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A group of graduate students from the Harvard University Kennedy School celebrate during the 368th Harvard University Commencement in May 2019 at the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. Harvard College stated in new data its 2029 class makeup showed Black students comprised 11.5% with Hispanics at 11% and Asian-American students at 41%. File Photo by Matthew Healey/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 23 (UPI) — New data released by Harvard University’s undergraduate school showed a decline for the class of 2029 in both Hispanic and Black students, with a spike in its Asian student population.

Massachusetts-based Harvard College stated its 2029 class makeup showed Black students comprised 11.5%, with Hispanics at 11% and Asian-American students at 41%, according to newly released data.

However, the university did not release demographics and data on its White student population.

The data release followed the U.S. Supreme Court‘s recent ruling that struck down affirmative action practices in America’s higher learning institutions.

Prior to the high court’s decision, the Harvard student population had been made up of about 18% of Black students.

But Harvard’s total number of Hispanic students went up following the Supreme Court’s ruling.

According to data, roughly 21% of Harvards 2029 graduating class were eligible for federal Pell Grants. It added 45% were tuition free and 26% on an entirely free program.

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump instructed the Department of Education to inform U.S. educational institutions on the receiving end of federal funds to officially end affirmative action policies in a number of school-related practices.

Meanwhile, a Yale professor and expert on affirmative action history called the decline an example how the high court’s “disastrous decision from 2023 continues to cause Black enrollment rates to decline at many of the nation’s premier universities.”

“I fear that Harvard’s plummeting trend lines over the last two years offers an unattractive preview of the future in American higher education,” Justin Driver, a professor at Yale Law School, told The New York Times.

Suicide car bomber strikes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa amid unconfirmed reports that Qatar has offered to host peace talks.

Tensions are mounting between Pakistan and Afghanistan amid reports of a brutal border attack on the former’s troops as a fragile truce between the neighbours, and once allies, nears its expiry.

A 48-hour ceasefire between the two sides, which came into effect this week after days of bloody cross-border attacks, is set to expire at 13:00 GMT on Friday.

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As the end of the truce approached, Pakistani police official Irfan Ali said a suicide car bomber backed by Pakistan Taliban, known by the acronym TTP, attacked a military compound in Mir Ali, a city in North Waziristan district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Accounts of losses suffered during the attack varied.

The official, quoted by news agency The Associated Press, said three fighters were killed in an intense shootout and did not report any troop casualties.

News agency Reuters quoted Pakistani security officials as saying seven Pakistani soldiers were killed in an attack by a fighter who rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into the wall of a Pakistani military camp in North Waziristan.

The anonymous officials said two other fighters were shot dead as they tried to get into the facility. At least 13 were left injured.

Pakistan’s Geo News reported that four assailants from TTP were killed in a suicide attack on a military camp in North Waziristan, with security sources saying security forces had suffered no losses.

Pakistan’s army did not immediately comment.

Deadly clashes

The truce, imposed on Wednesday, brought a temporary halt to the deadliest clashes between the neighbours since 2021, when the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of United States and NATO forces.

The conflict, which threatens to destabilise a region where groups like ISIL (ISIS) and al-Qaeda are trying to resurface, was triggered after Islamabad demanded that Kabul rein in fighters who had stepped up attacks in Pakistan, saying they operated from havens in Afghanistan.

The Taliban denies the charge and accuses the Pakistani military of spreading misinformation about Afghanistan, provoking border tensions, and sheltering fighters to undermine its stability and sovereignty.

Media reported that Qatar has offered to host peace talks between the two countries in Doha, though neither government has confirmed the offer.

Reporting from Peshawar, Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder said there had been “some talk of a meeting in Doha … Friendly countries are trying to make efforts in order to ensure that the ceasefire is extended,” he said.

He described the situation on the border as “tense”, adding that Pakistan had stated that unless the Afghan side addressed its concerns, the situation would be “precarious and can escalate at any moment”.

Afghanistan’s Taliban government said on Thursday that Pakistan had carried out two drone attacks on Kabul the previous day, just before the ceasefire came into effect. Doctors told AP that five people were killed and dozens were injured.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said on Thursday that 37 civilians were killed and 425 were wounded in Afghanistan as a result of cross-border clashes with Pakistan this week.

Pakistan has not provided figures for civilian casualties suffered on its side of the border.

On Thursday, Dawn cited Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the military, as saying 34 “India-backed terrorists” from “Fitna-al-Khawarij” – the government’s term for TTP – had been killed during multiple operations across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the week.

Many Los Angeles residents will soon be paying significantly more for trash collection after the City Council voted Tuesday to finalize a dramatic fee increase.

The trash program had become heavily subsidized, to the tune of about $500,000 a day, which officials said was no longer viable given the city’s dire financial straits, which left them scrambling to close a nearly $1-billion budget deficit earlier this year.

Having the cost subsidized by the city for so long contributed to that deficit, according to City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo.

“It should have been corrected a long time ago,” Szabo said. “If we didn’t get this rate increase, the subsidy would have been more than $200 million this year.”

The city hadn’t raised trash pickup fees in 17 years, and a 2016 state law governing organic waste disposal significantly increased operational costs. Large raises for city sanitation workers and rising equipment costs also bumped up expenditures.

Once the new fees go into effect, probably in mid-November, residents of single-family homes or apartments with four units or less will pay $55.95 a month per unit.

That sum is more than double the $24.33 a month that occupants of triplexes and fourplexes had been paying, and a roughly 50% increase on the $36.32 previously paid by residents of single-family homes and duplexes.

Those customers put their waste in black bins for regular trash, blue bins for recycling and green bins for organic waste, which are emptied by city workers once a week. Larger apartment buildings will be unaffected by the changes, because their waste collection is administered through a separate program.

The fees will increase by an additional $10 over the next four years.

By next year, the increased fees will reflect the actual cost of trash pickup and will be on par with or slightly below what residents pay in nearby cities such as Long Beach, Pasadena, Culver City and Glendale.

Still, the new fees will almost certainly engender sticker shock for L.A. residents already contending with skyrocketing insurance premiums, rising rents and eye-popping grocery prices. Rates will be reduced for low-income customers who qualify for the city’s EZ-SAVE or Lifeline programs.

The City Council approved the increase on a 12-2 vote, with Councilmembers Monica Rodriguez and Adrin Nazarian dissenting.

Last week, the council also voted to raise the prices and hours of city parking meters.

“After approving a $2.6-billion Convention Center expansion, the council is asking residents to pay more for basic services like trash collection while delivering less. That doesn’t reflect the priorities of working Angelenos,” Rodriguez said after Tuesday’s vote. “I can’t, in good conscience, support that approach.”

A number of factors catalyzed the city’s financial issues, which exploded into public view during the budget process earlier this year. Los Angeles had taken in weaker than expected tax revenues, paid out more in legal liabilities and adopted large-scale raises for city employees.

When Mayor Karen Bass first presented her budget in the spring, layoffs for more than 1,600 city workers were on the table. She and the City Council were ultimately able to avoid those cuts through a number of cost-saving measures.

Tuesday’s final vote on the trash fees came nearly six months after the council gave preliminary approval to the plan.

The matter was complicated by Proposition 218, a 1996 statewide ballot measure designed to make it harder for local governments to raise taxes and fees. To satisfy the proposition’s requirements, the city had to hold public hearings and give every affected resident the opportunity to weigh in via a notice mailed to their homes before the increase could move forward.

The fee hike legislation still has to be signed by the mayor and formally published by the city clerk. The fee can’t go into effect until 31 days after that, or mid-November at the earliest.

The city budget, however, was calculated under the assumption that the new fees would go into effect Oct. 1. The delay will leave the city on the hook for an extra $500,000 a day.

Because Tuesday’s vote was not unanimous, the ordinance will receive a second reading next week before the council formally approves it and sends it to the mayor — a technicality that will cost the city $3.5 million. The mayor plans to sign it as soon as she receives it, her office said.

The delay to mid-November will cost the city a total of at least $22 million, creating another deficit that will have to be adjusted for down the line.

Still, some residents decried the ballooning fees, with one calling the increase “preposterous.”

“Listen to our cries,” the person, who did not give their name,said in a written public comment. “We can barely keep a roof over our heads — at this time! Los Angeles is falling apart. It is your job to fix it more practically.”

The Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council also opposed the rate hike, arguing that residents are already facing steep cost-of-living increases and that layering more fees on top of that would be “neither fair nor sustainable.”

The last time the city increased trash fees, back in the summer of 2008, City Controller Kenneth Mejia was a few months out of high school, George W. Bush was in the Oval Office and Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” was topping the Billboard charts.

Amid a global economic downturn, the city was facing widespread cuts, and leaders looked — as they often do — to the price tag of city services to try to balance the budget.

Times staff writers David Zahniser and Dakota Smith contributed to this report.

Seniors in some parts of the country say they are being denied COVID-19 vaccinations amid an ongoing spike in cases, leading to rising frustration over new Trump administration policies that are making it harder to get the shots.

Matthew D’Amico, 67, of New York City, said a Walgreens declined to administer COVID-19 vaccines to him and his 75-year-old wife on Friday because they didn’t have a prescription. They’re trying to get vaccinated ahead of a trip.

“I can’t believe we can’t get” the vaccine, D’Amico said in an interview. “I’ve been inoculated a number of times and never had to get a prescription. And it’s just very frustrating that this is where we are.”

He’s not alone in his exasperation. Under the leadership of the vaccine skeptic Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., federal agencies have effectively made it more difficult to get vaccinated against COVID-19 this year. The Food and Drug Administration has only “approved” COVID-19 vaccines for those age 65 and up, as well as younger people with underlying health conditions.

That means across the country, people younger than 65 interested in getting the COVID-19 vaccine must now either consult with a healthcare provider or “attest” to a pharmacy that they have an underlying health condition. It’s a potential hurdle that can make getting the vaccine more difficult and, some health experts worry, prompt even more Americans to eschew getting vaccinated.

As D’Amico can attest, though, being part of a group for whom the COVID vaccine is “approved” doesn’t necessarily guarantee easy access.

“For me to go to my primary [healthcare provider] now and get a prescription, it’s just kind of ridiculous,” D’Amico said.

At least some people younger than 65 are encountering pharmacy staff asking probing questions about their medical conditions.

That happened Friday at a CVS in Orange County, according to 34-year-old Alex Benson, who takes medication that can suppress his immune system.

Besides just protecting himself, he wanted to get vaccinated as he has family members who are at high risk should they get COVID — his mother is immunocompromised, and his mother-in-law had open-heart surgery on Thursday night.

Benson said an employee asked why he thought he was eligible for the vaccine.

“They asked me for either a prescription or they wanted to know … why I felt I needed the vaccination,” Benson said. At one point, a staffer offered to call his doctor to get an authorization for the vaccine.

Benson said he was alarmed by the questions, and started to “feel kind of some desperation to plead my case to the pharmacist.” Another CVS staffer later came over and said further answers weren’t necessary and simply attesting he was eligible was good enough. He eventually got the vaccine.

Still, he felt the experience was dismaying.

“I think easy access should be the policy,” Benson said. “I tend not to get too political, but it seems just rather juxtaposed to me that an anti-regulation administration is using regulation in this way. They’re supposed to be removing barriers to healthcare.”

The vaccine chaos comes as COVID-19 is either increasing or starting to hit its late summer peak. According to data released Friday, there are now 14 states with “very high” levels of coronavirus detected in their wastewater — California, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Indiana, South Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana, Connecticut, Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Hawaii and Alaska, as well as the District of Columbia.

Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, the regional physician chief of infectious diseases for Kaiser Permanente Southern California, said data continue to show an increase in coronavirus cases.

“Over this past week, we’ve seen an increase in the number of outpatient COVID cases, and even a smattering of inpatient cases,” Hudson said. “It appears that we may be nearing the top of the wave, but it may be another two weeks or so until we truly know if we’re there.”

The rate at which coronavirus lab tests are confirming infection also continues to rise statewide and in the Los Angeles area. For the week ending Aug. 30, California’s COVID test positivity rate was 12.83%, up from 7.05% for the week ending Aug. 2. In L.A. County, the positive test rate was 14.83%, up from 9.33%.

Other data, however, suggest some areas may have reached their summer COVID peak.

In Orange County, the COVID positive test rate was 13.1%. That’s below the prior week’s rate of 18%, but still higher than the rate for the week that ended Aug. 2, which was 10.8%.

In San Francisco, the test positivity rate has been hovering around 9% for the last week of reliable data available. It’s up from 7% a month earlier.

In addition, wastewater data in L.A. County show coronavirus levels declined slightly from the prior week.

“It’s too early to know if this decrease in wastewater viral concentrations is the first sign that COVID-19 activity is peaking or is regular variation typical of this data source,” the L.A. County Department of Public Health said.

COVID hospital admissions in California are increasing — with the latest rate of 3.93 admissions per 100,000 residents, up from 2.38.

But they remain relatively low statewide and in L.A. County. The number of L.A. County residents seeking care for COVID-related illness, or who have been hospitalized, “is quite a bit lower than during summer surges in 2023 and 2024,” the public health department said.

A relatively mild summer wave, however, could mean that the annual fall-and-winter COVID wave might be stronger. In July, the state Department of Public Health said that scientists anticipate California would see either a stronger summer COVID wave or a more significant winter wave.

The current confusion over federal COVID vaccine policy has been exacerbated by the chaos at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where Kennedy earlier this year fired everyone on the influential Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, and orchestrated the firing of CDC Director Susan Monarez just 29 days after she was confirmed to the post by the Senate.

Some of Kennedy’s handpicked replacements on the ACIP have criticized vaccines and spread misinformation, according to the Associated Press. And the new interim CDC director — Jim O’Neill, a Kennedy deputy — is a critic of health regulations and has no training in medicine or healthcare, the AP reported.

The CDC hasn’t issued its own recommendations on who should get vaccinated, and that inaction has resulted in residents of a number of states needing to get prescriptions from a healthcare provider for at least the next couple of weeks. In some cases, that’s true even for seniors, as D’Amico found out.

As of Friday, CVS said people need a prescription to get a COVID-19 vaccine, sometimes depending on their age, in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, North Carolina, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia, as well as the District of Columbia.

CVS couldn’t even offer the COVID-19 at its pharmacies in Nevada as of Friday; they were only available at the company’s MinuteClinic sites, according to spokesperson Amy Thibault.

CVS said it expects to offer COVID-19 vaccines without prescriptions at its pharmacies in New Mexico, Nevada, New York and Pennsylvania “soon,” due to recent regulatory changes in each state.

“Right now, all patients in all states need to attest to being eligible for the vaccine in order to schedule an appointment online,” Thibault said. If an adult says they have no underlying health conditions, but do have a prescription from a healthcare provider for “off-label” use of the vaccine, they can get the shot, Thibault confirmed.

On Thursday, Hawaii joined California, Washington and Oregon in launching the West Coast Health Alliance: an interstate compact meant to provide science-based immunization guidance as an alternative to the CDC.

“Together, these states will provide evidence-based immunization guidance rooted in safety, efficacy, and transparency — ensuring residents receive credible information free from political interference,” according to a statement from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office.

The statement suggested that the Trump administration was essentially “dismantling” the CDC.

“The absence of consistent, science-based federal leadership poses a direct threat to our nation’s health security,” the statement said. “To protect the health of our communities, the West Coast Health Alliance will continue to ensure that our public health strategies are based on best available science.”

It was not immediately clear, however, whether the formation of the West Coast Health Alliance would make it easier for people to get COVID-19 vaccines at the nation’s largest pharmacy retailers, where many people get their shots.

Mainstream medical groups, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, are also offering their own recommendations to advise individuals and families on what vaccines they should get.

The Buffy the Vampire Slayer revival series is fast approaching and it’s time to revisit some of the show’s most memorable villains.

*Warning – this article contains major spoilers for all 7 seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.*

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is chock-full of unforgettable baddies, but while some subtly slay, others just… suck?

With the reboot series led by Buffy icon Sarah Michelle Gellar on the cards, it’s only right to take a nostalgic look back at the good, the bad and the chaos-demon-ugly from all seven seasons of the cult classic, which is currently available to stream on ITVX.

The TV sensation created by Joss Whedon, which originally aired between 1997 and 2003, still boasts a loyal fanbase eagerly awaiting the return of the legendary character, reports Surrey Live.

In the meantime, from the ‘big bads’ of each season to the wicked ones lurking in the shadows, we’ve picked out 12 characters who might give you the heebie-jeebies – and one of them may catch you off guard.

12. Adam

Adam commits plenty of gruesome acts during his short time in season 4 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but his biggest sin is being entirely forgettable.

While we spend the season getting to know Riley, Professor Walsh and other members of the Initiative, we learn almost nothing interesting about this Frankenstein-like creation except that he wants to kill everything in sight.

11. The Master

The Master is the first major villain Buffy ever has to face but, while her season-long struggle to defeat him feels epic the first time you see it, he seems pretty bland on a re-watch.

In the end, the prosthetic effects and his somewhat corny dialogue makes him appear less threatening and, like Adam, we don’t learn much about him except that he wants evil to triumph.

10. The First

The First Evil is billed as the final, ultimate villain Buffy must defeat before the entire town of Sunnydale is swallowed into the hell mouth forever.

The First’s introduction to season 7 is chilling, as it uses imitation to trick Buffy and her friends to exploit their grief and insecurities.

However, as the season goes on its lack of physical presence becomes increasingly unexciting, and we spend far too much screen time with the minions doing its bidding.

9. Buffy’s Dad

While Buffy’s Dad isn’t strictly evil, he is a strong candidate for this list. At first, Hank Summers makes some effort with Buffy and we even see she has stayed with him over the summer between seasons 1 and 2.

However, by the time Joyce dies, it is apparent he barely speaks to his daughters, not even bothering to show up to the funeral despite Buffy ‘leaving messages all over the place’.

During that time, we learn he was in Spain with his secretary – and he doesn’t even notice when Buffy (temporarily) dies.

8. Caleb

Sadistic defrocked priest Caleb has a pathological hatred of women, which makes him one of the most sinister and unlikeable villains on this list.

We know he killed several girls while still in human form, before The First Evil granted him superhuman strength and other abilities in order to do its bidding.

He also nearly overpowers and kills Buffy before the show’s finale, making him one of her most formidable nemesies.

7. Dark Willow

One of the most tragic and painful storylines across Buffy’s run was Willow’s magic addiction battle in season 6, which mirrored many people’s real-life struggles with addiction.

When Warren kills Willow’s girlfriend Tara, this escalates and she goes on a murderous rampage, at first seeking revenge but ultimately attempting to destroy the world as dark magic consumes her.

This is one of the bleakest chapters of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but it cannot be denied that Willow makes a powerful and complex villain.

6. Warren

Remember the earlier reference to villains who ‘just suck’? That’s Warren. This misogynistic sociopath is so hateable precisely because he’s still very clearly, pathetically human.

We are first introduced to him when he builds himself the ‘perfect’ robot girlfriend only to then discard her for another woman without bothering to tell her.

He then forms ‘The Trio’ alongside Andrew and Jonathan and, while at first they are painted as fairly harmless, things quickly get disturbing.

When Warren convinces The Trio to help him imprison his former girlfriend as a mindless sex slave, he ends up killing her as she tries to escape.

Later, he tries to shoot Buffy, instead killing Tara in the process before being gruesomely murdered by Willow.

5. Faith

Sometimes a hero and sometimes a villain, Faith doesn’t have an easy ride on Buffy the Vampire Slayer – and she often has herself to blame.

Eventually, Faith finds her redemption and is able to aid Buffy in her final fight against The First.

However, some of the best scenes in the show are when Buffy and Faith throw punches, with their perfectly-matched slayer strength culminating in some pretty epic fight scenes.

4. Mayor Richard Wilkins

Formerly human but now an immortal demon, Mayor Richard Wilkins is one of Buffy’s most memorable villains thanks to his unsettlingly cheery demeanor and wise words of advice.

While ultimately, his primary ambition is to transform into a giant snake and wreak havoc on Sunnydale, he also cares about good manners, cleanliness and forms a meaningful father-daughter bond with Faith.

3. Spike and Drusilla

First introduced in season 2, vampires Spike and Drusilla totally transformed Buffy the Vampire Slayer when they appeared.

Both interesting characters in their own right, they felt decidedly more human than the villains that came before and also introduced plenty of humour and levity to proceedings.

Spike quickly became a fan favourite, being brought back again in season 3 before returning as a main cast member in season 4.

2. Glory

While Buffy is generally in the business of slaying demons, the stakes were raised in season 5 when she came face to face with a literal god.

Glory was a fantastic villain for the show because, while she was capable of witty one-liners, she also had some pretty terrifying powers.

Arguably, the show’s sense of jeopardy never felt stronger than it did in season 5, and Glory’s human weakness (Ben – Ben? I’m sure he was connected to her somehow? Were they roommates?) and backstory made the villain all the more compelling.

1. Angelus

Widely considered to be Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s ultimate villain, Angelus is one of the most evil characters in the Buffyverse.

However, it is really Buffy’s emotional connection to him that makes the drama all the more intense, as she has already fallen in love with Angel, the version of him with a soul.

After her former lover starts killing her friends and attempting to bring about the apocalypse, Buffy is tragically forced to kill him in order to save the world just moments after his soul is restored.

Rewatch all seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on ITVX.

Kansas City Chiefs fans sure are excited about the upcoming season.

Fanatics, the official online sportswear retailer for the NFL, reports that sales of Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce jerseys jumped a whopping 200% on Tuesday.

Clearly, fans were doing some early packing for the team’s season opener against the Chargers in São Paulo, Brazil, on Sept. 5. Those fans simultaneously realized they didn’t have enough gear to properly represent the reigning AFC champions at Corinthians Arena.

What other possible explanation could there have been?

There’s no way that Kelce had his biggest day in jersey sales since Super Bowl Sunday in February just because he and pop superstar Taylor Swift announced their engagement.

Right?

Haha, wrong — at least, it would seem that way, based on the typical behavioral patterns of Swifties.

Kelce and Swift’s romance can be traced back to July 2023, when Kelce was able to pass along a friendship bracelet with his phone number to Swift’s camp at an Eras tour concert in Kansas City. They officially became an item that fall.

Swift attended her first Chiefs game on Sept. 24, 2023. Fanatics reported at the time that sales of No. 87 Chiefs jerseys experienced a 400% boost over the previous day, placing Kelce among the top five NFL players in jersey sales for that day.

On Aug. 13, Swift made her first-ever podcast appearance on “New Heights,” which is hosted by Kelce and his brother Jason Kelce, the former Philadelphia Eagles center. A total of 1.3 million people tuned in simultaneously after the episode dropped, setting a Guinness World Record for most concurrent views for a podcast on YouTube.

Kelce and Swift’s joint Instagram post regarding their upcoming nuptials has received more than 33.4 million likes. Billboard reported Wednesday that it has been reposted more than any other in the site’s history, passing the 1-million mark in its first six hours.

So, yeah, it would seem pretty on-brand for Swifties to celebrate by purchasing large volumes of Travis gear.

By the way, if you think those numbers are impressive, just imagine what the jersey sales will be like if the couple decides to hyphenate their names after saying “I do.” What self-respecting Swiftie would want to be without a “Kelce-Swift” (“Swift-Kelce”?) jersey as part of their wardrobe?

1 of 3 | The price of U.S. gold futures spiked Friday, a day after Switzerland was hit with 39% American tariffs on its goods, including 1-kilogram gold bullion bars. File Photo by Anatoli Zhdanov/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 8 (UPI) — The price of U.S. gold futures spiked on Friday, a day after Switzerland was hit with 39% American tariffs on its goods, including 1-kilogram gold bullion bars.

Gold on the COMEX, the world’s largest market for gold futures, eclipsed $3,530 on Friday, a 52-week high.

The metal was up $8.10 or 0.23% to $3,461 as of 2 p.m. EDT.

President Donald Trump last month confirmed he would move ahead with his reciprocal tariff policy for countries that had not reached a trade deal with the United States, meaning a 39% duty on Switzerland. Those levies took effect Thursday.

A ruling on the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website confirms the tariffs extend to the gold bars refined in Switzerland. Some analysts had hoped for an exemption. The ruling applies to both the 1-kg and 100-ounce gold bars.

“Both types of bars are used primarily to back contracts on the Commodity Exchange (Comex), but are also sold to jewelers or industrial consumers for manufacturing purposes,” reads the CBP ruling, which came after a New York firm requested clarification on the matter ahead of the tariffs taking effect.

“The back of each bar is lasered with a QR code that serves as a certificate of authenticity, the production date, and a serial number.”

Switzerland is the world’s leading gold refining nation. The country exported more than $36 billion of gold to the United States during the first quarter, making around two-thirds of Switzerland’s American trade surplus.

Swiss Confederation President Karin Keller-Sutter visited Washington this week in an attempt to reach a last-minute deal to avoid the tariffs.

“The Federal Council acknowledged the application of additional tariffs of 39 percent on goods imported from Switzerland into the United States. It remains firmly committed to continuing talks with the United States to achieve a reduction of these additional tariffs on Swiss goods as quickly as possible,” Keller-Sutter said in a statement Thursday.

“To this end, it remains in contact with the American authorities and the affected economic sectors. It will also shortly hold in-depth discussions on possible relief for companies and continuously review the need for further economic policy action.”

This Morning star Ashley James has recalled a scary incident where she suspects her drink was spiked, which left her blacking out and meant she woke with no memory of her night.

Ashley James has recalled a scary incident where she suspected her drink was spiked and ended up blacked out. Detailing the experience, the This Morning star told Mirror: “There have been many occasions where I’ve wondered if I’ve been spiked. But we blame ourselves and think, ‘Maybe I was just drunk.’”

“I remember visiting my brother at university for a night out years ago. I had a total blackout, woke up in my brother’s room and I’d been sick – everywhere,” she said. Ashley continued: “That was a disproportionate reaction to what I drank that evening and I have no memory of the evening itself. It was terrifying.”

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The mum-of-two added, “I was really young so I didn’t think about spiking or what I should do in that situation. Like so many others, I blamed myself or simply thought the drinks were stronger than I thought. Luckily, nothing worse has happened.”

In our exclusive chat, the DJ and presenter, 38, admitted she wants to better the world for her children; Alfie, four, and Ada, two, whose dad is partner Tommy Andrews – particularly after some of these terrifying experiences of her own.

“I’m outspoken, but the more you talk about things, the more you can fight for change. There are so many scary things out there, especially as a mother; the thought of my children experiencing things I have – whether it’s trolling or other issues – makes me nervous. The world’s a scary place now.”

On the topic of trolling, something celebrities are all too familiar with, she talks about her experiences on social media and gossip website, Tattle Life, which is now being shut down. The website allows users to post anonymously, but Ashley says the harassment she has encountered on it has made its way into her home life, too.

“People don’t realise that it’s not just gossiping and chatting, it’s much darker,” she says. “In my case, someone made a false allegation against me to social services, who came to my door. “I told them that, day or night, if they came to my door they’d only see loved children, so I wasn’t worried. But it does endanger people when their family is involved. It’s scary as it’s entering the real world.”

Ashley continues, “Social services are overstretched as it is, so there should be repercussions for wasting their time. Put bluntly, other children could die if social services’ attention is elsewhere because of these allegations. People need to be accountable. If they’re going to say it online, they should say it with their faces and names made public. They should be as accountable online as they are offline.”

Experiences like this have made Ashley ultra-aware when it comes to educating her children about the internet. “My son is amazing; he’s sweet, sensitive and kind and I never want the world to convince him that those aren’t worthy attributes for men. We definitely need more kind and compassionate boys and men in the world, so that’s what I want to teach him,” she says.

Earlier this year, Ashley took to social media after being told that Alfie may need extra help from the Special Educational Needs department when he begins school. Ashley says she’s trusting her gut.

“The school did a SEN report which didn’t specifically label him or say why he needs extra help, and to be honest, I don’t really mind. I think any parent would welcome extra support for their child. “My role as his mum is to guide him and to trust my instincts, to ensure that he can thrive in a school setting. So, I feel reassured.”

As we chat about creating a better world for her children, Ashley says she’s working with anti-spiking campaign CounterSpike and charity Spike Aware UK to get rid of drink spiking in the future.

Admitting she wants to get rid of the ‘victim blaming’ mentality, Ashley said: “We ask how much they’ve had to drink. Even as parents, especially with daughters, people find themselves saying, ‘You can’t go out like that.’ But you’re equating their outfit to their morals, or their safety.

“The problem – even if it’s well intended – is that it’s telling her that she’s responsible for bad things happening to her, rather than the person doing them,” says Ashley. That’s why she’s pleased that CounterSpike has developed SpikeStixx, which enables people to test their drinks. “It’s a way to reassure your mates they haven’t just drunk too much – to know for sure.

“More than anything, it will hopefully help stop people from doing it. Because, right now, statistics from CounterSpike show that 90% of spiking goes unreported.”

“One day, my son and daughter will be going out into this world without me. I would really like to think that things will improve, and they can do that without fear.”

Ashley is the official ambassador for the launch of CounterSpike’s campaign and its SpikeStixx, which are available to buy at counterspike.com

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Crude oil prices jump more than 4 percent amid fears the US may join Israel’s offensive against Iran.

Oil prices have spiked amid fears that the Israel-Iran crisis could spiral into a broader conflict involving the United States.

Brent North Sea Crude and West Texas Intermediate – the two most popular oil benchmarks – rose 4.4 percent and 4.3, respectively, on Tuesday as US President Donald Trump demanded “unconditional surrender” from Tehran.

The benchmarks stood at $76.45 per barrel and $74.84 per barrel, respectively, following the jump.

Oil prices edged up further in early trading on Wednesday, with both benchmarks about 0.5 percent higher as of 03:30 GMT.

US stocks fell on the rising geopolitical tensions overnight, with the benchmark S&P500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite declining 0.84 percent and 0.91 percent, respectively.

Israel has bombed multiple oil and gas facilities in Iran since Friday, including the South Pars gasfield, the Fajr Jam gas plant, the Shahran oil depot and the Shahr Rey oil refinery.

While there has been little disruption to global energy flows so far, the possibility of escalation – including direct US involvement in Israel’s military offensive – has put markets on edge.

On Tuesday, Trump ratcheted his rhetoric against Iran, adding to fears that his administration could order a military strike against Iran’s uranium enrichment facility at Fordow.

In a thinly veiled threat against Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Trump said in a Truth Social post that the US knew his location but did not want him killed “for now”.

Iran has the world’s third-largest reserves of crude oil and second-largest reserves of gas, though its reach as an energy exporter has been heavily curtailed by US-led sanctions.

The country produced about 3.99 million barrels of crude oil per day in 2023, or 4 percent of global supply, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

Iran also sits on the Strait of Hormuz, which serves as a conduit for 20-30 percent of global oil shipments.

Nearly all of Iran’s oil exports leave via the Kharg Island export terminal, which has so far been spared from Israeli bombing.

“In the context of seeking to destabilize Iran, Israel may choose to strike its oil exports, believing that working to finish off a hostile regime is worth the risk of alienating allies concerned with potential price escalation,” Clayton Seigle, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, wrote in an analysis on Monday.

“Israeli strategists are likely well aware that Iran’s oil export capacity is quite vulnerable to disruption. Its offshore oil export terminal at Kharg Island accounts for nearly all of its 1.5 million barrels per day average export volume.”

A growing coalition of HIV prevention organizations, health experts and Democrats in Congress are sounding the alarm over sweeping Trump administration cuts to HIV/AIDS prevention and surveillance programs nationally, warning they will reverse years of progress combating the disease and cause spikes in new cases — especially in California and among the LGBTQ+ community.

In a letter addressed Friday to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Rep. Laura Friedman (D-Glendale) and 22 of her House colleagues demanded the release of HIV funding allocated by Congress but withheld by the Trump administration. They cited estimates from the Foundation for AIDS Research, known as amfAR, that the cuts could lead to 143,000 additional HIV infections nationwide and 127,000 additional deaths from AIDS-related causes within five years.

Friedman said the effects would be felt in communities small and large across the country but that California would be hit the hardest. She said L.A. County — which stands to lose nearly $20 million in annual federal HIV prevention funding — is being forced to terminate contracts with 39 providers and could see as many as 650 new cases per year as a result.

According to amfAR, that would mark a huge increase, pushing the total number of new infections per year in the county to roughly 2,000.

“South L.A. and communities across California are already feeling the devastating impacts of these withheld HIV prevention funds. These cuts aren’t just numbers — they’re shuttered clinics, canceled programs, and lives lost,” Friedman said in a statement to The Times.

As one example, she said, the Los Angeles LGBT Center — which is headquartered in her district — would likely have to eliminate a range of services including HIV testing, STD screening, community education and assistance for patients using pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, a medicine taken by pill or shot that can greatly reduce a person’s risk of becoming infected from sex or injection drug use.

A list reviewed by The Times of L.A. County providers facing funding cuts included large and small organizations and medical institutions in a diverse set of communities, from major hospitals and nonprofits to small clinics. The list was provided by a source on the condition of anonymity in order to be candid about the funding of organizations that have not all publicly announced the cuts.

The affected organizations serve a host of communities that already struggle with relatively high rates of HIV infection, including low-income, Spanish speaking, Black and brown and LGBTQ+ communities.

According to L.A. County, the Trump administration’s budget blueprint eliminates or reduces a number of congressionally authorized public health programs, including funding cuts to the domestic HIV prevention program and the Ryan White program, which supports critical care and treatment services for uninsured and underinsured people living with HIV.

The county said the cuts would have “an immediate and long-lasting impact” on community health.

Dozens of organizations and hospitals, such as Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, are bracing for the disruption and potential vacuum of preventative services they’ve been providing to the community since the 1980s, according to Claudia Borzutzky, the hospital’s Chief of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine.

Borzutzky said without the funding, programs that provide screening, education, patient navigation and community outreach — especially for at-risk adolescents and young adults — will evaporate. So, too, will free services that help patients enroll in insurance and access HIV prevention medications.

Patients who “face a variety of health barriers” and are often stigmatized will bear the brunt, she said, losing the “role models [and] peer educators that they can relate to and help [them] build confidence to come into a doctor’s office and seek testing and treatment.”

“We are having to sunset these programs really, really quickly, which impacts our patients and staff in really dramatic ways,” she said.

Answers to queries sent to other southern California health departments suggested they are trying to figure out how to cope with budget shortfalls, too. Health officials from Kern, San Bernardino and Riverside counties all said the situation is uncertain, and that they don’t yet know how they will respond.

Friedman and her colleagues — including fellow California representatives Nancy Pelosi, Judy Chu, Gilbert Cisneros Jr., Robert Garcia, Sam Liccardo, Kevin Mullin, Mark Takano, Derek Tran and George Whitesides — said they were concerned not only about funding for programs nationwide being cut, but also about the wholesale dismantling or defunding of important divisions working on HIV prevention within the federal government.

They questioned in their letter staffing cuts to the National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as “the reported elimination” of the Division of HIV Prevention within that center.

In addition to demanding the release of funds already allocated by Congress, the representatives called on Kennedy — and Dr. Debra Houry, deputy director of the CDC — to better communicate the status of ongoing grant funding, and to release “a list of personnel within CDC who can provide timely responses” when those groups to whom Congress had already allocated funding have questions moving forward.

“Although Congress has appropriated funding for HIV prevention in Fiscal Year 2025, several grant recipients have failed to receive adequate communication from CDC regarding the status of their awards,” Friedman and her colleagues wrote. “This ambiguity has caused health departments across the country to pre-emptively terminate HIV and STD prevention contracts with local organizations due to an anticipated lack of funding.”

The letter is just the latest challenge to the Trump administration’s sweeping cuts to federal agencies and to federal funding allocated by Congress to organizations around the country.

Through a series of executive orders and with the help of his billionaire adviser Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” and other agency heads, Trump in the first months of his second term has radically altered the federal government’s footprint, laying off thousands of federal workers and attempting to claw back trillions of dollars in federal spending — to be reallocated to projects more aligned with his political agenda, or used to pay for tax cuts that Democrats and independent reviewers have said will disproportionately help wealthy Americans.

California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta’s office has repeatedly sued the Trump administration over such moves, including cuts and layoffs within Health and Human Services broadly and cuts to grants intended to make states more resistant to infectious disease specifically — calling them unwise, legally unjustifiable and a threat to the health of average Americans.

LGBTQ+ organizations also have sued the Trump administration over orders to preclude health and other organizations from spending federal funding on diversity, equity and inclusion programs geared toward LGBTQ+ populations, including programs designed to decrease new HIV infections and increase healthy management of the disease among transgender people and other vulnerable groups.

“The orders seek to erase transgender people from public life; dismantle diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility initiatives; and strip funding from nonprofits providing life-saving health care, housing, and support services,” said Jose Abrigo, the HIV Project Director of Lambda Legal, in a statement. The legal group has filed a number of lawsuits challenging the Trump administration cuts, including one on behalf of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and other nonprofits.

Trump has defended his cuts to the federal government as necessary to implement his agenda. He and his agency leaders have consistently said that the cuts target waste, fraud and abuse in the government, and that average Americans will be better served following the reshuffling.

Kennedy has consistently defended the changes within Health and Human Services, as well. Agency spokespeople have said the substantial cuts would help it focus on Kennedy’s priorities of “ending America’s epidemic of chronic illness by focusing on safe, wholesome food, clean water, and the elimination of environmental toxins.”

“We aren’t just reducing bureaucratic sprawl. We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic,” Kennedy has said. “This Department will do more — a lot more — at a lower cost to the taxpayer.”

Kennedy has repeatedly spread misinformation about HIV and AIDS in the past, including by giving credence to the false claim that HIV does not cause AIDS.

As recently as June 2023, Kennedy told a reporter for New York Magazine that there “are much better candidates than H.I.V. for what causes AIDS,” and he has previously suggested that environmental toxins and “poppers” — an inhalant drug popular in the gay community — could be causes of AIDS instead.

None of that is supported by science or medicine. Studies from around the world have proven the link between HIV and AIDS, and found it — not drug use or sexual behavior — to be the only common factor in AIDS cases.

Officials in L.A. County said they remained hopeful that the Trump administration would reverse course after considering the effects of the cuts — and the “detrimental impacts on the health and well-being of residents and workers across” the county if they are allowed to stand.