Taylor Swift is the world's highest-paid celebrity, according to Forbes
Taylor Swift has topped Forbes' annual list of the 100 highest-paid celebrities.
With a $170m (£130m) fortune, the singer-songwriter is ahead of Adele, who's at number nine with $80.5m (£61.9m), Madonna is in 12th spot with $76.5m (£58.8m) and Rihanna at number 13 with $75m (£57.7m).
Taylor's 1989 World Tour earned more than $200m (£154m) last year.
The star's ex-boyfriend Calvin Harris is in 21st spot with $63m (£48.4m).
Other top 10 earners include boy band One Direction at number two with $110m (£84.6m), actor-comedian Kevin Hart at number six with $87.5m (£67.3m) and US radio DJ Howard Stern at number seven with $85m (£65.4m).
Kim Kardashian is featured on the magazine's cover.
She's number 42 on the list with $51m (£39.2m).
Forbes says 40% of her pay this year came from her mobile game Kim Kardashian: Hollywood.
The game's maker, Glu Mobile, is scheduled to release an app starring Taylor Swift next year.
Katy Perry is at number 63 with $41m (£31.5m).
"The world's 100 highest-paid celebrities pulled in $5.1bn (£3.9bn) pre-tax over the past 12 months, more than the GDP of Belize, Gambia and Bhutan combined," Forbes said.
Magazine editor Zack O'Malley Greenberg said live entertainment continues to be a major cash draw.
"From soccer games in Spain to concerts in China, fans are willing to shell out to see big names - and this is driving the celebrity economy to ever greater heights," he said in a statement.
On the Hollywood front, Jennifer Lawrence was the industry's highest-paid actress for the second consecutive year, earning $46m (£35.1m), a slight drop from the $52m (£39.7m) The Hunger Games star banked the year before.
Actor Dwayne Johnson wrestled the highest-paid actor spot from Iron Man's Robert Downey Jr, earning $64.5m (£49.3m), largely thanks to the billion-dollar Fast and Furious franchise and the surprising success of 2015's San Andreas movie.
Many athletes also made the list, including Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo ($88m - £67.2m), tennis player Roger Federer ($68m - £51.9m), and British F1 driver Lewis Hamilton ($46m - £34.9m).
There are other Brits at 18 (Rolling Stones), 25 (Paul McCartney), 34 (Gordon Ramsay), 44 (Muse), 60 (Rory McIlroy), 61 (Elton John), 67 (Mumford & Sons), 77 (Gareth Bale) and 82 (Ed Sheeran).
Top 10 highest-paid celebrities
1. Taylor Swift - $170m (£130m)
2. One Direction - $110m (£84.6m)
3. James Patterson (Author) - $95m (£72.3m)
4. Dr Phil McGraw (US TV personality) and Cristiano Ronaldo - $88m (£67m)
6. Kevin Hart - $87.5m (£66.6m)
Source- BBC Beat
BOE Governor defends private Osborne Brexit meetings
The Bank of England governor has said it is "important" that he and Chancellor George Osborne are allowed to have private meetings.
However, Mark Carney has agreed minutes of their private talks on Brexit may be examined "discreetly" by MPs.
It was his first time giving evidence to MPs since the vote.
He denied again that the Bank of England had tried to "frighten" the public about the negative effect a Brexit vote could have on the economy.
Supporters of Leave - including two former Conservative Chancellors - accused him last month of "peddling phoney forecasts".
But Mr Carney said: "It is our responsibility to give these assessments... we have an obligation to make these assessments.
"The debate cannot be about whether we should have made an assessment. If we view something as the biggest risk, we have an obligation, a statutory obligation, to make that clear to parliament. We have an obligation to the people of the United Kingdom to come straight with them."
Treasury Select Committee's chairman Andrew Tyrie questioned him on his private meetings with Chancellor George Osborne.
"It is important that governors and chancellors can have private conversations about important economic and financial issues and we'd be derelict in our duties if we did not," Mr Carney told MPs, adding that he did not want to limit "free-flowing" discussions.
However, he reluctantly agreed that he would be prepared for any notes taken by private secretaries to be examined by a committee representative, on the condition that "we can create a process which relies on the discretion of you and the committee so we're not putting things into the public domain are immediately commercially sensitive".
The Bank governor said he would not want to create a situation where those conversations were "minuted, recorded, tweeted in real time, that is not in the interest of monetary and financial stability". Mr Tyrie said there were precedents for sensitive conversations being examined by members of the Committee.
Mr Carney was limited about what he could say about interest rates as he is in "purdah" ahead of Thursday's Monetary Policy Committee decision. Many commentators expect the Bank rate to be cut from 0.5% to 0.25% to try to stimulate the economy.
Source-BBC
JP Morgan to raise pay for 18,000 US staff
Banking giant JP Morgan Chase plans to raise the hourly wages of 18,000 US staff over the next three years.
The bank's chief executive Jamie Dimon said he wanted to address income inequality and called on others in the private sector to do more.
"A pay increase is the right thing to do. Wages for many Americans have gone nowhere for too long," Mr Dimon wrote in The New York Times.
The increases will affect bank tellers and customer service representatives.
Salaries will increase from $10.15 (£7.71) per hour to between $12 and $16 an hour depending on geographic area.
Mr Dimon said the move "enables more people to begin to share in the rewards of economic growth."
He also said raising salaries was good for the bank because it would help attract and retain workers.
JP Morgan's shares were up 1.2% on Tuesday.
JP Morgan is not the first major US company to announces it would raise pay for hourly workers. On Monday, Starbucks announced it was raising wages for 150,000 hourly workers, and in April, McDonald's announced a pay increase for workers at its non-franchised stores.
Wage stagnation has been a problem in the post-recession recovery, despite the improving jobs market.
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen has said it is a sign of that the labour market is not at its peak and that the central bank is watching wage growth closely.
The gap between the highest earners and lowest earners has also been a central theme in the US election.
Source-BBC
Odeon & UCI cinemas sold to China-owned firm
Odeon & UCI Cinema Group has been bought by AMC Entertainment, a US chain owned by Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda, in a deal worth £921m ($1.21bn).
Odeon & UCI is currently owned by private equity firm Terra Firma, and has 242 theatres with 2,236 screens.
Dalian Wanda, the world's biggest movie theatre operator, is led by China's richest man Wang Jianlin.
Odeon & UCI will continue to be based in London and will operate as a subsidiary of AMC.
Adam Aron, AMC's chief executive and president said in a statement: "This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to acquire Europe's leading cinema chain and create the world's biggest and best theatre operator."
He said there were uncertainties created by Brexit, but added "we are encouraged that current currency rates are highly favourable to AMC with the pound falling to a three decade low versus the dollar".
The addition of Odeon & UCI will mean AMC has 627 theatres and more than 7,600 screens in eight countries.
The sale is still subject to competition clearance from the European Commission.
Source-BBC
Dead driver's car displayed outside Parliament
The parents of a man killed when his car was hit at high speed have put the wreckage on display at Westminster as part of a campaign for tougher sentences by road safety charity Brake.
Joseph Brown-Lartey died as his vehicle was split in half by a car driven by Addil Haroon in Rochdale in 2014.
Haroon, then 18, drove through a red light in a residential area at 80mph and was later jailed for six years.
Mr Brown-Lartey's father said it was like being "kicked in the teeth twice".
Mr Brown-Lartey was 25 when he died, and his father Ian said it was "very upsetting" that Haroon would be younger than that when he got out of prison.
"It's just like we've been kicked in the teeth twice. You lose your son and then the legal system that you trusted lets you down too," he said.
Dawn Brown-Lartey, Joseph's mother, said there was "no deterrent" to stop people driving dangerously.
"Judges are bound by guidelines and the guidelines need to be changed," she said.
Hours before the fatal crash, Haroon took a photo on his phone as his speedometer reached 142mph.
He messaged a friend with the words: "Leeds to Rochdale in 11 mins catch me."
In court, he admitted causing death by dangerous driving, causing death whilst unlicensed, causing death whilst uninsured and dangerous driving.
Brake's Roads to Justice campaign argues that families are "betrayed time and again by our justice system", and calls for tougher penalties for drivers who maim or kill.
According to a poll commissioned by the charity, 66% of people believe drivers who kill should be jailed for a minimum of 10 years.
The survey of 1,000 people also found 91% believe drivers who cause a fatal crash after drinking alcohol or taking drugs should be charged with manslaughter, which carries a possible life sentence.
Source-BBC
F-150 sales undented by Chevy attack ad
The Chevrolet Silverado grabbed its biggest piece of the U.S. full-size pickup market since January in the first month of its blistering ad campaign attacking the Ford F-150's aluminum body as too flimsy.
But the F-150 emerged from the fray looking no worse for wear. Ford said F-150 sales soared 40 percent in June from a year earlier, and segment share for the full F-series line jumped to the highest level in 17 months. Ford normally doesn't report F-150-only numbers but did so for June to argue that the Chevy ads didn't hurt it.
It's an intense battle between two longtime archrivals in which both sides act like they're winning, though Chevy's campaign clearly didn't deter the tens of thousands who bought an F-150 last month.
"I love this truck," said Alan Monroe, an accountant in southern Illinois who bought an F-150 Lariat a few weeks after Chevy started airing the commercials in heavy rotation. The ads, launched June 8, show a load of concrete landscaping blocks and the corner of a toolbox gashing the F-150's bed, while the Silverado's steel box sustains lesser dings and scratches.
Monroe, 55, who traded in a Ram 1500, said he researched Chevy's claims online and came away reassured. His Caribou-colored F-150 includes a $495 spray-in bedliner, a popular protective coating that wasn't on the trucks Chevy's marketers abused.
Although Silverado sales dropped 3.7 percent in June amid a 9.7 percent gain for the segment, Chevy deems the campaign a success. A spokesman, Jim Cain, said about 10 percent of Silverado buyers in June previously owned an F-150, the most in five years.
Source-AN
Mercedes beats BMW at half-year mark
Mercedes-Benz solidified its sales lead over the BMW brand in the first half of the year, moving closer to a goal of unseating its rival for the first time since 2005.
BMW’s global six-month brand deliveries rose 5.8 percent from a year earlier to 986,557, compared with a 12 percent gain to just over 1 million cars for the Mercedes brand. That left BMW trailing by 20,062 vehicles for the No. 1 position. Third-placed Audi sold 953,200 a rise of 5.6 percent.
Mercedes is set to deliver four years early on a target of beating BMW’s annual sales. Audi has also said it wants to become No. 1 in the luxury-auto sales. All three have stressed that growth mustn’t come at the expense of profitability.
Daimler published second-quarter earnings on Monday in an unscheduled release, saying adjusted operating profit beat analysts’ expectations.
During June, BMW delivered 189,097 cars, a gain of 9.7 percent, as demand rose for 2-series sedans and the company’s SUV lineup, the automaker said today in a statement.
That compares with Mercedes’s 11 percent jump to 188,444 autos that was also propelled by a surge in SUV demand. Audi remained in third place with 169,000 deliveries, a gain of 7.4 percent.
Source-AN
Contributor: Elisabeth Behrmann of Bloomberg
'Water-resistant' Samsung Galaxy S7 Active fails test
A Samsung smartphone advertised as being water-resistant has failed a water immersion test by a leading product review site.
The Samsung Galaxy S7 Active stopped working after being put in a tank that simulated the effect of being about 5ft (1.5m) underwater.
Consumer Reports repeated its test on a second model, which was also damaged.
Samsung said it was possible defective devices were "not as watertight" as they should have been.
When removed after half an hour, the first phone's display was non-responsive and marred by green lines. Bubbles had also formed in its two camera lenses.
The second handset subjected to the same test suffered similar faults.
Samsung's website stated the Galaxy S7 Active, which is sold in the US but is not available in the UK, is IP68-certified.
The ingress protection rating signifies the phone can withstand "continuous immersion in water".
Consumer Reports made headlines six years ago when it flagged a problem with the iPhone 4's antenna before Apple had acknowledged the issue.
The non-profit organisation said neither handset was usable following its experiments.
It noted the standard Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge models, which are also IP68-certified, had not sustained water damage during the same test conditions.
"While Consumer Reports generally doesn't evaluate phones for this feature, we do perform an immersion test when a manufacturer claims that its product is water-resistant," it said.
"When we recently evaluated the Galaxy S7 Active, it failed this test."
Samsung said it had received "very few complaints" about the issue, and that handsets should be covered under warranty. The Active model first went on sale in June.
Source-BBC
US court raises Netflix sharing anxiety in password ruling
A US appeals court ruling that password sharing is illegal is set to influence how other judges handle complaints about the activity.
The case involved a man who had been convicted of using someone else's login to access his ex-workplace's database.
The decision has serious legal implications for the wider sharing of passwords, one dissenting judge said.
The US press has speculated it could even have a bearing on disputes about the sharing of Netflix passwords.
But one of the other judges suggested the precedent that had been set had more limited consequences.
In 2004, David Nosal reportedly used an ex-colleague's password to gain access to his former recruitment firm Korn/Ferry, in order to use the information in his new firm.
He was charged in 2008 with hacking under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), and convicted in 2013.
The case found the company issuing the password must give authorisation, rather than the individual who may choose to share it.
While the ruling that password sharing violated federal law is limited to the specific case, it could set a precedent for future cases in the US.
Judge Reinhardt, who disagreed with the majority ruling, said the case was "about password sharing" rather than hacking and that in his view "the CFAA does not make the millions of people who engage in this ubiquitous, useful, and generally harmless conduct into unwitting federal criminals".
He added: "The majority does not provide, nor do I see, a workable line which separates the consensual password sharing in this case from the consensual password sharing of millions of legitimate account holders, which may also be contrary to the policies of system owners.
"There simply is no limiting principle in the majority's world of lawful and unlawful password sharing," he added.
He suggested that people could now be jailed as a consequence of the ruling.
But Judge M Margaret McKeown, who wrote the majority opinion, disagreed and said the specifics of the case bore "little resemblance to asking a spouse to log in to an email account to print a boarding pass".
A summary of the ruling said that nearly all access of a "protected computer" - effectively all computers with internet access - without authorisation could therefore be criminalised.
Source-BBC
"Hamilton" Nabs a Record 16 Tony Nominations
What's your name, man? My name is T-O-N-Y.
The musical phenomenon know as Hamilton scored a record 16 Tony nominations Tuesday morning. Categories included Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Original Score and Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical for Hamilton creator and composer Lin-Manuel Miranda. In case you've been living under a rock, the musical is based on the life and times of founding father Alexander Hamilton, the guy on the 10-dollar bill.
In the category of Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Play, movie and TV stars Lupita Nyong'o, Jessica Lange, Laurie Metcalf and Michelle Williams are all nominated. Jane Krakoswski, Frank Langella, Zachary Levi, Michael Shannon, Gabriel Byrne, Danielle Brooks and Jeff Daniels are among the other well-known nominees this year.
Steve Martin, singer/songwriter Edie Brickell and singer/songwriter Sara Bareilles are among the nominees in the Best Original Score category for the musicals Bright Star -- which Martin and Brickell wrote together -- and Waitress, respectively. On Your Feet!, the show based on the life of Gloria Estefan, received one nod.
Here are the shows that are among the top nominees:
Hamilton - 16
Shuffle Along, Or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed - 10
She Loves Me - 8
Long Day's Journey Into Night - 7
Eclipsed - 6
The Humans - 6
Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge - 5
Bright Star - 5
King Charles III - 5
Noises Off - 5
Arthur Miller's The Crucible - 4
The Color Purple - 4
School of Rock—The Musical - 4
Waitress - 4