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The upcoming documentary dives deep into the disappearance of a schoolgirl.

Netflix has released details of a new factual show exploring the media coverage and shifting public interest around “one of the most closely watched unsolved missing-persons cases of the century”.

The documentary attempts to find answers in the disappearance of Alissa Turney, who vanished in 2001.

The 17-year-old went missing on the last day of her junior year of high school in Phoenix, Arizona.

Alissa’s case was initially labelled as a runaway, and a missing-persons investigation was not launched straight away.

To this day, Turney’s whereabouts remain unknown. The documentary comes from the producers of American Murder: Gabby Petito. Alissa’s parents divorced when she was three years old and her mother, Barbara, remarried a man named Michael Turney.

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Michael, who had three children of his own, adopted Alissa and her older brother John. Michael and Barbara then went on to have a child together- Sarah.

Tragically, Barbara died after a cancer battle when Alissa was just nine years old, leaving Michael to raise all six children.

At the time of her disappearance, Alissa, who had a boyfriend, lived with Michael and Sarah and worked at the fast-food restaurant Jack in the Box.

On the last day of her junior year at Paradise Valley High School, Michael had picked her up from school at lunchtime and she had allegedly stormed off after an argument.

Later, he and Sarah found a note in her bedroom, saying she was running away to California, but she had left her phone and other personal items behind.

She had been planning to go to a party that night, but never attended.

A week after she disappeared, Michael said he received a phone call from a California number where Alissa swore at him before hanging up.

In 2008, Michael claimed Alissa had been killed by two “assassins” from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

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However, the spotlight then shone on Michael as at the same time, detectives were raiding Michael’s home when they found explosive devices and firearms amongst other weapons.

They also found a manifesto outlining his plans for a rampage against the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers building in Phoenix.

Turney admitted to unlawful possession of unregistered destructive devices and was sentenced to 10 years in jail, being released in August 2017.

In August 2020, he was indicted and charged by a Maricopa County grand jury on second-degree murder charges relating to Alissa’s disappearance.

However, all charges were dismissed in July 2023 and Alissa’s body has not yet been found.

VICTORIA Beckham’s daughter Harper is set to follow in her footsteps and become a beauty entrepreneur.

It comes after the fashion designer, 51, hinted that 14-year-old Harper could become the next Kylie Jenner.

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Earlier this month the HIKU BY Harper, the proposed name for the skincare and beauty brand, was filed under two trademark applications by the business Victoria incorporated for Harper, H7B Limited, matching the teenager’s full name, Harper Seven Beckham.

A source said: “Harper loves fashion and make-up and has already started doing make-up tutorials. 

“The plan is to create a brand aimed at the younger market, taking inspiration for pop culture and Korean beauty.

“The Beckhams are incredibly encouraging parents when it comes to their kids’ talents and exploring their hobbies and business ideas.  They’re a very entrepreneurial family.”

Harper has been increasingly popping up on mum Victoria’s Instagram feed and even set up her own account earlier this year.

Victoria said: “Harper is going to be one of two things. She’s either going to be a beauty mogul or she’s going to be a stand-up. She is hilarious.”

Last year Harper, who has been stepping out in custom-made dresses by her mother’s VB label, spoke publicly for the first time to present Victoria with a prestigious award for entrepreneurship, on behalf of Harper’s Bazaar magazine at its annual Women of the Year event.

She said: “I’m so nervous. Especially as tonight’s a school night. Hopefully this isn’t going to get me in trouble.

“My amazing mummy has built an incredible business from the ground up and has shown me the value of working hard.

“But above all, she’s taught me to always be kind and, even though she has a million things to do, she rarely misses school.”

Harper is still being made to do her homework in addition to her online make-up tutorials alongside her mum.

Victoria chooses to lead by example, instilling a work ethic into each of her four children.

While eldest son Brooklyn, 26, is forging a career with his own hot sauce company Stateside, former footballer Romeo is successfully modelling.

She told The Sun: “I mean, I feel sorry for these kids that are considered nepo-babies.

“The kids are simply the kids of their parents.

“It’s not their fault. Give them a chance.

“What matters is that people are good and kind.

“It is fine to be ambitious, but it is more important to be kind.”

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Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud and Ibrahim al Khalili followed Palestinians making their way back to northern Gaza after a ceasefire deal was announced.

The acting U.S. attorney in Sacramento has said she was fired after telling the Border Patrol chief in charge of immigration raids in California that his agents were not allowed to arrest people without probable cause in the Central Valley.

Michele Beckwith, a career prosecutor who was made the acting U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of California earlier this year, told the New York Times that she was let go after she warned Gregory Bovino, chief of the Border Patrol’s El Centro Sector, that a court injunction blocked him from carrying out indiscriminate immigration raids in Sacramento.

Beckwith did not respond to a request for comment from the L.A. Times, but told the New York Times that “we have to stand up and insist the laws be followed.”

The U.S. attorney’s office in Sacramento declined to comment. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment Friday evening.

Bovino presided over a series of raids in Los Angeles starting in June in which agents spent weeks pursuing Latino-looking workers outside of Home Depots, car washes, bus stops and other areas. The agents often wore masks and used unmarked vehicles.

But such indiscriminate tactics were not allowed in California’s Eastern District after the American Civil Liberties Union and United Farm Workers filed suit against the Border Patrol earlier in the year and won an injunction.

The suit followed a January operation in Kern County called “Operation Return to Sender,” in which agents swarmed a Home Depot and Latino market, among other areas frequented by laborers. In April, a federal district court judge ruled that the Border Patrol likely violated the Constitution’s protections against unreasonable search and seizure.

As Beckwith described it to New York Times reporters, she received a phone call from Bovino on July 14 in which he said he was bringing agents to Sacramento.

She said she told him that the injunction filed after the Kern County raid meant he could not stop people indiscriminately in the Eastern District. The next day, she wrote him an email in which, as quoted in the New York Times, she stressed the need for “compliance with court orders and the Constitution.”

Shortly thereafter her work cell phone and her work computer stopped working. A bit before 5 p.m. she received an email informing her that her employment was being terminated effective immediately.

It was the end of a 15-year career in in the Department of Justice in which she had served as the office’s Criminal Division Chief and First Assistant and prosecuted members of the Aryan Brotherhood, suspected terrorists, and fentanyl traffickers.

Two days later on July 17, Bovino and his agents moved into Sacramento, conducting a raid at a Home Depot south of downtown.

In an interview with Fox News that day, Bovino said the raids were targeted and based on intelligence. “Everything we do is targeted,” he said. “We did have prior intelligence that there were targets that we were interested in and around that Home Depot, as well as other targeted enforcement packages in and around the Sacramento area.”

He also said that his operations would not slow down. “There is no sanctuary anywhere,” he said. “We’re here to stay. We’re not going anywhere. We’re going to affect this mission and secure the homeland.”

Beckwith is one of a number of top prosecutors who have quit or been fired as the Trump administration pushes the Department of Justice to aggressively carry out his policies, including investigating people who have been the president’s political targets.

In March, a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles was fired after lawyers for a fast-food executive he was prosecuting pushed officials in Washington to drop all charges against him, according to multiple sources.

In July, Maurene Comey, a federal prosecutor in Manhattan and the daughter of former FBI director James Comey, was fired by the Trump administration, according to the New York Times.

And just last week, a U. S. attorney in Virginia was pushed out after he had determined there was insufficient evidence to prosecute James B. Comey. A new prosecutor this week won a grand jury indictment against Comey on one count of making a false statement and one count of obstruction of a congressional proceeding.

Paris is home to some of the world’s most famous landmarks, and trying to see them all can be tricky if you are pushed for time, so Mirror writer Niamh Kirk toured the iconic city by bike to see as many spots as possible

The French capital has become one of the best cities for cycling, and with so many sights to see, travelling on a bike around may be your best bet.

There’s no denying the roads are pretty busy, and the Metro gives the London Underground a run for it’s money when it comes to trying to work out, so I decided to hop on a bike and tour the city myself. Packing the itinerary with some of the world’s most famous landmarks, I knew I had a lot to cover in one day.

One good thing about Paris is how many cycle lanes they have put in, making it much safer than hopping on a Lime bike in London and hoping you don’t get run over.

It’s also an ideal way to burn off your croissants from breakfast, and work up an appetite for a Parisian lunch. I tracked my cycle on my new Huawei GT 6 watch (£229), a fitness watch that specialises in cycling, so I could map out my route with the GPS, track my distance, heart rate and time on the road.

Paris is expanding it’s network of protected bike lanes and these lanes are physically separated from cars which makes it a great feature for safety, especially for children. Paris now has protected cycling routes stretching across nearly half (48%) of its road network, however I quickly learnt there are a few rules to follow on the road.

For starters, there are two lanes, and for me, naively, I thought they were both going in the same direction, but I quickly found out I was wrong. They are lanes for both directions rather than a ‘fast’ lane for pro bikers, and ‘slow’ lane for more casual riders like myself.

After being shouted at by an angry Parisian man dressed to the nines in his lycra cycling gear, and not a clue what he was saying, I figured out I needed to stay in my lane.

I managed to squeeze in many landmarks during my cycle, including the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame, the Church of Saint-Sulpice, Dome des Invalides, and even stopped off for a much needed rest and picnic in the The Luxembourg Gardens.

In total I cycled 12.85km, and I feel like this was the most efficient way of packing in lots of sights if you are only in the city for a few days, making it easier than walking and much easier than grabbing a cab.

And after a long day of cycling and sightseeing, I treated myself to a large glass of wine and a sit down in the sun.

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FORMER PM MARGARET THATCHER famously got by on just four hours’ kip, while wartime leader Winston Churchill hit the hay for just a few hours a night.

A study suggests the average person gets just six hours and 50 minutes sleep – and others are getting less than three hours.

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But a good night’s shut-eye doesn’t start with jumping into bed at a reasonable time, it begins the moment you open your eyes in the morning.

Confused? Here, physiologist and sleep expert Dr Nerina Ramlakhan, tells Ella Walker how she gets quality sleep.

4AM – Go back to sleep: Dr Nerina says: “There are two main hormones that govern our kip – the sleep hormone melatonin and cortisol, which is produced when we’re stressed and drives us to get things done.

“Cortisol levels start to increase from around 4am, so many people find they can go into a shallower phase of sleep.

“I wake around then but don’t look at the time. I place weighted yoga eye pillows over my eyes and get another phase of sleep.”

7AM – Wake up the right way: The circadian rhythm – the body’s internal 24-hour biological clock that determines your sleep-wake cycle – is important to Dr Nerina.

She says: “I like to wake up naturally, I don’t like the jangling of an alarm.

“I get some natural daylight, ideally not through glass, even just a few seconds. It helps adjust my circadian rhythms.”

8AM – Breakfast of proteins, fats and carbs: It might be the first meal of the day, but Dr Nerina is already prepping for her sleep.

Something sugary like a croissant can overstimulate the nervous system and ruin sleep later.

So Dr Nerina has full-fat Greek yoghurt with a mixture of chia and flax seeds soaked overnight.

Dr Nerina says: “Protein and fat provides sustained energy, fullness and supports stable blood sugar levels.

“It sets the body on the right metabolic trajectory, increasing the likelihood of optimal melatonin production later.”

9AM – Post-breakfast coffee: Even sleep experts are not afraid of caffeine but they are careful with it.

“I have caffeine either with food or after breakfast,” says Dr Nerina.

“I don’t tend to have more than one caffeinated drink a day, and that’s before midday.

“The half-life of caffeine is about five hours, so if you have a cup of coffee at 3pm, you’ll have half the amount in your blood supply around 8pm.

“It might not make you feel lively, but could impact the quality of sleep.”

11 AM – Mid-morning exercise: Working out too late can also disrupt sleep so Dr Nerina does hers early.

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She says: “I do strength training or go to the river and swim.

“Exercise is really important, otherwise I’m more stressed with too much mental energy.

“I don’t like exercising in the evening.

“It can overstimulate the nervous system and produce hormones like adrenaline and cortisol, which will disrupt sleep.”

1PM – Lunch of eggs and gut-friendly foods: Increasing research is showing the impact of microbiome health on sleep.

Dr Nerina says: “If your gut is healthy, you sleep better.

“Lunch for me is always something that won’t spike blood sugar levels like heavy carbohydrates (which turn into sugar) would. I like an omelette with salad and sauerkraut.”

5PM – Dinner: A healthy meal and fasting window can support better quality sleep and help manage your circadian rhythm.

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Dr Nerina says: “I’ll eat some fish, vegetables and rice. I do like something sweet, so it might be some dark chocolate.

“A few days a week, I try intermittent fasting, having my last meal at 5pm. Other times, I eat no later than 7pm.”

8PM – Turn down the lights: Bright light tells your body to wake up, even in the evening, so turn the main lights off.

Dr Nerina says: “I might watch TV and turn the lamps on instead.

“I go to bed around 9pm, my device is switched off, charging outside my room, and I keep the room as cool as possible.

“I take a magnesium supplement now too, which helps relax the nervous system and muscles.”

10PM – If drifting off is tricky: It should take 15 minutes to fall asleep.

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“If you have any trouble, Dr Nerina says: “I use some box breathing to help me fall asleep.

“If I’m really stressed, I do ten minutes of journaling before I turn the lights out.

“Stress journaling has been shown to reduce the time it takes to fall asleep.”

LIVERPOOL could follow Chelsea by exploiting a Uefa loophole to add Federico Chiesa to their Champions League squad.

The Italian forward was snubbed from Arne Slot’s initial European group, with many fans describing the decision as “criminal.”

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Chiesa, 27, is a 51-time Italy international and highly popular among Anfield supporters.

But now, the winger could be set to feature in the Champions League after all.

Fellow Italian Giovanni Leoni made his debut in Tuesday’s 2-1 Carabao Cup win over Southampton.

The defender joined Liverpool for £26million from Parma this summer.

But his first appearance ended badly after he was stretchered off with a serious injury.

And due to a new Uefa rule only brought in weeks ago, Liverpool are now allowed to replace Leoni in their continental squad.

It has opened the door for Chiesa to take his place, despite the stars playing in different positions.

Chelsea have already taken advantage of it, with Facundo Buonanotte replacing Dario Essugo.

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While in the Europa League, Nottingham Forest subbed out injured Ola Aina for Oleksandr Zinchenko.

Uefa stunned clubs with a surprise announcement this month, revealing it had agreed an “amendment” to registry regulations.

The governing body announced clubs will be allowed the “temporary” replacement of one outfield player “with a long-term injury or illness.”

Uefa added: “The reasoning for the adaptation is to ensure that squad lists are not unfairly reduced and players are safeguarded from additional workload pressure.”

It remains to be seen whether Slot decides to recall Chiesa though.

Young centre-back Rhys Williams was also left out of Liverpool’s Champions League squad.

And he could get the nod if Slot feels his squad is light on defenders.

For decades, UnitedHealth Group (UNH -0.40%) could do no wrong. The company raised its dividend by an exceptional 7,266% from 2010 to 2025, while shares rose as much as 1,700% during this run.

But shares have fallen roughly 40% year to date as the company faces a host of problems, from the murder of Brian Thompson, CEO of major business segment UnitedHealthcare, to federal investigations into allegedly fraudulent Medicare billing practices.

Nonetheless, shares surged 12% on Aug. 14 after filings revealed Berkshire Hathaway had bought over 5 million shares.

Berkshire’s move was seen as a major vote of confidence in the stock — and investors joined a stampede to follow Warren Buffett into the trade. Should you?

Image source: Getty Images.

Big growth potential for all segments

UnitedHealth operates through four segments. Its UnitedHealthcare segment provides consumer-oriented health benefit plans and services for employers. Optum Health provides healthcare management and financial services, while Optum Insight offers data analysis tools, consulting, and tech solutions to healthcare providers. Optum Rx is a direct-to-consumer platform offering pharmacy services and 190 million prescriptions per year to U.S. homes.

In its second-quarter report on July 29, the company reported quarterly revenue of $111.6 billion, up roughly 13% from the year-ago period. The trouble is with margins. For UnitedHealthcare, the biggest segment, operating margin fell from 6.2% in Q1 2025 to 2.4% last quarter. Combined, margin for the three Optum segments fell from 6.1% in Q1 2025 to 4.6% in Q2.

These declines are steep enough that, even with revenue on the upswing, earnings fell from $9.1 billion in Q1 2025 to $5.2 billion last quarter.

Rising medical costs are the chief headwind. In the July earnings report, new CEO Stephen Hensley acknowledged that UNH “significantly underestimated the accelerating medical trend,” and medical costs totaled $6.5 billion more than anticipated.

But management is under no such illusions now. They’re taking actions to boost efficiency and cut waste, from stepping up audits of clinical policy and payment integrity tools, to scaling artificial intelligence (AI) efforts to improve provider and patient experiences while driving down costs. Implementation of AI technologies is part of initiatives the company hopes can deliver almost $1 billion in cost reductions. Perhaps most significantly, the company is raising premiums after saying it underpriced Medicare Advantage plans in 2025.

In the meantime, each of these segments could grow significantly in the years ahead. UnitedHealthcare Employer & Individual just rolled out services in its 30th state, while Optum Rx’s growth outlook is 5%-8% annually. Optum Insight is targeting operating margin of 18%-22%, while the 4.7 million patients receiving value-based care from OptumHealth represent only a fraction of the nearly 340 million Americans who could fall under its 100-plus health plans.

It’s not just Berkshire buying

Berkshire Hathaway’s move in UnitedHealth is getting headlines. But billionaire David Tepper also scooped up 2.3 million shares, while Michael Burry of The Big Short fame bought 350,000 call options on the stock in a bet that shares would rise.

In addition, BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, bought over 1 million shares last quarter. Goldman Sachs bought over 1.1 million shares, while Renaissance Technologies (the fabled fund that achieved an average annual return of 66% for decades) bought over 1.35 million.

As for management, Stephen Hensley invested $25 million just days after becoming CEO, while the company’s CFO bought another $5 million worth in shares. All told, the insider buying of UNH stock outweighed insider selling by a nearly 4:1 margin last quarter.

As the investing legend Peter Lynch observed, insiders can sell for many reasons unrelated to a stock. But they buy for only one: They think shares will go up.

Why UnitedHealth is a buy for retail investors, too

Berkshire officials haven’t commented publicly on their rationale for buying UnitedHealthcare, but it’s possible to speculate on their reasons.

Warren Buffett has called cash flow the most important metric in assessing a business’s potential. In a 2000 letter to shareholders, he wrote that dividend yield, the price-to-earnings ratio, book value, and even growth rates “have nothing to do with valuation except to the extent they provide clues to the amount and timing of cash flows into and from the business.”

Positive cash flow shows the company can cover its obligations, return money to shareholders, and potentially pursue growth and expansion. After floundering in 2024, UnitedHealth’s trailing-12-month operating cash flow has rebounded to $29 billion compared to $24.2 billion at the end of last year.

And if price-to-earnings, dividend yield, and growth rates are only background clues to cash flow, these metrics seem to bode well for UnitedHealth, too.

The company’s price-to-earnings ratio of 13.7 is cheap compared to the S&P 500,
with its average P/E ratio of around 26, while revenue growth of 13% year over year further fuels the bull case. Meanwhile, the company’s recent 5.2% dividend increase — its 15th consecutive annual payout hike — brings its yield to 2.8% as I write this, nearly triple the S&P 500 average.

For investors willing to take a long-term approach and be rewarded with rising income in the meantime, UnitedHealth is a buy.

Saturday 13 September

Gold medal events: 5 – men’s and women’s 45km walks, men’s shot put, women’s 10,000m and mixed 4x400m relay

23:55-04:10 – live coverage on BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and online

09:30-11:45 – live coverage on BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and online

11:45-14:45 – live coverage on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and online

19:00-19:30 – highlights on BBC Three & BBC iPlayer

Sunday 14 September

Gold medal events: 6 – women’s marathon, women’s discus, women’s long jump, men’s 10,000m, women’s 100m, men’s 100m

23:55-04:00 – live coverage on BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and online

10:00-12:15 – live coverage on BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and online

12:15-14:45 – live coverage on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and online

17:00-17:30 – highlights on BBC iPlayer, Red Button and online

19:00-19:30 – highlights on BBC Three & BBC iPlayer

Monday 15 September

Gold medal events: 5 – men’s marathon, men’s pole vault, women’s hammer, men’s 3,000m steeplechase, women’s 100m hurdles

00:00-04:00 – live coverage on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and online

11:00-12:15 – live coverage on BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and online

12:15-13:00 – live coverage on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and online

13:00-14:45 – live coverage on BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and online

17:00-17:30 – highlights on BBC iPlayer, Red Button and online

19:00-19:30 – highlights on BBC Three & BBC iPlayer

Tuesday 16 September

Gold medal events: 4 – men’s high jump, men’s hammer throw, women’s 1500m, men’s 110m hurdles

11:00-12:15 – live coverage on BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and online

12:15-13:00 – live coverage on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and online

13:00-14:45 – live coverage on BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and online

17:00-17:30 – highlights on BBC iPlayer, Red Button and online

19:00-19:30 – highlights on BBC Three & BBC iPlayer

Wednesday 17 September

Gold medal events: 4 – women’s pole vault, men’s long jump, women’s 3,000m steeplechase, men’s 1500m

11:00-12:15 – live coverage on BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and online

12:15-13:00 – live coverage on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and online

13:00-14:00 – live coverage on BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and online

14:00-14:45 – live coverage on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and online

17:00-17:30 – highlights on BBC iPlayer, Red Button and online

19:00-19:30 – highlights on BBC Three & BBC iPlayer

Thursday 18 September

Gold medal events: 4 – men’s javelin, women’s triple jump, men’s 400m, women’s 400m

10:30-12:15 – live coverage on BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and online

12:15-13:00 – live coverage on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and online

13:00-14:00 – live coverage on BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and online

14:00-14:45 – live coverage on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and online

17:00-17:30 – highlights on BBC iPlayer, Red Button and online

19:00-19:30 – highlights on BBC Three & BBC iPlayer

Friday 19 September

Gold medal events: 5 – men’s triple jump, men’s 400m hurdles, women’s 400m hurdles, men’s 200m, women’s 200m

11:00-14:45 – live coverage on BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and online

17:00-17:30 – highlights on BBC iPlayer, Red Button and online

19:00-19:30 – highlights on BBC Three & BBC iPlayer

Saturday 20 September

Gold medal events: 7 – women’s and men’s 20km walks, women’s shot put, women’s javelin, heptathlon, men’s 5,000m, men’s 800m

01:00-04:30 – live coverage on BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and online

10:30-13:00 – live coverage on BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and online

13:00-14:45 – live coverage on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and online

19:00-19:30 – highlights on BBC Three, BBC iPlayer and online

Sunday 21 September

Gold medal events: 9 – women’s high jump, women’s 800m, men’s 5,000m, women’s discus, men’s and women’s 4x400m relays, decathlon, women’s and men’s 4x100m relays

11:00-13:45 – live coverage on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and online

17:00-17:30 – highlights on BBC iPlayer, Red Button and online

19:00-19:30 – highlights on BBC Three & BBC iPlayer

Billionaire Bill Ackman was busy in the second quarter, investing in two of the world’s largest tech companies. His hedge fund, Pershing Square Capital, started a new position in Amazon (AMZN 3.12%) and boosted its stake in Alphabet (GOOGL 3.10%) (GOOG 2.98%).

Ackman is a well-regarded investor known for running a concentrated portfolio: As of June 30, Pershing Square Capital’s portfolio had only 10 companies in it. So when it makes a big investment, it’s worth it for retail investors to pay attention and consider whether they want to follow.

Amazon

Pershing established a new position in Amazon in the second quarter, picking up 5.8 million shares. That made it the fund’s fifth-largest holding, accounting for 9.3% of its value as of Aug. 14.  

Amazon’s logistics network has always been the backbone of its e-commerce business, and now the company is employing artificial intelligence (AI) and even more robotics than before to make it even more efficient. The company is applying AI to such tasks as optimizing delivery routes, stocking warehouses more effectively, and directing drivers to hard-to-find drop-off locations in places like large apartment complexes.

Meanwhile, the company now has over 1 million robots working in its fulfillment facilities, and they’re being carefully orchestrated by its Deepfleet AI model. Its newer robots can do more than just lift heavy packages. Some can spot damaged goods better than humans (which lowers the number of returns), while some can even repair themselves. All of this saves money and speeds up shipping times.

AI is also strengthening Amazon’s advertising unit. Merchants can use its AI tools to create better product listings and ad campaigns. Advertising is a high-margin business that also has been one of the company’s fastest growing, with revenue up 23% last quarter.

Altogether, AI is helping drive strong operating leverage in Amazon’s e-commerce operations. Last quarter, its North American segment’s revenue rose 8% while its operating income climbed 16%. That kind of leverage is exactly what investors want to see.

Amazon’s cloud computing division, AWS, meanwhile, remains its most profitable segment and its fastest-growing. The company created the cloud infrastructure market and still holds a nearly 30% share of it. AI is now a major driver in that segment, too. Services like Bedrock and SageMaker allow customers to build and run models directly on AWS, while it recently introduced Strands and Agentcore to help customers build AI agents and safely run them in a secure, server-less environment. Meanwhile, the company’s custom-designed AI accelerator chips, Trainium and Inferentia, give it an edge in cost and performance. AWS continues to grow quickly: Revenue climbed 17.5% last quarter to $30.9 billion

Amazon is spending heavily on AI infrastructure, but history shows the company has a knack for winning big when it spends big. Trading at a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of about 30 based on analysts’ consensus 2026 estimates, the stock still looks appealing, particularly given its growth runway.

Alphabet

Amazon wasn’t the only tech stock Pershing was buying in the second quarter. It also picked up another 925,000 shares of Alphabet’s Class A stock. That increased its total stake in the company (which includes both Class A and Class C shares) by 8.6% to almost 10.8 million shares. Based on the latest public information, that made it the hedge fund’s third-largest holding, accounting for 15% of its value as of Aug 14.

Investors have worried that the growing use of AI chatbots will chip away at Alphabet’s Google Search business, but so far, that hasn’t happened. In fact, last quarter, Google Search’s revenue growth accelerated, increasing by 12% year over year to $54.2 billion. Alphabet has also built AI into its products. More than 2 billion people are already using AI Overviews in Google Search, and its new AI Mode is just starting to gain traction. The company is also using AI to advance its tools beyond simple text queries, with Google Lens and Circle to Search standing out as two prime examples. New commerce-focused tools like Shop by AI should also create new monetization opportunities for the company.

One key aspect of Alphabet’s competitive moat is distribution. Chrome currently controls two-thirds of the browser market, while its Android operating system runs more than 70% of smartphones. That makes Google the first touchpoint to the internet for billions of users. It also gives Alphabet a huge volume of data and search query histories that it can then funnel into its massive ad network.

Cloud computing is another big growth driver for Alphabet. Google Cloud’s revenue jumped by 32% in Q2 while its operating income more than doubled. Customers are drawn to Alphabet’s Gemini models, Vertex AI platform, and its custom-designed tensor processing units (TPUs). These TPUs lower costs for AI workloads and give Google Cloud a cost advantage. The business has finally reached scale and is now showing strong operating leverage.

Image source: Getty Images

Alphabet also has longer-term bets. It’s deploying its Waymo unit’s robotaxis into new cities as the driverless ride-share business shows strong momentum. Meanwhile, with its Willow quantum computing chip, it has made meaningful progress on error-reduction — one of the core challenges in quantum computing technology. These businesses are a long way from being mature, but their upside potential is enormous.

Despite all of this, Alphabet trades at just 19 times analysts’ 2026 earnings estimates. That is cheap for a company that’s an established leader in search, cloud, video streaming, mobile, and AI infrastructure. Among the big AI stocks, Alphabet looks the most attractively valued.

Solid buys

In my view, Amazon and Alphabet look like solid buys for long-term investors. While the stocks aren’t without risks, given their market positioning and current valuations, I think it makes sense to follow Ackman’s lead and own both stocks.

Australia will recognise a Palestinian state in September, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced.

Albanese said on Monday that his government would formally announce the move when the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meets in New York.

“A two-state solution is humanity’s best hope to break the cycle of violence in the Middle East and to bring an end to the conflict, suffering and starvation in Gaza,” Albanese said at a news conference in Canberra.

Australia’s announcement comes as Canada, France and the United Kingdom are preparing to formally recognise Palestine at the meeting next month, joining the vast majority of UN member states.

It also comes about a week after hundreds of thousands of Australians marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge to protest Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip.

Speaking a day after the protest, Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that “there is a risk there will be no Palestine left to recognise.”

“In relation to recognition, I’ve said for over a year now, it’s a matter of when, not if,” Wong added.

The opposition Liberal Party criticised the move, saying it put Australia at odds with the United States, its closest ally, and reversed a bipartisan consensus that there should be no recognition while Hamas remains in control of Gaza.

“Despite his words today, the reality is Anthony Albanese has committed Australia to recognising Palestine while hostages remain in tunnels under Gaza and with Hamas still in control of the population of Gaza. Nothing he has said today changes that fact,” Liberal Party leader Sussan Ley said in a statement.

“Recognising a Palestinian state prior to a return of the hostages and defeat of Hamas, as the Government has today, risks delivering Hamas one of its strategic objectives of the horrific terrorism of October 7.”

The Australian Greens, the fourth-largest party in parliament, welcomed the move to recognise Palestine, but said the announcement did not meet the “overwhelming calls from the Australian public for the government to take material action”.

“Millions of Australians have taken to the streets, including 300,000 last weekend in Sydney alone, calling for sanctions and an end to the arms trade with Israel. The Albanese Government is still ignoring this call,” Senator David Shoebridge, the party’s spokesperson on foreign affairs, said in a statement.

The Australian Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) also criticised the announcement, describing it as a “political fig leaf, letting Israel’s genocide and apartheid continue unchallenged, and distracting from Australia’s complicity in Israeli war crimes via ongoing weapons and components trade”.

“Palestinian rights are not a gift to be granted by Western states. They are not dependent on negotiation with, or the behaviour or approval of their colonial oppressors,” APAN said in a statement.

According to Albanese, Australia’s decision to recognise Palestinians’ right to their own state will be “predicated on the commitments Australia has received from the Palestinian Authority (PA)”.

These “detailed and significant commitments” include the PA reaffirming it “recognises Israel’s right to exist in peace and security” and committing to “demilitarise and to hold general elections”, Albanese said while announcing the decision.

The PA is a governing body that has overseen parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the mid-90s.

It has not held parliamentary elections since 2006 and has been criticised by some Palestinians for helping Israel to keep tight control over residents in the West Bank.

Albanese said the commitments secured by Australia were “an opportunity to deliver self-determination for the people of Palestine in a way that isolates Hamas, disarms it and drives it out of the region once and for all”.

Hamas has been in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007, when it fought a brief war against forces loyal to PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

New Zealand to decide on recognition next month

Meanwhile, New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters said on Monday that his country’s cabinet will make a formal decision on Palestinian statehood in September.

“Some of New Zealand’s close partners have opted to recognise a Palestinian state, and some have not,” Peters said in a statement.

“Ultimately, New Zealand has an independent foreign policy, and on this issue, we intend to weigh up the issue carefully and then act according to New Zealand’s principles, values and national interest.”

Peters said that while New Zealand has for some time considered the recognition of a Palestinian state a “matter of when, not if”, the issue is not “straightforward” or “clear-cut”.

“There are a broad range of strongly held views within our Government, Parliament and indeed New Zealand society over the question of recognition of a Palestinian state,” he said.

“It is only right that this complicated issue be approached calmly, cautiously and judiciously. Over the next month, we look forward to canvassing this broad range of views before taking a proposal to Cabinet.”

Of the UN’s 193 member states, 147 already recognise Palestinian statehood, representing some three-quarters of the world’s countries and the vast majority of its population.

Under its 1947 plan to partition Palestine, the UNGA said it would grant 45 percent of the land to an Arab state, though this never eventuated.

The announcements by Australia and New Zealand on Monday came hours after an Israeli attack killed five Al Jazeera staff members in Gaza City, and as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to threaten a full-scale invasion of the city in the north of the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 61,430 people, according to Gaza’s health authorities.

Close to 200 people, including 96 children, have died from starvation under Israel’s punishing siege, according to health authorities.

On July 14, United States President Donald Trump teased a sea change in his approach to Russia’s war against Ukraine. Trump declared he would send significant additional air defence units to Ukraine, whose cities are now subject to an average onslaught of more than 100 Russian drones and missiles daily. Leaks from the White House even claimed Trump had inquired with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a preceding phone call about what offensive weaponry Kyiv needed to hit Moscow directly.

Trump also made his most explicit sanction threat to date, proposing a 100 percent “secondary tariff” on countries that buy Russian oil, if the Kremlin does not agree to a ceasefire in 50 days, by September 3. But Trump’s tough talk has fallen far short of moving the dial. Russian officials have laughed off his claims about hitting Moscow. Air defence deliveries may lower the damage from Putin’s aerial onslaught, but delivering them in anything like the numbers Trump floated will take many months.

Trump’s sanctions threat has not moved markets, though such a restriction would amount to an attempted blockade of the world’s third-largest oil producer.

That Trump has shifted his approach to Russia should, however, come as no surprise. Despite Trump’s apparent personal affinity for Russian President Vladimir Putin, regarding Ukraine and Russia, his view of key US strategic interests is fundamentally opposed to Putin’s.

Trump wants to export more US natural gas; Putin wants to do the same with Russia’s gas, having lost his European pipeline market. Trump cares about Greenland because he recognises the importance of Arctic shipping routes in the future, and for Russia, its rival Arctic shipping route is a key factor in maintaining Chinese support. Putin wants to seize as much of Ukraine’s mineral resources for Russia as he can; Trump wants to do the same for Washington.

Having failed in his inaugural pledge to settle the conflict within a day, something he now admits was an exaggeration, Trump’s longstanding hostility towards Zelenskyy – a legacy of Trump’s first impeachment scandal, which resulted from an attempt to extort blackmail on the Biden campaign from Zelenskyy – was eased after Kyiv agreed to a long-term strategic alignment with Washington on those minerals.

Trump has, if belatedly, recognised that Putin has not been negotiating in good faith. No progress was made in the May and June peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow, with both sides just showing up to please Trump and try to win him over to their respective positions.

Trump’s realisation may have come from the fact that Putin increased his demands amid those negotiations. He not only continued to insist on the occupation of all of the southern and eastern Ukrainian regions he claims to have annexed, though never fully occupied, but added that Russia would need a “buffer zone” in northern Ukraine as well.

The change in Trump’s approach has thus far had a muted impact for two reasons. Firstly, because his threat of the Russian oil tariff is not credible on its own. Trump has been extremely wary of high oil prices, or even the potential for them to rise. In the aftermath of his June strikes on Iran, he publicly decried the subsequent spike in oil markets.

But it is also doubtful that the secondary tariff threat alone will work. Trump first used a similar threat to target Venezuelan oil exports at the end of March, and while Venezuelan exports declined, they have since recovered as Beijing has expanded purchases. Especially as it is in the middle of its own tariff war with Trump, which has already seen him threaten tariffs even above 100 percent, there is little chance Beijing, Russia’s largest oil buyer, will care about a similar threat on Russian production.

Additionally, Trump’s decision to play for time with his threat is likely to delay passage of a Senate bill imposing additional sanctions on Russia, though 83 of 100 members of the chamber have co-sponsored it. The Republican Party’s leadership in the Senate and the House are wary of being seen to goad Trump on the issue, lest it risk blowback from Trump, who demands near-universal authority and deference on policymaking from his party.

Nevertheless, while Trump has gotten Europe to agree to be more public in accepting its costs of supporting Kyiv – which cumulatively were larger than the US’s even before Trump began his second term, despite his assertions to the contrary – it will continue to be US equipment and technology that drive Kyiv’s ability to resist or turn the tide. And delivering new arms to Ukraine and training its forces to use them will take time.

Trump will also have to change his approach. Increasing economic pressure on Russia that can force Putin to treat negotiations seriously is not something that the US can achieve alone. It is made only harder to achieve when Washington spars with its allies and partners.

With regards to additional restrictions on Russian oil, Trump may not have much chance of convincing Russia to go along, but such restrictions could jolt India to change its approach. New Delhi has gone from being a negligible purchaser of Russian oil before the full-scale invasion to its second-largest market, with 40 percent of India’s imports now coming from Russia.

India’s Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri last week noted the country would not change its approach. He emphasised New Delhi has complied with previous restrictions, including the oil price cap, which the Biden administration engineered together with G7 allies in 2022 to actually keep Russian oil flowing, just limiting its revenues therefrom. They too were wary of market disruption, as Trump is today, with Biden’s Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen even explicitly supporting the structure as a way to secure oil “bargains” for India and other developing markets.

But the minister did note that if there was an international agreement on shifting Russian oil purchases, then New Delhi could change its approach.

If Trump wants his threats against Moscow to be credible, he will have to embrace a multilateral approach.

Some steps are easy to do. As Trump’s administration has thus far resisted additional sanctions, Brussels and Westminster have taken the lead in targeting Russia’s “shadow fleet” aimed at evading sanctions and the price cap, and engineering new sanctions proposals, including proposing tweaks to the oil price cap to lower it further when prices are soft. Two European Union sanctions packages have been agreed in the last six months, the second on July 18, and Trump should swiftly match their measures.

If Europe can also be convinced to support a secondary tariff or other sanctions on Russian oil purchasers, that measure too would be far more likely to be effective.

Additionally, Trump can target Russia’s additional liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports by finally blacklisting Novatek, its key LNG exporter. Europe has not been willing to go that far yet, instead seeking only a phaseout of its purchases by the end of next year. But because the market for LNG tankers is much smaller than the oil market, earlier US sanctions on Russian LNG projects have proven much harder to evade.

Russia’s economy is finally struggling under the costs of Putin’s war and all the sanctions he has brought upon his country in response to his aggression. Russian banks are reportedly holding preliminary discussions on the terms of state bailouts.

But amid this pain, Russia claims to have seized a town in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region for the first time – a claim Kyiv denies and which remains unverified. Trump can have a far more significant impact on the course of the war by reversing his resistance to Ukrainian attacks on the Kremlin’s energy assets.

Trump may have declared a new approach to Russia, but whether it goes beyond mere rhetoric will depend on his willingness to work with partners and allies and acknowledge the costs of such pressure.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

Before Jerry Hairston Jr. became a voice of the Dodgers, that buoyant broadcaster on Spectrum Sports Net LA putting a blue-tinged spin on pregame and postgame analysis, he was a Major League ballplayer for 16 seasons.

The name Hairston is synonymous with baseball, Jerry and his brother Scott the third generation of men whose livings were made on the diamond.

Their father, Jerry Hairston, played 14 big league seasons through the 1970s and ‘80s. Their uncle John was a ballplayer. And their grandfather, Sam Hairston, was a career .300 hitter in the Negro American League in the 1940s.

The lineage between the lines benefited Hairston Jr., who leaned on his dad for advice whenever he struggled at the plate.

“If things aren’t going the right way or if I feel passive or uneasy at the plate, I definitely give him a call,” Hairston Jr. said in 2011, shortly before joining the Dodgers for the last two years of his playing career.

Following a father’s footsteps into a family business is a tried and true path. And it’s become increasingly frequent in baseball. Nearly every fan knows that Ken Griffey Jr.‘s father was a cog in the Big Red Machine, that the son of San Francisco Giants star Bobby Bonds is the all-time home run king, that Prince Fielder‘s dad, Cecil, was an equally prolific slugger.

But the MLB draft — which will be held Sunday and Monday in Atlanta as part of the All-Star Game weekend — will feature a plethora of familiar names. Will any of them blossom as quickly as Bobby Witt Jr., the Kansas City Royals superstar whose father pitched for six MLB teams in 16 seasons?

The No. 1 prospect in this year’s draft as ranked by MLB Pipeline is Ethan Holliday, an infielder from Stillwater High in Oklahoma. The name should sound familiar because Ethan’s brother, Jackson, was the first overall pick in the 2022 MLB draft by the Baltimore Orioles and already has secured the starting job at second base.

Oh, and their father, Matt Holliday, was a seven-time All-Star who batted .299 with 316 home runs over a decorated 15-year career with the St. Louis Cardinals and Colorado Rockies.

“My dad’s never put pressure on me, Jackson’s never put pressure on me, nor my mom,” Ethan Holliday told Nice Kicks. “Nobody’s ever put pressure on me to play the game. I just fell in love with it and I love playing. I love training. And like the pressure and expectations — those things have kind of always been there since I was really little with my dad playing in St. Louis and playing youth baseball there.”

The fathers of other highly regarded prospects in this year’s draft may not be as much of a household name as Holliday. The No. 5 prospect is Eli Willits, a shortstop from Fort Cobb-Broxton High in Oklahoma whose father, Reggie Willits, was an Angels outfielder from 2006 to 2011.

Two uncles of Quentin Young, the No. 37 prospect from Oaks Christian High in Westlake Village, were first-round picks who grew up in Camarillo: Dmitri and Delmon Young. Cade Obermueller, a left-handed pitcher from the University of Iowa, is the No. 53 prospect. His dad, Wes Obermueller, was a second-round pick out of Iowa in 1999 and pitched in five MLB seasons.

Dodgers coach Dino Ebel made it to triple A as a player and is regarded as one of baseball’s best third base coaches. His oldest son, Brady, a shortstop from Corona High, is the No. 64 prospect and should be available to the Dodgers, who have the Nos. 40 and 41 overall picks, the latter from the Gavin Lux trade to the Cincinnati Reds. Brady will play for College World Series champion Louisiana State if he isn’t drafted high enough for his liking.

A player who rivals the Hairstons for MLB family ties is Cam Leiter, a right-handed pitcher from Florida State and the No. 114 prospect. His uncles Mark and Al Leiter combined to pitch in more than 750 MLB games and his cousins Jack and Mark Leiter Jr. are current MLB pitchers. Cam’s dad, Kurt Leiter, advanced to double A with the Orioles.

Jayden Stroman, the son of 11-year MLB veteran pitcher Marcus Stroman, has taken a different path from his dad, emerging as the No. 130 prospect as an outfielder after playing at three different high schools.

Draft-eligible players not ranked among the top 200 whose fathers were MLB stars include Kaeden Kent, Brady Counsell, Max McGwire, Manny Ramirez Jr. and Carsten Sabathia.

Kent is a left-handed-hitting infielder from Texas A&M whose dad Jeff Kent was a power-hitting second baseman with the Dodgers and Giants for 17 years. Counsell’s dad, Craig, played 16 years and is now manager of the Chicago Cubs. McGwire’s dad, Mark, hit 573 home runs and Ramirez’s dad hit 555. Sabathia’s dad, CC, will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in a couple weeks.

That’s a lot of familiar names, but hardly an anomaly. Last year nearly 40 draft picks had a close relative with an MLB pedigree.

The first three rounds of the 2025 draft will be broadcast live Sunday, with a pregame show at 3 p.m. PDT on MLB Network and ESPN. Rounds four through 20 will be streamed Monday on MLB.com beginning at 8:30 a.m.

Russia has become the first country to accept the Taliban government in Afghanistan since the group took power in 2021, building on years of quieter engagement and marking a dramatic about-turn from the deep hostilities that marked their ties during the group’s first stint in power.

Since the Taliban stormed Kabul in August four years ago, taking over from the government of then-President Ashraf Ghani, several nations – including some that have historically viewed the group as enemies – have reached out to them. Yet until Thursday, no one has formally recognised the Taliban.

So what exactly did Russia do, and will Moscow’s move pave the way for others to also start full-fledged diplomatic relations with the Taliban?

What did Russia say?

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement saying that Moscow’s recognition of the Taliban government will pave the way for bilateral cooperation with Afghanistan.

“We believe that the act of official recognition of the government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan will give impetus to the development of productive bilateral cooperation between our countries in various fields,” the statement said.

The Foreign Ministry said it would seek cooperation in energy, transport, agriculture and infrastructure.

How did the Taliban respond?

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote in an X post on Thursday that Russian ambassador to Kabul Dmitry Zhirnov met Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and conveyed the Kremlin’s decision to recognise the Taliban government in Afghanistan.

The Ambassador of the Russian Federation, Mr. Dmitry Zhirnov, called on IEA-Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi.

During the meeting, the Ambassador of Russian Federation officially conveyed his government’s decision to recognize the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, pic.twitter.com/wCbJKpZYwm

— Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Afghanistan (@MoFA_Afg) July 3, 2025

Muttaqi said in a video posted on X: “We value this courageous step taken by Russia, and, God willing, it will serve as an example for others as well.”

What is the history between Russia and Afghanistan?

In 1979, troops from the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan to establish a communist government. This triggered a 10-year war with the Afghan mujahideen fighters backed by US forces. About 15,000 Soviet soldiers died in this war.

In 1992, after rockets launched by rebel groups hit the Russian embassy in Kabul, Moscow closed its diplomatic mission to Afghanistan.

The Russian-backed former president, Mohammad Najibullah, who had been seeking refuge in a United Nations compound in Kabul since 1992, was killed by the Taliban in 1996, when the group first came to power.

During the late 1990s, Russia backed anti-Taliban forces in Afghanistan, including the Northern Alliance led by former mujahideen commander Ahmad Shah Massoud.

Then, on September 11, 2001, suicide attackers, affiliated with the armed group al-Qaeda, seized United States passenger planes and crashed into two skyscrapers in New York City, killing nearly 3,000 people. This triggered the so-called “war on terror” by then-US President George W Bush.

In the aftermath of the attack, Russian President Vladimir Putin was one of the first foreign leaders to call Bush and express his sympathy and pledge support. Putin provided the US with assistance to attack Afghanistan. Russia cooperated with the US by sharing intelligence, opening Russian airspace for US flights and collaborating with Russia’s Central Asian allies to establish bases and provide airspace access to flights from the US.

In 2003, after the Taliban had been ousted from power by the US-led coalition, Russia designated the group as a terrorist movement.

But in recent years, as Russia has increasingly grown concerned about the rise of the ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K) group – a regional branch of the ISIS/ISIL armed group – it has warmed to the Taliban. The Taliban view ISIS-K as a rival and enemy.

Since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, accompanied by the withdrawal of US forces supporting the Ghani government, Russia’s relations with the group have become more open. A Taliban delegation attended Russia’s flagship economic forum in Saint Petersburg in 2022 and 2024.

With the ISIS-K’s threat growing (the group claimed a March 2024 attack at a concert hall in Moscow in which gunmen killed 149 people), Russia has grown only closer to the Taliban.

In July 2024, Russian President Putin called the Taliban “allies in the fight against terrorism”. Muttaqi met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow in October 2024.

In April 2025, Russia lifted the “terrorist” designation from the Taliban. Lavrov said at the time that “the new authorities in Kabul are a reality,” adding Moscow should adopt a “pragmatic, not ideologised policy” towards the Taliban.

How has the rest of the world engaged with the Taliban?

The international community does not officially recognise the Taliban. The United Nations refers to the administration as the “Taliban de facto authorities”.

Despite not officially recognising the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan, several countries have recently engaged diplomatically with the group.

China: Even before the US pulled out of Afghanistan, Beijing was building its relations with the Taliban, hosting its leaders in 2019 for peace negotiations.

But relations have picked up further since the group returned to power, including through major investments. In 2023, a subsidiary of the state-owned China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) signed a 25-year contract with the Taliban to extract oil from the basin of the Amu Darya river, which spans Central Asian countries and Afghanistan. This marked the first major foreign investment since the Taliban’s takeover.

In 2024, Beijing recognised former Taliban spokesperson Bilal Karim as an official envoy to China during an official ceremony, though it made clear that it was not recognising the Taliban government itself.

And in May this year, China hosted the foreign ministers of Pakistan and the Taliban for a trilateral conclave.

Pakistan: Once the Taliban’s chief international supporter, Pakistan’s relations with the group have frayed significantly since 2021.

Islamabad now accuses the Taliban government of allowing armed groups sheltering on Afghan soil, in particular the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), to target Pakistan. TTP, also called the Pakistani Taliban, operates on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and is responsible for many of the deadliest attacks in Pakistan in recent years. Afghanistan denies Pakistan’s allegation.

In December 2024, the Pakistani military launched air strikes in Afghanistan’s Paktia province, which borders Pakistan’s tribal district of South Waziristan. While Pakistan said it had targeted sites where TTP fighters had sought refuge, the Taliban government said that 46 civilians in Afghanistan were killed in the air strikes.

This year, Pakistan also ramped up the deportation of Afghan refugees, further stressing ties. Early this year, Pakistan said it wants three million Afghans to leave the country.

Tensions over armed fighters from Afghanistan in Pakistan continue. On Friday, the Pakistani military said it killed 30 fighters who tried to cross the border from Afghanistan. The Pakistani military said all the fighters killed belonged to the TTP or its affiliates.

Still, Pakistan has tried to manage its complex relationship with Afghanistan. In April this year, Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar met Muttaqi and other Afghan officials in Kabul. Dar and Muttaqi spoke again in May.

India: New Delhi had shut its Kabul embassy in 1996 after the Taliban took over. India refused to recognise the group, which it viewed as a proxy of Pakistan’s intelligence agencies.

New Delhi reopened its embassy in Kabul after the Taliban was removed from power in 2001. But the embassy and India’s consulates came under repeated attacks in the subsequent years from the Taliban and its allies, including the Haqqani group.

Yet since the Taliban’s return to Kabul, and amid mounting tensions between Pakistan and the group, India’s approach has changed. It reopened its embassy, shut temporarily in 2021, and sent diplomats to meet Taliban officials. Then, in January 2025, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri flew to Dubai for a meeting with Muttaqi.

And in May, India’s Foreign Minister S Jaishankar spoke to Muttaqi over the phone, their first publicly acknowledged conversation.

Iran: As with Russia and India, Iran viewed the Taliban with antagonism during the group’s rule in the late 1990s. In 1998, Taliban fighters killed Iranian diplomats in Mazar-i-Sharif, further damaging relations.

But it views ISIS-K as a much bigger threat. Since the Taliban’s return to Kabul, and behind closed doors, even earlier, Tehran has been engaging with the group.

On May 17, Muttaqi visited Iran to attend the Tehran Dialogue Forum. He also met with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and President Massoud Pezeshkian.

After Russia, will others recognise the Taliban?

While each country will likely decide when and if to formally recognise the Taliban government, many already work with the group in a capacity that amounts, almost, to recognition.

“Afghanistan’s neighbouring countries don’t necessarily have much of an option but to engage with the Taliban for both strategic and security purposes,” Kabir Taneja, a deputy director at the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation, told Al Jazeera.

“Most would not be doing so out of choice, but enforced realities that the Taliban will be in Afghanistan for some time to come at least.”

Taneja said that other countries which could follow suit after Russia’s recognition of the Taliban include some countries in Central Asia, as well as China.

“Russia’s recognition of the Taliban is a geopolitical play,” Taneja said.

“It solidifies Moscow’s position in Kabul, but more importantly, gives the Taliban itself a big win. For the Taliban, international recognition has been a core aim for their outreach regionally and beyond.”

EVEN on a bad headliner year, Glastonbury is the best music festival in the world.

The mix of music and other activities… and general vibe of the place makes it like no other place on earth.

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But it’s also very large and very busy – it covers 1,100 aces (around 500 football pitches) and has a capacity of 210,000 people – more than twice the population of nearby Bath.

It’s also famously temperamental weatherwise – in my eight Glastonbury festivals, I’ve had everything from torrential rain and mud baths to scorching heatwaves.

So failing to come prepared has the power to make or break you weekend, which is why we’ve compiled a list of all our favourite Do’s and Don’ts for Glastonbury… to make sure you have the best time.

Caroline McGuire, Head Of Travel – Digital (pictured bottom right, above)

Beg whoever you know who owns a camping trolley (from £20 at Decathlon) to borrow it for the weekend – the site is enormous and you’ll be carrying all your belongings a long way before you set up camp.

Make sure to experience some of the unique areas that make Glastonbury so special – the theatre and circus fields, the Healing Fields, the Lost Horizon Nomadic Spa (aka secret nudist area with sauna, massage parlour and plunge pool).

Speaking of which, don’t just buy your food from the nearest vendor – make sure to make a pilgrimage to Permaculture, a shaded haven near the middle of the site that serves delicious food made from produce grown in their own garden on the site.

Finding your tent can be tricky, especially when it’s dark and you’ve had a few drinks – memorise some notable things near your pitch, like a flag or a gazebo.

It’s possible they’re placebo, but my friends and I swear by Happy Tuesdays – vitamins that support your body’s natural recovery while they sleep. We’re convinced they help us deal with the post-festival blues far easier.

Finally, stick a plastic bag or bin bag in your bumbag, so you always have something to sit on when it’s a muddy and rainy weekend.

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Howell Davies, Associate Bizarre Editor (pictured right)

Don’t over-pack your schedule. You won’t be able to see half of one set and half of another – and you’ll spend the whole time walking, only to get nowhere near the stage.

Don’t wear uncomfortable shoes, even if they do look trendy. You should expect to walk a minimum of 25,000 steps a day and the last thing you want is blisters.

Do plan individual outfits for each day, and pack them separately so that you’re organised and not scrambling for pants or matching shorts.

Do go off the beaten track to explore the activity away from the Pyramid Stage. That’s where the maddest memories will be made.

Ellie Henman, Bizarre Editor (pictured centre, above)

Do scope out the best food places. You don’t want to be stuck eating burger and chips every day, and there are genuinely amazing places to eat when you’re there.

Don’t put up your tent near a path, at the bottom of a hill, or next to the loos – you won’t get a wink of sleep with the banging of the doors, let alone the stench.

Do pack an eye mask and ear plugs. You don’t want to be woken up by the sun streaming in through your tent at the crack of dawn, having only just gone to sleep.

Do walk up to the Glastonbury sign at least once. As well as spectacular views, there is a bar near the top.

Jack Hardwick, Senior Showbiz Reporter (pictured left, above)

Do make sure to carry spare toilet roll with you. Getting caught short miles from a toilet is no fun.

Do take a refillable water bottle – there are loads of water points around the site These camping water pouches come with hooks so you can clip them onto your bag – fill some with water and two with booze.

Don’t leave it until mid-morning to leave on Monday. Getting off the site will take hours, so either get up early, or have a long lay-in and lunch before going.

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Vanessa Chalmers, Assistant Head of Health, The Sun

Take a flag. They are incredibly useful for finding friends in a sea of people – or for them finding you – as there is rarely phone service. Most flag poles bought online can be shortened, so you can easily carry it around with you when moving between stages.

Drop any expectation at all that you will see who you want to see, especially if you are in a large group as it’s hard to find your group again once you are split up. Choose one or maybe two acts you simply must see, and stick to your guns.

Make something in the healing fields, or buy a souvenir, to take home! There is so much on offer. My friends and I have made a silver ring each year we have been. It takes about two hours.

Follow @secretglasto on X, formerly known as Twitter, and turn on notifications. If you are lucky to get service, you might just be in the right place at the right time for a surprise set. We saw Fatboy Slim at Greenpeace completely randomly one Sunday afternoon, standing right underneath him in ‘the tree’.

There is no shade at Glastonbury. Well, certainly not enough for the number of people – there are so many crammed under the singular tree at Pyramid stage. So wear a hat! But if you are desperate, there is a hammock area in Park stage – near lots of camping – which is quite shaded.

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Jamie Harris, Assistant Technology and Science Editor at The Sun

Definitely use Vodafone’s new Glastonbury Festival app, as this will help you keep all the acts and locations organised – allow the notifications as well, as they’ll let you know about surprise acts.

This year they’ve added a handy feature to find your friends on the map if you lose each other.

A power bank is a must but if you forget, you can buy a fully charged battery pack from the Vodafone tent.

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Sophie Swietochowski, Assistant Travel Editor

You’ll save cash and time queuing by bringing your own booze. There’s a no glass rule and cans take up too much space. So fill a cool bag with boxed wine (ditch the box and take just the pouch). Or decant your favourite spirits into plastic bottles with a bit of mixer.

I always pack a collapsible sink from The Range that costs a few quid.
It‘s the most-used item among my pals at Glasto – when a pal fell in the mud, when I got sticky ketchup in my hair, and for clean hands when removing contact lenses.

Pack a small bag, so you don;t have to venutre back to the tent for more supplies. Cram it with everything you need for the day: water, a portable charger, sunglasses, SPF, a jumper for when the sun goes down.

Food for £6. It used to be ‘food for a fiver’ but this is nearly as good.
Many food vendors commit to selling meal deals and dishes for £6.
The scheme ran last year and although they haven’t announced anything yet for this year, keep your eyes peeled on the blog posts.

6

Will Hagerty, Associate Editor at The Sun

If you intend going to Shangri-La on Friday or Saturday night, skip a headliner and head up there early, or you might not get in for hours. It’s a long walk and they often close the area because it gets so crowded.

Take something to sit on if it’s likely to be muddy. I take a genius umbrella which doubles as a shooting stick stool.

Go up to the Crows Nest, high above the Park Stage, for the best view of the site and the odd secret gig

A new law will make it illegal to do something that’s common in the UK – and holidaymakers could face a hefty fine if they are caught breaking this rule.

People jetting off to France for their summer getaway must be aware of this crackdown on a common behaviour that some won’t think twice about. From July, French police could hand out fines every time they spot someone breaking the rule.

A BBC report shared that, from July 1, France will get tougher on smokers and implement a major ban on smoking in public places, including beaches, parks and outside schools. The clampdown aims to protect children from the harmful effects of second-hand smoke, reports Wales Online.

According to the NHS, second-hand smoke or passive smoke can damage their health of those around you. The health trust claimed: “People who breathe in secondhand smoke regularly are more likely to get the same diseases as smokers, including lung cancer and heart disease.”

Ignorance won’t be an excuse for rule-breakers who could face a €135 penalty (that’s about £113 or $153). France’s minister for children, health and family, Catherine Vautrin, said enforcement duties have been passed onto the police, but with a nudge that the public should also aim to “self-regulate.”

She told Ouest-France daily: “Tobacco must disappear where there are children”. With around 16.4 million residents in France over the age of 15 smoking, it is a habit deeply ingrained in French culture, revealed by a Global Action to End Smoking stat.

The French government isn’t taking this ban lightly, and plans are in the works to ensure people take note through signs and campaigns promoting good practice. This move extends the smoke-free zones already in place across parts of France, which has seen smoking banned in restaurants and clubs since 2008.

Brits visiting France may find it tricky to break their habits with the new rule, as the UK’s smoking laws only apply indoors. Since July 2007, smoking in enclosed public spaces and workplaces has been banned in the UK.

However, in 2024, the BBC reported that the UK Government is contemplating similar measures by extending legislation in England to outdoor areas like playgrounds and hospital grounds to “protect children and the most vulnerable from the harms of second-hand smoke”.

In France, once the new law is in place, smoking will still be permitted in outdoor areas of cafes and bar terraces. While electronic cigarettes are not included in the ban, the country is set to tighten vaping regulations soon.

Hotels typically allocate a few rooms for smokers. If you don’t specify you want one upon booking, you’ll be placed in a non-smoking room, according to the French Rivera Traveller.

The BBC said that, according to the French Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, nearly a quarter (23.1%) of the French population smokes daily. France’s National Committee Against Smoking adds that over 75,000 smokers die annually from tobacco-related illnesses – 13% of all deaths.

A recent report by the French cancer association La Ligue Contre le Cancer reveals that almost 80% of French people support a ban on smoking in public places like woodlands, beaches, parks, and terraces.

US President Donald Trump is once again taking aim at trading partners of the United States. This time it’s the European Union.

The US president is now threatening to impose a 50-percent tariff on all goods from the EU starting June 1. If he follows through, that will mean much higher import taxes on the EU’s hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of exported goods.

So is Europe about to pay a high price for not settling with Trump sooner? Or will Trump’s tariffs – now his signature move – backfire for US manufacturing?

Presenter: Tom Mcrae

Guests:

Paolo von Schirach, President, Global Policy Institute

Will Hutton, President, Academy of Social Sciences.

Brian Wong, Fellow, Centre on Contemporary China and the World

Budget airline Ryanair has shared a simple packing tip which can help passengers “save space” in their hand luggage – and it’s something that is often recommended by travel experts

Ryanair, famed for its budget-friendly fares, has a strict baggage policy that can catch passengers off guard, leading to unexpected fees at the airport. The amount of luggage you can bring depends on whether you’ve purchased a standard fare, chosen Priority, or paid extra for cabin or hold baggage.

No matter your baggage allowance, Ryanair has shared a simple packing tip they claim will help you “save space”. The airline advises against leaving any space unused, suggesting: “Roll your clothes instead of folding. They’ll wrinkle less and you’ll have much more room in your luggage to fit in any extras you pick up while you’re away.”

READ MORE: Nutritionist says special coffee ‘elevates energy’ and ‘manages stress’ without crash

This rolling technique is often endorsed by seasoned travellers. For those flying with a standard ticket on Ryanair, only one small bag is allowed free of charge, which must not exceed 40 x 20 x 25cm.

Should your bag be larger than these limits, you might end up paying an additional fee at the airport, so it’s crucial to ensure everything fits within the permitted dimensions.

Lifestyle experts from Oakley have weighed in on the matter, highlighting that the effectiveness of rolling clothes to maximise luggage space actually hinges on the technique used.

They explained: “While the age-old advice of rolling clothes to save space is nothing new, the real game-changer lies in the technique.

“Instead of simply rolling each garment individually, consider layering items within each other before rolling. For example, place socks and underwear inside shirts or pants to create compact bundles that save both space and preve.”

You can boost your luggage allowance by purchasing a Priority ticket which not only allows you to board earlier but also entitles you to a second larger cabin bag measuring 55 x 40 x 20cm and weighing up to 10kg.

When it comes to distributing weight, Ryanair also shared a handy tip for customers, reports the Express. They said: “Do pack your heaviest items, for example, shoes [and] jeans, in the bottom of your wheelie suitcase. You’ll find it’s much easier to roll as the weight will be more evenly distributed.”

Passenger who want to take extra luggage but also save money, in the long run, should always book and pay for any additional bags in advance of their flight. It’s always cheaper to do this online before you arrive at the airport.

What is Ryanair’s luggage allowance?

All Ryanair fares include one small personal bag which can be brought on board, such as a handbag or laptop bag, but this can only measure up to 40 x 20 x 25cm and must fit under the seat in front of you. Anything more than that and you’ll have to pay extra.

Passengers can pay for Priority which entitles them to board via the Priority boarding queue at the gate, plus take one small personal bag measuring 40 x 20 x 25cm and a 10kg bag measuring 55 x 40 x 20cm.

If you’re looking to check in a bag, you have the option to add either a 10kg or 20kg check-in bag to your booking.

However, these must be dropped off at the check-in desk prior to going through security and both options come with an extra charge.

The BBC’s boss has reminded stars to follow the corporation’s rules and avoid damaging “mistakes”, after Gary Lineker attracted renewed criticism for his use of social media.

On Tuesday, the Match of the Day host deleted an Instagram story post he shared from the group Palestine Lobby, which said: “Zionism explained in two minutes” and featured an illustration of a rat.

A rat has historically been used as an antisemitic insult, referring to language used by Nazi Germany to characterise Jews. His representatives said he was not aware of the connection.

Asked whether the post had broken BBC guidelines, director general Tim Davie said: “The BBC’s reputation is held by everyone, and when someone makes a mistake, it costs us.”

He added: “I think we absolutely need people to be exemplars of the BBC values and follow our social media policy. It’s as simple as that.”

The Campaign Against Antisemitism said it was submitting a complaint to the BBC, adding that Lineker’s “continued association with the BBC is untenable”.

The charity posted on X: “Nothing to see here. Just Gary Lineker’s Instagram account sharing an anti-Israel video misrepresenting Zionism, complete with a rat emoji.”

A spokesperson for the Board of Deputies of British Jews said “the BBC should ask him to leave now rather than allowing him to dictate his own terms”.

“He has caused great offence with this video – particularly with his egregious use of a rat emoji to illustrate Zionists.”

Lineker’s agent said: “Whilst viewing and reposting a video, Gary did not notice a rodent emoticon added by the author of the post. Although if he had, he would not have made any connection. The repost has been removed.”

Zionism refers to the movement to create a Jewish state in the Middle East, roughly corresponding to the historical land of Israel, and thus support for the modern state of Israel.

The BBC, when asked on Tuesday if it had any comment on Lineker’s now-removed post, responded by referring to its guidance on personal use of social media.

The former England striker has attracted criticism before for his posts on social media in the past.

He was temporarily suspended from the BBC in March 2023 after an impartiality row over a post in which he said language used to promote a government asylum policy was “not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s”.

The BBC’s social media rules were then rewritten to say presenters of flagship programmes outside news and current affairs – including Match of the Day – have “a particular responsibility to respect the BBC’s impartiality, because of their profile on the BBC”.

In November 2024, Lineker announced his departure from Match of the Day, but he will remain with the BBC to front FA Cup and World Cup coverage.