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Whether it’s a long-haul flight or a weekend city break, there’s one item I always ensure I pack, and it’s an absolute game-changer for feeling refreshed, and it costs just £3

Before jetting off abroad, there are a few essentials I always make sure I pack, and there’s one particular item I can’t go without. While I thought it was pretty common, it turns out not everyone does, and I guarantee it’s a game-changer for feeling fresh after a flight.

Packing my hand luggage ahead of a flight, or any trip for that matter, has become something of a ritual. I’ll lay everything out on my bed, deciding between what is essential and what I can go without (in a bid to save space), tick everything off my mental checklist, and then stuff it neatly into my bag.

My noise-cancelling headphones are often top of the list, followed by my eye mask, my reusable water bottle, hydration tablets and a handful of skincare products, so I can feel somewhat restored, particularly after a long flight. Yet, nestled among my bag and packed alongside everything else is my toothbrush and toothpaste.

After every flight, without fail, I will brush my teeth. Whether that’s on the aeroplane or in the airport bathroom, it’s a lifesaver for feeling refreshed after a flight. And if I ever forget it, I’m a little out of sorts.

Aside from a simple skincare routine to level out the dryness, I guarantee that brushing your teeth before landing will leave you feeling like a new person. And if you’re concerned about using tap water on an aeroplane to brush your teeth, simply go to the bathroom and use bottled water.

I know it’s not glamorous, and I know there are other ways to leave feeling refreshed, but this small everyday item can really do wonders. Plus, there’s nothing worse than walking around worried that you have bad breath, and sometimes chewing gum just doesn’t quite cut it, especially after a long flight, and those G&Ts or red wines.

What’s more, it will barely take up any space in your hand luggage, as nifty travel toothbrushes are available on Amazon. Instead of packing my electric toothbrush, which is a bit unnecessary for a flight, I take a portable bamboo toothbrush that folds into a cylinder case, reducing it to half its size.

Not only does it ensure the toothbrush remains clean, but it also attaches the toothbrush head to the case, creating a standard-sized toothbrush. Plus, it’s good for the environment as it’s made from bamboo rather than plastic.

A pack of two portable bamboo toothbrushes is available from Amazon for £5.99, or just over £3 each. The travel toothbrushes are also handy for any trip, whether that’s a festival, a weekend away, or just having a spare in your bag whenever you want to clean your gnashers. (Boots also offers Bamboo toothbrushes from £3 ).

To accompany my travel toothbrush, I always pack a mini tube of toothpaste to save extra space. I often grab these from my local dentist, but they’re available at various shops, so it really couldn’t be easier to stay refreshed after your flight.

Do you have a travel story to share? Email webtravel@reachplc.com

Wood has been plagued by injuries during his career – including multiple knee and elbow operations – which have robbed England for periods of one of their finest strike bowlers.

He spent seven months rehabilitating his knee in order to be fit for the Ashes and lamented not being able to play some games for his county before heading to Australia for the series.

“I tried to get back at certain points but my knee wasn’t quite ready,” he said.

“It’s easy in hindsight, even if I was at 80% then at least the game would have given us an indicator of where I was.”

He was thought to have been close to a return in the home summer, but ultimately did not take the field until England’s only Ashes warm-up game against the Lions at Lilac Hill in November.

He bowled eight overs but was only cleared to play in the first Test following a hamstring scan.

For now, although focused on his recovery, Wood said he has been thinking about life after cricket: “I’ve started thinking about other things, doing podcasts, doing my coaching badges.

“I’ve now started to try and think for the first time about what I should do if this doesn’t go well.”

Wood – regarded as one of the fastest bowlers to play for England – has taken 119 wickets in 38 Tests since making his debut in 2015.

He was part of the 2015 Ashes-winning side, lifted the 2019 50-over World Cup and won the T20 World Cup in 2022.

THE world’s greatest places of 2026 have been named and there are two on the list from the UK.

TIME’s annual World’s Greatest Places list looks at everything from hotels and cruises to attractions and experiences.

This year, this included Disney cruises, new museums and beautiful coastal regions, mainly looking at anything “new, exciting, and relevant”.

The new Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo was highlighted, as was the new Epic Universe in Florida.

Yet making the top 100 list was the new V&A East Storehouse in London.

Spread across four floors, it takes up the space of around 30 basketball courts.

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The museum’s collection is broken down into three ‘themes’ – items that have a story, items inspired by the V&A and items that show a working museum.

Having opened last years, TIME explained: “At a time when many museums’ permanent collections have so far outgrown their galleries that only a fraction of their holdings can ever be exhibited at once, the new V&A East Storehouse is taking a radically different approach.

“The real game-changer is the Order an Object system, which lets guests search a digital catalog of more than half a million items and select up to five pieces to be pulled from the shelves and presented one-on-one by a museum staffer for up-close inspection during a future visit. 

The Sun’s Deputy Travel Editor Kara Godfrey visited when it first opened.

She said: “An element I loved was the lack of walls where you can see everything while standing in one spot.

“It almost reminded me of an IKEA warehouse with the simple plywood and metal structures and open concept.

“But the variation of items (of which there are 250,000) means there is something for everyone.”

It’s free to visit, with free lockers and an on-site cafe.

Also making the TIME top 100 list is The Maid of Somerset, a very fancy afternoon tea experience.

Guests enter the Creamery at Castle Cary Station, with the afternoon tea taking place in a “British Pullman style” saloon car.

TIME said: “Unlike the stereotypical snooty high tea, the Maid’s service is steeped in the good humor – and obsession with quality – that typifies Roos’ and Bekker’s projects.

“The friendly attendants prepare 11 loose-leaf teas – a mix of house blends and Prince & Sons selections – and serve finger sandwiches like cucumber and Waterlip, a tangy feta-style cheese made on site at the Creamery.

“A three-tiered sweets tower follows, featuring cardamom-scented orange cakes and scones paired with the Newt’s strawberry-rose preserves.”

The experience costs £35, or £45 with alcohol.

Here are some other amazing afternoon tea experiences in the UK.

Read the full TIME list below.

The U.S. Navy is not yet ready to escort oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, but it will happen. This is the synopsis provided by U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright in an interview with CNBC. The development comes as Iran continues to pummel international shipping in and around the critical channel, which the new Iranian supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, vows to keep closed.

“It’ll happen relatively soon, but it can’t happen now,” Wright said, of the planned naval escort mission. “We’re simply not ready. All of our military assets right now are focused on destroying Iran’s offensive capabilities and the manufacturing industry that supplies their offensive capabilities.” Wright added that the Navy should be able to escort tankers through the strait by the end of this month.

Khamenei, it appears, is also resolute in his plan to keep the strait closed to all maritime traffic, reportedly having turned down approaches from several countries that were seeking an end to the attacks.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on March 3 that “the United States Navy will begin escorting tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, as soon as possible.”

Putting a date of the end of this month on the escort mission is certain to trouble markets that are already feeling the pressure of the conflict. At the very least, this is an indicator that the war or its hostile aftermath will continue for weeks to come.

Equally pessimistically, there have been reports from analysts suggesting that fully reopening the strait may require some kind of ground operation to seize the Iranian coastline adjacent to it.

“Strategic priorities, like opening the Strait of Hormuz and securing what remains of Iran’s nuclear stockpile, will likely require some ground troops if no diplomatic options are pursued,” Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, told The Wall Street Journal. “What we are looking at is potentially a very messy situation.”

Even without boots on the ground, which now seems like a remote prospect, running a tanker-escort mission, which would involve convoys protected by warships and accompanied by mine-clearing assets, is fraught with difficulty. Military unwillingness to take on missions of this kind is an issue we have explored in the past at TWZ.

The warships involved in any such endeavor would also be at extreme risk, especially from Iranian ground-mobile anti-ship missiles, which are relatively small and can be easily disguised in utility trucks. Eliminating that threat is one potential driver for a ground operation along the coast of the strait.

The U.S. military has made extensive efforts in recent days to remove the Iranian minelaying capability, but, according to the U.K. Defense Secretary, there are now increasing signs that Iran may have started mining the strait.

The Ambrey maritime security firm told us that a Malta-flagged crude oil tanker and another merchant vessel were targeted in an attack in Al Basrah Anchorage, Iraq. One fatality was reported. At least 38 individuals were rescued from both vessels according to the Iraq Port Authority, with further search and rescue operations ongoing as of this morning.

Video footage of the incident shows a vessel engulfed in fire with a large plume of smoke rising from the area of impact. Fire can also be seen in the water as a result of the oil spill.

Unverified reports state that the two tankers were struck by uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs).

Iraq’s State Organization for Marketing of Oil identified the two vessels as crude oil tanker Safesea Vishnu and the combined chemical and oil tanker Zefyros. While the Zefyros is Malta-flagged, the Safesea Vishnu is owned by a U.S. company but was sailing under the Marshall Islands flag. A dramatic video has appeared that is said to show the moment of the explosion that targeted the Safesea Vishnu.

In a statement, the IRGC said that it considered the Safesea Vishnu as an asset of the U.S. military and claims that it was struck after ignoring repeated warnings and alerts from the IRGC Navy.

Ambrey also reports that a container vessel was struck by an unknown projectile 38 nautical miles north-northeast of Jebel Ali, United Arab Emirates. The strike was reported to have caused a small fire on board the vessel, and the crew was reported to be safe.

Another vessel, the Japanese-flagged container ship One Majesty, was reportedly also damaged while anchored in the Persian Gulf. The damage was only discovered later, around 60 miles from the Strait of Hormuz. There were no reports of casualties.

The vessel seen burning in the video below, from the perspective of crew members who evacuated on a liferaft, is the Thai-flagged cargo vessel, Mayuree Naree Bangkok, which was attacked near the Strait of Hormuz yesterday.

Just in time for the Oscars, Tilly Norwood, and by extension her creator, Eline van der Velden, gave actors at every level an unexpected gift — the chance to breathe a little easier.

AI will not be replacing you any time soon.

On Tuesday, the AI phenomenon known as Tilly debuted a single and music video titled “Take the Lead.” In it, Tilly sings a self-celebratory, pro-AI anthem with the big-eyed feisty longing of an algorithm marked “Disney princess: Big song” while she wanders through increasingly fantastic self-affirming scenarios that scream “Plus ‘Barbie.’”

Van der Velden was clearly trying to persuade actors to embrace the possibilities of AI but like Timothée Chalamet, who managed to prove that opera and ballet have many devoted fans by publicly suggesting the opposite, her attempt will likely backfire. The underlying message of the video, at least to performers, appears to be: Relax — AI hasn’t figured out how to lip sync properly, much less act.

It’s a bit of good news in a time of AI anxiety, some of which was Tilly-induced. Last year, Van der Velden, a Dutch actor and founder of the production company Particle6, debuted Tilly, via Instagram, as the “world’s first AI actress.” Around the time the account hit 50,000 followers, Van der Velden announced that several talent agents were interested in representing Tilly. Not Van der Velden, but Tilly Norwood, a “performer” who did not exist.

For a few minutes, Hollywood lost its collective mind. Not only were creators and performers facing a future in which their work, bodies and faces could be scanned and fed into an algorithm capable of imitating writing styles or creating images of actors doing things they never did (in a recent AI video, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt duke it out on a war-torn rooftop), now some feared they would be competing for jobs with “actors” who could work 24 hours a day, required no health benefits and would never demand bowls of M&Ms with the green ones removed.

SAG-AFTRA, which had just ended a strike caused in part by concerns about AI, protested Tilly and the use of “stolen performances to put actors out of work.” Various actors were outraged and some called for the interested talent agencies to be identified. Even Emily Blunt was publicly disconcerted, begging Hollywood agencies to “please stop taking away our human connection.”

Van der Velden quickly responded, insisting that Tilly was “not a replacement for a human being, but a creative work — a piece of art … a new tool — a new paintbrush.”

Then, on Tuesday, “Tilly” released a music video that seems to argue the exact opposite.

In the video, which appears over the message “Can’t wait to go to the Oscars,” the computer-generated young woman trips through a montage of “famous person moments,” as Tilly insists that she is not a puppet but a star; she encourages all actors to embrace and use AI, to own their creativity and “be free.”

A note prefacing the video states that “18 real humans” were involved in its production (including Van der Velden who is the basis of the performance), who provide the subtext for Tilly warbling: “They say it’s not real, that it’s fake, but I’m a human, make no mistake.”

Whatever Van der Velden and her team hoped to achieve, one thing is very clear: Emily Blunt has nothing to fear from Tilly Norwood.

The questionable merits of the song, performance and production value aside, the video is the best argument yet for why AI “performers” are a limited threat. As Tilly walks the streets of London, poses for selfies, signs autographs, appears on talk shows, performs live in front of enormous audiences, interacts with photographers, we are reminded that Tilly could never do any of this. AI performances are, by their very nature, limited to a screen.

Instagram fame is a real thing and can be monetarily beneficial, just as animated and digitally enhanced characters can connect deeply with audiences. But beyond her ability to raise the spectre of wholly coded “performers” constructed from borrowed bits of humans (which, as anyone who has read or seen “Frankenstein” knows, never ends well), Tilly doesn’t appear to have anything like star power.

And to consider her as existing separate from her creators is like imagining that the ventriloquist dummy Charlie McCarthy could have a career, and an agent, separate from the real performer Edgar Bergen.

Though Charlie did have the advantage of being able to be seen live and in person.

Watching Tilly, one is reminded that the magic of actors is that they are human. Audiences are, after all, human too and whether facing a stage or a screen, we are captivated by certain performers’ ability to bring all manner of characters and stories alive, while also being, as Us Weekly says, “just like us.”

People with bodies that age and change, people who fall in love, get messy, say dumb things, say smart things, fall prey to illness and accidents, shop at Trader Joe’s, end up in court or trip when about to receive an Oscar.

Their faulty, glorious humanity allows them to connect to their art, but it also connects them to us. We may never get an Oscar or be able to masterfully deliver a Shakespeare soliloquy on a chat show, but we know what it’s like to trip or say something dumb or experience aging, illness or accident.

You can’t replace actors with algorithms, even if/when someone comes up with something more convincing than Tilly, because actors are not just about performances. They are people who are alive in the world and no amount of coding can replicate that.

The deterrence posture against North Korea will not be hindered regardless of a potential shift of military assets owned by the U.S. military stationed in South Korea, a senior official at Cheong Wa Dae said Wednesday, amid media reports that the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) has shipped out some of its air defense assets from the Korean Peninsula.

“Given our level of military capability, defense spending, defense industry capacity and the high morale of our troops, there is no problem with deterrence against North Korea regardless of whether some USFK assets are relocated overseas,” the official said.

The official, however, declined to comment on media reports that parts of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system and other air defense units owned by the USFK were moved from South Korea amid a raging war in the Middle East.

“It is not appropriate for our government to comment on military operations between Korea and the U.S.,” the official said.

The official said South Korea and the U.S. have remained in close coordination to maintain a robust combined defense posture.

“Korea and the U.S. will maintain a robust combined defense posture to contribute to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the region,” the official said. “To that end, the two countries will continue close communication and coordination.”

Copyright (c) Yonhap News Agency prohibits its content from being redistributed or reprinted without consent, and forbids the content from being learned and used by artificial intelligence systems.

OAKLAND — Betty Yee knows what people are thinking. She’s heard what they’ve said and read the many emails she’s gotten.

The former state controller has been running for California governor longer than just about anybody in the cheek-by-jowl field. And yet the Democrat is bumping along near the bottom, a blip in polls and a laggard in the money chase.

But no, Yee said, she has no intention of quitting the race, as she’s been urged, and no fear that, by staying in, she’ll help two Republicans advance to November’s runoff, locking Democrats out of the governor’s office for the first time since George W. Bush was president.

“I just don’t see it,” Yee said, given the way Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton, the top GOP contenders, are smacking each other around, hoping to emerge as the undisputed Republican standard-bearer.

Beyond that, she said, it’s not as if anyone’s running away with the contest; most polls have shown the leading candidate — which depends on the survey — standing atop the pile with around 20% support.

That isn’t exactly landslide territory.

“The public is still shopping,” Yee said. “In the next month or so, we’re going to try to get [a TV ad] on the air, basically make our case and hope that can spread as voters are getting more focused on the race.”

Which is not to say Yee is delusional.

“As a candidate, I make that assessment every day about whether we’re going to be viable or not,” she said last week, just before stopping by the Alameda County voter registrar‘s office to file paperwork for the June 2 primary.

“Right now, it’s less than a 50-50 chance,” Yee said, suggesting it’s her job to boost those odds by getting voters to appreciate what she offers, which amounts to unvarnished talk about the challenges facing the next governor and the ways Sacramento — which has been run for years by fellow Democrats — isn’t working.

“ ‘Accountability’ has kind of become a dirty word … where it’s about who we’re going to throw under the bus, rather than stepping back and saying, ‘What have we gotten for the dollars that we spend and, if we’re not getting those outcomes, how do we do better?’ ”

Yee served two terms as controller, in effect the state’s chief financial officer, and 10 years before that on the Board of Equalization, which oversees property tax assessments. She’s isn’t trying to buy the governorship, like billionaire Tom Steyer, or leverage her political celebrity, like cable-TV fixtures Katie Porter and Eric Swalwell. Instead, Yee is running a grassroots campaign, visiting nearly all 58 California counties and holding as many face-to-face meetings as humanly possible.

“I’m in the trenches,” she said. “I knock on doors every election cycle because to me, that’s the reality check of where people really are in terms of their lives.”

Which is certainly an admirable approach, albeit a rather idealistic strategy in a state of nearly 23 million voters, spread over roughly 800 miles from north to south. It would take more than two years of round-the-clock campaigning just to give each and every one a quick handshake.

The most notable feature of Yee’s candidacy is her message. She’s not selling barn-burning populism or viral take-downs of President Trump — “I don’t have any gimmicks, I don’t swear, I don’t have a reality-TV show personality” — but rather practical know-how and a deep understanding of state government.

It’s almost quaint in today’s theatrical political environment.

Seated at a sidewalk table outside a coffee stand in downtown Oakland, Yee focused on California’s stretched-thin budget, which happens to be her area of expertise.

“People ask what would you do in your first days as governor, if you have the privilege of serving,” Yee said, as her butterscotch latte sat cooling. “I’d come clean with the voters about where we are fiscally.”

After years of surpluses, she said, the state is spending more than it can afford. Facing a structural deficit, the next governor will have to cut programs and raise taxes, not just one or the other, with corporations and California’s richest residents being forced to cough up more. (She’s dubious, however, of a proposed November ballot measure imposing a one-time 5% tax on billionaires, questioning whether it would stand up in court.)

Sacramento’s credibility, Yee suggested, is on the line.

Before any expansive new programs can be implemented — and she has some notions for how to make life more affordable, increase access to healthcare and create jobs — Californians have to be convinced their tax dollars are being well spent and delivering proven results. “I would really insist on and invite stricter accountability of what we do with our money,” Yee said.

She’s not beyond criticizing the current administration.

“I mean, I’ve been termed out as controller since January 2023. I still get calls from companies in the [European Union], Canada, even Mexico about how we want to do business with California. Who do we talk to?” Yee said. “So I’ll send them over to the governor’s Office of Business Development and they tell me, ‘Well, we try to call people, but nobody’s answering our call.’ ”

(In response, a spokesman for the Office of Business and Economic Development touted California as “a premier hub for international business” and described foreign trade and investment as major drivers of the state economy.)

As for Gov. Gavin Newsom, while she supports his teenaged trolling of Trump, she said it shouldn’t be done through official channels, , or on the taxpayers’ dime.

“We have to focus on making the state work,” Yee said, “and that’s where I’m more focused on because people … want service delivery. They want government to be responsive to their needs. Somebody just pick up the damn phone on the other line to help them.”

Tough medicine, as she described it, and “stabilization” — which is “kind of my theme” — won’t make a great many hearts go pit-a-pat. But Yee hopes that straight talk and her distinct lack of ornamentation will count for something with California voters.

“The climate now is that people are very drawn by the performative approaches,” she said. “However, I think that will change. I want to give [voters] credit, because I do think they are very discerning when they’re ready to mark their ballot.”

The coming weeks will test that premise. And Yee is staying put.

A DUTCH theme park with six themed lands has announced a £78million makeover – and most Brits won’t have hear of it.

Toverland amusement park in the Netherlands is planning a massive transformation that will allow guests to stay onsite for the first time.

Located in the town of Sevenum – about 40 minutes from the city of Eindhoven – over the coming years the park will carry out several new projects.

The first focus will be new permanent accommodation for guests – something the park doesn’t currently have – in Ithaka, which is a land based on ancient Greece.

There are also plans to build a new attraction on the site of the park’s Maximus’ Blitz Bahn ride, although little else is know about it at the moment.

Port Laguna, which is the Mediterranean-themed entrance to the park and the central hub, is also set to get its first ride which will be a large-scale dark ride.

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The theme park has already started building the Clubhuis which will be a new office space for employees.

According to Blooloop, a spokesperson for the park said: “Toverland is constantly evolving, as are the exact details of the various projects.

“We will therefore announce more information at a later date.”

The theme park is made up of six themed areas in total including Avalon, Port Laguna, Magische Vallei, Ithaka, Wunderwald and Land van Toos.

Across these areas there are around 40 attractions and shows.

Avalon has a medieval theme throughout, with a family drop-tower ride, water playground and winged rollercoaster.

Magische Vallei is all about magic and in this land you will find a water ride, launch rollercoaster and a spinning rollercoaster.

In the land of Ithaka, which is based on ancient Greece, there is a wooden rollercoaster and swing boat ride.

As the central hub, Port Laguna appears like a harbour town with a main promenade past souvenir shops and restaurants.

This is also the land where most of the interactive experiences and shows take place.

The land of Wunderwald is then both indoors and outdoors and based on an adventure through Austria‘s mountains.

Rides include a log flume ride, a fun house and an electric bobsled run.

Last but not least, Land van Toos is an indoor playground that inspires imaginative play with rollercoasters for smaller children, interactive experiences and a climbing mountain.

Across the park a number of shows take place each day.

Starting from April 18, there will be the ‘Epic battle for the Pearl’, which features a large pirate ship with a pool where the pirates jump and dive into, from a height of 25 metres.

There’s also Katara – a magical water fountain show – with music and lights.

The theme park is currently only open at the weekends and on Wednesdays but from March 28 it will be open everyday 10am to 6pm.

Off-peak tickets usually cost €43 (£37.35) per adult and child over 140cm tall and peak tickets then cost €44.50 (£38.65).

Though, these prices are reduced to €37.50 (£32.57), if you book online more than seven days in advance.

For children between 90cm and 140cm tall, tickets cost €36 (£31.27) but if you book online more than seven days in advance this price drops to €29 (£25.19).

Children under 90cm tall then go free, as do anyone who is celebrating their birthday on the day of visiting.

The easiest way to get to Toverland is by flying to Eindhoven.

The cheapest flights to Eindhoven from the UK include from London Stansted for £14 one-way or Manchester for £15 one-way.

Then it takes about 40 minutes to drive from Eindhoven Airport to Toverland theme park.

In other theme park news, you can get a year’s free entry to 20 of UK’s top theme parks and attractions for less than cost of one chocolate bar a week.

Plus, a UK theme park is getting the world’s first Hey Duggee themed hotel rooms this year.

The U.S. war effort against Iran was “accelerating” as American and Israeli forces fought for control of Iranian airspace and pressed farther inland to seek and destroy Iranian missile capabilities, top U.S. officials said Wednesday.

“Four days in, we have only just begun to fight,” said U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

“The throttle is coming up,” said Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

However, a reported Iranian missile strike at NATO member Turkey — intercepted by NATO defense systems — was not expected to immediately broaden the war theater by triggering a NATO clause requiring other member nations to get involved, Hegseth said.

Hegseth, striking an unapologetic tone, said Iran’s surviving leadership “don’t know what plays to call” after exhausting initial retaliatory strategies devised prior to the U.S. assault, while the U.S. is firing on all fronts and stacking up wins — including an American submarine recently sinking an Iranian warship with a torpedo in international waters, which Hegseth called the first such sinking since World War II.

“We are just getting started. We are accelerating, not decelerating,” he said. “We can sustain this fight easily for as long as we need to.”

Caine, striking a far more measured tone at the Pentagon briefing, spoke of the “sacrifice” of the six U.S. service members who have been killed in the conflict to date and the “clear military objectives” of the operation, which include dismantling “Iran’s ability to project power outside of its borders, both today and into the future.”

And he said the U.S. has made “steady progress” toward those goals in recent hours. He said Iran’s “ballistic missile shots” were down 86% from the first day of fighting, and down 23% “just in the last 24 hours.” He said their “one-way attack drone shots” are down 73% from the “opening days” of the war.

That has allowed the U.S. to establish “localized air superiority across the southern flank of the Iranian coast and penetrate their defenses with overwhelming precision and firepower,” Caine said. “We will now begin to expand inland, striking progressively deeper into Iranian territory and creating additional freedom of maneuver for U.S. forces.”

Hegseth and Caine spoke against a backdrop of escalating destruction across the Persian Gulf region, as Iran — which Hegseth acknowledged is a “formidable” enemy — continued to unleash a wave of retaliatory strikes and Israel pushed into Lebanon and against Iran-allied Hezbollah fighters there.

Their message of U.S. control in the region belied chaos in many parts of it — as sirens blared in Bahrain, U.S. and other foreign citizens scrambled to flee the area, global air traffic was in disarray and tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a key artery for the flow of global energy, was down by about 90%, according to the Associated Press.

Turkey’s defense ministry announced Wednesday that NATO air defenses had shot down a ballistic missile fired toward Turkish airspace from Iran, which raised additional questions about a rapidly expanding footprint of the war given that Turkey is a NATO member and protected by a treaty clause — Article 5 — stating that an attack on one member is an attack on all.

Hegseth said the U.S. was aware of the strike, but that he did not believe it would trigger Article 5 or force all of NATO into the conflict — which has already drawn in nations throughout the Gulf region as Iran has targeted U.S. allies and military facilities.

Hegseth jettisoned any pretense of constraint or measured force by the U.S., instead casting its operations as an all-out assault on “radical Islamist Iranian adversaries” that he suggested both Democrats and the U.S. media were badly misrepresenting to make President Trump look bad.

He suggested the U.S. media was overly focused on losses, such as the deaths of U.S. military personnel, and not nearly focused enough on the progress the U.S. has made toward destroying Iran’s military capabilities in a matter of days.

“They are toast, and they know it — or at least soon enough they will know it,” he said of Iran. “And we’ve only just begun to hunt, dismantle, demoralize, destroy and defeat their capabilities, just four days in.”

He said that the U.S. and Israel in “under a week” will “have complete control of Iranian skies — uncontested air space,” which he said will mean that “we will fly all day, all night, day and night, finding, fixing and finishing the missiles and defense industrial base of the Iranian military, finding and fixing their leaders and their military leaders.”

“Death and destruction from the sky, all day long,” he said. “We’re playing for keeps.”

It was unclear what exactly Hegseth meant by that, given the Trump administration’s constant messaging that the war on Iran will not be another “endless” engagement for the U.S. in the Middle East.

The U.S. was using rules of engagement that are “bold, precise and designed to unleash American power, not shackle it,” Hegseth said. “This was never meant to be a fair fight, and it is not a fair fight. We are punching them while they’re down, which is exactly how it should be.”

Disruptions to tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, and their potential effect on global and U.S. gas prices, were clearly on Trump’s mind. On Tuesday, he posted to his Truth Social platform that the U.S. would be providing wartime insurance for “ALL Maritime Trade” through Gulf shipping lanes — as other insurers began canceling coverage — and that the U.S. Navy would begin escorting tankers if necessary.

“No matter what, the United States will ensure the FREE FLOW of ENERGY to the WORLD,” he wrote.

The message drew immediate concern from some of Trump’s political opponents, who questioned the cost to the U.S. of securing energy shipments for the entire world, including rivals such as China, one of the largest purchasers of crude oil from the region.

“Very few, if any, of these tankers are coming to the United States,” Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) wrote on X. “This certainly looks like the United States will be subsidizing and protecting oil shipments to China.”

The BBC show about midwives at Nonnatus House is taking a break after its latest series

Call The Midwife will not be back for a Christmas special this year.

The much-loved BBC period drama about midwives working in the East End is currently in its 15th series, but that is set to end on March 8 and show creator Heidi Thomas has previously confirmed the programme is then taking a break.

While it is due to return for a 16th run in the future, that will not be in January as usual, with the series on hiatus.

It has also been confirmed that its usual festive special – which is a usually a highlight of the Christmas TV schedule for viewers – will not air this December.

“We have made 15 series in 15 years – I’ve known for a couple of years that that situation won’t go on for ever,” Heidi told Radio Times.

“The sets need repair. The nuns’ habits are worn out. It takes 14 months to make every series.”

The show creator said that for two months of each year she and producer Annie Tricklebank work on two series at the same time and that the workload is “immense” and can only be sustained for “so long”.

During the Call The Midwife interlude, audiences will be treated to a wartime prequel series instead.

It commences on Christmas Day and will showcase 1940s incarnations of Sister Monica Joan, Sister Julienne (Jenny Agutter), and the late Sister Evangeline, who was previously portrayed by Pam Ferris.

A film featuring the regular cast set in the Commonwealth, probably Australia, in the year 1972 is also in the pipeline.

So far it isn’t known when the 16th series of the show will air.

But Heidi told Radio Times that it will return “slightly recalibrated”. “Changes will have taken place, but the change itself is not destructive,” she said. “It’s nourishing.”

Call The Midwife – which stars Helen George as Nurse Trixie Franklin – started in 2012 and has aired 15 series set between the 1950s and 1970s, as well as several festive specials.

The current series about the midwives of Nonnatus House started in January and is set in 1971.

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Call The Midwife airs at 8pm on BBC One on Sunday March 8

Despite any talk of top-order frailties, India remain a frightening T20 team.

Yes, they were well beaten by South Africa and given a scare by USA but there is a reason they came into this tournament as overwhelming favourites.

Between the end of the last T20 World Cup in 2024 and the start of this, India won 33 of their 41 matches making them the most consistent team cricket’s most inconsistent format has seen.

With the bat, they started slowly in this tournament but gained momentum by scoring 256-4 against Zimbabwe in the penultimate match of the Super 8s.

They scored 69 runs in the final four overs that day – something that is becoming a clear strength.

India are only the 10th fastest-scoring team in the middle phase of an innings but have hit more boundaries than anyone else at the death. They have hit 57 boundaries in the last four overs compared to England’s 44.

And while India have not lost a T20 at the Wankhede since 2017, it is a ground with bad memories for England.

It is where they lost to West Indies in the group stage, were beaten by a record 150 runs by India last year – Abhishek scored 135 from 54 balls that day – and lost to South Africa in their largest one-day international defeat in terms of runs at the 2023 World Cup.

That day, England wilted in the Mumbai heat and temperatures are forecast to hit 39 degrees during the daylight hours on Thursday.

It will not be much cooler when the match begins at 19:00 local time.

Economists are cautiously optimistic that advances in artificial intelligence could boost productivity across major economies, potentially helping governments manage soaring debt. Debt levels in most rich nations already exceed 100% of GDP and are projected to rise further due to ageing populations, higher defence spending, climate commitments, and rising interest payments.

U.S. policymakers, in particular, see AI as a potential driver to lift post-2008 productivity and free workers for higher-value tasks. Yet experts warn that even a strong AI-driven growth surge would not fully offset the structural pressures on public finances.

AI’s Potential Impact on Public Debt

The OECD and economists working with Reuters estimate that a productivity boost from AI could lower projected debt in OECD countries by up to 10 percentage points by 2036. That would reduce the expected rise from roughly 150% of GDP to around 140%, still sharply higher than current levels of approximately 110%.

In the U.S., best-case scenarios suggest debt could rise to 120% of GDP over the next decade instead of 100%, with one economist projecting little change. The key variables include whether AI creates more jobs than it displaces, whether firms pass productivity gains to workers via wages, and how governments manage spending.

Demographics and Limits

Demographics remain a central constraint. Ageing populations and entitlements tied to them are the root causes of long-term debt growth. Economists note that even with a productivity surge, labour shortages and slower immigration could offset AI gains. Countries like Italy and Japan may see smaller benefits from AI due to lower adoption rates and smaller sectors that can leverage the technology.

Fiscal Uncertainty

AI could raise government revenues through higher productivity and wages, but the effect is uncertain. If automation primarily benefits profits and capital rather than labour, fiscal gains could be limited. Additionally, public spending may rise alongside growth, dampening potential debt relief. Social security and other entitlement programs, indexed to wages, will continue to pressure budgets regardless of AI-driven efficiency.

Interest rates and debt servicing costs add another layer of uncertainty. Economists warn that recessions or financial shocks could prevent AI-driven productivity gains from providing timely relief.

Analysis

AI offers a potential “breathing room” for overstretched economies, buying time for governments to tackle structural deficits. Even if growth rises to 3% in the U.S. through 2040 above Federal Reserve expectations it will not solve fundamental fiscal challenges.

Economists stress that AI is a supplement, not a replacement, for fiscal reform. Rising productivity may help governments manage debt growth more sustainably, but without structural policy adjustments addressing demographics, entitlement programs, and spending priorities, the debt trajectory remains precarious.

Ultimately, while AI could improve efficiency and output, it is unlikely to carry the heavy lifting required to stabilize public finances on its own.

With information from Reuters.

Artificial intelligence could deliver the productivity surge policymakers have been hoping for since the global financial crisis. But even if it does, economists caution that faster growth will not be enough to solve the mounting debt burdens weighing on advanced economies.

Public debt already exceeds 100% of GDP across most rich nations and is projected to rise further as ageing populations strain pension and healthcare systems, interest bills climb and governments ramp up defence and climate spending. Against that backdrop, AI is increasingly being framed as a potential fiscal lifeline.

The reality is more complicated.

Productivity: The “Magic” Ingredient-With Limits

Economists broadly agree that sustained productivity growth can dramatically improve fiscal dynamics. Higher output boosts tax revenues without raising tax rates, makes existing debt easier to service and reassures bond investors worried about long-term solvency.

At the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), modelling suggests that if AI meaningfully raises labour productivity and if employment also expands public debt across member countries could be about 10 percentage points lower by the mid-2030s than otherwise projected. Even then, debt would still climb to roughly 150% of GDP on current trajectories, up from around 110% today.

In the United States, best-case projections from several economists suggest debt could rise more gradually, to roughly 120% of GDP over the next decade rather than accelerating more sharply. But that still represents historically elevated levels.

As one economist put it, productivity is “like magic” for fiscal sustainability yet today’s debt challenges are too large for productivity gains alone to offset.

Demographics: The Structural Headwind

The fundamental constraint is demographic.

Ageing populations mean fewer workers supporting more retirees, pushing up pension and healthcare costs. In the United States, Social Security alone accounts for roughly one-fifth of federal spending, and benefits are indexed to wages. If AI lifts wages, it may simultaneously increase future benefit obligations.

Slowing immigration in some countries, particularly the U.S., compounds the issue by limiting labour force growth. If AI boosts output per worker but the total number of workers stagnates or declines, overall fiscal relief may be limited.

In short, AI may buy time but it does not reverse the demographic arithmetic driving long-term deficits.

Growth vs. Interest Rates: A Delicate Balance

For debt sustainability, what matters is not just growth, but the relationship between growth and borrowing costs.

If AI-driven productivity pushes economic growth above interest rates for a sustained period, governments can stabilise or even reduce debt ratios more easily. But if faster growth also lifts real interest rates for example, because higher productivity raises returns on capital then debt servicing costs could rise in parallel.

This debate is already unfolding among policymakers at the Federal Reserve, where officials are assessing whether AI could permanently raise the economy’s potential growth rate.

Bond markets will be decisive. Since the pandemic, investors have shown a willingness to punish governments perceived as fiscally profligate. Higher yields can quickly offset any growth dividend from technological gains.

Employment and Wages: The Distribution Question

Much depends on how AI reshapes labour markets.

If AI complements workers and creates new categories of employment, tax revenues may rise meaningfully. But if automation displaces workers faster than new jobs are created, or if profits accrue disproportionately to capital rather than labour, fiscal gains could disappoint.

Capital income is often taxed more lightly than wages. A productivity boom concentrated in corporate profits rather than payrolls may widen inequality without generating proportionate public revenue.

On the spending side, governments might benefit from efficiency gains in public administration. Yet history suggests higher growth can also lead to higher spending demands from infrastructure upgrades to social transfers.

No Substitute for Fiscal Reform

Even in optimistic scenarios where AI lifts U.S. growth closer to 3% annually for an extended period, debt ratios are projected to stabilise at elevated levels rather than return to pre-crisis norms.

In pessimistic scenarios where AI disappoints or a recession strikes before productivity gains materialise debt trajectories could worsen significantly, potentially reaching levels that trigger market instability.

The consensus among economists is clear: AI can ease fiscal pressure, but it cannot substitute for structural reforms. Addressing entitlement sustainability, improving tax efficiency and managing spending priorities remain central.

A Race Against Time

There is also a sequencing risk. If financial markets grow nervous about fiscal trajectories before AI-driven gains are realised, borrowing costs could spike. In that case, the productivity dividend may arrive too late to calm bond investors.

Technological revolutions historically take time to diffuse across economies. Infrastructure, regulation, workforce training and corporate adoption all shape how quickly productivity benefits materialise.

For debt-laden economies, the gamble is that AI’s boost will be large, broad-based and timely. That is possible but far from guaranteed.

AI may help governments breathe easier. It will not absolve them of the harder political choices required to put public finances on a sustainable path.

With information from Reuters.

U.S. women’s hockey star Hilary Knight wasn’t a fan of a comment that President Trump made about her team days after it claimed Olympic gold at the Milan-Cortina Games.

“I thought it was sort of a distasteful joke, and unfortunately, that is overshadowing a lot of the success of just women at the Olympics carrying for Team USA and having amazing gold medal feats,” Knight said Wednesday during an appearance on ESPN’s “SportsCenter.”

On Feb. 19, the U.S. defeated Canada 2-1 in overtime for a third gold medal in women’s hockey; the team won gold in 1998 and 2018. Three days later, the U.S. men’s hockey team also won gold by defeating Canada 2-1 in overtime.

After the men’s game, Trump addressed the U.S. players by phone in the locker room, extending an invitation for them to attend his State of the Union address two days later and adding a seemingly dismissive comment about the women’s team.

“I must tell you, we’re gonna have to bring the women’s team, you do know that,” Trump said during the call. By not inviting the other American gold medal hockey team, the president said, “I do believe I’d probably be impeached.”

Trump’s comment was met with loud laughter in the locker room. But Knight said she and her teammates aren’t spending much time thinking about the remark.

“We’re just trying to focus on celebrating the women in our room, the extraordinary efforts and continue to celebrate three gold medals in program history, as well as the double gold for both men’s and women’s at the same time and really not detract from that with a distasteful joke,” Knight, who has won two gold medals and three silvers in five Olympics with the U.S. team, said.

“It was unfortunate, but yeah, I think really focusing on celebrating all great things that have come out of the Olympics and feeling the love and the support and getting back in our respective communities and sharing this journey with them, that’s what it’s all about and that’s what makes this moment super special.”

The majority of the men’s team met with Trump at the White House on Tuesday before being honored at the State of the Union address, where they received a bipartisan standing ovation lasting about two minutes. During his address, Trump announced that goalie Connor Hellebuyck will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

The women’s team confirmed in a statement Monday that it declined an invitation to attend the State of the Union address “due to the timing and previously scheduled academic and professional commitments following the Games.” Trump said during the address that the women’s team would be visiting the White House “very soon.”

Amid the controversy over Trump’s locker room comment, hip-hop legend Flavor Flav invited the women’s hockey team to a special event celebrating their achievement in Las Vegas. He later extended the invitation to “ALL Female US Olympians and Paralympian medalists” for the “She’s Got Game Weekend” from July 16-19.

“It was definitely super special, after everything that’s been going around online, to have someone step up like that and really go to bat for us,” forward Alex Carpenter said of Flav’s invitation during a Seattle Torrent news conference on Wednesday. “I think we’re fully gonna take advantage of that and go have some fun and celebrate like we deserve to.”

U.S.men’s team member Jeremy Swayman told reporters at Boston Bruins practice Wednesday that the laughter heard in the locker room following Trump’s comment does not reflect how the players feel about the women’s team and its accomplishments.

“Yeah, we should have reacted differently,” Swayman said. “We are so excited for the women’s team, we have so much respect for the women’s team, and to share that gold medal with them is something that we’re forever grateful for. And now that we’re home we get to share that together forever and see the incredible support we have from the USA and share in this incredible gold medal.”

Jack Hughes, who scored the winning goal for the U.S. men against Canada, said the men’s players were caught “in the moment” during the president’s call that came during the middle of their victory celebration.

“Obviously it is what it is now, but we have so much respect for the women’s team and they have so much respect for us,” Hughes told reporters after his New Jersey Devils’ 2-1 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday night. “We’re all just proud Americans and we’re happy that we both swept the Olympics.”

Knight said she thinks there is “a genuine level of support and respect” between the U.S. men’s and women’s players and called the moment a “sort of a quick lapse” by the men’s players.

“I think the guys were in a tough spot,” Knight said. “So it’s a shame that this storyline and narrative is kind of blown up and overshadowing that connection and genuine interest in one another and cheering one another on.

“I think this is just a really good learning point to really focus on, you know, how we talk about women, not only in sport, but in industry.”

Discussion about the call wasn’t the only criticism of the White House from the world of Team USA hockey.

On Thursday, men’s player Brady Tkachuk said he was unhappy that the White House shared a video on TikTok that made it appear he disparaged Canadians while using profanity. The video, which also features hockey footage and part of an interview with Hughes, carries a note saying it “contains AI-generated media.”

“It’s clearly fake because it’s not my voice and not my lips moving. … I know that those words would never come out of my mouth,” Tkachuk told reporters.

He added: “I would never say that. That’s not who I am.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Associated Press.

Tkachuk also denied being the voice heard shouting “close the northern border” during the team’s call with Trump.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

TV presenter Ant McPartlin shares the real reason he won’t be returning to host a major show

Anthony McPartlin has opened up on the one show he’s done with hosting as he admitted it can get too hard to control the crowd.

The TV star is well known for presenting a number of shows alongside hosting partner Declan Donnelly and among the many is the iconic BRIT Awards.

The duo have fronted the prestigious music ceremony on three occasions and Ant, 50, has since revealed the evening proves enjoyable for those up for gongs and their plus ones, but can be tricky for those presenting. Ant and Dec hosted the BRITs in 2001, 2015 and 2016.

During their podcast, Hanging Out with Ant & Dec, the duo seemed genuinely thankful they won’t be taking the reins at this weekend’s ceremony.

Ant stated: “[We’ve hosted it] three times, never again. And the reason why we always say, ‘oh, never again’, it’s not because we don’t believe in the awards. I really do. I think they’re really good for British music.

“It’s actually a really good night if you’re there as somebody who’s been nominated, because we’ve been nominated for a BRIT back in the day. That was a fun night. We didn’t win that night.”

The duo first crossed paths as young performers on CBBC drama Byker Grove, later pursuing pop stardom as PJ & Duncan, notably with their chart success Let’s Get Ready to Rhumble, which debuted in 1994.

In 1995, they competed for the BRIT award for best British newcomer but were beaten by the legendary Oasis.

Ant explained: “It’s a fun night if you’re nominated, it’s a fun night – not necessarily if you’re hosting it though because everybody in the room just wants to get drunk and have a good time and you’re trying to wrangle the whole crowd.

“You are also trying to present a TV show and also all the artists and bands who said they would happily do an interview with you before the show starts always change their mind.”

The Geordie presenting pair are renowned for fronting ITV’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, Britain’s Got Talent and the quiz show Ant And Dec’s Limitless Win.

Comic Jack Whitehall will take the helm at the BRIT Awards on Saturday in Manchester.

Chart-topper Harry Styles features amongst the impressive line-up of performers set to grace the stage during the ceremony, alongside Raye, Olivia Dean, Sombr, Mark Ronson and Wolf Alice.

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who has a way of saying the quiet parts out loud in defending President Trump’s economic policies, told the truth again Friday, during a public appearance a few hours after the Supreme Court threw out most of Trump’s tariffs.

Asked about the prospects that Americans would be receiving refunds of the illegal tariffs paid since Trump imposed them in April, Bessent replied with a condescending smirk: “I get a feeling the American people won’t see it.”

A couple of things about that. One is that there doesn’t seem to be any legal question that those who paid the tariffs are entitled to refunds. In his 6-3 ruling invalidating levies imposed on imports under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, or IEEPA, Chief Justice John Roberts made clear that those tariffs were unconstitutional and illegal from their inception.

Therefore, there’s no excuse for the government to hold on to the money it has collected — estimated at somewhere between $135 billion and $170 billion. But Roberts didn’t state whether refunds are warranted or, if so, how they should be calculated and distributed.

Trump has dangled the prospect of tariff refunds — actually, tariff “dividend” checks of $2,000 — in front of taxpayers for months. In effect, that would mean returning to taxpayers the money that his tariffs have cost them. Bessent’s comments put paid to that promise.

Today, no one is arguing seriously that checks should be cut for taxpayers — except Illinois Gov. JB Pritzer, who demanded refund checks totalling $8.7 billion for his constituents. But that has the aroma of a campaign stunt for Pritzker, who is running for a third term and may be positioning himself for a presidential run.

By not specifying a refund process, the Supreme Court decision left a vacuum that Bessent tried to fill. In his comments, he explained why refunds will be nothing but a dream for the average American — and those comments were chilling.

First, he said, Trump has the authority to reimpose the same tariffs under different laws. Indeed, Trump has already announced that he will be imposing 15% tariffs across the board.

He also signaled that although Roberts pushed refund decisions down to the Court of International Trade, the government is poised to challenge importers’ applications for reimbursement, generating litigation that “can be dragged out for weeks, months, years.”

In other words, Bessent implied that, far from resolving the economic confusion Trump has generated through his on-again-off-again tariff policies during 2025, the court’s decision provoked Trump to inject even more uncertainty into U.S. trade relations and domestic business decisions.

That dime appeared to drop for stock market investors Monday. The markets rose modestly in a relief rally Friday after the Supreme Court released its decision, but tumbled Monday as Trump doubled down on tariffs. At the close, the Dow Jones industrial average was down by 821.91 points, or nearly 1.7%, and the Nasdaq and Standard & Poor’s 500 indices both fell by more than 1%.

Bessent didn’t mention the most important reason why American consumers are unlikely to see anything resembling a tariff refund.

Tariffs on imported products are, by any measure, a tax on domestic consumers. Economic opinion is virtually unanimous on that point. As I reported in January, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a German think tank, concluded that 96% of the 2025 Trump tariffs were paid by American importers and their domestic clients.

“The tariffs are, in the most literal sense, an own goal,” Kiel’s researchers wrote. “Americans are footing the bill.” Their conclusion was largely echoed earlier this month by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which placed the burden on American importers and consumers at “nearly 90%.”

That said, the specifics of tariff payments are in the hands of importers and retailers, which keep records of how much they’ve paid and on what products or parts. Consumers don’t normally know the numbers. (I actually received an invoice last year breaking out the tariffs charged by a Japanese retailer on a set of pens I had bought for a birthday present, but since the sum came to $12 I’m not sure that demanding a refund from the government would be worth it.)

So far, about 1,500 businesses have filed claims for refunds through the Court of International Trade. Most filed these claims to secure for themselves a position in the scrum for refunds, like music fans lining up overnight for tickets to a star’s upcoming concert.

Many of these businesses may not actually have put a number on their claim. Costco, perhaps the biggest retailer to file with the CIT, didn’t say in its Nov. 28 filing how much it thought it was owed, possibly because it was still bound to pay the tariffs until the Supreme Court issued a final decision.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which actually computes and collects the tariffs, says it will cease collecting the invalidated levies when the clock strikes 12:01 a.m. Tuesday morning.

What consumers don’t know is how much of the tariffs have been passed down to them. Some sellers decided to eat some or all of the tariffs to keep consumer prices steady. Some may have stocked up on tariff-eligible products ahead of the formal imposition of the levies.

Will retailers seek out customers who paid higher prices on products that were tariffed to hand them refunds? None has said that such an eventuality is in the cards, though it might not be surprising to see some businesses use the end of tariffs as a marketing device — you know, “We’re cutting prices on Toyotas during ‘tariff freedom month!’” etc., etc.

It’s also conceivable that retailers passed imaginary tariff costs on to their customers, putting through price increases that had nothing to do with the levies but could be blamed on them anyway.

That’s what happened after Trump imposed tariffs on washing machines, which were almost all foreign-made, in 2018. According to a 2020 survey by Federal Reserve and University of Chicago economists, the tariffs forced washing machine prices up by nearly 12%, or about $86 each. The researchers discovered, however, that prices on clothes dryers increased by about the same amount, even though they weren’t subject to the tariffs at all.

What happened? The researchers conjectured that because washers and dryers are typically sold as pairs, retailers may have simply spread the washing machine cost increase between the two products to keep their prices similar. It’s also possible that retailers, figuring that consumers would expect to pay more for tariffed washing machines and would assume the same effect held for dryers, charged more for the latter to fatten their profits. One wouldn’t expect consumer refunds in those cases.

Another imponderable is the effect of Trump’s tariffs on the U.S. consumer economy generally. The Trump tariffs cost the average American household the equivalent of a tax increase of about $1,000, the Tax Foundation has calculated.

About $600 of that sum was due to the IEEPA tariffs now struck down. But the new tariffs Trump announced after the Supreme Court ruling will raise the tariff tax for American families by $300 to $700, the Foundation reported — potentially a greater total burden than existed before the court’s action.

All of Trump’s tariffs increased the average tariff rate to 13.8%, the Foundation reckoned. The Supreme Court’s ruling reduced that to about 6% — still the highest U.S. tariff rate since 1971 — but the new 15% tariff Trump announced would raise the applied rate back to 12.1%. By law, the new tariff can remain in effect for only five months unless it’s extended by Congress. In 2022, America’s applied tariff rate was 1.5%.

Perhaps the most immediate question facing businesses is how refund claims will be administered. In his dissent to Roberts’ IEEPA decision, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that “the refund process is likely to be a ‘mess.’”

Possibly Kavanaugh’s concern was that the Court of International Trade will have to adjudicate 1,500 claims one by one. But it need not be so.

In 1998, the Supreme Court declared a Harbor Maintenance Tax on exports, based on the constitutional provision that exports can’t be taxed. Responsibility for those refunds also fell to the Court of International Trade, which established a standardized procedure for claims. Even under the streamlined system, however, the resolution of all those claims took until 2005, or seven years. And that involved only about $1 billion in claims, not the more than $130 billion at stake today.

What remains unexplained in the miasma created by Trump’s tariff policies is why he is doing this. None of his rationales has been borne out. The tariffs haven’t restored manufacturing employment in the U.S., which have fallen throughout Trump’s current term. They haven’t eliminated America’s trade deficit with the rest of the world, which has persisted since 1975 and — despite Trump’s assertions — isn’t anywhere close to an economic crisis.

As it happens, while the overall trade deficit fell modestly last year by less than $3 billion, or about one-third of 1%, most of the reduction was in services; the deficit in goods rose by $25.5 billion to a record $1.24 trillion.

All that’s left is Trump’s inclination to wield tariffs as tools of geopolitical bullying. He has raised or threatened to raise tariffs on Brazil because of that country’s criminal pursuit of former President Jair Bolsonaro for leading a coup attempt; on Switzerland because he felt dissed by a Swiss government leader; and on several European countries for thwarting his effort to annex Greenland.

None of those actions bore fruit (Bolsonaro was convicted and is currently serving a 27-year prison sentence). America’s trading partners plainly recognize that the new tariffs must expire within 150 days and can’t be renewed without action by a Congress plainly queasy about giving Trump his tariffs back after the Supreme Court took them away. They don’t seem to be taking Trump seriously.

They can tell that on tariffs, as on many other things, Trump is increasingly behaving like a lame duck, albeit one with a whim of iron. But as the stock market seemed to be telling us Monday, even a whim of iron can be very, very costly.

On Sunday, Mexican security forces killed 59-year-old Nemesio Ruben Oseguera Cervantes, alias “El Mencho”, the leader of the notorious Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), based in western Mexico’s Jalisco state.

The Mexican defence ministry acknowledged that the lethal operation had been conducted with “complementary information” from the United States, whose “peacemaker” president, Donald Trump, has repeatedly threatened to attack Mexico to combat the drug cartels.

Mind you, these are organisations that owe their very existence to US policy and drug consumption in the first place.

US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau greeted the news of El Mencho’s death with glee, taking to X to proclaim: “This is a great development for Mexico, the US, Latin America, and the world.”

And yet things aren’t looking quite so “great” thus far.

As anyone who has ever paid remote attention to global affairs might have predicted, violence has broken out across several Mexican states in the aftermath of the killing – which is generally what happens when you take out a cartel kingpin.

Gunmen have torched vehicles and blocked highways in various locales while various US media have reported sensationally on the plight of American tourists “stranded” in Mexican resort cities on account of the upheaval.

Shortly after his initial enthusiastic post, Landau returned to X with a “PS, I’m watching the scenes of violence from Mexico with great sadness and concern.” But no matter: “We must never lose our nerve.”

The deputy secretary of state ended his “PS” with some words of encouragement in Spanish for the Mexican nation: “¡Animo Mexico!” (Cheer up, Mexico!)

But again, there is hardly room for cheer given that there is not a single example in pretty much the entire history of the world in which the killing of one cartel boss has resolved the narcotrafficking problem – or anything else, for that matter.

Recall the case of Pablo Escobar of the Medellin Cartel, killed in 1993 by Colombian police with a whole lot of help from the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).

Despite Escobar’s absence, the international drug trade proceeded apace, and ensuing decades played host to spectacular levels of violence in Colombia – much of it coincidentally perpetrated by heavily US-backed state security forces.

In one particularly memorable episode, members of the Colombian army slaughtered an estimated 10,000 civilians and passed the cadavers off as left-wing “terrorists”.

To this day, Colombia remains the world’s top producer of cocaine.

In other words, to hail El Mencho’s demise as a “great development” for Mexico or anyone else is at best preposterously delusional.

On Sunday I phoned a Mexican friend in the southern state of Oaxaca, a supporter of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, for our requisite argument over the day’s events. In his view, Mexico’s government had simply been “doing its job” in the “war on drugs” by eliminating El Mencho, and the US had nothing substantial to do with it.

Indeed, much like her predecessor and mentor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Sheinbaum has perfected the art of doing the gringos’ dirty work while purporting to act in a “sovereign” fashion – and even to defy the imperial overlords to the north.

Granted, she does not have a whole lot of room to manoeuvre given the recent kidnapping by the US of Venezuelan head of state Nicolas Maduro – and the fact that Trump has made it known that he is beholden to no law, whether domestic or international.

But while Sheinbaum may have seen no choice but to temporarily placate the Americans and satisfy Trump’s need for blood, Mexicans will pay a heavy price.

A brief review of contemporary Mexican history confirms as much. No sooner did then-Mexican President Felipe Calderon launch his “drug war” under US guidance in 2006 than homicides and enforced disappearances skyrocketed in the country.

Well over half a million people have since been killed and disappeared, many of them victims of militarised agents of the state who often operate in cahoots with organised crime.

Nary a dent has been put in the northward flow of drugs while the southward flow of US-manufactured weapons continues unabated.

The state of Jalisco itself happens to have the highest number of enforced disappearances in all of Mexico and made headlines last year with the discovery of a clandestine crematorium on a ranch outside Guadalajara, one of the host cities of the upcoming World Cup.

The ranch was reportedly used by the CJNG as a recruitment and training centre as well as an extermination site.

And the removal of El Mencho from the equation will do precisely nothing in terms of pacifying the landscape – just as the respective extraditions to the US of Sinaloa cartel leaders Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada merely set off an ongoing violent battle for power.

Contrary to lofty soundbites from US officials, the empire is not at all interested in getting rid of either drug trafficking or violence south of the border as both phenomena provide a perennial excuse for US interference in Mexico and beyond.

Were the gringos actually serious about ridding “Mexico, the US, Latin America, and the world” of the whole cartel problem, a decriminalisation of drugs would do much to nip the business in the bud by rendering the movement of drugs far less fantastically lucrative.

A moratorium on the US’s obsessive manufacture of weapons would also help.

Obviously, nothing so much as resembling those potential solutions is even on the horizon. If it were, that would be one hell of a “great development” indeed.

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

Tiger Woods turned 50 in December.

He’s four months removed from disk replacement surgery in his lower back — the same back that has endured six other operations, including spinal fusion in 2017.

Woods won’t be taking part in this week’s Genesis Invitational, a tournament he has hosted since 2020, as he continues to recover from that procedure. The 15-time major championship winner told reporters at Riviera Country Club on Tuesday that he has been able to start taking full golf shots during his training.

Still, the 2026 Masters tournament is less than two months away. So considering everything mentioned above, it would seem pretty unlikely that Woods would be ready to compete in the first major championship of the year.

Right?

Well, a reporter asked Woods quite simply, “Is the Masters off the table for you?”

Woods gave an even simpler answer.

“No,” he said without hesitation or further elaboration. He did give a slight smile after a brief pause, for what that’s worth.

It should come as no surprise that Woods would be doing everything he can to be able to play April 9-12 at Augusta National. He has won the event five times, most recently in 2019.

Woods famously played in the 2022 Masters just 14 months after a catastrophic rollover car accident — and actually made the cut before finishing at 13-over par. He last played the Masters in 2024, making the cut for a record 24th time but finished with a 16-over 304, his highest 72-hole score.

Woods missed all of the 2025 season as he recovered from a back surgery the previous year and surgery for a ruptured Achilles tendon in March. He spoke Tuesday on the multiple challenges he faces in attempting to return to the PGA Tour and also brought up the possibility of playing on the PGA Champions circuit.

“The disc replacement has been one thing. It’s been a challenge to have had a fused back and now a disc replacement. So it’s challenging,” said Woods, who added that his back is still sore following the most recent procedure.

“And I entered a new decade. So that number is starting to sink in and has [me] thinking about the opportunity to be able to play in a cart. That’s something that, as I’ve said, I won’t do out here on this tour, because I don’t believe in it. But you know, on the Champions tour, that’s certainly an opportunity.”

From Jack Vita: Position players reported to spring training at Camelback Ranch for the Dodgers on Monday, but manager Dave Roberts revealed that the team will be without its versatile second baseman and utilityman Tommy Edman when it opens the season against the Arizona Diamondbacks at home on March 26.

The 30-year-old Edman underwent ankle surgery during the offseason after being limited to 97 games in 2025 in his first full season with the Dodgers.

“I think just looking at where his ankle is at, trying to play the long view that you don’t want to have any regression or setbacks,” Roberts said. “So, how can we be methodical with it? Just for me, knowing that he’s just taking swings is enough. We’re not going to rush it. We want to put him in the best position, so I think it just kind of became [clearer] very recently.”

Edman will open the season on the injured list, something he is at peace with. He felt that a return before opening day was a bit ambitious, and that it would be better to err on the side of caution.

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Photos: Shohei Ohtani and other Dodgers stars work out at spring training

Mike Trout back to center?

Mike Trout says he would prefer to return to center field for the Angels, and the star slugger says he will skip the World Baseball Classic because of insurance issues.

The 11-time All-Star who been plagued by injuries since 2021 says his familiar position isn’t as physically demanding as the corner outfield spots, contrary to traditional thinking.

Trout played his most games since 2019 last season, finishing at 130. The three-time American League MVP started 22 of his first 29 games in right field before a knee injury sidelined him for a month. The 34-year-old was exclusively a designated hitter when he returned in late May.

“I feel like I’m at my best when I’m in center,” Trout told reporters at the club’s spring training facility Monday. “If I have to go to the corner, I’ll go to the corner.

“When I was in center, it was less on my body than the corners. To be honest, in right field I felt I was running a lot. Talking to some other outfielders and they’re saying that they feel the same way sometimes, center is less on your legs. I just feel … confident in center.”

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This day in sports history

1923 — Cy Denneny of the Ottawa Senators becomes the NHL’s career scoring leader. He scores his 143rd goal to surpass Joe Malone in a 2-0 win over the Montreal Canadiens.

1924 — Johnny Weissmuller sets a world record in the 100-yard freestyle swim with a time of 52.4 seconds.

1926 — Suzanne Lenglen beats Helen Wills 6-3, 8-6 in Cannes, France, in their only tennis match against each other.

1928 — Sweden’s Gillis Grafstrom successfully defends his 1920 and 1924 Olympic figure skating title, with Austrian Willy Bockl finishing in second place as he did four years earlier.

1941 — Joe Louis knocks out Gus Dorazio in the second round in Philadelphia to defend his world heavyweight title.

1955 — Mike Souchak establishes the PGA 72-hole scoring record with a 257 at the Texas Open. Souchak starts with a record-tying 60 at San Antonio’s Brackenridge Park course and ends with a 27-under-par, beating the previous low for a 72-hole event by two shots.

1968 — The Basketball Hall of Fame opens in Springfield, Mass.

1974 — Richard Petty wins his second straight Daytona 500. It’s the fifth Daytona 500 title for Petty, who also won in 1964, 1966, 1971 and 1973.

1992 — Raisa Smetanina wins a gold medal with the Unified Team in the 20-kilometer cross-country relay to set the career Winter Olympics medal record with 10. Smetanina, 39, also becomes the oldest champion and the first to win a medal in five straight Winter Games.

1994 — San Antonio’s David Robinson records the fourth quadruple-double in NBA history with 34 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists and 10 blocks in the Spurs’ 115-96 win over Detroit.

1998 — The U.S. women’s hockey team wins the sport’s first Olympic gold medal. Sandra Whyte scores on an empty-netter with eight seconds left to give the United States a 3-1 victory over Canada.

2010 — Americans Lindsey Vonn and Julia Mancuso finish 1-2 in the downhill at the Vancouver Olympics. It’s the first time since 1984 that the U.S won gold and silver in a women’s Alpine event.

2013 — Danica Patrick wins the Daytona 500 pole, becoming the first woman to secure the top spot for any Sprint Cup race.

2014 — Meryl Davis and Charlie White win the gold medal in ice dance, the first Olympic title in the event for the U.S..

2018 — Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu becomes the first man to successfully defend his Olympic figure skating title since Dick Button in 1952.

2020 — 62nd Daytona 500: Denny Hamlin wins second straight title by 0.014 seconds over Ryan Blaney on the second restart in overtime; his third Daytona victory

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

PHOENIX — Position players reported to spring training at Camelback Ranch for the Dodgers on Monday, but manager Dave Roberts revealed that it will be without its versatile second baseman and utilityman Tommy Edman when the team opens the season against the Arizona Diamondbacks at home on March 26.

The 30-year-old Edman underwent ankle surgery during the offseason after being limited to 97 games in 2025 in his first full season with the Dodgers.

“I think just looking at where his ankle is at, trying to play the long view that you don’t want to have any regression or setbacks,” Roberts said. “So, how can we methodical with it? Just for me, knowing that he’s just taking swings is enough. We’re not going to rush it. We want to put him in the best position, so I think it just kind of became [clearer] very recently.”

Edman will open the season on the injured list, something he is at peace with. He felt that a return before Opening Day was a bit ambitious, and that it would be better to err on the side of caution.

“That was always kind of a stretch, just due to the nature of the injury and the timing of the surgery and everything,” Edman said. “I think, having been out of the boot for a little over a month now, I was just kind of waiting to see how it progressed, and everything has gone exactly on-schedule. We were kind of leaving Opening Day open, just in case it happened to feel way better than expected. Everything’s on the expected schedule so far. As I get into more baseball stuff, I still have to work into the adaptation of volume. As the volume goes up, the swelling kind of increases a little bit, so I’ve got to take it slow and let the progress play out the way it was planned all along, instead of trying to speed it up.”

For now, Edman is slow-playing it.

“He took some swings a couple days ago, [from] both sides,” Roberts said. “He did some skipping, some light jogging, I think it was. He’s getting his body into baseball shape, so obviously he’s not going to be ready for the start of camp. He’s in that same bucket of, ‘When he’s ready, he’s ready.’ But each day, there’s been progress.”

Evan Phillips excited to be back

Days after signing a one-year contract to return to the Dodgers — despite being non-tendered earlier in the offseason — Evan Phillips expressed relief at being back.

“[The offseason] was quiet for a little bit,” Phillips said. “I leaned on my agent to be patient and trust that things were going to work out and we’re certainly glad that we’re back. It was definitely a very, very wild ride this offseason. It feels like I never left, so it’s kind of weird to get all the handshakes and hugs, but it’s just another spring training to me. I’m certainly glad to be back in Dodger blue.”

Dodgers GM Brandon Gomes told reporters Sunday that Phillips should return to the Dodgers sometime in the middle of the season. He underwent Tommy John surgery last June.

“[I’ve been] doing long toss a few times a week, hoping to get on the bullpen or on the mound for a bullpen next month,” Phillips said. “I’ll start that mound progression here in the next couple of weeks. I think, actually, Tuesday I’ll throw off of the mound for the first time, but it won’t be to a catcher or anything. It’ll just be a catcher standing up and there’s a slow progression, week by week. So [there will be] plenty of steps ahead that’s going to keep me busy here in Arizona, but I’m definitely looking forward to that progression.”