Trump suggests he can predict future after markets react to tech duty pause

Donald Trump has bizarrely claimed to be able to predict the future after the markets reacted positively on Monday to his decision to exclude smartphones and other electronics from the ultra-high levies on goods imported from China.

“THE BEST DEFINITION OF INTELLIGENCE IS THE ABILITY TO PREDICT THE FUTURE!!!” he posted on Truth Social.

The president has otherwise insisted that no country is “off the hook” for “unfair trade balances” ahead of his expected new tariffs on powerful computer chips.

Trump further said those goods would not be exempted from duties entirely, rather they had been put in a new “tariff bucket” and remain subject to the broad 20 percent hike the White House had previously placed on Chinese goods in its fight against fentanyl.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick made clear that critical technology products from China would face separate new duties along with semiconductors within the next two months.

Trump said he wants companies to make chips and semiconductors in the U.S. so the American economy is not “held hostage” by other countries.

Father, 53, who died in Worksop house explosion named

A man who died following an explosion at a house in Worksop, Nottinghamshire has been named.

Emergency services were called to John Street at 7.39pm on Saturday after an explosion inside a house. A major incident was declared as a cordon was put up and nearby houses evacuated.

Images showed the length of the house was wrecked, with debris covering the street and back garden. Officers recovered the body of a man from under debris following the blast.

David Howard, 53, was identified as the man who died at the scene, said Nottinghamshire Police. His daughters have been informed and are being supported by specially trained officers.

Detective Chief Inspector Ruby Burrow said: “Our thoughts are very much with David’s loved ones at this devastating time.

“He has lost his life in truly tragic circumstances, and we would ask everyone to respect his daughters’ privacy.

“Our investigation to establish exactly what happened is ongoing and we are working hard to find the answers his family needs”, she added. “We would ask that while the investigation is being carried out that people avoid speculation both online and in the community.

DCI Burrow concluded: “We again thank people for their continued support and cooperation at this time.”

Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service also extended their condolences to Mr Howard’s family and friends on Sunday night.

Officers are continuing to investigate what caused the explosion and a police cordon is set to remain up until further notice, according to the force.

Two neighbouring properties partially collapsed as a result of the explosion and eight others, as well as 20 cars, were damaged by debris, according to emergency services. Everyone who may have been in the area at the time has since been accounted for.

About 50 people from 35 properties were evacuated and have been supported by Bassetlaw District Council and Nottinghamshire County Council. Some of the displaced spent Saturday night in the Crown Place Community Centre which was offered as an emergency shelter.

Bassetlaw District Council found accommodation for nine households and others were able to stay with family or friends.

Hotel or temporary accommodation was found “for all those who have requested assistance” and the emergency shelter was closed as a result, said councillor Julie Leigh. It remains unconfirmed how many people have been allowed to return home.

Buildings near the scene were left without power and the council has been working to help vulnerable people affected.

SNL apologises to Aimee Lou Wood following ‘mean’ sketch

The White Lotus star Aimee Lou Wood has said that Saturday Night Live has sent her a rare apology after making fun of her appearance during a sketch on the latest episode.

During Saturday night’s episode (12 April), SNL cast members reimagined the hit HBO series The White Lotus as The White Potus. The sketch depicted Donald Trump (played by James Austin Johnson) attempting to unwind at an exotic vacation resort with Ivanka Trump (Scarlett Johansson) and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick (Jon Gries), while secretly panicking about the future financial state of America due to its tariff policy chaos.

The SNL skit also attempted to recreate the dynamic between Rick (Walton Goggins) and his younger girlfriend Chelsea (Wood), with RFK Jr (Jonn Hamm) rambling about fluoride in water to his confused girlfriend, played by SNL cast member Sarah Sherman, who darts off to kill and eat a monkey.

In the skit, Sherman put on a bizarre British accent (Wood used her own Mancunian accent in The White Lotus) and appeared to be wearing exaggerated prosthetic teeth in an attempt to parody Wood’s appearance.

In a post shared on her Instagram Story on Sunday (13 April), Wood has called the skit “unfunny and mean”.

Wood, 31, has since shared an update with her fans. The Sex Education star wrote in an Instagram story: “I’ve had apologies from SNL.”

She added: “The last thing I’ll say on the matter. I am not thin-skinned. I actually love being taken the p*** out of when it’s clever and in good spirits. But the joke was about fluoride. I have big gap teeth not bad teeth. I don’t mind caricature – I understand that’s what SNL is. But the rest of the skit was punching up and I/Chelsea was the only one punched down on.”

Continuing she said: “Actually one last thing. Not Sarah Sherman’s fault. Not hating on her, hating on the concept.”

She also shared a comment from a fan comparing this skit to “1970s misogyny” saying that “this sums up my view”.

Wood, who rose to prominence for her performance as Aimee Gibbs in Netflix’s award-winning series Sex Education, has been at the centre of a positive conversation surrounding Hollywood beauty standards since she joined The White Lotus.

Her natural teeth have been praised as refreshing amid the perfect-looking veneers that dominate the big and small screens.

The Last of Us fans laud ‘perfect’ casting of important season 2 role

The Last of Us season two has introduced a handful of new characters, but there’s one in particular that has become an immediate fan-favorite.

The second season of Max’s hit post-apocalyptic series, based on the popular video games, sees Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey reprise their lead roles as Joel and Ellie.

*Warning — Spoilers for episode one of The Last of Us season two to follow*

In the first episode, titled “Future Days,” the story picks up five years after the events in the season one finale, with Joel and Ellie now settled in Wyoming. There, Joel and Ellie have become part of the community.

We are also introduced to Dina (Isabela Merced), Ellie’s friend and fellow member of the Wyoming settlement, with whom she tracks down infected.

In one scene, the two attend a dance where Dina takes Ellie by the hand, leading her to the dance floor. As they start dancing and exchanging flirtatious glances, Ellie leans in and whispers, “Every guy in this room is staring at you right now.”

“Maybe they’re staring at you?” Dina responds. “Maybe they’re jealous of you.”

“No reason to be. I’m not a threat,” Ellie says. However, Dina tells her, “Oh Ellie. I think they should be terrified of you,” before leaning in for a kiss.

The scene, which closely mirrors that of the original video game, has resonated with fans who lauded Merced’s “perfect” performance.

“She really played her part so well! That scene was so perfect!” a one X user wrote, with a second noting: “She was cast so well!!!”

“Isabela Merced, you understood the assignment. you understood it so well that i cried. you did good, kid. you are dina,” a third viewer praised.

“is it me or is this a copy by copy of a scene in the game!?!” another asked in disbelief.

“i agree!! she was outstanding as dina. i was amazed by her expressions, her aura, just the way she portrayed her during this first episode she is absolutely fantastic! she IS dina!!!!” another added.

Merced broke out as a child actor as the lead of Nickelodeon’s 100 Things to Do Before High School (2014–2016) and more recently starred in the critically panned Madame Web (2024).

She also starred as the titular character in the live-action Dora the Explorer adaptation, Dora and the Lost City of Gold (2019), and played main roles in the romantic drama Turtles All the Way Down (2024) and Alien: Romulus (2024).

While Dina’s introduction has left many fans overjoyed, the introduction of another major season two character, Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), has left several others in “mourning.”

In a four-star review of the new season, The Independent’s Nick Hilton wrote: “ The world has ended over and over, on screens big and small, but it has rarely been as plausible – or compelling – as the barbaric wasteland in the second season of Last of Us.”

Season two of The Last of Us airs Sundays at 9pm ET on Max.

Heiress sues travel company for £1m over cancelled Titanic wreck dive

A British explorer who guided Prince Harry to the North Pole is locked in a £1m court fight with a billionaire heiress over a cancelled expedition to the wreck of The Titanic on the ill-fated Titan submersible.

Henry Cookson, a former safari guide and polar explorer, now runs Cookson’s Adventures, an ultra-luxury adventure travel company specialising in bespoke trips for high net-worth individuals to far flung and otherwise inaccessible spots, often costing millions.

In 2017, his company was paid £680,000 by Karen Lo, the super-rich heiress to a Hong Kong soy milk fortune, to organise a once-in-a-lifetime submarine visit to the Titanic, planned for 2018 aboard the OceanGate Titan craft.

But the 2018 dive was canceled after the vessel was damaged by lightning, with Ms Lo being offered a priority place on a future trip instead.

However she never got her trip after Covid intervened and the Titan vessel then infamously imploded during a dive to the wreck in June 2023, killing all five passengers, including OceanGate founder Stockton Rush, and causing the company’s operations to cease.

Ms Lo is now suing Holland Park-based Henry Cookson Adventures Ltd, claiming the company is responsible for refunding her for the Titanic trip she paid for but never took.

But Mr Cookson’s company is fighting the claim, saying the heiress knew there were no refunds when she put her money down for the Titanic trip, and that she had a chance to go on the expedition later but never did.

Ms Lo is a Hong Kong based heiress with a reported net worth of $1 billion. Her wealth comes from Vitasoy, a soymilk and drinks company founded by her grandfather Dr Lo Kwee-seong, which has a reported global turnover of $1 billion and over 7,000 employees.

She hit the headlines in 2018 when she bought Sting’s New York apartment for $50m and again in 2023 when she sued a gallery owner for £500,000 over alleged non-delivery of a Banksy painting she had bought.

On his company’s website, Mr Cookson describes how he used his experience guiding horseback safaris in Kenya and in polar exploration, including a mission to the Pole with Prince Harry and the Walking With The Wounded charity, to set up ultra high-end adventure travel company Cookson’s Adventures.

“It’s these expeditions that served as inspiration in founding Cookson Adventures, bringing the same standards of ground-breaking excellence to the world of private travel. That’s whether working with remote tribes in Africa or organising Alaska’s most complex charter operations,” the website states.

Papers lodged with London’s High court describe how Mr Cookson had previously been “on friendly personal terms” with Ms Lo, even attending her wedding, and had organised trips worth “tens of millions of US dollars” for her and her guests.

Her barrister Jack Harding states in court papers: “The defendant agreed to organise and supply a two-week expedition for the claimant and 17 others to visit the wreck of the Titanic between 30th June and 14th July 2018.

“The defendant’s supplier for the expedition was OceanGate, a company which, at the material time, specialised in the provision of crewed submersibles for tourism, research and exploration.”

Having paid around £670,000 up front for the trip in May 2018, an email was sent by Cookson Adventure to Ms Lo explaining that the mission had been cancelled because the Titan craft had been struck by lightning and its electronic systems damaged.

The contract “provided ‘clients’ with 100% credit toward 2019 Titanic dives or any other expedition offered by OceanGate” due to the cancellation, but “OceanGate did not carry out any further dives to the Titanic wreck in 2019 or 2020,” he said.

“The claimant, through her agents and legal representatives, subsequently requested repayment of the sums paid under the contract. The defendant has refused to refund any of the claimant’s money.”

Ms Lo is suing under the Package Travel Regulations 1992, arguing it was an express or implied term of the contract that the dive would take place within a “reasonable time.”

“In repudiatory breach of the aforementioned express and/or implied terms, the Titanic Expedition did not take place in 2018 or at all,” he says.

“As a result of the defendant’s breach of contract, the claimant was entitled to and did elect to treat the contract as at an end.

“As a result of the matters set out above, the claimant seeks damages for her wasted expenditure in entering into a contract which was never performed.

“The defendant was enriched, at the expense of the claimant, by the payment and receipt of her money. It is irrelevant that the defendant may have subsequently passed some or all of the money to its own supplier.

“The claimant did not receive any benefit from the money that she paid to the claimant and/or the defendant did not provide any service of benefit to the claimant.”

Ms Lo’s lawyer says she wants her £670,000 back, plus interest at 8% from May 2018, taking the total claimed over £1m.

However in the defence to the action, Henk Soede, for Mr Cookson’s company, denies they owe the heiress a penny.

“She was introduced to Mr Cookson through a personal friend in 2011-12 and has been using the defendant’s services since then, in every case for exclusive unique and tailor-made trips at very high cost,” he says.

“For example, in 2018/19, after the postponed dive voyage to which this claim relates, the defendant arranged and the claimant paid in full for a multi-million dollar trip to the Antarctic on three yachts, including the super-yacht purchased in the name of the claimant the year previously, with twin helicopters and two submersibles, for a total of 13 guests and four nannies.

“The claimant’s annual budget with the defendant ran into tens of missions of US dollars.

“The claimant and Mr Cookson were on friendly personal terms and Mr Cookson had attended her wedding in Rome and accompanied a number of her friends who traveled with the couple to Egypt as part of their honeymoon.

“At no stage did the defendant agree to ‘organise and supply’ an expedition for the claimant and her guests to visit the wreck of The Titanic,” the lawyer states, insisting that Mr Cookson’s company instead had an “affiliate agreement” to be a booking agent for some of the planned trips, with OceanGate remaining the “organiser”.

The contract had also contained a no-refund clause, with the agreement being that a credit towards a future voyage with priority booking rights be provided instead if the mission did not go ahead for technical reasons.

“The defendant disputes this claim because, in outline, the Package Travel Regulations 1992 do not apply because the holiday was neither sold nor offered to be sold in the UK,” he says.

“Alternatively, even if the regulations did apply, the claimant would not be entitled to a refund as the package was not cancelled but only postponed, in accordance with the agreed terms.

“Nor in any event would the defendant be liable to refund monies paid to it, which, as the claimant was well aware, had been passed on to the party providing the voyage, which was also, if the regulations applied, the organiser.

“The claimant did not take up the credit within a reasonable time and thereby waived or lost her entitlement. Further, by notifying the defendant that she did not intend on using the credit in the future, the claimant terminated the contract and/or cancelled the voyage.

“Alternatively, the contract was in any event frustrated as a result of the complete loss of the dive vessel in 2023 and the resulting cessation of the provider’s trading activities.”

The lawyer states that whilst no dives took place in 2019 and Covid restrictions stopped any missions in 2020, dives took place in 2021 and 2022 which Ms Lo could have joined using her credit, prior to the ill-fated final mission in 2023.

“At all material times, OceanGate acknowledged that the defendant was entitled to a credit for un-taken 2018 missions,” he says.

“However, the claimant made clear that she did not want to use her credit in 2019 or at any time in the future.”

Her solicitors had instead demanded a refund in June 2019, he said.

The case, unless settled, will come before a judge in court at a later date.

The Titan submersible was the first privately-owned submersible with a claimed maximum depth of 4,000 metres and the first completed crewed submersible with a hull constructed of titanium and carbon fiber composite materials.

After testing with dives to its maximum intended depth in 2018 and 2019, the original composite hull of Titan developed fatigue damage and was replaced by 2021.

In that year, OceanGate began transporting paying customers to the wreck of the Titanic, completing several dives to the wreck site in 2021 and 2022.

During the submersible’s first 2023 expedition, it imploded during the crew’s descent to the wreckage of Titanic, about 320 nautical miles (590 km) south-southeast off the coast of Newfoundland.

The submersible was carrying tourists Hamish Harding, Shahzada Dawood, his son Suleman Dawood, crew member and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and OceanGate founder and the vessel’s pilot, Stockton Rush.

It’s time to make your smartest investment move yet

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Why Hull could become ‘the new Bordeaux’

The south of France is set to have a new rival by the end of the century, as a new report predicts that climate change will allow wine production to flourish as far north as Yorkshire.

By 2100, Hull could be known for its cabernet sauvignon with warmer temperatures and sunshine allowing the grape variety to grow in England.

The first annual Fine Wines and Restaurants Market Monitor report, which has been written by the consultancy firm Bain & Company, predicted that the area around Bordeaux in France will be too hot and dry to support production of the wine in the coming decades.

Currently, cabernet sauvignon can only be produced in southeastern England, and is traditionally produced in Europe’s warmer climates.

However, new areas such as Germany, England and southern Scandinavia are predicted to be able to grow the grape as climate change disrupts usual winemaking patterns.

The report states: “Climate change is redrawing the wine map. Southern regions face rising temperatures of plus 3C from flowering to harvest in 2024 and extreme droughts, threatening traditional vineyards. Meanwhile, northern areas like Denmark will gain ground with longer growing seasons and milder conditions.

“If the climate challenge is not addressed, cabernet sauvignon, once exclusive to southern Europe, may thrive in central and northern regions by 2100. To adapt, the industry must invest in policy reforms, agricultural technology and collaborative solutions to ensure a sustainable future.”

However, even by 2100 Scotland will have to stick to producing whisky as it will remain too cold and wet, with nowhere north of the border able to produce a drinkable wine.

Cold temperatures can result in grapes struggling to reach their full sugar levels, while the early harvesting, which occurs in cooler climates due to autumn frosts, can cause high acidity in wine.

Ideal temperatures to successfully grow grapes is between 20C and 30C, with long hours of sunshine beneficial to create full-bodied red wines.

Despite only a few vineyards successfully operating in the UK at present, the Met Office predicts that the UK’s average annual temperature could increase by between 2.3C and 5C by 2100.

The largest vineyard is currently the Denbies Wine Estate near Dorking in Surrey, with attracts around 300,000 visitors each year. The most northerly vineyard is Ryedale in North Yorkshire, and produces a range of wine such as pinot noir and rondo.

Britain’s aid cuts harm the world – and the UK itself

When the government announced that it was to divert almost half of the annual foreign aid budget to defence spending, the outcry, beyond the aid community and the demonstrative resignation of the development minister, was rather less than might have been expected in response to such a drastic switch.

To be sure, the muted response had its causes, which included the acceptance that Europe was going to have to pay a lot more towards its own defence; the continuing strength of UK public support for Ukraine; and the regrettable reality that foreign aid is rarely a popular destination for taxpayers’ money. If there was also an element of ignorance – or, at the very least, a reluctance to acknowledge the likely consequences of such a major redirection of resources – such excuses are no longer tenable, if ever they were. The scale of the likely damage has now been spelt out in an analysis by the charity Save the Children – and a disastrous picture it presents, too.

As is so often the case, the first to suffer will be the poorest, and chief among those are women and girls, mothers and babies. Programmes designed to widen access to education, family planning, clean water and food are all likely to be cut back or ended, affecting as many as 12 million people. Almost 3 million fewer children could be in education compared with five years ago. Poor sanitation means the spread of disease; curtailing sexual health programmes risks increasing the spread of HIV. By any measure, these add up to a big step in the wrong direction.

Even those dismal figures, however, do not tell the whole story. When the reallocation between the aid and defence budgets was announced, the prime minister insisted that aid to Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan would be protected. Together, however, these commitments amount to nearly £7bn of the £9.2bn that is envisaged to be the aid budget in 2027. To that has also to be added the £3bn or so that currently goes from the foreign aid budget towards the cost of accommodating asylum seekers and irregular migrants in the UK. Save the Children estimates a “black hole” of at least £750,000 that could presage the end of practically every other aid programme, with as many as 55 million people affected around the world.

One very partial remedy might be for the government to reallocate the asylum costs to domestic spending departments. But this looks unlikely. While it was questioned at one time by none other than the foreign secretary, David Lammy, the use of the foreign aid budget to fund accommodation for asylum seekers is clearly designed to fend off criticism and, with the number of small-boat crossings only rising, these costs look unlikely to come down soon, despite the home secretary’s hopes of cutting spending by speeding up procedures. Dan Paskins of Save the Children has it right when he says, “We should not fund our response to one crisis at the expense of others.”

International pressure to keep up foreign aid spending is also diminished. The Trump administration went so far as to disband one of the world’s biggest aid agencies, USAID, with some immediate dire consequences, including for earthquake relief in Myanmar. Rather than being seen as an example of what not to do, however, that one move seemed to give others a green light to downgrade their own foreign aid efforts. The UK was one – and the scale of the cut was savage. At 0.3 per cent of gross national income (GNI), the UK’s aid contribution is now at its lowest for 25 years.

It is a far cry from the 0.7 per cent of GNI that is called for by the UN, was promised by the Blair government, and was finally reached by the UK in 2013. This is where it stayed until 2021, when it was “temporarily” reduced to 0.5 per cent by the Johnson government in the light of Covid spending pressures. Last year’s Labour manifesto included an undertaking to restore the budget to 0.7 per cent. For all the current special circumstances, the government should be held to its pledge.

Summary cuts to vital aid programmes harm the intended recipients above all. But they harm the donor country and its government, too. They damage its reputation and its projection of “soft power”, but they also threaten to increase multiple risks, from the spread of disease to security threats and enforced migration, any or all of which could eventually reach our shores. A supposedly short-term slashing of the foreign aid budget today can all too easily translate into much higher costs for everyone tomorrow.