Latest news with #Faberge
Times
17-05-2025
- Business
- Times
The Duke of Westminster and the Grosvenor family net worth — Sunday Times Rich List 2025
What is the Duke of Westminster and the Grosvenor family's net worth?▼ £9.884 billion£10.127 billion in 2024 Enlisting the future king to hand out the orders of service is one way to impress your wedding guests. 'Hughie' Grosvenor's union to Olivia Henson at Chester Cathedral last year was billed as the wedding of the summer — and it didn't disappoint: the Prince of Wales served as an usher, and the Duke of Westminster's bride wore the Fabergé Myrtle Wreath tiara that has belonged to this property dynasty for almost 120 years. • The Sunday Times Rich List 2025 revealed Grosvenor inherited his title aged 25 after his father, Gerald, died from a heart attack aged 64. And while his wife, a graduate of
Middle East Eye
01-05-2025
- Business
- Middle East Eye
By banning the Muslim Brotherhood to placate Trump, Jordan treads a dangerous path
Modern history is littered with acts of tribute that would make imperial Rome proud. When Vladimir Putin cut the oligarchs down to size by imprisoning Mikhail Khodorkovsky, one of his colleagues presented the Russian state, and by implication the president himself, with a Faberge egg. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer turns out to be a consummate groveller before US President Donald Trump. First came the announcement of a second state visit for Trump, who has a thing about the British royals. Now Starmer is exploring whether golf bosses could host the 2028 Open championship at Turnberry, which Trump owns. Would Starmer be his caddy? The Guardian asked. In the same vein, King Abdullah of Jordan could have presented Trump with a carpet or a pair of falcons. But he decided on something far more effective: he banned the Muslim Brotherhood. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters The reasons for placating Trump are powerful. Jordan is among the world's largest recipients of US aid, which Trump has already once threatened to cut. Trump also selected Eric Trager, a hawk on Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood, as Middle East adviser on his National Security Council. In his first term, Trump toyed with the idea of banning the Brotherhood in the US, and he may well do so in this term. Abdullah's move firmly places Jordan in the western camp's push against political Islam. The move has already paid off. Millions of US dollars for Jordan's largest desalination plant, which dried up when Trump dramatically cut the foreign aid budget, have been restored, Reuters reports. Domestically, however, this move is more of a gamble. In banning an organisation that has been around officially in the kingdom since 1945, Abdullah has crossed a line that his father, King Hussein, was careful not to transgress in 47 years of rule. Hussein's balancing act Hussein's relationship with the Brotherhood was complex, but he was a master of balancing global alliances with the challenges he faced domestically. His son has fewer such gifts. The Brotherhood stood by Hussein in moments of personal peril, including when a 1957 coup attempt by Nasser-inspired nationalists and leftists failed, or in 1970, when Jordan was on the brink of civil war in its fight with the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). The Brotherhood had a battalion alongside Palestinian forces, but they took no part in the conflict itself. Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 was another crisis for the king. Hussein was an ally of Saddam, but he was against the invasion. As a consequence, Jordan suffered from the pressure the West put on it. To face this huge challenge, Hussein was keen to keep the unity of his people behind him, so he formed a government in which five ministers were from the Muslim Brotherhood. Hussein saw the Brotherhood as a safety valve, defusing anger in the nation at a time of big conflicts But there were conflicts, too. The Brotherhood opposed Jordan joining the Baghdad Pact, one of many ill-fated attempts to start a regional Nato in 1955. It was also against Hussein's best-known foreign policy move, the Wadi Araba peace treaty with Israel. But Hussein never banned the group, even when he was pressured to do so by Arab leaders like Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser and Syria's Hafez al-Assad. Hussein was no sympathiser and always had his own vision of Palestine. But he realised the Brotherhood was peaceful, reformist, and could play an important role for him. Hussein saw the Brotherhood as a safety valve, defusing anger in the nation at a time of big conflicts. It also had one asset he cherished: the Brotherhood straddled the Palestinian-Jordanian divide within the kingdom. Hussein's relationship with Hamas was even more interesting. When Hamas became a power in Palestine during the First Intifada, Hussein was interested in developing a relationship. He allowed Hamas to open offices in Amman. In 1997, Hussein agreed to take Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouk after 22 months in prison in the US. Famously, when Mossad attempted to poison Hamas's Khaled Meshaal on the streets of Amman, Hussein demanded the antidote from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, threatening to sever diplomatic relations and put the Israeli perpetrators on trial. He even strong-armed Netanyahu into releasing Hamas's spiritual leader, Ahmed Yassin. No other Arab leader has managed to do this with Israel. Abdullah's mistake Under Abdullah, relations with the Brotherhood went into steady decline. Within months of becoming king in 1999, he expelled Hamas and agreed with the Qataris that their political bureau should move to Doha. He later stripped the Brotherhood's charitable status and stopped their work. He thought he had weakened the Brotherhood to the point where he could contain it. It is a mistake he has made frequently, even though the Brotherhood has never challenged the regime, even when that was happening around the Arab world. The Brotherhood did not raise the ceiling of its demands and chants during the Arab Spring. It did not call for the overthrow of the regime, unlike its cousins in Egypt and Tunisia. Jordan: How will Muslim Brotherhood ban affect the nation's future? Read More » The regime's other tactic was to encourage splits. In 2015, Jordan granted a licence to a splinter group led by Abdul Majid Thuneibat under the name of the Muslim Brotherhood Association, making the original group unlicensed. It has used 'licences' to crack down on the media arm of the affiliated political party, the Islamic Action Front (IAF). But each time Abdullah thought he had political Islamists licked, they demonstrated their popularity. The Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 turbocharged support for al-Qassam Brigades across Jordan, but especially among the tribes and East Bankers. A year later, the IAF secured 31 out of 138 seats, making it the biggest party in parliament, even as Brotherhood members have been targeted for arrest. In recent days, journalists, commentators and former officials have all called for the Brotherhood to be banned. The Brotherhood's calls to head towards the border and to besiege the Israeli embassy have been special irritants to the regime. But no media campaign is launched in Jordan without someone planning it. There is nothing spontaneous about such campaigns. Just like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, no writer in Jordan is truly free to say what they want - and if they do, it's not for long. What we are seeing is not a popular campaign against the Brotherhood, but rather something that has been planned for a long time. Two currents There have always been two currents of thinking in the royal court and defence establishment. The first is to see Israel as Jordan's existential enemy. This has been loudly voiced by Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, who declared that Israel had killed 30 years of effort to convince people that peace is possible. In the same vein, well-placed sources told Middle East Eye's Peter Oborne that Jordan was 'ready for war' if Israel forcibly expelled Palestinians into its territory. One source said that Trump's proposal to empty Gaza of Palestinians was an 'existential issue' for both Jordan and the Hashemite dynasty, noting that the country is the third-poorest in terms of water in the world. The same current can be seen in other, less official ways. When Maher al-Jazi, a retired Jordanian soldier, killed three Israelis in September 2024 at the border crossing between Jordan and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, members of the army went to the family's mourning ceremony in uniform. The second current is to see Iran and political Islam as the kingdom's main enemy - and this has a formidable, if less visible, proponent: Jordan's General Intelligence Department (GID), an organisation so vast that it was described to me by one former foreign minister as Jordan's parallel government. The Mukhabarat, as it is also known, is essentially a creation of Britain's MI6, and today serves as the CIA's main Arab partner in the region. The CIA provides undeclared financial assistance to the GID over and above the aid that Jordan gets from the US. The relationship between the two agencies is so close that the CIA has operatives permanently stationed at GID headquarters. In fact, the GID has been regarded as so essential to the CIA's regional intelligence-gathering on al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group during the 'war on terror', and on Syria and Yemen today, that one former CIA official told The Los Angeles Times he was allowed to roam the halls of the GID unescorted. In addition, Frank Anderson, a former CIA Middle East division chief, told the newspaper that GID interrogators were the best: 'They're going to get more information [from a terrorism suspect] because they're going to know his language, his culture, his associates - and more about the network he belongs to.' Another ex-CIA man, Michael Scheuer, who spent four years tracking Osama Bin Laden, told The Times in 2005: 'Jordan is at the top of our list of foreign partners. We have similar agendas, and they are willing to help any way they can.' The GID was as capable and professional as Mossad, Scheuer added. Clearly with this history and funding, the GID will use the brave defiance of Safadi and others as cover, but it will itself pursue a very different agenda, closer to that of the US and Israel. Clear dangers There are clear dangers to Abdullah in following this path. He has not yet gone down the full length of it, as the ban on the Muslim Brotherhood has not extended to the 31 deputies of the IAF - for the moment. But the ban is significant enough in itself. For one, the timing could not have been worse, coming around the Jewish festival of Passover, a celebration of joy and thanks, which became in the hands of religious Zionists at Al-Aqsa Mosque a crude show of religious conquest and hatred. More than 6,700 Jews entered the mosque's courtyards to pray, according to the Waqf - more than all the Jewish worshippers who visited during the holidays last year. Israeli settler incursions at Al-Aqsa Mosque complex have increased by more than 18,000 percent since 2003, when Israeli authorities began allowing settlers to bypass the Islamic Waqf management and enter Islam's third-holiest site. Jordan ready for war with Israel if Palestinians are expelled into its territory Read More » This was also a particularly bad year for Palestinian Christians. Reverend Munther Isaac, a Christian pastor and theologian, told MEE Live that this Easter was 'the worst ever'. Israel in all its forms - military, religious, secular - has left all ideas of living with its Arab neighbours and being part of the region behind. Israel is in full Crusader mode. It is clearly bent on dominating the region, and taking control of the holy sites over which the Hashemite kingdom has legal, international and historical custodianship. Netanyahu's government is openly flouting the status quo. He boasted about the number of times he had defied former US President Joe Biden's administration during a recent speech at a Jewish News Syndicate conference in Jerusalem. At Al-Aqsa, which the king in Amman has a duty to protect, Islamists are providing the only defence against a sustained attack by religious Zionists. Abdullah is patently failing to speak out against the blatant erosion of his custodianship of Jerusalem's holy sites, which include Christian churches as well as the mosque. Banning the Brotherhood, when all Muslims and Christians in the region are under sustained attack, is nothing less than an act of sabotage at a time of war. As a soldier himself, he should realise what he is doing. In Jordan itself, Abdullah has removed a safety valve that he needs more than ever before. His father fostered the unity of the nation in moments of peril. Abdullah faces a true moment of peril, and with each move that Netanyahu makes towards the annexation and ethnic cleansing of the West Bank, the anger of Jordanians is mounting. The presence of the Brotherhood stopped Hamas recruiting in Jordan because of the agreement between them. But now there is a void. There is nothing to stop either Hamas or any other resistance group from using Jordan as a base for attacks on Israel. All bets are off. Israeli security forces escort Jewish visitors at Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in Jerusalem, on 9 April 2023 (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP) For Israel, Jordan's ban of the Muslim Brotherhood is proof that the king can be bullied. Israel does not see a strong man in Jordan, as it once did in his father. It sees a shaky man who is under a lot of stress. If Israel sees that such a king prioritises a ban on the Brotherhood over speaking out against what is happening at Al-Aqsa, it can calculate that it could get away with its next project, which is the annexation of the West Bank. King Abdullah should be careful not to follow Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's footsteps down the plughole of history. Even in his dying days, Abbas has not for one moment become less stubborn. He will pathologically not reconcile with Hamas and other resistance groups, nor allow a government of national unity to form in either the West Bank or Gaza - even though it's patently in the interests of Fatah and the PLO to do so. The result is that Ramallah is crushed, ignored and despised by both Netanyahu and Trump, who now plans to eliminate the US security coordinator's office to further downgrade ties with the Palestinian Authority. Trump's contempt is the reward Abbas has received for prioritising a relationship with Washington over his fellow Palestinians. Abdullah should beware of Abbas's fate. History will not treat him or the Hashemite kingdom kindly. The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Daily Mail
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
The REAL reason Freddie Mercury's sister had to buy back £3million of his most treasured possessions...from the ex-fiancee who got the lion's share of his fortune
With an auction of this magnitude, it's not unusual for there to be requests from wealthy and anonymous interested parties for private viewings, as there was during the Sotheby's sale of Freddie Mercury 's effects in 2023. The trove was so enormous – 1,406 lots – the auction took place over six days. There was music memorabilia: dozens of gold discs, stage outfits, Brit awards, manuscript lyrics and two pianos. Artwork by Picasso and Matisse were on sale along with a range of Japanese prints, including by the master Hiroshige. And there were lots for Faberge clocks, Lalique glassware and more than 50 kimonos – not to mention jewellery, including Freddie's silver Tiffany moustache comb. Prior to the doors opening, a small 69-year-old woman walked in accompanied by her son and PA, wanting to see the items before they went public. But when it came to auction time, the woman was nowhere to be seen. The PA was there, however, with the pair staying in touch online and over the phone. In the end, the anonymous bidder paid £3 million for several items, including a jukebox, a Nike sweatshirt and a waistcoat with portraits of Freddie's six cats on it – which went for £139,700. We now know the mysterious Freddie Mercury fan was, in fact, Kashmira Bulsara – his younger sister. She was, a source revealed this week, 'angry and upset' at seeing so many of her beloved brother's possessions available for anyone to buy – and so went along to try to discreetly buy some of them back. 'They had set aside a huge budget, so were actually very happy with the final figure laid out despite paying well over the estimated price for each one,' the source said. 'Of course, Kashmira appreciates how adored Freddie was across the world, but she was saddened to think of some of his sentimental belongings not being with his loved ones.' The extraordinary turn of events came about after Mary Austin, Mercury's former fiancée and the 'love of his life', was bequeathed his home, Garden Lodge in Kensington, and everything in it after the singer's death in 1991 aged 45. Two years ago, she decided to put everything up for auction in a sale that raised more than £40 million. In a statement, Mary, now 74, said: 'The time has come for me to take the difficult decision to close this very special chapter in my life. I decided that it wouldn't be appropriate for me to keep things back. If I was going to sell, I had to be brave and sell the lot.' Yet the sale raised many questions, chief among them being: given the shared love of Freddie by Mary and Kashmira – and the fact they are both benefactors of his £75 million fortune – could Kashmira not just have asked Mary if she could have some of Freddie's effects? And why didn't Mary offer her the chance to pick out some items? It's not like mementos were in short supply. And by 2023 Freddie's mother and father were dead, as was his last boyfriend Jim Hutton, meaning Kashmira and her children are his last living close relatives. However, the sad truth is in the years since his death from AIDS-related bronchial pneumonia, a deep and apparently unbridgeable divide has sprung up between the two most important women in Freddie's life. It seems they've not spoken since his small funeral. Indeed, it's said Kashmira still has no idea for certain where her brother's ashes were scattered – an extraordinary state of affairs by any standard. 'Mary did it – and Mary won't tell,' says a Mercury source. 'It was one of the last promises she made to Freddie.' Freddie, born Farrokh Bulsara, hadn't been close to Kashmira growing up, as he was sent away from the family home in Zanzibar to a boarding school in India when he was eight years old. He was 18 when the family joined him in the UK, having fled the Zanzibar revolution and settled in Feltham, Middlesex. In later years, Kashmira, six years younger than Freddie, and her then-husband Roger and two children would visit him at Garden Lodge, as would their parents Bomi and Jer. By 2023 Freddie's mother and father were dead, as was his last boyfriend Jim Hutton, meaning Kashmira and her children are his last living close relatives He never 'came out' to his mother or father – both Parsi followers of the Zoroastrian religion which forbade homosexuality – and didn't let them see the wild partying side of his life. He wanted to protect them, it's said, and they in turn respected his wish for privacy. Former brother-in-law Roger has said: 'Freddie kept his life strictly in compartments, and they rarely overlapped. 'We used to celebrate our kids' birthdays at Freddie's. He'd always have a massive cake or Easter egg for them. He never had any kids of his own. 'I think he would have liked to have seen our children grow up.' All the Bulsara family were very fond of Mary, whom Freddie fell in love with when she was 19, and working as a PR for the famous Biba boutique in London. A petite and still-glamorous blonde, she too seems to have a taste for privacy. She didn't want to be featured in the 2018 Bohemian Rhapsody film (she was played by actress Lucy Boynton) and apparently deplored its 'intrusion'. The two spent seven years as a couple and set up home together. When Mary was 23, Freddie even proposed marriage with a jade ring one Christmas. Kashmira still has no idea for certain where her brother's ashes were scattered – an extraordinary state of affairs by any standard As she described in her only known interview in 2013: 'Freddie hadn't said anything more about marrying, the only way that I could test the water was to say, 'Is it time I bought the dress?' But he said no. He had gone off the idea and it never happened.' She added: 'I was disappointed but I had a feeling it wasn't going to happen. Things were getting very complicated and the atmosphere between us was changing a lot. I knew the writing was on the wall, but what writing? I wasn't absolutely sure.' Eventually, he told her he believed he was bisexual and she responded: 'No Freddie, I don't think you are bisexual. I think you are gay.' They carried on living together for a time, with Freddie bringing home boyfriends but, eventually, she moved out. Mary, though, was always a part of his life and he remained devoted to her in the years which followed. She was among the small crew who nursed him when he fell ill, visiting daily. Freddie was godfather to her older son Richard, by artist Piers Cameron, and she was pregnant with their second son Jamie when Freddie died. The relationship with Cameron broke up and she married again, but she and her second husband divorced around 2005. She's thought to have been single ever since. Mary has stayed so determinedly out of the public eye many of Freddie's old crowd don't even know where she is living. She put Garden Lodge up for sale last year for £30 million and is thought now to be living 'somewhere in London'. Kashmira, now 73, has not done the same, having recently emerged into the spotlight to claim her place as the keeper of his flame. She attends the annual Freddie Mercury birthday party which is thrown by the Mercury Phoenix charity every September, while Mary always stays away. In 2019, she gave a collection of art deco cases to the V&A museum. These are on display bearing the description: 'From the Kashmira Bulsara collection. A loan and promised gift from Kashmira Bulsara, made in the memory of her brother, Freddie Mercury.' Some question if the Mercury kimono, which was exhibited in recent years as part of a kimono exhibition at the V&A, might also have come from her. And many wonder: could she have been the mystery bidder who snapped up his iconic mustard yellow jacket at an auction held by Bonhams in 2004? The jacket, worn during the 1986 Magic tour, is thought to have been taken from Garden Lodge by Jim Hutton and then given along with other items to Hutton's friend Shawn Matthews to sell. The jacket was sold for £26,290. A source in the Mercury camp offered the theory this week that Kashmira is planning to further reclaim Freddie's legacy by putting on an exhibition of her own with some of the items she has bought from the auction. Her publicist made no comment on that either way this week. However, Freddie Mercury biographer Lesley-Ann Jones says that the two women have differing views about the best way to honour Freddie. Jones said: 'Mary was criticised for not preserving Garden Lodge as a museum for fans to visit and pay their respects. But the house was always hers to do with as she wished. Freddie made that clear. 'The fans and the band may have wanted a Graceland, but that wasn't Freddie and Mary's plan.' And while Mary stays as anonymous as possible, recently Kashmira has been making a few media appearances. She spoke about their touching time together while Freddie was on his deathbed in a televised interview in 2021, and also recently granted an 'at home' interview when she was putting her £4.75 million central London flat up for sale. Jones adds: 'No love is lost between Mary and Kash. 'The resentment erupted when Freddie's will was read and it emerged that he'd left the bulk of his estate not to his blood family but to the love of his life, and it has never subsided.' Half of his estate went to Mary Austin along with Garden Lodge. Meanwhile, boyfriend Jim Hutton, who died from liver cancer in 2010, and assistant Peter Freestone were asked to move out. Mercury's parents were given either 25 per cent of his fortune between them or 12.5 per cent each – depending on which report you believe. While Bomi died in 2004, in an interview before her death in 2016, Jer said she didn't mind Mary taking the lion's share. 'Why not? She was just like family to us and still is,' she said. 'She was lovely and used to come to us for meals. I used to wish they had got married and had a normal life with children. 'But even when they broke up, I knew she still loved my boy and they stayed friends right to the end.' Kashmira's share has also been reported as either 25 per cent or 12.5 per cent. It's thought his parents shares passed on to Kashmira after their deaths, although some Queen experts are convinced the money actually went to Mary – which would indeed feel like a final insult. Either way, both Mary and Kashmira will have shared in a huge financial windfall from the hugely successful film Bohemian Rhapsody and from the sale of Queen's back catalogue to Sony. How much might his estate now be worth in total? I'm told well over £300 million; both women are seriously rich. There is also the question of Freddie's ashes and where they were scattered. Mary kept his ashes in his bedroom for two years after his death, and then – by her own account – slipped out one day and scattered them in secret. 'He didn't want anybody to dig him up as has happened to other famous people,' she said. 'Fans can be obsessive. He wanted it to remain a secret. I never betrayed Freddie in his lifetime. And I'll never betray him now.' There was a theory, never confirmed, that his ashes were scattered in a cemetery in North London, where a small bronze plaque bearing his real name was discovered in 2013 – before it was promptly spirited away by staff, nervous of an invasion by fans. A Mercury source says: 'Mary never told the family where she scattered the ashes, so Kashmira does not know. Mary says that she was just loyal to him and did what he wanted. 'She's not close to any of the band, or the family, and has no interaction with his fans. Her belief is that she has given Freddie a gift of privacy.' But whether Kashmira also sees it as a gift is another matter.
The Guardian
14-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Seth Meyers on Trump and Musk: ‘They're trying to rip you off'
Late-night hosts took aim at Donald Trump and Elon Musk's too-close relationship and how one is clearly in control of the other. On Late Night, Seth Meyers spoke about how voters have been most concerned about grocery prices yet Trump has been 'easily distracted by silly stuff' and placed his attention elsewhere. This week saw him elected chair of the Kennedy Center, which led to Meyers joking that the next round of honors would include 'Kid Rock, Lee Greenwood and Big Mouth Billy Bass'. It's meant that he's had less time to help Musk in his project of 'dismantling the government'. Meyers joked that it's 'fun sometimes to pretend bad things might be good things'. In audio from a call about the Kennedy Center, Trump said he was going to make it 'hot' again like he had also made the presidency. 'You didn't make the presidency hot unless you mean hot like a low-grade fever,' he said. Another 'frivolous distraction Trump is obsessed with' concerns him renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has led to Associated Press journalists being banned from official press events as they refuse to obey. 'At least give people like a week to process it!' Meyers said. He also said that 'we should stop waiting for tech companies to be part of the pushback' with both Google and Apple following the change on official maps. Meyers played a clip of Trump trying to explain Musk's dismantling, which was a ramble about magnets, tractors and planes. 'Every time Trump speaks I feel like a guy who started season two of Severance without watching season one,' he said. He said they want to avoid talking about what's really happening as 'the reality of what they're doing is unpopular and illegal' and Musk essentially wants 'direct control of the government' by taking over the regulatory group that would otherwise be able to stop his business practices. He said that there is 'a lot of bad stuff happening right now' and 'they're trying to rip you off and they hope you'll be distracted by all the nonsense going through Trump's head'. On Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the host spoke about the nationwide shortage of eggs with grocery stores hiking prices and limiting the number of eggs customers can purchase. He said that regular eggs are now 'more valuable than Faberge'. For Valentine's Day, he joked that Trump has 'got a little something for his sugar vladdy' after a call with Putin in which the Russian dictator was given essentially everything he wanted out of the negotiation. Kimmel said it is 'honestly amazing the guy only bankrupted three casinos' while saying that 'if you attack and murder our allies, it will make no difference at all'. Trump's rambling explanation led Kimmel to say that we are 'one weird press conference away from Trump saying he wants to move Ukraine to Gaza'. Then, 'as if we don't have enough to worry about', Kimmel said that 'measles and wide-leg jeans are back', joking about Kendrick Lamar's outfit choice at the Super Bowl. He reassured us that 'Bobby Brainworm is on the job' to fix measles with the outspoken anti-vax crusader confirmed as the new head of health and human services. In a press conference, Robert F Kennedy Jr said that God sent him Trump. 'Next God is gonna send us diphtheria,' Kimmel joked. The clip saw Kennedy engage in 'triple-A ass kissing', which Kimmel said would have aroused Trump. 'Melania couldn't turn him on like that the first night they met,' he joked.
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Move over, eggs. Milk prices may be the next thing we complain about
The high price of eggs has consumers balking, grocery stores placing limits on what people can buy,and thieves treating them as if hen eggs were Faberge. Milk may soon face the same fate, as some experts see a perfect storm of lower estimates for milk cow inventories and lower expected milk production per cow. On top of that, six dairy herds in Nevada have tested positive for a new variant of the H5N1 bird flu virus, which has been found to cause severe infections in humans, according to the Nevada Department of Agriculture. Even before the outbreaks were detected, the USDA was warning of 'higher price forecasts for dairy products in 2025,' with the price forecasts for Class III milk, which is used for cheese , and Class IV, used for butter, both growing. Kroger (KR) supermarket, which is based in Ohio, is currently advertising a gallon of whole milk for $2.79, while Hannaford's of Maine has one at $2.59. According to the latest World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) Milk Production report, lower milk cow herd numbers and reduced milk output per cow are dimming production prospects in 2025. 'The 2025 outlook reflects slower growth in milk production per cow, signaling potential challenges ahead for producers,' reads the WASDE report. Amanda Oren, VP of Industry Strategy for Grocery, North America, at Relex Solutions said that decreased supply of milk will likely continue to put upward pressure on milk prices in 2025. By how much is still unknown. 'Over half of U.S. dairy exports go to Canada, Mexico and China, meaning tariffs and a potential trade war would negatively impact the U.S. dairy industry's competitiveness,' Oren said. 'These changes can affect the supply and demand dynamics, influencing milk prices and the profitability of dairy farms.' She also cited bird flu as a variable. 'Bird flu has been detected on some dairy farms. However, the milk is still safe to be sold due to the pasteurization process, so supply should not be impacted significantly as a result,' Oren said. Regardless of tariffs or flu, the trend is lower production. 'There has been a decline in milk production consistently for over a year now, marking one of the longest declining streaks in recent history,' Oren said, attributing the decline mostly to a shrinking cow population. This can be attributed to the rising cost of dairy heifers, the consolidation of dairy farms, and increased competition from plant-based milk alternatives. Still, Oren said the cost of milk — barring any macroeconomic shocks — is predicted to increase by 1-2% in 2025, which would only have a marginal impact on consumer-facing prices. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
