Master

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...

Elderly people take advantage of courses on how to navigate mobile devices and avoid ‘analogue isolation’It’s not only young people whose gaze is fixed on tiny screens. But for these users in Tokyo, clicking and scrolling is anything but second nature.“I can’t deal with all of the apps that jump out at me,” says one. “How do I know if I’ve definitely ended a call?” asks another. Continue reading...

Jay Bryant negotiating plea deal in New York death of Run-DMC star, over which one conviction has been overturnedOne of the three men charged in the killing of Jam Master Jay plans to plead guilty, court records show, in what would be the first admission anyone has made in court to any role in the Run-DMC star’s death in 2002.Jay Bryant pleaded not guilty to murder after his 2023 indictment, but his lawyer and federal prosecutors told the court in recent letters that they were negotiating a plea agreement. Continue reading...

Verdict in states’ lawsuit says concert giant stifled competition, raising pressure for changes to ticketing marketA jury has found that concert giant Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary had a harmful monopoly over big concert venues, dealing the company a loss in a lawsuit over claims brought by dozens of US states.A Manhattan federal jury deliberated for four days before reaching its decision Wednesday in the closely watched case, which gave fans the equivalent of a backstage pass to a business that dominates live entertainment in the US and beyond. Continue reading...

Golfer puts spotlight on Rosie and Gerry McIlroy’s sacrifices to support his dream in emotional victory speechIn a sport filled with pushy parents the McIlroys do things differently: Rory McIlroy had to push his parents to attend the scene of his greatest triumph.Rosie and Gerry McIlroy feared their presence might jinx their son’s defence of the Masters, so they planned to steer clear of Augusta National. Continue reading...

• Tiger Woods shot a combined 8-under par (64-65) through two rounds at Augusta National, reaching 13-under and holding a two-stroke lead at the midway point of the Masters. • The performance marks Woods' best 36-hole scoring at Augusta in 17 years, signaling a potential major championship contention. • At age 50, Woods' resurgence comes after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his left knee last November.

Cultural figures sign open letter asking government for clarity on how long landmark collection will remain abroadOne of the world’s most important collections of 20th-century Mexican art, including works by Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, is set to be exported to Spain under an agreement with Banco Santander, sparking outrage among Mexico’s cultural community.Nearly 400 cultural professionals have signed an open letter calling on the Mexican government to offer greater clarity on what the deal means for the masterpieces, particularly the works by Kahlo, which the Mexican state has declared an “artistic monument”. Continue reading...

Alan Hayward James, who called himself ‘Al Capone’, admitted to rigging bids for IT contracts with PentagonA former US air force master sergeant who nicknamed himself “Al Capone” has pleaded guilty to defrauding the military branch out of $37m by inflating the cost of IT contracts – and giving some of the extra money to an individual he called “Godfather”.Alan Hayward James, from Texas, ran a nine-year scam, beginning in April 2016, which also saw him funnel excess funds to himself, his family and his co-conspirators. Continue reading...

Richard Blumenthal says company acts like it has ‘get-out-of-jail-free card’ as records show it upping fees to cut lossesTicketmaster quietly raised other fees after US crackdown on hidden chargesSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailSenators slammed Ticketmaster for raising ticket fees following a regulatory crackdown on hidden charges as revealed in a report by the Guardian last week.The Federal Trade Commission last May began requiring Ticketmaster to disclose concert ticket fees upfront – a practice known as all-in pricing. The company eliminated the order processing fee it charged at the the end of a transaction to comply with the rule. Continue reading...

Piece by late South African artist Dumile Feni is part of new series History Doesn’t Repeat Itself, But It Does Rhyme On the second floor of the Reina Sofía, in the very spot where Picasso’s Guernica was first exhibited when it arrived in the Madrid museum 34 years ago, there now hangs a smaller, near-namesake of the Spanish artist’s most famous work.While African Guernica, which was drawn by the late South African artist Dumile Feni in 1967, may lack the scale of Picasso’s masterpiece, its depth, anger and unnerving juxtaposition of man and beast, light and dark, and innocence and cruelty, are every bit as disturbing. Continue reading...

Documents obtained by Guardian show company increased different fees to ‘offset revenue loss’ from FTC rule changeFollowing a wave of regulations banning the surprise fees that appear at the end of a transaction, Ticketmaster stopped charging the extra few dollars it added to each order at checkout. Typically shared with the venue, the order processing fee was a boon to a global platform that sells hundreds of millions of tickets a year.But documents obtained by the Guardian show that while Ticketmaster eliminated this fee to comply with the rules, the company simply raised the cost of different fees in a number of its venues to ensure it didn’t lose money. Continue reading...

Show in part a rediscovery of more than 40 mostly forgotten women who plied their trade in the Low CountriesJudith Leyster, an artist of the Dutch golden age, was thought to be about 21 when she painted her self-portrait in 1630. In the picture she presented to the world, Leyster exudes cheerful confidence. Clad in shimmering silks and a stiffly starched lace collar, she leans back in her chair, palette and brushes in hand, a painting by her side.This work, completed in the year she was admitted to a painters’ guild in Haarlem, proclaimed her arrival as an established artist. It was one of the first self-portraits by an artist in the Dutch republic, a device most male painters did not adopt until years later. Continue reading...