Trump says Canada and Mexico to be hit with 25% tariffs on Saturday
Trump says Canada and Mexico to be hit with 25% tariffs on Saturday
US President Donald Trump has said he will follow through with his threat to hit imports from Canada and Mexico with 25% border taxes, known as tariffs, on 1 February.
But he added that a decision about whether this would include oil from those countries has not yet been made.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said the move was aimed to address the large amounts of undocumented migrants and the fentanyl that come across US borders as well as trade deficits with its neighbours.
The president also suggested that he was still planning to impose new tariffs on China, which he said earlier this month would be 10%, but did not give any details.
“With China, I’m also thinking about something because they’re sending fentanyl into our country, and because of that, they’re causing us hundreds of thousands of deaths,” Trump said.
“So China is going to end up paying a tariff also for that, and we’re in the process of doing that.”
During the election campaign, Trump threatened to hit ********-made products with tariffs of up to 60%, but held off on any immediate action on his first day back in the White House, instead ordering his administration to study the issue.
US goods imports from China have flattened since 2018, a statistic that economists have attributed in part to a series of escalating tariffs that Trump imposed during his first term.
Earlier this month, a top ******** official warned against protectionism as Trump’s return the presidency renews the threat of a trade war between the world’s two biggest economies – but did not mention the US by name.
Addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Ding Xuexiang, Vice Premier of China, said his country was looking for a “win-win” solution to trade tensions and wanted to expand its imports.
Canada and Mexico have said that they would respond to US tariffs with measures of their own, while also seeking to assure Washington that they were taking action to address concerns about their US borders.
Tariffs are an import tax on goods that are made abroad.
In theory, taxing items coming into a country means people are less likely to buy them as they become more expensive.
The intention is that they buy cheaper local products instead – boosting a country’s economy.
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Apple points to ‘fiscal stimulus’ after steep China sales decline
Apple points to ‘fiscal stimulus’ after steep China sales decline
When Apple reported its December quarter earnings on Thursday, it revealed that China sales had dropped 11.1% on an annual basis.
It was the worst quarter by growth rate since the December quarter a year ago, and marks the sixth straight quarter of declines in Apple’s third-largest region by revenue.
Ahead of Apple earnings, analysts had been fretting about exactly this issue. They cited supply chain checks in the country suggesting weak demand and an overall impression that the ******** consumer was starting to favor locally made devices from companies such as Huawei and Xiaomi over the iPhone.
China is “the most competitive market in the world,” Cook told analysts on Thursday. In 2024, Apple was third in market share in China, behind Vivo and Huawei, according to an IDC estimate from this week.
When Cook was asked about the company’s performance in China on Thursday by CNBC’s Steve Kovach and analysts on the earnings call, he focused less on the competition and more on how the company’s operations decisions affected China sales.
Cook said there were a few things to keep in mind about the company’s 11.1% decrease in the quarter.
Most notably, Cook cited Apple Intelligence’s absence in China and ******** affecting sales. He added that the company’s suite of artificial intelligence features for the iPhone 16 had bolstered iPhone sales in the U.S. and other countries where it’s available.
“During the December quarter, we saw that in markets where we had rolled out Apple Intelligence, that the year-over-year performance on the iPhone 16 family was stronger than those markets where we had not rolled out Apple intelligence,” Cook said.
The company’s AI software is only available in English for now, but Apple will release a simplified ******** version in April, Apple said Thursday. That doesn’t necessarily mean Apple Intelligence will launch in China that month, but it does mean ******** speakers elsewhere will get to test out Apple’s AI.
“Until we get through the regulatory process, nothing is certain, and we’re going through it now,” Cook told CNBC.
He added that the company is looking for a local partner that is licensed by the country to offer their AI to handle tricky or complicated questions, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT does in the U.S.
“There are a number of ******** companies that do have licenses to operate locally,” Cook said. “What we have to do is choose one and work with them on the integration, just like OpenAI.”
About half of the China revenue decline was because the company had misread demand in the country, Cook said. That led to a “channel inventory” issue. Apple uses the phrase “channel” to describe companies like wireless carriers and retailers that sell Apple devices.
“My point was that our channel inventory reduced from the beginning of the quarter to the end of the quarter, and that was over half of the reduction in the reported results,” Cook said. “Part of the reason for that is that our sales were a bit higher than we forecasted them to be, toward the end of the quarter.”
Apple ended the quarter “a little leaner” in inventory in the country than the company had expected to, said Cook, who also pointed to a nationwide subsidy program that could effectively reduce the cost of some Apple products in the country.
“There is now a national subsidy program that launched on Jan. 20, on categories that some of our products are a part of. It’s a fiscal stimulus, kind of,” Cook told CNBC.
The ******** government introduced subsidy policies last year to boost consumption and domestic demand, according to analyst firm Canalys. Smartphones were added to the list of eligible products earlier this month. The subsidy is capped at 500 yuan per product, and models that cost over 6,000 yuan, such as Apple’s Pro phones, aren’t eligible.
On the earnings call Thursday, Cook said that some of Apple’s products including smartphones, tablets, PCs and smartwatches would be covered by the subsidy.
“We do see fiscal stimulus occurring, and we’ll be glad to talk about what that looks like on the next call,” Cook said.
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Trump could be set to announce tariffs against Canada, China and Mexico. Here’s what to know.
Trump could be set to announce tariffs against Canada, China and Mexico. Here’s what to know.
Increased tariffs on Canada, Mexico could hike prices in the U.S.
Increased tariffs on Canada, Mexico could hike prices in the U.S.
04:16
On the day of his inauguration, President Trump threatened steep new tariffs against key U.S. trading partners. Now he may be primed to deliver.
Mr. Trump said Jan. 20 that he could announce 25% tariffs against Canada and Mexico as soon as Feb. 1, while China could face a 10% duty. Economists have warned that stiff tariffs could reawaken inflation on a range of consumer goods and slow economic growth. Here’s what experts have to say.
Why is Trump threatening to hit countries with tariffs?
Mr. Trump has threatened tariffs against multiple nations for a range of reasons. He said he is specifically targeting Canada, Mexico and China with tariffs to compel them to take action to halt the flow of undocumented immigrants and illicit drugs into the U.S.
Before Mr. Trump returned to power, he also had threatened tariffs of up to 60% on ******** goods imported into the U.S., a measure experts say is intended to advance American interests in negotiating better trade terms with Beijing, as well as throttle the ******** entry of fentanyl into the country.
In a show of how his administration uses tariff threats to pressure countries on other issues, Mr. Trump last week proposed potential 25% levies against Colombia unless it agreed to receive deportations of unauthorized immigrants. Colombia ultimately agreed to receive the immigrants, and the tariffs were withheld.
Colombia’s about-face suggests that Canada and Mexico could also reach agreement with the U.S. and avert a painful trade war. To that end, Howard Lutnick, Mr. Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, said at his confirmation hearing Wednesday that Canada and Mexico could avoid tariffs by closing their borders to fentanyl.
“As far as I know, they are acting swiftly, and if they execute it, there will be no tariff,” Lutnick told senators.
Even so, Mr. Trump’s brandishing of potential tariffs — even if they are never imposed — highlights his willingness to use tough trade measures to punish even the country’s closest allies unless they make concessions.
“As we have previously noted, trade policy will be transactional over the next four years with protectionist measures used to extort trade, immigration and other political concessions,” EY-Parthenon chief economist Gregory Daco said in a research note.
What exactly is Trump planning?
Rather than targeting individual countries, the Trump administration could also opt to impose a blanket tariff on a range of countries in Asia, South America, Europe and other regions, experts say. But it remains unclear what tariffs could be deployed, how they might be structured and the possible timeline for deploying them.
“I think we have to proceed on the assumption that some kinds of tariffs are going to be imposed on the United States’ major trading partners,” Brett House, professor of economics at Columbia Business School, told CBS MoneyWatch. “In the end, there is a lot that gets announced by the president on social media that does not come to pass. I don’t take it as bluffing, so much as a storm of possibilities, and it’s hard to tell which bit of that storm is going to be pursued most aggressively, and most immediately.”
What’s clear, by contrast, is that the new administration is picking up where Mr. Trump left off in his first term in using trade policy as an instrument of both economic and foreign policy. That is likely to lead to a ******* of uncertainty and volatility, said John Lash, group vice president of product strategy at supply-chain software firm E2open.
“A lot of alternatives are still possible,” Daco told CBS MoneyWatch in an interview. “We don’t know, but game theory would suggest the president would implement tariffs in some form against Mexico and Canada — not blanket tariffs, but on a select number of imports from both nations… because otherwise his bluff is going to be called.”
On how soon any tariffs could take effect, Daco notes that Mr. Trump could move quickly by claiming authority under a 1977 law known as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
“When he said he’ll impose tariffs on Feb. 1, it is still an open question as to what means would be used. Do you want to implement tariffs immediately, as threatened against Colombia over the weekend, or are you threatening with a deadline to obtain concessions?,” Daco said.
Would the U.S. face retaliation?
Almost certainly, economists say. If Trump officials move ahead with tariffs on its northern neighbor, “We anticipate Canada would then respond in kind by also implementing a 25% across-the-board tariff on U.S. imports,” Satyam Panday, chief U.S. and Canada economist with S&P Global Ratings, said in an email.
Elijah Oliveros-Rosen, chief emerging markets economist at S&P Global Ratings, predicted Mexico also would fire back with targeted tariffs. “In the case of Mexico, we think it’s very unlikely the government would place tariffs on U.S.-manufactured imports, given most are intermediate goods eventually exported to the U.S. Therefore, we expect the ******** government could impose tariffs on agricultural and food imports, but not manufacturing.”
Mr. Trump has said that strengthening the U.S.’ stance on trade issues will help protect American workers and lead to a resurgence of domestic manufacturing. Yet such policies could come at the cost of damaging critical relationships with other nations around the world, said Douglas Irwin, a U.S. trade policy expert and professor of economics at Dartmouth College.
What is the risk to American consumers?
Irwin and other economists say tariffs are all but certain to lead to higher prices for U.S. consumers. That’s because companies that end up on the hook typically pass added costs along to consumers in order to protect their bottom lines.
“The notion this this administration has been adhering to is somewhat surprising — the idea that if you implement gradual tariffs over time, such as in 5% increments, that these are less inflationary,” Daco told CBS MoneyWatch. “This idea is misguided, because if you have incremental price increases month after month, if anything that leads to higher inflation expectations. It leads to higher inflation on a month-to-month basis.”
U.S. and China escalate economic tensions over AI and tariffs
03:12
If Mr. Trump’s tariffs are implemented in full, including a universal 10% tax on all goods, consumer price inflation could rise by between 3% and 4%, according to an analysis this week from Capital Economics. To be sure, analysts with the investment advisory firm expect Mr. Trump to stop short of imposing a blanket tariff and instead pick his targets.
“Nevertheless, imposing any of these suggested tariffs would generate a rebound in consumer price inflation this year, taking it further above target and making it harder for the Fed to resume loosening monetary policy,” the firm said.
More from CBS News
Megan Cerullo
Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News 24/7 to discuss her reporting.
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Five key impacts of Brexit five years on
Five key impacts of Brexit five years on
Ben Chu and Tamara Kovacevic
BBC Verify
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Five years ago, on 31 January 2020, the *** left the European Union.
On that day, Great Britain severed the political ties it had held for 47 years, but stayed inside the EU single market and customs union for a further 11 months to keep trade flowing.
Northern Ireland had a separate arrangement.
Brexit was hugely divisive, both politically and socially, dominating political debate and with arguments about its impacts raging for years.
Five years on from the day Britain formally left the EU, BBC Verify has examined five important ways Brexit has affected Britain.
1) Trade
Economists and analysts generally assess the impact of leaving the EU single market and customs union on 1 Jan 2021 on the ***’s goods trade as having been negative.
This is despite the fact that the *** negotiated a free trade deal with the EU and avoided tariffs – or taxes – being imposed on the import and export of goods.
The negative impact comes from so-called “non-tariff barriers” – time consuming and sometimes complicated new paperwork that businesses have to fill out when importing and exporting to the EU.
There is some disagreement about how negative the specific Brexit impact has been.
Some recent studies suggest that *** goods exports are 30% lower than they would have been if we had not left the single market and customs union.
Some suggest only a 6% reduction.
We can’t be certain because the results depend heavily on the method chosen by researchers for measuring the “counterfactual”, i.e what would have happened to *** exports had the country stayed in the EU.
One thing we can be reasonably confident of is that small *** firms appear to be more adversely affected than larger ones.
They have been less able to cope with the new post-Brexit cross-border bureaucracy. That’s supported by surveys of small firms.
It’s also clear *** services exports – such as advertising and management consulting – have done unexpectedly well since 2021.
But the working assumption of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the government’s independent official forecaster, is still that Brexit in the long-term will reduce exports and imports of goods and services by 15% relative to otherwise. It has held this view since 2016, including under the previous Government.
And the OBR’s other working assumption is that the fall in trade relative to otherwise will reduce the long-term size of the *** economy by around 4% relative to otherwise, equivalent to roughly £100bn in today’s money.
The OBR says it could revise both these assumptions based on new evidence and studies. The estimated negative economic impact could come down if the trade impact judged to be less severe. Yet there is no evidence, so far, to suggest that it will turn into a positive impact.
After Brexit, the *** has been able to strike its own trade deals with other countries.
There have been new trade deals with Australia and New Zealand and the government has been pursuing new agreements with the US and India.
But their impact on the economy is judged by the government’s own official impact assessments to be small relative to the negative impact on ***- EU trade.
However, some economists argue there could still be potential longer term economic benefits for the *** from not having to follow EU laws and regulations affecting sectors such as Artificial Intelligence.
2) Immigration
Immigration was a key theme in the 2016 referendum campaign, centred on freedom of movement within the EU, under which *** and EU citizens could freely move to visit, study, work and live.
There has been a big fall in EU immigration and EU net migration (immigration minus emigration) since the referendum and this accelerated after 2020 due to the end of freedom of movement.
But there have been large increases in net migration from the rest of the world since 2020.
A post-Brexit immigration system came into force in January 2021.
Under this system, EU and non-EU citizens both need to get work visas in order to work in the *** (except Irish citizens, who can still live and work in the *** without a visa).
The two main drivers of the increase in non-EU immigration since 2020 are work visas (especially in health and care) and international students and their dependents.
*** universities started to recruit more non-EU overseas students as their financial situation deteriorated.
The re-introduction of the right of overseas students to stay and work in Britain after graduation by Boris Johnson’s government also made the *** more attractive to international students.
Subsequent Conservative governments reduced the rights of people on work and student visas to bring dependents and those restrictions have been retained by Labour.
3) Travel
Freedom of movement ended with Brexit, also affecting tourists and business travellers.
British passport holders can no longer use “EU/EEA/CH” lanes at EU border crossing points.
People can still visit the EU as a tourist for 90 days in any 180 day ******* without requiring a visa, provided they have at least three months remaining on their passports at the time of their return.
This applies both to the *** citizens going to the EU and vice versa.
However, a ******* change in terms of travel is on the horizon.
In 2025, the EU is planning to introduce a new electronic Entry Exit System (EES) – an automated IT system for registering travellers from non-EU countries.
This will register the person’s name, type of the travel document, biometric data (fingerprints and captured facial images) and the date and place of entry and exit.
It will replace the manual stamping of passports. The impact of this is unclear, but some in the travel sector have expressed fears it could potentially add to border queues as people leave the ***.
The EES was due to be introduced in November 2024 but was postponed until 2025, with no new date for implementation yet set.
And six months after the introduction of EES, the EU says it will introduce a new European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS). *** citizens will have to obtain ETIAS clearance for travel to 30 European countries.
ETIAS clearance will cost €7 (£5.90) and be valid for up to three years or until someone’s passport expires, whichever comes first. If people get a new passport, they need to get a new ETIAS travel authorisation.
Meanwhile, the *** is introducing its equivalent to ETIAS for EU citizens from 2 April 2025 (though Irish citizens will be exempt). The *** permit – to be called an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) – will cost £16.
Reuters
*** holiday makers will have to get ETIAS clearance to travel to the EU
4) Laws
5) Money
The money the *** sent to the EU was a controversial theme in the 2016 referendum, particularly the Leave campaign’s claim the *** sent £350m every week to Brussels.
The ***’s gross public sector contribution to the EU Budget in 2019-20, the final financial year before Brexit, was £18.3bn, equivalent to around £352m per week, according to the Treasury.
The *** continued paying into the EU Budget during the transition ******* but since 31 December 2020 it has not made these contributions.
However, those EU Budgets contributions were always partially recycled to the *** via payments to British farmers under the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and “structural funding” – development grants to support skills, employment and training in certain economically disadvantaged regions of the nation. These added up to £5bn in 2019-20.
Since the end of the transition ******* *** governments have replaced the CAP payments directly with taxpayer funds.
Ministers have also replaced the EU structural funding grants, with the previous government rebranding them as “a *** Shared Prosperity” fund.
The *** was also receiving a negotiated “rebate” on its EU Budget contributions of around £4bn a year – money which never actually left the country,
So the net fiscal benefit to the *** from not paying into the EU Budget is closer to to £9bn per year, although this figure is inherently uncertain because we don’t know what the ***’s contribution to the EU Budget would otherwise have been.
The *** has also still been paying the EU as part of the official Brexit Withdrawal Agreement and its financial settlement. The Treasury says the *** paid a net amount of £14.9bn between 2021 and 2023, and estimated that from 2024 onwards it will have to pay another £6.4bn, although spread over many years.
Future payments under the withdrawal settlement are also uncertain in part because of fluctuating exchange rates.
However, there are other ways the ***’s finances remained connected with the EU, separate from the EU Budget and the Withdrawal Agreement.
After Brexit took effect, the *** also initially stopped paying into the Horizon scheme, which funds pan-European scientific research.
However, Britain rejoined Horizon in 2023 and is projected by the EU to pay in around €2.4bn (£2bn) per year on average to the EU budget for its participation, although historically the *** has been a net financial beneficiary from the scheme because of the large share of grants won by ***-based scientists.
The future
There are, of course, a large number of other Brexit impacts which we have not covered here, ranging from territorial fishing rights, to farming, to defence. And with Labour looking for a re-set in EU relations, it’s a subject that promises to be a continuing source of debate and analysis for many years to come.
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Covid effect opens door to music learning through Icelandic innovation
Covid effect opens door to music learning through Icelandic innovation
When Covid meant having in-person music lessons was breaking the law, teachers quickly adapted to lessons online. Now, there are tech platforms expanding his opportunity for them.
Due to the urgency of finding new ways to provide music lessons, while people were not allowed physical contact, online lessons skipped the concept phase. Teachers just turned to their phones and video communications when facing the loss of their work.
But it wasn’t long before tech entrepreneurs were taking this to the next level. Icelandic entrepreneur Margrét Sigurdardottir, a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music in London, had already founded and led a gamified music learning app, known as Musilla, when she got the idea for Moombix, a website that connects teachers and professional musicians from anywhere in the world to people seeking lessons.
“We started with trying to get teachers or professional musicians on board and connecting them with potential students,” she said.
The customers don’t have to be trained teachers, but must be professional-level musicians to join.
“And then we have the students coming in to browse the web community and find the teachers that suit them best,” said Sigurdardottir.
A professional musician herself, she said that after leaving Musilla, she was contemplating about 10 ideas for another startup.
Covid effect
Sigurdardottir told Computer Weekly that the idea for Moombix came to her when her daughter was learning to play the violin. “It was 2020 and I was contemplating what to do next,” she said. “Then along came Covid and my daughter was doing a lesson in the living room with her teacher on the iPhone.
“I never thought that it would be possible to teach a musical instrument remotely because music is so delicate, and you really have to hear the nuances,” said Sigurdardottir. “She was playing the violin in the living room and her teacher was on her iPhone, and it just sounded like the teacher was in the living room as well. I thought, ‘this actually works’.”
This was at a time when ways of working were changing, with a “shift in the way people communicated already taking place”.
“Everyone has realised that the shift we saw in Covid was a simple one, with things like online meetings, but I think it’s a much ******* cultural shift,” she said.
Established in Iceland’s capital, Reykjavík, Moombix is in its early stages after launching only a matter of weeks ago. It has three members of staff, CEO Sigurdardottir, a chief technology officer and a marketing boss. The company has already received 230 million Icelandic króna (£1.3m) in early stage investment.
The Moombix learning platform is currently web-based with desktop and mobile versions, with an app planned. A few weeks from launch, it has 150 teachers on the platform, mainly from the ***, but it can expand globally, according to Sigurdardottir.
“We are in the early days and will make major improvements over time,” she said. “We are still figuring out what our customers like and what we need to do to get people on board.”
Biggest challenges
Sigurdardottir said the biggest challenges Moombix faces stem from its roots in music, including getting teachers to join and catering for demand for many different styles. “A traditional music lesson is very non-digital and there is a lag in the take-up of a fully digital offering, so I think it’s time to step up,” she added.
To this end, Moombix offers a booking and payments platform, and a “comprehensive learning” tool that allows lesson planning, progress updates, the sharing of music sheets through video clips, audio or notes, and homework.
Iceland is a small country. About 130,000 people live in its capital, and Sigurdardottir said this has been an advantage for her gaining knowledge due to its close-knit community, as well as the flair for tech innovation in the city.
“I think the small size of our community is very helpful, and that means we adapt quickly to new things,” she said. “I was a professional musician myself, and when I transitioned to become an entrepreneur and form a tech company, I was very low-tech.”
Sigurdardottir said she had to learn basic programs, and used the community for support. “It helped that the country is so small,” she said. “I remember, I called up an old school friend of mine who was a CEO and he reviewed my concept, which was very helpful. Everyone was just a phone call away. You can meet people, including the funders.”
However, Iceland’s size can also be a limiting factor for investment. ”It’s good being in a small country, but it’s also troublesome because there are only three of four local investors and many projects,” said Sigurdardottir.
She added that the company got “quite generous funding” from the government’s Technology Fund Iceland, along with angel investors who believed in the project.
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FDA approves Vertex non-opioid painkiller drug Journavx
FDA approves Vertex non-opioid painkiller drug Journavx
A sign hangs in front of the world headquarters of Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Boston.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ non-opioid painkiller pill, a new alternative for pain relief that comes without the risk of addiction.
Vertex is now the first drugmaker in decades to gain U.S. approval for a new type of pain medicine. It’s a milestone after a long history of mostly unsuccessful efforts to develop painkillers without the destructive dependency of cheap and widely available opioids, which have caused a horrific epidemic of abuse and overdose in the U.S.
Vertex’s drug, Journavx, is specifically approved for the treatment of moderate-to-severe acute pain, which is usually caused by injury, surgery, illness, trauma or painful medical procedures and likely eases with time. Around 80 million patients are prescribed a medicine for their moderate-to-severe acute pain every year in the U.S., according to Vertex.
Almost 10% of patients with acute pain who are treated initially with an opioid will go on to have prolonged opioid use, and roughly 85,000 people will develop opioid use disorder annually, Vertex said in a statement.
“We have the opportunity to change the paradigm of acute pain management and establish a new standard of care,” Dr. Reshma Kewalramani, Vertex CEO, said in a statement.
Vertex said Journavx will have a list price of $15.50 per 50-milligram pill. Wall Street analysts have said that the medication could become a blockbuster drug if it wins approval from regulators, estimating its annual sales could exceed $1 billion.
The experience of pain starts in a nerve ending, and the body detects the pressure and sends a signal to the spinal cord and then the brain. Vertex’s treatment works by blocking pain signals at their origin before they reach the brain. That’s different from opioids, which act directly on the brain to block pain, triggering the brain’s rewards centers in a way that can feed addiction.
The approval underscores the “FDA’s commitment to approving safe and effective alternatives to opioids for pain management,” said Dr. Jacqueline Corrigan-Curay, acting director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, in a release.
Vertex’s painkiller was more effective than placebo at reducing the intensity of pain after 48 hours in two late-stage studies on more than 1,000 patients who had abdominoplasties, also known as “tummy tucks,” and roughly another thousand in people who had bunion surgery. Those two procedures are commonly used in studies of people with acute pain.
The painkiller, however, failed to meet the secondary goal in both trials of reducing pain when compared to a combination of the opioid drug hydrocodone, which is frequently abused, and acetaminophen, the basis for popular pain medications such as Tylenol.
In both trials, rates of adverse side effects were lower in those who received Vertex’s drug compared to people who took a placebo. The most commonly reported adverse events among people who received Journavx were itching, muscle spasms and rash, among others, according to the FDA.
In a separate phase three study, more than 83% of patients said in a survey that the drug was good, very good or excellent at easing pain. Those people had undergone various surgical or non-surgical procedures.
The ******* opportunity for Vertex may be to win FDA approval in chronic pain. That’s an area where the risk of addiction to prescription opioids can be greater, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In 2023, the company’s painkiller produced positive results in a mid-stage trial in diabetes patients suffering from a chronic nerve condition.
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Trump criticized DEI and the FAA’s diversity policies after a deadly plane ******. Here’s what we know.
Trump criticized DEI and the FAA’s diversity policies after a deadly plane ******. Here’s what we know.
In a Thursday press briefing, President Trump criticized his predecessor for his management of the Federal Aviation Administration and suggested, without evidence, that diversity initiatives at the agency could be to blame for a deadly ****** between a passenger plane and an Army helicopter in Washington, D.C.
“I put safety first. Obama, Biden and the Democrats put policy first,” Mr. Trump said. “The FAA’s website states they include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability, and dwarfism.” Mr. Trump added that people in those categories would be “qualified” for controller positions, even though the agency’s statement does not say that.
The president continued, “Brilliant people have to be in those positions.”
It has been longstanding FAA policy — including before, during and after Mr. Trump’s first term — to include people with disabilities in recruitment. However, there is no evidence that these initiatives have compromised air safety or had any relation to the ****** Wednesday night. The cause of the collision remains under investigation.
Air traffic controllers must undergo extensive training and meet rigorous standards, including physical and mental fitness tests. They cannot have a history of mental disorders or physical conditions that could interfere with their duties, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, which is the chief human resources agency for the federal government.
Before Mr. Trump took office last week, there was a “Diversity and Inclusion” page on the FAA’s website, which stated the FAA had a “special emphasis in recruiting and hiring” people with the list of disabilities Trump cited.
The FAA has a range of roles beyond air traffic controllers, and its website does not indicate that these hires would be eligible for air traffic controller positions.
Additionally, the policy has been on the FAA’s website since at least February 2013, including throughout Trump’s first term. The policy page was recently removed from the website, archives show.
The head of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, which is the controllers’ union, said in a letter to its members that at this time it would be “premature to speculate on the root cause of this accident.”
Federal investigators have also said it is too early to determine the cause or what factors may have contributed to the ******. It was the first major commercial airline ****** in the United States since 2009.
When asked by a reporter how he could come to the conclusion that diversity had something to do with the ******, Mr. Trump replied, “Because I have common sense.”
Mr. Trump was also asked why the “Diversity and Inclusion” policy was not changed on the FAA’s website throughout his first administration. He said, “I did change it. I changed the Obama policy, and we had a very good policy. And then Biden came in and he changed it.” It’s unclear precisely what policy he was referring to.
Records show that initiatives aimed at expanding the workforce existed under President Trump’s first term, including a program launched in 2019 that aimed to recruit and train qualified individuals with disabilities, including veterans, for careers in air traffic operations.
This month, President Trump signed a memorandum titled “Keeping Americans Safe in Aviation” which directed the FAA to end all diversity, equity and inclusion or DEI initiatives. He issued similar orders across the federal government.
In response to Mr. Trump’s claims on Thursday, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a post on X, “As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying. We put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline ****** fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch.”
Nick Daniels, the head of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said, “America’s highly trained and skilled air traffic controllers all do amazing work every day keeping the nation’s passengers and cargo moving safely and efficiently to their destinations. We serve quietly, but events like this remind us of the weight we bear.”
CBS News reached out to the FAA about Mr. Trump’s remarks about its hiring practices, but the agency declined to comment.
Laura Doan
Laura Doan is a fact checker for CBS News Confirmed. She covers misinformation, AI and social media.
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Air Force deportation flight skirts ******** airspace to Guatemala as military’s border role grows
Air Force deportation flight skirts ******** airspace to Guatemala as military’s border role grows
A U.S. Air Force jet with migrants bound at their wrists and ankles departed Texas for Guatemala on Thursday, carrying 80 deportees in another deportation flight that reflects a growing role for the armed forces in helping enforce immigration laws.
The flight from Fort Bliss, an Army base in El Paso, was scheduled to take about seven hours, nearly twice as long as a direct route, because the military plane could not fly over Mexico, said U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Orlando Marrero. Eight children were aboard.
“The message that we have for those people is that if you cross the border illegally, we are going to deport you to your country of origin in a matter of hours,” Marrero said.
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The Trump administration has used military aircraft to deport people to Guatemala, Ecuador and Colombia, a departure from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s previous practice to employ charter and commercial planes.
“There are some countries that don’t like military planes coming into their territory,” said U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Democrat who represents a Texas border district. “It’s something that logistically has to be worked out with the country before, because you don’t want to have a plane turned around in midair.”
On Sunday, Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro refused two U.S. military planes with migrants, prompting Trump to announce 25% tariffs on Colombian exports. Colombia backed off and said it would accept the migrants but fly them on Colombian military flights that Petro said would guarantee them dignity.
The Pentagon began deploying active-duty troops to the border last week but it was unclear to what extent they will break from supporting roles they have played under presidents since George W. Bush, including ground and aerial surveillance, building barriers and repairing vehicles.
An 1878 law prohibits military involvement in civilian law enforcement, but Trump and his aides have signaled the president may invoke wartime powers. Trump said in his Inauguration Day order declaring a border emergency that the Defense Department may assist with detention and transportation, two enormous cost-drivers.
Trump on Thursday ordered that a U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, be used to detain migrants, saying it could hold up to 30,000 people. That would nearly double ICE’s current detention capacity.
Yael Schacher, director for the Americas and Europe at Refugees International, said using military aircraft for deportations was uncommon but “largely symbolic.”
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Samsung fourth-quarter profit falls short of estimates as AI demand remains strong
Samsung fourth-quarter profit falls short of estimates as AI demand remains strong
Customers shop at a Samsung mobile store inside a shopping mall in New Delhi.
Reuters | Anindito Mukherjee
Samsung Electronics on Friday reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter results, though its operating profit dropped sharply from the previous quarter due to higher R&D expenses in its chips segment.
Here are Samsung’s fourth-quarter results compared with LSEG SmartEstimate, which is weighted toward forecasts from analysts who are more consistently accurate:
Revenue: 75.8 trillion Korean won ($52.2 billion) vs. KRW 75.4 trillion
Operating profit: KRW 6.5 trillion vs. KRW 6.8 trillion
Revenue was about 12% up from the same ******* from last year, while operating profit grew about 130%, year on year.
However, operating profit fell nearly 30% to 6.5 trillion won.
Samsung shares fell 2.2% in South Korea on Friday morning.
Fourth-quarter revenue beat Samsung’s own guidance of KRW 75 trillion, while operating profit came in line with the company’s forecast.
Samsung is a leading manufacturer of memory chips, which are utilized in devices such as laptops and servers, and is also the world’s second-largest player in the smartphone market.
“Although fourth quarter revenue and operating profit decreased on a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) basis, annual revenue reached the second-highest on record, surpassed only in 2022,” Samsung said in its statement.
For the full year, Samsung reported KRW 300.9 trillion in revenue and KRW 32.7 trillion in operating profit. In 2023, the company posted an annual revenue of KRW 258.94 trillion and an operating profit of KRW 6.57 trillion.
For the current quarter, Samsung said that earnings might be limited due to weakness in its semiconductor business but that it would pursue growth through AI smartphones and other premium devices.
“For 2025 as a whole, the Company plans to enhance technological and product advantages in AI, continue to meet future demand for high-value-added products and drive sales growth in premium segments,” it added.
Memory business
Samsung Electronics’ chip business posted an operating profit of KRW 2.9 trillion in the fourth quarter, down over 25% from the three months ending in October, while its annual numbers came in below that of SK Hynix.
This was despite Samsung’s memory business achieving a record-high fourth-quarter revenue of 30.1 trillion helped by demand for its advanced memory products used for AI applications.
“[O]perating profit decreased slightly compared to the previous quarter as a result of increased R&D expenses to secure future technology leadership, as well as the initial ramp-up costs to secure production capacity for cutting-edge nodes,” Samsung said.
Samsung and SK Hynix both provide DRAM, or dynamic random access memory, products — a type of semiconductor memory needed for data processing.
However, SK Hynix has left Samsung behind in HBM, or high bandwidth memory, a type of DRAM, in which chips are vertically stacked to save space and reduce power consumption.
According to Samsung, its memory business is cutting down legacy products to better align with market demand and increasing its proportion of high value-added products, such as HBM.
“In 2025, overall memory market demand is expected to recover from the second quarter,” Samsung said, warning that its earnings are expected to remain weak in the current quarter.
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Friday’s big stock stories: What’s likely to move the market in the next trading session
Friday’s big stock stories: What’s likely to move the market in the next trading session
Stocks posted modest gains on Thursday, with Tesla and Meta Platforms rising after posting quarterly results. Here’s what’s on CNBC’s radar going into Friday.
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Marianne Faithfull Made an Art of Upending Expectations
Marianne Faithfull Made an Art of Upending Expectations
In March 1964, at a swinging London party, Marianne Faithfull got a record deal without singing a note.
Andrew Loog Oldham, the brash young manager of the Rolling Stones, had noticed the striking Faithfull — then a 17-year-old blonde with shaggy bangs, full lips and a knowing glint in her big doe eyes — from across the room. When he asked her then-husband, the artist John Dunbar, if his wife could sing, Dunbar said that he supposed she could. Oldham took him at his word, and a week later he sent Faithfull a telegram telling her to come to Olympic Studios for a session. With a face that pretty, he reasoned, would anyone really care what came out of her mouth?
The wonderfully outspoken Faithfull, who died on Thursday at 78, spent most of her life making a mockery of that question. She could never quite play the role that Oldham dreamed up for her that day, the fantasy of the demure, retiring ingénue — and thank goodness. For one thing, Faithfull didn’t truly come into her own unique talent as a vocalist until her early 30s, far past the ingénue’s perceived expiration date. And when she did begin to sing songs that were more aligned with her own sensibilities, starting with her corrosive 1979 masterpiece “Broken English,” years of substance abuse had transformed her voice into a punky survivor’s croak. Eventually, in the last several decades of her improbably long career, she channeled her voice’s rich smokiness into a third act as a kind of gothic cabaret singer, personalizing expert interpretations of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave, among others.
That was far from what those who’d marveled at her mute beauty would have imagined her to sound like back in 1964, but such was Faithfull’s subversive power. She upended the expectations of all sorts of feminine stereotypes — the flash-in-the-pan teenage pop star; the silent, self-abnegating muse — and allowed the world to experience the destabilizing shock that occurs when a pretty face gives voice to ugly truths.
Just three months after attending that party, in June 1964, Faithfull had a hit single, the morose-beyond-its-years “As Tears Go By,” by most accounts the first original song written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Faithfull treated her instant pop success as an amusing lark, and possibly a brief detour before her planned future of studying at Oxford; she lugged around a bag of classic British literature on her first tour. But in 1966, when she and Jagger began dating, she achieved a level of glamorous notoriety from which it would be difficult to return to civilian life. And so she was thrust into yet another stereotypical female role that she could not quite play obediently: the Rock Star’s Muse.
Plenty of people still tend to think of a muse as inspiring with her beauty, her compliance and the selflessness of her love — anything but her mind. But Faithfull made more of a mark on Jagger by exposing him to art, literature and theater, all worlds in which she was then more immersed than he was. She was the one who told him to read Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita,” about a particularly charismatic Satan; the result was “Sympathy for the ******.” She introduced Jagger to artists and poets (like her friend Allen Ginsberg) and took him to his first ballet, “Paradise Lost,” which culminated with the great dancer Rudolf Nureyev leaping into an oversized crimson mouth. Suffice it to say, it had an impact.
The darker side of Faithfull’s influence on the Stones came from her experimentation with drugs, which manifested itself in some of the band’s most harrowing tunes. In 1969, when Faithfull overdosed on more than 100 barbiturate pills and went into a coma, she claimed that the first words she said to Jagger when she awoke were “wild horses couldn’t drag me away.” (The origin myth of this song has been long debated and will probably never be settled for sure, but still, what a story!) An early experience with heroin prompted Faithfull’s first foray into songwriting, when she penned most of the lyrics to “Sister Morphine,” later to appear on the Stones’ 1971 classic, “Sticky Fingers.”
Faithfull recorded her own version of “Sister Morphine” two years before the band, but her label pulled it, thinking its content was too controversial for a Pretty Face like her. By 1979, when she released “Broken English,” mores had changed, as had Faithfull’s reputation, owing to tabloid scandals, addiction and a ******* of living on the streets. Still, its rawness possessed the power to shock.
As she wrote in her unfiltered, extraordinarily vivid 1994 memoir, “Faithfull,” when she came to the studio to record the vocal for “Why D’Ya Do It,” an angry, expletive-laden piece by the poet Heathcote Williams that was deemed too obscene to be released in Australia until 1988, her backing band was noticeably taken aback by her way with four-letter words. (They shouldn’t have been so surprised; Faithfull was the first person to say the F-word in a major motion picture.) “You can’t imagine the look of horror that came over these supposedly hip, liberated guys,” she wrote. “They were all absolutely appalled and horrified. It was hilarious.”
“Broken English” sounds like a dispatch from the edge of the underworld, sung by someone who caught a glimpse of what it’s like down there but somehow returned to Earth, albeit forever changed. That was another of those icky, unbecoming topics that a Pretty Face is not supposed to concern herself with: death. But Faithfull allowed her brushes with it to haunt the edges of her music and deepen her gravitas as a performer. As years went by, she continued vanquishing potentially fatal foes: hepatitis, breast *******, and most recently a bout of Covid-19 that put her, once again, in a coma. The sign on the foot of her bed read “Palliative care only.”
But she upended expectations once more, surviving and soon returning to a passion project she had been working on, a spoken-word album of recitations of classic Romantic poems. For one last time, she allowed a glimpse of the other side to inform her art, and the uncompromising tone of her voice: “I sound more vulnerable,” she told me in an interview at the time, reflecting on her performance of Alfred Tennyson’s “Lady of Shalott,” “which is kind of nice, for the Romantics.”
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Gabbard was hoping for the Pete Hegseth hearing treatment. She didn’t get it.
Gabbard was hoping for the Pete Hegseth hearing treatment. She didn’t get it.
Tulsi Gabbard, Donald Trump’s pick to be director of national intelligence, came into her nomination hearing Thursday ready to parry a volley of attacks from Democrats. But they weren’t the only ones asking the tough questions.
A number of Republicans seemed skeptical about Gabbard’s answers to questions about NSA contractor Edward Snowden and a controversial surveillance program. They also prodded her about her previous statements on Russia, Syria and Ukraine. It was a marked difference from the hearing of now-Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth two weeks ago, in which Republicans heaped praise on the nominee and defended him from Democrats’ attacks.
While no Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee said outright they were wavering on the former Democratic lawmaker, it was far from a bear hug. Among those testing Gabbard’s views Thursday were James Lankford (R-Okla.), Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Susan Collins (R-Maine).
The lack of enthusiasm was not a promising sign for the former Democratic lawmaker. For weeks, Senate Republicans have said Gabbard needed a strong performance Thursday to clinch her nomination. The Senate Intelligence Committee is split 9-8 between the two parties, and Gabbard is not expected to pick up any votes from Democrats.
Young, one of the three members of the panel long viewed as a possible “no” on Gabbard heading into Thursday, offered up one of the most direct Republican jabs. It came after she sidestepped a stream of questions from members of both parties about whether she considered Snowden a traitor.
“I think it would befit you and be helpful to the way you are perceived by members of the intelligence community, if you would at least acknowledge that the greatest whistleblower in American history, so called, harmed national security by breaking the laws of the land around our intel authority,” he said.
Senators repeatedly reminded Gabbard that Snowden leaked reams of sensitive U.S. intelligence that endangered the lives of U.S. spies before he fled to Hong Kong and then Russia — to no avail.
Gabbard acknowledged Snowden broke the law but wouldn’t go further.
Since her surprise nomination two months ago, Gabbard has faced questions from Democrats but also some Republicans about her judgment, dovish foreign policy views and her lack of experience for the spy role.
Gabbard served for two decades in the military, is an Iraq war veteran, and has sat on the House Armed Services committee, but has never held a role at a U.S. spy agency.
Her nomination has been dogged by her past comments that echoed Kremlin talking points on NATO and the war in Ukraine; concern about a 2017 trip she took to meet with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad; and doubts she has raised about U.S. assessments of Assad’s use of chemical weapons in that war.
From the start, Gabbard set a combative and defiant tone.
In her opening statement, she characterized many of the allegations against her as “lies and smears,” and cited a laundry list of recent wrongs and failures within the U.S. intelligence community. She looked up at the senators on the panel as she ticked off each one — the investigation of Trump’s ties to Russia, the Iraq war, denials about the existence of controversial NSA surveillance programs, and more — and rarely looked flustered when she came under tough questioning later.
Gabbard tried to spin her unconventional foreign policy views as evidence she boasts the brand of independent thinking that is needed to fix the country’s supposedly broken and biased intelligence system.
The Republican who offered the strongest endorsement of that pitch was Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) the chair of the intelligence committee.
“Look where conventional thinking has gotten us,” he said in his opening statement, citing a slew of failed U.S. wars and military interventions in the Middle East that he tied to Barack Obama. “Maybe Washington could use a little more unconventional thinking.”
Gabbard had her share of not-so-breezy moments with other Republicans, however.
Lankford — who has said he would vote for Gabbard — Cornyn, and Moran each pushed Gabbard during the question and answer section of the hearing.
Moran at one point told Gabbard he needed to make certain that Russia would not “get a pass in either your mind or your heart” if she were confirmed as DNI. Gabbard parried: “Senator, I’m offended by the question,” and added that if confirmed, “no country or group or individual will get a pass.”
Lankford appeared irked by Gabbard’s deflections on Snowden.
“This is a big deal to everybody here, because it’s a big deal to everybody you’ll also oversee,” Lankford said at one point. “So, was Edward Snowden a traitor?”
Collins and Young also pressed her on the issue. Young at one point burnished a print-out of a social media post Thursday from Snowden.
Gabbard will be “required to disown all prior support for whistleblowers as a condition of confirmation,” Snowden wrote. “I encourage her to do so.”
The Senate Intelligence Committee tends to have more bipartisanship than some other congressional panels. Democrats and Republicans generally share hawkish views on foreign policy and government surveillance, and committee votes are usually done behind closed doors.
For his part, Cornyn pushed Gabbard for more clarity on her views on the controversial Section 702 surveillance authority — which applies to foreigners’ communications but also sweeps up data on Americans. Gabbard, a privacy hawk while in Congress, in recent weeks reversed her opposition to Section 702 and said she supports it.
But Cornyn repeatedly attempted to pin Gabbard on whether the law should be reformed in certain ways to protect the privacy of Americans — something security hawks believe is unnecessary, and would cripple what they defend as their most powerful spy tool.
The clock ran out before he got a firm answer.
After the open hearing Thursday, Gabbard and the senators went behind closed doors for a follow-up session where they could talk freely about classified matters. What transpires there could prove decisive in the committee’s vote on Gabbard, which could come in the coming days.
Asked afterward how she was planning to vote, Collins said that she hadn’t made a decision yet. Moran sidestepped a question on if he would support her, and Young said nothing in response to questions as he left the classified portion.
If Gabbard does not secure a majority on the panel, there are other ways her confirmation can be brought to the Senate floor. But that is an unusual maneuver and would send a strong message that could sink her chances with those outside the committee.
Maggie Miller, Jordain Carney, Joe Gould and Eric Bazail-Eimil contributed to this report.
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D.A. Davidson tech analyst discusses megacap stocks making headlines
D.A. Davidson tech analyst discusses megacap stocks making headlines
After a storm of technology news and earnings this week, D.A. Davidson’s Gil Luria suggests ways to play key names in the sector. The firm’s head of technology research joined CNBC’s “Three-Stock Lunch” segment on Thursday to break down his views on Microsoft , Apple and Nvidia . Microsoft and Apple are reporting results this week, and Nvidia suffered its worst day in almost five years and a history-making loss in market value on Monday, unrelated to earnings results. Apple Apple is the only one of the three that Luria rates buy. The iPhone maker reports earnings for its first fiscal quarter of 2025 after Thursday’s closing bell, with analysts closely watching sales of its iconic phone. “We’re in the best place possible, which is long term expectations are good, because Apple will be the leader in providing consumer AI,” Luria said. But, “short term expectations are low. People don’t expect iPhone sales to grow very much.” Apple shares were little changed Thursday and have slipped more than 4% since 2025 began. The majority of analysts polled by LSEG have a buy rating and an average price target that suggests shares might only rise about 2% over the coming year. Microsoft Microsoft shares pulled back about 6% on Thursday, one day after giving weak guidance for future revenue. Luria is in the ********* on Wall Street, keeping a neutral rating while most other analysts rate the Xbox maker a buy. “Microsoft is investing more and more and getting less and less growth,” Luria said. “The decelerating Azure business is a concern, especially since they’re indicating some of it is company-specific issues. They’ve invested so much in AI, they’ve taken their eye off the ball in terms of their other businesses that are now decelerating, and yet they’re still increasing their spend.” Shares are now down more than 1% for 2025. Following this decline, Wall Street now expects shares to jump more than 21% over the next year based on the consensus price target. Nvidia Luria also has a neutral rating on Nvidia. While the chipmaker isn’t expected to report earnings until late February, the Jensen Huang-led company has been the focus of Wall Street after its explosive two-year runup and the AI challenge from China’s DeepSeek lab. “At some point, Microsoft is going to stop wanting to overspend on data centers, and so that’s going to have to come out of Nvidia’s pocket,” Luria said. And if big customers start to moderate spending, “it’s going to be hard for Nvidia to keep anything close to the current growth rate.” Nvidia shares cratered 17% on Monday as DeepSeek battered global tech stocks, marking its worst day since 2020. While the stock made up some ground later in the week, shares are on track to end the week down nearly 14%, pushing its year-to-date performance into the red, down more than 8%. Unlike Luria, the majority of analysts have a buy rating on the stock. The typical price target implies shares can rise around 9% over the next 12 months.
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The senators who'll make Trump sweat over RFK Jr. and Gabbard votes – Axios
The senators who'll make Trump sweat over RFK Jr. and Gabbard votes – Axios
The senators who’ll make Trump sweat over RFK Jr. and Gabbard votes AxiosTrump’s Cabinet nominees face sharpest bipartisan grilling to date and other takeaways from Thursday’s confirmation hearings CNNFive Takeaways from Tulsi Gabbard and Kash Patel hearings BBC.com
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Online self-assessment tax returns due by midnight
Online self-assessment tax returns due by midnight
Faarea Masud
Business Reporter
Getty Images
Millions face paying a £100 penalty if they do not file their tax return
Millions of people still have not filed their online self-assessment tax returns for which the deadline is midnight, meaning they could be fined £100, HMRC has warned.
Over 3 million people who risk the penalty are being advised to go online for help and advice, and to use the app to pay any outstanding tax once their return is submitted.
New rules now mean that those selling around 30 items on online platforms such as eBay and Vinted will now have their sales information shared with HMRC which will be assessed against their tax returns.
Those without a reasonable excuse for missing the deadline will be issued with a penalty that increases the longer is it outstanding.
If the midnight deadline is missed, an initial £100 fixed penalty is issued, which applies even if there is no tax to pay.
“Customers’ reasons for not paying their tax bill or arranging a payment plan by the deadline will be considered individually,” said Myrtle Lloyd, HMRC’s customer services director.
After three months of not paying tax due, additional daily penalties of £10 per day are applied, up to a maximum of £900, with further penalties at six months and a year, including added interest on top.
Around 8.6 million people have already declared their tax for the year 2023-2024, including small businesses and those with extra income outside of their jobs.
‘Intimidating tax system’
“Tax generally can be quite an intimidating topic,” accountant Benedicta Egbeme, founder of BeniRatio Finances, told the BBC, adding that even though the *** tax system is “complex and daunting,” people should not “bury their head in the sand” because of the fear from not engaging with the system.
“If you know you are liable to complete the return and have no ‘reasonable excuse’ and you also have a rough idea of how much you may need to pay – this may be based on previous years returns – you can choose to make a payment for tax even without submitting to avoid the interest charge.”
“You can then proceed to get your calculations done and make a submission as soon as possible for the correct amount. Of course any shortfall will need to be paid and any over payments will ultimately be refunded to you by HMRC”, she said.
Ms Egbeme said reasonable excuses not to submit on time include: bereavement, being sick/unwell to the point of being admitted in hospital or dealing with a life-threatening illness.
Other reasons that will taken into account are software failure, issues with your personal computer, HMRC online services, and “destruction of property, files, paper work by fire, flood or theft.”
She says you can appeal the fine via an appeal form or writing HMRC a letter – which may help the fine to be written off, but it still means you have to submit a return.
“In fact HMRC do not consider appeals until your tax return has been submitted and payment has been made,” she says.
Ms Lloyd added that people should always include their bank details as part of their tax return to ensure swift repayment if any is due.
HMRC is also warning that customers need to be aware of the risk of falling victim to scams which can increase during tax deadlines, and that people should never share their HMRC login details with anyone.
HMRC recently denied running a “deliberately poor” phone service in an attempt to push taxpayers to seek help online instead. Chief executive Jim Harra said the MP’s committee’s claims on its customer service were “completely baseless”.
Ms Egbeme added that you need to complete a self assessment if your self-employment income was more than £1,000, and for things including profit made from your hobbies and side hustles, including babysitting, selling on eBay, Vinted, Gumtree or other online platforms, including Airbnb.
She said companies like Ebay, Vinted etc are now required to share sales data and personal information on sellers that sell over 30 items or made at least £1,700.
Individuals also need to do a self-assessment if you have income from abroad that you need to pay tax on, or you live abroad but have income in the ***, or if your income from renting out a room in your house is over £7,500.
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DR Congo’s failed gamble on Romanian mercenaries
DR Congo’s failed gamble on Romanian mercenaries
Ian Wafula
Africa security correspondent, BBC News
EPA
It has been a humiliating week for nearly 300 Romanian mercenaries recruited to fight on the side of the army in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Their surrender following a rebel assault on the eastern city of Goma has also shattered the dreams of those who signed up for the job to earn big money.
The BBC has seen contracts that show that these hired soldiers were being paid around $5,000 (£4,000) a month, while regular military recruits get around $100, or sometimes go unpaid.
The Romanians were contracted to help the army fight the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels, who say they are fighting to protect the rights of DR Congo’s ********* ethnic Tutsis.
When the offensive on Goma started on Sunday night, the Romanians were forced to take refuge at a UN peacekeeping base.
“The M23 rebels were supported by troops and state-of-the-art military equipment from Rwanda and managed to reach our positions around the city of Goma,” Constantin Timofti, described as a co-ordinator for the group, told Romanian TVR channel on Monday.
“The national army gave up fighting and we were forced to withdraw.”
Romania’s foreign ministry spokesman Andrei Țărnea told the BBC that “complex” negotiations followed, which saw the M23 hand over the Romanian fighters – whom he described as private employees of the DR Congo government on an army training mission – to Rwanda.
Goma sits right on the border with Rwanda – and the mercenaries were filmed by journalists as they crossed over, surrendering to body searches and other checks.
Before they crossed over, phone footage shows M23 commander ****** Ngoma berating one of the Romanians in French, telling him to sit on the ground, cross his legs and put his hands over his head.
He asked him about his military training – it was with the French Foreign Legion, the Romanian replied.
“They recruited you with a salary of $8,000 a month, you eat well,” Ngoma yelled, pointing out the disparity between that and a Congolese army recruit’s pay.
“We are fighting for our future. Do not come for adventure here,” he warned.
AFP
The mercenaries were working with the Congolese army – seen here earlier in January north-west of Goma
It is not clear where Ngoma got the $8,000 figure, but the contract shown to the BBC by a former Romanian mercenary in October detailed that “strictly confidential remuneration” for senior personnel started at $5,000 per month during active duty and $3,000 during periods of leave.
The agreement outlines an “indefinite *******” of service, with contractors scheduled to take a one-month break after every three months of deployment.
I had met the ex-mercenary in Romania’s capital, Bucharest, where I had gone to investigate Asociatia RALF, which a group of UN experts say is a Romanian enterprise with “ex-Romanians from the French Foreign Legion”.
It is headed by Horațiu Potra, a Romanian who describes himself as a military instructor.
In June while in Goma, I had noticed such mercenaries at checkpoints and deployed around the city, working closely with army.
Over the last three years, others have reported seeing them driving Congolese troops in army vehicles.
Horațiu Potra
Horațiu Potra took on a central role when it came to training troops in DR Congo
“When they arrived, everyone referred to them as Russian,” Fiston Mahamba, co-founder of disinformation group Check Congo, told the BBC.
“I think this was linked to the Russian mercenary group, Wagner with presence in several African countries.”
In fact, Asociatia RALF may also work across Africa – its contract stipulated that it had various “operational locations”, including “Burkina Faso, DR Congo, Ivory Coast, ******, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Gambia and Guinea”.
The UN experts say that two private military companies were brought on board to bolster its forces in 2022, not long after the M23 had regrouped and begun capturing territory in North Kivu.
The province has been unstable for decades with numerous militias operating there making money from its minerals like gold and coltan – used to make batteries for electric vehicles and mobile phones.
The first firm that was signed up was Agemira RDC, headed by Olivier Bazin, a French-Congolese national. The experts say the company employed Bulgarian, Belarusian, Georgian, Algerian, French and Congolese nationals.
This outfit was tasked with refurbishing and increasing DR Congo’s military air assets, rehabilitating airports and ensuring the physical security of aircraft and other strategic locations.
A second contract was signed between Congo Protection, a Congolese company represented by Thierry Kongolo, and Asociatia RALF.
According to the UN experts, the contract specified that Asociatia RALF had expertise and extensive experience in the provision of security management services.
It would provide training and instruction to the Congolese troops on the ground by means of a contingent of 300 instructors, many of them Romanians.
When I spoke to Mr Potra in July about the extent of his group’s involvement on the ground and whether it had engaged in fighting, he said: “We have to protect ourselves. If M23 attacks us, they won’t simply say: ‘Oh, you’re just instructors – go home’.”
Mr Potra was hands-on during the DR Congo mission until a few months ago when he returned to Romania – and has since been embroiled in a controversy amid the annulled presidential election there.
He was dramatically arrested in December and has since denied providing security for the pro-Russian, far-right candidate Călin Georgescu. And since October, he has refused to return the BBC’s calls.
The ex-mercenary, who was in his late forties and spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity, said he had resigned because he was unhappy about how Asociatia RALF was operating.
He said the Romanians did much more on the ground in North Kivu province: “Only a very small number of us were actually trainers.
“We worked long shifts of up to 12 hours, guarding key positions outside Goma.”
He maintained the pay was not worth the risks the military contractors had to take.
“Missions were disorganised, working conditions poor. Romanians should stop going there because it’s dangerous.”
He also claimed that proper background checks had not been done, and some of the Romanian recruits had no military training – citing as an example that one of his former colleagues was a firefighter.
DR Congo’s government has not replied to a BBC request for comment on whether background checks were carried out, or about the pay disparity between the private contractors and Congolese troops.
The family of Vasile Badea, one of two Romanians who were killed last February when an army convoy was ambushed by the M23 fighters on its way to Sake, a frontline town near Goma, told the BBC he had been a police officer.
The 46-year-old had taken a sabbatical from the force and took up the role in DR Congo because of the lucrative salary offer.
The policeman was struggling to pay for an apartment he had just acquired and needed more money.
Vasile Badea family
Vasile Badea was on a sabbatical from the police when he was killed in DR Congo last year
Many more Romanians were lured by the prospects of a well-paid job.
I met one man in Bucharest in October, who was back home looking for more recruits to go to Goma. He had a military background and had done Nato tours in Afghanistan with the Romanian army.
“We are very busy trying to find 800 people who need to be mentally prepared for the job and know how to fight,” the mercenary recruiter told the BBC.
He said he did not work for Asociatia RALF, but refused to say which outfit he was with.
“The recruits will be placed in positions corresponding to the level of their training, earning between $400-$550 per day,” he explained.
When asked about the recruitment process, he emphasised its confidentiality.
“Such jobs are not published anywhere,” he said, adding that networks like WhatsApp were preferred.
He showed me a WhatsApp group where more than 300 Romanians had signed up, many of whom were ex-military personnel.
In June last year, Rwanda’s government spokesperson Yolande Makolo hit out about the presence of mercenaries in eastern DR Congo, saying it was a violation of the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit the use of hired combatants.
In response, Congolese government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya dismissed what he called Rwanda’s perennial complaint.
“We have some instructors who come to train our military forces because we know we have this urgent situation,” he told the BBC.
Reuters
Congolese soldiers get around $100 a month – and one recruit told the BBC salaries were often not paid or were delayed
But a Congolese soldier I met in June expressed his dismay over the army’s strategy.
“The pay is unfair. When it comes to fighting, we are the ones sent to the front lines first,” he told the BBC on condition of anonymity.
“They [the mercenaries] only come as back-up.”
He confirmed his pay was set at around $100 a month but was often delayed or unpaid altogether.
I was last in contact with him a week ago when he confirmed he was still stationed in Kibati, near Goma, where the army has a base.
“Things are very bad,” he said in a voice note to me.
I have not been able to get hold of him since – and the Kibati base has since been overrun by the M23 with many soldiers killed, including his commander.
Observers say the quick fall of Goma points to DR Congo’s fractured defence strategy, where overlapping forces and blurred lines of command have ultimately played into the hands of M23.
Richard Moncrief, International Crisis Group’s project director for the Great Lakes, points out that as well as mercenaries, the Congolese army works with troops from the Southern African Development Community (Sadc), a local militia known as Wazalendo, as well as soldiers from Burundi.
“It creates a situation where it’s impossible to plan military offences where chain of command and responsibility is muddied,” he told the BBC.
“I think that it’s important to work towards far greater coherence in the armed effort in North Kivu, probably involving a reduction in the number of armed groups or armed actors on the ground.”
For the ex-mercenary, the fate of his former Romanian colleagues has not come as a surprise.
“Poor command leads to failure,” he told the BBC.
More about the conflict in DR Congo:Getty Images/BBC
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Poultry farmers in bird flu ‘panic’ call for *** vaccination plan
Poultry farmers in bird flu ‘panic’ call for *** vaccination plan
Paul Kelly
Paul Kelly, whose turkey business has previously been hit by bird flu, is among those calling for a vaccination scheme for poultry
Poultry farmers are appealing to the government to let them vaccinate their flocks against the “devastating” bird flu virus spreading across the ***.
Vaccinating poultry against avian influenza is currently not allowed in the ***. The government says that strong biosecurity measures and culling are the most effective ways of fighting it. Meanwhile, there are concerns that poultry vaccinations might be linked to the virus evolving.
Overall levels of the virus have not yet reached the peak of recent years.
But one farmer, who has previously lost 30% of his flock because of bird flu, told the BBC that, without a vaccine, it was only a matter of time before “it all kicks off again”.
Getty Images
There have so far been 25 farm outbreaks of bird flu since the annual winter recording season began in October
A bird flu prevention zone enforcing strict hygiene standards around domesticated birds has been declared for England, Wales and Scotland amid a rising number of cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).
The risk to humans remains low, with chicken and eggs safe to eat if properly cooked, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
Defra has set up a cross-government and poultry industry taskforce that is looking at the potential use of vaccines, and is due to publish its report later this year. But poultry farmers say things are moving too slowly.
Essex turkey farmer Paul Kelly, whose business was hit hard in the worst avian flu outbreak from 2021 to 2023, told the BBC that “the foot has been taken off the gas” when it comes to making poultry vaccines available to *** farmers.
“This is poor planning as we need to be ready for another huge outbreak as opposed to reacting to another outbreak and being behind the curve on rolling out vaccination,” he said.
“Avian influenza is so highly pathogenic that if a farmer gets it [in his flock][ it is devastating.”
There have so far been 25 farm outbreaks of bird flu since the annual winter recording season began in October.
In comparison, between October 2021 and January 2022, during the ***’s worst outbreak, there had been more than 70 cases in poultry or other captive birds.
But Gary Ford, of the British Free Range Egg Producers Association, said that there was still “panic, concern and fear out there” among farmers over the virus spreading.
Getty Images
The National Farmers’ Union said poultry farmers need an avian influenza vaccination plan for the ***
He added that the organisation was a “huge supporter” of vaccination for poultry but recognised there were challenges, including the cost to farmers and the impact on trade with other countries that prohibit imports from producers that vaccinate.
Meanwhile, there are also some scientific concerns about bird flu vaccinations.
Recent work by researchers from the ***’s Royal Veterinary College and institutions in China found possible evidence that they may be linked to changes in how the virus evolves.
They carried out genetic analysis of avian flu samples collected from wild birds and farmed poultry between 1996 and 2023.
While they found that infections occurred more often in unvaccinated birds, they also found that in countries with high vaccination rates, there was a higher rate of change in the virus itself.
They said such evolution could, in theory, lead to vaccines needing to be updated frequently to remain effective and to the virus spilling over into unvaccinated populations. They acknowledged that more research was needed to establish whether there was a direct causal link between vaccination and virus evolution.
‘Refocus efforts’
Earlier this week, the government agency that deals with infectious diseases, UKHSA, confirmed a case of the H5N1 avian influenza virus in a farm worker in the West Midlands region.
It said bird-to-human transmission of avian influenza was rare and that the risk to the wider public continues to be very low.
Farmers in Shropshire, North Yorkshire, East Riding of Yorkshire, City of Kingston Upon Hull, Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk have to keep their birds caged under mandatory housing rules put in place to manage the spread.
Biosecurity restrictions are also in place across England, Wales and Scotland as part of an Avian Influenza Prevention Zone.
The National Farmers’ Union said it was “essential that Defra refocuses efforts” on coming up with a workable avian influenza vaccination plan for the ***.
The government currently only allows licensed zoos to vaccinate captive birds against HPAI.
It said it would continue to invest in research and that any future decisions on the use of emergency or preventive vaccination would be based on the latest scientific evidence and veterinary advice.
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Dr Disrespect’s Midnight Society is shutting down and its FPS is canceled
Dr Disrespect’s Midnight Society is shutting down and its FPS is canceled
Guy ‘Dr. Disrespect’ Beahm’s Midnight Society has announced it’s shutting down, and its debut shooter Deadrop is canceled, 6 months after its split from the streamer.
In an announcement published on its social media channels, the studio – which was co-founded by Beahm, Call of Duty veteran Robert Bowling, and Halo designer Quinn Delhoyo – called for studios to help its remaining employees find new work.
“We express our sincere gratitude to each and every one of our community members and [are] deeply sorry we were unable to reach our ultimate goal,” the statement reads.
Midnight Society had been working on its debut game Deadrop, a free-to-play first-person “vertical extraction shooter set in a dark and violent future where the 80s never ended”, for the past three years.
The game had planned to incorporate NFTS, and had released multiple playable demos to community members, which it called ‘snapshots’.
The studio split from Dr. Disrespect last summer, following allegations that he sent ********* explicit messages to a minor. Several months later, it announced a “significant” number of layoffs, which it said was due to “multiple unexpected challenges”.
Over one in 10 developers questioned in a recent industry survey said they were laid off over the past year. In GDC’s annual State of the Game Industry survey, which asked over 3,000 game developers across indie and AAA studios questions about their work, 11% of respondents reported being laid off in the past 12 months, which was up from 7% in last year’s survey.
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Proof that mothers really do carry the family’s mental load
Proof that mothers really do carry the family’s mental load
From knowing which after-school activity falls on which day to when the household bills are due, making sure family life runs smoothly is never simple.
Now a study has revealed that mothers overwhelmingly carry a family’s “mental load” while fathers often take a back seat.
This strain, also known as “cognitive household labour”, refers to the thinking work needed to keep family life running smoothly – including planning, scheduling and organising tasks.
Conducted in the US, the study found that mothers take on 71 per cent of all household mental load tasks, ranging from planning meals and arranging activities to managing household finances.
Analysis of responses from 3,000 parents also found that fathers are more likely to see mental labour as equally shared, while mothers disagree.
Dr Ana Catalano Weeks, one of the study authors from the University of Bath, said: “This kind of work is often unseen, but it matters. It can lead to stress, burnout and even impact women’s careers. In many cases, resentment can build, creating strain between couples.
“We hope our research sparks conversations about sharing the mental load more fairly – something that benefits everyone.”
Other examples of “mental load” tasks include keeping track of washing towels and sheets, throwing away children’s clothes that no longer fit, planning birthday parties, scheduling dentist appointments, noticing when children’s nails need to be cut, remembering when a boiler needs servicing, coordinating play dates and throwing out food.
The study, published in the Journal Of Marriage And Family, also revealed that mums take on 79 per cent of daily jobs such as cleaning and childcare while dads tend to focus on episodic tasks such as home repairs.
A recent study also showed that working mothers are twice as likely as fathers to consider reducing their hours or leaving their jobs because of parental responsibilities.
“Going forward, the challenge for governments and employers who care about attracting the top talent is how to create policies that are supportive of both mothers and fathers sharing the unpaid work at home,” Dr Catalano Weeks added.
“One policy that comes to mind is well-paid, gender-neutral parental leave – which both the *** and US are way behind on compared to the rest of Europe.”
Researchers said they would encourage families to plan and work together to make every day more balanced.
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11 years after a celebrated opening, massive solar plant faces a bleak future in the Mojave Desert
11 years after a celebrated opening, massive solar plant faces a bleak future in the Mojave Desert
LOS ANGELES (AP) — What was once the world’s largest solar power plant of its type appears headed for closure just 11 years after opening, under pressure from cheaper green energy sources. Meanwhile, environmentalists continue to blame the Mojave Desert plant for killing thousands of birds and tortoises.
The Ivanpah solar power plant formally opened in 2014 on roughly 5 square miles of federal land near the California-Nevada border. Though it was hailed at the time as a breakthrough moment for clean energy, its power has been struggling to compete with cheaper solar technologies.
Pacific Gas & Electric said in a statement it had agreed with owners — including NRG Energy Inc. — to terminate its contracts with the Ivanpah plant. If approved by regulators, the deal would lead to closing two of the plant’s three units starting in 2026. The contracts were expected to run through 2039.
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“PG&E determined that ending the agreements at this time will save customers money,” the company said in a statement on its website.
Southern California Edison, which buys the rest of the power from the three-unit plant, is in discussions with owners and the U.S. Energy Department regarding a buyout of its Ivanpah contract.
The plant appears likely to become a high-profile loser in the race to develop new types of clean energy in the era of climate change.
The Ivanpah plant uses a technology known as solar-thermal, or concentrated solar, in which nearly 350,000 computer-controlled mirrors roughly the size of a garage door reflect sunlight to boilers atop 459-foot towers. The sun’s power is used to heat water in the boilers’ tubes and make steam, which drives turbines to create electricity.
NRG said in a statement that the project was successful, but unable to compete with rival photovoltaic solar technology — such as rooftop panels — which have much lower capital and operating costs.
Initially “the prices were competitive but advancements over time in photovoltaics and battery storage have led to more efficient, cost effective and flexible options for producing reliable clean energy,” NRG added.
A post on the PG&E website said that Ivanpah’s “technology had worked on a smaller scale in Europe.” But over time, it couldn’t match the lower prices of photovoltaic technology.
The plant has long been criticized for the environmental tradeoffs that came with large-scale energy production in the sensitive desert region. Rays from the plant’s mirrors have been blamed for incinerating thousands of birds. Conservation groups tried to stop construction on the site because of threats to tortoises.
“The Ivanpah plant was a financial boondoggle and environmental disaster,” Julia Dowell of the Sierra Club said in an email.
“Along with killing thousands of birds and tortoises, the project’s construction destroyed irreplaceable pristine desert habitat along with numerous rare plant species,” Dowell said. “While the Sierra Club strongly supports innovative clean energy solutions and recognizes the urgent need to transition away from fossil fuels, Ivanpah demonstrated that not all renewable technologies are created equal.”
There were other early problems. After its much-hyped opening, the plant didn’t produce as much electricity as expected for a simple reason: the sun wasn’t shining as much as expected.
The plant can be a startling sight for drivers heading toward Las Vegas from Southern California along busy Interstate 15. Amid miles of rock and scrub, its vast array of mirrors can create the image of a shimmering lake atop the desert floor, but depending on the angle of the sun and mirrors, it could also be blinding.
If the PG&E agreement is approved, NRG said the units will be decommissioned, “providing an opportunity for the site to potentially be repurposed for renewable (photovoltaic) energy production.” The company did not respond to questions about the projected cost or what would become of the equipment at the site.
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Samsung fourth-quarter profit falls short of estimates as AI demand remains strong
Samsung fourth-quarter profit falls short of estimates as AI demand remains strong
Customers shop at a Samsung mobile store inside a shopping mall in New Delhi.
Reuters | Anindito Mukherjee
Samsung Electronics on Friday reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter revenue and operating profit, though its operating profit sharply dropped from last quarter.
Here are Samsung’s fourth-quarter results compared with LSEG SmartEstimate, which is weighted toward forecasts from analysts who are more consistently accurate:
Revenue: 75.8 trillion Korean won vs. 75.4 trillion KRWOperating profit: 6.5 trillion KRW vs. 6.8 trillion KRW
Revenue was about 12% up from the same ******* from last year, while operating profit grew about 130%, year on year.
However, operating profit fell nearly 30% to 6.5 trillion won.
Fourth-quarter revenue beat Samsung’s own guidance of 75 trillion KRW, while operating profit came in line with the company’s forecast.
Samsung is a leading manufacturer of memory chips, which are utilized in devices such as laptops and servers, and is also the world’s second-largest player in the smartphone market.
“Although fourth quarter revenue and operating profit decreased on a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) basis, annual revenue reached the second-highest on record, surpassed only in 2022,” Samsung said in its statement.
For the full year, Samsung reported 300.9 trillion KRW in revenue and 32.7 trillion KRW in operating profit. In 2023, the company posted an annual revenue of KRW 258.94 trillion and an operating profit of KRW 6.57 trillion.
For the current quarter, Samsung said that earnings might be limited due to weakness in its semiconductor business but that it would pursue growth through AI smartphones and other premium devices.
“For 2025 as a whole, the Company plans to enhance technological and product advantages in AI, continue to meet future demand for high-value-added products and drive sales growth in premium segments,” it added.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
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Apple points to ‘fiscal stimulus’ after steep China sales decline
Apple points to ‘fiscal stimulus’ after steep China sales decline
When Apple reported its December quarter earnings on Thursday, it revealed that China sales had dropped 11.1% on an annual basis.
It was the worst quarter by growth rate since the December quarter a year ago, and marks the sixth straight quarter of declines in Apple’s third-largest region by revenue.
Ahead of Apple earnings, analysts had been fretting about exactly this issue. They cited supply chain checks in the country suggesting weak demand and an overall impression that the ******** consumer was starting to favor locally made devices from companies such as Huawei and Xiaomi over the iPhone.
China is “the most competitive market in the world,” Cook told analysts on Thursday. In 2024, Apple was third in market share in China, behind Vivo and Huawei, according to an IDC estimate from this week.
When Cook was asked about the company’s performance in China on Thursday by CNBC’s Steve Kovach and analysts on the earnings call, he focused less on the competition and more on how the company’s operations decisions affected China sales.
Cook said there were a few things to keep in mind about the company’s 11.1% decrease in the quarter.
Most notably, Cook cited Apple Intelligence’s absence in China and ******** affecting sales. He added that the company’s suite of artificial intelligence features for the iPhone 16 had bolstered iPhone sales in the U.S. and other countries where it’s available.
“During the December quarter, we saw that in markets where we had rolled out Apple Intelligence, that the year-over-year performance on the iPhone 16 family was stronger than those markets where we had not rolled out Apple intelligence,” Cook said.
The company’s AI software is only available in English for now, but Apple will release a simplified ******** version in April, Apple said Thursday. That doesn’t necessarily mean Apple Intelligence will launch in China that month, but it does mean ******** speakers elsewhere will get to test out Apple’s AI.
“Until we get through the regulatory process, nothing is certain, and we’re going through it now,” Cook told CNBC.
He added that the company is looking for a local partner that is licensed by the country to offer their AI to handle tricky or complicated questions, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT does in the U.S.
“There are a number of ******** companies that do have licenses to operate locally,” Cook said. “What we have to do is choose one and work with them on the integration, just like OpenAI.”
About half of the China revenue decline was because the company had misread demand in the country, Cook said. That led to a “channel inventory” issue. Apple uses the phrase “channel” to describe companies like wireless carriers and retailers that sell Apple devices.
“My point was that our channel inventory reduced from the beginning of the quarter to the end of the quarter, and that was over half of the reduction in the reported results,” Cook said. “Part of the reason for that is that our sales were a bit higher than we forecasted them to be, toward the end of the quarter.”
Apple ended the quarter “a little leaner” in inventory in the country than the company had expected to, said Cook, who also pointed to a nationwide subsidy program that could effectively reduce the cost of some Apple products in the country.
“There is now a national subsidy program that launched on Jan. 20, on categories that some of our products are a part of. It’s a fiscal stimulus, kind of,” Cook told CNBC.
The ******** government introduced subsidy policies last year to boost consumption and domestic demand, according to analyst firm Canalys. Smartphones were added to the list of eligible products earlier this month. The subsidy is capped at 500 yuan per product, and models that cost over 6,000 yuan, such as Apple’s Pro phones, aren’t eligible.
On the earnings call Thursday, Cook said that some of Apple’s products including smartphones, tablets, PCs and smartwatches would be covered by the subsidy.
“We do see fiscal stimulus occurring, and we’ll be glad to talk about what that looks like on the next call,” Cook said.
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Uganda announces Ebola outbreak after one patient dies – The Washington Post
Uganda announces Ebola outbreak after one patient dies – The Washington Post
Uganda announces Ebola outbreak after one patient dies The Washington PostNurse dies from Ebola in Uganda as country declares first virus outbreak since 2022, health ministry says PBS NewsHourUganda confirms deadly outbreak of Sudan Ebola virus University of Minnesota Twin CitiesUganda confirms outbreak of Ebola in capital Kampala, one dead Reuters
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How an AI written book shows why the tech ‘terrifies’ creatives
How an AI written book shows why the tech ‘terrifies’ creatives
BBC
A friend got Zoe her AI-created book as a Christmas present
For Christmas I received an interesting gift from a friend – my very own “best-selling” book.
“Tech-Splaining for Dummies” (great title) bears my name and my photo on its cover, and it has glowing reviews.
Yet it was entirely written by AI, with a few simple prompts about me supplied by my friend Janet.
It’s an interesting read, and very funny in parts. But it also meanders quite a lot, and is somewhere between a self-help book and a stream of anecdotes.
It mimics my chatty style of writing, but it’s also a bit repetitive, and very verbose. It may have gone beyond Janet’s prompts in collating data about me.
Several sentences begin “as a leading technology journalist…” – cringe – which could have been scraped from an online bio.
There’s also a mysterious, repeated hallucination in the form of my cat (I have no pets). And there’s a metaphor on almost every page – some more random than others.
There are dozens of companies online offering AI-book writing services. My book was from BookByAnyone.
When I contacted the chief executive Adir Mashiach, based in Israel, he told me he had sold around 150,000 personalised books, mainly in the US, since pivoting from compiling AI-generated travel guides in June 2024.
A paperback copy of your own 240-page long best-seller costs £26. The firm uses its own AI tools to generate them, based on an open source large language model.
I’m not asking you to buy my book. Actually you can’t – only Janet, who created it, can order any further copies.
There is currently no barrier to anyone creating one in anybody’s name, including celebrities – although Mr Mashiach says there are guardrails around abusive content. Each book contains a printed disclaimer stating that it is fictional, created by AI, and designed “solely to bring humour and joy”.
Legally, the copyright belongs to the firm, but Mr Mashiach stresses that the product is intended as a “personalised gag gift”, and the books do not get sold further.
He hopes to broaden his range, generating different genres such as sci-fi, and perhaps offering an autobiography service. It’s designed to be a light-hearted form of consumer AI – selling AI-generated goods to human customers.
It’s also a bit terrifying if, like me, you write for a living. Not least because it probably took less than a minute to generate, and it does, certainly in some parts, sound just like me.
Getty Images
The vocals of singers Drake and The Weeknd were used in an AI created song without their permission
Musicians, authors, artists and actors worldwide have expressed alarm about their work being used to train generative AI tools that then churn out similar content based upon it.
“We should be clear, when we are talking about data here, we actually mean human creators’ life works,” says Ed Newton Rex, founder of Fairly Trained, which campaigns for AI firms to respect creators’ rights.
“This is books, this is articles, this is photos. It’s works of art. It’s records… The whole point of AI training is to learn how to do something and then do more like that.”
In 2023 a song featuring AI-generated voices of ********* singers Drake and The Weeknd went viral on social media before being pulled from streaming platforms because it was not their work and they had not consented to it. It didn’t stop the track’s creator trying to nominate it for a Grammy award. And even though the artists were fake, it was still wildly popular.
“I do not think the use of generative AI for creative purposes should be banned, but I do think that generative AI for these purposes that is trained on people’s work without permission should be banned,” Mr Newton Rex adds. “AI can be very powerful but let’s build it ethically and fairly.”
In the *** some organisations – including the BBC – have chosen to block AI developers from trawling their online content for training purposes. Others have decided to collaborate – the Financial Times has partnered with ChatGPT creator OpenAI for example.
The *** government is considering an overhaul of the law that would allow AI developers to use creators’ content on the internet to help develop their models, unless the rights holders opt out.
Ed Newton Rex describes this as “insanity”.
He points out that AI can make advances in areas like defence, healthcare and logistics without trawling the work of authors, journalists and artists.
“All of these things work without going and changing copyright law and ruining the livelihoods of the country’s creatives,” he argues.
Baroness Kidron, a crossbench peer in the House of Lords, is also strongly against removing copyright law for AI.
“Creative industries are wealth creators, 2.4 million jobs and a whole lot of joy,” says the Baroness, who is also an advisor to the Institute for Ethics in AI at Oxford University.
“The government is undermining one of its best performing industries on the vague promise of growth.”
A government spokesperson said: “No move will be made until we are absolutely confident we have a practical plan that delivers each of our objectives: increased control for right holders to help them license their content, access to high-quality material to train leading AI models in the ***, and more transparency for right holders from AI developers.”
Under the *** government’s new AI plan, a national data library containing public data from a wide range of sources will also be made available to AI researchers.
In the US the future of federal rules to control AI is now up in the air following President Trump’s return to the presidency.
In 2023 Biden signed an executive order that aimed to boost the safety of AI with, among other things, firms in the sector required to share details of the workings of their systems with the US government before they are released.
But this has now been repealed by Trump. It remains to be seen what Trump will do instead, but he is said to want the AI sector to face less regulation.
This comes as a number of lawsuits against AI firms, and particularly against OpenAI, continue in the US. They have been taken out by everyone from the New York Times to authors, music labels, and even a comedian.
They claim that the AI firms broke the law when they took their content from the internet without their consent, and used it to train their systems.
The AI companies argue that their actions fall under “fair use” and are therefore exempt. There are a number of factors which can constitute fair use – it’s not a straight-forward definition. But the AI sector is under increasing scrutiny over how it gathers training data and whether it should be paying for it.
If this wasn’t all enough to ponder, ******** AI firm DeepSeek has shaken the sector over the past week. It became the most downloaded free app on Apple’s US App Store.
DeepSeek claims that it developed its technology for a fraction of the price of the likes of OpenAI. Its success has raised security concerns in the US, and threatens American’s current dominance of the sector.
As for me and a career as an author, I think that at the moment, if I really want a “bestseller” I’ll still have to write it myself. If anything, Tech-Splaining for Dummies highlights the current weakness in generative AI tools for ******* projects. It is full of inaccuracies and hallucinations, and it can be quite difficult to read in parts because it’s so long-winded.
But given how quickly the tech is evolving, I’m not sure how long I can remain confident that my considerably slower human writing and editing skills, are better.
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