Connect with us
DAPA Banner
DAPA Coin
DAPA
COIN PAYMENT ASSET
PRIVACY · BLOCKDAG · HOMOMORPHIC ENCRYPTION · RUST
ElGamal Encrypted MINE DAPA
🚫 GENESIS SOLD OUT
DAPAPAY COMING

Business

Andy Burnham promises to ‘build a new economy’ in first speech as Prime Minister

Published

on

Business Live

The new Labour leader has pledged to revive the country’s industrial heartlands

Britain's new Prime Minister Andy Burnham delivers his first speech outside 10 Downing Street

Britain’s new Prime Minister Andy Burnham delivers his first speech outside 10 Downing Street(Image: Zeynep Demir/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Andy Burnham has pledged to “build a new economy” during his time as Prime Minister, vowing a suite of cost-of-living support measures for households will be unveiled as early as tomorrow.

Speaking on the steps of Downing Street, the new Labour leader said his government would put “life’s essentials back under stronger public control” and breathe new life into the nation’s industrial heartlands. He also restated his backing for the Starmer government’s defence commitments and vowed to bring “the welfare bill down”.

Advertisement

“We will make this moment a circuit breaker for Britain, bringing forward the biggest changes in the last 40 years, a new political model and a new economic model,” Burnham said, adding: “We will take power out of here and carry it into every postcode in the land, so that they can do more, and in doing more, build a new economy where we put life’s essentials back under stronger public control.”

The comments marked the former Manchester mayor’s maiden address as Prime Minister, having been sworn into the nation’s highest office by the King mere moments before delivering his speech.

Sir Keir Starmer formally submitted his resignation earlier on Monday, informing voters that “his work was done” and that it had been the “privilege of [his] life” to serve in Downing Street.

In a break from previous speeches, Burnham chose to forgo a lectern, reiterating his previously declared commitment to redistribute political authority away from Westminster towards local councils and devolved institutions.

Advertisement

The initiative will serve as the cornerstone of a “10-year plan” to introduce a fresh political and economic framework aimed at improving Britain, as reported by City AM.

“Later this year, I will bring forward a new plan for Britain, a 10-year plan,” he said, “laying out a path from where we are now to where I believe we all want Britain to be, wherever we’re coming from, whatever party we support.”

Burnham pledged to give voters “breathing space” with several costed measures to ease the cost of living expected to be unveiled as early as Tuesday.

“We will… build a new economy where we put life’s essentials back under stronger public control to make them affordable to you again, reindustrialising Britain using public procurement to back British industry,” he said.

Advertisement

The renewed outbreak of conflict in the Middle East has left Burnham confronting a challenging economic legacy. The UK’s borrowing costs remained stubbornly high throughout his first morning in Downing Street, after Washington announced two further nights of strikes over the weekend and shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz came to a standstill.

The 10-year gilt yield was hovering at just under five per cent by the close of the former Manchester mayor’s address, remaining elevated amid concerns that escalating tensions will further fuel inflationary pressures within the British economy.

The head of Britain’s largest industry body welcomed Burnham’s pledge to unveil a 10-year plan, stating that businesses “thrive on long-term certainty”.

“Our surveys show energy and taxation are squeezing businesses, hitting confidence and investment. Easing the cost of doing business will deliver the growth we all want to see,” Shevaun Haviland, British Chambers of Commerce director general, said.

Advertisement

“Getting growth in ‘every postcode’ of the UK is only possible if business is placed at the heart of the economic strategy,” she added. “Any structural changes to the economy must deliver growth – and that happens when firms invest and expand.”

CBI chief Rain Newton-Smith lent her voice to calls for businesses to play a central role in Burnham’s time in office.

She said: “Ambitious plans to improve the livelihoods of people across the country must be matched by action to get businesses thriving once again.

“Addressing the cost-of-living challenge needs to go hand in hand with tackling the cost of doing business, so we can deliver sustainable growth in jobs, wages and living standards.”

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

Business

Aided By China, Equities Bounce Back; CAD Recovers From The Drop On U.S. Threat Of 50% Tariffs

Published

on

Aided By China, Equities Bounce Back; CAD Recovers From The Drop On U.S. Threat Of 50% Tariffs

Aided By China, Equities Bounce Back; CAD Recovers From The Drop On U.S. Threat Of 50% Tariffs

Continue Reading

Business

No One Wins $545 Million Powerball Jackpot Monday Night, Prize Now Grows to $567 Million by Wednesday

Published

on

Jordan Peterson

No one matched all six numbers in Monday night’s Powerball drawing, sending the jackpot rolling over to an estimated $567 million ahead of the next drawing scheduled for Wednesday, July 22.

The winning numbers drawn for the July 20 jackpot were 2, 9, 44, 53 and 59, with a red Powerball of 8 and a Power Play multiplier of 2X. While no ticket matched all five white balls plus the Powerball to claim the top prize, which had carried a cash option of $242 million, two tickets came close, matching all five white balls without the Powerball to win $1 million Match 5 prizes, one sold in Colorado and the other in Michigan. No tickets matched five white balls plus the Power Play option, which would have paid out a $2 million prize.

The jackpot keeps climbing

With Monday’s drawing producing no jackpot winner, the prize has grown further heading into Wednesday’s drawing, now estimated at $567 million with a cash value of $251.8 million for any winner who opts to take the lump-sum payout instead of the annuitized jackpot amount.

Advertisement

Powerball drawings are held three times each week, on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday nights, at 11 p.m. Eastern time. The overall odds of matching all five white balls and the red Powerball to win the jackpot remain extraordinarily long, at approximately 1 in 292.2 million.

A companion drawing with its own results

Alongside the main Powerball drawing, Monday’s session also included a separate Double Play drawing, giving players who added that option an additional chance to win. The Double Play winning numbers for July 20 were 15, 21, 39, 54 and 67, with a red Powerball of 7.

Where and how to play

Advertisement

Powerball is available in 45 U.S. states, along with Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands, including in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. Notably, players do not need to be U.S. citizens or residents in order to legally purchase tickets and participate in the game.

In Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana specifically, tickets can be purchased in person at gas stations, convenience stores and supermarkets, though sales cutoff times vary depending on the specific selling jurisdiction, typically closing between one and two hours before that night’s scheduled drawing.

For players who prefer purchasing tickets online, options vary by state. In Kentucky, tickets can be bought directly through the official Kentucky Lottery website. In Ohio and Indiana, players can order tickets online through Jackpocket, which serves as the official digital lottery courier for the USA TODAY Network in those states. Additional states offering official online ticket sales through their respective state lottery websites include Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Cost and add-on options

Advertisement

A single Powerball ticket costs $2 per play. Players can pay an additional $1 to add the Power Play option, which multiplies non-jackpot winnings by a randomly selected factor. In select states, including Kentucky and Indiana, players also have the option to add Double Play for an additional $1, giving them a separate, second chance to win up to $10 million through the companion drawing held immediately after the standard Powerball numbers are drawn.

How to play and how prizes are structured

To play Powerball, participants select five different numbers ranging from 1 to 69 for the white balls, then choose one additional number ranging from 1 to 26 for the red Powerball. Numbers can be manually selected on a play slip or generated randomly by the lottery terminal for players who prefer a “quick pick” option.

Powerball’s prize structure includes multiple winning tiers beyond the jackpot itself. Matching all five white balls without the Powerball earns a guaranteed $1 million prize, with odds of roughly 1 in 11.7 million. Smaller prizes are available for matching fewer numbers, ranging from $100 prizes down to a minimum $4 payout for matching either just the Powerball alone or a single white ball plus the Powerball, with the easiest winning combination carrying odds of roughly 1 in 38.

Advertisement

A reminder to check old tickets

The latest jackpot rollover comes as lottery officials in Kentucky have separately been urging residents to check any unclaimed tickets they may still be holding onto, following news that the Kentucky Lottery is actively searching for the owner of an unclaimed, million-dollar Powerball ticket that is set to expire soon. Officials have expressed hope that publicizing the search will prompt whoever holds the winning ticket to come forward before the claim deadline passes.

With Wednesday’s drawing now set to offer an estimated $567 million jackpot, ticket sales are expected to pick up in the days leading up to the drawing as the prize continues climbing following Monday night’s rollover. Players across the 45 participating states, along with Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands, will have their next opportunity to try their luck at the growing jackpot when Wednesday night’s numbers are drawn at 11 p.m. Eastern time.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Business

Jamie Dimon warns Burnham government on UK growth

Published

on

Jamie Dimon warns Burnham government on UK growth

Jamie Dimon has handed Andy Burnham’s day-old government both a vote of confidence and a warning shot. The JP Morgan chief executive says he wants London to remain the US bank’s home “for a long period of time”, but whether Britain stays attractive as a place to do business rests on the new prime minister and his chancellor reviving growth.

“The new chancellor [is] going to need good policies that actually cause growth. So I’m praying that they get policy right [as] government after government get it wrong,” Dimon, who has run the bank since 2006, said in an interview with The Master Investor Podcast with Wilfred Frost, released on Tuesday.

For the owners of Britain’s small and medium-sized firms, that is the question of the moment put with unusual bluntness. When the boss of America’s largest bank says he is reduced to prayer, smaller businesses waiting on the same policy decisions might be forgiven a similar approach.

Burnham formally succeeded Sir Keir Starmer on Monday, promising a “new political and economic model” for Britain and arguing that MPs had fallen short for decades in creating the conditions for lasting and more equal growth. He enters Downing Street with eight in ten SME owners already braced for impact, so Dimon’s cautious optimism will be read closely on both sides of that divide.

The man charged with answering Dimon’s prayer is John Healey, the surprise pick for No 11 after early favourites Ed Miliband and Shabana Mahmood lost out. Burnham has also promised to set out measures to ease the cost of living as soon as Tuesday, and has hinted at lifting the earnings threshold at which workers first pay income tax, frozen at £12,570 since 2021.

Advertisement

The arithmetic is unforgiving. Burnham has repeatedly committed to the existing fiscal rules, funding day-to-day spending from tax revenues within three years, but economists warn the war in the Middle East may have whittled his fiscal headroom from £23.7 billion to just £10 billion. Every giveaway must be paid for, and the City knows where chancellors tend to look.

Which is why Dimon reserved his sharpest words for the bank levy, the balance sheet tax introduced in the wake of the global financial crisis. “I have always thought it was wrong,” he said. “JP Morgan did not damage the UK … we’re a great citizen there. We hire people there. We want to be bigger there. We train people there. We hire veterans there.”

“It’s still there 17 years later. Is that fair to a shareholder? I mean, it may sound great, ‘tax the banks’, but it’s $5 billion that my shareholders paid on that extra tax. And I just think things like that have adverse consequences.”

Asked whether an increase in the levy would sink the bank’s planned £3 billion UK headquarters, having already threatened to reconsider the Canary Wharf project if Britain turned hostile to banks, Dimon was more measured: “I don’t know what I’d do. I wouldn’t make a binary decision like that.”

Advertisement

That matters well beyond the Square Mile. A £3 billion construction project feeds contractors, fit-out firms, caterers and suppliers across the SME economy, and the tax treatment of Britain’s biggest inward investors sets the tone for everyone weighing whether to commit capital here.

There was warmth, too, for the departed. Rachel Reeves, sacked by Burnham this week after two years at the Treasury, “did a great job”, Dimon said. Investors credited her fiscal prudence with keeping a lid on government borrowing costs.

Her successor inherits the goodwill, the £10 billion of headroom, and one of Wall Street’s most powerful men praying he does not waste either.


Amy Ingham

Amy Ingham

Amy Ingham is a reporter at Business Matters, covering UK business news with a focus on breaking news, business policy, late payments and insolvency. She joined the magazine in 2026 after completing the NCTJ Diploma in Journalism at Harlow College’s journalism school. Her recent reporting includes British Steel’s nationalisation and its impact on SME suppliers, the decline in late payments by large firms, and Insolvency Service director disqualifications. Reach her at aingham@cbmeg.co.uk.

Advertisement

Continue Reading

Business

(VIDEO) Lamine Yamal Steals the Show as Nearly Two Million Fans Celebrate Spains World Cup Win in Madrid

Published

on

Lamine Yamal Steals the Show as Nearly Two Million Fans

MADRID — Lamine Yamal took center stage as nearly two million supporters flooded the streets of Madrid on Monday to celebrate Spain’s World Cup title, with the teenage star grabbing a microphone to sing Bad Bunny songs and carrying the trophy through the Spanish capital during an open-top bus parade that stretched from Moncloa Palace to Cibeles Square.

Less than 24 hours after Spain’s 1-0 extra-time victory over Argentina in New Jersey, the country’s champions returned home to scenes organizers described as unforgettable. An estimated 1.8 to 2 million supporters lined Madrid’s historic avenues, transforming the capital into a sea of red and yellow as the squad made its way through the city on the same route once traveled after Spain’s first World Cup title in 2010.

A royal welcome before the party began

Advertisement

The day’s celebrations opened with a formal reception at Zarzuela Palace, where King Felipe VI and the royal family congratulated the players before the squad met separately with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. Players later swapped their formal attire for commemorative “We Are Champions” shirts as they boarded the open-top bus for the parade through the city.

Spain coach Luis de la Fuente reflected on the emotional weight of the day before the parade got underway. “It’s been an emotional and proud experience to represent a wonderful country with such passionate and devoted fans,” de la Fuente said. “We are filled with joy.”

Yamal at the center of the celebration

Yamal was among the most visibly celebrated figures throughout the day, proudly carrying the World Cup trophy as thousands of fans chanted his name along the parade route. The 19-year-old Barcelona forward was regularly seen dancing alongside Athletic Club winger Nico Williams throughout the procession, and later took the microphone to sing along to Bad Bunny tracks as the bus wound through central Madrid.

Advertisement

Fellow Spain players embraced the festive atmosphere throughout the parade, with forward Borja Iglesias stepping into an impromptu DJ role while teammates danced atop the bus and interacted with fans lining the streets below. Several players draped themselves in Spanish flags as the celebration continued.

A pointed moment amid the celebration

Not all of Monday’s moments were purely celebratory. While riding the open-top bus, Yamal and teammate Fabian Ruiz were seen laughing and pointing at a sign held up by fans that mockingly referred to a post-match altercation between Argentina’s Leandro Paredes and Spain’s Gavi as the “event of the year,” a nod to the tension that had colored the final’s closing moments in New Jersey.

A fashion statement from the match-winner

Advertisement

Match-winner Ferran Torres, whose extra-time goal secured the title, provided one of the day’s most talked-about moments with his choice of headwear, wearing a red cap emblazoned with the phrase “Make Spain Great Again,” a cheeky reference to President Donald Trump, who had presented the players with their medals just 24 hours earlier at the tournament’s trophy ceremony.

Speaking to reporters after returning from New York, Torres reflected on the significance of seeing young fans celebrate the victory, attributing the team’s success to sustained hard work throughout the tournament.

A hero’s welcome for the captain

Spain captain and Golden Ball winner Rodri received one of the loudest ovations of the night when the squad arrived at Cibeles Square for the final ceremony. Rodri, who recovered from a serious knee injury suffered in 2024 before returning to lift both the World Cup trophy and the tournament’s top individual honor two years later, led the crowd in chants for teammate Marc Cucurella, who briefly took over playing drums during the celebration. Rodri also used the moment to publicly defend Torres, noting that the forward had faced unfair criticism in the past but had now secured an undeniable place in Spanish football history.

Advertisement

A ceremony introducing each champion individually

Authorities estimated roughly 120,000 people were on hand specifically for the ceremony at Cibeles Square, where players were introduced one by one onto a specially constructed stage, each entering to a song of their own choosing. Alex Baena, celebrating his 25th birthday during the festivities, entered carrying the World Cup trophy. Coach de la Fuente was lifted into the air by his players after being introduced to the crowd, and joined in singing along to the music played for him.

Celebrations extended well beyond Madrid

The party stretched far beyond the capital. In Valencia, roughly 30,000 fans gathered in Plaza del Ayuntamiento for a public viewing event, with fireworks and sparklers illuminating the celebration once Spain secured the title. In Mataro, Yamal’s working-class hometown north of Barcelona, a capacity crowd of approximately 10,000 packed Parc Central to watch their local hero play in his first World Cup final, with red smoke filling the gathering after Torres’ decisive goal.

Advertisement

A drought finally ended

Monday’s celebrations marked the end of a 16-year wait for Spain’s second World Cup title, following the country’s first triumph in South Africa in 2010. Looking ahead, Prime Minister Sanchez suggested Spain could pursue a third world championship when the country co-hosts the 2030 tournament alongside Portugal and Morocco, extending what has become one of the most successful periods in the history of Spanish football.

What comes next

With Monday’s celebrations now complete, Spain’s players are expected to shift their focus toward upcoming club commitments and international fixtures, carrying momentum from one of the youngest championship-winning squads in this year’s tournament. Anchored by a core group featuring Yamal, Nico Williams and Torres, Spain now enters a new period as the reigning men’s World Cup champion, with expectations already building toward the team’s title defense on home soil in 2030.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Business

XEQT:CA: Looking Beyond Today’s Market Leaders (TSX:XEQT:CA)

Published

on

Allspring Special Small Cap Value Fund Q4 2025 Portfolio Review

This article was written by

I am a corporate finance professional with over ten years of experience in financial planning, capital budgeting, and risk assessment. As a long-term investor, I invest exclusively in funds and do not pick individual stocks. My approach is evidence-based: low costs, broad diversification, strategic asset allocation, and patience through market cycles. My motivation for writing is twofold: first, to help other long-term investors, especially women and those new to fund investing. I focus on what truly drives returns: costs, diversification, and time in the market. Second, to bring rigorous, data-driven fund analysis to a platform often dominated by single-stock commentary. I write to learn, share, and build a community of patient investors who value sleeping well at night over chasing short-term gains.

Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Seeking Alpha’s Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Business

Novo Nordisk sues Eli Lilly over GLP-1 ads

Published

on

Novo Nordisk sues Eli Lilly over GLP-1 ads

Photo illustration of a group of weight loss medications on a white background.

Ucg | Universal Images Group | Getty Images

Novo Nordisk on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against Eli Lilly, alleging that its advertising campaigns for its blockbuster obesity and diabetes drugs are designed to mislead consumers about their superior efficacy relative to the Danish drugmaker’s rival injections. 

Advertisement

Novo is specifically taking issue with nationwide ads that cite what it called “outdated” clinical trials to compare the highest doses of Lilly’s medicines to lower doses of Novo’s drugs. For example, those campaigns don’t include new evidence about Novo’s recently approved high-dose version of its obesity injection, Wegovy, which entered the market in March and brings weight loss that’s more comparable to Lilly’s products.

That “leaves them with the inevitable conclusion that Lilly’s medicines are superior to Novo’s, and that’s not accurate,” said John Kuckelman, Novo’s group general counsel, in an interview on Monday. He said the suit comes after Lilly refused to pull down or correct certain ads despite a formal cease-and-desist request from Novo back in April. 

In the suit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, Novo asked the court to permanently stop Lilly from running the ads and require the drugmaker to issue corrective advertising. Novo is also seeking financial damages, though it’s unclear how much. The company said it has also warned Lilly that if the ads are not removed voluntarily, it plans to seek a preliminary injunction in the coming days to block them immediately while the case proceeds. 

Lilly did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Advertisement

The suit comes as Novo wages an aggressive battle against Lilly to regain market share in the GLP-1 space, positioning its new obesity pill, strategic price cuts and the new high-dose Wegovy to compete with its rival’s top-selling obesity injection Zepbound and diabetes counterpart Mounjaro.

In recent years, Lilly’s medications have become the preferred treatments in the space among many providers and patients due to their high efficacy. But high-dose Wegovy, which showed an average weight loss of around 19%, is a direct answer to that. 

Issues with ‘outdated’ trials

Novo said it is specifically bringing federal and state unfair competition and false advertising claims, including under the Lanham Act, which pharmaceutical companies have relied on in the past to hold competitors accountable for deceptive advertising. 

The suit alleges that Lilly’s campaigns across television and social media are harmful because consumers often rely on advertising to form their understanding of GLP-1s, unlike healthcare professionals, who have access to the full scientific evidence available. 

Advertisement

“Lilly’s advertising campaign deprives consumers of the truthful, current, and complete information they need to make informed decisions about their available treatment options,” the suit said. 

The lawsuit cites a TV commercial presenting Zepbound and Wegovy in a direct side-by-side comparison, stating visually and verbally that patients on Lilly’s drug lose 50 pounds on average compared to 33 pounds on the 2.4-milligram dose of Novo’s treatment. That’s based on a previous head-to-head clinical trial comparing the highest doses of Zepbound to the 1.7- and 2.4-milligram doses of Wegovy. 

But Novo said in the suit that a more recent study shows that the high-dose 7.2-milligram dose of Wegovy helped patients lose 47 pounds on average, which is “clinically consistent” with Zepbound’s weight loss in Lilly’s most recent rigorous trial on the drug. 

Novo said Lilly acknowledges the existence of that high-dose Wegovy in a “small footnote,” but called it “ambiguous, confusing, virtually illegible, and wholly inadequate,” as it does not communicate that it is significantly more effective than the lower doses of the drug. 

Advertisement

In the suit, Novo added that no head-to-head trials have compared the highest doses of Wegovy and Zepbound currently available on the market, so Lilly has “no basis to make these comparative claims” that its drugs are more effective. 

“While it may have been accurate to say that before 7.2 milligrams became available for Wegovy, it is no longer accurate to say that,” said Kuckelman. “They have, we think, a legal obligation, but even more important, they have a responsibility to patients to share accurate information.”

The suit added that the Zepbound TV commercial has received more than 700 million impressions since it began airing around the end of April, which demonstrates the scale of the competitive harm to Novo. 

The suit alleges that Lilly takes the same approach when comparing the efficacy of Mounjaro and Ozempic in its ads, withholding new data on a higher dose of Novo’s drug that was approved more than four years ago. 

Advertisement

“We feel that we have a very strong case here that we can show that Lily has indeed misled consumers with the advertising,” Kuckelman said. 

Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.
Continue Reading

Business

Paramount and Warner Bros mega merger paused by judge

Published

on

Two young women surrounded by studio lights and tripods selling eyelash serums on a live stream

A US federal judge has temporarily blocked the proposed $110bn (£85bn) merger between media giants Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros Discovery.

The decision follows a lawsuit brought by a coalition of 12 US states, including California and New York, aiming to halt the deal over concerns it would stifle competition and raise consumer prices.

Prosecutors representing the states said merging two major studios would cause “substantial harm on movie theatres, basic cable distributors, and, ultimately, audiences nationwide”.

In response, the media giants argued that the states had misread the market and that merging would improve streaming efficiency.

Advertisement

US district judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín issued the temporary restraining order on Monday following legals arguments heard last week.

Under the 14-day injunction, neither company can finalise the deal or start joining the businesses together.

In her ruling, the judge noted that the state coalition raised “serious questions” regarding the deal’s impact on movie distribution.

She warned that allowing the merger to proceed now would make it “extraordinarily difficult to unscramble the egg” if the court decided later to block it all together.

Advertisement

Judge Martínez-Olguín also pushed back against the companies’ arguments, highlighting that “public’s vital interest in antitrust enforcement” outweighed any temporary delay to the merger.

She said that Paramount and Warner Bros “will continue to operate as separate, viable companies competing in the marketplace” while legal proceedings continue.

Continue Reading

Business

Thousands of websites taken down for illegal World Cup streams

Published

on

Two young women surrounded by studio lights and tripods selling eyelash serums on a live stream

Almost 3,000 websites have been blocked or seized for illegally streaming World Cup matches, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has said.

More than 1,000 domains were shut down in the US alone during the tournament, with a similar number blocked in Colombia.

Enforcement agencies in America and across South America carried out the action under investigations named “operation offsides” and “operation red card”.

Ivan J. Arvelo, director of the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (NIPRCC), said unauthorised broadcasting of World Cup matches violated intellectual property rights and “fuels criminal organizations”.

Advertisement

The DOJ said at the end of last month it had taken down 400 webpages over illegal World Cup streaming. Now hundreds more have been taken down or blocked.

“The sustained effort to seize more than a thousand domains dedicated to illegally streaming the World Cup confirms the administration’s commitment to intellectual property rights and to the success of the 2026 FIFA World Cup,” said the DOJ’s assistant attorney general A. Tysen Duva.

The enforcement has been largely overseen by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a federal agency that includes the NIPRCC.

The illegal streaming of sports often happens through webpages or websites created specifically for the event. Companies and broadcasters have estimated, external the activity costs them billions of dollars a year.

Advertisement

Due to its global popularity, football has been found to be pirated at an “industrial scale”, according to analysts. The increasing cost of rights deals for matches has resulted in higher prices for fans at home, especially if they choose to pay for multiple services to watch their team play.

It has led to some fans turning to illegal streams of big games to avoid such costs.

Charles Rivkin, chairman of the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), which aims to combat digital piracy and helped in the police effort, said on Monday that the World Cup was the “kind of global live event that piracy networks move quickly to exploit”.

The crackdown on illegal streaming was also supported by Fifa, which organises the World Cup, beIN Media Group, NBC Universal, Ultimate Fighting Championship, and Warner Brothers.

Advertisement

Much of Fifa’s revenue comes from the sale of broadcasting rights to the various global media networks that want to televise matches.

Fifa and the other media entities did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Colombian Attorney General’s Office said it had even made several arrests in connection with the operations.

Four members of what was referred to as the “cybercriminal group” Los Ciberinfiltrados were arrested for allegedly gaining and distributing access to World Cup games illegally.

Advertisement

Another 830 websites in Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil and the Dominican Republic were also taken down.

As well as illegal streaming, police in Colombia conducted “nationwide search-and-seizure operations” around counterfeit sports clothing.

The DoJ said 11 people in the country has been arrested and convicted for the illegal manufacture and distribution of fake sporting merchandise.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Business

Families skipping meals during school holidays, warns charity

Published

on

Two young women surrounded by studio lights and tripods selling eyelash serums on a live stream

Families are skipping meals to make ends meet during the school holidays, a charity has warned.

FareShare Sussex & Surrey says some parents are facing extra food costs as children cannot access free school meals over the summer break.

Dan Slatter, chief executive of the charity, told the BBC there was a “mountain of need. There’s a growing number of people that are facing food insecurity or even more extreme hunger.”

The government funds local authorities across England to run holiday activities and food camps, which are known as Club4 in Surrey.

Advertisement

These camps are only for children who receive benefit-related free school meals, Surrey County Council says on its website.

Steve, a senior warehouse manager at FareShare Sussex & Surrey, said he used a food bank when he was homeless with his daughter 11 years ago.

“All the benefits I was getting were going on fuel to get my daughter to and from school every day,” he told the BBC.

“We were struggling.

Advertisement

“I didn’t want to ask for help, but it got to the point where we weren’t eating.”

Continue Reading

Business

Somerset dad facing difficult summer as food larder donations plunge

Published

on

Two young women surrounded by studio lights and tripods selling eyelash serums on a live stream

“If this trend keeps happening one or two years down the line, I don’t know,” she said.

“We can’t keep buying food [and] if people can’t afford to donate the food then we’ll struggle.”

Loki Stokes, the food bank’s food logistics manager, added that he has “never seen our stock this low”.

“We try to hold a week’s buffer across all nine outlets, but this summer that’s getting hard to promise,” he said.

Advertisement

A Somerset Council spokesperson said the authority recognised that many households continue to face financial pressures due to the ongoing cost of living crisis.

“These pressures will increase for many families over the summer holidays.

“The three years of government funding provided through the Crisis and Resilience Fund enable us to build on our strong partnerships with organisations across Somerset, helping to ensure that residents who need support can access it close to where they live,” they added.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2025