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Apple’s all-new MacBook features a durable aluminum design, a stunning 13-inch Liquid Retina display, the power of Apple silicon, and all-day battery life — all for the breakthrough starting price of just $599

Apple® today unveiled MacBook Neo , an all-new laptop that delivers the magic of the Mac® at a breakthrough price, making it even more accessible to millions of people around the world. MacBook Neo starts with a beautiful Apple design, featuring a durable aluminum enclosure in an array of gorgeous colors — blush, indigo, silver, and a fresh new citrus. Its stunning 13-inch Liquid Retina® display brings websites, photos, videos, and apps to life with high resolution and brightness, and support for 1 billion colors. Powered by A18 Pro, MacBook Neo can fly through everyday tasks, from browsing the web and streaming content, to editing photos, exploring creative hobbies, or using AI capabilities across apps. In fact, it’s up to 50 percent faster for everyday tasks like web browsing, ¹ and up to 3x faster when running on-device AI workloads like applying advanced effects to photos, ² compared to the bestselling PC with the latest shipping Intel Core Ultra 5. Providing up to 16 hours of battery life, MacBook Neo allows users to go all day on a single charge. ³ A 1080p FaceTime HD® camera and dual mics make it easy to look and sound great, and the dual side-firing speakers with Spatial Audio deliver crisp, immersive sound. MacBook Neo also features Apple’s renowned Magic Keyboard® for comfortable and precise typing, and a large Multi-Touch trackpad with support for intuitive gestures, enabling smooth and precise control. Completing the MacBook Neo experience is macOS® Tahoe, with powerful built-in apps like Messages, Pages, Calendar, and Safari®; seamless integration with iPhone®; Apple Intelligence; as well as broad compatibility with third-party apps. And starting at just $599 and $499 for education, MacBook Neo is Apple’s most affordable laptop ever, providing an unprecedented combination of quality and value. MacBook Neo is available to pre-order starting today, with availability beginning Wednesday, March 11.

‘We’re incredibly excited to introduce MacBook Neo, which delivers the magic of the Mac at a breakthrough price,’ said John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering. ‘Built from the ground up to be more affordable for even more people, MacBook Neo is a laptop only Apple could create. It features a durable aluminum design in four beautiful colors; a brilliant Liquid Retina display; Apple silicon-powered performance; all-day battery life; a high-quality camera, mics, and speakers; a Magic Keyboard and Multi-Touch trackpad; and the intuitive and powerful features of macOS. There is simply no other laptop like it.’

Beautiful and Durable Aluminum Design

MacBook Neo features a beautifully crafted aluminum design that’s built to last. With its soft, rounded corners, MacBook Neo looks elegant while feeling solid and comfortable to hold. At just 2.7 pounds, it’s also easy to carry in a backpack or handbag. Bringing a fun touch of personality and style to everyday computing, MacBook Neo comes in a spectrum of four gorgeous colors: blush, indigo, silver, and citrus. These colors extend to the Magic Keyboard in lighter shades and new wallpapers, creating a cohesive design aesthetic and making MacBook Neo the most colorful MacBook® yet.

Stunning 13-Inch Liquid Retina Display

A gorgeous 13-inch Liquid Retina display features a 2408-by-1506 resolution, 500 nits of brightness, and support for 1 billion colors, bringing to life sharp, crystal-clear text and vibrant images. The display is both brighter and higher in resolution than most PC laptops in this price range, putting it in a class of its own. Finally, an anti-reflective coating provides a comfortable viewing experience in a variety of lighting conditions, allowing users to watch movies, edit photos, or take video calls from anywhere.

Apple Silicon-Powered Performance

At the heart of MacBook Neo is A18 Pro, enabling users to power through things they do every day, like browsing the web, creating documents, streaming content, editing photos, and taking advantage of AI. Users can seamlessly work between their favorite apps, like Messages, WhatsApp, Canva, Excel, Safari, and more. MacBook Neo with A18 Pro is up to 50 percent faster for everyday tasks than the bestselling PC with the latest shipping Intel Core Ultra 5. ¹ And for more demanding activities, it’s up to 3x faster for on-device AI workloads ² and up to 2x faster for tasks like photo editing. ⁴ The integrated 5-core GPU brings graphics to life while playing action-packed games or exploring creative hobbies. And a 16-core Neural Engine supports fast on-device Apple Intelligence features and everyday AI tasks like summarizing notes in Bear or using the Clean Up tool in the Photos app, while ensuring user data stays private and secure. MacBook Neo is also fanless, so it runs completely silent.

All-Day Battery Life

Thanks to the incredible power efficiency of Apple silicon, MacBook Neo delivers up to 16 hours of battery life on a single charge. ³ This makes it a perfect on-the-go companion for work or play, from the classroom to the coffee shop, and everywhere in between.

Magic Keyboard and New Multi-Touch Trackpad

MacBook Neo features Apple’s much-loved Magic Keyboard, which provides a comfortable, precise typing experience, while a large Multi-Touch trackpad lets users click, scroll, swipe, and pinch anywhere on its surface. The MacBook Neo model with Touch ID® enables easy, quick, and secure login authentication, and the ability to conveniently authorize purchases using Apple Pay®.

1080p Camera; Dual Speakers and Mics

The 1080p FaceTime HD camera on MacBook Neo has optimized image processing to deliver vibrant video calls. Dual mics with directional beamforming are designed to reduce background noise and isolate a user’s voice, allowing it to come across loud and clear for an excellent video conferencing experience. And dual side-firing speakers with support for Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos produce immersive sound for watching a movie, listening to music, or using apps like GarageBand®.

Essential Connectivity

MacBook Neo features two USB-C ports for connecting accessories or an external display. ⁵ Both ports can be used for charging. MacBook Neo also includes a headphone jack for wired audio. Wi-Fi 6E provides fast wireless connectivity, and Bluetooth 6 ensures reliable wireless connections for peripherals and accessories.

Powerful Productivity with macOS

macOS is Apple’s powerful and intuitive operating system for Mac. ⁶ With incredible features and built-in apps like Safari, Photos, Messages, and FaceTime, macOS enables users to get started right out of the box. Apple Intelligence features like Writing Tools, Live Translation, and more are deeply integrated across macOS, elevating the user experience by bringing intelligence to the apps users rely on every day. ⁷ Advanced privacy and security also come standard, featuring industry‑leading encryption, robust virus protections, and automatic free security updates to help keep users protected.

Seamless Integration with iPhone

iPhone users can tap in to Continuity features built in to macOS to make working across iPhone and Mac a breeze. Handoff® lets users start a task on MacBook Neo and continue it on iPhone, while Universal Clipboard allows users to copy and paste content between devices. With iPhone Mirroring, users can view and interact with their iPhone directly on MacBook Neo, and users switching to Mac for the first time can use iPhone to conveniently and securely transfer settings, files, photos, passwords, and more.

Built with the Environment in Mind

MacBook Neo was built from the ground up to be Apple’s lowest-carbon MacBook, and brings the company even closer to reaching its ambitious plan to be carbon neutral across its entire footprint by 2030. It features 60 percent recycled content — the highest percentage of any Apple product. ⁸ This includes 90 percent recycled aluminum overall and 100 percent recycled cobalt in the battery. The enclosure is manufactured with a material-efficient forming process that uses 50 percent less aluminum compared to traditional machining methods. MacBook Neo is manufactured with 45 percent renewable electricity, like wind and solar, across the supply chain. It also meets Apple’s high standards for energy efficiency and safe chemistry. Additionally, the paper packaging is 100 percent fiber-based and can be easily recycled. ⁹

Pricing and Availability

Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, Mac, AirPods, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro. Apple’s six software platforms — iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, visionOS, and tvOS — provide seamless experiences across all Apple devices and empower people with breakthrough services including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, iCloud, and Apple TV. Apple’s more than 150,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth and to leaving the world better than we found it.

¹ Testing was conducted by Apple in January and February 2026 using preproduction MacBook Neo systems with Apple A18 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 8GB of unified memory, and 256GB SSD, as well as production Intel Core Ultra 5-based PC systems with Intel Graphics, 8GB of RAM, 256GB SSD, and the latest version of Windows 11 Home available at the time of testing. Bestselling PC laptop with the latest shipping Intel Core Ultra 5 processor is based on publicly available sales data over the prior six months. Speedometer 3.1 performance benchmark tested with pre-release Safari 26.3 on macOS Tahoe, and both Chrome 144.0.7559.110 and Edge 144.0.3719.104 on Windows 11 Home. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of MacBook Neo.

² Testing was conducted by Apple in January and February 2026 using preproduction MacBook Neo systems with Apple A18 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 8GB of unified memory, and 256GB SSD, as well as production Intel Core Ultra 5-based PC systems with Intel Graphics, 8GB of RAM, 256GB SSD, and the latest version of Windows 11 Home available at the time of testing. Bestselling PC laptop with the latest shipping Intel Core Ultra 5 processor is based on publicly available sales data over the prior six months. Adobe Photoshop 2026 27.3.0 tested using the following filters and functions: super zoom, depth blur, JPEG artifact removal, style transfer, photo restoration, and landscape mixer. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of MacBook Neo.

³ Testing was conducted by Apple in January 2026 using preproduction MacBook Neo systems with Apple A18 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 8GB of unified memory, and 256GB SSD. Wireless web battery life tested by browsing 25 popular websites while connected to Wi-Fi. Video streaming battery life tested with 1080p content in Safari while connected to Wi-Fi. All systems tested with display brightness set to eight clicks from bottom. Battery life varies by use and configuration. See apple.com/batteries for more information.

⁴ Testing was conducted by Apple in January and February 2026 using preproduction MacBook Neo systems with Apple A18 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 8GB of unified memory, and 256GB SSD, as well as production Intel Core Ultra 5-based PC systems with Intel Graphics, 8GB of RAM, 256GB SSD, and the latest version of Windows 11 Home available at the time of testing. Bestselling PC laptop with the latest shipping Intel Core Ultra 5 processor is based on publicly available sales data over the prior six months. Tested with Affinity v3.0.3.4027 using the built-in benchmark 30000. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of MacBook Neo.

⁵ MacBook Neo features two USB-C ports — USB 3 (left) and USB 2 (right). External display connectivity supported on left USB 3 port only.

⁶ macOS Tahoe is available as a free software update. Some features may not be available in all regions or in all languages. See requirements at apple.com/os/macos .

⁷ Apple Intelligence is available in beta with support for these languages: English, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Vietnamese, Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), Japanese, and Korean. Some features may not be available in all regions or languages. For feature and language availability and system requirements, see support.apple.com/en-us/121115 .

⁸ Product recycled or renewable content is the mass of certified recycled material relative to the overall mass of the device, not including packaging or in-box accessories. Comparison excludes accessories.

⁹ Breakdown of U.S. retail packaging by weight. Adhesives, inks, and coatings are excluded from calculations.

NOTE TO EDITORS: For additional information visit Apple Newsroom ( www.apple.com/newsroom ), or email Apple’s Media Helpline at media.help@apple.com .

© 2026 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, MacBook Neo, Mac, Liquid Retina, FaceTime HD, Magic Keyboard, Multi-Touch, macOS, Safari, iPhone, Apple Intelligence, MacBook, Touch ID, Apple Pay, Garage Band, Handoff, Apple Store, Apple Trade In, AppleCare, AppleCare+, AppleCare One, Today at Apple, Apple Card, and Daily Cash are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260304013394/en/

Starlayne Meza
Apple
starlayne_meza@apple.com

News Provided by Business Wire via QuoteMedia

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Investing

Sranan Provides Update on Late Filing of Financial Statements; Extends MCTO

Sranan Gold Corp. (CSE: SRAN,OTC:SRANF) (OTCQB: SRANF) (‘Sranan’ or the ‘Company’) continues to work towards the filing of its annual audited financial statements, management’s discussion and analysis, and CEO and CFO certifications for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2025 (the ‘Required Filings’). The Company has obtained approval from the Alberta Securities Commission to extend the Management Cease Trade Order (‘MCTO’) under National Policy 12-203 Management Cease Trade Orders (‘NP 12-203’) until March 15, 2026.

The additional delay in filing is attributable to the timing of certain outstanding third-party confirmations, including from an international vendor and the Company’s bank in Suriname, which were received later than anticipated. As a result, completion of the audit was deferred by approximately one week. The audit is now in its final stages, with only minor outstanding items remaining. Sranan remains in ongoing communication with its auditor to confirm any remaining documentation requirements and has committed to providing any outstanding materials promptly upon request. Sranan anticipates that the Required Filings will be completed on or before March 13, 2026. The interim first-quarter financial statements are expected to be filed within 48 hours thereafter, and in any event no later than March 15, 2026.

The Required Filings were due to be filed by January 28, 2026. In connection with the anticipated delays in making the Required Filings, the Company made an application for a Management Cease Trade Order (‘MCTO‘) under National Policy 12-203 Management Cease Trade Orders (‘NP 12-203‘) to the Alberta Securities Commission, as principal regulator for the Company, and the MCTO was issued on January 29, 2026. The MCTO restricts all trading by the Company’s CEO and CFO in securities of the Company, whether direct or indirect. The issuance of the MCTO does not affect the ability of persons who are not directors, officers or insiders of the Company to trade their securities. The MCTO will remain in effect until the Required Filings are filed or until it is revoked or varied.

Both the Company and its auditors are working diligently towards the completion and filing of the Required Filings, and the Company will provide additional updates.

The Company confirms that it intends to satisfy the provisions of the alternative information guidelines described in NP 12-203 by issuing bi-weekly default status reports in the form of a news release until it meets the Required Filings requirement. The Company has not taken any steps towards any insolvency proceeding and the Company has no material information relating to its affairs that has not been generally disclosed.

For further information with respect to the MCTO, please refer to the Company’s news releases dated January 21, 2026, February 4, 2026, and February 18, 2026, available for viewing on the Company’s SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.ca.

About Sranan Gold
Sranan is engaged in the business of mineral exploration and the acquisition of mineral property assets in Suriname. The Company’s flagship Tapanahony Project covers 29,000 hectares in one of Suriname’s most prolific artisanal gold mining districts and Sranan recently announced the acquisition of the 18,468-hectare Lawatino Project situated in southeastern Suriname along the Central Guiana Shear Zone.

For more information, please visit http://www.sranangold.com.

For further information, please contact:
Oscar Louzada, CEO
+31 6 25438975

THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE HAS NOT APPROVED NOR DISAPPROVED THE CONTENT OF THIS PRESS RELEASE.

Forward-looking statements
Certain statements made and information contained herein may constitute ‘forward-looking information’ and ‘forward-looking statements’ within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation. These statements and information are based on facts currently available to Sranan and there is no assurance that the actual results will meet management’s expectations. Forward-looking statements and information may be identified by such terms as ‘anticipates,’ ‘believes,’ ‘targets,’ ‘estimates,’ ‘plans,’ ‘expects,’ ‘may,’ ‘will,’ ‘could’ or ‘would.’

This news release contains forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements regarding management’s expectations about obtaining the MCTO and completing the Required Filings within the anticipated timeline. Forward-looking statements are subject to various risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Sranan does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements or information, except as required by applicable securities laws. For more information on the Company, investors should review the Company’s continuous disclosure filings that are available at www.sedarplus.ca.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/286289

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Investing

Aurum Hits High-Grade Gold at Napie, Cote d’Ivoire

Aurum Resources (AUE:AU) has announced Aurum Hits High-Grade Gold at Napie, Cote d’Ivoire

Download the PDF here.

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Investing

BHP: Targeted AI Platforms Boost Efficiency, Safety and More

Modern society has a metals problem. The demands of modern consumer culture, the energy transition and the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics have created a dilemma.

As demand rises, the supply of many metals is at a bottleneck brought about by a number of factors, from government red tape to civil unrest, as well as lack of capital expenditures leading to fewer new discoveries and mines.

On top of this, mining companies focused on essential metals like copper are facing additional challenges, as in many cases the easy discoveries have already been made and existing mines are seeing declining grades, causing further constraints to supply.

BHP (ASX:BHP,NYSE:BHP,LSE:BHP) Digital Officer Mikko Tepponen suggests that the very technologies that rely on metals and mining can be the answer in his presentation at the 2026 Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada conference.

Addressing data fragmentation in exploration

Once companies open up capital expenditures to the exploration side of the mining sector, several questions arise, most notably: Where are the minerals?

At its core, exploration relies on the geosciences, with a geologist in the field, sampling rocks, conducting surveys and using the data gathered to estimate where the best place is to put a drill for a look below the surface.

Mining is a data-driven enterprise, and depending on the project, the information can come from a range of methods, from modern techniques to historic observations, meaning the data is fragmented across a variety of sources and formats.

AI and machine learning can be good at processing and interpolating large quantities of information. However, data accessibility creates another roadblock.

“Across our industry, vast volumes of exploration data are sealed in archive rooms, and legacy systems can’t read through third-party data sets,” Tepponen said. “That data is neither structured, searchable nor interoperable. That means AI cannot make easy sense of it, and in many cases, that data was never extracted.”

For Tepponen, one of the challenges the mining industry needs to overcome is data fragmentation. Without enough data or proper information, there is an increased risk of making the wrong exploration decisions.

“Time matters because capital is finite. Drill meters are expensive, and decisions about capital allocation have multi-year impacts down the line,” he said.

The way BHP has implemented a data-centric approach is building a central data platform that integrates the decades of exploration data, standardizes it and makes it accessible through a central team within the company.

Tepponen says the platform supports 52 standardized core geoscience types, backed by more than 100 years of data, helping its exploration teams save months of time.

“Our geoscientists can access more than 4 million drill hole cores and 9,000 geophysical surveys through one portal,” he added.

Using BHP’s in-house AI extraction tool, one team of geoscientists obtained data from thousands of drill holes from 30,000 legacy document records. They then used the central data platform to combine that with modern drilling data.

According to Tepponen, the team completed the work in a few hours, while doing so manually would have taken months, and results were higher quality than the previous method.

However, he stressed that the integration of AI into its workflow wasn’t about replacing geoscience teams, but about “amplifying the work of geoscientists by creating a digital tool that enables them to focus on higher value.”

Additionally, the information in the platform is not limited to BHP’s data. Tepponen explained that the entire system is built on an open-source database designed to break down data silos and enable cross-sector collaboration.

Using targeted optimizations to avoid disruptions

While exploration poses a bottleneck to the development of new projects for future supply, disruptions to existing operations significantly impact current output.

It’s often impossible to predict major events like extreme weather, civil unrest or regulatory changes. However, operators can foresee some disruptions that result in hundreds of hours of downtime throughout the industry every year.

Tepponen outlined one persistent problem: oversized rocks and foreign objects making their way through processing plants.

“If an uncrushable rock or piece of metal gets into the crusher, it can cause blockages, damage belts and create significant downtime,” he said. “If it travels downstream, it can damage equipment and create critical bottlenecks.”

In Western Australia, BHP employs a hub-and-spoke model that connects five mines to a central processing facility. If one of the hazards disrupts operations at the facility, it can affect operations at the mines connected to it.

Additionally, fixing these issues exposes maintenance teams to higher-risk tasks, so eliminating the problem in the first place improves both productivity and safety.

Tepponen explained that historically, workers would be used to identify the hazards before they were loaded onto the truck, but once they reached the conveyor, they became much harder to remove.

The company now employs a real-time monitoring system that detects objects, alerts controllers and can automatically stop the conveyor.

“These are actually very simple technologies available commercially off the shelf. Cameras and machine learning control systems applied to a real world operational constraint,” he said.

In the prior three years, these incidents had caused over 1,000 hours of downtime, according to Tepponen. However, since it installed the monitoring system, the company hasn’t experienced any major disruptions or destruction events caused by oversized rocks, a change that he said amounts to hundreds of thousands of metric tons per year of increased processing.

“It’s a small system-level optimization that can deliver outsized returns on the AI journey. This is not a massive program. This is identifying simple constraints, applying proven technology,” he said, and emphasized the process of controlled testing, iteration and then deploying at scale. ‘That’s how systematic innovation actually happens.’

Testing scenarios with digital twin simulations

In his third use case example, he turned to BHP’s semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mill at its Escondida operation in Chile, at which differing particle size and hardness in ore feed was impacting production.

The company used AI to create a digital twin of the value chain, which included everything that was known about the operation, such as ore body knowledge, processing behavior and operational constraints.

“That digital simulation enabled scenario testing and gave us the ability to inform blasting and blending strategies to predict granularity,” Tepponen said, noting that monthly production losses attributed to the problem fell by around 70 percent.

“The lesson, when the ore body knowledge is connected directly to the processing decisions, the system becomes more stable and predictable.”

BHP has since applied the approach to other operations, including ones in Australia and Chile.

“The Gen AI integration is multicultural, so non-technical users and the technical users can run scenarios in their first language,” he said, an aspect that he said is very important for the local companies at its operations.

Building foundations, collaboration key to AI usefulness

Tepponen was emphatic that AI alone wasn’t a “superhero.” BHP needed to specifically design these AI platforms in order to achieve these results.

“One of the most important lessons we have learned is we don’t actually get value from AI by starting with AI. The value comes from the foundations, consistent data standards, interoperability. You need to start at the bottom and make your way to the top.”

Tepponen also stressed the value of collaboration, noting that companies tend to be protective of their intellectual property, but opportunities are being missed that could be mutually beneficial.

“The hard truth is, no company can solve this problem of data fragmentation and system integration,” he said, and the industry would benefit from a collaborative approach on standards, interoperability and data throughout the value chain.

Securities Disclosure: I, Dean Belder, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

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Business

DOJ takes Live Nation-Ticketmaster to court for antitrust trial

The Justice Department’s endeavor to break up Live Nation, Ticketmaster’s parent company, has officially made its way to the courtroom.

The antitrust case, which began with jury selection Monday, is unfolding in federal court in New York. Opening statements are scheduled to start Tuesday, with the trial expected to last six weeks.

The lawsuit, filed in 2024 by the Justice Department and dozens of state attorneys general, as well as Washington, D.C., alleges that Live Nation has illegally dominated the live concert industry by monopolizing ticketing, concert booking, venues and promotions.

The complaint, which was filed in the Southern District of New York, accuses the company of engaging in ‘anticompetitive conduct’ that leads fans to pay more in fees, artists to get fewer opportunities to play concerts and venues to have limited choices for ticketing services.

Ticketmaster has for years been the target of scrutiny by music fans who reported frustrations with buying tickets through the platform.

Live Nation directly manages more than 400 musical artists and owns or controls more than 265 concert venues in North America. And through Ticketmaster, the lawsuit says, it controls around 80% of major concert venues’ ticketing — as well as a growing share of the resale market.

“Through interconnected agreements associated with Live Nation’s various roles as ticketer, promoter, artist manager, and venue owner,” the complaint says, “Live Nation has created a feedback loop that pushes ticketing and ancillary fees higher while allowing Live Nation to be on all sides of numerous transactions and thereby double-dip from the pockets of fans, artists, and venues.”

Here’s what else to know.

Attempts to advocate for ticketing reform have spanned decades. The rock band Pearl Jam tried to push the issue forward 30 years ago when its members testified before Congress, saying Ticketmaster had refused to agree to low concert ticket prices and fees. The case was dismissed a year later, and Ticketmaster’s dominance has persisted over the decades that followed.

But frustration over Ticketmaster began to boil over when it incurred the wrath of one of the country’s largest fan bases: Swifties, aka followers of Taylor Swift.

In late 2022, overloaded presale queues for the domestic leg of Swift’s 2023 Eras Tour caused the site to crash and led Ticketmaster to cancel the sale. The fiasco even drew the attention of Swift herself, who called it “excruciating” to watch.

Soon afterward, in January 2023, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing examining Ticketmaster’s dominance in the industry. During the bipartisan hearing, which probed whether Ticketmaster’s outsize control has unfairly hurt customers, even senators couldn’t refrain from making references to Swift.

The Swifties also brought their own lawsuits against Ticketmaster in December 2022. One class-action suit was dropped by the end of 2023, while another suit, filed together by 355 individual ticket buyers, still awaits trial.

Live Nation Entertainment has denied that it’s a monopoly.

The company has told NBC News that the Justice Department’s lawsuit “won’t solve the issues fans care about relating to ticket prices, service fees, and access to in-demand shows.”

“Calling Ticketmaster a monopoly may be a PR win for the DOJ in the short term, but it will lose in court because it ignores the basic economics of live entertainment, such as the fact that the bulk of service fees go to venues, and that competition has steadily eroded Ticketmaster’s market share and profit margin,” the company said.

Last week, Live Nation asked U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian to pause the case so it could appeal his decision denying the case’s dismissal.

Subramanian, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, declined to delay the trial and ruled to allow the Justice Department’s claims to proceed.

Potential witnesses for the trial include: musician Kid Rock (whose real name is Robert Ritchie), Minnesota Timberwolves CEO Matthew Caldwell, Roc Nation CEO Desiree Perez, Live Nation Entertainment CEO Michael Rapino and Mumford & Sons keyboardist Ben Lovett.

Kid Rock is expected to testify about ‘competitive conditions for concert promotions and primary ticketing, including the impact of Defendants’ actions on artists and fans,’ according to the potential witness list provided by the plaintiffs’ attorneys. In January, he told the Senate Commerce Committee at a hearing that the ticketing industry is ‘full of greedy snakes and scoundrels.’ (It appears Kid Rock is still partnering with Live Nation for his “Freedom 250” tour, with tickets currently being sold exclusively through the platform.)

Lovett’s testimony, meanwhile, would be likely to address ‘artist preferences and competitive dynamics associated with the promotions and amphitheaters markets,’ according to the plaintiffs’ potential witness list document. He’s also listed on the defendants’ potential witness list document.

Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino and former Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff are also expected to take the stand. They were instrumental figures in the 2010 merger.

Azoff, who represents major artists such as Harry Styles, is ‘likely to testify about industry trends, dynamics, and competition, the selection of live event promotion companies, and tour and show routing and venue selection, as well as ticketing provider preferences,’ according to the potential witness list provided by the defendants’ attorneys.

Rapino’s expected testimony would focus on ‘the company’s business, its corporate structure, strategy, and finances, including the different lines of business and how they interact, as well as industry trends, dynamics, and competition.’ The defendants’ attorneys also said he would be likely to ‘rebut the plaintiff’s allegations of misconduct and anticompetitive effects.’

Last year, the Federal Trade Commission separately sued Live Nation and Ticketmaster over allegations of illegal and deceptive business practices that it says caused consumers to pay ‘significantly more’ than the face value of a ticket.

Seven states — Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Nebraska, Tennessee, Utah and Virginia — joined the FTC’s suit, which was filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

Politics

WATCH: Clintons sharply divided on Trump testimony in closed-door House Epstein probe

Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave very different responses to House lawmakers last week when asked whether President Donald Trump should testify in their Jeffrey Epstein probe, newly released video shows.

Both testified to the House Oversight Committee behind closed doors for hours in their hometown of Chappaqua, New York.

Each was also asked by the Democratic side whether Trump should come before the committee himself, given his own known past ties to the late financier and sex trafficker.

‘Absolutely,’ Hillary Clinton answered when the question was posed by Democrats’ staff.

She cited the civil case involving writer E. Jean Carroll in which Trump was found civilly liable for defaming Carroll over her allegations that he sexually assaulted her, as well as the 34-count criminal verdict by a New York City court related to allegations he sought to cover up payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing in both cases.

Neither case relates to Epstein, but Hillary Clinton claimed it proved a ‘pattern’ of behavior that would be relevant to the committee’s probe.

‘I think that it would be in keeping with the scope of the investigation of this committee to set up a deposition with President Trump. I know he’s been deposed many, many, many times. He’s taken the Fifth Amendment many, many hundreds of times,’ she argued.

‘So I’m not saying you’re going to get a lot of information, but given what’s in the files, and given past and prior conduct, he would be on my witness list.’

Bill Clinton’s response was far more muted, however.

When asked by Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the committee’s top Democrat, whether Trump should be called in, the former president did not express support one way or another.

‘That’s for you to decide. But he did know him well, and I once had a brief discussion with him about it,’ Bill Clinton said.

Garcia attempted to move on to the next Democratic lawmaker before Bill Clinton cut in again, ‘I hate this, because I don’t believe I should inject anything, but I do not want to leave the impression, but since there was no follow-up question, he never — the president never, this is 20-something years ago, never said anything to me to make me think he was involved in anything improper with regard to Epstein, either.’

‘He just said, ‘We were friends. And then we had a falling out over a land deal, property deal.’ That’s all,’ Bill Clinton said.

He then said the conversation occurred on Trump’s golf course and that he ‘somehow’ knew that the former president had flown on Epstein’s plane.

‘And he said, you know, ‘We had some great times together over the years, but we fell out all because of a real estate deal.’ And he said, ‘I’m sorry it happened.’ That’s all,’ the former president said.

His deposition included far fewer dramatic moments on the whole than his wife’s, who was confronted by Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., and others during multiple explosive points in her own deposition.

At one point, Hillary Clinton even temporarily stormed out of her seat after it was discovered that Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., had run afoul of the deposition’s rules by posting a photo of the former secretary of state.

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Politics

As Iran’s leadership shifts amid war, Hezbollah moves to reset the balance: expert

Hezbollah escalated its involvement in the widening conflict between Iran and the U.S. and Israel Tuesday, launching long-range missiles from Lebanon within 48 hours of coordinated strikes on Iran amid Operation Epic Fury.

The militant group also declared it was ready for an ‘open war,’ The Associated Press reported.

The Iranian-backed militant group fired rockets into northern Israel, prompting Israeli retaliation, according to The Times of Israel. Two were intercepted by air defenses, the military said.

‘Hezbollah is putting everything they have into the fight to add to the challenges Israel will face in this war,’ Ross Harrison, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, told Fox News Digital.

‘But Hezbollah also knows that if the Iranian regime falls, they could be degraded,’ he said before highlighting that ‘Israel could not totally disarm Hezbollah.’

Hezbollah was formed in the early 1980s with Iranian backing during Lebanon’s civil war and has grown into Tehran’s most powerful proxy.

For decades, Iran has funded, armed and trained the group as part of its broader strategy to confront Israel and expand its regional influence.

‘Iran believes that it has to reestablish deterrence before the end of this war with the U.S. and Israel, so expanding it using Hezbollah and attacking Gulf Arab states and Cyprus is part of this,’ Harrison warned.

Israel responded to Hezbollah’s escalation with additional airstrikes on Beirut and expanded its ground operations, with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) taking positions near the border.

The U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon reported seeing Israeli troops enter and exit Lebanese territory, though the IDF insisted its forces continue to operate there, according to The Associated Press.

The U.S. Embassy in Beirut also announced Tuesday that it would close until further notice in a post on X.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said, ‘To prevent the possibility of direct fire at Israeli communities, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I have authorized the IDF to advance and hold additional dominant terrain in Lebanon and defend the border communities from there.

‘The IDF continues to operate forcefully against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. The terrorist organization is paying and will pay a heavy price for the fire toward Israel.’

‘Hezbollah, this is an octopus. The head of the octopus is in Iran. The arms are all over the region,’ IDF spokesperson Effie Defrin told Fox News Digital.

‘Last night, they launched missiles into Haifa, into a city center in Israel. They started it, they knew the consequences of that.’

The IDF also announced that it had killed Daoud Ali Zadeh, commander of the Iranian Quds Force’s Lebanon Corps, in Tehran.

The Quds Force acts as a key liaison between Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, and Hezbollah leadership, facilitating the transfer of advanced weaponry and enhancing proxy firepower.

‘The Quds Force is the arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, responsible for Iran’s relations with its allied militias, such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Kata’ib Hezbollah in Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen,’ Harrison clarified.

‘The Quds Force is the IRGC’s expeditionary force, designed to give Iran strategic depth,’ he said.

‘They are (or were) significant in managing Iran’s relations with shadowy militia organizations, and it has been challenged over the last couple of years as Hamas and Hezbollah have been degraded.’

On Saturday, the U.S.-Israeli airstrike campaign had also targeted Iranian leadership in Tehran, killing Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, dramatically escalating tensions across the Middle East and triggering regional retaliation.

An interim Leadership Council made up of President Masoud Pezeshkian, Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i and Ayatollah Alireza Arafi is temporarily in charge of Iran, acting as the de facto head of state.

‘If Iran ends the war prematurely, then they believe the U.S. and Israel can come back later,’ Harrison said.

‘If they escalate, then they have a shot at recreating deterrence. It is a high risk, as it could bring them down. But the danger is they feel they have little choice, and Hezbollah is part of this for Iran.

‘If the Iranian regime can hang on, they win. That said, Iran cannot win militarily, but if they can deny the U.S. a victory, they win.

‘Fundamentally, the Iranian regime is trying to increase the pain of both Israel and the Gulf Arab states to be able to reestablish deterrence lost since the June 2025 war,’ Harrison added.

‘Attacking civilian areas and economic pain points alongside Hezbollah is also part of this strategy.’

Fox News’ Efrat Lachter contributed to this report.

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Politics

Top Israeli military official reveals operation against Iran involved ‘strategic and operational deception’

As Israel wages what it describes as an existential campaign against Iran, IDF spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said the war has reinforced a fundamental strategic shift in how Israel sees itself and its alliances, particularly with the United States and regional partners.

‘Israel was never part of this region. We thought we were part of Europe,’ he said. ‘Since the Abraham Accords started, we are having good relations with our neighbors. We are part of this region now.’

He described the 2020 agreements as transformative, building on the peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan. ‘The military cooperation is great. Some of the things are overt and some covert,’ Defrin said in his first English-language media interview since the beginning of the conflict. ‘Iran is a regional threat, and that is clear to everyone now.’

But he stressed the campaign against Tehran is not only regional.

‘It’s a worldwide problem, it’s a global problem, it’s a regional problem and it’s also an Israeli problem,’ he said. ‘They are not hitting only Israel.’

Months of Deception

The spokesperson revealed that the operation was preceded by months of strategic deception.

‘It was a strategic and operational deception,’ he said.

On the eve of the strike, senior officials deliberately maintained routine appearances.

‘Friday night we went to dinner at home. The chief of staff and I returned late in cars that were not our official vehicles. The official cars stayed at home, and we made sure that from satellite imagery it would not look like the Kirya (ministry of defense) was full while all the planes were armed and ready.’

He said Iran was caught off guard. ‘For many long months there was deception, so they were surprised. They fired what they had pre-planned in their preset response.’

‘A Mutual Operation’

The spokesperson said the strike that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, was carried out in coordination with the Trump administration. ‘It was a mutual operation,’ he said. ‘The cooperation between us and the American military is amazing. We have mutual planning and mutual executing for the plans in Iran and beyond.’

He framed the operation as part of unprecedented U.S.-Israeli military coordination. The entire operation in Iran is a mutual and coordinated campaign,’ he said.

He also described a broader international dimension. ‘It’s a problem with the United States of America as well,’ he said, citing attacks by Iranian-backed groups that have killed American service members and threatened shipping lanes.

‘They are posing a threat to the Red Sea… the movement of naval ships in the Suez Canal dropped by 90% since the Houthis started shooting at ships in the Bab al-Mandab Strait,’ he said. ‘It’s a global problem. It’s a terror regime. They are acting all over the world. And again, we had to act.’

He added that regional states increasingly understand the threat. ‘Israel is here to stay. You see the countries of the region placing their trust in Israel.’

Strike on Iranian Targets

Addressing reports that dozens of senior Iranian figures were eliminated in a strike on Tuesday, including claims that 88 members of Iran’s Assembly of Experts were killed, he dismissed the figures.

‘We struck a few targets involved in terrorism. We still don’t have any battle damage assessment. Once we have it, we will publish it. It’s too early.’

He emphasized that the targets were military. ‘We struck military targets,’ he said. ‘They are attacking population centers.’

According to the spokesperson, Israeli intelligence shows Iran is deliberately aiming at civilians ‘to exact a price,’ including launches toward civilian infrastructure.

War Aims

Explaining the decision to launch the campaign, the spokesperson described Iran as an imminent existential threat.

‘We didn’t have another choice, unfortunately. It’s an existential imminent threat. This is a terror regime,’ he said.

‘They declared it. Whatever they declared, they did.’

Asked whether regime change is an objective, he drew a distinction between military aims and political outcomes.

‘As a member of the military, I cannot say we have an aim to remove the regime,’ he said. ‘But definitely, we want to weaken it and create the conditions that one day this regime will be removed by its own people.’

As fighting expands to Lebanon following renewed Hezbollah fire, he reiterated Israel’s view of Iran as the head of a regional network.

‘Hezbollah is an octopus. The head of the octopus is in Iran.’

For Israel, he said, the campaign has clarified a strategic reality shaped by the Abraham Accords and deepened U.S. cooperation. ‘We are part of this region now.’

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Politics

Nancy Mace to force vote targeting fellow GOP lawmaker accused of affair with staffer

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., will force a high-profile vote later this week to require the release of sexual harassment reports involving members of Congress.

Mace said Tuesday that her resolution was drafted in response to recent reports alleging that Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, sent sexually explicit text messages to a former staffer. Regina Santos-Aviles, the one-time aide, later died by suicide in September 2025.

‘I mean, literally, this girl killed herself in the most heinous way,’ Mace told Fox News Digital when asked if the Gonzales allegations were her motivation for the resolution. ‘She literally lit herself on fire and died, and we’re just going to sit here and say, ‘Let the process play out?’ No.’

Gonzales has denied the affair and suggested he is being blackmailed by the attorney of Santos-Aviles’ husband.

‘What you have seen is not all the facts, and there’ll be ample time for all of that,’ Gonzales told reporters last week.

Mace’s resolution would specifically require the House Ethics Committee to publicly release all records regarding acts of sexual harassment involving lawmakers or their staffers within 60 days of enactment.

The South Carolina lawmaker said on the House floor that she will deem the resolution ‘privileged,’ meaning House leadership will have two legislative days to vote on the measure. Lawmakers could also vote to table the resolution or refer it to committee, a way to kill legislation before having to weigh the measure itself.

Mace said she expected a vote on the House floor by Thursday but voiced pessimism when asked by Fox News Digital if she thought the resolution would succeed.

‘No, I’m not optimistic about anything, especially when they just hide everything under the rug,’ Mace said. ‘And if you’re an outspoken woman like I am, well, they’re going to come for you.’

Mace is among a group of conservative lawmakers who have called on Gonzales to resign amid allegations he had an affair with his staffer.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., has called the allegations ‘really disgusting.’ Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., told reporters last week that Gonzales ‘needs to go.’

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has not made any push one way or the other, though he has called the allegations against the Texas lawmaker ‘very serious’ and ‘alarming and detestable.’ The speaker is wrestling with a razor-thin majority and can afford to lose just one defecting GOP lawmaker on party-line legislation.

The Office of Congressional Conduct is expected to send a report on Gonzales to the House ethics panel after the Texas primary elections Tuesday. Under House rules, reports on lawmakers cannot be released within 60 days of an election.

Gonzales is facing a primary challenge from his right flank, social media influencer Brandon Herrera, who is backed by the conservative House Freedom Caucus’ campaign arm. Herrera lost to Gonzales in 2024 by less than 400 votes.

Mace was one of four House Republicans to advocate for the release of files relating to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

A request for comment to Gonzales’ office was not immediately returned.

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Politics

Trump exploring backing militias in Iran to topple weakened regime following strikes: reports

President Donald Trump is open to the idea of supporting militia groups in Iran willing to help take out the regime, according to reports.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump has spoken with Kurdish leaders, who have a sizable force along the Iraq-Iran border.

‘President Trump has spoken with many regional partners,’ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the newspaper in a statement, without confirming Trump’s aims.

Trump spoke with two leaders of the main Kurdish factions in Iraq — Masoud Barzani and Bafel Talabani — a day after the Saturday bombing campaign began, Axios first reported.

Officials told the Journal that Trump hasn’t made a decision on the matter, including what type of help the United States would provide, be it arms, intelligence or other resources.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House.

Among the approaches being looked at for Iran moving forward are backing militias while weighing different scenarios for who could realistically take power after the country’s leaders fall, the newspaper reported.

Trump has urged the people of Iran to overthrow the country’s regime as Tehran appears to be weakened following U.S. and Israeli military strikes that have killed several key Iranian leaders and officials.

‘Most of the people we had in mind are dead,’ he told reporters at the White House. ‘And now we have another group, they may be dead also. Pretty soon we’re not going to know anybody.’

The strikes have fueled speculation that the Kurds could advance into Iran amid Israeli strikes in the western part of the country.

‘It is the general view, and certainly (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu’s view, that the Kurds are going to come out of the woodwork … that they’re going to rise up,’ one official told Axios.

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