Iranian port blockade set to begin

Sweden's Ludvig Aberg fired eight birdies in a crisp eight-under par 63 on Thursday to take a one-stroke lead in the US PGA Tour RBC Heritage, where world number one Scottie Scheffler was five off the pace.

"Anytime you are bogey free and you make eight birdies, it's a good day," said Aberg, who said solid work with his irons was key to his bogey-free effort at Harbour Town Golf Links at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

"(I) Felt like I was hitting the flights I was trying to do," he said. "I was on the correct side of the flags, those kind of things that I really like to see. Then a few putts went in on the back nine that I didn't really do on the front."

Three-under through the first eight holes, Aberg kickstarted a back-nine surge with a nine-foot birdie at the 10th.

"It was a tricky read, kind of up and over, double breaker, and that was really nice," said Aberg, who got up and down for par at 11 before another birdie at 12.

That was followed by a 22-foot birdie putt at the par-three 14th, and back to back birdies at 16 and 17.

"It was nice to see the putt on 14 go in," he said. "It was the longest putt I made today, I think. Obviously hit the right shot, short left, and then a good putt to end it off."

Aberg had a one-stroke lead over American Harris English and Norway's Victor Hovland.

Half a dozen players shared fourth on six-under 65, a group that included former US Open champions Matt Fitzpatrick and Gary Woodland.

Rory McIlroy, coming off his second straight Masters triumph on Sunday, skipped the elite signature event.

World number one Scottie Scheffler, who finished runner-up to McIlroy at Augusta National after his weekend surge left him one stroke behind the Northern Ireland star, carded a three-under par 68.

Scheffler's week started with a bogey at the par-four first, where his tee shot went out-of-bounds on the right.

"It was looking like it was going to hit those trees and I guess it flew right through them and hit (a) path and went out of bounds," said Scheffler, who admitted he didn't even know there was an out-of-bounds lurking there.

He got on track with birdies at the third, fifth and sixth and after a bogey at the seventh picked up two more strokes coming in.

"I feel like I did some good stuff out there," Scheffler said. "Conditions were tough late in the day. (I) would have liked to have had a better start, but outside of that, I felt like I executed pretty well."

bb/amz

Aston Villa demolished Bologna and Nottingham Forest beat Porto in the Europa League on Thursday to set up an all-English showdown in the semi-finals.

Leading 3-1 from the quarter-final first leg, Unai Emery's team swatted aside Bologna with a 4-0 victory at Villa Park.

Forest, 12 spots below fourth-placed Villa in the Premier League, defeated 10-man Porto 1-0 in Nottingham to secure a 2-1 aggregate success.

Villa are into their second European semi-final under Emery after making the last four in the Conference League in 2024.

Europa League specialist Emery has won the tournament four times -- three with Sevilla and one at Villarreal -- and also finished as a runner-up with Arsenal.

Ollie Watkins had scored twice in the first leg in Italy and the England striker tormented Bologna again in the 16th minute.

It was an eye-catching goal as Villa's flowing 14-pass move climaxed with Morgan Rogers setting up Watkins for a tap-in from six yards.

Watkins' 100th goal for Villa made him the club's top scorer in European competitions with 10, overtaking Peter Withe and John McGinn.

Villa missed a 25th minute penalty after Martin Vitik handled a header from Rogers, whose spot-kick was saved by Federico Ravaglia.

But it was only a temporary reprieve for Bologna as Emiliano Buendia struck with a fierce blast in the 26th minute.

Rogers made up for his penalty miss in the 39th minute, netting for the first time in 12 games with a drive that beat Ravaglia at his near post.

Ezri Konsa's 89th-minute volley capped Villa's dominant display.

"We needed to get the first goal, it was very important. They are a dangerous team away from home," Villa captain John McGinn said. 

"A great first half gets us to a semi-final, I'm delighted."

At the City Ground, two-time European champions Forest booked their first continental semi-final since the 1983-84 UEFA Cup.

Porto defender Jan Bednarek was dismissed in the eighth minute for an ugly foul that caught Chris Wood on the knee and forced the New Zealand striker to limp off injured.

- Emotion at Forest -

Forest quickly took advantage of their numerical superiority as Morgan Gibbs-White's shot from the edge of the penalty area took a hefty deflection before looping into the back of the net in the 12th minute.

Gibbs-White celebrated by holding up a shirt with Elliot Anderson's name on it in a tribute to the Forest star, who missed the game due to the death of his mother.

There was another emotional moment at half-time when former Forest striker Tony Woodwork was presented with a winners' medal from the 1980 European Cup.

Woodcock's strained relationship with then Forest boss Brian Clough led him to be denied a medal after he left the club during their run to win the competition for a second successive season.

Forest had a narrow escape when Porto's William Gomes hit the woodwork from close-range in the second-half and they rode their luck again in the closing minutes as Alan Varela struck the crossbar. 

Playing in Europe for the first time since the 1995-96 UEFA Cup, Vitor Pereira's side will hope their Europa run provides a boost in their battle to avoid relegation.

"The club and the supporters deserve it. I have a fantastic team. They have the spirit, character and quality," Pereira said.

"It's too much to think Villa now. I will think about it after Burnley this weekend."

Freiburg swept into the Europa League semi-finals for the first time with a 3-1 win against Celta Vigo.

After taking the first leg 3-0 in Germany, Julian Schuster's side finished the job in Vigo, winning 6-1 on aggregate thanks to Igor Matanovic's opener and Yuito Suzuki's double.

In the semi-finals, Freiburg will play Sporting Braga, who came from behind to win 4-2 at Real Betis, sealing a 5-3 aggregate triumph.

smg/ea

Hungary's outgoing nationalist prime minister Viktor Orban on Thursday called for a "complete renewal" of his party after suffering a crushing election defeat that ended 16 years in power.

Orban lost on Sunday to political newcomer, conservative pro-EU Peter Magyar, whose party won a two-thirds parliamentary majority in a vote marked by record turnout in the central European country.

"We cannot continue the way we have been operating until now," Orban said in his first interview since the defeat, broadcast live on the YouTube channel Patriota.

"A complete renewal is needed, and this applies not only to Fidesz (Orban's party), but to the entire national side," he said.

After a "significant" loss, Orban said he was "trying to somehow come out of this shock" and that, as party leader, he took "full responsibility".

"The first and most important task is to manage the handover of government," he said, adding the process was already under way.

"The second task is to convene the necessary bodies for renewal, such as the national assembly of delegates and the party congress. This work is already ongoing," he added.

The outgoing prime minister has also decided to skip a final EU summit next week in Cyprus before formally handing over to Magyar in early May.

"Prime Minister Viktor Orban will not attend the informal meeting of EU heads of state and government on April 23–24 due to his duties related to the handover of government," Hungary's EU minister Janos Boka wrote on Facebook earlier Thursday.

His absence will spare him a potential showdown over his continued veto of a 90-billion-euro ($106 billion) EU loan for Ukraine.

That move was the latest in a raft of decisions by Orban, an ally of US President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin, that have infuriated Brussels.

The EU previously froze aid to Hungary due to concerns over Orban's perceived democratic backsliding.

Magyar has vowed to dismantle the nationalist administration and repair relations with the EU so it will unfreeze billions of dollars of EU funds.

- EU talks -

Following Magyar's victory, EU officials will visit Hungary Friday for talks with the incoming government.

"These are preliminary talks that are taking place in order to make sure that once the government is in place, really, action can be taken if appropriate, and that we do not waste any time," said EU spokeswoman Paula Pinho.

Magyar's "regime change" also gathered pace on Thursday when the Tisza party leader said he will not use the office in a monastery towering over Budapest that was Orban's seat of power.

"Under the TISZA government, the prime minister's office will not be located in the Carmelite Palace, but in a ministry building near the parliament," Magyar said in a Facebook post.

Orban moved his office from near parliament to the Carmelite Monastery in Budapest's historic Castle Quarter in 2019.

Critics had condemned the cost of the renovation and the heavy security around the former cultural centre overlooking the Danube that the government appropriated in 2014.

Magyar has also vowed to suspend news coverage by state-run outlets that opponents said had become an Orban mouthpiece.

Staff of the MTI national news agency demanded the restoration of "editorial autonomy," in a letter seen by AFP on Thursday, with one editor saying they had "had enough of unlawful, external political interference".

burs-mg-jza/giv/rh

LIV Golf is preparing to make structural changes that "might surprise some people," CEO Scott O'Neil said Thursday, as the embattled breakaway league scrambles to fend off rumors it could soon collapse without Saudi funding.

Multiple outlets this week reported that Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund will shortly stop bankrolling the divisive league, which has spent billions to lure top golfers away from the traditional PGA and DP World tours.

The league has said its current season will continue "full throttle," and this week's Mexico City tournament began Thursday as planned, although coverage was hit with a lengthy broadcast blackout due to local power outages.

"I talked about some structural changes. They're coming," said O'Neil, in an interview broadcast during the Mexico City event.

"You can ask just about the 50 people I met in Augusta," he said, referring to last weekened's Masters venue.

"I rolled out the plan. We have one, and it is... It might surprise some people."

The Saudi-backed tour, which features major winners including Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm, and a focus on faster, geographically diverse and team-oriented competitions, has bitterly divided the world of golf since its 2022 launch.

Seeking to tap into markets beyond the United States, it has attracted strong crowds to tournaments in countries including Australia and South Africa, but has struggled to bag lucrative television deals.

The Saudi wealth fund is estimated to have spent around $5 billion on LIV Golf. But at a five-year plan presentation this week it said it would focus on "increasing the efficiency of investments."

O'Neil said Thursday that the LIV Golf tour would "probably" have to raise money.

He pointed to a previously touted strategy of selling stakes in LIV Golf's 13 team franchises, and said he had received "two calls this morning" on the topic.

The league plans to replicate sports like Formula 1 with separately owned teams. 

Sales of minority or even controlling stakes in two teams to wealthy individuals or companies were being explored this year prior to the reports of a possible Saudi withdrawal.

In January, Bloomberg reported that the league was targeting valuations up to $300 million per team. There is currently no public valuation of what the teams are worth.

O'Neil also pushed back on media coverage of LIV Golf in recent days, in particular a story from Britain's Telegraph newspaper reporting that executives had been called into an emergency meeting in New York.

"It's a lot of reaching and grabbing for headlines and clickbait and stories," said O'Neil.

"Will there be a change in how we operate? Of course," he added.

amz/rcw

France has seen more than forty cases of kidnappings or hostage takings linked to cryptocurrencies since January, a worrying surge since last year as criminals seek to extort digital currency investors for ransom, authorities said Thursday.

Since late 2024 French authorities have been dealing with a string of kidnappings and extortion attempts targeting the families of wealthy individuals dealing in cryptocurrencies.

Some of the cases targeted institutional digital currency players or individuals with crypto holdings, while others involved other crimes not involving kidnappings, Philippe Chadrys, deputy national director of the judicial police, told journalists Thursday.

"The modus operandi, the masterminds -- often based abroad -- and the targeting methods" vary, Chadrys said, with the names of targets sometimes revealed to henchmen at the last moment.

The phenomenon of crypto-related abductions, still "marginal” in 2024, gained momentum in 2025 when around  thirty cases were reported, said Annabelle Vandendriessche, head of the interior ministry's Service for Information, Intelligence, and Strategic Analysis on Organised Crime (Sirasco).

On Mondaym a woman and her 11-year-old son were kidnapped in the central Burgundy region ahead of a crypto ransom demand.

After an operation involving around 100 officers, they were freed by Tuesday and seven men were taken into custody.

Also this month, a kidnapping took place in the southern French town of Anglet on April 10, carried out by five individuals searching for a crypto investor. They allegedly stole luxury jewelry, computers and phones.

Police arrested the suspects at Paris's Montparnasse train station after they apparently "mistook their target," Chadrys said.

In a particulalry grisly case from January 2025, kidnappers seized French crypto boss David Balland, co-founder of a crypto firm called Ledger, valued at the time at more than $1 billion.

Balland's kidnappers cut off his finger and demanded a hefty ransom before he was freed the next day, with his girlfriend found tied up in the boot of a car outside Paris.

al/bfa/cw/js

MONTANA — The Private Land/Public Wildlife Advisory Committee will meet on Zoom from April 22 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m., according to the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

The committee is a citizen advisory group focused on issues involving hunters, anglers, landowners, outfitters and public access across Montana.

The meeting will discuss technology and FWP access programs. 

Members of the public will be able to join the meeting via zoom.

Superstar LeBron James warned Thursday that Kevin Durant isn't the only threat the depleted Los Angeles Lakers must be wary of in their NBA playoffs first-round clash with the Houston Rockets.

The series, which starts on Saturday in Los Angeles, has been billed as a renewal of their rivalry, which stretches back to 2008 and includes three clashes in the NBA Finals.

In the 2012 Finals, James's Miami Heat beat Durant's Oklahoma City Thunder. Five years later Durant's Golden State Warriors beat James's Cleveland Cavaliers in the championship series, repeating the feat the following season.

James has long voiced his admiration for Durant, his teammate on two Olympic gold medal-winning teams.

But the 41-year-old said the Lakers can't afford to disregard Durant's supporting cast.

"We know that he's the head of the snake," James said. "But it's the Houston Rockets and they have some damn good players on their team.

"It's not just a KD team. It's the whole group," James added, calling out Alperen Sengun, Amen Thompson and Jabari Smith in noting that "everyone who goes on the floor is a threat, and we have to be ready for that."

The Rockets' aggression could be particularly difficult for the Lakers to counter with key offensive assets Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves sidelined by injury.

Doncic has sought treatment in Europe in a bid to hasten his return from a hamstring strain and Reaves was also sidelined late in the regular season with an oblique muscle injury, with a return date for both still uncertain.

Lakers coach JJ Redick acknowledged that puts even more on the shoulders of James.

"We're going to need him to facilitate. We're going to need him to score," Redick said. "We're going to need him to defend and rebound.

"I think he recognizes the task at hand, and he's very locked in."

Durant, who arrived in Houston from Phoenix last July as part of a blockbuster seven-team deal, also downplayed any individual duel with James.

"It's always great playing against great players," Durant said. "You feel their presence on the floor even if you're not matched up with them.

"Of course from the outside looking in, casual folks who are not in the life with us every day, yeah the matchup is definitely fun. Two great players who have been in the league for a long time. But everybody who's involved in this series knows it's much deeper than that."

bb/rcw

IMF economists warned Thursday that the war in Iran could have “very, certainly severe” consequences far outside the region – especially for energy-importing countries.

Countries in East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa are among the countries most affected now -- and who could suffer the most -- outside the region, as the conflict stretches on.

Ironically, the ongoing virtual closure of the Strait of Hormuz -- through which about one-fifth of the world's oil and gas passes -- has been a windfall for some petroleum-exporting nations, like Nigeria or Algeria.

But for those that rely on imports for food, fertilizer, and energy, the elevated prices are proving worrisome.

"Oil impacted importers, particularly non-resource-rich and fragile states, face deteriorating trade balances, rising living costs and limited buffers" to absorb future shocks," warned Abebe Selassie, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Director for Africa, at a press conference Thursday.

"The human consequences are almost certain to be severe," he added.

IMF economists are briefing government officials and media on their latest economic analysis as they hold their spring meetings alongside the World Bank this week in Washington.

- Hitting the most vulnerable -

Sub-Saharan Africa -- which for IMF statistical purposes does not include Sudan and parts of the Horn of Africa -- could see 20 million people pushed towards hunger, an IMF report said.

For Sahel countries, where poverty is widespread, factors that are expected to drive up the cost of food include scarce, expensive fertilizer and rising transportation costs.

"Already transportation costs are very high for people in urban areas, rural areas even more so," Selassie explained. "We are already seeing quite a bit of a pinch from the crisis on people, impoverishing people -- it's making life difficult for people."

The economic effects of the crisis hit at a time when international aid is in steep decline, another source of concern for the IMF.

The aid declines aren't a temporary ebb, but are "more structural," Selassie said. "It is falling hardest on the region's most vulnerable countries -- fragile states and low-income economies -- that depend on aid, not as a supplement but as a critical source of budget financing for healthcare and food assistance."

- Heavy oil reliance -

Further afield, small Pacific islands are of great concern, said the IMF's Asia-Pacific Director Krishna Srinivasan, due to their heavy reliance energy imports and the amount of time it takes ships to reach them -- even when shipping disruptions are minimal.

Zooming out, the entire region -- not just small islands -- faces unique risks because it spends almost double what Europe does on oil and gas, as a percent of GDP.

Some countries, such as Malaysia and Thailand spend around 10 percent of their GDP on oil and gas -- a sign of how reliant they are on energy imports.

- Downgrades like 2008 -

None of this is to downplay the effects in the Middle East, where the IMF's regional director, Jihad Azour, told reporters that their updated estimates of economic activity are "among the largest six-month downgrades to regional growth projections we have made since the global financial crisis."

Markets are now demanding higher interest rates across the board, further driving up the cost of borrowing for countries in the region that were already facing difficulties.

Here again, food is a pressure issue, especially in the region's poorest.

"Food items already account for 45 to 50 percent of total imports in Yemen, Sudan, Somalia and more than half of their population are already experiencing food insecurity," Azour said.

So what's to be done? 

IMF officials have repeated the same mantra all week: governments should adopt only temporary, limited measures to avoid further stretching already thin budgets.

els-pnb/sla

Netflix shares plummeted more than eight percent Thursday as the TV streaming titan reported quarterly revenue of $12.25 billion, a result that slightly topped expectations.

An earnings letter to investors came with word that co-founder Reed Hastings, who helped grow the revolutionary DVD-by-mail company into a global entertainment behemoth, will step away from Netflix when his term as chairman of the board of directors ends in June.

"Netflix changed my life in so many ways," Hastings wrote in the letter.

"My all‑time favorite memory was January 2016, when we enabled nearly the entire planet to enjoy our service."

Netflix faces increasing competition from rival streaming services as well as short-form video platforms like TikTok that vie for consumers' attention.

The share price slide came despite Netflix reporting profit of $5.28 billion, which was boosted by a fee received for the termination of a deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery.

During the recently ended quarter, Netflix declined to sweeten its takeover offer of Warner Bros, effectively ceding the media giant to a rival bid from Paramount Skydance after deciding the deal was no longer financially attractive.

Netflix logged a termination fee of $2.8 billion related to the nixed deal, according to its earnings report.

By not following through on the arrangement, Netflix will likely see the storied Hollywood studio and a group of TV properties -- which includes CNN -- fall into the hands of Paramount, fundamentally reshaping US media.

Paramount's deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery is in a regulatory and shareholder approval phase.

The bidding war had drawn White House attention, with President Donald Trump insisting he had a say in the outcome.

Oracle founder Larry Ellison is the father of Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison.

Larry Ellison, a longtime Trump ally, largely financed his son's takeover of Paramount and his subsequent bid for Warner Bros. Discovery.

A victory by Paramount would see CNN -- often the target of Trump's threats and criticism -- pass to Ellison family control, amid backlash that a Paramount-owned CBS would see changes to the White House's liking.

Netflix shares climbed after it stepped away from the Warner bidding, with analysts noting that the money it saved could be invested in audience-drawing shows and its potentially lucrative advertising business.

"Netflix won with investors when it lost Warner Bros Discovery," said Emarketer senior analyst Ross Benes.

"Netflix's next challenge will be to truly diversify away from having subscriptions account for almost the entirety of its revenue."

- Baseball and ads -

The streamer's advertising platform continues to grow, and the company expects it to account for $3 billion in revenue this year, according to co-chief executive Greg Peters.

He added that Netflix sees opportunity in using artificial intelligence to make it easier for partners to customize ads.

"As the company enters a new era without Reed Hastings, advertising will play a bigger role," Benes said.

"There's no better time to amplify an ads business than right now."

Netflix is also pushing further into live sports, podcasts and games, executives said on an earnings call.

The recently streamed World Baseball Classic was "a hit" on Netflix, according to co-chief executive Ted Sarandos.

"It was the most watched program we've ever had in Japan," he said on the call.

"It was really exciting to see how this played out."

gc/mlm

Nearly a week after their Pacific splashdown, the astronauts who crewed the Artemis II mission that flew around the Moon told reporters Thursday they have yet to fully grasp the magnitude of the moment.

"It's been a week of medical testing, physical testing, doctors, science objectives," mission commander Reid Wiseman said during a press conference at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

"We have not had that decompression," he added. 

The 50-year-old led fellow Americans Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Canadian crewmate Jeremy Hansen, on a mission that took them farther into space than anyone has ever gone before.

Adjusting to life on Earth is taking a beat.

"Tomorrow will be one week, and I just was trying to live in a little hole for one week, been off social media, not on the news. So, no, I don't know," Glover, who piloted the mission, told reporters. 

Nonetheless, he said his children and neighbors have clued him in to the excitement.

Artemis II was the first crewed mission to venture to the Moon's orbit since 1972, and the only one in history to include a woman, or a Black astronaut, or a non-American. Their voyage was broadcast live by US space agency NASA, and the media coverage of the launch and return to Earth was watched by millions of people. 

For Koch, waking up to the reality means remembering gravity has taken hold.

"In the first few days, I thought I was floating. I truly thought I was floating, and I had to convince myself I wasn't," Koch said.

Their mission lasted almost 10 days, but NASA has ambitions to return to the Moon for longer visits to establish a base in preparation for future missions to Mars.

The United States is targeting a lunar landing in 2028, before the end of President Donald Trump's term and a deadline set by rivals in China.

cha/ube/sla/mlm