It’s taken a whopping 632 days to complete and generated billions of dollars as it travelled the globe, but now Taylor Swift’s Eras tour is finally over.
Kicking off in Glendale, Arizona, on 17 March last year and finishing in Vancouver, British Columbia on 8 December, it was perhaps bigger than even Swift could ever have dreamed.
Made up of 149 shows, each running for around three hours, the elaborate performance featured multiple costume changes and a set list of more than 40 songs.
Spanning five continents, the tour has become the highest-grossing of all time and the second most attended, seen by 10.1 million fans worldwide (it was narrowly pipped to the post by Coldplay, with 10.3 million expected to attend their 175 shows).
Image: Swift during a Vancouver show. Pic: AP
Serenaded with Happy Birthday by the Vancouver crowd ahead of her 35th birthday next week, an emotional Swift called it “the adventure of a lifetime” and “the most thrilling chapter of my entire life to date”.
The show has been a cultural touchstone, attended by fans, celebrities including Jennifer Lopez, Julia Roberts and Adam Sandler and even the UK’s own prime minister (which later led to questions over government intervention in Swift’s security escort for the shows).
Image: Even the PM went to the Era’s tour – although he was later criticised for it. Pic: Keir Starmer/X
And her gigs have been eventful.
During the tour, the singer-songwriter has re-released multiple albums (and one double-feature of new material), donated to foodbanks in every city she visited, and proved an economic angel boosting the local economies of each city she passed through, earning her own economic term – “Swiftenomics“.
She went on to make history as the first solo artist to perform at Wembley Stadium eight times on a single tour.
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Swift said she was “completely in shock” at the “horror” of what happened.
Then, just days later, all three of Swift’s shows in Vienna were cancelled over a suspected terrorist plot, in which the suspects had sought to kill “tens of thousands” of fans.
The penultimate Canadian show was attended by fellow singer and Vancouver resident Michael Buble, who called it an “unforgettable night”.
“When I tell you I witnessed something last night that I’ve never experienced before and frankly, may never experience again,” he told his four million Instagram followers.
Paying tribute to Swift’s “kindhearted” family, Buble dubbed her a “truly an incredible entertainer,” calling her “power of connection” with her fans “a testament to Taylor’s incredible talents”.
Image: Pic: AP
‘Exciting, powerful, electrifying, intense’
Wrapping her final show, Swift told the audience: “It has been the most exciting, powerful, electrifying, intense, most challenging thing I have ever done in my entire life.
“We have got to perform for over 10 million people on this tour and tonight we get to play one last show for you tonight, in beautiful Vancouver.”
Swift was named Spotify’s most-played artist of the year with more than 26.6 billion streams earlier this week, and she won seven awards at the MTV Video Music Awards and was nominated for six Grammy Awards.
And while there was no big announcement to mark the end of the tour (as is often Swift’s way at key moments in her career), she’s still topping the UK album charts as The Tortured Poets Department soared back up this week after a new anthology version was released.
The Eras Tour may be over, but Swift, it seems, is only just getting started.
Global financial markets gave a clear vote of no-confidence in President Trump’s economic policy.
The damage it will do is obvious: costs for companies will rise, hitting their earnings.
The consequences will ripple throughout the global economy, with economists now raising their expectations for a recession, not only in the US, but across the world.
The court ruled to uphold the impeachment saying the conservative leader “violated his duty as commander-in-chief by mobilising troops” when he declared martial law.
The president was also said to have taken actions “beyond the powers provided in the constitution”.
Image: Demonstrators stayed overnight near the constitutional court. Pic: AP
Supporters and opponents of the president gathered in their thousands in central Seoul as they awaited the ruling.
The 64-year-old shocked MPs, the public and international allies in early December when he declared martial law, meaning all existing laws regarding civilians were suspended in place of military law.
Image: The court was under heavy police security guard ahead of the announcement. Pic: AP
After suddenly declaring martial law, Mr Yoon sent hundreds of soldiers and police officers to the National Assembly.
He has argued that he sought to maintain order, but some senior military and police officers sent there have told hearings and investigators that Mr Yoon ordered them to drag out politicians to prevent an assembly vote on his decree.
His presidential powers were suspended when the opposition-dominated assembly voted to impeach him on 14 December, accusing him of rebellion.
The unanimous verdict to uphold parliament’s impeachment and remove Mr Yoon from office required the support of at least six of the court’s eight justices.
South Korea must hold a national election within two months to find a new leader.
Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main liberal opposition Democratic Party, is the early favourite to become the country’s next president, according to surveys.
While the UK’s FTSE 100 closed down 1.55% and the continent’s STOXX Europe 600 index was down 2.67% as of 5.30pm, it was American traders who were hit the most.
All three of the US’s major markets opened to sharp losses on Thursday morning.
Image: The S&P 500 is set for its worst day of trading since the COVID-19 pandemic. File pic: AP
By 8.30pm UK time (3.30pm EST), The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 3.7%, the S&P 500 opened with a drop of 4.4%, and the Nasdaq composite was down 5.6%.
Compared to their values when Donald Trump was inaugurated, the three markets were down around 5.6%, 8.7% and 14.4%, respectively, according to LSEG.
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Worst one-day losses since COVID
As Wall Street trading ended at 9pm in the UK, two indexes had suffered their worst one-day losses since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The S&P 500 fell 4.85%, the Nasdaq dropped 6%, and the Dow Jones fell 4%.
It marks Nasdaq’s biggest daily percentage drop since March 2020 at the start of COVID, and the largest drop for the Dow Jones since June 2020.
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5:07
The latest numbers on tariffs
‘Trust in President Trump’
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN earlier in the day that Mr Trump was “doubling down on his proven economic formula from his first term”.
“To anyone on Wall Street this morning, I would say trust in President Trump,” she told the broadcaster, adding: “This is indeed a national emergency… and it’s about time we have a president who actually does something about it.”
Later, the US president told reporters as he left the White House that “I think it’s going very well,” adding: “The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom.”
He later said on Air Force One that the UK is “happy” with its tariff – the lowest possible levy of 10% – and added he would be open to negotiations if other countries “offer something phenomenal”.
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3:27
How is the world reacting to Trump’s tariffs?
Economist warns of ‘spiral of doom’
The turbulence in the markets from Mr Trump’s tariffs “just left everybody in shock”, Garrett Melson, portfolio strategist at Natixis Investment Managers Solutions in Boston, told Reuters.
He added that the economy could go into recession as a result, saying that “a lot of the pain, will probably most acutely be felt in the US and that certainly would weigh on broader global growth as well”.
Meanwhile, chief investment officer at St James’s Place Justin Onuekwusi said that international retaliation is likely, even as “it’s clear countries will think about how to retaliate in a politically astute way”.
He warned: “Significant retaliation could lead to a tariff ‘spiral of doom’ that could be the growth shock that drags us into recession.”
It comes as the UK government published a long list of US products that could be subject to reciprocal tariffs – including golf clubs and golf balls.
Running to more than 400 pages, the list is part of a four-week-long consultation with British businesses and suggests whiskey, jeans, livestock, and chemical components.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Thursday that the US president had launched a “new era” for global trade and that the UK will respond with “cool and calm heads”.
It also comes as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a 25% tariff on all American-imported vehicles that are not compliant with the US-Mexico-Canada trade deal.
He added: “The 80-year period when the United States embraced the mantle of global economic leadership, when it forged alliances rooted in trust and mutual respect and championed the free and open exchange of goods and services, is over. This is a tragedy.”