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US President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping will likely hold a long-awaited call later this week, the White House said Monday, as trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economies ratchet back up.Trump reignited strains with China last week when he accused the world’s second-biggest economy of violating a deal that had led both countries to temporarily reduce huge tit-for-tat tariffs.”The two leaders will likely talk this week,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters outside the West Wing when asked whether Trump and Xi would speak.Asked about the statement on Tuesday, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry said Beijing had “no information to provide.”Trump and Xi have yet to have any confirmed contact more than five months since the Republican returned to power, despite frequent claims by the US president that a call is imminent. Trump even said in a Time Magazine interview in April that Xi had called him — but Beijing insisted that there had been no call recently.The US leader introduced in April sweeping worldwide tariffs that targeted China most heavily of all, accusing other countries of “ripping off” the United States and running trade imbalances.Beijing and Washington last month agreed to slash staggeringly high tariffs on each other for 90 days after talks between top officials in Geneva.But Trump and other top Washington officials last week accused China of violating the deal, with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick saying Beijing was “slow-rolling” the agreement in comments to Fox News Sunday.Beijing rejected those “bogus” US claims on Monday, and accused Washington of introducing “a number of discriminatory restrictive measures.” Trump has separately ramped up tensions with other trade partners, including the European Union, by vowing to double global tariffs on steel and aluminum to 50 percent from Wednesday.

Three robotic arms extended under the water in a Canadian lake, delicately selecting pebbles from the bed, before storing them back inside the machine. The exercise was part of a series of tests the robot was undergoing before planned deployment in the ocean, where its operators hope the machine can transform the search for the world’s most sought-after metals.  The robot was made by Impossible Metals, a company founded in California in 2020, which says it is trying to develop technology that allows the seabed to be harvested with limited ecological disruption.Conventional underwater harvesting involves scooping up huge amounts of material in search of potato-sized things called poly-metallic nodules.These nodules contain nickel, copper, cobalt, or other metals needed for electric vehicle batteries, among other key products. Impossible Metals’ co-founder Jason Gillham told AFP his company’s robot looks for the nodules “in a selective way.”The prototype, being tested in the province of Ontario, remains stationary in the water, hovering over the lake bottom.In a lab, company staff monitor the yellow robot on screens, using what looks like a video game console to direct its movements.Using lights, cameras and artificial intelligence, the robot tries to identify the sought-after nodules while leaving aquatic life — such as octopuses’ eggs, coral, or sponges — undisturbed.- ‘A bit like bulldozers’ -In a first for the nascent sector, Impossible Metals has requested a permit from US President Donald Trump to use its robot in American waters around Samoa, in the Pacific.The company is hoping that its promise of limited ecological disruption will give it added appeal.Competitors, like The Metals Company, use giant machines that roll along the seabed and suck up the nodules, a highly controversial technique.Douglas McCauley, a marine biologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, told AFP this method scoops up ocean floor using collectors or excavators, “a bit like bulldozers,” he explained.Everything is then brought up to ships, where the nodules are separated from waste, which is tossed back into the ocean. This creates large plumes of sediment and toxins with a multitude of potential impacts, he said.A less invasive approach, like that advocated by Impossible Metals, would reduce the risk of environmental damage, McCauley explained. But he noted lighter-touch harvesting is not without risk. The nodules themselves also harbor living organisms, and removing them even with a selective technique, involves destroying the habitat, he said.Impossible Metals admits its technology cannot detect microscopic life, but the company claims to have a policy of leaving 60 percent of the nodules untouched.McCauley is unconvinced, explaining “ecosystems in the deep ocean are especially fragile and sensitive.” “Life down there moves very slowly, so they reproduce very slowly, they grow very slowly.”Duncan Currie of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition said it was impossible to assess the impact of any deep sea harvesting. “We don’t know enough yet either in terms of the biodiversity and the ecosystem down there,” he told AFP.According to the international scientific initiative Ocean Census, only 250,000 species are known, out of the two million that are estimated to populate the oceans.- High demand -Mining is “always going to have some impact,” said Impossible Metals chief executive and co-founder Oliver Gunasekara, who has spent most of his career in the semiconductor field.But, he added, “we need a lot more critical minerals, as we want to electrify everything.” Illustrating the global rush toward underwater mining, Impossible Metals has raised US$15 million from investors to build and test a first series of its Eureka 3 robot in 2026.The commercial version will be the size of a shipping container and will expand from three to 16 arms, and its battery will grow from 14 to nearly 200 kilowatt-hours.The robot will be fully autonomous and self-propel, without cables or tethers to the surface, and be equipped with sensors.While awaiting the US green light, the company hopes to finalize its technology within two to three years, conduct ocean tests, build a fleet, and operate through partnerships elsewhere in the world.

US President Donald Trump is “open” to meeting his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts in Turkey, the White House said, after the two sides failed on Monday to make headway towards an elusive ceasefire.Delegations from both sides did, however, agree another large-scale prisoner exchange in their meeting in Istanbul, which in mid-May also hosted their first round of face-to-face talks.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan proposed that Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump come together for a third round later this month in either Istanbul or Ankara.Putin has so far refused such a meeting. But Zelensky has said he is willing, underlining that key issues can only be resolved at leaders-level.Trump, who wants a swift end to the three-year war, is “open” to a three-way summit “if it comes to that, but he wants both of these leaders and both sides to come to the table together”, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in Washington.But despite Trump’s willingness to meet with Putin and Zelensky, no US representative took part in Monday’s talks in Istanbul, according to a State Department spokesperson.Zelensky said that, “We are very much awaiting strong steps from the United States” and urged Trump to toughen sanctions on Russia to “push” it to agree to a full ceasefire. In Monday’s meeting, Ukraine said that Moscow had rejected its call for an unconditional ceasefire. It offered instead a partial truce of two to three days in some areas of the frontline.Russia will only agree a full ceasefire if Ukrainian troops pull back entirely from four regions — Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson — according to its negotiating terms reported on by Russian state media. Russia currently only partly controls those regions.Moscow has also demanded a ban on Kyiv joining NATO, limiting Ukraine’s military and ending Western military support.- Prisoner swap -Top negotiators from both sides agreed to swap all severely wounded soldiers and captured fighters under the age of 25.Russia’s lead negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said it would involve “at least 1,000″ on each side. The two sides also agreed to hand over the bodies of 6,000 soldiers, Ukraine said after the talks.”The Russian side continued to reject the motion of an unconditional ceasefire,” Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya told reporters after the talks.Russia said it had offered a limited pause in fighting.”We have proposed a specific ceasefire for two to three days in certain areas of the front line,” Medinsky said, adding that this was needed to collect the bodies of dead soldiers from the battlefield. Zelensky hit back on social media: “I think ‘idiots’, because the whole point of a ceasefire is to stop people from becoming dead in the first place.”Kyiv said it would study a document the Russian side handed its negotiators outlining its demands for both peace and a full ceasefire.Zelensky said after the Istanbul talks concluded that any deal for lasting peace must not “reward” Putin, and has called for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire to cover combat on air, sea and land.- ‘Constructive atmosphere’ -Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, who led his country’s delegation, called for a next meeting to take place before the end of June. He also said a Putin-Zelensky summit should be discussed.Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said after the talks — inside a luxury hotel on the banks of the Bosphorus — that they were held “in a constructive atmosphere”.”During the meeting, the parties decided to continue preparations for a possible meeting at the leader level,” Fidan said on social media.Tens of thousands have been killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine destroyed and millions forced to flee their homes in Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II.In the front-line town of Dobropillya in eastern Ukraine, 53-year-old Volodymyr told AFP he had no hope left for an end to the conflict.”We thought that everything would stop. And now there is nothing to wait for. We have no home, nothing. We were almost killed by drones,” he said.After months of setbacks for Kyiv’s military, Ukraine said it had carried out an audacious attack on Sunday, smuggling drones into Russia and then firing them at airbases, damaging around 40 strategic Russian bombers worth $7 billion in a major special operation.

US senators have begun weeks of what is certain to be fierce debate over the mammoth policy package President Donald Trump hopes will seal his legacy, headlined by tax cuts slated to add up to $3 trillion to the nation’s debt.The Republican leader celebrated when the House passed his “big, beautiful bill,” which partially covers an extension of his 2017 tax relief through budget cuts projected to strip health care from millions of low-income Americans.The Senate now gets to make its own changes, and the upper chamber’s version could make or break Republicans’ 2026 midterm election prospects — and define Trump’s second term.  But the 1,116-page blueprint faces an uphill climb, with moderate Republicans balking at $1.5 trillion in spending cuts while fiscal hawks are blasting the bill as a ticking debt bomb.”We have enough (holdouts) to stop the process until the president gets serious about spending reduction and reducing the deficit,” Senator Ron Johnson, one of half a dozen Republican opponents to the bill, told CNN. Democrats — whose support is not required if Republicans can maintain a united front — have focused on the tax cuts mostly benefiting the rich on the backs of a working class already struggling with high prices. The White House says the legislation will spur robust economic growth to neutralize its potential to blow up America’s already burgeoning debt pile, which has ballooned to $36.9 trillion. But several independent analyses have found that — even taking growth into account — it will add between $2.5 trillion and $3.1 trillion to deficits over the next decade.The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, meanwhile, found that the combined effects of tax cuts and cost savings would be a giant transfer of wealth from the poorest 10 percent to the richest 10 percent.Republicans muscled the measure through the House by a single vote on May 22 by a combination of bargaining vote holdouts on policies and deploying Trump himself to twist arms.House Speaker Mike Johnson is now pleading with the Senate not to alter the bill too much, as any tweaks will need to go back to the lower chamber.- Faultlines -The Senate wants to get the bill to Trump’s desk by US Independence Day on July 4 — an ambitious timeline given Republicans’ narrow three-vote majority and wide faultlines that have opened over the proposed specifics.Independent analysts expect around seven million beneficiaries of the Medicaid health insurance program will be deprived of coverage due to new proposed eligibility restrictions and work requirements. Polling shows that the vast majority of Americans oppose cutting Medicaid — including Trump himself, as well as some Republicans in poorer states that rely heavily on federal welfare. Senate moderates are also worried about proposed changes to funding food aid that could deprive up to 3.2 million of vital nutrition support.One thing is almost certain — Trump himself will get involved at some point, though his negotiation tactics may be more subtle than they were when he threatened “grandstanders” holding up the tax bill in the House.Trump took to his Truth Social website on Monday to decry “so many false statements (that) are being made about ‘THE ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL'” — and to falsely claim that it would not cut Medicaid.”The only ‘cutting’ we will do is for Waste, Fraud, and Abuse, something that should have been done by the Incompetent, Radical Left Democrats for the last four years, but wasn’t,” he said.  One more wrinkle for Trump: tech billionaire Elon Musk — no longer one of his closest aides but still an influential commentator — has already broken with the president to criticize the mega-bill. “A bill can be big or it can be beautiful. But I don’t know if it can be both,” Musk said in a CBS interview criticizing its effect on debt.

US President Donald Trump on Monday ruled out allowing Iran to enrich uranium under any nuclear deal between the foes — as Tehran defended what it said was its “peaceful” pursuit of fuel for power generation.Uranium enrichment has remained a key point of contention in five rounds of talks since April to ink a new accord to replace the deal with major powers that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.”Under our potential Agreement — WE WILL NOT ALLOW ANY ENRICHMENT OF URANIUM!” Trump said on his Truth Social network after the Axios news outlet said Washington’s offer would let Tehran enrich some of the nuclear fuel.Republican Trump also blamed predecessor Joe Biden for the impasse, saying the Democrat “should have stopped Iran a long time ago from ‘enriching.'”Axios said the latest proposal that Washington had sent Tehran on Saturday would allow limited low-level uranium enrichment on Iranian soil, for an amount of time that has yet to be determined.Iran has insisted that Iran has “nothing to hide” on its nuclear program.Speaking in Cairo, where he met the UN nuclear watchdog’s chief Rafael Grossi, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said: “If the goal is to deprive Iran of its peaceful activities, then certainly no agreement will be reached.”The remarks came after Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Monday called for more transparency from Iran following a leaked report that showed Tehran had stepped up uranium enrichment.- ‘Need for more transparency’ -The IAEA report showed that Iran has ramped up production of uranium enriched up to 60 percent — close to the roughly 90 percent level needed for atomic weapons.”There is a need for more transparency — this is very, very clear — in Iran, and nothing will bring us to this confidence (besides) full explanations of a number of activities,” Grossi said ahead of meeting Araghchi.Grossi added that some of the report’s findings “may be uncomfortable for some, and we are… used to being criticized”.Iran has rejected the report, warning it would retaliate if European powers that have threatened to reimpose nuclear sanctions “exploit” it.”Some countries are trying to abuse this agency to pave the way for escalation with Iran. I hope that this agency does not fall into this trap,” Araghchi said of the IAEA.Iran meanwhile pushed for the United States to drop sanctions that have crippled its economy as a condition for a nuclear agreement with Trump’s administration.Araghchi said on Saturday that he had received “elements” of the US proposal for a nuclear deal following the five rounds of talks, mediated by Oman.- ‘With or without a deal’ -Both Araghchi and Grossi met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who praised the US-Iran talks and called for “de-escalation in order to prevent a slide into a full-fledged regional war”.On Monday, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told a news conference: “We want to guarantee that the sanctions are effectively lifted.””So far, the American side has not wanted to clarify this issue,” he said.The US envoy in the nuclear talks said last month that Trump’s administration would oppose any Iranian enrichment.”An enrichment program can never exist in the state of Iran ever again. That’s our red line. No enrichment,” Steve Witkoff told Breitbart News.Following a phone call with Witkoff the day before about the ongoing nuclear talks, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty urged a peaceful solution and a nuclear-weapon-free Middle East, saying in Monday’s press conference that “the region is already experiencing enough problems and crises”.He warned that military confrontation would create “a state of chaos from which no one will be spared”.Iran has vowed to keep enriching uranium “with or without a deal” on its nuclear program.The United States has sent Iran a proposal for a nuclear deal that the White House called “acceptable” and in Tehran’s “best interest” to accept, US media reported on Saturday.The New York Times, citing officials familiar with the diplomatic exchanges, said the proposal calls on Iran to stop all enrichment and suggests creating a regional grouping to produce nuclear power.

The man suspected of a Molotov cocktail attack on Jewish protesters in Colorado is facing federal hate crime charges, officials said Monday, as President Donald Trump’s administration vowed to pursue “terrorists” living in the US on visas.Mohammed Sabry Soliman is alleged to have thrown fire bombs and sprayed burning gasoline at a group of people who had gathered on Sunday in support of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.Twelve people were hurt in the attack in the city of Boulder, police said, two of them seriously. Most of those taken to the hospital have now been discharged.J. Bishop Grewell, acting US Attorney for the District of Colorado, told reporters the 45-year-old suspect had been planning the attack for a year.Soliman threw “Molotov cocktails at a group of men and women, some of them in their late 80s, burning them as they peacefully walked on a Sunday to draw attention to Israeli hostages held in Gaza,” he said.”When he was interviewed about the attack, he said he wanted them all to die. He had no regrets, and he would go back and do it again.”Soliman told investigators he had previously tried to buy a gun, but had been thwarted because he was not a US citizen.Police who rushed to the scene of the attack found 16 unused Molotov cocktails and a backpack weed sprayer containing gasoline that investigators say he had intended to use as a makeshift flamethrower.Soliman faces federal hate crime charges that could result in a life sentence, as well as state charges for attempted murder that could carry hundreds of years prison time.US Homeland Security officials said Soliman was in the country illegally, having overstayed a tourist visa, but that he had applied for asylum in September 2022.Trump lashed out at his predecessor, Joe Biden, over the incident.”Yesterday’s horrific attack in Boulder, Colorado, WILL NOT BE TOLERATED in the United States of America,” Trump said on his Truth Social network, describing it as a “terrible tragedy.”He blamed “Biden’s ridiculous Open Border Policy” for allowing Soliman into the country. “This is yet another example of why we must keep our Borders SECURE, and deport Illegal, Anti-American Radicals from our Homeland,” he wrote.His Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, vowed to hunt down people who wreak havoc.”All terrorists, their family members, and terrorist sympathizers here on a visa should know that under the Trump Administration we will find you, revoke your visa, and deport you,” he wrote on social media.- Bystander Video -The attack occurred on Sunday afternoon during a regular demonstration in support of hostages taken in the assault on Israel by Hamas gunmen on October 7, 2023.In one video that purportedly shows the attack, a shirtless man holding bottles in his hands is seen pacing as the grass in front of him burns.He can be heard screaming “End Zionists!” and “They are killers!” towards several people in red T-shirts as they tend to a person lying on the ground.Other images showed billowing black smoke.In another video, a police officer rushes to arrest the same man, who is lying on the grass. Several people are milling around nearby.Witness Brian Horowitz told CNN he had rushed towards the scene to see if he could help.”The attacker was yelling things like: ‘You effing Zionists. Kill my people. I kill you’ at 20 different people,” he said.”He was saying: ‘You’re a killer. You’re a killer,’ making eye contact with me, telling me that I was a killer and he’ll kill us.”Sunday’s attack occurred during the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. It comes almost two weeks after the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington, where a 31-year-old suspect, who shouted “Free Palestine,” was arrested.Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon voiced outrage.”Terrorism against Jews does not stop at the Gaza border — it is already burning the streets of America,” he said.

A Romanian man pleaded guilty on Monday to making bomb threats and triggering “swatting” attacks on dozens of US officials and lawmakers, the Justice Department said.Thomasz Szabo, 26, who was extradited from Romania in November, faces up to five years in prison for conspiracy and a maximum of 10 years for making threats involving explosives.”This defendant led a dangerous swatting criminal conspiracy, deliberately threatening dozens of government officials with violent hoaxes and targeting our nation’s security infrastructure from behind a screen overseas,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.”Swatting” takes its name from the heavily armed SWAT teams dispatched to tackle emergencies in the United States.The law enforcement response is often prompted by a caller who reports a false violent crime at a home. The calls to law enforcement made by Szabo and his co-conspirators included false claims of homicides, suicides, kidnappings and mass shootings.According to court documents, Szabo was the organizer and moderator of chat groups formed in 2020 where the conspirators communicated with one another.He used the monikers “Jonah,” “Plank,” “Rambler,” and “War Lord,” among others.Among the false reports made to US law enforcement were a December 2020 threat to commit a mass-shooting at New York City synagogues and a January 2021 threat to detonate a bomb at the US Capitol and kill then President-elect Donald Trump.Other swatting victims included at least 25 members of the US Congress or their relatives, cabinet-level officials and former federal law enforcement officials.The FBI tracked about 600 “swatting” incidents in the country in 2023.

A US federal judge on Monday cancelled the planned trial of US aviation giant Boeing over crashes of its 737 MAX aircraft that left nearly 350 people dead.The trial had been scheduled to begin June 23, but the Justice Department and Boeing reached a preliminary agreement last month to settle the long-running criminal probe into the accidents.US District Judge Reed O’Connor granted the request of both parties to vacate the trial date and cancelled the criminal trial which had been scheduled to be held in Fort Worth, Texas.But the judge still must give his final approval to the settlement and he could reschedule a trial if he fails to give the deal his green light.Under the agreement, which has drawn condemnation from some families of crash victims, Boeing will pay $1.1 billion and the Justice Department will dismiss a criminal charge over the company’s conduct in the certification of the MAX.The agreement resolves the case without requiring Boeing to plead guilty to fraud in the certification of the MAX, which was involved in two crashes in 2018 and 2019 that claimed 346 lives — a Lion Air plane and an Ethiopian Airlines aircraft.The Justice Department described it as “a fair and just resolution that serves the public interest.” “The Agreement guarantees further accountability and substantial benefits from Boeing immediately, while avoiding the uncertainty and litigation risk presented by proceeding to trial,” it said.Family members of some MAX victims slammed the proposed settlement, however, as a giveaway to Boeing.”This kind of non-prosecution deal is unprecedented and obviously wrong for the deadliest corporate crime in US history,” Paul Cassell, an attorney representing relatives of victims, said when the settlement was announced.The Justice Department cited other family members who expressed a desire for closure, quoting one who said “the grief resurfaces every time this case is discussed in court or other forums.” The preliminary agreement was the latest development in a marathon case that came in the wake of crashes that tarnished Boeing’s reputation and contributed to leadership shakeups at the aviation giant.- ‘Conspiracy to defraud’ -The case dates to a January 2021 Justice Department agreement with Boeing that settled charges that the company knowingly defrauded the Federal Aviation Administration during the MAX certification.The 2021 accord included a three-year probation period. But in May 2024, the Justice Department determined that Boeing had violated the 2021 accord following a number of subsequent safety lapses.Boeing agreed in July 2024 to plead guilty to “conspiracy to defraud the United States.” But in December, Judge O’Connor rejected a settlement codifying the guilty plea, setting the stage for the incoming Trump administration to decide the next steps.The deal announced in May requires Boeing to pay a fine of $487.2 million with credit for a $243 million penalty the company paid previously under the January 2021 agreement.Boeing will contribute $444.5 million to a fund to benefit crash victims and lay out $455 million to strengthen its compliance, safety and quality programs.

The man suspected of being responsible for a fiery attack on Jewish protesters in Colorado was expected in court Monday, with the government saying he was in the United States illegally.Mohamed Sabry Soliman is alleged to have thrown Molotov cocktails and sprayed burning gasoline in Boulder on Sunday at a gathering in support of Israeli hostages held by the Hamas armed group.Eight people were hurt in the attack — four men and four women — with the oldest reportedly being 88 years old.FBI agent Mark Michalek said the suspect used “a makeshift flamethrower” and “was heard to yell: ‘Free Palestine,'” which has seen him hit with hate crime charges, according to US media. US Homeland Security officials said he was in the country illegally, having overstayed a tourist visa, but that he had applied for asylum in September 2022.President Donald Trump lashed out at his predecessor, Joe Biden, over the incident.”Yesterday’s horrific attack in Boulder, Colorado, WILL NOT BE TOLERATED in the United States of America,” Trump said on his Truth Social network, describing it as a “terrible tragedy.”He blamed “Biden’s ridiculous Open Border Policy” for allowing Soliman into the country. “This is yet another example of why we must keep our Borders SECURE, and deport Illegal, Anti-American Radicals from our Homeland,” he wrote.The attack occurred on Sunday afternoon during a regular demonstration in support of hostages taken in the attack on Israel by Hamas gunmen on October 7, 2023.In one video that purportedly shows the attack, a shirtless man holding bottles in his hands is seen pacing as the grass in front of him burns.He can be heard screaming “End Zionists!” and “They are killers!” towards several people in red T-shirts as they tend to a person lying on the ground.Other images showed billowing black smoke.In another video, a police officer rushes to arrest the same man, who is lying on the grass. Several people are milling around nearby.Boulder Police Chief Steve Redfearn told reporters that “at least one victim was very seriously injured, probably safe to say critical condition.”The suspect was also injured before being taken into custody, Redfearn said.Boulder resident Alexis Cendon said he felt “very, very scared” after hearing about the attack near his workplace.Sunday’s attack occurred during the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. It comes almost two weeks after the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington, where a 31-year-old suspect, who shouted “Free Palestine,” was arrested.Israel’s top diplomat Gideon Saar condemned Sunday’s “terrible antisemitic terror attack targeting Jews in Boulder.”Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon also voiced outrage.”Terrorism against Jews does not stop at the Gaza border — it is already burning the streets of America,” he said in a statement.

Pop sensation Taylor Swift, who was locked in a feud with record executives since 2019 over ownership of her music, has bought back the rights to her entire back catalog, she said Friday.”All of the music I’ve ever made … now belongs … to me,” she wrote on her website, after years of disputes over her first six albums, a number of which she rerecorded to create copies she owns herself.”To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually being pretty reserved about it,” she wrote in the letter to her devoted followers.”To my fans, you know how important this has been to me — so much so that I meticulously re-recorded and released four of my albums, calling them Taylor’s Version.”Swift bought back the masters to her first six albums from Shamrock Capital, an LA investment firm, for an undisclosed amount.The re-recording power move came in the wake of public sparring with industry mogul Scooter Braun, her one-time manager whose company had purchased her previous label and gained a majority stake in her early work.He later sold Swift’s master rights to the private equity company.- ‘This fight’ -The situation left Swift publicly incensed: “I just feel that artists should own their work,” she said in 2019.”She’s a vocal advocate for artists’ rights,” Ralph Jaccodine, a professor at the Berklee College of Music, told AFP previously.  “She’s built her own brand.”Before her public efforts to regain control of her work, Prince, George Michael, Jay-Z and Kanye West all also fought for control of their masters — one-of-a-kind source material that dictate how songs are reproduced and sold — but none had gone so far as to re-record them completely.The queen of pop, whose recent nearly two-year-long, $2 billion Eras tour shattered records, said that she was “heartened by the conversations this saga has reignited within my industry.”Swift’s lucrative tour which wrapped last year was a showbusiness sensation, and will have helped offset the costs of buying back her catalog.The 149 shows across the world typically clocked in at more than three hours long each.Tour tickets sold for sometimes exorbitant prices and drew in millions of fans, along with many more who didn’t get in and were willing to simply sing along from the parking lot.”Every time a new artist tells me they negotiated to own their master recordings in their record contract because of this fight, I’m reminded of how important it was for all this to happen,” Swift said in her letter.