Atlantic Screen Group has closed a $30 million funding deal with Corrum Capital Management, with plans to direct the capital toward acquisitions of film and TV scores, as well as music catalog purchases.
The investment comes as the London-based music and media company expands its portfolio of screen music assets.
In 2025 alone, the company acquired score rights to more than 25 feature films, including titles starring SydneySweeney (Christy), JasonStatham (Shelter and Mutiny) and Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Fuze). The acquisitions span studio-backed and independent productions, targeting projects with long-term revenue potential.
Beyond film scores, ASG operates Copyright Administration Services, which handles publishing administration for more than 50 clients worldwide. The subsidiary manages royalty collection and catalog administration for songwriters and rights holders, and continues to add clients annually, ASG said in a press release on Wednesday (January 14).
Commenting on the investment, SimonFawcett, CEO of Atlantic Screen Group, said: “Corrum has allowed ASG to fund its continued year-on-year growth, not only across its film and television music catalogue but also its ever-growing song catalog.”
“Corrum has allowed ASG to fund its continued year-on-year growth, not only across its film and television music catalogue but also its ever-growing song catalog.”
SimonFawcett, Atlantic Screen Group
US-based CorrumCapital is a private investment firm that specializes in lending within music, entertainment and sports. The company has originated over $1.4 billion in bespoke loans within those sectors since its inception. The firm’s investor base includes corporate and public pension plans, endowments and foundations, insurance companies, family offices and fund-of-funds.
Last month, Corrum Capital helped finance GoDigital Music’s purchase of “several” Latin music catalogs in a transaction valued at approximately $115 million.
In September 2024, Corrum Capital-backed Jonas Group Publishing and Jonas Catalog Holdings signed a music rights deal with hit songwriter and artist JuliaMichaels. Jonas Group Publishing is a division of Jonas Group Entertainment, founded by the JonasBrothers’ father, Kevin Jonas Sr., in 2005.
“Atlantic Screen Group has built an exceptional track record in acquiring and managing high-quality music and film assets.”
JonathanMandle, Corrum Capital
On the latest deal with ASG, JonathanMandle, Chief Investment Officer of Corrum Capital, said: “Atlantic Screen Group has built an exceptional track record in acquiring and managing high-quality music and film assets. We’re proud to support their continued growth and look forward to deepening our partnership in the years ahead.”
Founded in 2011, ASG describes itself as “an independent, multi-disciplined music and media organization.” In addition to its Copyright Administration Services division, the company also offers sync and creative services through its Nightjar Music and Nightjar Songs Publishing divisions.
The funding deal comes over a month after ASG announced a series of senior promotions and strategic partnerships. Rupert Hollier was promoted to Chief Operating Officer, RosieHill was elevated to President of Nightjar Music and Nightjar Songs, while former DeccaRecords sync executive TomPaul joined Nightjar’s sync team.
Fawcett at the time said the moves reflect the company’s strategy to scale its creative ecosystem while remaining independent and artist-focused in an evolving global market.
Five United States legislators say they have been contacted by the Justice Department after posting a video on social media calling on members of the US military and intelligence agencies to refuse to follow illegal orders.
The legislators – Senator Elissa Slotkin and US Representatives Jason Crow, Maggie Goodlander, Chrissy Houlahan, and Chris Deluzio – are all Democrats who previously served in the military, CIA, and naval intelligence.
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The legislators released a video in November as US forces carried out air strikes on vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific, and as US President Donald Trump ordered the National Guard to deploy to major US cities to crack down on undocumented migrants and crime.
“This administration is pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens,” the lawmakers said in the video.
“No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or Constitution,” they said.
Following the release of the video, President Trump accused the legislators of “seditious behaviour, punishable by death” in a post on his Truth Social platform.
The FBI opened an inquiry in November into the five legislators, plus Senator Mark Kelly, who also appeared in the video, according to CBS News.
Kelly, in particular, has faced a series of actions for appearing in the video that critics describe as an unconstitutional attack on his First Amendment right to free speech.
Shortly after the video came out, the Defense Department announced it had opened an investigation into Kelly and warned that the senator could face a court-martial depending on the results.
Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he was seeking to demote Kelly from the rank he reached at his retirement, as well as reduce his retirement pay.
On Monday, Kelly said he had filed a lawsuit against the Defense Department and Hegseth over a campaign of “punitive retribution” that had trampled his free speech rights.
It was not known if Kelly was also being investigated by the Justice Department.
Former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, left, and husband US Senator Mark Kelly, Democrats from Arizona, in 2024 [AFP]
‘Trump’s political cronies’
Crow, a former US paratrooper and army ranger, wrote on X that he and his colleagues were under investigation by the Justice Department.
“Trump’s political cronies at the Justice Department are trying to threaten and intimidate us. Well, he’s picked a fight with the wrong people. I will always uphold my oath to the Constitution,” Crow said on X.
Slotkin, Goodlander and Houlahan all shared similar posts on X.
US news outlet CBS News reported that Deluzio had also been contacted by the Justice Department.
“Like my colleagues, I was contacted by federal prosecutors who are investigating me for making a video reminding service members not to follow illegal orders,” Houlahan wrote on X.
“The six of us are being targeted not because we said something untrue, but because we said something President Trump and Secretary Hegseth didn’t want anyone to hear.”
Houlahan said the investigation was “ridiculous,” especially as Trump was contemplating launching attacks to protect free speech in Iran, which is under a communication blackout following widespread antigovernment protests.
Since returning to the White House last year, Trump has tested the limits of his presidential authority as the commander-in-chief of the US Armed Forces, including ordering the attacks on vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific, which legal experts and governments in Latin America have blasted as extrajudicial killings.
Trump’s deployment of the US National Guard in cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, DC, has also been controversial, as military forces should only be deployed when the US is facing a threat of invasion or domestic unrest.
The Supreme Court in December upheld a decision to block Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in the state of Illinois due to insufficient evidence of his claim that a “rebellion” was under way, setting a legal precedent for other US states.
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The first day of star-studded action has concluded from the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center in Austin for the first Pro Swim Series of the new year.
Highlighting the evening was Katie Ledecky storming to the #2 1500 freestyle swim in history. Bobby Finke toppled Daniel Wiffen in the men’s 1500 free in a battle of Olympic Champions. Summer McIntosh earned the top seed for Thursday night’s 200 IM final with her dominating semifinal swim. Leon Marchand followed suit in earning the top seed by less than a tenth of a second over Kieran Smith. And Regan Smith clocked another sub 58 second 100 back en route to a Pro Series victory.
Below, find some of the best photos from the first day of swimming courtesy of photographer Chris Pose.
Two revolutionary aerospace technologies collide as GE Aerospace and Lockheed Martin team up to demonstrate a new liquid-fueled rotating-detonation ramjet (RDRJ) designed to close the “efficiency gap” in hypersonic flight with new tactical inlets.
Hypersonic flight may seem like the biggest shove to the envelope since the sound barrier was broken in 1947 and rotating detonation may look like a quantum leap in propulsion, but combining the two shows how far both of these have come in recent years. Today, it isn’t simply a matter of using one to boost the other. The technology has matured to the point where engineers have to seriously consider factors such as efficiency.
Being able to fly at over five times the speed of sound has a tremendous potential in both military and civilian applications but the technology is still in need of improvement. One area of concern is the efficiency gap for hypersonic missiles that use ramjets for propulsion.
Ramjets are jet engines that effectively have no moving parts. Instead of using turbines to compress incoming air as it flows into the combustion chamber, it uses the forward motion of the engine to compress the air by way of its own inertia. Unfortunately, for the ramjet to work properly, it has to be traveling at Mach 3 to ignite. That means the missile or other vehicle needs a massive rocket booster if it’s to reach ignition velocity.
GE and Lockheed Martin plan to get around this by accelerating the missile using a rotating detonation engine, which uses a supersonic wave of detonating fuel that runs about inside an open-ended cylinder as fuel and water is fed in. This produces a self-sustaining cycle that maintains pressure during combustion.
Such an engine is 25% more efficient than a conventional engine, allowing it to be much more compact and lighter. It can also operate at subsonic speeds and the design allows it to modify itself so it can act as a ramjet at supersonic speeds and a scramjet at hypersonic speeds, so smaller rocket boosters are needed. The simplicity of the design also raises the possibility of low-cost hypersonic missiles that can be mass produced at scale.
Lockheed Martin’s contribution to the enterprise is its high-speed tactical inlet that is designed for a Dual-Mode Ramjet (DMRJ). It’s this that allows the detonation engine to act as both a ramjet and a scramjet by tuning itself to the rotating detonation core. This also allows the engine to work at varying altitudes – a persistent problem with detonation engines. It’s simple in description, but making it work requires some pretty dense computational fluid dynamics to manage the complex shockwave patterns.
“Following two years of internal investment, this demonstration is a testament to the power of collaboration, innovation and joint commitment to get affordable capability into the hands of war-fighters at the speed of relevance,” said Randy Crites, vice president and general manager at Lockheed Martin Advanced Programs. “This compact ramjet applies Lockheed Martin’s expertise in ramjet inlets and offers extended range at extreme speeds. We’re committed to delivering a propulsion system that advances America’s hypersonic capability in an intensifying threat environment.”
Watch: BBC reports from site where crane collapsed on train in Thailand
Residents in Thailand’s Ban Thanon Khot are accustomed to the rumbling of trains – rail is a key mode of transportation connecting the remote town with major cities.
But on Wednesday, the mundane rhythm ended in tragedy.
“The noise was abnormally loud. A huge, crashing sound,” said school volunteer Pitchaya Promenade. “I saw a blue crane sliding. It seemed stuck for a moment, and suddenly it flipped over.”
The construction crane had collapsed onto a moving train, killing at least 32 people and injuring 66 others. Most were students and workers travelling for school and work. Thailand’s Public Health Ministry said there were still three people missing from the accident.
Rescuers were still pulling bodies out of the mangled train when the BBC arrived at the scene in the evening. Parts of it were completely crushed.
“If I had to describe the damage visually, it looked like a spoon scooping into a slice of cake,” said Pitchaya, 32, who is trained in basic first aid and was able to attend to some of those wounded.
“There was an elderly woman hanging upside down [from a carriage]… Another woman, whose right arm appeared to be broken, was holding onto her.”
One of the train carriages had caught fire from the collision, which further complicated rescue efforts. Emergency responders used cranes and hydraulic cutting tools to free passengers trapped in the wreckage.
“People were screaming ‘Help! Help!’ and smoke was starting to rise,” said restaurant owner Penporn Pumjantuek, who works about 100m (328 ft) from the scene. “Oil from the train was spilling everywhere.”
EPA
A construction crane had collapsed onto a moving train, killing at least 32 people
She recalls being “torn between fear and courage”.
“I’m still scared when I think about it<” she told BBC Thai. “I still remember that moment, running in to help them, when there was no one else there yet. They were crying. It was terrifying.”
A one-year-old and an 85-year-old were among those injured, with seven people in critical condition, authorities said on Wednesday.
Suphann Imchantrik, a local resident, was among those who helped the one-year-old. “The child was still breathing, but barely,” the 52-year-old said.
“I saw those dead too… lying there. There were injured people. Everything was right there. It was a heartbreaking sight.”
The crane involved in the accident was being used to build an overhead railway that is part of a US$5.4bn (£4bn) China-backed project to link Bangkok with southwestern China via Laos.
Many questions remain unanswered.
Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has called for an investigation, while the State Railway of Thailand has said it is suing the Italian-Thai Development Company – the firm in charge of the section of the railway where the incident took place.
“I’m still scared when I think about it… It was terrifying,” said Penporn Pumjantuek
This is the same company responsible for the construction of a Bangkok skyscraper that collapsed last March during an earthquake, when no other buildings in the city fell.
Amorn Pimanmas, an engineering professor at Bangkok’s Kasetsart University, believes that human, rather than natural, factors are the more likely cause of Wednesday’s tragedy.
Given that there were no storms, no flooding, and no significant vibration from the train passing underneath, “natural causes can almost entirely be ruled out as the origin of the incident”, Amorn said.
Thailand is no stranger to deadly construction accidents, due in part to weak enforcement of safety standards and regulations.
In 2023, a freight train collided with a pick-up truck that was crossing railway tracks in the country’s east, killing eight people and injuring four others.
Meanwhile, over the past seven years, around 150 people have been killed in numerous accidents on a road improvement project from Bangkok to the south of the country.
Additional reporting by Kelly Ng in Singapore
The crane was used to build an overhead railway that is part of a China-backed project
new video loaded: Denmark Has ‘Fundamental Disagreement’ With U.S. Over Greenland
transcript
transcript
Denmark Has ‘Fundamental Disagreement’ With U.S. Over Greenland
On Wednesday, Denmark and Greenland’s foreign ministers met with the Trump administration. President Trump urged the United States needs Greenland for national security purposes but both foreign officials argued Greenland is not up for sale.
“Ideas that would not respect territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark, and the right of self-determination of the Greenlandic people are, of course, totally unacceptable. And we, therefore, still have a fundamental disagreement.” “How important it is from our side to strengthen our cooperation with the United States. But that doesn’t mean that we want to be owned by the United States.” “We need Greenland for national security. So we’re going to see what happens. If we don’t go in, Russia is going to go in and China is going to go in. And there’s not a thing that Denmark can do about it, but we can do everything about it.” “Donald Trump goes here and there and everywhere, and he are a person we all must be afraid for because there are something wrong with him. He are too much.” “We want to message that we are not for sale, and we don’t want to be part of the United States.” “I think it’s important for me because the enormous pressure that’s put on Greenland and our people, and I think it’s important that we stand here and show courage because I think that’s what Trump wants us to feel like — afraid. So I think that it’s important that we show that Greenland is ours and we don’t want to be part of America. However, however much he tries to threaten us.”
On Wednesday, Denmark and Greenland’s foreign ministers met with the Trump administration. President Trump urged the United States needs Greenland for national security purposes but both foreign officials argued Greenland is not up for sale.
As the Senate Banking Committee prepares to debate long-anticipated legislation that would establish regulation for the crypto industry, the fate of the bill is in limbo after Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong declared his opposition in a Wednesday night post on X.
“We’d rather have no bill than a bad bill,” Armstrong wrote, outlining several blockchain sector critiques, including a key battle with the banking industry over offering rewards for stablecoin holdings. “Hopefully we can all get to a better draft.”
The legislation, which focuses on market structure issues such as supervisory divisions between different federal agencies, has long been a priority for the crypto industry. The bill would address thorny questions that led to bruising lawsuits under previous administrations, including how to classify and regulate different types of cryptocurrencies.
After helping elect a wave of pro-blockchain candidates fueled by millions in campaign donations, the crypto industry notched a major win over the summer with the passage of the Genius Act, which established a regulatory framework for stablecoins, or a type of dollar-backed cryptocurrency. But market structure has proven trickier, especially after the banking lobby pushed back against provisions in the Genius Act that allows companies to offer customers yield on their stablecoin holdings, similar to savings accounts.
After the House of Representatives advanced their version of the market structure legislation, called the Clarity Act, in July, the Senate delayed in taking up the bill. But with the Senate Banking Committee finally set to debate amendments on Thursday morning in the markup process, arguments over the issue of yield, as well as conflict of interest ethics provisions targeted at the Trump administration, could stymie the bill’s progress.
“There’s a real chance this could blow up in committee,” one crypto lobbyist told Fortune, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive industry dynamics. “People are pretty fired up here.”
Lack of clarity
For many in the crypto industry, the success of the stablecoin-focused Genius Act over the summer was just an appetizer to the main course: wide-ranging market structure legislation that would finally grant legitimacy to the renegade sector. But after years of fierce debate, the product coming out of the Senate might be worse than no bill at all.
The most significant wedge issue going into Thursday remains the battle over stablecoin yields. The bank lobby has argued that the Genius Act effectively created a loophole, preventing stablecoin issuers themselves from offering yield to users, but allowing partners and third parties to provide rewards. Those programs have been key to many crypto companies, such as Coinbase, which reported $355 million in stablecoin-related revenue in the third quarter of 2025 and offers yields to holders of its stablecoin, USDC. Bank lobbyists have argued that this could threaten the U.S. financial system by suctioning money out of bank deposits.
A bipartisan group of senators has offered a compromise in the Clarity Act, which would allow crypto companies to offer yield for stablecoin-related transactions, similar to credit cards, as well as other activity. But it remained unclear whether Coinbase, one of the most outspoken and deepest-pocketed crypto figures in Washington, would support the agreement, with Armstrong’s Wednesday post seeming to indicate it would take a hard-line approach.
Not every industry leader agreed with Armstrong. Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi posted on X later Wednesday night that he supported the bill. “Walking away now would not preserve the status quo in practice,” Sethi wrote. “It would lock in uncertainty and leave American companies operating under ambiguity while the rest of the world moves forward.”
“It’s still very much in negotiations right now,” said Ron Hammond, who serves as head of policy at the crypto trading firm Wintermute. “But it’s crypto and there’s always last-second drama, and so it seems to be one of the wedges here.”
Another debate pushed by Democrats is language that would prevent politicians, including the President, from profiting off of crypto holdings or interest. The issue has become a lightning rod due to the Trump family’s deep entanglement with the crypto industry, including its digital asset platform World Liberty Financial, which recently applied for a federal bank license. But Republicans have strongly pushed back against the possibility, with Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) telling CoinDesk on Wednesday that ethics provisions don’t belong in the Clarity Act.
But a letter sent to Scott and Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) from a number of nonprofit watchdog groups, obtained by Fortune, describes the lack of provisions in the proposed bill addressing governmental conflicts of interest as “deeply concerning.”
If Democrats such as Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), who has referred to an ethics provision as a “red line,” pull their support, the bill could be stuck in committee, which needs a simple majority vote, though Republicans hold the edge.
The lobbyist who spoke on the condition of anonymity lamented that the bill has lurched to the left in an effort to gain bipartisan support, including through additional provisions that would regulate DeFi, or decentralized finance, as well as the listing process for crypto tokens and oversight responsibilities handed to the Securities and Exchange Commission. “They’ve lost their north star,” the lobbyist told Fortune.
Update: Added comment from Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has arrived in China for a visit that comes at a pivotal moment in relations between the two countries.
Carney, the first Canadian leader to visit China since 2017, is set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Chinese Premier Li Qiang.
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Relations between Canada and China plunged into a deep freeze after Canadian authorities arrested a key official of Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei as she was transitioning through the Vancouver international airport in December 2018.
China retaliated against the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, which was carried out at the request of authorities in the United States, by detaining two Canadians.
Ottawa has also accused China of political interference.
Against that backdrop, Carney’s visit “marks a recalibration and change in tone and signals Canada’s desire to improve relations”, said Vina Nadjibulla, vice president of research and strategy at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.
“This is probably Prime Minister Carney’s second-most challenging trip after his first visit to the White House,” Nadjibulla told Al Jazeera.
Carney is keen to diversify the Canadian economy and reduce its dependence on the US, the destination for nearly 80 percent of Canadian exports.
While Canada has historically been among the US’s closest allies, the relationship has gone south since Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
Carney has travelled extensively, including to the European Union and the Gulf – he heads to Qatar after Beijing – to find new markets and investors for the economy. The Canadian leader has said he wants to double Canada’s non-US trade in the next decade.
In a first step towards a thaw with China, Carney met Xi in South Korea during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in October.
“The Prime Minister is being pragmatic, and his trip will focus on specific economic deals – selling Canadian energy and agriculture products,” Nadjibulla said, adding that she did not expect to see the full lifting of tariffs between the sides.
The trip, as a review of the trade agreement between the US, Mexico and Canada, is under way. The USMCA has allowed Canadian and Mexican goods that are covered under the agreement to enter the US tariff-free.
In Canada’s case, that means about 86 percent of US imports from Canada and Mexico are compliant, making the effective tariff rate on Canadian goods about 6 percent, Tony Stillo, director of Canada Economics at Oxford Economics, said in a note on Wednesday.
While Canada clearly would benefit from USMCA continuing, Trump, as recently as Tuesday, said the trade agreement was “irrelevant” to the US.
But if an agreement to extend or modify the USMCA is not reached, it will enter a period of mandatory annual reviews until 2036, after which it would expire, resulting in a “prolonged period of trade policy uncertainty”, Stillo said.
“If the North American trade agreement eventually disintegrates, the three parties could return to bilateral trade agreements to maintain market access to one another, but this would impose costs on North American trade and investments.”
‘Political and narrative win’
While Carney is keenly aware of the stakes, the visit holds significance for China, too.
Beijing is not only on the lookout for new export markets and the removal of trade restrictions, such as the electric vehicle tariff, but a “political and narrative win” as well, Nadjibulla said.
China has often criticised Canada for following the US too closely and will portray Carney’s visit, and any policy changes that may follow, as Ottawa “trying to correct mistakes of the past,” she said.
Beijing’s ultimate hope would be compliance from Canada on sensitive issues like Taiwan and the South China Sea.
Earlier this week, two Canadian MPs from Carney’s Liberal Party wrapped up a visit to self-governing Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory, ahead of schedule on the advice of the government.
The lawmakers cited the need to avoid “confusion” in Canada’s foreign policy ahead of Carney’s visit.
Nadjibulla said it was a “worrying” development, adding that Canada would face a “very difficult balancing act” with China.
