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Trade war with China to hit US healthcare

As the United States and China engage in a trade war driven by steep tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump and counter levies by President Xi Xinping, one sector that could be deeply impacted – and in turn have a disproportionate impact on the health of Americans – is pharmaceuticals.

The US imports 75 percent of its essential medicines. The Trump administration has begun its investigation into imports of medications and the active ingredients needed to make them, saying a lack of that in the US poses a national security threat. It as also threatened sectoral tariffs – that could range from 7.5 percent to 100 percent – in addition to the 145 percent currently in place on China.

While pharmaceuticals have been exempt from Trump’s reciprocal tariffs thus far, it’s not clear how long that will last, especially with potential sectoral levies in the pipeline.

In the immediate term, there is some insulation between the looming escalated prices and what consumers will pay when they go to pick up their medication at their local pharmacy.

Unlike other goods, pharmaceutical prices for consumers are not subject to the same instantaneous market fluctuations. The complex supply chain across the pharmaceutical industry means that there is a lag between tariffs and the impact they might have on patients.

At the same time, there are stockpiles at nearly every step of the supply chain. Wholesalers have their own, as do pharmaceutical giants and even the federal government.

“A lot of these medications, especially ones that are, like, in pill forms, are pretty stable for a long time,” Bruce Y Lee, professor of health policy at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, told Al Jazeera.

In the short term, pharmaceutical companies and healthcare providers can eat the spike in costs like they did during the COVID-19 pandemic. That gives pharmaceutical companies and trade groups time to plead with the administration to ensure exceptions from the tariffs continue.

India supplies about half of all generic drugs used in the US. However, it depends on China for 80 percent of its active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), the chemical compounds medications are made from.

One of the globe’s biggest pharmaceutical giants said it worries any tariff would drive up prices and hurt patient care.

In a shareholder meeting, Michel Demare, chairman of the board for AstraZeneca, said, “We still strongly believe that medicines should be exempted from any kind of tariffs because, at the end, it is just harming patients’ health systems and restricting health equity.”

AstraZeneca did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for further remarks.

Eli Lilly and Johnson and Johnson echoed similar concerns. In the last six months, all three companies have pledged multibillion-dollar investments to ramp up manufacturing as well as research and development in the US.

But pharma giants will be able to bite the cost only for so long. Falling stock prices for pharma giants mean that they will need to find other ways to raise the stock price to meet their fiduciary responsibilities to shareholders. Experts say they can do that by renegotiating drug prices higher, depending on the medication. That causes a downstream effect that will lead to higher insurance premiums across the board and higher prices for Americans who rely on these drugs daily.

“Demand for many pharmaceuticals is not flexible. This is not a consumer good,” Lee pointed out. “When you impose something that increases the cost, like the tariff, you can’t really change the demand … and will ultimately hurt patients”.

A socioeconomic divide

According to a report from the supply chain analytics company Exiger released last week, the US relies on China for as much as 80 percent of active pharmaceutical ingredients. For generic antibiotics, in particular, the dependence is much higher at 90 percent.

Because China disproportionately produces more generic drugs, which are 80 to 85 percent cheaper than their brand-name alternatives, tariffs on China will hurt low-income communities the hardest.

“If there’s a place where you save money, it is generic, and that’s exactly where the increases will be. Generic companies work on the slimmest margins, and they’re just not in a position to absorb [that],” Michael Abrams, partner at Numerof and Associates, a global healthcare consulting firm, told Al Jazeera.

Recent analysis from the financial services company ING found that even a 25 percent pharma tariff could force cancer patients to pay as much as $2,000 more for a 24-week supply.

Tariffs could force makers of generics to pull out of the US market altogether, says Tom Kraus, vice president of government relations for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) told Al Jazeera.

“Imposing tariffs on medications and their ingredients could force generic drug manufacturers with already slim profit margins to drop out of the US market for a given medication, resulting in drug shortages for American patients,” Kraus said.

About 90 percent of the medications prescribed in US pharmacies are generic or biosimilar (meaning ingredients that have similar effects), according to a report from the Association of Accessible Medicines published in February.

“It will cause a lot of reverberations throughout because someone’s going to have to pick up the tab. This will result in a smaller percentage of medication costs being covered by insurance companies, and thus this burden pushed to patients and consumers,” Lee added.

Americans are already struggling to meet the costs of healthcare as it is. One in three Americans say they cannot take medications they are prescribed because of the cost, and 11 percent of Americans say they cannot meet their healthcare costs, with a higher burden on Hispanic adults at 18 percent overall.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 7.7 percent of Americans are uninsured, meaning their medical costs are out of pocket. Even for those who do have insurance, public health experts believe that insurance premiums will increase if Trump moves ahead with pharmaceutical tariffs.

“They’re going to spread that out among anyone paying insurance as a whole. That’s the whole concept of insurance,” Lee said.

More expensive drugs are produced stateside or in Europe. Those could also get pricier. There is currently a 10 percent tariff in place impacting these drugs but that could go higher when country-specific tariffs, currently on pause, kick in.

Drugs that come out of Europe are more often the blockbuster brand-name medications. Zepbound, Eli Lilly’s weight loss medication, for instance, is made in Ireland. If tariffs kick in there, out-of-pocket costs for US patients on Zepbound could run as much as $1,086.37 for a one-month supply, in contrast to as low as $25 with insurance.

Supply chain strain

In February, the American Hospital Association (AHA), in a letter calling for tariff exceptions for pharmaceuticals, said it is worried that the levies would make existing supply chain strains worse.

“Despite ongoing efforts to build the domestic supply chain, the US healthcare system relies significantly on international sources for many drugs and devices needed to both care for patients and protect our healthcare workers. Tariffs, as well as any reaction of the countries on whom such tariffs are imposed, could reduce the availability of these life-saving medications and supplies in the US,” the trade group said in a letter to the White House. “US providers import many cancer and cardiovascular medications, immunosuppressives, antibiotics and combination antibiotics from China. For many patients, even a temporary disruption in their access to these needed medications could put them at significant risk of harm, including death.”

The AHA declined Al Jazeera’s request for additional comment.

“Healthcare has a very elaborate logistics chain, and obviously, it varies from product to product, but some of them are very complicated,” Abrams of Numerof and Associates added.

For instance, some APIs undergo two or three different processes and not all of them are in the same place before they even come to the US to be incorporated into the final product, he explained.

“When you take all these relationships and throw them up in the air and see how they come down, inevitably it leads to disruption in supply,” he continued.

There are more than 104 active drug shortages in the United States, including common antibiotics like amoxicillin. China is one of the world’s three biggest exporters of the drug, and the US is the largest importer.

Another concern about the US’s extreme reliance on China is that the country’s API market is only expected to grow by 7.8 percent over the next five years, according to the market research firm Modor Intelligence.

Washington’s call for action

During the COVID-19 pandemic, when trade essentially halted temporarily, there were concerns that the US did not have enough medications in its strategic reserve to handle a temporary halt. Both Republicans, such as Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton and Democrats, such as former President Joe Biden have long called for less reliance on China for pharmaceuticals as a result.

“When you have supply chains that are not well diversified or dependent on just particular channels, then that supply chain is fragile and there’s risk,” Lee said.

There have long been suggestions from prominent Chinese voices, including economist Li Daokui, that have called on leadership in Beijing to reduce antibiotic exports to the US as a tool in a trade war.

But experts agree that Trump’s rapid approach does not give companies time to prepare and thus is putting patients at risk.

The ASHP told the White House in a February letter that tariffs “should be applied selectively and dovetail with other incentives to increase domestic production and promote a stable supply chain”.

“You can’t do it in the 18 months that you’re trying to get it done, OK? And it’s not even exactly a four-year undertaking either,” Abrams added.

Some companies have said they will bring more pharmaceutical manufacturing jobs stateside. Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche announced a $50bn investment in the US over the next five years, which will include funds to build research and development facilities and expand existing manufacturing operations.

Roche follows Novartis, which announced that it would invest $23bn over the next five years to expand its US infrastructure. That includes thousands of new jobs in seven facilities that will manufacture drugs and APIs.

But building and getting plants like these in production will not solve the immediate issue, according to ASHP.

“It is important to note that building new pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity will take several years. In the meantime, tariffs risk higher prices for those drugs that can pass increased costs to consumers, and shortages for generic drugs that can’t,” Kraus of ASHP continued.

Chelsea extend WSL lead to six points – when could they win it?

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As the Women’s Super League enters the final few weeks of the season, Chelsea remain in the driving seat for a sixth successive title.

Their lead was cut to three points following Arsenal’s 5-1 win over Leicester last Tuesday, but Sonia Bompastor’s Blues thrashed Crystal Palace 4-0 on Wednesday to move six points clear again.

Manchester United missed their chance to put the pressure on over the weekend as they drew 0-0 with West Ham.

United’s draw gave Manchester City a little lift in their uphill battle to claim a Champions League spot – but they wasted their chance to close the gap as they drew 1-1 with Everton on Sunday.

City are seven points behind their third-placed neighbours but still have to play United.

At the other end of the table, Crystal Palace are seven points adrift of Aston Villa and Leicester, and could be relegated if they lose to West Ham on Sunday.

How do things stand at the top?

A graphic showing the WSL's top six: 1 Chelsea, 2 Arsenal, 3 Manchester United, 4 Manchester City, 5 Liverpool, 6 Brighton

There have been no signs of teething problems for Chelsea this season under new boss Bompastor, as their league dominance – established under predecessor Emma Hayes – has continued.

Unbeaten in the WSL this season, Chelsea have 51 points from a possible 57, although two draws in March allowed closest challengers Arsenal to get within three points and Manchester United within five.

The highest total Arsenal could finish with is 54 points, meaning Chelsea need four more to guarantee the title.

Because of their Champions League semi-final participation, Chelsea’s WSL game at Manchester United has been rearranged for 30 April.

They could clinch the title with victory over United (20:15 BST kick-off) should Arsenal drop points against Aston Villa earlier that evening (18:00).

What about the race for Champions League?

Manchester City, who challenged Chelsea until the final day last season, are now mathematically out of the title race and only have slim hopes of achieving a Champions League spot.

Even if City win all their remaining games – including against their neighbours – one win from United’s other two matches would be enough for them to finish third.

From next season, the Women’s Champions League format is changing, with the number of teams earning direct qualification expanding from four teams to nine.

The winners of the WSL will directly qualify, along with the champions from the other five top-ranked national associations.

The runners-up of the two top-ranked associations will also be guaranteed direct qualification, along with the previous season’s winners.

Who is at risk of relegation?

Graphic showing the WSL's bottom six: 7 West Ham, 8 Everton, 9 Tottenham, 10 Leicester, 10 Aston Villa, 12 Crystal Palace

Crystal Palace look destined to return to the Championship after struggling to adapt during their first season in England’s top division.

A 3-1 win over fellow strugglers Villa gave Leif Smerud’s side hope but they are seven points adrift and will be relegated if they fail to beat West Ham on Sunday.

Villa are now almost safe after beating Liverpool at the end of March before a dramatic last-gasp win against Tottenham on Sunday increased their buffer to seven points.

What are the remaining fixtures?

Marc Skinner’s Manchester United face three of the top four teams as they look to pile pressure on Chelsea and keep their Champions League place.

The Manchester derby on the penultimate day of the season could prove key in the race for Europe.

The fixture list has given City interim boss Nick Cushing cause for optimism.

“Once that’s mathematically impossible then it is what it is, but until then we’re going to fight right until the end,” he said.

What does the Opta ‘supercomputer’ suggest?

Opta’s ‘supercomputer’ prediction model has Chelsea as nailed-on favourites to lift the WSL trophy – they are projected as champions in 97.9% of simulations.

Arsenal, meanwhile, have been given a slither of hope, with Opta giving them a 2.1% chance of winning the title.

According to Opta’s predictions, Amandine Miquel’s Leicester have all but confirmed their stay in the WSL for another season, with only a 0.2% chance of relegation.

The stats also favour Villa, with them having a 0.1% chance of going down.

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Liverpool On Brink Of Title After Arsenal Held By Palace

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After being held 2-2 by Crystal Palace on Wednesday, Arsenal are on the verge of capturing the Premier League title.

An Arsenal defeat would have earned Liverpool its record-equalling 20th English title, and Arne Slot’s side had been anticipating.

After Jean-Philippe Mateta’s late equaliser for Palace at the Emirates Stadium, Liverpool look certain to win the trophy for the first time since 2020 even though they haven’t received their wish yet.

With only four games left, Liverpool are 12 points clear of second-placed Arsenal, who have a goal difference of + 34 in comparison to the leaders’ + 44.

If the Reds lose to Tottenham at Anfield on Sunday, they will be certain of capturing the 20 titles that bitter rivals Manchester United have won.

After drawing third and fourth against Arsenal, it is only a matter of time before Slot’s men’s men’s pursuit of the title, which Slot’s men have still got on the ice.

Early in the match, Jakub Kiwior gave the Gunners a lead, but Palace equalized through Eberechi Eze.

With just seven minutes left, Mateta scored a sublime leveller for Arsenal before Leandro Trossard restored the team’s advantage before half-time.

When Liverpool’s title race was halted by a 4-0 win over Ipswich on Sunday, Arsenal had delayed the celebrations by defeating the Gunners.

On April 23, 2025, at the conclusion of Arsenal’s and Crystal Palace’s English Premier League game at the Emirates Stadium in London, Jean-Philippe Mateta, a French striker #14, applauds. Arsenal and Crystal Palace came up with a score of 2 to 2.   (Photo by Ben Stansall / AFP)

Liverpool’s real focus was already on Tuesday’s Champions League game with Paris Saint-Germain, but Mikel Arteta’s side once more extended that time by keeping the wait a few days.

When Arsenal hosts the French side in the first leg of the Champions League, it will be their first last-four match since 2009.

Arteta had resisted pressing his stars against Palace to ensure their safety during the PSG showdown.

After Mikel Merino and Ben White were ruled out for the starting lineup last weekend, Leif Davis fouled Bukayo Saka, the England winger was left limping.

– Title within a reasonable distance

On April 20, 2025, Leicester City and Liverpool’s English defender #66 Trent Alexander-Arnold (2R) celebrates after scoring the opening goal of the English Premier League game at King Power Stadium in Leicester, central England. (Photo by Darren Staples/AFP)

Without Mateta and Ismaila Sarr, who were both starting for Palace against Aston Villa on Saturday in the FA Cup semi-final, Oliver Glasner made a start.

After just three minutes, Arsenal had a chance to capitalize on Palace’s distraction at Wembley.

For the 16th time in the Premier League this season, Arsenal’s set-piece coach Nicolas Jover scored from a well-executed dead-ball routine.

When Dean Henderson was unable to find a free-kick from Martin Odegaard, Kiwior was left completely unmarked and fired his header past him from 12 yards.

David Raya saved Daniel Munoz’s volley from a sharp angle to give the Poland defender his first league goal since February 2024, which almost immediately equalized Palace.

Arsenal were out of the loop when Palace equalized in the 27th minute due to their switch in attack from set-pieces.

The England midfielder’s agile volley, which Adam Wharton had picked out from the edge of the area, was saved by Raya, who was unable to see the unmarked Eze.

In the 42nd minute, Trossard restored the lead with a deflected finish into the bottom corner from 12 yards after he deflected a pass from Jurrien Timber. Trossard deftly evaded two Palace defenders before scoring from 12 yards.

The final half-hour saw Arteta take a chance on Saka, but Raya’s header was tipped over by Raya, making Palace on the offensive.

Palace capitalized on Henderson’s brilliant save to prevent Saka’s cross, which was saved to equalize in the 83rd minute.

Liverpool one point from title – but when could they clinch it?

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After being held by Crystal Palace on Wednesday, Liverpool are on the verge of winning the Premier League title. They only need one point to clinch it.

With a 1-0 win over Leicester over the weekend, Arne Slot’s side won their sixth straight league game.

If the Reds do not lose to Tottenham at Anfield on Sunday (16:30 BST), they will be able to claim their 20th top flight title, which is unmatched.

The Merseysiders would now have 80 points, with Arsenal, who is only allowed to reach 79 after winning all of their games, still in second place.

Due to their draw with Palace, Arsenal can only match Liverpool’s standings.

How effective are Liverpool, then?

Haven’t we all heard the accusations and whispers coming from rival fans this season?

This Liverpool team isn’t really that great, according to the statement. This season, the Premier League is a poor league. The title wouldn’t have been won by Liverpool’s class of 2024-25 in a subsequent season.

But how fair is this, exactly?

First of all, it must be noted that Liverpool’s regular rivals don’t have the best seasons.

Under Pep Guardiola, defending champions Manchester City are on the verge of their worst campaign, while Manchester United are on the verge of their worst season in Premier League history, Arsenal are eight points behind their total at this point, and Tottenham and Chelsea have also struggled.

Liverpool’s full-strength has been a good year so far. And Slot’s men have done it without a doubt.

Liverpool would still be five points ahead of Arsenal if they were at the top of the table at the time of the season, at the same level as Arsenal, with 74 points still remaining.

The highly regarded Invincibles at Arsenal finished the title-winning campaign in 2004 with 90 points. To defeat that, Slot’s men need 12 points from five games.

Only 14 Premier League clubs have reached that mark in 32 seasons, including Manchester United, who did it in a 42-game span in 1993-94.

Only 12 of the 31 league winning sides with 90 or more points have scored at the highest level, making them the only ones to do so twice under Jurgen Klopp.

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Who would make the combined Liverpool XI?

Select your best starting XI for 2020 from Jurgen Klopp’s title-winning team this year.

Final Premier League games for Liverpool (dates subject to change)

27 April: Tottenham (H)

4 May: Chelsea (A)

11 May: Arsenal (H)

18 May: Brighton (A)

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Beyonce’s mum Tina Knowles stripped naked in brutal police checks for simple traffic offence

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She might be the mother of a superstar pop star legend but there’s more to Tina Knowles than just being a ‘momager’ as her new memoir reveals in shocking, graphic detail

Tina Knowles is made of tough stuff because life hasn’t always been an easy ride(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

There are moments which can change a life for ever. For Tina Knowles, one was the day she was driven, barefoot and afraid, through the main streets of her hometown of Galveston, Texas – in the back of the police car.

The driver had apparently taken a deliberate detour through her neighbourhood, parading his “perpetrator”. It was intended to humiliate her – to be a drive of shame. But, as she would later come to realise, the shame of that moment should never have been hers.

It only ever should have belonged to the white cop at the wheel.

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For the same cop, she claims, called her friends “monkeys” and likened her neighbourhood to a “zoo”. He was the same cop there the night officers pulled a gun on her brother Skip – for the crime, she says, of drunkenly passing out on a neighbour’s porch.

And he was the same cop who – along with his pals – had been known to pull over her hard-working father on a higher than usual number of traffic stops.

READ MORE: Beyonce’s mum Tina Knowles diagnosed with breast cancer after missed mammogram

Beyonce
Beyonce (left) pictured with her younger sister Solange growing up(Image: Splash News/CBS)

Tina’s “crime” that day, aged 20, in 1974 was to ride barefoot on a dirt bike (it was her “hippie” phase).

It was a traffic violation – but one for which she should be quickly bailed. Instead she says the cop and his colleagues insisted on a full strip and cavity search.

“It was the most humiliating, horrible thing,” Tina this week recalled. “When it was over, I put my clothes back on, trying to put an armour of dignity over me too.”

It’s a tale of prejudice which sadly is not unfamiliar even today.

But it’s also a snapshot of Tina’s younger years that answers an enduring mystery in showbiz – what kind of woman does it take to raise a global icon, activist and role model like Beyonce?

The answer? A strong one.

Beyonce
Beyonce, pictured with her baby sister Solange, was encouraged to sing by her proud mother(Image: Splash News/CBS)

Tina, 71, has now shared this story for the first time in her no-holds barred memoir, Matriarch. But it was by far not the only bombshell about her life. From racism to cheating husbands to her recent breast cancer ordeal, the woman born Celestine Ann Beyoncé, in Texas, 1954, has not had it easy.

The youngest of seven siblings, her mum was a seamstress and her dad was a longshoreman. Their surname was Beyince, but a typo on Tina’s birth certificate meant she was officially Tina “Beyonce” – a slip up by a clerk that would change pop culture.

Her early life was affected by the racism in the Southern states, but she had a clear passion: singing. She formed a girl group The Veltones, inspired by The Supremes as a teen, but her dreams of stardom ended early when she had to look after her elderly parents.

By 26, she had met and married a run-of-the-mill Xerox salesman Mathew Knowles.

Tina Knowles and family
Tina married Mathew Knowles when she was 26 years old and went on to build her own family(Image: Corbis via Getty Images)

But Tina was not meant for a little life in Galveston. Although it would be her daughters Beyonce, born in 1981, and Solange in 1986, who would help her achieve that singing success she never personally did.

And they didn’t do it by halves. By 16, Beyonce was in Destiny’s Child. Mathew quit the day job to be the band’s manager and the family never looked back.

However, as Tina shares in her new memoir – and as we know from their acrimonious split – success put more pressure on her already tempestuous marriage.

In a bombshell claim in the book, Tina reveals Mathew was already a ladies’ man when the girls were small.

In fact, she even suspected him of cheating in the days after she had given birth to Solange – after he picked her up from the hospital and dropped her at a friends’ house with the newborn baby and five-year-old Beyonce, announcing he had to fly to a conference in Atlanta.

“I suspected that a woman was involved,” Tina says in her book Matriarch. “We had a huge blowout at the hospital, but he wouldn’t budge. Sure enough, the next day he dropped me, Beyoncé, and our newborn off [at the friend’s]. He practically ran out of the house to his getaway car, I said to myself, ‘Okay, I’m done.’”

She left him. But, like other times to follow, she ended up going back. This time her return was the fault of the friend’s rottweiler, “Killer”.

“Killer charged up the stairs and he snapped, foaming at the mouth and growling as loud as a freight train,” she recalls, claiming he was aggravated by her perfume. So when Mathew called grovelling for her to come back later that night she reluctantly agreed.

“I was so annoyed with myself for having escaped a lousy marriage to almost get killed,” she adds in her book. “I felt I had no choice but to go back and reclaim our home—but only under one condition….”

The condition was that they got intensive counselling.

Tina Knowles
Tina split from Mathew many times over the course of their marriage but always found herself going back(Image: Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)

They were still trapped in their love/hate relationship years later when Tina this week revealed she accidentally spilt a pan of boiling grease on herself while frying fish. The police arrived before the ambulance and proceeded to quiz her on whether Mathew had actually done it to her..

“Even at a time like this, we were suspect. Presumed guilty,” she writes in her book.

She was furious. But not as furious as Mathew allegedly was at the hospital, when Tina was lying screaming in pain and doctors were dragging their feet.

She claims he flipped over a doctor’s tray in frustration – and that only made her love him more.

“Mathew finally broke. My crazy husband, the man I loved, turned over a tray in rage,” she claims in the book. “‘Give my wife some fucking pain medicine. Give her something right now’.”

Their dynamic and what Tina calls their “cosmic” pull is perhaps the reason she later did the unthinkable: After learning he’d fathered a child Nixon, now 15, with his mistress Alexsandra Wright in 2009, she filed for divorce. But a few months later, he visited her where she was living in New York – and this time she became The Other Woman.

“He’d changed after new counseling,” she recalls in her 432-page tell-all. “He was persistent, proved he’d gotten help, and as he courted me, I found myself falling in love again.” The pair had an affair for a year – before he allegedly cheated on her again and in 2011, it was over for good.

She went on to marry actor Richard Lawson in 2015 but split with him in 2023, saying: “I wanted someone to be happy when I walked in the room”.

Tina Knowles
Tina went on to marry Richard Lawson in 2015, but the couple split in 2023(Image: Getty Images)

It’s telling that Beyonce has had more than her share of her own marital problems. The infamous Met Gala fight between Solange and Jay-Z will go down in history. And yet she too, like her mum, has fought hard for her marriage to work.

But love life troubles are by far the least thing the mum and daughter have in common. They both were as driven for Beyonce to be a success as each other. Indeed, the superstar was just nine when Tina faced one of her hardest moments of motherhood.

Beyonce was in school girl group Gyrl’s Time but came home crying one day. The teachers had reassigned all her parts to another girl and Beyonce was demanding Tina go and shout at them. Tina said No.

“I couldn’t just be her mom for that moment; I needed to be her mom for her whole life,” she explains in her book. So she told her: “‘That girl is not your competition. You are your only competition and that’s how it always will be. You gotta work harder’.”

That was the first time Beyonce told her mum “I hate you” – but a few months later she was thanking her for the tough love. And the unstoppable determination and work ethic of Beyonce was born.

A few years later Tina did something else controversial: she put a teenage Beyonce and Solange into joint therapy sessions to eradicate what she saw as the beginnings of sibling rivalry. Then when Beyonce was 16, her friend – and soon-to-be Destiny’s Child bandmate Kelly Rowland grew so close to the family she started calling Mathew “dad”. Tina had a tough talk with Bey about not being jealous.

Perhaps the most important advice she gave her daughter however was when it came to Jay-Z. Tina lets slip in her book that Beyonce was seeing two men at the same time when they first started dating.

Both men had been travelling to see the Crazy in Love singer on the set of 2002’s Austin Powers in Goldmember. Tina doesn’t name the other man, but it’s thought it may have been high school boyfriend, Lyndall Locke, whom she dated from 1993 to 2001.

Beyonce was lost on what to do and asked Tina for advice. She asked her daughter to answer one simple question: “Who do you enjoy talking to more?”

“I watched her think. It was Jay,” Tina writes. “Isn’t it humbling how love can begin with such a simple feeling? You’re 21 years old and you can’t know someday you will take that love to the stars, but it begins with such a small instinct.”

The Mama bear instinct kicked in in a slightly different way when Solange fell pregnant aged 17 and declared she was going to get married to her then boyfriend, Daniel Smith, however. Tina confesses she rang Daniel to convince him not to marry her daughter. He dutifully called Solange to say perhaps they should wait.

Solange took it about as well as a young Tina would have done. According to Daniel, Solange had replied: “F*** you, and f*** my mama, because I know [she] put you up to this.”

Tina backed down, arranged a dream wedding in just three days and somehow wangled a private plane and service on a remote island belonging to John Travolta. Because at the end of the day she would move mountains to give her kids what they wanted.

Tina Knowles
Tina has overcome racism, marital woes and breast cancer but she’s still standing tall and proud(Image: Billboard via Getty Images)

And Solange just wanted one gift for her wedding: privacy away from the circus that came with her sister’s fame. Tina would later give that same present to Beyonce when she finished a gruelling world tour, taking her back to her home neighbourhood in Galveston, where the superstar could go almost unnoticed out of her popstar get up.

Beyonce’s only wish was to go to Walgreen’s – the US answer to Boots. “When we left, she was glowing, so empowered,” writes Tina, “Not a single person approached her. Not one. It felt like a fairy tale.”

Tina’s bond with her daughters was once again cemented last year when the mum went for a routine mammogram – having not been for four years because of the pandemic. Doctors found two cancerous tumours. It was stage one – the second stage under the American system. Tina was nonplussed: “I had been through all of this stuff in life getting to be seventy years old, and now I’m gonna get cancer?,” she writes.

Beyonce moved Tina into her home and sat in on appointments. And when it came to the day of her lumpectomy, the daughters sat with her in the ward ahead of her being taken down to surgery and sang Destiny’s Child Walk With Me.

“It’s about God walking with you and protecting you,” Tina recalled in her interview on US TV this week. “And I went in there feeling just like God has got me.”

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A year on, she’s now cancer-free and happily one of the Single Ladies for the first time in decades.

For like everything in this Galveston girl’s life – be it police harassment, racism, cheating spouses or how to raise a star – she faced it head on. And like her daughter sings, she’s a survivor.

Alleged ₦1.38bn Fraud: Jude Okoye Regains Freedom After Two Months In Custody

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After more than two months in prison at the Ikoyi Correctional Centre, former manager and elder brother of the dissolved music duo P-Square has now returned to his freedom.

His release comes after a string of legal fights with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), in which he was accused of being involved in money laundering, criminal conversion, and theft of more than €1.3 billion.

Jude was freed from custody on Wednesday night, and he and his family celebrated in a low-key vigil.

In a number of Instagram stories that Jude greeted and embraced his wife and children, Paul Okoye, his brother and close friend, confirmed the release.

After two months, Jude is finally out, according to Paul in the caption, and all of their efforts to thwart his bail have finally failed. Brother, welcome home. #judeengees . Happy birthday, too.

A few close friends and stars, including actor Deyemi Okanlawon, former NFF president Amaju Pinnick, and video director Clarence Peters, were present for the occasion, which also included Jude’s birthday.

Blame Game

Peter, Paul Okoye, and Jude

Paul directly attributed Jude’s legal plight to Peter on February 28. Calling a spade a spade is what Peter is doing, imprisoning Jude, and saying. Peter and I are also guilty, he said, if Jude is found guilty by them, as is the case with Jude.

Peter, on his part, doubled down on social media on April 15 by claiming silence had almost cost him everything.

Don’t let “family” cause you to drown in silence, you must learn. Over the course of more than 20 years, I almost lost everything. He wrote on X that “family that steals and breaks you isn’t family.”

Read more about Jude Okoye’s $ 50 million bail: an allegation of $1 million theft.

Later, he later made a comment about the incident on comedian AY show, saying that he had chosen to speak out because of ongoing emotional and financial betrayal that had been hidden by family loyalty, which was made even more acute by fans’ constant comparisons to his brothers.

Peter’s testimony 

Mr. P. Peter Okoye

Jude’s younger brother, Peter, wrote to the EFCC to support the allegations against him in a petition.

On April 14, the petitioner, Mr. P, gave testimony to the court.

Peter accused Jude of registering their record label, Northside Music Ltd, in his wife’s name and for years refusing to grant transparency regarding royalty distributions in a statement released on February 14 in front of the anti-graft agency.

He explained to the court how Jude allegedly manipulated backend systems to conceal the true value of their music royalties.

In the months that followed, Peter was left sidelined and financially excluded from the business he helped create, his monthly payments from Lex Records dropped from $8, 000 to just $500 in 2016.

He claimed that all P-Square earnings were funneled into accounts controlled by Jude and that he had contacted Festus Keyamo, the current aviation minister, to mediate. Discussions turned out to be unsuccessful.

Background 

P-square
P-Square photo in a file. Photo: X@ peterpsquare

Following years of internal strife, Jude and the struggling singers’ relationship ended in 2017.

Through his business, Northside Music Ltd., Jude was closely connected to their activities. Jude was arraigned in two separate courts in Lagos on suspicion of theft and money laundering when his legal problems became public in March 2025.

After the EFCC claimed Jude dishonestly converted $ 767, 544.15 in digital music royalties intended for Peter, the Lagos State Special Offences Court, presided over by Justice Rahman Oshodi, ordered Jude’s remand, on March 4, the court ordered him to pay his remand.

Jude entered a not-guilty plea, but the prosecution requested more time to respond, which resulted in his remand.

Read more about the alleged $1. 3 billion fraud: EFCC arrests P-Square’s former manager, Jude Okoye.

In a separate $1.3 billion money laundering case involving suspicious property purchases and foreign transfers, he had previously been arraigned by the EFCC at the Federal High Court in Lagos on March 3.

In that case, which had a trial that started on April 14, he was given 100 million dollar bail with two sureties.

Before their 2017 breakup, P-Square, which was founded in 1999, gained notoriety with hits like “Do Me” and “Personally” before breaking up with them.

Although they briefly reunited in 2021, a rift developed between their two businesses in August 2024.