplementary Fig. 2). Rescue medication use within 24 h post-dose was 21.7% for ubrogepant-treated events compared with 39.4% for placebo-treated events (Supplementary Table 4).
Treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) were reported for 55 of 462 (12%) qualifying prodrome events treated with placebo and 77 of 456 (17%) events treated with ubrogepant 100 mg within 48 h of administration. Treatment-related TEAEs were identified in 42 of 462 (9%) of placebo-treated events and 60 of 456 (13%) ubrogepant 100 mg-treated events. As previously reported20, there were no adverse events (AEs) leading to study discontinuation and no serious AEs. The most common AEs (≥2%) after placebo and ubrogepant administration were nausea (3% versus 5%), fatigue (2% versus 3%), dizziness (3% versus 2%) and somnolence (1% versus 2%).
The results suggest that ubrogepant, a gepant, CGRP receptor antagonist, administered in the premonitory (prodromal) phase of migraine, when headache is absent, may promote the resolution of common prodromal symptoms. Moreover, in this trial, 31.7–57.2% of premonitory symptoms were moderate to severe in intensity and associated with functional disability20,23. As premonitory symptoms can be disabling, their treatment alone is clinically relevant, beyond the consideration that treatment during the prodrome prevents headache onset and improves function over 24–48 h, as demonstrated in the primary analysis of the study20. Greater awareness of the clinical symptomatology of the prodromal phase, as well as the availability of effective treatment, offers a major opportunity to improve the treatment of acute migraine.
It is interesting to examine the time course and magnitude of efficacy of ubrogepant for the different prodromal symptoms. The most common symptom, photophobia, which was present in approximately 61% of qualifying prodromal events, appeared to resolve after treatment with ubrogepant as early as 2 h post-dose, with a consistent effect across the first 8 h and an effect still evident at 48 h post-dose. Although being reported by only approximately 22% of participants, difficulty concentrating may also benefit from ubrogepant treatment, with resolution as early as 1 h post-dose and up to 6 h, and the trend continuing to 24 h post-dose. In contrast, ubrogepant appeared to have limited impact on the resolution of dizziness, which was present in approximately 30% of qualifying prodromal events, and these effects were observed primarily at the 24-h timepoint. Given the varied pathophysiology of the different symptoms, one would not expect ubrogepant to be equally effective or have a similar time course for all prodromal symptoms. Still, similar trends were observed overall for prodromal symptom resolution, which appeared to occur more frequently with ubrogepant than placebo.
The symptoms of the premonitory (prodromal) phase of a migraine attack have been recognized for more than a century24. In a case series of 50 patients, 17 identified symptoms on the day before their headache25, whereas a larger series of 530 reported 160 patients identifying premonitory (prodromal) symptoms and speculated on a role of the hypothalamus in the pathophysiology26. Studies based on clinic populations in adults10,11,27 and children12,13 and on large cross-sectional material28 have consistently identified premonitory symptoms, such as fatigue and cognitive dysfunction. In patients who recognize these symptoms, they are highly predictive of impending headache9, although the reliability of prediction remains an issue29.
Many of these common premonitory symptoms, such as photophobia, fatigue, phonophobia, cognitive impairment—difficulty concentrating or difficulty thinking, or both—and dizziness, may well originate in the brain. It has long been argued whether migraine is primarily a disease of the brain or of peripheral, specifically vascular, origin30. The new data firmly support a brain origin for migraine attacks. Both symptoms of the premonitory phase, such as photophobia and thirst or food cravings, and outcomes from functional imaging studies implicate brain regions in the earliest phase of a migraine attack31. As an example, laboratory studies implicating neuropeptide Y in the modulation of trigeminovascular nociceptive traffic32, and its localization in the hypothalamus33, or studies of ventral tegmental area reward mechanisms and their interaction with trigeminovascular nociception34 offer support to neuroimaging studies that demonstrate activation of these regions in the premonitory phase of an attack14,15,35. Photophobia, a symptom classically associated with the headache phase of migraine4, may also be reported in the premonitory (prodromal) phase and is indeed the most commonly reported symptom in the present study. Brain imaging has shown a signature in the visual cortex for premonitory phase photophobia36, demonstrating a central nervous system-associated biological change. Similarly, brainstem sites, such as the rostral ventromedial medulla, are implicated in trigeminovascular nociceptive modulation37 with variation over the cycling of migraine38.
There remains considerable debate around the site of action of anti-migraine treatments. The triptans, serotonin 5-HT1B/1D receptor agonists, were developed on the inchoate basis that they constricted dilated cranial blood vessels which were the cause of the pain39. Several findings, including dissociation of the timing of a vascular effect and the pain response40, and the neural effect of the drugs41, have led to the broad adoption of a view that they act primarily through a neural target42. Although sumatriptan can be measured in the cerebrospinal fluid43, and the exclusively neurally acting ditans, 5-HT1F receptor agonists44 are both effective45 and have brain access46, migraine therapies are widely considered to act outside the brain. A positron emission tomography study of telcagepant showed low receptor occupancy after a less than optimal dose of 140 mg47,48, leaving unresolved the issue of whether there was potential for gepants to have effects in the brain. Although it may be argued that the effects of ubrogepant in the present study on photophobia and phonophobia or neck discomfort reflect a primary peripheral site of action with brain consequences, it is difficult to argue that position for cognitive dysfunction, leaving a brain site of action as a more attractive, overall hypothesis. Broadly, the findings of the clinical trial support imaging studies that have identified central nervous system sites as the locus of initiation of a migraine attack.
The participants studied could identify prodromal symptoms that were reliably followed by headache as determined via a rigorous screening procedure20. Clinical experience suggests that it is not complex to point out these prodromal symptoms to patients and offer the possibility of the association, which patients can then recognize. Nevertheless, widespread adoption of this approach will require further real-world experience. Whether gepant intervention alters migraine aura or influences the postdrome49 was not rigorously explored in the present study and offers interesting avenues for insights and treatment opportunities in the future.
The primary objective of the PRODROME trial was to evaluate the efficacy of ubrogepant on the occurrence of headache after administration during the prodrome phase of a migraine attack. The trial was not primarily designed to evaluate the impact of ubrogepant on resolution of prodromal symptoms; these endpoints were prospectively defined as additional endpoints in the protocol. These analyses were outside the hierarchical gatekeeping procedure to control for type-1 error and were therefore not controlled for multiple comparisons. Although our results suggest a consistent amelioration of common prodromal symptoms after ubrogepant compared with placebo, additional studies specifically designed to evaluate the effect of acute treatment on prodromal symptoms are warranted.
Additional limitations resulting from the study design include participants being instructed to administer the study drug when they felt confident that a headache would follow within 1–6 h, and not at the onset, or first recognition, of prodromal symptoms. Furthermore, we did not analyze differences in symptom resolution between those who did and those who did not develop headache. Analyses censoring data collected after rescue medication use for headache (if needed) showed results similar to the uncensored data, suggesting that a difference in rescue medication use between ubrogepant and placebo treatment groups was probably not a confounding factor (Supplementary Table 3 and Supplementary Fig. 2).
Based on this double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, ubrogepant 100 mg, when administered in the premonitory (prodromal) phase of migraine, before a headache has commenced, may treat symptoms such as photophobia, phonophobia and cognitive dysfunction. The clinical phenotype of the premonitory phase, its functional neuroimaging findings and the corroborating experimental neurobiology all point to a pathophysiology in the central nervous system. Reversing these symptoms with a gepant emphasizes the importance of the brain in migraine and offers the promethean possibility that targeting central nervous system mechanisms will be a fruitful path to new therapeutics in this common and disabling disorder.
The trial design for the PRODROME study has been previously reported20. PRODROME (NCT04492020) was a phase 3, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover trial conducted from 21 August 2020 through 19 April 2022, at 75 research centers and headache clinics in the United States of America (Supplementary Table 5). After a 60-d screening period, participants with migraine, who could reliably identify migraine attacks with prodromal symptoms that were reliably followed by headache within 1–6 h at least 75% of the time, were randomized to sequence A or B in a 1:1 ratio and entered the double-blind treatment period, during which they were tasked to treat two qualifying prodrome events within a 60-d period (Supplementary Fig. 1). A qualifying prodrome event was defined by the presence of prodromal symptoms that the participant was confident would be followed by a headache within 1–6 h. Headache should not be present at the time of a qualifying prodrome event and the participant should not have had a headache in the previous 48 h. Acute treatment should not have been used within 48 h before the qualifying prodrome event. Defining a qualifying prodrome event as 1–6 h before the expected headache onset was done to provide time for the acute treatment to take effect and aid in differentiating aura symptoms from prodromal symptoms.
Participants in sequence A received placebo to treat the first qualifying prodrome event and ubrogepant 100 mg to treat the second qualifying event, whereas participants in sequence B received ubrogepant 100 mg to treat the first qualifying prodrome event and placebo to treat the second qualifying event. The two treatments had at least 7 d of washout in between.
During the double-blind study period, after taking the study drug, rescue medication was permitted only after headache onset. For a mild headache, rescue medication was permitted 24 h after headache onset. For a headache of moderate or severe intensity, rescue medication was permitted at any time after headache onset. No rescue medication was permitted during the qualifying prodrome event if a headache had not yet occurred. Permitted rescue medications included nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, acetaminophen, triptans, ditans, ergots, analgesics or combination analgesics, opioids or antiemetics.
During screening, participants identified and confirmed prodromal symptoms from a predetermined list of 30 symptoms. This list included common and uncommon prodromal symptoms, as well as the options ‘other' and ‘a feeling, not otherwise described or difficult to describe'.
An automated interactive web response system was used to manage randomization, which occurred at visit 2. To maintain the blind, identical blister cards were dispensed at visit 2 and the visit after treatment of the first qualifying prodrome event (visit 3). Each blister card contained two tablets of either placebo or ubrogepant 50 mg. Participants in treatment sequence A received a card with placebo at visit 2 and ubrogepant 100 mg at visit 3, whereas participants in treatment sequence B received a card with ubrogepant 100 mg at visit 2 and placebo at visit 3. During the double-blind treatment period, each participant was instructed to take the study drug for each qualifying prodrome event as soon as they were confident that a headache would inevitably follow within 1–6 h.
Eligible participants were adults (aged 18–75 years), female or male (based on self-report) with at least a 1-year history of migraine with or without aura consistent with a diagnosis according to the International Classification of Headache Disorders, 3rd edn4 and a history of two to eight migraine attacks per month with moderate-to-severe headache in each of the 3 months before screening. At the screening visit, participants were asked whether they could identify migraine attacks in which prodromal symptoms were present and likely to be followed by headache within 1–6 h at least 75% of the time. If participants answered in the affirmative, participants received an eDiary to record all their qualifying prodrome events during the 60-d screening period. To be eligible for randomization, participants were required to record 3–16 qualifying prodrome events during the 60-d screening period, with at least 75% followed by a headache, of any intensity, within 1–6 h.
Exclusion criteria have been reported previously20. Briefly, exclusion criteria included: history of clinically important hematological, endocrine, pulmonary, renal, hepatic, gastrointestinal or neurological disease that has not been stable for at least 1 year, history of cardiovascular, cerebrovascular or neurological disease, confounding psychiatric conditions including dementia or epilepsy, difficulty distinguishing migraine from other tension type or other headache types, chronic migraine, trigeminal autonomic cephalalgia, painful cranial neuropathy, overuse of medication for migraine (opioids or barbiturates >2 d per month, triptans or ergots ≥10 d per month, simple analgesics ≥15 d per month) within the last 3 months or previous CGRP injectable use within the previous 3 months.
The primary endpoint of the PRODROME trial was absence of moderate or severe intensity headache within 24 h post-dose. Prespecified additional endpoints (that is, exploratory endpoints) were the absence of the five most common prodromal symptoms, of any intensity (mild, moderate or severe), at each of the prespecified timepoints (1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 24 and 48 h), regardless of the presence of headache. Additional post-hoc analyses were performed on cognitive impairment symptoms, difficulty thinking or difficulty concentrating, or both. After identifying a qualifying prodrome event in which the participant was confident that a headache would follow within 1–6 h, the participant entered their premonitory (prodrome) symptoms in the eDiary and reported the presence or absence of those prodromal symptoms (up to six patient-identified symptoms were preprogrammed into the eDiary for ease) at the prespecified timepoints. Entries could not be altered retrospectively. After treating the qualifying prodrome event with study medication and completing their initial eDiary entry, participants were required to report the absence or presence of a headache and prodromal symptoms at each timepoint post-dose. Safety assessments included the incidence of adverse events, clinical laboratory tests, electrocardiograms, vital signs, physical examination and the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale. Adverse events were collected from the time of informed consent until 30 d after the last dose. An adverse event was considered to be a TEAE if the adverse event began or worsened (increased in severity or became serious) on or after the date of the first dose of study drug. The safety population included all treated participants who took at least one administration of study drug.
All efficacy analyses used the mITT population, defined as all randomized participants with one or more assessments of headache occurrence within 24 h after taking a double-blind study drug for one or more qualifying prodromal events during the double-blind treatment period. The mITT population is defined in the protocol and is equivalent to a full analysis set consistent with the International Council of Harmonisation (ICH) guidelines50. The safety population included all treated participants who took one or more administrations of study drug. Determination of sample size was previously reported; 480 participants in the mITT population were estimated to provide 95% power to determine a 16-point treatment difference in response rate for the primary endpoint, using a two-sided 5% significance level20.
For each of the five most common prodromal symptoms, as well as difficulty concentrating and difficulty thinking, the absence of symptoms of any intensity at each timepoint was analyzed using a generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) in the observed binary response variable. ORs (95% CIs) were based on the GLMM with treatment group, treatment period and pre-dose baseline prodromal symptom intensity as categorical fixed effects. An unstructured covariance matrix was selected for the covariance matrix of the residual effects for the repeated measurements, corresponding to the two qualifying prodrome events, within a participant. Covariance structure of compound symmetry was used when the model did not converge. Similar analyses were performed by censoring data collected after rescue medication. All symptom efficacy analyses were done using SAS software, v.9·4 or newer (SAS Institute, Inc.).
The Independent Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board (IRB; that is, Advarra or University of Utah IRB) at each study site approved the study protocol, informed consent forms and recruitment materials before patient enrollment. The studies were conducted in accordance with the ICH guidelines, applicable regulations and the Declaration of Helsinki. All patients provided written informed consent before screening. The study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04492020). The study protocol and statistical analysis plan have been published1.
Further information on research design is available in the Nature Portfolio Reporting Summary linked to this article.
AbbVie is committed to responsible data sharing regarding the clinical trials that we sponsor. This includes access to anonymized, individual and trial-level data (analysis datasets), as well as other information (for example, protocols, clinical study reports or analysis plans), as long as the trials are not part of an ongoing or planned regulatory submission. This includes requests for clinical trial data for unlicensed products and indications. These clinical trial data can be requested by any qualified researchers who engage in rigorous, independent, scientific research and will be provided after review and approval of a research proposal, Statistical Analysis Plan and execution of a Data Sharing Agreement. Data requests can be submitted at any time after approval in the USA and Europe and after acceptance of this manuscript for publication. The data will be accessible for 12 months, with possible extensions considered. For more information on the process or to submit a request, visit the link https://vivli.org/ourmember/abbvie, then select ‘Home'.
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Giffin, N. J., Lipton, R. B., Silberstein, S. D., Olesen, J. & Goadsby, P. J. The migraine postdrome: an electronic diary study. Neurology 87, 309–313 (2016).
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We and AbbVie thank all trial investigators and the patients who participated in this clinical trial. AbbVie funded the present study and participated in the study design, research, analysis, data collection, interpretation of data, reviewing and approval of the publication. All authors had access to relevant data and participated in the drafting, review and approval of this publication. No honoraria or payments were made for authorship.
National Institute for Health Research King's Clinical Research Facility, King's College London, London, UK
Peter J. Goadsby
Department of Neurology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Peter J. Goadsby
MedStar Georgetown University Hospital Headache Center, Department of Neurology, Washington, DC, USA
Jessica Ailani
Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, AZ, USA
David W. Dodick & Amaal J. Starling
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P.J.G., J.M.T., M.F. and S.Y.Y. were responsible for study concept and design. S.Y.Y., E.B.-S. and J.M.T. were responsible for acquisition of data. J.M.T., S.Y.Y., E.B.-S., C.L. and Y.L. carried out the analysis and interpretation of data. P.J.G. and J.M.T. wrote the original draft of the manuscript. P.J.G., J.A., D.W.D., A.J.S., C.L., Y.L., S.Y.Y., J.H.S., E.B.-S. and J.M.T. revised the manuscript for intellectual content and provided approval of the final manuscript.
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Peter J. Goadsby.
P.J.G. reports personal fees from AbbVie during the conduct of the study and over the last 36 months, personal fees from Aeon Biopharma, Aurene, CoolTech LLC, Dr. Reddy's, Eli Lilly and Company, Epalex, Kallyope, Linpharma, Lundbeck, Pfizer, PureTech LLC, Satsuma, Shiratronics, Teva Pharmaceuticals and Vial, personal fees for advice through Gerson Lehrman Group, Guidepoint, SAI Med Partners and Vector Metric, fees for educational materials from CME Outfitters, and publishing royalties or fees from Massachusetts Medical Society, Oxford University Press, UptoDate, and Wolters Kluwer. J.A. reports support for the present study from AbbVie, personal fees from AbbVie, Aeon, Amgen, Axsome, BioDelivery Sciences International, Biohaven, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Gore, Impel, Linpharma, Lundbeck, Miravo, Neurolief, Pfizer, Satsuma, Teva, Tonix, Dr. Reddy's, Scilef and Theranica, clinical trial support from Satsuma, Parema and Ipsen, and provision of editorial services to Current Pain and Headache Reports, Medscape, Neurology Live and SELF magazine. D.W.D. reports the following for the past 48 months: consulting for: AbbVie, Allergan, Amgen, Atria, AYYA Biosciences, Biohaven, CapiThera Ltd, Cerecin, Ceruvia Lifesciences LLC, CoolTech, Ctrl M, Eli Lilly, Genentech, GlaxoSmithKline, Impel, Lundbeck, Nocira, Novartis, Perfood, Pfizer, Praxis, Revance, Satsuma, Theranica and WL Gore; honoraria from: Academy for Continued Healthcare Learning, American Academy of Neurology, Amgen (speaking), Biopharm Communications, Cambridge University Press, Canadian Headache Society, CEA Group Holding Company (Clinical Education Alliance LLC), Eli Lilly (speaking), Clinical Care Solutions, CME Outfitters, Curry Rockefeller Group, DeepBench, Global Access Meetings, Headache Cooperative of the Pacific, KLJ Associates, Lundbeck (speaking), Majallin LLC, Medica Communications LLC, Medlogix Communications, MF Med Ed Research, Miller Medical Communications, MJH Lifesciences, Oxford University Press, Pfizer (speaking), Teva (speaking), Vector Psychometric Group, WebMD Health/Medscape and Wolters Kluwer; nonprofit board membership for: American Brain Foundation, American Migraine Foundation, Arizona Brain Injury Alliance, Atria Health Collaborative, Domestic Violence HOPE Foundation/Panfila, International Headache Society Global Patient Advocacy Coalition, ONE Neurology and Precon Health Foundation; research support from: American Migraine Foundation, Henry Jackson Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, Sperling Foundation and US Department of Defense; stock options, shareholder, board of directors or patents for: Atria Health (options and employee), Aural analytics (options), Axon Therapeutics (options and board), AYYA Biosciences (options), Cephalgia Group (options and board), Ctrl M (options), Epien (options and board), ExSano (options), Healint (options), King-Devick Technologies (options and board), Man and Science, Matterhorn (shares and board), Nocira (options), Ontologics (shares and board), Palion (options), Precon Health (options and board), Second Opinion/Mobile Health (options) and Theranica (options); patent 17189376.1-1466: vTitle: Onabotulinum Toxin Dosage Regimen for Chronic Migraine Prophylaxis (Nonroyalty bearing); and patent application submitted: Synaquell (Precon Health). A.J.S. received consulting fees from AbbVie, Allergan, Axsome Therapeutics, eNeura, Everyday Health, Lundbeck, Med-IQ, Medscape, Miller Medical, Satsuma, and WebMD. C.L., Y.L., J.H. and E.B.-S. are employees of AbbVie and may hold AbbVie stock. J.M.T. and S.Y.Y. are former employees of AbbVie and may hold AbbVie stock.
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Human attachment theory outlines three organized types: secure, insecure avoidant and insecure resistant, all considered adaptive responses to maternal care for offspring survival. In contrast, disorganized attachment is hypothesized to be maladaptive and therefore uncommon in wild mammals, though this remains untested. We assessed attachment types in 50 wild chimpanzees (ages 0–10 years) in Taï National Park, Côte d'Ivoire. Using 3,795 h of mother and offspring focal observations, we found no behaviours indicative of disorganized attachment. To explore organized attachment, we analysed a subset of 18 immature chimpanzees and their behavioural responses to 309 natural threatening events. Their responses showed organized attachment patterns: some sought maternal closeness (secure-like), while others displayed independence (insecure avoidant-like). Our study supports the hypothesis that organized attachment types are adaptive and have a long evolutionary history.
Attachment is defined as an affectionate bond between an infant and primary caregiver, characterized by physical proximity and reactions to separation1,2. In humans, attachment is crucial for both the physical and psychological well-being of the offspring3. Attachment theory suggests that the caregiver, usually the mother, serves as a secure base, enabling exploration and providing a safe haven for the infant during distress4.
In humans, offspring attachment to a primary caregiver is commonly examined using an experimental paradigm known as the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP)5,6. According to the SSP, different types of attachment can be classified based on the assessment of the offspring's perception of safety in the caregiver–offspring relationship. This is defined as confidence in the caregiver's availability and responsiveness, and is revealed by exposing the child to a temporary separation from their caregiver. Ainsworth and colleagues5 described three types of ‘organized' attachment, referring to attachment behaviours that are structured and consistent: (1) secure, (2) insecure resistant/ambivalent and (3) insecure avoidant (Fig. 1). Organized attachment is hypothesized to represent strategies adapted to the caregiver's responsiveness, ensuring offspring survival and sustained development in diverse early social settings. Such strategies are thought to be formed to optimize social capacity in the relevant environment2,7. Secure attachment arises from confidence in the caregiver's availability, nurtured by their high responsiveness. On the other hand, insecure-avoidant offspring adjust their behaviour due to their caregiver's lack of responsiveness, leading to avoidance of contact during distress and developing a level of independence earlier than is typical for their age. Insecure-resistant offspring exhibit clingy behaviour, a response to the inconsistent responsiveness of their caregiver. Their inability to venture away from their mothers serves as an indicator of their attachment security8. Research shows that attachment types remain stable across development and influence social growth. Waters9 found consistent infant behaviour during the SSP between 12 and 18 months. Kerns, Tomich and Kim10 used questionnaires to reveal that children aged 7–13 years maintained stable perceptions of attachment figure availability (with no change in the secure score for parent–child attachment), though they relied less on them as they aged, seeking less comfort or play from caregivers when distressed or sick.
The black boxes show human attachment types. The white boxes depict the respective predicted behaviour of offspring towards mothers, given the applied assessments. The letters on the left refer to the different types of attachment. The numbers on the left refer to the analyses to test the predictions related to the different types of attachment in the Methods and the Results sections. The numbers indicated in superscript correspond to the references in the literature: Bowlby2, Ainsworth et al.5 and Main and Solomon11.
Main and Solomon11 introduced a fourth attachment type, insecure-disorganized/disoriented attachment (Fig. 1), characterized by random or conflicting behaviours, stereotypies and fear of the caregiver typically, with offspring expressing distress without seeking comfort from their caregiver12,13. Disorganized attachment, linked to problematic parenting and higher rates of parental psychopathology, poses challenges for social integration14. The classification of disorganized attachment as adaptive2,15 or maladaptive16 remains debated. Indeed, Gazzillo and colleagues15 consider disorganized attachment as a child's adaptation to a traumatic, inconsistent environment, leading to contradictory behaviours such as avoiding approach and showing fear. Other researchers, in contrast, argue that disorganized attachment is maladaptive, lacking a coherent strategy and posing long-term developmental risks16,17. Understanding the evolutionary history of these behaviours could offer insights into child development, aiding therapeutic interventions and prevention strategies for emotional and psychological issues.
Unlike all other apes, reproduction in humans is relatively cooperative and includes a range of support structures that theoretically could limit the impact of poor parent–offspring attachment18. As such, disorganized attachment could emerge as a maladaptive response to disorganized parenting, which could arise from a lack of clear selection pressures on parenting. In this case, disorganized attachment is unlikely to be observed in environments where natural selection should favour more adaptive attachment patterns that increase the chances of offspring survival. Therefore, as a first step towards evaluating the evolution of certain attachment types, a comparative approach is needed.
Attachment theory is proposed to apply broadly to mammals to aid offspring survival19, but so far, it has predominantly been applied to human relationships. However, researchers have explored the mother–offspring relationship in captive nonhuman primates. Such studies demonstrate strong attachment bonds between biological mothers and their infants20. Furthermore, studies with monkeys, including Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata)21, bonnet macaques (Macaca radiata)22, brown capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella)23 and rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta)24, have identified individual differences in mother–offspring attachment security. Additionally, Yano-Nashimoto and colleagues25 found that captive infant marmosets (Callithrix jacchus), which are raised in a multi-caregiver system, selectively avoided and emitted negative calls when handled by rejecting caregivers. This suggests attachment figures are chosen depending on the quality of care provided in this species.
Studies of mother–offspring attachment types in wild primates, however, have not yet been conducted. Chimpanzees, one of our closest living relatives26, serve as an excellent model for studying mother–offspring attachment. Their exceptional social and cognitive abilities, coupled with an important dependence on mothers for at least the first decade of life27,28,29,30, make them extremely valuable for comparative research. This social dependency crucially contributes to the offspring's overall fitness31,32. Van Ijzendoorn et al.33 and Clay34 used the SSP with captive human-reared infant chimpanzees, revealing distinct attachment types with their favourite caregiver similar to those in human infants with their mothers. Responsive care (as opposed to standard care) correlated with less disorganized attachment and more advanced cognitive development. One-year-old captive chimpanzees with disorganized attachment had an increased likelihood of illness, heightened abnormal behaviours and reduced social interaction success over 20 years (ref. 34).
While insightful, findings from such studies potentially differ from those representing mother–offspring attachment in natural settings. Mothers not only provide nourishment, but also closeness, comfort and social learning opportunities35. While captive settings provide a more controlled environment, it is essential to acknowledge their limitations in representing attachment processes in a natural system where behaviours are largely adapted to socio-ecological conditions. Owing to predation, social competition and variable food availability, mother–offspring attachment under natural conditions should be shaped by selection processes.
In our study of wild chimpanzees, we first hypothesized that disorganized attachment would be rare in these natural settings due to its potentially maladaptive nature in humans, with some evidence supporting this in captive apes34. Given that disorganized attachment may result, at least in part, from the maternal style the offspring is exposed to, low survival rates would limit the proliferation of such a behavioural phenotype into future generations. We predicted that immature chimpanzees would show few behaviours typically observed in individuals with disorganized attachment. Specifically, we predicted immature chimpanzees would show few aggressive behaviours towards their mother, rare or no abnormal or stereotypic behaviour and would look for comfort when expressing vocal distress. Second, we hypothesized that organized attachment types would be prevalent in wild chimpanzees. In humans, caregiver responsiveness is thought to directly shape the attachment type5,36,37, but this has not been tested in nonhuman animals. Nevertheless, general social characteristics such as gregariousness, grooming rates and number of bond partners vary among chimpanzee mothers38 and depend on the sex of the offspring39, which might impact maternal care. Therefore, we expected some variation in attachment type in chimpanzee offspring. We compared attachment patterns with existing and well-defined attachment types observed in humans. We expected that if attachment types overlap with those of humans, wild immature chimpanzees would display different safety-seeking and comfort behaviours from mothers during threatening situations, reflecting secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant attachment types. Additionally, to assess the functional similarity of any attributed attachment types with those of humans, we determined how attachment security impacted mother–offspring proximity during social exploration8. We predicted that individuals who did not rely on their mother during exposure to a threat (insecure avoidant-like), would explore further away from her during social contexts, compared with those seeking comfort during threatening events (secure and insecure resistant-like). We also expected that individuals exhibiting overreaction during threatening situations (insecure resistant-like) would limit their exploration in social contexts, staying close to their mother compared to other individuals. The analyses performed to test each prediction are summarized in Fig. 1.
Therefore, the current research endeavoured to investigate the dynamics of mother–offspring attachment in wild western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus), drawing parallels with attachment theory in humans. The behavioural data (ethogram in Supplementary Table 1) collected over 34 months (from 2016 to 2023) on 50 mother–offspring dyads (offspring's age between 0 and 10 years old) (Supplementary Table 2) provides a unique opportunity to explore the relevance of attachment theory in chimpanzees within their natural habitat. This approach also offers a fresh perspective by studying attachment types in wild primates.
To investigate mother–offspring aggression (test A2) and test for disorganized attachment, we used the entire dataset (Supplementary Fig. 1). For analyses related to organized attachment (test B) and part of the disorganized attachment assessment (test A1), we focused on data from 2021 to 2023, which included additional ethogram elements specifically designed to capture responses to directed and undirected threatening events (UTEs) (see ‘Threatening events' section) (Supplementary Fig. 1).
We collected 2,882 h of behavioural data on 50 immature chimpanzees (22 females and 28 males, aged 0 to 10years, mean observation time (M) = 58.06 h, range 28–107 ± 19.96 h (s.d.) per individual), and 913 h on 21 mothers to assess maternal aggressiveness (M = 36.63 h, range 12–58 ± 10.67 h (s.d.) per individual), totalling 3,795 h of observation.
To investigate the existence of disorganized attachment in 30 immature chimpanzees (ages 0 to 10 years), we tested whether vocal distress from the offspring predicted a mother–offspring approach during naturally occurring events (Model 1), a sign of organized rather than disorganized attachment. We categorized these events as undirectly or directly threatening for the offspring UTEs and directed threatening events (DTEs)). Whimpering or screaming predicted the likelihood of the mother–offspring approach (Table 1). Offspring showing vocal distress (whimpering or screaming) approached their mother (23% of 168 occasions) or were approached by her (42% of 168 occasions). We examined the credible intervals (CIs) for each individual to identify individuals not following the predictions of the model (Supplementary Fig. 2). We found that vocal distress did not predict an approach for three individuals out of 30 (10%). By examining the behavioural reactions during other threatening events, we found that these three individuals approached their mother on several occurrences. The conditional R2 of this model was 0.284.
We assessed the occurrence of aggressive behaviours between immature chimpanzees and their mother and other characteristic behaviours of disorganized attachment to investigate the existence of this attachment type. In over 3,795 h of focal data focusing on mother and offspring, the 50 studied offspring between 0 to 10 years old never showed aggression towards the mother. In contrast, we observed a total of 31 mild non-contact aggressions of 12 mothers towards their offspring during the observation period (27 arm waves, 2 hunches, 1 charge and 1 chase) and 15 contact aggressions of 11 mothers towards their offspring (6 push away, 6 hits and 3 pulls). Mother–offspring aggression rates are shown in Supplementary Fig. 3.
We did not observe any abnormal or stereotypic behaviours in any chimpanzee (for example, rocking, hair pulling, face grimacing or incomplete behaviour), nor attempts by the offspring to escape from their mother, except in instances where the mother displayed aggression towards the offspring over the 50 studied offspring.
We investigated the behavioural reactions of 18 immature chimpanzees during UTEs and found differences across ages. The youngest chimpanzees (less than 2 years) predominantly whimpered, looked towards their mother and/or approached their mother during a UTE (model 2; Fig. 2a). However, with increasing age, this tendency decreased. The tendency to show no reaction increased with age and peaked at 50% of events around the weaning period (4–6 years old) before the likelihood of no reaction decreased again. After weaning (>6 years), however, the likelihood of climbing a tree or running away from the UTE increased.
Top: the likelihood of a particular behavioural reaction by the offspring when experiencing a UTE, in relation to the offspring's age.The solid lines depict the proportion of events in which each behaviour was observed and predicted by the model, and the coloured areas are the 95% CI. Bottom: individual variation in offspring behavioural reactions to UTEs. The violin plots show deviation from the expected value (0) for a given age while accounting for sex, party size and the presence of older siblings. Each dot depicts an individual chimpanzee. Positive or negative deviation from zero indicates that the individual shows a behaviour more or less than predicted, respectively. The sample size is n = 30 individuals across 550 independent events.
Comparing the deviation estimates of each offspring's behaviour when reacting to the UTE with the expected behaviour for its age and other variables (for example, sex or presence of older siblings), we found that some behavioural reactions had higher individual variability than others (Fig. 2b). Offspring showed different interindividual variability across the behaviours, with the highest variability for the behaviour ‘approaching the mother' (deviation of 4.78), all the other behaviours had a deviation under 2.3 indicating lower variability. This suggests that interindividual variability in behavioural reactions during UTEs was primarily influenced by differences in the approach behaviour towards the mother.
Given that we found strong individual differences in key attachment-related variables (Fig. 2b), we explored whether individuals displayed consistent behavioural patterns regardless of age and other social factors. Using the unsupervised Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection (UMAP) method, we identified three clusters without predefined numbers. A supervised cluster analysis with three set clusters produced similar results, consistently grouping the same individuals (Fig. 3a).
Each dot corresponds to an individual offspring. Top: dimension reduction (UMAP) and cluster analysis of the behavioural reactions of the offspring during UTEs testing the existence of distinct attachment types. The position of the points corresponds to the UMAP representation, while the colours attributed correspond to the spectral cluster analysis. NN, number of nearest neighbors. The axis of both plots represents a dimension reduction of the original data to two dimensions. Bottom: interindividual variation of offspring reactions during UTEs (results of the PCA). The colours represent the attachment types attributed based on the UMAP method and the cluster analysis. The bigger points represent the average loading for each attachment type category. The arrows represent the different dimensions (behavioural reactions) that have been reduced into two dimensions (top). Attachment type 1 corresponds to individuals not showing specific behaviour more often than expected for their age during UTEs; attachment type 2 corresponds to individuals not reacting during a threat or climbing, approaching another individual or running away without orienting towards the mother to seek safety more than expected for their age; and attachment type 3 corresponds to individuals approaching and looking towards their mother more than expected for their age. The sample size is n = 18 individuals.
The principal component analysis (PCA) results indicated which behaviours drove each cluster (Table 2 and Fig. 3b). The first PCA component explained 65% of the variance, with ‘approaching the mother' contributing the most (eigenvalue of 2.01). Adding component 2 explained 79% of the variance (eigenvalue of 0.43), driven by ‘approaching other individuals'. Including component 3 explained 90% (eigenvalue of 0.34). Each remaining component explained less than 5%. Attachment type 1 was attributed to individuals near the PCA centre, following model predictions. Attachment type 2 individuals relied less on their mothers than expected, while attachment type 3 individuals approached their mothers more than predicted for their age (Fig. 3b).
To validate the attribution of attachment types to each individual based on their behavioural reactions during UTEs, we investigated whether there were differences in mother–offspring distances during social exploration across focal samples depending on attachment type. The exploratory events were not related to the UTE. We modelled the mean distance between offspring and mother per focal day predicted by the attachment type and other control variables (for example, sex and age) (model 3), with the results presented in Table 3. The conditional R2 was 0.279. We showed an effect of attachment type with 89% of CIs. Indeed, offspring with attachment type 2 engaged in social exploration further away from their mother than offspring with attachment type 1 (Fig. 4) Control variables produced no consistent difference in mother–offspring proximity (all 89% CI overlapped 0; Table 3). Only daily mean party size showed a notable trend, suggesting that larger social gatherings were associated with offspring engaging in social exploration further away from their mother.
Each dot corresponds to a focal follow on a given offspring. The y axis represents the model estimate of the mean distance between the offspring and its mother per focal. The box plots show the median and the interquartile range from the 25th to the 75th percentile of the posterior distribution. The whiskers indicate the range of data within 1.5 times the interquartile range from the lower and upper quartiles. Based on our prior analyses (UMAP, cluster analysis, PCA and model 2), attachment type 1 corresponds to secure attachment, attachment type 2 aligns with insecure-avoidant attachment and attachment type 3 corresponds to insecure-resistant attachment. The star represents an 89% CI excluding zero, indicating a credible effect. The sample size is n = 18 individuals across 260 independent events.
Finally, we investigated whether the offspring continued being distressed even after their mother had comforted them, to distinguish between secure and insecure-resistant attachment (Fig. 5). During the events when the mother approached or physically made contact, the offspring never continued or renewed vocal distress. In only 3 of 78 events did offspring continue or renew vocal distress within 30 s of experiencing a threat. During these three events, the mother did not approach or make physical contact with the offspring, nor did she react to further distress.
We assessed comfort seeking (offspring approaches mother) and comfort giving (mother approaches or touches offspring), represented by the arrows, or self-comfort (no new behaviour sign of distress of the offspring within 30 s after the threatening event without approach from either mother or offspring, no arrow). Blue represents offspring stopping or not renewing vocal distress within 30 s after the threatening event and orange represents offspring continuing or renewing vocal distress within 30 s after the threatening event suggesting no immediate comforting. The sample size is n = 18 individuals across 78 independent events.
Next, we analysed the variation in the duration spent by offspring exploring their environment in both social and non-social contexts per day in relation to attachment type. Our findings indicated that there was no discernible effect of attachment type on the duration spent by offspring exploring their environment in either social or non-social contexts (Supplementary Table 3). Finally, we investigated whether attachment types could predict the latency for offspring to resume exploration after experiencing a UTE or a threat during a play bout. There was no difference between attachment types 1 and 3 in latency time (Supplementary Table 4).
The results of these additional analyses are explained in Supplementary Text 1.
Our dataset of wild chimpanzees showed no evidence of disorganized attachment. This differs from what has been observed in humans and captive chimpanzees33,34. Instead, the responses of immature, wild chimpanzees during threatening situations revealed organized attachment patterns comparable to the secure (attachment type 1) and insecure-avoidant (attachment type 2) attachments found in humans5. Offspring who rarely approached their mother during a UTE explored socially from a greater distance than those who sought maternal proximity.
However, there was no strong support for a difference in mother–offspring proximity during social exploration between individuals with a secure-like attachment type and those with an insecure resistant-like attachment type (type 3). Additionally, there was no evidence of young chimpanzees continuing vocal distress after receiving comfort, indicating the absence of an insecure-resistant attachment axis. Finally, offspring did not exhibit aggressive, contradictory or abnormal behaviours typically associated with disorganized attachment.
Our findings suggest that certain characteristics of organized attachment have a deep evolutionary history. Meanwhile, the lack of disorganized attachment features in wild chimpanzees lends support to the assertions that this phenotype is indeed maladaptive.
The results revealed age-dependent responses to threats. As expected, offspring became more independent with age, relying less on their mother and acquiring skills to navigate and respond to potentially threatening situations, such as running away or climbing trees for self-protection (Fig. 2a). During weaning (at approximately 4 years old28), offspring were less likely to react to threatening events. We speculate that maternal availability may be limited following the birth of a new offspring, inhibiting approaches from both mother and weaned offspring before the latter has fully developed more independent strategies (for example, climbing up a tree or running away). Across animals, maternal reproductive strategies are finely balanced: mothers gain by reproducing with shorter inter-birth intervals but only if the older offspring survives40,41. Hence, when younger siblings are born, older siblings who show inappropriately low reactivity to threats may still be reaching suitable levels of independence. These findings support the notion that the weaning period, precipitating greater social and nutritional independence, plays a crucial role in ontogeny, being linked with the emergence of complex behaviours such as call combinations42, social grooming and tool use43.
The 50 subjects in this study did not show behavioural patterns corresponding to the disorganized attachment type found in humans and in captive chimpanzees33. In humans, disorganized attachment is found in 23.5% of children tested across cultures using the SSP6 and in 54% of institutionalized children44. Children and other primates with disorganized attachment demonstrate aggressive behaviour towards their mother, caregiver and peers, and exhibit abnormal or conflicted, confused or apprehensive behaviour. The Taï chimpanzees observed here did not show any of these behaviours. Given that aggressive or abusive behaviours from mothers towards offspring are considered a common cause associated with disorganized attachment14, we looked at the aggression rate per hour from mothers to their offspring. Events, when the mother showed aggressive behaviours towards her offspring, were very rare (48 aggressions over 3,795 h of observation among 17 of 33 mothers). The mean rate of aggression per mother–offspring dyad was 0.008 per hour for non-contact aggression (maximum rate at 0.10 per hour; arm waving) and 0.003 for contact aggression per hour (maximum rate of 0.03 per hour; hitting). The low rate of contact aggression from mother to offspring in wild chimpanzees is also supported by other studies (Reddy and Sandel45: no contact aggression observed in 29 young males over 1,570 h and Sabbi et al.46: 85 aggressions observed towards 49 immature chimpanzees over at least 4,116 h (maximum 0.02 per hour)). As a comparison, female chimpanzees direct contact aggression towards other individuals 2.3 times more frequently than towards their offspring, and non-contact aggression 2.5 times more frequently towards other individuals than their offspring (extrapolated data from the dataset of Tkaczynski47). Altogether, this suggests that the disorganized attachment type is rare or absent in wild chimpanzees. If it is present at an early age, those infants probably do not survive. In the wild, 15% of chimpanzee infants die before the age of 1.5 years48. Our findings corroborate the hypothesis that the disorganized attachment type is not an adaptive survival strategy in the face of environmental constraints in a wild setting.
In contrast, for orphaned chimpanzees in captive settings, behaviours indicative of disorganized attachment have been reported at relatively high rates33,34. Specifically, 41% of chimpanzees receiving responsive care and 72% of those under standard care from keepers exhibited disorganized attachment with the favourite human caregiver shown by sequential or simultaneous displays of contradictory behaviours or misdirected attachment behaviour. Compared with wild settings, captive settings provide an environment in which threats to survival are low, such as no exposure to predators nor out-group lethal aggression, health is managed and food is provisioned to reduce competition. However, psycho-social risk factors may be higher due to historical issues such as some zoo chimpanzees, that are now mothers, may have been rescued from isolated- or peer-housed living in medical facilities. As such, captive chimpanzee social scenarios may show parallels with those of modern human societies, where survival is less dependent on socio-ecological factors and high survival rates probably facilitate greater variation in psycho-social phenomena.
Disorganized attachment can result from caregivers displaying frightening behaviours towards children12,49. Specifically, offspring who have experienced sustained/extreme aggressive or neglectful maternal care, are at substantially higher risk of developing extreme psychopathologies in adulthood50. In contrast, the maternal behaviour of chimpanzees observed in our study lacked evidence of the abusive behaviours observed in human contexts. In Taï chimpanzees, extreme rejecting or neglectful maternal behaviour is exceptionally rare. Only two instances of abandonment were observed across 85 cumulative observation years of three communities. In each case, and unusual in chimpanzees, the maternal grandmother was present (Wittig and Crockford, personal observations). In contrast, instances of inadequate maternal care in zoos leading to humans taking over offspring rearing occurred for 8 infants involving 19 mothers across less than 5 years51 and for 7 infants involving 23 mothers across 9 years52.
Orphaned captive chimpanzees might develop disorganized attachment since, even with excellent care, they generally lack both a 24 h and permanent attachment figure to offer nurturing and protection and typical early social interactions with a primary caregiver of the same species. Both may explain the high percentage of disorganized chimpanzees in the studies of Van Ijzendoorn and colleagues33 and Clay34. It has been suggested that attachment and maternal nurturing propensity are transmitted across generations (in humans: Van Ijzendoorn and Bakermans-Kranenburg53; in mammals: Rilling and Young54), implying that individuals raised by nurturing mothers are likely to demonstrate nurturing care to their own offspring, as well as conversely. Animal welfare in captivity has become a welcome priority in recent years as understanding of the long-term impact of rearing conditions has improved55. Consequently, mothers born and raised in captivity or adopted from medical facilities a generation (20–30 years) ago might not have received adequate care as offspring, potentially leading to poor mothering skills with a higher likelihood of abandoning their own offspring or demonstrating reduced sensitivity to their needs56,57.
We demonstrated that young wild chimpanzees show variation in their reliance on their mother during UTEs, even after controlling for their age. This finding, driven principally by approach behaviour towards mothers, implies that some individuals use their mothers more as a safe haven during a UTE than others. Therefore, like in humans, chimpanzee offspring could be considered to have different organized attachment types. Some individuals did not demonstrate age-appropriate reliance on their mother during UTEs (attachment type 2), fitting well the criteria for insecure-avoidant attachment or excessive reliance on the mother (attachment type 3), similar to the insecure-resistant attachment (Fig. 3). Others showed age-appropriate reliance on their mother (attachment type 1) akin to the secure attachment (Fig. 3). To better understand individual differences and the adaptability of organized attachment, it is now necessary to investigate maternal responsiveness and determine whether the developed attachment is related to the mother's responsiveness.
An additional measure to distinguish between secure and insecure-resistant offspring's behavioural reactions examined whether offspring showing distress during exposure to a threat are comforted after seeking comfort from their mother. In humans, children with insecure-resistant attachment persist in displaying distress even when the mother attempts to provide comfort. In our sample, offspring rarely continued or renewed vocal distress after a threatening event (Fig. 5). Rare instances where offspring continued to seek their mother were observed only when the mother did not offer comfort. This observation strongly suggests that in the wild, young chimpanzees are reliably comforted by their mothers if comfort is provided, challenging the notion of the existence of insecure-resistant attachment. The individuals initially considered as insecure resistant in our dataset could be secure offspring overreacting during UTEs (which is a subcategory of the secure attachment). This overreaction could be due to the offspring's temperament, particularly their susceptibility to distress and anxiety, rather than being solely attributed to maternal factors58,59. In 32 out of 78 observed instances, there was no approach between mother and offspring, yet the distress subsided regardless. This behaviour might imply the use of self-comforting mechanisms or growing emotional independence. Furthermore, 14 out of 18 individuals exhibited this behaviour at least once. Notably, these instances often occurred during play bouts, indicating that the initial threat was mild and soon over, thus not requiring further comfort.
Furthermore, using the same focal data for analysis to determine the different attachment types (test B1) and incorporating new data from threat occurrences during play bouts, we examined (Supplementary Table 4) whether attachment types predicted the latency time for offspring to explore after a UTE or a threat during a play bout. This analysis revealed no strong differences, supporting the idea that attachment types 1 and 3 might demonstrate no functional difference. The findings presented in Table 3, which model the proximity between mother and offspring during social exploration unrelated to threatening events, support the notion of individual distinctions between offspring exhibiting attachment type 1 (secure-like) and attachment type 2 (insecure avoidant-like). Indeed, offspring with attachment type 2 explored further away from their mother in a social context than offspring with attachment type 1 (Fig. 4). Insecure avoidant-like individuals did not rely on their mother during UTEs, exploring further away from her, consistent with the idea that they did not consider her as a safe base. There was no difference between offspring with attachment type 1 (secure-like) and attachment type 3 (insecure resistant-like), again corroborating the idea that those individuals might all show degrees of ‘secure' attachment. Contrary to our prediction that securely attached offspring (attachment type 1) would explore their environment further away from their mother than insecure-resistant offspring (attachment type 3), the results indicated that attachment type 1 offspring actually explored closer to their mother than attachment type 3 offspring, yet with no substantial differences (no effect at 89%).
Overall, these results align with the findings of Van Ijzendoorn and colleagues33, who identified diverse organized attachment types (secure, insecure avoidant and insecure resistant) in captive chimpanzees that resembled those observed in humans. However notably, we did not yield evidence supporting the presence of insecure-resistant attachment in wild chimpanzees, possibly due to our comparatively smaller sample size, that is 18 versus 46 individuals.
Given our small sample size for the assessment of chimpanzee attachment types, our sample may not have captured the full diversity of attachment in young chimpanzees. Nevertheless, we showed strong evidence for interindividual variability. Controlling for offspring age posed challenges due to the limited number of individuals, resulting in few subjects with identical ages. Nevertheless, we maintained confidence in the validity of our methodology by controlling for age differences, asserting that attachment types can still be assessed in older offspring within the range of 1.5–6 years. A strength of our approach was having repeated observations in natural situations across time, which probably increases the capacity to distinguish variation in attachment. This contrasts with the SSP in humans, which is typically conducted only once per child, out of their natural environment, in a safe place and notably only in certain cultures5,6. Additionally, mother-initiated approaches could limit direct comparability to human studies, where mothers are told to not react, but this is unavoidable in a naturalistic setting where mothers behave freely. Additionally, behaviour not only in threatening contexts but also in daily social life, such as mother–offspring distance, was predictable based on reactions to threatening events in wild immature chimpanzees, further highlighting parallels to organized attachment in humans. Future research is needed to explore how attachment type relates to social behaviour across the lifespan. Finally, one might question whether organized attachment in humans is comparable to that observed in chimpanzees. In humans, organized attachment is defined by a child's use of a consistent and coherent strategy to seek comfort and support from their primary caregiver when distressed60. Our findings suggest that wild immature chimpanzees exhibit behavioural strategies similar to those seen in human infants, such as approaching or avoiding their mother when facing potential threats, which is a situation analogous to the SSP experiments. This convergence in behavioural patterns, despite differences in the nature of the stimuli (experimental versus naturally occurring), suggests a shared foundation in attachment strategies between chimpanzees and human infants. Additionally, behaviour not only in threatening contexts but also in daily social life, such as mother–offspring distance, was predictable based on reactions to threatening events in wild immature chimpanzees, further highlighting parallels to organized attachment in humans. Future research is needed to explore how attachment type relates to social behaviour across the lifespan.
By examining the hugely influential psychological concept of attachment theory within an evolutionary framework, we were able to identify distinct mother–offspring attachment types in young wild western chimpanzees, similar to the secure and insecure-avoidant types found in humans, but no evidence of disorganized attachment. While this does not rule out the occurrence of disorganized attachment in wild chimpanzees, it suggests that if it occurs, it does so at much lower rates than is found in humans or peer-raised captive chimpanzees. Thus, these findings support the hypothesis that disorganized attachment may not be adaptive for offspring survival. Future research should investigate the impact of attachment types on offspring fitness, and the relation between maternal care and attachment types in other mammals. Our findings provide a crucial step towards understanding how adaptive attachment strategies emerge across species, as well as the key role attachment may play in social evolution. Shared attachment strategies across species may indicate a common evolutionary heritage, underscoring the ancient origins of sociality in primates. However, the relatively high prevalence of disorganized attachment in both human and captive chimpanzee populations is consistent with the hypothesis that rearing environments contribute substantially to its manifestation and persistence in certain contexts. This contrast between the lack of disorganized attachment in the wild setting of our study and the relatively high prevalence of disorganized attachment in captive environments indicates a need for further research to understand the underlying causal factors (for example, genetic influence and parental state of mind)61. Further comparative research in natural environments is beneficial for understanding mother–offspring attachment dynamics, which are crucial for primate social development and for other long-lived mammals with protracted development. Observing these dynamics in natural settings reveals how ecological pressures and social contexts shape attachment behaviours, offering insights that controlled environments often overlook.
Our study was purely observational and non-invasive. Observers followed the strict hygiene protocol of the Taï Chimpanzee Project, adopted by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as the best practice guideline for wild ape studies62. Observers quarantined for 5 days before following the chimpanzees. Every day, observers disinfected their hands and boots and changed clothes before leaving and entering camps. In the forest, observers wore face masks and kept a minimum distance of 7 m between themselves and the chimpanzees, to avoid disease transmission from humans to chimpanzees and to avoid disturbing the natural behaviour of the observed individuals. The research protocol used here was approved by the ‘Ethikrat' of the Max Planck Society on 04 August 2014 and by the ‘Directeur de Recherche en Côte d'Ivoire' under the Permit TCP Wittig/008/MESRS/DGRI from 05 May 2021.
E.R., O.N.-L., P.J.T. and research assistants collected behavioural data on three wild Western chimpanzee (P. t. verus) communities (North, South and East groups), habituated to human observers and located in the Taï National Park, Côte d'Ivoire63.
Behavioural focal sampling followed a standardized methodology, with two focal individuals observed daily for about 6 h each from approximately 6:30 to 12:30 and 12:30 to 18:30 (ref. 64). Cybertracker (v.3.389, v.3.440 and v.3.517) was used to record daily activities (resting, eating, walking and so on), social interactions (grooming, playing, affiliations, aggressions and solicitations), mother–offspring proximity and mother–offspring interactions. Subgroup composition and changes in behaviour were also continuously noted. Reliability of the coded behaviours and individual identities was high across datasets between coders (Cohen's Kappa tests: ĸ = 0.72, 0.81, 0.70, 0.78, 0.80 and 0.64)65. Full ethogram details are available in the supporting information66,67 (Supplementary Table 1).
To correspond with the SSP68, which involves a potential threat to the infant, we chose naturally occurring situations of undirected aggressions, or aggressions and threats not directed towards the offspring (excluding the presence of predators) for analysis (UTEs). In chimpanzees, third-party aggressions can result in redirected aggressions to nearby individuals69. Additionally, we included the following contexts of UTEs that typically alert the group: chimpanzee vocalizations outside of the group, alarm calls of other species and gunshots. We removed events when the offspring was already in contact with the mother and when the mother was included in the aggression to account for the mother's availability for their offspring. To assess responses to vocal distress (tests A1 and B3 in Fig. 1), we added threats directed at the offspring that more regularly triggered vocal distress, including threats during play bouts and aggressions directed towards the offspring (DTEs). Behavioural reactions of both the mother and offspring were recorded during these potentially threatening situations (immediately, that is, within approximately 2 s).
We performed the following analyses using R Studio (R version 4.2.2)70 and Spyder Python (version 3.9)71.
We first tested the existence of disorganized attachment by assessing whether distress during a UTE or DTE predicted approach behaviour between mother and offspring (test A1) and analysing aggression rates between mother and offspring (test A2). We then tested the existence of distinct organized attachment types by analysing offspring reactions to UTEs (controlling for age and other variables; test B1a in Supplementary Fig. 1), applying dimension reduction and cluster analysis to detect patterns (test B1b in Supplementary Fig. 1). Furthermore, we examined differences in the mean distance between mother and offspring during social exploration excluding threatening events (test B2) and evaluated the existence of insecure-resistant attachment by assessing the effectiveness of maternal comfort after a UTE or DTE (test B3). The rationale for the different steps of analyses and the respective data used are shown in Supplementary Fig. 1.
Model 1
If wild immature chimpanzees have a disorganized attachment type, we predicted that vocal distress would not result in comfort seeking with their mother. We used all threatening events (UTEs and DTEs) and modelled whether the presence of offspring distress (whimpering and screaming) would cause offspring and mother to reduce their distance (seeking or offering comfort, respectively) using a Bayesian generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) with a Bernoulli error distribution. The control variables are explained in Supplementary Text 1. Each UTE or DTE constituted a data point, totalling 567 observations across 30 individuals (ages 0–10 years). We extracted the estimates of the random slope for whimpering or screaming occurrences associated with the identity of the individuals to evaluate how strongly vocal distress predicted the probability of the mother–offspring approach for each dyad.
Disorganized attachment can be identified in situations where the offspring exhibits fear towards the caregiver. If an offspring consistently displays aggression towards their mother in a fearful context, it suggests a disorganized attachment, particularly if the mother exhibits aggressive behaviour at a higher rate than other mothers towards their offspring. Therefore, to identify whether some individuals presented disorganized attachment, we investigated how often there was aggression observed between mother and offspring. We counted the number of occurrences of both contact and non-contact aggressions between mother and offspring in 50 mother–offspring dyads (ages 0–10 years). Contact aggressions were described as hitting, pushing away, and pulling an individual. Non-contact aggressions were described as hunching, doing an arm wave, charging or chasing an individual (see ethogram in Supplementary Table 2).
To investigate the existence of different types of attachment in immature chimpanzees, we explored the variability between individuals in behavioural reactions during threatening events. Given that our dataset contained individuals from 0 to 10 years old and that we expected immature wild chimpanzees to rely less on their mothers with age, we first ran a model (model 2) controlled for age and other variables. We then used dimension reduction approaches and cluster analysis to see whether within and between individual correlations in these behavioural responses existed.
Model 2
We expected offspring to react differently to a threat depending on age, with younger individuals relying more on their mothers. Therefore, to control for the variation of age across individuals, we used Bayesian models with a Bernoulli error distribution. Each UTE constituted a data point, totalling 550 observations across 30 individuals of data between 2016 and 2023 (ages 0–10 years), and the response variable was again a binary value of the occurrence of the behavioural reaction during an event. Individuals could show multiple reactions during the same UTE.
We ran a separate Bayesian GLMM for each of the nine behaviours (approaching the mother, looking towards the mother, whimpering, screaming, running away from the threat, climbing up a tree, attacking, approaching another individual or not reacting). For visual representation (Fig. 2), we ran a similar model with all the behavioural reactions into a matrix (model 2). We used the offspring age in months on the day of the event as a test predictor. The control variables are explained in Supplementary Text 1. The random intercepts for individuals were extracted, representing deviations from the population-level intercept (average behavioural response), accounting for age and other fixed factors. This captured individual variability not explained by the fixed effects. Positive values meant that individuals showed the given behaviour more than expected for their age and other fixed effects, and less than expected for negative values.
Owing to older offspring (>6 years old) exhibiting fewer mother-dependent behaviours such as approaching and looking towards the mother and displaying more independent behaviours such as climbing up a tree and running away from threats (Fig. 2), we excluded them from subsequent analyses. Young individuals (<1.5 years old) were omitted from further analysis, similar to the practice of excluding very young human infants in the SSP owing to their consistent proximity to their mother, which posed challenges in assessing variations in mother-directed behaviours. This resulted in 18 dyads (M = 3.7 years, range of 1.5–6 years, s.d. 2.4).
We investigated whether individuals exhibited consistent behavioural patterns regardless of their age and the other control variables. We used dimension reduction techniques (UMAP and PCA) and a spectral cluster analysis. We aimed to discern whether individuals aged between 1.5 and 6 years displayed distinct behavioural reactions across 309 UTEs and could be categorized into clusters. We applied these techniques to the deviation estimates extracted from model 2 on 18 individuals (ages 1.5–6 years). More details about these methods are described in Supplementary Text 1.
Model 3
To investigate whether attachment type predicted mother–offspring proximity during social exploration, we analysed the average distance between mothers and their youngest offspring during social play (excluding the mother as a partner). Attachment type was determined using dimension reduction techniques and cluster analysis previously explained (test B1). We applied a Bayesian GLMM with a Gaussian error distribution for this analysis. Each date of data collection per individual constituted a data point, totalling 260 observations across 18 individuals (ages 1.5–6 years).
The mother–offspring distances were categorized and a value corresponding to the mean distance was attributed as follows: contact (value of 0), less than 1 m (value of 0.5), between 1 m and 5 m (value of 3), between 5 m and 10 m (value of 7.5) and more than 10 m (value of 15). The mean distance during social exploration per date per individual was calculated as the sum of every distance multiplied by the time spent at that distance divided by the total observation time of social exploration of that date (sum(value.distance × (duration.distance/duration.total.date))). We used attachment type in interaction with the age of the offspring in months as a test predictor, since we expected that the impact of attachment type on mother–offspring proximity during social exploration would differ across different stages of offspring development. Justifications for including the control variables are given in Supplementary Text 1.
Additionally, we modelled the percentage of time spent by the offspring exploring their environment in non-social (model 4) and social contexts (model 5) with the attachment type (model explanation in Supplementary Text 1 and results in Supplementary Table 3).
To disentangle secure and insecure-resistant attachments, we investigated whether offspring continued being distressed even after their mother had comforted them. We took all the UTEs and frightening events during play bouts that elicited offspring whimpering or screaming and plotted whether they continued or renewed vocal distress (whimpering or screaming) after the distance between mother and offspring was reduced between the moment of the threat and until 30 s after (Fig. 5). There were 78 observations across 18 individuals (ages 1.5–6 years).
Additionally, we performed a survival analysis (model 6) to investigate the existence of insecure-resistant attachment by looking at the latency time between a threatening event and exploratory behaviour (Supplementary Text 1 and Supplementary Table 4). On the basis of the human literature, we hypothesized that insecure-resistant offspring would take longer to explore their environment after a threat compared with secure and insecure-avoidant offspring.
We ran all models in R 4.2.2 (ref. 70) using the function ‘brm' from the package ‘brms'72. All continuous values were scaled to a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1. We tested for collinearity issues by quantifying variance inflation factors for our predictor variables using the function ‘vif' from the package ‘car'73. We ran 2,000 iterations (1,000 for ‘warm-up') on 12 chains. We used weakly regularizing priors for the fixed effects (normal (0,1)) and the priors given by default by the function ‘get_prior' of the package ‘brms' for the random effects (that is, Student's t (3, 0, 2.5) for the random intercepts and slopes). We then extracted the 95% and 89% CIs for each fixed effect from the posterior distribution of the model. Sampling diagnostics (R-hat of 1 for all predictors) and trace plots confirmed chain convergence for all models. Effective sample sizes (all >3,800) confirmed no issues with autocorrelation of sampling for all models. All variance inflation factors were below 5 confirming non-collinearity between variables. All posterior predictive checks for each model were satisfactory (Supplementary Figs. 5 and 6).
Further information on research design is available in the Nature Portfolio Reporting Summary linked to this article.
All data for the analyses supporting the findings of this study are available via GitHub at https://github.com/eleonorerolland/Attachment_types_chimpanzees.
All codes for the analyses supporting the findings of this study are available via GitHub at https://github.com/eleonorerolland/Attachment_types_chimpanzees.
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We thank the Ministère de l'Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche scientifique and the Ministère des Eaux et Forêts in Côte d'Ivoire, and the Office Ivoirien des Parcs et Réserves for allowing the study. We are grateful to the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d'Ivoire and the staff members of the TCP for their support. We are indebted to C. Boesch's efforts in establishing and nurturing the Taï Chimpanzee Project and tremendously advancing western chimpanzee conservation. We are extremely grateful to K. Vermeulen and G. Centofanti, two valuable research assistants who helped with the data collection for 1 year, as well as T. Bortolato, L. Southern and M. Draper, who assisted P.J.T. with his contributions to this study. We thank the local field assistants for collecting long-term data. We thank L. Samuni for providing advice on chimpanzee behaviours and the improvement of the data collection. This study was funded by the Hominoid Brain Connectomics Project through the Max Planck Society (M.IF.NEPF8103 and M.IF.EVAN8103) and the European Research Council under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme awarded to C.C. (grant agreement no. 679787). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, the decision to publish, or the preparation of the manuscript.
Open access funding provided by Max Planck Society.
Ape Social Mind Lab, Institut des Sciences Cognitives Marc Jeannerod, University of Lyon (CNRS UMR 5229), Bron, France
Eléonore Rolland, Oscar Nodé-Langlois, Catherine Crockford & Roman M. Wittig
Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
Eléonore Rolland, Cédric Girard-Buttoz, Catherine Crockford & Roman M. Wittig
Tai Chimpanzee Project, Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d'Ivoire, Cote d'Ivoire, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
Eléonore Rolland, Oscar Nodé-Langlois, Cédric Girard-Buttoz, Catherine Crockford & Roman M. Wittig
Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Villeurbanne, France
Eléonore Rolland & Oscar Nodé-Langlois
Research Centre for Evolutionary Anthropology and Paleoecology, School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK
Patrick J. Tkaczynski
ENES Bioacoustics Research Laboratory, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon, University of Saint-Etienne (CNRS, Inserm), Saint-Etienne, France
Cédric Girard-Buttoz
Institut des Sciences Cognitives Marc Jeannerod, University of Lyon 1 (CNRS UMR 5229), Bron, France
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The authors confirm contribution to the paper as follows: study conceptualization: E.R., C.C. and R.M.W.; data curation: E.R., O.N.-L. and P.T.J.; formal analysis: E.R.; funding acquisition: C.C. and R.M.W.; methodology: E.R., C.G.-B., C.C. and R.M.W.; supervision: C.C. and R.M.W.; writing original draft preparation: E.R.; writing review and editing: E.R., O.N.-L., P.J.T., C.G.-B., H.R., C.C. and R.M.W. All authors reviewed the results and approved the final version of the manuscript.
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Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder — which are the most common adult disorders requiring psychiatric care — contribute substantially to premature mortality and morbidity globally. Treatments for these disorders are suboptimal, there are no diagnostic pathologies or biomarkers and their pathophysiologies are poorly understood. Novel therapeutic and diagnostic approaches are thus badly needed. Given the high heritability of psychiatric disorders, psychiatry has potentially much to gain from the application of genomics to identify molecular risk mechanisms and to improve diagnosis. Recent large-scale, genome-wide association studies and sequencing studies, together with advances in functional genomics, have begun to illuminate the genetic architectures of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder and to identify potential biological mechanisms. Genomic findings also point to the aetiological relationships between different diagnoses and to the relationships between adult psychiatric disorders and childhood neurodevelopmental conditions.
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The authors thank S. Legge and S. Lock for creating the original version of Fig. 1a and Y. Baran for creating the original version of Fig. 3.
Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics, Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
Michael J. Owen, Nicholas J. Bray, James T. R. Walters & Michael C. O'Donovan
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Correspondence to
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All authors receive grants from the Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd, outside of the submitted work. M.J.O., J.T.R.W. and M.C.O'D. received grants from Akrivia Health, outside the submitted work. Takeda and Akrivia had no involvement in the conception, design, implementation or interpretation of this Review.
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Frequently used to increase the power of exome-wide association studies. They combine sets of variants within a gene to produce a single burden score that is then tested for association.
Variants that are present in the population at frequencies of 1% or more. They include single-nucleotide polymorphisms, which can be assayed in parallel across the genome in genome-wide association studies.
(CNVs). Variants for which the number of copies of a specific segment of DNA varies in the population. These structural differences between individuals may have arisen as a result of duplications, deletions or other changes.
A fixed, false belief that is not amenable to change despite conflicting evidence.
A mental state that involves low mood and decreased activity.
(rg). An estimate of the average similarity of causal allelic effects on two traits. This usually refers to the genome-wide average, although it can be specified to be locus wide or chromosome wide. A high degree of genetic correlation is usually indicative of pleiotropy.
A perception in the absence of an external stimulus that has a compelling sense of reality.
A less severe form of mania that is not accompanied by marked functional impairments (for example, to occupation or personal relationships).
Genes with near-complete depletion of protein-truncating variants in population studies, suggesting that there is strong direct selection against such variants.
A mental state that involves elevated mood, which can be euphoric or irritable, and increased activity.
Hallucinations or delusions that are not aligned with the person's current mood state.
Describes the phenomenon whereby a variant or gene influences more than one phenotype. The terms ‘direct', ‘horizontal' and ‘biological' pleiotropy imply that the effects on the phenotypes are independent. The terms ‘mediated', ‘vertical' and ‘indirect' pleiotropy imply that the effects on one phenotype are mediated through the other; for example, alleles that influence smoking behaviour are likely to have pleiotropic effects on all traits for which smoking is a risk factor.
(PRS). Summarizes the estimated effect of many genetic variants on an individual's phenotype. It is typically calculated as a weighted sum of trait-associated alleles.
(PTVs). Variants that are predicted to shorten the coding sequence of a gene and which may result in reduced expression of that gene and its protein owing to nonsense-mediated decay. They include nonsense, frameshift and essential splice site variants.
Symptoms, particularly delusions and hallucinations, that involve difficulty in determining what is real from what is not.
(RCVs). Variants in the coding sequence of a gene that are present in less than 1% of the population. They can be detected by genome-wide sequencing studies.
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Jakub Pachocki has been OpenAI's chief scientist since 2024.Credit: OpenAI
OpenAI is best known for ChatGPT — the free-to-use, large language model-based chatbot that became a household name after its debut in 2022. The firm, in San Francisco, California, has since released a string of cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including ‘reasoning' models that use step-by-step ‘thought' processes to specialize in logical tasks.
OpenAI's ‘deep research' tool: is it useful for scientists?
OpenAI's ‘deep research' tool: is it useful for scientists?
These tools have helped researchers to polish prose, write code, review the literature and even generate hypotheses. But, like other technology rivals, OpenAI has faced criticisms over the energy demands of its models and the way in which data are exploited for model training. And unlike some firms, OpenAI has almost exclusively released proprietary models that researchers can use, but can't build on.
Jakub Pachocki has been the firm's chief scientist since 2024. He joined OpenAI in 2017 from academia, where he was a theoretical computer scientist and competitive programmer. Now, he leads the development of the company's most advanced AI systems, which are designed to tackle complex tasks in science, mathematics and coding.
Nature spoke to Pachocki about whether AI can generate original science, artificial general intelligence (AGI) and the firm's upcoming open-weight model.
Today you can talk to a model, but it's only an assistant that needs constant guidance. I expect this will be the primary thing that changes.
We already see that something like OpenAI's Deep Research [a tool that can synthesize reams of information] is capable of working unsupervised for 10 or 20 minutes and producing something useful. But the amount of compute that's going into solving these queries is tiny.
What are the best AI tools for research? Nature's guide
What are the best AI tools for research? Nature's guide
If you have open research problems it is worth spending much more compute on that. I expect we will have AIs that actually are capable of novel research. We'll see a lot of progress, for example, on autonomous software engineering and the autonomous design of hardware components, and similar applications in other disciplines.
The original ChatGPT releases involved an unsupervised pre-training stage, where the model just ingests a massive amount of data and builds a sort of ‘world model'. Out of that, we extract a useful assistant through a process of reinforcement learning, using human feedback.
One way you can view this latest progress on reasoning models is that it really increases the emphasis on the reinforcement-learning phase, so that we're not only extracting something but also enabling the model to find its own way of thinking.
How much energy will AI really consume? The good, the bad and the unknown
How much energy will AI really consume? The good, the bad and the unknown
A question is whether we should continue to think of these stages of learning separately. Reasoning models don't learn how to think in a vacuum, they are rooted in a model that has learned through pre-training. A lot of my focus is on thinking about that phase and combining the approaches and understanding their interaction.
One thing that we should be clear about is that the way the models work is different from how a human brain works. A pre-trained model has learned some things about the world, but it doesn't really have any conception of how it learned them, or any temporal order as to when it learned things.
or
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-01485-2
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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It's called a “Blood Cave,” what did you expect them to find?
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Guatemala's Cueva de Sangre, translated as “blood cave,” isn't just a clever name. It's an apropos description of the cave former purpose, as a depository of fragments of human remains sacrificed by the Maya people to their rain god.
If that sounds violent, that's because it was.
The cave—and the remains within in it—were first discovered in the 1990s at Dos Pilas in Peten, part of a stretch of roughly 12 caves the Maya people frequented between 400 B.C. and 250 A.D. The “blood cave,” though, stood out from the other caves discovered for its collection of human bones strewn across the cave floor, with dismemberment and traumatic injuries the norm.
But new research presented at the annual Society for American Archaeology meeting, titled “Black as Night, Dark as Death,” highlighted the significance of this discovery, beyond the initial brutality on display. “Human skeletal remains deposited in caves, cenotes, chultuns, and other natural and artificial subterranean chambers provide some of the best contexts to investigate ritual behavior among ancient Mesoamericans,” according to Michele Bleuze, bioarcheologist at California State University, Los Angeles.
Deep within the Guatemalan cave—reached via a small opening with a passageway that drops toward a pool of water—only accessible during the dry season, Bleuze said the injuries enacted upon the more than 100 adult and juvenile human bone fragments show that the remains were part of a ritual to please a Maya rain god. “The emerging pattern that we're seeing is that there are body parts and not bodies,” Bleuze told Live Science. “In Maya ritual, body parts are just as valuable as the whole body.”
Getting from traumatic injury to rain god ritual, though, was more than just conjecture. The bones weren't buried and that the injuries occurred around the time of death, leading those studying the remains to determine the the body parts were the results of ritual dismemberment.
“The types of skeletal elements present, trauma, arrangement of bones, and bone modifications, strongly support the sacrificial nature of the deposition,” the researchers wrote.
Ellen Fricano, a forensic anthropologist at Western University of Health Sciences in California, told Live Science that a beveled-edge tool, possibly akin to a hatchet, left a distinguishing mark on the left side of a skull's forehead. A similar mark was found on a child's hip bone.
Even the way the bones were placed within the cave, such as four stacked skull caps in one spot, sparked questions. The experts conclude that the intense injuries, sheer volume of bones, and the inclusion of other ritual items, such as red ochre and obsidian blades, show that the blood cave wasn't a run-of-the-mill burial site.
Researchers plan to do additional DNA testing to learn more about the bones. “Right now, our focus is who are these people deposited here,” Bleuze said, “because they're treated completely differently than the majority of the population.”
The fact the cave is inaccessible other than for roughly three months in the spring offers additional reasoning behind the sacrifices. Bleuze believes the Day of the Holy Cross celebration each May 3 brought the ancient people to caves to plead with the Maya rain god for enough rain to supply a bountiful harvest.
“It is not surprising,” Bleuze wrote, “that bioarcheologists encounter human remains that extend our understanding of the life and death of ancient Mesoamericans beyond what is provided in traditional mortuary contexts.”
Tim Newcomb is a journalist based in the Pacific Northwest. He covers stadiums, sneakers, gear, infrastructure, and more for a variety of publications, including Popular Mechanics. His favorite interviews have included sit-downs with Roger Federer in Switzerland, Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles, and Tinker Hatfield in Portland.
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Great Odin's Raven, that's a fancy find!
Ruled by the Britons, the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons, the Normans, and eventually raided relentlessly by Vikings, the precariously placed British Islands have some of the most fascinating history in the world. And this kind of melting pot of cultures, tribes, and empires comes with a peculiar beneficial side effect—glorious treasure hoards.
Both the hoard at Sutton Hoo (found in 1939) and the Staffordshire Hoard (found in 2009) contained thousands of gold and silver metalworks from one Britain's most enigmatic peoples—the Anglo-Saxons, who ruled Britain from around 450 A.D. until the Normans came knocking in 1066—and offered unprecedented glimpses into their fascinating culture. Now, a new discovery by metal detectorists in southwest England adds to that incredible, blinged-out history.
While this find isn't nearly as massive as the aforementioned treasure hoards of legend, what detectorists Paul Gould and Chris Phillips discovered rivals the splendor of the gilded objects in museums around the UK. Toward the end of a long day of metal detecting on January 8, 2025, Gould and Phillips—as part of the local Ninth Region Metal Detecting Group—came across a gold band with inlaid garnets, which was later identified as an Anglo-Saxon ring. That alone would be the discovery of a lifetime, but the day wasn't over.
While continuing his search nearby, Phillips came across a stunning golden raven head with an inlaid eye of garnet. The raven figures prominently in Norse mythology as a symbol of the god Odin (also Woden), the god of war and death who famously gives up an eye for wisdom. Odin's ravens, named Huginn and Muninn, serve the god by bringing him information from Midgard (a.k.a. Earth).
In a video posted to YouTube, Phillips details the find, stating that the head is made of solid gold and weighs roughly two ounces. “It's unbelievable,” Phillips says, choking back tears. “Sorry… I'm just a bit emotional.”
After the discovery, the group stopped detecting in the area, as the find proved that the site could be of national interest. They also contacted the landowner and the local finds liaison officer to report the discovery. In a follow-up video, Phillips visits the British Museum to examine the object—dated to around the seventh century A.D.—after a preliminary clean, and discovered that only one of the garnet eyes remained intact. However, seeing as ravens are closely associated with Odin, that could be by design.
“Unfortunately the eye has either been damaged or was supposed to be like that,” Phillips said in the video. “People say Woden gave up an eye for knowledge and all of that, I don't know if that has anything to do with it.”
Phillips and Gould are part of a growing detectorist movement in the U.K.—spurred on by both increased interest during the pandemic and vast improvements in metal detector technology—and these detectors have made some truly stunning discoveries. In December of 2021, for example, a detectorist outside Melsonby, North Yorkshire discovered one of the largest Iron Age hoards in history, and earlier this year, a detectorist found a bunch of Roman silver coins in Barton Bendish, Norfolk.
While the act of metal detecting brings about its own benefits—getting out into nature and getting some exercise being positive side effects—walking earth that possesses such vast amount of treasures across millennia can certainly be quite the motivator.
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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Drug development is a critical but notoriously resource- and time-consuming process. Traditional methods, such as high-throughput screening, rely on opportunistic trial and error and cannot ensure optimal precision design. To overcome these challenges, generative artificial intelligence methods have emerged to directly design molecules with desired properties. Here we develop a generative artificial intelligence method DiffSMol for drug discovery that generates 3D small binding molecules based on known ligand shapes. DiffSMol encapsulates ligand shape details within pretrained, expressive shape embeddings and generates binding molecules through a diffusion model. DiffSMol further modifies the generated 3D structures iteratively using shape guidance to better resemble ligand shapes, and protein pocket guidance to optimize binding affinities. We show that DiffSMol outperforms state-of-the-art methods on benchmark datasets. When generating binding molecules resembling ligand shapes, DiffSMol with shape guidance achieves a success rate 61.4%, substantially outperforming the best baseline (11.2%), meanwhile producing molecules with de novo graph structures. DiffSMol with pocket guidance also outperforms the best baseline in binding affinities by 13.2%, and even by 17.7% when combined with shape guidance. Case studies for two critical drug targets demonstrate very favourable physicochemical and pharmacokinetic properties of generated molecules, highlighting the potential of DiffSMol in developing promising drug candidates.
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The MOSES dataset is available via GitHub at https://github.com/molecularsets/moses, and the CrossDocked2020 dataset is available via GitHub at https://github.com/gnina/models/tree/master/data/CrossDocked2020. Additional data, including our generated molecules and trained models, are publicly available via GitHub at https://github.com/ninglab/DiffSMol.
The code for DiffSMol is publicly available via GitHub at https://github.com/ninglab/DiffSMol.
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This project was made possible, in part, by support from the National Science Foundation grant no. IIS-2133650 (X.N. and Z.C.), the National Library of Medicine grant no. 1R01LM014385 (X.N. and D.A.-A.) and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences grant no. UM1TR004548 (X.N.). Any opinions, findings, conclusions and recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agencies. We thank P. J. Lawrence, F. N. Baker and V. Dey for their constructive comments.
Computer Science and Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
Ziqi Chen, Bo Peng & Xia Ning
Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Tianhua Zhai
Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
Daniel Adu-Ampratwum & Xia Ning
Biomedical Informatics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
Xia Ning
Translational Data Analytics Institute, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
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X.N. conceived the research. X.N. obtained funding for the research. Z.C. and X.N. designed the research. Z.C. and X.N. conducted the research, including data curation, formal analysis, methodology design and implementation, result analysis and visualization. Z.C., B.P. and X.N. drafted the original paper. T.Z. provided comments on case studies for protein targets. D.A.-A. provided comments on case studies for low-quality examples. Z.C., B.P. and X.N. conducted the paper editing and revision. All authors reviewed the final paper.
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Social status has a profound impact on mental health and propensity towards drug addiction. However, the neural mechanisms underlying the effects of social rank on drug-seeking behavior remain unclear. Here we found that dominant male rodents (based on the tube test) had denser mesocortical dopaminergic projections and were more resistant to methamphetamine (METH)-seeking, whereas subordinates had heightened dopaminergic function in the mesolimbic pathway and were more vulnerable to METH seeking. Optogenetic activation of the mesocortical dopaminergic pathway promoted winning and suppressed METH seeking in subordinates, whereas lesions of the mesocortical pathway increased METH seeking in dominants. Elevation of social rank with forced win training in subordinates led to remodeling of the dopaminergic system and prevented METH-seeking behavior. In females, however, both ranks were susceptible to METH seeking, with mesocorticolimbic pathways comparable to those in subordinate males. These results provide a framework for understanding the neural basis of the impact of social status on drug-seeking.
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We thank E. Neher, X. Chen and M. Han for critical comments and suggestions, G. Bi and F. Xu for assistance in VISoR experiments, F.Q. Xu (Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences) for providing sparse labeling virus, and Y. Sun and C. Jiang for preliminary explorations. We also acknowledge Q. Luo, Z.Y. Yang and H. Gu for their help with mass spectrometry analysis. This work was supported by the Major Project of the Science and Technology Innovation 2030 of China (2021ZD0202103 and 2021ZD0203500), Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB0930000), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82425023, 82171492, 32300846, 82101569 and 32400840), Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (2023B1515040009 and 2023A1515012122), the Technology and Innovation Commission of Shenzhen (RCJC20200714114556103, ZDSYS20190902093601675, JCYJ20210324141201003, KCXFZ20211020164543007 and KCXFZ20230731100901004), the Shenzhen Medical Research Funding (SMRFA2303034) and the Yunnan Technological Innovation Centre of Drug Addiction Medicine (202305AK340001). We also thank the support from the Innovative Research Team of High-level Local Universities in Shanghai.
These authors contributed equally: Xiaofei Deng, Wei Xu, Yutong Liu.
Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Drug Addiction, the Brain Cognition and Brain Disease Institute, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China
Xiaofei Deng, Wei Xu, Yutong Liu, Haiyang Jing, Jiafeng Zhong, Kaige Sun, Ruiyi Zhou, Liang Xu, Xiaocong Wu, Baofang Zhang, Wanqi Chen, Shaolei Jiang, Gaowei Chen & Yingjie Zhu
Faculty of Life and Health Sciences, Shenzhen University of Advanced Technology, Shenzhen, China
Xiaofei Deng, Wei Xu, Yutong Liu, Gaowei Chen & Yingjie Zhu
Shenzhen Neher Neural Plasticity Laboratory, Shenzhen-Hong Kong Institute of Brain Science, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China
Xiaofei Deng, Wei Xu, Yutong Liu, Jiafeng Zhong, Kaige Sun, Wanqi Chen, Shaolei Jiang, Gaowei Chen & Yingjie Zhu
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Wei Xu, Jiafeng Zhong, Gaowei Chen & Yingjie Zhu
CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Connectome and Manipulation, the Brain Cognition and Brain Disease Institute, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China
Yingjie Zhu
Key Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging Science and System, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and State Key Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging Science and System, Shenzhen, China
Yingjie Zhu
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Y.Z. and X.D. conceptualized the project. X.D., Y.L., G.C. and K.S. developed the methodology. X.D., W.X., Y.L., H.J., J.Z., K.S., W.C., S.J., G.C., Y.Z., R.Z., L.X., X.W. and B.Z. conducted the investigation. Y.Z., X.D., W.X., Y.L. and G.C. acquired funding. Y.Z. supervised the project. Y.Z. and X.D. wrote the original draft of the paper. Y.Z., X.D., W.X. and Y.L. contributed to writing, reviewing and editing of the paper.
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Yingjie Zhu.
The authors declare no competing interests.
Nature Neuroscience thanks Neir Eshel, Kay Tye and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
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a,b, Schematic and behavioral outcomes of the agonistic behavior assay (a) and the warm spot test (b) in male mice (n = 18 pairs). Paired t test. c, Average futile pokes during the last three sessions of METH self-administration for the dominant (n = 13) and subordinate (n = 13) rats. Paired t test. Futile pokes = active pokes − infusions. d, Winning probability across trials and total wins in mice (n = 28 pairs). Paired t test. e, Schematic of METH self-administration in mice. f–h, Nose pokes (f) and infusions (g) across session and their average number (h) during the last three sessions in the dominant (n = 11) and subordinate (n = 12) mice. f,g, Two-way ANOVA; h, paired t test. i, Hyperlocomotion induced by 2.5 mg kg−1 METH injection in mice (n = 8 pairs). Two-way ANOVA followed by Sidak's test. j, Morphine CPP scores in mice (n = 5 pairs). Unpaired t test. k, Body weight change. Two-way ANOVA. l, Distance traveled and central time during open-field test in rats (n = 11 pairs). Unpaired t test. m–o, Immobility time in the forced swimming test (m) and the tail suspension test (n) and preference ratio (o) in the sucrose preference test in mice (n = 12 pairs). Paired t test. p, Serum corticosterone levels in rats (sub, n = 10; dom, n = 9). Unpaired t test. q, Serum testosterone levels in rats (female sub, n = 5; female dom, n = 4; male sub, n = 10; male dom, n = 8). Two-way ANOVA. r, Serum estrogen levels in rats (females, n = 4/group; male sub, n = 5; male dom, n = 4). Two-way ANOVA. s, Timeline of the mass spectrometry analysis. t,u, Serum concentrations (t) and half-life (u) of METH following METH injection in rats (n = 5 pairs). x, two-way ANOVA; y, paired t test. Data are represented as mean ± s.e.m. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.01, ****P < 0.0001. Detailed statistical information is available in Supplementary Table 1.
Source data
a,b, Schematics of viral expression and optic fiber placement in the NAc shell (a) and core (b) for fiber photometry. c–g, Representative image of viral expression in the NAc shell (c) and core (e). Scale bar = 0.5 mm. DA release in the NAc shell (d) and core (f) and AUC comparison (g) after METH (0.1 mg kg−1) infusion in mice (shell: sub, n = 9; dom: n = 10; core: sub, n = 7; dom, n = 6). Two-way ANOVA followed by Sidak's post-hoc test, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01. h–k, Schematics for viral expression and optic fiber placement in the NAc (h) and mPFC (j) for fiber photometry experiments. Saline-induced DA release in the NAc (i) and mPFC (k) in mice (NAc: n = 13/group; mPFC: n = 9/group). Two-sided unpaired t test. l, Timeline and schematic showing the METH self-administration with simultaneous fiber photometry recording. m,n, Schematics showing viral expression and optic fiber placement in the NAc (m) and mPFC (n) for fiber photometry in a free-moving self-administration. o,p, DA release in the NAc (o) and mPFC (p) following active and inactive pokes in a free-moving METH self-administration (NAc: n = 10 per group; mPFC: sub, n = 8; dom, n = 9). Two-sided unpaired t test, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01. Each row in the heatmap represents averaged DA dynamics over trials from individual mouse (ranked by AUC). Data are represented as mean ± s.e.m. Detailed statistical information is available in Supplementary Table 1.
Source data
a, Schematic of the virus strategy and a representative image showing GCaMP expression and optic fiber placement (top). Scale bar = 200 µm. Diagrams showing viral expression and optic fiber location in the VTA for the fiber photometry experiments (bottom). b–e, Activity of VTADA neurons following i.v. injection of saline (b), 0.1 mg kg−1 (c) and 0.3 mg kg−1 METH (d) and sucrose licking (e) in mice (saline and 0.1 METH: n = 5/group; 0.3 METH: sub, n = 4; dom, n = 3; sucrose: sub, n = 5; dom, n = 4). Mann–Whitney test. f, Schematic of the viral strategy to specifically record the NAc-projecting VTA neurons and a representative image (top). Scale bar = 200 µm. Diagrams showing viral expression and optic fiber location in the VTA for the fiber photometry experiments (bottom). g,h, Activity of NAc-projecting VTADA neurons following i.v. injection of 0.1 mg kg−1 (g) and 0.3 (h) mg kg−1 METH in mice (sub, n = 5; dom, n = 6). Two-sided unpaired t test. Each row in the heatmap represents averaged DA dynamics over trials from individual mouse (ranked by AUC). Data are represented as mean ± s.e.m. Detailed statistical information is available in Supplementary Table 1.
Source data
a, Schematic showing the CTB-mediated retrograde tracing experiment in DAT::Ai14 mice (top). Representative images of CTB488 in the mPFC (bottom left) and CTB647 in the NAc (bottom right). Scale bar = 0.5 mm. b, Representative images showing DA neurons, mPFC-projecting and NAc-projecting neurons in the VTA. Scale bar = 0.2 mm. c, Venn diagram illustrating the overlap of CTB-labeled VTADA neuron projecting to the mPFC and NAc (n = 5 mice). d, Distribution of CTB-labeled mPFC-projecting and NAc-projecting VTADA neurons across different anteroposterior coordinates. e,f, Optogenetically activation of the mesolimbic (e) and mesocortical (f) DA pathway in mice during a real-time place preference experiment (EYFP, n = 5; ChR2, n = 10). Two-sided unpaired t test, **P < 0.01. Data are represented as mean ± s.e.m. Detailed statistical information is available in Supplementary Table 1.
Source data
a, Overlay of images of DA terminals in the NAc (n = 9 mouse pairs). Scale bar = 400 μm. b, Schematic of patch clamp. c, Representative traces showing action potential firing of VTADA neurons. d, Intrinsic excitability of VTADA neurons from dominant (n = 4 cells) and subordinate (n = 3 cells) mice. Two-way ANOVA. APS, action potentials. e,f, Representative western blot images (e) and relative levels (f) of ERK/pERK in the NAc (n = 8 rat pairs). Two-sided paired t test, *P < 0.05. g, Overlay of images showing TH-positive terminals in the mPFC (n = 9 mouse pairs). Scale bar = 400 μm. h, The percentage of the PrL area covered by DA terminals across different layers. Two-sided paired t test, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01. i, Representative images (i) and quantification (j) of DA varicosities in the PrL layer 2–5 (n = 18 slices from four mouse pairs) and along DA axon branches (n = 26 axon branches from three mouse pairs). Two-sided unpaired t test, ***P < 0.001. k, Schematic showing sparsely labeling DA neurons in the VTA. l, Representative sections showing VTADA neurons, and DA terminals in the NAc and mPFC by VISoR. Scale bar = 2 mm. m, Overlay of seven reconstructed mPFC-projecting neurons (one neuron from a subordinate; six neurons from four dominants) registered to a reference brain. n, Number of labeled VTADA neurons in the subordinate (n = 4) and dominant (n = 3) mice. Two-sided unpaired t test. o, Proportion of mPFC-projecting VTADA neurons in the dominant (n = 3 mice) and subordinate (n = 4 mice) mice. Two-sided unpaired t test, *P < 0.05. p,q, GFP-labeled fluorescence in the NAc (p) and mPFC (q) in the dominant (n = 5) and subordinate (n = 5) mice. Two-sided unpaired t test, **P < 0.01. Data are represented as mean ± s.e.m. Detailed statistical information is available in Supplementary Table 1.
Source data
a, Timeline for intracranial injections followed by behavioral assessments (top). Schematic showing intracranial infusions of GDC/API-1 into the NAc followed by METH CPP (bottom). b, CPP scores for subordinate mice with infusion of GDC (n = 6) and vehicle (n = 6). Two-sided unpaired t test, *P < 0.05. c, CPP scores for dominant mice with infusion of API-1 (n = 6) and vehicle (n = 6). Two-sided unpaired t test. d, Changes of social rank before and after intracranial infusion of GDC in subordinates (d) and API-1 in dominants (e) into the NAc (GDC, n = 6; API-1, n = 8; vehicle, n = 6). Two-sided unpaired t test. f, Timeline for mesolimbic activation experiments. g, Schematic of the viral strategy and diagram of optogenetic stimulation during the tube test (left). Representative image in the NAc (right). Scale bar = 200 µm. h, Confirmed positions of optic fibers in the NAc. i,j, Changes of social rank during and after mesolimbic activation in dominant mice; individual data (i) and averaged data (j; ChR2, n = 6; EYFP, n = 6). Two-sided unpaired t test. k, Schematic illustrating mesolimbic activation during METH self-administration in dominant mice. Light was delivered at 20 Hz for 1 s, following an active nose poke. l–n, Nose pokes (l) and infusions (m) across ten sessions and their average number during the last three sessions (n) in the dominant + ChR2 (n = 9) and dominant + EYFP (n = 9) mice. l, Two-way ANOVA, ****P < 0.0001, followed by Tukey's post-hoc test, ****P < 0.0001; m, ****P < 0.0001; n, two-sided unpaired t test, ****P < 0.0001. Data are represented as mean ± s.e.m. Detailed statistical information is available in Supplementary Table 1.
Source data
a, Confirmed positions of optic fibers used for optogenetic mesocortical activation. b, Schematic showing the viral strategy to record DA release during optogenetic mesocortical activation. c, DA dynamics (left) and AUC of DA release (right) in the mPFC induced by optogenetic stimulation of the mesocortical pathway at different frequencies (n = 4 mice). Friedman test, ***P < 0.001. d, Infusions across 12 METH sessions in the control subordinate (n = 9), the unchange (n = 5) and the partial win + full win (n = 5) mice. Two-way ANOVA, *P < 0.05, followed by Tukey's test, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001. e, Correlation between the number of METH infusions and the winning probability after 4 days of optogenetic stimulation (n = 10 mice). Spearman's correlation, r = −0.6922, *P < 0.05. f, Timeline for VTA→mPFC optogenetic stimulation experiments in subordinates. g, Rank changes in the subordinate + ChR2 (n = 7) group induced by optogenetic stimulation of the VTA→mPFC pathway. h, Comparison of winning probability before and after optogenetic stimulation in the Subordinate + ChR2 (n = 7) group. Two-sided paired t test. i–k, Active/inactive pokes (i) and infusions (j) across sessions and average number (k) during the last three sessions in the subordinate + EYFP (n = 13) and subordinate + ChR2 (n = 7) groups across ten sessions of METH self-administration. i, Two-way ANOVA, **P < 0.01, followed by Tukey's post-hoc test; j, P > 0.05; k, two-sided unpaired t test. Data are represented as mean ± s.e.m. Detailed statistical information is available in Supplementary Table 1.
Source data
a, Timeline for forced loss procedure followed by depressive assays. b–d, Immobility time in the forced swimming test (b) and the tail suspension test (c) and preference ratio in the sucrose preference test (d) between native control (n = 16), natural loss (n = 10) and forced loss (n = 8) mice. One-way ANOVA followed by Tukey's test, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01. e, Rank change across sessions for subordinates resistant to forced win (defined as S-to-S, n = 8 rats). f–h, Active/inactive pokes (f) and infusions (g) across sessions and average number (h) during the last three sessions in subordinate (n = 10) and S-to-S (n = 7) rats. f, Two-way ANOVA, ***P < 0.001, followed by Tukey's test; g, P > 0.05; h, two-sided unpaired t test. i, Rank change across sessions for dominants resistant to forced loss (defined as D-to-D, n = 12 rats). j–l, Active/inactive pokes (j) and infusions (k) across sessions and average number (l) during the last three sessions in the dominant (n = 10) and D-to-D (n = 7) rats. j, Two-way ANOVA, ****P < 0.0001, followed by Tukey's test, ****P < 0.0001; k, **P < 0.01; l, two-sided unpaired t test, **P < 0.01. m,n, Verification of viral expression and optic fiber placement for fiber photometry in the NAc (m) and mPFC (n). o, pERK expression in the NAc before and after forced win/loss procedure, normalized to matched subordinates (n = 6 rats/groups). Two-sided unpaired t test, **P < 0.01. Data are represented as mean ± s.e.m. Detailed statistical information is available in Supplementary Table 1.
Source data
a, Timeline and schematics showing the tube test and METH self-administration in female rats. b, Winning probability across trials and total wins in female rats (n = 8 pairs). Two-sided paired t test, ****P < 0.0001. c,d, Behavioral outcome in the warm spot test (c) and agonistic behavior (d) for females (n = 12 mice per group). Two-sided paired t test, *P < 0.05. e–g, Nose pokes (e) and infusions (f) across sessions and average number (g) during the last three days in female (n = 5 per group) and male rats (n = 10 per group). e, Two-way ANOVA, *P < 0.05, followed by Tukey's test; f, **P < 0.01, followed by Tukey's test, ****P < 0.0001. g, One-way ANOVA, **P < 0.01, followed by Sidak's test, ***P < 0.001. h, Timeline of the fiber photometry recordings in females. i,j, Schematic (i) and verification (j) of viral injections and optic fiber placement in the mPFC. Scale bar = 0.5 mm. k,l, DA release in the mPFC following 0.1 mg kg−1 (k) and 0.3 mg kg−1 (l) METH infusion in female (0.1 METH: sub, n = 9; dom, n = 8; 0.3 METH: n = 8/group) and male (0.1 METH: sub, n = 9; dom, n = 8; 0.3 METH: sub, n = 9; dom, n = 10) mice. Two-sided unpaired t test, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01. m, Schematic (m) and verification (n) of viral injections and optic fiber placement in the NAc. Scale bar = 0.5 mm. o,p, DA release in the NAc following 0.1 mg kg−1 (o) and 0.3 mg kg−1 (p) METH infusion in female (0.1 METH: sub, n = 9; dom, n = 8; 0.3 METH: n = 8 per group) and male (0.1 METH: sub, n = 13; dom, n = 14; 0.3 METH: sub, n = 9; dom, n = 8) mice. Two-sided unpaired t test, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01. Each row in the heatmap represents averaged DA dynamics over trials from individual mouse (ranked by AUC). Data are represented as mean ± s.e.m. Detailed statistical information is available in Supplementary Table 1.
Source data
a, Timeline for the immunofluorescence analysis. b, Representative images of TH-positive terminals in the mPFC for female mice. Scale bar = 400 μm. c, Relative fluorescence density of TH-positive signals in the PrL, ACC, IL and the entire mPFC, normalized to paired subordinate (n = 7 pairs of female mice). Two-sided paired t test, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01. d, Percentage of PrL covered by TH-positive terminals for male (n = 9 pairs) and female (n = 7 pairs) mice. Unpaired t test, *P < 0.05. e, Representative images of TH-positive terminals in the PrL regions across different cell layers for female mice. Scale bar = 200 μm. f, Percentage of the PrL area covered by TH-positive terminals across different layers for male (n = 9 pairs) and female (n = 7 pairs) mice. Two-way ANOVA, **P < 0.01, followed by Tukey's test, *P < 0.05, ***P < 0.001. g, Timeline for the protein dectection. h, Representative western blot image showing expression of DAT, pDAT and GAPDH from NAc tissue samples of female rats. i, Relative expression levels of proteins in the NAc of female rats, normalized to paired subordinate (n = 8 pairs). j, Relative expression levels of pDAT in the NAc for male (n = 8 per group) and female (n = 6 per group) rats, normalized to GAPDH. Unpaired t test, ***P < 0.001. Data are represented as mean ± s.e.m. Detailed statistical information is available in Supplementary Table 1.
Source data
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Statistical analysis of Figs. 1–7 and Extended Data Figs. 1–10.
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Deng, X., Xu, W., Liu, Y. et al. Social rank modulates methamphetamine-seeking in dominant and subordinate male rodents via distinct dopaminergic pathways.
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Cellular NAD+ depletion, altered tryptophan metabolism and gut microbiome dysbiosis are associated with disease progression and unfavourable clinical outcomes in COVID-19. Here, we show that supplementing tryptophan metabolism with nicotinamide alleviates COVID-19 symptoms. We evaluate a 4-week intervention with a novel nicotinamide formulation (1,000 mg) in a prospective, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial in 900 symptomatic outpatients with PCR-proven COVID-19. In the primary analysis population of participants at risk for severe COVID-19, 57.6% of those receiving nicotinamide and 42.6% receiving placebo recover from their performance drop at week 2 (P = 0.004). Nicotinamide is also beneficial for returning to normal activities (P = 0.009). Effects on gut metagenomic signatures parallel clinical efficacy, suggesting that nicotinamide influences COVID-19-associated faecal microbiome changes. After 6 months, responders to nicotinamide in acute COVID-19 show fewer post-COVID symptoms than placebo responders (P = 0.010). No relevant safety signals are observed. Overall, our results show that nicotinamide leads to faster recovery of physical performance and modulates COVID-19-associated faecal microbiome changes.
COVID-19 remains a large global disease burden, causing a substantial loss in work productivity even in the post-pandemic phase. Respiratory symptoms are often linked to a sharp drop in physical performance and the inability to perform normal activities. Despite a strong reduction in overall mortality due to vaccination and antiviral treatments, there is a large unmet need for an effective, broad, symptomatic intervention.
Nicotinamide is required to generate oxidized nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+), a coenzyme central to cellular energy metabolism. However, NAD+ availability is diminished in viral infections, particularly in COVID-19 (refs. 1,2). NAD+ can be synthesized from the essential amino acid tryptophan through a de novo pathway in which the nicotinamide base is newly generated. Nicotinic acid, nicotinamide riboside and nicotinamide also serve as NAD+ precursors in enzymatic salvage pathways for NAD+ regeneration. Cells continuously synthesize NAD+ because it functions both as a recyclable coenzyme and as a substrate for NAD+-consuming enzymes, for example sirtuins3.
Notably, elevated tryptophan catabolism, indicated by high levels of kynurenine, an essential intermediate in the de novo NAD+ synthesis pathway, characterizes acute inflammation during SARS-CoV-2 infection4,5,6. The degradation of tryptophan results from increased activity of tryptophan-catabolizing enzymes, such as indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase-1, and not only is associated with COVID-19 severity4,5,6, but also has been observed in other infectious diseases, including community-acquired bacterial pneumonia7 and viral infections8,9. Additionally, tryptophan absorption depends on the presence of angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 on the intestinal epithelium, which is also the entry point for SARS-CoV-2 (refs. 5,10).
COVID-19 is closely linked to disruptions of the gut microbiome, characterized by reduced microbial diversity and a decline in beneficial bacterial species11,12,13,14. These imbalances are associated with increased inflammation and immune dysregulation, and are assumed to contribute to more severe disease outcomes, for example by licensing immune responses through microbe-derived metabolites15,16,17.
We have previously shown that tryptophan supports gut microbiome homeostasis18 and that nicotinamide supplementation exerts strong, microbiota-dependent anti-inflammatory effects in a colitis model18,19. In mice, gut-targeted nicotinamide showed a dose-dependent anti-inflammatory effect, surpassing the benefits of systemic supplementation19. Given that impaired tryptophan cometabolism is associated with gut microbial dysbiosis in people with COVID-19 (ref. 17), topical nicotinamide might modulate the gut microbiome and improve outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infections, complementing its systemic antiviral benefits1,20.
Hence, we developed a pharmaceutical pH-dependent matrix tablet formulation with ingredients approved for use in both food and pharmaceuticals (DRKS00023384, NCT05258474). This formulation is designed to release nicotinamide in the lower small intestine and colon, ensuring systemic supply of nicotinamide and targeting more distal parts of the intestinal tract, including the microbiota.
This study reports the results of two randomized controlled trials, a smaller pilot experiment (COVit-1; DRKS00021214) using conventional nicotinamide tablets, and the larger COVit-2 trial, which combined conventional and gut-targeted nicotinamide tablets in outpatients within 7 days of testing PCR-positive for SARS-CoV-2.
The 4-week intervention in the pilot trial COVit-1 indicated faster restoration of physical performance (18 of 23 participants receiving nicotinamide versus 12 of 23 in the control group at week 2) and time to complete resolution of symptoms (Supplementary Section 1). The results provided the impetus for the COVit-2 trial, described in the following sections (details on trial procedures and design are available in Extended Data Fig. 1 and Supplementary Section 3.1).
Screening of 7,013 individuals for COVit-2 resulted in randomization of 900 participants (safety population: 448 assigned to nicotinamide, 452 to placebo). Of these, 867 received the investigational product, and 500 (248 receiving nicotinamide, 252 placebo) qualified for the risk factor intention-to-treat (RFITT) population for primary analysis (Extended Data Fig. 2).
The analysis populations in COVit-2 were similar with respect to demographic and clinical characteristics at baseline (intention-to-treat (ITT) population, n = 867: Table 1; RFITT population, n = 500: Supplementary Table 3). A total of 97.1% of the participants in the ITT population (n = 842) and 95.8% of those in the RFITT population (n = 479) completed the 4-week intervention period and the follow-up at week 6. Only one participant left the trial between week 6 and the follow-up after 6 months. The trial had a low drop-out rate (4.2% of the 500 participants analysed in the RFITT population, with 479 completing the 6-week follow-up), and 98.5% of participants (472 of 479) finished the full 6-week trial, adhering to the protocol. Although efficacy analyses for acute COVID-19 had been planned to include only the RFITT population, safety data were obtained from the entire cohort (n = 900). At the 6-month follow-up, subgroups of participants at risk for developing post-COVID syndrome (PCS) and responders to the intervention were analysed in addition to the primary ITT population (Supplementary Section 3.4).
By week 2, 110 of 191 participants with reduced physical performance at baseline (57.6%) receiving nicotinamide and 80 of 188 participants receiving placebo (42.6%) had recovered from their decline in physical performance (absolute difference, 15.04 percentage points; odds ratio, 1.33; 95% confidence interval, 1.03 to 1.70; P = 0.004) (Fig. 1a and Extended Data Fig. 3). The number needed to treat was seven.
a, The primary endpoint (RFITT population) was a significant difference in resolution of performance drop at week 2 in the 379 participants reporting the symptom at baseline (nicotinamide: n = 191 (73 males, 118 females); placebo: n = 188 (77 males, 111 females)). One hundred ten participants responded to nicotinamide at week 2 (48 males, 62 females) and 80 to placebo (34 males, 46 females). Data are shown as relative frequency ± s.d. Two-sided Fisher's exact test, adjusted for hierarchical testing. OR, odds ratio; CI, confidence interval. b–e, Secondary endpoints (RFITT population). Data are shown as mean ± s.e. (b,c) or relative frequency ± s.d. (d,e). b, Significant improvement in the ability to perform normal activities at week 2 in the 198 participants with baseline scores of >3 (nicotinamide: n = 103 (41 males, 62 females); placebo: n = 95 (34 males, 61 females)): 3.07 ± 0.12 with nicotinamide (males: 3.34 ± 0.17, females: 2.89 ± 0.16), 2.62 ± 0.13 with placebo (males: 3.00 ± 0.19, females: 2.41 ± 0.16). Two-sided t-test of contrast within a mixed model for repeated measures (MMRM), adjusted for hierarchical testing. c, Improvement of cough at week 2 in the 77 participants with baseline scores of >3 (nicotinamide: n = 44 (17 males, 27 females); placebo: n = 33 (8 males, 25 females)): 3.22 ± 0.16 with nicotinamide (males: 3.31 ± 0.21, females: 3.17 ± 0.22), 2.76 ± 0.18 with placebo (males: 3.09 ± 0.31, females: 2.66 ± 0.23). Two-sided t-test of contrast within MMRM, adjusted for hierarchical testing. d, Among the 397 participants reporting fatigue at baseline (nicotinamide: n = 199 (82 males, 117 females); placebo: n = 198 (78 males, 120 females)), 105 responded to nicotinamide at week 2 (48 males, 57 females) and 96 to placebo (45 males, 51 females). Two-sided Fisher's exact test, adjusted for hierarchical testing. e, Among the 182 participants reporting shortness of breath at baseline (nicotinamide: n = 92 (36 males, 56 females); placebo: n = 90 (28 males, 62 females)), 56 responded to nicotinamide at week 2 (24 males, 32 females) and 37 to placebo (14 males, 23 females). Exploratory P value from two-sided, post-hoc, unadjusted Fisher's exact test: P = 0.012. Details regarding symptoms and risk factors are available in Supplementary Tables 8 and 9 and Supplementary Sections 3.2 and 3.3.
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The trial also met the first of three prespecified key secondary endpoints. By week 2, participants taking nicotinamide had recovered their ability to perform normal activities significantly faster than those taking the placebo (absolute difference, 0.45 scale points; 95% confidence interval, 0.11 to 0.80; P = 0.009) (Fig. 1b). The difference in recovery from severe cough (absolute difference, 0.46 scale points; 95% confidence interval, −0.02 to 0.94; P = 0.057) (Fig. 1c) was of borderline statistical significance only in per-protocol participants (RFPP population; P = 0.049). For the third key secondary endpoint, the resolution of fatigue, the observed difference did not achieve statistical significance (Fig. 1d). Only a small number of participants in both groups reported severe fatigue at week 2 (as indicated by the descriptive statistics of the SF-36 and FACIT-F questionnaires; Supplementary Tables 4 and 5). Therefore, no additional endpoints were formally statistically tested, although trends suggested greater effectiveness of nicotinamide over placebo for shortness of breath (Fig. 1e) and the ‘physical role functioning' subscale of the SF-36 questionnaire (Extended Data Fig. 4). Exploratory subgroup analyses of the primary and three key secondary endpoints suggested that individuals with a history of lung disease or smoking might specifically benefit from nicotinamide (Extended Data Fig. 5), but there were no sex-dependent differences (Extended Data Fig. 6 and Supplementary Tables 6–13). In exploratory sex-specific analyses of symptomatic males and females in the RFITT population, significant effects on recovery from performance drop (in males) and improved ability to perform normal activities (in females), both at week 2, were retained despite the reduced sample sizes (Supplementary Tables 8–13). Further data covering primary, secondary and exploratory endpoints are provided in the Supplementary Sections 2.2 and 2.3).
To assess gut microbiota shifts induced by the intervention, we analysed longitudinal faecal samples using 16S rDNA phylogenomics (n = 70; 280 samples) and metagenomics (n = 18; 72 samples) across four timepoints. Stool sampling was optional (details in the Supplementary Section 3.5). No significant differences in participant characteristics between intervention arms were observed (Supplementary Tables 16 and 17).
We first analysed compositional changes using phylogenomic 16S rRNA data (Fig. 2). Analysis of α-diversity (within-sample diversity) did not show significant longitudinal or cross-sectional differences (Fig. 2b and Supplementary Fig. 3), indicating that the richness and evenness of the bacterial communities were not drastically affected by the nicotinamide intervention. Between-sample diversity analysis (β-diversity) revealed that there was a significant difference in participants receiving nicotinamide compared with those receiving placebo (PERMANOVA on between-sample Aitchison distances for intervention groups (R2 = 0.015, false discovery rate (FDR) = 0.002)), but not at baseline (R2 = 0.018, FDR = 0.99); however, the effect size was small (Fig. 2c and Supplementary Tables 18 and 19). Notably, the severity of COVID-19 symptoms and assignment to the placebo intervention group were correlated in their effects on the direction of β-diversity changes (Fig. 2c). We used variance partition analysis21 to assess how clinical covariates (for example, age, sex or bacterial genera) influence gut microbiome variation by intervention group. In this analysis, we found that—despite the significant differences between study arms—the contribution of individual taxa to shifts in β-diversity was subtle, suggesting considerable heterogeneity in the intervention effect at the taxonomic level (Fig. 2d and Supplementary Table 20).
a, Stool samples from 88 participants were collected at baseline (week (W) 0), during intervention (weeks 2 and 4; nicotinamide (NAM) or placebo) and at follow-up (week 6). Cohort 1 included 35 participants per group (NAM: 25 females, 10 males; placebo: 24 females, 11 males), and cohort 2 included 9 participants per group (NAM: 4 females, 5 males; placebo: 5 females, 4 males). Samples underwent 16S rRNA (n = 280) and shotgun metagenomics (n = 72) sequencing. b, α-diversity analysis (Shannon index at amplicon sequence variant level) of 16S rRNA data showed no significant (n.s.) differences across intervention groups or timepoints (two-sided Wilcoxon rank-sum test; likelihood ratio test on linear mixed-effect models; n per group is depicted below each box plot). Box plots show the median (centre line), interquartile range (IQR, box), 1.5 × IQR (whiskers) and outliers (points). c, Microbiota shifts (Aitchison distance, 16S rRNA) were examined using constraint-based principal coordinates analysis in participants with key COVID-19-related symptoms. Significant differences emerged between nicotinamide and placebo at week 2 and week 4 (n = 45 per intervention; PERMANOVA, R2 = 0.015, Fxy = 1.43, false discovery rate (FDR) = 0.002) but not at baseline (week 0) (NAM: n = 24; placebo: n = 23; PERMANOVA, R2 = 0.018, Fxy = 0.82, FDR = 0.99; Supplementary Fig. 4). Dots indicate individual samples, and arrows represent trajectories (baseline → week 2 → week 4). Ellipses show sample distributions per intervention group (solid line: 70% confidence; dashed line: 80% confidence; assuming multivariate normality). Black arrows show the impact of key COVID-19-related symptoms, intervention and age on microbiota dissimilarity, proportional to their correlation. Placebo and key COVID-19-related symptoms had similar effects. FDR: Benjamini–Hochberg-corrected P values. d, Variance partition analysis of the top 20 microbial genera that show highest variation at week 2 and week 4 in the 16S data (n = 67 per intervention). The bar plot shows the mean variance explained for the top 20 microbial genera, with variance attributed to covariates including age (light green), body mass index (BMI) (yellow), key COVID-19-related symptoms (red), fever at baseline (orange), sex (dark green), intervention (purple) and residuals (grey). Prefixes in genus labels denote higher taxonomic ranks: f_, family; p_, phylum. Only samples with at least 5,000 reads were included. For additional metagenomics-based variance partition analyses at the taxonomical level, see Supplementary Fig. 7 and Supplementary Table 21.
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We next aimed to understand the underlying functional differences using metagenomic pathway profiling. First, we inferred the presence and abundance of microbial taxa and community functions using the MetaPhlAn 3.0 and HUMAnN 3.0 (ref. 22) from metagenomics data. We found that, at week 2, the placebo group exhibited increased microbial biosynthesis pathways for tryptophan, phenylalanine, methionine and lysine, as well as enhanced redox and NAD+ salvage pathways, compared with the nicotinamide group. This suggests a relative deficiency in NAD+ de novo and tryptophan biosynthesis in participants receiving placebo, an effect prevented by nicotinamide supplementation (Fig. 3 and Supplementary Table 22).
a, Heatmap of changes in significant amino-acid-related pathways found during a cross-sectional comparison of nicotinamide (NAM) versus placebo over time (n = 9 participants per group). There was an increase in tryptophan biosynthesis in participants receiving placebo compared with participants receiving nicotinamide at week 2. For each cell, colours indicate the z-score of the pathway abundance per sample, asterisks denote the significance of Benjamini–Hochberg-corrected P values (false discovery rate (FDR) < 0.25), and prevalence represents the percentage of non-zero features used in the comparison. b, Longitudinal plot of the counts per million (CPM) abundances of the tryptophan biosynthesis pathway (n = 9 per group; two-sided Wilcoxon rank-sum test, *P = 0.026, corrected for multiple comparisons). c, Longitudinal plot of the CPM abundances of the l-lysine biosynthesis pathway (n = 9 per group; two-sided Wilcoxon rank-sum test, *P = 0.014, corrected for multiple comparisons). d, Heatmap of changes in significant cofactor, carrier and vitamin-biosynthesis-related pathways found during a cross-sectional comparison of nicotinamide versus placebo over time (n = 9 per group). Similar to a, colours of cells indicate the z-score of the pathway abundance per sample, asterisks denote the significance of Benjamini–Hochberg-corrected P values (FDR < 0.25) and prevalence represents the percentage of non-zero features used in the comparison. e, Longitudinal plot of the CPM abundances of the NAD+ salvage pathway (n = 9 per group; two-sided Wilcoxon rank-sum test, *P = 0.024, corrected for multiple comparisons). f, Longitudinal plot of the CPM abundances of the menaquinol-6 biosynthesis pathway (n = 9 per group; two-sided Wilcoxon rank-sum test, *P = 0.013, corrected for multiple comparisons). Box plots show the median (centre line), IQR (box), 1.5 × IQR (whiskers) and outliers (points).
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To further explore the potential influence of nicotinamide on COVID-19-associated gut microbiota changes, we compared our cohort with an independent gut microbiome dataset17. In that study, stool samples were collected from patients hospitalized with mild or severe COVID-19 and from uninfected matched control individuals. We analysed baseline and longitudinal samples from the public cohort to infer microbiome function, comparing key pathways altered by COVID-19 severity with those affected by nicotinamide versus placebo in our trial (for details, see Supplementary Section 3.5). We found an overlap of 43 pathways, mainly involved in cofactor, amino acid and nucleoside or nucleotide metabolism (Supplementary Fig. 8 and Supplementary Table 23). These pathways showed similar effect sizes when comparing healthy individuals versus those with COVID-19, and nicotinamide- versus placebo-receiving participants in the COVit-2 trial (Fig. 4). This finding suggests that nicotinamide intervention shifts the functional potential of gut microbiomes of people with COVID-19 towards that of healthy individuals, supporting the idea that nicotinamide protects against microbiota dysbiosis linked to COVID-19.
a, Venn diagram showing 43 overlapping pathways between the COVit-2 trial cohort (green) and the public dataset from Essex et al17. (purple) among 220 significant pathways (false discovery rate (FDR) < 0.25). b, PYRIDNUCSAL-PWY pathway (NAD+ salvage pathway I) activity in healthy controls and patients with mild or severe COVID-19 (from ref. 17), and longitudinal samples (week (W) 0–6) from nicotinamide (NAM)- and placebo-receiving COVit-2 trial participants. The pathway was enriched in severe COVID-19 and in placebo participants. pnuE, NAD+ pyrophosphatase; pncA, nicotinamidase; pncB, nicotinate phosphoribosyltransferase; nadD, nicotinate-nucleotide adenyltransferase; nadE, NAD+ synthetase; Pi, phosphate; PPi, pyrophosphate. c, Differential pathway abundance plot for cofactor, carrier and vitamin biosynthesis pathways, comparing nicotinamide-receiving or healthy individuals (NAM/healthy) with placebo-receiving individuals or patients with mild or severe COVID-19 (placebo/mild/severe), respectively. d, PWY-5838 (superpathway of menaquinol-8 biosynthesis) abundances, enriched in the placebo and severe groups. e, PWY-6151 (S-adenosyl-l-methionine cycle I) abundances is enriched in nicotinamide-receiving individuals and in healthy individuals over time. f, Differential pathway abundance plot for nucleotide biosynthesis and degradation pathways, showing enriched pathways in NAM/healthy versus placebo/mild/severe groups. g, PWY-6609 (adenine and adenosine salvage III) abundances, enriched in the nicotinamide-receiving and healthy groups. h, Differential pathway abundance plot for amino acid biosynthesis pathways, showing pathways enriched in NAM/healthy versus placebo/mild/severe groups. i, PWY-5097 (l-lysine biosynthesis VI) abundances, enriched in the NAM, healthy and mild groups. Dot plots (c, f, h) represent significantly different pathways from MaasLin2 output (Supplementary Section 3.5), where log2(fold change (FC)) indicates enrichment in NAM/healthy (negative values) or placebo/mild/severe (positive values) groups. Symbol size reflects the number of samples in which the pathway was detected (N.not.zero), and the FDR significance is shown in the colour gradient. Box plots (b, d, e, g, i) show the median (centre line), IQR (box), 1.5 × IQR (whiskers) and outliers (points) of counts per million (CPM) abundance of pathways across healthy (n = 15), mild (n = 15) and severe (n = 8) groups from Essex et al.17, as well as nicotinamide (n = 9) and placebo (n = 9) groups from COVit-2 (two-sided Wilcoxon rank-sum test, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, corrected for multiple comparisons). Right panels in b, d, e, g and i show metabolic maps and key genes of the pathways.
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The low severity of COVID-19 in the trial was associated with a low rate of PCS, as determined by the PCS score23 at the 6-month follow-up. The PCS score ranges from 0 to 59, with higher values indicating more severe PCS23. In the ITT population, only 47 participants in the nicotinamide arm and 51 in the placebo arm reached the threshold for moderate to severe PCS23. The mean PCS score was 2.95 (s.d., 5.91) in the nicotinamide arm and 3.19 ± 6.55 in the placebo arm (absolute difference, −0.24; 95% confidence interval, −1.1 to 0.61; P = 0.817). An exploratory analysis focused on participants at risk for developing PCS (nicotinamide: PCS score 3.97 ± 6.95; placebo: 4.81 ± 7.84; absolute difference, −0.85; 95% confidence interval, −2.4 to 0.69; P = 0.610) and on participants at risk who had shown improvement in the primary endpoint or one of the three key secondary endpoints in the acute phase of the disease (Supplementary Section 3.2). In the latter subgroup, a significant benefit of nicotinamide was also observed in participants with PCS (nicotinamide: n = 48, PCS score 8.33 ± 0.84; placebo: n = 57, PCS score 11.82 ± 1.03; absolute difference: −3.49; 95% confidence interval, −6.1 to −0.86; P = 0.010) (Extended Data Fig. 7).
In the safety population, 1,798 adverse events (AEs) occurred in 317 (70.8%) of participants receiving nicotinamide, and 1,732 AEs occurred in 297 (65.7%) of participants receiving placebo (P = 0.115; Supplementary Table 25). Most AEs occurred early during the trial and were due to the onset or worsening of COVID-19-related symptoms. Notably, there were no significant differences between the two groups in this regard. Thus, these AEs are likely to have reflected the study set-up, with an early recruitment of participants during the incremental phase of the underlying infection. A trend towards a higher overall incidence of cumulative gastrointestinal AEs in the nicotinamide arm (25.2% versus 17.7% with placebo; unadjusted P = 0.007; without single gastrointestinal symptoms explaining this observation) is in line with the known side-effect profile of nicotinamide, for which abdominal discomfort has been described (AEs of special interest). These were mild and did not require further treatment. Sixteen participants were examined in an emergency department but were not hospitalized, seven were hospitalized (one with low-flow oxygen) and none died. All serious AEs were classified as unlikely to be related to the intervention, and their frequencies were highly similar between the two groups (Supplementary Tables 26–29).
COVID-19 is characterized by its large impact on health-related quality of life through a substantial symptom burden involving reduced physical performance, an inability to perform normal activities, airway symptoms and fatigue24. In the prospective, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled COVit-2 trial, we found that an intervention with nicotinamide (1,000 mg) in a combination of ileocolonic and systemic exposure leads to faster recovery from main COVID-19 symptoms. By week 2, recovery from reduced physical performance was 57.6% with the nicotinamide intervention and 42.6% with placebo intervention, resulting in a number needed to treat of seven.
The binary primary endpoint ‘performance drop'—a key symptom of COVID-19—affects people with the disease regardless of their disease course and physical fitness25,26. It has been widely documented, despite variability in its measurement27, as a multifactorial and sensitive metric for detecting impairments reported by individuals with COVID-19. The closely related key secondary endpoint ‘ability to perform normal activities' and the secondary endpoint ‘shortness of breath' support the validity of the measure. Notably, not all secondary endpoints, including resolution of fatigue by FACIT-F, were met, but FACIT-F is not validated for use in post-viral sequelae. Although return to work could not be measured owing to the prevailing quarantine regulations at the time of the trial (that is, taking participants out of contact until full recovery), we suggest that a faster regain of physical performance would also have translated into restoration of work productivity.
Our trial is in line with other observations showing that ‘real world' mild-to-moderate COVID-19 results in a low frequency of clinically relevant PCS. However, in our population, we demonstrate a continued benefit of the intervention in participants at risk for developing PCS who had shown improvement while taking nicotinamide during acute COVID-19.
The COVit-2 trial recruited outpatients on the basis of SARS-CoV-2 test results through a network of laboratories. Although the recruitment strategy provided insights into ‘real world' COVID-19 during a period when virtually all infections were caused by the Alpha (B.1.1.7) and Delta (B.1.617.2) variants of SARS-CoV-2 in Germany, it also resulted in a population with mild-to-moderate disease according to the World Health Organization's scale of COVID-19 severity28. Therefore, hospitalization rates were low (seven participants), and progression to severe COVID-19 was observed in only one individual. Fatigue was generally mild and transient, with most participants in both trial arms having already returned to normal at week 2, which is in line with a recent, large and representative sample from the healthy German population (FACIT-F: 43.5 ± 8.3)29. Therefore, we regarded performance drop, despite its multifactorial nature, as a better endpoint than fatigue to measure the effects of early interventions in mild-to-moderate COVID-19.
In the COVit-2 population, AEs occurred in approximately 68% of participants. Most AEs occurred early and were due to the onset or worsening of COVID-19 symptoms. Notably, there was no significant difference in the overall frequency of AEs between the nicotinamide and placebo groups. Thus, these AEs are likely to reflect the study set-up, which involved early recruitment of participants during the incremental phase of COVID-19. Although nicotinamide is a vitamin that is generally recognized as safe and has a tolerable upper intake level of 900 mg day–1, our findings suggest that ileocolonic delivery resulting in high mucosal exposure does not substantially alter the known side-effect profile. Indeed, a phase I study including serial ileocolonoscopies in healthy participants (DRKS00023384, NCT05258474) did not find any mucosal irritation. Importantly, nicotinamide has no known substantial interactions with other drugs that might be administered to treat severe COVID-19.
Nicotinamide, a NAD+ precursor, has key functions in metabolism and cellular immunity, for example in enabling the function of poly-ADP-ribosyltransferases (PARPs) and suppressing viral replication in infected cells1,2. SARS-CoV-2 infection disturbs PARP expression patterns and depletes cellular NAD+ levels, which compromises antiviral defence1,2,20. The antiviral properties of nicotinamide have been described for diverse viruses, including human immunodeficiency virus30. Various publications on COVID-19 pathophysiology have suggested that nicotinamide and related substances should be examined as an intervention to replenish NAD+ in COVID-19 (refs. 1,20,31).
Our analyses of faecal microbiota changes align with findings from other studies32,33,34,35 reporting a complex dysbiosis associated with COVID-19. Although we observed only subtle shifts and higher heterogeneity in microbial taxa, it is important to note that many studies focused on severe cases, in which microbiota alterations are influenced by factors such as antibiotic use and invasive procedures36. Notably, our finding that microbiota changes are more pronounced at the functional level than in terms of gut taxonomic shifts is supported by another study investigating milder COVID-19 cases37. It also highlights the concept of ‘functional microbiota guilds,' which exhibit consistent functional signals despite considerable taxonomic heterogeneity between individuals38. Preclinical studies clearly demonstrate the importance of the gut–lung axis in shaping protective immunity against respiratory infections, for example through circulating short-chain fatty acid levels (reviewed in ref. 5). Furthermore, evidence has been presented that the application of other gut microbiota-modulation principles, for example probiotics, might improve COVID-19 outcomes39. Our observation of gut microbiota shifts was derived from a representative, yet smaller, subcohort of the COVit-2 trial population, and might reflect both direct and indirect effects of nicotinamide, for example through modulation of the immune response or altered gut motility1,3. Although we cannot definitively establish a causal relationship, our observations of intervention-induced functional shifts in the gut microbiota following administration of placebo versus nicotinamide, particularly in relation to the healthy–mild–severe COVID-19 trajectory (for example, in amino acid and energy metabolic pathways) in a second cohort of patients with COVID-19 (ref. 17), support the hypothesis that nicotinamide might exert a beneficial impact through local intestinal mechanisms. Neither the observed effects on the microbiota nor the clinical effects were statistically different between non-smokers and smokers, the latter of whom might have systematic long-term metabolic adaptations affecting both host and microbiome systems40,41.
The trial has several limitations. Owing to the recruitment period, participants were almost exclusively infected with the Alpha (B.1.1.7) and Delta (B.1.617.2) variants. The remote nature of the trial and the quarantine rules did not allow us to measure lung function parameters and work-activity profiles. Given that we did not expect different results in vaccinated individuals and sought to minimize the need to account for additional covariates (for example, number of vaccinations, vaccine type), the COVit-2 trial, like many other studies, included only non-vaccinated participants, even as vaccines gradually became available. Although we cannot formally exclude the notion that SARS-CoV-2 variants or vaccination could have an influence on the observed effects, we anticipate from the general nature of the underlying distortion in NAD+–tryptophan homeostasis that our results could be extrapolated to other scenarios, for example current virus variants. Conclusions about PCS are limited because severe PCS cases were rare in the trial.
The clinical efficacy observed in the larger COVit-2 trial, which involved both conventional and gut-targeted nicotinamide release, aligns with the findings of the pilot trial COVit-1 in 56 participants. In COVit-1, differences between conventional nicotinamide tablets and an inactive comparator were, however, larger. The recruitment strategy for COVit-1, which involved physician practices instead of diagnostic laboratories, might have resulted in a participant population with more severe disease and higher rates of fever and pain than the cohort in COVit-2. We intentionally selected a combined intervention approach (conventional and gut-targeted) to provide a comprehensive evaluation of nicotinamide's effects while ensuring baseline systemic availability. We acknowledge that this approach limits our ability to draw direct conclusions about the standalone effects of the novel gut-targeted formulation. Nevertheless, both the pilot study and the COVit-2 trial showed similar signatures of efficacy with regard to physical fitness in daily life.
Given that the metabolic mechanisms affected by nicotinamide are rather general, we anticipate that the findings from COVit-2 might also relate to other tryptophan-wasting conditions, including respiratory infections with other viruses or bacteria7,8,9. Moreover, lower levels of tryptophan might independently predict disease severity and short-term adverse outcomes not only in COVID-19 (refs. 4,6), but also in other settings such as community-acquired pneumonia7, and might identify people that could benefit from an intervention with nicotinamide.
In conclusion, we demonstrate the efficacy of nicotinamide administration to alleviate physical performance drop, a key symptom of COVID-19, which aligns with previous observations of NAD+ depletion in viral infections, as well as tryptophan degradation and altered host–microbial cometabolism as a systemic phenomenon in acute and chronic inflammation17,42. Further trials and mechanistic studies are needed to differentiate between systemic and gut-targeted delivery routes to firmly establish distinct clinical efficacy and clarify the precise mechanisms of action of the two routes.
The protocol (Supplementary Section 5), including all amendments, was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Medical Faculty of Kiel University (file reference A107/20), and all participants provided informed consent before any study procedures (see below). COVit-1 and COVit-2 were registered at the World Health Organization primary registry German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS00021214); COVit-2 was additionally registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04751604). In the COVit-1 trial, 56 outpatients with early symptomatic COVID-19 in domestic quarantine were recruited between 6 April 2020 and 28 January 2021, and 900 outpatients were enrolled into the COVit-2 trial between 1 February 2021 and 17 January 2022. Participants were compensated for their time according to the ethics committee's approval (up to 265.00 € for interviews and questionnaires, up to 50.00 € for stool samples and up to 120.00 € for blood samples). Vaccinated individuals were excluded to avoid confounding (for example, by inhomogeneous vaccination schedules or selection by age groups that received preferential access to vaccines). Self-reported demographics, including sex assigned at birth (male or female) or the gender option ‘diverse' (not selected by any participant), were collected at screening. Owing to the lack of evidence for a sex-specific effect of nicotinamide in COVID-19 or similar infections, neither sex nor gender were specifically considered in the design of the trial, but were analysed in an exploratory fashion. No analysis of viral subtypes was performed, but with respect to population epidemiology in Germany, participants were almost exclusively infected by the wild-type virus in the COVit-1 trial and by the Alpha (B.1.1.7) or Delta (B.1.617.2) virotypes in the COVit-2 trial43.
For COVit-1, participants were recruited through outpatient facilities surrounding the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, whereas screening for COVit-2 was performed using diagnostic laboratories at 71 sites in Germany (Supplementary Section 3.1). Inclusion criteria for the overall population were ≥18 years of age, a recent SARS-CoV-2 infection (≤7 days after first positive test) and at least one symptom of COVID-19 on the day of randomization (Supplementary Section 3.2). Most participants reported five or more symptoms at baseline. Symptom load and the number of risk factors were similar in both trial arms and over the trial period (Supplementary Section 3.3). Exclusion criteria were current participation in another interventional study, pregnancy, breast-feeding and current or anticipated hospitalization. Inclusion into the acute RFITT primary-analysis population additionally required at least one risk factor for severe COVID-19 (Supplementary Section 3.4). At the 6-month follow-up, the ITT group was the primary analysis population, in which subgroups of participants at risk for developing PCS and responders to the intervention were further analysed (Supplementary Section 3.4).
The trials were performed remotely owing to the contact restrictions, which were in place during the trial time period. For details on trial procedures and design, see Supplementary Section 3.1. Participants provided electronic written informed consent, which was confirmed by telephone. Whereas COVit-1 recruited participants through advertisements, COVit-2 identified candidates by contacting all patients who received a positive SARS-CoV-2 test result at 71 sites operated by German diagnostic laboratory service providers. After confirming eligibility, participants were computer-randomized and received the interventional product and paper questionnaires (SF-36 and FACIT-F), delivered by next-day courier. Eligible participants were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to daily self-administration of either 1 g day–1 nicotinamide (500 mg immediate-release nicotinamide and 500 mg controlled-ileocolonic-release nicotinamide (CICR-NAM, Setamer®)) or matched placebo tablets in identical primary and secondary packaging, taken with breakfast for 4 weeks. Tablets were formally released by the pharmacy of the trial sponsor, the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein (Kiel, Germany). The intervention received by a participant was not disclosed to personnel involved in the study; personnel responsible for clinical supply and safety were unblinded. Participants and personnel involved with participant care remained blinded throughout the study, including the 6-month follow-up. Participants underwent structured telephone interviews at weeks 2, 4 and 6, as well as 6 months after baseline. Optional stool samples were collected from participants by mail (Supplementary Section 3.5).
The original primary clinical outcome of COVit-1 was the rate of hospital admission for a minimum of 24 h of continuous oxygen therapy. Secondary endpoints included the rates of machine ventilation, intensive care and death, as well as time to resolution of symptoms (Supplementary Section 1). Owing to the results of the pilot experiment, COVit-2 focused on participant-reported COVID-19 symptom burden in the acute primary analysis RFITT population (ITT participants with at least one risk factor for severe COVID-19; Supplementary Section 3.4). The primary endpoint was restoration of physical performance at week 2. Key secondary endpoints were an improvement of the ability to perform normal activities, resolution of cough and resolution of fatigue at week 2. All endpoints were tested in participants with the respective symptoms at baseline. Prespecified subgroup analyses were performed for key risk factors. At the 6-month follow-up, the main outcome was PCS determined by a previously established PCS score, which was derived and validated in a large and prospective German cohort23. For the complete list of outcomes and for details on trial populations, see Supplementary Sections 3.2 and 3.4.
In COVit-2, 16S rDNA phylogenomic and metagenomic analyses were performed to investigate the effects of nicotinamide on gut microbial community composition and on functional metabolic capabilities of the colonic microbiome stratified by pathways, gene families and enzyme categories. Stool samples from 88 participants (70 participants for 16S and 18 participants for metagenomics) were analysed at week 0 (baseline), weeks 2 and 4 (exposure to nicotinamide or placebo) and week 6 (follow-up). For a detailed description of methods and references, see Supplementary Section 3.5.
The safety population included all randomized participants. AEs were classified into preferred terms and summarized using MedDRA version 25.1. These AEs were reported in participant interviews conducted after baseline and through ad hoc reports from participants requesting medical consultation until week 6. Serious AEs were recorded by structured interview queries, with follow-up if necessary. All hospitalizations and emergency-room visits were recorded. Serious AEs related to the underlying disease were evaluated according to the World Health Organization's COVID-19 scale28. For the safety analysis of the intervention, symptoms reported during the course of the study that were not present at baseline or were increased in severity were listed, and their frequency was compared between the nicotinamide and placebo groups using unadjusted Chi-square or Fisher's exact tests.
COVit-1 included 56 outpatients recruited from the referral network of the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein and served to establish the rationale for the larger study, COVit-2. Statistics were descriptive because the study was a pilot trial (Supplementary Section 1). The results of the COVit-1 pilot trial were kept separate from those of the main trial, COVit-2. Statistical analysis was conducted in the blinded dataset by a third-party provider with established clinical trial statistics expertise (Novustat).
The COVit-2 trial enrolled 900 participants, following the sample size assumptions detailed in Supplementary Section 3.6. A pre-planned futility analysis was conducted by the Data Management Board after 400 participants had been recruited (Supplementary Sections 3.6 and 6). The full analysis set (the ITT population) included all participants who received at least one dose of nicotinamide or placebo. The RFITT population was defined as all participants in the ITT population with at least one symptom, demographic characteristic or underlying medical condition that was previously associated with an increased risk of developing severe COVID-19. The respective per-protocol populations, PP and RFPP, excluded those who dropped out or failed to comply with the investigational product intake for at least 80% of the study duration (Supplementary Section 3.4). In the RFITT population, each analysis regarding resolution or improvement of a symptom was performed only for those participants who reported the respective symptom at baseline. In case of ordinal queries (Supplementary Section 3.2), participants with severe symptoms (a value of >3) at baseline were selected for analysis. For the FACIT-F and SF-36 questionnaires, only those with severe complaints (baseline values ≤ median) were included in the analyses.
Baseline characteristics were summarized according to trial group and overall, with the use of descriptive statistics for continuous and categorical measures.
Primary and confirmatory secondary binary endpoints were analysed by assessing changes from baseline for all weeks within each intervention group, compared using the Cochran–Mantel–Haenszel test. Post hoc analyses for each week were calculated using Fisher's exact test, with Benjamini–Hochberg adjustment for multiple testing. The Woolfe test was performed to test for homogeneity of odds ratios across time. If significant P values were obtained from the Woolfe test, the Cochran–Mantel–Haenszel test would not be appropriate. In this case, Fisher's exact tests for each timepoint were used instead of the Cochran–Mantel–Haenszel test. A continuity correction was applied for zero frequencies.
Continuous secondary outcomes (scales, SF-36 and FACIT-F) were analysed with the use of a mixed model for repeated measures (MMRM), with the change from baseline at each of the three scheduled post-baseline time points (2, 4 and 6 weeks) as the dependent variable and baseline value, intervention group, time and time–intervention interaction as independent variables (Supplementary Section 6). Statistical methods that do not involve imputation, such as the MMRM or the Chi-square test, were used for the analyses. The use of the MMRM model assumes implicitly that data are missing at random.
For time-to-event analyses, a Kaplan–Meier approach was used. The log rank test was performed to test whether time to event differed between intervention groups. A Cox proportional-hazards model was used to evaluate and estimate the impact of the intervention group. The assumption of proportional hazards was analysed before the model was applied.
The reliability of the FACIT-F and SF-36 questionnaires was assessed using Cronbach's alpha coefficient (α ≥ 0.80) for internal consistency and item-to-total correlations exceeding 0.20. The average variance extracted was calculated to assess discriminant validity.
We applied multivariable generalized linear models, using a binomial family with a log link for binary endpoints and a Gaussian family for endpoints measured on a scale of complaints, to assess the impact of sex. Treatment, change from baseline, baseline value, sex and treatment–time and treatment–sex interactions were considered as independent factors. Sex-specific subgroup analyses were performed as part of the exploratory analyses. Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were calculated for binary endpoints, and Hedges' g effect sizes including 95% confidence intervals were calculated for ordinal scales of complaint. Additional analyses were performed in accordance with the analyses of the entire RFITT population.
We assessed normality using the Shapiro–Wilk test as well as histograms, and homogeneity of variances using Levene's test. The results of these tests confirmed that the assumptions of the statistical tests were met. No data points were excluded from the analyses, as we also used MMRM and generalized linear models, which account for all available data without explicit exclusions. Detailed descriptions of the study populations for specific analyses are available in the statistical analysis plans (Supplementary Sections 6 and 7).
All statistical analyses were performed with the use of R software (R Foundation for Statistical Computing, 2021) version 4.1.2 or higher. For further details on the statistical analyses, see Supplementary Sections 3.5, 3.6, 6 and 7.
For the 6-month follow-up, the PCS score23 served as the primary efficacy variable and was compared between the intervention groups using a t-test or a nonparametric Mann–Whitney U test. Subgroup analyses were performed to further define responders in defined risk groups. For further details on the statistical analyses, see Supplementary Section 7.
Blinded (recruiters, interviewers, study physicians, statisticians, technicians and scientists for microbiome analysis) and unblinded (study material distribution, safety) personnel were strictly separated. All personnel completed documented formal monitored training on trial procedures, and delegation logs were adapted from good-clinical-practice guidelines. Guided standard operating procedures were regularly retrained, and detailed instructions for participants were implemented to ensure the validity of assessing participant-reported outcomes through structured telephone interviews (Supplementary Sections 3.1 and 3.2). Key interview questions were redundant, and source data entry into the database was monitored. SARS-CoV-2 test results were verified. Compliance was surveyed by remote tablet count during each interview and through specific questions (Supplementary Section 3.1). Side effects were queried and coded according to MedDRA Version 25.1 (see above).
Further information on research design is available in the Nature Portfolio Reporting Summary linked to this article.
The COVit-1 pilot trial and the COVit-2 main trial were preregistered with a data sharing statement at the WHO primary registry German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS00021214). COVit-2 was additionally registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04751604). The trial protocol and statistical analysis plans are available in the Supplementary Information. The microbiome sequencing reads have been deposited and are available at ENA under the accession code PRJEB61276 (last accessed on 11 March 2025). The taxonomic classification of 16S rRNA data, performed using the SILVA database (version 138) is publicly available at Zenodo44: https://zenodo.org/records/6395539 (last accessed on 11 March 2025). Clinical data are not available for download owing privacy law according to the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) and ethical restrictions. Specific requests by academic researchers for access to clinical data can be addressed to the corresponding author. These data include individual deidentified participant data and data sorted by sex and diversity. On the basis of such a request including a detailed analysis plan, access might be provided, subject to a decision of the Ethics Committee of the Medical Faculty of Kiel University to ensure compliance with privacy laws, data protection and requirements for consent and anonymization. Requests will be considered from the date of publication of this article. It is expected that data can be obtained within 90 days after the eventual ethics vote. Data will be available for ten years. Source data are provided with this paper.
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The trial was supported by the German Excellence Cluster Precision Medicine in Chronic Inflammation (PMI) (EXC 2167; research areas CD-1, CD-2, TI-1 and RTF-VI) from the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG), a grant (DOI030) from the COVID-19 Research Initiative of the State of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, and the United European Gastroenterology (UEG) Research Prize. The molecular analyses were supported by the DFG Research Unit miTARGET (RU5042; K. A., P. R. and F. S.) and by grants from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung; BMBF): e:Med systems medicine programme (K. A., P. R., S. S. and H. U. Z.; iTREAT (01ZX2202A), TRY-IBD (01ZX1915A), CKDNapp (01ZX1912A)) and 01KX2324 (J.M.P.). F. S. was supported by the DFG through the individual grant SO1141/10-1 and an intramural grant of the medical faculty of Kiel University (grant no. K126408). J.M.P. received funding from the T. von Zastrow foundation and the Canada 150 Research Chairs Program F18-01336. Next-generation sequencing was performed at the Competence Centre for Genomic Analysis (Kiel) and supported by the DFG Research Infrastructure NGS_CC (project no. 407495230) as part of the Next Generation Sequencing Competence Network (project no. 423957469) and the University and Medical Faculty of Kiel. S. K. F. was supported by the German Center for Cardiovascular Research, the German Research Council (project nos. SFB1470 and SFB1449) and the German Ministry of Education and Research, as well as the EU (Horizon grant IMMEDIATE). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the paper.
We thank the trial participants for their time and their donation of biological specimens.
We are grateful for the support of the following people: S. Franzenburg, T. Gabriel, J. Geritz, C. Golipour, M. Grafenburg, A. Harms, H. Heindl, A. Hermes, M. Köhler, L. Kruse, J. Labrenz, M. Laudien, A. Lessing, M. Lessing, W. Lieb, C. Maetzler, W. Maetzler, A. Matysiak, J. Peters, S. Rentzow, N. Rohmann, S. S. S. Valavi, M. Stobbe, K. Tiede, V. Wegener, and C. Zimmermann—all at the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein or Kiel University in Kiel, Germany; A. Adriamihaja, J. Baas, J. Broziat, N. Bieler, K. Funda-Lebeau, L. Graßkemper, J. Heukamp, J. Holz, C. Inselmann, I. Klare, M. Moser, H. Reith, M. Rothaug, H. Schröder, G. Seifert, L. M. Siemens, N. Steubesand, and R. Voß—all at the Competence Network Intestinal Diseases in Kiel, Germany; S. Milkovska-Stamenova at Adversis Pharma/AP Diagnostics in Leipzig, Germany; and S. Schuchardt, Fraunhofer Institute for Toxicology and Experimental Medicine in Hannover, Germany.
The decisive help of the diagnostic laboratories, their subsidiaries as well as their representatives and employees (Supplementary Section 3.1) in the recruitment of participants is gratefully acknowledged.
Open access funding provided by Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel.
These authors contributed equally: Stefan Schreiber, Georg H. Waetzig.
These authors jointly supervised this work: Matthias Laudes, Philip Rosenstiel.
Department of Internal Medicine I, University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany
Stefan Schreiber, Daniel Pape, Thomas Bahmer, Elisabeth Kokott, Tim Hollstein, Florian Tran, Jan Heyckendorf, Konrad Aden & Matthias Laudes
Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology, Kiel University and University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany
Stefan Schreiber, Georg H. Waetzig, Víctor A. López-Agudelo, Felix Sommer, Danielle M. M. Harris, Florian Tran, Konrad Aden & Philip Rosenstiel
CONARIS Research Institute AG, Kiel, Germany
Georg H. Waetzig
Institute of Diabetes and Clinical Metabolic Research, Kiel University and University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany
Corinna Geisler, Kristina Schlicht, Katharina Hartmann, Tim Hollstein & Matthias Laudes
Competence Network Intestinal Diseases, Kiel, Germany
Sina Franzenburg, Romina di Giuseppe, Bernd Bokemeyer, Romina di Giuseppe & Sandra Plachta-Danielzik
Institute of Medical Informatics and Statistics, Kiel University and University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany
Michael Krawczak
Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany
Josef M. Penninger
Department of Medical Genetics, Life Science Institute, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Josef M. Penninger
Eric Kandel Institute, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Josef M. Penninger
Bioscientia Healthcare GmbH, Ingelheim, Germany
Oliver Harzer
LADR Laboratory Group Dr. Kramer & Colleagues, Geesthacht, Germany
Jan Kramer
Labor Dr. von Froreich, Hamburg, Germany
Tammo von Schrenck & Tammo von Schrenck
Peter L. Reichertz Institute for Medical Informatics of TU Braunschweig and Hannover Medical School, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
Helena U. Zacharias
Department of Infectious Diseases, Respiratory Medicine and Critical Care, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, a corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Belén Millet Pascual-Leone
Experimental and Clinical Research Center, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine and Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Sofia K. Forslund
Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Sofia K. Forslund
Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC), Berlin, Germany
Sofia K. Forslund
DZHK (German Centre for Cardiovascular Research), Berlin, Germany
Sofia K. Forslund
Novustat GmbH, Wollerau, Switzerland
Regina Hollweck
Institute of Functional Genomics, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
Wolfram Gronwald & Peter J. Oefner
Institute of Human Nutrition and Food Science, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany
Danielle M. M. Harris
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The paper was initially drafted by G.H.W., S.S. and P.R. S.S., G.H.W., C.G., K.S., S.F., R.d.G., D.P., T.B., M.K., O.H., J.K., T.v.S., K.A., R.H., M.L., P.R., B.B., K.H., S.P.D. and F.T. made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work. V.A.L.-A., C.G., K.S., S.F., D.P., E.K., F.S., H.U.Z., B.M.P.L., S.K.F., W.G., D.H., K.H., T.H. and P.J.O. made substantial contributions to the acquisition of data. S.S., G.H.W., V.A.L.-A., C.G., K.S., R.d.G., D.P., T.B., M.K., E.K., J.M.P., F.S., H.U.Z., J.H., K.A., R.H., M.L., P.R. and D.H. made substantial contributions to the analysis or interpretation of data for the work. G.H.W., S.F., R.d.G. and R.H. accessed and verified the underlying data. All authors contributed to data interpretation, critical review and revision of the paper, and gave final approval of the version to be published. All authors were responsible for the decision to submit the paper, and are accountable for all aspects of the work, ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Correspondence to
Stefan Schreiber.
S.S. reports indirect stock ownership in Gerion Biotech as well as consulting and personal fees from AbbVie, Allergosan, Amgen, Arena, BMS, Biogen, Celltrion, Celgene, Falk, Ferring, Fresenius, Galapagos/Gilead, HIKMA, I-Mab, Janssen, Lilly, Morphic, MSD, Mylan, Pfizer, Prometheus, Protagonist, Provention Bio, Sandoz/Hexal, Takeda and Theravance. G.H.W. is employed part-time by the CONARIS Research Institute AG (Kiel, Germany). T.B. reports consulting fees, honoraria or other support from AstraZeneca, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Chiesi, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, MSD, Novartis, Pfizer and Roche. J.M.P. reports stock ownership in Apeiron Biologics and JLP Health. K.A. reports consulting fees, honoraria or other support from AbbVie, Falk, Galapagos, Janssen, Pfizer and Takeda. M.L. reports a lecture honorarium and travel support by AstraZeneca. P.R. reports stock ownership in Gerion Biotech and consulting fees from Takeda. Additional authors of the COVit-2 Study Group: B.B. reports grants, contracts, consulting fees, honoraria or other support from AbbVie, Arena, BMS, Falk, Ferring, Galapagos, Janssen, MSD and Takeda. D.P. reports meeting support from Advanz Pharma. F.T. reports consulting fees, honoraria or other support from AbbVie, Falk, Janssen, L.E.K. Consulting, Lilly and Sanofi. The remaining authors declare no competing interests.
Nature Metabolism thanks Hayley Belli, Charles Brenner and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Primary Handling Editors: Jean Nakhle and Ashley Castellanos-Jankiewicz, in collaboration with the Nature Metabolism team.
Publisher's note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Details on trial procedures and design are available in Supplementary Section 3.1.
ITT, intention-to-treat; PP, per-protocol; RFITT, participants with at least one risk factor for severe COVID-19; RFPP, participants from RFITT with per-protocol compliance. The main reasons for exclusion of screened subjects were exceedance of the 7-day time window after the first positive PCR test, complete lack of symptoms, rejection of the trial by the subject, or vaccination against SARS-CoV-2. Refusal of potential subjects to participate occurred during the multi-step registration and verification process, usually after they had fully understood the comprehensive requirements of the trial. Reasons for withdrawal from the trial were mostly non-compliance and worsening of COVID-19.
A significantly different resolution of performance drop was seen in the 379 participants reporting the symptom at baseline (nicotinamide: n = 191 [73 males, 118 females]; placebo: n = 188 [77 males, 111 females]). One hundred ten participants responded to nicotinamide at week 2 (48 males, 62 females) and 80 participants to placebo (34 males, 46 females). Graphs represent relative frequency ± s.d. Two-sided Fisher exact test, adjusted for hierarchical testing.
Source data
a, Primary analysis population RFITT. b, ITT population. For details on trial populations, see Supplementary Section 3.4. Only subjects with severe complaints (baseline values ≤ median) were included in the analyses (RFITT: nicotinamide: n = 123 [49 males, 74 females], placebo: n = 119 [45 males, 74 females]; ITT: nicotinamide: n = 207 [79 males, 128 females], placebo: n = 209 [74 males, 135 females]. Graphs represent mean ± s.e. Two-sided t-test of contrasts within a mixed model for repeated measures, adjusted for multiple timepoints. The questions from SF-36 V 1.0 related to physical role functioning were as follows: ‘During the past 4 weeks, have you had any of the following problems with your work or other regular daily activities as a result of your physical health? Cut down the amount of time you spent on work or other activities; accomplished less than you would like; were limited in the kind of work or other activities; had difficulty performing the work or other activities (for example, it took extra effort)'.
Source data
a, Resolution of performance drop (primary endpoint). The number of participants indicates those included in the analysis due to the presence of performance drop at baseline. b, Improvement in the ability to perform normal activities (first key secondary endpoint). The number of participants indicates those included in the analysis due to the presence of a sufficiently severe reduction in the ability to perform normal activities (a value of >3 on the 6-point complaint scale) at baseline. c, Improvement in cough (second key secondary endpoint). The number of participants indicates those included in the analysis due to the presence of a sufficiently severe cough (a value of >3 on the 6-point complaint scale) at baseline. d, Resolution of fatigue (third key secondary endpoint). The number of participants indicates those included in the analysis due to the presence of fatigue at baseline. For details regarding symptoms and risk factors, see Supplementary Sections 3.2–3.4. Forest plot graphs represent odds ratios (a, d) or mean deviations (b, c) and the respective lower/upper 95% confidence intervals (CI).
Source data
a, Binary symptoms. Forest plot graphs represent odds ratios and the respective lower/upper 95% confidence intervals (CI). Resolution of performance drop: nicotinamide: n = 191 (73 males, 118 females); placebo: n = 188 (77 males, 111 females). Resolution of fatigue: nicotinamide: n = 199 (82 males, 117 females); placebo: n = 198 (78 males, 120 females). The number of participants indicates those included in the analysis due to the presence of performance drop or fatigue at baseline, respectively. b, Complaint scale. Forest plot graphs represent Hedges' g and lower/upper CI. Improvement in the ability to perform normal activities: nicotinamide: n = 103 (41 males, 62 females); placebo: n = 95 (34 males, 61 females). Improvement of cough: nicotinamide: n = 44 (17 males, 27 females); placebo: n = 33 (8 males, 25 females). The number of participants indicates those included in the analysis due to the presence of a sufficiently severe reduction in the ability to perform normal activities or a sufficiently severe cough (a value of >3 on the 6-point complaint scale) at baseline, respectively.
Source data
The box plots depict the PCS scores of 105 participants at risk for developing PCS with a PCS score >0, who had shown improvement in the primary endpoint or one of the three key secondary endpoints in the acute phase of the disease (nicotinamide: n = 48 [19 males, 29 females]; placebo: n = 57 [15 males, 42 females]). The median PCS score was 6.5 (quartile [Q]1: 3.5, Q3: 11.0) in participants who had received nicotinamide (males: 6.5 [3.5; 11.5], females: 6.5 [3.5; 11.0]) and 10.5 (Q1: 5.5, Q3: 17.0) in participants who had received placebo (males: 10.5 [5.25; 11.0], females: 10.75 [6.5; 17.0]). The mean PCS score ± s.e. was 8.33 ± 0.84 with nicotinamide (males: 8.37 ± 1.34, females: 8.31 ± 1.09) and 11.82 ± 1.03 with placebo (males: 9.67 ± 1.37, females: 12.60 ± 1.29). Box plots show the median (center line), interquartile range (IQR, box), 1.5x IQR (whiskers) and outliers (points). The means (red points) ± standard error (red whiskers) are shown within the box. Two-sided, unadjusted t-test for independent groups.
Source data
Supplementary Sections 1–7, Tables 1–29, Figs. 1–12 and References.
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Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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Schreiber, S., Waetzig, G.H., López-Agudelo, V.A. et al. Nicotinamide modulates gut microbial metabolic potential and accelerates recovery in mild-to-moderate COVID-19.
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Buzzy new EV startup Slate Auto has racked up more than 100,000 reservations for its customizable low-cost electric pickup truck, the company has confirmed to TechCrunch.
Slate crossed the milestone over the weekend, just a little more than two weeks after coming out of stealth mode and unveiling the truck at an event in Los Angeles, California. The company has said the truck will start below $20,000 after applying the $7,500 federal EV tax credit and plans to build the vehicles at a former printing plant in Warsaw, Indiana, as TechCrunch first reported.
“We are truly humbled by America's response to Slate's brand launch and the launch of our truck,” Slate's chief commercial officer Jeremy Snyder said in a statement to TechCrunch. “We are excited for what the future holds.”
Collecting 100,000 reservations so quickly is one sign of how much interest there has been in Slate since it revealed the truck, but it's no guarantee those reservations will translate to sales. The company is only asking prospective buyers to plop down $50 to reserve their place in line to eventually order the truck; the fee is refundable.
Many other EV startups have touted reservations in the past only to fail to live up to the expectations of such big, round numbers. Fisker filed for bankruptcy having sold just a few thousand Ocean SUVs despite once claiming more than 60,000 reservations. Lordstown Motors, meanwhile, was charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for misleading investors about the number of “preorders” for its own electric pickup truck. (Lordstown Motors similarly filed for bankruptcy and ultimately settled with the SEC.)
Slate has big goals for its truck, which — for a currently undisclosed price — can also be transformed into an SUV. The company says it will have capacity to make as many as 150,000 vehicles by the end of 2027 at the Indiana factory. And it has big backers helping Slate try to reach that goal, including Jeff Bezos (through his family office, Bezos Expeditions), Guggenheim Partners CEO Mark Walter, and VC firm General Catalyst.
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When a camera whips around from one point to another, most people expect the fast movement to result in a blurry smear. What they don't realize, however, is that our own eyes engage in a similar kind of rapid movement—called saccades—over 100,000 times a day. Unlike video cameras, our brain avoids the nauseating blur—but when things move in a particular way, they become invisible.
As detailed in a study published May 8 in Nature Communications, researchers have revealed that the speed of an individual's saccades corresponds to the limit at which a moving object becomes too fast for them to see. That means people with faster eye movements can perceive faster-moving objects, with potential implications for activities requiring fast eye movements such as sports, video games, and even photography. The researchers claim to be the first to provide evidence for the theory that a person's movement impacts their perception.
“What parts of the physical world we can sense depends fundamentally on how good our sensors are,” Martin Rolfs, lead author of the study and an active vision scientist at Humboldt University of Berlin's Department of Psychology, said in a statement by the research group Science of Intelligence. “In this paper, however, we show that the limits of seeing are not just defined by these biophysical constraints but also by the actions and movements that impose changes on the sensory system.”
Rolfs and his colleagues demonstrated that when a study participant saw visual stimuli moving with the same speed and pattern as their own saccade shifts, the stimuli became invisible. This suggests the brain filters out motion that mimics our own eye movements, which might be why our saccades don't cause visual blurs in the way that cameras do. More broadly, this suggests that physical movement—such as eye movement—limits our sensory system's perception of the world. In other words, our ability to see things in motion is not just dictated by our sensory abilities, such as the strength, or sensitivity, of the photoreceptors in our eyes.
“In simple terms, the properties of a sensory system such as the human visual system are best understood in the context of the kinematics of actions that drive its input (in this case, rapid eye movements),” said Rolfs. Kinematics is the study of object motion without considering the cause of said motion. “Our visual system and motor system are finely tuned to each other, but this has long been ignored,” he continued. “One of the issues is that the people who study motor control are not the same ones who study perception. They attend different conferences, they publish in different journals—but they should be talking!”
It's only a matter of time until helicopter parents start timing their kids' saccades to decide whether they belong in little league or theater.
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Two men claiming to be newly appointed Trump administration officials tried to enter the US Copyright Office in Washington, DC, on Monday, but left before gaining access to the building, sources tell WIRED. Their appearance comes days after the White House fired the director of the copyright office, Shira Perlmutter, who had held the job since 2020. Perlmutter was removed from her post on Saturday, one day after the agency released a report that raised concerns about the legality in certain cases of using copyrighted materials to train artificial intelligence.
A source familiar with the matter tells WIRED that the two men who tried to enter the Copyright Office showed security at the building a document stating that they had been appointed by the White House to new roles within the office. The source identified the men as Brian Nieves, who claimed he was the new deputy librarian, and Paul Perkins, who said he was the new acting director of the Copyright Office, as well as acting register. It is unclear whether the men accurately identified themselves.
There is an official with the name Brian Nieves currently employed as deputy chief of staff at the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, and a Paul Perkins is currently employed as an associate deputy attorney general at the Department of Justice, according to their LinkedIn profiles. The Department of Justice and the White House did not immediately respond to questions from WIRED about whether the two officials had been appointed to work in the Copyright Office.
Sources told WIRED that Capitol Police prevented the men from entering the copyright office, but a spokesperson for the law enforcement agency denied that officers escorted anyone out or denied them entry.
The US Copyright Office is a government agency within the Library of Congress that administers the nation's copyright laws. It processes applications to copyright creative works and maintains a searchable database of existing registrations. Last week, the Trump administration also fired the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, who was the first woman and the first Black person to hold the position.
The document the two men cited also stated that deputy attorney general Todd Blanche, who previously served as a personal defense lawyer for Trump, was now the acting Librarian of Congress. The Department of Justice announced Monday that Blanche would be replacing Hayden, who had been in the job for nearly a decade. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Hayden's firing stemmed from “quite concerning things she had done at the Library of Congress in pursuit of DEI.”
The Trump Administration has not commented so far on why Perlmutter was fired. Some lawmakers have speculated that her ouster is connected to the report on copyright and AI that her office had released. “Donald Trump's termination of the Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, is a brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis,” Representative Joe Morelle, the top Democrat on the committee that oversees the Library of Congress, said in a statement on Saturday. “It is surely no coincidence he acted less than a day after she refused to rubber-stamp Elon Musk's efforts to mine troves of copyrighted works to train AI models.”
The 108-page report was a “pre-publication” version, which means it wasn't yet finalized. It is not customary for the US Copyright Office to release this type of document, according to copyright lawyer Aaron Moss. The report was highly anticipated in Silicon Valley, as a number of big tech companies are currently embroiled in dozens of court battles over the legality of their approach to training AI tools on copyrighted materials.
In most of these cases, the AI companies are arguing that fair use doctrine makes it legal for them to train on copyrighted materials without permission. The report holds that the fair use doctrine may indeed shield some use cases—but not necessarily all. “Making commercial use of vast troves of copyrighted works to produce expressive content that competes with them in existing markets, especially where this is accomplished through illegal access, goes beyond established fair use boundaries,” it reads.
The New York Times is suing OpenAI for copyright infringement for using its work to train tools like ChatGPT. Times spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander said in a statement that using copyrighted material to generate content that competes with original works “is not fair use.”
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A failed Venus mission fell from the sky over the weekend after aimlessly orbiting Earth for the past 53 years. Various agencies closely monitored Kosmos 482's reentry, but its exact landing site remains unknown due to conflicting reports.
Kosmos 482 performed an uncontrolled reentry on Saturday, May 10, plunging through Earth's atmosphere around 2:24 a.m. ET, according to Russia's space agency, Roscosmos. The Soviet-era spacecraft was built to withstand the scorching temperatures of Venus, so it's likely that parts of it survived the heat of atmospheric reentry before crashing on Earth. So far, however, there have been no reports of visual observations of Kosmos' descent nor has there been recovery of its debris from the ocean.
Roscosmos said that the Soviet-era spacecraft splashed down in the Indian Ocean west of Jakarta, Indonesia, around 350 miles (560 kilometers) west of Middle Andaman Island. The European Space Agency (ESA) also monitored the probe's descent, placing its reentry time at 2:16 a.m. ET. ESA failed to spot the spacecraft over Germany for an expected pass that was supposed to take place at 3:32 a.m. ET, and therefore stated that the reentry had most likely already occurred. The U.S. Space Force, on the other hand, places the spacecraft's reentry between 1:20 a.m. and 1:44 a.m. ET.
Without a confirmed time of reentry, it is hard to pinpoint where exactly the spacecraft may have ended up on Earth, or whether it burned up in the atmosphere. Keep in mind, this object was moving at roughly 17,500 miles per hour (28,000 kilometers per hour), so even a one-second difference can shift the landing zone to a considerable degree.
Kosmos 482 launched on March 31, 1972 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome spaceport in what is now Kazakhstan. The mission was an attempt by the Soviet space program to reach Venus, but it failed to reach enough velocity to enter a transfer trajectory toward the scorching hot planet. A malfunction caused the Kosmos 482 spacecraft to perform an engine burn that failed to reach Venus's orbit, according to NASA. Since then, the spacecraft has been stuck in an elliptical orbit around Earth. Over time, however, atmospheric drag took its toll on Kosmos 482, eventually leading to its predicted plunge through Earth's atmosphere this past week.
After failing to reach Venus, the spacecraft broke apart into four different pieces, with two of the smaller fragments reentering over Ashburton, New Zealand, two days after its launch. The two remaining pieces are a carrier bus and a lander probe, which together form a spherical pressure vessel weighing more than 1,000 pounds (495 kilograms). The spacecraft was also outfitted with a 27-square-foot (2.5-square-meter) parachute to slow it down during its descent toward the Venusian surface. Recent images of Kosmos 482 revealed what may be its parachute flapping around in orbit while attached to the spacecraft, but it is unlikely that it would have done its job during its descent toward Earth.
With Saturday's reentry, the saga of Kosmos 482 finally came to an end, but questions remain about where the spacecraft ended up and what condition it may have landed in. The old Venusian probe may be in one piece at the bottom of the ocean, or its remains may have burned up during its much-delayed descent on the wrong planet.
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The recoverable spacecraft reentered off the coast of Brazil in the Atlantic Ocean instead of the Indian Ocean, and therefore could not be recovered.
A proposed mission seeks to retrieve Vanguard-1 and display it as an ancient relic of the space age.
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Saudi Arabia's ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, launched an AI company called Humain to bolster the country's artificial intelligence sector. The company plans to build out the country's AI infrastructure, including the construction of data centers.
This news arrives as Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and Mark Zuckerberg are expected to attend a U.S.-Saudi investment forum on Tuesday, where AI will likely take center stage. President Trump is also preparing to visit the country this week as part of a tour of the region.
Humain is funded by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), which manages assets worth around $940 billion and is part of the Crown Prince's ambitions to diversify his country's finances beyond the lucrative oil industry.
American tech giants have looked to the wealthy PIF as a source of capital. Companies like Google and Salesforce have also recently worked with the PIF on AI-related projects and investments.
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Matthew LaBrot, a Tesla employee who created the website Tesla Employees Against Elon Musk, was fired from the company two weeks ago. LaBrot claimed in a LinkedIn post that he was terminated for having created the site, and because he was part of a larger group of employees who publicly asked Elon Musk to resign from the company.
Tesla has faced several crises this year—major recalls, declining sales, litigation, and a volatile stock price, to name a few. Sales of the cars declined for the first time in more than a decade in 2024, and were down again by 13% in the first quarter of 2025. In Europe, the company's troubles are especially pronounced with a nearly 50 percent sales decline in Germany last month and France seeing a similar 59 percent drop in the same period.
Tesla has blamed falling sales on the release of a new Model Y, the company's best-selling model. On their Q1 2025 earnings call last month, the company explained that there simply weren't “enough of the new Model Y available in most markets” at the beginning of the year to make a positive impact on sales.
Not so, say the employees behind the letter, who signed off as “Tesla Employees for a New Chapter.” They argue that Tesla's troubles are not due to missteps in Model Y production, but rather to the public reputation of the company's polarizing CEO, Elon Musk. “Let's be clear: we are not the problem. Our products are not the problem. Our engineering, service, and delivery teams are not the problem. The problem is demand. The problem is Elon.”
It's worth noting that Tesla itself made a similar statement on its earnings call last month, conceding somewhat hilariously that “unwanted hostility towards our brand and our people had an impact [on sales] in certain markets.”
This assessment jibes with expert analysis, much of which has blamed Tesla's struggling sales on its CEO's recent foray into right-wing politics. Last year, Musk donated at least $288 million to help elect Donald Trump and other republican candidates to office. And as a special advisor to President Trump, Musk has spent much of his 2025 at the helm of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), home to the administration's efforts to dramatically cut (and falsely boast about cutting) government spending.
In early 2025, Musk's participation in politics sparked a grassroots protest movement called Tesla Takedown, which has rallied demonstrators at Tesla showrooms and charging stations around the country. And while it has since recovered some losses, the company's stock price plummeted at the beginning of the year. Through mid-March, the company's share price had dropped by 38% since the beginning of 2025.
Amid pressure from investors, Musk announced on Tesla's Q1 earnings call that he'd be stepping back from his work in Washington to spend more time at the company.
In their open letter, Tesla Employees for a New Chapter called Musk's decision “tone-deaf” and “insulting.” “It implies that the hardships of the past six months stem from a lack of his attention, not from his actions. It shifts the blame onto the very people who have held this company together,” they continued.
According to his LinkedIn, LaBrot worked in “Sales and Delivery Training” at Tesla and had been with the company for more than five years before his dismissal.
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The cuts have done clear harm with barely any good to show for it.
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In early May, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that it would split up the agency's main arm devoted to scientific research. According to a report from NPR, scientists at the 1,500-person Office of Research and Development were told to apply to roughly 500 new scientific research positions that would be sprinkled into other areas of the agency—and to expect further cuts to their organization in the weeks to come.
This reorganization threatens the existence of a tiny but crucial program housed within this office: the Integrated Risk Information System Program, commonly referred to as IRIS. This program is responsible for providing independent research on the risks of chemicals, helping other offices within the agency set regulations for chemicals and compounds that could pose a danger to human health. The program's leader departed recently, ahead of the restructuring announcement.
The EPA's reorganization, experts say, will likely break up this crucial program—which has been targeted for decades by the chemical industry and right-wing interests.
“Unfortunately, right now, it looks like the polluters won,” says Thomas Burke, the founder and emeritus director of the Johns Hopkins Risk Sciences and Public Policy Institute and a former deputy assistant administrator of the EPA's Office of Research and Development.
“The May 2 announcement is all part of a larger, comprehensive effort to restructure the entire agency,” EPA spokesperson Molly Vaseliou told WIRED in an email. “EPA is working expeditiously through the reorganization process and will provide additional information when it's available.”
Formed in the mid-1980s, the IRIS program was designed to investigate the health impacts of chemicals, collating the best available research from across the world to provide analyses of potential hazards from new and existing substances. The program confers with other offices within the EPA to identify top chemicals of concern that merit further research and study.
Unlike other offices in the EPA, the IRIS program has no regulatory responsibilities; rather, it exists solely to provide science on which to base potential new regulations. Experts say this insulates IRIS-produced assessments from outside pressures that could influence research done in other areas of the agency.
“There's independence” in being in a centralized program like IRIS, says Jennifer Orme-Zavaleta, also a former principal deputy assistant administrator of the Office of Research and Development and a former EPA science adviser. “They're not trying to evaluate risk for a specific purpose. They're just evaluating risk and providing fundamental information.”
Since its inception, IRIS has created a database of more than 570 chemicals and compounds with assessments of their potential human health effects. This body of research underpins not just federal policy, but helps guide state and international regulations as well.
The IRIS database is the “gold standard for health assessments for chemical pollutants,” says Burke. “Virtually all of our regulated pollutants, virtually all of our cleanups, virtually all of our major successes in regulating toxic chemicals were touched by IRIS or the IRIS staff.”
Yet IRIS has faced a significant uphill battle in recent years. For one, there's the sheer number of chemicals it has had to review with limited manpower. There are more than 80,000 chemicals that have been registered for use in the US, and chemical companies register hundreds more each year. Some of the chemicals IRIS is working to research have been substances of concern for years, while some have more recently drawn new scrutiny. For instance, forever chemicals—synthetic materials so named because of their persistence in the environment—have been in use for decades, but their recent prevalence in tests of water and soil prompted IRIS in 2019 to begin creating draft assessments for five common types of these chemicals.
Opposition from industry has also bogged down IRIS reviews. The very existence of the IRIS program, experts say, threatens many crucial chemicals used by a variety of industries. A new IRIS assessment finding that a specific chemical that's been in use for years is carcinogenic, for instance, could hamper industries that rely on that chemical if the EPA decides to pass new regulation. Chemical companies and lobbying groups have waged a long battle against the IRIS program, using various tactics—including introducing opposing research produced by paid consulting groups—to downplay the program's findings and delay assessments. In 2018, for instance, The Intercept reported that an environmental consulting company that counts chemical giants among its clients challenged an IRIS assessment of chloroprene, a chemical used in rubber production. The program was forced to use resources and staff time putting together an extensive response defending its analysis.
“‘Hate the policy, attack the science' became a strategy for many major industries,” says Burke. “They learned that the delay game of attacking the science led to the delay of implementing regulation.”
President Donald Trump's first administration also tried to attack IRIS. A 2018 Senate appropriations bill suggested eliminating IRIS's independence by folding it into another program within the EPA. IRIS also faced challenges from new leadership inside the EPA, including Nancy Beck, a former policy director at the American Chemistry Council (ACC), the main lobbying arm for the chemical industry, who oversaw the EPA's office of chemical regulation between 2017 and 2020. Yet Congress eventually chose to fund the program that year, and the general structure of IRIS survived past the first Trump administration.
But with such a long track record of opposition—and with Trump's second administration ripping up entire agencies—it's perhaps unsurprising that IRIS is on the chopping block now. The program was singled out twice in Project 2025. IRIS has also been attacked by legislation introduced in Congress this session, called the No IRIS Act. A press release for the House bill quotes the CEO of ACC, who also authored an op-ed in the Washington Examiner in March calling on the agency to eliminate the program.
In a separate press release issued last week, the ACC lauded EPA administrator Lee Zeldin's choice to reorganize the agency. While the EPA has made no public comment about the future of the IRIS program, the press release devotes two paragraphs to IRIS, claiming that the program's assessments “jeopardize access to critical chemistries, undercut national priorities, and harm American competitiveness,” while asserting the ACC's support for the No IRIS Act.
“The IRIS program has never been authorized by Congress, and since 2009 the program has remained on the [Government Accountability Office's] High-Risk List, which identifies government programs that are vulnerable to fraud, waste, abuse, or mismanagement,” the ACC press release states. But in the original High-Risk List addition in 2009, the GAO stated that it added IRIS not over concerns of fraud or abuse, but because the program was not working through analyses of harmful chemicals fast enough to protect the public. “Some of the IRIS assessments that have been in progress the longest cover key chemicals likely to cause cancer or other significant health effects,” the 2009 listing states. Several reforms since then, the GAO report states, have improved the program. GAO's current critiques of IRIS, updated in 2025, focus mainly around a lack of staff and budget needed to speed up reviews.
Tom Flanagin, a spokesperson from the American Chemistry Council, told WIRED in an email that the group believes “the IRIS program should be disbanded and the responsibilities of the program should be returned to the program offices” and that Congress should pass the No IRIS Act.
“IRIS assessments jeopardize access to critical chemistries, undercut national priorities, and harm American competitiveness,” Flanagin added.
If IRIS is eliminated, experts say, EPA research on toxic chemicals will continue—but the work will likely be siloed to offices dealing with specific aspects of the environment. Instead of a central body coordinating independent reviews, individual offices will have to do more targeted assessments of chemical impacts.
“If Office of Water wants to look at a chemical like arsenic, and the [Office of Air and Radiation] is also looking at arsenic, and Superfund is also looking at arsenic—they could come up with different numbers, and that could set up a vulnerability for the agency,” says Orme-Zavaleta.
Research on chemicals will now also be loaded onto a reduced workforce of scientists working under an administration with new priorities. While significantly slashing the agency's budget, Zeldin has said he intends to put EPA staff to work clearing the backlog of new industrial chemicals and pesticides awaiting approval in the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. That office is now headed, once again, by Beck, the former ACC policy director, who helped rewrite rules making it more difficult to track the health consequences of certain forever chemicals during her first tenure at the EPA.
“Your attack on Dr. Beck is insulting and unfounded,” Vaseliou, the EPA spokesperson, told WIRED. “This is yet another example of false accusations that left propaganda also known as media take as gospel. It's fascinating that the liberal media continues to mischaracterize Dr. Beck's time at ACC, fails to mention her time as a career civil servant (at both the state and federal level for over a decade) and fails to mention that she was a Science and Technology Policy Fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Science for two years, a program that is typically considered to be highly competitive and highly regarded.”
“As she has done her entire career, Dr. Beck remains committed to being led by the science, unlike Biden EPA appointees with major ethical issues that were beholden to radical stakeholder groups,” Vaseliou added.
Regardless of how research is reorganized moving forward, experts say that the mass of scientists being forced out of the agency will slow down any future regulation of chemicals.
“Nothing is getting regulated right now,” says Orme-Zavaleta. “Reorganization takes a lot of time. They're here for a four-year stint, and not much is going to happen other than rollbacks. That's part of the strategy: Have people leave, and upend things so much that nothing is getting done.”
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While the possibility of life beyond Earth has long captivated the public, there are already tiny organisms on our own planet that are as alien to us as anything we've imagined.
These microbes are found in places once thought inhospitable to life, such as inside volcanoes, underneath the Earth's crust in the deep sea, or in the Arctic permafrost. Not only are they surviving in these harsh environments, they're doing so in ways that challenge basic principles of biology scientists thought were firmly established.
Karen Lloyd, a microbial biogeochemist at the University of Southern California, has been studying these subsurface organisms for much of her life. In her new book, Intraterrestrials: Discovering the Strangest Life on Earth, she takes readers on a guided tour of her own work and that of others, exploring what makes these microbes tick.
Gizmodo spoke to Lloyd about the discoveries scientists like her have made to date, the enduring mysteries about these earthly aliens, and why trying to understand them is so important. The following conversation may have been lightly edited for grammar and clarity.
Ed Cara, Gizmodo: What led you down this research path in the first place?
Karen Lloyd: I was really into chemistry as an undergraduate, and just the sort of mysteriousness of chemistry is honestly where I got my start. But then I was headed to chemistry grad school and it just felt too narrow. I just needed—I knew there was a way to do this science out in nature somewhere. And the way to do that was oceanography because that's a place, not a discipline. I chose oceanography so that I wouldn't have to choose between biology, physics, chemistry, and geology. I have to do them all.
Then just by happenstance, there was a lab that was looking at these microbes that were isolated from the deep sea. And I didn't know going into it that there was this world of deep life. Obviously, no one knows it until you're told. But when I found out it was there, I was like, ‘Okay, this is a place where I can use all these tools, these basic fundamental tools, to find out new discoveries about biology.' And from there, I was hooked.
Gizmodo: What makes these life forms stranger than the life we're used to seeing and studying up top?
Lloyd: One of the biggest things that immediately jumps out at you is that these things are on deep branches on the tree of life. So we might think that a slug is on a very different branch of the tree of life from like a kitty cat. But we're talking about the slug and the kitty cat collapsing into the same branch compared to all these new types of microbes. I mean there are things that we never could have guessed—that life was as varied on Earth as we now know that it is. They're just so different evolutionarily from everything that we see with our eyes.
Gizmodo: How are they reshaping some of the rules that we thought we had worked out about life?
Lloyd: We've always known that there's such a thing as life without oxygen. There are a lot of places that are free of oxygen, like life inside our guts. That's not new. But the idea that you can have an entire ecosystem that never needs oxygen and never needs the influence of plant matter, for instance; that can basically just exist solely on chemical reactions coming from inside the Earth—that's new. That's what we're learning with these guys.
Gizmodo: It feels like this field has only barely begun. What are some of the biggest questions left to solve about their biology?
Lloyd: The biggest questions left are still very basic fundamental questions.
I mean, a lot of what we know is inferred from these highly specialized techniques that we have to use to get at them. You know, it's not real. You can't just walk up to them like you can a tree and be like, ‘Okay, that's got roots. I know what it's doing.'
So we're still asking questions like, who all is there? And what are they doing? What are they eating? What role do they play on Earth? How do they interact with metals? What role do they play in the development of Earth's evolution over time?
Gizmodo: This is your life's work obviously. But what's the latest project or research that you're spearheading right now?
Lloyd: Yeah, I just got back from New Zealand. They have an amazing subduction zone. That's where two tectonic plates are overlapping each other. And that process creates volcanoes, but it also creates this sort of like alchemic mixture that enables these subsurface communities to take hold. So we drove all over New Zealand, sampled a lot of land and worked with local folks. It's just really fun to do this work, just on a human level as well.
Gizmodo: What would you like our readers to most take away from reading your book?
Lloyd: I hope that people feel a sense of hope and possibility. One can imagine that you could get stuck thinking that all science is known or that the questions are small because we've tackled all the big ones. That there's nothing left to explore. We know where all the continents are. We've pretty much got a handle on how many planetary bodies we have in the solar system. But that's just the beginning.
There's a whole world underneath our feet, for example. Not that there aren't mysteries in those other places too, but we are just tapping into this stuff. So I hope that people leave with a sense of hope and possibility at all the amazing things we have left to learn about life here.
Intraterrestrials: Discovering the Strangest Life on Earth is set to be released on May 13 by Princeton University Press.
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Seems unintuitive, but the mounting list of lifeless planets might be exactly what scientists need to figure out how common life is in the universe.
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It sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but it actually comes from a lab in Maryland.
In 2018, Liangbing Hu, a materials scientist at the University of Maryland, devised a way to turn ordinary wood into a material stronger than steel. It seemed like yet another headline-grabbing discovery that wouldn't make it out of the lab.
“All these people came to him,” said Alex Lau, CEO of InventWood, “He's like, OK, this is amazing, but I'm a university professor. I don't know quite what to do about it.”
Rather than give up, Hu spent the next few years refining the technology, reducing the time it took to make the material from more than a week to a few hours. Soon, it was ready to commercialize, and he licensed the technology to InventWood.
Now, the startup's first batches of Superwood will be produced starting this summer.
“Right now, coming out of this first-of-a-kind commercial plant — so it's a smaller plant — we're focused on skin applications,” Lau said. “Eventually we want to get to the bones of the building. Ninety percent of the carbon impact from buildings is concrete and steel in the construction of the building.”
To build the factory, InventWood has raised $15 million in the first close of a Series A round. The round was led by the Grantham Foundation with participation from Baruch Future Ventures, Builders VC, and Muus Climate Partners, the company exclusively told TechCrunch.
InventWood's Superwood product starts with regular timber, which is mostly composed of two compounds, cellulose and lignin. The goal is to strengthen the cellulose already present in the wood. “The cellulose nanocrystal is actually stronger than a carbon fiber,” Lau said.
The company treats it with “food industry” chemicals to modify the lignin in the wood, he said, and then compresses the result to increase the hydrogen bonds between cellulose molecules.
“We might densify the material by 4x and you might think, ‘Oh, it'll be four times strong, because it has four times the fiber.' But it's actually more like 10 times stronger because of all these extra bonds that get created,” Lau said.
The result is a material that has 50% more tensile strength than steel with a strength-to-weight ratio that's 10 times better, the company said. It's also Class A fire rated, or highly resistant to flame, and resistant to rot and pests. With some polymer impregnated, it can be stabilized for outdoor use like siding, decking, or roofing. InventWood's first products will be facade materials for commercial and high-end residential buildings, Lau said.
Compressing the material also concentrates the colors. “You end up with something that looks like these richer, tropical hardwoods,” he added.
Ultimately, InventWood is planning to use wood chips to create structural beams of any dimension that won't need finishing. “Imagine your I-beams look like this,” Lau said, holding up a sample of Superwood. “They're beautiful, like walnut, ipe. These are the natural colors. We haven't stained any of this.”
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Senator Tom Cotton's legislation seeks to "prevent advanced American chips from falling into the hands of adversaries like Communist China."
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Last week, a U.S. congressman announced a plan to introduce a bill that would mandate producers of high-performance AI processors to track them geographically in a bid to limit their usage by unauthorized foreign actors, such as China. Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas then introduced a legislative measure later in the week. The bill covers hardware that goes way beyond just AI processors, and would give the Commerce Secretary power to verify the location of hardware, and put mandatory location controls on commercial companies. To make matters even more complicated, geo-tracking features would be required for high-performance graphics cards as well.
The bill covers a wide range of products classified as 3A090, 4A090, 4A003.z, and 3A001.z export control classification numbers (ECCNs), so advanced processors for AI, AI servers (including rack-scale solutions), HPC servers, and general-purpose electronics of strategic concern due to potential military utility or dual-use risk. It should be noted that many high-end graphics cards (such as Nvidia's GeForce RTX 4090 and RTX 5090) are also classified as a 3A090 product, so it looks like such add-in-boards will also have to add geo-tracking capabilities.
The first and central provision of the bill is the requirement for tracking technology to be embedded in any high-end processor module or device that falls under the U.S. export restrictions. This condition would take effect six months after the legislation is enacted, which will make the lives of companies like AMD, Intel, and Nvidia harder, as adding a feature to already developed products is a tough task. The mechanism must allow verification of a chip's or device's physical location, enabling the U.S. government to confirm whether it remains at the approved endpoint. Yet, exporters would be obliged to keep track of their products.
The bill authorizes the Secretary of Commerce to verify the ownership and location of regulated processors and systems after export and maintain a centralized registry of current locations and end-users. Nvidia, as well as other exporters, would also be obligated to inform the Bureau of Industry and Security if there is evidence that a component has been redirected from its authorized destination. Additionally, any indications of tampering or manipulation must be reported.
The bill, if supported by lawmakers, will mandate a one-year study to be conducted jointly by the Department of Commerce and the Department of Defense, which will identify additional protective measures that could be introduced in the future. Beyond the initial study, the same two departments are required to conduct yearly assessments for three consecutive years following the bill's enactment. These reviews must evaluate the most current advancements in security technologies applicable to products under export control. Based on these assessments, the departments may determine whether new requirements should be imposed.
If the assessment concludes that additional mechanisms are appropriate, the Commerce Department must finalize rules within two years requiring covered chips and systems to incorporate these secondary features. A detailed implementation roadmap must also be submitted to the relevant congressional committees. All development and deployment of these mechanisms must preserve the confidentiality of sensitive commercial technologies.
Finally, the legislation emphasizes confidentiality in all stages of developing and applying these new technical requirements. Any proposed safeguards or tracking features must be designed and implemented in a way that protects the proprietary information and trade secrets of American developers, such as AMD, Intel, and Nvidia. This condition ensures that while national security is strengthened, industrial competitiveness is not undermined.
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Also, the senator takes into account the lengthy development cycle of AI and HPC processors. While the goal is to tighten security (which is why chip developers will be obliged to add location tracking to their products six months after the bill's enactment), the structure of the bill deliberately stretches out decision-making and compliance timelines to accommodate industry realities. The call for gradual adoption of future safeguards acknowledges the slow pace of chip development cycles, meaning that full compliance could take years depending on what mechanisms are eventually required. Meanwhile, annual export control reform recommendations may introduce further changes or exceptions over time, adding to the complexity.
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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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On a distant planet in a future where space travel through wormholes is routine—and corny soap operas are considered “premium entertainment”—surveyors make a discovery that would surely be deadly, if not for the Security Unit they've reluctantly brought with them. That's Murderbot, Apple TV+'s latest sci-fi venture, which layers that premise with many nuances, delights, shocks, and multidimensional characters, including the robot.
Especially the robot. Alexander Skarsgård, who also executive produces, stars as the sentient construct made partially of metal, partially of cloned organic materials. The humans on the survey team are initially unaware it's secretly named itself “Murderbot,” so they call it “SecUnit.” They're also initially unaware that SecUnit is curious enough to have hacked its own “governor module,” the part of its programming that makes it have to obey all human commands, and is therefore completely rogue.
However, Murderbot still takes direction, albeit while grumbling in sarcastic voice-overs about how very weird humans are. It would much rather spend its time binging the thousands of hours of media it's downloaded—the viewer is treated to frequent glimpses of its favorite show, the hilariously lurid Star Trek riff The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon—than doing its actual job. But it has realized, much to its surprise, that these particular humans are actually… not terrible.
As Murderbot shows us in a way that gently pokes fun (but is never mean-spirited), hippies find a way to persist even in an era where much of existence is beholden to the cold, greedy laws of “the Company.” Somehow, they're a beacon of feel-good vibes in a system that gets by on cynicism and cruelty. Though the group hails from Preservation Alliance, a rare independent planet, they still must comply with the all-powerful corporation that won't permit their survey mission unless they rent the required equipment. Since they're on a budget, they go for the most cost-efficient choices, including a recently refurbished older-model SecUnit.
To Murderbot's surprise, these “idiots” consider it to be a person, an actual member of the team. That belief is further justified once they see its rather human-looking face, and realize there's something resembling a personality lurking beneath all that awkwardness and disdain. As SecUnit gets to know them, and steps up to protect them again and again, Murderbot finds a way into exploring larger questions about the differences between humans and machines, and the idea that self-awareness can have quite the learning curve no matter what material you're made from.
Murderbot‘s casting is impeccable, so all praise to creators, writers, directors, and executive producers Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz and their team for assembling this group; along with Skarsgård, it's headed up by Noma Dumezweni as even-tempered (but prone to panic attacks) team leader Dr. Mensah and David Dastmalchian as augmented human Dr. Gurathin, who's distrustful of Murderbot from the start. The rest of the crew includes Sabrina Wu, Akshay Khanna, Tattiawna Jones, and Tamara Podemski, whose characters have palpably close relationships even before the mission begins.
Murderbot is based on Martha Wells' Hugo- and Nebula-winning Murderbot Diaries book series, but it specifically hews to the plot of All Systems Red, the 2017 novella that introduced Murderbot to the world. The adaptation is quite faithful though there are some understandable changes. The show obviously leans on voice-over to let the audience in on Murderbot's ongoing internal dialogue (his disgusted reactions help propel the series' wry sense of humor). A few characters are missing. And a few plot points are altered in ways that make the show's central mystery more visually dynamic.
Oh yeah, that's right: Murderbot is also a mystery. Very soon after they arrive, the team realizes all is not what it seems on that distant planet. The pieces come together in a suspenseful yet fast-paced way—most episodes hover around 25 minutes and end on cliffhangers—as Murderbot and the humans become determined to outwit a murky yet obviously powerful threat.
No plot spoilers here, but it's entirely worth pointing out that while the sci-fi thrills are a lot of fun, Murderbot‘s true pleasures come from its characters. Dumezweni is wonderful as the kind-hearted boss who treats everyone like family, but can and will step up to kick ass when needed; Dastmalchian has his best role since Late Night With the Devil, this time as a man who's overcome hell to find a safe place on Mensah's team, and isn't about to let a heavily armed and probably untrustworthy robot jeopardize that.
Best of all, though, is Skarsgård. He makes Murderbot both physically imposing and completely nerdy, balancing thoughtful internal monologues with deadpan reactions and swift, violent action. Murderbot's Sanctuary Moon addiction may be a source of comedy, but the show and the performer also tap into it very cleverly, showing how absorbing trashy TV has actually taught it a great deal of emotional maturity—not to mention providing crack solutions to real-world problems.
Murderbot‘s first two episodes arrive May 16 on Apple TV+, followed by a weekly rollout.
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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Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz also discussed their close collaborations with star Alexander Skarsgård and Murderbot Diaries author Martha Wells.
Sci-fi is full of evil robots and sinister AI—but even a dystopian future can have room for optimism.
Creators Chris and Paul Weitz had a lot of fun bringing SecUnit's particular pop culture tastes to their Apple TV+ show.
Chris and Paul Weitz worked closely with Murderbot Diaries author Martha Wells to adapt her series for Apple TV+.
Alexander Skarsgård stars in Apple TV+'s sci-fi comedy series based on the Martha Wells books.
Apple TV+'s sci-fi comedy series based on the book series from Martha Wells debuts May 16.
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Samsung has just announced the launch of its brand new Odyssey OLED G6, the world's first 500Hz gaming monitor.
First unveiled at CES 2025, the Samsung Odyssey OLED G6 joins the company's already-stacked roster of gaming panels and gives even the Asus ROG Swift PG27AQDP a run for its money as the best gaming monitor on the market when it comes to refresh rate.
As announced by Samsung, the Odyssey OLED G6 is launching in four countries, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia, with a phased rollout to additional global markets "later this year."
Of course, the headline feature is the 500Hz refresh rate, but there's also a 0.03ms response time (GTG) and QHD resolution, VESA Display HDR True Black 500 HDR, and HDR10+ Gaming.
The flat 27-inch panel comes with DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.1, and USB ports aplenty. You'll also find Samsung's Glare Free technology, which it says makes your screen 54% less glossy than conventional film.
Currently available in Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia, the Samsung Odyssey OLED G6 G60SF QHD can be bought from Samsung for around $1,300 US, althou there's currently a $200 saving in local currency according to its website.
Users wary of OLED burn-in will be delighted to learn that the G6 features Samsung's Pulsating Heat Pipe technology to reduce panel heat, as well as a Thermal Modulation System to automatically control brightness, and logo and taskbar detection. Samsung's burn-in warranty contains the usual boilerplate mentions of normal usage being covered within warranty, but no commercial, abuse, or misuse.
Peak brightness is rated for 1,000 nits, and you'll also find Samsung's Glare Free Technology, a height-adjustable stand, tilt, swivel, and pivot adjustments. There's also support for NVIDIA G-Sync
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The monitor is available in one color, silver, with a metal design rather than a plastic backing. As noted, Samsung hasn't shared any further details about a global rollout, so there's no official US pricing or timeframe at this point.
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Stephen is Tom's Hardware's News Editor with almost a decade of industry experience covering technology, having worked at TechRadar, iMore, and even Apple over the years. He has covered the world of consumer tech from nearly every angle, including supply chain rumors, patents, and litigation, and more. When he's not at work, he loves reading about history and playing video games.
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Summer is just around the corner, and there's no better time to prepare for outdoor excursions, picnics, and sunny afternoons. If you want to listen to your favorite songs outdoors without the hassle of cables or complicated setups, you should just grab the JBL Clip 5 speaker and today, Amazon is offering it for a record low price price of just $49 : this deal tops the masive Black Friday price cut, and provides you with 38% off the regular $79 fee.
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With JBL Pro Sound technology, this very portable speaker plays crisp, dynamic sound complete with thumping bass that defies its small size. Whether streaming your playlist with buddies or enjoying a solo podcast session, the sound quality is really good for a speaker that you can so easily tote around in the palm of your hand. The redesigned carabiner has a generous opening which makes it simple to clip the speaker onto your backpack or belt loop. That way, your music never deserts you all day, wherever your adventures take you.
You will also love the battery life: On a single charge, it offers up to 12 hours of straight playtime with an optional Playtime Boost that gives you up to 3 extra hours when you need them. This is perfect for all-day beach day or hiking adventure. Charging is easy via USB-C, so you waste less time tied up to a power source and more time jamming out to tunes.
You'll also enjoy the fact that is is waterproof and dustproof with an IP67 rating and it can withstand rain, splashes and even sand without missing a beat. At the pool, the beach, or during a light rain shower, this speaker is designed to keep playing through it all.
The Bluetooth 5.3 connection of the speaker offers a strong wireless link to your tablet or phone: In addition, you can have multipoint connection so that you and your friend take turns playing music. For more sound, you can pair two Clip 5 speakers for stereo sound or use multiple JBL Auracast speakers to fill any room with deep, engaging sound.
For just $49, this super-portable Bluetooth speaker is a bargain (and it matches Black Friday prices!). Don't miss this deal while supplies last!
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If you're searching for a business laptop that delivers really good performance without draining your wallet, the Dell Latitude 5550 is a deal you won't want to miss. Right now, this 15-inch machine (32GB DDR5 RAM, 1TB PCIe SSD, Intel 12-Core Ultra 5 135U) is available on Amazon at a record low price, slashed by more than 50% down to just $1,099 from its original $2,299. If you need serious computing power, Dell has always been a reliable choice.
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The Dell Latitude 5550 is made for demanding users who need speed, reliability, and flexibility. At its core is the Intel Core Ultra 5 135U processor which is a 12-core powerhouse with 14 threads and a maximum turbo frequency of 4.3 GHz. This chip outpaces the popular i7-1355U in benchmarks and integrates advanced AI accelerators which is ideal for multitasking and business applications. Paired with 32GB of fast DDR5 RAM, you'll experience seamless performance.
It also comes with a 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD, so you will get lightning-fast boot times, rapid file transfers and ample space for all your documents. The 15.6-inch Full HD IPS display offers very good visuals and wide viewing angles while its anti-glare coating ensures comfortable use even in bright office environments. The display's 250-nit brightness and 45% NTSC color coverage make it suitable for any tasks.
The Dell laptop is equipped with two Thunderbolt 4 ports (which support high-speed data transfer), DisplayPort Alt Mode, USB4, and power delivery. Additional ports include USB 3.2 Gen 1 with PowerShare, HDMI 2.1, RJ-45 Ethernet, a universal audio jack and a microSD card slot. This versatility makes the Latitude 5550 ready for any office setup or on-the-go scenario. Oh and by the way, you'll also get a free mouse.
The laptop features a fingerprint reader for quick and secure logins, Dell's Control Vault 3+ for advanced hardware-based security, and a backlit keyboard with a numeric keypad for comfortable typing in any lighting condition. Windows 11 Pro comes pre-installed on the laptop and provides advanced productivity and security features tailored for business users. Keep in mind that you'll have to subscribe to Microsoft Office 2024, or download Microsoft 365 (yearly plan) to get the popular Microsoft productivity suite.
Don't miss this chance to get one of the best Windows laptops at a massive discount: it will run out of stock very soon.
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Talk about GPU inflation
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If you thought standard RTX 5090 GPUs were expensive, brace yourself for a variant that's literally draped in gold. Listings for the Asus' premier ROG Astral RTX 5090 Dhahab Edition have surfaced at a handful of Middle Eastern retailers, which are commanding upwards of $10,600 for the GPU, via VideoCardz. Would you rather have the opulent gold-plated RTX 5090 from Asus, or a standard RTX 5090 plus a significant chunk of change left over for a nice vacation or a used car?
Asus took the wraps off this Middle-Eastern exclusive GPU in early February, notably without specifying any MSRPs. But let's be honest, which retailer adheres to MSRPs these days? Standing out as the flagship lineup, ROG Astral is a new GPU sub-brand that Asus introduced with the RTX 50 series. With a suite of added features such as the ability to monitor per-pin current to prevent connector meltdowns, Asus recommends a $3,099 MSRP for its Astral GPUs. It's pretty obvious the Dhahab Edition, which means Gold in Arabic, isn't going to be kind on your wallet.
Across various regions, the ROG Astral RTX 5090 Dhahab Edition has been listed ranging from $6,700 to $10,600. Design-wise, the GPU predominantly offers a gold aesthetic, featuring a quad-fan cooling solution. Even the markings on the fan are tinted in gold. Symbolizing the Arabic culture, the GPU includes subtle illustrations of skyscrapers, camels, and Arabic calligraphy. It comes in a massive 3.8-slot design, with OC boost clock speeds of 2.61 GHz, though based on our testing, real-world frequencies will likely be higher.
According to Asus, this GPU has 6.5g of pure 24K gold, which equates to almost $700, giving you the bragging rights of owning a graphics card that's literally made of gold. This GPU clearly targets a very niche market, considering that you can probably snag an RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell, with a massive 96GB framebuffer and a beefier AD102 chip for about the same price. It's certainly one for the collectors. Considering there may only be a limited number of these GPUs manufactured, its future value will be tied to collector demand, making it a prize for the highest bidder in the coming years.
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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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Looks like inflated GPU prices are here to stay
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A new report claims that Nvidia has recently raised the official prices of nearly all of its products to combat the impact of tariffs and surging manufacturing costs on its business, with gaming graphics cards receiving a 5 to 10% hike while AI GPUs see up to a 15% increase.
As reported by Digitimes Taiwan (translated), Nvidia is facing "multiple crises," including a $5.5 billion hit to its quarterly earnings over export restrictions on AI chips, including a ban on sales of its H20 chips to China.
Digitimes reports that CEO Jensen Huang has been "shuttling back and forth" between the US and China to minimize the impact of tariffs, and that "in order to maintain stable profitability," Nvidia has reportedly recently raised official prices for almost all its products, allowing its partners to increase prices accordingly.
Despite the hikes, Digitimes claims Nvidia's financial report at the end of the month "should be within financial forecasts and deliver excellent profit results," driven by strong demand for AI chips outside of China and the expanding spending from cloud service providers.
The report states that Nvidia has applied official price hikes to numerous products to keep its earnings stable, with partners following suit. As an example, Digitimes cites the RTX 5090, bought at premium prices upon release without hesitation, such that channel pricing "quickly doubled."
The report notes that following the AI chip ban, RTX 5090 prices climbed further still, surging overnight from around NT$90,000 to NT$100,000, with other RTX 50 series cards also increasing by 5-10%. Digitimes notes Nvidia has also raised the price of its H200 and B200 chips, with server vendors increasing prices by up to 15% accordingly.
According to the publication's supply chain sources, price hikes have been exacerbated by the shift of Blackwell chip production to TSMC's US plant, which has driven a significant rise in the price of production, materials, and logistics.
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There is some hope that the measures could be temporary; however, following the news that the US and China have agreed on a trade deal that should cut tariffs by 115%, thanks to a 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs. As with latent price increases being passed on to consumers, however, it could be some time before prices start to fall.
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Stephen is Tom's Hardware's News Editor with almost a decade of industry experience covering technology, having worked at TechRadar, iMore, and even Apple over the years. He has covered the world of consumer tech from nearly every angle, including supply chain rumors, patents, and litigation, and more. When he's not at work, he loves reading about history and playing video games.
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Adoption of the tech has civil liberties advocates alarmed, especially as the government vows to expand surveillance of protesters and students.
Police and federal agencies have found a controversial new way to skirt the growing patchwork of laws that curb how they use facial recognition: an AI model that can track people using attributes like body size, gender, hair color and style, clothing, and accessories.
The tool, called Track and built by the video analytics company Veritone, is used by 400 customers, including state and local police departments and universities all over the US. It is also expanding federally: US attorneys at the Department of Justice began using Track for criminal investigations last August. Veritone's broader suite of AI tools, which includes bona fide facial recognition, is also used by the Department of Homeland Security—which houses immigration agencies—and the Department of Defense, according to the company.
“The whole vision behind Track in the first place,” says Veritone CEO Ryan Steelberg, was “if we're not allowed to track people's faces, how do we assist in trying to potentially identify criminals or malicious behavior or activity?” In addition to tracking individuals where facial recognition isn't legally allowed, Steelberg says, it allows for tracking when faces are obscured or not visible.
The product has drawn criticism from the American Civil Liberties Union, which—after learning of the tool through MIT Technology Review—said it was the first instance they'd seen of a nonbiometric tracking system used at scale in the US. They warned that it raises many of the same privacy concerns as facial recognition but also introduces new ones at a time when the Trump administration is pushing federal agencies to ramp up monitoring of protesters, immigrants, and students.
Veritone gave us a demonstration of Track in which it analyzed people in footage from different environments, ranging from the January 6 riots to subway stations. You can use it to find people by specifying body size, gender, hair color and style, shoes, clothing, and various accessories. The tool can then assemble timelines, tracking a person across different locations and video feeds. It can be accessed through Amazon and Microsoft cloud platforms.
In an interview, Steelberg said that the number of attributes Track uses to identify people will continue to grow. When asked if Track differentiates on the basis of skin tone, a company spokesperson said it's one of the attributes the algorithm uses to tell people apart but that the software does not currently allow users to search for people by skin color. Track currently operates only on recorded video, but Steelberg claims the company is less than a year from being able to run it on live video feeds.
Agencies using Track can add footage from police body cameras, drones, public videos on YouTube, or so-called citizen upload footage (from Ring cameras or cell phones, for example) in response to police requests.
“We like to call this our Jason Bourne app,” Steelberg says. He expects the technology to come under scrutiny in court cases but says, “I hope we're exonerating people as much as we're helping police find the bad guys.” The public sector currently accounts for only 6% of Veritone's business (most of its clients are media and entertainment companies), but the company says that's its fastest-growing market, with clients in places including California, Washington, Colorado, New Jersey, and Illinois.
That rapid expansion has started to cause alarm in certain quarters. Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the ACLU, wrote in 2019 that artificial intelligence would someday expedite the tedious task of combing through surveillance footage, enabling automated analysis regardless of whether a crime has occurred. Since then, lots of police-tech companies have been building video analytics systems that can, for example, detect when a person enters a certain area. However, Stanley says, Track is the first product he's seen make broad tracking of particular people technologically feasible at scale.
Trump appointee Darren Beattie requested records regarding a large list of high-profile names, organizations, and right-wing buzzwords for a “Twitter files”-style document dump about alleged conservative censorship.
“This is a potentially authoritarian technology,” he says. “One that gives great powers to the police and the government that will make it easier for them, no doubt, to solve certain crimes, but will also make it easier for them to overuse this technology, and to potentially abuse it.”
Chances of such abusive surveillance, Stanley says, are particularly high right now in the federal agencies where Veritone has customers. The Department of Homeland Security said last month that it will monitor the social media activities of immigrants and use evidence it finds there to deny visas and green cards, and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement has detained activists following pro-Palestinian statements or appearances at protests.
In an interview, Jon Gacek, general manager of Veritone's public-sector business, said that Track is a “culling tool” meant to speed up the task of identifying important parts of videos, not a general surveillance tool. Veritone did not specify which groups within the Department of Homeland Security or other federal agencies use Track. The Departments of Defense, Justice, and Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment.
For police departments, the tool dramatically expands the amount of video that can be used in investigations. Whereas facial recognition requires footage in which faces are clearly visible, Track doesn't have that limitation. Nathan Wessler, an attorney for the ACLU, says this means police might comb through videos they had no interest in before.
“It creates a categorically new scale and nature of privacy invasion and potential for abuse that was literally not possible any time before in human history,” Wessler says. “You're now talking about not speeding up what a cop could do, but creating a capability that no cop ever had before.”
Track's expansion comes as laws limiting the use of facial recognition have spread, sparked by wrongful arrests in which officers have been overly confident in the judgments of algorithms. Numerous studies have shown that such algorithms are less accurate with nonwhite faces. Laws in Montana and Maine sharply limit when police can use it—it's not allowed in real time with live video—while San Francisco and Oakland, California have near-complete bans on facial recognition. Track provides an alternative.
Though such laws often reference “biometric data,” Wessler says this phrase is far from clearly defined. It generally refers to immutable characteristics like faces, gait and fingerprints rather than things that change, like clothing. But certain attributes, such as body size, blur this distinction.
Consider also, Wessler says, someone in winter who frequently wears the same boots, coat, and backpack. “Their profile is going to be the same day after day,” Wessler says. “The potential to track somebody over time based on how they're moving across a whole bunch of different saved video feeds is pretty equivalent to face recognition.”
In other words, Track might provide a way of following someone that raises many of the same concerns as facial recognition, but isn't subject to laws restricting use of facial recognition because it does not technically involve biometric data. Steelberg said there are several ongoing cases that include video evidence from Track, but that he couldn't name the cases or comment further. So for now, it's unclear whether it's being adopted in jurisdictions where facial recognition is banned.
What the firm found challenges some basic assumptions about how this technology really works.
The country poured billions into AI infrastructure, but the data center gold rush is unraveling as speculative investments collide with weak demand and DeepSeek shifts AI trends.
We're starting to get a better sense of how chatbots are affecting us—but there's still a lot we don't know.
Agents could make it easier and cheaper for criminals to hack systems at scale. We need to be ready.
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Before I was fully awake, still fog-headed and bleary-eyed after my alarm, I could already tell that something was wrong. It was 7:30 on a frosty February morning, and my phone was already lit up with notifications. As my eyes adjusted to the light, I started to read.
“Congratulations, you've just scammed the wrong person,” read one message delivered to my personal Telegram account by an anonymous sender. “You have 10 minutes to refund the $2.8K you stole from me.” They appended a cryptocurrency wallet address.
Bewildered, I rifled through my messages, emails, and social media accounts. The situation quickly became clear: Somebody had gained access to my X account and used it to promote a fraudulent WIRED-branded crypto coin. As people purchased the coin and the price began to rise, the scammer sold their stash, wiping out investors. The people who lost money were pissed.
On X, I discovered a barrage of colorful abuse directed at my account, including a variety of racial slurs lobbed by individuals with a limited grasp of world geography. “I'm surprised people don't come to your work and smash you up maggot,” one X user wrote. “You long nose, thin pussy lips lip having ass bitch,” another person called me. “I hope a car crashes n2 you,” said somebody else.
Other users tried to report my supposed misconduct to my employer: “Your man out here stealing money,” one person wrote on X, tagging the main WIRED account.
Though unpleasant, few of the messages were directly menacing, with the exception of those from the anonymous Telegram user. “im scraping extensive information on you, including your address, relatives, friends from UCL and more,” they said, referencing my alma mater. “I will make sure your life is hell if i dont receive my refund.”
By 9 am, I was still taking refuge in bed, my laptop resting on outstretched legs. I contacted my editor, managers, and security personnel at WIRED to explain what had happened—and to ask for help. I messaged my partner too. She responded, “Oh fuuuuuck!!!”
Commonly described as either rug pulls or pump-and-dumps, crypto investment scams of this sort take place all the time. I just never imagined that I might become ensnared in one myself.
“This is a very common attack. The purpose is to do a simple pump-and-dump—to get the cash out,” says Phil Larratt, director of investigations at Chainalysis, a blockchain analytics company that helped WIRED to analyze the mechanics of the scam. “To do that, they have to have some visibility; that's why they hacked your account.”
This year alone, the X accounts of various public figures have been compromised in aid of crypto pump-and-dump schemes. Profiles belonging to a BBC journalist, politicians from the UK and Argentina, and a former vice president of the Philippines have all been used to promote fraudulent coins. Previously, accounts belonging to Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Bill Gates, and Kanye West have all been hijacked for similar crypto-flavored scams.
In theory, the more prominent the X account, the greater the potential return on the pump-and-dump, because many more people are likely to buy into the coin the scammer promotes. I tweet infrequently—mostly links to my articles—and have fewer than 2,800 followers, making me somewhat of an unlikely target. But I was valuable to the scammer for the likelihood that I am considered a trusted authority in my capacity as a crypto reporter.
“The greater exposure during the pump, the more likely it is that multiple investors will buy into the messaging and buy into the eventual dump of the coin,” says John Powers, president at private investigation agency Hudson Intelligence.
X did not respond to a request for comment.
Though crypto coins have been used in pump-and-dump schemes for years, these maneuvers have become easier to execute with the arrival of memecoin launchpads, which allow anybody to create a coin instantly, at no cost. In my case, the scammer minted the WIRED-branded coin using Pump.Fun, by far the largest launchpad platform.
“A lot of coins are used for pump-and-dumps on Pump.Fun. And when [bad actors] combine a pump-and-dump with the hack of an X account, it's potentially lucrative for them if executed correctly,” says Larratt.
“We continue to invest in making the platform safe for users,” said Pump.Fun spokesperson Troy Gravitt in a statement to WIRED. “When we find allegations of fraud, such as hacked X accounts shilling token scams, we're able to delist those tokens from our front end to mitigate any threat they might pose to unsuspecting users.”
Despite the prevalence of memecoin rug pulls, investors continue to pile into coins. “A lot of the appreciation of value in memecoins occurs very early in the process, soon after launch,” says Powers. “There's this chance you might get in at the right moment and make a killing … Timing is everything. The legitimacy of the offering is a secondary concern to many people it seems."
I realized that my X account had been taken over on February 17, the day before the fraudulent WIRED coin was released. Have I Been Pwned, a service that lets people check whether their information has been exposed in data breaches and hacks, indicates that my X credentials had previously been distributed on a hacking forum, providing one possible explanation for my account having been compromised. Fatally, I had not put in place two-factor authentication, which meant that my password was all somebody needed to seize control of the account.
Because the scammer had swapped out my recovery email, I had to go through a longer, more arduous recovery process with X, which meant that I did not immediately regain my account. By the following morning, it was already too late. An analysis of transaction data shows that the person or group who hacked my X account created the WIRED token at 1:20 am UTC that morning.
When somebody creates a coin on Pump.Fun, they release 1 billion units into circulation and typically purchase some themselves at a nominal rate. In this case, the scammer snapped up around 5 percent of the total supply with the same crypto wallet used to issue the coin, then acquired more using two separate wallets immediately after trading began, according to analysis by Powers and Chainalysis. They used these secondary wallets to conceal the extent of their holdings from the investing public. “You can buy a certain amount of your own token. But if you buy a lot, nobody is going to buy in, because it's very suspicious,” says Larratt.
In all, the scammer commanded roughly 12 percent of the total number of WIRED coins in circulation, a sufficiently large amount to obliterate the price if they were to sell.
By 1:23 am, the scammer had begun to promote the coin on my X account; posts by other X users suggest they even appeared live on Spaces. Though they later deleted the various posts, which were gone by the time I had woken up, screenshots captured by other X users reveal the pretense they concocted.
The previous weekend, Argentinian president Javier Milei had been embroiled in a scandal involving a coin called Libra. (Milei has denied any wrongdoing.) WIRED would be launching its own crypto coin, the scammer claimed on X, in connection with the story. “I spoke to the man behind $LIBRA … probably my most interesting piece yet. He goes into detail on the setup, process and extraction, and we even stated our own $WIRED coin to show how easy it is,” the scammer wrote in a post to my X account.
In the minutes that followed, a blend of human traders and bots programmed to snatch up newly released coins began to invest. As they bought in, the price of the coin began to rise. At 1:36 am, 16 minutes after trading began, the total value peaked at $300,000. Then the scammer began to sell.
In a quickfire series of transactions on Raydium, a peer-to-peer exchange, they dumped the coins onto the market, earning the equivalent of $8,000 to $10,000, analysts estimate. By 1:45 am, the WIRED coin had lost practically all of its value.
“The amount of money they made was not a lot by comparison to other pump-and-dumps we've seen. But in 20 minutes, analysis shows they may have gained up to five times the amount they deposited,” says Larratt.
By 2 am, the revenue earned through the sale of WIRED coins had been shuffled through a web of interconnected accounts into yet another wallet—possibly tied to a coin-swapping service, according to Chainalysis—where it was blended with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of crypto from other unknown sources.
On February 19 and 24, that wallet deposited a combined $110,000 worth of crypto with Binance, a centralized exchange typically used to convert crypto into regular currency.
There, the trail goes cold. Though crypto exchanges are required in most jurisdictions to record the identities of account holders, as a matter of policy they do not disclose that information unless they receive a request from the authorities.
“We do not disclose the identities of account holders to media out of respect for our colleagues in law enforcement, to ensure the integrity of any ongoing investigations, and to prevent misidentification of innocent users,” says Binance.
In any case, criminals frequently use money mules or stolen identity documentation to open accounts with exchanges, Larratt previously told WIRED, which means that identifying the account owner is not the same as identifying the scammer.
In the days after the WIRED memecoin rug pull, I continued to receive messages from people who believed that I had scammed them. As before, the most overtly threatening messages came from the anonymous Telegram user.
“If you think I'm joking you have a fucking serious problem,” they wrote in one message, threatening to report me to WIRED management. “You really thought you can [sic] get away with it?” they said in another.
Though I suspected the threats were hollow, they were nonetheless troubling. To limit the likelihood that somebody might locate me, I signed up for a service that promised to cleanse any scraps of my personal data from the web. I also contacted my friends and family members, who had been threatened indirectly, and reported the harassment to my local police force.
Within a week, after I had posted to my X account explaining what had happened, the abusive and threatening messages stopped.
Meanwhile, people continue to pile into unpromising memecoins. Pump.Fun, the memecoin launchpad, is generating revenue at a rate of between $1 million to $2 million a day as a 1 percent cut of trades, third-party calculations show.
On April 14, the anonymous Telegram user who had threatened me posted two screenshots to X advertising large profits they had supposedly made on recent memecoin trades. “We are so retarded,” they wrote, using the slur adopted by memecoin traders to celebrate the level of risk they take. They completed the post with an emoji with dollar signs for eyes.
Additional reporting by Matt Burgess.
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As advances in early detection and treatment transform cancer into a chronic disease, City of Hope®, one of the largest and most advanced cancer research and treatment organizations in the U.S. with its National Medical Center named top 5 in the nation for cancer by U.S. News & World Report, opens its largest outpatient facility among its network of 38 U.S. locations. Hope Plaza brings together cancer experts across specialties in one place, making care easier and more convenient for patients and their families.
As one of the nation's leading comprehensive cancer centers, City of Hope is visionary in the delivery of cancer care and in recognizing the needs of people with cancer and their families. A shift in patient demographics to younger adults and more cancer survivors living longer has created a need for City of Hope to offer both more outpatient care and supportive care."
Marcel van den Brink, M.D., Ph.D., president, City of Hope Los Angeles and City of Hope National Medical Center, and Deana and Steve Campbell Chief Physician Executive Distinguished Chair
In Los Angeles County, 1 in every 271 people is diagnosed with cancer each year. City of Hope treats more than 157,000 patients annually across its national cancer care system. Designed with patients in mind, Hope Plaza increases the number of services City of Hope can provide in an outpatient setting to meet today's cancer care needs. Moreover, Hope Plaza has 84 exam rooms, increasing outpatient visit potential by 69% or by 168,000 more patient visits.
"City of Hope experts are on the forefront of personalized medicine based on an individual's genes, robotic and minimally invasive surgery, state-of-the-art interventional radiology that concentrates on disease and leaves healthy cells untouched, and supportive care that improves quality of life for our cancer survivors and their family members," Dr. Van den Brink said.
Hope Plaza grew from an idea 10 years ago to become one of City of Hope's most ambitious projects to-date - the centerpiece of a seven-year, $1 billion campus transformation.
City of Hope, with a 112-year legacy of treating life-threatening illness, is a national system of cancer care that has been a leading contributor to innovative cancer treatments, including therapies that jumpstart an individual's immune system, that target and kill tumors, and that engineer cells and genes to heal the body. People around the world come to City of Hope to receive specialized cancer care. City of Hope physicians have performed more than 16,000 robotic surgeries, nearly 20,000 bone marrow transplants and more than 1,600 CAR T cell therapies.
City of Hope's discoveries and other developments in cancer care have ushered in less intense treatment regimens, leading to the need for more comprehensive outpatient centers. Hope Plaza allows for a personalized patient experience focused on improving health outcomes.
Fully integrated, multidisciplinary cancer care: All programs - from prevention through survivorship - are available in one place, where the focus is on treating and curing cancer. Many patients can see all care team members in a single visit. Additionally, video conferencing in consultation rooms allows all members of a patient's support team to be virtually present during critical medical discussions, no matter where they are.
Lifesaving clinical trials: City of Hope offers the most cancer-focused clinical trials in California, and Hope Plaza expands this capacity. Patients will have access to more than 735 innovative Phase 1-3 clinical trials offering promising new treatments long before they become the standard of care.
Leading-edge technologies: Advanced technologies ensure unparalleled diagnostic and treatment precision. Imaging innovations provide superior breast imaging and fluoroscopy offers real-time, dynamic visualization of internal structures. These state-of-the-art tools enhance diagnostic accuracy, offering clearer, more detailed images that facilitate earlier detection, guide minimally invasive procedures and support highly personalized care plans tailored to each patient's unique needs.
Integrative oncology and supportive care services: At Hope Plaza, supportive care is integrated into every aspect of the patient experience. Mind-body meditation, acupuncture, emotional and psychological counseling, and financial and practical assistance are a few of the services offered to address all of the needs of patients and their families. By providing comprehensive support, City of Hope eases the challenges of cancer treatment, ensuring that patients feel cared for and empowered.
More than $400 million was invested in the construction and equipping of Hope Plaza, which includes 110 infusion spaces, eight treatment rooms and 22 clinical research infusion spaces spread over eight floors and 350,000 square feet of interior space. Universal design enables all clinical spaces to be flexible so that City of Hope can introduce new programs and services quickly and easily to meet the needs of its patients and community.
Hope Plaza was intentionally designed with input from patients, their families, community members, staff and physicians. Every feature - from the gathering spaces and amenities to the lighting, wall color and choice of artwork - was carefully chosen to promote healing and comfort. Lushly landscaped gardens and open spaces create an inspiring surrounding for City of Hope's leading-edge medical, education and research facilities.
For more information or to schedule an appointment, please visit Hope Plaza outpatient cancer care or call 800-934-5555.
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Emily Lee and Boris Lazarov
Learn how experts are advancing benzodiazepine analysis and detection using insights from the lab.
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In this interview, Sir Prof. Cato T. Laurencin, the 2025 Coulter Lecturer, discusses how he is addressing today's medical challenges using the technology of the future.
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May 12, 2025
As cases of long COVID — often defined as symptoms that weren't present before persisting for 3 or more months after the infection — became more prevalent and alarming, researchers began to zero in on the commonly reported cardiovascular symptoms of fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pain, and palpitations, among others.
Long-COVID patients, much research has found, have significantly higher odds of developing cardiac complications than those without long COVID.
Now, some researchers recommend that severe COVID, such as cases requiring hospitalization, be viewed as an independent cardiovascular risk factor, regardless of the patient's cardiac health history, and that aggressive measures be initiated.
Others say there's not yet enough evidence to recognize severe COVID as an independent risk factor.
Statistics about how widespread long COVID is vary, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimating in 2022 that more than 40% of US adults reported having COVID, and 1 in 5 were still reporting symptoms. At any one time, according to the National Institutes of Health, a million people are out of work due to long COVID, and as many as 23 million Americans may have long-COVID symptoms.
“Severe COVID is a coronary artery disease risk equivalent,” Stanley Hazen, MD, PhD, co–section head of Preventive Cardiology and Cardiac Rehabilitation and department chair of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Sciences at Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, told Medscape Medical News.
He bases that statement on a study his team did, using data from the UK Biobank to identify 10,005 people who were positive for polymerase chain reaction (PCR)–based tests for COVID-19 or who were hospitalized for COVID-19 between February 1, 2020, and December 31, 2020. The researchers also looked at 217,730 population control individuals and 38,860 propensity-matched control individuals during the same time. They used proportional hazard models to evaluate COVID-19 for its association with long-term risks (> 1000 days) for major adverse cardiac events (MACEs) and as a coronary artery disease risk equivalent.
The risk for MACEs was elevated in those with COVID-19 at all levels of severity (hazard ratio [HR], 2.09; P < .0005) and to a greater extent in those hospitalized for COVID-19 (HR, 3.85; P < .0005). Hospitalization for COVID-19, they found, was a coronary artery disease risk equivalent because the risk for incident MACEs in those with severe COVID without a history of cardiovascular disease was even higher than that found in patients with cardiovascular disease without COVID-19 (HR, 1.21; P < .005).
“We had a 3-year period of follow-up,” Hazen said. “That risk seems to be persistent. If you look at all comers, all with a positive PCR test, we found about a doubling of the risk for heart attack, stroke, and death.”
“We only looked at people who were 50 and older, but it was over 200,000 subjects,” Hazen said. “The other thing that was clear is that the more severe the infection, the higher the risk of post-COVID cardiac events.”
Over the 3-year follow-up, he said, the risk for a cardiac event was the same in patients with severe COVID and in those with a history of heart attack.
In clinical practice, he pointed out, “a coronary artery disease risk equivalent has been used as the threshold for escalating preventive efforts in the community.”
Having diabetes, for example, is a coronary artery disease risk equivalent, he said. Based on the research, “we are arguing that if you had severe COVID, we should be treating these patients as if they have coronary artery disease and really escalate their preventive care.”
For these patients, he recommended a more aggressive lowering of cholesterol levels, such as aiming for a low-density lipoprotein level of below 70 or even lower and to be more aggressive with antiplatelet therapy, such as low-dose aspirin. “It looks like the degree of infection somehow ‘rewires' a person and makes them more proinflammatory long term,” Hazen said.
“We weren't able to look at the effect of vaccination [on the degree of infection or the MACE risk],” he said, as the study was launched before vaccines were available. “There is every reason to believe vaccines will attenuate this risk because they reduce the likelihood of serious infection.”
In Hazen's view, the most important take-home is that “we should be looking at COVID as a risk factor” for heart disease, “and we don't yet.”
Other research has produced similar links between severe COVID and cardiac issues. For instance, long COVID more than doubles the risk for new cardiac symptoms, researchers conducting a systematic literature review and meta-analysis of 11 studies with 5.8 million people found.
As the definition of long COVID varies, these researchers termed it as symptoms lasting for at least 4 weeks and occurring at least 2 months after the initial SARS-CoV-2 infection. Those with a history of long COVID had a 2.3-2.5 times higher rate of cardiac complications than those without (P = .01).
Kieran Quinn, MD, PhD, a clinician-scientist at Sinai Health System and assistant professor of medicine at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, does not agree that a history of severe COVID can be termed a coronary artery disease risk equivalent at this point.
“I don't believe we have sufficient evidence to recognize is as an independent risk factor that is comparable to more conventional risk factors like smoking, diabetes, and hypertension,” he told Medscape Medical News.
He does agree the cardiac implications are associated with severe and long COVID. With his colleagues, Quinn set out to provide guidance to clinicians on the workup and management of adults with suspected long COVID and unexplained cardiac symptoms, retrieving 260 articles from an extensive databases and examining closely the five studies that met their criteria.
The researchers noted that about 15% of adult Canadians with SARS-CoV-2 infection develop post-COVID condition or long COVID. Among the cardiovascular symptoms are fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pain, and palpitations.
Among the recommendations are to conduct routine tests such as baseline ECGs, thyroid-stimulating hormone, and blood glucose levels but against the routine use of other tests, such as cardiac MRIs, reserving it for those with symptoms suggestive of cardiac involvement.
Quinn pointed, too, to what he calls “a growing body of literature demonstrating that multiple different types of acute infections can lead to the development of acute and chronic cardiovascular conditions.”
He cited his own study, asking if the risk of newly developing medical and mental health conditions are greater within a year of hospitalization for severe COVID vs influenza or sepsis.
The population-based cohort study in Ontario included all adults who were hospitalized for COVID-19 between April 1, 2020, and October 31, 2021, with historical comparator groups hospitalized for influenza or sepsis and a contemporary comparator group hospitalized for sepsis.
The researchers looked for a new occurrence of 13 conditions, including cardiovascular, neurological, and mental health conditions and rheumatoid arthritis within 1 year of hospitalization. Of the 379,366 adults included, 26,499 survived hospitalizations for COVID, 299,989 were historical control individuals hospitalized for influenza or sepsis, and 52,878 were hospitalized for sepsis.
Hospitalization for COVID-19 vs influenza was associated with an increased 1-year risk for venous thromboembolic disease (adjusted HR, 1.77) but with no increased risk for selected ischemic and nonischemic cerebrovascular and cardiovascular disorders, neurological disorders, rheumatoid arthritis, or mental health conditions compared with influenza or sepsis cohorts.
According to Quinn, it showed that “apart from an elevated risk of venous thromboembolism within 1 year, the burden of post-acute medical and mental health conditions among those who survived hospitalization for COVID-19 was comparable with other acute infectious illnesses, including the development of chronic cardiovascular conditions like heart failure.”
The take-home point, he suggested, is that “many of the post-acute consequences of COVID-19 may be related to the severity of infectious illness necessitating hospitalization rather than being the direct consequence of infection with SARS-CoV-2.”
Quinn is also a co-chair of the Canadian Guidelines for Post COVID-19 Condition and pointed to 80 evidence-informed recommendations released recently for the care of people with long COVID, with more guidelines expected in the coming months. “My advice to all physicians caring for people living with long COVID is to use these guidelines to guide shared decision-making around testing and treatments.”
The CDC also offers clinical guidance for managing long COVID.
Hazen and Quinn had no relevant disclosures.
Kathleen Doheny is a freelance journalist in Los Angeles.
Send comments and news tips to news@medscape.net.
Chemotherapy is one of the most popular ways to treat breast cancer. Even though it has proven to be effective, it also has downsides, such as a higher risk of side effects, as it doesn't only attack the cancer cells but can also affect normal cells. Chemotherapy-related side effects such as fatigue, weakness, and proneness to infections can influence treatment adherence and undermine the effectiveness of the therapy and the patients' quality of life.
Probiotics are among the emerging alternative supplements being studied for their potential benefit in cancer treatment. A new study published in the open-access journal Pharmacia explored the effects of multi-strain probiotics on chemotherapy-related side effects using Karnofsky performance score, complete blood count, and blood biochemistry.
The findings show that probiotics with 7 strains have a potential effect in patients with breast cancer, especially in the improvement of common chemotherapy-related side effects such as fatigue and nausea. Alleviation of these symptom can be seen before and after the probiotic supplementation. Another potential effect of multi-strain probiotics is improving blood urea nitrogen levels. Significant improvement was observed in the ability to perform activities of daily living, which means patients can go about their lives more independently and reduce their reliance on others. This might also be related to the improvement of nausea and fatigue symptoms.
In conclusion, multi-strain probiotics have been shown to have potential benefits in chemotherapy-related side effects for patients with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy. Further, larger study is needed to explore these effects and to confirm the benefits of multi-strain probiotics before they are used in clinical practice.
University of Surabaya
Kirtishanti, A., et al. (2025) Effect of multi-strain probiotics supplementation on chemotherapy-related side effects among patients with breast cancer: A pilot trial. Pharmacia. doi.org/10.3897/pharmacia.72.e144998
Posted in: Medical Research News | Women's Health News | Pharmaceutical News
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Lohit Khera
In this interview, industry expert Dr. Lohit Khera discusses the evolving role of microRNA in research, diagnostics, and precision medicine, highlighting the latest innovations in RNA extraction and analysis
Emily Lee and Boris Lazarov
Learn how experts are advancing benzodiazepine analysis and detection using insights from the lab.
Sir Prof. Cato T. Laurencin
In this interview, Sir Prof. Cato T. Laurencin, the 2025 Coulter Lecturer, discusses how he is addressing today's medical challenges using the technology of the future.
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Boccia's appeal and rising popularity comes from its showcase as a Paralympic sport that can be enjoyed by people of all ages and abilities. An Osaka Metropolitan University team has developed an extended reality version of the game as a rehabilitation program, showing how the game that requires accuracy and strategy can aid motor and cognitive skills.
Graduate School of Rehabilitation Science Associate Professor Masataka Kataoka's research group developed Boccia XR so that the program can be introduced even in environments with limited space. The researchers investigated changes in mood among participants over 65 before and after experiencing Boccia XR, traditional boccia, and treadmill walking, as well as lower limb muscle activity during exercise.
Participants reported better moods, vitality, and energy after experiencing both Boccia XR and traditional boccia. There was no significant difference in lower limb muscle activity during any of the programs, though muscle activity of the rectus femoris, which helps extend the knee, increased during both types of boccia compared to the treadmill.
Boccia XR could be effective as a rehabilitation exercise for older adults in terms of both physical and emotional effects, and since it does not require a large court, it is practical for indoor environments such as hospitals and nursing care facilities. Since this research was designed to verify immediate effects, we plan to conduct further studies to investigate long-term results in a larger population of older adults and to continue updating Boccia XR."
Masataka Kataoka, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Rehabilitation Science, Osaka Metropolitan University
The findings were published in PLOS One.
Osaka Metropolitan University
Kataoka, M., et al. (2025). Is Boccia XR an enjoyable and effective rehabilitation exercise for older adults? PLOS ONE. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0320369.
Posted in: Device / Technology News | Healthcare News
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Lohit Khera
In this interview, industry expert Dr. Lohit Khera discusses the evolving role of microRNA in research, diagnostics, and precision medicine, highlighting the latest innovations in RNA extraction and analysis
Emily Lee and Boris Lazarov
Learn how experts are advancing benzodiazepine analysis and detection using insights from the lab.
Sir Prof. Cato T. Laurencin
In this interview, Sir Prof. Cato T. Laurencin, the 2025 Coulter Lecturer, discusses how he is addressing today's medical challenges using the technology of the future.
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Trilobio, the Company building the fully automated robotic lab-in-a-box for biologists, today announced it has raised $8 million USD Seed investment. The oversubscribed round was led by Initialized Capital, including participation from Argon Ventures and Lowercarbon Capital.
Trilobio was founded in 2021 to address the established data quality and reproducibility challenges limiting research efficiency; it is estimated that 77% of biologists cannot reproduce their own or other's research, despite latest advances in laboratory automation tools. Trilobio's co-founders, Roya Amini-Naieni and Maximilian Schommer, were named on Forbes' 30 Under 30 list for their contributions to advances in Manufacturing & Industry. To date, the Company has raised over $11 million, including support from Julian Capital, Juniper, Future Labs Capital, 1517 Fund, Alumni Ventures, Angel Squad, Sequel, Nucleus Capital, Gaingels and others, and has deployed its whole laboratory automation platform at leading biology labs across the United States.
This investment will support the expansion of the Trilobio Platform's robotics capabilities and no-code software features, enabling a growing portfolio of purpose-built lab devices and protocols to be integrated into a single, fully automated platform. Leveraging continual advancement and expansion of the Platform, Trilobio is providing an accessible and scalable solution to transform genetic engineering, synthetic biology and life science research processes, enabling scientists at the cutting-edge to execute research reproducibly, rapidly, and accurately.
Roya Amini-Naieni, CEO and Co-Founder at Trilobio, commented: "Today's research is more collaborative, innovative, and insightful than ever before, and yet has not reached its full potential because of our inability to reliably reproduce, share, and collectively improve experiments. The future of the field depends on affordable new technologies that empower scientists to overcome these obstacles."
Our mission at Trilobio is to redefine the relationship between scientists and the technologies that power their work every single day, enabling new scientific heights to be reached. We are thankful to have the support of a fantastic portfolio of investors who share our vision. It's time for true automation-connecting and fully automating all processes in the modern biology lab and making the dream of walk-away capabilities a reality."
Roya Amini-Naieni, CEO and Co-Founder at Trilobio
The Trilobio Platform consists of the foundational robot, the Trilobot, which is fully programmable through Trilobio OS, the intelligent no-code protocol design software. Each Trilobot houses up to eight different interchangeable lab device tools, effectively creating a self-contained lab in a single device, for example grippers, various pipette tools, and a tube cap/de-capper. The Trilobots, which automatically calibrate themselves and plasticware, can be instantly linked together and work collaboratively, enabling a fleet to be adjusted to individual research requirements and scale capacity instantly.
A user's research protocol is entered into Trilobio OS just like writing a lab notebook entry, initiating the software engine to plan and execute all details without further action required and eliminating hours of coding and research design. Trilobio OS determines the optimal execution of the protocol which can be automatically adjusted for speed, cost, or accuracy. In total, the Trilobio Platform is purpose-built to ensure each step of the workflow is reproducible in any other Trilobio-enabled lab, without the need for hardware recalibration or rewrite of protocols. By providing a reliable and standardized approach, the technology streamlines research design and execution time down to minutes from days or even weeks.
"Roya and Max are uniquely qualified to build the future of lab automation given their interdisciplinary expertise in biology and robotics. I've never seen another founding team with this skillset," said Andrew Sather, Partner at Initialized Capital. "Trilobio is a force-multiplier for the Bio Age, empowering scientists to improve our quality of life and move our species forward."
Trilobio
Posted in: Business / Finance | Device / Technology News
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Refeyn, the company behind pioneering mass photometry technology, has announced the installation of the 500th system based on its novel single-particle bioanalytical technology - notably, within just seven years of its spin out from Oxford University in 2018. This key milestone is marked as a 'game changer' by the Ploug Group at the University of Copenhagen's Biotech Research & Innovation Centre, where their new TwoMP mass photometer and MassFluidix HC system are now installed to further studies of proteins involved in disease relevant pathways.
The ever-increasing momentum for this unique technology, used in 30+ countries around the world, is also concurrently demonstrated by the scientific community with over 1,000 publications now citing mass photometry. In addition to academic labs like the Ploug Group, mass photometers are used by biopharma companies, CDMOs and CROs - for scientific discovery, drug development and manufacturing.
The Ploug Group is currently using mass photometry to study intravascular lipid metabolism, already citing it in a new research article investigating the regulation of lipoprotein lipase (LPL), a key enzyme for the lipolytic processing of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins in capillaries. "We anticipate that the acquisition of mass photometry in our laboratory is going to be a game changer in our studies on purified proteins involved in intravascular lipolysis," said Group Leader, Dr. Michael Ploug. "We've already shown by mass photometry that the LPL inhibitor ANGPTL3/8 is not an oligomeric complex composed of three ANGPTL3 protomers and one ANGPTL8 protomer as was reported previously, but is actually a trimeric complex composed of only two ANGPTL3 protomers and one ANGPTL8 protomer. This information is self-evidently important for future studies on the regulation of LPL activity in capillaries."
Mass photometry now provides a valuable orthogonal tool to those already available to the group for its functional and structural protein studies, proving ideal for studying proteins in low concentrations where SEC-MALS is challenged.
Since our proteins generally operate in the lower nanomolar range, we need to determine their oligomeric states at these low concentrations and we found that our studies using SEC-MALS often lead to misleading conclusions as it requires higher protein concentrations. We also chose the MassFluidix HC as an add-on to the TwoMP, as some of our biophysical analyses do need to be conducted at higher concentrations. Compared to SEC-MALS, mass photometry is fast and provides robust and reliable data. We're also very much impressed by the software used to control the mass photometer and evaluate the data — it's very intuitive and easy to operate."
Dr. Ploug, Group Leader
With 1,000+ scientific citations highlighting the unique bioanalytical workflow capabilities of its mass photometry and macro mass photometry systems, Refeyn's technology—which enables the label-free characterization of single biomolecules and viral particles in solution in their native state—is proving invaluable for a wide variety of applications. In addition to protein analysis, other published application examples include characterization of bispecific antibody byproducts (including aggregates), lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), direct measurement of mRNA length, and also quantification of empty, partially filled and full adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector capsids.
Refeyn
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Early in the covid-19 pandemic, the failure of UK government advisers to follow World Health Organization (WHO) advice and emerging evidence from East Asia that suppression could bring the virus under control quickly led to avoidable UK deaths, argues an expert in The BMJ today.
Suppression aims to avoid national lockdowns and maintain economic activity for most of the population by introducing surveillance systems to bring new outbreaks under control quickly, thus reducing the reproductive rate of infection (R0) to below 1 and causing the epidemic to wither.
Anthony Costello, professor of global health at University College London says, had the UK followed a suppression strategy, it might have prevented thousands of deaths. He asks why long term strategies of suppression continue to be under-recognised and calls for better governance of UK pandemic science advice.
In January 2020 the global threat from covid-19 was clear and the WHO was advising countries to focus on rapid suppression to avoid immediate threat from the spread of the new coronavirus, he explains.
Yet while Greece, Germany, Norway, and Ireland took steps to follow these recommendations, the UK government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) unanimously chose a response based on pandemic flu that ignored the different characteristics of coronavirus transmission.
Nor did SAGE change its advice after reports of rapidly falling cases and infection rates in several East Asian countries that had focused on suppression. Instead, in March 2020, the government published its "contain, delay, research, mitigate" plan based on influenza that would allow the virus to spread to achieve "herd immunity."
SAGE's unwavering decision to recommend a response based on influenza has continued to be defended by its co-chairs, Chris Whitty, England's chief medical officer, and Patrick Vallance, chief scientific adviser until 2023, notes Costello. Yet their defence is based on three arguably mistaken assumptions: that covid could not have been suppressed, that a huge second wave could follow even if it was, and that suppression required prolonged national lockdowns.
He acknowledges that SAGE faced a difficult and fast changing situation in early 2020 but says its advice to government was "flawed" and "arose from systems failure."
For instance, SAGE did not recommend rapid expansion of testing, form plans to mobilise community health workers as contact tracers at scale to hotspot areas and across district health protection teams, or advise on key financial and support measures for effective self-isolation, he writes.
"Had the UK followed the same strategy and achieved the same excess cumulative death rate by March 2024 as South Korea, 69 instead of 344 deaths per 100,000, it might have prevented up to 180,000 UK deaths."
The BMJ asked Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance why they had not recommended a suppression response, given WHO advice and emerging evidence early in the pandemic; about SAGE's lack of independent experts; why they were not more outspoken about health harming policies; and whether they stand by the recommendations they made not to focus on suppression, but had not received a response by the time of publication.
Costello points out that, five years on, many of the people who developed the UK's flawed response are still in post; they have not changed their views on suppression, and little has been done to improve government pandemic advice committees or to introduce detailed governance rules for the UK's future pandemic response and resilience.
"The covid inquiry and the UK medical establishment should properly critique this public health failure," he concludes.
BMJ Group
Analysis: UK decision not to suppress covid raises questions about medical and scientific advice. The BMJ. doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2025-082463
Posted in: Medical Research News | Disease/Infection News | Healthcare News
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Lohit Khera
In this interview, industry expert Dr. Lohit Khera discusses the evolving role of microRNA in research, diagnostics, and precision medicine, highlighting the latest innovations in RNA extraction and analysis
Emily Lee and Boris Lazarov
Learn how experts are advancing benzodiazepine analysis and detection using insights from the lab.
Sir Prof. Cato T. Laurencin
In this interview, Sir Prof. Cato T. Laurencin, the 2025 Coulter Lecturer, discusses how he is addressing today's medical challenges using the technology of the future.
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New research being presented at this year's European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Malaga, Spain (11-14 May) and published in the journal eClinicalMedicine finds that first generation weight-loss medications like liraglutide and exenatide appear to show anti-cancer benefits beyond weight loss.
Our study found a similar incidence of obesity-related cancer among patients treated with first-generation glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1s) and with bariatric surgery over an average of 8 years follow-up, despite the relative advantage of surgery in maximizing weight loss. But accounting for this advantage revealed the direct effect of GLP-1RAs beyond weight-loss to be 41% more effective at preventing obesity-related cancer."
Dr. Yael Wolff Sagy, co-lead author from Clalit Health Services, Tel-Aviv, Israel
She adds: "We do not yet fully understand how GLP-1s work, but this study adds to the growing evidence showing that weight loss alone cannot completely account for the metabolic, anti-cancer, and many other benefits that these medications provide."
GLP-1RA medications are best known for helping control type 2 diabetes and treat obesity. They mimic a hormone in the body, GLP-1, that lowers blood sugar levels and makes people feel fuller for longer.
Both obesity and diabetes are linked with an increased risk for many types of cancer, referred as obesity related cancer, including post-menopausal breast cancer, colorectal cancer, corpus uteri cancer, meningioma, renal-cell kidney, liver or bile duct, pancreatic, thyroid, stomach, and ovarian cancer, as well as multiple myeloma.
First generation GLP-1s and bariatric surgery are well established weight loss treatments, but their comparative effectiveness for the prevention of obesity-related cancers is not known.
To find out more, researchers analysed electronic health record data for patients (aged 24 years or older) with obesity (BMI of 35 kg/m2 or higher) and type 2 diabetes (with no prior history of cancer), who were treated with first-generation GLP-1s (i.e., for a minimum of six monthly purchases of liraglutide, exenatide, or dulaglutide within 12 consecutive months) or with bariatric surgery between 2010 and 2018 from Clalit health services-which insures over half of the Israeli population (approximately 4.8 million patients).
In total, 6,356 participants (61% females; average age 52 years; mean BMI 41.5 kg/m²) were matched 1:1 based on sex, age, BMI at the start of the study, time of treatment initiation, and smoking status. They were followed-up until December 2023 for a diagnosis of obesity-related cancer.
Over a median follow-up of 7.5 years, 298 patients were diagnosed with obesity-related cancer. The most common cancer was postmenopausal breast cancer (77; 26%), followed by colorectal cancer (49; 16%), and cancer of the uterus (45; 15%).
The analysis found that obesity-related cancer occurred in 150 of 3,178 surgery patients (5.76 cases per 1,000 person-years) and in 148 of 3,178 patients taking GLP-1s (5.64 cases per 1,000 person-years), despite the relative advantage of bariatric surgery in weight reduction, that is known to reduce cancer risk.
To assess the comparative effect beyond the extent of weight-loss (which mediates the reduction in cancer risk following treatment), the researchers further adjusted the analysis for the percent of maximal BMI change during follow-up (i.e., how much an individual's BMI changed).
They found that GLP1-RAs had a direct effect on reducing obesity-related cancer beyond weight-loss, with a 41% lower relative risk compared to bariatric surgery.
"The protective effects of GLP1-RAs against obesity-related cancers likely arise from multiple mechanisms, including reducing inflammation," said co-lead author Professor Dror Dicker from Hasharon Hospital, Rabin Medical Center, Petah Tikva, Israel. "Our study is unique in that the long-term follow-up allowed us to compare the effects of GLP1-RAs and surgery with potential long latency periods of cancer. New generation, highly potent GLP1-RAs with higher efficacy in weight reduction may convey an even greater advantage in reducing the risk of obesity-related cancers, but future research is needed to make sure that these drugs do not increase the risk for non–obesity-related cancers."Despite the important findings, the authors note that this is an observational study and that future randomised trials and larger prospective studies are needed to confirm the effects and explore the underlying mechanisms.
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New research reveals that UPFs may be consumed more out of emotional distress and addiction than pleasure, challenging assumptions about why we reach for processed snacks.
Study: Factors Affecting Ultra-Processed Food Consumption: Hedonic Hunger, Food Addiction, and Mood. Image Credit: beauty-box / Shutterstock
In a recent study published in the journal Food Science & Nutrition, researchers examined the relationship between ultra-processed food (UPF) intake and food addiction, hedonic hunger, and mood.
Food processing has become widespread, especially with the advent of technology. The degree of food processing and the purpose of processing are crucial determinants of population health. The NOVA classification system stratifies foods into four categories. One of these categories, UPFs, is defined as foods that contain many additives, undergo intensive industrial processing, and have deteriorated natural structures.
Anti-humectants, flavor enhancers, and emulsifiers are commonly used in UPF production, allowing UPFs to have low production costs, longer shelf lives, and intensified flavors. The benefits of UPFs, aggressive advertising, rapid urbanization, and increased female participation in business have contributed significantly to the widespread consumption of UPFs. However, their low nutritional value, addictive properties, and high fat and energy content pose a threat to public health.
In the present study, researchers examined the relationship between UPF intake and food addiction, mood, and hedonic hunger. The study was conducted among adults aged 18–65 in Ankara, Turkey, using a web-based survey between September 2024 and January 2025. Individuals with incomplete responses, psychiatric disorders, and eating disorders were excluded from the analysis.
Anthropometrics and demographics were self-reported. Food intake was assessed using the Screening Questionnaire of Highly Processed Food Consumption (sQ-HPF). Hedonic hunger was evaluated using the Power of Food Scale (PFS), and food addiction status was examined using the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS). The Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) was used to evaluate the emotional states of participants.
Descriptive statistics were used to evaluate the data. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, kurtosis, skewness, histograms, and the coefficient of variation were used to assess the data distribution. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to examine relationships between variables. An independent t-test was performed to evaluate between-group differences in mean values. A linear regression analysis was used to predict UPF intake.
The study included 3,997 adults, on average, aged 31.7. Most participants were female (63%) and unemployed (52.9%). The mean body mass index (BMI) was 24.5 kg/m2. More than 55% of subjects had normal weight, 11.7% were obese, 27.5% were overweight, and 5.6% were underweight. The mean scores on the sQ-HPF, PFS, and YFAS were 5.1, 2.8, and 2.9, respectively.
The average stress, depression, and anxiety scores on the DASS-21 were 5.9, 5.6, and 5.0, respectively. Over 55% of subjects had a low UPF intake, and nearly 45% had a high UPF intake. A notably high proportion—86.7%—of subjects were classified as having food addiction according to the YFAS. The authors note that this elevated rate may reflect sample or scale characteristics and should be interpreted with caution. There was a significant, positive relationship between YFAS and sQ-HPF scores. Likewise, sQ-HPF showed significant, positive relationships with DASS-21 subdimension scores.
On average, individuals with high UPF intake were younger (28.8 years) than those with low UPF intake (34.1 years). Moreover, single and unemployed participants had significantly higher intake of UPFs than married and employed individuals. No significant differences in UPF intake were observed between groups based on PFS score, BMI category, and the number of main meals and snacks.
Notably, YFAS and DASS-21 scores were significantly higher among individuals with high UPF intake. The linear regression model found that age, gender, and YFAS and DASS-21 scores significantly affected the sQ-HPF score. Specifically, UPF intake was positively associated with food addiction and mood symptoms, and inversely associated with age and gender.
The authors also noted that the study did not assess participants' nutrition knowledge or awareness, which could be a factor influencing the observed lack of association between UPF intake and hedonic hunger. This limitation may have impacted the findings related to hedonic hunger.
In sum, the findings indicate that people with increased consumption of UPFs had significantly elevated food addiction and negative mood scores. Further, the consumption of UPFs was more common among female, younger, unemployed, and single participants, and mood symptoms and food addiction were more intense in these participants. Notably, there was no relationship between UPF intake and hedonic hunger. The authors suggest that the absence of an observed association between UPF intake and hedonic hunger may be influenced by unmeasured factors such as nutrition awareness, as well as the cross-sectional nature of the study.
The study's limitations include the snowball sampling method, which leads to selection bias and affects the generalizability of the results; the cross-sectional design, which precludes causal inference; and the use of self-reported data, which may yield unreliable results. Additionally, the high prevalence of food addiction observed in this sample may be influenced by the assessment tool or sample characteristics.
Overall, the findings underscore the impact of mood and food addiction on UPF intake. Thus, interventions and policies aimed at psychosocial processes are needed to promote healthy and conscious eating behaviors.
Posted in: Medical Science News | Medical Research News
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Tarun is a writer based in Hyderabad, India. He has a Master's degree in Biotechnology from the University of Hyderabad and is enthusiastic about scientific research. He enjoys reading research papers and literature reviews and is passionate about writing.
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Sai Lomte, Tarun. (2025, May 11). Ultra-processed food boosts addiction and worsens mood, study finds. News-Medical. Retrieved on May 12, 2025 from https://www.news-medical.net/news/20250511/Ultra-processed-food-boosts-addiction-and-worsens-mood-study-finds.aspx.
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Sai Lomte, Tarun. "Ultra-processed food boosts addiction and worsens mood, study finds". News-Medical. 12 May 2025.
Researchers uncover how pasta taps into deep emotional roots, evoking joy, family, and comfort, while highlighting its surprising psychological benefits when consumed mindfully and in company.
Study: Pasta, What a Feeling! A Multi-Method Study on the Relationship Between Pasta Consumption and Happiness. Image Credit: Aline Ponce / Shutterstock
In a recent article published in the journal Food Science & Nutrition, researchers explored the emotional responses associated with the consumption of pasta, specifically whether eating pasta makes people happier and how individual traits predict these emotional responses.
Based on two studies with over 1,500 Italian participants, they consistently found links between consuming pasta and experiencing positive emotions, specifically happiness, which was enhanced in social settings, and more pronounced in those with a better quality of life, higher mindfulness, and lower stress. Respondents associated pasta with family, tradition, and comfort. Importantly, the study also found that other carbohydrate-rich foods—such as rice, bread, and pizza—did not show a similar boost in happiness, particularly in social eating contexts.
The brain's “pasta bias” is stronger than expected. Implicit tests revealed a subconscious preference for pasta 1.5 times stronger than typical food-related biases.
Food and emotions are closely connected, with eating behaviors influenced by emotional states and vice versa. Factors such as hunger, age, and personal values shape these experiences. For instance, sad people may crave carbohydrates, while those who align with healthy eating values feel better when consuming nutritious foods.
The Mediterranean diet, celebrated for both health and social benefits, has been linked to psychological and physical well-being. However, little is known about how elements like pasta affect emotional states.
Though some studies suggest pasta evokes pleasant feelings, these findings are limited by small sample sizes and artificial settings. There's also a distinction between “experienced” emotions (felt in the moment) and “remembered” emotions (recalled afterward), with the latter being prone to bias.
Additionally, emerging research highlights the role of “implicit” emotional responses that are not consciously reported. Therefore, a well-rounded understanding of pasta's emotional impact must consider both direct and indirect responses and immediate and remembered responses.
Pasta's joy isn't about quantity – Happiness spikes occurred regardless of portion size, suggesting satisfaction stems from the experience rather than fullness.
Researchers assessed how pasta consumption relates to emotional well-being through a comprehensive, multi-method approach. They conducted two interconnected studies that used both survey and real-time data collection approaches to examine the emotional associations with pasta consumption.
The first study used a mixed-method approach with a representative sample of 1,532 Italian adults. To reflect demographic diversity, participants were recruited via a stratified national online panel.
Data collection included a quantitative survey on pasta consumption frequency and preferences for other carbohydrate sources, open-ended questions exploring emotional imagery and feelings associated with pasta, an Implicit Association Test (IAT) to assess unconscious emotional links to pasta, and several psychological questionnaires to evaluate personality traits, mindfulness, stress, quality of life, and emotional experiences.
Qualitative data were analyzed thematically, while quantitative data were assessed using descriptive statistics and Spearman's rho correlations.
The second study used an experience sampling method (EMA) over two weeks with 83 people from the first study who consumed pasta three or more times a week. Participants used a smartphone app to report emotions and contextual factors before and after meals. Variables included anger, tiredness, sadness, hunger, and happiness. Post-meal entries also recorded food intake, enjoyment, and meal setting.
A Gaussian Linear Mixed Model (GLMM) linked the impact of consuming pasta to differences in happiness levels. The model included fixed effects (pasta vs. no pasta) and random effects (individual variability), with robustness checks for covariates like income and education. The researchers also conducted sensitivity analyses, but including these covariates did not alter the main findings.
Nostalgia plays a hidden role – 41% of participants' pasta memories involved childhood or family meals, with descriptors like “Sunday lunches” recurring in open responses.
The first study revealed widespread appreciation for pasta: nearly half of the participants consumed it daily. Thematic analysis of emotional associations showed that pasta evoked strong imagery of family (41%), positive emotions (21%), and taste or pleasure (10%), followed by themes like comfort, tradition, and well-being. Emotional responses to pasta consumption included satiety (34%), satisfaction (29%), and happiness (10%).
The IAT showed a significant positive cognitive bias, meaning participants unconsciously linked pasta with positive emotions. Correlational analyses indicated that stronger pasta appreciation was associated with fewer negative emotions, higher well-being, lower stress, greater mindfulness, and more positive implicit associations. For instance, liking pasta was positively correlated with quality of life and mindful eating, and negatively correlated with alexithymia (also known as emotional blindness).
The second study confirmed that pasta meals significantly increased happiness levels. Across 1,843 valid meal entries, the GLMM found that pasta consumption predicted greater post-meal happiness. This effect remained robust across sensitivity checks. The model revealed individual variation in baseline happiness, but overall, the impact of pasta was significant, suggesting a consistent positive emotional impact of pasta consumption. Notably, this increase in happiness was particularly marked when pasta was consumed in social settings, such as eating together with others, rather than alone or at work. In contrast, similar effects were not observed for other carbohydrate-based foods.
The researchers also noted that their observational design cannot confirm causality. It remains possible that people who are already happier or more mindful are more likely to enjoy or choose pasta, rather than pasta itself directly causing increased happiness (a possibility known as reverse causality).
Some methodological limitations were acknowledged, such as the smaller, self-selected sample in the EMA study, which could introduce selection bias, and the potential for participant fatigue due to frequent in-the-moment data collection. The study was conducted solely in Italy, where pasta holds strong cultural significance, possibly limiting the generalizability of the findings to other countries or cultures.
Even rushed meals help – Quick weekday pasta lunches at home still boosted mood, defying assumptions that emotional benefits require leisurely dining.
Both studies demonstrate a strong, positive emotional association with pasta, both implicit and experienced in real-life settings. Researchers found that pasta consumption is consistently linked to positive emotions, especially happiness, across self-reports, real-time assessments, and implicit tests.
Pasta evoked strong associations with family, comfort, and cultural traditions, particularly in Italy. Social settings enhanced its emotional impact, highlighting the importance of shared meals. Mindfulness also appeared to strengthen the positive experience of eating pasta.
However, the study's observational design means causality cannot be confirmed, and cultural specificity limits generalizability. Reverse causality is also a possibility—that is, people who are happier or more mindful may simply be more inclined to enjoy pasta. The research suggests pasta's emotional resonance may stem from its symbolic role in Italian culture. In addition, the lack of a similar happiness boost for other carbohydrate-rich foods suggests a unique emotional status for pasta within this cultural context.
Future studies should test these associations cross-culturally and explore the impact of different pasta types and meal contexts. Further research with experimental or longitudinal designs may help clarify causality and underlying mechanisms. Overall, pasta's emotional value goes beyond nutrition, offering insights for health promotion and marketing focused on well-being and social eating.
Posted in: Child Health News | Men's Health News | Medical Research News | Women's Health News
Written by
Priyanjana Pramanik is a writer based in Kolkata, India, with an academic background in Wildlife Biology and economics. She has experience in teaching, science writing, and mangrove ecology. Priyanjana holds Masters in Wildlife Biology and Conservation (National Centre of Biological Sciences, 2022) and Economics (Tufts University, 2018). In between master's degrees, she was a researcher in the field of public health policy, focusing on improving maternal and child health outcomes in South Asia. She is passionate about science communication and enabling biodiversity to thrive alongside people. The fieldwork for her second master's was in the mangrove forests of Eastern India, where she studied the complex relationships between humans, mangrove fauna, and seedling growth.
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Pramanik, Priyanjana. (2025, May 11). Cultural comfort: How pasta became Italy's edible happiness ritual. News-Medical. Retrieved on May 12, 2025 from https://www.news-medical.net/news/20250511/Cultural-comfort-How-pasta-became-Italye28099s-edible-happiness-ritual.aspx.
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Pramanik, Priyanjana. "Cultural comfort: How pasta became Italy's edible happiness ritual". News-Medical. 12 May 2025.
Researchers have developed EVE-Vax, a computational design tool that creates synthetic SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins mimicking future immune-evading variants. These designed proteins enable early assessment of vaccine efficacy before such variants naturally emerge.
Study: Computationally designed proteins mimic antibody immune evasion in viral evolution. Image Credit: TimeStopper69 / Shutterstock
A recent study in the journal Immunity reports on a novel computational method (EVE-Vax), which utilizes the EVEscape framework, to design antigens that foreshadow immune escape noted in future viral variants.
Rapid viral evolution constantly challenges the efficacy of medical interventions and vaccines. We currently evaluate interventions by assessing past or circulating variants. This is exemplified by recurrent breakthrough infections observed during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus. This underlines the need for more proactive strategies to counter viral evolution.
Frameworks predicting immune-evasive mutations could facilitate the development of viral proteins and evaluate the potency of vaccine-elicited antibodies. Both experimental and computational methods have been used to achieve this aim, but experimental methods have limitations, including often relying on patient sera that may be unavailable early in an outbreak, being limited to a subdomain of the antigen, and so on. However, these methods aid the generation of antigens comprising novel mutational combinations that evade neutralization.
Computational models help overcome some of the above-mentioned limitations, as evidenced by EVEscape, a computational deep learning model, which accurately predicted immune-evading mutations across influenza, Lassa virus, SARS-CoV-2, and HIV. However, whether computational methods generate functional antigens that foreshadow immune escape has yet to be demonstrated.
Graphical abstract
This study computationally generates and experimentally tests SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins with novel mutational combinations using the EVE-Vax design pipeline. The assessed mutations were representative of future antigenic evolution. Eighty-three novel versions of the “spike” protein on SARS-CoV-2 were designed using EVE-Vax. Each new version comprised a different combination of up to ten novel mutations relative to its background variant of concern (VOC), and some constructs contained up to 46 mutations relative to the ancestral B.1 strain. The receptor binding domain (RBD) had 57% of the mutations, while 40% were in the N-terminal domain (NTD).
Five variants of concern (VOC) backgrounds were used to develop the 83 multi-mutant full-length spike constructs, namely, B.1, BA.4/5, BA.2.12.1, BA.2.75, and XBB. These were engineered as single-cycle infection pseudotypes, a method that allows for safe laboratory evaluation as the pseudoviruses are non-replicative. Computational and experimental researchers teamed up to evaluate neutralization susceptibility against polyclonal immune sera. The sera were derived from nine diverse human serum panels representing varied COVID-19 exposure histories. The spikes that EVE-Vax designed mimicked the emerging VOCs' immune-escape profiles. EVE-Vax scored the probability of antibody escape by considering three biologically relevant constraints: impact on fitness, accessibility to antibodies, and disruption potential on antibody binding.
Ninety percent of the designed constructs were infectious. The eight non-infectious constructs were attributed to two main reasons: four contained a triplet of mutations (L452R, F490R, and Q493S) closer in 3-D structure than pandemic triplets, and the other four were designed using a model trained exclusively on pre-pandemic sequences. However, the 90% success rate is commendable and exceeds expected rates for randomly introduced mutations, offering insights for refining the EVE-Vax design algorithm.
Spikes designed on early SARS-CoV-2 variants showed neutralization resistance like subsequent variants, with the highest resistance among actual variants relative to their parent being shown by CH.1.1 and XBB. Most variants showed higher antibody escape relative to their parental variant. The exceptions were XBB.1, BQ.1.1, and XBB.1.5 variants. The emerging variants showed an almost fourfold (3.9-fold) reduction in geometric mean ID50 titers compared to their parent variant, on average. Furthermore, variants with higher antibody escape were noted to have reduced infectivity relative to the parent variants.
(A) Schematic overview of EVE-Vax for designing antigenic proteins. Single mutants within the top 1% of highest-predicted escape scores were combined to generate all possible double mutants. Double mutants were scored and further combined to create multi-mutant constructs. Designed constructs were subsequently evaluated for infectivity and neutralization sensitivity using pseudotyped virus assays. Parts of the figure were created with BioRender. (B) Cladogram depicting VOCs and computationally designed constructs (red triangles). Branch lengths are proportional to the temporal order of variant emergence. (C) Mutations across the 83 designed spike constructs mapped onto a representative 3D structure (PDB: 7BNN). Coloring indicates the frequency with which a given residue was mutated across all designed constructs.
On average, EVE-vax-designed spikes exhibited a 1.9-fold reduction (with a range of 0.5 to 5.31-fold) in geometric mean ID50 titer relative to the parent variant. EVE-vax-designed constructs on particular backgrounds showed similar neutralization resistance or antibody escape when compared to SARS-CoV-2 variants that evolved naturally from the same backgrounds. Therefore, these constructs can serve as useful proxies for future SARS-CoV-2 evolution.
EVE-Vax constructs were able to recapitulate antigenic profiles similar to future variants using only data available at the time of the emergence of VOCs. Earlier variant constructs showed antigenic resemblance to later emerging variants during the pandemic. For example, one B.1-background design (B.1-4a) showed a 3.9-fold reduction in neutralization sensitivity relative to B.1, exceeding the resistance of Alpha, Delta, and Gamma variants. Furthermore, the BA.2.12.1-5a designed construct mimicked the neutralizability of BA.2.75, which emerged later, and XBB designs containing the L452R or S494R mutations resembled the neutralization profile of HV.1 containing L452R.
The constructs were used to evaluate the B.1-BA.4/5 bivalent booster vaccine and high titers against the BA.2.75, BQ.1, BQ.1.1, and XBB variants were indicative of ample protection. A range of antibody escape was noted concerning constructs designed on BA.2.75 and XBB. When assessing nanoparticle vaccines, they elicited higher neutralizing titers against future SARS-CoV-2 variants compared to bivalent mRNA boosters.
Finally, experimental and computational approaches to predicting pandemic mutations and generating immune escape constructs were compared. Both approaches were able to detect positions that were frequently mutated at greater rates during the pandemic than random selection. Computational methods could identify most escape mutations found in experimental designs by adjusting EVE-Vax's detection threshold. On the contrary, experimental data would not likely have identified the unique mutations present in EVE-Vax constructs, proving the potential of EVE-Vax to be an alternative or complementary approach to high-throughput experimental methods.
While these findings are promising, the researchers highlighted in the paper that the EVE-Vax method, in its current form, primarily focuses on antibody neutralization. Crucial aspects like T-cell-mediated immunity, which is important for long-term protection, have not yet been incorporated. Additionally, the success of these computational approaches hinges on sufficient evolutionary sequence data for effective model training. The generalizability of this method to all viral antigens and the potential for misuse of predictive technologies also warrant careful consideration and further exploration.
In sum, the AI tool EVE-Vax has demonstrated its capability to predict and design viral proteins that could emerge in the future. These designed constructs triggered similar immune responses concerning the SARS-CoV-2 virus, as noted in actual viral proteins that emerged during the pandemic. EVE-Vax could facilitate the development of vaccines and therapeutics to guard against future variants of viruses that are evolving rapidly.
Posted in: Medical Science News | Medical Research News | Disease/Infection News | Pharmaceutical 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, May 11). New AI tool predicts viral mutations to help future-proof COVID vaccines. News-Medical. Retrieved on May 12, 2025 from https://www.news-medical.net/news/20250511/New-AI-tool-predicts-viral-mutations-to-help-future-proof-COVID-vaccines.aspx.
MLA
Bose, Priyom. "New AI tool predicts viral mutations to help future-proof COVID vaccines". News-Medical. 12 May 2025.
The NWSL season cruised through Week 8 with two draws, several close matches and a big 4-1 win for the Kansas City Current over Bay FC that put the women in teal back on top of the NWSL standings. Alyssa Thompson scored a key goal for Angel City FC while abroad, Korbin Albert and Lindsey Heaps each scored over the weekend in their respective Première Ligue semifinal matches.The two U.S. midfielders will meet in the final on May 16 at Groupama Stadium in Lyon, site of the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup Final.
Angel City (8-2-4, 12 points) earned its second straight win as Alyssa Thompson scored her fourth goal of the 2025 season in the 2-0 victory over the Utah Royals. The Angel City forward is currently tied for fourth in goals in the NWSL with fellow USWNT player pool members Emma Sears and Ashley Hatch, among others.
The game also featured a spectacular goal from two-time FIFA Women's World Cup winner Christen Press netted her first goal of the season in the 66th minute, just a minute after she subbed into the game. Press has played 15 games since returning last year from a knee injury that had kept her sidelined since she suffered an ACL tear in 2022. Thompson later scored in stoppage time (90+5) just before the final whistle blew.
Midfielder Claire Hutton continues to show well for Kansas City Current (6-2-0, 18 points) who are back at the top of the NWSL. The Current beat Bay FC 4-1 on Sunday as Hutton contributed an assist to Brazilian Debinha's goal in the 33rd minute.
Hutton recorded her second assist of 2025 in eight matches so far. She tallied just one in her rookie season in 2024. The 19-year-old defender was fired up after her second USWNT cap and start in April. She said she was eager to take her confidence she gained playing for her country colors into her day-to-day development with the Current.
Paris Saint-Germain (16-2-4, 52 points) and Olympique Lyon (20-0-2, 62 points) advanced to the Première Ligue Final, in part, thanks to USWNT players Korbin Albert and Lindsey Heaps. Crystal Dunn also played the final 30 minutes for PSG to help her side to the final.
Lyon beat Dijon 4-1 in the second year of playoffs in France's top women's division, which qualifies the top four finishers in the league to semifinals, with the winners meeting for the title. Heaps scored the team's second goal just before halftime (45+2). That marked Heaps' 12th score of the Première Ligue season, the most in her European career.
Albert and PSG took down Paris FC 3-0 in the other semifinal. Albert scored on a nifty finish in second-half stoppage time (90+1) to cap the victory. It was Albert's fifth goal of the season, a career-high for the midfielder. She tallied a single goal last season and none in her first professional year.
Both Albert and Dunn's club will face off against Heaps' Lyon in the final May 16 to decide the title.
Naomi Girma and Catarina Macario celebrated the Women's Super League title last week, but in the season finale, they helped complete Chelsea's (19-0-3, 60 points) undefeated season, beating Liverpool 1-0. Girma played 90 minutes while Macario subbed in for the final 18 minutes. It looked like Chelsea was headed for a draw, which still would have kept Chelsea unbeaten on the season, but Aggie Beever-Jones scored the game-winner in stoppage time (90+1).
In other WSL news, Emily Fox and Arsenal (15-4-3, 48 points) beat Phallon Tullis-Joyce and Manchester United (13-4-5, 44 points) 4-3 in the final regular season match for both clubs. Jenna Nighswonger was on the bench for the Gunners. Next, Arsenal will face Barcelona in the UEFA Women's Champions League Final May 24, while Manchester United will battle Chelsea in the FA Cup Final May 18.
Players Below are Players Who Have Earned a Cap for the USWNT in 2025
Korbin Albert (Paris Saint-Germain, Première Ligue)
Lynn Biyendolo (Seattle Reign, NWSL)
Jane Campbell (Houston Dash, NWSL)
Sam Coffey (Portland Thorns, NWSL)
Alana Cook (Kansas City Current, NWSL)
Michelle Cooper (Kansas City Current, NWSL)
Crystal Dunn (Paris Saint-Germain, Première Ligue)
Emily Fox (Arsenal, Women's Super League)
Ashley Hatch (Washington Spirit, NWSL)
Naomi Girma (Chelsea, Women's Super League)
Lindsey Heaps (Olympique Lyon, Première Ligue)
Claire Hutton (Kansas City Current, NWSL)
Catarina Macario (Chelsea, Women's Super League)
Mandy McGlynn (Utah Royals)
Tara McKeown (Washington Spirit, NWSL)
Jenna Nighswonger (Arsenal, Women's Super League)
Trinity Rodman (Washington Spirit, NWSL)
Yazmeen Ryan (Houston Dash, NWSL)
Emily Sams (Orlando Pride, NWSL)
Emma Sears (Racing Louisville, NWSL)
Ally Sentnor (Utah Royals, NWSL)
Jaedyn Shaw (North Carolina Courage, NWSL)
Emily Sonnett (Gotham FC, NWSL)
Alyssa Thompson (Angel City, NWSL)
Gisele Thompson (Angel City, NWSL)
Phallon Tullis-Joyce
Lily Yohannes (Ajax Amsterdam, Eredivisie Vrouwen)
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If you had trouble keeping up with the heroics, goals, assists and shutouts recorded by members of the U.S. Men's National Team pool this past week, there was a good reason - there were plenty of them.
Christian Pulisic pulled off late heroics for AC Milan, while Alejandro Zendejas struck for a brace to boost Club América into the Liga MX Clausura semifinals.
Brian White connected twice off headers to lead the Vancouver Whitecaps to a comeback draw.
Patrick Agyemang scored and assisted on goals in extra time for Charlotte FC in the 2025 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup tournament.
Diego Luna entertained fans with another spectacular goal for Real Salt Lake, while DeJuan Jones, Max Arfsten, Jack McGlynn and Brandon Vazquez also found the net for their MLS teams.
Weston McKennie, Mark McKenzie, Shaq Moore and Brian Gutiérrez assisted on goals.
Johnny Cardoso and Real Betis reached the UEFA Conference league final, and Monaco, with Folarin Balogun, clinched a spot in next season's UEFA Champions League.
What more can we say about Christian Pulisic's amazing season for AC Milan? On Friday, May 9, he put his game into overdrive late in the Serie A encounter to lead the Rossoneri to a 3-1 comeback win at home past Bologna. Trailing 1-0 in the 73rd minute, Pulisic set up Mexican striker Santiago Gimenez for the 73rd-minute equalizer. A deflection then found Pulisic's feet six minutes later. João Félix's shot in the penalty area was blocked, but Pulisic gathered the ball and scored on his first touch for a 2-1 lead.
Pulisic has 17 goals and 12 assists across all competitions this campaign. Milan (17-10-9, 60 points) sits in eighth place and will meet Bologna again in the Coppa Italia final at Stadio Olimpico in Rome on Wednesday, May 14 at 3 p.m. ET.
Alejandro Zendejas struck for a brace to propel Club América to a 2-0 second leg victory over Pachuca and into the Liga MX Clausura semifinals on Saturday, May 10. The teams played to a scoreless draw in the first leg at Pachuca on Wednesday, May 7. The 27-year-old midfielder slotted home a left-footed shot off a rebound past goalkeeper Carlos Moreno in the 16th minute before giving the hosts some breathing room, converting a Kevin Alvarez feed on a shot that hit the post and bounded into the net in the 28th minute. Moreno denied Zendejas' hat-trick quest with a big save in the 80th minute. Zendejas' 11 goals tie his career-high, which he set for Club América during the 2022-23 season.
Club América, the first Liga MX team to reach the semifinals seven consecutive times, will visit Cruz Azul in the first leg on Tuesday, May 13 and will host its rivals on Friday, May 16 in the second leg.
Can anyone stop Brian White these days? His brace helped the Vancouver Whitecaps rally from a two-goal deficit en route to a 2-2 home draw with Los Angeles FC on Sunday, May 11. White started the comeback in the 26th minute, heading Sebastian Berhalter's long free kick off the crossbar and into the net past goalkeeper Hugo Lloris. On his 70th-minute equalizer, second-half substitute Ali Ahmed headed the ball toward the left far post and White headed it home from point-blank range. White is in a four-way tie for the MLS goal-scoring lead with eight goals. He has 11 across all competitions this year.
The Whitecaps (8-1-3, 27), who currently boast MLS' best record, are five points ahead of Minnesota United (6-2-4, 22) in the Western Conference. They're also enjoying an 11-game unbeaten streak (6-0-5) across all competitions.
Patrick Agyemang came off the bench to lift Charlotte FC to a 4-1 extra-time triumph over North Carolina FC in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup on Tuesday, May 6. Agyemang, who replaced Idan Toklomati in the 78th minute, snapped a 1-1 deadlock with a six-yard header past keeper Akira Fitzgerald in the 104th minute, thanks to Djibril Diani's feed. He also assisted on Kerwin Vargas' tally three minutes into injury time to close out the match. Charlotte will visit D.C. United in the Round of 16 on Wednesday, May 21 at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Diego Luna scored for the second week in a row, burying his team-leading seventh goal to help 10-man Real Salt Lake record a 1-1 draw at FC Dallas on Saturday, May 10. Holding the ball at the top of the box, Luna spun around several defenders and drilled a shot into the right side of the net to lift the visitors into the lead in the 24th minute. Luna, who scored in a 2-1 defeat at the Vancouver Whitecaps on May 3, has six goals in his last nine league appearances. RSL (4-7-1, 13) is in 11th place in the MLS Western Conference.
Midfielder Jack McGlynn recorded a goal and an assist for Houston Dynamo last week. He came off the bench in the 63rd minute and connected for an impressive goal in the 99th minute in a 4-1 extra-time triumph over Phoenix Rising in the Round of 32 of the Open Cup on Wednesday, May 7. He curled a long-range shot into the upper left corner past goalkeeper Patrick Rakovsky to break a 1-1 deadlock, off a Brooklyn Raines assist. He also assisted on Fela Awodesu 32nd-minute goal in Houston's 3-1 home loss against the Seattle Sounders on Saturday, May 10. The Dynamo (2-6-4, 10) is in 14th place in the MLS Western Conference, seven points ahead of cellar-dwelling LA Galaxy.
A week after recording his first two assists of the campaign, DeJuan Jones scored his first goal for the San Jose Earthquakes in their 2-0 victory at the Colorado Rapids on Saturday, May 10. Vítor Costa sent a pass from the left side into the middle of the box to a charging Jones, who fired a shot past keeper Zack Steffen two minutes into first-half stoppage time. The Quakes (5-6-1, 16) are in seventh place in the MLS Western Conference.
Make it three consecutive weeks for Max Arfsten getting into the box score for the Columbus Crew. He scored the Crew's first goal of its 2-2 comeback draw at the Philadelphia Union on Saturday, May 10. Mo Farsi dribbled down the right side to start the scoring sequence before he found Dylan Chambost on an overlapping run. Chambost then sent a cross toward the back post that Arfsten banged home from six yards past goalie Andrew Rick. He has three goals and three assists this season for second-place Columbus (7-1-4, 25) in the MLS Eastern Conference.
In his first MLS game at FC Cincinnati since he was transferred from the side in January 2024, Austin FC's Brandon Vazquez did not celebrate his penalty kick goal in a 2-1 loss on Saturday, May 10. Vazquez buried his attempt past keeper and one-time teammate Roman Celentano for his third goal of the season, which tied the game at 1-1 in the 48th minute. Austin FC (5-6-1, 16) is in eighth place in the MLS Western Conference.
Weston McKennie, Mark McKenzie, Shaq Moore and Brian Gutiérrez assisted on goals for their respective teams.
-- Midfielder Weston McKennie set up 10-man Juventus' lone goal of its 1-1 draw at Lazio on Saturday, May 10. He sent in a left-wing cross that French striker Randal Kolo-Muani headed in from point-blank range in the 51st minute, his fourth assist this Serie A campaign.
-- Defender Mark McKenzie assisted on Yann-Alexandre Gboho's tally in the 47th minute in Toulouse's 1-1 home draw with Lens in French Ligue 1 on Saturday, May 10.
-- Only three minutes after kickoff, defender Shaq Moore made his presence felt in FC Dallas' 3-1 victory over AV Alta FC in the Open Cup on Wednesday, May 7. Luciano Acosta, from close range, buried Moore's pass from the right side past goalkeeper Denzil Smith.
-- After coming on in the 53rd minute for Jonathan Bamba, Brian Gutiérrez set up Maren Haile-Selassie's goal in the 71st minute, the Chicago Fire's final score in its 4-0 win over Detroit City in the Open Cup on Wednesday, May 7.
Johnny Cardoso and Real Betis reached their first major European final as the Spanish La Liga team defeated Fiorentina in aggregate goals, 4-3, in the UEFA Conference League semifinals on Thursday, May 8. After recording a 2-1 win in the first leg on the road, Real Betis managed a 2-2 tie in the second leg, on an extra-time goal by Abde Ezzalzouli. Real Betis will meet Chelsea in the May 28 final.
An injury sidelined forward Folarin Balogun from Monaco's 2-0 victory over Lyon on Saturday, May 10, but the team was able to clinch a spot in next year's UEFA Champions League. Balogun, who recently had returned from a dislocated shoulder, scored his first Ligue 1 goal in almost seven months in a 3-1 victory at Saint-Etienne in French Ligue 1 on Saturday, May 3. Monaco (18-8-7, 61) secured third place in French Ligue 1.
Forward Haji Wright and Coventry City went down to a 2-1 home loss to Sunderland in the English Championship League promotion playoffs on Friday, May 9. They will have another opportunity to right themselves in the away leg on Tuesday, May 13.
-- Paxten Aaronson (Utrecht; Dutch Eredivisie) - 90 minutes in 2-0 loss at Twente (May 11)
-- Kellyn Acosta (Chicago Fire; MLS) - In 18, DNP in 2-1 win vs. Atlanta United (May 10); 90 minutes in 4-0 win vs. Detroit City in U.S. Open Cup (May 7)
-- Tyler Adams (AFC Bournemouth; English Premier League) – 76 minutes in 1-0 loss at Aston Villa (May 10)
-- Max Arfsten (Columbus Crew; MLS) - 89 minutes, GOAL, in 2-2 draw at Philadelphia Union (May 10)
-- Patrick Agyemang (Charlotte FC; MLS) - 66 minutes in 2-1 loss at Nashville SC (May 10); 42 minutes as a substitute, GOAL, ASSIST, in 4-1 win at North Carolina FC in U.S. Open Cup (May 6)
-- Folarin Balogun (Monaco; French Ligue 1) – Injured, DNP in 2-0 win vs. Lyon (May 10)
-- Taylor Booth (Twente; Dutch Eredivisie) - Injured, DNP in 2-0 win vs. Utrecht (May 11)
-- Gianluca Busio (Venezia; Italian Serie A) - Vs. Fiorentina (Monday, 12:30 p.m. ET)
-- Drake Callender (Inter Miami CF; MLS) – Injured, DNP in 4-1 loss at Minnesota United (May 10)
-- Johnny Cardoso (Real Betis; La Liga) - 11 minutes as a substitute in 1-1 draw vs. Osasuna (May 11); 90 minutes in 2-2 draw at Fiorentina in UEFA Conference League (May 8)
-- Cameron Carter-Vickers (Celtic; Scottish Premiership) - Not in 18, DNP in 3-1 win vs. Hibernian (May 11)
-- Ben Cremaschi (Inter Miami CF; MLS) – 90 minutes in 4-1 loss at Minnesota United (May 10)
-- Luca de la Torre (San Diego FC; MLS) – 90 minutes in 2-1 win at St. Louis CITY (May 10)
-- Sergiño Dest (PSV Eindhoven; Dutch Eredivisie) - 64 minutes as a substitute in 3-2 win at Feyenoord (May 11)
-- Jesús Ferreira (Seattle Sounders; MLS) - 24 minutes as a substitute in 3-1 win at Houston Dynamo (May 10)
-- Marlon Fossey (Standard Liege; Belgian Pro League) - 90 minutes in 0-0 draw at Mechelen (May 10)
-- Julian Gressel (Minnesota United; MLS) – 19 minutes as a substitute in 4-1 win vs. Inter Miami CF (May 10)
-- Brian Gutiérrez (Chicago Fire; MLS) - 89 minutes in 2-1 win vs. Atlanta United (May 10:); 37 minutes as a substitute, ASSIST, in 4-0 win vs. Detroit City in U.S. Open Cup (May 7)
-- Sean Johnson (Toronto FC; MLS) - 90 minutes, SHUTOUT, in 2-0 win vs. D.C. United (May 10)
-- DeJuan Jones (San Jose Earthquakes; MLS) – 90 minutes, GOAL, in 2-0 win at Colorado Rapids (May 10); Not in 18, DNP in 2-1 win vs. Sacramento Republic in U.S. Open Cup (May 7)
-- Richy Ledezma (PSV Eindhoven; Dutch Eredivisie) - 26 minutes in 3-2 win at Feyenoord (May 11)
-- Diego Luna (Real Salt Lake; MLS) - 84 minutes, GOAL, in 1-1 draw at FC Dallas (May 10)
-- Kristoffer Lund (Palermo; Italy Serie B) - 20 minutes as a substitute in 2-0 win vs. Frosinone (May 9)
-- Lennard Maloney (Mainz; Bundesliga) - 1 minute as a substitute in 4-1 win at Bochum (May 10)
-- Jack McGlynn (Houston Dynamo; MLS) - 90 minutes, ASSIST, in 3-1 loss vs. Seattle Sounders (May 10); 27 minutes as a substitute, GOAL, in 4-1 win at Phoenix Rising in U.S. Open Cup (May 7)
-- Weston McKennie (Juventus; Italy Serie A) - 90 minutes, ASSIST, in 1-1 draw at Lazio (May 10)
-- Mark McKenzie (Toulouse; French Ligue 1) - 90 minutes, ASSIST, in 1-1 draw vs. Lens (May 10)
-- Djordje Mihailovic (Colorado Rapids; MLS) - 90 minutes in 2-0 loss vs. San Jose Earthquakes (May 10)
-- Shaq Moore (FC Dallas; MLS) - In 18, DNP in 1-1 draw vs. Real Salt Lake (May 10); 45 minutes, ASSIST, in 3-1 win vs. AV Alta FC in U.S. Open Cup (May 7)
-- Jordan Morris (Seattle Sounders; MLS) - Injured, DNP in 3-1 win at Houston Dynamo (May 10)
-- Yunus Musah (AC Milan; Italy Serie A) - 12 minutes as a substitute in 3-1 win vs. Bologna (May 9); 11 minutes as a substitute in 2-1 win at Genoa (May 5)
-- Jalen Neal (CF Montreal; MLS) – 79 minutes in 1-0 win at New York City FC (May 11)
-- Erik Palmer-Brown (Panathinaikos; Greek Super League) - 78 minutes in 1-0 loss vs. Olympiakos (May 11)
-- Kevin Paredes (Wolfsburg; Bundesliga) - Injured, DNP in 2-2 draw vs. Hoffenheim (May 9)
-- Jordan Pefok (Reims; French Ligue 1) - 75 minutes in 2-0 loss vs. Saint-Etienne (May 10)
-- Ricardo Pepi (PSV Eindhoven; Dutch Eredivisie) - Injured, DNP in 3-2 win at Feyenoord (May 11)
-- Christian Pulisic (AC Milan; Italy Serie A) - 90 minutes, GOAL, ASSIST, in 3-1 win vs. Bologna (May 9); 79 minutes in 2-1 win at Genoa (May 5)
-- Tim Ream (Charlotte FC; MLS) - 66 minutes in 2-1 loss at Nashville SC (May 10); 15 minutes as a substitute in 4-1 win at North Carolina FC in U.S. Open Cup (May 6)
-- Gio Reyna (Borussia Dortmund; Bundesliga) - In 18, DNP in 4-2 win at Bayer Leverkusen (May 11)
-- Bryan Reynolds (Westerlo; Belgian Pro League) - 78 minutes in 4-3 loss at Sporting Charleroi (May 10)
-- Chris Richards (Crystal Palace; English Premier League) - 90 minutes in 2-0 win at Tottenham Hotspur (May 11); 90 minutes in 1-1 draw vs. Nottingham Forest (May 5)
-- Antonee Robinson (Fulham; English Premier League) - Not in 18, DNP in 3-1 loss vs. Everton (May 10)
-- Miles Robinson (FC Cincinnati; MLS) - 90 minutes in 2-1 win vs. Austin FC (May 11)
-- James Sands (St. Pauli; Bundesliga) - Injured, DNP in 2-2 draw at Eintracht Frankfurt (May 11)
-- Joe Scally (Borussia Mönchengladbach; Bundesliga) - 45 minutes as a substitute in 2-0 loss at Bayern Munich (May 10)
-- Patrick Schulte (Columbus Crew; MLS) - 90 minutes in 2-2 draw at Philadelphia Union (May 10)
-- Zack Steffen (Colorado Rapids; MLS) - 90 minutes in 2-0 loss vs. San Jose Earthquakes (May 10)
-- Tanner Tessmann (Lyon; French Ligue 1) – 90 minutes in 2-0 loss at Monaco (May 10)
-- Malik Tillman (PSV Eindhoven; Dutch Eredivisie) - 90 minutes in 3-2 win at Feyenoord (May 11)
-- Timmy Tillman (Los Angeles FC; MLS) - 90 minutes in 2-2 draw at Vancouver Whitecaps (May 11)
-- John Tolkin (Holstein Kiel; Bundesliga) - 71 minutes in 2-1 loss vs. Freiburg (May 10)
-- Auston Trusty (Celtic; Scottish Premiership) - 90 minutes in 3-1 win vs. Hibernian (May 11)
-- Matt Turner (Crystal Palace; English Premier League) - In 18, DNP in 2-0 win at Tottenham Hotspur (May 11); Not in 18, DNP in 1-1 draw vs. Nottingham Forest (May 5)
-- Brandon Vazquez (Austin FC; MLS) - 73 minutes, GOAL, in 2-1 loss at FC Cincinnati (May 10)
-- Tim Weah (Juventus; Italy Serie A) - 90 minutes in 1-1 draw at Lazio (May 10)
-- Brian White (Vancouver Whitecaps; MLS) - 90 minutes, TWO GOALS, in 2-2 draw vs. Los Angeles FC (May 11)
-- Haji Wright (Coventry City; English Championship) - 90 minutes in 2-1 loss vs. Sunderland (May 9)
-- DeAndre Yedlin (FC Cincinnati; MLS) - 7 minutes as a substitute in 2-1 win vs. Austin FC (May 11)
-- Alejandro Zendejas (Club America; Liga MX) - 86 minutes, TWO GOALS, in 2-0 win vs. Pachuca in Clausura Playoffs (May 10); 90 minutes in 0-0 draw at Pachuca in Clausura Playoffs (May 7)
-- Walker Zimmerman (Nashville SC; MLS) - Injured, DNP in 2-1 win vs. Charlotte FC (May 10); Injured, DNP in 1-0 win vs. Chattanooga Red Wolves in U.S. Open Cup (May 6)
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Hey there! Between managerial hires and the battle to book a spot in the Premier League, the start of this week is almost just as busy as the weekend that came and went. I'm Pardeep Cattry with the latest.
All times U.S./Eastern
Monday, May 12🇮🇹 Serie A: Atalanta vs. Roma, 2:45 p.m. ➡️ Paramount+🏴 Championship: Sheffield United vs. Bristol City, 3 p.m. ➡️ CBS Sports Network, Paramount+
Tuesday, May 13🏴 Championship: Sunderland vs. Coventry City, 3 p.m. ➡️ CBS Sports Network, Paramount+
The second Carlo Ancelotti era at Real Madrid is officially coming to an end.
Ancelotti will leave the club following their final game in La Liga this season on May 25, when they host Real Sociedad, to take the Brazil job he has long been linked to. He officially starts with Brazil on May 26 and will be in charge for their World Cup qualifiers against Ecuador and Paraguay on June 7 and June 10, respectively, when the national team's final preparations for the 2026 World Cup will begin.
He becomes the latest high-profile manager to leave the club game for a job in charge of a national team in time for the 2026 World Cup, a list that includes the U.S. head coach Mauricio Pochettino, England's Thomas Tuchel and Germany's Julian Nagelsmann. Ancelotti's hire definitely adds another layer of allure to next year's tournament, but is also a stark reminder of the task ahead for Brazil. The five-time World Cup winners have been somewhat directionless since their quarterfinal exit to Croatia at the 2022 World Cup, so much so that they won just two of their opening six games during the 2026 qualifying campaign and were eliminated in the quarterfinals of last year's Copa America. The new head coach will be tasked with correcting course and finally getting the best of a talented attacking group that is headlined by Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo, who have not excelled for the national team the way they have for Ancelotti's Real Madrid.
As for Real Madrid, Ancelotti leaves a club that he has become synonymous with during two incredibly impressive spells, so much so that he said that "the honeymoon [period] with Madrid will be until the last day of my life," in a press conference on Saturday, the end clearly in sight. He won three of his five UEFA Champions League titles with Real Madrid, becoming the most successful manager in the competition's history, and also collected two La Liga trophies along the way. Ancelotti is expected to be succeeded by Xabi Alonso, the former Real Madrid player who has been a manager on the rise since winning the Bundesliga with Bayer Leverkusen last season, someone Ancelotti described as "one of the best coaches in the world" on Saturday.
While Ancelotti embraces a new challenge with Brazil, he leaves a sizable task behind him in Madrid. Los Blancos are poised to end the season without a domestic or continental title for the first time since the 2018-19 campaign, failing to make the most of their new-look Galacticos era headlined by Kylian Mbappe. Though the France international has been a helpful addition, this season offered reminder after reminder that the squad was unbalanced and that improvements in several areas of the pitch are needed. Ancelotti returned to Madrid in 2021 to steady the ship, but a true period of transition awaits now that the Italian manager has confirmed his exit.
The race to claim the final spot in next season's edition of the Premier League continues this week, where the field of teams is trimmed from four to two in the second legs of the Championship's promotion playoff semifinals.
One team essentially has their spot in the playoff final booked – Sheffield United. The Blades host Bristol City on Monday after winning the first leg 3-0 thanks to goals from Harrison Burrows, Andre Brooks and Callum O'Hare, reflecting the wide gap in the table between the sides after Bristol finished 24 points behind them. United are targeting a return to the Premier League after finishing last place in last season's competition, sticking by manager Chris Wilder through it all with the hopes of bouncing back up to England's top flight.
Things will likely be a bit more competitive on Tuesday in Sunderland, who host Coventry City while boasting a 2-1 advantage after the first leg. Wilson Isidor and Eliezer Mayenda scored to give Sunderland a slim lead as the team targets their first Premier League season since the 2016-17 season, when they finished last. The Black Cats have been on a dramatic journey since, immediately getting relegated to League One after another last place finish and spending four seasons in England's third division before returning to the Championship for the 2022-23 campaign. As for the Frank Lampard-led Coventry, they hope to play the Premier League for the first time since the 2000-01 season, bouncing around England's lower divisions for more than two decades since that relegation.
Each team targets a spot in the promotion playoff final on May 24 at London's Wembley Stadium, otherwise known as the sport's richest game. A spot in the Premier League, after all, comes with a prize pot of hundreds of millions – Sheffield United pocketed around $145 million for participating in the top flight despite finishing last place, much more than the roughly $65 million they earned in the Championship this season as a "first year" relegated team.
🔵🔴 Barcelona win El Clasico: Barcelona won yet another Clasico, this time beating Real Madrid 4-3 on Sunday. It nearly cements Barcelona as La Liga's champions, a feat few predicted for them at the start of the season.
🇧🇷 Ancelotti to Brazil: More on Brazil's choice to hire Carlo Ancelotti, which "screams of desperation" from the national team with just one year to go until the World Cup.
🪽 Savy King update: Angel City defender Savy King is responsive after collapsing during her team's 2-0 win over the Utah Royals on Friday. The game resumed after a 10 minute stoppage in the second half while medical staff attended to her, a decision that many around the NWSL have criticized league officials for.
🏆 48 team WWC: FIFA will expand the Women's World Cup to 48 teams in time for the 2031 edition, which the U.S. will co-host, which will match the field size of the men's competition.
🔮 Real Madrid's future: With Xabi Alonso's hire imminent, here's a look at the work Real Madrid will need to do in the transfer window and which players could benefit from the new manager's arrival.
🔴 Wirtz to Bayern?: Xabi Alonso might not be the only big name leaving Bayer Leverkusen this summer – star midfielder Florian Wirtz is reportedly close to joining their domestic rivals, Bayern Munich.
📉 First to worst: The LA Galaxy are officially off to the worst start by a reigning MLS Cup champion with zero wins in their first 12 games, achieving that feat in spectacular form with a 7-0 loss to the New York Red Bulls on Saturday.
For more picks, predictions, expert tips and the latest betting news, don't miss out on CBSSports.com's betting home page.
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The Flying Eagles edged past the reigning African champions in a dramatic penalty shootout, after a tense 120 minutes ended goalless at the Suez Canal Stadium in Ismailia.
Goalkeeper Ebenezer Harcourt emerged as the hero, saving spot-kicks from Pierre Dorival and Mame Mor Faye, while Ousmane Konate's attempt rattled the crossbar.
In addition to securing a spot at the global football showpiece in Chile, the seven-time African champions have also reached the AFCON U20 semi-finals, where they will face either South Africa or DR Congo.
“We don't want to pursue two things at the same time,” coach Aliyu Zubair had told the media.
“First things first, and that is getting the ticket to the World Cup. That's where all our attention is. We are gathering momentum, and I believe we are in a ready stage now.
“We respect all opponents, including Senegal as defending champions. But Nigeria has been in that position before. This time, we are coming to be the ones to stop them and run our race into the semi-finals.”
Nigeria will be making their 14th appearance at the U20 World Cup, since debuting in the tournament's fourth edition held in Mexico in 1983.
Their best performance to date remains a second-place finish, achieved in the 1989 and 2005 editions in Saudi Arabia and the Netherlands, respectively.
The West Africans were eliminated in the Round of 16 at the 2023 edition in Argentina. Despite defeating the hosts in the previous round, Ladan Bosso's boys fell short against South Korea, losing 1-0 after extra time.
Carlo Ancelotti has won two Champions League trophies since returning to Real Madrid in 2021
Carlo Ancelotti has agreed to take over as head coach of the Brazil national team.
It is one of the most eye-catching appointments in international football history.
For a team so deeply tied to the nation's 'beautiful game' identity, the decision to bring in a foreign coach - one of Europe's elite - signals a desperation to win and an ambition for the struggling Selecao to turn a corner.
"Ancelotti was the main choice because he has an unrivalled tradition of success, winning in five countries," said South American football expert Tim Vickery.
So, with the 2026 World Cup around the corner, can Ancelotti fix Brazil?
Brazil's footballing dominance has fallen away in the last two decades.
Despite lifting two Copa America titles in that time, in 2007 and 2019, their record at the World Cup - the ultimate measure of success - has been disappointing
They have not won the tournament since triumphing for the fifth time in 2002, and their recent exits have been painful signals of decline.
The most dismal came in 2014, when Brazil, hosting the World Cup, were humiliated 7-1 by Germany in the semi-finals.
Belgium got the better of Brazil in a 2018 quarter-final, while 2022 trophy hopes were dashed by defeat to Croatia on penalties in the last eight.
"Every campaign since 2002 has ended as soon as the side has come up against a European team in the knockout stages," said Vickery.
"It's become a hoodoo they want to overcome and another reason they've gone with a European coach this time round. They're saying 'if we want to beat them next time round, we need someone who knows them'."
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Ronaldo's eight goals as Brazil win 2002 World Cup
Brazil's current World Cup qualifying campaign has been alarming.
They should qualify comfortably enough, but a dire run, including a humiliating 4-1 defeat to Argentina, has caused a scramble for answers.
Managers have come and gone in recent years amid the clamour for a winning team.
Tite, respected for bringing a sense of order and pride, stepped down as planned after Qatar 2022. The team's most recent coach, Dorival Junior, was sacked following the Argentina collapse.
This has led the Brazilian Football Confederation to deploy a bold plan, one that has been long in their thoughts: Project Ancelotti.
It will officially begin on 26 May, as the 65-year-old Italian ends his stint in Madrid, where Xabi Alonso is expected to be his successor.
Vickery said: "We were hearing last year that the senior players weren't sold on Dorival Junior, but there will be none of that with Carlo Ancelotti.
"He has instant credibility in the dressing room."
Flamengo manager Jorge Jesus celebrates winning the Copa Libertadores in 2019
In over a century of international football, Brazil's football federation has largely shied away from trusting foreign managers with its top job.
Only three non-Brazilians have ever led the side, and they coached just seven games in all.
Uruguayan Ramon Platero was the first in 1925 and managed four games, Joreca from Portugal managed two games in 1944, with Argentine Filpo Nunez the last foreign appointment, managing a single game in 1965.
It has been a similar story in Brazil's domestic league, Serie A. The sense had always been that only a Brazilian could truly understand what it means to play football there.
This culture changed soon after Portuguese coach Jorge Jesus, who was linked in recent reports, external as another candidate for the Brazil job, took over in 2019 at Flamengo.
His arrival initially came amid doubts that a pragmatic European system could bring success.
Jesus went on to lead Flamengo to the league title as well as the Copa Libertadores, with the Rio de Janeiro club experiencing one of their most successful seasons ever. His team won 43 of their 57 games before Jesus left in July 2020.
Since then there has been a domestic shift and acceptance of foreign coaching in the country - and this is now translating to the international stage.
"This is an important wall coming down," Vickery told BBC Sport.
"Especially as it now seems that Ancelotti wants to do the job from Europe which is going to be very controversial."
Ancelotti will be the first true European titan at the helm, with a decorated trophy cabinet that includes five Champions League titles and domestic trophy success in Italy, England, France, Spain and Germany.
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'You can't have all the success he's had without a genius of a brain'
Carlo Ancelotti has won the Champions League a record five times as a head coach (AC Milan in 2003 and 2007; Real Madrid in 2014, 2022, 2024)
One of Ancelotti's greatest strengths lies in his ability to steady teams without drama. His famously calm demeanour, often typified by little more than a raised eyebrow in the heat of a big moment, has helped some of the world's most powerful dressing rooms find stability.
"Ancelotti was the main choice because he has an unrivalled tradition of success," said Vickery.
Although the 2024-25 season at Real Madrid has proved tricky, with his team losing to Barcelona in the Copa del Rey final and being knocked out in the Champions League quarter-finals by Arsenal, past achievements count for a lot with Ancelotti.
He cultivated an elite culture and mindset throughout his time in the Spanish capital. For evidence of this we need look no further than Real's stunning run to the 2022 Champions League title under Ancelotti.
Comeback victories from what seemed impossible positions against Chelsea and Manchester City were followed by a 1-0 victory against Liverpool in the final.
That Real team benefited from the coach's tactical expertise but also performed with exceptional emotional composure.
Such a collective temperament could lift a Brazil side who have often fallen short in the face of expectation and pressure.
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Brazilian football has long wrestled between two systems: the flair of a samba style and the pragmatism needed to win at the highest level.
Ancelotti's gift lies in having blended these identities throughout his career.
His AC Milan teams of the early 2000s included such luminaries as Paolo Maldini, Andrea Pirlo and Kaka. They played a controlled, elegant brand of football that was defensively resilient yet could be breathtaking when going forward.
He applied much the same approach during his second stint at Madrid, which began in June 2021.
There was structure without suffocation, allowing Brazilian talents like Vinicius Jr and Rodrygo to express themselves while maintaining discipline.
"Vinicius Jr absolutely loves working with him. He will be delighted with this appointment," said Vickery.
"It's not just him though. You could also see a return for Manchester United midfielder Casemiro to shore up their midfield - which has been one of the main positions of concern."
Carlo Ancelotti has worked with Brazilians including Eder Militao, Vinicius Jr, Rodrygo, Casemiro and Endrick during his time at Real Madrid
Forwards Vinicius and Rodrygo have been crucial to Real and Ancelotti's most recent successes.
Vinicius, in particular, has seen his club career take off. Despite dazzling on domestic duty in Spain, though, his performances for Brazil have often been underwhelming and his record shows a modest six goals from 39 caps.
Critics argue, external he struggles with the different tactical set-ups, but Ancelotti knows how to get the best out of him – simplifying his role, boosting his confidence, and providing freedom within a structured system.
"Ancelotti will act as a lightning rod for any criticism that side get - which will take the pressure off the players," said Vickery.
"There will be some in the coaching fraternity in Brazil who want him to fail, but the people who are least affected are the players."
Make no mistake: appointing Ancelotti is a seismic move for Brazil, a statement that they are willing to change to regain their place at football's summit.
If Ancelotti can bring his brand of stability to the group, while unleashing players like Vinicius Jr, and perhaps even coaxing one last magical tournament from Neymar, he may just be the man to lead Brazil back to glory.
And in doing so, he may not just fix Brazil; he could redefine what Brazilian football means in the modern era.
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Carlo Ancelotti's long-rumoured takeover of Brazil's national team was made official on Monday, leaving Real Madrid without a manager ahead of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup.
Ancelotti ends his second stint with Los Blancos on May 26, the date the CBF has confirmed that the Italian will take the reins of the Selecao.
“The CBF is proud to confirm that Carlo Ancelotti will become the next head coach of the Brazilian national football team,” a statement from the CBF read.
“Mr. Ancelotti is a legend of the game as the most successful manager in football history, will officially take charge following the conclusion of the 2024/25 La Liga season, ahead of Brazil's FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign in June. His official start date May 26th, 2025. “
While Brazil's future is set with 13 months to go until the 2026 FIFA World Cup, what about Real Madrid? Who will manage the famed side during next month's FIFA Club World Cup and beyond?
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When murmurs of Ancelotti's desire to link up with Brazil started several months ago, a few names were thrown about in media reports as potential replacements.
As time went on, however, one name stood out more than the rest: Xabi Alonso.
The former Real Madrid, Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Spain midfielder has gone on to become a successful manager, leading Bayer Leverkusen to a historic treble last season. The club will also finish second in the Bundesliga this season, cementing Alonso's reputation as a manager that can compete every year, and his playing days at Real Madrid make him an ideal replacemment for Ancelotti.
The 43-year-old is reportedly close to confirming a three-year contract with Los Blancos, with multiple reports on Monday indicating that the deal has already been agreed.
According to those same reports, Alonso would take over the La Liga giants in time for the FIFA Club World Cup.
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It's the business end of the season for many of Europe's USMNT stars with trophies, qualification for UEFA competition and pride at stake in a high-pressure week of finals and fights to the end.
We've been keeping track of all the U.S. emigres as they ply their trade across Europe's elite leagues and give national coach Mauricio Pochettino plenty to think about ahead of the USMNT's summer fixtures. With that, let's dive into this week's roundup.
Grab the popcorn because Christian Pulisic and Milan's season has reached peak box office.
As they head into the final stretch of a tumultuous campaign, they are somehow still clinging onto hopes of Champions League qualification through their Serie A placing, and could also bag a major domestic trophy this midweek that would guarantee Europa League participation next term.
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That's because the Rossoneri, with the help of another Pulisic goal, won the first of a major double-header of games against Bologna ahead of a pivotal final two league outings of the campaign.
Sergio Conceicao's men can't afford to slip up if they're to do the (still) improbable and drag themselves above Bologna, Roma, Lazio and Juventus and into fourth place in the table.
And they did not falter on Friday, beating Bologna 3-1 at San Siro courtesy of a Santiago Gimenez brace and Pulisic's quick reactions to convert Joao Felix's blocked shot — a come-from-behind win that will pep belief for the weeks to come.
So now it's another match-up with the same opponents on Wednesday in the Coppa Italia final before Sunday's journey to Rome, where victory would put them level with Claudio Ranieri's men. They will also require the rest to continue to falter before the final-day game against already relegated Monza.
It would be a remarkable comeback if Milan did it, but at the very least a win on Wednesday would also see this up-and-down season conclude with both domestic trophies in the cabinet.
Perhaps they are not what clubs with Milan's ambitions covet most when compared to the money-spinning, profile-boosting Champions League, but they are something to savour at least for the fans.
There does seem to be some much-needed momentum behind Pulisic & Co. In contrast, at Juventus, who are clinging onto fourth spot currently, Weston McKennie and Tim Weah find themselves on the other end of the traction train.
Both Americans started as Igor Tudor's side faltered in their own Roman test on Saturday, having to settle for a point after Lazio secured a 1-1 draw with a 96th-minute equaliser.
McKennie did at least contribute. The midfielder's movement was smart and he sent over the cross from which Randal Kolo Muani scored from on 51 minutes.
It will be fascinating to see what Pulisic and McKennie can do during their respective team's dramatic run-ins. The Turin club face mid-table Udinese before a tricky final day trip to confront a Venezia team who might still be fighting for survival.
Meanwhile, over in the Netherlands, PSV's American contingent are in the mix of another nail-biter.
The defending Eredivisie champions looked set to lose their crown to Ajax this season after results waned over the winter and the Amsterdam giants claimed top spot.
But speaking of magical momentum, Malik Tillman and PSV's other USMNT boys have it aplenty with two games left in the league.
On Sunday, they came from behind at Feyenoord to prevail 3-2 with a 99th-minute winner, and now sit just a solitary point behind Ajax with two games remaining. PSV have also won their past five league games since their last defeat, by Ajax on March 30.
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— PSV (@PSV) May 11, 2025
For their part, Ajax have won just twice in the same period and now appear to have the jitters at being hunted down — on Sunday, they lost 3-0 at home to 13th-placed NEC Nijmegen.
PSV called on Tillman, who had a strong game against Feyenoord, and Richy Ledezma, with the latter forced off through injury on 26 minutes to be replaced by compatriot Sergino Dest.
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Of both clubs' remaining games, Ajax arguably have the slightly harder run-in, facing fifth-placed Twente on the final day.
It's going to be interesting.
Antonee Robinson was not in Fulham's squad for their 3-1 home defeat against Everton on Saturday because of sickness.
The USMNT key man missed the win over Southampton at the end of April before returning to play in the tight loss to Aston Villa. But his absence was keenly felt against Everton, with the 1-3 defeat a setback for Fulham's hopes of qualifying for some form of European football next season.
Still, Robinson has had an excellent individual season and his form has been lost on nobody — particularly Premier League attackers.
Speaking on John Mikel Obi's The Obi One Podcast, Brentford winger Bryan Mbeumo revealed that the left-back is the toughest opponent he has faced.
“I would say Antonee Robinson from Fulham,” he said. “I used to play against him when he was at Wigan and he has changed completely. When he arrived, he was quick but not so good with his feet.
“Throughout the years he has proven a lot and he can now do everything — he can attack, he can defend, he's strong, he's good with his feet. He's really, really hard to play against.”
Name: Chris Richards
Club: Crystal Palace
Position: Defender
Appearances (all competitions): 29
Richards and his team-mates will head to Wembley for this weekend's FA Cup final on a high after beating Tottenham 2-0 on Sunday.
That solid Palace back three, of which Richards is a key part, were robust against the Europa League finalists and bagged their first win at Tottenham's new stadium to provide some much-needed momentum ahead of the weekend.
Name: John Tolkin
Club: Holstein Kiel
Position: Defender
Appearances: 10
The 22-year-old American, who joined his Bundesliga club from NY Red Bulls in January, suffered the pain of relegation on Saturday.
Holstein Kiel's 2-1 home defeat by Freiburg ensured their demotion from the German top flight along with bottom club Bochum. It was Tolkin's eighth start for Kiel and he has contributed two assists.
Name: Haji Wright
Club: Coventry City
Position: Striker
Appearances: 30
Wright didn't manage to get on the scoresheet as Coventry lost the first leg of their Championship play-off semi-final to Sunderland 2-1 on Friday. He was involved in a shoving match with Sunderland's Trai Hume as things got scrappy in the high-pressure game, though.
The two sides meet again on Tuesday.
(All Eastern Time)
So, if you've been paying attention, you'll already know there are some massive games coming up featuring USMNT players this week.
In the first of the finals, Pulisic and Yunus Musah are bidding to lift the Coppa Italia as they face Bologna on Wednesday at the Stadio Olimpico. Catch that game on Paramount+ with kick off at 1pm.
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Then on Saturday, it's all eyes on Richards in the FA Cup final as Crystal Palace search for their first major domestic honour against Manchester City. Even amid a poor season by their standards, Pep Guardiola's side are dangerous and Richards & Co will have their hands full if they want to get their hands on the trophy (ESPN +, 11am).
Those of you who are hooked on Serie A and whether Juventus can ward off Milan's challenge and hold onto fourth can see McKennie and Weah in action against Udinese on Sunday (9am, Paramount+).
Don't forget that Real Betis are still in the thick of their own fight to qualify for Europe again in La Liga, where Johnny Cardoso came on as a sub in Sunday's 1-1 draw with Osasuna.
On Thursday, they go up against Rayo Vallecano (1pm, ESPN +).
(Top photos: Getty Images)
Greg O'Keeffe is a senior writer for The Athletic covering US soccer players in the UK & Europe.
Previously he spent a decade at the Liverpool Echo covering news and features before an eight-year stint as the paper's Everton correspondent; giving readers the inside track on Goodison Park, a remit he later reprised at The Athletic.
He has also worked as a news and sport journalist for the BBC and hosts a podcast in his spare time. Follow Greg on Twitter @GregOK
Football
Xabi Alonso is set to replace Carlo Ancelotti as Real Madrid boss, according to Sky in Germany; outgoing Bayern Leverkusen boss Alonso is expected to take over as Real boss ahead of the Club World Cup; Ancelotti is to take charge of the Brazil national team from May 26
Monday 12 May 2025 18:30, UK
Xabi Alonso will become the new Real Madrid head coach ahead of the Club World Cup, according to Sky in Germany.
The Spaniard will replace Carlo Ancelotti, who is to take charge of the Brazil national team from May 26 after finishing the season at Real Madrid.
Alonso announced his Bayer Leverkusen exit on Friday after a successful two-and-a-half years at the German club, having won a league and cup double last season and falling just short of a remarkable unbeaten treble with defeat to Atalanta in the Europa League final.
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The 43-year-old won nearly everything as a player at Real Madrid and is set to try to win more silverware as a manager at the Bernabeu.
Sky in Germany understands that Leverkusen have agreed to release him a year early from his contract, initially due to run until the summer of 2026, which would allow the ex-Liverpool midfielder to join Real Madrid for free.
Alonso's first game in charge of the Spanish giants is set to be on June 18 for Real's Club World Cup opener against Saudi Arabian side Al Hilal in Miami.
Sky Sports News' chief reporter Kaveh Solhekol:
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"I know we shouldn't jump the gun, but everybody in football knows.
"Alonso, on Friday, announced he'd be leaving Bayer Leverkusen. He won the double there last season. A lot of people thought he'd go to Liverpool, but he decided to stay an extra season.
"He's got a gentleman's agreement with Leverkusen that if one of the clubs that he played for came in for him, then he'd be allowed to leave. So we're talking Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid.
"Sky Germany this afternoon reported they think he will definitely be the Real Madrid manager - and also he will be in place for the Club World Cup next month.
"Their first game is on June 18 against Al Hilal in Miami, so he's somebody else who's not really going to be getting much of a summer holiday, but then Real Madrid don't come calling very often.
"He'll have his work cut out because, make no mistake, Carlo Ancelotti is a very tough act to follow.
"We've seen how good Barcelona have been under Hansi Flick this season, so he needs to really hit the ground running because you don't get much time at Real Madrid. Of course, he has some credit in the bank because he was such a fantastic player, not only in Madrid, but everywhere else he played."
Alonso's imminent arrival comes after the news current Real boss, Ancelotti, will become Brazil head coach at the end of the season.
The 65-year-old will become the nation's first permanent foreign head coach, and will be in charge for Brazil's World Cup qualifiers against Paraguay and Ecuador next month.
In a statement, the Brazilian FA (CBF) hailed the "landmark moment of the coming together of two icons", highlighting their unrivalled five World Cup wins and Ancelotti's historic record in European football.
This will be Ancelotti's first international role, but he will take over Brazil as one of the most decorated managers in club football and the only coach to win each of Europe's top-five leagues.
The world's most successful international team have been on the lookout for their fifth head coach in two-and-a-half years since the dismissal of Dorival Junior at the end of March.
Since his return for his second spell in the Spanish capital in 2021, Ancelotti has led Real Madrid to a pair of LaLiga and Champions League doubles, but following Sunday's El Clasico defeat to Barcelona is all-but certain to miss out on any silverware in his final season.
He will leave the Bernabeu for the final time the day after their last game of the LaLiga season against Real Sociedad.
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Brazil's soccer confederation said on Monday it has a deal with Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti eyeing the 2026 World Cup.
The 65-year-old Ancelotti, who will be Brazil's first full-time foreign coach in a century, is still under contract with Madrid. The last round of the Spanish league will be on May 25 and the CBF said in a statement that he will officially take over Brazil the following day.
"Bringing Carlo Ancelotti to coach Brazil is more than a strategic movement. It is a statement to the world that we are determined to recover the top of the podium," CBF President Ednaldo Rodrigues said in a statement. "He is the greatest coach in history and, now, he will be with the greatest national team on the planet. Together, we will write new glorious chapters of Brazilian soccer."
Rodrigues said Ancelotti will take charge of Brazil's next two fixtures in South American World Cup qualifiying, with his debut at Ecuador on June 5th and five days later in front of home fans against Paraguay in Sao Paulo.
Ancelotti's contract with Madrid ends next year but is expected to be terminated early.
He will replace Dorival Júnior, who held the job for 14 months and was fired in March after a 4-1 defeat at Argentina. Brazil lags in 4th position in World Cup qualifying after 14 matches and has its 33-year-old star Neymar still in difficulties to return to top form after an ACL injury in 2023. The top six teams will secure direct spots in next year's tournament.
Bayer Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso, who'll be leaving the German club after this season, has been linked with the imminent opening at Madrid.
"This is the right moment to announce it," the 43-year-old Spanish coach said last week about his depature from Leverkusen. "Clarity is good for everyone."
Alonso, a former Madrid player, led Leverkusen to an unprecedented league and cup double last season after taking over the team when it was in the Bundesliga's relegation zone in October 2022.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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CAIRO (AP) — Spanish coach José Riveiro was released Monday by South African soccer club Orlando Pirates amid reports he will go to Egypt and join Al Ahly ahead of the Club World Cup in the United States.
Al Ahly plays Lionel Messi's Inter Miami in the opening game of the monthlong FIFA tournament on June 14.
“I want to express my sincere appreciation to Orlando Pirates for allowing me the opportunity to leave before the end of my contract,” Riveiro said in a statement on the club's website.
Al Ahly, the African champion in four of the past five seasons, has been without a full-time coach since Marcel Koller left last month after elimination in the CAF Champions League semifinals by Mamelodi Sundowns.
Orlando Pirates said Riveiro “will be on the bench for the final time” at the team's game on Tuesday.
“Jose approached us a few weeks ago with a request to be released from his contract ahead of schedule, having signed with a new club,” club chairman Irvin Khoza said in a statement on Pirates' website.
Riveiro spent nearly three years at Orlando Pirates and previously coached in Finland.
Al Ahly has not announced talks with the 47-year-old Spaniard which have been reported in Egyptian media.
Al Ahly qualified for the inaugural 32-team Club World Cup by winning the African title in 2021, then again in 2023 and 2024.
After playing Inter Miami at the Miami Dolphins' stadium, Al Ahly has two more Group A games at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, against Palmeiras and Porto.
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Despite the disappointment of another Clasico defeat, Real Madrid fans finally have a reason to look ahead with optimism.
This is because, according to MARCA, the club has taken a decisive step towards its future by confirming that Xabi Alonso will take charge of the team at the FIFA Club World Cup. There will be no interim solution. No waiting. The new project begins now.
The decision, reportedly made during an internal meeting last week, signals a shift in tone and urgency from Florentino Perez and his board.
Rather than having Alonso wait on the sidelines while an interim coach like Santiago Solari leads the squad in a crucial tournament, the club chose to thrust the former midfield maestro directly into the action.
The message from the board was crystal clear: “This starts at the World Cup.”
The Club World Cup, taking place in the summer on American soil, is seen as a vital tournament by the Madrid hierarchy.
It is not just another trophy to win, it is an opportunity to reassert Real Madrid's authority ahead of a new era.
Perez, for that matter, understands that the momentum of this new cycle begins with the way it is introduced, and there's no better platform than a high-profile competition where Madrid are expected to perform.
Alonso's appointment will mean there is no transitional period between Carlo Ancelotti's departure and the start of the new regime.
The Italian manager will head straight to take charge of Brazil, perhaps the most demanding national team job in the world, while Alonso steps into one of the most scrutinised roles in club football.
It is a bold decision, and not without its challenges. Alonso will be expected to make tactical and selection decisions in a competitive environment almost immediately.
But Real Madrid are betting on his ability to adapt quickly, something he has already shown at Bayer Leverkusen, where he transformed the German club into a title-winning side playing exciting, modern football.
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The trip to Barcelona on Sunday one proved to one to forget for Real Madrid as they not only lost the game 4-3 and kissed goodbye to the La Liga title, they have also suffered some injury casualties.
Vinicius Jr. was one of the players who had to be taken off with a knock and now Real Madrid have officially confirmed that he has suffered an ankle injury.
“Following tests carried out today on our player Vinicius Jr. by the Real Madrid Medical Services, he has been diagnosed with a sprained left ankle. Pending evolution,” the statement from the club read.
This effectively rules Vinicius out of Wednesday night's La Liga encounter against RCD Mallorca while his availability for the weekend game vs. Sevilla is also unlikely.
The Brazilian could come back for the final game of the season against Real Sociedad.
Meanwhile, Los Blancos have also announced that right-back Lucas Vazquez has also suffered an injury and is sidelined.
“Following tests carried out today on our player Lucas Vazquez by the Real Madrid Medical Services, he has been diagnosed with an injury to the left pectineus pectoris muscle. Pending evolution,” the statement from the club confirmed.
Like with Vinicius, Vazquez is also set to miss the Mallorca and Sevilla clashes but could come back for the final game of the league season vs Real Sociedad.
This leaves Real Madrid without yet another defender as they have already lost Antonio Rudiger, David Alaba, Ferland Mendy to injuries while Dani Carvajal and Eder Militao are also still not ready to return after lengthy layoffs.
With Aurelien Tchouameni suspended as well, it leaves outgoing manager Carlo Ancelotti with very few options in the defensive department to face Mallorca on Wednesday.
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By Francisco Quatrin
Updated on May 12, 2025
Xabi Alonso will reportedly take over as Real Madrid's manager for the upcoming Club World Cup. The club and the coach have supposedly agreed to begin the new project immediately. This tournament is vital for Florentino Pérez and his board, given its prestige and the potential €150 million prize. This pushes Real Madrid to place their future in Alonso's hands, foregoing an interim appointment like Solari. Xabi will start now.
The decision to have Alonso manage the team at the Club World Cup in the United States was allegedly made last week. The club essentially left the coach with no choice. Real Madrid feels it's senseless to hire a coach only to leave him at home planning for next season while a less experienced Solari takes charge in such a vital tournament.
The relentless schedule also compels Real Madrid to make this decision, resembling a mid-season change. Ancelotti leaves and Xabi arrives, without any transition. Xabi faces the difficult task of shaping the team while competing. He will also inherit a squad that likely won't be entirely his. This may lead to issues.
Xabi will immediately encounter several challenges. First, the disappointment of not winning any major titles this season. Second, a squad full of injured key players. Third, a team that's physically exhausted. Fourth, players aware their future at the club is uncertain. Fifth, limited preparation time, with most players joining their national teams before the World Cup. Thus, Xabi faces a complex task. He aims to implement a new system with a five-man defense. Whether this change begins in June or waits until the 2025/26 season remains to be seen.
see also
Carlo Ancelotti will sign contract with Brazil National Team: When will he start working?
Xabi's situation parallels that of Carlo Ancelotti, who will take charge of the Brazilian national team just a week after leaving Real Madrid. Like Alonso, Ancelotti isn't joining an easy role. He takes over the world's most demanding team, Brazil, which always demands victory and dreams of winning their sixth World Cup in 2026.
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A rival club president in the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup took the spotlight and downplayed Lionel Messi's influence at Inter Miami.
With only a month left for the beginning of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, Sergio Ramos has suffered a major setback at Monterrey.
With Real Madrid and FC Barcelona set to clash in El Clásico, head coach Carlo Ancelotti took the opportunity to take a light jab at Barça over their absence from the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup.
Cristiano Ronaldo's absence in Al Nassr's squad list against Al Okhdood in the Saudi Pro League raised concern about his fitness.
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According to MARCA.
Real Madrid have decided that Xabi Alonso will coach the team during the upcoming FIFA Club World Cup, moving away from the initial plan of appointing an interim coach for that tournament. That's according to a report from MARCA, which also indicates that Alonso will work hard to implement his coaching philosophy and new ideas in the weeks leading to the World Cup.
It would seem reasonable to expect some growing pains during Alonso's first few games as the coach, especially when he will have a depleted roster to work with. Alonso's system and coaching style is very different from Ancelotti's, so while the Club World Cup could seem like a fairly manageable tournament for Los Blancos, the Spanish coach will have to work really hard if he wants his team to perform at a high level.
The FIFA Club World Cup kicks off on June 14th, with Alonso expected to take over his new role on June 1st.
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The drinks giant will activate a portfolio of brands including Casamigos, Don Julio and Johnnie Walker across all 16 American host cities during the tournament.
Diageo has been named the Official Spirits Supporter in North, Central and South America for the FIFA World Cup 2026, marking the first time the global drinks company has partnered with the tournament.
The agreement, announced on 8 May, covers the 16 host cities across Canada, Mexico and the United States where the competition will take place. Diageo will promote a selection of its flagship brands – including Casamigos, Don Julio, Buchanan's, Johnnie Walker and Smirnoff – as part of its tournament activation.
The move will see Diageo engage fans through a variety of marketing channels, with plans for on-the-ground activations and retail campaigns focused on what the company described as “responsible drinking and community celebration”.
Cristina Diezhandino, Diageo's chief marketing officer, said the company is “proud to deepen our partnership with sports by bringing our unmatched portfolio to toast the FIFA World Cup 26.”
“Football is the world's biggest sport and with this tournament set to be the biggest in its history, we see this as a unique opportunity to celebrate with fans in new and meaningful ways,” she added.
The partnership will focus on enhancing the fan experience while promoting responsible consumption. According to FIFA, the collaboration will involve “unparalleled experiences” for fans, though specifics around activations have yet to be disclosed.
Romy Gai, chief business officer at FIFA, said: “It's great to be teaming up with the global leader in spirits for the biggest celebration of football ever. Through this agreement, Diageo will create unparalleled experiences for the fans that promote responsible celebration on the world's biggest stage.”
Diageo's involvement in the World Cup continues its broader investment in sports marketing and live event engagement. The company has long supported sporting events globally, and this latest move extends its footprint across the Americas in what is expected to be the most commercially significant World Cup to date.
The World Cup 2026 will be the first edition of the tournament to feature 48 teams and be jointly hosted across three nations. Diageo will promote its partnership across the region throughout the build-up and duration of the event.
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Manchester City will take a blue kit to the Club World Cup, rebutting claims earlier this year that they would not wear the colours of their home shirt. City are known around the world for their sky blue shirts, yet reports indicated that Pep Guardiola and his side would instead wear different colours at the Club World Cup.
Ahead of the release of their new home kit on Tuesday, the club have now confirmed that it will be worn in the summer tournament before its use next season in all competitions. The Club World Cup is expected to mark the debut of the shirt for Guardiola's players ahead of the 2025/26 campaign.
While it is unclear which other shirts will be used at the Club World Cup, confirmation that City will have a blue shirt for at least some of the games should ease concerns sparked by the earlier controversial rumours.
With the revamping of the tournament, FIFA hope the eyes of the world will be on the United States for the tournament this summer and Blues were keen for the club to represent themselves in the colours that they are known for.
The club drew criticism earlier this season when Guardiola's team lined up for their Champions League game with Inter - the first of the new campaign and a rematch of the 2023 final - wearing the fourth kit.
Taking influence from an iconic Oasis album and designed with help by Noel Gallagher, use of the kit that wasn't predominantly blue for a home game at the Etihad did not go down well with many.
This is the first time in five years that a City home kit has not been worn to lift the Premier League title. For the first time since 2020, Liverpool have dethroned the Blues as champions.
City can still lift more silverware this season if they beat Crystal Palace in the FA Cup, but if Palace are the designated home team it is unlikely that the Blues will wear their blue shirts.
For the trip to Selhurst Park earlier this season, they wore the yellow-and-black kit inspired by their third-division play-off triumph in 1999.
City are in their third FA Cup Final in a row and are looking to put a disappointing season behind them by winning another FA Cup. That would also give them momentum for the Premier League as they look to clinch a top-five finish in their final two matches.
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Xabi Alonso
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It appears there will be no interim coach for Real Madrid during the FIFA Club World Cup, which will be held in the United States from June 14 to July 13.
In recent days, amid growing speculation about the likely departure of Carlo Ancelotti, reports suggested that Santiago Solari would take charge of the team for the tournament, beating out fellow candidate Raúl González Blanco.
However, new information has emerged indicating that Xabi Alonso, who recently bid farewell to Bayer Leverkusen, will instead assume the role.
Xabi Alonso
According to the Spanish newspaper Marca, “the decision for Alonso to lead the team in the U.S. tournament was made last week during a conversation in which the club gave the coach virtually no choice. ‘It all starts with the Club World Cup,' they told him.”
Real Madrid reportedly believes it makes little sense to hire a new manager only to leave him sidelined while someone like Solari—with a minimal track record—takes charge of such a high-profile competition.
Journalist Siro López echoed this sentiment on Tiempo de Juego (Cadena COPE), stating: “On Friday, I was told there was a potential issue related to tax residency that might delay his official start until July 1. It had to do with the length of stay in Germany and related tax declarations. But today—either yesterday afternoon or this morning—I was informed that Xabi has, in principle, accepted Madrid's request and that the current plan is for Xabi Alonso to manage Real Madrid at the Club World Cup.”
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ROME — Bianca Andreescu's run at the Italian Open tennis tournament came to an end Monday with a 7-5, 6-1 loss to Qinwen Zhang in the fourth round.
Andreescu, from Mississauga, Ont., looked poised to continue her impressive run at the WTA 1000 clay-court event as she served for the win in the first set.
But Zheng, the eighth seed from China, saved set point before completing her fourth break of the set, then closed out on serve.
That momentum carried over as Zhang scored two more breaks in a dominant second set.
Zhang overcame eight double-faults and a 47.1-per-cent accuracy on first serve to win in 93 minutes.
Despite the loss, the tournament was a success for the 24-year-old Andreescu, who returned to action earlier this year after nearly six months off to focus on her health.
The former world No. 4 and 2019 U.S. Open champion posted wins over 20th-seed Dora Vekic and 11th-seed Elena Rybakina in Rome and is projected to jump 21 points to No. 100 in the WTA rankings.
Also Monday, the top-seeded women's doubles team of Ottawa's Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand advanced to the quarterfinals with a walkover against Peyton Stearns of the United States and Australia's Daria Kasatkina.
Stearns and Kasatkina withdrew after Stearns posted a 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (4) win over Naomi Osaka in singles action earlier Monday. The win took two hours 41 minutes to complete.
Dabrowski and Routliffe will next face the winner of Tuesday's match between sixth-seeded Russians Diana Shnaider and Mirra Andreeva versus Taiwan's Chan Hao-ching and Mexico's Giuliana Olmos.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 12, 2025.
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Karen Khachanov will take on a big challenge at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia on Tuesday when he faces third seed Carlos Alcaraz, the recent Monte-Carlo champion.
Khachanov will try to overcome Alcaraz's 4-0 lead in the pair's Lexus ATP Head2Head series. All of the Spaniard's victories have come in straight sets.
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Before Khachanov steps on court at the Foro Italico on Tuesday, see how well he passed another test. The ATP challenged the 28-year-old's knowledge of his own career in the latest edition of its 'Five To Win' series.
Would the seven-time ATP Tour titlist risk his points to pass Stefanos Tsitsipas to become the clubhouse leader for the challenge? Watch the video below to find out!
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The US Open winner and Philippines rising star did not know each other personally before the Italian Open, but one message on Instagram changed that.
Looking for a way to team up with USA's tennis ace Coco Gauff? Try sending her a direct message on Instagram.
That is what the Philippines' rising star Alexandra Eala did to pin Gauff as her doubles partner at the Italian Open in Rome.
“She slid in my DMs and asked me to play. And I was like, 'Sure. Why not?'” Gauff said while speaking to the media in the mixed zone.
Gauff had not met Eala before teaming up with the 19-year-old in the Italian capital. The two previously only exchanged a passing greeting at the Madrid Open in late April. World No. 3 Gauff advanced to the final of that tournament while Eala fell to Poland's Iga Swiatek in the Round of 64.
"We did not know each other at all, really," Gauff said. "Before in Madrid, I said ‘Hi' to her for the first time."
While Gauff did not know Eala well, the Filipina player's impressive junior record in doubles spoke for itself and the USA star was eager to team up with her.
“She's a killer in doubles — two junior slams, and probably future ones too,” Gauff said. “I'm super happy to play with her.”
The duo secured a two-set victory over Alexandra Panova and Fanny Stollar in the Round of 32 (6-3, 6-1) at the Italian Open and will next face a home pair, Tyra Grant and Lisa Pigato on Tuesday (13 May).
Gauff advanced to the women's singles quarter-final after beating Great Britain's Emma Raducanu on Monday, while Eala exited the singles tournament in the first round following a defeat to Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk.
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Did you know that the American loves to dance? Watch her breaking out some moves with her family, and find out how she plans to save the city without missing practice, like a true superhero. Credit footage: Coco Gauff social media accounts
Tennis
Emma Raducanu's Italian Open campaign was ended by Coco Gauff in Rome; the American won 6-1 6-2 ; Raducanu is preparing for the French Open; watch all the action from the Italian Open in Rome on Sky Sports Tennis and Sky Sports+, NOW and the Sky Sports app
Monday 12 May 2025 20:22, UK
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Emma Raducanu says she is in a positive headspace with Roland Garros around the corner and does not want to "hide in a hole somewhere" after losing comfortably to Coco Gauff at the Italian Open.
Raducanu was comprehensively beaten on Monday as the Gauff advanced to the quarter-finals in Rome in an hour and 20 minutes.
The match was potentially Raducanu's final competitive action before the French Open, which gets under way on May 25.
While the straight-sets loss served a reminder for Raducanu of how much ground there is to make up on the players at the top of the world rankings, she walked away from the encounter focused on the positives, suggesting she could still compete at next week's Internationaux de Strasbourg.
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"I would love to just keep improving, keep playing. I think that's a positive for me," Raducanu told Sky Sports.
"I don't want to go and hide in a hole somewhere, I want to get back out there, so that's good.
"We'll see how it goes in the next week before the French, if I get into Strasbourg. But, for now, I've played a good 12 days on the trot, so I'm looking forward a day off or so and then getting back to it."
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Raducanu credited her promising showing in Rome to playing with enjoyment, insisting that she was still seeking to "win the day" despite the loss to Gauff.
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" It makes it more enjoyable, it makes it more sustainable. It doesn't make the losses feel as bad, because I just know that every day I'm trying to be the best version of myself, I'm trying to win the day and I've kind of gone back to that," she said.
"I didn't win on the match court today but I'm going to find a way to win the day still today.
"It was a tough day in the office. I just have to take a lot of positives. I am getting out more, I am enjoying myself and taking it in wherever I go, because it is tough on the road. So, I think just trying to find small pockets of the day, small glimmers, to make it more enjoyable."
Sky Sports Tennis pundit Tim Henman believed the match was tighter than the final scoreline suggested and that the tournament on the whole has been progressive for Raducanu.
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He said: "When you reflect on the score, it looks very straightforward, but I think there were a couple of really long games, but on each of those occasions it was Gauff who found a way to come through.
"It wasn't the result or performance Raducanu was looking for. She didn't have the opportunities to dictate because Gauff was hitting so aggressively from the back of the court.
"But when you reflect on Raducanu's clay-court season so far, it's been very positive. The clay courts at Roland Garros are the trust, the best, they will suit Emma even more.
"Her game is moving in the right direction, she's up to 42 in the live rankings. A number in the back of my mind is 32 - can she be seeded pre-Wimbledon and get that protection in the early rounds on grass?"
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Callum Vurley
Published: 12/05/2025
Emma Raducanu was thrashed by Coco Gauff but it has been a decent few months for the Briton
Emma Raducanu's Italian Open journey came to an end on Monday as she suffered a comprehensive defeat to world No. 3 Coco Gauff in the fourth round.
The British No. 2 was outclassed by her American opponent, falling to a 6-1, 6-2 loss in Rome.
Despite the disappointing scoreline, Raducanu can take pride in her tournament performance, having achieved a personal milestone by winning three consecutive clay-court matches for the first time in her career.Gauff proved too strong for Raducanu throughout the contest, dominating proceedings with her aggressive play from the baseline.Emma Raducanu was knocked out of the Italian Open by Coco GauffReutersFormer British No. 1 Tim Henman offered his analysis of the match on Sky Sports Tennis and told Raducanu to put herself in seeding contention for the French Open later this month.He said: "A number in the back of my mind is 32 - can she be seeded pre-Wimbledon and get that protection in the early rounds on grass?"It wasn't the result or performance Raducanu was looking for today."The biggest area of difference is Gauff's explosive speed in and out of the corners. Raducanu was hitting some great ground strokes, but Gauff was able to slide over and stay in the rally."Coco Gauff found a way to come through those big, long points on clay."When you reflect on Raducanu's clay-court season so far, it's been very positive. She's up to 42 in the live rankings."JUST IN: Christian Horner 'on the verge' of Red Bull sack amid civil war with two replacements toutedThis upward trajectory comes at an opportune moment with the French Open approaching.Henman believes the conditions at Roland Garros could benefit Raducanu's game."The clay courts at Roland Garros are the trust, the best, they will suit Emma even more."This would represent remarkable progress for Raducanu, who continues to rebuild her career.READ MORE: Rugby star left screaming in agony after tackle from trans player resulted in horrifying injuryCoco Gauff took just 79 minutes to beat Emma Raducanu on MondayReutersHenman concluded that despite the defeat, there were encouraging signs for the future."It was a great performance from Gauff, and a lot to build on for Raducanu."Gauff, meanwhile, was full of praise for Raducanu after a demolition job in Rome."It was definitely an A [performance] in difficult conditions. Emma is a tough opponent no matter what surface, she's tough to play, so I am really happy with my game," said the American.LATEST SPORT NEWS:Rory McIlroy's bid to win PGA Championship takes huge hit in first major since Masters victoryKevin De Bruyne's wife 'spotted house-hunting' with hint dropped over next club as Man City exit loomsTommy Fury branded 'embarrassing' after underwhelming win before calling out Jake PaulEmma Raducanu has been challenged to make the top-32 ahead of the French OpenReuters"My game is getting better every match. Madrid was a step in the right direction. I lost in the final, I don't like losing, especially in the final, so I am hoping to redeem myself here."My forehand was a big weapon today, it set me up for a lot of short balls and good points."Gauff, the reigning US Open champion, needed just 79 minutes to dispatch the British number two in what was a ruthless display of clay court tennis.
Despite the disappointing scoreline, Raducanu can take pride in her tournament performance, having achieved a personal milestone by winning three consecutive clay-court matches for the first time in her career.
Gauff proved too strong for Raducanu throughout the contest, dominating proceedings with her aggressive play from the baseline.
Emma Raducanu was knocked out of the Italian Open by Coco Gauff
Reuters
Former British No. 1 Tim Henman offered his analysis of the match on Sky Sports Tennis and told Raducanu to put herself in seeding contention for the French Open later this month.
He said: "A number in the back of my mind is 32 - can she be seeded pre-Wimbledon and get that protection in the early rounds on grass?
"It wasn't the result or performance Raducanu was looking for today.
"The biggest area of difference is Gauff's explosive speed in and out of the corners. Raducanu was hitting some great ground strokes, but Gauff was able to slide over and stay in the rally.
"Coco Gauff found a way to come through those big, long points on clay.
"When you reflect on Raducanu's clay-court season so far, it's been very positive. She's up to 42 in the live rankings."
JUST IN: Christian Horner 'on the verge' of Red Bull sack amid civil war with two replacements touted
This upward trajectory comes at an opportune moment with the French Open approaching.
Henman believes the conditions at Roland Garros could benefit Raducanu's game.
"The clay courts at Roland Garros are the trust, the best, they will suit Emma even more."
This would represent remarkable progress for Raducanu, who continues to rebuild her career.
READ MORE: Rugby star left screaming in agony after tackle from trans player resulted in horrifying injury
Coco Gauff took just 79 minutes to beat Emma Raducanu on Monday
Reuters
Henman concluded that despite the defeat, there were encouraging signs for the future.
"It was a great performance from Gauff, and a lot to build on for Raducanu."
Gauff, meanwhile, was full of praise for Raducanu after a demolition job in Rome.
"It was definitely an A [performance] in difficult conditions. Emma is a tough opponent no matter what surface, she's tough to play, so I am really happy with my game," said the American.
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Emma Raducanu has been challenged to make the top-32 ahead of the French Open
Reuters
"My game is getting better every match. Madrid was a step in the right direction. I lost in the final, I don't like losing, especially in the final, so I am hoping to redeem myself here.
"My forehand was a big weapon today, it set me up for a lot of short balls and good points."
Gauff, the reigning US Open champion, needed just 79 minutes to dispatch the British number two in what was a ruthless display of clay court tennis.
11:21 EDT 12 May 2025, updated 11:50 EDT 12 May 2025 By JAKE NISSE
American tennis player Peyton Stearns earned a huge win on Monday at the Italian Open - but it came at a price as she became sick after the match.
Stearns outlasted Naomi Osaka 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(4) in a two hour, 42-minute marathon of a contest in sunny Rome.
But after securing the win to reach the quarterfinal round of the tournament, Stearns immediately vomited on the side of the court.
The 23-year-old, who had been seen cramping towards the end of the match, also threw up before the third set tiebreak.
'I think in the tiebreak I was just trying not to throw up in the middle of the court,' she said afterwards in an on-court interview.
'I wasn't feeling the best. But I dug so deep. I don't think I've dug that deep in a while.'
Stearns then withdrew from her scheduled doubles match alongside Russian-Australian Daria Kasatkina, citing gastrointestinal illness.
That illness seems to be an ongoing issue for the American, as she also referenced it in February.
'Highly don't recommend having a GI illness & playing 2 matches in a day… not a good combo,' she wrote, along with a photo of her laying on the ground.
However, she appears to be in good spirits following her win on Monday, as she actually posted the video of her vomiting, along with a dog emoji and brick emoji.
Monday's loss will be tough to swallow for Osaka, who led 4-2 in the tiebreak before ultimately dropping the match.
Stearns, meanwhile, has now made a WTA 1000 quarterfinal for the second time.
She will face either Danielle Collins or Elina Svitolina in her next match.
The 23-year-old Stearns, the world No. 42, has wasted little time making her mark in tennis after winning a college national championship at Texas.
Since turning pro in 2022, Stearns has compiled a 9-8 record at Grand Slams, including a career-best run to the US Open fourth round in 2023.
Stearns made it to the third round of the French Open and US Open last year.
Aside from beating four-time Grand Slam champ Osaka, Stearns also earned an impressive victory a round earlier when she took down world no. 6 and fellow American Madison Keys.
It's another big week ATP Challenger Tour, particularly in Turin and Bordeaux, where notable names abound.ByFlorian HeerPublished May 12, 2025 copy_link
Published May 12, 2025
© João Pires/ Fotojump
Álvaro Guillen Meza of Ecuador emerged victorious at the Santos Brasil Tennis Cup, an ATP Challenger 50 event, overcoming both bad weather and a determined Matheus Pucinelli in a rain-delayed final that had to be moved indoors. The tournament, played in Santos, Brazil, concluded late on Mother's Day Sunday after both semifinals and the championship match were played in a single day due to weather disruptions.The first semifinal saw Brazil's Matheus Pucinelli rally from behind in both sets to defeat experienced Argentine Nicolas Kicker, 7-5, 7-5. In the second semi, top-seeded Guillen Meza beat Uruguay's Franco Rocadelli 6-2, 7-6 (4). Gutillen Meza, ranked No. 216, had lost all three previous matches against Pucinelli, including one just the week before.Despite injuring his right thigh late in the semifinal, Pucinelli contested the final but struggled with mobility. Meza claimed the first set 6-3. In the second, the Brazilian showed heart and pushed the match into a tense tiebreak, where Meza missed four match points before finally sealing the victory 14-12 on his fifth.
The first semifinal saw Brazil's Matheus Pucinelli rally from behind in both sets to defeat experienced Argentine Nicolas Kicker, 7-5, 7-5. In the second semi, top-seeded Guillen Meza beat Uruguay's Franco Rocadelli 6-2, 7-6 (4). Gutillen Meza, ranked No. 216, had lost all three previous matches against Pucinelli, including one just the week before.Despite injuring his right thigh late in the semifinal, Pucinelli contested the final but struggled with mobility. Meza claimed the first set 6-3. In the second, the Brazilian showed heart and pushed the match into a tense tiebreak, where Meza missed four match points before finally sealing the victory 14-12 on his fifth.
Despite injuring his right thigh late in the semifinal, Pucinelli contested the final but struggled with mobility. Meza claimed the first set 6-3. In the second, the Brazilian showed heart and pushed the match into a tense tiebreak, where Meza missed four match points before finally sealing the victory 14-12 on his fifth.
Champion in Santos 🏆Alvaro Guillen Meza gets past Pucinelli 6-3, 7-6(12) to claim the third Challenger title of his career#ATPChallenger | @alvaroguillen03 pic.twitter.com/XIZ2zc8SHS
“I'm very happy – even before coming here I was excited about playing this tournament,” said Guillen Meza. “I came last year—the beach, the hotel nearby, the great food—it all motivates me. It was an excellent week.“I knew I had to do something different today. Matheus had beaten me very easily, even last week. Today I pushed harder, stayed more focused, and I came out as the champion.”With the win, Meza secured 50 ATP Ranking points and $8,350 in prize money. He is projected to reach a career-high ranking of No. 176.Pucinelli, who received $4,910 and 25 points said, “It was a good match, even though I couldn't really play my game in the first set. I even thought about retiring in the first game of the second, but I felt I could push a bit more and almost took it to a third set. It was a good week overall and I'm happy to have reached a final in Brazil.”
“I knew I had to do something different today. Matheus had beaten me very easily, even last week. Today I pushed harder, stayed more focused, and I came out as the champion.”With the win, Meza secured 50 ATP Ranking points and $8,350 in prize money. He is projected to reach a career-high ranking of No. 176.Pucinelli, who received $4,910 and 25 points said, “It was a good match, even though I couldn't really play my game in the first set. I even thought about retiring in the first game of the second, but I felt I could push a bit more and almost took it to a third set. It was a good week overall and I'm happy to have reached a final in Brazil.”
With the win, Meza secured 50 ATP Ranking points and $8,350 in prize money. He is projected to reach a career-high ranking of No. 176.Pucinelli, who received $4,910 and 25 points said, “It was a good match, even though I couldn't really play my game in the first set. I even thought about retiring in the first game of the second, but I felt I could push a bit more and almost took it to a third set. It was a good week overall and I'm happy to have reached a final in Brazil.”
Pucinelli, who received $4,910 and 25 points said, “It was a good match, even though I couldn't really play my game in the first set. I even thought about retiring in the first game of the second, but I felt I could push a bit more and almost took it to a third set. It was a good week overall and I'm happy to have reached a final in Brazil.”
The moment Filip Misolic secures his third career Challenger title 👏#ATPChallenger pic.twitter.com/d2k4AJCHz9
Austria's Filip Misolic captured his third ATP Challenger title and his first of the year at the Advantage Cars Prague Open in the Czech Republic. The 23-year-old from Graz was flawless all week, winning the title without dropping a set and culminating in a dominant 6-4, 6-0 win over Dutch qualifier Guy den Ouden.Misolic beat an impressive list of opponents en route to the final, including 18-year-old Jan Kumstat, No. 5 seed Nikoloz Basilashvili, wild card entry Mees Rottgering and Slovakia's Lukas Klein. In the final, he converted five of nine break points and won 61 per cent of the total points played.“It was incredible. I felt at home here. The fans and the venue were fantastic. Everything was perfect. I improved match by match and I'm really proud of myself,” said Misolic.About his opponent, he added, “The score might look easy, but it was a tough battle on court. I'm very happy to lift the trophy—and to get revenge for my loss to Guy in Kigali. I knew it would be difficult. He has an amazing forehand. I had to stay in the match and play aggressively—and I did that pretty well.”Misolic earned 75 ATP Ranking points and €12,980 in prize money.
Misolic beat an impressive list of opponents en route to the final, including 18-year-old Jan Kumstat, No. 5 seed Nikoloz Basilashvili, wild card entry Mees Rottgering and Slovakia's Lukas Klein. In the final, he converted five of nine break points and won 61 per cent of the total points played.“It was incredible. I felt at home here. The fans and the venue were fantastic. Everything was perfect. I improved match by match and I'm really proud of myself,” said Misolic.About his opponent, he added, “The score might look easy, but it was a tough battle on court. I'm very happy to lift the trophy—and to get revenge for my loss to Guy in Kigali. I knew it would be difficult. He has an amazing forehand. I had to stay in the match and play aggressively—and I did that pretty well.”Misolic earned 75 ATP Ranking points and €12,980 in prize money.
“It was incredible. I felt at home here. The fans and the venue were fantastic. Everything was perfect. I improved match by match and I'm really proud of myself,” said Misolic.About his opponent, he added, “The score might look easy, but it was a tough battle on court. I'm very happy to lift the trophy—and to get revenge for my loss to Guy in Kigali. I knew it would be difficult. He has an amazing forehand. I had to stay in the match and play aggressively—and I did that pretty well.”Misolic earned 75 ATP Ranking points and €12,980 in prize money.
About his opponent, he added, “The score might look easy, but it was a tough battle on court. I'm very happy to lift the trophy—and to get revenge for my loss to Guy in Kigali. I knew it would be difficult. He has an amazing forehand. I had to stay in the match and play aggressively—and I did that pretty well.”Misolic earned 75 ATP Ranking points and €12,980 in prize money.
Misolic earned 75 ATP Ranking points and €12,980 in prize money.
Special scenes in Francavilla Al Mare 🇮🇹The crowd goes wild after Francesco Maestrelli secures his second career Challenger title!#ATPChallenger | @federtennis pic.twitter.com/sJjMKSzj9L
Italy's Francesco Maestrelli celebrated an emotional home victory at the Abruzzo Open Francavilla al Mare, an ATP Challenger 75 event on clay. The 22-year-old wildcard won his second career Challenger title, and first in three years, with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Valentin Vacherot of Monaco.Maestrelli saved two match points in his semifinal before benefitting from the retirement of Dominic Stricker. He needed one hour and 45 minutes in the final to clinch the win.His first Challenger trophy also came on Italian soil, in Verona in 2022.
Maestrelli saved two match points in his semifinal before benefitting from the retirement of Dominic Stricker. He needed one hour and 45 minutes in the final to clinch the win.His first Challenger trophy also came on Italian soil, in Verona in 2022.
His first Challenger trophy also came on Italian soil, in Verona in 2022.
Home hero ❤️ 🇨🇳Fajing Sun captures his maiden Challenger title with a 7-6(4), 6-4 win over Bolt in Wuxi#ATPChallenger pic.twitter.com/1qPhN4qmkr
Fajing Sun made history at home by capturing his first ATP Challenger title at the Wuxi Open in China. The 28-year-old defeated Australian Alex Bolt, 7-6 (4), 6-4 in the final after saving a match point earlier in the tournament against Antoine Escoffier.Sun showed resilience and consistency from the baseline in a one hour 37-minute final, while Bolt impressed with his serve.“I'm very happy to win my first Challenger title. This gives me the chance to enter Grand Slam qualifying. It's a big step for me,” said Sun after the match.
Sun showed resilience and consistency from the baseline in a one hour 37-minute final, while Bolt impressed with his serve.“I'm very happy to win my first Challenger title. This gives me the chance to enter Grand Slam qualifying. It's a big step for me,” said Sun after the match.
“I'm very happy to win my first Challenger title. This gives me the chance to enter Grand Slam qualifying. It's a big step for me,” said Sun after the match.
The Challenger Tour star from Lithuania just won two main-draw matches in Rome.
While the world's top players are entering the second week of the ATP Masters 1000 in Rome, the ATP Challenger Tour is hosting two premium-level events with 175 ranking points up for grabs for each champion.In Bordeaux, France, the 16th edition of the BNP Paribas Primrose Challenger is headlined by American Brandon Nakashima, currently No. 29 in the ATP Rankings. He leads a strong field that includes Argentine Sebastian Baez, who anchors the bottom half of the draw.One of the players to watch is Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor, seeded third and returning to the Challenger Tour with an impressive 30-match winning streak at this level. In 2021, Griekspoor captured five consecutive Challenger titles, and in 2022 he triumphed at his home event in Amersfoort. Since then, he has not competed on the Challenger Circuit. Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard is the fourth seed in Bordeaux.
In Bordeaux, France, the 16th edition of the BNP Paribas Primrose Challenger is headlined by American Brandon Nakashima, currently No. 29 in the ATP Rankings. He leads a strong field that includes Argentine Sebastian Baez, who anchors the bottom half of the draw.One of the players to watch is Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor, seeded third and returning to the Challenger Tour with an impressive 30-match winning streak at this level. In 2021, Griekspoor captured five consecutive Challenger titles, and in 2022 he triumphed at his home event in Amersfoort. Since then, he has not competed on the Challenger Circuit. Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard is the fourth seed in Bordeaux.
One of the players to watch is Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor, seeded third and returning to the Challenger Tour with an impressive 30-match winning streak at this level. In 2021, Griekspoor captured five consecutive Challenger titles, and in 2022 he triumphed at his home event in Amersfoort. Since then, he has not competed on the Challenger Circuit. Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard is the fourth seed in Bordeaux.
🇮🇹 Turin awaits top fieldOver in Turin, Italy, the third edition of the Piemonte Open Intesa Sanpaolo promises top-tier competition. Ten players ranked inside the Top 100 are part of the draw. Italian rising star and world No. 34 Flavio Cobolli leads the field. The 21-year-old won his first ATP title in Bucharest just a few weeks ago and is aiming to better his quarterfinal finish at the event last year. Like the other top four seeds—Luciano Darderi, Tomas Martin Etcheverry and Roberto Carballés Baena—Cobolli has a first-round bye and will begin his campaign in the round of 16 on Thursday.Nine Italian players are in the main draw, including Cobolli, Darderi, defending champion Francesco Passaro, Luca Nardi and veteran Fabio Fognini. For Fognini, this tournament holds special significance, as he won his first Challenger title in Turin back in 2008. With 2025 expected to be his final year on tour, this marks an emotional chapter in his career.
Over in Turin, Italy, the third edition of the Piemonte Open Intesa Sanpaolo promises top-tier competition. Ten players ranked inside the Top 100 are part of the draw. Italian rising star and world No. 34 Flavio Cobolli leads the field. The 21-year-old won his first ATP title in Bucharest just a few weeks ago and is aiming to better his quarterfinal finish at the event last year. Like the other top four seeds—Luciano Darderi, Tomas Martin Etcheverry and Roberto Carballés Baena—Cobolli has a first-round bye and will begin his campaign in the round of 16 on Thursday.Nine Italian players are in the main draw, including Cobolli, Darderi, defending champion Francesco Passaro, Luca Nardi and veteran Fabio Fognini. For Fognini, this tournament holds special significance, as he won his first Challenger title in Turin back in 2008. With 2025 expected to be his final year on tour, this marks an emotional chapter in his career.
Nine Italian players are in the main draw, including Cobolli, Darderi, defending champion Francesco Passaro, Luca Nardi and veteran Fabio Fognini. For Fognini, this tournament holds special significance, as he won his first Challenger title in Turin back in 2008. With 2025 expected to be his final year on tour, this marks an emotional chapter in his career.
A post shared by Fabio Fognini (@fabiofogna)
🇵🇹 Tennis excitement in Portugal and a world record to matchIn Portugal, tennis history is being made at the Oeiras Open 5. For the first time ever, a single city is hosting five Challenger tournaments in one season—a world record. The event is perfectly timed, taking place just ahead of the qualifying at Roland Garros and offering players one last chance to collect valuable ATP points for potential Wimbledon entry.Portugal's Jaime Faria, who won his first Challenger title here a year ago, leads the home contingent. The world No. 108 is the second-highest ranked Portuguese player. Also competing are Henrique Rocha, Gastão Elias, Tiago Pereira and Pedro Araújo.Elias, a three-time winner in Oeiras and national record holder with 10 Challenger titles and 23 finals, continues to be a fan favorite. The top seed in Oeiras is Brazil's Thiago Monteiro. He's joined by his compatriots Thiago Seyboth Wild, Felipe Meligeni Alves and Gustavo Heide.The field also includes Chile's Cristian Garín, a former world No. 17 and five-time ATP Tour champion, Wimbledon quarterfinalist Christopher Eubanks from the United States, and Yibing Wu, the first Chinese player ever to win an ATP Tour title.Elsewhere, more Challenger Tour action is taking place🇭🇷 In Zagreb, Croatia, Adrian Mannarino is the top seed at the ATP Challenger 75 clay event. Other title contenders include Switzerland's Jerome Kym, Czech player Dalibor Svrcina and France's Harold Mayot.🇨🇴 In Bogotá, Colombia, local favorite Nicolas Mejia leads the field at the KIA Open. Other top names include Chile's Matias Soto, and Brazilians Karue Sell and Matheus Pucinelli de Almeida.🇹🇳 In Tunis, Tunisia, Valentin Royer of France enters as the top seed at the KIA Tunis Open. American Emilio Nava is the second seed, with Argentina's Federico Coria and Hong Kong's Coleman Wong rounding out the top four.
In Portugal, tennis history is being made at the Oeiras Open 5. For the first time ever, a single city is hosting five Challenger tournaments in one season—a world record. The event is perfectly timed, taking place just ahead of the qualifying at Roland Garros and offering players one last chance to collect valuable ATP points for potential Wimbledon entry.Portugal's Jaime Faria, who won his first Challenger title here a year ago, leads the home contingent. The world No. 108 is the second-highest ranked Portuguese player. Also competing are Henrique Rocha, Gastão Elias, Tiago Pereira and Pedro Araújo.Elias, a three-time winner in Oeiras and national record holder with 10 Challenger titles and 23 finals, continues to be a fan favorite. The top seed in Oeiras is Brazil's Thiago Monteiro. He's joined by his compatriots Thiago Seyboth Wild, Felipe Meligeni Alves and Gustavo Heide.The field also includes Chile's Cristian Garín, a former world No. 17 and five-time ATP Tour champion, Wimbledon quarterfinalist Christopher Eubanks from the United States, and Yibing Wu, the first Chinese player ever to win an ATP Tour title.Elsewhere, more Challenger Tour action is taking place🇭🇷 In Zagreb, Croatia, Adrian Mannarino is the top seed at the ATP Challenger 75 clay event. Other title contenders include Switzerland's Jerome Kym, Czech player Dalibor Svrcina and France's Harold Mayot.🇨🇴 In Bogotá, Colombia, local favorite Nicolas Mejia leads the field at the KIA Open. Other top names include Chile's Matias Soto, and Brazilians Karue Sell and Matheus Pucinelli de Almeida.🇹🇳 In Tunis, Tunisia, Valentin Royer of France enters as the top seed at the KIA Tunis Open. American Emilio Nava is the second seed, with Argentina's Federico Coria and Hong Kong's Coleman Wong rounding out the top four.
Portugal's Jaime Faria, who won his first Challenger title here a year ago, leads the home contingent. The world No. 108 is the second-highest ranked Portuguese player. Also competing are Henrique Rocha, Gastão Elias, Tiago Pereira and Pedro Araújo.Elias, a three-time winner in Oeiras and national record holder with 10 Challenger titles and 23 finals, continues to be a fan favorite. The top seed in Oeiras is Brazil's Thiago Monteiro. He's joined by his compatriots Thiago Seyboth Wild, Felipe Meligeni Alves and Gustavo Heide.The field also includes Chile's Cristian Garín, a former world No. 17 and five-time ATP Tour champion, Wimbledon quarterfinalist Christopher Eubanks from the United States, and Yibing Wu, the first Chinese player ever to win an ATP Tour title.Elsewhere, more Challenger Tour action is taking place🇭🇷 In Zagreb, Croatia, Adrian Mannarino is the top seed at the ATP Challenger 75 clay event. Other title contenders include Switzerland's Jerome Kym, Czech player Dalibor Svrcina and France's Harold Mayot.🇨🇴 In Bogotá, Colombia, local favorite Nicolas Mejia leads the field at the KIA Open. Other top names include Chile's Matias Soto, and Brazilians Karue Sell and Matheus Pucinelli de Almeida.🇹🇳 In Tunis, Tunisia, Valentin Royer of France enters as the top seed at the KIA Tunis Open. American Emilio Nava is the second seed, with Argentina's Federico Coria and Hong Kong's Coleman Wong rounding out the top four.
Elias, a three-time winner in Oeiras and national record holder with 10 Challenger titles and 23 finals, continues to be a fan favorite. The top seed in Oeiras is Brazil's Thiago Monteiro. He's joined by his compatriots Thiago Seyboth Wild, Felipe Meligeni Alves and Gustavo Heide.The field also includes Chile's Cristian Garín, a former world No. 17 and five-time ATP Tour champion, Wimbledon quarterfinalist Christopher Eubanks from the United States, and Yibing Wu, the first Chinese player ever to win an ATP Tour title.Elsewhere, more Challenger Tour action is taking place🇭🇷 In Zagreb, Croatia, Adrian Mannarino is the top seed at the ATP Challenger 75 clay event. Other title contenders include Switzerland's Jerome Kym, Czech player Dalibor Svrcina and France's Harold Mayot.🇨🇴 In Bogotá, Colombia, local favorite Nicolas Mejia leads the field at the KIA Open. Other top names include Chile's Matias Soto, and Brazilians Karue Sell and Matheus Pucinelli de Almeida.🇹🇳 In Tunis, Tunisia, Valentin Royer of France enters as the top seed at the KIA Tunis Open. American Emilio Nava is the second seed, with Argentina's Federico Coria and Hong Kong's Coleman Wong rounding out the top four.
The field also includes Chile's Cristian Garín, a former world No. 17 and five-time ATP Tour champion, Wimbledon quarterfinalist Christopher Eubanks from the United States, and Yibing Wu, the first Chinese player ever to win an ATP Tour title.Elsewhere, more Challenger Tour action is taking place🇭🇷 In Zagreb, Croatia, Adrian Mannarino is the top seed at the ATP Challenger 75 clay event. Other title contenders include Switzerland's Jerome Kym, Czech player Dalibor Svrcina and France's Harold Mayot.🇨🇴 In Bogotá, Colombia, local favorite Nicolas Mejia leads the field at the KIA Open. Other top names include Chile's Matias Soto, and Brazilians Karue Sell and Matheus Pucinelli de Almeida.🇹🇳 In Tunis, Tunisia, Valentin Royer of France enters as the top seed at the KIA Tunis Open. American Emilio Nava is the second seed, with Argentina's Federico Coria and Hong Kong's Coleman Wong rounding out the top four.
Elsewhere, more Challenger Tour action is taking place🇭🇷 In Zagreb, Croatia, Adrian Mannarino is the top seed at the ATP Challenger 75 clay event. Other title contenders include Switzerland's Jerome Kym, Czech player Dalibor Svrcina and France's Harold Mayot.🇨🇴 In Bogotá, Colombia, local favorite Nicolas Mejia leads the field at the KIA Open. Other top names include Chile's Matias Soto, and Brazilians Karue Sell and Matheus Pucinelli de Almeida.🇹🇳 In Tunis, Tunisia, Valentin Royer of France enters as the top seed at the KIA Tunis Open. American Emilio Nava is the second seed, with Argentina's Federico Coria and Hong Kong's Coleman Wong rounding out the top four.
🇭🇷 In Zagreb, Croatia, Adrian Mannarino is the top seed at the ATP Challenger 75 clay event. Other title contenders include Switzerland's Jerome Kym, Czech player Dalibor Svrcina and France's Harold Mayot.🇨🇴 In Bogotá, Colombia, local favorite Nicolas Mejia leads the field at the KIA Open. Other top names include Chile's Matias Soto, and Brazilians Karue Sell and Matheus Pucinelli de Almeida.🇹🇳 In Tunis, Tunisia, Valentin Royer of France enters as the top seed at the KIA Tunis Open. American Emilio Nava is the second seed, with Argentina's Federico Coria and Hong Kong's Coleman Wong rounding out the top four.
🇨🇴 In Bogotá, Colombia, local favorite Nicolas Mejia leads the field at the KIA Open. Other top names include Chile's Matias Soto, and Brazilians Karue Sell and Matheus Pucinelli de Almeida.🇹🇳 In Tunis, Tunisia, Valentin Royer of France enters as the top seed at the KIA Tunis Open. American Emilio Nava is the second seed, with Argentina's Federico Coria and Hong Kong's Coleman Wong rounding out the top four.
🇹🇳 In Tunis, Tunisia, Valentin Royer of France enters as the top seed at the KIA Tunis Open. American Emilio Nava is the second seed, with Argentina's Federico Coria and Hong Kong's Coleman Wong rounding out the top four.
It's another big week ATP Challenger Tour, particularly in Turin and Bordeaux, where notable names abound.ByFlorian HeerPublished May 12, 2025 copy_link
Published May 12, 2025
© João Pires/ Fotojump
Álvaro Guillen Meza of Ecuador emerged victorious at the Santos Brasil Tennis Cup, an ATP Challenger 50 event, overcoming both bad weather and a determined Matheus Pucinelli in a rain-delayed final that had to be moved indoors. The tournament, played in Santos, Brazil, concluded late on Mother's Day Sunday after both semifinals and the championship match were played in a single day due to weather disruptions.The first semifinal saw Brazil's Matheus Pucinelli rally from behind in both sets to defeat experienced Argentine Nicolas Kicker, 7-5, 7-5. In the second semi, top-seeded Guillen Meza beat Uruguay's Franco Rocadelli 6-2, 7-6 (4). Gutillen Meza, ranked No. 216, had lost all three previous matches against Pucinelli, including one just the week before.Despite injuring his right thigh late in the semifinal, Pucinelli contested the final but struggled with mobility. Meza claimed the first set 6-3. In the second, the Brazilian showed heart and pushed the match into a tense tiebreak, where Meza missed four match points before finally sealing the victory 14-12 on his fifth.
The first semifinal saw Brazil's Matheus Pucinelli rally from behind in both sets to defeat experienced Argentine Nicolas Kicker, 7-5, 7-5. In the second semi, top-seeded Guillen Meza beat Uruguay's Franco Rocadelli 6-2, 7-6 (4). Gutillen Meza, ranked No. 216, had lost all three previous matches against Pucinelli, including one just the week before.Despite injuring his right thigh late in the semifinal, Pucinelli contested the final but struggled with mobility. Meza claimed the first set 6-3. In the second, the Brazilian showed heart and pushed the match into a tense tiebreak, where Meza missed four match points before finally sealing the victory 14-12 on his fifth.
Despite injuring his right thigh late in the semifinal, Pucinelli contested the final but struggled with mobility. Meza claimed the first set 6-3. In the second, the Brazilian showed heart and pushed the match into a tense tiebreak, where Meza missed four match points before finally sealing the victory 14-12 on his fifth.
Champion in Santos 🏆Alvaro Guillen Meza gets past Pucinelli 6-3, 7-6(12) to claim the third Challenger title of his career#ATPChallenger | @alvaroguillen03 pic.twitter.com/XIZ2zc8SHS
“I'm very happy – even before coming here I was excited about playing this tournament,” said Guillen Meza. “I came last year—the beach, the hotel nearby, the great food—it all motivates me. It was an excellent week.“I knew I had to do something different today. Matheus had beaten me very easily, even last week. Today I pushed harder, stayed more focused, and I came out as the champion.”With the win, Meza secured 50 ATP Ranking points and $8,350 in prize money. He is projected to reach a career-high ranking of No. 176.Pucinelli, who received $4,910 and 25 points said, “It was a good match, even though I couldn't really play my game in the first set. I even thought about retiring in the first game of the second, but I felt I could push a bit more and almost took it to a third set. It was a good week overall and I'm happy to have reached a final in Brazil.”
“I knew I had to do something different today. Matheus had beaten me very easily, even last week. Today I pushed harder, stayed more focused, and I came out as the champion.”With the win, Meza secured 50 ATP Ranking points and $8,350 in prize money. He is projected to reach a career-high ranking of No. 176.Pucinelli, who received $4,910 and 25 points said, “It was a good match, even though I couldn't really play my game in the first set. I even thought about retiring in the first game of the second, but I felt I could push a bit more and almost took it to a third set. It was a good week overall and I'm happy to have reached a final in Brazil.”
With the win, Meza secured 50 ATP Ranking points and $8,350 in prize money. He is projected to reach a career-high ranking of No. 176.Pucinelli, who received $4,910 and 25 points said, “It was a good match, even though I couldn't really play my game in the first set. I even thought about retiring in the first game of the second, but I felt I could push a bit more and almost took it to a third set. It was a good week overall and I'm happy to have reached a final in Brazil.”
Pucinelli, who received $4,910 and 25 points said, “It was a good match, even though I couldn't really play my game in the first set. I even thought about retiring in the first game of the second, but I felt I could push a bit more and almost took it to a third set. It was a good week overall and I'm happy to have reached a final in Brazil.”
The moment Filip Misolic secures his third career Challenger title 👏#ATPChallenger pic.twitter.com/d2k4AJCHz9
Austria's Filip Misolic captured his third ATP Challenger title and his first of the year at the Advantage Cars Prague Open in the Czech Republic. The 23-year-old from Graz was flawless all week, winning the title without dropping a set and culminating in a dominant 6-4, 6-0 win over Dutch qualifier Guy den Ouden.Misolic beat an impressive list of opponents en route to the final, including 18-year-old Jan Kumstat, No. 5 seed Nikoloz Basilashvili, wild card entry Mees Rottgering and Slovakia's Lukas Klein. In the final, he converted five of nine break points and won 61 per cent of the total points played.“It was incredible. I felt at home here. The fans and the venue were fantastic. Everything was perfect. I improved match by match and I'm really proud of myself,” said Misolic.About his opponent, he added, “The score might look easy, but it was a tough battle on court. I'm very happy to lift the trophy—and to get revenge for my loss to Guy in Kigali. I knew it would be difficult. He has an amazing forehand. I had to stay in the match and play aggressively—and I did that pretty well.”Misolic earned 75 ATP Ranking points and €12,980 in prize money.
Misolic beat an impressive list of opponents en route to the final, including 18-year-old Jan Kumstat, No. 5 seed Nikoloz Basilashvili, wild card entry Mees Rottgering and Slovakia's Lukas Klein. In the final, he converted five of nine break points and won 61 per cent of the total points played.“It was incredible. I felt at home here. The fans and the venue were fantastic. Everything was perfect. I improved match by match and I'm really proud of myself,” said Misolic.About his opponent, he added, “The score might look easy, but it was a tough battle on court. I'm very happy to lift the trophy—and to get revenge for my loss to Guy in Kigali. I knew it would be difficult. He has an amazing forehand. I had to stay in the match and play aggressively—and I did that pretty well.”Misolic earned 75 ATP Ranking points and €12,980 in prize money.
“It was incredible. I felt at home here. The fans and the venue were fantastic. Everything was perfect. I improved match by match and I'm really proud of myself,” said Misolic.About his opponent, he added, “The score might look easy, but it was a tough battle on court. I'm very happy to lift the trophy—and to get revenge for my loss to Guy in Kigali. I knew it would be difficult. He has an amazing forehand. I had to stay in the match and play aggressively—and I did that pretty well.”Misolic earned 75 ATP Ranking points and €12,980 in prize money.
About his opponent, he added, “The score might look easy, but it was a tough battle on court. I'm very happy to lift the trophy—and to get revenge for my loss to Guy in Kigali. I knew it would be difficult. He has an amazing forehand. I had to stay in the match and play aggressively—and I did that pretty well.”Misolic earned 75 ATP Ranking points and €12,980 in prize money.
Misolic earned 75 ATP Ranking points and €12,980 in prize money.
Special scenes in Francavilla Al Mare 🇮🇹The crowd goes wild after Francesco Maestrelli secures his second career Challenger title!#ATPChallenger | @federtennis pic.twitter.com/sJjMKSzj9L
Italy's Francesco Maestrelli celebrated an emotional home victory at the Abruzzo Open Francavilla al Mare, an ATP Challenger 75 event on clay. The 22-year-old wildcard won his second career Challenger title, and first in three years, with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Valentin Vacherot of Monaco.Maestrelli saved two match points in his semifinal before benefitting from the retirement of Dominic Stricker. He needed one hour and 45 minutes in the final to clinch the win.His first Challenger trophy also came on Italian soil, in Verona in 2022.
Maestrelli saved two match points in his semifinal before benefitting from the retirement of Dominic Stricker. He needed one hour and 45 minutes in the final to clinch the win.His first Challenger trophy also came on Italian soil, in Verona in 2022.
His first Challenger trophy also came on Italian soil, in Verona in 2022.
Home hero ❤️ 🇨🇳Fajing Sun captures his maiden Challenger title with a 7-6(4), 6-4 win over Bolt in Wuxi#ATPChallenger pic.twitter.com/1qPhN4qmkr
Fajing Sun made history at home by capturing his first ATP Challenger title at the Wuxi Open in China. The 28-year-old defeated Australian Alex Bolt, 7-6 (4), 6-4 in the final after saving a match point earlier in the tournament against Antoine Escoffier.Sun showed resilience and consistency from the baseline in a one hour 37-minute final, while Bolt impressed with his serve.“I'm very happy to win my first Challenger title. This gives me the chance to enter Grand Slam qualifying. It's a big step for me,” said Sun after the match.
Sun showed resilience and consistency from the baseline in a one hour 37-minute final, while Bolt impressed with his serve.“I'm very happy to win my first Challenger title. This gives me the chance to enter Grand Slam qualifying. It's a big step for me,” said Sun after the match.
“I'm very happy to win my first Challenger title. This gives me the chance to enter Grand Slam qualifying. It's a big step for me,” said Sun after the match.
The Challenger Tour star from Lithuania just won two main-draw matches in Rome.
While the world's top players are entering the second week of the ATP Masters 1000 in Rome, the ATP Challenger Tour is hosting two premium-level events with 175 ranking points up for grabs for each champion.In Bordeaux, France, the 16th edition of the BNP Paribas Primrose Challenger is headlined by American Brandon Nakashima, currently No. 29 in the ATP Rankings. He leads a strong field that includes Argentine Sebastian Baez, who anchors the bottom half of the draw.One of the players to watch is Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor, seeded third and returning to the Challenger Tour with an impressive 30-match winning streak at this level. In 2021, Griekspoor captured five consecutive Challenger titles, and in 2022 he triumphed at his home event in Amersfoort. Since then, he has not competed on the Challenger Circuit. Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard is the fourth seed in Bordeaux.
In Bordeaux, France, the 16th edition of the BNP Paribas Primrose Challenger is headlined by American Brandon Nakashima, currently No. 29 in the ATP Rankings. He leads a strong field that includes Argentine Sebastian Baez, who anchors the bottom half of the draw.One of the players to watch is Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor, seeded third and returning to the Challenger Tour with an impressive 30-match winning streak at this level. In 2021, Griekspoor captured five consecutive Challenger titles, and in 2022 he triumphed at his home event in Amersfoort. Since then, he has not competed on the Challenger Circuit. Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard is the fourth seed in Bordeaux.
One of the players to watch is Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor, seeded third and returning to the Challenger Tour with an impressive 30-match winning streak at this level. In 2021, Griekspoor captured five consecutive Challenger titles, and in 2022 he triumphed at his home event in Amersfoort. Since then, he has not competed on the Challenger Circuit. Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard is the fourth seed in Bordeaux.
🇮🇹 Turin awaits top fieldOver in Turin, Italy, the third edition of the Piemonte Open Intesa Sanpaolo promises top-tier competition. Ten players ranked inside the Top 100 are part of the draw. Italian rising star and world No. 34 Flavio Cobolli leads the field. The 21-year-old won his first ATP title in Bucharest just a few weeks ago and is aiming to better his quarterfinal finish at the event last year. Like the other top four seeds—Luciano Darderi, Tomas Martin Etcheverry and Roberto Carballés Baena—Cobolli has a first-round bye and will begin his campaign in the round of 16 on Thursday.Nine Italian players are in the main draw, including Cobolli, Darderi, defending champion Francesco Passaro, Luca Nardi and veteran Fabio Fognini. For Fognini, this tournament holds special significance, as he won his first Challenger title in Turin back in 2008. With 2025 expected to be his final year on tour, this marks an emotional chapter in his career.
Over in Turin, Italy, the third edition of the Piemonte Open Intesa Sanpaolo promises top-tier competition. Ten players ranked inside the Top 100 are part of the draw. Italian rising star and world No. 34 Flavio Cobolli leads the field. The 21-year-old won his first ATP title in Bucharest just a few weeks ago and is aiming to better his quarterfinal finish at the event last year. Like the other top four seeds—Luciano Darderi, Tomas Martin Etcheverry and Roberto Carballés Baena—Cobolli has a first-round bye and will begin his campaign in the round of 16 on Thursday.Nine Italian players are in the main draw, including Cobolli, Darderi, defending champion Francesco Passaro, Luca Nardi and veteran Fabio Fognini. For Fognini, this tournament holds special significance, as he won his first Challenger title in Turin back in 2008. With 2025 expected to be his final year on tour, this marks an emotional chapter in his career.
Nine Italian players are in the main draw, including Cobolli, Darderi, defending champion Francesco Passaro, Luca Nardi and veteran Fabio Fognini. For Fognini, this tournament holds special significance, as he won his first Challenger title in Turin back in 2008. With 2025 expected to be his final year on tour, this marks an emotional chapter in his career.
A post shared by Fabio Fognini (@fabiofogna)
🇵🇹 Tennis excitement in Portugal and a world record to matchIn Portugal, tennis history is being made at the Oeiras Open 5. For the first time ever, a single city is hosting five Challenger tournaments in one season—a world record. The event is perfectly timed, taking place just ahead of the qualifying at Roland Garros and offering players one last chance to collect valuable ATP points for potential Wimbledon entry.Portugal's Jaime Faria, who won his first Challenger title here a year ago, leads the home contingent. The world No. 108 is the second-highest ranked Portuguese player. Also competing are Henrique Rocha, Gastão Elias, Tiago Pereira and Pedro Araújo.Elias, a three-time winner in Oeiras and national record holder with 10 Challenger titles and 23 finals, continues to be a fan favorite. The top seed in Oeiras is Brazil's Thiago Monteiro. He's joined by his compatriots Thiago Seyboth Wild, Felipe Meligeni Alves and Gustavo Heide.The field also includes Chile's Cristian Garín, a former world No. 17 and five-time ATP Tour champion, Wimbledon quarterfinalist Christopher Eubanks from the United States, and Yibing Wu, the first Chinese player ever to win an ATP Tour title.Elsewhere, more Challenger Tour action is taking place🇭🇷 In Zagreb, Croatia, Adrian Mannarino is the top seed at the ATP Challenger 75 clay event. Other title contenders include Switzerland's Jerome Kym, Czech player Dalibor Svrcina and France's Harold Mayot.🇨🇴 In Bogotá, Colombia, local favorite Nicolas Mejia leads the field at the KIA Open. Other top names include Chile's Matias Soto, and Brazilians Karue Sell and Matheus Pucinelli de Almeida.🇹🇳 In Tunis, Tunisia, Valentin Royer of France enters as the top seed at the KIA Tunis Open. American Emilio Nava is the second seed, with Argentina's Federico Coria and Hong Kong's Coleman Wong rounding out the top four.
In Portugal, tennis history is being made at the Oeiras Open 5. For the first time ever, a single city is hosting five Challenger tournaments in one season—a world record. The event is perfectly timed, taking place just ahead of the qualifying at Roland Garros and offering players one last chance to collect valuable ATP points for potential Wimbledon entry.Portugal's Jaime Faria, who won his first Challenger title here a year ago, leads the home contingent. The world No. 108 is the second-highest ranked Portuguese player. Also competing are Henrique Rocha, Gastão Elias, Tiago Pereira and Pedro Araújo.Elias, a three-time winner in Oeiras and national record holder with 10 Challenger titles and 23 finals, continues to be a fan favorite. The top seed in Oeiras is Brazil's Thiago Monteiro. He's joined by his compatriots Thiago Seyboth Wild, Felipe Meligeni Alves and Gustavo Heide.The field also includes Chile's Cristian Garín, a former world No. 17 and five-time ATP Tour champion, Wimbledon quarterfinalist Christopher Eubanks from the United States, and Yibing Wu, the first Chinese player ever to win an ATP Tour title.Elsewhere, more Challenger Tour action is taking place🇭🇷 In Zagreb, Croatia, Adrian Mannarino is the top seed at the ATP Challenger 75 clay event. Other title contenders include Switzerland's Jerome Kym, Czech player Dalibor Svrcina and France's Harold Mayot.🇨🇴 In Bogotá, Colombia, local favorite Nicolas Mejia leads the field at the KIA Open. Other top names include Chile's Matias Soto, and Brazilians Karue Sell and Matheus Pucinelli de Almeida.🇹🇳 In Tunis, Tunisia, Valentin Royer of France enters as the top seed at the KIA Tunis Open. American Emilio Nava is the second seed, with Argentina's Federico Coria and Hong Kong's Coleman Wong rounding out the top four.
Portugal's Jaime Faria, who won his first Challenger title here a year ago, leads the home contingent. The world No. 108 is the second-highest ranked Portuguese player. Also competing are Henrique Rocha, Gastão Elias, Tiago Pereira and Pedro Araújo.Elias, a three-time winner in Oeiras and national record holder with 10 Challenger titles and 23 finals, continues to be a fan favorite. The top seed in Oeiras is Brazil's Thiago Monteiro. He's joined by his compatriots Thiago Seyboth Wild, Felipe Meligeni Alves and Gustavo Heide.The field also includes Chile's Cristian Garín, a former world No. 17 and five-time ATP Tour champion, Wimbledon quarterfinalist Christopher Eubanks from the United States, and Yibing Wu, the first Chinese player ever to win an ATP Tour title.Elsewhere, more Challenger Tour action is taking place🇭🇷 In Zagreb, Croatia, Adrian Mannarino is the top seed at the ATP Challenger 75 clay event. Other title contenders include Switzerland's Jerome Kym, Czech player Dalibor Svrcina and France's Harold Mayot.🇨🇴 In Bogotá, Colombia, local favorite Nicolas Mejia leads the field at the KIA Open. Other top names include Chile's Matias Soto, and Brazilians Karue Sell and Matheus Pucinelli de Almeida.🇹🇳 In Tunis, Tunisia, Valentin Royer of France enters as the top seed at the KIA Tunis Open. American Emilio Nava is the second seed, with Argentina's Federico Coria and Hong Kong's Coleman Wong rounding out the top four.
Elias, a three-time winner in Oeiras and national record holder with 10 Challenger titles and 23 finals, continues to be a fan favorite. The top seed in Oeiras is Brazil's Thiago Monteiro. He's joined by his compatriots Thiago Seyboth Wild, Felipe Meligeni Alves and Gustavo Heide.The field also includes Chile's Cristian Garín, a former world No. 17 and five-time ATP Tour champion, Wimbledon quarterfinalist Christopher Eubanks from the United States, and Yibing Wu, the first Chinese player ever to win an ATP Tour title.Elsewhere, more Challenger Tour action is taking place🇭🇷 In Zagreb, Croatia, Adrian Mannarino is the top seed at the ATP Challenger 75 clay event. Other title contenders include Switzerland's Jerome Kym, Czech player Dalibor Svrcina and France's Harold Mayot.🇨🇴 In Bogotá, Colombia, local favorite Nicolas Mejia leads the field at the KIA Open. Other top names include Chile's Matias Soto, and Brazilians Karue Sell and Matheus Pucinelli de Almeida.🇹🇳 In Tunis, Tunisia, Valentin Royer of France enters as the top seed at the KIA Tunis Open. American Emilio Nava is the second seed, with Argentina's Federico Coria and Hong Kong's Coleman Wong rounding out the top four.
The field also includes Chile's Cristian Garín, a former world No. 17 and five-time ATP Tour champion, Wimbledon quarterfinalist Christopher Eubanks from the United States, and Yibing Wu, the first Chinese player ever to win an ATP Tour title.Elsewhere, more Challenger Tour action is taking place🇭🇷 In Zagreb, Croatia, Adrian Mannarino is the top seed at the ATP Challenger 75 clay event. Other title contenders include Switzerland's Jerome Kym, Czech player Dalibor Svrcina and France's Harold Mayot.🇨🇴 In Bogotá, Colombia, local favorite Nicolas Mejia leads the field at the KIA Open. Other top names include Chile's Matias Soto, and Brazilians Karue Sell and Matheus Pucinelli de Almeida.🇹🇳 In Tunis, Tunisia, Valentin Royer of France enters as the top seed at the KIA Tunis Open. American Emilio Nava is the second seed, with Argentina's Federico Coria and Hong Kong's Coleman Wong rounding out the top four.
Elsewhere, more Challenger Tour action is taking place🇭🇷 In Zagreb, Croatia, Adrian Mannarino is the top seed at the ATP Challenger 75 clay event. Other title contenders include Switzerland's Jerome Kym, Czech player Dalibor Svrcina and France's Harold Mayot.🇨🇴 In Bogotá, Colombia, local favorite Nicolas Mejia leads the field at the KIA Open. Other top names include Chile's Matias Soto, and Brazilians Karue Sell and Matheus Pucinelli de Almeida.🇹🇳 In Tunis, Tunisia, Valentin Royer of France enters as the top seed at the KIA Tunis Open. American Emilio Nava is the second seed, with Argentina's Federico Coria and Hong Kong's Coleman Wong rounding out the top four.
🇭🇷 In Zagreb, Croatia, Adrian Mannarino is the top seed at the ATP Challenger 75 clay event. Other title contenders include Switzerland's Jerome Kym, Czech player Dalibor Svrcina and France's Harold Mayot.🇨🇴 In Bogotá, Colombia, local favorite Nicolas Mejia leads the field at the KIA Open. Other top names include Chile's Matias Soto, and Brazilians Karue Sell and Matheus Pucinelli de Almeida.🇹🇳 In Tunis, Tunisia, Valentin Royer of France enters as the top seed at the KIA Tunis Open. American Emilio Nava is the second seed, with Argentina's Federico Coria and Hong Kong's Coleman Wong rounding out the top four.
🇨🇴 In Bogotá, Colombia, local favorite Nicolas Mejia leads the field at the KIA Open. Other top names include Chile's Matias Soto, and Brazilians Karue Sell and Matheus Pucinelli de Almeida.🇹🇳 In Tunis, Tunisia, Valentin Royer of France enters as the top seed at the KIA Tunis Open. American Emilio Nava is the second seed, with Argentina's Federico Coria and Hong Kong's Coleman Wong rounding out the top four.
🇹🇳 In Tunis, Tunisia, Valentin Royer of France enters as the top seed at the KIA Tunis Open. American Emilio Nava is the second seed, with Argentina's Federico Coria and Hong Kong's Coleman Wong rounding out the top four.
Osaka won eight matches in a row on what has been her least favorite surface.ByDavid KanePublished May 12, 2025 copy_link
Published May 12, 2025
ROME, Italy—Naomi Osaka's eight-match winning streak—her longest ever on clay courts—ended Monday at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia, the former world No. 1 enduring a narrow loss to Peyton Stearns,6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (4).“I think Peyton played very well,” Osaka said in an interview given through the WTA Tour's communications team. “It was a physical match and maybe the consecutive matches caught up to me a bit. Going to rest for a bit and reset for Roland Garros.”Osaka, who won her first title since becoming a mother eight days ago at a WTA 125K in Saint-Malo, led Stearns a mini-break in the final-set tiebreaker before losing the final five points of the match.
“I think Peyton played very well,” Osaka said in an interview given through the WTA Tour's communications team. “It was a physical match and maybe the consecutive matches caught up to me a bit. Going to rest for a bit and reset for Roland Garros.”Osaka, who won her first title since becoming a mother eight days ago at a WTA 125K in Saint-Malo, led Stearns a mini-break in the final-set tiebreaker before losing the final five points of the match.
Osaka, who won her first title since becoming a mother eight days ago at a WTA 125K in Saint-Malo, led Stearns a mini-break in the final-set tiebreaker before losing the final five points of the match.
Osaka won back-to-back three-setters earlier this week in Rome, coming up just short against an in-form Stearns on Monday.
“I feel much more confident on clay,” said Osaka, who reached the fourth round at the Foro Italico for a second consecutive year. “Winning my first clay title and winning some tough matches helps instill some confidence ahead of Roland Garros.”The four-time Grand Slam champion, who won back-to-back three-setters earlier this week against Viktorija Golubic and Marie Bouzkova, will next head to Roland Garros, where she played one of the best matches of the 2024 season last year against then-No. 1 Iga Swiatek.Osaka held a match point on Swiatek in the second-round of what became a thrilling three-set clash before Swiatek came back, going on to win a third straight title on the terre battue.“I won the most consecutive matches on clay in my entire career so that's definitely something to be proud of. I think the last few weeks were strong steps in the right direction and I'm excited to see what I can do in Paris.”The 27-year-old has reached the third round three times at Roland Garros, but has not won back-to-back matches in Paris since 2019, when she was ranked world No. 1. Osaka has come into her own on clay in the last two seasons, and though she will be unseeded at Roland Garros, she will likely be considered a dark horse to make the second week for the first time.
The four-time Grand Slam champion, who won back-to-back three-setters earlier this week against Viktorija Golubic and Marie Bouzkova, will next head to Roland Garros, where she played one of the best matches of the 2024 season last year against then-No. 1 Iga Swiatek.Osaka held a match point on Swiatek in the second-round of what became a thrilling three-set clash before Swiatek came back, going on to win a third straight title on the terre battue.“I won the most consecutive matches on clay in my entire career so that's definitely something to be proud of. I think the last few weeks were strong steps in the right direction and I'm excited to see what I can do in Paris.”The 27-year-old has reached the third round three times at Roland Garros, but has not won back-to-back matches in Paris since 2019, when she was ranked world No. 1. Osaka has come into her own on clay in the last two seasons, and though she will be unseeded at Roland Garros, she will likely be considered a dark horse to make the second week for the first time.
Osaka held a match point on Swiatek in the second-round of what became a thrilling three-set clash before Swiatek came back, going on to win a third straight title on the terre battue.“I won the most consecutive matches on clay in my entire career so that's definitely something to be proud of. I think the last few weeks were strong steps in the right direction and I'm excited to see what I can do in Paris.”The 27-year-old has reached the third round three times at Roland Garros, but has not won back-to-back matches in Paris since 2019, when she was ranked world No. 1. Osaka has come into her own on clay in the last two seasons, and though she will be unseeded at Roland Garros, she will likely be considered a dark horse to make the second week for the first time.
“I won the most consecutive matches on clay in my entire career so that's definitely something to be proud of. I think the last few weeks were strong steps in the right direction and I'm excited to see what I can do in Paris.”The 27-year-old has reached the third round three times at Roland Garros, but has not won back-to-back matches in Paris since 2019, when she was ranked world No. 1. Osaka has come into her own on clay in the last two seasons, and though she will be unseeded at Roland Garros, she will likely be considered a dark horse to make the second week for the first time.
The 27-year-old has reached the third round three times at Roland Garros, but has not won back-to-back matches in Paris since 2019, when she was ranked world No. 1. Osaka has come into her own on clay in the last two seasons, and though she will be unseeded at Roland Garros, she will likely be considered a dark horse to make the second week for the first time.
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World No. 1 Jannik Sinner has finished serving a three-month suspension after testing positive for a trace amount of the banned substance Clostebol, quickly winning the Italian Open in his return. But the French Open will mark the tennis superstar's first Grand Slam event since returning to action. We aggregated the best French Open results of top players who faced public drug suspensions to see how their careers changed after the time away from the court.
As of today, no tennis player has come back from it and won the French Open. Will Sinner be the first?
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Best Result
Player
Champion
None
Finalist
Guillermo Coria
Semifinalist
Marin Cilic, Beatriz Haddad Maia
Quarterfinalist
Maria Sharapova, Richard Gasquet
Fourth Round
Nicolas Jarry, Teymuraz Gabashvili, Barbora Strycova
Relative to players who have previously served drug suspensions, Sinner is uniquely well positioned to win a French Open title at some point in his post-suspension career. Sinner's only 23 years old and had a firm enough grasp on the No. 1 ranking at the time of his suspension that the three-month ban didn't knock him out of the top spot. All three of his Grand Slam titles to date have come on hard courts, but the big-hitting Italian's style works well on all surfaces, and he reached the French Open semifinals last year.
Martina Hingis, Maria Sharapova and Simona Halep were all multi-time Grand Slam champions and former world No. 1 women's tennis players who were handed drug suspensions, but they were past their respective primes when suspended. Sharapova reached the quarterfinals in her lone subsequent French Open appearance, while neither Hingis nor Halep played Roland-Garros again post-suspension. Halep, who was suspended in 2023, won the French Open in 2018 while being coached by Darren Cahill, who currently coaches Sinner.
The player that has come the closest to winning the French Open after serving a drug suspension was Guillermo Coria, who tested positive for the steroid nandrolone in 2001 and subsequently reached the 2004 French Open final. He was heavily favored in that match but choked away a two-set lead against Argentinian compatriot Gaston Gaudio. Rafael Nadal then began his stretch of 14 French Open titles in 18 years in 2005, blocking Coria and most of the ATP Tour.
Reigning French Open champion Carlos Alcaraz could become this generation's Nadal, but Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka still managed to sneak in Roland Garros titles during the King of Clay's reign, so Sinner certainly seems more likely than not to get one eventually.
He may not have to wait long as the oddsmakers' second-favorite at the 2025 French Open behind Alcaraz, but there's actually a player with a higher likelihood than Sinner of becoming the first player to win Roland-Garros post-suspension this year. Iga Swiatek, who served a one-month suspension in November 2024 after a positive test for the banned substance trimetazidine, is the clear favorite on the women's side as she angles for a French Open four-peat.
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Emma Raducanu's improving form has continued this week as she now takes on world No. 2 Coco Gauff in the last 16 of the Italian Open on Monday.
Raducanu's career on the court has been beset by problems since becoming an overnight superstar in 2021 with a stunning US Open title win from nowhere. Numerous coaches have come and gone, while she has also been a victim of unwanted attention from a fan and has faced criticism for losing focus on the sport after becoming a big celebrity.
Her personal life, romantic relationships, and a Wimbledon controversy have all been under the spotlight, but she has someone close to her to support her through it all.
There has been speculation surrounding Raducanu's connections with tennis peers, such as a possible romance with Carlos Alcaraz, but it is her close bond with fellow Brit Jack Draper that has caught the eye.
Their connection is said to be purely platonic but there's no doubt they care for each other greatly, given what they have both said.
The British duo were born just a year apart and have come through the ranks together and formed a close friendship over the years, supporting each other away from the court.
Draper has said of Raducanu: "She has always been there for me and I have always been there for her. She's very kind, very thoughtful, always giggling, really smart. A really, really good girl."
He added of her famous US Open triumph: "What Emma did was obviously incredibly inspiring. I've known her from a young age, and to see what she did was incredible.
“I was very proud of her, very excited. Obviously, we've watched the likes of Andy Murray winning a Grand Slam from Great Britain, but her winning, it was just really a fairy-tale run.
“I definitely think as a competitor, it fuelled my fire. I really wanted to achieve what she'd done, winning a Grand Slam. At the same time I do understand that the men's and the women's, it is different. We're playing five sets. It's a different physical challenge and all these types of things. [But] I learned a lot from watching Emma win, that run, and how amazing she was.”
Following Draper's recent move into the world's top five, Raducanu returned the compliment, saying: “It's amazing to see what he's achieved and how much he's done. I know he's a great tennis player and he [has] such a big stature that he can take the game out of anyone's hands. For him to kind of dominate like he has been is really cool to see.”
The tennis circuit was abuzz with rumours last year after Romeo Beckham was spotted at Wimbledon watching Raducanu, sparking speculation about their relationship following her recent split from her boyfriend.
As Emma Raducanu glided to a straight-sets triumph over Elise Mertens in round two, the glare of the spotlight wasn't reserved solely for her. Romeo Beckham, David and Victoria's second son, caught the attention of many, with the company of friends and ex-Germany player Sami Khedira in the stands.
The 22 year old former Brentford footballer, whose passion for tennis is well-known – marked notably by his training stint with Andy Murray – unwittingly turned heads at the match. The Beckhams' fondness for Raducanu isn't hushed news; indeed, David Beckham was glimpsed alongside his mum, Sandra, ensconced in Wimbledon's prestigious Royal Box, as they cheered on the burgeoning tennis sensation.
While Romeo's attendance could simply stem from admiration for Raducanu, it did stir up chatter and speculative buzz, especially after he posted an Instagram snap of Raducanu mid-game, adorned with heart emojis.
But for Raducanu, Romeo's presence was taken in stride. She commented: "I mean, I think he's, yeah, he's really cool," recognising her esteem for the Beckham name and the influence David Beckham has had on British sport.
The tennis star previously parted ways with Carlo Agostinelli, an aspiring footballer who briefly played for Tottenham Hotspur before joining Stanford University's team. He is the son of billionaire Robert Agostinelli.
Raducanu and Agostinelli's split came after the pair started dating around May 2023, appearing together at several events such as the Dior 2024 Cruise show in Mexico. They were last spotted together at Paris Fashion Week.
The breakup seemed confirmed when Raducanu unfollowed her ex on social media ahead of Wimbledon.
The young tennis star reportedly caused a stir at Wimbledon's All England Club last year by allegedly breaking a dress code that has been in place for 150 years. She was accused of "arrogance" for reportedly ignoring the club's strict all-white attire rule, which applies to both matches and practice sessions at SW19, as well as the main Grand Slam event in the summer.
According to the Daily Mail, Raducanu was practising on the courts in "whatever she wants", much to the annoyance of some club members.
The All England Club's strict dress code, dating back to the 1880s, demands players don "suitable tennis attire that is almost entirely white" upon entering the court. Despite a 2023 amendment allowing women to wear dark undershorts for menstrual concerns, the rules are still tight, reports Wales Online.
White attire must not be off-white or cream, and only a trim of a single colour up to 10mm is allowed on necklines or sleeve cuffs.
Yet, Raducanu reportedly turned heads by arriving in a pink outfit, leading to a member's complaint to the Mail: "It's so unfair. Who does she think she is? Just because she's won the US Open doesn't mean she can wear whatever she wants."
Raducanu isn't alone in causing a stir over dress code; Nick Kyrgios made waves in 2022 with his red Nike Jordan shoes and cap, although he switched to white gear later.
Even Roger Federer faced criticism for sporting orange-soled shoes at the prestigious venue.
The 22 year old's remarkable triumph at the 2021 US Open propelled her to global stardom, turning her from an unknown teenage qualifier into the fresh face of British tennis overnight. Her historic victory shattered several records as she became the first ever qualifier to clinch a Grand Slam title and the first British woman to do so since Virginia Wade's Wimbledon success in 1977.
At a tender age of 18, she was also the youngest Grand Slam champion since Maria Sharapova in 2004. Naturally, securing that title dramatically altered Raducanu's life, as she swiftly graced the cover of every newspaper and magazine, was crowned the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year and even received an MBE for her contributions to tennis.
Endorsement deals rapidly followed, and she soon became a brand ambassador for luxury brands such as Dior, Tiffany and Porsche, as well as corporations like HSBC, Vodafone and British Airways. Raducanu has also inked contracts with Nike, Wilson and Evian, while she has starred in adverts for Sports Direct too.
All of this means that, besides her career earnings which currently sit at just over £3 million, Raducanu is reported to have an impressive net worth. According to the Sunday Times Rich List, it is estimated to be around £10 million, with Forbes last year ranking her as the sixth highest-paid tennis player globally.
The British sensation is teetering on the edge of an even more lucrative horizon, as insiders project that with a repeat of her 2021 triumphs, she might surpass an eye-watering £100 million in wealth. A prominent sports agent conveyed to MailOnline, "She can easily earn £100 million or more. The sky's the limit."
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Coco Gauff and Emma Raducanu share one important thing.
They are both US Open champions and importantly they were both major winners as teenagers so it comes as no surprise that the pair have a lot of advice to give each other.
Back when Raducanu was the freshly crowned US Open champion in 2021, Gauff was quick to warn the Brit that the best thing she can do is ignore the hype.
"The best thing I could [say], and I'm sure she's probably heard it, is to set time aside from the phone," Gauff said at the time.
"Because it is exciting when you get all the retweets, all the follows and all of that, but it can be a bit overwhelming. At least in my experience. That's probably what I wish I would've known, not to focus on social media.
"I put a time limit on my phone because I thought I was spending too much time on it," she said. "From 8.30 am to 9.30 pm I have limited access to apps."
Since then, Gauff has joined Raducanu as a US Open winner, when she won her first major in 2023.
Fast forward to 2025, despite the pair having their crowning moments in New York that's about it when it comes to the similarities in their tennis journeys.
Gauff is ranked 46 spots higher then Raducanu and has enjoyed a steady and stable progress on the tour, the American was just recently the World No.2 and now sits third.
Raducanu's US Open championship is her only title, with her time on tour since that being savaged by injuries with very little momentum being established.
Meanwhile, Gauff has won ten titles, her most recent one came at the WTA Finals in Riyadh in November.
Gauff's successful career so far has meant she has earned $23.8 million on tour so far while Raducanu has picked up just $4.9 million, a big difference which demonstrates little competition the Brit has played in recent years.
So much so that despite the two young stars have only met once on tour, a 2023 Australian Open clash which Gauff came out victorious.
It was a game that Raducanu had an ample opportunity to win, with a 5-4 lead in the first set.
However, she failed to see her out two set points and Gauff rallied to make a comeback, winning the tie break before winning the second set and match.
Ahead of just their second match at the Rome Open, fourth seed Gauff was full of praise for an opponent she has barely played.
“She's obviously a great player and the last time we played, it was a tough match,” the world No 3 told Tennis Channel.
“It's going to be a different matchup on clay here, but I think she has the game to be a great clay-court player.
“Obviously, a great player in general, but especially on clay. So it's going to be a tough match and I'm looking forward to it and hopefully I can come out with the win.”
Raducanu returned the complaints, pointing out how good she is on clay.
“She is a great competitor. I think I'm playing pretty good tennis right now and she is going to be a great test,” the 22-year-old Brit told Sky Sports.
“She's made the final of the French Open and so she's great on this surface. I'm just going to keep focused but savour this one for now.”
Should Raducanu play at her very best, her clean-hitting and pace from both sides of the court should make Gauff uncomfortable.
However, even then Gauff is a very good defender and incredibly quick on this surface, something Raducanu may struggle to cope with.
It would be a huge upset, should Raducanu eliminate Gauff.
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World Tennis Magazine
May 12, 2025 by Admin Leave a Comment
Destanee Aiava or Victoria and Tristan Schoolkate or Western Australia have been awarded wildcards into the main draw of Roland Garros, recognising their promising performances over the past year and their potential to make their mark on the clay courts of Paris, writes Tennis Australia.
Aiava, currently ranked world No.157, qualified for the 2024 US Open and Australian Open 2025 – two Grand Slam breakthroughs that showcased her growing confidence and composure on the big stage.
In New York she faced world No.4 Elena Rybakina in the first round, gaining valuable experience at the elite level, and backing up her qualifying feats at the AO where she defeated Belgium's Greet Minnen in the opening round.
“I'm so happy, honestly. I was not expecting it at all,” Aiava said on this week's episode of The Sit-Down podcast.
“I literally had just lost my match last week; it was a really tight match and I was crying. And I was just like laying down, you know, wallowing in my sadness, and then I got a call from Sam [Stosur], and I was like, oh, why is she calling me? (laughter).
“She said ‘I hope this cheers you up, to offer you the French wildcard'. And I was like, excuse me? I had to look around to make sure like this was real life.
“I was just really happy, I was over the moon. Honestly it's so special and I don't think it's sunk in yet, but I'm training on the clay and trying to prepare as best I can.
“There's always something good around the corner, I guess, in this sport.”
At 24 years old and ranked No.129, Schoolkate has enjoyed a career-best 12 months.
He captured his first ATP Challenger title at the 2024 Guangzhou International Challenger, defeating fellow Australian Adam Walton in a hard-fought final.
Schoolkate later made headlines at Australian Open 2025 by taking the first set against No.1 Jannik Sinner, demonstrating his potential to challenge top-tier players.
“Thank you to Tennis Australia for this incredible opportunity,” Schoolkate said. “My team and I have been putting in the work every day, always striving to reach new heights.
“I'm excited for the chance to compete against the world's best on the clay in Paris.”
Aiava and Schoolkate bring the Australian contingent in Roland Garros singles to 15, all aiming to make a significant impact at the second Grand Slam of the season.
View list of Aussies here.
Main-draw action begins in Paris on Sunday 25 May.
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Emma Raducanu and Coco Gauff will clash for just the second time in their careers for a spot in the Italian Open quarter-finals TODAY.
Brit Raducanu appeared surprised when told the American would be her last-16 opponent after seeing off Veronika Kudermetova.
The 22-year-old came from behind to beat the Russian 5-7, 6-0, 6-1 and set up a meeting with her fellow former US Open champion.
It is only the second time that two of the most high-profile young female tennis stars have gone head-to-head on the WTA Tour.
Gauff won their first encounter in straight sets 6-3, 7-6, in the second round of the 2023 Australian Open.
The 21-year-old followed in Raducanu's footsteps months later by winning her first Grand Slam as a teenager at the US Open - two years on from the latter's achievement at the same event.
However, the pair have had contrasting fortunes on the court since their career-best win, with Gauff currently the world No3 rank.
Meanwhile, Raducanu has struggled for fitness and form and sits just inside the top 50 while also having less experience on clay.
The last 16 showdown of the 2025 Italian Open will take place on Monday, May 12.
The match will be held on clay at the Grand Stand Arena in Rome.
It is scheduled third for Monday's action and has an estimated start time of 2pm UK time.
In the United States, it is expected to get underway at around 9am ET, 6am PT and 8am CT.
The tournament is being shown on Sky Sports in the UK.
Sky Go customers will be able to watch the action via their laptops or mobile devices. Alternatively, fans can purchase a NOW TV pass.
talkSPORT will have updates throughout, while talkSPORT.com will be on hand for the best of the reaction.
Gauff vs Raducanu will follow two matches in the men's singles.
Alex de Minaur first faces Hugo Dellien, before Miami champion Jakub Mensik battles Fabian Marozsan.
Raducanu is now just two wins away from reclaiming the mantle of British no.1.
Reaching the semi-finals would see the Canadian-born superstar leapfrog world no.40 Katie Boulter in the WTA rankings.
It would be the first time she has been the top-ranked female British player in two years.
However, her road to redemption is blocked by fourth seed Gauff, who had earlier beaten Magda Linette 7-5, 6-3.
“I haven't looked at the draw to be honest, but she's a great competitor. Are you sure I'm playing Coco?” Raducanu said when being interviewed by Sky Sports after beating Kudermetova.
“I think I'm playing pretty good tennis right now, and she is going to be a great test,” Raducanu added.
“I mean, she's made the final of the French Open, so she's great on this surface.
“I'm just going to keep focused, but I'll savour this one for now.”
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Nine's Wide World of Sports
Up-and-coming Australian tennis players Destanee Aiava and Tristan Schoolkate have been awarded wildcard entries into the main draw of Roland-Garros.
The pair are among eight wildcards awarded on each side of the singles draw through a reciprocal wildcard exchange with the French Tennis Federation, United States Tennis Association (USTA) and Tennis Australia.
Rising stars Iva Jovic and Emilio Nava received wildcard entries from the USTA last week after winning the governing body's wildcard challenge.
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Destanee Aiava reacts against Danielle Collins during their match at the 2025 Australian Open. Getty
Aiava, ranked world No.157 and Schoolkate, ranked world No.129, will now have the opportunity to make their mark on the clay courts of Paris after winning their respective first main draw matches at the Australian Open earlier this year.
Schoolkate was also awarded a wildcard entry from Tennis Australia for his home slam.
Aiava progressed through the qualifying rounds to contest the 2024 US Open and 2025 Australian Open, building a following around her vintage tennis outfits.
The Melbourne product defeated Belgian Greet Minnen before succumbing to the 10th-seeded American Daniel Collins in the next round.
Having played in qualifying at Roland-Garros last year after six years of not making the cut, Aiava will make her debut at the year's second grand slam tournament.
"I'm so happy, honestly. I was not expecting it at all," Aiava told Tennis Australia's The Sit-Down podcast.
"I literally had just lost my match last week; it was a really tight match and I was crying. And I was just like lying down, you know, wallowing in my sadness, and then I got a call from Sam [Stosur], and I was like, 'oh, why is she calling me?'.
Destanee Aiava celebrates a point against Greet Minnen in the first round of the 2025 Australian Open. Getty
"She said, 'I hope this cheers you up, to offer you the French wildcard'. And I was like, excuse me? I had to look around to make sure this was real life.
"I was just really happy, I was over the moon. Honestly, it's so special and I don't think it's sunk in yet, but I'm training on the clay and trying to prepare as best I can.
"There's always something good around the corner, I guess, in this sport."
For Schoolkate, the invitation is recognition for his career-best 12 months.
The 24-year-old won his first ATP Challenger Tour title at the 2024 Guangzhou International Challenger last May, defeating countryman Adam Walton in the final.
At Melbourne Park, Schoolkate made headlines when he took the first set off reigning Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner before going down in four sets.
He earlier toppled Japanese player Taro Daniel in the first round for a second career grand slam victory. Remarkably, his maiden win at the 2024 US Open was also against Daniel.
Tristan Schoolkate celebrates a point against Jannik Sinner in the second round of the 2025 Australian Open. Getty
"My team and I have been putting in the work every day, always striving to reach new heights," Schoolkate said in a statement.
"I'm excited for the chance to compete against the world's best on the clay in Paris."
Aiava and Schoolkate's announcement as wildcards brings the Aussie singles contingent to 15.
Eight men and five women will represent Australia, headlined by top-ranked national men's player Alex de Minaur and fresh Australian patriot Daria Kasatkina.
A further 12 Australians — four men and eight women —are also entered into the qualifying events with the hope of winning through to the main draw.
Main draw action begins on Sunday, May 25 at Stade Roland Garros.
© 2025 Nine Entertainment Co.
Before each day's play at the Foro Italico, we'll preview three must-see matches.BySteve TignorPublished May 12, 2025 copy_link
Published May 12, 2025
Jasmine Paolini vs. Jelena OstapenkoThe Italian and the Latvian bring very different energies to the court, and to their games. Paolini is the smiling speedster with the whippy topspin strokes. Ostapenko is the woman of many expressions who never saw a call she couldn't question, and who crunches every ball she sees as hard and flat as possible.They've played twice at the WTA level, and Ostapenko has won both times; earlier this year in Doha, she beat her handily, 6-2, 6-2. If Ostapenko's shots are clicking, she'll have the advantage over Paolini when it comes to pace every time. But as her 13-10 record on the season shows, her shots are not always clicking.Both of these players have been in form of late. Ostapenko beat Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka back to back to win Stuttgart, while Paolini has reached a couple of significant semifinals. Ostapenko is a Roland Garros champion, but this time the surface, and the pro-Italian crowd, may be to Paolini's advantage. Winner: Paolini
The Italian and the Latvian bring very different energies to the court, and to their games. Paolini is the smiling speedster with the whippy topspin strokes. Ostapenko is the woman of many expressions who never saw a call she couldn't question, and who crunches every ball she sees as hard and flat as possible.They've played twice at the WTA level, and Ostapenko has won both times; earlier this year in Doha, she beat her handily, 6-2, 6-2. If Ostapenko's shots are clicking, she'll have the advantage over Paolini when it comes to pace every time. But as her 13-10 record on the season shows, her shots are not always clicking.Both of these players have been in form of late. Ostapenko beat Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka back to back to win Stuttgart, while Paolini has reached a couple of significant semifinals. Ostapenko is a Roland Garros champion, but this time the surface, and the pro-Italian crowd, may be to Paolini's advantage. Winner: Paolini
They've played twice at the WTA level, and Ostapenko has won both times; earlier this year in Doha, she beat her handily, 6-2, 6-2. If Ostapenko's shots are clicking, she'll have the advantage over Paolini when it comes to pace every time. But as her 13-10 record on the season shows, her shots are not always clicking.Both of these players have been in form of late. Ostapenko beat Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka back to back to win Stuttgart, while Paolini has reached a couple of significant semifinals. Ostapenko is a Roland Garros champion, but this time the surface, and the pro-Italian crowd, may be to Paolini's advantage. Winner: Paolini
Both of these players have been in form of late. Ostapenko beat Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka back to back to win Stuttgart, while Paolini has reached a couple of significant semifinals. Ostapenko is a Roland Garros champion, but this time the surface, and the pro-Italian crowd, may be to Paolini's advantage. Winner: Paolini
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Coco Gauff vs. Emma RaducanuGauff and Raducanu are former US Open champions who are still surprisingly young—the Brit is 22, the American 21. They're also the best-known tennis players from their respective nations. But they've only met once, at the Australian Open in 2023, and Gauff came away a winner in two competitive sets.While Gauff is ranked 46 spots higher, both are playing promising tennis at the moment. Coco just made the Madrid final; Raducanu was a quarterfinalist in Miami, and has three wins on the week in Rome. On a good day, Raducanu's clean hitting and easy pace from both sides could make life difficult for Gauff. But the opposite is also true; if Gauff settles in defensively, she could make Raducanu hit one more ball than she wants to, and one more ball than she can keep in the court. Winner: GauffRead more: Emma Raducanu shares her go-to pasta order after winning week in Rome
Gauff and Raducanu are former US Open champions who are still surprisingly young—the Brit is 22, the American 21. They're also the best-known tennis players from their respective nations. But they've only met once, at the Australian Open in 2023, and Gauff came away a winner in two competitive sets.While Gauff is ranked 46 spots higher, both are playing promising tennis at the moment. Coco just made the Madrid final; Raducanu was a quarterfinalist in Miami, and has three wins on the week in Rome. On a good day, Raducanu's clean hitting and easy pace from both sides could make life difficult for Gauff. But the opposite is also true; if Gauff settles in defensively, she could make Raducanu hit one more ball than she wants to, and one more ball than she can keep in the court. Winner: GauffRead more: Emma Raducanu shares her go-to pasta order after winning week in Rome
While Gauff is ranked 46 spots higher, both are playing promising tennis at the moment. Coco just made the Madrid final; Raducanu was a quarterfinalist in Miami, and has three wins on the week in Rome. On a good day, Raducanu's clean hitting and easy pace from both sides could make life difficult for Gauff. But the opposite is also true; if Gauff settles in defensively, she could make Raducanu hit one more ball than she wants to, and one more ball than she can keep in the court. Winner: GauffRead more: Emma Raducanu shares her go-to pasta order after winning week in Rome
Read more: Emma Raducanu shares her go-to pasta order after winning week in Rome
Gauff and Raducanu are both in promising form, making the prospect of the first clay-court meeting between two US Open champions exciting.© 2025 Robert Prange
© 2025 Robert Prange
Casper Ruud vs. Matteo BerrettiniThree or four years ago, Ruud and Berrettini looked like they might be meeting in Grand Slam finals by now. Ruud reached three of them in 2022 and 2023, while Berrettini made one in 2021. But their progress has stalled since, Berrettini from injury, Ruud from surprising inconsistency and burnout. They haven't faced off in any round since 2023. Now Berrettini is (relatively) healthy physically, Ruud is healthy mentally, and they'll open the night session on Monday. If their 2020 clash in Rome, which went to a third-set tiebreaker, is any indication, this could be a good one.
Three or four years ago, Ruud and Berrettini looked like they might be meeting in Grand Slam finals by now. Ruud reached three of them in 2022 and 2023, while Berrettini made one in 2021. But their progress has stalled since, Berrettini from injury, Ruud from surprising inconsistency and burnout. They haven't faced off in any round since 2023. Now Berrettini is (relatively) healthy physically, Ruud is healthy mentally, and they'll open the night session on Monday. If their 2020 clash in Rome, which went to a third-set tiebreaker, is any indication, this could be a good one.
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Ruud won that match, and he leads Berrettini 4-3 overall, and 3-1 on clay. Ruud will have momentum from his recent title in Madrid, while Berrettini will use the crowd to create his own positive energy. Ruud is the better clay-courter, but will he be tired from Madrid, and from a three-set win over Alexander Bublik in his opener? Berrettini has the skills to take advantage of a letdown, and he'll surely want to make his first appearance in front of the home folks in Rome since 2021 last as long as it can. Winner: Berrettini
By Matt Grobar
Senior Film Reporter
EXCLUSIVE: Ahead of Cannes, Vertical has acquired North American rights to We Bury the Dead, a post-apocalyptic thriller starring Star Wars‘ Daisy Ridley and Brenton Thwaites (Titans).
Written and directed by Australian filmmaker Zak Hilditch (1922), the film hasn't been dated but is expected to be released next year.
The story unfolds after a catastrophic American military experiment results in mass casualties across Tasmania, as Ava (Ridley) joins a body retrieval unit to help identify the dead and search for her husband on the southern part of the island. As Ava makes her way south, across the ravaged landscape, she soon learns that some of the victims of the disaster are coming back to life.
The film most recently screened on closing night of the Atlanta Film Festival, after hitting SXSW and the Adelaide Film Festival. Mark Coles Smith (Mystery Road: Origin) and Matt Whelan (Narcos) co-star.
Watch on Deadline
On the acquistion, Vertical Partner Peter Jarowey said, “With a great cast led by Daisy Ridley and Brenton Thwaites, Zak has re-energized the zombie genre with We Bury the Dead. Next year, North American audiences will be on the edge of their seats watching this post-apocalyptic thriller.”
We Bury the Dead is a Penguin Empire production in partnership with Campfire Studios. Major production investment came from Screen Australia in association with Screenwest, Lotterywest and the WA Regional Screen Fund, with production financing provided by Peachtree Media Partners.
The film was produced by Kelvin Munro, Grant Sputore, Ross M. Dinerstein, Joshua Harris, and Mark Fasano. Exec producers included Nathan Klingher, Ford Corbett, D.J. Jiang, Nicholas Erickson, Sean Fannan, Ari Novak, Lee Broda, Ari Harrison, and Jeff Harrison.
Jarowey and SVP of Acquisitions Tony Piantedosi repped Vertical in the deal, with UTA Independent Film Group repping the filmmakers.
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Have you ever been told you're just “Too Much,” especially from an ex? Well, leave it to the “voice of a generation” Lena Dunham to capture that feeling all too well with her aptly titled Netflix rom-com series.
Megan Stalter leads “Too Much” as a Dunham-esque character. The “Hacks” breakout star plays Jessica, who relocates from New York to London while reeling from a breakup. Despite planning on being alone forever, Jessica soon meets Felix (“The White Lotus” star Will Sharpe), who challenges her to reevaluate her thirty-something crisis.
Dunham co-created the series with her real-life husband, Luis Felber, who also serves as an executive producer and provides original music. The 10-episode show was announced in 2023. Dunham is the creator, writer, director and executive producer.
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The official synopsis of “Too Much” reads: Jessica (Stalter) is “a New York workaholic in her mid-30s, reeling from a broken relationship that she thought would last forever and slowly isolating everyone she knows. When every block in New York tells a story of her own bad behavior, the only solution is to take a job in London, where she plans to live a life of solitude like a Brontë sister. But when she meets Felix (Will Sharpe) — a walking series of red flags — she finds that their unusual connection is impossible to ignore, even as it creates more problems than it solves. Now they have to ask themselves: do Americans and Brits actually speak the same language?”
“Girls” alums Rita Wilson and Andrew Rannells also star, along with Andrew Scott, Emily Ratajkowski, Naomi Watts, Stephen Fry, Michael Zegan, Janicza Bravo, Richard E. Grant, Leo Reich, Daisy Bevan, Adele Exarchopoulos, Dean-Charles Chapman, Prasanna Puwanarajah, Rhea Perlman, Kaori Momoi, and Adwoa Aboah.
“This is a show that is very close to my heart — created with my husband Luis, cast with my favourite actors — the geniuses that are Meg and Will, along with a bevy of friends — and partnering again with Working Title, who are behind the romantic comedies that formed me,” Dunham said in a press statement. “Netflix has been so deeply supportive of the vision, which is to create a romantic comedy that makes us root for love, brings joy but also has the jagged edges of life.”
Dunham later said during a Next on Netflix event that the lead characters, Jessica and Felix, were inspired by her own life. Dunham added of lead actress Stalter, “What I love about Meg is she has this warmth and openness and this sort of Midwestern charm that just makes her inherently likable. And even when she's, you know, acting naughty or hysterical or making well-meaning mistakes, you are still on her side. And that's what we needed for this role.”
Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Michael Cohen, Surian Fletcher-Jones, and Bruce Eric Kaplan executive produce “Too Much.” Camilla Bray produces. The series comes from Dunham's Good Thing Going banner and Universal International Studios' Working Title Television. Dunham also has a college-centric spy series in the works at Netflix, with which Good Thing Going has an ongoing partnership.
Dunham will next direct a feature about the rise and fall of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. Dunham will adapt the screenplay from Michael Lewis' New York Times-bestselling book, “Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon.” The Apple Original film comes in partnership with A24.
“Too Much” start streaming on Netflix onThursday, July 10. Check out first look images below.
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Palme d'Or-winning auteur Cristian Mungiu is making his English-language film debut with Neon. Mungiu's upcoming family drama “Fjord” starring Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve has landed at the powerhouse indie distributor ahead of Cannes.
“Fjord” follows the Gheorghiu family, comprised of a Romanian father (Stan) and a Norwegian mother (Reinsve), as they settle into new life in a remote Norwegian village, where the mother was born. The film's official synopsis reads: “They quickly bond with the Halbergs, who live in the neighboring house near the bay and despite their very different upbringings, the children of both families soon become close friends. When the Gheorghius are suspected of disturbing behavior, their lives are thrown into chaos as they become the center of small town scrutiny.”
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Stan and Reinsve previously starred in Aaron Schimberg's “A Different Man” together; this is their second feature playing a couple onscreen. Production for “Fjord” has wrapped in Norway.
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Goodfellas is handling worldwide sales on the film with Neon acquiring rights for the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia, and New Zealand. Neon will release the film theatrically in the U.S. nationwide. The deal was negotiated by Sarah Colvin for Neon and Eva Diederix for Goodfellas.
“Fjord” is a truly international feature, and is billed as being a Norway-Sweden-Denmark-Finland-France-Romania coproduction. The film is produced by Mobra Films, Eye-Eye Pictures, Why Not Productions and Goodfellas, alongside Snowglobe, Aamu Film Company, Garage Film, FilmGate Films and Film i Vast (supported by Eurimages and Creative Europe MEDIA).
“4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” director Mungiu already has one Palme d'Or to his name, and he's joining forces with a shingle with some big Cannes wins under its belt. The distributor has distributed the last five Palme d'Or winners out of Cannes, including Sean Baker's Best Picture winner “Anora” in 2024.
This year, the studio will debut Joachim Trier's “Sentimental Value” also starring Reinsve, and Julia Ducournau's “Alpha.” Their other titles inclue Raoul Peck's “Orwell: 2+2=5” and Michael Angelo Covino's “Splitsville,” starring Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona which Neon also produced.
Stan previously told IndieWire that working with Mungiu was an incredible experience in his filmography. “With all of these smaller indies, I always feel even while I'm on the plane going there, I'm always worried, ‘Is the financing going to come through?' It's on its way,” Stan said. “He's been up there with me for a few years with filmmakers from Romania where I've been calling him trying to find a way to work with him, where I can speak Romanian as well. We finally found this story, which is about a Romanian family who's moved to Norway and then ends up in this very complicated trial. There's a system [that] investigates cases if there's ever been physical abuse in the household between the parents or the kids. They go investigating the family for an incident, and it leads to this trial. It happened before the pandemic, and it became national news. There were a lot of religious communities that came to their side, and it's really interesting and quite complicated.”
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By Andreas Wiseman
Executive Editor, International & Strategy
EXCLUSIVE: True-crime thriller Golden State Killer (previously known as The Policeman), starring Vincent Gallo and James Franco, is on sale this week at the Cannes market with Lionsgate.
The film has secured a domestic distribution release via Lionsgate's longtime genre partner Grindstone.
Written and directed by Vito Brown, the movie has Gallo playing Golden State killer Joseph James DeAngelo, the serial murderer and rapist who began terrorizing California residents all the way back in the 1970s, only being brought to justice in 2018. Franco plays a detective who faces the impossible task of finding the serial killer at the height of his crime spree before he can claim his next victims.
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Producers are Scott Clayton, Jordan Gertner, Barry Brooker, Todd Williams, and Gary A. Hirsch. Gertner was previously aboard as writer-director but that's no longer the case, we understand.
Watch on Deadline
The project, which is currently in post-production, hit some turbulence last year when it was scrutinized by SAG-AFTRA over misconduct complaints against Gallo by multiple female actors. The complaints spotlighted sexual comments allegedly made by Gallo in the audition process, which took place in November 2023.
Actor, filmmaker and musician Gallo, a Venice Best Actor winner, is known for subversive and provocative works including The Brown Bunny.
127 Hours, Spring Breakers and Pineapple Express star Franco has a spate of independent projects in production or post including Bunny-Man and Alina of Cuba: La Hija Rebelde. He hasn't appeared in a studio movie since the 2021 settlement of a legal case brought against him by former students who accused him of sexual misconduct.
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By
Mankaprr Conteh
For 69 years, the Billboard 200 has ranked the most consumed albums in the United States, and for the first time, the albums in the Number One and Two spots are both in Spanish. Bad Bunny's Debí Tirar Más Fotos sits atop the chart at Number One after a new vinyl release. It had previously been Number One for three consecutive weeks after its release in January.
New to the chart is música mexicana band Fuerza Régida's album 111XPANTIA, which debuts at Number Two. Not only does this make for Fuerza Régida's highest-charting album yet, 111XPANTIA is now the highest-charting Spanish-language album by a duo or group, and the highest-charting album in its genre.
In another record-breaker, Debí Tirar Más Fotos's roughly 48,000 vinyls sold marks the largest vinyl sales week for a Latin album since Luminate began tracking those sales in 1991. For the crown, Bad Bunny bested Kali Uchis, whose Orquídeas sold 20,000 on chart from Jan. 27, 2024.
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Last week, in an interview with Rolling Stone on 111XPANTIA, Fuerza Régida frontman Jesús Ortiz Paz said, “This album right here, is all about making your dreams come true, bro. The eye [in the artwork], it resembles manifestation. It resembles new beginnings. The 111 [angel numbers] in the name. The name Ixpantia comes from the Aztecs… It's all about manifesting.”
On Debí Tirar Más Fotos, which means “I Should Have Taken More Photos,” Bad Bunny told Rolling Stone, “It has more to do with the way that sometimes there are these moments I live through, and I enjoy them, but I didn't take any photos. I have a good memory, but I know there's going to be a time where I'm not going to remember really incredible times. It has a lot of meaning in terms of wishing I had seized certain moments. That's the idea: enjoying the moment when I could and valuing memories.”
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The tech giant says that Prime Video's main offering has added 15 million customers since its last update.
By
Alex Weprin
Senior Editor
Amazon says that Prime Video continues to reach new users in the U.S., as it prepares to roll out new ad tech in connection to its 2025 upfront presentation later today.
The tech giant said Monday that the ad tier of Prime Video now reaches more than 130 million U.S. customers, that is up from 115 million, a number which it revealed last year. The 130 million figure is not the same as a subscriber number (Amazon last revealed Prime subscriber numbers in 2021, when it tallied up over 200 million worldwide), but it gives a sense of reach and scale for its streaming platform.
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The company also says that 88 percent of Prime Video viewers have also shopped on Amazon, a stat meant to underscore the direct relationship between watching and buying on the platform.
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Prime Video entered the advertising business in a major way last year, flipping on ads for all of its U.S. users (subscribers could also opt out of ads for a small monthly fee), giving it instant scale. The move worked, with ads revenue surging, but it also shook up the entire ad market, flooding it with inventory and sparking grumbles from other streaming players that suddenly had a lot more competition than anticipated.
The company has since been rolling out its ad tier to other markets.
At its initial upfront, the company wowed buyers with a star-studded event, meant to underscore that it meant business. Ahead of the 2025 installment, the company says that it will roll out new artificial intelligence-powered ad tech that its customers will be able to use meant to drive sales of products, both on Amazon and outside of the shopping giant's walls.
Those products will include AI-generated contextual ad messaging which “auto-generates hyper-relevant ad copy to make ads feel like natural extensions of what viewers are watching”; shoppable ads that incorporate pricing, reviews and Prime shipping info from Amazon, letting users buy the product without ever leaving the content stream; and an expanded suite of interactive formats meant to drive sales off of Amazon, including calls to action like “subscribe now” or “book an appointment,” with info sent to users phones.
“Our ad formats are proven to drive measurable action on and off Amazon,” said Alan Moss, VP of global ads sales for Amazon Ads. “Starting this year, we are introducing a contextual advertising experience that dynamically aligns the ad message with the content viewers are watching – creating a natural and relevant connection. Based on Amazon's signals and fully addressable and authenticated audiences, we are uniquely positioned to offer viewers scene-aware ads as extensions of the entertainment experience, not interruptions.”
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As fans of “The Voice” prepare to vote for their favorites on the first live shows of season 27, they got an unexpected extra dose of excitement on May 12, 2025, as NBC announced the coaching lineup for season 28.
Snoop Dogg, whose return was announced in early May, will be joined this fall by three more of the most popular coaches in recent history: Reba McEntire, Michael Bublé, and Niall Horan. The morning announcement had fans flipping out on social media.
Snoop, Bublé, and McEntire had incredible chemistry during season 26, with Gwen Stefani rounding out their foursome. On May 12, fans were thrilled to see three of the four returning, but the addition of Horan — who was a coach during seasons 23 and 24 — took the excitement to a fever pitch.
A post shared by NBC's The Voice (@nbcthevoice)
NBC dropped the news of its season 28 coaches with two social media posts featuring all four returning coaches. The first had over 100,000 likes within a couple of hours, and the comment sections were immediately flooded with responses from over-the-moon fans.
One exclaimed in all caps, “SCREAMING BECAUSE THIS IS THE MOST ICONIC GROUP YET!!!! 😍😍😍”
Another excitedly commented, “Snoop 🔥 Reba 🔥 Niall 🔥 YAAS ❤️ YAAS ❤️YAAS ❤️ So Hyped 😍”
“LETS FREAKING GOOOOOOOO,” someone else wrote, while another chimed in, “Niall Horan & Micheal Buble on THE SAME season was notttt on my 2025 bingo card!!! Eek! This is very yay!!!🙌🏼✨👏🏼🤩”
Horan's return had fans particularly pumped. The former One Direction star was a popular addition to the show and won both seasons he coached, with Gina Miles in season 23 and Huntley in season 24, but left in 2024 for his world tour. He's also been mourning the loss of One Direction bandmate Liam Payne, who died tragically in October.
Even Bublé, left a funny comment about Horan's return, writing, “My favourite Horan is back!! It's the return of the Irish king! The world is healing”
A post shared by NBC's The Voice (@nbcthevoice)
Bublé, 49, previously said he turned down “The Voice” producers at least 15 times before finally agreeing to join the show for season 26. He quickly fell in love with the format, his fellow coaches and the contestants — including his season 26 winner Sofronio Vasquez.
“This is the best job I've ever had,” he told People on May 12. “Going to work every day is a joy, and I'm so thrilled to be back for Season 28. I remember being just like these contestants. I know how badly they want it and how hard it is to get there. I've had my dream come true, and the fact that I get to be a part of helping someone else in their journey to do that same thing, there's nothing better. It is really fulfilling.”
Returning for season 28 in the fall makes the Canadian crooner one of the only coaches to appear three seasons in a row in recent years, per People.
He told the outlet, “There's a reason why ‘The Voice' remains such a success after so many years, and it's because it really is about the artists. The talent on this show is incredible, and it's been such a beautiful experience to be a part of the process.”
Season 28 will air in the fall on NBC. Meanwhile, season 27 kicks off its live shows on May 12 at 8 p.m. Eastern time.
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IndieWire is proud to announce its inaugural Future of Filmmaking summit at the American Pavilion at Cannes, May 15-18. With four panels across four days, these lively conversations will speak to where the industry is going and the opportunities for emerging creatives at a time of unprecedented change. The summit is presented by United for Business.
Richard Linklater will be our keynote chat in conversation with Eric Kohn, artistic director of Southampton Playhouse. The ultimate outsider-insider, Linklater has been a celebrated filmmaker for over 30 years. Before he became a Cannes regular, he was a cinephile who worked tirelessly to build a film culture in Austin, Texas.
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The “many hats” ethos he brought to the early days of the Austin Film Society — funding it with money earned on an offshore oil rig, and later as a bellhop — still reflects the kind of “get ‘er done” scrappiness that filmmaking demands today. With Linklater's new film debuting at Cannes, “Nouvelle Vague,” he looks back to the start of the French New Wave, the legendary movement that reenergized cinema at another inflection point in the medium's history. He'll speak to why he's more excited about the future of film than he's been in years and why he believes that the Austin Film Society model can be exported to other cities to expand the film-culture footprint.
Popular on IndieWire
Our panel on the future of international production will be a hot-button topic at a moment when Trump is tacking tariffs on “foreign movies.” Harris-Bridson will lead a conversation with Watch This Ready executive vice president Emily Korteweg; Fabula North America head of film and TV, Andrew Hevia; Mandalay Pictures president Jason Michael Berman; and Oxbelly executive director Caroline von Kuhn.
IndieWire editor at large Anne Thompson will also lead a one-on-one conversation with Mubi head of global distribution Arianna Bocco. She's one of the indie film world's most respected tastemakers and served as president of IFC Films, where she steered the release of major festival titles such as Venice Golden Lion winner “Happening” as well as bold new visions from filmmakers making their feature debuts. Mubi broke through with last year's Cannes standout, “The Substance”; with Bocco now at the helm and Mubi currently raising $100 million, the specialty streamer is poised for major expansion.
We'll also host “How to Survive and Thrive in the Age of AI,” moderated by former IndieWire editor Eric Kohn. It features Fable Studios CEO Edward Saatchi, Prezense/NVIDIA's Seth Piezas, DoubleEye Studios founder Kiira Benzing, Asteria Film Co. partner Paul Trillo, and Venice Immersive programmer Liz Rosenthal. The impact of this emerging technology on the future of filmmaking is the industry's favorite existential question and these are the people who can provide a sense of where it's going.
Attendance for all panels requires a festival badge and American Pavilion membership, which can be purchased here. If you can't join us, we got you: Videos from the Future of Filmmaking summit will be published on IndieWire.
Join us on the American Pavilion May 15-18. Dates and times follow.
Thursday, May 1511:45amInternational Distribution: MUBI in Focus • Panelist: Arianna Bocco• Moderator: Anne Thompson
Coming off a successful year that began with the launch of The Substance at the Cannes Film Festival, MUBI is riding high as the most promising international streaming entity with a global cinephile reach. The company recently hired veteran distribution executive Arianna Bocco, who ran acquisitions at IFC Films for nearly 20 years, as its SVP of Global Distribution. Bocco will share her insights on the increasing value of international territories in distribution strategy and how the landscape has changed.
Friday, May 1611:00amThe Future of International Production• Panelists: Emily Korteweg (Producer, Splitsville), Andrew Hevia (Head of North American Production, Fabula), Jason Michael Berman (President, Mandalay Pictures), Caroline von Kuhn (Executive Director, Oxbelly)• Moderator: Dana Harris-Bridson
As production faces increasing budgetary challenges in the U.S., more and more projects are migrating abroad. We will hear from veteran producers and financiers about how to navigate the opportunities and challenges of international co-productions. Saturday, May 172:30pmKeynote Chat: Richard Linklater• Moderator: Eric KohnSunday, May 1811:00amHow to Survive and Thrive in the Age of AI• Panelists: Edward Saatchi (Founder and CEO, Fable Studios), Kiira Benzing (Founder, DoubleEye Studios), Seth Piezas (Senior Product Manager, NVIDA/Founder, Prezense), Liz Rosenthal (Programmer, Venice Immersive), Paul Trillo (Partner, Asteria Film Co.)• Moderator: Eric Kohn
The acceleration of artificial intelligence in recent years has led to rampant fears across the entertainment industry, some more founded than others. However, AI isn't going away – and its progress relates to broader changes to the future of storytelling as a whole. On this panel, we'll hear from creatives and executives about how to make the most of a new era defined by dramatic technological change.
About United for Business: United's shared purpose is “Connecting People. Uniting the World.” United offers the most diversified international route network among US airlines based on the number of international destinations served and is proud to offer a specialized travel product designed for the entertainment industry. United for Business comes with everything that will keep your production moving forward – reduced airfare, special rates for equipment, custom booking options, airport escort services and a dedicated entertainment support desk. For more information about United visit www.united.com and to learn more about United for Business visit https://www.united.business/.
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By Nellie Andreeva
Co-Editor-in-Chief, TV
EXCLUSIVE: Global music superstar Madonna has partnered with global streamer Netflix to tell her story. A limited series about her life and music is in early development at Netflix, with Madonna and Shawn Levy, whose 21 Laps has an exclusive TV overall deal at the platform, executive producing, Deadline has learned. A rep for Netflix declined comment.
The duo, who had been discussing the project for awhile, are starting from scratch: the biographical limited series is not related to the Madonna feature biopic which was previously in development at Universal with three-time Emmy winner Julia Garner as the choice to play the Queen of Pop.
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It is early days of development on the TV series, so it is unclear yet which period in Madonna's decades-spanning career it will focus on. Still, Garner has remained engaged — she famously appeared alongside Madonna on stage at the singer's Celebration Tour in December 2023 — and I hear the Ozark star would most likely play Madonna, subject of availability as she doesn't have a deal. (Garner would also feel right at home at Netflix where she just signed on her for her third series, an FTX limited series, following her turns on Inventing Anna and Ozark.)
Watch on Deadline
It is also too early to tell whether Madonna would be involved in the writing; she co-wrote the proposed feature.
Teaming with Netflix and one of the streamer's most prolific TV producers, Levy, who is behind such Netflix shows as mega hit Stranger Things and limited series The Perfect Couple and All the Light We Cannot See, represents a major step in bringing Madonna's story to the screen, something she has been passionate about for years.
“I want to convey the incredible journey that life has taken me on as an artist, a musician, a dancer – a human being, trying to make her way in this world,” she said at the time of the Universal feature announcement in 2020.
Madonna had remained committed to the idea and last November hinted on Instagram that she may be pivoting from a feature biopic to a TV series about her life.
Since she dropped out of college and got on a plane for the first time in her life to pursue a career in music and dance in New York with $35 in her pocket, Michigan native Madonna has defied expectations at every turn.
Certified the best-selling female music artist in history, Madonna has sold 400 million records worldwide and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008.
Her impact on society and pop culture have gone beyond her influence in the music industry as a revolutionary pop star who challenged sexism to redefine what it means to be a powerful woman in the field. Fearless and provocative, the “Like a Virgin” singer has been outspoken on women's rights and sexuality, pushing boundaries and challenging societal norms, and a strong advocate of the LGBTQ community.
Madonna is repped by CAA, Maverick Management, Untitled Entertainment and Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks. Levy and 21 Laps are repped by WME and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole.
A post shared by Julia Garner (@juliagarnerofficial)
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The mockumentary from Greg Daniels and Michael Koman will premiere in September.
By
Rick Porter
Television Business Editor
The next series in the Office world officially has a title — and a premiere date.
The show, in which the documentary crew from The Office lands on a new subject, is called The Paper. It follows the publisher (Domhnall Gleeson) and staff of a historic but struggling newspaper in Toledo, Ohio.
The series, from former Office showrunner Greg Daniels and Michael Koman, is set to premiere in September. Peacock also released the first image from the series, which also shows Oscar Nuñez, who will reprise his role as Oscar Martinez from the earlier series.
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Nuñez, Gleeson and co-star Sabrina Impacciatore appeared on stage Monday at NBCUniversal's upfront presentation to advertisers, and Nuñez related that he talked with Daniels that post-The Office, he imagined Oscar moving to a more cosmopolitan environment.
“Greg heard me and moved Oscar to Toledo, Ohio, which has three times the population of Scranton,” Nuñez said. “So it's nice to be heard.”
Daniels told The Hollywood Reporter during an interview for an Office oral history that The Paper will employ much of the same crew that worked on the former series and that he's excited to work on another mockumentary.
“It's about this struggling Midwestern newspaper that's much reduced from its glory days. A lot of the story lines are about how this guy, Domhnall Gleeson's character, is trying to restore this paper, and he just doesn't have the budget for hiring reporters, and he has to use all the staff that work there on a volunteer basis to be reporters. They're completely untrained and don't know what they're doing,” Daniels said. “It's a fruitful premise. There's a tremendous history for local papers. The villain here is the internet and the ability to look at everybody's news for free, and all the ad revenue going to Google.”
The Paper also stars Chelsea Frei, Melvin Gregg, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Alex Edelman, Ramona Young and Tim Key. Duane Shepard Sr., Allan Havey, Nate Jackson, Mo Welch, Nancy Lenehan, Molly Ephraim and Tracy Letts will have guest roles. Ikumelo, Edelman, Rahill and Welch are also writers on the series.
Universal Television produces the series. Daniels and Koman (Nathan for You) executive produce with The Office creators Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, Howard Klein, Ben Silverman and Banijay Americas.
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By Justin Kroll
Film Editor
EXCLUSIVE: David Leitch's next movie How To Rob a Bank isn't done adding top-tier talent, with sources telling Deadline that Zoë Kravitz is set to star in the Amazon MGM Studios film. The deal reunites Kravitz with her Mad Max: Fury Road co-star Nicholas Hoult, who is also on board to star. Anna Sawai, Pete Davidson and Rhenzy Feliz are also on board.
The film, which Leitch is directing, will be released in theaters September 4, 2026.
Watch on Deadline
Plot details are being kept under wraps, but given Leitch's track record of delivering on big thrills and fun set pieces in films like Bullet Train, Deadpool 2 and most recently The Fall Guy, expect something similar in scope.
87North's Kelly McCormick and Leitch will produce alongside Imagine's Brian Grazer, Jeb Brody and Allan Mandelbaum. Mark Bianculli (Hunters, upcoming Cliffhanger reboot) wrote the script and will executive produce.
Besides Hoult, this also marks a reunion between Kravitz and Amazon MGM, where she helmed Blink Twice, which marked her directorial debut. The film earned strong reviews and put Kravitz on the map as a director.
Kravitz can be seen next opposite Austin Butler in the Darren Aronofsky thriller Caught Stealing, which bows this fall. She is repped by CAA and Untitled Entertainment.
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Follow all our Sean Combs trial coverage
Sean “Diddy” Combs strode into court today morning to a packed courtroom filled with his children and anxious family members, as the hip-hop mogul faces charges of sex trafficking and racketeering that could put him behind bars for life.
The 55-year-old, who is now fully gray, has pleaded not guilty to the five felony counts against him. During jury selection last week, the larger-than-life music executive who is known for commanding a spotlight and has previously faced a 15-year prison sentence and beat the case admitted he was a “little nervous” ahead of the trial's commencement.
Yet this morning, his publicist, Holly Baird, described Combs as “upbeat” and “ready to have his side told in court.” Combs' mother, Janice, and children Christian, Justin, Quincy, D'Lila, Jessie, and Chance appeared in court to support the mogul.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson began opening statements by conceding the jury members might be familiar with Combs by multiple names, his multi-million-dollar businesses and his “larger-than-life” persona, but she said, “there is another side to him”: a dangerous and violent figure, whose “inner circle” of bodyguards, personal assistants and a chief of staff worked tirelessly to deliver on his every whim and to safeguard his reputation. At the heart of his alleged “criminal enterprise” was Combs' insatiable sexual appetite where he required two girlfriends, Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and an anonymous woman identified as “Jane,” to have sex with male escorts, in what he called “freak-offs” or “Wild King Nights.”
Popular on Rolling Stone
In the coming days, Johnson said, Ventura will testify about the “dark hotel rooms” that Combs kept her in for days at a time, where she was allegedly forced to have sex with hired male sex workers. During these days-long “freak-offs,” Ventura was allegedly kept compliant and awake through a variety of drugs, including Ecstasy. Johnson said Ventura once overdosed during a freak-off and said it felt like she was “choking” when Combs directed a sex worker to urinate in her mouth.
Jane is expected to testify that Combs physically abused her too, Johnson said. The prosecutor said jurors will hear that Combs once chased Jane around a house and lifted her off the ground in a chokehold before he kicked her to the ground.
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Johnson said the evidence will show Combs ran an enterprise with the help of co-conspirators. One employee allegedly helped Combs break into a romantic rival's residence in December 2011. Johnson said Combs' chief of staff helped him “broker a deal” with a hotel security guard in 2016 to cover up the video showing Combs beating Cassie in a Los Angeles hotel. Combs allegedly bought the surveillance video by paying a hotel security guard $100,000 stuffed in a brown paper bag, Johnson told jurors.
Meanwhile, Combs' attorney Teny Geragos argued that the case is not about sex trafficking, but about people's motivations for coming forward after all these years. She argued that Ventura and “Jane” were fully capable women who made choices because they had something to gain from being in a relationship with Combs. She told jurors that Ventura filed a civil lawsuit before reporting her alleged abuse to authorities. “Ask yourself why,” Geragos said. “The answer is money.”
Geragos admitted Combs engaged in domestic violence in both relationships, but she said it was the product of romantic quarrels linked to jealousy. She claimed the hotel beating caught on tape was not sparked by Ventura trying to escape alleged sex trafficking, but by something found on a cellphone that led to a dispute over alleged infidelity. When combined with drug use, the fight led to regrettable actions — but in no way did it constitute sex trafficking, she told jurors.
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The defense lawyer said Jane was older than Cassie and had a child from a previous relationship. She described Jane as a fully consenting adult who was a willing participant in threesomes and remained in the admittedly “dysfunctional” relationship by choice.
Earlier Monday morning, the line outside the Manhattan federal courthouse stretched down the block, as members of the press, enthusiastic supporters, curious spectators, podcasters, and content creators — including Myron Gaines from Fresh and Fit and Jaguar Wright — waited upward of 12 hours in hopes of securing a seat in the courtroom and catching a glimpse of the embattled Bad Boy Entertainment founder. Music producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, who sued Combs in February 2024 for sexual assault and lack of payment, and his attorney Tyrone Blackburn turned up to court, though declined to give statements.
Dressed in a grey sweater, collared shirt, and grey dress slacks, a smiling Combs waved to his children greeted his attorneys before taking his seat. He held a Bible in his hands, reading passages before opening arguments began later in the morning. Southern District of New York prosecutors and Combs' defense team trimmed down the remaining 43 jurors into a final group of eight men and four women, with six alternates. The panel includes a massage therapist, an investment analyst, a deli clerk, and a nursing home.
The government has claimed Combs — who founded Bad Boy Records, which produced legendary rapper the Notorious B.I.G. and whose tremendous influence brought hip-hop and rap to the mainstream — used his billion-dollar empire as a criminal enterprise, fueled by the mogul's sexual desires. In the background of his business dealings, Combs is accused of sex trafficking two women between 2009 and 2024.
He allegedly instructed a team of staffers — who were allegedly subjected to forced labor and physical threats themselves — to carry out acts of bribery, arson, and kidnapping. Other alleged victims were said to be coerced into sex with Combs, as well as with hired male sex workers in dayslong, drug-fueled sexual sessions Combs called “freak-offs.”
Meanwhile, Combs' all-star legal team — which includes celebrity attorneys Brian Steel and Marc Agnifilo — has insisted upon their client's innocence. They have claimed that although Combs participated in a “swinger” lifestyle and would frequently hire male escorts that did not constitute as sex trafficking.
In regard to Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, referred to as “Victim-1” in the indictment, Combs' attorney Agnifilo indicated to Judge Arun Subramanian that the defense planned to argue the pair's decade-long relationship was deeply “toxic” and there was “mutual” violence on both sides.
When quizzed on the lines of questioning the defense would take during their cross-examination of Victim-1, attorneys Agnifilo and Alexandra Shapiro said they hoped to question Combs' former girlfriend about “other instances where she has been violent.” They said the questioning was central to speak to Ventura's alleged nonpeaceful nature and her independence in effort to dismantle prosecutors' claim that Combs coerced her into certain situations.
Subramanian quickly shot down the notion. “Strong people can be coerced just like weak people,” Subramanian said.
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This week, prosecutors indicated that they planned to call two “short” witnesses to the stand, including a male escort, before a third witness would testify. Although the name of that witness has not been disclosed, all signs point to Ventura. While stressing it was necessary to keep to a strict time schedule for the trial, prosecutors said an early key witness was “time sensitive” and would need to take frequent breaks throughout their dayslong testimony. Ventura is several months along in her pregnancy for her third child, and the indictment closely mirrors the claims she made in her bombshell sex-trafficking lawsuit.
This post was updated on Monday, May 12 at 1:15 p.m. to reflect opening statements by prosecutors and Combs' lawyers.
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By
Ryan Bort
Donald Trump doesn't see why everyone is so concerned that he accepted a $400 million jet from the Qatari government — one that will serve as the new Air Force Once, and which the president will reportedly retain through his presidential library fund after he leaves office.
“So the fact that the Defense Department is getting a GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE, of a 747 aircraft to replace the 40 year old Air Force One, temporarily, in a very public and transparent transaction, so bothers the Crooked Democrats that they insist we pay, TOP DOLLAR, for the plane. Anybody can do that! The Dems are World Class Losers!!! MAGA,” the president wrote late Sunday night on Truth Social, reposting the message Monday morning on X.
Trump elaborated during a press briefing. “I think it's a great gesture from Qatar, I appreciate it very much,” he said. “I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer.”
ABC News reported on Sunday that Trump is accepting the jet, described as “a flying palace,” as part of a shockingly blatant attempt from the Qatari government to buy influence with the White House. It's the latest development in a disturbing string of nakedly corrupt maneuvers from Trump and his administration — from the president's crypto enterprise to his family's business deals in the Middle East.
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Yes, Democrats are pissed. “This isn't a good idea even if the plane was being donated to the U.S. government,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Ct.) wrote, highlighting how the plane will reportedly be donated to Trump's presidential library after he leaves office. “But Trump GETS TO KEEP THE PLANE??? It's simply a cash payment to Trump in exchange for favors. Just wildly illegal.”
“The Constitution is perfectly clear,” wrote Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) in response to the report, noting how the Constitution states that the president cannot accept a gift or emolument of “any kind whatever” from a foreign state without the approval of Congress.
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Some of Trump's closest allies aren't happy, either.
“I love President Trump. I would take a bullet for him. But, I have to call a spade a spade. We cannot accept a $400 million ‘gift' from jihadists in suits,” Laura Loomer, a far-right activist who has been advising Trump on personnel decisions, wrote on X, adding that accepting the plane would be “such a stain” on the administration and that she is “so disappointed.”
The specifics of the jet transfer are still unclear, and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News on Monday that the legal details are “still being worked out.” Attorney General Pam Bondi, who signed off on the deal, formerly worked as a lobbyist for the Qatari government.
“Any donation to this government is always done in full compliance with the law, and we commit ourselves to the utmost transparency,” Leavitt added on Fox & Friends. When asked if there was any concern that Qatar may want something in return, Leavitt said “absolutely not” and that Trump “only works with the interest of the American public in mind.”
The implication then is that a foreign government known for trying to buy influence would simply give away a palatial jet worth nearly a half a billion dollars because it was … feeling generous?'
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Trump was asked the same question about Qatar expecting something in return by reporters on Monday. He largely ignored it, touting how nice the planes in “Arab countries” are compared to the current Air Force One and noting that the United States has done a lot for Qatar, and that the plane is a “nice gesture.”
The news comes as Trump takes his first official international trip of his second term. He'll leave Monday for the Middle East, and Qatar will be one of his stops. Trump's company struck a deal last month to build a new golf resort in the desert nation.
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Joe Wright‘s buzzy eight-part drama series “Mussolini: Son of the Century” has finally found a home, as MUBI will be distributing the show on its streaming service later this year. The global distributor and production company has acquired the North American rights for the series, which premiered at the 81st Venice Film Festival; MUBI will also handle the release of the series in Latin America, Belgium, Luxembourg, Turkey, India, and New Zealand in a multi-territory deal with Fremantle.
“Mussolini: Son of the Century” was adapted from Antonio Scurati's bestselling trilogy of the same name, and charts the rise of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini as he served as Prime Minister of Italy from 1922 to 1943. Luca Marinelli portrays the infamous ruler.
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“Pride & Prejudice,” “Darkest Hour,” and “Cyrano” director Wright makes his return to TV more than 20 years after helming 2003 BBC One series “Charles II: The Power and the Passion.” Writers Stefano Bises and Davide Serino adapted “Mussolini: Son of the Century,” which is billed as a “scathing contemporary portrait of Mussolini and his political rise, from the formation of the irregular militia of the Fasces of Combat to the imposition of the most ferocious dictatorships Italy has ever known.”
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“This series was a chance to explore how charisma and chaos can coexist in a single man — and how that dangerous combination can reshape a nation,” Wright said in a press statement. “Luca Marinelli brings Mussolini's volatility and magnetism to terrifying life. It was a privilege to work with such an extraordinary team on a story that feels both historical and disturbingly timeless. MUBI is the perfect home for the series — a platform that embraces daring, intelligent storytelling and treats its audience as collaborators in the experience.”
Efe Cakarel, the founder and CEO of MUBI, added, “Fearless storytelling has always been at the heart of MUBI, and no one embodies it more vividly than Joe Wright. With ‘Mussolini: Son of the Century' he transforms history into pulse-quickening drama — elevated by Luca Marinelli's searing performance — and proves how the screen can both unsettle and enlighten. We're honored to bring this extraordinary series to audiences around the world.”
Christian Vesper, the CEO Global Drama & Film at Fremantle continued, “It was really important to us that we found the right partner to help us expand the reach of ‘Mussolini: Son of the Century' and I've no doubt that's exactly what we've got in MUBI. I can't think of a better pair of hands to nurture and celebrate this extraordinary series and help us tell this important story.”
“Mussolini: Son of the Century” is produced by Sky Studios and Lorenzo Mieli for The Apartment Pictures, a Fremantle company, in co-production with Pathé, in association with Small Forward Productions, in collaboration with Fremantle, Cinecittà S.p.A., and Sky. Fremantle handles global sales.
Additional MUBI releases include Cannes 2025 films such as Oliver Hermanus' “The History of Sound” starring Paul Mescal and Josh O'Connor, as well as fellow O'Connor feature “The Mastermind,” directed by Kelly Reichardt. In 2024, MUBI distributed the Academy Award-winning film “The Substance” and Luca Guadagnino's “Queer.”
Previous MUBI TV series range from Wiliam Kentridge's “Self Portrait as a Coffee Pot” and Lars von Trier's “The Kingdom Trilogy.” IndieWire recently announced that late icon David Lynch's beloved series “Twin Peaks” and its 2017 continuation, “Twin Peaks: The Return,” will both be streaming on MUBI starting June 13.
MUBI will release “Mussolini: Son of the Century” on its streaming service later this year. Check out the teaser below.
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Former “Dancing With the Stars” competitor and now co-host Alfonso Ribeiro gave fans a glimpse into his relationship with his wife Angela Unkrich when he honored her with a heartwarming Instagram post on Mother's Day on May 11.
The “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” actor posted a photo of himself, Unkrich, and their three kids, Alfonso Jr., Anders, and Ava, on Instagram (she is also a stepmother to his adult daughter Sienna). In the caption, he shared his thoughts on the incredible woman he is married to and how all she does leaves him amazed and grateful.
A post shared by Alfonso Ribeiro (@therealalfonsoribeiro)
Ribeiro uses his Instagram, where he has 1.3 million followers, to update fans about the latest happenings in his life. He has also used the platform to commemorate milestones like his anniversary, and most recently, to show appreciation for his wife. In the caption of his post, he wrote, “My wife @mrsangelaribeiro1 always has me in amazement. The care, the love, the attention for our family and especially our kids is always 100% and never any less.”
He also praised her for putting their family “before everything” and said she deserved all the love she got on Mother's Day. Ribeiro's post has attracted attention from fans and also his DWTS family. Witney Carson commented with a message celebrating Unkrich. “She's an amazing mom! Love you @mrsangelaribeiro1 happy Mother's Day,” she wrote.
Other reactions include, “Alfonso your wife Angela is best thing that's ever happened to you,” and “Amazing couple and amazing kids! Happy mother's day to her and to all the moms around the world!”
A post shared by Alfonso Ribeiro (@therealalfonsoribeiro)
Ribeiro and Unkrich married on October 13, 2012, at the Lakeside Golf Club in Burbank, California. When they celebrated ten years of marriage, the actor documented the milestone achievement with a sweet Instagram post. He posted a throwback photo of them on their wedding day and got emotional in his caption, dedicating the message to his “best friend.”
“You've made me the happiest man in the world,” he wrote in the caption. “We made an incredible life together.” He thanked Unkrich for their achievements and concluded that “the best is yet to come.” Ribeiro's followers praised him and Unkrich for being a “beautiful couple” and congratulated them on their wedding anniversary.
Fans of love can always look forward to Ribeiro's anniversary posts. In 2021, he posted a close-up photo of his beautiful wife from their wedding day. In the caption, he commented on how “lucky” he was to be in a relationship with her.
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When Ryan Seacrest revealed which contestants had made it into the top 5 of “American Idol” season 23 fans weren't the only ones stunned by the results. At the end of the two-hour live show on May 11, 2025, Seacrest said that with 20 million votes cast, the two contestants going home were Mattie Pruitt and Gabby Samone. When cameras panned to judges Luke Bryan, Carrie Underwood, and Lionel Richie, all three looked shell-shocked.
Although 16-year-old Pruitt was already vulnerable, saved by the judges the previous week when viewers voted her out, Samone has consistently blown the panel away with her soulful performances. After she was cut, fans immediately flooded social media, with some so upset to see Samone go that they insisted they'll stop watching the final episodes of season 23.
But Samone held her head high, posting online within 20 minutes of her elimination that after an “amazing experience” on the show, she's trusting “this is only the beginning” of her music career.
A post shared by Gabby Samone (@gabbysamonemusic)
In her post-show Instagram share, Samone wrote, “Thank you all so much for the love and support!!! I am soo grateful to have made it this far! I love you all! Please continue to support my friends On their journey! This was an amazing experience!! THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING!! #TEAMGABBY”
During her journey on “American Idol,” the Baltimore native repeatedly said how wild it was to keep advancing in the competition when she had arrived feeling unsure of herself and her gift, despite having videos of her singing go viral online. Even alum Jennifer Hudson took notice and invited Samone on her show in 2022, later encouraging her to audition for “American Idol.”
Ironically, Hudson also placed in the top 7 back in 2004, but went on to become a rare EGOT winner — earning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony since competing on “American Idol.” Many fans pointed that out to Samone after the show, including one who wrote, “You are our American Idol… Your gift is unmatched. That EGOT will be yours for sure.”
Some of Samone's fellow contestants also weighed in, including top 5 contender Slater Nalley, who wrote, “I love you more than words can describe. You are a legend, Gabby Samone. Keep crushing it and this is NOT THE END for you WHATSOEVER. Gods more than got you”
Platinum ticket winner Filo, who made it to the top 12, commented, “GABBY!!! You are so special!!! In awe of your voice, your personality, and your humanity. Just wait, God has something so special waiting around the corner for you. Love you so much❤️”
Top 14 contestant Desmond Roberts also weighed in, writing, “Love you SO much Gabby❤️ You're a phenomenal vocalist and I'm so happy to have gotten to know you on this journey💕💕💕”
Samone, like her fellow contestants, sang two songs during the live May 11 episode. First, she worked with Broadway star and composer Lin-Manuel Miranda on mastering a song he wrote, “How Far I'll Go” from the movie “Moana.” Miranda noted that it was a very difficult song to sing with tricky lyrics, but the judges loved her delivery, with Underwood telling her, “Your voice was made for songs like that.”
For the portion of the show dedicated to Mother's Day, Samone got teary-eyed talking about how her mom Charoletta raised eight kids and still had room in her heart to help anyone else who needed it. Samone performed “Home” from “The Wiz” in honor of her mom, a song that Bryan said “may be my favorite performance you've done of the year,” blown away by her confidence. Richie said, “You were singing that song like you were closing the show.” Underwood told her, “Your talent is just ridiculous and week to week, you just deliver with ease.”
It was clear the judges thought she was safe, and viewers did too — with many so shocked by her elimination that they declared a boycott after the show.
One wrote on an “American Idol” Instagram post, “Gabbys gone …so am I ….won't be watching anymore” while another declared, “Done with idol 🙄🙄🙄”
The top 5 will perform again on another two-hour live show on May 12, starting at 8 p.m. Eastern time, to determine the top 3 who will get to go visit their hometowns.
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“Vanderpump Rules” alum Ariana Madix is opening up about her love life like never before. The Bravo star has been in a relationship with Daniel Wai for two years, and she's clearing up their dating timeline and rumors about how they got together.
Madix recently appeared on the “Disrespectfully” podcast, and she couldn't stop talking about her long-distance relationship with Wai. He's a fitness trainer and bartender who lives in New York, and Madix admits that she doesn't “love the idea” of staying in a long-distance relationship long-term. It looks like she is ready to take things to the next level.
“I feel like two years is…it's getting to a point where it's like, ‘OK, now we're really going to [move in together],'” she said. “Then I'm in Fiji for two months, or I'm in New York for four or five months. It's like, well… we might as well wait to talk about that.”
A post shared by 🌙 Ariana Madix 🌙 (@arianamadix)
Madix admitted that long distance has some benefits because it forces better communication in relationships.
“You can't just hang out and watch a movie or go to a bar and make out. You have to have conversations. I think that's really helped us build our communication from the beginning. What he's terrific about is making sure that there's always a date.”
The Bravo star went on to say that she doesn't feel like people know much about Wai, especially when it comes to his work. She says he's “really smart” and earned a computer science degree from Virginia Tech. After college, he worked as a software engineer, but didn't feel fulfilled. That's when he turned to fitness, and realized that's what he wants to do with his life. Now, he's a “really successful trainer.”
“It's incredible because when we first started dating… I mean, he's still super successful, but I was not. And so now I feel we've evened out, and it's nice because he's super supportive of my endeavors. And I'm very supportive [of his],” Madix said.
“He's just really hardworking and super dedicated to whatever it is that he does: our relationship, his job, all the stuff. And when he comes in town, he fixes things in my house.”
A post shared by @disrespectfullypod
Despite claims that Madix started dating Wai 10 days after they met, the VPR alum says that's simply not true. They met at a mutual friend's wedding in Oaxaca — one that she expected to attend with her ex, Tom Sandoval. But he cheated on her with Rachel Leviss, and they called it quits. Which meant Madix had to attend her friend's wedding alone.
“[Daniel and I] met actually the night before the wedding. The night before, they had like a welcome party, and a bunch of us went out for drinks afterwards … We sat sort of catty-cornered from each other, but we were all in this big, long table chatting … [Later on] I was like, oh, he is hot,” Madix recalled.
She and Wai stayed up all night talking, and then they “just kept texting and flirting.” Later, she invited him to Coachella, and that's when things started to get serious.
“Vanderpump Rules” is now streaming on Peacock.
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The temporary venue will only be open for a few months.
By
Hannah Dailey
This summer, a number of DJs will be taking the phrase “raise the roof” literally. As announced Monday (May 12), Tao Group Hospitality is partnering with the Edge at Hudson Yards — aka the highest outdoor sky deck in the Western Hemisphere — to install a pop-up nightclub 1,100 feet in the air, setting up shop in Manhattan for a limited time only.
Opening May 31, the Marquee Skydeck will feature a lineup of events taking place Friday and Saturday nights through September, corresponding with the closure of the original Marquee New York for renovations this summer. Namely, attendees can expect a number of high-energy sets from various DJs — who hopefully aren't afraid of heights — throughout the temporary venue's run, starting with a sneak peek performance by Carlita on May 16.
The kickoff show on May 31 will be headlined by Maceo Plex.
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“With Marquee Skydeck, we're merging nightlife and spectacle,” says Tao Group Co-CEO Noah Tepperberg in a statement. “There's nowhere else in the world where you can party at this altitude, with this view, and with the Marquee energy our guests love.”
More details on programming will be announced soon. Ticket information for the pop-up is available on Marquee's website.
Opening its doors in 2020, the Edge at Hudson Yards has quickly become one of NYC's most thrilling attractions. The angular terrace is surrounded by clear panoramic glass, giving visitors the feeling of floating freely in the sky while looking out across city's buildings and streets.
The exact height of the deck is 1,131 feet, branching out 65 feet from the 100th floor of Hudson Yards.
“As one of the most recognizable features of the New York City skyline, Edge is proud to partner with Tao Group to bring an entirely new after-hours experience to the city that never sleeps,” adds Andrew Lustgarten, executive chairman at Hudson Yards Experience. “Marquee Skydeck at Edge is for the most discerning New Yorkers—you haven't seen it all until you've seen how Edge does nightlife.”
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Auteur Francis Ford Coppola has landed his second making-of documentary and, despite its pun-ny title, “Megadoc” is billed as a serious look into the controversial and convoluted production of Coppola's recent feature “Megalopolis.”
The $120 million self-funded (and Coppola-described Roman epic) premiered at Cannes 2024. The long-gestating film went on to “win” two Razzie awards, inspire a slew of GIFs with Adam Driver demanding to “go back to the club,” launch a questionable ad campaign that was rumored to be created by artificial intelligence, and arguably help usher in the era of Jon Voight being a Trump-appointed ambassador to Hollywood.
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Nathalie Emmanuel, Giancarlo Esposito, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Laurence Fishburne, Chloe Fineman, Kathryn Hunter, Dustin Hoffman, D.B. Sweeney, Jason Schwartzman, Baily Ives, Grace Vanderwaal, and James Remar also star.
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While there were claims of inappropriate behavior on set by Coppola (who has refuted all of the allegations) and a loose style of filming, with Plaza comparing it to being part of a theater troupe, it's clear that “Megalopolis” might have had some shades of Eleanor Coppola's seminal “Hearts of Darkness” to it. Thankfully, “Leaving Las Vegas” director Mike Figgis was there to capture the making-of process on film, turning it into “Megadoc,” which may sound like a “Sharknado” crocodile spinoff but is, in fact, a Coppola-sanctioned feature. Coppola is keeping the distribution of the film all in the family, as his nephew Robert Schwartzman's company Utopia has acquired the North American rights for the film.
Utopia also helped release “Megalopolis” in the U.S. with Coppola's American Zoetrope and Lionsgate; “Megadoc” will be in theaters this fall. Variety first announced the acquisition, with a source claiming that “Megadoc” will not “put a glossy shine on ‘Megalopolis' and Coppola, [and will] dig into the good/bad of it all as well.”
“Eleanor Coppola's iconic feature documentary, ‘Hearts of Darkness,' gave audiences an incredible look and access to the making of ‘Apocalypse Now'; a film that, in time, became highly regarded as one of the finest cinematic experiences of the era and beyond,” Schwartzman said in an official statement. “Mike Figgis' ‘Megadoc' will be that to ‘Megalopolis,' opening up to audiences a behind-the-scenes journey spanning 40 years, where we will watch one of the greatest filmmakers at work.”
According to Coppola, “Megadoc” will showcase the many versions of the truth about what it really was like to film “Megalopolis” in Georgia. “The great filmmaker Mike Figgis shot the making of ‘Megalopolis' as he saw it,” Coppola said. “Interestingly, there are many interpretations of what really happened and it's all in the documentary although the documentary doesn't always say which is what. It is for the viewer to behold and interpret.”
“Megadoc” is produced by Tara Li-An and James Mockoski. The documentary first started after Coppola invited Figgis to the “Megalopolis” set prior to the first day of principal photography. Figgis went on to have unrestricted access to the production; the feature is described as having a “unique look into the creative process of one of the most revered directors of all time, and behind the curtain of the most ambitious film of his career,” with Coppola “granting [Figgis] permission to document whatever he wished.”
Figgis said in a press statement, “Francis gave me access to everything, including the amazing archive material he's accumulated of the many readings of the script as it went from one version to another. I was more or less free to go where I wanted. The cast were open about the working situation and how they were dealing with the idiosyncrasies of Francis and his very individual working methods. What a privilege to be a witness to such a moment in film history.”
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Five random people agreed to 90 days of complete isolation for a 20 percent chance of winning $25,000.
By
Tony Maglio
Standup comics organize a set like this: their strongest joke is the closer, the second-strongest is the opener, the third-strongest is the penultimate joke, the fourth-strongest is the second overall joke, and so on. In my standup days, an early closer was a joke about a family winning like $1,200 on Family Feud, and then having to split it five ways. The punchline: “Why didn't you just go to work that day?”
Though he does not do standup, Greg Gutfeld fancies himself a comic (and he's certainly a more-successful one than I ever was). He's got a hit late-night-adjacent Fox News talk show — Gutfeld! is technically in primetime now — and a new game show on sister streaming service Fox Nation. The gimmick of the game show is interesting, though the prize money is a joke. Like my old closer advises, the contestants just should have just kept their day jobs.
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Greg Gutfeld's What Did I Miss? placed five people “in complete isolation in upstate New York, with no contact to the outside world — no phones, internet, television or social media,” per the logline. One of the five dropped out early. A scant 90 days (January 20 through April 13 of this year) later, the four remaining contestants are transported to Gutfeld's Fox News studio to play an elongated game of True or False about the events of Donald Trump's first three months back in the White House. It's actually a funny and surprisingly self-aware premise considering Trump's volatility and the conservative audience Fox News and Nation serve. The actual show itself isn't especially watchable — but consider the budget.
The premise and payoff of What Did I Miss? goes like this: five contestants, 90 days, no contact, one winner, $25,000. We did not leave any zeroes off.
Upon apparently first learning of the prize money during a visit midway through the contestants' isolation period, Gutfeld exclaims, “This is the cheapest game show in modern history! These people are in a house for 90 fucking days for 25 grand — they could have made that on OnlyFans!”
In the 1970s, which is not considered modern history, the grand prize on CBS' primetime Pyramid game show was up to $25,000. In the ‘80s, the daytime version matched it and the syndicated nighttime show jumped to $50,000 and then again to $100,000.
The Fox broadcast network, part of the same company as Fox News and Fox Nation, currently airs game shows with cash prizes like $250,000 (The Floor) and $1 million (Beat Shazam).
“The contestants were compensated daily for their time,” a spokesperson for Fox News Media told The Hollywood Reporter for this story.
Visiting the contestants' holding cell farmhouse, Gutfeld heads to the off-limits (for the cast) control room to try to scrounge up a bit more scratch. He's only semi-successful: Lauren Peterson, the president of Fox Nation, ups the prize money to $30,000.
“I tried,” Gutfeld says. ”I got them an extra 5k — it'll pay for the Uber back home.”
To be fair, as every cable news channel except maybe Fox News will tell you, we're likely headed for a recession.
Back in the studio following the full 90-day isolation period, Gutfeld shared “some pretty good news” with the contestants.
“You probably know that I'm a pretty big deal around here, and sometimes I do keep my word,” the host says. “Not only did we get your prize raised from an insulting 25 grand to 30 grand, but I managed to go further. After more than one strongly-worded email…and two or three yelled phone calls, I got you a total prize fund tonight of $50,000.”
The reaction from the contestant podiums was a collective, “well, that's something,” basically.
Gutfeld then quips that it's “pennies” to someone like him, after which one contestant suggests he “add another zero.” Pass. Gutfeld makes millions of dollars a year as one of Fox News Media's biggest stars.
Unfortunately, the very contestant who suggested pushing the prize to $500,000 was eliminated first. You do not bite the hand that feeds you (ramen noodles). But the “higher-ups” at Fox added a parting gift: one final question for $1,000. So there's that.
And here's some math contextualizing the opportunity. Ninety days is a bit less than 13 weeks. Putting in 40 hours per week at the New York (state) minimum wage of $15.50 per hour (New York City is $16.50/hour), any full-time worker walks away from the same three-month period with $8,000 — and that's not even considering the other 128 hours each week that nine-to-fivers do not monetize but the isolationists must live out in, well, isolation. It may very well have been worth it to the contestant who eventually wins the (eventual) $50,000 prize, but probably not the other folks — especially the ones with kids. And several of them have kids.
“I feel terrible. I feel like I just spent 90 days of my life for no reason at all,” the first departing contestant says in an exit interview at the end of the first episode. “For a thousand dollars, which for in New York you could get a slice of pizza and maybe a Diet Coke.”
We told you the show was self-aware.
“Greg Gutfeld's What Did I Miss?” premiered on Fox Nation today, May 12. Episodes two and three will premiere May 13 and May 14, respectively.
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By
Jon Blistein
Robert Fripp recently underwent two surgeries after suffering a heart attack he didn't even know he'd had.
The King Crimson guitarist shared the story in a new video posted over the weekend alongside wife/collaborator, Toyah Wilcox. “He had a heart attack two weeks ago,” Wilcox said in the clip. “And you were in the right place, in the right time, and I am so grateful, because you've been through a lot.”
Fripp then explained the surreal sequence of events. Last month, the musician said he'd been dealing with what he thought was acid reflux in the weeks leading up to a trip to Italy for a show. Having endured something similar a few years prior, Fripp didn't think much of it. But the day he flew to Italy, he said, he felt “more discomfort.”
While Fripp's team had already scheduled a doctor's visit, upon landing, they decided to take him to a cardiac hospital in Bergamo instead. While Fripp said he thought the doctors would prescribe him some acid reflux medication, they ultimately alerted him to some alarmingly high troponin levels in his blood, which can be a sign of a recent heart attack.
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Wilcox then said Fripp underwent “five hours of surgery, intensive care, then a second surgery.” But the musician fixated on a totally different moment.
“I was in A&E [accident and emergency], not quite knowing what was going on, other than I knew they were going to do something. And an orderly came along and shaved my balls!” Fripp said with a laugh. “The dear man, I really didn't wish his job on him at that point. Now this is the thing, you're concerned with my heart? Fine. What are you doing shaving my balls!”
(Wilcox then sagely explained it was likely to rid his body of anything that could possibly harbor germs before undergoing heart surgery.)
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Fripp has since been able to return home to the U.K., and while he's currently on a few medications, he's on pace to recover well over the next couple months. Fripp ended the video by encouraging people who think they have heart burn or acid reflux to “really look into it,” because “it might be something more.”
The musician also didn't seem to be letting the emergency surgeries get in the way of his music. Fripp noted that after being released from the hospital in Italy, he still managed to play his scheduled gig. “You went to work,” Wilcox quipped, to which Fripp replied, “No, dear, I went to play with my friends. And the performance in the church at in Castione della Presolana, it was stunning on the Saturday night. The audience were prepped with orchestral maneuvers, and it really was a magical event for me.”
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By Lynette Rice
Senior TV Writer
Rescue HI-Surf may have developed a loyal following but it didn't warrant enough of an audience to help it earn a second season.
When talking up its new lineup Sunday during a press conference, Fox Entertainment President Michael Thorn said Fox “went all in on two shows last season, HI-Surf and Doc” but the latter show from John Wells “just didn't catch on like we had hoped.” The series that follows the personal and professional lives of the heavy-water lifeguards who patrol and protect the North Shore of O'ahu averaged 2.98M this season.
“We love our partnership with John Wells and Warner Brothers and hope to do more with John and are doing more with Warner Brothers, but it just didn't resonate with our audience the way we needed to be able to return it,” he continued.
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While the drama fit in Fox's $3M-$4M-an-episode model, Rescue HI-Surf was at the high end of the range and among the network's more expensive drama series because it films in Hawaii. But CEO Rob Wade told reporters that the cost isn't what prompted the network to cancel the show.
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“It certainly wasn't the locale or the budget. It just didn't quite grab the audience,” he said.
There are no plans for the show to be shopped by WBTV.
Fortunately for fans, Rescue HI-Surf did not end its first season on a cliffhanger. The finale saw Will (Adam Demos) heading back to Australia, though he did tell Em (Arielle Kebbel) he would be back.
In addition to Demos and Kebbel, the series starred Robbie Magasiva, Kekoa Kekumano, Alex Aiono and Zoe Cipres.
Kester created the series and served as executive producer and showrunner. Wells, who directed the first two episodes, executive produced through John Wells Productions along with JWP's Erin Jontow. Daniele Nathanson also served as an executive producer.
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Cold brew from a Red Hot Chili Pepper.
By
Dave Brooks
Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis is launching his own coffee brand, and he's turning to Live Nation for help getting it in front of coffee drinkers.
Today, Kiedis and longtime friend Shane Powers are debuting their coffee in a can consumer brand JOLENE along with a marketing campaign, which a press release says is “built to move with the rhythm of live entertainment and meet the ambition of those living life to the fullest.”
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Kiedis and Powers have partnered with Live Nation as both an investor and distribution partner for JOLENE. The global concert promoter will carry the coffee brand at its festivals and 40 amphitheaters owned or operated by Live Nation, including the Gorge Amphitheater in Washington, Northwell at Jones Beach Theater in New York and Allianz Amphitheater at Riverfront in Richmond, Virginia.
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Live Nation is an equity investor in JOLENE as is consumer spirits company Global Brand Equities and h.wood Group founder John Terzian. The agreement is similar to one Live Nation struck with water company Liquid Death in 2021 and its celebrity ownership group that included Wiz Khalifa, Machine Gun Kelly, Steve Aoki and Tony Hawk. That agreement had Live Nation selling Liquid Death at its 120 owned-and-operated venues as part of a larger sustainability effort to phase out the sale of single-use plastics at all owned and operated venues and events.
JOLENE comes in two flavors: Black (cold brew) and White (oat milk latte) and will be used to make four signature cocktails at Live Nation-owned venues. According to a press release, JOLENE is sourced through an all-female co-op in Peru, “ensuring high-quality beans while directly supporting the women growers and their communities,” the release reads. The product is also available for purchase online at retailers in Los Angeles and New York.
The origin of the coffee goes back several years, according to Kiedis. “Shane shouted at me down the sidewalk ‘Let's do something!' I shouted back ‘how 'bout coffee'? He said ‘done.' And so began the adventure of putting a high-quality spin on a can of coffee.”
The name JOLENE is a spin on the phrase “cup of Joe” and the common descriptor “skinny latte” or “lean latte” referring to a latte without whole milk, as well as a reference to the hit country music song “Jolene” by Dolly Parton.
Russell Wallach, Live Nation's global president of Media & Sponsorship added “Fans want options that fit the pace and energy of live music,” noting, “Cold brew has come up again and again, and JOLENE delivers — it's high quality, easy to enjoy, and adds something new to the fan experience. It's one more way we're evolving to meet what fans are asking for.”
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As Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers ponder how best to cut Medicaid in order to pay for new tax boons for the rich, doctors, hospital executives, and advocates are warning that changes to the nation's health insurance program for the poor could harm patients, quickly cause rural hospitals to close, and force essential programs to shut down.
For months now, the Trump administration has been exploring ways to pay off the massive $4.5 trillion loss of tax revenue it would incur by making Trump's 2017 tax cuts permanent. So far, House Republicans‘ initial reconciliation bill has demanded $1.7 trillion in spending cuts across a slew of committees and government sectors. The biggest concern for health care professionals is the $880 billion the House Energy and Commerce Committee has been instructed to slash from its budget. While Trump has repeatedly pledged not to cut Medicaid, there is virtually no way for Republican lawmakers to achieve their target without massive cuts to the program tens of millions of Americans rely on for health care.
Conservatives appear ready to eliminate a key funding mechanism, called provider taxes, that have allowed states to provide supplemental payments to hospitals, doctors, and other providers in order to make up for lower reimbursements from Medicaid. According to an April report from The Wall Street Journal, delays in the processing of such payments by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have already forced hospitals in several states to lay off staff and pause payments to suppliers as the agency slow-walks supplemental funding approvals.
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Republicans are also reportedly pushing to impose work requirements on most able-bodied Medicaid beneficiaries without dependents — demanding they work, volunteer, or go to school for 80 hours a month — while checking recipients' income more frequently. The changes will add more bureaucratic bloat to a program riddled with it, and could lead to coverage losses.
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Democrats are warning that Republicans' proposed health care cuts will cause millions to lose their insurance coverage. New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) said Sunday that if Trump and Republican lawmakers cut Medicaid, “People will die. Children will die.” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) told Rolling Stone that Republicans are trying “to gut what is left of the health care and social safety net in the United States,” in order to fund tax cuts for their donors.
The health care industry is sounding the alarm about proposed Medicaid cuts, too.
In an April letter to Republican and Democratic congressional leadership, the American Hospital Association — a health care lobby representing over 5,000 hospital networks and two million health care workers — urged Congress to “refrain from considering disruptive policy changes to Medicaid and other health care coverage that could impact access to health care for tens of millions of Americans.”
The AHA pointed to not just the sum total of proposed cuts, but specific policy changes Republicans are floating that could result in hospitals getting less money, fewer Americans qualifying for benefits, and some patients covering more of their health care costs.
The association warned about “harmful reductions to federal Medicaid spending” under consideration in Congress. “These include changing the underlying finance structure to a per capita cap, reducing the federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP) for certain states, and placing new limits on provider taxes. Any of these changes would negatively impact state financing for their Medicaid programs, which in turn would harm hospitals and Medicaid beneficiaries,” the AHA wrote. “Should states see reductions in federal support for their Medicaid programs, it could force them to further reduce provider payments to account for these losses.”
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The AHA further warned of policies “that could result in the displacement of Medicaid coverage for millions of beneficiaries and could lead to additional uncompensated care for our facilities.” Proposals under consideration reportedly include making some Medicaid beneficiaries pay higher premiums or co-pays for medical visits. Republicans appear to have coalesced behind the idea of imposing work requirements for able-bodied adults under 65 years of age who do not have dependents.
During the AHA's annual meeting in Washington, D.C., last week, “uncertainty” was the word of the moment.
Amid the ever-shifting sands of the Trump administration — where policy is shaped less by legislation than by executive orders, televised declarations, and impulsive Truth Social posts — hospital executives, doctors, and industry lobbyists have struggled to get a handle on what the administration has planned for health care. One thing is abundantly clear: What seems to be on the table is bad for the nation's poor — and for its businesses.
“Hospitals go out of business when Medicare and Medicaid are cut. Period,” one attendee tells Rolling Stone.
Troy Clark, president and CEO of the New Mexico Hospital Association, is worried about what cuts to Medicaid and Medicare could mean for rural hospitals in his state, which are often the only connection entire communities have to the nation's health care system. Cuts to funding and limitations on access to Medicaid would ripple throughout the entire state, where over 40 percent of the population is enrolled in the program.
“I have probably between six and eight hospitals in New Mexico that if the supplemental payments are cut, they will probably close in the next 12 to 18 months,” Clark tells Rolling Stone. “They're rural, they're small, and they have a high percentage [of Medicaid patients]. I have several counties that are 80-percent-plus Medicaid, and so that means [the hospital is] probably 95-percent Medicaid plus Medicare. They're not vibrant economic communities that have employers, so they rely on this, and if they go back to where they were before the supplemental payments, they'll have to close their doors. They can't stay open.”
“Words matter when it comes to politicians, and they will say things [in a] very couched [way]. So, ‘We're not going to touch the Medicaid program.' Well, does that mean to beneficiaries, or does that mean to the reimbursement to hospitals and doctors?” Clark adds of the messaging coming from Republicans.
Dr. Michael Brown, the chief medical officer and a pulmonary specialist at Colquitt Regional Medical Center in Georgia, says that hospitals like his would be severely impacted by the proposed cuts.
“We would all agree that there are big problems in health care that need addressing,” he says. “But you can't just cut the funding that these hospitals are dependent upon.”
“You have to be careful what you're going to compromise,” Brown adds. “And loss of health care, particularly in rural societies that really depend on it — both for health care and for jobs — without those entities, without having solvent hospitals in rural communities, those communities are in peril.”
Jessica Rivenbank, vice president of medical education at Colquitt Regional Medical Center, says the proposed cuts would also place critical programs, like those supporting obstetric and psychiatric programs at hospitals like theirs, at risk.
Republicans have framed Medicaid work requirements as one way to slash costs without harming beneficiaries who need it.
“You don't want able-bodied workers on a program that is intended, for example, for single mothers with two small children who [are] just trying to make it,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said earlier this year. “That is what Medicaid is for. Not for 29-year-old males sitting on their couches playing video games.”
Data indicates most Medicaid enrollees already do, in fact, work. Imposing work requirements would add extra layers of bureaucracy to a program that already sees many eligible beneficiaries lose their benefits for administrative reasons.
Medicaid is aggressively means-tested; Americans are ineligible for the program if they earn near enough money to get by on their own. States are required to check beneficiaries' income annually to make sure they are still poor, and these checks frequently lead to eligible beneficiaries having their coverage terminated because they missed a phone call or failed to respond to a piece of mail.
Given Medicaid's strict income limits, imposing work requirements would likely force people to toil in low-wage jobs, or apparently volunteer, if they want to maintain their health coverage — and it would certainly lead to more beneficiaries losing their coverage for bureaucratic reasons.
When Arkansas attempted to impose similar work requirements during Trump's first term, it “substantially exacerbated administrative hurdles to maintaining coverage,” according to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Conducting more frequent checks on beneficiaries' income — another idea that Republicans have rallied behind — proved to be a disaster when Georgia tried it, according to reporting by ProPublica.
Lost in the conversation about forcing supposedly able-bodied Medicaid recipients to work is the fact that many beneficiaries cannot work, but haven't been approved for disability, which is an arduous process.
American Hospital Association attendees who spoke to Rolling Stone said they felt that the administration's focus on the imagined 29-year-old couch potato as the emblem of fraud, waste, and abuse in the medical system was misguided, and that work requirements would do little more than unnecessarily exclude people from the system.
“A lot of the patients who are on Medicaid can't work,” says Brown, the Colquitt Regional Medical Center chief medical officer. “A lot of the people who are in a borderline poverty scenario, or are impoverished, or have health care conditions that do keep them from being able to work, many of them are dependent upon Medicaid.”
Former Trump White House adviser and Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway spoke to the AHA last week and applauded Speaker Johnson's approach toward Medicaid and work requirements.
Conway said onstage that Medicaid should be reserved for people like a “single mom of two, who's doing everything she can to keep it together and keep those kids nourished, healthy, safe.” She explained, “I was raised by that kind of mom.”
The program shouldn't be for “the 29-year-old on the sofa” who is able-bodied and refuses to find a job, she added.
Based on Medicaid's income limits, an adult living in California without dependents cannot earn more than $21,597 — which is less than Conway's reported fee for speaking at events like the AHA conference. (Conway has spoken at several recent lobbying group events.)
Clark, who leads the New Mexico Hospital Association, sees the talk about 29-year-old sofa surfers on Medicaid as a distraction.
“Get rid of the 29-year-old sitting on mom and dad's couch who has no interest in paying his own way. Get rid of the person who no longer is eligible and is still drawing on the system,” he says. Does fraud exist in the system? “Clearly it does,” Clark concedes, but it's realistically “a very small fraction that might cost us a lot more to go find” than what these cuts would truly eliminate.
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What is of bigger concern to people like Clark is the reality that a mass cut to Medicaid's already rickety funding system — flawed as it may be — could lead to catastrophic outcomes for patients throughout the country.
If legislators want to cut Medicaid supplemental funding, and then “stand there and present it as if we've done great eliminating waste. It's like, no, you haven't,” Clark said. “You have eliminated the ability for access to care. Without the add-ons, doctors aren't going to supply the services, and hospitals can't afford to. They won't be able to stay open.”
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Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2025 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.
By
Larisha Paul
Morgan Wallen‘s abrupt exit from the Saturday Night Live stage during cast goodbyes made for good content. “Weekend Update” hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che slipped jokes about it into the next episode. Cast favorite Kenan Thompson also responded. Now, more than a month later, Wallen is offering an explanation.
Wallen appeared on the podcast Sundae Conversations with host Caleb Pressley, who asked him, “Seriously, SNL, did they make you mad?” The singer's response was brief. “No, no, I was just ready to go home,” he said. “I been there all week.”
The conversation moved on just as quickly as Wallen walked off the stage. There wasn't much context provided to the Instagram Story post he shared following his departure, which featured a picture of a private plane with the caption, “Get me to God's country.” Wallen started selling merchandise using the phrase within 48 hours of the post.
“It just felt so abrupt. And it was already such a small grouping on the stage anyway. So it was just like, oh wow, that was pretty visible,” Thompson said in an interview that same week. “The ‘God's country' of it all is strange because it's like, what are you trying to say? You trying to say that we are not in God's country? … That's not necessarily my favorite. But whatever.”
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Appearing on Saturday Night Live is a week-long commitment that typically includes sit-downs with writers, other cast members, and general rehearsals. Wallen had a lighter lift, given that he only performed, while Mikey Madison completed all of the preparation required of a host. The singer was reportedly asked to be in a sketch with Madison, Bowen Yang, Chloe Fineman, Ego Nwodim, and Sarah Sherman, but declined. He was replaced by Joe Jonas.
Wallen appeared on SNL once before, though that was marred with controversy, too. He was originally scheduled to make his debut on an October 2020 episode, but his offer to perform was rescinded after videos surfaced of the singer partying with clear violations to the show's Covid-19 protocols. Wallen eventually joined an episode that December, performing two songs and appearing in a sketch that poked fun at the cancelled performance.
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By Zac Ntim
International Reporter
EXCLUSIVE: Kaleidoscope Film Distribution (KFD) has acquired world sales rights on the post-apocalyptic werewolf horror Dead Howling.
Production will begin in Australia this July with Ryan Kwanten (True Blood, Dead Silence), Temuera Morrison (The Mandalorian, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom), and Tom Burlinson (The Man From Snowy River, Flesh+Blood) attached to star.
Kaleidoscope Film Distribution (KFD) will handle world sales on the title and present the film at this week's Cannes Market.
Directed and co-produced by John Soto, the film will also be produced by Tom Reeve. The film follows the story of Carter, a lone werewolf fighting for survival in a world overrun by zombies. Taking vengeance for his murdered family, he spends his days hunting down the living dead for sport, until he finds new purpose after saving the lives of two humans seeking a rumoured sanctuary for survivors. However, despite Carter now joining them on their journey as a powerful ally, the group faces new and unimaginable danger when they discover that their undead enemy is beginning to evolve.
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Speaking on the acquisition, Kaleidoscope CEO, Spencer Pollard, said: “We are very excited to be working with the team on Dead Howling. It promises to be a fun-filled, edge-of-your-seat thrill ride that audiences globally will really enjoy.”
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Chris and Paul Weitz have adapted the first of Martha Wells' 'Murderbot Diaries' books as a 10-episode comedy.
By
Daniel Fienberg
Chief Television Critic
Although it's a science-fiction series with evil corporate villains, murderous robots and hungry alien creatures, Martha Wells' The Murderbot Diaries represents a tricky piece of adaptation.
The genre trappings are all there for a blockbuster, but the brand, which includes novels, novellas and short stories, is thin on plot, light on description and only a few of its supporting characters are memorable.
Murderbot
The Bottom Line
The tone is never quite right, but Skarsgard is.
Airdate: Friday, May 16 (Apple TV+)Cast: Alexander Skarsgard, David Dastmalchian, Noma Dumezweni, Sabrina Wu, Tattiawna Jones, Akshay Khanna, Tamara PodemskiCreators: Paul and Chris Weitz, from the books by Martha Wells
What it has going for it is an utterly singular, wholly relatable central voice — that of the title character, a cyborg Security Unit assigned to protect research missions, but much more interested in streaming “premium quality entertainment.” For various reasons, this SecUnit has taken the self-applied name of “Murderbot,” reflective of their life's sole stated purpose, an activity they were made for but do not feel especially invested in.
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Murderbot is weary, disaffected and generally hates people, though that's changing. And Murderbot isn't good with change. They struggle with eye contact, can't read social cues, have no demonstrable gender and their memories and personality traits are subject to occasional rebooting or modification.
The Murderbot Diaries as a series is, then, anchored not by Wells' storytelling, but by her creation of a vibe built around a main character who is, themself, an open text. Fans have interpreted Murderbot as asexual, gender-fluid and on the autism spectrum.
Adaptation is always a form of locking down a text, of making the choices that define what was previously left up to the discretion of the reader. It's a process that's expansive and restrictive at once.
Alexander Skarsgard is not the Murderbot I imagined when I read the books. I'm sure I won't be the only reader who thinks he doesn't look or sound like what was in my head. But after 10 episodes of the new Apple TV+ series, Skarsgard's interpretation of the character became one I appreciated tremendously.
Creators Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz's grasp on the property's tone and world-building is less effective for me and, unlike with Skarsgard's performance, I never came around to fully embracing its validity.
Still, I like Skarsgard more than I dislike the bland overall approach, and there's a lot to be said for a show that just charges forward with most of its episodes coming in at under 25 minutes apiece.
The first season is based on the first Murderbot novella, All Systems Red.
The PreservationAux survey team, a group of hippies in a corner of the galaxy ruled by corporate interests, arrives on an alien planet for… research-based reasons (lots of the plot is really, really, really fuzzy). In order to get insurance for their mission, PreservationAux has been forced to bring along a security unit, but to save money, they've accepted a slightly outdated, refurbished model.
Skarsgard's Murderbot has recently discovered the ability to disable its “governor module,” the device that forces SecUnits to follow orders, prevents them from harming their human overlords and requires that they focus their energies on the mission at hand rather than downloading thousands of hours of streaming television instead. So Murderbot, generally confused by human behavior, is much more invested in 2,797 episodes of a serial called The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon — a show featuring Clark Gregg, John Cho, DeWanda Wise and Jack McBrayer in brief snippets — than his clients, though he still reluctantly saves them from carnivorous centipede creatures and whatnot.
However dyspeptic Murderbot may be, they do their job, which quickly earns unexpected warmth from the PreservationAux team, which is led by Noma Dumezweni's Mensah and includes married couple Pin-Lee (Sabrina Wu) and Arada (Tattiawna Jones); scientists Ratthi (Akshay Khanna) and Bharadwaj (Tamara Podemski); and Gurathin (David Dastmalchian), an augmented human who instantly distrusts Murderbot.
It soon becomes clear that everything on this alien planet is not as it seems and that there's some sort of potentially dangerous conspiracy afoot, which forces Murderbot to set aside their digital streaming queue and become a hero.
The Murderbot Diaries is a comedy on the page, but it's a strange comedy. The story is a dull, genre-standard drama that gets passed through the withering gaze of an entity with no sense of humor, who is therefore hilarious. The humor is in the lack of effort to be humorous, as cleverly devised by Wells.
The writing for the TV show— the Brothers Weitz collaborated on all 10 episodes — has a solid sense of Wells' voice. The direction — Paul Weitz helmed the first two episodes and several additional, but not the whole thing — is less sure.
The books are comedies that don't try to be comedies. The TV series is just an overt comedy and it's trying very hard. Murderbot's voice is intended to generate laughs, but much of the rest of the series, generally overlit and visually flat (albeit with decent special effects), wants to be funny as well. Unfortunately, almost nothing else is. There's an added subplot involving a throuple with Arada, Pin-Lee and Ratthi that's excruciating. All of the footage from The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon makes the show-within-a-show look silly, which the series confuses with humorousness. Anna Konkle makes a multi-episode appearance as a mysterious woman with a funny name and ample punchlines that mostly fall flat, despite Konkle's game efforts.
Skarsgard isn't hugely logical casting on a textual level. Making Murderbot, who mostly would prefer to wear a mask, an undeniable hunk raises questions. Giving a killer robot killer cheekbones and killer abs, but repeatedly showing us his Ken doll-style absence of genitals, becomes a peculiar piece of world-building that even supplemental dialogue can't fix.
But with Skarsgard and our awareness of his career choices it almost makes sense. He comes from a family of siblings blessed and cursed to have the appearance of male models with the souls of a bunch of weirdos. Bill Skarsgard (It) gravitates toward roles in which makeup or prosthetics cover his face entirely. Gustaf Skarsgard (Vikings) is drawn to wild-eyed eccentrics so thoroughly that when he pops up on-screen I say, “It's Floki!” even when he's playing a normie.
Alexander Skarsgard's tendency is toward characters who maintain the unavoidable aspect of beauty, but are uncomfortable looking like Alexander Skarsgard, or work to hide their beauty under buckets of blood or threats of abuse. In a resumé driven by performative dysmorphia, Murderbot fits. Though the elements of the character that point toward autism or asexuality remain, Skarsgard foregrounds something more child-like — an innocent who is unencumbered by a socially mandated version of morality, only to begin to recognize that on a ledger divided between “good” and “bad,” his actions might have been bad. And even then, he'd still choose screen time over doing the right thing.
He's not cruel. He's candid (at least in his own head). He isn't disgusted by sexuality, just innocent and uninterested. For an actor who has often tended toward parts that let him be feral and animalistic, the absence of those attributes becomes poignant in addition to being funny; Skarsgard's inherently sad eyes take on, perhaps for the first time, a Buster Keaton quality.
Murderbot's past, at this moment in the story, is just one data point, an awful thing he begins to realize he did without understanding how or why he did it. Few of the other characters have more than that. Dastmalchian, an actor easily capable of matching Skarsgard's sad eyes, keeps Gurathin from ever feeling like a simple adversary, underlining an insecurity or an inferiority complex born from a rare situation in which his own cybernetic augmentation is outstripped. He and Dumezweni, the show's primary source of warmth, give the best of the supporting performances, but that leaves a lot of members of the PreservationAux team who are either annoying or just underserved.
The show, though, isn't called Murderbot & Friends, and given how the next few seasons should go if Apple sticks to the books, the most important thing in the first season is developing affection for its title character and not a deep ensemble or rich sci-fi universe. In that respect, Skarsgard makes Murderbot a success, even if some readers will lament that he isn't the Murderbot they extrapolated from the page.
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On Friday, the office noted its support of licensing copyrighted material for "commercial" AI models. The next day, the head of the Copyright Office was fired by President Trump.
By
Kristin Robinson
Senior Writer
On Friday afternoon, the U.S. Copyright Office released a report examining copyrights and generative AI training, which supported the idea of licensing copyrights when they are used in commercial AI training.
On Saturday (May 10), the nation's top copyright official – Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter – was terminated by President Donald Trump. Her dismissal shortly follows the firing of the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, who appointed and supervised Perlmutter. In response, Rep. Joe Morelle (D-NY) of the House Administration Committee, which oversees the Copyright Office and the Library of Congress, said that he feels it is “no coincidence [Trump] acted less than a day after [Perlmutter] refused to rubber-stamp Elon Musk's efforts to mine troves of copyrighted works to train AI models.”
This report was largely seen as a win among copyright owners in the music industry, and it noted three key stances: the Office's support for licensing copyrighted material when a “commercial” AI model uses it for training, its dismissal of compulsory licensing as the correct framework for a future licensing model, and its rejection of “the idea of any opt-out approach.”
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The Office affirms that in “commercial” cases, licensing copyrights for training is a “practical solution” and that using copyrights without a license “[go] beyond established fair use boundaries.” It also notes that some commercial AI models “compete with [copyright owners] in existing markets.” However, if an AI model has been created for “purposes such as analysis or research – the types of uses that are critical to international competitiveness,” the Office says “the outputs are unlikely to substitute” for the works by which they were trained, and the model's training methods are more likely to be considered a form of fair use.
“In our view, American leadership in the AI space would best be furthered by supporting both of these world-class industries that contribute so much to our economic and cultural advancement. Effective licensing options can ensure that innovation continues to advance without undermining intellectual property rights,” the report reads.
The report is supportive of licensing efforts between copyright owners and AI firms, and it recognizes that most stakeholders do not hold support “for any statutory change” or “government intervention” in this area. “The Office believes…[that] would be premature at this time,” the report reads. Later, it adds “we agree with commenters that a compulsory licensing regime for AI training would have significant disadvantages. A compulsory license establishes fixed royalty rates and terms and can set practices in stone; they can become inextricably embedded in an industry and become difficult to undo. Premature adoption also risks stifling the development of flexible and creative market-based solutions. Moreover, compulsory licenses can take years to develop, often requiring painstaking negotiation of numerous operational details.”
The Office notes the perspectives of music-related organizations, like the National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA), American Association of Independent Music (A2IM), and Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which all hold a shared distaste for the idea of a future compulsory or government-controlled license for AI training. Already, the music industry deals with a compulsory license for mechanical royalties, allowing the government to control rates for one of the types of royalties earned from streaming and sales.
“Most commenters who addressed this issue opposed or raised concerns about the prospect of compulsory licensing,” the report says. “Those representing copyright owners and creators argued that the compulsory licensing of works for use in AI training would be detrimental to their ability to control uses of their works, and asserted that there is no market failure that would justify it. A2IM and RIAA described compulsory licensing as entailing ‘below-market royalty rates, additional administrative costs, and… restrictions on innovation'… and NMPA saw it as ‘an extreme remedy that deprives copyright owners of their right to contract freely in the market, and takes away their ability to choose whom they do business with, how their works are used, and how much they are paid.'”
Bearing all of this in mind, the Office leaves it up to the copyright owners and AI companies to figure out the right way to license and compensate for training data, but it does explore a few options. This includes “compensation structures based on a percentage of revenue or profits,” but if the free market fails to find the right licensing solution, the report suggested “targeted intervention such as [Extended Collective Licensing] ECL should be considered.”
ECL, which is employed in some European countries, would allow a collective management organization (CMO) to issue and administer blanket licenses for “all copyrighted works within a particular class,” much like the music industry is already accustomed to with organizations like The MLC (The Mechanical Licensing Collective) and performing rights organizations (PROs) like ASCAP and BMI. The difference between an ECL and a traditional CMO, however, is that under an ECL system, the CMO can license for those who have not affirmatively joined it yet. Though these ECL licenses are still negotiated in a “free market,” the government would “regulat[e] the overall system and excercis[e] some degree of oversight.”
While some AI firms have expressed concerns that blanket licensing by copyright holders would lead to antitrust issues, the Copyright Office sided with copyright holders on this matter too, saying “[the] courts have found that there is nothing intrinsically anticompetitive about the collective, or even blanket, licensing of copyrighted works, as long as certain safeguards are incorporated— such as ensuring that licensees can still obtain direct licenses from copyright owners as an alternative.”
This is a “pre-publication” version of a forthcoming final report, which will be published in the “near future without any substantive changes expected,” according to the Copyright Office. The Office noted that this “pre-publication” was pushed out early in an attempt to address inquiries from Congress and key stakeholders.
It marks the Office's third report about generative AI and its impact on copyrights since it launched an initiative on the matter in 2023. The first report, released July 31, 2024, focused on the topic of digital replicas. The second, from Jan. 29, 2025, addressed the copyright-ability of outputs created with generative AI.
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The singer famously skedaddled in the middle of the traditional cast hang-out/hugathon at the end of the show in March.
By
Gil Kaufman
It was the quick exit heard 'round the world. Back on March 29 when he was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live, Morgan Wallen famously beat what some saw as a hasty retreat from the stage during the traditional end-of-show credit segment where the week's guest and the cast hang out trading hugs and goodbyes.
After performing two songs on the Mikey Madison-hosted episode, Wallen briefly joined the cast on stage at the end of the episode, then abruptly walked off, sharing a photo on his Instagram Stories a short time later from his private plane with the caption, “Get me to God's country” over the image of a runway; he later capitalized on the controversy by selling “Get Me to God's Country” merch.
A week later, the show had some fun with the incident in a cold-open bit in which James Austin Johnson's Donald Trump took a shot at Wallen while discussing the president's “Liberation Day” tariffs. “I even put tariffs on an island uninhabited by humans. It's called Heard and McDonald Island,” Johnson's Trump said, holding a poster featuring a hula skirt-wearing hamburger. “I would love to visit there. Can you imagine that? Big Mac and a hula skirt. Get me to God's country, right? Remember that?”
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On Sunday (May 11), Wallen appeared on comedian Caleb Pressley's podcast and the host, in a bid to show how normal the country star is noted that Wallen still cuts his own grass and takes out his trash. “Not true,” Wallen smiled. Teasing out the joke, Pressley asked if former landscaper Wallen is good around the house fixing stuff.
“Could you fix a TV, if it was on SNL?,” Pressley asked. Wallen laughed and said, “I could change it for sure.”
“Seriously, SNL, did they make you mad?” Pressley pressed, as the camera zoomed in faux dramatically. “No, no, I was just ready to go home. I been there all week.”
While Wallen seems to have had his fill, SNL wasn't done with the jokes. During that same April 5 episode, Weekend Update's Colin Jost poked fun at the singer in a bit about the economy. “This was the worst week for the stock market since the summer of 2020. But you have to remember — back then, the president was also Trump,” Jost said. “Just in the past two days, investors have lost over $6 trillion. Money is leaving the stock market faster than Morgan Wallen at goodnights.”
Long-time cast member Kenan Thompson also had thoughts about it, saying the Wallen quickstep was unusual at best. “We're so used to everybody just turning around and high-fiving us, everybody's saying, ‘Good job, good job, good job.' So when there's a departure from that, it's like, hmm, I wonder what that's about?” Thompson said, noting that Prince had pulled a similar move during his appearance on the show years ago.
“I'm not saying Morgan Wallen is Prince, but we weren't surprised because Prince was notoriously kind of standoffish,” Thompson said. “It's just how he was. So we just thought like, ‘Okay, now he's gone back into fantasyland.”
Wallen's upcoming 37-track album, I'm the Problem, is due out on Friday (May 16).
Watch Wallen on Sundae Conversation with Caleb Pressley below.
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The "Turkish Jason Momoa," who already has a cult following in many parts of the world, is ready to conquer the rest of the planet: "My objective is to find new challenges in life."
By
Georg Szalai
Global Business Editor
“I found out today that I have British fans as well. I didn't know that yet,” Can Yaman says as he overlooks London's Leicester Square from its Odeon cinema, where he just gave potential buyers and other TV industry folks a first taste of the epic pirate adventure series Sandokan, a new adaptation of Emilio Salgari's popular late 19th century book series from Lux Vide, a Fremantle company, in collaboration with RAI Fiction.
A group of fans waiting outside the cinema is waving up to him, and Yaman waves back, to the delight of the crowd.
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The Sandokan saga will air on RAI 1 in Italy, with Fremantle International distributing the show internationally, except for Spain, where Mediterráneo Mediaset España Group is handling it. And Turkish star Yaman (Dolunay, Violet Like the Sea), who has by some been called “the Turkish Jason Momoa” and has a cult-like following in such places as Italy, Spain, Portugal, India, the Arabic world, and Latin America, is setting sail to conquer an even bigger global fan base as the legendary pirate.
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He has been enjoying his visit to the British capital. “I feel like a London guy now. Because I was born in Istanbul, I need chaos a little bit, and London is perfect,” Yaman tells THR, speaking fast and with confidence. “So, I should be popular here. I need my entourage around – I can't live alone.”
Looking out at Leicester Square, it is clear that this won't be a problem at all. In fact, the star recognizes at least one of the women in the group. “This Spanish lady follows me,” he explains. “When I go to Brazil or somewhere, she will be at the airport.”
He smiles as he expresses his gratitude and pride. “I'm proud of my fans because they're loyal. They never leave me alone anywhere I go,” Yaman shares before highlighting his focus and ambition. “But now with Sandokan, I hope that I will also reach another level of fandom and fans in other countries, maybe in the United States and in Northern countries.”
How does his family react to Yaman's ever-growing fan base? “My mom is always crying,” with pride, he says, adding with a laugh: “And my father is keeping it cool. He's like: ‘I knew it. I always knew it'.”
The original 1976 TV series, which landed in more than 85 countries, made Sandokan a household name in many parts of the globe and turned actor Kabir Bedi into a Bollywood superstar. The new version, based on an idea by Lux Vide CEO Luca Bernabei and developed for TV by Alessandro Sermoneta (Devils), Scott Rosenbaum (The Shield), and Davide Lantieri (Monterossi), with Jan Maria Michelini (Devils) and Nicola Abbatangelo (Doc) serving as directors, could well catapult Yaman to universal star status.
But Yaman also praises the creative team and his fellow cast members, who include British newcomer Alanah Bloor (Waves) as Lady Marianne, the spirited daughter of the British consul x, Ed Westwick (Gossip Girl, Children of Men) as the villainous Lord James Brooke, Alessandro Preziosi (The Doctors, Black Out), John Hannah (The Last of Us, Four Weddings and a Funeral, The Mummy), Madeleine Price, Gilberto Gliozzi (Them, I delitti del Barlume), Mark Grosy (Zero Zero Zero), and Samuele Segreto (Stranizza d'amuri, The Hour).
“Action adventure at its best, built on a fantastic pirate franchise, it's a premium series full of fun and escapism, brought to life by our spectacular ensemble cast,” promises Bernabei.
And Jens Richter, CEO, commercial and international, at Fremantle, says: “Sandokan is not just a story about pirates, or about history, or adventures in exotic lands… Sandokan is all of these and more. It's a story about love: one of the first multicultural romances of our times, and, never more so than today, a symbol of a passionate and peaceful answer to hate and division.”
A show synopsis reads: “In Borneo, a tropical paradise inhabited by the native Dayak tribes, but dominated by the ruthless law of the colonialist British, Sandokan is a pirate who lives by the day: he fights only for himself and his crew. … But his life changes when during a raid he meets Marianne, the beautiful daughter of the British consul in Labuan. It is the beginning of an impossible love affair between two similar souls: Marianne, of European and noble blood, but with the wild spirit of someone who grew up in a tropical paradise, and Sandokan, a pirate and adventurer, who unknowingly carries in him the blood of ancient warrior kings. On their trail will be the legendary pirate hunter Lord James Brooke, who will stop at nothing to capture Sandokan and win Marianne's heart.”
As the saga unfolds, Sandokan will have to evolve and become the legendary “Tiger of Malaya.”
That mirrors the path of Yaman, who is clearly ready for global superstardom and showed as much in getting ready for Sandokan over the course of several months, including the loss of more than 10 kilos, physical training, and working with an English dialect coach. “Thanks to that preparation and thanks to the harmony on set, my acting parts were not that hard, because I was ready,” he tells THR. “The most grueling parts were all physical scenes. Because when you see a two-minute scene, you know it took us maybe 10 hours to film.”
Yaman, 35, clearly believes that his life so far has prepared him for this next career step.
After choosing to learn English before high school, “my mother wanted me to learn Italian as a second foreign language, so I did Italian high school,” he explains. During his last year of high school, he traveled to the U.S. as an exchange student. “I went to Athens, Ohio and stayed with a family to do American high school.”
Once he finished high school, he went to law school and ended up working for PricewaterhouseCoopers. Did he always want to ultimately become an actor? “No, I did not want to go into acting,” he tells THR. “I always wanted to be an international maritime lawyer because I knew languages. And then I met my agent.”
The agent wanted to launch his own practice with a partner who knew men's fashion. “They were intending to create a star out of a no-name in Turkey back then,” Yaman explains. “Nobody did that back then. They were not working with established stars but exploring and creating a new style. I was one of the first guys that they met, and then they started giving me lessons and taking care of my style.”
Within months, Yaman secured an acting role in a series. And he kept going from there.
Turkey's tradition of long-running dramas and soap operas got Yaman, who sounds full of energy as is, used to putting the pedal to the metal when it comes to production work.
“In Turkey, when you start a series, it goes on forever,” he says with a smile. “We are producing a lot because there are a lot of channels and a lot of rivalry. So, Turkish series go on forever, and the actors get to train a lot by working.”
Obsessed with languages, the actor has already starred as the lead in Turkish, Italian, and English series, the latter thanks to El Turco and, now, the premium international show Sandokan.
But Yaman is not one to rest on his laurels. With production on season 1 completed, he is learning Spanish for his next step towards global domination.
“I have been taking Spanish classes for several months,” Yaman tells THR. “A teacher is coming to my house every day, and it's four hours of studying together every day. Now we are done with the grammar. I know the grammar. So, all I do is speak, read and watch Spanish movies and series. I feel I have reached a level where I can communicate in Spanish, and I know that I can act in Spanish.”
Have I mentioned that the Turkish star is driven, focused and ambitious? “My objective is to find new challenges in life,” he says. “I played the lead role in an Italian series. Then, I had the lead role in an English-language series. Now I intend to do the same in Spanish.”
That sounds like a really rare feat, someone notes. “Probably, I'm going be the first guy who will be in a lead role in four different languages – Turkish, Italian, English and Spanish,” Yaman says.
Fans of his can bet on one thing – that he will keep carving a swashbuckling path across the entertainment world. In Sandokan, he shows off his action and athletic chops, in addition striking romantic and comedic tones. That was another challenge the actor enjoyed taking on. And for those who were treated to episode 1 of Sandokan, he vows that they won't be disappointed with the seven following episodes. “It's getting even more fun, even more action-packed, even more everything,” he says.
If you are curious if he prefers any genre, he wants to be able to do it all but may gravitate to the funny side of life. “I love comedy,” he shares with THR. “In Turkey, I did rom-coms. With that background, I have a comedy inclination. And I recently did a funny commercial in Egypt.”
Where will Sandokan take him? The adventurous Yaman, showing the spirit of Sandokan, is open to wherever opportunities open up. “I will see what's going to happen and where it's going to bring me,” he shares. “Maybe it's going to bring me to the United States. Maybe it's going to bring me to London. We'll see! And in the meantime, I will do something in Spanish.”
Wherever Yaman's rising star goes from here, he wants Sandokan to entertain audiences with a popcorn series and make them feel good at a time when conflict dominates the headlines. “Generally, Sandokan has this smile on his face, giving hope to everybody,” while overcoming various challenges through heroic feats, the Turkish star says. “So, he is a very positive character.”
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The moment quickly earned the nickname "Metallica Quake" across social media.
By
Jessica Lynch
When Metallica hit the stage at Lane Stadium on May 7, it wasn't just another stadium show, it became a scientifically confirmed minor seismic event.
As the opening chords of “Enter Sandman” rang out at the show, more than 60,000 fans jumped together, creating enough force to register ground movement. The Virginia Tech Seismological Observatory, located a mile away, detected tremors during the set and later confirmed that the crowd had, quite literally, shaken the earth.
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“Metallica saved ‘Enter Sandman' for the final song of the night. It did not disappoint, shaking Lane Stadium so hard it registered on the Virginia Tech Seismological Observatory's helicorder. Nothing compares to experiencing it live, but this multi-camera video shared by the band comes pretty close,” Virginia Tech's website reported.
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While the tremors posed no danger to the public, the moment quickly earned the nickname “Metallica Quake” across social media. According to the FOX Forecast Center, the seismic activity was too minor to be rated on the Richter scale.
“The magnitude would have been less than 1.0,” said Virginia Tech Seismological Observatory research associate Martin Chapman. “Too small to be felt even a mile away.”
For locals, the track holds deeper meaning. “Enter Sandman” has soundtracked Virginia Tech Hokies football team entrances for years, blasting through the stadium speakers to fire up the crowd.
Virginia Tech Athletics shared the moment online, saying, “Thanks for jumping with us, Metallica! Come back anytime.”
The concert was part of Metallica's M72 World Tour, which supports their eleventh studio album 72 Seasons. The tour features two-night stops in each city, with no repeated songs across either set. Support acts on this leg include Pantera, Limp Bizkit, Suicidal Tendencies, and Ice Nine Kills.
72 Seasons debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 following its release in April 2023. The set debuted with 146,000 units earned, achieving the largest week by units for any rock or hard rock album in over three-and-a-half years. It also marked the band's 12th top 10 charting album, of which nine have reached the top two. 72 Seasons also marked the band's first original album in seven years.
Last month, Metallica also dropped the first trailer for their upcoming fan-focused documentary, Metallica Saved My Life, directed by the band's longtime collaborator, Grammy-winner Jonas Åkerlund, which will be screened in select cities on the band's ongoing M72 world tour.
In a statement on April 8, the group wrote, “As a few of you may know, we've been working behind the scenes the last couple of years on a new film that will be released later this year starring you guys! Metallica Saved My Life explores our world through the lives of fans who have supported each other through highs, lows, trials and triumphs for over four decades. And yeah, we're in it a little bit too.”
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[Editor's Note: The following review contains spoilers for “The Last of Us” Season 2, Episode 5. For previous coverage, check out last week's review.]
“I know.”
Who knew two little words could evoke so many questions? From the second Season 2 began, “The Last of Us” has kept audiences in the dark over how much Ellie (Bella Ramsey) knows about what Joel (Pedro Pascal) did for her (or, more accurately, what he did for himself). The opening moments (which revisit the final scene from Season 1) see Ellie asking Joel to “swear” that the story he told her is true; that what he said happened with the Fireflies in the Salt Lake City hospital was what really happened. He swears, promising her there was no other choice, but the expression on her face doesn't reflect a person who's convinced; it's more like a person who's resolved.
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Five years after that vow, when Season 2's story picks up, Joel and Ellie are in a silent feud. He doesn't know why, and she won't explain it to him (or anyone), but the implication — brought about by Joel's guilty conscience as much as writer/director Craig Mazin's choice to frame their fight as the very first thing that happens in Season 2 — is that she's mad at him for lying to her, or hiding something from her, or killing dozens of innocent people to “save her” from giving up her own life in order to save the rest of humanity. We don't know if that's why Ellie's mad. We don't even know if she knows Joel lied to her. But it's all we have to go on, and very purposefully so.
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Then, Joel dies. Gail (Catherine O'Hara) tries to ask Ellie about their fight, months after her recovery, but Ellie isn't talking. She's still in the “anger” phase of her grief, which means she's not ready to talk about regrets or guilt. She's not ready to talk about anything, really. She's only ready for revenge.
In that same episode, Gail raises another point about Ellie — she says Ellie is a liar. “There's a difference between lying and being a liar,” Tommy (Gabriel Luna) says, trying to defend Ellie. But Gail doesn't soften. “Oh, I know,” she says. “And that one? Liar.” At the time, Gail was calling bullshit on Ellie's speech to the council, when she plead with the powers that going to Seattle to find and kill Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) was in everyone's best interest. Was Ellie lying? Absolutely. Is she a liar? That's harder to say.
The same questions linger after Episode 5, when Ellie claims to already know what Joel did. Is she lying or not? Did she really know what Joel did before Nora (Tati Gabrielle) tells her? Or is she only saying she knew what he did so she can keep playing the righteous avenger? So she can stick with her mission to kill Abby? So she can prove to herself that nothing will stop her, because nothing is more important than getting revenge?
Is Ellie lying or is she a liar? Does Ellie lie sometimes, like kids do to avoid trouble or get what they want, or is she a perpetual liar who can't stop lying, even to herself? If it's the latter, Gail might be right: Ellie may already be beyond saving.
Episode 5 gives Ellie plenty of reasons and opportunities to reconsider her plan. At times, it even seems like her doubts may overwhelm her resolve. The ending proves it's too strong to ignore — staring death in the face makes some people run the other way, but it has a hardening effect on Ellie, who's seen it too many times, with too many loved ones, to back down over a stranger's disembowelment or fungal entombment — but getting there may have still seeded enough doubt to save her… eventually.
Take Ellie and Dina's first moment of hesitation. After Dina (Isabela Merced) charts a “safe” course to where they think Abby is hiding, they stumble across a mural on the side of a building. It's a portrait of a woman with the words “Feel Her Love” written underneath. But directly under that are a pile of dead bodies — all Scars (or “Seraphites,” as they're labeled in the credits) — with another message written in graffiti just above them: “feel this bitch.”
It's enough to make Dina throw up and Ellie reconsider the plan. She tells Dina they don't have to keep going; that it's crazy to send a pregnant woman on a mission this dangerous; that Dina can go back, and Ellie will finish the job without her. That, of course, doesn't fly with Dina, who shares with Ellie the brutal story of what happened to her family when she was eight years old. Telling the story, remembering her anguish, steels Dina again, and it reassures Ellie that the two of them should keep going.
But the doubt doesn't disappear. It shifts, back and forth, between two stubborn parties reluctant to waver — in front of each other and to their own beliefs. After their failed attempt to cut through the big not-so-empty building (gee, I wonder why the W.L.F. isn't patrolling in there?), Jesse (Young Mazino) says the new plan is to head back to Dina and Ellie's hideout at the theater, meet up with Tommy, and get the heck out of dodge. “No,” Ellie says, almost instinctively. This time, it's Dina whose doubts prevail, if only for an instant. She looks at Ellie and says her name, wordlessly implying that what Jesse says makes sense. It's too hard to get to Abby. Seattle is too dangerous to survive on their own.
But before they can hash it out, the danger catches up to them. Dina gets shot in the leg, and Ellie splits from the trio. She ends up in the Seattle hospital, where she surprises Nora (as she tends to injured patients, no less) and then chases her into the contaminated basement. There, she gets a taste of vengeance for what the wolves did to Joel.
“Don't you know what he did?” Nora says, before Ellie starts beating her (presumably to death) with a pipe. “He killed every person in that hospital, including the only fucking person alive that could make a cure from you. That was Abby's father. And Joel, Joel shot him in the head. That's what he did.”
“I know,” Ellie says.
Did she? Did she really? What does it mean if she did? If she didn't? If she knew and sought vengeance anyway, might that help her see the cycle of violence she's continuing? If she didn't know and she's lying to Nora, is there still a chance Ellie wakes up to what she's doing? If learning what Joel did wasn't enough to shake her convictions, what could?
Before Joel died, when Ellie was getting ready to go on patrol with Jesse, she told him, “My shit with Joel is complicated. I know that. From the outside, it probably looks really bad. It has been really bad. But I'm still me, he's still Joel […] and nothing's ever going to change that. Ever.”
Whether or not Ellie knew then what she certainly knows now, the fact remains: Something needs to change in Ellie's relationship with Joel. If it's not this, then… what?
“The Last of Us” releases new episodes Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and Max.
• Episode 5's closing tease — a momentary flashback to when Ellie was still living with Joel (before she moved into the garage, so before the events in the Season 2 premiere) — implies there's still something to be learned from Joel and Ellie's time together. We'll find out more in Episode 6, but for now, I gotta say, it felt really good to see Joel again. Even for a second, even in flashback, I welled up.
• Last week's opening scene introduced Isaac (Jeffrey Wright). This week's opening scene spent more time with the wolves, and it sure seems like Season 2 is threading in their story as more than just an explanation of what Ellie and Dina are up against.
Hanrahan (Alanna Ubach) questions Sgt. Park (Hettienne Park) about what went down with her unit in the hospital basement. Turns out, the lower levels were where the first infected patients were brought for treatment back in 2003. Now, it's grown into a hotbed of unprecedented cordyceps activity. Sgt. Park says things seemed fine on the first floor, although the emptiness was its own eerie warning. But when she sent her best team to clear the second floor, Leon — Park's son — never came back. (It seems safe to assume the second body Ellie finds down there later on, an Asian man attached to a wall of fungus, is Leon.)
“He said it's in the air,” Park tells Hanrahan, by way of explaining why they sealed off the exits and left valuable soldiers to die. Hanrahan commends her for bravery and quick thinking, but the real message of the scene — besides the terrifying evolution of the cordyceps infection — is that Sgt. Park did what Joel couldn't: She let her child die to protect the rest of humanity. Maybe it makes a difference that Leon was older than Ellie. Maybe it makes a difference that there was no actual way to save him. Or maybe none of that matters, when it comes to choosing the nameless masses over your own loved ones.
•“Why because I'm stupid?”“That's not the word I would use.”“What word would you use?”“Non-school oriented.”– Dina's got jokes!
• “Haunted and empty.”“Aw, just like us.”– Dina's got jokes! (Though this one was a groaner.)
• Horror sequels sometimes have a hard time upping the ante when it comes to their scary monsters, but I gotta say, the “smart” infected in Season 2 are messed up. The way they kind of dance around in the distance, waiting for who knows what before they attack, is deranged. Their speed and ferocity is just as rabid as their more mindless brethren, and their warehouse attack this episode is shot so well, it feels like they're roaring in from every direction. (Kudos to Emmy-winning episode director Stephen Williams.)
• Another savvy directorial design: framing Jesse's heroic entrance. Not only does all hope seem lost by the time Jesse blasts the first infected off of Ellie, but there's zero indication as to who could possibly have shown up to save them. Is it a wolf, killing off the infected clickeres before interrogating the uninfected intruders? Is it someone from Jackson with miraculously good timing? Is it… Joel?
No, of course it's not Joel, but don't blame yourself for thinking it might be, if only for a second. He is, after all, the hero we've come to expect will save the day. Keeping Jesse at a distance, his face and other distinguishing features out of frame, allows the viewer to remember when Joel was able to come to Ellie's aid, and seeing Jesse's entrance from her vantage point provides a little pang of grief-tinged nostalgia. Not only are we hoping against hope for Joel's return, but so is she. Has somehow, someway, her hero returned? No. Of course not. But Jesse may just be the hero she needs, if not the one she wants.
• “Hey kiddo.” 😭
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By studying seismic waves, researchers have found a layer deep beneath the surface of Mars that could contain enough liquid water to flood the planet with an ocean thousands of feet deep.
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There might be a hidden ocean's worth of liquid water below the surface of Mars, seismic evidence suggests.
According to a new paper published April 25 in the journal National Science Review, recordings of seismic waves from deep within the Red Planet indicate that a layer of liquid water may be lurking in the Martian rocks between 3.4 and 5 miles [5.4 to 8 kilometers] below the surface.
The total volume of hidden water could flood the whole of Mars' surface with an ocean 1,700 to 2,560 feet [520 to 780 metres] deep, around the same volume of liquid that is contained within Antarctica's ice sheet, the study authors estimated.
Related: NASA rover discovers out-of-place 'Skull' on Mars, and scientists are baffled
Our neighboring planet was once abundant in water. In the time between Mars' formation 4.1 billion years ago to about 3 billion years ago, the Red Planet is thought to have been extremely wet, with features like valley networks, delta formations, and layered sedimentary rocks suggesting sustained water flow.
However, this abundant liquid water "vanished as the planet transitioned to become the cold, dry environment we see today," paper co-author Hrvoje Tkalčić, a professor of geophysics at the Australian National University, said in a statement.
Over time, Mars lost its magnetic field, and solar radiation began stripping away its atmosphere. With a thinner atmosphere, surface temperatures dropped; the planet's liquid water began to escape into space, become trapped as ice in the subsurface or polar caps, or become locked in hydrated minerals within the planet's crust, the researchers said.
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However, these methods of water loss have previously been shown to not entirely account for all the water that is estimated to have once flowed on the Red Planet, with a large volume of "missing" water going unaccounted for. This conundrum has long puzzled scientists, posing the question of whether there is still liquid water hidden on Mars that we have yet to find.
This new research suggests that there is indeed liquid water buried deep below the surface of the planet. Upon analyzing seismic data from NASA's InSight lander, which landed on Mars in 2018, researchers found that seismic waves within the planet's interior — caused by asteroid impacts and marsquakes in 2021 and 2022 — appeared to slow down between 3.4 and 5 miles [5.4 to 8 kilometers] below the surface. They suggest that this could be due to the presence of liquid water hidden within porous rocks, as seismic waves travel more slowly through liquid than they do through more solid materials.
"This 'low-velocity layer' is most likely highly porous rock filled with liquid water, like a saturated sponge," Tkalčić and another study co-author Weijia Sun, a professor of geophysics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, explained in an essay for the Conversation about the new study. "Something like Earth's aquifers, where groundwater seeps into rock pores."
The researchers suggest that this liquid water could make up the total volume of water missing from previous calculations.
"Our study indicates it's possible that much of that ancient water percolated through the porous surface rocks and was retained underground," Tkalčić said. "This also matches estimates of the 'missing' water on Mars from other studies."
—NASA Mars satellite uncovers markings 'like paint dripping down a wall' on Martian surface
—NASA rover discovers out-of-place 'Skull' on Mars, and scientists are baffled
—Life on Mars could survive — so long as you're one of these strange, hybrid lifeforms
Previous studies have also found that large volumes of water may be stored beneath the Martian surface in ice form, and a study from 2024 suggested that liquid water could be stored within rocks between 7 to 13 miles (11.2 to 21 km) beneath the surface.
The potential presence of liquid water on Mars is exciting to scientists, as liquid water is essential to life as we know it. While these potential reservoirs deep below the planet's surface could host some form of Martian life, we won't know if the liquid water even exists until we can drill deep into Mars and find it for ourselves.
"Future missions with seismometers and drills are needed to confirm the presence of the water at these depths and gather more clues," Tkalčić said.
Jess Thomson is a freelance journalist. She previously worked as a science reporter for Newsweek, and has also written for publications including VICE, The Guardian, The Cut, and Inverse. Jess holds a Biological Sciences degree from the University of Oxford, where she specialised in animal behavior and ecology.
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Since it initially premiered on The CW in 2005, Supernatural has enjoyed long-lasting success, with it largely considered the most popular series for the network as well as The CW's best show of all time. Across 15 seasons of Supernatural, fans were blessed with the spooky escapades of the Winchester brothers, as they battled everything from grounded monsters to biblical entities along the way. Despite its immense staying power from the beginning, Supernatural never really became a massive universe for The CW, akin to something like the sprawling Arrowverse or The Vampire Diaries' substantial spinoff shows.
Few spinoff shows even came out following the success of Supernatural, with the most notable being The Winchesters, an alternate universe prequel that follows Mary Campbell and John Winchester in the early 1970s, the parents of Sam and Dean. Unfortunately, The Winchesters was cancelled after only one season, quickly closing the book on the spinoff's potential. Though many might think The Winchesters is the only spinoff of Supernatural, there was another unique take on the franchise that came out relatively early in the show's run.
Supernatural: The Anime Series (also known as Supernatural: The Animation) is exactly how it sounds, an anime spinoff of the flagship series. Running for 22 episodes, Supernatural: The Anime premiered on February 9, 2011, and was produced by the legendary Japanese animation studio, Madhouse, which is behind iconic projects like Death Note, Perfect Blue, Black Lagoon, and countless others. It was the only spinoff to come out of the Supernatural franchise before the release of The Winchesters in 2022.
Despite not featuring Sam or Dean, one Supernatural crossover with an unlikely series is so bizarre that it actually works really well for it.
When it was produced by a Japanese animation studio, Supernatural: The Anime features an impressive Japanese dub with Yūya Uchida and Hiroki Touchi reprising their roles as Sam and Dean, the voices for the Japanese dub of the live-action series as well. For the English version, Jared Padalecki was able to return to voice Sam, but Jensen Ackles had scheduling conflicts and only returned for the final two episodes, the show's biggest unfortunate blemish, though Andrew Farrar did a solid job for the first 20 episodes.
Determining what is canon or not is a much-discussed aspect of franchise fandoms, which raises questions about the standing of Supernatural: The Anime Series within the official story of Supernatural. Officially, Supernatural: The Anime Series is not canon to the 15-season series, though some fans do like to view it as part of the greater canon of the franchise, especially with how the story unfolds throughout its 22 episodes, leaving it open for some interpretation.
While these stories, especially diving into the Winchesters' past, might not fit perfectly within the canon of the live-action series, it does a good job of providing new context for some of the show's early storylines.
The way it ties into the live-action series is pretty interesting, though, as Supernatural: The Anime covers the plot of Supernatural's first two seasons, while also featuring new storylines about Sam and Dean's childhoods and expanding a bit on some secondary characters. While these stories, especially diving into the Winchesters' past, might not fit perfectly within the canon of the live-action series, it does a good job of providing new context for some of the show's early storylines.
While it is a shame that The Winchesters ended early, and there haven't been any other spinoffs of Supernatural besides Supernatural: The Anime Series, it seems unlikely that The CW will be producing any new projects in the franchise. The network's priorities have shifted, which meant scaling back on nearly all of their scripted series, putting the Supernatural franchise in limbo for the foreseeable future.
Sam and Dean Winchester use different secret codewords - or "hunter's lingo" - throughout Supernatural in order to keep their monster hunting covert.
There are still plenty of directions the franchise could take if another network or streaming service was able to pick it up, including several unfinished storylines that would be awesome to explore in the 16th season of Supernatural. There is also still a massive fandom around Sam, Dean, Castiel, and Supernatural as a whole, and plenty of spinoff ideas the franchise could delve into if the timing is right. Supernatural: The Anime Series proves that there are plenty of unique ways that Supernatural could continue.
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Created by Eric Kripke, Supernatural is a fantasy/drama series that premiered in 2005. The series follows the adventures of Dean and Sam Winchester - two men wronged by supernatural beings as children who now spend their days investigating and hunting demons, ghosts, and monsters across the United States.
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One particular show left the award-winning actor Anthony Hopkins in awe and he declared that it had "the best acting I have seen – ever."
Finn actor John Boyega speaks about his hopes for Daisy Ridley's upcoming Star Wars movie, rumored to be titled Star Wars: New Jedi Order.
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A former NASA official claims he saw a piece of technology that shouldn't exist.
UFOs and debates about what's going on up in the sky are all the rage these days. We get new photos, videos and stories on a regular basis.
The difficult part is figuring out what's true, what's complete fiction and what's in the middle. It's a truly fascinating topic, and that now includes a new story that is absolutely wild.
Dr. Gregory Rogers, a former NASA Chief Flight Surgeon and major in the Air Force, spoke with the Daily Mail about an incident from more than three decades ago.
Rogers claims he was working at the NASA facility in Cape Canaveral in 1992 when an Air Force major offered to show him a video.
It wasn't what he was expecting.
A new UFO claim is going viral. (Credit: Getty Images)
Rogers claims the Air Force major, who he didn't previously know, showed him video footage of a flying saucer in the government's possession.
"He sits down at the computer console. It takes several minutes, then all of a sudden up on the screen comes this closed circuit television [CCTV] feed," Rogers told the outlet. What was on the feed was a flying vehicle that, if true, the government has never acknowledged having.
Rodgers told the Daily Mail the following details about the craft:
"There's a flying saucer. I would estimate it was about 20 feet wide, probably 8 to 10 feet tall, and it had a shallow dome on top of it. There were no antennas, there were no flight control surfaces. Everything was very smooth and blended. I saw no rivets, no seams, nothing. There was a little area on top which had a stick coming out of it. At the top of it were umbilical hoses, like if you were feeding gasses or electricity into it. Everything was white, but there was a vertical black rectangle at the three o'clock, the six o'clock and the nine o'clock position on the upper half of the vehicle."
The former NASA official claims there were several people in the footage, including men in lab coats and hazmat suits, according to the same report.
"I hear and see these things that look like electromagnetic charges coming off this vehicle. But there's no devices from which they're emanating. All of a sudden it just lifted up, as smooth as could be. Once it got up maybe 3 feet above the concrete surface, it rotated completely around, clockwise, one revolution, then it revolved counterclockwise, one revolution," he further explained.
At one point, the man showing him the footage hinted that the government got the UFO from aliens.
Rogers told the Daily Mail, "He said, ‘We got it from them.' And he was pointing his thumb up to the sky, which I interpreted as meaning from space."
Are UFOs real? (Credit: Getty Images)
Now, it's important to note that there doesn't appear to be proof for Rogers' claims other than his word. Granted, it allegedly happened 33 years ago.
Having said that, the government is always creating new technology the public doesn't know anything about.
What the public knows about in terms of military technology and aircraft is often designed years ahead of anyone knowing. I can only imagine what kinds of drones and planes are currently being designed and tested.
Does that mean Rogers' story is true? No, but there are plenty of secrets the government goes to great lengths to hide.
A former NASA official claims he saw footage of a flying saucer. (Credit: Getty Images)
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Your in-built excuses for the draft lottery tonight.
The NBA Draft Lottery is on Monday night with Cooper Flagg being the biggest prize since, well ... okay, Victor Wembanyama two years ago — but still, Flagg is a big deal.
Flagg might be the best U.S.-born prospect since LeBron James, garnering comparisons to Scottie Pippen, Jayson Tatum, and Grant Hill in terms of his length and all-around playing ability. So with stakes like this on the line it's only natural to assume that the entire lottery process is going to be rigged in order to ensure only a team the NBA wants to have Flagg will actually get him.
Related
Read our latest mock draft before the lottery here. We also ranked the best and worst landing spots for Flagg. Thankfully we're in luck, because there are solid conspiracies behind every single lottery team that could win on Monday night. So to save your Twitter fingers some time, we've got all your theories right here for you.
Utah Jazz
The NBA needs to dispel it's “big market bias” narrative, and putting Flagg in Utah achieves just that. Also it coincides nicely with the owners of the Jazz (and now the Utah Mammoth) expanding their arena to make Salt Lake City a bigger sports destination. Like putting Wemby on the Spurs, Flagg on the Jazz achieves similar goals.
Washington Wizards
The Wizards have been lagging woefully behind in attendance for a large market and Flagg can change that. It's a great sports narrative to have the Wizards and Commanders rising from the ashes at the same time, and the NBA needs to jump on that hype bandwagon.
Charlotte Hornets
Adam Silver met with the owners of the Hornets close to the end of the regular season to hear about their arena expansion plans. The NBA has always had a soft spot for the Charlotte market, putting the NBA All-Star game in the city in 2019 and loving the link between the team and J. Cole. Flagg could be the missing piece to make this team actually good, and Charlotte has been robbed of the No. 1 pick multiple times in the past.
New Orleans Pelicans
Two big reasons here: The Saints are going to be in the toilet after Derek Carr stunningly retired, and this could easily be pre-payment on a deal to send Zion Williamson to a major market. We've seen this in the past. Remember when New Orleans was gifted Anthony Davis right after the Chris Paul trade?
Philadelphia 76ers
The phrase “too big to fail” applies here. Of course the NBA is going to find a way to route Flagg to Philly and make the Sixers a phenom again. The whole Paul George fiasco blew up in their faces, and it's unclear if Joel Embiid can stay healthy. This is a contingency plan so the team can build a future big three around Jared McCain, Tyrese Maxey and Cooper Flagg if needed.
Brooklyn Nets
It is not okay to have a team be in the world's largest media market and struggle as much as the Nets do — especially when the Knicks have finally found their form. The NBA needs a Knicks-Nets rivalry to be a thing, and in order to achieve that Brooklyn needs a star. Is there anything more perfectly Brooklyn that a lanky basketball star from Maine? The hipsters are going to love him.
Toronto Raptors
It's a dicey time in world politics and the NBA needs to currie as much favor with the Canadian government as possible. This franchise was built off Vince Carter coming up from North Carolina, now we do it again with Flagg heading North from Duke.
San Antonio Spurs
This is too obvious. Flagg and Wemby is a marketing dream. The new Big Two in Texas. A Gen Z Duncan and Robinson. The opportunities write themselves.
Houston Rockets
This is a great opportunity to take the already good Rockets and push them into the stratosphere (forgive the pun). It would also take a lot of attention off the Mavericks so they can make a more quiet move to Las Vegas.
Portland Trail Blazers
Sending Damian Lillard to the Bucks did the NBA a major solid, even if it didn't work out. This is a payment on that trade, and gives Portland a major star to build around.
Dallas Mavericks
This is obvious. Nico Harrison gifted Luka Doncic to the Lakers, so the NBA gifts Cooper Flagg to the Mavs.
Chicago Bulls
A huge market team on the cusp of winning. Also a chance to make significant inroads with the Catholic market by making Pope Leo XIV happy that his team has a star.
Atlanta Hawks
It's time to strike while the iron is hot for the NBA. The Falcons and Braves are down bad, so by boosting the Hawks to the moon they can help claim the largest market in the Southeast. It's all about building the brand and making the Hawks a hot commodity.
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Kelli Saam is an anchor for Action News Now and rejoined the
team in 2021.
Kelli Saam is an anchor for Action News Now and rejoined the
team in 2021.
Roger Her went mising from Hayfork in 2017
TRINITY COUNTY, Calif. - The mysterious disappearance of a man from Trinity County eight years ago remains unsolved. Robert Her, who was 28 at the time, vanished in March 2017, leaving his family desperate for answers.
Her was last seen with another person on his property on McAlexander Road in Hayfork on Sunday, March 26, 2017 at 1:24 p.m. When relatives arrived to check on him later, they found the fireplace lit, the television on, and his wallet, but Her was nowhere to be found.
His family believes foul play was involved in his disappearance. Her, who would be 36 years old today, is Asian with curly, black shoulder-length hair, stands 5 feet 7 inches tall, and weighs 160 pounds. He has dental braces and tattoos on each arm. At the time he went missing, he was wearing a hooded sweatshirt, sweatpants, and Croc slippers.
The family is offering a $30,000 reward for information that leads to finding Her. If you have any information regarding his disappearance, please contact the Trinity County Sheriff's Office at 530-623-2611.
*AI assisted with the formatting of this story. Click here to see how Action News Now uses AI.
Kelli Saam is an anchor for Action News Now and rejoined the
team in 2021.
Kelli Saam is an anchor for Action News Now and rejoined the
team in 2021.
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Warning: Contains spoilers
Ryan Coogler's latest film, Sinners, made history with a second-weekend box office tally only six percent lower than its opening weekend. Just past its fourth weekend, it crossed the $200 million mark at the domestic box office. Both audiences and critics adore this Southern Gothic vampire thriller, starring Michael B. Jordan as identical twins Smoke and Stack. The pair has just returned to the Mississippi Delta after fighting in World War I and then getting involved with the Chicago mob, the details of which are mostly left to other characters' conjecture. Looking to open a juke joint for the community that raised them, they sign on their cousin Sammie (Miles Caton), a pastor's son and blues guitar virtuoso, and buy an old saw mill off a local landowner Hogwood (David Maldonado), who lies to the twins about his Klan membership, but Smoke and Stack learn this vital piece of information anyway, but from a different well of trouble: Remmick (Jack O'Connell), a vampire who comes knocking during the juke joint's opening night.
Sinners is a horror movie, but it's also so much more—a moody, atmospheric fantasy and period piece in one, which plumbs the history of the blues, hoodoo, and the Jim Crow South. The twins are inseparable, but distinct. Stack is a swaggering troublemaker with a pissed-off white-passing ex-girlfriend, Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) hot on his tail, but a melancholy hangs over Smoke. We begin to understand why when he visits his estranged wife, Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), at her little shop and abode in the woods. Outside, a fresh bottle of milk is set next to a tiny grave for the couple's baby daughter.
As Smoke and Stack make their way through the Delta, culminating in the juke joint's grand opening, production designer Hannah Beachler's (Black Panther, Creed) exceptional structures, built from the ground up, define each location. At first glance, the spare, light church from whence the twins pluck Sammie couldn't be more different from Bo (Yao) and Grace Chow's (Li Jun Li) bustling grocery, but an aesthetic through line connects each of the locations for a historic, coherent sense of the Delta imbued with the fantastical. Beachler, who has worked with Coogler for twelve years on five of his films, has a shorthand with the director, but nevertheless, every project has its own challenges.
We got to speak with Beachler about her historic references, visual guidelines, and working Easter eggs into the sets for Sinners.
The settings are so integral to this story. How did you approach them as a whole?
They were all built entirely from scratch on location, so that was an awesome feat. The first three sets I designed were Annie's, the church, and the saw mill. I assigned them colors of red, white, and blue. Ryan loves to assign colors to characters, which I run with. Jedediah [Saul Williams] was black, Smoke and Stack were red and blue, and you'll notice that Mary and Annie have colors. On the outside of Annie's, there's a haint blue. I think ultimately, my favorites were the church, the farmhouse, and Annie's. They each have their own personality, inspired by Dennis Gassner and Tim Burton's Big Fish, which is very much about these small silhouettes of buildings, leaning and exaggerated in form.
Ryan had talked about Sergio Leone, and these big vistas, Stagecoach and Searchers. It was really about wanting to put these structures on these big horizons so they could stand out, because nothing was big. We didn't have huge mansions outside of plantations, so the world was very small, and I wanted to keep it that way, but I wanted to exaggerate the shapes.
There's a very strong coherence from location to location.
Sometimes I put a piece of a set into another set, trying to draw a line between church, spirituality which is Annie and the haint blue, and then red, which is blood and the capitalism of the juke joint and the free spirit there, and how all of those live in juxtaposition to one another. The farmhouse also has a lot of juxtaposition. You'll notice things around Mary and Stack and Joan and Burt that are all sort of the same things, playing with lines. It was all intentional.
Annie's abode is really special. What was your inspiration there?
When I started doing my research and digging into the photography of Eudora Welty, I saw a photograph of a woman from a sharecropper family standing outside her house. Her house is just leaning. And it struck me, there's a huge pile of cotton on her porch. Cotton was king, and that's what our story was about. [We put] piles of cotton everywhere. We wanted it on the road. You could see it as if it dripped out of the carriages. When Sammie walked through his neighborhood on the plantation, you saw people with it on their porch. There were images from the Library of Congress and the FSA, the Farm Services Administration, in Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana during the 1920s and 1930s that I used for inspiration as well. I went to Clarksdale and talked to older people about the town and what they remembered from their relatives and ancestors. All of those things were really important in building what was a truth that feels like fantasy.
How did you create the barn-turned-juke joint? Was the lighting practical?
I knew I wanted to make it two stories, to tell the story that people lived there at one point. Of course, the kerosene lanterns were practical lighting, and then we had that moment when they jacked the electricity. Autumn [Durald Arkapaw, the cinematographer] really used that as a point of reference for the lighting she put in there. I love working with her. I can be as bold and crazy as I want, and she turns it into a beautiful piece of art. I was listening to a lot of Howlin' Wolf and Smokestack Lightning, and we stopped where the equalizers stopped in the middle of the chorus. Then, we painted the levels of the equalizer of the song in rust on the back wall. We wanted to bring in the feeling that music is surrounding them. The big light Mary and Stack are in front of looks like a moon, and foreshadows what they become. And the juke joint is where everybody's world collides, so I brought a little bit of everything [from other sets] into the structure.
Did the doubling for Smoke and Stack affect your process at all?
Ryan always said, Don't let that dictate what you're doing. The twinning affected us just a little bit when we had to make sure backgrounds matched, but otherwise, we just went for it without worrying too much about that. One place we really did dive into the IMAX of it all was the church. When you're at the doors of the church and Sammie walks in, I wanted to see rafters, and I wanted them to disappear at a certain point. So we had Autumn's people out in Los Angeles measuring the height of the bottom of where our rafters sat, with where the IMAX would fall, and how far in we would lose that.
So much of the key action takes place at night. What did that mean for your process?
Put light on it so we can see it! It was wonderful because the way Autumn lit everything, we could utilize the atmosphere and really layer the forest on the location where we built the juke joint. I knew the way we shot it was going to be about capturing silhouettes, the dirt road, and considering how to bring the fog in. Concentrating on shapes and creating a mood in the background was fun.
How was shooting in Louisiana?
I've been in New Orleans for about 22 years. I knew a lot of the crew and had worked with a lot of them in my early career. We're right next to Mississippi, and certainly our weather is the same as the Delta. Northern Louisiana is cotton, and southern Louisiana is sugarcane. We were able to use the sugarcane fields when they were low to plant an acre here or there of cotton, and the rest would be tilled in. That was one of the reasons we needed New Orleans; outside of it lay those big landscapes you're going to get in the Delta, the big sky, and that land forever. That was something Ryan really needed to tell the story of the wealth of that land and the poverty of the people who worked that land. I knew that we could get that [landscape] in Louisiana more so than in any other place.
What were the locations outside New Orleans like?
We shot in Donaldsonville, which was hit hard by economic times, so it was pretty empty. We augmented and filled all of those buildings. Those grocery stores were from the ground up. Our set decorating department made labels for every can. We also had a lot of stuff in there that really spoke to that story of Mississippi and Bo and Grace and the Asian community, how they were able to serve both the white community and the Black community, and dealt with their own hardships as well. There are a lot of little tells on the windows of the grocery stores as to what that world meant. I was so proud we were able to put catfish frying on 70mm IMAX—you don't see that every day.
The town's main street had an incredible amount of detail.
I hope people keep seeing things every time they watch it. It's both a thriller and a commentary on the time and what was happening in Mississippi during Prohibition and Jim Crow. After all these years, I've learned to trust how Ryan's going to tell the story. Really, the best part was the collaboration and working outside of the big studio system we'd worked in previously. It was still a studio, but it was Ryan's, and that made us free to stretch our own creativity. That's one of the great things about working with an auteur like Ryan.
Sinners is in theaters now.
For more on Sinners, check out these stories:
Pinstripes and Blood Spatter: Costume Designer Ruth E. Carter on Making Dark Magic in “Sinners”
Soul Transcendent: How DP Autumn Durald Arkapaw Captured Black Music's Timeless Continuum in “Sinners”
Blues, Blood, & Big Formats: How DP Autumn Durald Arkapaw Brought “Sinners”‘ to Epic, IMAX-Sized Life
Featured image: Caption: MICHAEL B. JORDAN as Smoke in Warner Bros. Pictures' “SINNERS,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures
Susannah Edelbaum's work has appeared on NPR Berlin, Fast Company, Motherboard, and the Cut, among others. She lives in Berlin, Germany.
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“The searches were carried out to seize arms, documents, digital devices etc. with the objective of evidence collection and…,” police said
Srinagar, May 12: In yet another significant move aimed at dismantling the terrorist ecosystem and acting against individuals associated with proscribed outfits, Srinagar Police has intensified its crackdown under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
Continuing its focused campaign, police teams have conducted extensive searches across the city targeting residences of terrorist associates and in the furtherance of investigation of UAP Act cases.
A police spokesperson said that searches at residences of more than 150 terrorist associates have been conducted till now.
In continuation with regard to the same, Srinagar Police has conducted searches at the residences of Adil Manzoor Langoo son of Manzoor Ahmad Langoo resident of Zaldagar involved in case FIR No. 08/2024 U/S 7/27 I A Act 302 IPC 16,18,20 ULAP Act of Police Station Shaheed Gunj.
Basit Bilal Makaya son of Bilal Ahmad Makaya resident of DoomKadal involved in Case FIR No 156/ 2024 U/S 13, 19 , 39 UAP Act.
Waseem Tariq Matta son of Tariq Ahamd resident of Rampora involved in Case FIR No. 46/2023 U/S 7/25 A,Act 4/5 Exp Act 18,23,38 UAP Act of Police Station Chanpora.
Fayaz Ahmad Lone (Ex Militant) son of Gh Nabi lone resident of Kaw Mohalla involved in case FIR No. 31/2024, 7/25 A.Act 13, 18, 20, 23, 39 UAP Act of Police Station Khanyar.
Mohd Ashraf Kaloo Son of Ab Gani Kaloo resident of Aabi Gurpora involved in case FIR No. 31/2024, 7/25(A) Act 13, 18, 20, 23, 39 UAP Act of Police Station Khanyar.
Qazi Usman son of Qazi Muzaffar resident of Devi Angan Hawal involved in case FIR No. 31/2024 7/25 A.Act 13, 18, 20, 23, 39 UAP Act of Police Station Khanyar.
Muzaffar Ahmad Magray son of Gh. Mohi-Ud-Din resident of Qalamdanpora involved in case FIR No. 49/2006 U/S 7/25 A Act of Police Station M.R.Gunj.
Shahbaz Farooq Bhat son of Farooq Ahmad Bhat resident of Palpora Noorbagh involved in case FIR No. 11/2024, 13, 39 ULAP Act of Police Station M.R.Gunj.
The searches, as per police spokesperson were conducted in accordance with proper legal procedures in the presence of Executive Magistrates and independent witnesses under the supervision of the officers of J&K Police.
The searches were carried out to seize arms, documents, digital devices etc. with the objective of evidence collection and intelligence gathering to detect and deter any conspiratorial or terrorist activity against the security of the nation, he said.
He said this decisive action of J&K Police aims to dismantle the terrorist ecosystem in Jammu and Kashmir by identifying and taking legal action against individuals engaged in such anti-national and criminal activities.
Srinagar Police remains committed to safeguarding peace and security in the city. Any individual found furthering the agenda of violence, disruption, or unlawful activities will face strict legal consequences under the law, the spokesperson added.
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A 35-year-old man diagnosed with avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) claims that the mere thought of eating fruits, vegetables, eggs, or meat is enough to make him sick.
Calling Thomas Sheridan a picky eater would be an understatement. The 35-year-old UK man relies on a very strict daily diet that usually consists of two loaves of white bread, three bowls of Shreddies cereal, and lots of Haribo sweets, and he has never tasted fruits and vegetables. Because of his bland diet, he needs to take protein and vitamin supplements, but only those with a taste profile that he can stomach. The unemployed man claims to have made attempts to diversify his diet, but they have all ended in failure. A couple of years ago, he was diagnosed with avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), an eating disorder that prevents sufferers from eating certain foods, and despite several attempted treatments, his daily diet remains incredibly restricted.
Photo: Neetu Laddha/Unsplash
“There was one time when we started drinking and everyone used to talk about bacon sandwiches when they were roughed up,” Sheridan told SWNS. “I attempted to make an egg and sausage butty one day, and as soon as the egg touched my mouth, I vomited about 10 feet across the room.”
Thomas' parents recall that he started rejecting certain foods when he was 18 months old. He just “shut his mouth” one day, and all efforts to make him try fruits and vegetables failed. Doctors advised starving him until he ate what was offered to him, and his father tried offering him rewards, but nothing worked. At school, he was allowed to go home at lunchtime to eat toast because he couldn't stomach school lunches. As an adult, his aversion to certain foods has prevented him from leading a normal life and made it harder for him to work.
“The last time I worked over a 10-day period, I lost 21 pounds,” Thomas said.
Desperate to incorporate new foods into his daily diet, the 35-year-old man is now trying to raise $8,000 for hypnotherapy, but there are no guarantees that it will help cure his ARFID.