Paramount Skydance Corp. reaffirmed its offer to buy Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. for $30 a share in cash, insisting its hostile bid is superior to one from Netflix Inc. after multiple rejections. Michelle Davis reports on Bloomberg Television. (Source: Bloomberg)

The president told The Times that he felt “strongly” that Russia would not invade Ukraine again.

© Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. rejected an amended takeover offer from Paramount Skydance Corp. and encouraged shareholders to stick with a deal it has in place with Netflix Inc., voicing skepticism about the interloper’s ability to pull off what it said would effectively be the largest leveraged buyout in history.

Doug Ford’s move comes after Diageo announced plan to shutter Ontario whisky plant and move operations to US

Ontario’s premier, Doug Ford, has warned rye drinkers they will need to “stock up” if they want to keep consuming Crown Royal, as he promised to make good on plans to banish the Canadian whisky brand from his province.

Ford has since September been locked in a simmering feud over tariffs and economic nationalism with the multinational spirits maker Diageo. This week, he renewed his threats to wield the power of the province’s liquor control board – one of the largest buyers of alcohol in the world – to banish Crown Royal.

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© Photograph: Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press via Alamy

© Photograph: Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press via Alamy

© Photograph: Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press via Alamy

The assessment rebutted a claim that the Russian leader made to President Trump in a phone call this week.

© Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times

The U.S.-led negotiations have made some progress, but still face fundamental challenges, including over security guarantees to counter future Russian aggression.

© Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

The U.S. president said after a meeting at Mar-a-Lago that a deal was “maybe very close.” But a joint U.S.-Ukraine proposal appeared unfinished, as Russia rejected several ideas.

© Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times

Did the 21st century begin on 1 January 2000? Or was it that blue sky day in September 2001 when the planes hit the twin towers? These images from the last 25 years chronicle modern history in the making

At the turn of the century there was a modest debate, mainly conducted on the letters pages of the newspapers – back then, still the prime forum for public discussion – as to when, exactly, the new millennium and the 21st century began. Most assumed the start date was 1 January 2000, but dissenters, swiftly branded pedants, insisted the correct date came a year later. As it turned out, both were wrong.

The 21st century began in earnest, at least in the western mind, on a day that no one had circled in their diaries. Out of a clear blue sky, two passenger jets flew into the twin towers of the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001 and so inaugurated a new age of anxiety – a period in which we have lived ever since.

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© Photograph: MARTY LEDERHANDLER/AP

© Photograph: MARTY LEDERHANDLER/AP

© Photograph: MARTY LEDERHANDLER/AP

An old fashioned with a batty backstory

Legend has it that in 1920 Bhupinder Singh, the maharaja of Patiala, was determined that his cricket team would triumph over a visiting English team. To gain the upper hand, he hosted a grand party the night before the match at which he served his guests Patiala pegs, famously generous four-finger whisky pours traditionally measured from pinky to index finger. Unsurprisingly, the English players overindulged, leaving them very hungover and, inevitably, defeated the next day, and the legend of the Patiala peg was born. This Punjabi kind-of old fashioned is inspired by Singh’s drink. At the restaurant, we serve it from a bespoke five-litre bottle, but we’ve adapted the recipe to make it more suitable for a domestic environment.

James Stevenson, beverage director, Ambassadors Clubhouse, London W1

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© Photograph: Rob Lawson/The Guardian. Drink styling: Seb Davis.

© Photograph: Rob Lawson/The Guardian. Drink styling: Seb Davis.

© Photograph: Rob Lawson/The Guardian. Drink styling: Seb Davis.

The president is planning to meet with the leader of Ukraine in Florida just as the lawmakers are applying some pressure.

A selection of meringues, boozy cherries, coffee mascarpone and whisky caramel to mix and match until Big Ben strikes and beyond

Your favourite cocktail is now a DIY pavlova party! Pile crisp coffee meringues high with espresso cream, boozy cherries, a drizzle of whisky caramel and a flicker of edible gold leaf, then shake, spoon and sparkle your way into the New Year. A few tips: arrange the toppings in glass bowls or on tiered trays for a beautiful display, add labels for fun and, if it’s sitting out for a while, keep the whipped cream chilled on ice.

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© Photograph: Rita Platts/The Guardian. Food styling: Aya Nishimura. Prop styling: Florence Blair. Food styling assistant: Isobel Clarke.

© Photograph: Rita Platts/The Guardian. Food styling: Aya Nishimura. Prop styling: Florence Blair. Food styling assistant: Isobel Clarke.

© Photograph: Rita Platts/The Guardian. Food styling: Aya Nishimura. Prop styling: Florence Blair. Food styling assistant: Isobel Clarke.

Global sales fall by 3% in third consecutive year of decline as distilleries scale back production or expand storage

The Scottish whisky market has slipped into a supply glut as US tariffs and falling demand weigh on the country’s distilleries.

Global scotch sales fell 3% in the first half of 2025, marking the third consecutive year of decline after decades of growth, according to the alcohol data provider IWSR.

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© Photograph: Tim Graham/Getty Images

© Photograph: Tim Graham/Getty Images

© Photograph: Tim Graham/Getty Images

Der Whiskey-Hersteller setzt die Produktion an seinem Stammsitz in Kentucky für das gesamte kommende Jahr aus. Medienberichten zufolge sollen eine schwächere Nachfrage und Trumps Zollpolitik das Unternehmen belasten.

Larry Ellison is throwing his personal fortune behind Paramount Skydance Corp.’s bid for Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., agreeing to provide an irrevocable personal guarantee of $40.4 billion in equity financing for the offer and any damages claims against Paramount. Paramount also offered to increase its regulatory reverse termination fee to $5.8 billion from $5 billion. Warner Bros. would have to pay $2.8 billion to Netflix if it backs out of its deal and goes with another suitor, according to terms of the agreement. Bloomberg's Chris Palmeri joined Caroline Hyde and Romaine Bostick on 'Bloomberg Businessweek Daily' to break it down. (Source: Bloomberg)

Larry Ellison is throwing his personal fortune behind Paramount Skydance Corp.’s bid for Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., aiming to give his son’s company an advantage in a fiercely contested takeover battle with Netflix Inc.

Whiskey brand, owned by Japanese drinks group Suntory, to close main distillery amid tariff uncertainty

The maker of Jim Beam bourbon whiskey will halt production at its main site in Kentucky for all of 2026.

The company said in a statement it would close its distillery in Clermont until it took the “opportunity to invest in site enhancements”.

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© Photograph: Isabel Infantes/EPA

© Photograph: Isabel Infantes/EPA

© Photograph: Isabel Infantes/EPA

Images, undated and uncaptioned, include Nabokov lines written on woman’s body and show Bill Gates and Noam Chomsky

• US politics – live updates

• What we know so far about the Epstein files

Democrats on the House oversight committee have released a new batch of photos from the estate of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as the deadline for the justice department to release its files related to Epstein looms.

The images, released on Thursday, are undated and lack captions or context. Among them are photographs of what appear to be lines from Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Lolita written on different parts of a woman’s body.

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© Photograph: House Oversight Democrats

© Photograph: House Oversight Democrats

© Photograph: House Oversight Democrats

Who ends up with the assets of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., the owner of one of Hollywood’s largest and most venerable film studios, is likely to impact the entertainment industry for decades to come. On Dec. 5, the company announced that Netflix Inc., the world’s dominant streaming platform, had agreed to purchase its streaming and studio assets in a $82.7 billion deal, including debt. Three days later, Paramount Skydance Corp. launched a hostile takeover bid for all of Warner Bros. The offer v

Traders are betting that what once looked like a potential bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. is turning into a one horse race, with Netflix Inc. winning out over Paramount Skydance Corp.

Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., the parent of HBO and CNN, advised its shareholders to reject a hostile takeover bid by Paramount Skydance Corp. in favor of its original agreement with streaming giant Netflix Inc., deeming the Paramount offer “inferior” and “inadequate.” Geetha Rangathan joins to discuss the latest on the Warner Brothers bidding war with Paul Sweeney and Scarlet Fu. (Source: Bloomberg)