France won the Six Nations last year, with their sole defeat against England at Allianz Stadium.
Captain Antoine Dupont ruptured cruciate ligaments in his knee in round four against Ireland but Fabien Galthie’s side got over the line without their talisman.
The scrum-half is back and will want to remind the rugby world of what he can do on the biggest stage, but they are without prop Uini Atonio, who was forced to retire with a heart problem.
“I tried to get a good part of the injury off and spend it with my family and friends, so I can do other things and come back with more mental freshness,” Dupont told BBC Radio 5 Live.
Galthie showed that no player is safe in his squad by leaving out France’s all-time top try-scorer Damian Penaud, number eight Gregory Alldritt and veteran centre Gael Fickou.
Will that bold call pay off? The fixtures could aid their chances, with games against Ireland and England at home meaning Les Bleus have a strong chance of retaining their title.
“France have threats all over the park. How they differ from any other team in the Six Nations would be the fact that if they lose five of their top players, it doesn’t matter,” La Rochelle head coach Ronan O’Gara told BBC Sport.
“France have a mentality of there is very little between certain players in certain positions – with the exception being Dupont.”
Hollywood actor Gerardo Taracena, who starred in Mel Gibson’s 2006 drama Apocalypto has died suddenly at the age of 55, but no cause of death has been announced as yet
Gold and silver prices extended last week’s dramatic sell-off on Monday, as investors continued to digest the implications of President Donald Trump’s announcement of Kevin Warsh as the next chair of the US Federal Reserve.
The move has fuelled expectations of a more government pressure on the Fed and prompted a sharp reassessment of positions across precious metals.
Spot gold fell as much as 10% in early trading, while silver plunged up to 16%, following Friday’s rout that marked the largest intraday decline on record for the white metal.
The scale and speed of the move underscored how vulnerable the market had become after months of aggressive buying driven by geopolitical tension and bets on looser US monetary policy.
“The sharp selloff on Friday followed news that US President Donald Trump intends to nominate Kevin Warsh as the next Federal Reserve chair – a development that boosted the US dollar and reinforced expectations of a more hawkish policy stance,” said Ewa Manthey, commodities strategist at ING, and Warren Patterson, head of commodities strategy.
“While a correction was overdue after the intense rally, the scale of Friday’s decline far exceeded most expectations.”
Why the Fed matters for gold
Gold and silver are particularly sensitive to US interest-rate expectations.
Higher rates increase the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets such as precious metals, while a stronger dollar makes them more expensive for overseas buyers.
Warsh, a former Fed governor, has voice sentiments supportive of Trump’s vision for the Fed, including regular rate cuts.
That reassessment has been swift. Investor caution has been evident in exchange-traded funds, with silver holdings falling for a seventh consecutive session to their lowest level since November 2025.
Futures data also show speculators cutting back sharply on bullish bets, signalling a broader retreat from the sector.
“CFTC positioning shows a cooling in speculative interest across precious metals,” the ING report continued.
“Managed money net longs in COMEX gold fell by 17,741 lots last week… Speculators also cut net longs in silver… taking positioning to its lowest since February 2024.”
Margins rise, volatility bites
Market stress has been amplified by mechanical factors.
CME Group is set to raise margin requirements on COMEX gold and silver futures after last week’s historic swings, forcing traders to post more collateral or reduce exposure.
Such moves tend to accelerate sell-offs, particularly in heavily leveraged markets.
Attention is now turning to Asia, where Chinese investors have historically provided support during price dips. However, with volatility elevated and the Lunar New Year approaching, participation may be more cautious than usual.
“With volatility spiking and the Lunar New Year approaching, traders are likely to pare back positions and reduce risk,” the ING analysts said.
“Price direction in the near term will hinge on the extent of dip-buying from Chinese investors following Friday’s retreat.”
Outlook remains fragile
For now, the precious metals market remains at the mercy of macro forces, with little clarity on how quickly sentiment will stabilise.
Investors are watching US data closely for clues on real interest rates and the dollar’s next move, both of which will be shaped by expectations around the Fed’s future direction.
“Overall, volatility across precious metals is likely to remain elevated in the near term,” Manthey and Patterson said.
“For gold and silver, macro uncertainty, real rate expectations, and USD direction will continue to dominate sentiment,” the report concluded.
Everyone told me how spectacular Las Vegas would be, with its mega resorts, huge entertainment venues and bustling casinos, but there was something no one warned me about
Vdara Hotel & Spa, and the second hotel is Resorts World
Mega resorts towered over me as I walked along the iconic Las Vegas Strip, the echo of country music seeping from a four-storey bar, colourful signs flashing in every direction and the Bellagio fountains taking centre stage every 15 minutes.
Inside the sprawling resorts, I was met with the vibrant, blinking slot machines, elaborate interior themes and celebrity restaurants, along with impressive nearby venues that make up ‘Entertainment Capital of the World’. This was everything I expected from the city of Nevada, and so much more.
With its bustling, energetic and chaotic atmosphere, it felt as though I had stepped into a parallel universe. After all, I was at the heart of America’s playground. Yet, amid all of the expected madness, there was something that completely took me by surprise during my first time in ‘Sin City’.
Amy Jones
Amy Jones
Las Vegas is situated in the Mojave Desert, the smallest and driest desert in North America. Beyond the glitz of the Strip, you can see the rugged mountains and sprawling golden desert that make up this striking landscape. But what I didn’t factor in was how dry the air would feel.
Of course, I knew deserts were dry, offering hot days and cold evenings, but it was nothing like I had experienced before, especially while walking around such a built-up city. It left me constantly thirsty, made my knuckles crack, and my lips were as dry as the Mojave Desert itself!
I needed to constantly carry a bottle of water around with me to quench my thirst at any given moment, moisturise my knuckles multiple times a day, and apply lip balm as if my life depended on it. I panicked when I accidentally left my lip balm in my hotel room one day, and saw my knuckles become redder and redder as the days went on.
It bewildered me how much it affected my skin and thirst. I could feel the dry air around me, even though it was only around 20C during the day, and I can only recall the air feeling fresh once during my five-day trip. Yet, it only added to the experience and reminded me that I really was in the heart of a desert.
While I was taken aback by the climate change, it appears that other travellers are familiar with the Las Vegas air. One shared on TripAdvisor: “I have a real problem with dry skin in Vegas and always take crack cream. Seems to help.”
Another advised: “HYDRATE – you cannot drink enough water. This is your best defence. (If you are enjoying those wonderful free cocktails while gambling, ask for a bottle of water with each drink.)
I had another encounter with the desert during a guided hiking tour through the Valley of Fire with Love Hikes, just a few hours’ drive away. Here, I was instantly amazed by the dramatic orange rock formations and miles of golden floor as I wandered through towering valleys.
Notably, the majestic desert in the state park has been used as a movie filming set, including for Transformers, Star Trek: Generations, The Professionals and Viva Las Vegas, which starred Elvis Presley. While it’s a far cry from the casinos, you can still find some glamour in the rugged terrain.
Yet, there was something else that surprised me during my trip, and that was how much smaller Las Vegas felt than I had expected, even while wandering around the iconic Strip. I thought it would feel like a gigantic city, but the span of the Strip, despite its enormous towering resorts and gigantic landmarks, was more compact than I had imagined.
There was so much to see and explore, but with its Strip measuring approximately 4.2 miles, you could easily walk its length, something I really didn’t think about until I saw it for myself. Although it would take around two hours to walk the extent of it, it felt like nothing compared to the streets of New York or London.
The population of Las Vegas was 641,903 at the 2020 census, but is thought to have increased since then. Meanwhile, the Las Vegas metropolitan area has an estimated 2.4 million residents across an estimated 7,891 square miles. This is in contrast to New York, which has an estimated population of 8,478,072, as of July 2024, spanning across a whopping 300.46 square miles.
However, while I think the Strip was more compact than I had expected, the city stretches far beyond the glitz with neighbourhoods scattered across the desert right to the edge of the mountain backdrop.
St. Brigid is one of the three Patron Saints of Ireland, the other two are St. Columba and of course, St.Patrick.
Brigid is a Catholic and Orthodox saint. She was a pupil of St. Patrick and became famous for her kindness, mercy, and her miracles. In addition, Brigitte founded Ireland’s most famous mixed (male and female) monastery in County Kildare.
In The Life of Brigid, her biographer, Cogitosus, recorded that Brigid formed an alliance with the hermit Conleth and, together, they created a double monastery from the Early Christian tradition. She was abbess and he was bishop. Within 100 years of her death, there was a thriving, egalitarian monastery of men and women, living and practicing their spirituality equally, side by side.
Perhaps the most famous story about St. Brigid surrounds the legend of her cloak. When Brigid was re …
Interiority is a concept that multimedia artist Sarah Sze has been fixating on lately.
“So much of what we experience is actually interior,” Sze said in a recent video interview. “We’ve become so exterior focused. We’re so outward looking.”
At a time when it’s all too easy to consume a never-ending stream of social media images, the celebrated New York-based artist is more interested in scrolling through the images stored inside her own mind.
Her new show, “Feel Free,” champions the mind’s eye, in all its random, fragmented glory. It brings a collection of new paintings and two immersive video installations to Gagosian Beverly Hills.
Sze is known for her unconventional sculptures and large-scale paintings, which she’s shown in such venues as the Museum of Modern Art, LACMA and the U.S. Pavilion at multiple Venice Biennales. In 2023, she left her mark on both the inside halls and the exterior walls of the Guggenheim Museum, and her public sculptures have transformed a grassy hillside as well as a pine grove and an international airport.
Sarah Sze’s Gagosian Beverly Hills show “Feel Free” is meant to feel intimate.
(Ariana Drehsler/For The Times)
At the Gagosian show, Sze leaned into the intimate and fragile, while continuing her signature experimental streak.
In one of her newest pieces, “Once in a Lifetime” — part sculpture, part video display — precarious clusters of bric-a-brac form a mechanical marvel that appears to defy gravity.
A stack of small projectors is cradled inside of a fantastical tower fashioned out of crisscrossed tripods, metal poles and ladders festooned with an assemblage of toothpick structures, empty cardboard containers that once held crayons and Lactaid, dangling prisms, arts & crafts scraps, and paper cut-outs of deer and wolves (figures that appear throughout the show).
The bare gallery walls surrounding the monument flash with rotating projections of construction sites where buildings are being erected and demolished, clouds drifting across tranquil blue skies, and city lights twinkling then slowly dissolving into floating fractals. The Dadaist piece is every bit as off-kilter and fascinating as the Talking Heads song that inspired its title.
“Once in a Lifetime” is part video display and part sculpture, made of tripods, toothpicks, lights, cardboard boxes and projectors that flicker images on the gallery walls.(Ariana Drehsler/For The Times)
“The most important thing about my show is that I hope it’s really challenging and exciting and gives young artists license to do what they want to do,” Sze said.
“When they come in and say, ‘Wait … I didn’t know you could put up toothpicks going to the ceiling and throw a video through it and make it into a movie. I didn’t know you could put a pile of things on the floor in front of a painting.’ It’s like, ‘OK! Yes, you can!’”
Meanwhile, large canvases in the main gallery space are covered with oil and acrylic paints and printed backdrops dotted with an assortment of images: sleeping female figures; hands pointing, drawing and flashing peace signs; the sun at different stages of setting; birds in flight; wolves and deer in their natural habitats. Layered on top are paint splotches and streaks, as well as taped-on paper and vellum, blurring and obscuring the collage of figures underneath.
“Escape Artist,” left, “White Night” and “Feel Free,” are new paintings by Sarah Sze at Gagosian Beverly Hills.
(Ariana Drehsler/For The Times)
“One of the things I was thinking about was when we dream and then we wake up, there’s this extreme, fleeting moment where you’re trying to grasp the dream,” Sze said. “The dream is disappearing at the same time, and you’re trying to re-create those images.”
She went on to describe “a landscape turning into a different landscape, and then you’re falling, and then you’re turning, and then someone appears that you didn’t expect to be there.”
In addition to this spree of the subconscious, the artist offers glimpses of her creative process. Pooled on the ground below the canvases (and even dangling from the rafters above) is an assortment of the tools of her trade — from tape measures to paint scrapers. Brushes, pens and pencils lie next to the ripped cuffs of cotton workshirts, and drops of blue and white paint are splattered on the floor, extending the artwork beyond the wall.
Sze spent five days installing the show inside the gallery and the commonplace supplies incorporated into the pieces are what she dubbed “remnants of the workspace.”
“Sleepers,” a video installation Sze debuted in 2024, plays with the light entering through a gallery window. Images of sleeping heads and forest animals play amid the sound of cello notes and deep breathing.
(Ariana Drehsler/For The Times)
If the paintings act as snapshots of dreamscapes, “Sleepers,” the video installation she debuted in 2024, sets those images in motion. Dozens of hand-torn paper fragments connected by rows of string become miniature projection screens, each flashing with images of the same sleeping heads, busy hands and forest animals. These are interspersed with flashes of TV static and ocean waves, all set to the sounds of humming, disjointed cello notes and deep breathing.
“Feel Free” by Sarah Sze
When: Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., through Feb. 28 Where: Gagosian Beverly Hills, 456 N. Camden Drive in Beverly Hills
Directly in the center, a slender vertical window — part of the gallery’s architecture — illuminates the otherwise darkened room with a pillar of natural light, further contributing to the ethereal nature of the piece.
Viewed at the right angle, the piece resembles a giant eye. It’s the perfect visual cue to get visitors thinking about what we see and how we see it.
The seventh in an occasional seriesof profiles on Southern California athletes who have flourished in their post-playing careers.
Tai Babilonia’s life changed forever when she was asked to hold a boy’s hand.
At first she resisted.
“I didn’t want to,” she remembered. “He’s a yucky boy.”
But Mabel Fairbanks, Babilonia’s skating coach, wouldn’t take no for an answer, bribing the 8-year-old with stickers and a Barbie doll if she would just reach out and grab the hand of 10-year-old Randy Gardner.
It would be another 40 years before she let go.
By then Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner had become one of the most decorated pairs in U.S. figure skating history, their individual names eventually melding into one.
“My last name is ‘and Randy,’” Babilonia said. “And I embrace it.”
U.S. pairs figure skating duo of Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner in 1979.
(Tony Duffy / Getty Images)
As a pair “Tai and Randy” won five U.S. championships, medaled in three world championships and qualified for the Olympics twice, all before Babilonia’s 21st birthday. Their success also pushed open doors that had long been closed since Babilonia, Black on her mother’s side and part Filipino and Native American on her dad’s side, was the first U.S. skater from any of those ethnic groups to compete in the Olympics or win a world title.
Among those to follow her were Debi Thomas, a two-time U.S. champion and a bronze medalist at the 1988 Winter Olympics, and Elizabeth Punsalan, a two-time Olympian and five-time national champion in ice dancing.
At about the same time Babilonia and Gardner were moving from competitive skating and the Olympics to the Ice Capades, another young girl was just starting to pursue her own Olympic dreams. Tiffany Chin would go on to win a national championship, two Skate America titles and just miss a medal in the 1984 Winter Games, retiring before she was old enough to legally drink.
In that brief but brilliant career, Chin changed U.S. figure skating forever. She was the country’s first Asian American national champion and first Chinese American Winter Olympian, paving the way for Olympic medalists Kristi Yamaguchi, Nathan Chen, Michelle Kwan and siblings Alex and Maia Shibutani.
After retiring from skating, Babilonia, now 66, dabbled in coaching and sportswear design, became a motivational speaker, an activist and, most importantly, a grandmother. But the legacy Babilonia and Chin created will be on display in Italy this month when the U.S. fields one of the most eclectic Olympic figure skating teams ever, with 12 of the 16 athletes having immigrant parents.
Five of the six singles skaters — Alysa Liu, Isabeau Levito, Ilia Malinin, Maxim Naumov and Andrew Torgashev — are first-generation Americans while the other, women’s national champion Amber Glenn, identifies as pansexual. Pairs skaters Emily Chan, Spencer Howe and Ellie Kam and ice dancers Anthony Ponomarenko, Christina Carreira, Vadym Kolesnik and Emilea Zingas are also immigrants or first-generation Americans while Madison Chock, the reigning Olympic champion in ice dancing, has Hawaiian, Chinese, German, English, Irish, French and Dutch ancestry.
At a time when diversity, equity and inclusion programs are being dismantled, immigrants are being attacked and diversity is labeled a weakness, America’s Olympic figure skaters have come to mirror the country at large.
“It’s wonderful and so important,” said Babilonia. “Especially now.”
Nearly 60 years after Babilonia and Gardner skated together for the first time, the decision to pair them seems inspired, even providential.
It was neither. Fairbanks, Babilonia learned later, simply needed a couple to skate in a club show at the Culver City Ice Arena.
“We just happened to be similar in height. And I guess we were cute,” Babilonia said last month during a lengthy interview at the Colonial Revival-style mansion in the West Adams District that houses the LA84 Foundation.
Gardner was already an excellent skater, as strong and athletic as he was outgoing and friendly; Babilonia was shy and far less steady on the ice. But that wasn’t the only thing that made their pairing unusual.
Gardner was white and Babilonia was Black. And in 1968, asking them to hold hands in public was scandalous, even in Culver City. However, Fairbanks, a legendary coach who had spent much of her life pushing back against convention, didn’t see color. She focused only on talent.
Randy Gardner and Tai Babilonia roller skating together in May 1979.
(Tony Duffy / Getty Images)
“Mabel was the coach who taught all races, Hispanic, Black, mixed, Jewish,” Babilonia said. “Mabel broke down that wall.”
Fairbanks, who was Black and Seminole, was born in the Deep South at a time when ice rinks were segregated. Even after moving to New York, where she bought a pair of skates for $1 at a pawn shop, then taught herself how to use them, she skated mostly in nightclub shows, where she was limited to jumps and moves that wouldn’t show up the white skaters.
She soon moved to Los Angeles, touring internationally with the Ice Capades and Ice Follies, before becoming a coach and mentoring hundreds of young skaters, including Olympic medalists Scott Hamilton, Yamaguchi and Thomas.
“If it weren’t for Mabel Fairbanks, you wouldn’t have any color in the predominantly white skating world,” said Babilonia, who is shopping a biopic of Fairbanks, who died in 2001.
“People don’t really know her. She’s like a hidden figure.”
Yet three years after Fairbanks made Tai and Randy a pair, they left her for John Nicks, who was coaching at the Paramount Iceland.
“He took our skating to a whole different level. And it happened really quick,” said Babilonia, who still calls her former coach Mr. Nicks. “That’s when we started winning and improving and just really became a great pair of skaters.”
Two years later Babilonia and Gardner won the U.S. junior nationals and three years after that they won the first of five national championships, qualifying for the 1976 Winter Olympics in Austria, where they finished fifth. Gardner wasn’t old enough to vote and Babilonia didn’t have a driver’s license. But together they were holding their own against the best pairs skaters in the world.
“Such an incredible year,” Babilonia said. “We won our first U.S. title, became Olympians, I got my learner’s permit and had a crush on Peter Frampton.”
But they were just getting started. Gardner and Babilonia wouldn’t lose in the U.S. championships for the rest of the decade. And 11 months before the next Olympics, they won their first world championship, then celebrated by skating for the queen of England at Wembley Stadium.
Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner compete at the World Figure Skating Championships in Tokyo in March 1977.
(Tony Duffy / Getty Images)
With the Winter Games coming back to the U.S. at Lake Placid, the Americans were favored to keep the Soviet Union off the top step of the medal platform for the first time since 1960, the last time the Olympics were held in the U.S.
Only they never made it to the ice.
Nicks had moved his skaters from Paramount to the Ice Capades Chalet, a buff-colored concrete-block building in Santa Monica, five blocks from the Pacific Ocean. During a training session there, Gardner inflamed a groin injury that had plagued him for months.
It got worse when they got to Lake Placid and Gardner had a Xylocaine injection, but the anesthetic was too strong and it only made things worse; the pain was gone, but now Gardner couldn’t feel his leg at all. They pulled out of the competition moments before it was supposed to begin.
The next morning, with the skaters, their parents and their coach perched on the stage at a high school auditorium for a hastily arranged news conference, hundreds of reporters tried to get a shattered Babilonia to turn on her partner. She didn’t take the bait.
“She totally had my back,” Gardner said. “There was so much camaraderie and trust and love between the two of us. She understood that it was a major injury and it was devastating. It changed the path of our career.”
“I’m not going to say it ruined it,” he added. “It just changed the path.”
Two months after leaving Lake Placid in sorrow, Gardner and Babilonia, who had gone from “Tai and Randy” to the “Heartbreak Kids,” turned pro, signing a three-year contract with the Ice Capades that included endorsement deals.
They never skated in the Olympics again. And while the money was good, the pace was punishing, with eight shows a week on a 30-week tour.
“You’re performing every night, weekends two shows a day,” Babilonia said. “If you don’t pace yourself, which I didn’t, it will rock your world in a negative way.
“You can’t do all the tricks you did as a teenager every night.”
Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner skating in 1979, the same year they won the pairs world championship.
(Tony Duffy / Getty Images)
Babilonia had never truly dealt with the emotional pain of the Olympic withdrawal. Now she was also dealing with the strain and fatigue of the ice show schedule as well as an identity crisis.
“Randy figured out how to put Tai and Randy in a box and leave them there and go on with his life,” Babilonia said. “I didn’t know how to separate them from me.”
So she sought answers in amphetamines, heavy drinking and a number of brief but high-profile romances before hitting rock bottom just before her 29th birthday, when she tried to kill herself with an overdose of sleeping pills. Her recovery started seven months later with an emotional first-person account of her fall in People magazine.
“I did it because I knew I had to,” Babilonia, still fit and youthful, said of a confession in which she blamed no one but herself. “I had to stop what I was doing and this was part of my recovery process. I couldn’t say yes quick enough.
“Something inside of me said, ‘This is your moment. Get it out. It may help some people,’” she continued. “And it did.”
The magazine cover story was followed 19 months later by the prime-time NBC movie “On Thin Ice,” which went over much of the same territory, with Babilonia and Gardner playing themselves in many of the skating scenes.
“It took me a while to watch the whole thing. Some scenes were hard,” said Babilonia, who speaks in a confident, careful cadence. “It was just part of my recovery process.”
She’s been sober 17 years and her relationship with Gardner, who came out as gay in 2006 — also in People magazine — has lasted longer than her marriage. Along the way, Babilonia matured from the shy withdrawn child who refused to hold a boy’s hand into a bold, strong and confident woman.
“She’s totally mature. She is worldly. And she’s an advocate for equality in sports, people of color and all that,” said Gardner, 68, whose home in Manhattan Beach is about 10 miles from the Culver City ice rink where he and Babilonia learned to skate once stood.
The former teammates still meet at least once a month and talk on the phone frequently, although they haven’t been on the ice together since Gardner underwent surgery on his back a year ago.
Flames from a olympic torch passes in front of Tai Babilonia at LA84 Foundation in January.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
When she stopped skating Babilonia tried coaching, but that didn’t work because she didn’t know how to teach the moves she had so easily mastered. Instead, she launched a clothing line, became a motivational speaker, volunteered with various groups promoting diversity on and off the ice, co-hosted a TV interview show taped in Santa Barbara and, for the last nine years, has co-hosted a holiday skate party for kids from the Union Rescue Mission. She also continues to skate in charity events.
All that in addition to her work with Atoy Wilson, a former U.S. novice champion, on the Mabel Fairbanks biopic, tentatively titled “Black Ice: The Mabel Fairbanks Story.”
“I want to try everything,” she said. “I want to experience everything.”
But her real job, she quickly adds, is being a grandmother to Ryett, her son’s 2-year-old boy in Arizona.
“I love being a grandmother,” she said. “Absolutely love it.”
She is also a prolific presence on social media, where most of her posts are either trenchant comments on the politics of today or black-and-white photos from back in the day, when she and Gardner — Tai and Randy — were winning medals and opening doors, helping to change U.S. figure skating forever.
“I appreciate what we did more as I get older,” Babilonia said. “We were pretty good and we made our mark. We worked hard. We became two-time Olympians. We met the queen of England.
Feb. 2 (UPI) — President Donald Trump has threatened to sue Trevor Noah over a joke the comedian made while hosting Sunday night’s Grammy Awards.
“It looks like I’ll be sending my lawyers to sue this poor, pathetic, talentless dope of an M.C., and suing him for plenty$,” Trump said Sunday night in a statement on his Truth Social media platform.
Trump frequently pursues lawsuits against critics and media organizations over comments he says damaged his reputation, drawing criticism from opponents who accuse him of trying to silence dissent.
Noah, a South African comedian who has hosted the Grammy Awards since 2021, attracted the ire of the American president with a joke about Trump’s relationship with the convicted sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
After awarding singer Billie Eilish the song of the year award, Noah remarked: “That is a Grammy every artist wants — almost as much as Trump wants Greenland, which makes sense, I mean, because Epstein’s island is gone he needs a new one to hang out with Bill Clinton.”
There is no verified evidence that either president visited Epstein’s Little Saint James Island, which has been linked to sex crimes committed by Epstein against minors.
“Noah said, INCORRECTLY about me, that Donald Trump and Bill Clinton spent time on Epstein Island. WRONG!!!” Trump said in his statement.
“I can’t speak for Bill, but I have never been to Epstein Island, nor anywhere close, and until tonight’s false and defamatory statement, have never been accused of being there, not even by the Fake News Media.”
Trump and Epstein, who died in jail by apparent suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex-trafficking charges, were friends dating back to the 1980s. The American president said in July that they had a falling out in the early 2000s after Epstein “stole” spa staff from his Mar-a-Lago resort including Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide in April.
On Friday, the Justice Department released millions of pages from its investigation into Epstein. Included in the documents were unverified claims and allegations submitted to the FBI that mention Trump in connection with alleged sex crimes involving minors.
Trump has denied wrongdoing. Justice Department Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told CNN’sState of the Unionon Sunday that allegations included in the documents against Trump and others were “very quickly determined to not be credible.”
The executions are part of broader crackdown by Beijing on centres across Southeast Asia, which are built on an industrial scale and hunt scam victims across the globe, as well as running kidnapping, prostitution and drugs rackets.
Published On 2 Feb 20262 Feb 2026
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China has executed four people found guilty of causing six Chinese citizens’ deaths and running scam and gambling operations out of Myanmar worth more than $4bn.
The Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court in southern China announced the executions on Monday morning in a statement. However, the timing of the executions was not clear.
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The executions of 11 other people convicted of running scam centres in Myanmar had been announced last week.
The Shenzhen court sentenced five people accused of running a network of scam centres and casinos to death in November. One of the defendants, group leader Bai Suocheng, died of illness before the sentence was carried out.
The group had established industrial parks in Myanmar’s Kokang region bordering China, from where they allegedly ran gambling and telecom scam operations involving abductions, extortion, forced prostitution, and drug manufacturing and trafficking.
They defrauded victims of more than 29 billion yuan ($4.2bn) and caused the deaths of six Chinese citizens and injuries to others, the court said.
Their crimes “were exceptionally heinous, with particularly serious circumstances and consequences, posing a tremendous threat to society”, the court’s statement said.
The defendants appealed the verdict, but the Guangdong Provincial High People’s Court dismissed their applications, it added.
The executions are part of a broader crackdown by Beijing on scam operations in Southeast Asia, where scam parks have become an industrial-scale business, especially in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos.
A mix of trafficked and willing labour has carried out digital scams on victims around the world, including thousands of Chinese citizens.
Authorities in the region face growing international pressure from China, the United States and other nations to address the proliferation of crime.
Experts say most of the centres are run by Chinese-led crime syndicates working with Myanmar armed groups, taking advantage of the country’s instability amid the ongoing war.
Myanmar’s military government has long been accused of turning a blind eye, but it has trumpeted a crackdown over the last year after being lobbied by key military backer China, experts say.
In October, more than 2,000 people were arrested in a raid on KK Park, an infamous scam centre on Myanmar’s border with Thailand.
However, some raids mounted by the government have been part of a propaganda effort, according to monitors, choreographed to vent pressure from Beijing without denting profits that enrich the military’s militia allies.
Emigrating to sun-kissed Lanzarote might sound like a dream come true, but one British couple have confessed that they miss quite a few things from back home – including the weather!
Over 6,000 Brits live on Lanzarote, making it the second-largest expat community [stock image]
Taking early retirement and leaving the soggy British winters behind forever is an impossible dream for many of us. But designers Richard and Tarnya Norse-Evans managed to do just that when they sold their business and relocated to the Canary Islands.
While they don’t regret making a new home for themselves in balmy Lanzarote, where the temperatures rarely drop into single figures, Richard and Tarnya say there are a few things they miss about chilly, rain-lashed Britain.
“When you live on a small island you need to see and do something different, because here you don’t get to go to the art galleries, visit people, go to the city or eat in different restaurants,” Richard told the i Paper.
He added that, while Lanzarote’s weather makes for a nice easy life there’s something to be said for a good old-fashioned chilly day. He said he sometimes feels nostalgic about the idea of “putting on a coat and Wellingtons and getting out in a forest for a good stomp and an English pint in a pub”.
While that’s a rare treat these days, it’s still a possibility. Because the cost of living in Lanzarote is much lower than in the UK, Richard and Tarnya can afford to splash out on an occasional flight back to Blighty for a taste of what they missing.
The pair also noted the struggles with the language barrier, and highlighted challenges in Spain with paperwork that meant long wait times for permits.
According to the most recent figures, between 6,200 and 6,500 British people are officially registered as residents in Lanzarote, making them one of the largest foreign populations on the island.
That number’s swelled massively in the summer, of course, when thousands more flock to the sun-kissed islands. Because the climate is so mild, there’s no real “low season” on Lanzarote, and holidaymakers are arriving at the island’ airport at any time of year. Tourism is the single biggest of the island’s economy.
Holiday rentals on Lanzarote grew by by 113% between June 2023 and December 2025. While there have been a few reports of extreme, violent anti-tourist hostility, they tend to be exaggerated, and the island remains generally welcoming to holidaymakers.
Richard and Tarnya have become part of that thriving industry, with a luxurious-looking Airbnb to supplement their lifestyle. “We certainly do not live a permanent holiday,” Richard said. “Work life still goes on regardless of the weather.”
They also own a vineyard that produces around 7,000kg of grapes a year, which they sell to a local wine producer.
And there are many kinds of business that simply aren’t available on Lanzarote – with Richard bemoaning the lack of variety when it comes to the arts and entertainment.
But luckily, he says there’s always the option of popping home for a taste of what he’s missing. He added: “With a four-hour flight we can be back in London quickly and enjoy the best of both worlds.”
At this year’s Grammy ceremony, the Recording Academy called on artists Post Malone, Lauryn Hill and Reba McEntire to honor the musicians who died last year.
The annual In Memoriam segment paid tribute to artists including Roberta Flack, D’Angelo and Ozzy Osbourne. From heavy punk numbers to jazzy R&B ballads and solemn country-infused performances, the academy celebrated those who have shaped music, whether the artistry or the business.
It started off with a candlelit tribute from McEntire, Brandy Clark and Lukas Nelson. The trio performed McEntire’s “Trailblazer.” McEntire lost her late stepson, talent manager Brandon Blackstock, last year. As the performance continued, images of people like Connie Francis, Roy Ayers, Joe Ely and Ace Frehley appeared on the screen behind.
Then Post Malone, backed by Andrew Watt, Slash, Duff McKagan and Chad Smith — all artists who worked with Osbourne over the past few years — covered Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs,” complete with bursts of fire and endless guitar riffs. The camera continued to pan over to teary-eyed Kelly and Sharon Osbourne, daughter and wife of the Black Sabbath frontman, who attended the ceremony.
Then, it was Hill’s turn to pay tribute to late R&B pioneer D’Angelo. Behind dark shades and covered in diamonds, the singer started off by saying, “Make time for the people you love while you can.”
The singer was backed by a massive band and started to sing her own track “Nothing Even Matters.” She was soon joined by musicians Lucky Daye, Leon Thomas and Jon Batiste. As they continued to blend the sounds of “Brown Sugar” and “Devil’s Pie,” the giant ensemble shifted gears to pay tribute to Flack.
Throughout the remainder of the segment, Hill acted as a conductor, calling on each musician to sing their parts. They were soon joined by Chaka Khan and John Legend, who sang “Where Is the Love?” By the end of the performance, the setlist came back to the Fugees’ “Killing Me Softly With His Song.” The entire stadium erupted in applause, got on their feet and started to dance along with everyone on stage.
In between the live performance, the academy also showed video tributes for Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead and Sly Stone.
MELBOURNE, Australia — Carlos Alcaraz is 22, he’s the youngest man ever to win all four of the major titles in tennis, and he had to achieve what no man previously has done to complete the career Grand Slam in Australia.
The top-ranked Alcaraz dropped the first set of the Australian Open final in 33 minutes Sunday as Novak Djokovic went out hard in pursuit of an unprecedented 25th major title, but the young Spaniard dug deep to win 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, 7-5.
“Means the world to me,” Alcaraz said. “It is a dream come true for me.”
Djokovic had won all 10 of his previous finals at Melbourne Park and, despite being 38, gave himself every chance of extending that streak to 11 when he needed only two sets to win.
Carlos Alcaraz celebrates after defeating Novak Djokovic to win the Australian Open on Sunday.
(Asanka Brendon Ratnayake / Associated Press)
Alcaraz rose to the challenge.
“Tennis can change on just one point. One point, one feeling, one shot can change the whole match completely,” he said. “I played well the first set, but you know, in front of me I had a great and inspired Novak, who was playing great, great shots.”
A couple of unforced errors from Djokovic early in the second set gave Alcaraz the confidence.
He scrambled to retrieve shots that usually would be winners for Djokovic, and he kept up intense pressure on the most decorated player in men’s tennis history. There were extended rallies where each player hit enough brilliant shots to usually win a game.
Djokovic has made an art form of rallying from precarious positions. Despite trailing two sets to one, he went within the width of a ball in the fourth set’s ninth game of turning this final around.
After fending off six break points in the set, he exhorted the crowd when he got to 30-30. The crowd responded with chants of “Nole, Nole, Nole!”
When Djokovic earned a breakpoint chance — his first since the second set — he whipped up his supporters again. But when Djokovic sent a forehand long on the next point, Alcaraz took it as a reprieve.
A short forehand winner, a mis-hit from Alcaraz, clipped the net and landed inside the line to give him game point. Then Djokovic hit another forehand long.
Alcaraz responded with a roar, and sealed victory by taking two of the next three games.
As he was leaving the court, Alcaraz signed the lens of the TV camera with a recognition: “Job finished. 4/4 Complete.”
The closing benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index is seen on a screen inside the dealing room of Hana Bank in central Seoul on Monday. Photo by Yonhap
South Korean stocks nosedived by more than 5 percent Monday, due largely to a risk-averse sentiment following the nomination of the new Federal Reserve chair, and a sharp decline in silver and gold prices. The Korean won plunged against the U.S. dollar.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) tumbled 274.69 points, or 5.26 percent, to close at 4,949.67, snapping a four-session winning streak.
The country’s main bourse operator, the Korea Exchange (KRX), issued a sell-side circuit breaker for 5 minutes around noon.
Trade volume was heavy at 568.8 million shares worth 32 trillion won (US$21.9 billion). Losers outnumbered winners 795 to 116.
Foreign and institutional investors offloaded a net 2.5 trillion won and 2.2 trillion won, respectively. Retail investors, on the other hand, went bargain hunting and snapped up a net 4.6 trillion won.
Local stocks came under selling pressure following the nomination of Kevin Warsh, seen widely as a hawkish figure, as Fed chair, and sharp declines in silver and gold prices, according to Lee Kyoung-min, an analyst from Daishin Securities.
“A sharp drop in precious metals triggered the liquidation and margin call of derivatives holding them. This in turn led to the forced liquidation of other assets, as investors went to preserve margins, further amplifying the stock market’s decline,” Lee said.
International gold prices have experienced a sharp decline of over 10 percent in the past few days, while sliver prices plunged over 30 percent.
The local gold market was affected, too, with gold traded on the KRX falling to its lowest permissible limit of 10 percent Monday. It marked the first time KRX gold prices fell to the floor since the market opened in March 2014, according to the bourse operator.
“There is a possibility the benchmark KOSPI could take a breather, considering its sharp gains recently, but a daily decline of 4 to 5 percent seems excessive,” Han Ji-young, a researcher at Kiwoom Securities, said.
Shares closed lower across the board.
Market top-cap Samsung Electronics declined 6.29 percent to 150,400 won, while its chipmaking rival SK hynix tumbled 8.69 percent to 830,000 won.
Top car marker Hyundai Motor retreated 4.4 percent to 478,000 won, bio firm Celltrion lost 3.33 percent to 203,000 won, and defense giant Hanwha Aerospace closed down 4.69 percent to 1,239,000 won.
Financial shares were among the few winners.
Hana Financial Group added 3.2 percent to 103,300 won, and Meritz Financial Group inched up 0.69 percent to 117,400 won.
The Korean won was quoted at 1,464.3 won against the U.S. dollar at 3:30 p.m., down 24.8 won from the previous session.
Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed lower. The yield on three-year Treasurys rose 1.4 basis points to 3.152 percent, and the return on the benchmark five-year government bonds rose 1.2 basis points to 3.448 percent.
Copyright (c) Yonhap News Agency prohibits its content from being redistributed or reprinted without consent, and forbids the content from being learned and used by artificial intelligence systems.
LIKE theatre, gigs and festivals but hate the price tags that go with them?
There are plenty of little-known sites that offer heavily discounted or even FREE tickets to top-name events to fill empty seats. This even includes recordings for TV shows that have audiences.
TodayTix is a great platform for finding discounted West End ticketsCredit: Getty
With London West End shows easily setting two people back £100, heading to the theatre may seem possible only once in a blue moon.
But thanks to the following sites, you could save hundreds on tickets – we’ve tested all of them, and got incredible tickets to some huge shows for a fraction of what everyone else is paying.
TodayTix
If you don’t already have the TodayTix app, you should download it now.
It is an app for booking theatre and stage shows, including the London West End performances.
It’s especially great for anyone looking for last-minute shows.
There is a feature called ‘Rush Tickets’, which offers a chance to get discounted tickets on the day of a performance.
Shows this offer is applied to include MJ The Musical (£30), The Producers (£30), Titanique (£30), Stranger Things The First Shadow (£25), Back to the Future (£29.50), Six (£25), The Book of Mormon (£25) and Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap (£25).
I recently watched The Mousetrap on a £25 Rush Ticket and managed to get the first row of the upper circle – a seat that usually costs considerably more than £25.
The app also has a ‘lottery’ feature for some shows, where you can enter a lottery for tickets from as little as £10.
Under this feature, you do have to be resilient, as the likelihood of getting lottery tickets is slim.
However, after a few months of entering the lottery every week, I managed to bag £40 tickets to both parts of Harry Potter and The Cursed Child – tickets which can usually set you back over £400 for the stalls or dress circle.
Other shows that have lottery offers include Hamilton, which, if you won, you’d only pay £10 for.
Some shows also have their own offers on the app, for example, Moulin Rouge offers Bohemian Seats, which are reduced tickets (£30) for same-day performances.
With TodayTix, I have managed to visit several shows – Rush Ticket offers include MJ The Musical tickets for £30Credit: Cyann Fielding
Applause Store
Applause Store claims to be the world’s best television audience company and gives out tickets to a range of shows.
I have been using Applause Store for about four years now, and in that time, I have seen a couple of shows, including QI.
The one major downside, though, is that you get tickets and then queue for a long time and don’t necessarily get in.
This has put me off using Applause Store as frequently, though it is great if there is a show you really want to see being filmed for TV.
For example, at the time of writing, Applause Store is booking tickets for the BAFTA Awards fan areas, something that I would love to see, and so I have applied for two tickets.
Tickets are free, but just because you get tickets doesn’t mean that you are guaranteed entry, so if you are desperate to see the show, make sure you get there early.
SRO Audiences
SRO Audiences is similar to Applause Store.
For SRO Audiences, you don’t need to sign up – simply head onto the website, look at the shows available and request tickets.
Similar to Applause Store, tickets do not guarantee entry, so it is best to get there early on the day.
Central Tickets
Central Tickets is primarily for London theatre events – and by this I don’t necessarily mean London West End shows.
You have to sign up, but it is free of charge to do this, and then you get access to heavily discounted or even free tickets to shows.
Before Christmas, I nabbed two free tickets with a £6.50 admin fee (so £13 total) to see Burlesque: Unwrapped instead of a minimum of £45 per person.
The festive-yet-saucy burlesque performance was, of course, adults only and featured performers twirling around and undressing to Christmas tunes – I’m talking Rudolph nipple tassels and lots of glitter.
It was no London West End show, but for £6.50, my friend and I had a great laugh and a fun evening out.
A lot of the events and shows will most likely be things you haven’t heard of before, but all have a description, meaning you can learn what the show is about before booking.
Sometimes there are some real gems, though; for example, at the time of writing, you could head to Phantom Peak’s immersive experience for £10 instead of £35, or you could head to Sabrage, “featuring international circus elites and theatrical misfits”, for £15 instead of a minimum of £30.
Some sites have discounted tickets to events, including comedy gigsCredit: Getty
Show Film First
Similar to Central Tickets, Show Film First offers heavily discounted tickets to shows and events.
You do have to sign up for an account, which is free, and their newsletter to get the offers.
Some of the current offers include seeing the London Lions basketball team playing against the Niners Chemnitz team, and you would only pay the access fee.
They have also had tickets to top London day festivals, featuring international popstars as headline acts – for an access fee of just £7.95 (but we won’t say who, to spare their blushes).
Other offers include travel conferences and comedy shows.
Age-bracketed tickets
When living in London, it is often easy to forget that theatres, cinemas, and so on offer age-related discounts, and it isn’t necessarily always for youngsters.
The Young Vic then offers £12 tickets for under 25s, and the Barbican and Almeida Theatre both offer £5 tickets for 25s and under.
A bit older than that? Well, if you are under 30, joining the mailing lists for the Royal Albert Hall and Donmar Warehouse allows you to grab £20 tickets.
At The Royal Albert Hall, past events have included Barbie: The Movie in Concert, Video Games in Concert and BBC Proms: The Traitors.
There is also Kids Week, which usually takes place in the summer, and allows children under the age of 18 to visit many West End shows for free with a paying adult.
In addition to offers, there are some ticket types that cost lessCredit: Cyann Fielding
Restricted view
One way to get cheaper tickets at pretty much any show is by opting for the restricted-view seats.
Sites like SeatPlan and A View From My Seat help to show what sort of view you would get, so you can always check a restricted seat’s view before actually booking it.
If you do book this kind of ticket, you can expect to save between 30 and 50 per cent compared to a seat with a non-restricted view.
Whilst this offer isn’t available at the moment, it will be in the summer again, every Friday at 11am when tickets are released for the following week.
And each ticket only costs £5.
Last summer I watched The Winter’s Tale on a standing ticket.
Half of the show was conducted inside, where I did stand but had a barrier to lean on, and then the other half was outside, and thanks to the show not being fully booked, I got a seat.
It is worth checking the length of the show and thinking whether you can stand for that long, though, before committing.
Like at the Globe theatre, you can stand for just £5Credit: Getty
Disney discounts
If you head to the ‘Disney Tickets’ website, you can grab tickets to Disney’s West End shows for less than usual.
For example, you can grab tickets to The Lion King and Disney‘s Hercules on Mondays at noon for that week’s performances for £29.50.
Known as Magical Mondays, it means you could see The Lion King for considerably less than the usual ticket price, which sits around the £70 to £110 range.
All you need to do is create a MyDisney account, which is free to do.
Kim Kardashian’s new suitor Lewis Hamilton already has her famous family’s seal of approvalCredit: ShutterstockKris Jenner has long been a fan and supporter of LewisCredit: GettyKylie’s boyfriend Timothee ranked Lewis in his five greatest Britst just months agoCredit: Getty
Kim’s new suitor Lewis is already well-liked among her extended family and has got the seal of approval from mum Kris Jenner as well as Kylie’s boyfriend, Timothee Chalamet.
Just two months ago, actor Timothee listed Lewis among his list of the five greatest Brits.
Whilst promoting his movie Marty Supreme, Timothee revealed that Lewis was among his British idols alongside David and Victoria Beckham, Susan Boyle and hip-hop artisit, Fakemink.
Timothee has been dating Kylie since April 2023 with the pair enjoying a dinner thrown by Kim in Malibu just last month with the reality star dishing all on the pair staying for hours during her recent appearance on Khloe in Wonder Land.
Elsewhere, mum Kris has long been a fan of racing driver Lewis.
Back in October 2015, she took to Instagram to dedicate a whole post to Lewis’ F1 win.
Kris said at the time: “Congratulations @lewishamilton !!!! We are soooo proud of you!!!!!!“
Interestingly, Kris went on to add “#family,” onto her Instagram caption.
Furthermore, insiders claimed back in 2015 that Kris saw Lewis as “perfect” and a “good influence” and reportedly sang his praises as a potential partner to her daughters – 11 years before his new romance with Kim.
Kim and Lewis have known each other for a number of yearsCredit: AlamyHe has always gotten along with her familyCredit: GettyThe star jetted into the UK for their secret dateCredit: Getty
The Sun revealed the world exclusive that Kim and Lewis had spent time together this weekend after she flew into the country on her £100million private jet from LA.
She arrived with a mountain of luggage for her brief stay at the exclusive Estelle Manor in the Cotswolds, with three bodyguards protecting the couple.
Insiders said they were granted exclusive use of the posh spa at the country club in Witney, Oxfordshire, before having a meal in a private room.
A source told The Sun: “It all appeared to be very romantic. Kim and Lewis made use of all the facilities on offer.
“She had two bodyguards with her and Lewis had a close protection officer but they remained in the background.
“Two of the three stood guard outside the door to their room, so no one could disturb them.”
However the pair have never been romantically linked.
Mum-of-four Kim touched down on Saturday afternoon at Oxford Airport, where two cars — one for her luggage — were waiting to make the nine-minute journey to Estelle Manor.
An hour later, Lewis, who drives for Italian team Ferrari, arrived at the Grade II-listed property by helicopter, chartered from London’s Battersea Heliport.
Lewis spent time with Kim in a luxury Oxfordshire manor houseCredit: GettyThey are said to be in the throes of a new romanceCredit: Getty
Men: Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie, Hammy McMillan, Kyle Waddell (alternate)
Women: Rebecca Morrison, Sophie Jackson, Jennifer Dodds, Sophie Sinclair, Fay Henderson (alternate)
Mixed: Mouat and Dodds
In Beijing four years ago, curling was the only sport to return to Britain with medals. Eve Muirhead’s rink took women’s gold and Mouat’s men claimed silver.
Muirhead is no longer playing – instead, she will lead the overall GB team as chef du mission – but her Bejing team-mate Dodds is.
“Jen and the kids” is how the women’s rink this time label themselves and, while their inexperience means they are not among the favourites, they could find themselves in contention for a podium place if things go their way.
Edinburgh duo Dodds and Mouat will be fancied in the mixed, though, having lost the bronze-medal match last time.
And Mouat’s rink are the team to beat in the men’s event. For them, anything less than gold would be a disappointment.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, seen speaking in a November 2024 press conference, announced on Sunday plans to send humanitarian aid to Cuba. File Photo by Isaac Esquivel/EPA-EFE
Feb. 2 (UPI) — President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico announced over the weekend plans to send humanitarian aid to Cuba amid rising tensions between Havana and Washington.
Since President Donald Trump oversaw last month’s U.S. military seizure of Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolas Maduro, he has focused on Cuba, warning that the nation is on the precipice of failing. Last week, Trump declared a national emergency in relation to Cuba and announced a mechanism to impose sanctions against any nation that provides the island nation with oil.
In the southwestern city of Guaymas, Sonora, on Sunday, Sheinbaum said Mexico plans to send food, household goods and essential supplies to Cuba through the Secretariat of the Navy while seeking to address the shipment of oil to the Caribbean island via “diplomatic channels,” according to a readout from her office.
“We are already doing all the work necessary to send humanitarian aid that the Cuban people need — other household items and supplies,” Sheinbaum said.
“That is important.”
Commenting on whether she has addressed Trump about the issue of shipping Mexican oil to Cuba, Sheinbaum said her secretary of Foreign Affairs, Juan Ramon de la Fuente, has discussed it with his American counterpart, Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“And as I’ve said, we are exploring all diplomatic avenues to be able to send fuel to the Cuban people, because this is not a matter of governments but of support to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Cuba,” she said.
“In the meantime, we will send food and other important aid to the island.”
Mexico is an important supplier of fuel to Cuba, and even more so since the Trump administration cut off oil Venezuelan oil exports.
Last week, Sheinbaum paused oil shipments to Cuba, but said it was “a sovereign decision.”
Trump and Sheinbaum spoke on the phone for about 40 minutes Thursday and had what the American president called “a very productive conversation” about border-related issues, drug trafficking and trade.
On Thursday night, Trump declared a national emergency in relation to Cuba and the threat of tariffs, heightening uncertainty over Washington’s next steps toward the socialist island nation.
Sheinbaum was reportedly taken by surprise by this announcement, telling reporters during a Friday press conference that “We did not touch on the topic of Cuba,” directing her secretary of Foreign Affairs to get more information from the U.S. State Department.
“The imposition of tariffs on countries that provide oil to Cuba could create a far-reaching humanitarian crisis.”
The United States already enforces a decades-old embargo against Cuba that restricts most industries, while secondary sanctions penalize foreign companies that do business with Havana.
Beirut, Lebanon – Before Israel’s war on Lebanon, Ali (full name withheld for safety reasons) lived in Haddatha, a village in the Bint Jbeil district in the south, about 12km (7.5 miles) from the border with Israel, surrounded by nature where agriculture was intrinsic to life.
Then came Israel’s “hellfire”.
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At least nine people were killed and some 3,000 injured, including the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, when thousands of pagers exploded, nearly simultaneously, overwhelming hospitals on September 17, 2024.
Six days later, Israel escalated its attacks across the south, killing nearly 600 people, in what was the country’s deadliest day since the country’s ruinous civil war ended in 1990, and displacing more than one million people.
“Our house was destroyed,” he told Al Jazeera. Ali took refuge in a town about 20km (12.5 miles) north of Haddatha, called Burj Qalaway.
But more than a year later, he is yet to return home despite a ceasefire. He is one of tens of thousands who are still displaced from their homes around Lebanon and who say that what little they have received in support from the Lebanese state or Hezbollah is not enough to rebuild their lives or homes destroyed during the war.
South ‘not safe’
On November 27, 2024, a ceasefire came into effect between Hezbollah and Israel. The agreement brought to an end more than a year of cross-border attacks and a two-month-long Israeli intensification that killed thousands in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and devastated civilian infrastructure.
Under the ceasefire, cross-border attacks were supposed to stop, Hezbollah was to withdraw north of the Litani River, which runs across south Lebanon, and Israel was to withdraw troops that had invaded south Lebanon in October.
Israel, however, never stopped attacking. Its army still occupies five points in southern Lebanon, and during the ceasefire, it razed several villages to the ground.
An estimated 1.2 million people, more than a quarter of the Lebanese population, had been displaced during the war. On the morning of November 27, hundreds of thousands of people streamed south to their villages to return home. But tens of thousands more have been left behind and are still unable to go home.
“The south is not safe,” Ali said. “I am afraid that I might be walking somewhere and a raid will attack a car next to me.”
Israeli attacks continue across the south and the Bekaa Valley in the east on a near-daily basis, with the Lebanese government counting more than 2,000 Israeli violations of the 2024 ceasefire deal in the last three months of 2025.
Ali is not alone. The International Organization for Migration estimates that more than 64,000 people are still internally displaced in Lebanon, according to figures compiled in October 2025.
Entire villages ‘razed’
Some of the 64,000 cannot return to their homes along the border region with Israel. Israeli soldiers still hold five points on Lebanese territory, managing large swaths of south Lebanon through violence and technology: using drones, air raids, shelling or gunfire. Since the ceasefire, Israel has killed more than 330 people in Lebanon, including at least 127 civilians.
Melina*, from Odaisseh, a village on the southern border, lived most of her life in Nabatieh. During the war, she was displaced to Sidon, a southern city about 44km (27 miles) south of Beirut.
“I haven’t been able to visit my village,” she told Al Jazeera. “Psychologically, I can’t bear to see our house, which was completely destroyed, and the entire village was razed to the ground.”
“The security situation remains extremely dangerous,” she said. “You could be shot at by the Israeli side at any moment, and it’s unsafe to travel without a Lebanese army escort.”
Ali runs a market in Burj Qalaway, but he says the income is not enough to rebuild his home. There are also other concerns. Israel has attacked reconstruction equipment in southern Lebanon, drawing criticism from human rights groups.
“Amid the ceasefire, Israeli forces have carried out attacks that unlawfully target reconstruction-related equipment and facilities,” Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a December 2025 report. “After reducing many of Lebanon’s southern border towns to rubble, the Israeli military is now making it much more difficult for tens of thousands of residents to rebuild their destroyed homes and return to their towns.”
Some Lebanese also fear a renewed Israeli offensive similar to the one in 2024.
‘Couldn’t see 2cm in front of me’
On July 30, 2024, at about 7:40pm, Ramez* was sitting in his bedroom at home in Haret Hreik, a neighbourhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs referred to locally as Dahiyeh, an area often targeted in the past by Israel for the Hezbollah presence there.
His cats were roaming around the room, and he was busy on his phone when he heard loud explosions.
The war had been raging in the south, but attacks on Beirut and its suburbs were not yet as common. “I heard more than nine bangs,” Ramez said. He ran out of his bedroom to help his family evacuate. He left his door open, he said, so his cats could escape. While telling his mother to grab her things, he heard the loudest bang.
“The whole neighbouring building just collapsed and fell on us,” he said. Israel had just levelled the building next to his, killing Fuad Shukr, a top Hezbollah commander.
“I couldn’t see 2cm in front of me because of the fog and the dust.”
Left: The building next to RK’s home was destroyed, causing it to fall onto his building, damaging the apartment. Right: Ramez’s sister’s car was destroyed in the attack on his home in July 2024 [Courtesy of Ramez*]
Ramez’s family escaped unscathed, though their house was badly damaged and his sister’s car was destroyed. His cats also survived. He found them the next day.
“I always wondered how people just go through something like this and just move on, saying, OK, Alhamdulillah, everyone is alive,” he says, though, “at that point I kind of understood it”.
Since the end of the war, he has been able to return to his family home in Haret Hreik. But his family had to pay for most of the reconstruction themselves, with little help from the government or any group.
They registered with the government for assistance but said they received only a one-time payment of 30 million Lebanese pounds (a little more than $330).
Hezbollah also sent engineers to assess the damage. In December 2024, the Reuters news agency reported that Hezbollah would pay about $77m and rent to families affected by war. Some locals said payments from the group helped a bit, but others said it had stopped paying nonmembers or tried to undervalue their losses.
“They were very stingy with payments,” Ramez said. “They tried to make us accept low payments, but my mom stood her ground and said it is enough.”
Other people who were displaced by the war told Al Jazeera that the aid provided by the state and Hezbollah was very limited.
War is ‘most terrible’
Reports are mixed over Hezbollah’s financial capability, and it is difficult to determine how badly they have been hit financially after the group’s political and military leadership was devastated by 2024’s war and suffered several Israeli assassinations, including their longtime charismatic leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
The fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria also dealt Hezbollah a serious blow, disrupting the land route to its main benefactor, Iran – itself now reeling from deadly protests and bracing for a possible US attack. The group is under immense pressure from the Lebanese government to disarm, with the United States and Israel applying pressure.
Further compounding the crisis is the fact that Lebanon is now almost seven years into one of the worst economic crises in more than 150 years, according to the World Bank. This has hit locals hard, with many having their bank accounts frozen and the currency devaluing by more than 90 percent.
This has left many of the displaced feeling abandoned and unsure of how to continue.
There were violent Israeli air raids in the south on Saturday, which continued on Sunday. In the meantime, people like Ali have to continue figuring out ways to survive as their displacement carries on well past the one-year mark.
“We love life, but the situation is not good. Wars break your back,” Ali said. “War is the most terrible thing in the world.”
Martin McDonagh’s 2023 film The Banshees of Inisherin secured eight Academy Award nominations – including Best Picture – while collecting numerous other accolades, inspiring many to explore its stunning landscapes.
For those eager to experience the spectacular scenery firsthand, there’s welcome news: the majority was shot on a single island.
Achill Island, situated off the County Mayo coast, is accessible by car, linked to the mainland via the Michael Davitt Bridge and readily reached using the N59 from Westport to Mulranny, followed by the R319, according to Achill Tourism.
On the island’s south-eastern side, Cloughmore served as the backdrop for JJ Devine’s pub Jonjo’s. Regrettably, the structure was purpose-built for production and subsequently dismantled, meaning it’s no longer visible today.
Nevertheless, it remains a beloved birdwatching location and merits a visit for its sweeping coastal panoramas, reports the Irish Mirror.
Heading westward from Cloughmore along the shoreline, you’ll discover the spot used for the fork in the road, distinguished by a statue of the Virgin Mary in the film.
In reality, no fork exists at this location, and the production team positioned the Mary statue there specifically for filming. This site was also used for the sequence in which Colm (Brendan Gleeson) escorts Pádraic (Colin Farrell) home following a beating in the village.
The notorious opening sequence of a cheerful, contented Pádraic wandering into frame against a vividly coloured, rainbow-tinged landscape was filmed at Purteen harbour, situated between Keel and Pollagh.
The production team transformed the site into a harbourside street scene featuring the island’s post office. The shop – O’Riordan’s – was built specifically for the film, whilst the row of fishermen’s cottages was merely a front.
Keem Bay is a breathtaking beach, boasting white sands and gorgeous turquoise waters – establishing it as one of Ireland’s most beloved coastal destinations. It also serves as the location for Colm and Pádraic’s closing scene – the structure, which is privately owned, wasn’t purpose-built and remains standing, though the actual scene was filmed on a studio set.
Corrymore Lake provides the backdrop for Dominic’s (Barry Keoghan) and Siobhán’s (Kerry Condon) heartbreaking exchange and his demise.
St Thomas’s Church, located in Dugort, is a 19th-century Church of Ireland structure that functioned as the setting for the Catholic Mass sequences in the film. It remains an active church and isn’t accessible to visitors outside of service times.
A central question in the congressional investigation of the firings of eight U.S. attorneys is whether Carol C. Lam in San Diego was dismissed, and Debra Wong Yang in Los Angeles eased out, to try to derail corruption probes of prominent California Republicans.
Whatever officials in Washington might have intended, Yang and Lam’s departures had no effect on the investigations, which continue unabated, sources close to the inquiries said this week. And several present and former federal prosecutors said it would be extremely difficult — though not impossible — to quash an investigation for political reasons.
“Most criminal prosecutors are an independent sort with a strong sense of pursuing truth and justice,” said William W. Carter, a Los Angeles federal prosecutor for 14 years before moving to the firm Musick, Peeler & Garrett in November. “They would be repulsed, and rebel, against any political order. There would be an uproar.”
Although the nation’s 93 U.S. attorneys are political appointees, their offices are staffed with career prosecutors who are tasked with pursuing justice without regard for any political agenda.
Those prosecutors — assistant U.S. attorneys — often come from top-flight law schools and see the job as a noble calling. Many of them could make much more money in private practice.
Calling a prosecutor off a case — particularly if the motive were transparently political — would cause an uproar, said Loyola Law School professor and former federal prosecutor Laurie L. Levenson. “You’d have to suspend reality to think you could get away with it,” she said.
The U.S. attorney’s office in San Diego is moving forward on the expanding investigation that netted Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-Rancho Santa Fe), the sources said. And prosecutors in Los Angeles continue to examine Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands) over various dealings with lobbyists and contractors during the time he was chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee.
Neither Lam nor Yang had direct involvement in the corruption investigations, the sources said. According to one source close to the Lewis inquiry, Yang never asked to be briefed by her prosecutors, nor did she give them any input. “It was just nothing … which was good.”
The sources close to the probes requested anonymity because a Justice Department policy bars public comment on ongoing investigations.
Yang emphatically denied that she was pushed out or that she or her successor was asked to stop a politically charged investigation.
“You have so many players involved, it’s ridiculous that you could make an investigation disappear, especially one that is high profile — because those are the ones all the assistants want to work on,” she said.
Levenson said there are subtle ways, however, to let a case “die a slow death.”
Supervisors could assign the prosecutors other matters to work on or divert resources away from the case. They could balk at issuing subpoenas or seeking approvals of various sorts from Washington. And when it comes time to seek an indictment, particularly if the case is not a slam-dunk, the U.S. attorney or even the Justice Department in Washington could waver and tell the prosecutors that they need to do more investigating.
Yet even this scenario is more likely to happen in a John Grisham novel than in real life, Levenson said.
Congressional investigators first focused on the possibility that Lam was fired because of the expanding Cunningham inquiry or the Lewis investigation. Although Lam’s office was not involved in the Lewis probe, those involved in the firings might not have known that because both cases involved the same prominent lobbyist, several prosecutors suggested.
Now some of the focus has shifted to Yang, with testimony indicating that the White House might have been looking to push her out.
In October 2006 — less than two months before the firings — Yang announced her resignation to take a job at the Los Angeles firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, which was defending Lewis and has strong Republican ties. Her new salary is reportedly about $1.5 million a year.
Yang said at the time that, as a recently divorced mother of three, she needed to enter the private sector to support her family.
U.S. Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales, in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, was questioned Thursday about Yang’s resignation, but insisted that she left of her own accord.
But in recent testimony to congressional investigators, D. Kyle Sampson, the Justice Department aide who coordinated the firings, said the White House had inquired in September about pushing Yang out to “create a vacancy.”
“I remember [White House Counsel] Harriet Miers asking me about Debra Yang … and what her plans were, whether she might be asked to resign,” Sampson told investigators last month, according to a senior congressional aide.
An opinion piece by a New York Times editorial editor, Adam Cohen, suggested that Gibson Dunn might have lured Yang away with the rich salary offer to get her off the Lewis investigation.
Gibson Dunn lawyers took offense at the suggestion.
“It’s absurd,” said Randy Mastro, co-chairman of the firm’s crisis management group with Yang.
It was well known that Yang was looking for something new, he added, and at least three top firms were actively recruiting her.
As for her being pushed out, he said Yang notified Miers in January 2006 that she planned to leave by the end of summer.
Mastro would not comment specifically on the Lewis investigation.
