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Trevor Noah once again roamed through the audience during his monologue to open the Grammy Awards, taking pokes at the stars while standing right next to them, but he saved his most pointed jokes for absentees, and elicited an angry post from the president.“Nicki Minaj is not here,” Noah said, to big cheers from the audience at Crypto.com Arena. “She is still at the White House with Donald Trump discussing very important issues.”Minaj this week visited and praised the president, the culmination of a move toward MAGA that she’s made in recent months.Noah broke into a Trump impression. “Actually Nicki, I have the biggest ass, everybody’s saying it Nicki.”In his sixth time hosting the showand what he says will be his lastNoah mostly played it safe during his monologue, not delving too much into politics or controversy, at least during his monologue. There was no mention of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (on a night when many attendees were wearing “ICE OUT” buttons).But Noah got more pointed later in the show, after Billie Eilish won song of the year.“Wow. That is a Grammy that every artist wants,” Noah said, “almost as much as Trump wants Greenland. Which makes sense. I mean, because Epstein’s island is gone, he needs a new island to hang out with Bill Clinton.”After the show in a Truth Social post, Trump reacted.“Noah said, INCORRECTLY about me, that Donald Trump and Bill Clinton spent time on Epstein Island. WRONG!!! I can’t speak for Bill, but I have never been to Epstein Island, nor anywhere close, and until tonight’s false and defamatory, statement, have never been accused being there, not even by the Fake News Media,” the post said. “Noah, a total loser, better get his facts straight, and get them straight fast. It looks like I’ll be sending my lawyers to sue this poor, pathetic, talentless, dope of an M.C.”After the crowd’s reaction to the joke during the show, Noah said, “Oh, I told you, it’s my last year. What are you going to do about it?”At a different point in the show, Noah joked about the president’s penchant for suing TV networks when he said the Grammys were airing “completely live” because “if we edited any of the show, the president would sue CBS for $16 billion,” referring to Trump’s recent history with CBS News and a settlement he got from Paramount last summer.It had seemed at first like he wasn’t going to go very far into such material.He said during the monologue Lauryn Hill was performing on the show for the first time since 1999.“Do you understand how long ago that is?” he said. “Back in 1999, the president had had a sex scandal, people thought computers were about to destroy the world, and Diddy was arrested.”Later in the show, Noah cozied up to the night’s biggest nominee, Kendrick Lamar, and only congratulated him.“I actually thought about writing a few jokes roasting you, but then I remembered what you can do to light-skinned dudes from other countries,” Noah, who is from South Africa, said in a reference to Lamar’s beef with the Canadian rapper Drake that culminated in last year’s big Grammy winner “Not Like Us.”Later, he sat with Bad Bunny, and asked if he could come live with him in his native Puerto Rico if things got too bad in the U.S.“Trevor I have some news for you,” Bad Bunny said. “Puerto Rico is part of America.”The Recording Academy announced less than three weeks ago that Noah was returning “one final time.”“I believe in term limits,” Noah said during the show.Only singer Andy Williams, who hosted the Grammys seven times in the 1970s, has hosted more often.Noah himself is a four-time Grammy nominee, and was up this year in the best audio book recording category for Into The Uncut Grass, a children’s story. He lost to the Dalai Lama. This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Nicki Minaj in several places. For more coverage of the 2026 Grammy Awards, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/grammy-awards Andrew Dalton, AP Entertainment Writer
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To say it’s been a bad few days for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies would be an understatement. As of the time of this writing, Bitcoin is trading in the range of $77,000 per coina price point not seen since last March, when the world was thrown into economic uncertainty by President Donald Trumps tariffs. And Bitcoin isnt the only crypto facing a bloodbath. Other major tokens, including Ethereum and BNB are also in free-fall. XRP, the closely watched native token of the XRP Ledger from Ripple Labs, dipped below $1.60 earlier on Monday, a level it hasn’t seen since 2024. Heres what you need to know. Cryptocurrencies plunged over the weekend Nearly all major cryptocurrencies plunged this weekend, with the tokens seeing drastic selloffs, particularly on Saturday. But things are even worse when you look back over the past five days. As of the time of this writing, during that period, many major cryptos have suffered double-digit percentage declines, including: Bitcoin: down nearly 13% over the past five days to $77,843 Ethereum: down nearly 24% over the past five days to $2,293 BNB: down more than 15% over the past five days to $764 XRP: down nearly 15% over the past five days to $1.62 And those arent the only cryptocurrencies getting hammeredmost major coins are, including Solana (down almost 18% over the past 5 days to $102.88) and memecoin Dogecoin (down more than 15% over the past five days to $0.104. The dramatic fall of major cryptocurrencies have led to fears of a new crypto winter, a period when cryptocurrencies across the board see steep selloffs and new investors tend to shy away from adding the coins to their asset portfolios. The last major crypto winter occurred around 2022. Why are cryptocurrency prices sinking? Its never possible to attribute the exact reason why a volatile asset class like cryptocurrencies rises or falls, as so much of crypto investor activity is driven by greed and fear, which fuel buy-and-sell cycles. However, you can look back over the past five days to when the precipitous drops began and correlate the crypto price declines with external geopolitical and economic news, which is likely contributing to the outflow of investment in digital tokens. The first happened on Friday when President Donald Trump announced that he would nominate former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh as the next chair of the Federal Reserve. That news caused the dollar to surgeand safe-haven assets like gold and silver to crash. Since most cryptocurrencies are bought and sold against the dollar, when the dollar grows stronger, it takes fewer of them to buy the same amount of cryptocurrencies, and some investors may choose to sell their tokens before the dollar’s rising buying power makes their digital assets look any cheaper. Meanwhile, news on the geopolitical front may have also played a role in the crypto selloff. Over the weekend, the U.S. military began moving forces and equipment into the Middle East after President Trump said he is considering a strike on Iran. The potential strike is in response to recent widespread demonstrations in the country, which could signal a strong enough appetite for regime changesomething Trump would likely consider very appealing, especially after the president ordered the attack on Venezuela at the beginning of the year to oust its leader. Any potential conflict can be good for the U.S. dollar, but it will also serve to raise geopolitical uncertainty. Investors generally hate uncertainty, and when such conditions arise, they typically dump their more volatile assets so they can park their profits in ones that are more stable. Where does crypto go from here? It is still too early to tell whether the recent cryptocurrency decline over the past five days is a temporary event or is indeed the beginning of another long crypto winter. The good news for investors is that many tokens are already showing signs of a slight recovery as of Monday morning, with Bitcoin up 1.21%, ETH up 1.41%, and XRP up 3.12% over the last 24 hours as of this writing.
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Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! Im Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. The corporate response to the Trump administrations immigration enforcement actions has been muted at best. After the killings of two U.S. citizens by federal law enforcement in Minneapolis, the CEOs of more than 60 Minnesota-based companies issued a carefully worded letter calling foran immediate de-escalation of tensions. Targets incoming CEO Michael Fiddelke sent a video message to employees calling the events incredibly painful. Apple CEO Tim Cook, who was lambasted for attending a White House movie screening hours after protester Alex Pretti was shot and killed, said he was heartbroken. Few executives have been willing to criticize ICEs sweeping clampdown, which has also resulted in the detention of U.S. citizens, refugees, and others legally in the country. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman came close, saying in a note to employees: Whats happening with ICE is going too far. There is a big difference between deporting violent criminals and whats happening now, and we need to get the distinction right. Corporate tepidness is strategic and, according to those who work with CEOs, unlikely to change. Whether they are willing to admit it or notsee this exchange between JPMorganChase CEO Jamie Dimon and Zanny Minton Beddoes of The EconomistCEOs are afraid of retaliation by the administration and backlash from activists who may feel statements in response to current events are either too woke or not full-throated enough. As a result, many companies are staying on the sidelines. Fear and chaos Communications experts say CEOs will never go back to the volume of commentary or commitments companies issued in the wake of George Floyds murder and the racial justice marches that followed. In 2020, clients frequently asked us how best to weigh in on these kinds of issues, says Jim OLeary, North America CEO and global president of communications firm Weber Shandwick. Today, there is a greater focus on assessing the risks of engaging. Another CEO adviser I contacted, who asked to remain anonymous so he could speak freely about a topic that many deem sensitive, says corporate leaders can and should speak out on issues that impact the overall standing and reputation of U.S. businesses, and affect employees, customers, and shareholders. The goal for businesses in these moments should be to talk to their stakeholdersemployees, customers, investorsnot to garner headlines, he adds. It is about corporate and leadership values, not scoring points. Lets be clear: The events unfolding in Minneapolis and other cities around the country are impacting businesses. Silence isnt neutral. Its expensive, says Reshma Saujani, founder and CEO of Moms First, which held a virtual call after the killing of Alex Pretti that attracted thousands of moms who discussed grassroots responses, including national strikes such as the one organized last Friday. Letting this chaos continue is fiscal malpractice. Everyone I know is distracted. People feel scared. Workers are disappearing. Productivity is dropping. Local economies are taking a hit.You cant run a healthy economy based on fear and chaos. CEOs may or may not wish to speak out about the killings of Pretti and Renee Nicole Good or the clashes in the street. But executives at every level need to be willing to support civil liberties and the rule of law, which are the very underpinnings of democracy and capitalism. If more CEOs rise to meet this moment, we may see what true leadership looks like. Taking a stand Has your company responded to the ICE crackdowns, and if so, how? Send your responses to me at stephaniemehta@mansueto.com, and well publish excerpts in an upcoming newsletter. Read more: CEOs speak out. Or not. CEOs who shy away from defending voting rights do so at their peril E.l.f.s Tarang Amin is doubling down on board diversity We asked Minnesotas biggest companies about ICE
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