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King skillfully appeals to Republicans fond of Britain and Democrats anxious about rules-based order in state visitFor his last trick, the king revealed a bell that hung from the conning tower of a Royal Navy submarine launched from a UK shipyard in 1944. Its name was HMS Trump. “And should you ever need to get hold of us,” Charles III said, “well, just give us a ring.”The polished brass bell bearing the name “Trump”, presented at Tuesday’s state dinner at the White House, was an ego-flattering masterstroke that will have prompted groans in foreign capitals from Paris to Canberra to Tokyo. How can they ever hope to match that? Continue reading...

Sotheby’s said collection of billionaire Spurs’ owner Joe Lewis and daughter Vivienne expected to fetch more than £150m in June saleA major group of masterpieces by some of modern art’s biggest names is to be auctioned by Sotheby’s in what is expected to be the most valuable collection ever offered in London.The works, consigned by Joe Lewis and his daughter Vivienne – whose family owns Tottenham Hotspur – include paintings by Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Amedeo Modigliani, Francis Bacon, Henri Matisse, Chaïm Soutine, Lucian Freud, and Gustave Caillebotte. Sotheby’s said the group is expected to realise more than £150m. Continue reading...

One by one, the pins have been knocked out from under B.C. businessman Fred Sharp: He's been fined tens of millions of dollars for his role in stock-market schemes, he's banned from equity markets in Canada, his bank accounts were frozen. But he still has his freedom, and it's not clear why.

Several decades after rap star Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC was shot to death, a man named Jay Bryant pleaded guilty to a federal murder charge, telling a judge he helped other people get into a recording studio to ambush the DJ.

Jay Bryant’s admission came more than two decades after the rapper’s killing, but he didn’t name others involvedSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxNearly a quarter century after rap star Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC was shot to death, a man admitted in court Monday to a role in a killing that stymied investigators for decades.Jay Bryant pleaded guilty to a federal murder charge, telling a judge that he helped other people get into a recording studio to ambush the DJ, born Jason Mizell. Continue reading...

A documentary about Peter Sichel – the ‘Jewish James Bond’ who died in 2025 – includes striking mea culpas about the cost and efficacy of US involvement in the Middle EastIn New York social circles, he was known as the “Jewish James Bond”: a refugee from Nazi Germany whose gratitude to his American hosts was such that he volunteered to join the US army and became the CIA’s first station chief in Berlin as a mere twentysomething, filing early warnings about Soviet activity that have been credited with ringing in the cold war.Like 007, Peter Sichel also appreciated a fine tipple, and after leaving the US foreign intelligence service it was he who briefly turned a sweet German white, Blue Nun, into one of the best-selling wines in the world. Continue reading...

One insider estimates Australians pay A$10 in fees per ticket, with fans bearing the burden of monopolised music tour schedules and inflated artist valuesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAustralia is being urged to improve ticketing transparency after a US federal court found Live Nation Entertainment had a harmful monopoly over big concert venues.This week, a New York jury found the global entertainment giant and its subsidiary Ticketmaster liable for systematically stifling competition to extract excessive profits from concertgoers. The jury identified a baseline overcharge of US$1.72 for every ticket sold by Live Nation since 2010 – totalling an additional US$595m in 2025 alone. Continue reading...