Lionel Messi took a night off to watch the Miami Heat.
The Inter Miami star and eight-time Ballon d'Or winner as the world's best player — along with teammates Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets and Luis Suarez — arrived just before tip-off of the Heat playoff game with the Boston Celtics on Monday night.
Full StoryTaylor Swift continues to dominate in the week following the release of her 11th album, "The Tortured Poets Department." The 31-track album has hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, tying Swift with Jay-Z for second-most No. 1 albums at 14. Only The Beatles, with 19 No. 1 albums, have had more.
The double album has amassed 2.61 million equivalent album units, according to Luminate, the industry data and analytics company. A shocking 1.91 million of those units come from traditional album sales — people purchasing downloads, CDs, cassettes and vinyl. Vinyl accounts for 859,000 units sold, the highest number of vinyl sales in modern history.
Full StorySamsung Electronics on Tuesday reported a 10-fold increase in operating profit for the last quarter as the expansion of artificial intelligence technologies drives a rebound in the markets for computer memory chips.
The South Korean semiconductor and smartphone giant said its operating profit for the Jan-March quarter came in at 6.6 trillion won ($4.8 billion), up from the 640 billion won ($465 million) it earned during the same period last year.
Full StoryMexico's taking control of its oil sector from U.S. and British companies is taught in schools and celebrated every year. The 1938 nationalization is a point of pride for millions of Mexicans including President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The popular president hails from the Mexican oil industry's heartland, and 16 years ago he led a fight against energy reforms that were aimed at drawing private investment to the massive state-run oil company, Pemex. This year, the front-runner in the race to replace López Obrador chose the anniversary of Mexico's oil expropriation to announce her energy proposals, which include maintaining large-scale petroleum production by Pemex.
Full StoryTwenty years after joining the European Union, Poland is still not ready to adopt the euro currency, the finance minister in the pro-European Union government said.
Andrzej Domański, finance minister in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, said in an interview on TVN24 on Monday that Poland joining the eurozone, the currency union of 20 EU members, is not justified at this time.
Full StoryThe European Union said Tuesday that it's scrutinizing Facebook and Instagram over a range of suspected violations of the bloc's digital rulebook, including not doing enough to protect users from foreign disinformation ahead of EU-wide elections.
The EU's Executive Commission said it's opening formal proceedings into whether parent company Meta Platforms breached the Digital Services Act, a sweeping set of regulations designed to protect internet users and clean up social media platforms.
Full StoryMcDonald's said higher U.S. sales in the first quarter helped it overcome weakness in the Middle East and other markets where consumers have been boycotting the brand.
The Chicago burger giant said its same-store sales – or sales at stores open at least a year -- rose 1.9% worldwide in the January-March period. That was below Wall Street's forecast of a 2.1% increase, according to analysts polled by FactSet.
Full StoryNations made progress on a treaty to end plastic pollution as their fourth round of talks finished early Tuesday in Canada.
For the first time in the process, negotiators discussed the text of what is supposed to become a global treaty. Delegates and observers at the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution called it a welcome sign that talk shifted from ideas to treaty language at this fourth of five scheduled meetings.
Full StoryIf a woman wins Mexico's presidency on June 2, would she rule with gender in mind?
The question has been raised by academics, humans rights organizations and activists ahead of the voting that will likely elect Mexico's first female president for the term 2024-2030.
Full StoryU.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Jordan on the second leg of his latest Mideast diplomatic mission to boost aid shipments to Gaza and champion a new proposal for an Israel-Hamas cease-fire that would include the release of hostages held by the militant group.
A day after saying in Saudi Arabia that Israel still needs to do more to get humanitarian assistance into Gaza, and that Israel’s latest cease-fire offer was “extraordinarily generous” to Hamas, Blinken was meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi in Amman. Their talks were expected to focus on those issues as well as planning for post-conflict reconstruction and governance of Gaza.
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