All posts tagged: sparked

Why Lauren Cowell’s discovery on son Eric’s phone sparked agonising decision

Why Lauren Cowell’s discovery on son Eric’s phone sparked agonising decision

Published by Daniella Wilson

For Lauren Cowell, the decision to let her and partner Simon’s 12-year-old son Eric have a phone was something she was not going to take lightly. As she began to research the effect of social media on young people, she came across powerful stories from parents who had lost their children to the dangers of the internet and the issue moved from a personal debate to a passionate cause.  Lauren has recently lent her voice to the Raise the Age campaign, which wants to ban all social media for every person under the age of 16 in the UK. And she won’t rest until that goal is implemented into law. “I think we need to act to protect our children because they are vulnerable and they don’t have the voice and the capacity to advocate for themselves,” she tells Hello! exclusively. “We need to be the ones who do that for them.” © Hoda DavaineLauren Cowell with partner Simon and their son Eric She came across Raise the Age while thinking over her son’s request …

Oil prices rise as stocks erase losses sparked by Iran war

Oil prices rise as stocks erase losses sparked by Iran war

Published by Sam Flores

The price of oil rose Monday, as a U.S. blockade of Iran’s ports and coastal areas came into effect and President Donald Trump threatened to eliminate any Iranian “fast attack ships” that approached American assets. Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content. The price of U.S. crude oil closed higher by 2.6% to $99.08 per barrel. International Brent oil jumped 4.3% to $99.36 per barrel. Wholesale gas prices also added 2%, while heating oil, a proxy for jet fuel prices, jumped 4%. Stocks followed a different pattern, though, and traded sharply higher throughout the day on bursts of optimism that the war will somehow be diffused in the near term. Stocks hit their highest levels of the day after Trump said that he was “called” this morning “by the right people” in Iran. Trump added that “they” want to work on a deal, without specifying who reached out. By the time the closing bell rang, the S&P 500 was up more than 1%. The index’s Monday rally …

UK drivers hit with record monthly increase in fuel prices sparked by Iran war

UK drivers hit with record monthly increase in fuel prices sparked by Iran war

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email British motorists faced unprecedented surges in fuel costs last month, with new analysis revealing record monthly increases driven by the Iran oil crisis. The RAC reported that the average price of a litre of petrol at UK forecourts jumped by 20p, from 132.8p on 1 March to 152.8p by the end of the month. Diesel drivers experienced an even steeper rise, with the average cost per litre soaring by 40p, from 142.4p to 182.8p, over the same period. These significant hikes eclipsed previous monthly records of 17p for petrol in June 2022 and 22p for diesel in March 2022, which occurred in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Despite last month’s record rises, average fuel prices are still below the all-time highs of summer 2022 when petrol peaked at 191.5p per litre and diesel at 199.0p per litre. RAC head of policy Simon Williams …

50 years ago, Karen Quinlan’s coma sparked the movement for patients’ rights near the end of life

50 years ago, Karen Quinlan’s coma sparked the movement for patients’ rights near the end of life

Published by Sam Flores

(The Conversation) — March 31, 2026, marks 50 years since a landmark decision that shapes American patients’ rights every day: the New Jersey Supreme Court ruling in the case of Karen Ann Quinlan, who had suffered an irreversible coma. Quinlan’s case established for the first time that decisions near the end of life should be made by patients and families, not by doctors and hospitals alone. As a bioethicist, I have taught and written extensively about the profound impact the Quinlan case has had on law, bioethics and the pursuit of death with dignity. The Quinlan story In April 1975, at the age of 21, Karen Ann Quinlan suffered a cardiac arrest and loss of oxygen to the brain while at a friend’s party. After she had gone to bed, friends discovered that she had stopped breathing, and she was rushed to the hospital. After a while, doctors determined that Quinlan was in a persistent vegetative state: a condition in which all cognitive functions of the brain have been lost and the patient has no …

IEA Head Warns Iran War Sparked Energy Crisis Worse Than 1970s Oil Shocks, Ukraine Fallout

IEA Head Warns Iran War Sparked Energy Crisis Worse Than 1970s Oil Shocks, Ukraine Fallout

Published by Jenni Sidey

The head of the International Energy Agency intensified his apocalyptic warning about the global energy crisis, stating early Monday that the US-Israel war with Iran has sparked a shock far greater than the twin oil crises of the 1970s and the turmoil from the war in Ukraine combined. US-Israeli Operation Epic Fury has entered its fourth week, and emerging from the fog of war is the understanding that 44 energy assets across the Gulf region have been severely or very severely damaged by either U.S. and allied forces or by Iranian forces, according to IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol, who spoke at a media event in Australia on Monday. “This crisis, as things stand, is now two oil crises and one gas crash put all together,” Birol warned at the National Press Club of Australia in Canberra. So far, the conflict has removed 11 million barrels of oil per day from global supply, which is more than the two prior oil shocks combined. There are concerns that repairs to QatarEnergy’s damaged LNG facility could take …

What Sparked Paramount’s Investigation of Jeff Shell

What Sparked Paramount’s Investigation of Jeff Shell

Published by Daniella Wilson

The high-stakes gambler who sparked an internal investigation and filed a whistleblower complaint against Jeff Shell had previously discussed a music reality show with him. R.J. Cipriani co-created and exec produced Roku’s Spanish-language series Serenata De Las Estrellas, in which Latin acts like Ozomatli and Los Lobos perform surprise mini-concerts for fans who’ve gone through tough times. He’d been introduced to Shell via their mutual attorney Patty Glaser, and he’d recently pitched the studio boss on picking up the English-language format of Serenata. After the discussion soured, Cipriani brought claims to the attention of Paramount about Shell. As THR previously revealed, the entertainment mogul is alleged to have improperly disclosed details about the timing, cost and structure of his public company’s $7.7 billion media rights deal with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, whose parent TKO Group Holdings jumped 10 percent following news of the pact. Notably, Glaser has been both Shell’s attorney as well as counsel representing Cipriani in business pertaining to Serenata, whose English-language version has been shopped as Star Serenade. In the current conflict, …

Tourette’s Debate Sparked at BAFTA Awards After John Davidson Slurs

Tourette’s Debate Sparked at BAFTA Awards After John Davidson Slurs

Published by Daniella Wilson

A debate has been sparked among BAFTA Film Awards attendees and online after a Tourette’s campaigner, John Davidson, was heard cursing throughout the show. Davidson is the inspiration behind the BAFTA-nominated I Swear. Robert Aramayo, who depicted the Scotsman in Kirk Jones’ widely acclaimed film, nabbed the BAFTA for best actor on Sunday night — over Leonardo DiCaprio, Timothee Chalamet, Ethan Hawke and Michael B. Jordan. The film follows a man’s struggle growing up with Tourette’s syndrome, a condition characterized by sudden, involuntary and repetitive movements or sounds. These are known as tics, and they often manifest as outbursts such as loud swearing, which occurred numerous times over the first 20 minutes of the BAFTA ceremony as Davidson shouted, “Boring!” while guests were taken through some of the housekeeping rules before the show began, and “Bullshit!” when people were asked not to curse. He also exclaimed, “Shut the fuck up,” while BAFTA chair Sara Putt made her introductory remarks and, later, prompted gasps when he said the n-word as Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo presented …

Jeffrey Epstein’s Ties to CBP Agents Sparked a DOJ Probe

Jeffrey Epstein’s Ties to CBP Agents Sparked a DOJ Probe

Published by skeptic

United States prosecutors and federal law enforcement spent over a year examining ties between Jeffrey Epstein and Customs and Border Protection officers stationed in the US Virgin Islands (USVI), according to documents recently released by the Department of Justice. As The Guardian and New York Times have reported, emails, text messages, and investigative records show that Epstein cultivated friendships with several officers, entertaining them on his island and offering to take them for whale-watching trips in his helicopter. He even brought one cannolis for Christmas Eve. In turn, Epstein would bring certain officers his complaints about his treatment at the hands of other CBP and federal agents. Most of the interactions described in the records occurred years after Epstein pleaded guilty to charges of sex crimes in Florida in 2008. The CBP officers were never charged for any crimes related to Epstein, and at least one later retired from the agency with a pension, suggesting that the government ultimately didn’t find any wrongdoing. The documents do, though, describe patterns of behavior—two of the officers referred …

Trump campaign lawyer sparked FBI probe of Fulton County ballots: Affidavit

Trump campaign lawyer sparked FBI probe of Fulton County ballots: Affidavit

Published by Sam Flores

A referral by former Trump campaign lawyer Kurt Olsen led to the recent FBI raid that seized 2020 election ballots from a Fulton County, Georgia, elections center, a newly unsealed federal court document revealed Tuesday. The document, an affidavit by FBI Special Agent Hugh Raymond Evans, said that the FBI is conducting a “criminal investigation into whether any of the improprieties” alleged to have occurred in voting processes and ballot counting in Fulton County in 2020 “were intentional acts that violated federal criminal laws.” “The FBI criminal investigation originated from a referral sent by Kurt Olsen, Presidentially appointed Director of Election Security and Integrity,” the affidavit document in U.S. District Court in Atlanta says. Olsen worked on efforts after the 2020 election to overturn President Donald Trump’s loss in that contest to former President Joe Biden. Evans’ affidavit was submitted by federal prosecutors as part of an application asking a federal magistrate judge to sign a search warrant for the election center. Olsen reportedly was hired last fall to investigate election issues. The affidavit was …

‘The US crisis around ICE evokes the one sparked by the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850’

‘The US crisis around ICE evokes the one sparked by the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850’

Published by Sam Flores

Footage of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers forcefully detaining undocumented immigrants on the streets or at workplaces – particularly in states that oppose such methods – and the determined resistance of protesters intent on defending those targeted, evoke another major crisis in American democracy: the one triggered by the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. So too does the heart-wrenching fate of immigrants who have built their lives in the United States, only to be deported to countries they left decades earlier, often facing family separation. The intention here is not to equate the plight of today’s undocumented immigrants with that of 19th-century fugitive slaves. Their legal status and the history of their presence in the US are distinct. Rather, the goal is to highlight the similarities between their experiences and to point out the resemblances between two defining crises in American democracy: the current crisis roiling the country and the one that set the stage for the Civil War in 1861. This comparison sheds light on the paradoxical role of the federal government, …