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US Senator Alex Padilla tackled at Los Angeles news conference

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A US senator was forcibly removed and handcuffed by federal agents at a press conference held by homeland security secretary Kristi Noem in Los Angeles on Thursday, in a dramatic escalation of tensions in California.

US Secret Service agents assigned to Noem’s security detail pushed Alex Padilla, the Democratic senator from California, from the room as Noem spoke to reporters at the Wilshire Federal Building in Los Angeles.

Video of the altercation showed federal agents wrestling Padilla to the ground outside the room and handcuffing him.

Padilla later told reporters outside the federal building that he was “almost immediately forcibly removed from the room” after he began to ask Noem a question.

“I was forced to the ground, and I was handcuffed. I was not arrested,” he said.

“I will say this: if this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question . . . you can only imagine what they are doing to farm workers, to cooks, to day labourers out in the Los Angeles community and throughout California and throughout the country,” Padilla added. “We will hold this administration accountable.”

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin accused Padilla of “disrespectful political theatre” and “incredibly aggressive behaviour”.

She said in a series of posts to X that the senator had “interrupted a live press conference without identifying himself or having his Senate security pin on as he lunged toward Secretary Noem”.

“Mr Padilla was told repeatedly to back away and did not comply with officers’ repeated commands,” McLaughlin said. “Secret Service thought he was an attacker and officers acted appropriately.”

Video footage showed Padilla interrupting the press conference and saying, “My name is Senator Alex Padilla, and I have questions for the secretary,” as he was pushed out of the room.

The FBI later issued a statement saying Padilla was removed by Secret Service agents “when he became disruptive while formal remarks were being delivered”. The FBI said the agents were assisted by FBI police.

“Senator Padilla did not identify himself and was not wearing his senate security pin,” the FBI added. “Senator Padilla was subsequently positively identified and released.”

The altercation involving a member of Congress and federal agents marked a new escalation after days of tensions in Los Angeles, where the Trump administration has ordered the deployment of National Guard troops and US Marines to help in an anti-immigration crackdown.

Protests have sprung up in Los Angeles and across the country in opposition to the White House’s efforts to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.

Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor on Thursday: “I just saw something that sickened my stomach, the manhandling of a United States senator. We need immediate answers to what the hell went on.”

Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz, a Democrat, added: “This is the stuff of dictatorships.”

US President Donald Trump did not immediately respond to the incident. But White House communications director Steven Cheung said the video footage “shows the public what a complete lunatic Padilla is by rushing towards Secretary Noem and disturbing the informative press conference”.

Noem, who was addressing events in the city, told reporters at the press conference that Padilla’s actions were inappropriate.

“I don’t even know the senator,” she said, adding she would “have a conversation with him and visit and find out, really, what his concerns were”.

“I think everybody in America would have to agree that that wasn’t appropriate, that if you wanted to have a civil discussion, especially as a leader, a public official, that you would reach out and try to have a conversation.”

The homeland security department later said Noem and Padilla met for 15 minutes after the incident.

China obliterated Islamic heritage in this historic city and transformed it into a Disneyland replica.

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Abduweli Ayup has not been back to Kashgar since 2015, and his chances of doing so anytime soon seem slim. The Chinese government has canceled his passport, he said.

Sometimes he watches videos on YouTube of his hometown. They do not make him feel better. It feels compulsive, he said, “like eating bad food.”

“You know, you want to keep eating it, but afterward your stomach feels upset,” he added. As he watched one video while speaking with a BuzzFeed News reporter, Ayup pointed to a giant sculpture of a traditional stringed instrument by the gates of the city. “See that, that’s just for tourists,” he said.

The city is now full of these sorts of photogenic additions. There are giant teapots at the main junction near the city gate. Elsewhere, murals show maps of Xinjiang or carry slogans such as “Xinjiang Impressions” where visitors stop to take holiday snaps. A new entrance has been added to the metalwork market, with a large sign featuring silhouetted figures hammering iron. The anvil statue at the corner now comes with projection-mapped fire, as well as sparks and a piped soundtrack of metal being struck. Camel rides are available too.

In the videos he has seen, Ayup has also noticed footage of people dancing while wearing traditional Uyghur dress — costumes that they might have worn more than a century ago. Figures like these can be seen on Chinese state television and at the country’s annual rubber-stamp parliamentary session. “Nobody would wear that clothing anymore unless it was for show,” Ayup said.

Tourism is now booming in Xinjiang. Last year, even as global numbers fell as a consequence of the pandemic, 190 million tourists visited the region — more than a 20% increase from the previous year. Revenue increased by 43%. As part of its “Xinjiang is a wonderful land” campaign, the Chinese government has produced English-language videos and held events to promote a vision of the region as peaceful, newly prosperous, and full of dramatic landscapes and rich culture.

Chinese state media has portrayed this as an economic growth engine for Xinjiang natives, too. One article described how a former camp detainee named Aliye Ablimit had, upon her release, received hospitality training. “After graduation, I became a tour guide for Kashgar Ancient City,” Ablimit said, according to the article. “And later, I turned my home into a Bed and Breakfast. Tourists love my house very much because of its Uygur style. All the rooms are fully booked these days. Now I have a monthly income of about 50,000 yuan,” or about $7,475.

The facade holds up less well with Kashgar’s mosques. Many of the smaller neighborhood mosques appear to be out of use, their wooden doors damaged and padlocked shut — and others have been demolished completely or converted to other uses, including cafés and public toilets.

Inside the Id Kah mosque, many of the cameras, including inside the prayer halls, have disappeared. But as might be expected given the past five years, many of the worshippers have disappeared too, down from 4,000–5,000 at Friday prayers in 2011 to just 800 or so today.

The mosque’s imam, Mamat Juma, acknowledged as much in an interview with a vlogger who often produces videos that support Chinese government narratives, posted in April 2021. Speaking through a translator, he is at pains to point out that not all Uyghurs are Muslims and to diminish the role of the religion in Uyghur culture. “I really worry that the number of believers will decrease,” he said, “but that shouldn’t be a reason to force them to pray here.” ●

Additional reporting by Irene Benedicto

CNN reports that Nvidia will no longer include China in its forecasts due to US chip export controls.

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Nvidia to stop including China in forecasts amid US chip export controls, CNN reports

Introducing MAX Field Hockey’s Fresh Player Profile & Data System

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MAX Field Hockey is excited to announce the official launch of a brand new Player Profile and Data System!  This project is something that has been in the works for years and we are thrilled to finally make it live and share it with the field hockey community.  MAX Field Hockey’s previous player profiles, college commitments and data were all static content.  Our new system connects all of that and enhances the access to all of the content we host on MAX Field Hockey.

Player Profiles
We are making a complete switch to these new Player Profiles.  We will leave up the old player profiles for a couple of months to allow players to pull information from those to their new profiles.  We also don’t want to switch immediately in the middle of a high recruiting season in case players have linked to and are relying on the old profiles in their communications with college coaches.

We already moved 1,200+ player profiles into the new system to ensure the existing data carries over.  Any player who reported a college commitment, is in the player rankings, received a MAXFH High School award, participated in the Top 150 or Top 100 event, is on a Team USA Indoor or Outdoor National Team, or is a Longstreth Ambassador has already been moved over to the new system.  We did not pull the detailed profile content you may have had from the High School, Club, USA Field Hockey, Other sections.  You will need to shift those over if you are interested in keeping them on your profile.

To find out if you are already in the new system, please go to the Player Search and search for your name.  If it is in there, please email admin@maxfieldhockey.com and we will send you a start-up account login.  This will not be the same login you used with the old system.  Please do NOT create a new account if you are already in the system.  We have the awards, player rankings, commitments, etc. tagged to your specific name/account and that will not carry over to a new account.

If you are not in the new system, please go to the Create Profile page and follow the instructions to create a new player profile.

The information contained in the MAX Field Hockey Trophy Case is all verified awards by MAX Field Hockey and include all of our awards and player rankings.

Click around the new system and see how all of the content is now connected.  The way this is setup is already helping us with our own content.  We have High School National Invitational results history entered in for High Schools and can now look back at who teams have already played and how they did when we are scheduling this upcoming year’s event.  When we go to work on Preseason High School Rankings this summer, we will be able to see who is graduating and who is returning for each school and factor that into our rankings.  This will all be huge for our next round of Player Rankings for the Classes of 2028 & 2029 at the beginning of 2026.

This is only stage 1 of this project!

Next up:

-Linking the “MAX Field Hockey Trophy Case” verified honors to the features on the site
-Adding college commitment share images to athlete’s player profiles
-Make it mobile friendly (currently it is functioning well on a desktop/laptop)
-Adding major High School postseason championships to the High School pages
-Adding club logos and more info to the club pages
-Adding more college info to the college pages

The possibilities are endless and we look forward to expanding the content contained in the system and it’s performance moving forward.

If you have any questions, please email us at admin@maxfieldhockey.com

 

XGIMI introduces portable projector equipped with triple-laser technology

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XGIMI has updated its funky portable projector line to include a laser edition. The battery-powered MoGo 4 has been “engineered to resonate with tech-savvy Millennials, Gen Z and Gen A” though there’s no reason old coots like me can’t join the portable laser party.

“We saw an opportunity to reinvent what a portable projector could be – not just for watching, but for setting a mood, creating a space, even transforming a selfie,” said Apollo Zhong, CEO of XGIMI. “The MoGo 4 Series isn’t just portable – it’s expressive. While others shrink projectors, we added more: filters, speakers, and design. It lives in your bag, but also in your vibe.”

At the heart of the tubular entertainment hub is a triple-laser light source that gives red, green and blue colors their own laser, which blend together before streaming through the optics. Though this only translates to the projector putting out 550 ISO lumens, there is 110% coverage of the BT.2020 color gamut and 1,000:1 native contrast for “exceptional clarity, vibrancy and depth.”

A 360-degree tilt stand and autofocus plus auto keystone correction should make for a relatively easy setup

XGIMI

Its 1080p DLP projection engine with a 0.23-inch DMD chip can reportedly throw visuals at up to 200 diagonal inches, but 120 inches is the recommended maximum, and there’s support for HDR10 content. Autofocus and auto keystone correction should make setup relatively painless too.

The MoGo 4 Laser boasts a built-in 71.28-Wh battery that’s reckoned good for up to 2.5 hours of watching in eco mode or 6 hours of rocking in Bluetooth speaker mode. Video play can be increased to 5 hours with the optional 20,000-mAh PowerBase stand, or a 65-W powerbank can be plugged in if you want to keep things compact and portable.

Wi-Fi 5 is cooked in, while Google TV serves up streaming entertainment, plus there’s ARC-supported HDMI for cabling to a source. A 12-watt dual-speaker Dolby sound system courtesy of Harman Kardon rocks the soundtrack. And there’s an IR mini remote for quick control as well as a backlit BT remote for more control options.

Setting the mood with a Sunset filter
Setting the mood with a Sunset filter

XGIMI

Beyond movie entertainment, the projector also ships with four magnetic filters that can be popped in front of the lens to help set the mood, with the wave of a hand switching between different modes. The main unit is attached to a transparent tilt base that can disperse a little of the projector’s laser light when docked, and there’s a buckle lanyard for between-use transport.

The MoGo 4 Laser edition measures 8.2 x 3.8 x 3.8 in (207.6 x 96.5 x 96.5 mm) and tips the scales at 2.9 lb (1.32 kg). It’s available from today for US$799, but can be bundled with a PowerBase stand and 70-inch outdoor screen for an extra hundred bucks. For the next month, XGIMI is also running a 10% off launch promotion.

If LED will do you, then a MoGo 4 model putting out 450 ISO lumens and coming with one ambient filter will set you back $499, or $549 with the PowerBase.

Source: XGIMI

News: Trump’s decision to send Marines to Los Angeles – What was the reason behind it?

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Trump deployed federal troops to Los Angeles as ICE raids sparked protests and citywide unrest.

Los Angeles has become a military zone. As citywide protests erupted following ICE raids on local immigrant communities, United States President Donald Trump sent Marines and National Guard troops into the city for the first time in decades. How is this show of force turning immigration raids into a national flashpoint?

Mark Zuckerberg faces challenges with AI talent, and throwing money at the problem may not be the solution.

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Welcome to Eye on AI! In this edition…Disney and Universal join forces in lawsuit against AI image creator Midjourney…France’s Mistral gets a business boost thanks to fears over US AI dominance…Google names DeepMind’s Kavukcuoglu to lead AI-powered product development.

Mark Zuckerberg is rumored to be personally recruiting — reportedly at his homes in Lake Tahoe and Palo Alto — for a new 50-person “Superintelligence” AI team at Meta meant to gain ground on rivals like Google and OpenAI. The plan includes hiring a new head of AI research to work alongside Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang, who is being brought in as part of a plan to invest up to $15 billion for a 49% stake in the training data company.

On the surface, it might appear that Zuckerberg could easily win this war for AI talent by writing the biggest checks.

And the checks Zuck is writing are, by all accounts, huge. Deedy Das, a VC at Menlo Ventures, told me that he has heard from several people the Meta CEO has tried to recruit. “Zuck had phone calls with potential hires trying to convince them to join with a $2M/yr floor,” he said (a number that one AI researcher told me was “not outrageous at all” and “is likely low in certain sub-areas like LLM pre-training,” though most of the compensation would be in the form of equity). Later, on LinkedIn Das went further, claiming that for candidates working at a big AI lab, “Zuck is personally negotiating $10M+/yr in cold hard liquid money. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Some of these pro athlete-level offers are working. According to Bloomberg, Jack Rae, a principal researcher at Google DeepMind, is expected to join Meta’s “superintelligence” team, while it said Meta has also recruited Johan Schalkwyk, a machine learning lead at AI voice startup Sesame AI. 

Money isn’t everything 

But money alone may not be enough to build the kind of AI model shop Meta needs. According to Das, several researchers have turned down Zuckerberg’s offer to take roles at OpenAI and Anthropic. 

There are several issues at play: For one thing, there simply aren’t that many top AI researchers, and many of them are happily ensconced at OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google DeepMind with high six- or low seven-figure salaries and access to all the computing capacity they could want. In a March Fortune article, I argued that companies are tracking top AI researchers and engineers like prized assets on the battlefield. The most intense fight is over a small pool of AI research scientists — estimated to be fewer than 1,000 individuals worldwide, according to several industry insiders Fortune spoke with — with the qualifications to build today’s most advanced large language models. 

“In general, all these companies very closely watch each others’ compensation, so on average it is very close,” said Erik Meijer, a former senior director of engineering at Meta who left last year. However, he added that Meta uses “additional equity” which is a “special kind of bonus to make sure compensation is not the reason to leave.” 

Beyond the financial incentives, personal ties to leading figures and adherence to differing philosophies about artificial intelligence have lent a tribal element to Silicon Valley’s AI talent wars. More than 19 OpenAI employees followed Mira Murati to her startup Thinking Machines earlier this year, for example. Anthropic was founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees who disagreed with their employer’s strategic direction. 

Das, however, said it really depends on the person. “I’d say a lot more people are mercenary than they let on,” he said. “People care about working with smart people and they care about working on products that actually work but they can be bought out if the price is right.” But for many, “they have too much money already and can’t be bought.” 

Meta’s layoffs and reputation may drive talent decisions

Meta’s own sweeping layoffs earlier this year could also sour the market for AI talent, some told me. “I’ve decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out low-performers faster,” said Zuckerberg in an internal memo back in January. The memo said Meta planned to increasingly focus on developing AI, smart glasses and the future of social media. Following the memo, about 3,600 employees were laid off—roughly 5% of Meta’s workforce

One AI researcher told me that he had heard about Zuckerberg’s high-stakes offers, but that people don’t trust Meta after the “weedwacker” layoffs. 

Meta’s existing advanced AI research team FAIR (Fundamental AI Research) has increasingly been sidelined in the development of Meta’s Llama AI models and has lost key researchers. Joelle Pineau, who had been leading FAIR, announced her departure in April. Most of the researchers who developed Meta’s original Llama model have left, including two cofounders of French AI startup Mistral. And a trio of top AI researchers left a year ago to found AI agent startup Yutori. 

Finally, there are hard-to-quantify issues, like prestige. Meijer expressed doubt that Meta could produce AI products that experts in the field would perceive as embodying breakthrough capabilities. “The bitter truth is that Meta does not have any leaders that are good at bridging research and product,” he said. “For a long time Reality Labs and FAIR could do their esoteric things without being challenged. But now things are very different and companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Mistral, DeepSeek excel at pushing out research into production at record pace, and Meta is left standing on the sidelines.“

In addition, he said, huge salaries and additional equity “will not stick if the company feels unstable or if it is perceived by peers as a black mark on your resume. Prestige compounds, that is why top people self-select into labs like DeepMind, OpenAI, or Anthropic. Aura is not for sale.” 

That’s not to say that Zuck’s largesse won’t land him some top AI talent. The question is whether it will be enough to deliver the AI product wins Meta needs.

With that, here’s the rest of the AI news.

Sharon Goldman
sharon.goldman@fortune.com
@sharongoldman

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Reports say British passenger in seat 11A survives plane crash in India

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André Rhoden-Paul

BBC News

Hindustan Times Vishwash Kumar RameshHindustan Times

British national Vishwash Kumar Ramesh

A man survived the Air India crash that killed at least 200 people, a police chief has told an Indian news agency.

Ahmedabad Police Commissioner GS Malik told ANI there was one survivor who was in seat 11A on the London-bound Boeing 787-8 flight.

The flight manifest shared by authorities said the passenger in that seat was British national Vishwash Kumar Ramesh.

Indian media said they had spoken to Mr Ramesh in hospital and reported him saying: “Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly.”

Indian media said he shared his boarding pass which showed his name and seat number.

Commissioner Malik told ANI the survivor “has been in the hospital and is under treatment”.

There were 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese nationals and one Canadian on the Gatwick Airport-bound flight, Air India said.

The plane crashed into accommodation used by doctors less than a minute after take-off.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

You can receive Breaking News on a smartphone or tablet via the BBC News App. You can also follow @BBCBreaking on X to get the latest alerts.

Larrosa Music Tech Firm Expands to Dubai with $16m+ in Assets and Plans for MENA Growth through Strategic Acquisitions

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Larrosa has made a significant splash in the music business over the past couple of years.

In 2023, the Spain-born finance and tech-centric music company raised over €15 million ($16m) to acquire catalogs and deploy advances to artists, focusing on Spanish-speaking markets.

In November, Larrosa formed a strategic alliance with Bell Partners, founded by veteran writer, producer, and executive Hayden Bell, to acquire independent music companies and catalogs.

Bell Partners, founded in 2022, has invested over USD $350 million in music rights to date. According to the announcement at the time, via their partnership, Bell and Larrosa plan to spend a similar amount on music companies and catalogs “in the coming years”.

With an already strong presence in Spain and Latin America, Larrosa has now taken a strategic step toward global expansion by opening a new headquarters in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

The company tells us that it’s launching in the market with a “strategic roadmap for MENA expansion through innovation and targeted acquisitions”.

Operating under the name Larrosa MusicTech & Capital, Larrosa says that this subsidiary will manage its combined portfolio of music and technology assets valued at over €15 million ($16m).

“We chose to expand into the UAE because the country offers incredible opportunities for companies like ours, particularly those deeply involved in advanced technology and innovative financial structures for the music industry,” explains the company’s founder and CEO, Cristian Larrosa.

“Dubai specifically stands out as a global financial hub, which makes it ideal for scaling technological partnerships with major corporations and government bodies, as well as exploring new business models around music assets, catalogs, and creative projects.”

The new base in Dubai will also serve as Larrosa’s operations and partnership hub for the broader Middle East, North Africa, and Asia markets.

Commenting on the biggest opportunities he sees in these markets, the company’s CEO says that “there’s a vibrant wave of music-related innovation sweeping across the region.”

“We’ve already carried out several operations with Asian catalogs, and we’re particularly intrigued by North Africa’s impressive growth, so we’re looking at it closely,” he explains.

“Still, our primary focus remains the Middle East, driven by economic expansion and its rising global influence.

“The recent establishment of Music Nation in the UAE, supported by BMI and SoundExchange, underscores the region’s evolving landscape, making rights management and royalty collection more structured and efficient than ever.”

As part of its expansion into Dubai, Larrosa says that the company is currently in “advanced negotiations with investment funds” in the UAE that are looking to back “innovative projects” operating at the crossroads of technology and music.

“We’re very enthusiastic about exploring M&A opportunities in the MENA region,” Cristian Larrosa tells us.

“The rapid evolution of the music-tech ecosystem here offers unique possibilities. We’re especially interested in partnering with companies focused on music tech innovations, catalog acquisition platforms, AI-driven tools, and fan-engagement solutions.”

He adds: “With success stories like Anghami and the rising investment interest from regional funds in culturally-rooted and tech-driven IP, we see MENA as crucial for our strategic growth.

“We’ve already started cultivating local partnerships and look forward to expanding our presence through targeted M&A.”

“We’re very enthusiastic about exploring M&A opportunities in the MENA region.”

Cristian Larrosa 

Following the $16 million raise in March 2023, Larrosa also confirms that the company is looking to raise additional capital to fund its M&A activity.

“We are actively engaged in discussions with various investment funds, including several currently in formation across the UAE, Europe, and the United States,” he says.

Separately, via its recently announced alliance with Bell Partners, Larrosa confirms that the company is also “actively progressing in the analysis of various projects, catalogs, and companies.”

He adds: “Our team continues to work diligently on these opportunities with the aim of closing several deals soon.”

Beyond catalog investment opportunities, Larrosa says that the new Dubai HQ will also act “as a bridge to connect with regional and international investors interested in new technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing applied to the sector”.

From its Europe-based “innovation center”, the company’s Larrosa Labs division has been developing tech tools such as ‘Wolfie AI’, described as “an AI-powered suite offering specialized assistance tools for the music industry, including non-generative audio solutions”.

“I genuinely believe AI will profoundly impact the music industry beyond just production and composition,” says Cristian Larrosa.  “It will increasingly become an essential tool in daily operations, from rights management to artist booking and legal frameworks.”

He explains that his “vision” about AI’s future positioning in the business “inspired” the company to create WolfieAI, which he claims is “the first AI platform exclusively designed for the music industry”.

“Wolfie doesn’t just serve as an advanced chatbot,” says Larrosa. “It integrates specialized industry tools, including a robust audio suite and dedicated prompt helpers tailored for every sector.”

“I genuinely believe AI will profoundly impact the music industry beyond just production and composition.”

Cristian Larrosa

The company might be investing in AI tools, but Larrosa is adamant that the “ongoing debates around generative audio concern [him] deeply.”

“We see a pressing need for a transparent, inclusive licensing framework that benefits the entire industry, not just select players,” he says.

“Transparency in AI, such as clear insights into training data and transparency from developers at least where creative works are involved, is crucial.”

He insists that WolfieAI’s final iterations will incorporate ethical technologies addressing “industry-wide concerns”.

Larrosa Labs has also developed ArtSigna, which the company describes as “a pioneering platform for certifying music rights on the Bitcoin blockchain,” and which, it claims, “is soon to be integrated with collective management societies”.

Looking to the future of the company’s positioning in the UAE, Cristian Larrosa believes that the MENA region “is positioned for remarkable growth.”

According to global recorded music body IFPI, the Middle East and North Africa region was the fastest-growing globally in 2024. Recorded music revenues increased by 22.8% YoY there in 2024, while streaming in the MENA region accounted for 99.5% of total revenues.

Larossa argues that further growth in the MENA region will be “driven by rising investments in creative industries, stronger IP regulations, and greater integration of technology into music distribution and rights management”.

He adds: “Countries like the UAE and Saudi Arabia are likely to become key global players, pioneering digital innovation, including AI and blockchain solutions, thus creating exciting new monetization opportunities and boosting regional cultural influence internationally.”Music Business Worldwide

Western India Plane Crash Bound for London

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Emergency crews were at the scene after an Air India plane with more than 200 people on board crashed near the airport in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, according to India’s civil aviation minister.