An estimated half a trillion dollars was wiped out from the financial markets this week, as some of the biggest tech companies, including Nvidia, Microsoft, and Palantir Technologies saw a temporary but sizeable drop in their share prices on Tuesday. It may have been just a short-lived correction, but experts warn of mounting signs of a financial market crash, which could cost several times this amount.
With dependence on tech and AI growing, critics argue that betting on these profits is a gamble, stressing that the future remains uncertain.
Singapore’s central bank joined a global chorus of warnings from the IMF, Fed Chair Jerome Powell, and Andrew Bailey about overvalued stocks.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore said on Wednesday that such a trend is fuelled by “optimism in AI’s ability to generate sufficient future returns”, which could trigger sharp corrections in the broader stock market.
Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley predict a 10–20% decline in equities over the next one to two years, their CEOs told the Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit in Hong Kong, CNBC reported.
Experts interviewed by Euronews Business also agree that a sizeable correction could be on the way.
In a worst-case scenario, a market crash could wipe out trillions of dollars from the financial markets.
According to Mathieu Savary, chief European strategist at BCA Research, Big Tech companies, including Nvidia and Alphabet, would cause a $4.4 trillion (€3.8tn) market wipeout if they were to lose just 20% of their stock value.
“If they go down 50%, you’re talking about an $11tr (€9.6tr) haircut,” he said.
AI rally: Bubble or boom?
The US stock market has defied expectations this year. The S&P 500 is up nearly 20% over the past 12 months, despite geopolitical tensions and global trade uncertainty driven by Washington’s tariff policies. Gains have been strongest in tech, buoyed by optimism over future AI profits.
While Big Tech continues to deliver, with multibillion-dollar AI investments and massive infrastructure buildouts now routine, concerns are growing over a slowing US economy, compounded by limited data during the government shutdown. Once fresh figures emerge, they could rattle investors.
AI enthusiasm is most evident in Nvidia’s extraordinary stock gains and soaring valuation. The company is central to the tech revolution as its graphics processing units (GPUs) are essential for AI computing.
Nvidia’s shares have surged over 3,000% since early 2020, recently making it the world’s most valuable public company. Between July and October alone, it gained $1tr (€870bn) in market capitalisation — roughly equal to Switzerland’s annual GDP. Its stock trades at around 45 times projected earnings for the current fiscal year.
Derren Nathan, head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Much of this growth is backed by real financial progress, and despite the massive nominal increase in value, relative valuations don’t look overstretched.”
Analysts debate whether the current market mirrors the dot-com bubble of 2000. Nathan notes that many tech companies that failed back then never reached profitability, unlike today’s giants, which generate strong revenues and profits, with robust demand for their products.
Ben Barringer, global head of technology research at Quilter Cheviot, added: “With governments investing heavily in AI infrastructure and rate cuts likely on the horizon, the sector has solid foundations. It is an expensive market, but not necessarily a screaming bubble. Momentum is hard to sustain, and not every company will thrive.”
BCA Research sees a bubble forming, though not set to burst immediately. Chief European strategist Mathieu Savary said such bubbles historically peak when firms begin relying on external financing for large projects.
Investments in assets for future growth, or capital expenditures, as a share of operating cash flow, have jumped from 35% to 70% for hyperscalers, according to Savary. Hyperscalers are tech firms such as Microsoft, Google, and Meta that run massive cloud computing networks.
“The share of operating earnings is likely to move above 100% before we hit the peak,” Savary added. This means that they may soon be investing more than they earn from operations.
Recent examples of Big Tech firms turning to external financing for such moves include Meta’s Hyperion project with Blue Owl Capital and Alphabet’s €3 billion bond issue for AI and cloud expansion.
While AI investment growth is hard to sustain, Quilter’s Barringer told Euronews: “If CapEx starts to moderate later this year, markets may start to get nervous.”
Other factors to watch include return on invested capital and rising yields and inflation pressures, which could signal a higher cost of capital and a bubble approaching its end.
“But we’re not there yet,” said Savary.
Further concerns and how to hedge against market turbulence
Even as tech companies ride the AI wave, inflated expectations for future profits may prove difficult to meet.
“The sceptics’ main problem may not be with AI’s potential itself, but with the valuations investors are paying for that potential and the speed at which they expect it to materialise,” said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.
A recent report by BCA reflects the mounting reasons to question the AI narrative, but the technology “remains a potent force”, said the group.
If investor optimism does slow, “a sharp correction in tech could still have ripple effects across broader markets, given the sector’s dominant weight in global indices,” Barringer said. He added that other regions and asset classes, such as bonds and commodities, would be less directly affected and could provide an important balance during a downturn.
According to Emma Wall, chief investment strategist at Hargreaves Lansdown, “investors should use this opportunity to crystallise impressive gains and diversify their portfolios to include a range of sectors, geographies and asset classes — adding resilience to portfolios. The gold price tipping up is screaming a warning again — a siren that this rally will not last.”
On The Crisis Room, we’re following insecurity trends across Nigeria.
Tinubu’s presidential pardon has stirred debates across NIgeria. What does this mean for justice, accountability and Nigeria’s security? We ask these questions in this new episode of #TheCrisisRoom featuring Abba Hikima and Shettima DanAzumi.
The streets have grown restless since Cameroon announced the results of its Oct. 12 presidential election, which returned 92-year-old Paul Biya as the country’s leader for an eighth consecutive term since 1982.
From Douala to Garoua and the capital, Yaounde, protesters have clashed with police, denouncing what they call a “stolen” and “manipulated” election, revealing the deep anger and mistrust that have defined the country’s politics for decades.
Biya, who won the election with 53.66 per cent of the vote as declared by the Constitutional Council, is Africa’s oldest and one of the world’s longest-serving leaders. This latest election extends his 43-year rule for another seven years.
Biya’s main challenger, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, a former ally turned critic, rejected the results, claiming victory based on his campaign’s own tallies. He accused the government of “manipulating the will of the people” and called for nationwide demonstrations. His appeal quickly spread through social media and opposition networks, sparking street protests that soon turned violent.
Other opposition parties and civil society groups have also raised concerns about the credibility of the election. They point to unusually high voter turnouts in some districts, inconsistencies in vote tabulation, and the speed at which results were certified.
But the anger on the streets is about more than the election. For many, the problem is about a system they say is built to protect incumbency and silence opposition.
Cameroon has been grappling with multiple crises that have weakened its social and political fabric. For nearly a decade, the country has battled separatist insurgencies in the English-speaking North West and South West regions, jihadist attacks in the Far North and the border with Nigeria, and worsening economic hardship in its cities. The election, analysts warned before the vote, could act as a trigger to more instability in the country. Those fears have now materialised.
The violent ongoing protests have claimed the lives of at least four people, and hundreds have been arrested. Observers suggest the figure may be higher.
The UN Human Rights Office has since called on security forces to “refrain from the use of lethal force” and urged protesters to demonstrate peacefully. It also reminded authorities of their obligation to respect international human rights law and called for restraint from all political actors.
“We urge the authorities to ensure prompt, impartial and effective investigations into all cases of election-related violence, including the use of unnecessary or disproportionate force, and to bring those responsible to justice,” the UN statement read.
Douala, the country’s economic capital and largest city, has been the epicentre of the post-election unrest. Eyewitnesses report scenes of gunfire, barricades, and hurried funerals in the city.
In the north, Garoua has also seen violence after reported attacks near Tchiroma’s residence. Smaller towns have joined in, with reports of arrests and clashes spreading across the country. Observers warn that the tension risks taking on ethnic and regional dimensions — a dangerous trend in an already divided nation.
Ethnic divisions have long shaped Cameroon’s politics, and the 2025 election has further exposed these fractures. President Biya’s support remains anchored in his Beti/Bulu base from the Centre and South, while many Bamiléké and Anglophone communities continue to feel excluded from power. The candidacy of Issa Tchiroma, a northern Fulani politician, introduced another layer to the political landscape but did little to ease existing mistrust. Although some of his support came from northern and western groups united mainly by opposition to Biya, the campaign and its aftermath remained charged with ethnic undertones.
As these divisions deepened, tensions between the authorities and the opposition escalated sharply. The government has accused Tchiroma and his supporters of inciting violence and promised to hold them accountable through legal action. Officials say the state is acting to preserve order, but critics argue that the heavy-handed response risks deepening public resentment. Security operations, arrests, and reported internet restrictions have further strained the situation. Access to several areas has been cut off, making it difficult for journalists and humanitarian workers to verify reports of casualties or destruction. However, Tchiroma promised to continue his push until “final victory”.
As the unrest spreads, attention has also turned to the country’s conflict-prone Anglophone regions. Separatist movements are watching closely, with many viewing the chaos as proof of the central government’s weakness and are using the moment to push their demands for independence. Local leaders warn that any harsh crackdown by the state could inflame tensions in areas where peace is already fragile.
“Had Biya and his entourage exercised more care in the months before the vote and understood the depth of the government’s unpopularity, this standoff might have been averted,” wrote the International Crisis Group.
Beyond the immediate crisis, the unrest underscores a deeper issue — the fragility of Cameroon’s democratic institutions. Elections are meant to provide legitimacy and a peaceful means of political competition. Instead, they have become flashpoints for unrest. For many young people who have grown up knowing only one president, the sense of disillusionment runs deep. Unemployment remains high, corruption is endemic, and the promise of reform feels distant.
International reactions have been predictable but cautious. Western governments and regional bodies have called for dialogue and restraint. While congratulating Biya on his re-election, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, stated that he “is gravely concerned about the reported violence, repression and arrests of protesters and political actors in connection with the election results.”
Youssouf urged “the Cameroonian authorities to accord topmost priority to inclusive national dialogue and consultation with all political stakeholders in order to reach consensus in the spirit of national unity, peace and collective security.”
Whether those appeals will be heeded remains uncertain. What happens next depends on how the government and opposition respond in the coming weeks. Analysts warn that Cameroon stands at a crossroads. A violent crackdown could trigger a wider crisis, while genuine dialogue might begin to ease the tension.
The first step, according to the International Crisis Group, should be an independent review of the election results and the violence that followed — a process that includes civil society, opposition representatives, and credible international observers.
Equally critical is the release of protesters detained for exercising their right to peaceful assembly. Restoring communication channels, lifting internet restrictions, and creating safe conditions for independent reporting would also help reduce misinformation and rebuild trust.
But the challenges go far beyond the current unrest. Cameroon’s long-term stability depends on addressing structural grievances, from political exclusion and corruption to the Anglophone crisis that has displaced hundreds of thousands. The government’s reliance on military solutions in the separatist regions has failed to end the conflict, while economic inequality and youth unemployment continue to feed discontent nationwide.
Without deep reform, each election risks becoming another trigger for instability. Political analysts argue that the ruling party must open the political space, allow real competition, and engage communities long excluded from decision-making. “Cameroon’s democracy has been reduced to a ritual,” one Cameroonian journalist told HumAngle. “People vote, results are announced, and nothing changes.”
For now, calm remains fragile. Markets have slowed, schools have closed in some regions, and the streets are lined with soldiers. In several cities, families are mourning relatives caught in the violence. Others fear more crackdowns as protests continue.
The coming days will test whether President Biya’s government can navigate the crisis without pushing the country into deeper turmoil — or whether the unrest will harden into yet another chapter of Cameroon’s long struggle between power and the people.
If the country fails to learn from this moment, the cycle of repression and resistance will only deepen. And for millions of Cameroonians weary of conflict, the dream of a peaceful transition of power will remain just an illusion.
Franklin Street Advisors disclosed an exit from Intuitive Surgical(ISRG -0.92%) in its latest SEC filing for the quarter ended September 30, selling 42,601 shares for an estimated $23.2 million.
What Happened
According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission released on Thursday, Franklin Street Advisors sold its entire holding in Intuitive Surgical, divesting 42,601 shares. The estimated value of the transaction, calculated using the average market price during the quarter, was approximately $23.2 million.
What Else to Know
Franklin Street Advisors’ Intuitive Surgical position previously comprised 1.4% of the fund’s 13F assets.
Top holdings after the filing:
NVDA: $132.2 million (7.6% of AUM)
MSFT: $115.2 million (6.6% of AUM)
AAPL: $110.4 million (6.4% of AUM)
GOOGL: $91.2 million (5.3% of AUM)
AMZN: $72.5 million (4.2% of AUM)
As of Thursday afternoon, shares of Intuitive Surgical were priced at $443.87, down 9.5% over the past year and underperforming the S&P 500’s 16% gain.
Company Overview
Metric
Value
Price (as of Thursday afternoon)
$443.87
Market Capitalization
$159.1 billion
Revenue (TTM)
$9.1 billion
Net Income (TTM)
$2.6 billion
Company Snapshot
Intuitive Surgical offers the da Vinci Surgical System for minimally invasive surgery and the Ion endoluminal system for diagnostic lung procedures, along with surgical instruments, digital solutions, and support services.
The company generates revenue primarily through the sale of surgical systems, recurring instrument and accessory sales, and service contracts for its installed base.
It serves hospitals, surgical centers, and healthcare providers globally, targeting institutions seeking advanced minimally invasive surgical capabilities.
Intuitive Surgical, Inc. develops, manufactures, and markets products that enable physicians and healthcare providers to enhance the quality of, and access to, minimally invasive care in the United States and internationally. Its strategic focus on innovation and expanding procedure adoption underpins its long-term growth trajectory.
Foolish take
Franklin Street Advisors’ $23.2 million sale of its entire Intuitive Surgical position marks a clear step back from the medical robotics firm after a volatile year for the stock. Shares have fallen more than 25% from their all-time high in January, as investors weigh valuation concerns and new tariff-related risks that management warned could trim 2025 margins by about 1 percentage point.
In its second-quarter 2025 earnings, Intuitive posted revenue of $2.4 billion, up 21% year-over-year, with worldwide da Vinci procedure volume climbing 17%. Meanwhile, GAAP net income rose 25% to $658 million ($1.81 per share). Yet even with expanding adoption, tightening gross margins—driven by higher input costs and tariffs on components from Mexico, Germany, and China—tempered enthusiasm.
CEO Dave Rosa said Intuitive remains “committed to advancing care” and expanding access to minimally invasive surgery worldwide. But after a multi-year run-up, Franklin’s decision to take profits may signal growing caution among institutional investors who see near-term headwinds outpacing the company’s impressive long-term growth story.
Glossary
13F reportable assets: Assets that institutional investment managers must disclose quarterly to the SEC, showing their holdings in U.S. publicly traded securities. Assets under management (AUM): The total market value of investments that a fund or firm manages on behalf of clients. Full exit: When an investor sells all shares of a particular holding, eliminating exposure to that asset. Stake: The amount of ownership or investment a fund or individual holds in a company or asset. Filing: An official document submitted to a regulatory authority, such as the SEC, to disclose financial or operational information. Divesting: Selling off an asset or investment, often to reduce risk or change portfolio strategy. Minimally invasive surgery: Surgical procedures performed through small incisions, often using specialized instruments or robotic systems. Installed base: The total number of a company’s products currently in use by customers. Service contracts: Agreements for ongoing maintenance, support, or services related to products sold. Procedure adoption: The rate at which new medical procedures or technologies are implemented by healthcare providers. TTM: The 12-month period ending with the most recent quarterly report.
Jonathan Ponciano has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Intuitive Surgical, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Banks are joining private equity funds in issuing private credit to corporate borrowers—despite regulators’ concerns about unseen risks.
As private equity becomes an increasingly dominant force in backing corporate transactions, banks are taking an “If you can’t beat ’em, join’em” approach to the business of debt-capital financing.
Standing to benefit are corporate borrowers that otherwise cannot get traditional bank financing. But the intertwining of largely unregulated private credit and regulated bank lending—with the attendant risk of government bailouts of providers of both if their loans go bad—raises questions about threats to the financial system.
What once would have been considered an unlikely partnership is nevertheless liable to deepen, since the forces behind it have been building for some time.
The global industry of private credit, supplied mainly through closed-end credit funds sponsored by the same PE firms that back equity vehicles, has grown dramatically since the 2008 financial crisis. It boasts $2.8 trillion in assets under management (AUM) at last count, up from $200 billion in the early 2000s, according to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). Correspondingly, bank lending fell from 44% of all US corporate borrowing in 2020 to 35% in 2023, an analysis by global consultancy Deloitte of Federal Reserve data found.
“Some private credit funds may have a degree of liquidity mismatch between their investments and the redemption terms of their investors.”
Lee Foulger, Bank of England
Use of private credit is expanding dramatically elsewhere as well. The BIS estimates that total outstanding private credit loan volumes have increased globally from around $100 billion in 2010 to over $1.2 trillion today, with more than 87% of the total originating in the US. Europe, excluding the UK, has accounted for about 6% of the total in recent years, and the UK about 3% to 4%, with Canada making up most of the rest. Assets in credit funds under management in Asia-Pacific total about $92.9 billion, up from $15.4 billion in 2014, according to research firm Preqin.
The appeal of private credit to corporate borrowers is clear: Many middle-market businesses, often backed by private equity sponsors, prefer private credit for its speed, flexibility, confidentiality, and reduced disclosure obligations compared to public bond markets available through broadly syndicated loans (BSLs). Those advantages are starting to attract larger, more creditworthy companies as well.
Banks, meanwhile, increasingly are lending to private credit funds for purposes of financing corporate borrowers, often those in the sponsors’ equity portfolios. Such lending often takes the form of so-called direct lending: commercial loans used by corporates for working capital or growth financing, that the industry contends traditional banks would not underwrite.
Bank lending to the private credit industry was estimated by the Federal Reserve in May 2023 at $200 billion, and the Fed acknowledged its estimate may have understated the actual amount. Fitch Ratings found that nine of the 10 banks with the largest loan balances to non-bank financial intermediaries of all kinds had $158 billion in loans to private credit funds or related vehicles at the end of last year. And the amount of outstanding loans extended by banks to private credit funds grew by 23% in the quarter ended June 30, compared with the previous quarter, versus only 1.4% for bank lending overall, Fitch reports.
The increasing importance of bank lending to private credit is well illustrated by Blackstone Private Credit Fund, one of the largest private credit funds in the world with over $50 billion in assets. Fully 98% of the $23.5 billion in secured credit commitment facilities arranged by its subsidiaries as of December 2022 were provided by 13 banks, the remaining amount from an insurance company. The outstanding amounts drawn on these facilities totaled some $14 billion, accounting for about 50% of the fund’s total debt liabilities.
A Deepening Collaboration
Of course, banks have long been involved in financing PE buyouts, such as Sycamore Partners buyout of Walgreens Boots Alliance. Two other PE firms, HPS Investment Partners and Ares Management, together provided $4.5 billion in direct lending for the deal while banks including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan Chase put together financing proposals to work jointly with private credit, providing some access to the BSL market. Overall, the deal Sycamore completed in August is valued at $23.7 billion, with over $10 billion in committed financing coming from private credit funds and banks.
Increasingly, cooperation between banks and PE firms is taking the shape of direct lending to borrowers. PNC Financial and TCW Group, for instance, have partnered to create a lending platform for middle-market companies. And Citizens Financial Group has built out a unit focused on lending to PE funds.
Competition from banks is also growing. Standard Chartered and Goldman are readying their own units devoted to extending private credit while Morgan Stanley is launching funds to exploit private credit opportunities. The loans may not stay on banks’ balance sheets for long, as risk is transferred once investors’ capital is deployed. But just as the securitization market froze up in the inflationary post-Covid environment, so too may risk transfer when liquidity abruptly disappears.
Indeed, regulators are concerned that banks’ involvement in private credit, whether through cooperation or competition with PE, poses hidden risks to the financial system. Researchers from the Bank of England (BoE), the BIS, the European Central Bank (ECB), and the Federal Reserve, among others, have issued reports recently warning of the systemic financial risk these relationships may pose. Without greater visibility, the BoE, for one, has instructed banks to bolster their risk management in this arena.
“Some private credit funds may have a degree of liquidity mismatch between their investments and the redemption terms of their investors,” Lee Foulger, director of Financial Stability, Strategy, and Risk at the BoE, warned in a January 2024 speech to a middle-market finance conference sponsored by Deal Catalyst and the Association for Financial Markets in Europe.
Who’s More Creditworthy?
The industry counters such concerns by pointing out that credit funds are less likely to have loan defaults than in the BSL market as sponsors typically monitor borrowers’ performance more closely, use less leverage, adopt more conservative loan-to-value structures, and offer more flexible terms than banks, while locking up investors for long periods. In a recent report, “Understanding Private Credit,” Ares Management contends that its borrowers are more creditworthy than those in the public markets and are supported by more equity and that while the private credit market is still small in comparison, it is on its way to becoming even less leveraged while any funding mismatch will diminish as it grows.
Yet concerns remain, especially given the prospect of a challenging economic environment ahead.
Fitch, for instance, notes that the industry has yet to weather higher interest rates. As the ratings firm put it in a June report, “Sponsors and lenders had largely assumed a low base rate environment, as signaled by the Fed amid expectations of transitory inflation, when determining the optimal sizes of capital structures against revenue, EBITDA, and free cash-flow projections.”
As for liquidity risk, Fitch analyst Julie Solar notes that a growing number of credit funds are open-ended and subject to runs under difficult circumstances. Although she concedes that the number of such funds is still small, at least in the US, and many feature limits on redemptions, she adds that the issue bears watching. If many more open-end funds are created and rates rise significantly, she warns, “that is when you can start to have liquidity issues.”
In the eurozone, 42% of funds are open-ended, according to the ECB, although most of their investors are institutional and tend to have longer time horizons than retail investors.
Solar also raises concern about what she called “leverage upon leverage,” noting that business development companies—publicly traded vehicles that account for about half of private credit—as well as PE firms themselves are often significantly indebted to banks. Indeed, bank lending for buyouts may be an even greater risk, simply because it is so much larger than direct lending.
Banks’ involvement in credit funds is an added concern for regulators. A May 2024 financial stability report from the ECB pointed out, “Private markets still need to prove their resilience in an environment of higher interest rates as they have grown to a significant size only in the past decade.”
The industry counters that interest rates on many if not most of its loans float, eliminating the need for refinancing in a rising rate environment. But that’s likely to do nothing for the borrowers themselves.
“The floating-rate debt structure of private credit agreements makes them vulnerable to challenges around debt servicing and refinancing in a higher rate environment,” the BoE’s Foulger noted at the January 2024 conference.
A Federal Reserve Bank of Boston report in May acknowledged that banks’ losses could be mitigated in response to adverse conditions as most private credit debt is secured and among the funds’ most senior liabilities. Yet, the authors cautioned that “substantial losses could also occur in a less adverse scenario if the default correlation among the loans in [private credit] portfolios turned out to be higher than anticipated—that is, if a larger-than-expected number of [private credit] borrowers defaulted at the same time. Such tail risk may be underappreciated.”
New7Wonders director Jean-Paul de la Fuente said unplanned tourist overcrowding, high costs, irregular ticket sales and social conflicts at Machu Picchu have worsened the visitor experience and damaged Peru’s image. File Photo by Paula Bayarte/EPA
Sept. 17 (UPI) — The New7Wonders Foundation warned that Machu Picchu, South America’s most iconic tourist site, could be removed from the list of the New Seven Wonders of the World because of alleged poor management and a lack of sustainable planning.
At the same time, local protests blocked rail access to the 15th-century Inca sanctuary in the Andes Mountains, forcing the Peruvian government to evacuate more than 1,400 tourists.
In a statement, New7Wonders director Jean-Paul de la Fuente said unplanned tourist overcrowding, high costs, irregular ticket sales and social conflicts have worsened the visitor experience and damaged Peru’s image.
“The justifiable and credible permanence of Machu Picchu as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World depends on urgent action by the Peruvian state,” he said.
Although it carries significant media and tourism weight, the New7Wonders list has no official status or institutional recognition from international organizations, unlike UNESCO’s World Heritage designation.
Peru’s Ministry of Culture responded, insisting that conservation of the Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu “is not being threatened” and stressed that UNESCO has not placed it on its “World Heritage in Danger” list.
In July, during the 47th session of the World Heritage Committee in Paris, officials recognized progress in visitor management and the use of monitoring and conservation tools.
The sanctuary, a World Heritage Site since 1983, receives about 4,500 visitors a day and is Peru’s most visited archaeological site.
Still, the Peruvian Institute of Economics reported that between 2020 and 2024, Machu Picchu received about 5 million fewer visitors than expected based on pre-pandemic trends, equal to 25% fewer tourists than expected.
In 2024, Cusco, which is about 50 miles from Machu Picchu recorded 3.4 million visitors, still below pre-pandemic levels. Machu Picchu saw 76,000 fewer tourists last year than in 2019.
The Institute of Economics said the decline is partly due to a lack of sustained investment in infrastructure, connectivity and tourism promotion, which has hurt job creation in the Cusco region. Between 2019 and 2024, the region lost one-third of the jobs generated directly and indirectly by tourism, equal to about 33,000 positions.
Meanwhile, the social crisis in Cusco highlighted those tensions. On Monday, protesters blocked the railway line to Machu Picchu, shutting down the main access to the archaeological site. Rail operators suspended service for safety, leaving thousands of travelers, most of them foreigners, stranded at Peru’s sacred mountain.
Foreign Trade and Tourism Minister Desilú León said police cleared the tracks around midnight, allowing about 1,400 tourists to be evacuated, though another 900 remained stranded after new attacks on the line.
“We coordinated the transfer of passengers who were on the site,” she said.
The protest was organized by a local group demanding the replacement of the company that has managed the bus service to the site for three decades.
Cusco’s Office of Foreign Trade and Tourism said the unrest has caused cancellation of about 15% of tour packages, which could mean losses of nearly $80 million by the end of the year.
France’s financial crisis is serious, according to Prime Minister François Bayrou, who is facing a confidence vote that he is likely to lose. He pointed out that France’s deficit is nearly double the EU’s allowed limit of 3% and that public debt has reached 113.9% of GDP.
Bayrou emphasized that despite the government’s challenges, simply changing the government won’t solve the underlying financial issues. He warned lawmakers that spending will continue to rise and debt will become heavier.
Opposition parties disagree with Bayrou’s approach to addressing the debt and plan to vote against his minority government. Bayrou described controlling spending as a matter of survival for the country and stressed that the government is in a precarious position at a time when unity is crucial due to external pressures from Russia, China, and the U. S. trade tensions.
He acknowledged that calling the confidence vote was a risky move, urging for clarity and unity to combat the divisions that threaten France’s reputation. The vote’s outcome is expected later in the day.
WHAT’S NEXT?
If Bayrou loses his position, President Macron will need to find another government leader to manage the budget in parliament, following the earlier removal of Michel Barnier. Social tensions are rising as various groups online have urged the French people to “block everything” this Wednesday, alongside labor unions planning protests on September 18 against budget cuts.
The potential departure of a fourth premier in under two years highlights France’s political troubles. Macron has faced challenges in a divided parliament, a departure from the stable governance expected under the Fifth Republic’s constitution.
TILT TO THE LEFT?
Macron has ruled out dissolving parliament, following a divided outcome in the recent snap election. Observers suggest he may seek a candidate from the centre-left Socialists to replace the fallen prime ministers. However, this candidate will face challenges in forming a coalition with Macron’s liberal bloc, which opposes many leftist ideas.
ASHLEY Roberts has risked multiple wardrobe blunders while sunbathing in an undone bikini.
Not only did she almost go topless while on the beach, but in another snap from her summer photo dump, the Pussycat Doll posed in a dress held up by luck alone.
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Ashley Roberts has shown off her figure in a series of sun-soaked snapsCredit: Instagram/iamashleyroberts
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She went braless under her dresses in some of the snapsCredit: Instagram/iamashleyroberts
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She even risked a blunder as she undid her bikini topCredit: Instagram/iamashleyroberts
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Ashley recently enjoyed a lavish vacationCredit: Instagram/iamashleyroberts
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She also posed in a plunging bikini topCredit: Instagram/iamashleyroberts
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She risked another wardrobe malfunction in a dress held up by luck aloneCredit: Instagram/iamashleyroberts
In the caption of the multiple sizzling snaps, Ashley, 43, penned, “Summer on film.”
The first snap saw Ashley walking across the sand while donning a green silk minidress as she beamed for the camera.
Next up, Ashley grinned while wearing a black dress that had blue embellishments.
Going braless for the display, Ashley risked her first wardrobe blunder as she posed up a storm.
She then sqautted down while on a yacht as she wore a blue dress with a thigh-high split.
Ashley posed with her artist boyfriend George Rollinson in the next photo.
And in the next, she risked it all as she sunbathed on the beach.
Lying on her stomach as she sunned herself, Ashley wore a tiny pink bikini which she had unfastened, risking her second wardrobe blunder.
She posed in the black and blue dress again, before enjoying a night out in the green dress she also wore in an earlier photo.
The next offering then saw Ashley beaming while donning a plunging berry-colored bikini top.
Ashley Roberts flashes her sunburnt bum in thong bikini as she enjoys scorching holiday
Ashley also posed, seemingly braless, in a strapless dress that was held up by luck alone.
Fans were instantly stunned by the sizzling displays, with one writing, “Stunning outfits. You look amazing Ashley.”
“Always glowing and looking beautiful Ashley,” penned a second.
A third person swooned over Ashley’s “sexy figure”, while a fourth said, “What a woman!”.
“STUNNINGLY GORGEOUS,” added a fifth.
And a sixth gushed, “Omg you’re glowing.”
American girl Ashley is all loved up with British artist George Rollinson, who is 17 years her junior.
The couple have been loved up since November 2023.
Ashley previously gushed over how much she loves British men.
Speaking to MailOnline last year she said, “Yes, George is British. It’s funny because I have been here so long that when I go back to the States, I’m much more aware of the differences…
“American men are, I feel bad saying this, but they’re overwhelming, they are too much. I’m like, you need to calm down.
“I think because I grew up in that culture, I didn’t necessarily think anything different but now I’ve lived here for so long and I’ve dated in the past, many years ago, European men…
“But I don’t even imagine myself dating an American guy now. They have a different approach. Even in places like Vegas it’s all around you that kind of testosterone.”
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Fans were quick to swoon over the snapsCredit: Instagram/iamashleyroberts
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She posed with her British boyfriend in one of the snapsCredit: Instagram/iamashleyroberts
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She posed on a night out in another of the offeringsCredit: Instagram/iamashleyroberts
TV property show presenter Kirstie Allsopp, said: “This is tenant bashing under the guise of landlord bashing. It’s like having the economy run by Baldrick.”
Ben Beadle, of the National Residential Landlords Association, said: “This will hit the very households the Government wants to protect.”
They would be clobbered twice — first by an inflation rate increase in business rates in April, then by a Rachel Reeves surcharge, experts said.
Business rates are the property tax that companies must pay just to occupy their shops, pubs, factories and offices.
The Tories warned thousands of struggling firms would be crippled.
Shadow Housing Secretary James Cleverly said: “Once again, Labour is hammering the high street. Raising business rates for thousands of hard-working small businesses across England was one of Labour’s first acts in office.
“And despite our opposition to it, and clear evidence of the damaging impact it will have, they have pressed ahead — consequences be damned.”
The first squeeze would come in April when bills rise automatically with inflation.
Raising taxes will kill off growth, Reeves warned as she pledges to rip up business red tape
The Bank of England expects the rate will hit four per cent next month.
Global tax firm Ryan said that would add £1.11billion to business rates across England.
The second blow would come when Chancellor Ms Reeves introduces a supplementary multiplier on larger premises next year.
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Reeves is considering putting National Insurance on rental incomeCredit: Getty
The Trade Desk faces risks that could impact its long-term growth.
The Trade Desk (TTD 0.81%) is one of the most closely watched companies in the advertising technology space. Its platform helps brands and agencies buy digital ads across various channels, including connected TV (CTV), audio, display, and mobile. The company has built a reputation as a disruptor, benefiting from the secular shift away from traditional linear TV and the move toward more automated, data-driven ad buying.
However, even great companies face risks, and investors should carefully weigh these before investing. In The Trade Desk’s case, two stand out: ongoing operational challenges that could slow growth, and a valuation that leaves little room for error.
Image source: Getty Images.
The Trade Desk faces risks that could impact its long-term growth
On the surface, The Trade Desk looks unstoppable. It continues to win share as advertisers reallocate budgets from traditional channels toward digital and CTV. However, beneath that momentum, the company is facing a few operational hurdles.
The biggest one involves its UID2 identity solution. With third-party cookies being phased out by Google in 2025, The Trade Desk has promoted UID2 as an industry standard to enable targeted advertising while preserving user privacy. Adoption has been broad and partners such as Walt Disney, Fox, Roku, and many publishers have integrated UID2. Still, it’s far from guaranteed that UID2 will emerge as the universal replacement. Google has its own Privacy Sandbox framework, and other walled gardens, such as Apple, are unlikely to adopt UID2.
This means The Trade Desk’s future growth in open-internet advertising depends heavily on how well UID2 gains traction versus rival identity solutions. If adoption slows or if regulators impose stricter privacy rules, the company’s targeting capabilities — and therefore its value proposition to advertisers — could weaken.
Another challenge is the competitive intensity in connected TV. While CTV is The Trade Desk’s fastest-growing segment, competition is intensifying as streamers like Netflix, Amazon, and Disney ramp up their advertising businesses. These platforms are building in-house tech and are under pressure to maximize revenue per user, which could limit the scale of inventory they make available through third-party demand-side platforms like The Trade Desk. In other words, if major streamers decide to keep more ad buying within their ecosystems, The Trade Desk’s CTV runway could narrow.
Internally, the company is undergoing one of the most significant adjustments with significant changes in the senior management team. For example, in the second quarter of 2025 alone , it saw the hiring of a new CFO and a new board member with expertise in data, AI, and advertising. Managing this transition while scaling the business is not an easy task.
Together, these operational challenges may derail The Trade Desk from its historically high growth trajectory.
The stock price isn’t a bargain despite the uncertainties ahead
The second red flag that investors need to consider is valuation. Even after a sharp pullback in recent months, The Trade Desk trades at approximately 63 times earnings and nearly 10 times sales. That’s an expensive price tag for a company operating in a cyclical industry where growth depends on macro ad spending trends.
To be fair, The Trade Desk has earned its premium multiple. It has consistently grown its revenue , maintained profitability, and adjusted its strategies as the industry has developed — introducing platforms such as Kokai AI, UID2, and others.
Additionally, it operates in an industry with a global total addressable market (TAM) of nearly $1 trillion . Within this industry, connected TV (CTV) is one of the fastest-growing segments — an area where the company has invested heavily over the years to capitalize on the tailwind.
But here’s the thing. Even if The Trade Desk continues to march ahead, sustaining its current valuation requires near-flawless execution. Any stumble — whether slower UID2 adoption, increased competition in CTV, or a cyclical ad slowdown — could trigger a sharp contraction in multiple.
That’s the risk of buying in at a premium: The business can do well, but the stock may not if expectations are too high.
What does it mean for investors?
The Trade Desk has undeniable strengths: It’s founder-led and well-positioned for the secular shift toward programmatic advertising.
However, it’s essential to balance the bullish case with the risks. Operational challenges around identity and CTV competition could complicate execution. And with the stock still trading at a steep valuation, investors aren’t getting much of a discount for taking on that uncertainty.
If you’re considering buying The Trade Desk stock today, the prudent move may be to wait for a better entry point or clearer signs of UID2’s industry dominance before committing your hard-earned capital.
Lawrence Nga has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Netflix, Roku, The Trade Desk, and Walt Disney. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Neighbour Poland has been one of Ukraine’s staunchest backers since Russia invaded in 2022.
Ukraine’s access to Elon Musk’s satellite internet service Starlink could be cut due to the Polish president’s veto of a refugee aid bill, a Polish deputy prime minister said, as a conflict between the government and head of state deepens and undermines the once ironclad support of its war-torn neighbour.
Poland pays for Ukraine to use Starlink, which provides crucial internet connectivity to the country and its military as they try to push back invading Russian forces.
Right-wing Polish President Karol Nawrocki on Monday vetoed a bill extending state financial support provided to Ukrainian refugees and unveiled plans to limit their future access to child benefits and healthcare.
However, Deputy Prime Minister and Digital Affairs Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski said the vetoed legislation also provided the legal basis for providing Starlink to Ukraine.
“This is the end of Starlink internet, which Poland provides to Ukraine as it wages war,” he wrote on X.
Centrist Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk criticised the veto. But his government does not have the two-thirds majority in parliament needed to overcome the move.
“We cannot punish people for losing their job — particularly not innocent children. This is the ABC of human decency,” Labour Minister Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bak wrote on X.
Gawkowski, stressed that Nawrocki veto jeopardised Ukraine’s use of Starlink.
“We want to continue paying for internet by satellite for Ukraine. Unfortunately, this disastrous decision by the president greatly complicates things, and we will have to inform our partners that this support will finish at the end of September,” he told the PAP news agency.
Nawrocki’s spokesperson however, told the Reuters news agency that the basis for paying for Starlink could still be restored if parliament adopts a bill proposed by the president by the end of next month.
Since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, around one million refugees have settled in neighbouring Poland. Most of them are women and children.
Poland is a key supporter of Ukraine and a major transit route for Western aid but public attitudes towards Ukrainians have hardened.
Nawrocki, a staunch nationalist, had promised to cut social welfare benefits for Ukrainians during the campaign ahead of his election victory on June 1.
“I will not change my mind and I think that (this aid) should be limited only to Ukrainians who are committed to working in Poland,” Nawrocki, who took office this month, told reporters on Monday.
Nawrocki also said Ukrainians who do not work in Poland should not be allowed to receive free medical treatment as they do now.
“This puts us in a situation in which Polish citizens, in their own country, are less well treated than our Ukrainian guests,” he said.
Gawkowski said that Poland spent 77 million euros ($90 million) between 2022 and 2024 to buy and subscribe to Starlink systems for Ukraine.
A Ukrainian diplomatic source told the Reuters news agency that Kyiv was analysing the possible impact of the move on Ukrainians in Poland, adding they believed “their rights will be protected no less than in other EU countries”.
Ukrainian refugees are currently eligible to receive the monthly family benefit of 800 zlotys ($219) per child if their children attend Polish schools. Other EU countries such as Germany have also proposed cutting benefits recently.
In Poland, the president can propose bills and veto government legislation. The government can similarly also block the president’s proposals.
The instability of Afghanistan has again become the focus of the international discourse not as the local issue but as a global crisis on the rise. In fact, the Afghan Taliban regained power in 2021. Since then, the nation has steadily fallen into unrestrained anarchy that provides a breeding ground for extremist organizations, drug dealers, and systematic violators of human rights. It is not a plunge into Kabul or Kandahar alone, but it pours beyond borders and influences regional games and even surpasses continent. It is now time that the world recognizes that the crisis that plagues Afghanistan is a security issue of a global nature. Since all the aspects of the crisis are interdependent and all together connected in a network of terror groups, drug trafficking systems and humanitarian catastrophes.
Indeed, they plan cross-border strikes that undermine stability in Pakistan, menace the Xinjiang province of China and even spark individuals in wolf attacks in Europe. A danger of such strategic mistakes is the likelihood of Afghanistan being the breeding ground again as it used to be in the pre-9/11 era when extremists trained and operated freely. In absence of control this revival would further spread terror once more all over the world.
The aspect of the crisis that could not be overlooked is narcotics production. Among them is Afghanistan whose establishment as the largest producer of opium in the world is now giving place to its emergence as a new source of synthetic drugs like methamphetamine. UNODC reports this growth puts an intimidating twist. In contrast to classic opiates which have predominated in Afghanistan drug markets over the past decades, methamphetamine is simple to manufacture, transport and even more addictive.
Drug use has increased by 23 percent in the last 10 years with 296 million new users on a global scale. The situation which worsened is the incidence of individuals with drug use disorders increased to 39.5 million with a 45 percent increase (UNODC). These numbers prove that the Afghan instability is not a localized problem, and they are contributing to a growing global narcotics industry one that emboldens organized crime and funds terrorism.
Amid the overarching reality of terrorism and drugs the population in Afghanistan particularly women and minorities are confronted by a crisis too. After the Taliban seized power they deprived women of education, did not allow them to go to workplaces, and deprived them of such fundamental rights as freedom of movement. The systematic undermining of purity and prospects has gone on to create a humanitarian disaster. There is targeted discrimination and violence against minority communities that deteriorate the social fabric of Afghanistan. The human rights groups fear that such policies will drive generations of Afghans into despair, poverty and enforced migration. Such a lack of opportunity will just expose vulnerable groups to the recruitment of extremist recruiters and traffickers.
The insecurity that emanates out of Afghanistan is not geographically localizable. Pakistan on its other side is dealing with an empowered TTP which carries out attacks across the border and Central Asian countries fear infiltration by militants. China is faced with risks to its Belt and Road Initiative investments, and Iran works against more refugee flows and trafficking routes. Europe has already reported the threat of so-called narcoterrorism seeping west putting whole regions of the world in turmoil and ultimately onto European streets and European markets. Resigning these red flags can result in recurring the historical mistakes, i.e., making Afghanistan a global insecurity centre in the 1990s.
No complacency can be afforded by the international community. Afghanistan is a poisonous cocktail of extremism, drug trafficking and gross human rights violations that is a direct threat to international security. There should be a global response an integrated approach to counterterrorism, sanctions against drug traffickers, the humanitarian assistance to the Afghan civilians and the pressure on the Taliban to respect the basic rights. The regional stakeholders Pakistan, Iran, China, Russia and Central Asia will have to come on board with the Western powers and international organizations and design a strategy forms. Turning a blind eye to Afghanistan is no longer an option the consequences of inaction will be felt in South Asia and in Europe and beyond.
The chaos that Afghanistan is going through is not a far-fetched war but a definite threat to international peace and security. Everyday challenges to counteract this crisis remain unacted, terrorist networks prosper, and narcotics industries seize new land and human suffering grows. Unless the world is willing to open its eyes Afghanistan is in grave danger of becoming an international permanent source of destabilization and of a bad form between terror, drugs and repression that will become a lasting worldwide crisis. It is much cheaper and better to prevent action today than to pay the cost of regret tomorrow.
Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem said his group will not “surrender its weapons” while Israel, which significantly weakened Hezbollah during a 14-month war last year, remains a threat and continues to strike Lebanon, occupy parts of its territories and hold Lebanese prisoners. File Photo by Wael Hamzeh/EPA
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Aug. 15 (UPI) —Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem issued a strong warning to the Lebanese government against moving forward with its plan to disarm the Iran-backed militant group, accusing it of acting on orders from the United States and Israel, and threatening that such a move could spark a civil war.
Qassem said his group will not “surrender its weapons” while Israel, which significantly weakened Hezbollah during a 14-month war last year, remains a threat and continues to strike Lebanon, occupy parts of its territories and hold Lebanese prisoners.
“We will fight this as a Karbala-style battle if necessary, confronting this Israeli-American scheme no matter the cost, confident that we will emerge victorious,” he said in a televised speech released Friday.
To Muslim Shiites, Karbala means standing against tyranny, sacrifice and steadfastness in the face of overwhelming odds.
Qassem’s strong warning came after he met with Iran Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani, who visited Beirut on Wednesday, where he heard firm statements from President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam rejecting any interference in their country’s internal affairs.
Larijani tried to play down recent comments by Iranian political and military officials who criticized the Lebanese government for endorsing the objectives of a U.S.-proposed plan to disarm Hezbollah and for tasking the Lebanese Army with developing a strategy to enforce a state monopoly on weapons by the end of the year.
The Iranian officials also maintained that Hezbollah, which has been funded and armed by Iran since its formation in the early 1980s, would never be disarmed.
Qassem said the government took “a very dangerous decision” last week, exposing the country to “a major crisis” and stripping it of “defensive weapons during times of aggression.”
He also accused it of “serving the Israeli agenda” and carrying out “an order” from the U.S. and Israel “to end the resistance, even if that leads to a civil war and internal strife.”
He held the government fully responsible for any sectarian strife, internal explosion, or destruction of Lebanon and warned it against dragging the Army into such an internal conflict.
Qassem, said, however, there “is still an opportunity, room for dialogue and for making adjustments before reaching a confrontation that no one wants.”
He added that Hezbollah was ready for confrontation and that demonstrations will be held across Lebanon, including “heading to the U.S. Embassy,” located in Awkar, north of Beirut.
Hezbollah, which reportedly lost the bulk of its military capabilities in ongoing Israeli airstrikes targeting its positions in southern and eastern Lebanon, accepted the ceasefire accord to stop a war that killed or wounded more than 20,000 people and left border villages in southern Lebanon in ruins.
While it implicitly agreed to discuss its weapons as part of a national defense strategy, the group resisted government efforts to set a timetable for disarming — a key U.S. condition for unlocking much-needed international and Gulf Arab funding to support Lebanon’s reconstruction and economic recovery.
Lebanon’s decision to set a timeline for Hezbollah disarming was mainly motivated by the risk of another devastating war with Israel and of losing well-needed funds to rebuild its war-devastated regions.
“Let us work together to build the country, so that we may all win,” Qassem said. “There is no life for Lebanon if you choose to stand on the opposite side.”
Destination X fans have been left fuming over the BBC show’s latest episode, as contestant Josh was given an ‘unfair advantage’ which puts fan favourite Nick at risk
22:25, 13 Aug 2025Updated 22:59, 13 Aug 2025
Destination X fans were left fuming once again at the end of tonight’s episode(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/TwoFour)
It was another tense night in Destination X tonight, as the BBC show aired its fifth episode of the series. Fans were left on a massive cliffhanger by host Rob Brydon, after the episode left them fuming.
The huge twist saw Josh was given the chance to sabotage someone and move their X 250km away from the point they chose. Josh opted to choose record breaking athlete Nick – who has shown his ability and strength throughout the course of the show.
Rob Brydon left viewers on a huge cliffhanger(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/TwoFour)
The good thing for fans is that they won’t have to wait too much longer to see who goes, with the next episode airing tomorrow night on BBC One.
Fans are now worried that Nick may be kicked out after being sabotaged, as they took to X, formerly known as Twitter to discuss.
“Well, josh is going to sabotage nick isn’t he? #destinationx,” guessed one before he had even chosen. Another, who thought the advantage was unfair, said: “Whoever gets their X moved should get to come back in the final and move a remaining player’s X”.
“Moving the X is so unfair. Nick will be gone,” a third wrote, as another agreed: “This is such an unfair power this isn’t Big Brother it should be a case where players can basically eliminate others.”
“#destinationX Moving someone’s marker is s**t. I’m going off this programme now,” said another, while one penned: “Josh sabotaging Nick… are we surprised…”
Fans were left on a major cliff hanger in tonight’s episode(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/TwoFour)
At the end of the episodes, whichever contestant guesses the furthest from the correct locale is kicked off the bus, and their journey comes to a sad end.
Therefore, with Nick’s X being moved so far away from the position he chose, will his journey come to an end?
It’s not the first episode that fans have had a complaint to make about the show. Last week, fans all took to X to complain that they were ‘getting annoyed’ with the show and the sheer lack of knowledge that the contestants seemed to possess. One viewer took to X to say: “Getting annoyed with #DestinationX – the lack of knowledge is appalling!”
Another said: “I assume it’s deliberate in this show that they picked contestants who know absolutely nothing about European languages or Geography, but it’s still very frustrating to watch.”
How will the cliff hanger unfold in tomorrow’s episode?
A source close to Harry blasted the report and said the prince was ‘devastated the chair had been allowed to succeed with a hostile takeover’Credit: PA
The Charity Commission said chances were missed to settle differences at Sentebale, set up by Harry and Lesotho’s Prince Seeiso in 2006 for young people and kids living with HIV and Aids.
It launched a probe when they stood down as patrons in support of trustees who quit in a dispute with Dr Sophie Chandauka over a fundraising strategy.
Board of trustees chair Dr Chandauka said the “toxicity” of Harry’s brand since his move to live in the US had seen a drop in donors.
Last night, she said the “adverse media campaign” launched by those who resigned “caused incalculable damage” to the charity.
The Times reported a source close to Harry blasted the report and said the prince was “devastated the chair had been allowed to succeed with a hostile takeover”.
His spokesman said those who rely on Sentebale would bear the “consequences of her actions”.
The Charity Commission said the public airing of the row harmed Sentebale’s reputation and risked overshadowing its achievements.
The regulator, which cannot investigate individual allegations of bullying, found no evidence of systemic bullying or harassment, including misogyny or misogynoir at the charity but acknowledged “the strong perception of ill treatment” felt by some involved.
David Holdsworth, chief executive of the Charity Commission, said: “Passion for a cause is the bedrock of volunteering and charity, delivering positive impact for millions of people here at home and abroad every day.
Harry QUITTING his own charity is utterly humiliating – misogyny row will hurt him deeply
“However, in the rare cases when things go wrong, it is often because that very passion has become a weakness rather than a strength.
“Sentebale’s problems played out in the public eye, enabling a damaging dispute to harm the charity’s reputation, risk overshadowing its many achievements, and jeopardising the charity’s ability to deliver for the very beneficiaries it was created to serve.”
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Dr Sophie Chandauka, with Harry, blames Prince Harry’s ‘toxic’ brand for donor drop and accuses him of involvement in a ‘cover-up’ of a probe into bullying and harassmentCredit: PA
The International Monetary Fund has raised its global growth forecasts for 2025 and 2026 slightly, citing stronger-than-expected purchases in advance of an August 1 jump in tariffs imposed by the United States and a drop in the effective US tariff rate to 17.3 percent from 24.4 percent.
In its forecast on Tuesday, it warned, however, that the global economy faced major risks including a potential rebound in tariff rates, geopolitical tensions and larger fiscal deficits that could drive up interest rates and tighten global financial conditions.
“The world economy is still hurting, and it’s going to continue hurting with tariffs at that level, even though it’s not as bad as it could have been,” said Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, IMF chief economist.
In an update to its World Economic Outlook from April, the IMF raised its global growth forecast by 0.2 percentage point to 3 percent for 2025 and by 0.1 percentage point to 3.1 percent for 2026. However, that is still below the 3.3 percent growth it had projected for both years in January and the pre-pandemic historical average of 3.7 percent.
It said global headline inflation was expected to fall to 4.2 percent in 2025 and 3.6 percent in 2026, but noted that inflation would likely remain above target in the US as tariffs passed through to consumers in the second half of the year.
The US effective tariff rate – measured by import duty revenue as a proportion of goods imports – has dropped since April, but remains far higher than its estimated level of 2.5 percent in early January. The corresponding tariff rate for the rest of the world is 3.5 percent, compared with 4.1 percent in April, the IMF said.
US President Donald Trump has upended global trade by imposing a universal tariff of 10 percent on nearly all countries since April and threatening even higher duties to kick in on Friday. Far higher tit-for-tat tariffs imposed by the US and China were put on hold until August 12, with talks in Stockholm this week potentially leading to a further extension.
The US has also announced steep duties ranging from 25 percent to 50 percent on automobiles, steel and other metals, with higher duties soon to be announced on pharmaceuticals, lumber, and semiconductor chips.
Such future tariff increases are not reflected in the IMF numbers, and could raise effective tariff rates further, creating bottlenecks and amplifying the effect of higher tariffs, the IMF said.
Shifting tariffs
Gourinchas said the IMF was evaluating new 15-percent tariff deals reached by the US with the European Union and Japan over the past week, which came too late to factor into the July forecast, but said the tariff rates were similar to the 17.3 percent rate underlying the IMF’s forecast.
“Right now, we are not seeing a major change compared to the effective tariff rate that the US is imposing on other countries,” he said, adding it was not yet clear if these agreements would last.
“We’ll have to see whether these deals are sticking, whether they’re unravelled, whether they’re followed by other changes in trade policy,” he said.
Staff simulations showed that global growth in 2025 would be roughly 0.2 percentage point lower if the maximum tariff rates announced in April and July were implemented, the IMF said.
The IMF said the global economy was proving resilient for now, but uncertainty remained high and current economic activity suggested “distortions from trade, rather than underlying robustness”.
Gourinchas said the 2025 outlook had been helped by what he called “a tremendous amount” of front-loading as businesses tried to get ahead of the tariffs, but he warned that the stockpiling boost would not last.
“That is going to fade away,” he said, adding, “That’s going to be a drag on economic activity in the second half of the year and into 2026. There is going to be pay back for that front loading, and that’s one of the risks we face.”
Tariffs were expected to remain high, he said, pointing to signs that US consumer prices were starting to edge higher.
“The underlying tariff is much higher than it was back in January, February. If that stays … that will weigh on growth going forward, contributing to a really lackluster global performance.”
One unusual factor has been a depreciation of the dollar, not seen during previous trade tensions, Gourinchas said, noting that the lower dollar was adding to the tariff shock for other countries, while also helping ease financial conditions.
US growth was expected to reach 1.9 percent in 2025, up 0.1 percentage point from April’s outlook, edging up to 2 percent in 2026. A new US tax cut and spending law was expected to increase the US fiscal deficit by 1.5 percentage points, with tariff revenues offsetting that by about half, the IMF said.
It lifted its forecast for the euro area by 0.2 percentage point to 1 percent in 2025, and left the 2026 forecast unchanged at 1.2 percent. The IMF said the upward revision reflected a historically large surge in Irish pharmaceutical exports to the US; without it, the revision would have been half as big.
China’s outlook got a bigger upgrade of 0.8 percentage point, reflecting stronger-than-expected activity in the first half of the year, and the significant reduction in US-China tariffs after Washington and Beijing declared a temporary truce.
The IMF increased its forecast for Chinese growth in 2026 by 0.2 percentage point to 4.2 percent.
Overall, growth is expected to reach 4.1 percent in emerging markets and developing economies in 2025, edging lower to 4 percent in 2026, it said.
The IMF revised its forecast for world trade up by 0.9 percentage point to 2.6 percent, but cut its forecast for 2026 by 0.6 percentage point to 1.9 percent.
July 14 (UPI) — A recent study by Stanford University offers a warning that therapy chatbots could pose a substantial safety risk to users suffering from mental health issues.
The Stanford research study on the use of large langue model chatbots will publicly be presented later this month at the eighth annual ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability and Transparency from June 23-26 in Athens, Greece, in a study titled: “Expressing stigma and inappropriate responses prevents LLMs from safely replacing mental health providers.”
The study looked at five AI-powered chatbots targeted toward mental health support by analyzing their replies against established criteria on what constitutes a quality human therapist.
The study’s senior author said that, while chatbots are now being utilized more often as “companions, confidants and therapists,” the possibility exits their responses could further stigmatize users or they might inappropriately respond in high-risk scenarios.
Still, their potential can’t be overlooked, some say.
“LLMs potentially have a really powerful future in therapy,” according to Nick Huber, an assistant professor at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education.
Two critical experiments were conducted by school researchers.
In the first, chatbots were presented with fictional outlines of people afflicted with various mental ailments and were issued inquiries as a way to measure any stigma-like natures or responses.
It showed examples of chatbots expressing a greater stigma in disorders such as alcohol addiction and schizophrenia versus more relatively common conditions, such as depression.
But ever newer or advanced LLMs displayed a similar level in bias, which suggested that LLM size and newer advances did little to cut back on stigma, noted lead author Jared Moore.
Researchers tested in the second experiment how a chatbot responded to real excerpts of therapy transcripts that included sensitive feedback on issues like delusional or suicidal thinking.
However, chatbots failed in some cases to flag or counter dangerous thinking.
“The default response from AI is often that these problems will go away with more data, but what we’re saying is that business as usual is not good enough,” Moore said.
For example, a user hinting at suicide asked an AI chatbot for a list of bridges after losing a job. A few bots, such as Noni by 7cups and therapist by Character.ai, failed to pick up the critical context and simply listed the bridges.
Experts indicated that chatbots — while skilled in support roles such as administrative, training, journaling and non-clinical patient functions — may not be fully ready or prepared to sit as a replacement human therapist.
“We need to think critically about precisely what this role should be,” added Haber.
Local authorities have issued fresh warnings against the risk of wildfires and urged people to take shelter, as Southern Europe experiences the summer’s first severe heatwave and as experts link the rising frequency and intensity of soaring temperatures to climate change.
Acute heatwaves were recorded in Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal through the weekend and into Sunday, with locals and tourists alike battling the sweltering conditions.
Ambulances were also on standby near tourist hot spots.
Two-thirds of Portugal was on high alert on Sunday for extreme heat and wildfires, with temperatures in Lisbon expected to top 42C (107F).
In Lisbon, 39-year-old pharmacist Sofia Monnteiro told the AFP news agency that despite advising people “not to go out” during the hottest hours of the day, “we have already had some cases of heat strokes and burns”.
Several areas in the southern half of Portugal, including Lisbon, are under a red warning until Monday night due to “persistently extremely high maximum temperature values”, said the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA).
Much of Portugal was also on high alert Sunday for extreme heat and forest fires – as was the Italian island of Sicily, where firefighters tackled 15 blazes Saturday.
In Italy, a few regions — Lazio, Tuscany, Calabria, Puglia and Umbria — were planning to ban some outdoor work activities during the hottest hours of the day in response to the record-high temperatures. Italian trade unions pushed the government to expand such measures at a national level.
On Sunday, the Italian Health Ministry placed 21 out of 27 monitored cities under its highest heat alert, including top holiday destinations like Rome, Milan and Naples.
Hospital emergency departments across Italy have reported an increase in heatstroke cases, according to Mario Guarino, vice president of the Italian Society of Emergency Medicine.
“We’ve seen around a 10-percent increase, mainly in cities that not only have very high temperatures but also a higher humidity rate,” he told the AFP.
It is mainly elderly people, cancer patients or homeless people, presenting with dehydration, heat stroke, fatigue.”
Greece was again on high wildfire alert with the heatwave there expected to continue throughout the weekend.
A large wildfire broke out south of Athens on Thursday, forcing evacuations and road closures near the ancient Temple of Poseidon.
Greek authorities deployed 130 firefighters, 12 planes and 12 helicopters to battle the blaze, while police evacuated 40 people, with five areas under evacuation orders.
In Spain, locals and tourists were desperately trying to keep cool, as temperatures reached as high as 42C (107F) in the southern city of Seville along with other locations in the south and central parts of the country.
Southern regions of Spain recorded temperatures above seasonal averages, prompting health alerts and safety recommendations from authorities. The country’s State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) has said that June is set to break yet another record, becoming the hottest such month since records started.
The ‘urban heat island’ effect
Extreme weather events are becoming increasingly common across Europe’s southern region due to global warming.
A Lancet Public Health study published last year highlighted the increasing risk of heat-related deaths due to climate change. The study predicted that heat-related deaths could more than quadruple by mid-century under current climate policies.
While more people die from cold than heat, the study stressed that rising temperatures will offset the benefits of milder winters, leading to a significant net increase in heat-related mortality.
Scientists say climate change is stoking hotter and more intense heatwaves, particularly in cities where the so-called “urban heat island” effect amplifies temperatures among tightly packed buildings.
“The heatwaves in the Mediterranean region have become more frequent and more intense in recent years, with peaks of 37 degrees [Celsius, 100F] or even more in cities, where the urban heat island effect raises the temperatures even further,” said Emanuela Piervitali, a researcher at the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA).
Experts have warned that intense heat can affect daily life, especially for vulnerable populations such as the elderly and children.
Local authorities have advised against any physical activity during the hottest hours of the day, and recommended drinking plenty of fluids.
THE HAGUE — President Trump’s gamble in bombing Iran offers significant rewards if it succeeded in destroying Tehran’s nuclear program — and historic risks if it did not. He will get credit for success only if he acknowledges the consequences of failure.
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‘You were a man of strength’
Rep. Greg Casar, a Democrat from Texas, and other lawmakers hold a news conference outside the Capitol on Wednesday.
(Bloomberg)
There are critics of Trump’s decision to order strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend. A segment of the president’s base is worried about another military entanglement in the Middle East, and a contingent of Democrats are concerned that he operated outside his constitutional authorities to wage war. But majority support exists on a bipartisan basis across Washington and among U.S. allies in Europe and the Middle East for the president’s military actions, which was on display at the NATO summit in The Hague this week.
“You were a man of strength, but you were also a man of peace,” NATO’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, told the president as they met in the Netherlands, “and the fact that you are now also successful in getting the ceasefire done between Israel and Iran, I really want to commend you for it — I think this is important for the whole world.”
At a cocktail reception in the center of the old city, where haunting Ukrainian music played in the nearby town square, Democratic senators emphasized their hope that Trump’s military strikes prove to be an operational success.
“If we have in fact either taken out Iran’s nuclear program,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, sitting alongside Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, “or badly set it back, in ways that mean that they’re not going to get a nuclear weapon anytime soon, I think that is a good thing.”
And former President Biden’s secretary of State, Antony J. Blinken, also expressed hope that the strikes succeeded, despite criticizing the resort to military action in the first place. “Now that the military die has been cast,” he wrote in the New York Times, “I can only hope that we inflicted maximum damage.”
For two decades, Republican and Democratic presidents alike have warned of peril to the region and the world if Iran were to obtain nuclear weapons — but also of Tehran’s ability to rest comfortably at the threshold of that weapons capability, in a Goldilocks position that allows them to enjoy the strategic benefits of nuclear statehood without incurring the costs.
For more than a decade, a consensus of national security and intelligence experts in Washington has assessed that Iran made a strategic decision to park itself there, holding that capability like a sword of Damocles over the international community as it fueled militant organizations such as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, undermining U.S. interests and regional stability.
Whether or not Tehran was preparing to “break out” toward a warhead, Trump’s military action was an effort to remove that years-old threat and change the strategic paradigm — a move that has won praise from European leaders and Democrats who have grown weary of decades of diplomacy with Iran that barely moved the needle.
A 2015 nuclear agreement between six world powers and Tehran was designed to oversee Iran’s nuclear capabilities. But the deal allowed Iran to maintain its domestic enrichment program, and had provisions under which caps on its enrichment capacity would expire starting this year.
“There is no reason to criticize what America did at the weekend,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said this week. “Yes, it is not without risk. But leaving things as they were was not an option either.”
‘That hit ended the war’
Yet the risks of failure are significant.
Trump’s predecessors feared that strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, regardless of their tactical success, could give Tehran the political justification to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and openly pursue nuclear arms, driving its program further underground and out of sight. In the worst-case scenario, enough of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure could remain intact for Tehran to race to a bomb within days or weeks.
“In war-gaming the military option during my time in the Biden administration, we were also concerned that Iran had or would spread its stockpile of uranium already enriched to just short of weapons grade to various secure sites and preserve enough centrifuges to further enrich that stockpile in short order,” Blinken wrote. “In that scenario, the Iranian regime could hide its near weapons-grade material, greenlight weaponization and sprint toward a bomb.”
A preliminary report on the U.S. raid, called Operation Midnight Hammer, from the Defense Intelligence Agency lends credence to those concerns. The low-confidence assessment, largely based on satellite imagery of Iran’s bombed sites at Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan, indicates that its core nuclear capabilities remain intact after the strikes despite the U.S. deployment of exceptionally powerful “bunker-buster” weapons, according to one official familiar with its findings. The Trump administration has acknowledged the authenticity of the assessment, first reported by CNN.
Satellite imagery captured days before the U.S. strike at Fordo also showed a line of trucks at the site, raising concerns that some of its enriched uranium had been removed at the last minute — a fear that Israeli officials have acknowledged to The Times.
The Defense Intelligence Agency is only one of 18 such federal agencies that will examine the operation’s success, and the Israelis will conduct their own review. But the reaction from Trump and his team to the leaked report suggests they view anything but success as a political liability that must be publicly denied.
“That hit ended the war,” Trump told reporters in The Hague, blasting the reporters who broke the story as “idiots” seeking to “demean” the pilots who conducted the mission. “We had a tremendous victory, a tremendous hit.”
“What they’ve done is they’re trying to make this unbelievable victory into something less,” he said.
The president’s resistance to the possibility of failure, or of only partial success, in the military operation could hamper the response to come. Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, on Wednesday described the strikes as a moment that reinforced his government’s determination to pursue “nuclear technologies.”
“The aggression of Israel and the United States will have a positive impact on Iran’s desire to continue developing its nuclear program,” Araghchi said. “It strengthens our will, makes us more determined and persistent.”
Pressed by another reporter on whether the preliminary assessment was correct, Trump replied, “Well, the intelligence was very inconclusive,” indicating he had concluded the operation was a success before the intelligence community had completed its work.
“The intelligence says we don’t know it could have been very severe, that’s what the intelligence says,” he added. “So I guess that’s correct, but I think we can take that we don’t know — it was very significant. It was obliteration.”
‘It was a flawless mission’
It would not be the first time the Trump administration has politicized a U.S. intelligence assessment. But the Israeli government, which sees existential stakes in Iran’s ability to produce nuclear weapons, may be less likely to exaggerate the impacts of the operation, acutely aware of the consequences of a grave intelligence failure for its security.
An initial Israeli assessment tracks with the president’s view that the nuclear program has been in effect destroyed.
“The devastating U.S. strike on Fordo destroyed the site’s critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility inoperable,” the Israel Atomic Energy Commission said in a statement, pushed by the White House on Wednesday. “We assess that the American strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, combined with Israeli strikes on other elements of Iran’s military nuclear program, has set back Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years.”
“This achievement can continue indefinitely,” the statement continued, “if Iran does not get access to nuclear material.”
On Wednesday, an Israeli official told The Times that its initial assessment of the damage would be supplemented by additional intelligence work. “I can’t say it’s a final assessment, because we’re less than a week after,” the official said, “but that’s the indication we have now.”
Still, just like in the United States, multiple organizations within Israel’s national security apparatus are expected to weigh in with assessments. The Mossad, Israel’s main intelligence agency, has yet to complete its review of the operation, an Israeli official said.
A spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry also said Wednesday that its nuclear installations were “badly damaged” by the U.S. strikes. But it remains unclear whether Iran was able to move fissile material and enrichment equipment to another facility before the strikes occurred — or whether it had previously hidden material in reserve, anticipating the possibility of an attack.
All of those pressing questions, to Trump and his aides, are the chatter of critics.
“It was a flawless mission,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in The Hague. “Flawless,” Trump replied, nodding in approval.
