Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has promised to continue with his unorthodox policy of cutting interest rates to reduce sky-high inflation if he is re-elected on May 28.

It's been a long time coming but Cristiano Ronaldo has finally met streamer iShowSpeed. Or should that be the other way around... For those that haven't been following this long-running saga, iShowSpeed is one of the top steamers in the world with more than 16 million followers on YouTube alone and is obsessed with Ronaldo. The American online personality has attempted to meet the former Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus striker on numerous occasions in the past but ultimately failed on every occasion. However, the stars aligned for the 18-year-old on Saturday when he flew to Portugal to see the iconic footballer in action for his country in the nation's 3-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina at the Estádio da Luz in Lisbon. As part of his stream at the match, Speed was told that he could potentially meet Ronaldo if he went down to the car park as the players were leaving the stadium. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Sure enough, after waiting for a few minutes Ronaldo eventually arrived and Speed fell to his knees in awe of his idol. The two hugged and got pictures as Speed was clearly overcome with emotion and even imitated Ronaldo's 'Siuu' celebration. The interaction only lasted a few seconds and after Ronaldo left, Speed was overcome with tears and could be heard saying "I love you so much God." And that was it. Hopefully, for Speed he can continue to impress Ronaldo when he takes part in the next Sidemen charity match which is set to take place on September 9th at West Ham's London Stadium. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 19, 2023--

It’s hard to remember a time where Twitter didn’t have Elon Musk’s fingerprints all over it. But it was on 28 October 2022 that Musk took over the social media platform after purchasing it for a whopping $44bn. In the months that followed, the company changed dramatically - both publicly and behind the scenes - and for many of us, our relationship with the app has never been the same. Here’s everything Elon Musk has done since buying Twitter. Kicked things off with a dad joke “Let that sink in…” Yes, he really did this. Made half of the staff redundant In November, Twitter announced that it was laying off half of its workers – a cut of around 3,740 jobs. “Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists. Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America,” Musk wrote at the time. "Unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day," he tweeted. He would also go on to fire all of Twitter HQ's janitors, and issue a childish response to more than 775 discrimination cases against Twitter. Then publicly humiliated an employee who asked if he'd been sacked Musk was forced to apologise after a humiliating exchange in which he appeared to mock a disabled Twitter worker. Days after having access to his work computer cut and following numerous unanswered emails, one worker was forced to directly tweet Elon Musk asking him a seemingly straightforward question: had he been sacked? Rather than answer it, or get his HR team to do so, Musk decided to publicly put the man through the wringer – subjecting him to a brutal tweet exchange which included a pair of “rolling on the floor laughing” emojis. The thread has been branded “disgraceful” by thousands of users, who have condemned Musk as the “worst boss ever”. In the original tweet, senior product designer Halli Thorleifsson wrote: “Dear [Elon Musk], 9 days ago the access to my work computer was cut, along with about 200 other Twitter employees. However, your head of HR is not able to confirm if I am an employee or not. You've not answered my emails. Maybe if enough people retweet you'll answer me here?” The platform’s infamous boss replied curtly: “What work have you been doing?” before proceeding to engage in a back-and-forth that reads like a live job interview, with questions including: “What changes did you make to help with the youths?” and infantile comments like: “Pics or it didn’t happen”. The Twitter boss later said that he had received bad information about the situation, and had a video call with the affected staff member to apologise. The Twitter Blue mess On 30 October, Musk took to Twitter to share that the "whole verification process is being revamped". While a blue tick on Twitter used to help limit impersonation and prove the validity of tweets from high-profile individuals such as journalists, Musk decided he didn't like that idea and made the platform's paid subscription option - Twitter Blue - include the coveted verification icon. Those who didn't want to pay a regular fee to keep their blue tick eventually lost it in April this year. Got really petty about his social media competitors So it wasn't long before people were considering jumping ship for rival social media platforms - one of the most popular sites at the time of Musk's takeover being that of the decentralised platform, Mastodon. Except, Musk seemed to catch on to people fleeing Twitter and sharing their Mastodon links on the app, as the platform suddenly stopped allowing users to post URLs from the other site. Embarrassing. In April this year, he also blocked Twitter embeds on Substack, after they rolled out a feature called 'Notes' which bore a striking resemblance to his platform, and in July he threatened to sue Instagram's text-based app Threads. Reinstated the Twitter accounts of terrible people Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, former president Donald Trump, psychologist Jordon Peterson, Kanye "Ye" West and "misogynistic" influencer Andrew Tate were all allowed back onto the platform towards the end of November after they were previously banned from Twitter for Terms of Service violations. For example, Trump was banned following the January 6 insurrection, while Peterson was banned over a transphobic comment made about trans actor Elliot Page. Ye, meanwhile, was previously suspended for antisemitic tweets, before Musk banned him again following him tweeting a swastika inside the Star of David. He was allowed back on Twitter eight months later, in July. 'The Twitter Files' non-story In December, Musk amplified reporting from Matt Taibbi dubbed "The Twitter Files" which was supposed to expose political influence over Twitter and the social media platform's partisan management, but instead just revealed a perfectly legitimate request from the Biden presidential campaign team to remove pornographic images of Hunter Biden. The ElonJet saga Then there was all the drama around ElonJet, an account managed by Jack Sweeney while studying at the University of Central Florida which tracked Musk's use of his private jet using publicly available flight information. 'Free speech absolutist' Musk had offered the account owner $5,000 in early 2022 to take down the account, but went further when he was handed the 'keys' to Twitter, as he suspended the account outright. It later returned, but with a 24-hour delay. Sweeney would eventually troll Musk by joining major rival, Threads. Temporarily banned a load of journalists In scenes related to the ElonJet situation, reporters from outlets such as CNN, the New York Times and The Washington Post were suspended from Twitter, with Musk writing: "[The] same doxxing rules apply to 'journalists' as to everyone else." When one journalist was able to challenge Musk on the bans, he reacted totally rationally by temporarily binning the live audio feature, Twitter Spaces. The poll which ousted him as Twitter CEO In December, amid continued scrutiny over his management of Twitter, Musk posted a poll on his future as CEO of the company, allowing users to determine his fate. He lost. Musk would later claim his dog was calling the shots at Twitter, before hiring NBCUniversal advertising chair Linda Yaccarino in May. Divided the home page into 'For You' and 'Following' One of the bigger changes to the site itself came in January when an update saw the timeline split into two with ‘For You’ and ‘Latest’ feeds. A thread from Twitter Support in January read: “See the tweets you want to see. Starting today on iOS, swipe between tabs to see Tweets recommended ‘for you’, or tweets from the accounts you’re ‘following’. “The ‘For You’ and ‘Following’ tabs replace ‘home’ and ‘latest’ and will be pinned to the top of your timeline so you can easily switch between them. Swipe to switch timelines instead of tapping the [stars] icon.” The Tesla and SpaceX owner also implemented a "view count" on tweets to let others know how many times a post has been seen. This follows in the footsteps of the video model, where fellow tweeters are shown how many views a video has accumulated. One of the stranger moves also saw him introduce a marker that lets people see how many times a post had been bookmarked. So. Many. Outages. They got so bad, in fact, that Musk admitted in March that the site is "brittle". In July, things broke some more to the extent that the owner had to implement a 'reading limit' on tweets. Implementing a bizarre auto-reply from Twitter's press inbox In March, it started sending poop emojis. We wish we were joking. Pathetic name changes The Twitter CEO switched the site’s usual logo featuring the blue bird to the Doge meme featuring a Shiba Inu named Kabosu in April. The change led to Dogecoin prices surging by 33 per cent. It seemed like a very random decision, but it turns out he’s had the idea for a pretty long time. Back in 2022, Musk engaged with Twitter user @WSBChairman, who said on March 26 that he should “just buy Twitter… and change the bird logo to a doge”. In the same month, he also removed the 'w' from the Twitter sign outside Twitter HQ to spell... well, you know exactly what it spells... Cheesing off bereaved families In May, Musk announced a 'purge' of inactive accounts, angering those who had loved ones who have since passed away, for whom their Twitter accounts are a way of remembering them. The Elon Musk vs Mark Zuckerberg cage fight (which is yet to happen) Seeing the Meta owner as a new competitor after buying out a social media platform, Musk challenged Zuckerberg to a cage fight, which Zuck - who has won a jiu jitsu competition - accepted, but the fight has not actually taken place. Disappointing. The actual name change Oh, sorry, have we been using 'Twitter' to refer to Musk's app? We mean X. Musk rebranded it to a single letter in July, though many still people still refer to it as its old name. Oops. Actually charging people to use X In more recent developments, Musk has even gone so far as to charge people for the privilege of joining his dysfunctional social media platform. Earlier this month it was announced that new users in New Zealand and the Philippines will have to cough up $1 (£0.82) a year to access key features such as tweeting, retweeting, liking posts and replying. 'Illegal content and disinformation' over Israel-Hamas war Now, as the Israel-Hamas conflict continues, Musk has been criticised for his platform allowing disinformation to run rife amid the war, to the point that the European Union - more specifically, European Commissioner Thierry Bretan - wrote a letter to the business owner warning him that his site is "being used to disseminate illegal content and disinformation". We can't say we're looking forward to another year of Musk's rule... Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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Vincent Kompany bade an emotional farewell to Manchester City in front of 100,000 fans on this day in 2019. The long-serving captain, now manager of Burnley, announced he was leaving City after 11 successful years to take up the role of player-manager at Anderlecht. Consequently the defender was the star of the show as City celebrated the 2018/19 season’s historic domestic treble with an open-top bus parade through Manchester city centre. Speaking as the parade culminated with a stage show outside Manchester Cathedral, the Belgian said: “I’ve given everything I could for this club. I can’t tell you how proud of that I am. I have nothing left. I have given everything.” Kompany’s future had been the subject of speculation for some time but he realised the time was right to leave when he scored a spectacular winner against Leicester earlier that month. His long-range strike, in their penultimate game of the season, took City within one game of retaining their Premier League title. He said: “The moment that ball against Leicester went ‘top bins’ I knew I was done! I couldn’t do anything better. It felt right.” Kompany, who ended his speech with a mic drop, said: “Eleven years at this club, what a journey we’ve been on. We were always a great club without silverware but now we’ve got silverware and I’m really proud. “This group of players – we’ve given you something you deserved for a long time. Now this team is ready to achieve so much more.” Kompany won 10 major trophies during his time with City, culminating with the 2019 FA Cup final victory over Watford. After three years in charge at Anderlecht, Kompany returned to England in 2022 to manage the Clarets and delivered promotion back to the Premier League at the first attempt. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Former Australia Test captain Brian Booth dies aged 89 Rory McIlroy vows aggressive approach as he looks to rein in leaders at Oak Hill Rory McIlroy in contention after tricky second round at US PGA Championship

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A 25-year-old who has been mostly bed bound by a painful condition that is causing her brain to slip down her spine is pleading for help to raise funds for lifesaving treatment in the US to stabilise her skeleton. Desperate to raise the £200,000 she needs, Emily Balfour, from London, said she will eventually face permanent disability and is at risk of paralysis if she does not receive PICL, a procedure that injects stem cells into the spine through the back of the mouth. An ice-skating accident at the age of 14 flagged the alarming conditions that cause Emily to now live with “relentless levels of pain”. She was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndromes (EDS), a collection of rare conditions affecting the connective tissues that make her joints unstable and prone to dislocation, as well as craniocervical instability (CCI), meaning the area where her skull and spine meet is dangerously unstable. Emily also has Chiari malformation, which means the lower part of her brain has herniated and is pushing down through the top of her spinal column. “My health is continuing to deteriorate but I still haven’t managed to raise enough money to get the treatment I need in America,” Emily said. “It would be lifesaving for me and, unless I get the treatment, my life is on pause and stagnated, I’ve become largely bed bound. “And this issue doesn’t just affect me, there are so many people with this condition who are struggling to get funds for treatment abroad. Money is the barrier for us being able to live our lives.” In 2011, Emily was first diagnosed with EDS after an ice-skating accident resulted in a trip to the doctors. I want to keep my sense of agency but it’s getting more and more difficult. Emily Balfour Once a sporty and active teen, Emily is now confined to her bed most days. Due to Chiari malformation, Emily’s brain is pushing down through the top of her spinal column and she said medical specialists have informed her that some of her brain is no longer in her skull. Emily once had dreams of working in film, but she is unable to complete her degree and is also not able to work while she struggles with her health. She said: “I’m not able to participate in life, I’m unable to work and I keep having to delay the completion of my degree. “I have limited vision, I can’t see out of my left eye and I have recently dealt with limb paralysis.” Earlier this year, Emily was rushed to hospital after her left arm became paralysed and swollen. She said: “It looked like a dead person’s arm, I feared I’d never regain mobility of it. “It turned out I was struggling with blood flow to the arm, and I’ve regained limited use of my arm, but I’m high risk of it happening again. “I’ve seen people with these conditions lose function of their arms completely and that obviously concerns me because I live by myself. “I want to keep my sense of agency but it’s getting more and more difficult.” Emily said her brainstem has been damaged to the point where her body is not functioning and she suffers daily from extreme fatigue, periods of paralysis, and loss of vision. It’s incredibly frustrating and I have to accept that I can’t live the life I thought I would. Emily Balfour As a result, Emily now finds herself largely bed bound, is regularly in and out of hospital and suffers from excruciating symptoms which threaten irreversible physical disability and potentially death. Innovative treatment in the US to stabilise her skeleton will be life-changing for Emily, but it comes at a cost. She hopes to raise £200,000 for multiple stem cell treatments, medical care and accommodation in Colorado, USA, where she will undergo a procedure known as PICL to repair and strengthen the ligaments that keep her skull stable. She said: “I’m in relentless levels of pain and, the more activity I do where I’m moving my neck, the worse the pain is. “If I don’t get treatment then it’s looking likely that eventually I will lose the use of one or both of my arms. “The longer it goes on, I’m losing more and more years of my life.” Before her diagnosis, Emily had dreams of working in film, having attended the BFI Film Academy as a teen. She also had plans to travel after finishing her English degree, which is currently on hold. Emily said: “It’s incredibly frustrating and I have to accept that I can’t live the life I thought I would. “I’m seeing other people my age having fun and building their careers but until I get the PICL procedure, I’m stuck. “There are other people who are also in my situation and it’s not an easy journey but I just hope that these treatments will be easier to access closer to home so we can get back to living.” I just want to be able to complete my degree and have a normal life and not be stuck in this living hell. Emily Balfour Emily hopes more research into EDS will result in more treatment options becoming available. For Emily, she says the procedure will be a lifeline and enable her to start living again. “Getting treatment will change everything,” she said. “I wanted to write and make films, but I am now more interested in medicine and want to get a psychotherapy qualification and work in that field. “I used to be so passionate about movies and reading, but because of my brain and vision issues, I’m restricted to audiobooks now. I can’t even do basic things like watching TV, that once brought me so much joy. “I just want to be able to complete my degree and have a normal life and not be stuck in this living hell.” To donate to Emily’s fundraiser, visit: www.gofundme.com/f/urgent-treatment-for-emily. 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Secretary of State Antony Blinken has met with India's foreign minister amid a simmering row between New Delhi and Ottawa over allegations of Indian government involvement in the killing of a Sikh activist in Canada