YouTube has evolved from a dinner party lark 20 years ago into a modern lifestyle staple poised to overtake US cable television in paid viewership.PayPal colleagues Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim conceived YouTube in 2005, reportedly during a dinner party. The domain YouTube.com launched on Valentine’s Day that year.Video uploading capabilities were added on April 23, when Karim posted the first video, titled “Me at the Zoo.” The 19-second clip showing Karim at the San Diego Zoo’s elephant exhibit has garnered 348 million views.Over the next 20 years, the site has expanded beyond what was imagined possible back in 2005.”YouTube was started by tech bros who wanted a video hosting service to watch reruns of Janet Jackson’s ‘wardrobe malfunction’ during the Super Bowl,” said eMarketer analyst Ross Benes.”Now, it’s the world’s largest digital video service in terms of time spent and ad revenue — it’s an utter behemoth.”YouTube reached more than 2.5 billion viewers globally last year, with its music and premium tier subscribers hitting 100 million, according to market tracker Statista. Users worldwide watch more than a billion hours of YouTube content daily on television sets alone, Google reported.”If you go back 20 years, it would have seemed laughable that this website with kids making parody videos would become a threat to Disney, ABC, and CBS,” Benes said. “That’s what they were able to accomplish.”- ‘Firehose’ of videos -YouTube’s breakthrough came from challenging traditional television titans without requiring studios or production costs — it was users who were creating and uploading the content. The platform hosts everything from concert clips to political campaign ads to how-to videos — and much more.”The amount of new stuff coming out is a firehose that you can’t turn off, so people are always tuning in,” Benes said. According to Google, more than 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.Analysts consider Google’s 2006 purchase of YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock a pivotal moment, combining Google’s search and advertising expertise with a video-sharing platform that had passionate users.”YouTube was part of the recovery from the dot-com collapse, when people realized monetization was actually important,” said tech analyst Rob Enderle. “YouTube became an example of how dot-coms should have been done, as opposed to how they were done in the late 1990s.”Google used its advertising know-how to build a successful model, sharing revenue with creators who attract significant audiences. The company also enhanced technology and negotiated with studios to address copyright violations on what was once considered the Wild West of video content.”The piracy aspect isn’t quite there the way it used to be at YouTube,” Benes noted. “They used to have nudity too.”YouTube also worked its way past concerns that disturbing content, like parody videos of popular cartoon characters in violent or risque situations, were being served up to children by its recommendation software.The company launched a free “Kids” app promoted as a safe space for children, and is constantly tweaking its algorithm to avoid offending users, advertisers, and governments.Analyst Enderle credited much of YouTube’s development into a formidable platform to former chief executive Susan Wojcicki, who died last year. “She was phenomenal at her job and showcased how something like this should be done,” Enderle said.- ‘Part of me’ -YouTube is projected to surpass all US cable television services in paid subscribers within two years, according to Benes. The platform now competes with streaming services like Netflix, Disney, and Amazon Prime, as well as short-form video platforms like TikTok and Instagram’s Reels.In response to TikTok’s popularity, YouTube introduced its “Shorts” feature, which averages more than 70 billion views daily.”As the original streaming video platform, YouTube has continued to evolve and differentiate,” Mike Proulx, vice president and research director at Forrester, told AFP. “It’s the de facto standard for long-form user-generated video, literally defining the modern ‘creator.'”While YouTube’s recommendation algorithm has traditionally favored established creators, longtime content maker “Robert G” noted that emerging creators are once again being featured on the home page.”I’m really happy that YouTube is changing,” said Robert G, who began uploading videos in 2009. “YouTube is part of me; it is what I do.”

Joseph Lynskey was quietly waiting for the New York subway on New Year’s Eve when someone shoved him from behind onto the tracks as a train pulled into the station.Highly publicized horror stories like Lynskey’s have had a chilling effect on many New Yorkers even as authorities say crime is down on the metro system and across the city.Lynskey survived because he fell into a deeper, recessed space under the train and between the tracks, and was not hit by the wheels but rather the undercarriage.”I knew instantly… that somebody had pushed me and tried to kill me,” the music producer told AFP of the attack at the 18th Street subway station in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan.”When I hit the tracks and I opened my eyes, the train was on top of me. It was so fast.”He recalled thinking “I’m going to get hit by the train and I’m going to die.” A 45-year-old adopted New Yorker, he has not been able to return to the subway, used by four million people daily who flock to the sprawling network of 472 stations and more than 660 miles of track, running day and night.When he looked around after falling onto the tracks, Lynskey recalled being just inches from the high-voltage rail that powers trains, and seeing his blood pooling on the rail bed.He was left with a fractured skull, four broken ribs and a ruptured spleen.”I knew that I had to remain calm. There was nobody on the platform answering my calls for help. For about 90 seconds, I was alone, screaming for help,” he said. “A woman started answering me… a Good Samaritan. She asked me what my name was. She asked me if I could move. She asked me if I could wiggle my fingers and wiggle my toes to see if, I guess if I was paralyzed, and I think she was trying to keep me awake.”Within minutes firefighters, police and subway workers arrived, with two firefighters retrieving him from the tracks, having been trained to do so just days before.Lynskey later met his rescuers to give them a hug and thank them properly.His rescue was captured on film and widely shared on social media, with rescuers expressing surprise that he was alive once he was lifted through the gap between two carriages.Lynskey still struggles to understand why his attacker, a 23-year-old man with criminal convictions and mental health issues, would want to harm him.He chooses instead to focus his attention on the kindness of strangers, like those who have written to him from around the world to express solidarity.- ‘Back against the wall’ -Last year 26 people were pushed or fell onto tracks, one of whom died, an increase of nine on 2023, police say.Cases like Lynskey’s, though rare, attract a disproportionate share of headlines and public awareness.Another subway tragedy that shocked New Yorkers became front page news in May 2023 when Jordan Neely, an unhoused Michael Jackson impersonator who had struggled with psychiatric issues, was choked to death by a former US Marine, Daniel Penny. Penny was charged with murder despite claiming he acted in self-defense when Neely became agitated, and a jury acquitted him.Similarly shocking was the killing of a woman who was set alight by another passenger.One rider, Marissa Keary, 24, said that she had “definitely heightened” her vigilance when riding the metro.”If I have to wait, I’ll have my back against the wall, and I’ll also stand near another woman,” she said.Lynskey said that the subway operator could do more to make passengers feel safe.”I think everyone deserves to feel safe when they go down into their commute,” he said.Despite chronic issues with reliability and dirtiness, the subway remains the fastest way for the city’s eight million people to crisscross the tightly packed urban jungle.In mid-January, authorities stepped up police patrols at stations and on trains, while also steeping up mental health outreach and erecting barriers on the edges of some platforms.Administrators said they hope that President Donald Trump does not scrap a $9 per car congestion charging scheme despite his opposition to the measure which will be used to fund a $65 billion subway overhaul bill, and the system’s $48 billion debt pile. 

During his campaign, Donald Trump shunned Project 2025, a radical governing blueprint that envisioned a humbled federal bureaucracy bending the knee to a nearly omnipotent White House.Seeing the Heritage Foundation’s 922-page brainchild as toxic to his election prospects, the canny campaigner said he didn’t even plan to read it, much less endorse it.Yet Trump’s embrace of Project 2025’s recommendations since returning to office — and his nomination for cabinet posts of many of its key architects — has alarmed critics and even raised some eyebrows on the right.- Federal workforce -The Heritage Foundation recommended reclassifying federal workers to make them easier to fire, and stripping protections from civil servants perceived as disloyal. Trump ordered both reforms.On the law enforcement front, it reinforced Trump’s conspiracy theory about a “deep state” working to undermine Republicans as it called for an end to the “weaponization” of government.And it demanded that intelligence chiefs undo the “damage” done by investigations into the Trump campaign and its coordination with Russia’s attack on the 2016 US election.Trump, who was indicted in 2023 by four grand juries, signed orders against weaponization and ordered the FBI to identify agents who had investigated his involvement in the 2021 US Capitol insurrection.On national disasters Trump has also indicated that he is open to shifting response costs from the federal government to affected states — another Project 2025 idea. The Heritage Foundation was also an early proponent of Trump’s hiring freeze for career officials.- Culture wars and the military -Project 2025 called for the reinstatement of military personnel discharged for refusing Covid-19 vaccines. Transgender troops, on the other hand, should be kicked out, it said.Trump signed orders reinstating vaccine-skeptical service members and declaring gender dysphoria inconsistent with troop “readiness” and “lethality.”Project 2025 also called for an end to “Marxist indoctrination” in the military, singling out diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the armed forces and across the government.It recommended purging the federal bureaucracy of terms considered “woke” by conservatives, from “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to “reproductive rights.””Sex,” it said, should mean biological sex recognized at birth and has nothing to do with people’s identity preferences.Trump abolished DEI offices funded by the defense and homeland security departments — along with “illegal” DEI initiatives in every department.He ordered an end to hiring practices based on “illegal racial discrimination under the guise of ‘equity'” and set US policy to recognize “two sexes, male and female.”He also revoked a Biden administration memorandum supporting abortion access abroad, following a recommendation from the Heritage Foundation.In education, Project 2025 pushed for parental choice and wanted the Civil Rights Act (CRA) invoked to end “gender ideology and critical race theory” in schools.Trump issued edicts prioritizing “education freedom” and cited the CRA in an executive order withdrawing funding from public schools failing to respect parents’ rights and discrimination laws.- Immigration -Project 2025 wanted state and local police to be involved in immigration raids and pushed for the mandatory detention of undocumented migrants.Countries that don’t take back deported citizens should face “stiff sanctions,” the Heritage Foundation said.Trump ordered migrant criminal suspects to be detained until deportation and announced the creation of new “federal-state partnerships” on immigration enforcement.He directed officials to ensure that diplomacy includes “the foreign states’ acceptance of their nationals who are subject to removal from the United States.”Trump also ordered so-called sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with immigration enforcement to be denied federal funding.- Environment -While much that Project 2025 had to say on fossil fuel production was standard Republican fare, it called specifically for drilling in Alaska.Trump, who made “drill, baby, drill” a clarion call for his campaign, said it was US policy to “fully avail itself of Alaska’s vast lands and resources.”Project 2025’s calls for the abolition of renewable energy subsidies and efficiency requirements for household appliances was also music to Trump’s ears — and fodder for several orders.- Foreign aid -“US foreign aid is too often disconnected from the strategy and practice of US foreign policy,” Project 2025 said.Trump halted all foreign aid in his first week back in office, saying the system was “not aligned with American interests.” The president is also trying to shutter the humanitarian agency USAID, although he faces legal challenges.Project 2025 — which aligns with Trump’s protectionist “America First” outlook — had foreshadowed the president’s tariffs crackdown and pushed for his withdrawal from the World Health Organization.

US President Donald Trump’s use of tariffs as a blunt weapon to extract concessions on everything from commerce to immigration and drug trafficking could redraw global trading norms, analysts say.Since his inauguration on January 20, Trump has unveiled and paused blanket tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods over migration and illegal fentanyl, and hiked duties on Chinese imports in the same breath, triggering retaliation.And on Monday he imposed sweeping steel and aluminum levies, drawing comparisons to his first term when he imposed duties across both sectors before allowing exemptions.Trump sees tariffs as a way to raise revenue, remedy trade imbalances and pressure countries to act on US concerns.But “the degree of uncertainty about trade policy has basically exploded,” said Maurice Obstfeld, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.Analysts can try to predict where tariffs might be imposed based on economic variables, he told AFP, but basing trade policy on non-economic objectives could throw things into a tailspin.Trump’s tactics could lead to a “retraction of global supply chains,” he warned, or countries seeking to decouple from the US market if risk levels are deemed too high.- Broader scale -Already, the scale of Trump’s tariff threat is larger than before.While he imposed sweeping duties on steel and aluminum imports previously, alongside levies on hundreds of billions of dollars in Chinese products, he has now threatened all US partners.Trump has vowed “reciprocal tariffs” to match levies that other governments charge on US goods, and ordered a review of US trade deficits by April 1.US officials are to recommend measures such as a global supplemental tariff to remedy deficits.Across-the-board duties, if imposed, could affect more than $3 trillion in imported goods.But Trump’s reasons for levies on Canada and Mexico — as well as a lower additional rate on China — go beyond trade.”It’s not a tariff per se, it is an action of domestic policy,” Trump’s commerce secretary nominee Howard Lutnick told lawmakers at his confirmation hearing last month.”I don’t think anyone should be surprised about these tariffs or tariff threats,” said Christine McDaniel, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center.Trump “has been very clear that he sees them as an important tool in his toolkit,” added McDaniel, a former official in George W. Bush’s administration. “He views this as as much of a negotiating tool, as he does in trying to balance trade.”- ‘Upsetting the applecart’ -Stephen Moore, a longtime external Trump advisor, sees tariffs as a way to “incentivize” countries to act in US interests, saying that partners like Canada, Mexico and China risk bigger losses economically than the United States.While he believes Trump’s approach has been effective, he conceded it could be dangerous if it triggered escalating trade tensions with partners like Canada.Similarly, Washington would want a “strong and stable economy in Mexico,” added Moore, a senior visiting fellow at The Heritage Foundation.Inu Manak, a fellow for trade policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, warned that Trump’s tariffs could backfire.Besides threatening tit-for-tat tariffs, Canadians also offered a “cultural response,” with people booing the US national anthem at sporting events, she said.”This is really damaging the United States’ reputation, and I think that’s something we need to be concerned about in the long term,” she said.To McDaniel, the risk of unilateral tariffs may upend global trade.”What is the use of WTO membership when one of the biggest countries in the world can threaten tariffs for national security reasons in such an aggressive way?” she asked, referring to the World Trade Organization.”It’s definitely upsetting the applecart in terms of how we’ve been thinking about the role of international trade institutions, international trade rules and trade agreements,” she said.

US President Donald Trump on Monday pardoned Rod Blagojevich, a former Illinois governor whose jail sentence for corruption he commuted five years ago during his first term.Democrat Blagojevich was removed from his governor’s post in 2009 and later convicted of essentially selling the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama when he won the US presidency in 2008.”It was sort of a terrible injustice. They just went after him, they go after a lot of people. These are bad people on the other side,” Trump told reporters as he signed the pardon in the Oval Office. “I think he’s a very fine person, and this shouldn’t have happened.”Asked whether he was considering Blagojevich to be US ambassador to Serbia, as US media had reported, Trump said: “No, but I would. He’s now cleaner than anybody in this room.”Back in 2020, Trump was vague about his reasoning for freeing Blagojevich, who was sentenced to 14 years.The president noted that he’d once performed with Blagojevich during the TV reality show “The Apprentice” and said he “seemed like a very nice person,” but added: “I don’t know him very well.””He served eight years in jail. He has a long time to go. Many people disagree with the sentence,” Trump told reporters.Trump has already exercised the US president’s wide-ranging powers to issue pardons on a number of occasions since he returned to the White House on January 20.On the evening of his inauguration, he pardoned some 1,500 people accused of involvement in the January 6, 2021 US Capitol attack by supporters trying to overturn his election loss to Joe Biden.He has also pardoned two dozen anti-abortion protesters and Ross Ulbricht, the man behind the “Silk Road” online marketplace that facilitated millions of dollars of drug sales.