Arsenal's win over Real ensures five Premier League teams in 2025-26 Champions League
April 8 (Reuters) - The Premier League will be guaranteed at least five teams in the 2025-26 Champions League edition following Arsenal's stunning 3-0 win over Real Madrid in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie on Tuesday.
The English top flight needed just one win from its clubs in any of the three European competitions to secure one of two extra berths - on top of the four granted to the top four in the table - awarded to the highest-ranked countries in the UEFA coefficient ranking.
In this system, teams earn two points for a win and one for a draw, adding up all the points obtained by each club and dividing by the number of clubs from that league participating in Europe.
England could have up to seven teams in the upcoming Champions League if Aston Villa win this year's edition without qualifying through the Premier League table, and if either Manchester United or Tottenham Hotspur are crowned in the Europa League.
Italy lead the race for the second additional place, with Spain and Germany trailing behind.
Premier League leaders Liverpool and second-placed Arsenal look set to claim two of the five available berths, while Nottingham Forest hold a strong third position.
Chelsea, Newcastle United, Manchester City, Aston Villa, Brighton & Hove Albion, and 10th-place Bournemouth remain within eight points of each other.
NBA keen to tap into deep European talent pool
NEW YORK, April 8 (Reuters) - A potential European league could be a goldmine for the NBA as the top-flight North American league looks to muscle its way into a deep pool of talent across the Atlantic.
The NBA is exploring the launch of a European league with world basketball governing body FIBA as a partner, Commissioner Adam Silver said last week, with an eye towards a 16-team format made up of 12 permanent clubs and four qualifiers.
The continent's longstanding Euroleague quickly signalled its readiness to enter into talks with the NBA, even as it has balked at the idea of another league in the region.
"They understood perfectly that NBA became global, the last MVPs are almost all international players. They see that the talents come mainly from Europe," said Olivier Mazet, an agent to players in the NBA and Europe.
"There is a will to take the field, to ensure the storytelling from the emergence of talent in Europe to their arrival in the NBA."
A joint-record 125 international players from 43 countries were named to NBA teams at the start of the 2024-25 season, with all 30 franchises featuring at least one player born outside the United States.
With the global pool of talent growing in the North American-invented sport, the NBA follows a similar playbook to the other "Big Four" men's U.S. sports leagues which are looking to stamp out their territory abroad.
The National Football League has rapidly expanded the number of international games, with a Christmas Day Netflix streaming slate boosting its global ambitions, while Major League Baseball kicked off this season in Japan at the Tokyo Dome.
"It's another example of Adam Silver's vision and leadership in conceptualizing a way to internationalize the NBA," said Leigh Steinberg, an American sports agent best known as the inspiration for the movie character "Jerry Maguire".
"One of the keys is the fact that the most popular American sport which is the NFL is not played in other countries where basketball is."
'GROWN SIGNIFICANTLY'
Steinberg said he believed there was a possibility for the NBA and Euroleague to coexist, pointing to the NFL and its neighbor to the north, the Canadian Football League, as proof.
The Euroleague is celebrating its 25th season with a cult-like following and attendances have been steadily on the rise, more than 3 million spectators going to games last season and average attendances rising 18%.
"European basketball does not need to be saved," Euroleague Basketball CEO Paulius Motiejunas said via email.
"If NBA and FIBA truly care about its growth and about the fans, their focus should be on contributing to its progress, not on creating a new league that fragments, divides and confuses fans," Motiejunas added.
"We have consistently extended an open invitation for dialogue with any organization interested in supporting the growth of European basketball. That applies to the NBA, FIBA and any other organizations.
"But creating a new league does not go in that direction."
Fenerbahce General Manager Maurizio Gherardini said the enduring devotion of the fans had been critical to success.
"All the parameters of the Euroleague keep growing, in terms of fans, attendance, social media interaction, sponsors, interest. And it's not a coincidence," said Gherardini, a former VP and assistant general manager of the NBA's Toronto Raptors.
"That being said, I think we can do better, maybe with somebody else's contribution or guidance. But what you breathe inside some of the arenas in Europe is something that you cannot find anywhere else in the basketball world in terms of that sort of atmosphere."
Player-turned-agent Pete Mickeal said a future NBA Europe could help open players' eyes to possibilities abroad.
The former second-round pick in the NBA Draft spent years chasing the dream of playing in the top-flight North American league after injuries thwarted his chances in the early years of his career.
"Back then it was 'NBA or you're a bust'. That was the mentality," said Mickeal, who heads his Mickeal Sports Group agency. "Now, the mentality is totally different… and the conditions overseas have dramatically improved."
He never got to play a game in the NBA and in 2009 signed for Barcelona, where he won the EuroLeague championship a year later and basked in the support of the club's legions of fans.
"Of course, I wanted to make it to the NBA but since that never happened, I never dwelled on it," Mickeal said. "And I think I got the best result I could have gotten out of my career."
Matthew Hudson-Smith claims long sprint Grand Slam title
Kingston, Jamaica (JAMAICA GLEANER) — Great Britain’s Matthew Hudson-Smith claimed the first Kingston Grand Slam title up for grabs when he crossed the line first in the men’s long sprints 200m race.
Hudson-Smith finished in 20.77 seconds to get the better of Trinidadian Jareem Richards, 20.81, and Jamaica’s Deandre Watkin, 20.91.
Along with his second-place finish in the men’s 400m last night, Hudson-Smith finished on 20 points, beating out Christopher Bailey, who had amassed 16 points, to Kingston Grand Slam title.
- Gregory Bryce
US starts collecting Trump's 10% tariff, smashing global trade norms
WASHINGTON/JUPITER, Florida, April 5 (Reuters) - U.S. customs agents began collecting President Donald Trump's unilateral 10% tariff on all imports from many countries on Saturday, with higher levies on goods from 57 larger trading partners due to start next week.
The initial 10% "baseline" tariff paid by U.S. importers took effect at U.S. seaports, airports and customs warehouses at 12:01 a.m. ET (0401 GMT), ushering in Trump's full rejection of the post-World War Two system of mutually agreed tariff rates.
"This is the single biggest trade action of our lifetime," said Kelly Ann Shaw, a trade lawyer at Hogan Lovells and former White House trade adviser during Trump's first term.
Shaw told a Brookings Institution event on Thursday that she expected the tariffs to evolve over time as countries seek to negotiate lower rates. "This is a pretty seismic and significant shift in the way that we trade with every country on earth," she added.
Trump's Wednesday tariff announcement shook global stock markets, wiping out $5 trillion in value for S&P 500 index (.SPX), opens new tab companies by Friday's close, a record two-day decline. Driven by recession fears, prices for oil and commodities plunged, while investors fled to the safety of government bonds.
Among the countries first hit with the 10% tariff were Australia, Britain, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina and Saudi Arabia despite their having goods trade deficits with the U.S. last year. White House officials have said many countries would run larger deficits with the U.S. if their policies were fairer.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection bulletin provided a 51-day grace period, opens new tab for cargoes loaded or in transit to the U.S. before 12:01 a.m. ET Saturday. These cargoes need to arrive by May 27 to avoid the 10% duty.
Trump's higher "reciprocal" tariff rates of 11% to 50% are due to take effect on Wednesday at 12:01 a.m. ET. European Union imports will face a 20% tariff, while Chinese goods will be hit with a 34% tariff, bringing Trump's total new levies on China to 54%.
Beijing on Saturday said, "The market has spoken" in rejecting Trump's tariffs. China applied a slew of countermeasures, including extra levies of 34% on all U.S. goods and export curbs on some rare earth minerals.
"China has been hit much harder than the USA, not even close," Trump said on Saturday on social media. "THIS IS AN ECONOMIC REVOLUTION, AND WE WILL WIN. HANG TOUGH, it won't be easy, but the end result will be historic."
Shortly after posting the comment, Trump was spotted arriving at his Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida, reading a New York Post article covering China's retaliation to U.S. tariffs and the stock market fall.
SHELTER FROM THE STORM
"A trade war is in no one's interest. We must stand united and resolute to protect our citizens and our businesses," French President Emmanuel Macron said in a post on X.
Some world leaders hoped to strike a deal with Trump and avert economic fallout while others weighed countermeasures.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer wrote in the Telegraph newspaper that he was ready to "use industrial policy to help shelter British business from the storm," noting that his government's priority was to try to secure a trade deal with the U.S. which could include tariff exemptions.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said he will depart for Washington on Sunday for a meeting with Trump to discuss the new 17% tariff on Israel.
Media reported Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba of Japan, which faces a 24% levy, was seeking a telephone conversation with the U.S. president.
Vietnam, which benefited from the shift of U.S. supply chains away from China after Trump's first-term trade war with Beijing, agreed on Friday to discuss a deal with the U.S. after Trump announced a 46% tariff on Vietnamese imports.
The head of Taiwan's National Security Council was in Washington for talks that were expected to include the tariffs, a source said. Taiwan President Lai Ching-te huddled with tech executives on Saturday to discuss how to respond to the 32% duty imposed on its products.
Italian Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti warned on Saturday against imposing retaliatory tariffs on the United States, saying at a business forum near Milan that doing so could cause damage.
U.S. billionaire Elon Musk, a close Trump adviser, told a political event in Italy by video on Saturday that he hoped to see complete freedom of trade between the United States and Europe, which he described as "a zero tariff situation."
Canada and Mexico were exempt from Trump's latest duties but still face a 25% tariff imposed recently on goods that do not comply with rules of origin under a North American trade accord.
While Trump's order exempted 1,000 product categories from the new tariffs such as pharmaceuticals, uranium and semiconductors, the administration is considering new duties on some of them.
Anti-Trump protesters gather in Washington, other US cities
April 5 (Reuters) - Thousands of protesters gathered in Washington, D.C., and across the U.S. on Saturday, part of some 1,200 demonstrations that were expected to form the largest single day of protest against President Donald Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk since they launched a rapid-fire effort to overhaul government and expand presidential authority.
People streamed onto the expanse of grass surrounding the Washington Monument under gloomy skies and light rain. Organizers told Reuters that more than 20,000 people were expected to attend a rally at the National Mall.
Some 150 activist groups had signed up to participate, according to the event's website. Protests were planned in all 50 states plus Canada and Mexico.
Terry Klein, a retired biomedical scientist from Princeton, New Jersey, was among those who gathered by the stage beneath the Washington Monument.
She said she drove down to attend the rally to protest Trump’s policies on “everything from immigration to the DOGE stuff to the tariffs this week, to education. I mean, our whole country is under attack, all of our institutions, all the things that make America what it is.”
The crowd around the memorial continued to build throughout the day. Some carried Ukrainian flags and others wore Palestinian keffiyeh scarves and carried “Free Palestine” signs, while Democrats from the U.S. House of Representatives blasted Trump's policies on stage.
Wayne Hoffman, 73, a retired money manager from West Cape May, New Jersey, said he was concerned about Trump's economic policies, including his widespread use of tariffs.
"It's going to cost the farmers in the red states. It's going to cost people their jobs - certainly their 401Ks. People have lost tens of thousands of dollars," Hoffman said.
Kyle, a 20-year-old intern from Ohio, was a lone Trump supporter, sporting a “Make America Great Again” hat and walking the fringe of the Washington, D.C., rally while engaging protesters in debate.
“Most people aren’t too hostile. A few people cuss,” said Kyle, who declined to give his last name.
Trump, who shook financial markets and upset nations around the world with a raft of trade tariffs this week, spent the day in Florida, playing a round of golf at his club in Jupiter before returning to his Mar-a-Lago compound in the afternoon.
Some four miles (6 km) from Mar-a-Lago in West Palm Beach, more than 400 demonstrators gathered on a sunny day in protest. Drivers honked their horns in support of the pastel-and khaki-clad demonstrators as they passed by.
"Markets tank, Trump golfs," read one sign.
At another protest in Stamford, Connecticut, Sue-ann Friedman, 84, brought a bright pink, handmade sign objecting to the administration's moves to cut funding for medical research.
"I thought my marching days were over, and then we get somebody like Musk and Trump," said Friedman.
Paul Kretschmann, a 74-year-old retired attorney in Stamford, said it was the first time he had ever attended a protest.
"My concern is that Social Security is going to be gutted, that we're going to lose our benefits, and that there's going to be nobody around to administer it in the first place," he said. "I'm afraid that this is all part of a larger plan to dismantle the government and for Trump to maintain power."
DOGE UNDER FIRE
With Trump's blessing, Musk's Department of Government Efficiency team has scythed through the U.S. government, eliminating more than 200,000 jobs from the 2.3 million federal workforce. At times, the effort has been haphazard and forced the recall of needed specialists.
On Friday, the Internal Revenue Service began laying off more than 20,000 workers, as much as 25% of its ranks.
Several hundred people gathered outside the headquarters of the Social Security Administration, a top DOGE target, near Baltimore to protest against cuts to the agency which delivers benefits to the elderly and disabled.
Linda Falcao, who turns 65 in two months, told the crowd she had been paying into the Social Security fund since the age of 16.
“I'm terrified, I’m angry, I’m pissed, I’m bewildered this could happen to the United States,” she said. “I do love America and I’m heartbroken. I need my money. I want my money. I want my benefits!” The crowd chanted, “It’s our money!”
White House assistant press secretary Liz Huston disputed the protesters' charge that Trump aimed to cut Social Security and Medicaid.
"President Trump's position is clear: he will always protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid for eligible beneficiaries. Meanwhile, the Democrats' stance is giving Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare benefits to illegal aliens, which will bankrupt these programs and crush American seniors," Huston said in an email.
Much of Trump's agenda has been restrained by lawsuits contending he has overstepped his authority with attempts to fire civil servants, deport immigrants and reverse transgender rights.
Trump returned to office on January 20 with a stream of executive orders and other measures critics say are aligned with an agenda outlined by Project 2025, a deeply conservative political initiative to reshape government and consolidate presidential authority. His supporters have applauded Trump's audacity as necessary to disrupt entrenched liberal interests.
Hours before the protests were due to kick off in the United States, hundreds of anti-Trump Americans living in Europe gathered in Berlin, Frankfurt, Paris and London to voice opposition to Trump's sweeping makeover of U.S. foreign and domestic policies.
Hundreds of protesters turn out in European cities against Trump
FRANKFURT/BERLIN, April 5 (Reuters) - Hundreds of people protested in European cities on Saturday against U.S. President Donald Trump and his adviser Elon Musk, following a bruising week for financial markets after Trump unveiled sweeping global tariffs.
In the German city of Frankfurt, the "Hands Off!" demonstration was organised by Democrats Abroad, the official organisation of the Democratic Party for U.S. citizens living overseas.
In Berlin, protesting in front of a Tesla showroom, demonstrators held placards calling on fellow Americans living in Germany to protest for "an end to the chaos" at home.
Gathering at Frankfurt's Opernplatz, members of the overseas Democrats group demanded the resignation of the U.S. president, with placard slogans reading "Restore Democracy", "Hands off our personal data" and "The world is tired of your bullshit Donald, be gone!"
In Berlin, slogans directed at Musk read "Shut up Elon, no one voted for you," and a dog wore a sign that said "Dogs against DOGE," referring to the Department of Government Efficiency run by senior adviser Musk, an initiative of the second Trump administration to reduce federal spending waste, fraud and abuse.
In the French capital of Paris, about 200 people, mostly American, gathered on the Place de la République to protest against Trump. Some gave speeches to denounce the president, with protesters waving banners ranging from "Resist Tyrant", "Rule of Law" "Feminists for Freedom not fascism" and "Save Democracy". One sang and played the Bob Dylan song Masters of War.
Protests against Trump and Musk were also held in other European cities, including London and Lisbon.
In the British capital, a few hundred people gathered in Trafalgar Square, holding signs saying "Proud American Ashamed" and "WTAF America?" The crowd chanted "Hands off Canada", "Hands off Greenland" and "Hands off Ukraine" while listening to speeches criticising Trump.
China hit brakes on TikTok deal after Trump announced wide-ranging tariffs, AP source says
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday said he is signing an executive order to keep TikTok running in the U.S. for another 75 days to give his administration more time to broker a deal to bring the social media platform under American ownership.
The order was announced as White House officials believed they were nearing a deal for the app’s operations to be spun off into a new company based in the U.S. and owned and operated by a majority of American investors, with China’s ByteDance maintaining a minority position, according to a person familiar with the matter.
But Beijing hit the brakes on a deal Thursday after Trump announced wide-ranging tariffs around the globe, including against China. ByteDance representatives called the White House to indicate that China would no longer approve the deal until there could be negotiations about trade and tariffs, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive details of the negotiations.
Congress had mandated that the platform be divested from China by Jan. 19 or barred in the U.S. on national security grounds, but Trump moved unilaterally to extend the deadline to this weekend, as he sought to negotiate an agreement to keep it running. Trump has recently entertained an array of offers from U.S. businesses seeking to buy a share of the popular social media site.
But on Friday it became uncertain whether a tentative deal could be announced after the Chinese government’s reversal of its position complicated TikTok’s ability to send clear signals about the nature of the agreement that had been reached for fear of upsetting its negotiations with Chinese regulators.
The near-deal was constructed over the course of months, with Vice President JD Vance’s team negotiating directly with several potential investors and officials from ByteDance. The plan called for a 120-day closing period to finalize the paperwork and financing. The deal also had the approval of existing investors, new investors, ByteDance and the administration.
The Trump administration had confidence that China would approve the proposed deal until the tariffs went into effect. Trump indicated Friday that he can still get a deal done during the 75-day extension.
“My Administration has been working very hard on a Deal to SAVE TIKTOK, and we have made tremendous progress,” Trump posted on his social media platform. “The Deal requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed, which is why I am signing an Executive Order to keep TikTok up and running for an additional 75 days.”
Trump added, “We look forward to working with TikTok and China to close the Deal.”
A spokesperson for ByteDance confirmed in a statement that the company has been discussing a “potential solution” with the U.S. government but noted that an “agreement has not been executed.”
“There are key matters to be resolved,” the spokesperson said. “Any agreement will be subject to approval under Chinese law.”
TikTok, which has headquarters in Singapore and Los Angeles, has said it prioritizes user safety, and China’s Foreign Ministry has said China’s government has never and will not ask companies to “collect or provide data, information or intelligence” held in foreign countries.
Trump’s extension marks the second time that he has temporarily blocked the 2024 law that banned the popular social video app after the deadline passed for ByteDance to divest. That law was passed with bipartisan support in Congress and upheld unanimously by the Supreme Court, which said the ban was necessary for national security.
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat on the House Select Committee on China and a co-author of the TikTok bill, said Friday there should be no further delay. “Bidders are lined up, and the clock is ticking. No more excuses. It’s time to do the work. It’s time to comply with the law and save TikTok now,” he said.
Although the decision to keep TikTok alive through an executive order has received some scrutiny, it has not faced a legal challenge in court. That type of pushback is unlikely, legal experts say, due in part to how difficult it is for someone to establish the legal right, or standing, to sue. A plaintiff would have to be able to show harm from the delay in enforcing the law.
Sarah Kreps, director of Cornell University’s Tech Policy Institute, said she doesn’t believe anyone has that standing.
“It would be different if this platform weren’t already in place,” she said. “But if you’re trying to just continue with the status quo, it’s different.”
Still, if the extension keeps control of TikTok’s algorithm under ByteDance’s authority, the national security concerns that led to the ban persist.
Chris Pierson, CEO of the cybersecurity and privacy protection platform BlackCloak, said that if the algorithm is still controlled by ByteDance, then it is still “controlled by a company that is in a foreign, adversarial nation-state that actually could use that data for other means.”
“The main reason for all this is the control of data and the control of the algorithm,” said Pierson, who served on the Department of Homeland Security’s Privacy Committee and Cybersecurity Subcommittee for more than a decade. “If neither of those two things change, then it has not changed the underlying purpose, and it has not changed the underlying risks that are presented.”
The law allows for one 90-day reprieve, but only if there’s a deal on the table and a formal notification to Congress. Trump’s actions so far violate the law, said Alan Rozenshtein, an associate law professor at the University of Minnesota.
Rozenshtein pushed back on Trump’s claim that delaying the ban is an “extension.”
“He’s not extending anything. This continues to simply be a unilateral non enforcement declaration,” he said. “All he’s doing is saying that he will not enforce the law for 75 more days. The law is still in effect. The companies are still violating it by providing services to Tiktok.
The extension comes at a time when Americans are even more closely divided on what to do about TikTok than they were two years ago.
A recent Pew Research Center survey found that about one-third of Americans said they supported a TikTok ban, down from 50% in March 2023. Roughly one-third said they would oppose a ban, and a similar percentage said they weren’t sure.
Among those who said they supported banning the social media platform, about 8 in 10 cited concerns over users’ data security being at risk as a major factor in their decision, according to the report.
Terrell Wade, a content creator with 1.5 million followers on TikTok under the handle @TheWadeEmpire, has been trying to grow his presence on other platforms since January.
“I’m glad there’s an extension, but to be honest, going through this process again feels a bit exhausting,” he said. “Every time a new deadline pops up, it starts to feel less like a real threat and more like background noise. That doesn’t mean I’m ignoring it, but it’s hard to keep reacting with the same urgency each time.”
He is keeping up his profile on Instagram, YouTube and Facebook in addition to TikTok.
“I just hope we get more clarity soon so creators like me and consumers can focus on other things rather than the ‘what ifs,’” he said.
——
AP reporters Mae Anderson in New York and Didi Tang in Washington contributed to this story.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs hit with new sex trafficking charges a month before trial
NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors on Friday added two charges to Sean “Diddy” Combs ' indictment and said they expect four accusers to testify against him, expanding on allegations that the jailed hip-hop mogul engaged in sex trafficking with multiple women and as recently as last year.
A superseding indictment accuses Combs of using force, fraud or coercion to compel a woman to engage in commercial sex acts from at least 2021 to 2024.
The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in Manhattan, also alleges that Combs was involved in transporting the woman — identified only as “Victim-2” — and other people, including commercial sex workers, to engage in prostitution during the same period.
The new charges are in addition to racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges filed against Combs when he was arrested in September. They increase the total number of charges against him from three to five.
In a court filing, federal prosecutors said the racketeering conspiracy charge involves allegations that Combs sex-trafficked three victims and forced a fourth, one of his employees, into sexual activity with him.
Combs, 55, denies committing any crimes. He is scheduled to stand trial May 5 and remains locked up without bail at a federal jail in Brooklyn.
“These are not new allegations or new accusers. These are the same individuals, former long-term girlfriends, who were involved in consensual relationships,” Combs’ legal team said in a statement. “This was their private sex life, defined by consent, not coercion.”
Friday’s superseding indictment is the third filed against Combs.
In the first, in January, federal prosecutors disclosed that their case involved at least three women whom they said Combs forced to engage in commercial sex acts. They also alleged Combs showed a firearm to a female victim during a kidnapping and once dangled a woman over an apartment balcony.
Combs’ January indictment didn’t include additional charges but modified some details of the existing ones, including adding four years to the alleged racketeering conspiracy. Prosecutors now say it started in 2004, not 2008 as the original indictment had alleged. A superseding indictment in March contained minimal changes.
Combs has pleaded not guilty to the first set of charges, which allege that he coerced and abused women for years with help from a network of associates and employees while silencing victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.
His arraignment on the new charges has not been scheduled. Prosecutors asked Friday that it be held at his final pretrial conference on April 25.
In their filing Friday, prosecutors said three of the four accusers who are expected to testify have asked that their identities not be revealed to the press or the public and that they instead be referred to by at trial using only pseudonyms.
The accuser referred to as “Victim-1” in Combs’ charging documents is prepared to testify under her own name, prosecutors said in the filing, which was heavily redacted.
Federal prosecutors allege the “I’ll Be Missing You” singer and Bad Boy Records founder used his “power and prestige” as a music star to induce female victims into drugged-up, elaborately produced sexual performances with male sex workers in events dubbed “Freak Offs.”
Central to the case is a March 2016 video showing Combs hitting and kicking his then-girlfriend, R&B singer Cassie, in a Los Angeles hotel hallway. Prosecutors contend the assault happened during a “Freak Off.” Combs lawyers argue the footage was nothing more than a “glimpse into a complex but decade-long consensual relationship” between the two.
Combs’ lawyers contend the case should never have been brought and are fighting to dismiss a charge involving allegations he transported a male escort across state lines.
“The government has concocted a criminal case based primarily on allegations that Mr. Combs and two of his longtime girlfriends sometimes brought a third party — a male escort — into their sexual relationship,” Combs lawyer Alexandra A.E. Shapiro wrote in a February court filing.
“Each of the three charges in the case are premised on the theory that this type of sexual activity is a federal crime,” Shapiro added.
James Gunn predicts summer of ‘Superman’ to the rescue of the box office
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The 2025 box office has been hit with a deficit. Can the James Gunn-dubbed “summer of ‘Superman’” save it?
Warner Bros. showed off a diverse and starry slate of its upcoming films on Tuesday, but the night was carried on the shoulders of Clark Kent.
“I really do believe in this movie. And I do believe that there is a lack of human kindness, or at least a degradation of human kindness,” Gunn said. “This is a movie that celebrates kindness and human love.”
At the annual CinemaCon convention and trade show in Las Vegas, Gunn — the director and writer of the first film in the new iteration of the connected DC Universe — brought out its stars, who gushed over their experience making the film.
“It’s a great honor to play a role that exists so clearly in the public consciousness, to the point where everyone I think, even if you haven’t seen a film or read a comic, you sort of know what the Superman symbol means and you know what it stands for,” said David Corenswet, adding that he hopes to “illuminate something new about the character, or even just bring the beloved character to a new audience.”
Corenswet was joined onstage by Rachel Brosnahan, who plays Lois Lane, and Nicholas Hoult, who plays Lex Luthor.
“James makes a family out of every set,” Brosnahan said. “The set is full of people who want to be there, who love making these movies. And it’s such a joy to come to work every day. As many of you have probably heard from other people, it’s not always like that.”
Gunn was announced as the film’s director in 2023, shortly after he and Peter Safran became co-chairs and co-CEOs of DC Studios.
“We appreciate and share your passion for this art form,” Safran told a room full of theater owners. “It’s the fulcrum of our ambitious DC Studios slate and it’s what inspired James to shoot all over the world and push filmmaking technology to its limits, to propel moviegoers out of their homes into your theaters.”
The film will be released theatrically in July amid a summer of superhero titles, including “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” and “Thunderbolts.”
In addition to “Superman,” Warner Bros. teased some of its April releases on the convention’s main stage, like Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” and “A Minecraft Movie,” but they also looked further down the road for 2025.
In a nod to cinephiles, the studio kicked off its presentation by bringing out the stars of Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” including Leonardo DiCaprio and Regina Hall. The film is set to hit theaters in September.
“I’ve been wanting to work with Paul for over, gosh, almost 20 years now. He’s one of the most unique talents of our time,” DiCaprio said. “With this film, he’s tapped into something politically and culturally that is brewing beneath our psyche. But at the same time, it’s an incredibly epic movie and has such scope and scale.”
Director Joseph Kosinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer also treated the audience to an extended sneak peak of “F1,” Brad Pitt’s Formula One racing drama premiering in June.
In addition to Hollywood studios and stars boasting the theatrical menus they believe will lure audiences to cinemas, the annual convention is also a time to discuss current industry debates, like how long movies should stay in theaters and the extent to which studios should get into production with streaming companies.
King Charles cancels engagements after experiencing temporary side effects of cancer treatment
(CNN) - Britain’s King Charles “required a short period of observation in hospital” on Thursday after experiencing “temporary side effects” from a scheduled cancer treatment in the morning, Buckingham Palace has said.
“His Majesty has now returned to Clarence House and as a precautionary measure, acting on medical advice, tomorrow’s diary program will also be rescheduled,” the palace said in a statement.
“His Majesty would like to send his apologies to all those who may be inconvenienced or disappointed as a result,” it added.
The King was set to receive credentials from the ambassadors of three countries on Thursday, and was scheduled to undertake four public engagements in Birmingham, central England, on Friday.
Charles’ cancer diagnosis was first announced in February last year, after he underwent a “corrective procedure” for a benign enlarged prostate the month before.
He briefly stepped away from public-facing duties while he received treatment for the undisclosed form of cancer, returning to them a few months later in April 2024. In his first official engagement since his diagnosis, Charles visited a cancer treatment center, where he leaned on his own personal experience when talking to medical teams as well as while connecting with patients and their families.
Thousands of people sent the King messages of support when he was first diagnosed, which he said “reduced me to tears,” according to a statement released by Buckingham Palace at the time. “Such kind thoughts are the greatest comfort and encouragement,” Charles said.