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Challenging Client
The downfall of the Thai PM: A leaked phone call derails his career
Jonathan HeadSouth East Asia correspondent in Bangkok
Getty ImagesThailand’s Constitutional Court strikes again, removing yet another prime minister from office.
The country’s notoriously interventionist panel of nine appointed judges has ruled that Paetongtarn Shinawatra violated ethical standards in a phone call she had in June with the veteran Cambodian leader Hun Sen, which he then leaked.
In it, Paetongtarn could be heard being conciliatory towards Hun Sen over their countries’ border dispute, and criticising one of her own army commanders.
She defended her conversation saying she had been trying to make a diplomatic breakthrough with Hun Sen, an old friend of her father Thaksin Shinawatra, and said the conversation should have remained confidential.
The leak was damaging and deeply embarrassing for her and her Pheu Thai party. It sparked calls for her to resign as her biggest coalition partner walked out of the government, leaving her with a slim majority.
In July, seven out of the nine judges on the court voted to suspend Paetongtarn, a margin which suggested she would suffer the same fate as her four predecessors. So Friday’s decision was not a surprise.
Paetongtarn is the fifth Thai prime minister to be removed from office by this court, all of them from administrations backed by her father.
This has given rise to a widespread belief in Thailand that it nearly always rules against those seen as a threat by conservative, royalist forces.
The court has also banned 112 political parties, many of them small, but including two previous incarnations of Thaksin’s Pheu Thai party, and Move Forward, the reformist movement which won the last election in 2023.
In few other countries is political life so rigorously policed by a branch of the judiciary.
Getty ImagesIn this case, it was the leaked phone conversation that sealed Pateongtarn’s fate.
It is not clear why Hun Sen chose to burn his friendship with the Shinawatra family. He reacted angrily to a comment by Paetongtarn calling the Cambodian leadership’s use of social media to push its arguments “unprofessional”.
Hun Sen described it as “an unprecedented insult”, which had driven him to “expose the truth”.
But his decision caused a political crisis in Thailand, inflaming tensions over their border, which last month erupted into a five-day war that killed more than 40 people.
The Thai constitution now requires members of parliament to choose a new prime minister from a very limited list.
Each party was required to name three candidates before the last election, and Pheu Thai has now used up two, after the court’s dismissal of Srettha Thavisin last year.
Their third candidate, Chaikasem Nitisiri, is a former minister and party stalwart, but has little public profile and is in poor health. The alternative would be Anutin Charnvirakul, the former interior minister whose Bhumjaithai party walked out of the ruling coalition, ostensibly over the leaked phone call.
Relations between the two parties are now strained, and Anutin would have to rely on Pheu Thai, which has many more seats, to form a government, which is hardly a recipe for stability.
The largest party in parliament, the 143 MPs who were formerly in the now-dissolved Move Forward and have reformed as The People’s Party, has vowed not to join any coalition, but to remain in opposition until a new election is held.
A new election would appear to be the obvious way out of the current political mess, but Pheu Thai does not want that. After two years in office it has been unable to meet its promises to revive the economy.
Getty ImagesFor all of her youth, the inexperienced Paetongtarn failed to establish any real authority over the country, with most Thais presuming that her father was making all the big decisions.
But Thaksin Shinawatra seems to have lost his magic touch. Pheu Thai party’s signature policy at the last election, a digital wallet which would put B10,000 ($308; £178) in the pocket of every Thai adult, has stalled, and been widely criticised as ineffective.
Other grand plans, to legalise casinos, and to build a “land-bridge” linking the Indian and Pacific Oceans, have gone nowhere.
At a time when Thai nationalist sentiment has been fired up over the border war with Cambodia, the Shinawatra family’s long-standing – though now broken – friendship with Hun Sen has heightened suspicion in conservative circles that they will always put their business interests before those of the nation.
The party’s popularity has plunged, and it is likely it would lose many of its 140 seats in an election now.
For more than two decades it was an unbeatable electoral force which dominated Thai politics.
It is hard to see how it will ever regain that dominance.
UBS raises Dell stock price target to $155 from $145 due to AI momentum
Dell stock price target raised to $155 from $145 at UBS on AI momentum
Protesters and Police Engage in Conflict in Indonesia
new video loaded: Protesters and Police Clash in Indonesia
By Shawn Paik•
Police officers in riot gear fired tear gas and charged protesters, some of whom had been throwing rocks.
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Updated mortgage rates for August 29, 2025: Rates show minor increase following recent dip
The average interest rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate conforming mortgage loan in the U.S. is 6.548%, according to data available from mortgage data company Optimal Blue. That’s up approximately 2 basis points from the prior day’s report, and down approximately 8 basis points from a week ago. Read on to compare average rates for a variety of conventional and government-backed mortgage types and see whether rates have increased or decreased.
Current mortgage rates data:
Note that Fortune reviewed Optimal Blue’s latest available data on Aug. 28, with the numbers reflecting home loans locked in as of Aug. 27.
What’s happening with mortgage rates in today’s market?
If it feels as though 30-year mortgage rates have been stuck on the verge of 7% for an extended period, that’s not too far off. Many observers anticipated that rates would soften when the Federal Reserve started reducing the federal funds rate last September, but there was no sustained decrease in mortgage rates. There was a short-lived dip preceding the September Fed meeting, but rates rapidly climbed afterward.
By January 2025 the average rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage surpassed 7% for the first time since last May, as indicated by Freddie Mac data. That’s a big jump from the historic average low of 2.65% recorded in January 2021, when the government was still working to stimulate the economy and ward off a pandemic-induced economic downturn.
Absent another major crisis, experts agree we won’t have mortgage rates in the 2% to 3% range in our lifetimes. Nevertheless, rates around the 6% mark are entirely possible if the U.S. manages to tame inflation and lenders feel optimistic about the economic prospects.
In fact, rates had a modest decline at the end of February, dropping nearer to the 6.5% mark than had been seen for some time. There was even a brief point in early April where rates dipped below 6.5%, but they rose immediately afterward.
At present, with uncertainty as to the extent to which President Donald Trump will pursue policies such as tariffs and deportations, some observers worry the labor market could constrict and inflation could resurface. Against this backdrop, U.S. homebuyers face high mortgage rates—although some can still find options for making their purchase more manageable, like negotiating rate buydowns with a builder when purchasing newly constructed property.
How to get the best mortgage rate you can
While economic conditions are beyond your control, your financial profile as an applicant also has a substantial impact on the mortgage rate you’re offered. With that in mind, aim to do the following:
- Make sure you have excellent credit. The minimum credit score for a conventional mortgage is generally 620 (for FHA loans, you may qualify with a score of 580 or a score as low as 500 with a 10% down payment). However, if you’re hoping to get a low rate that could potentially save you five or even six figures in interest over the life of your loan, you’ll want a score considerably higher. For instance, lender Blue Water Mortgage notes that a score of 740 or higher is considered top tier in the context of home loan applications.
- Maintain a low debt-to-income (DTI) ratio. You can calculate your DTI by dividing your monthly debt payments by your gross monthly income, then multiplying by 100. For example, someone with a $3,000 monthly income and $750 in monthly debt payments has a 25% DTI. When applying for a mortgage, it’s typically best to have a DTI of 36% or below, though you may be approved with a DTI as high as 43%.
- Get prequalified with multiple lenders. Consider trying a mix of large banks, local credit unions, and online lenders and compare offers. Additionally, connecting with loan officers at several different institutions can help you evaluate what you’re looking for in a lender and which one will best meet your needs. Just ensure that when you’re comparing rates, you’re doing so in a consistent way—if one estimate involves purchasing mortgage discount points and another doesn’t, it’s important to recognize there’s an upfront cost for buying down your rate with points.
Check Out Our Daily Rates Reports
Mortgage interest rates historical chart
An important bit of context for the discussion about high mortgage rates is that today’s rates around 7% feel high because of the recent memory of rates between 2% and 3%. Those rates were possible due to unprecedented government action aimed at preventing recession as the country grappled with a global pandemic.
However, under more typical economic conditions, experts agree we’re unlikely to see such exceptionally low interest rates again. Historically, rates in the vicinity of 7% are not unusually high.
Consider this St. Louis Fed (FRED) chart tracking Freddie Mac data on the 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage average. From the 1970s through the 1990s, such rates were more or less the norm, with a significant spike in the early 1980s. In fact, September, October, and November of 1981 all saw mortgage interest rates exceeding 18%.
Nevertheless, this historical perspective offers little consolation to homeowners who may want to move but are locked in with a once-in-a-lifetime low interest rate. Such situations are common enough in the current market that low pandemic-era rates keeping homeowners from moving when they otherwise would have become known as the “golden handcuffs.”
Factors that impact mortgage interest rates
The U.S. economy may well be the single largest driver of mortgage rates. When lenders fear inflation, they can raise rates to protect their long-term profits.
Plus, the national debt is another significant factor. When the government has to borrow large sums to cover what it spends, that can drive interest rates higher.
Demand for home loans is key too. If few people are borrowing, lenders might lower rates to attract business. But if loans are in high demand, they might raise rates to cover their costs.
In addition, the Federal Reserve’s actions play a role. The Fed can sway rates for mortgages and other financial products by changing the federal funds rate and by managing its balance sheet.
The federal funds rate gets a lot of media attention. When it changes, mortgage rates often follow suit. But remember, the Fed doesn’t set mortgage rates directly, and they don’t always move in perfect sync with the fed funds rate.
Perhaps even more importantly, the Fed influences rates through its balance sheet. In tough times, it can buy assets like mortgage-backed securities (MBS) to boost the economy.
But recently, the Fed has been shrinking its balance sheet, choosing not to replace assets as they mature. This tends to push interest rates up. So while everyone focuses on cuts or hikes to the fed funds rate, what the central bank does with its balance sheet might be even more important for your mortgage rate.
Why it’s important to compare mortgage rates
Comparing rates on different types of loans and shopping around with various lenders are both essential steps in obtaining the best mortgage for your situation.
If your credit is excellent, opting for a conventional mortgage might be the ideal choice for you. However, if your score is below 600, an FHA loan may give you an opportunity that a conventional loan would not.
When it comes to exploring options with different banks, credit unions, and online lenders, it can make a significant difference in your overall costs. Freddie Mac research indicates that in a market with high interest rates, homebuyers may be able to save $600 to $1,200 annually if they apply with multiple mortgage lenders.
Tyler Porter Verbally Commits to Arizona State for 2026-27 Season, Earns “Honorable Mention”
By Anne Lepesant on SwimSwam
Fitter and Faster Swim Camps is the proud sponsor of SwimSwam’s College Recruiting Channel and all commitment news. For many, swimming in college is a lifelong dream that is pursued with dedication and determination. Fitter and Faster is proud to honor these athletes and those who supported them on their journey.
Tyler Porter from San Jose, California, has made a verbal commitment to Arizona State University for the 2026-27 school year and beyond. He wrote on social media:
“I’m incredibly proud and honored to announce my verbal commitment to continue my academic and athletic journey at Arizona State University! First and foremost, I want to thank my family for their unwavering support and for shaping me into the person I am today. To my coach Andre and current teammates, thank you for constantly pushing me to be my best, both in and out of the pool. A special thank you to Coach Herbie Behm for believing in me and blessing me with the opportunity to become a Sun Devil. And above all, I give all the glory to God. None of this would be possible without His grace, guidance, and the amazing people He’s placed in my life. This is just the beginning and I can’t wait for what’s ahead. Go Devils! #forksup”
Porter is a rising senior at Bellarmine College Preparatory. He swims year-round with Quicksilver Swimming and specializes in sprint freestyle. We considered him an “Honorable Mention” recruit in our latest ranking of top 20 boys from the high school class of 2026.
Porter first made a name for himself at 2024 Winter Juniors West, when he dropped .85 in the 50 free to place 2nd behind Maximus Williamson with 19.49. That performance rocketed him to the top of the class of 2026 in the 50 free. He broke 20 seconds 3 times at Winter Juniors (19.58 in prelims, 19.49 in finals, and 19.94 leading off the 4×50 relay), but has not done it since. The closest he came was a 20.07 in prelims and 20.08 in finals at the 2025 CIF State Championships, where he came in 3rd place.
This summer, Porter placed 7th in the 50 free (23.24), 36th in prelims of the 100 free (53.16), and 15th in the 50 fly (25.50) at his championship meet, Sacramento Futures.
Best SCY times:
- 50 free: 19.49
- 100 free: 44.33
Porter will suit up for the Sun Devils in the fall of 2026 with fellow verbal commits Brennan O’Neil, Henry Lyness, Ian Disosway, London Rising, Caleb Kattau, Dillon Albertyn, Jack Culberson, and Onur Oksuz.
If you have a commitment to report, please send an email with a photo (landscape, or horizontal, looks best) and a quote to Recruits@swimswam.com.
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Read the full story on SwimSwam: 2026 “Honorable Mention” Tyler Porter Verbals to Arizona State for 2026-27
Discovery of New Protein Brings Hope for Obesity Treatment
Scientists have identified a protein that acts as a kind of traffic controller for fat inside cells, revealing a mechanism that could help explain how the body regulates energy storage and why things go wrong in metabolic disease. The discovery provides a new avenue for treating obesity and type 2 diabetes
Researchers from The University of New South Wales (UNSW) have found that the protein CHP1 is essential for both producing fat molecules and directing them to where they need to go. But first, we need to understand a bit more about how our cells store fat.
Inside cells, fat is tucked away in lipid droplets, which act like tiny storage units that house reserve energy but also play a key role in building and repairing cell membranes. To fill the droplets, cells use a production line known as the glycerol-3-phosphate (G-3-P) pathway. This line makes two important products: triacylglycerols, the main form of stored fat, and glycerophospholipids, which form the scaffolding of cell membranes.
The first step on this line is the most critical, and it’s carried out by enzymes known as microsomal GPATs. Two of these – GPAT3 and GPAT4 – do most of the work in fat-making tissues. Scientists knew these enzymes were key players in cellular function, but until now it wasn’t clear how they were switched on or guided to the right place in the cell.
The UNSW team discovered that CHP1 is the protein that regulates this. It acts as both a stabilizer and an activator of GPAT3 and GPAT4, ensuring they fill their natural roles. But just as importantly, CHP1 also helps guide them to lipid droplets, so they can actually channel new fat molecules into storage. Without CHP1, lipid droplets became significantly smaller, because the machinery that fills them is no longer in place.
Essentially, removing CHP1 led to a dramatic reduction in the size of the lipid droplets, suggesting that this protein is a key regulator of fat metabolism within a cell.
“Our findings provide a clearer picture of the intricate machinery that controls how cells store fat,” said lead author Guang Yang from UNSW’s School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Science. “Understanding this process is a critical step towards developing new strategies to address a range of metabolic disorders like obesity and diabetes.”
While it’s a long way from these findings to treatment, by uncovering how CHP1 drives the activation and direction of these key enzymes gives researchers a promising new target in combatting metabolic disorders.
The study also highlights that lipid droplets – once thought to be inert fat stores – are in fact active organelles that manage how fat is stored and used in cells. Dysfunctional lipid storage underlies a wide range of health conditions, with obesity and diabetes just two of them.
The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Source: The University of New South Wales via Scimex
India prepares for significant job cuts as Trump’s tariffs take effect | Business and Economy
New Delhi, India – In a sprawling market in the Indian capital, Anuj Gupta sits in a corner of his shop as silence hangs over it.
Gupta sources and exports garment accessories – like laces and buttons – to major global brands. But punishing tariffs imposed by United States President Donald Trump have brought Gupta’s business to its knees.
On Wednesday morning, India woke up to 50 percent tariffs imposed on its goods sold to the US, after the Trump administration followed through on its threat of doubling levies from 25 percent over India’s purchase of Russian oil. The White House says Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, among the top buyers of crude from Russia, is financing Moscow’s war in Ukraine. Indian officials have accused Washington of double standards, pointing towards how the European Union and China buy more from Russia and how Washington, too, still trades with Moscow.
In the fashion world, the cycle runs a year ahead, explains Gupta – clothes are being designed and made for autumn 2026 at the moment. So, the hovering uncertainty in the market has “hampered the work badly”, leaving a “big dent”, he said. Up to 40 percent of his business is in the US market.
Gupta said until Wednesday morning, he was still hoping against hope. “Maybe Trump is just bullying us for optics, or maybe Modi’s good relations with the US will rescue the situation,” he thought. “But we were the worst dealt.”
Five rounds of talks have failed to yield a trade deal between Washington and New Delhi, and Gupta said exporters now fear their customers might give up on India altogether. “If these tensions prolong, then buyers would look for alternative markets for sourcing,” he said.
As New Delhi grapples with Trump’s moves that walk the US back from two decades of diplomatic and strategic investments in India, analysts and economic observers say the tariffs could devastate key export-driven sectors of the Indian economy, with hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk.
‘It’s so helpless’
Ajay Sahai, the CEO of the Federation of Indian Export Organisation (FIEO), the largest government-backed body of Indian exporters, was cautiously hopeful of help from the Modi administration after meeting the country’s finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, on Thursday.
“The government has fully assured us that they will provide all kinds of support needed to navigate this problem, perhaps including an economic package,” Sahai told Al Jazeera.
“The government has asked us to prepare a report, and then they will come up with a scheme,” he said. “[Sitharaman] has assured that there will be no layoffs – and that’s something we should honour.”
Yet, that’s easier said than done.
Textiles, gems, jewellery, carpets and shrimp are some of India’s biggest exports to the US – and are expected to be among the worst hit by the tariffs.
K Anand Kumar, who manages shrimp exporting company Sandhya Marines and employs nearly 3,500 workers in a coastal town in Andhra Pradesh state on the Bay of Bengal, said that his business is on the verge of collapse.
More than 90 percent of his company’s cargoes head to the US market.
Last year, India exported an all-time high of 1.78 million metric tonnes of seafood worth $7.38bn. Shrimp dominates, contributing 92 percent of the total value. And the US takes in more than 40 percent of India’s shrimp shipments.
“The shrimp industry is a very highly labour-intensive sector, with small farmers,” said Kumar, who also leads the seafood export association’s Andhra Pradesh chapter. Taking everyone into account, Kumar said, nearly two million people are associated with shrimp exports.
Kumar said more than 50 percent of those workers will bear the direct brunt of Trump’s tariffs.
“We are already laying off because we can’t keep paying salaries with no orders in line for us,” Kumar told Al Jazeera. “The small farmers, who peel the shrimp, will be worst affected because there is no work now to employ them.”
Exporter associations estimate that the tariffs could affect nearly 55 percent of India’s $87bn worth of merchandise exports to the US – and benefit competitors such as Vietnam, Bangladesh and China, which have been tariffed at lower rates.
Moody’s Ratings has noted that Trump’s tariffs on Indian imports could slow India’s economic growth. Beyond 2025, the ratings agency said, the much wider tariff gap compared with other Asia Pacific countries would severely curtail India’s ambitions to develop its manufacturing sector and may even reverse some of the gains made in recent years in attracting related investments.
“It is like being in a nightmare,” Kumar said, “where you do not know what new, random tariff number you wake up to next.”
In the last 30 years of business with the US, Kumar said, the crisis feels uncharted. “The US is toying with us, doing whatever they want,” he said. “And we are forced to adjust. It feels so helpless.”
‘Embargo on Indian goods’
Nearly 1,000km (620 miles) from Kumar’s factory, fear has taken over Tiruppur, a town in the southern state of Tamil Nadu that is the capital of India’s garment export industry.
Lying on the banks of the Noyyal river and next to rocky hillocks, Tiruppur contributes nearly a third of the total $16bn ready-to-wear garment exports. Tiruppur’s earnings in US dollars have earned it the name of ‘Dollar City’. The world’s top fashion brands, including Zara and Gap, source clothes from here.
But while higher margins in the case of big brands give some businesses temporary breathing space, a prolonged crisis could cripple them, said V Elangovan, managing director of SNQS International Group, which exports garments.
“Wherever margins are lower, the production has been halted altogether,” he said. Elangovan’s company employs 1,500 people. He said about 150,000 workers stand to lose their jobs due to Trump’s tariffs in Tiruppur.
“It is very difficult to find a new customer in this economy,” he said. “Customer diversification is not like a switch, which we can turn on and off. Soon, in the future, we will be looking at cash flow issues, and there will be a lot of retrenchment of the workers.”
India’s Modi has meanwhile taken a defiant stance on the trade war with the US.
India “should become self-reliant … Economic selfishness is on the rise globally and we mustn’t sit and cry about our difficulties,” Modi said in his Independence Day speech on August 15 from the ramparts of New Delhi’s Red Fort.
“Modi will stand like a wall against any policy that threatens their interests. India will never compromise when it comes to protecting the interests of our farmers,” the prime minister had said, referring indirectly to sticking points in trade negotiations with the US, which wants greater market access to India’s agriculture and dairy sectors. Almost half of India’s 1.4 billion people depend on agriculture for their livelihood.
But traders fear that they could be left bleeding in the bargain.
“The government is letting us get punched in one eye to save the other eye,” said Elangovan. “A 50 percent tariff is practically an embargo on Indian goods.”
Thomas Coesfeld discusses BMG’s first half 2025 performance, the underappreciated value of music streaming, and a strategy centered on music rights as the core business.
BMG reported its H1 2025 results earlier today (August 28), with numbers that told a familiar story for the modern music business: complexity beneath the surface.
The Bertelsmann-owned company’s organic revenue dipped 4.4% YoY to EUR €424 million in the period, but said its underlying streaming revenue climbed by high single digits.
Meanwhile, BMG’s EBITDA margin jumped significantly to 28.7% – impacted by what Bertelsmann called a “strategic scaling back of lower-margin activities”.
For Thomas Coesfeld, BMG’s CEO since 2023, these results represent progress toward a more focused, efficient operation.
Under his leadership, BMG has doubled down on its core publishing and recorded music businesses while shedding lower-margin segments, including its involvement in live concerts.
Meanwhile, the company has embarked on its ‘BMG Next’ strategy, bringing digital distribution in-house and leveraging AI-powered tools.
The H1 numbers also reflect BMG’s continued M&A appetite: it pulled off 17 acquisitions in H1 2025, pushing its total music rights investments since 2021 to EUR €1.2 billion.
Notable recent successes at BMG include country superstars Jelly Roll and Lainey Wilson breaking through internationally; the firm’s ~$100 million 2017 acquisition of Broken Bow Records/BBR Music Group looks increasingly prescient.
Perhaps most tellingly for the wider industry, BMG’s results come as fundamental questions about music’s value proposition intensify. Spotify‘s recent price increases have sparked fresh debate about streaming economics, while AI companies face mounting legal challenges over their use of copyrighted material.
Here, MBW quizzes Coesfeld on BMG’s strategic direction, the price points of streaming services, and why he believes the wider music industry must work to ensure creators are “paid fairly and credited properly…”
What is the most interesting growth driver for BMG right now, and how can you expand on it?
One of the most interesting growth drivers for BMG right now is our BMG Next strategy, particularly the move to bring digital distribution in-house.
By expanding our direct licensing agreements, we gain improved access to listening data and audience insights, enhanced on-platform marketing opportunities, and greater transparency and control over how our artists’ and songwriters’ works are monetized. These capabilities more effectively promote our repertoire directly at the point of consumption, ensuring optimal visibility and reach.
In addition, the integration of AI-powered tools is already creating new efficiencies and unlocking opportunities for our artists on the Recorded Music side as well as our songwriters in Publishing — our core business and growth driver.
How do you foresee the balance between publishing income and recorded music income changing at the company in the years ahead?
Music publishing will likely remain the primary income driver for our business, and we plan to allocate additional resources to our successful and diversified publishing operations.
“We plan to allocate additional resources to our successful and diversified publishing operations.”
Signings, administration and buyouts remain strong engines of growth, especially as streaming expands globally.
Our strength lies in our focused model — publishing and recordings — which gives us resilience and flexibility as the market evolves.
We hear a lot about ‘expanded rights’ in music these days (merch, gaming, live etc.), often centered on ‘name, image, and likeness’ rights. How is BMG managing opportunities in this area of the business while sticking to your focus on ‘core’ music rights?
Our strategy remains firmly focused on our core businesses of music publishing and recorded music. We have intentionally scaled back from lower-margin segments, but we remain open to selective opportunities in expanded rights where they make strategic sense.
“we won’t chase distractions that don’t complement our core focus areas.”
When expanded rights create real value for artists and deepen fan engagement — like gaming tie-ins or brand partnerships — we’ll explore them. What we won’t do is chase distractions that don’t complement our core focus areas.
Your continued investment in US frontline music under Jon Loba continues to bear fruit. Have you noticed a growth in strength of US repertoire around the world in the past year, especially as local hip-hop’s dominance lessens and other genres — country, for one — grows globally?
We’ve seen incredible success with both Lainey and Jelly across key international markets, highlighting a broader trend: the global appetite for country music and other genres once considered US-centric is expanding rapidly. For example, Jelly Roll’s Beautifully Broken and Lainey Wilson’s Whirlwind showcase how our artist-first, international approach is delivering results well beyond the US.
“the global appetite for country music and other genres once considered US-centric is expanding rapidly.”
Jelly Roll is breaking through as a global phenomenon, with chart-topping debuts in the UK, Canada, and Australia, along with his first international tours across Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
Meanwhile, Lainey Wilson continues to cement her status as country music’s leading global female superstar, with Whirlwind topping the charts in the UK, breaking into the Top 20 in Canada and Australia, delivering multiple international No. 1 singles, and headlining sold-out shows across Europe, with Australia and New Zealand on the horizon.
Speaking of which… looking back, that 2017 Broken Bow/BBR acquisition looks like a bargain?!
We’re incredibly grateful to have Jon [Loba] and the BBR team as part of BMG.
BBR has been both a cultural and creative win, proving the strength of our approach in combining entrepreneurial labels with the scale of BMG.
Your M&A strategy: What are the main criteria for catalogs or companies that BMG is looking to buy in the 2025 marketplace? Are you finding that assets are noticeably cheaper than they were 2-3 years ago?
Fueled by Bertelsmann’s Boost program, our investment strategy continues to be a bright spot, with 17 acquisitions in the first half of 2025, bringing total investments in music rights catalogs since 2021 to EUR €1.2 billion and consistently delivering strong returns.
When evaluating catalogs or companies, our main criteria include the quality and lasting relevance of the repertoire, the strength and track record of the artists and songwriters, and the potential to create incremental value.
We continue to take a disciplined, value-driven approach to acquisitions.
You’ve long been both positive and cautionary on how AI will use music. With Suno and Udio now being sued — and Anthropic facing a lawsuit over lyrics — where do you think the ecosystem ends up, and will it be materially additive to music’s bottom line?
Innovation has always been part of BMG’s DNA, and we see real potential for GenAI to accelerate what we can achieve. That said, copyright protection and fair remuneration for artists and songwriters are non-negotiable.
With partnerships such as Google Cloud and OpenAI, we are already using AI to make our operations more effective, while advocating for a framework that ensures AI evolves in a way that is both responsible and additive to the music ecosystem.
These initiatives will help establish much-needed clarity for rights holders, and we welcome regulation that ensures innovation does not come at the expense of the creators’ rights.
Streaming Price rises: We’ve seen a move by Spotify recently, but when you look at the world of audiovisual, is the price of music’s services moving fast enough, often enough?
Spotify’s recent price increases have reignited an important conversation about the value of music and the people who create it.
Every stream reflects the time, talent, and dedication of artists and songwriters, and they deserve fair compensation to build sustainable careers.
“Compared to audiovisual, music has historically been slower to adjust pricing and remains undervalued relative to the value it delivers.”
Compared to audiovisual, music has historically been slower to adjust pricing and remains undervalued relative to the value it delivers. Encouragingly, subscriber numbers have stayed strong even as prices have risen, showing just how deeply people value music.
As an industry, we must continue to evolve pricing models to properly reward creativity and ensure they are fair for all stakeholders.
Outside of price rises and AI, is there any issue in particular you wish the industry could ‘put right’ as things stand today?
One of the industry’s biggest challenges is making sure creators are paid fairly and credited properly.
Too often, revenue flows lack transparency, and inaccurate metadata means royalties don’t always reach the people who earned them.
“we need to go further as an industry to build a system that is fair, accurate, and sustainable for all artists and songwriters.”
Every artist, songwriter, and producer deserves to know how their work is monetized and to see their contributions recognized.
At BMG we’ve invested in better data practices. But we need to go further as an industry to build a system that is fair, accurate, and sustainable for all artists and songwriters.
Some financial media, both in Germany and globally (including THE FINANCIAL TIMES), seem very interested in whether you’ll be crowned the new CEO of Bertelsmann in the future. How can you block out this noise to solely focus on results for BMG?
I remain fully focused on BMG and our incredible team dedicated to serving our artists and songwriters.
“There’s never a question where my priorities lie.”
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Officials say Minneapolis school attacker had an obsession with killing children
Tom BatemanBBC News, Minneapolis and
Max MatzaBBC News
Investigators say that the attacker who opened fire on pupils as they were praying at a church in Minneapolis was “obsessed with the idea of killing children”.
Robin Westman, who killed two children and injured 18 others, did not seem to have any specific motive, according to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara.
The attacker “appeared to hate all of us”, the chief said on Thursday, adding: “More than anything, the shooter wanted to kill children”.
The murdered children have been identified by family as Fletcher Merkel, eight, and Harper Moyski, 10.
“Yesterday, a coward decided to take our eight-year-old son Fletcher away from us,” his father, Jesse Merkel, told reporters.
“Fletcher loved his family, friends, fishing, cooking and any sport that he was allowed to play,” he said.
“Give your kids an extra hug and kiss today. We love you, Fletcher. You’ll always be with us,” he continued, choking back tears.
The parents of Harper Moyski, Michael Moyski and Jackie Flavin, said in a statement that their daughter “was a bright, joyful, and deeply loved 10-year-old whose laughter, kindness, and spirit touched everyone who knew her”.
“As a family, we are shattered, and words cannot capture the depth of our pain,” the said, adding that they hope “her memory fuels action” to stop gun violence.
“No family should ever have to endure this kind of pain…. Change is possible, and it is necessary – so that Harper’s story does not become yet another in a long line of tragedies.”
Officials have released few details so far about the suspect’s background, but say Westman previously attended the church’s school and had a mother who had worked there.
The 23-year-old suspect is believed to have approached the side of the Annunciation Church, which also houses a school, and fired dozens of shots through the windows using three firearms. Police also found a smoke bomb at the scene.
Witnesses have described seeing children bleeding as they fled from the church, begging for help from strangers.
In a news conference on Thursday, acting US Attorney General for Minnesota Joseph Thompson said “the shooter expressed hate towards many groups, including the Jewish community and towards President Trump”.
The attacker, who died at the scene of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, left a note, officials said, but they added that a definitive motive may never be known.
“I won’t dignify the attacker’s words by repeating them, they are horrific and vile,” said Mr Thompson.
Westman’s name was legally changed from Robert to Robin in 2020, with the judge writing: “Minor child identifies as a female”. However, some federal officials and police have referred to Westman as a man when discussing the attack.
Chief O’Hara told reporters that news outlets should stop using the killer’s name, because “the purpose of the shooter’s actions was to obtain notoriety”.
He added that she, “like so many other mass shooters that we have seen in this country too often and around the world, had some deranged fascination with previous mass shootings”.
US officials have warned for years that mass shooting can lead to copycat killings, as killers seek to become famous through their heinous crimes.
Several major news organisations have a policy of not identifying mass killers.
CBSFBI Director Kash Patel has described the attack as “an act of domestic terrorism motivated by a hate-filled ideology”.
In a post on X, Patel said that the attacker “left multiple anti-Catholic, anti-religious references” written on guns and in notes uncovered by investigators.
“Subject expressed hatred and violence toward Jewish people, writing Israel must fall,’ ‘Free Palestine,’ and using explicit language related to the Holocaust,” he wrote.
The killer also “wrote an explicit call for violence against President Trump on a firearm magazine”.
In their news conference, officials confirmed that the attacker had previously attended the school. Her mother, Mary Grace Westman, previously worked at the school, and has so far not responded to law enforcement’s attempts to contact her.
They also confirmed that three residences associated with the attacker, who was from suburban Minneapolis, have been searched by police.
Getty ImagesThey said that the church locked its doors before beginning its Mass service, likely saving many lives.
Officials added that the guns used in the attack were all legally purchased, that the killer did not appear on any government watchlist, and that police are not aware of any mental health diagnoses or treatments that she was receiving.
Witnesses and relatives of victims who spoke to the BBC have described harrowing scenes of violence.
Patrick Scallen, who lives near the church, said that he saw three children fleeing the building – one of them a girl with a head wound.
“She kept saying, ‘please hold my hand, don’t leave me’, and I said I wasn’t going anywhere.”
Vincent Francoual, whose 11-year-old daughter Chloe was in the church when the shooting took place, said he tried not to panic after he heard the news.
He called it “sick” that children in the US are trained to prepare for mass shootings.
“We live in a country where we train kids what to do. And she did what she had to do,” he said.
“Here it’s a pattern. It’s no longer a freak accident,” he said of school shootings in the US.
“I told my wife that every morning, when we drop our kids, we don’t know if she’d be back safe.”
Mr Francoual, who is originally from France, said that Chloe is afraid to return to school or church.
In the wake of the attack, several lawmakers, including the Minneapolis mayor, have called for the state to enact a ban on assault weapons.
“There is no reason that someone should be able to reel off 30 shots before they even have to reload,” said Mayor Jacob Frey, also calling for a ban on high-capacity ammo magazines.
“We’re not talking about your father’s hunting rifle here. We’re talking about guns that are built to pierce armour and kill people.”