Seeing shock friends at sporting occasions shouldn’t be unusual. You usually catch a glimpse of a film star at a grand slam tennis occasion or a musician at a golf main.
Soccer isn’t any completely different. On Thursday, actuality TV star Kim Kardashian sprinkled movie star gold mud over Arsenal’s Europa League recreation towards Portuguese membership Sporting CP on the Emirates Stadium.
Kardashian was pictured watching the sport along with her son, Saint, having posted on her Instagram story hours earlier than an image of Arsenal merchandize with the caption: “Ship assist SOS.”
There was loads to maintain up with throughout an action-packed match. Arsenal, who hadn’t misplaced since February 15, suffered defeat in heartbreaking trend – conceding a purpose from the midway line earlier than then dropping on penalties.
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Twitter was abuzz, asking had the a lot touted ‘Kardashian curse’ struck.
The ‘Kardashian curse’ is a principle prevalent on the web that connects folks that family members are concerned with and a downturn of their fortunes.
The 42-year-old Kardashian posted pictures from all through the sport exhibiting Saint displaying the big selection of feelings the Europa League recreation delivered.
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He was seen celebrating when Arsenal took a first-half lead by way of Granit Xhaka and seemed to be heading by way of, solely to be adopted with a photograph of him wanting despairingly afterward as the sport unraveled for Arsenal.
Sporting equalized by way of a spectacular Pedro Gonçalves purpose from the midway line within the second half earlier than the Portuguese crew gained a penalty shootout after the last-16 tie completed 1-1 on Thursday and 3-3 on mixture.
It’s not the primary time we’ve seen A-list celebrities attend matches within the UK this season, with actors Michael B Jordan and Ryan Reynolds noticed at Bournemouth and Wrexham video games respectively.
Moment house collapses in Studio City as LA wildfires rage on
Out-of-control wildfires are ripping across parts of Los Angeles, leading to at least five deaths, burning down hundreds of buildings, and prompting more than 130,000 people to flee their homes in America’s second-largest city.
Despite the efforts of firefighters, the biggest blazes remain totally uncontained – with weather conditions and the underlying impact of climate change expected to continue fanning the flames for days to come.
What’s the latest?
More than 137,000 people have been forced to leave their homes – many of them simply carrying whatever belongings they can.
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Police say at least five people have died, and their bodies found near the Eaton Fire – but their cause of death is not yet known.
Like the even larger Palisades Fire, the Eaton Fire remains totally uncontained. Meanwhile, the new Sunset Fire is menacing the well-known Hollywood Hills area.
More than 1,000 structures are known to have been destroyed – including houses, schools and businesses on the iconic Sunset Boulevard. A fire ecologist has told the BBC that “entire neighbourhoods… have been wiped out”.
Among the celebrities who have lost their homes are Leighton Meester and Adam Brody, who attended the Golden Globes just days ago, and Paris Hilton.
There is a glimmer of hope for firefighters, as the fire weather outlook for southern California has been downgraded from “extremely critical” to “critical”.
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But BBC weather forecaster Sarah Keith-Lucas says there is no rain forecast in the area for at least the next week, meaning conditions remain ripe for fire.
Mass disruption has been reported due to traffic buildup. A number of schools and the the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have been forced to close.
A political row about the city’s preparedness has erupted after it emerged that some firefighters’ hoses have run dry – an issue seized upon by US President-elect Donald Trump.
Where are the fires?
There are at least five fires raging in the wider area, according to California fire officials early on Thursday:
Palisades: The first fire to erupt on Tuesday and the biggest fire in the region, which could become the most destructive fire in state history. It has scorched a sizable part of land, covering more than 17,200 acres, including the upscale Pacific Palisades neighbourhood
Eaton: It has struck the northern part of Los Angeles, blazing through cities such as Altadena. It’s the second biggest fire in the area, burning around 10,600 acres
Hurst: Located just north of San Fernando, it began burning on Tuesday night and has grown to 855 acres, though firefighters have had some successlimited in containing it
Lidia: It broke out on Wednesday afternoon in the mountainous Acton area north of Los Angeles and grew to cover almost 350 acres. Authorities say it has been 40% contained
Sunset: It broke out Wednesday evening in Hollywood Hills, growing to about 20 acres in less than an hour. It now covers around 43 acres
The earlier Woodley and Olivas fires have now been contained, according to local fire authorities.
How did the LA fires start?
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Officials have pointed to high winds and drought in the area, which has made vegetation very dry and easy to burn.
The likely impact of climate change has also been cited been blamed – although the exact circumstances remain unclear.
Some 95% of wildfires in the area are started by humans, according to David Acuna, a battalion chief at the Californian Fire Service, although officials are yet to state how they think the current fires started.
An important factor that has been cited in the spread of the blazes is the Santa Ana winds, which blow from inland towards the coast. With speeds of more than 60mph (97 km/h), these are believed to have fanned the flames.
Malibu seafront left devastated after wildfires
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What role has climate change played?
Although strong winds and lack of rain are driving the blazes, experts say climate change is altering the background conditions and increasing the likelihood of such fires.
US government research is unequivocal in linking climate change to larger and more severe wildfires in the western United States.
“Climate change, including increased heat, extended drought, and a thirsty atmosphere, has been a key driver in increasing the risk and extent of wildfires in the western United States,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says.
And following a very warm summer and lack of rain in recent months, California is particularly vulnerable.
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Fire season in southern California is generally thought to stretch from May to October – but the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, has pointed out earlier that blazes had become a perennial issue. “There’s no fire season,” he said. “It’s fire year.”
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Acuna said the Palisades Fire represented only the third occasion in the past 30 years that a major fire had broken out in January.
The latest California blaze that erupted on Wednesday evening in the Hollywood Hills was threatening Los Angeles landmarks indelibly associated with the city’s glamour and the history of the American film industry.
The Sunset fire, which quickly grew to 50 acres, was burning out of control near Runyon Canyon, close to hiking trails and secluded mansions. Encroaching on a densely populated part of metropolitan Los Angeles, the blaze has created a new level of fear in residents used to thinking about wildfires as a concern only for those who live in hilly communities.
It was less than a mile west of the Hollywood Bowl, which is one of the city’s biggest entertainment venues and is inside the mandatory evacuation zone set up after the Sunset fire broke out. The Dolby Theater, where the Academy Awards are held, the TCL Chinese Theater and the Capital Records building are also in the zone.
The authorities have ordered mandatory evacuations for a wealthy area bordered by Mulholland Drive and Hollywood Boulevard, names that evoke the grandeur and romance of the movies. Evacuation warnings stretched west into parts of Beverly Hills, home to many Hollywood stars.
The Hollywood sign is near the evacuation area, as is the Griffith Observatory. The Hollywood Hills can be tricky to navigate, full of the same kind of narrow, twisting roads that complicated evacuations in Pacific Palisades on Tuesday.
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All staff at the Hollywood Bowl left safely after the venue received evacuation orders, a spokeswoman said. The TCL Chinese Theater said in a statement that it had closed for the night and sent employees home.
Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world
Corporate borrowers kicked off 2025 with a record $83bn in dollar bond sales, capitalising on buoyant investor demand to raise debt ahead of any market volatility sparked by Donald Trump’s return to power.
Borrowing in the US dollar investment-grade and high-yield bond markets reached $83.4bn by January 8, the highest year-to-date figure since 1990, according to data from LSEG.
High-grade borrowers have led the rush, including international banks such as BNP Paribas and Société Générale, car giants such as Toyota, and heavy machinery maker Caterpillar. US banks are expected to join the fray later in January after their earnings season.
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“The market is strong, so there is no need for them to delay. They’re trying to come as early as possible,” said Marc Baigneres, global co-head of investment-grade finance at JPMorgan.
The rush of new debt sales comes as spreads — the difference between the yield on corporate debt versus safer government bonds — are near multi-decade lows, spurring companies to raise funds cheaply while they can.
“There are a lot of risks to spreads — inflation picking up, the economy slowing down, the Fed potentially pausing rate cuts and even moving on to rate hikes,” said Maureen O’Connor, global head of Wells Fargo’s high-grade debt syndicate.
The average US investment-grade spread sat at just 0.83 percentage points on Wednesday, not far above its narrowest point since the late 1990s, according to ICE BOFA.
January is typically busy for debt issuance, especially by banks. But the latest deal burst comes as companies lock in cheaper debt before Trump’s inauguration — with economists warning that the incoming US president’s telegraphed policies, including trade tariffs, could be inflationary.
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On Wednesday, minutes from the last Federal Reserve meeting showed that officials were also concerned about inflation and wanted to be “careful” with the pace of future rate cuts.
Big borrowers are also under pressure to refinance quickly, with $850bn of high-grade dollar debt set to mature this year and another $1tn in 2026, according to Wells Fargo calculations.
“It’s a very attractive market environment” for borrowers, said Dan Mead, head of Bank of America’s investment-grade syndicate. “You continue to see healthy investor cash balances and receptivity to the new issues coming to market, and pricing at very attractive spreads that leads to issuers looking to go sooner rather than waiting.”
Edward Al-Hussainy, senior interest rate and currency analyst at Columbia Threadneedle, said pension funds and insurance companies were “exceptionally predisposed” at the moment to buy debt.
Banks are typically first to take advantage of narrow spreads and are among the most active issuers so far. But market participants said non-financial borrowers could join the rush before the 10-year Treasury yield — a benchmark for global borrowing costs — rises any further. It now sits at about 4.7 per cent after climbing sharply in recent weeks.
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“We have a couple of fairly critical risk events in January,” said O’Connor, pointing to US jobs data due on Friday, which will offer investors clues about the future path of interest rates, and Trump’s January 20 inauguration.
“We’ve heard quite a bit of rhetoric from the incoming administration on what the market could see quickly on the back of that,” O’Connor said. “I think there is a concern that that could catalyse another leg higher in Treasury yields.” Some “coupon-focused borrowers” — meaning companies focused primarily on the total yield they pay to investors — “are trying to get in front of that”, she added.
This week’s volumes, which have been condensed to just three days by shortened trading hours on Thursday, and Friday’s payrolls, follow on from a borrowing bonanza in 2024 — when global issuance of corporate bonds and leveraged loans hit a record $8tn.
While the current conditions remained favourable for sellers of debt, some buyers said they were now willing to sit on the sidelines until more alluring conditions emerge.
“The vast majority of deals are coming at levels that leave very little value on the table,” said Andrzej Skiba, head of BlueBay US fixed income at RBC GAM. “[It has] looked rather unappealing and we prefer to keep powder dry for a potential increase in volatility following the inauguration, as the market finds out this new policy mix and the Fed’s response to that.”
