BRUSSEL (ANP/RTR) - De Europese Unie en de Filipijnen zijn het eens over een handelsakkoord, meldt Ursula von der Leyen, de voorzitter van de Europese Commissie. Von der Leyen spreekt in een verklaring in de nacht van maandag op dinsdag van een vrijhandelsovereenkomst die voor beide partijen tastbare voordelen moet opleveren, waaronder nieuwe kansen voor bedrijven, meer investeringen en meer banen.

Von der Leyen reisde drie jaar geleden af naar Manilla, waar werd besloten om de onderhandelingen om tot een handelsakkoord te komen te herstarten. Ze reist in 2027 naar de Filipijnen om het vrijhandelsakkoord te tekenen.

Von der Leyen zegt meer vrijhandelsovereenkomsten te willen sluiten met landen in Zuidoost-Azië.

WASHINGTON (ANP/RTR/AFP) - Donald Trump opende maandag een nieuwe landingsplek voor helikopters bij het Witte Huis, maar opmerkingen van de Amerikaanse president tijdens de openingsceremonie waren onverstaanbaar. Het mediamoment werd live uitgezonden op de website van het Witte Huis, maar de microfoon pikte het geluid van de president niet op, enkel de helikopter was te horen.

De grote Amerikaanse televisienetwerken ABC, CBS, Fox News en NBC weigeren de taak van CNN over te nemen nu die nieuwszender, net als MS NOW en Politico, niet meer welkom is in het Witte Huis. Maandag was CNN aan de beurt om onder meer Trumps reis naar New York te filmen, waar hij deelneemt aan de Algemene Vergadering van de Verenigde Naties. De reis werd daarom niet in beeld gebracht.

Uit solidariteit met de televisiezenders wachtten ook fotografen van onder meer persbureaus AFP en AP, en de kranten The Washington Post en The New York Times urenlang met het verspreiden van foto's van de reis van Trump naar New York.

Trump’s announcement on Russia ally comes as he steps up his trade war with Canada, a long-term US ally and top supplier of potash

President Donald Trump has said he is working on a “massive” deal to buy fertiliser from Belarus, pivoting away from main supplier Canada amid an escalating trade dispute, and moving instead toward an ally of Russia.

“The United States is working on a massive deal with respect to the purchase of Potash from Belarus,” Trump said on his Truth Social network. “The pricing would be for substantially less than we are currently paying to Canada, very good news for our farmers and ranchers.”

Cheyenne Roundtree, an investigative reporter at Rolling Stone, was as shocked as anyone when allegations of rape and sexual abuse were made against the music mogul. Then she began digging into his past life. In her first interview, she paints a horrifying picture of lost police reports, repeat behaviours, rumours and run-ins

For Cheyenne Roundtree, an investigative reporter at Rolling Stone, the civil lawsuit that dropped on Sean “Diddy” Combs in November 2023 seemed to come from nowhere. Filed by his ex-partner, the singer Cassie Ventura, it alleged that Combs had beaten and raped her, plied her with drugs and forced her into sexual encounters with male sex workers throughout their decade-long relationship.

Roundtree, along with much of the world’s media, was shocked. “I’d grown up in the era of Diddy and Cassie and viewed them as this power couple,” she says. “Her hit Me & U was my song. Diddy was this mogul – I knew him for the music – and she was this style inspiration, this beautiful, talented woman living an amazing life.”

This brutal, hilarious new show about life as a fiftysomething is full of all the heart and humour of human life. At points it’s mesmerisingly perfect

There’s a moment in Sharon Horgan’s new show, Youth, when – as protagonist Alex (Horgan) is seeing her son off to university – she inadvertently begins to run after the car that’s taking him away. And then she catches herself, and slows. And then she starts up again. It was such a tender, vicious glimpse into the future that I found myself sobbing into the sofa and cursing her name.

All of which is to say: Sharon Horgan is back and she’s better than ever. Youth is the representation every woman who has ever slapped on an oestrogen patch after a divorce, looked around and thought “What the hell now?” has been waiting for. Horgan herself has described it in interviews as forming the third part of a loose trilogy that began with Pulling. Co-written with Dennis Kelly, Pulling was about three thirtysomething antitheses to Bridget Jones, whose dark chaos apparently scared the BBC so much they unexpectedly cancelled it just as it was truly getting into its stride. That was followed by Catastrophe, written by and starring Horgan, with Rob Delaney, as a couple who have a fling, find that she’s pregnant and end up making a brutal, hilarious go of things.

Youth is on HBO Max

At 14, he heard Stravinsky and resolved to be a composer. As Reich approaches his 10th decade, the man revered by the likes of David Bowie reflects on a life that changed the soundtrack of modern living

Steve Reich is not yet 90 but the celebrations have already begun, with the world premiere of his new piece for large ensemble, In All Your Ways, at the Edinburgh festival last month and a late-night concert at the BBC Proms. But when I ask this most supremely influential of living composers how he feels about becoming a nonagenarian on 3 October, Reich is coy. “I haven’t quite got there yet,” he says. “I don’t want to dot the i before I even get there. I’ll let you know in due course …”

Born in New York in 1936, Reich has spent the last six decades producing music that has changed the soundtrack of modern life in Europe and North America, and inspired superlatives from a wide array of music critics. The New Yorker has called him “the most original musical thinker of our time”.

A week after Elizabeth ‘Tsontso’ Moselakgomo’s body was found, runners took part in a morning run to honour her name and demand more protection

The runners smiled and laughed, congratulating each other on finishing their 5km or 10km Saturday run, their foreheads glistening with sweat in the early morning sun. They helped themselves to water, instant coffee and sugary snacks, provided by waiting volunteers on the lawn outside a gated community of modern apartment blocks, and then stretched out together.

But there were sombre moments too, as they mourned one of their own, who had lit up their Saturday runs around Sandton, an upmarket area of Johannesburg. Elizabeth “Tsontso” Moselakgomo’s body had been found a week earlier, on Saturday 12 September. The 38-year-old went missing three days earlier, after going out for a run alone after work.

People in the UK are more interested in oral health than ever - and you can now buy prebiotic toothpastes and brushes that cost up to £600. Yet we remain in the midst of a serious dental crisis

A December 1969 report from the consumer magazine Which? explored a relatively new gadget that, it predicted, many people would be giving as Christmas presents: the electric toothbrush. For those who hadn’t yet seen one, the magazine described it as “not that much different in principle from an ordinary brush – you have a stick with a brush on the end. The difference is that an electric one moves the brush head for you”. Progress indeed.

Nearly six decades on, electric toothbrushes can do a lot more than merely jiggle, offering multiple speeds and movement sensors for real-time tracking of where you’ve brushed – some even promise gum-massage or tongue-cleaning modes. Prices range from about £25 for a basic Oral B model to £599.99 for a Philips Sonicare model that gives “smart coverage feedback”. The latest super-toothbrush – a mere £419.99 – features a camera and a built-in water jet to clean between teeth, using AI to identify gaps. Created by Dyson, it’s still, essentially, a stick with a brush on the end (although there is another toothbrush on the market that’s shaped like a mouthguard, with individual brushes, that claims to clean your teeth in 20 seconds).