The New Day Paper 'To Close' After Nine Weeks

The New Day newspaper is to close after just nine weeks, according to reports.

The daily newspaper, published by Trinity Mirror, is understood to be publishing its final edition on Friday.

According to The Spectator's Steerpike blog, the company's chief executive Simon Fox had made clear that the newspaper would close if it failed to deliver results.

But, despite its circulation reportedly dropping below 40,000, many have expressed surprise that such a decision was taken so soon.

A Trinity Mirror spokesman declined to confirm or deny the reports to Sky News but did say that a trading statement will be made this morning at 7am, just hours before the company's AGM at the Museum of London.

When the newspaper launched at the end of February its editor Alison Phillips told Sky News: "We still believe there is still a market for newspapers and that people really enjoy sitting down and reading a newspaper.

"We're living in a rapidly changing world...but from that we've discovered that what people want from a newspaper is a sense of completeness - that this is all they need to know. And if they just read this, they'll be on top of all the important stuff that is going on."

The group had said the title would cover news and features in "an upbeat, optimistic approach and will be politically neutral".

Trinity Mirror, which also owns the Daily Mirror and a host of regional titles, initially made The New Day free of charge from 40,000 retailers, before trialling at 25p for two weeks and then selling for 50p after that.

Last year the market for daily newspapers declined by 8%, according to the National Readership Survey.

The Independent and Independent On Sunday newspapers have closed this year after three decades to go digital-only.

Nigeria billionaire 'loses' $400m within weeks

Nigerian billionaire Femi Otedola has lost more than $400m (£280m) of his personal fortune in the last nine weeks after stock price of his Forte Oil company crashed by 43%, the US

based Forbes magazinereports.

Forte's share price has dropped to 193 naira ($1, £0.66) from 342 naira in late February after recording consistent daily losses in recent weeks, it added.

The magazine quoted a source at Forte Oil as linking the drop in the company’s share price with massive sell-offs of bonus shares by some of the company’s retail investors.  

In March, Forbes estimated that Mr Otedola had been worth $1.6bn, but that had now dropped to $1.2bn, it said.

Kanye West: 'Closet racism' to blame for Taylor Swift’s 2009 VMA win

It’s been almost seven years since Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift’s VMA speech in 2009 to declare that Beyonce, in fact, had the “best video of all time,” but the rapper can’t seem to let the topic go. In a new radio interview with Steve Harvey, Yeezy brought up Swift out of the blue, even after Harvey said he “really wasn’t” trying to talk about her.

“It’s not about Kanye West. It’s not about Taylor Swift,” West said. “There’s a lot of people in America that feel like they don’t have the platform to stand up and express their closet racism. Before they had that platform, one really easy way to express it was to say, ‘Eff Kanye West.’”

West went on to blame Britney Spears’ 2007 meltdown, saying, “As soon as Britney shaved her head and they saw that money going down, they had already marked what that award was going to be that night,” indicating that the powers-that-be saw Swift as the next pop superstar.

“They ain’t expect no activist that had just lost his mama a year later, sitting there with a bottle of Hennessey,” he added of himself. “The only reason I drank the Hennessey in the first place is because I said, ‘Imma just have to get drunk to deal with all the lies I’m about to see.’”

West later apologized to Swift for the incident and she presented him with the VMA Video Vanguard Award at the 2015 show. But then earlier this year, West released a song called “Famous,” in which he rapped, “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex. Why? I made that bitch famous.”

In a recent cover story for Vogue, Swift noted that she’s done with the feud, saying, "I think the world is bored with the saga. I don't want to add anything to it, because then there's just more."

As for some of his other beefs, West apologized again for insulting Wiz Khalifa and his ex Amber Rose earlier this year on Twitter.

“One thing I want to express to people, every day I look and I play with my daughter and I play with Saint,” the father of two said. “I’ve talked to Wiz, Amber’s talked to Kim, but I really want to stress the amount of respect I have for parents.”

After declaring he “owned” the former couple’s son, Sebastian, West told Harvey, “There is no concept of anyone, anyone being able to own someone else’s child. So every day I feel more deeply, deeply apologetic about that concept, because I only want to put out positive, positive, positive concepts.”

West went on to praise his wife, Kim Kardashian, saying, “She’s breaking boundaries on so many levels. You can’t give me an example of as popular of a mixed couple. I got friends that have had white wives that before there was a Kimye, they’d go to the amusement park and people would be talking down to them, treating them a certain kind of way. She’s broke boundaries with that, she’s broke boundaries in fashion, where designers wasn’t trying to make clothes with women with shape. And now, they’re all about really embracing and empowering women… Can’t nobody disrespect my wife, ever.”

Obama Drinks Water In Flint To Show It Is Safe

President Barack Obama has travelled to Flint, Michigan, to help reassure residents that the city is recovering from a lead-tainted drinking water crisis.

In his first visit to the beleaguered city since the crisis began in 2014, Mr Obama drank filtered water after a reporter asked him if was willing to try it.

"The water around this table was Flint water and it just confirms what we know scientifically, which is, if you're using a filter, if you're installing it, then Flint water at this point is drinkable," the President said after taking a gulp.

Mr Obama told residents it could take more than two years before the city's water pipes can be replaced.

He urged citizens to use the water filters that are being provided free of charge, and to let their water taps run for five minutes every day to flush out any contaminants.

The President also called on parents to have their children tested for high levels of lead in their blood.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Michigan State Senate approved an additional $128m to address the recovery effort.

The crisis began after Flint, a working class, mostly African-American city of 100,000 people, switched water supplies to the Flint River from Detroit's water system to save money.

The water was not filtered properly, which led to lead and other metals leaching from old pipes.

The move sparked a national controversy after blood samples taken from children showed high levels of lead, which can damage the nervous system.

Child Who Hacked Instagram Given $10k Reward

A 10-year-old boy has been paid $10,000 (£6,900) by Facebook after he identified a glitch in the company's photo-sharing app Instagram.

Jani is the youngest-ever recipient of the "bug bounty" which the social media giant offers to users and white hat hackers who report weaknesses with its services.

The boy, from Finland, told local media that he had discovered a vulnerability in the comments section of Instagram photos when malicious code was typed in.

"I could have deleted anyone's comments from (Instagram accounts). Even Justin Bieber's," he explained.

Jani's feat is all the more impressive considering he is too young to have his own Facebook or Instagram account under the company's terms of service.

He learned how to code from YouTube videos, and is now considering a career in data security when he grows up.

Facebook paid out the reward money in March - a month after Jani notified them about the vulnerability.

He plans to use his newfound pocket money to splash out on a new bike and a football.

Killed Navy Seal Was Jailed Banker's Grandson

A US Navy Seal killed by Islamic State militants during a gun battle in Iraq is the grandson of a notorious financier.

Charlie Keating IV died after IS attackers overran the Kurdish Peshmerga frontline near Mosul on Tuesday morning.

The 31-year-old's grandfather, Charles Keating, served prison time for his role in a huge savings and loan scandal in the 1980s.

The Islamic State used suicide car bombs and bulldozers to break through the Peshmerga frontline on Tuesday.

They advanced on the base where the Pentagon says Keating and other Navy Seals have been advising and assisting the Kurdish forces.

The US responded with F-15s and drones that dropped more than 20 bombs, said a US official.

Keating was a Navy Seal based in San Diego, California.

The elite serviceman was a former Phoenix, Arizona, star distance runner who went on to join the athletics team at Indiana University.

He is the third American serviceman to die in combat in Iraq since the US-led coalition launched its campaign against the Islamic State group in the summer of 2014, according to military officials.

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey ordered all state flags be lowered to half-mast on Wednesday in honour of the serviceman.

Keating had been planning to get married in November, according to his former track coach.

Rob Reniewicki said he is heartbroken by the death of his former protege.

"He was a tremendous athlete, a tremendous person," Mr Reniewicki told Phoenix TV station KTVK.

"I'm devastated. I'm crushed. I'm trying to hold myself together."

Arizona US Senator John McCain also paid tribute to Keating in a statement.

"Like so many brave Americans who came before him, Charlie sacrificed his life in honorable service to our nation for a cause greater than self-interest, which we can never truly repay," Mr McCain said in a statement.

He was among five senators who were accused of impropriety in the 1980s after they took campaign donations from Keating’s grandfather while appealing to regulators on his behalf.

Mr McCain was later cleared of wrongdoing. Keating died in 2014, aged 90.

Thousands of depositors were fleeced in the $150bn savings-and-loan crisis.

Wonga Losses Soar As Payday Price Cap Bites

Britain's biggest payday lender saw losses double last year as a price cap imposed by the City regulator triggered a sharp fall in revenues.

Wonga Group recorded a pre-tax loss of £80.2m in 2015, compared to £38.1m a year earlier, raising questions about the ability of one of the UK's most controversial financial services brands to reinvent itself in an era of tighter regulation.

The results also showed a 64% decline in Wonga's revenues to £77.3m from £217.2m in 2014, confirming a Sky News report.

The figures take Wonga's losses for the last two years to in excess of £100m, underlining the battle facing its management team and shareholders to turn around its financial performance.

The company, which is led by Andy Haste, a former boss of RSA, the insurance company, wants to diversify its business away from the short-term lending model that made it a lightning rod for political and public anger over the sector's rapid growth.

Mr Haste said: "We have made real progress towards creating a sustainable business with an accepted place on financial services."

Finance director Paul Miles said the slump in revenues was driven by a "significant but expected reduction in lending volumes globally".

He said: "In the UK, the reduction reflects a full year's impact of the stricter lending criteria we implemented in late 2014 and the price cap introduced by the UK regulator in early 2015."

Wonga's slump into the red for 2014 followed a string of regulatory settlements, customer redress and restructuring costs triggered by the loss of more than 300 jobs.

Last year, it was ordered by the City watchdog to pay more than £2.5m in compensation to 45,000 customers who were sent letters purporting to be from law firms but which in fact did not exist.