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  • Mickelson disputes new misconduct allegations

    Mickelson disputes new misconduct allegations

    Legendary six-time major men’s golf champion Phil Mickelson, 56, has forcefully pushed back against a series of misconduct claims published in an investigative report by golf outlet Skratch, with his legal and communications team dismissing the piece as an unfounded, anonymously sourced attack on the golfer’s reputation.

    The investigation, conducted by veteran golf journalist Alan Shipnuck, centers on two key sets of allegations: first, that Mickelson is no longer welcome at three private golf clubs across California due to repeated inappropriate behavior directed at female members and staff; second, a firsthand claim from Ashley Perez, ex-wife of PGA Tour golfer Pat Perez, that Mickelson showed her an explicit photo of himself and made a romantic advance toward her back in 2015.

    This latest report follows a separate incident last year where Mickelson resigned from another high-profile California golf club after similar allegations of inappropriate contact with a female employee, claims he has repeatedly denied. In an official statement sent to the New York Post by Mickelson’s representatives, the team addressed the specific claim from Ashley Perez, noting that Skratch’s account omitted critical context that frames the incident as a misunderstanding, one that Mickelson already apologized for years ago.

    The statement emphasized that Mickelson’s choice to apologize for the miscommunication should not be interpreted as a guilty plea to all the accusations leveled against him in the investigation. On the claim that he was forced out of multiple California golf clubs, Mickelson’s camp flatly denied the allegation, confirming that the golfer never faced expulsion or membership revocation from any club, and all decisions to end his memberships were made voluntarily by Mickelson himself.

    Mickelson’s team also raised questions about Skratch’s journalistic credibility, criticizing the outlet’s reliance on unnamed sources and pointing out the publication’s longstanding organizational ties to the PGA Tour — a relationship that takes on new significance given Mickelson’s high-profile 2022 departure from the PGA Tour to join the Saudi-backed breakaway LIV Golf league, where he remains one of the most prominent competing players.

    “Credibility is not earned by publishing the most provocative narrative,” the statement read. “It is earned through transparency, verification, and a clear distinction between fact, inference, and speculation.”

    Skratch’s leadership has stood firmly behind its work in the wake of Mickelson’s denial. Ben Boskovich, editor-in-chief of Skratch, told the New York Post that the outlet gave Mickelson, his spouse, and his legal team full opportunity to comment on and respond to the allegations before the report was published, following standard journalistic protocol.

    For much of 2025, Mickelson has been absent from competitive golf. He has only competed in one LIV Golf event this year, a March tournament hosted in South Africa, and has stepped away from the rest of the circuit to focus on an undisclosed family health matter, per his own previous announcement. Mickelson made history in 2021 when he won the US PGA Championship at age 50, becoming the oldest golfer ever to claim a major men’s championship title.

  • Why the expected fight over the North American trade deal never kicked off

    Why the expected fight over the North American trade deal never kicked off

    For months, stakeholders across Washington’s policy, business and trade analysis communities prepared for a period of high-stakes conflict over the future of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the landmark trade pact that underpins economic integration across North America. Predictions of a fraught spring and summer filled with open confrontation, however, have been upended by an unexpected geopolitical shift: the ongoing conflict with Iran has consumed the Biden administration’s bandwidth, draining the political urgency that was widely projected to define the pact’s renewal process.

    Rather than unfolding as a high-profile public battle over the agreement’s future, USMCA discussions have quietly receded to the background of Washington’s policy agenda. As former British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan famously observed when asked about the greatest challenge to political leadership, “Events, dear boy, events” – and the Iran conflict has proven to be exactly that unplanned event, inadvertently taking the steam out of what was expected to be a heated trade debate.

    Earlier in 2026, widespread concerns circulated that the U.S. would leverage the mandatory renewal review window to force a showdown with Ottawa and Mexico City, even going so far as to threaten a full withdrawal from the pact. President Trump, who originally signed the agreement into law, had already signaled growing ambivalence toward the deal, leaving trade observers guessing just how aggressive the U.S. negotiating position would be in the next phase of review.

    With foreign policy priorities now dominating the White House’s agenda, however, the U.S. has adopted a far more restrained approach. Officials have formally confirmed that the administration will not exercise its option to extend the current agreement for another 16 years, but has stopped short of pursuing any of the more dramatic actions that analysts once warned could roil regional trade.

    Part of this deliberate restraint stems from a core conviction within the administration: that the U.S.’s existing tariff strategy has already fundamentally reshaped North America’s economic landscape, shifting the balance of trade benefits in Washington’s favor and eliminating the need for a confrontational standoff now. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has argued that the White House’s approach to trade policy over the last term has already rewired economic ties between the three nations, making aggressive renegotiation unnecessary at this juncture. Still, political observers warn that if future negotiations become overly politicized, the U.S. auto industry – which relies heavily on integrated cross-border supply chains – could face the most severe damage.

    The muted approach to USMCA also aligns with Washington’s broader global strategy. The administration’s ongoing efforts to recalibrate U.S. economic and diplomatic relations with China depend significantly on close, stable cooperation with Canada and Mexico, the U.S.’s two largest trading partners. Injecting unnecessary uncertainty into the foundational North American trade framework would directly undermine that larger geopolitical goal. As Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico’s former ambassador to the United States, framed it: pursuing a confrontational approach on USMCA right now would be “a huge own goal” – equivalent to scoring against one’s own team in the World Cup.

    This low-tension dynamic played out publicly during the 1 July virtual meeting of trade officials from all three nations. Once billed by analysts as a potential flashpoint for open disagreement, the meeting proceeded with little fanfare and no public acrimony. The U.S. has launched formal bilateral talks with Mexico, while maintaining constant working-level communication with Canadian officials, a sign that negotiations are moving forward without the political fireworks that many experts predicted just a few months ago. With U.S. midterm elections on the horizon, most political analysts expect this calmer, more low-key approach to USMCA discussions to remain in place through the end of the year.

    The administration’s decision to forgo an immediate 16-year extension triggers a mandatory 10-year countdown clock for the pact. If no new extension agreement is reached by the end of that decade-long window, the USMCA will automatically expire. For the time being, however, the high-stakes brinkmanship that many trade watchers once forecast has been replaced by routine annual reviews and steady, quiet diplomacy between the three North American neighbors.

  • Trump presidency reignites its founding debate – how much power is too much?

    Trump presidency reignites its founding debate – how much power is too much?

    As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of its Declaration of Independence from British monarchical rule, a fierce national debate has erupted over the expansion of executive power under President Donald Trump, halfway through his second term in office. The confrontation cuts to the very core of the constitutional system the nation’s founding fathers crafted to avoid the concentration of unchecked authority that Americans rejected in 1776.

    Trump has made unapologetic displays of personal authority a defining feature of his presidency: he surrounds himself with loyal officials who offer public praise, openly criticizes and attacks global leaders who have fallen out of his favor, and pressures major U.S. corporations to align with his policy agenda. Most recently, he told an interviewer that he faces “no limits” to his power as president — a statement that critics argue stands in direct opposition to the checks and balances that form the backbone of American democracy.

    Critics say the founding revolutionaries who threw off British rule would reject Trump’s approach to executive power entirely, pointing to a string of actions that have pushed the boundaries of presidential authority further than any of his predecessors dared. Among the most controversial moves: launching military strikes against Iran without securing congressional authorization, withholding key details about a military operation in Venezuela targeting President Nicolás Maduro from most lawmakers, and invoking emergency powers to impose global trade tariffs without congressional legislation — a policy the Supreme Court later ruled unconstitutional. Critics also accuse Trump of weaponizing the Department of Justice to target political opponents, including former FBI Director James Comey, breaking with the longstanding norm of separation between the White House and federal prosecutors that was put in place after Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal.

    Mass demonstrations have been held across the U.S. and around the world under slogans including “No Kings,” “Democracy Not Monarchy” and “We have a Constitution, Not a King” to protest Trump’s expansion of power. When asked about the protests, Trump pushed back, saying “I don’t feel like a king. I have to go through hell to get things approved.”

    The debate over Trump’s power comes as he continues to deliver on the radical policy overhaul he promised voters when he defeated former President Joe Biden in the 2024 election. Polling from YouGov shows 80% of Republican voters approve of Trump’s job performance, but his overall approval rating among all U.S. voters has fallen below 40%, a significant drop from the start of his second term.

    Scholars and conservative analysts disagree over whether Trump’s power grab is unprecedented in American history. Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, acknowledged that every modern president has sought to expand executive authority, but said “I can’t think of another president who has gone quite so far, who is as enamoured with power” as Trump.

    However, Joshua Treviño, senior director at the conservative America First Policy Institute, argues that critics are confusing Trump’s carefully cultivated public image with actual substantive expansion of presidential power. “It’s easy to confuse the aesthetic with the substance with President Trump,” Treviño explained, noting that past presidents including Franklin D. Roosevelt and Richard Nixon also pushed to grow executive authority, and that Trump has not done anything qualitatively unique in U.S. history.

    The debate over executive power is not a new one in American politics: when the founding fathers drafted the Constitution in the 1780s, they were deeply divided over how much authority to grant a single head of state. Some feared a strong presidency would devolve into monarchy and pushed for a collective executive committee to run the nation instead. Others, including founding fathers John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, debated the balance of power: Adams argued for a stronger presidency to counter the risk of aristocratic control by the Senate, writing to Jefferson in 1787, “You are afraid of the one – I, of the few. We agree perfectly that the many should have a full, fair and perfect Representation. You are Apprehensive of Monarchy; I, of Aristocracy. I would therefore have given more Power to the President and less to the Senate.” Intriguingly, the founding fathers even considered regal-sounding titles for the new office, debating options including “His Highness,” “His Excellency,” “His Elective Majesty” and “His Mightiness” before settling on the simple title of “President.”

    At Middleton Tavern, a centuries-old seaside pub in Annapolis, Maryland — where the founding fathers are said to have gathered to debate the future of the new nation in the 1770s — ordinary Americans are split over Trump’s approach to power. Lorraine Ross, who was celebrating her 60th birthday at the tavern alongside the nation’s 250th birthday, said she is deeply anxious about the trajectory of the country. “I’m not going to be running around saying, yay, USA, we’re free,” she said, expressing particular concern over cuts to social assistance for low-income families and children with disabilities, and anger at Congress for allowing Trump to “run amok and ignore all the laws” that have constrained past presidents.

    Other patrons took a different view. Atlanta visitor John Knox said that people who oppose Trump should save their activism for the upcoming November midterm elections, rather than politicizing the Fourth of July national celebration, which the Trump administration has promised will be the largest and most ambitious in recent history.

    Thousands of miles away in Keystone, South Dakota, preparations are underway for Trump’s Fourth of July eve visit to Mount Rushmore, the iconic national monument where the likenesses of four of America’s most revered presidents are carved into granite. Trump has leaned into viral online memes that add his face to the monument alongside George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, and a congressional bill has even been introduced to formally add his carving to the site — an idea that draws enthusiastic support from his base.

    Among those supporters are Terry Davis and Tim Burke, two retirees traveling through the American heartland on a motorbike trip between national parks, who were disappointed to miss out on tickets for Trump’s Fourth of July fireworks display at the monument. When asked about the idea of adding Trump’s face to Mount Rushmore, 72-year-old Terry said Trump deserves a prominent spot: “I have not been this passionate about any other president in the past until he took the reins of this country.” The pair, like many of Trump’s supporters, celebrate his status as a political outsider who has bucked Washington norms, and back his use of executive power to confront congressional Democrats and what they see as an overreaching federal government. Tim added, “Long after he’s left office, 20, 30 years from now, I believe the historians will say that he’s been one of the greatest presidents in the history of our nation for the things that he has done for it.”

    Historians warn that whatever the current debate holds, Trump’s expansion of presidential power will have long-lasting consequences for the American political system, affecting how future presidents approach the office. “Every chapter in the expansion of presidential power has had long-lasting consequences,” Zelizer said. “It creates actual precedents that future presidents can use that they didn’t have before. And it also fuels a process of normalisation where this just becomes part of what we expect presidents to do.”

    That long-term legacy stands in stark contrast to the example set by George Washington, the nation’s first president, who set the original mold for the office in 1789. In his inaugural address, Washington spoke with humility about the weight of presidential power, noting that a leader “ought to be peculiarly conscious of his own deficiencies” — a sentiment few would expect from Trump, who has repeatedly declared himself “the greatest president in history.”

  • Alleged Scattered Spider hacker arrested in Finland

    Alleged Scattered Spider hacker arrested in Finland

    A years-long cross-border investigation into one of the world’s most disruptive modern hacking networks has led to the extradition of an alleged teen member to the United States, federal law enforcement officials confirmed this week.

    The US Department of Justice (DoJ) announced Tuesday that 19-year-old Peter Stokes, a dual US-Estonian national, has been charged with multiple felonies including conspiracy, computer intrusion, and wire fraud linked to his alleged role in the transnational hacking collective Scattered Spider. Stokes was first arrested by Finnish law enforcement in April following an Interpol Red Notice, and was transferred into US custody earlier this week. He made his first appearance at a Chicago federal court on Tuesday, where a judge ordered he remain in pretrial detention.

    Per DoJ allegations, Scattered Spider has carried out a years-long campaign of high-impact ransomware attacks that have generated more than $100 million in illegal ransom payments globally. The charges against Stokes build on recent progress in the case: just last month, two young men pleaded guilty to criminal charges connected to the 2024 cyberattack on Transport for London (TfL), a major breach UK investigators have directly attributed to Scattered Spider. That 2024 intrusion compromised the personal data of roughly 10 million TfL customers, causing £39 million in total damage. UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has also linked the group to separate 2023 cyberattacks on major British retailers Co-op and Marks & Spencer, which remain under active investigation.

    Court documents outline one specific attack linked to Stokes and his co-conspirators: in 2023, the group infiltrated the network of an unnamed luxury jewelry retailer, stole sensitive internal data, and demanded an $8 million ransom paid in cryptocurrency. According to the DoJ, the retailer successfully evicted the hackers from its network and refused to pay the extortion demand. Even so, the breach still caused at least $2 million in losses stemming from business disruption, forensic investigation, and threat mitigation work.

    The operation to arrest and extradite Stokes was a multinational collaboration, with joint work from FBI teams based in Copenhagen and Chicago, Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation, and Interpol. Security researchers and law enforcement have long noted that Scattered Spider is unusual among hacking groups for its membership: most members are believed to be young, native English speakers based in the United States and United Kingdom, a profile that has allowed the group to carry out socially engineered intrusions more effectively than many foreign-based criminal hacking networks.

  • World Cup dreams shattered as StubHub tickets cancelled at last minute

    World Cup dreams shattered as StubHub tickets cancelled at last minute

    The 2026 FIFA World Cup, co-hosted across 16 cities in North America, was supposed to be a once-in-a-lifetime dream for millions of soccer fans around the globe. For dozens of ticket holders who purchased entries to matches via leading secondary ticketing platform StubHub, that dream has turned into a costly, devastating nightmare.

    Sergio Enrique Alvarado Montalvo, a 45-year-old resident planning a heartfelt Father’s Day surprise, spent $1,700 on two tickets to the Argentina vs Austria match in Dallas, Texas. He flew his parents in from Mexico for the occasion, pouring nearly $6,000 total into travel, accommodation and event costs — all to give his father the chance to watch soccer legend Lionel Messi play in person. But just 24 hours before the family was set to arrive in Dallas, Montalvo received an abrupt notification from StubHub: the original seller could not deliver the tickets, and the platform refused to provide comparable replacement seats because match prices had skyrocketed beyond original levels.

    Undeterred, the family still traveled to the stadium, holding out hope that a last-minute resolution could be found. Montalvo stayed on the phone with StubHub customer support until just one hour before kickoff, with no success. “I was so sad and so frustrated, and so filled with rage, anger,” Montalvo told the BBC. “It was a mix of feelings that is hard to explain.” The family ultimately watched the match from a public fan festival instead of the stadium stands, turning a planned celebration into a bittersweet memory that still left deep disappointment.

    Montalvo is far from alone in his frustration. His experience is one of hundreds of confirmed complaints that make up what ticketing industry insiders are calling one of the largest mass ticketing collapses in major event history. At the core of the crisis is a controversial, widespread industry practice known as “speculative ticketing”: unverified sellers list tickets on secondary platforms that they do not actually own yet, betting they can source the seats at a lower price closer to the event date. When ticket values surge as the match approaches, sellers simply back out of their original lower-priced agreements to resell the tickets for far higher profits, leaving buyers empty-handed. While consumers do receive a refund of their original ticket purchase price, that compensation does not cover the thousands of dollars many have already spent on non-refundable flights, hotels and coordinated travel plans.

    Another fan, Eben Pingree of Boston, faced an identical heartbreak when his wife Caitlin purchased $2,800 worth of tickets to the Scotland vs Haiti match as a surprise for their 11-year-old son Cole. The couple coordinated a full cross-state trip with another father-son pair, only to have their tickets canceled on match day itself, leaving the group stranded outside the stadium. “They basically had to just leave us there, and so my son was just devastated,” Pingree said.

    The growing crisis has now spilled into the legal system. On Tuesday, two affected World Cup fans filed a proposed class action lawsuit against StubHub, alleging the platform knowingly failed to deliver tickets that customers had already paid for in full. Plaintiffs Julie Reeker Moghal and Reuben Renteria are bringing the suit on behalf of themselves and all other fans who faced similar canceled orders, with each paying at least $1,900 for undelivered tickets. The court filing argues that “[Fans] were lied to and purchased World Cup Tickets for large sums of money – only to incur tremendous financial losses,” adding that the scandal marks a “new low” for an industry already “rampant with consumer protection issues.”

    In the wake of the crisis, blame has been traded rapidly between StubHub and FIFA, the governing body of the World Cup. All official World Cup tickets are only accessible via FIFA’s dedicated website and app, meaning any resold purchase requires a formal ticket transfer through FIFA’s system. StubHub has attempted to shift blame to FIFA, claiming the organization’s new ticketing app, launched just before the tournament kicked off, suffered “significant performance issues that have affected transfers across all resale platforms.”

    FIFA pushed back sharply against those claims. The organization noted that its own official ticketing channel is the only guaranteed source for valid World Cup tickets, and it cannot vouch for any purchases made through unauthorized third-party platforms. FIFA “rejects any suggestions” that technical problems on secondary platforms stem from issues with its own system, stating that its ticketing platform has been “operating reliably” and has already facilitated entry for more than 5 million match attendees across the tournament so far.

    Industry experts, however, say the platform cannot hide behind technical glitches to deflect responsibility. “I blame StubHub 100%,” said Scott Friedman, co-founder of the Ticket Talk Network, who has already compiled more than 600 consumer complaints related to World Cup ticketing on the platform. He did acknowledge that FIFA’s own ticketing technology is far from perfect, calling it “like software out of 1999,” but emphasized the core failure rests with StubHub’s lax oversight of speculative sellers. While StubHub publicly claims it strictly prohibits speculative ticketing on its marketplace, industry watchdogs and thousands of frustrated users confirm the practice remains widespread on the platform.

    The crisis is not limited to buyers, either: even legitimate sellers have faced steep losses. One Austin-based seller told the BBC he lost $2,600 after listing a legally purchased ticket he bought on FIFA’s official marketplace for resale on StubHub. After completing the sale for $1,200 and sending the ticket to the platform’s auto-generated email address for processing, StubHub canceled the sale for “non-fulfilment,” withheld his entire payout and charged him a $1,400 penalty fee.

    For average consumers seeking compensation for their losses, navigating StubHub’s dispute process is often an insurmountable barrier. Bradford Clements, an attorney currently representing clients with more than $2.4 million in total claims against StubHub (most unrelated to the World Cup), says the company’s intentionally complex complaint system often forces casual fans to abandon their claims entirely. “People don’t understand that StubHub’s name of their game is to intimidate you, defer you, and deny you,” Clements told the BBC, noting that multiple legal dispute notices mailed to the company were returned unopened. StubHub has declined to comment on both the class action lawsuit and Clements’ accusations.

    The full scale of the ticketing collapse remains unclear: hundreds of fans have posted public complaints online, while some industry reports estimate thousands of ticket orders across secondary platforms have been canceled. In a brief statement, a StubHub spokesperson said the company is increasing its capacity to source replacement tickets for affected customers, and noted that all orders are covered by its FanProtect Guarantee, which promises a full refund if customers do not receive their original tickets or comparable, higher-quality replacements. For fans already out thousands of dollars in non-refundable travel costs, however, this policy amounts to little more than empty fine print.

    As the 2026 World Cup progresses into its high-stakes knockout rounds, industry watchdogs warn the ticketing crisis is likely to grow worse. With ticket prices surging as demand grows for later matches, more speculative sellers are expected to back out of existing lower-priced deals, leaving more families stranded outside stadium gates, with only disappointment and financial loss to show for the experience they spent months planning.

  • Canadian boy, 11, dies of rabies after waking to bat on his face

    Canadian boy, 11, dies of rabies after waking to bat on his face

    An 11-year-old unvaccinated Canadian child has succumbed to a rabies infection, a fatal outcome that public health experts say could have been prevented, following an unexpected encounter with a bat at a family cottage in 2024. The tragic case, detailed in a new report published Monday in the *Canadian Medical Association Journal*, has reignited conversations about the dangers of underpreparing for wildlife encounters and gaps in public awareness around rabies exposure protocols.

    The boy, whose identity has not been released to protect his family’s privacy, was staying at a rural Ontario cottage when he was woken in the night by a bat clinging to his nose and mouth. He quickly swatted the animal away, and his father captured it in a container before releasing it back into the wild outside the cottage.

    Because the child had no visible bite marks or open wounds, and the bat did not display any obvious unusual or erratic behavior, his parents opted not to seek immediate medical care. That decision would prove devastating. Nineteen days after the encounter, the boy first developed unexplained numbness and swelling across his face, prompting his family to seek emergency medical attention.

    Over the next several days, medical providers worked to pinpoint the cause of his worsening symptoms. Initially, an urgent care clinic misdiagnosed his condition as Bell’s palsy, a temporary facial muscle paralysis, and sent him home with antiviral medication typically used to treat herpes virus infections. When his symptoms did not improve, he was taken to a local hospital, where clinicians first suspected herpes gingivostomatitis, a common viral infection affecting the mouth and gums. The following day, he returned after the entire right side of his face became paralyzed.

    While waiting for a hospital bed, the boy’s condition deteriorated sharply: he developed a 39-degree Celsius fever, struggled to swallow, experienced confusion and visual hallucinations. He was quickly intubated and transferred to a pediatric intensive care unit, where specialists from the University of Manitoba’s Department of Pediatrics and Child Health raised an urgent red flag: the symptoms aligned almost perfectly with rabies infection. Subsequent testing confirmed their suspicion, and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency later identified the strain as a bat-specific rabies virus variant. The boy died 17 days after being admitted to intensive care. Medical records show he had no pre-existing allergies, no known exposure to sick contacts, no recent tick bites, and had not traveled outside of Canada in the months before his illness.

    Rabies infections in humans are extremely rare in Canada. According to data from the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association, only 28 people have died from rabies in the country since 1924. The organization credits this decades-long low fatality rate to widespread, sustained animal rabies vaccination programs across the country, warning that any interruption to these programs would almost certainly lead to a resurgence of preventable human cases.

    Public health guidelines universally recommend that any direct physical contact between a human and a bat warrants immediate post-exposure rabies prophylaxis, a timely medical intervention that prevents the virus from taking hold in the body. Medical experts have repeatedly emphasized that rabies is almost universally fatal once clinical symptoms develop, making immediate preventive care after exposure critical to survival.

  • As Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce prepare to tie the knot, we look back at their relationship

    As Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce prepare to tie the knot, we look back at their relationship

    After nearly three years of a high-profile, fan-favorite courtship that captivated global audiences, pop superstar Taylor Swift and NFL star Travis Kelce are widely expected to host their wedding weekend celebration at one of New York City’s most iconic venues: Madison Square Garden. Rumors of the nuptials have swirled continuously since the power couple announced their engagement via a joint Instagram post back in August 2025, and the unprecedented booking of the city’s largest indoor event space for an entire weekend has only fueled intense public curiosity around the event.

    Beyond just a celebrity wedding, this union will cement Swift and Kelce as one of the most influential and financially powerful married couples in the United States, boasting a combined estimated net worth of nearly $2.2 billion. Their cross-industry influence stretches across music, professional sports, film, podcasting, publishing, and television, giving them unmatched cultural sway across multiple entertainment sectors. For Swift’s loyal global fanbase, dubbed Swifties, the wedding also marks the happy ending of a real-life fairytale romance that played out publicly over three years.

    The first spark of the relationship flew in July 2023, when Kelce attended Swift’s Eras Tour stop at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium, the home of his NFL team the Kansas City Chiefs. Kelce, who had prepared a custom friendship bracelet engraved with his phone number to give to Swift, later shared on his *New Heights* podcast that he was unable to hand it off because Swift was resting her voice ahead of the show. “I was a little butt-hurt I didn’t get to hand her one,” Kelce admitted in the episode. The clip went viral across social media, and it actually caught Swift’s attention, a moment she later compared to “he was standing outside of my apartment, holding a boom box saying, ‘I want to go on a date with you’” in subsequent interviews.

    Encouraged by mutual connections to reach out, Swift finally agreed to go on a date with Kelce later that summer. The pair went public with their relationship in September 2023, when Swift attended a Chiefs game alongside Kelce’s mother Donna, cheering from a private suite. When Kelce scored a touchdown, cameras caught an exuberant Swift yelling “Let’s f***ing go!” before the pair left the stadium together. The moment shocked fans, who were used to Swift guarding her private love life closely after years of intense tabloid scrutiny.

    Kelce publicly acknowledged Swift’s appearance just days later on his podcast, calling her decision to attend “pretty ballsy.” Two months after going public, Kelce joined Swift for an Eras Tour stop in Argentina, where Swift made a viral on-stage tribute to him: she changed a lyric in her hit song Karma from “Karma is the guy on the screen coming straight home to me” to “Karma is the guy on the Chiefs coming straight home to me.” As the set ended, she ran straight into Kelce’s arms for a public kiss that sent shockwaves across the internet.

    By early 2024, Swift had fully dropped her previous commitment to privacy, embracing her relationship in the public eye. After the Chiefs defeated the Baltimore Ravens to secure a spot in Super Bowl LVIII in January 2024, Swift ran straight onto the field for a lingering celebratory kiss with Kelce that was broadcast to millions. A month later, she flew directly from an Eras Tour show in Tokyo to Las Vegas to watch the Chiefs win the Super Bowl, and another on-field kiss went viral, drawing record television viewership that was heavily driven by new female fans tuning in to catch a glimpse of the couple.

    In April 2024, Swift released her double album *The Tortured Poets Department*, which included multiple songs referencing her relationship with Kelce. The track *The Alchemy* directly referenced their post-Super Bowl PDA with the lyric: “Where’s the trophy? / He just comes running over to me.” It was around this time that fans coined the portmanteau “Tayvis” for the couple, a nickname that quickly became ubiquitous across social media.

    The pair made their relationship Instagram official in June 2024, sharing a backstage photo from an Eras Tour stop at London’s Wembley Stadium that included Prince William and his two eldest children, who had attended the show to celebrate William’s 42nd birthday. The following night, Kelce made a surprise one-off cameo as a dancer during Swift’s set, carrying her across the stage in a top hat and tails before she changed outfits for her performance of *I Can Do It With a Broken Heart*. While that was his only appearance across the Eras Tour’s 149-date run, Kelce spent most of the summer of 2024 touring Europe with Swift before returning to the U.S. for the Chiefs’ pre-season training camp.

    As the relationship grew, it has not been without intense public pressure. Kelce’s older brother Jason, who also hosts the *New Heights* podcast with Travis, opened up about the constant scrutiny the couple faces during a 2025 appearance on the *Whiskey Ginger* podcast, noting that even his own high-profile marriage to Kylie Kelce can’t compare to the level of attention. “I think we have it bad, and then we go hang out with one of them for a second. This is a whole other situation here… Like, you can’t be a normal person at that point,” Jason explained. Still, he added that Travis has stayed grounded through the fame: “He stayed true to himself. He’s still humble. He treats everyone with the utmost respect.”

    After more than a year of hidden hints and public easter eggs about their future plans, the couple officially confirmed their engagement on August 26, 2025, with a sunlit Instagram post of Kelce’s garden proposal in rural Missouri. The playful caption read, “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married,” signed off with a firecracker emoji. Per Kelce’s father Ed, the proposal happened roughly two weeks before the public announcement, during a quiet dinner trip in Missouri. “He got her out there, they were about to go out to dinner, and he said, ‘Let’s go out and have a glass of wine’… they got out there, and that’s when he asked her, and it was beautiful,” Ed told ABC News, adding that the couple immediately called both sets of parents to share the happy news. The engagement ring, reportedly purchased from luxury brand Artifex Fine Jewelry, starts at roughly $29,000 for similar designs from the brand.

    In October 2025, Swift released her 12th studio album *The Life of a Showgirl*, which featured multiple love songs inspired by her engagement to Kelce, including nostalgic lyrics about ferris wheel date nights and a dream of raising children in a home with a “driveway with a basketball hoop.” During the album’s promotional tour, Swift repeatedly dodged questions about wedding details, only telling the BBC’s Graham Norton that the event would not be a small, intimate gathering.

    After that, the couple’s team went silent on wedding plans. A widely rumored June 13, 2026 wedding date came and went without any event, though fan speculation spiked again when increased activity was spotted at Swift’s Rhode Island estate, leading many to guess a bachelorette party was held there. Most recently, the New York Times broke the news that Swift had fully booked Madison Square Garden for a large-scale event the weekend before Independence Day. According to venue sources familiar with the booking, the plans include a small gathering of roughly 100 close loved ones on July 2, followed by a larger, more extravagant celebration for around 1,000 guests on July 3. Television crews have already captured delivery trucks unloading drapes, stage lighting, catering supplies, and a 40-inch mirror ball to the venue.

    Tabloids have already begun speculating about surprise performers, celebrity bridesmaids, and every other detail of the big day, but Swift’s tradition of controlling her own narrative means fans will only get official confirmation when Swift chooses to share it. Adding to the excitement, Swift was recently spotted working at New York’s iconic Electric Lady recording studios, leading fans to guess that any wedding announcement could even come paired with a brand new wedding-themed song. For now, the world is waiting to see what the mega-star has planned for the biggest celebrity wedding of the decade.

  • Apple butter, sightseeing and puppets: How UK is marking US independence milestone

    Apple butter, sightseeing and puppets: How UK is marking US independence milestone

    Two and a half centuries after the 13 British North American colonies severed their political ties to the British Crown, the United Kingdom is marking the 250th anniversary of American independence not with lingering resentment, but with a vibrant calendar of special events that highlight under-explored shared history, cross-cultural exchange, and overlapping ideological roots between the two nations.

    What might seem like an unlikely place to unpack the story of American independence is the forecourt of London’s iconic St Paul’s Cathedral. There, a little-known statue dating back to 1712, decades before the United States emerged as an independent nation, stands as an early artifact of British fascination with the North American continent: the sculpture personifies America as an Indigenous woman wearing a headdress and holding a bow and arrow, a window into how the distant territory captured the imagination of those at the heart of the British Empire, according to tour guide Mark Grant.

    Grant is one of dozens of history enthusiasts across the UK organizing commemorative programming for the semiquincentennial. His walking tours, run through the City of London Guides Lecturers Association, shine a spotlight on the little-recognized connections between London’s historic financial district, the Square Mile, and the founding of the United States. The tours draw a mixed audience of British locals and American visitors, each taking away different perspectives. For UK residents, the tour offers unexpected new trivia to layer onto the city’s already rich Roman and medieval heritage; for American guests, the experience is deeply personal, offering a side of the independence story rarely taught in U.S. classrooms.

    Patricia Windham, a tourist from Chicago, joined the tour to understand how the American Revolution was perceived in Britain at the time of the split. “You only get one side of the picture from the US,” she explained. “I think it’s important to get various perspectives from people, not just the one that you get from home, because that’s the party line.” As the tour winds through the Square Mile, it stops at sites ranging from the church where Founding Father Benjamin Franklin once worked as a printer to the former locations of 18th-century coffee houses where transatlantic merchants struck trade deals, revealing that American history runs deep in central London.

    The 1776 Declaration of Independence itself is a core focus of many UK anniversary events. At Washington Old Hall in Tyne and Wear, the ancestral family home of George Washington, local young people will perform a public reading of the foundational document on 4 July. In Bath, the American Museum & Gardens has made history as the first institution in England to display a rare, annotated original printing of the Declaration. This copy, printed the same day the Declaration was adopted in July 1776, was intercepted by British forces and sent back to London with their handwritten notes, a remarkable historical artifact that traveled across the Atlantic at a time when the Revolutionary War was already being fought.

    Beyond showcasing the rare document, the museum has invited visitors to craft their own declarations of independence, a project that has yielded thoughtful and playful responses alike, according to museum director Lucy Littlewood. “That’s producing some really lovely responses, particularly from young people about what’s important in the world,” she said. “Peace and equity are the main two themes there, but we’ve also had comments about free ice-cream for children… so lots of humorous ones as well.”

    Far from ignoring the UK’s connection to the ideological origins of American independence, many events are centered on highlighting how the revolution’s core ideas and key thinkers had deep British roots. In the East Sussex town of Lewes, a Festival of Democracy will be held on 4 July, headlined by a colorful parade inspired by the values that drove the American Revolution. Leading the procession is an 8-foot giant puppet of Thomas Paine, the English philosopher and one-time Lewes resident whose influential 1776 pamphlet arguing for American independence cemented his status as one of the nation’s founding fathers.

    Puppet creator Paul Fitzgerald, a graphic artist who goes by the professional name Polyp, designed the puppet as a skeleton to honor the mysterious fate of Paine’s remains after his death, which were lost after exhumation. He argues that the 1776 independence moment is a cause for celebration far beyond U.S. borders. “I’d see it as a part of a global movement towards people being in charge of their own lives in their own countries,” he said. Organized alongside the Thomas Paine Legacy project and the Lewes Climate Hub, Fitzgerald says the parade carries a modern message: “A democracy is something that wants to be constantly renewed.”

    Other events lean into the tangible cultural and culinary exchange that shaped both nations, tracing the movement of people, ideas, and recipes across the Atlantic. Near Omagh, Northern Ireland, the Ulster American Folk Park’s weekend programming celebrates the profound impact of Ulster migrants on the development of American culture, particularly through food. Celebrity chef Paula McIntyre, who trained in the U.S. and has hosted a BBC series on American cuisine, will lead a demonstration of classic Appalachian dishes, many of which grew from traditional food preservation techniques brought by Ulster migrants to the New World.

    “It would have been people using what they had,” McIntyre explained. “There was absolutely no waste, and I mean, there was nothing luxurious at this stage. It was all about survival.” Dishes including buttermilk, cornbread, apple butter, and pork and kale will feature in the demonstration. McIntyre also notes that culinary influence flowed both ways: Irish migrants brought whiskey distilling expertise to the U.S., refining corn-based whiskey through triple distilling techniques honed in Ireland.

    Back in London, participants on Grant’s walking tours say the deep dive into American independence history has revealed hidden layers of their own city. Peter Tidmarsh, a London local, said “It took me to a few alleys I’d never been to, I’m just amazed.” Grant, a 13-time contestant on the BBC’s quiz show *Mastermind* thanks to his encyclopedic knowledge of London, builds tours around everything from historic blue plaques and centuries-old pubs to the site of a London church that was disassembled brick-by-brick and reconstructed in Missouri. For Grant, the Square Mile is a quiet character in the American founding story, offering an unfiltered look at the transatlantic foundations of the modern U.S. “The cities [in the UK and the US] would have been the same, and so this is kind of the foundation of it all,” he said.

    Born in Australia, Grant brings a neutral perspective to the story of the 18th-century “breakup” between the colonies and the Crown, and British attendees echo that neutrality. Asked if the UK holds any lingering regret over the split, Tim Parry, a participant from Essex, joked “Well, there’s some regret. But I think we got over it.” Fellow attendee Tidmarsh agreed: “I think 250 years is long enough.”

  • From Truman’s pension to Trump’s billions – a White House windfall unmatched by any president

    From Truman’s pension to Trump’s billions – a White House windfall unmatched by any president

    For more than a century, U.S. presidents have adhered to an unwritten code: avoiding direct personal profit from holding the nation’s highest office, often taking deliberate steps to separate their public duties from private financial interests. When Harry Truman left the White House in 1953, he relied solely on a $113 monthly military pension, arguing that commercializing the prestige of the presidency was morally wrong. Decades later, George W. Bush placed all his investments in a blind trust before taking office, and by the end of his tenure, he could not even say how the 2008 financial crisis had impacted his personal net worth. Today, that long-held norm has been shattered in a way no historian has ever recorded.

    According to a mandatory public financial disclosure report released on Tuesday, former and current President Donald Trump earned at least $2.2 billion in his first year back in the Oval Office in 2025 – nearly four times the $622 million he reported in 2024, the year before he reclaimed the presidency. Of that staggering sum, more than $1.4 billion came directly from cryptocurrency ventures tied to his family and close political allies, a figure that has sparked widespread debate over ethical standards and conflicts of interest in the executive branch.

    Breakdown of the president’s disclosed earnings shows $635 million in royalties from Celebration Coins, the entity behind the $TRUMP meme coin launched just days before his second inauguration. Another $500 million-plus came from World Liberty Financial, a crypto startup founded by Trump’s adult sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, alongside the sons of Steve Witkoff – Trump’s appointed special envoy to the Middle East and Ukraine.

    Presidential historians emphasize this level of personal profit while in office is completely without precedent in American history. “There’s just no precedent for this,” said Barbara Perry, a presidential scholar at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. “It’s beyond anything we’ve ever seen in the presidency.” While past administrations have faced financial scandals, none have involved the sitting president directly earning billions while holding office. During Ulysses S. Grant’s tenure, Treasury Department officials were caught in gold and customs corruption schemes, but Grant was never accused of personal enrichment. The 1920s Teapot Dome scandal, which saw Interior Secretary Albert Fall accept bribes for oil leases, also did not implicate President Warren G. Harding directly in personal gain.

    Even modern cases of family influence peddling pale in comparison to Trump’s earnings, historians note. Jimmy Carter’s brother promoted a beer brand during his brother’s presidency, and Hunter Biden drew scrutiny for business dealings with a Ukrainian energy firm while his father was vice president. Perry says the scale of Trump’s profits makes this a fundamentally different situation: “Making money hand over fist in office, it’s not illegal but it is unethical. Most [past] presidents didn’t want to do that.”

    Trump has followed the same path in his second term that he took in his first, declining to place his business interests in a traditional blind trust or fully divest from his holdings. Before his 2025 inauguration, the Trump Organization announced the president would not participate in day-to-day operations, and Eric Trump pledged the company would follow “robust ethical standards.” But critics point to multiple policy moves that directly benefited the president’s crypto and business interests.

    Just four months after World Liberty Financial launched its digital currency project, Trump signed federal legislation supporting stablecoin regulation. Last October, he pardoned Changpeng Zhao, founder of major crypto exchange Binance, a reversal of his earlier position that dismissed crypto as a “disaster waiting to happen.” Beyond crypto, a New York Times report revealed that after Trump struck a critical minerals deal with Kazakhstan’s president, his sons took a minority stake in a firm connected to the project, with ties to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s family investment firm also involved.

    The White House has forcefully denied any wrongdoing or conflicts of interest. “Neither the President nor his family has ever engaged – or will ever engage – in conflicts of interest,” White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said in a formal statement. She added that all administration actions are taken exclusively for the benefit of the American public, and claims of improper profit are nothing more than a “tired, false narrative” pushed by political opponents and legacy media.

    Trump himself has dismissed the criticism, attributing his earnings to broader stock market gains and saying he remains uninvolved in his personal financial affairs. “I don’t get involved in my personal [finances], we have funds that run my money,” he told reporters Wednesday. “I’ve made a lot of money before I became president, and they invest my money, and I don’t talk to them.”

    Ethics experts, however, say the scale of Trump’s crypto profits – particularly those tied to policy actions he has taken – create an unacceptable conflict for American voters. “Of course it’s a conflict of interest,” said Richard Painter, former chief White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush, in an interview with the BBC. “This is a very, very troubling situation for the American people to see their president making so much money.”

  • Lethal Weapon actor Danny Glover reveals Alzheimer’s diagnosis

    Lethal Weapon actor Danny Glover reveals Alzheimer’s diagnosis

    Veteran American actor and activist Danny Glover has opened up about his multi-year journey living with Alzheimer’s disease, sharing his diagnosis publicly in a new interview to challenge widespread stigma surrounding the neurodegenerative condition. The 79-year-old performer, best known for his decades-long career on screen and his lifelong advocacy for social justice, told NBC in an interview that aired Wednesday that he received his diagnosis shortly after being awarded an honorary Oscar in 2022.

    Since receiving that diagnosis, Glover acknowledged that his speech, movement and memory have gradually slowed, but he emphasized that he continues to maintain an active lifestyle. “I can live with it in a sense,” Glover shared in the pre-taped conversation with former NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt, which aired on *The Today Show*. “I’m sure as it advances, things are going to be different and changing.”

    A four-time Emmy Award winner with over 170 acting credits spanning more than five decades, Glover rose to global fame in the 1980s for his portrayal of Detective Roger Murtaugh opposite Mel Gibson in the blockbuster *Lethal Weapon* franchise. He also earned widespread critical acclaim for his roles in iconic films including 1984’s *Places in the Heart* and 1985’s *The Color Purple*. Beyond his acting work, Glover founded a production company focused on developing and financing films centered on progressive political and social themes, a reflection of his longstanding commitment to social justice causes.

    Glover and his family made the deliberate choice to speak out about his diagnosis to shift harmful public narratives around Alzheimer’s, a disease that currently impacts an estimated 7 million Americans aged 65 and older. For Glover’s daughter Mandisa Glover, the decision to let her father control his own story could not wait. “I think it’s really important for him to have control of his own narrative, of his own life story,” she said. “That’s really important. And the time is now. What better time but now for him to speak for himself?”

    Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia, gradually impairs memory, cognitive function and behavior, with symptoms typically worsening over time until they interfere with basic daily activities. Data from the U.S. Alzheimer’s Association highlights a stark racial disparity in diagnosis rates: older Black Americans like Glover are twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia as older white Americans, though researchers have not yet pinpointed the root causes of this gap. Reflecting on his legacy and the role of creativity in navigating life’s challenges, Glover noted: “We have challenges in the world. I think art becomes a reframe, a way of looking at that, you know?”