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Love Island’s Cierra Ortega apologises for derogatory social media post
Love Island USA’s Cierra Ortega has apologised for old social media posts including a derogatory term for Asian people, following her sudden removal from the hit TV show.
In a video message, the 25-year-old content creator from Los Angeles said the post in question that led to her departure was made in 2024 and that a follower messaged her to explain that it was a slur.
“In that moment, I was embarrassed,” she said, adding that she “immediately deleted the post”.
Ortega, who is of Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage, said she and her loved ones have been harassed online over the posts, including by people calling immigration authorities on members of her family and issuing death threats.
“What’s been extremely, extremely difficult is the way people are approaching my family and my loved ones,” she said. “They have had ICE [US Immigration and Customs Enforcement] called on them. My family doesn’t feel safe in their own home. I’m receiving death threats.
“There’s no need to fight hate with hate. I don’t think that that’s justice.”
Ortega said she was in agreement with the network’s decision to remove her from the show and said she understands why viewers were upset.
But she took issue with social media posts claiming that she did not delete the derogatory post or doubled down on using it.
“I was apologetic and I educated, not only myself on the true meaning and history of the word, but also anyone around me.
“I think the backlash has obviously been very hard to deal with.”
Ortega’s departure from the show, a spinoff of the popular UK reality series, follows that of fellow islander Yulissa Escobar, who left after videos of her using a racial slur on a podcast in 2021 re-emerged.
Ms Escobar later apologised, saying on Instagram she used the offensive term “ignorantly, not fully understanding the weight, history, or pain behind it”.
She followed up her apology with a second post, saying she had received death threats and that she “came back to a warzone” after leaving the villa.
This season of Love Island USA has been wildly popular and Peacock, NBC’s streaming app that airs the show, said the series was ranking as the most streamed reality series.
But its skyrocketing success has led to contestants being relentlessly cyberbullied on social media, so much so that the show aired a statement during a recent episode with a plea for viewers to halt the harassment.
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Dow, S&P 500 Futures Fall; Nasdaq Set to Open Up; Trump Tariff Fears; Nvidia, Broadcom, Kellogg, Delta, More Movers
U.S. stock futures were mostly pointing to losses at the market open on Thursday, as President Donald Trump’s latest tariff announcements threatened to pour cold water on the previous day’s Nvidia-led rally.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 35 points, or 0.1%. S&P 500 futures were falling less than 0.1% and Nasdaq 100 futures were edging up less than 0.1%.
Trump announced in a letter late Wednesday that the U.S. will charge a 50% tariff on Brazilian goods starting Aug. 1. It is the highest level announced so far among the raft of letters sent to various national governments, with the White House citing legal action against Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro and U.S. tech firms as justification.
The potential pullback also comes after the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite hit a record closing high on Wednesday. That was powered by chip maker Nvidia, which became the first company in history to reach a market value of $4 trillion, beating rivals Apple and Microsoft.
“For everything else that’s happening right now, from tariffs to fiscal fears, AI is the great hope for US exceptionalism to return. The rally also got a further boost as lower bond yields meant that fears eased about the fiscal situation,” wrote Deutsche Bank analyst Jim Reid in a research note.
The Treasury sold $39 billion of 10-year notes Wednesday afternoon with investors accepting a yield of 4.362%. That led to a rally in bonds, despite the minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee’s June meeting suggesting officials were divided over when to start cutting interest rates.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note stood at 4.345% early on Thursday, broadly flat from the previous day.
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Helmut Marko breaks silence following Christian Horner sacking
Helmut Marko has released a statement following the sacking of Christian Horner from his position as Red Bull CEO and team principal.
Horner was relieved of his duties on Wednesday, 9th July, after 20 years at the helm of Red Bull and was promptly replaced by Racing Bulls boss Laurent Mekies.
The likes of Max Verstappen and Oliver Mintzlaff, Red Bull GmbH’s CEO of corporate projects, issued statements following Horner’s dismissal, but motorsport advisor Marko had not done so, despite working closely with Horner throughout his time with the team.
Tensions between the pair were known to be frought at times, but the veteran Austrian has broken his silence, over 24 hours on from Horner’s shock dismissal.
“Christian and I have worked together very successfully for over 20 years – both in Formula 1 and in Formula 3000,” began Marko’s statement.
“I would like to sincerely thank Christian for that. During this time, we were able to celebrate an incredible number of outstanding achievements.
“We helped develop two World Drivers’ Champions and several Grand Prix winners. That has always been – and still is – the Red Bull way.
“As for the current sporting situation: there are still 12 races to go, and we will continue to fight for the Drivers’ Championship as long as it’s mathematically possible.”
Verstappen finds himself 69 points behind championship leader Oscar Piastri at the halfway mark of the season, almost three full grands prix worth of points, with 25 on offer at each race.
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Delta Air Lines (DAL) 2Q 2025 earnings
A Boeing 767-332(ER) from Delta Air Lines takes off from Barcelona El Prat Airport in Barcelona on Oct. 8, 2024.
Joan Valls | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Delta Air Lines cut its 2025 profit forecast as it deals with lower-than-expected demand this year and the industry manages a glut of flights, but the carrier’s outlook for summer travel beat Wall Street’s expectations.
Bookings have since stabilized, CEO Ed Bastian said in an interview, though at lower levels than the airline expected at the start of the year.
“People are still traveling,” Bastian said. “What they’ve done is they’ve shifted their booking patterns a little bit. They’re holding off making plans until they have they’re a little closer in to their to their travel dates. And so that’s shifted some of our bookings and yield management strategies.”
Delta, the first of the U.S. airlines to report results, expects adjusted earnings per share of between $1.25 and $1.75 in the third quarter, compared with Wall Street analysts’ forecast for $1.31 a share. It also said it expects revenue that’s flat to up 4%, topping forecasts for a 1.4% sales increase.
Delta shares jumped more than 10% in premarket trading after releasing results. Other airlines’ shares also rose after Delta’s report.
Delta expects adjusted full-year earnings of $5.25 to $6.25 a share, down from a forecast in January of more than $7.35 a share, when Bastian predicted 2025 would be the carrier’s best year ever.
In April, Delta said it couldn’t reaffirm that forecast as on-again-off-again tariffs and hesitant consumers dented bookings. Rival U.S. carriers also pulled their guidance, and Delta and other airlines have announced plans to cut flights after the summer peak.
That includes trimming capacity outside of top travel periods, including what Bastian described as “surgical” cuts after the peak summer travel season ends around mid-August.
Here’s how the company performed in the three months ended June 30, compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on consensus estimates from LSEG:
- Earnings per share: $2.10 adjusted vs. $2.05 expected
- Revenue: $15.51 billion adjusted vs. $15.48 billion expected
Delta posted strong growth from sales of higher-priced seats like first-class and from its lucrative American Express partnership, which increased 10% in the second quarter from the same period last year to $2 billion. Airlines have become more reliant on travelers who are willing to spend more to fly rather than more price-sensitive consumers.
While fares have dropped across the U.S., Delta’s premium-product revenue rose 5%, while sales from the main cabin fell 5% from last year. Its total revenue per seat mile, a measure of how much an airline is bringing in for the amount it flies, fell 4% in the quarter.
Bastian said Delta is prepared to continue updating its premium products.
“Whether it’s the Delta lounges or the quality of the product on board, the premium products have had life cycles … and what we thought was state of the art six or seven years ago no longer is,” he said. “We’re continuing to upgrade and update it.”
Corporate travel has also stabilized, but it’s in line with last year, not the 5% to 10% growth Delta expected at the start of the year, Bastian said.
In the second quarter, Delta posted adjusted revenue of nearly $15.51 billion, up 1% from a year ago. Its net income in the three months ended June 30 totaled $2.13 billion, or $3.27 a share, up 63% on the year. That compares with net income of $1.3 billion, or $2.01 a share, in the same period last year. Adjusting for one-time items, its per-share net income was $1.37 billion, or $2.10 a share.
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