California’s tech companies, the epicenter of the state’s economy, sent politicians a loud message this year: Back down from restrictive artificial intelligence regulation or they’ll leave.
The tactic appeared to have worked, activists said, because some politicians weakened or scrapped guardrails to mitigate AI’s biggest risks.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom rejected a bill aimed at making companion chatbots safer for children after the tech industry fought it. In his veto message, the governor raised concerns about placing broad limits on AI, which has sparked a massive investment spree and created new billionaires overnight around the San Francisco Bay Area.
Assembly Bill 1064 would have barred companion chatbot operators from making these AI systems available to minors unless the chatbots weren’t “foreseeably capable” of certain conduct, including encouraging a child to engage in self-harm. Newsom said he supported the goal, but feared it would unintentionally bar minors from using AI tools and learning how to use technology safely.
“We cannot prepare our youth for a future where AI is ubiquitous by preventing their use of these tools altogether,” he wrote in his veto message.
The bill’s veto was a blow to child safety advocates who had pushed it through the state Legislature and a win for tech industry groups that fought it. In social media ads, groups such as TechNet had urged the public to tell the governor to veto the bill because it would harm innovation and lead to students falling behind in school.
Organizations trying to rein in the world’s largest tech companies as they advance the powerful technology say the tech industry has become more empowered at the national and state levels.
Meta, Google, OpenAI, Apple and other major tech companies have strengthened their relationships with the Trump administration. Companies are funding new organizations and political action committees to push back against state AI policy while pouring money into lobbying.
In Sacramento, AI companies have lobbied behind the scenes for more freedom. California’s massive pool of engineering talent, tech investors and companies make it an attractive place for the tech industry, but companies are letting policymakers know that other states are also interested in attracting those investments and jobs. Big Tech is particularly sensitive to regulations in the Golden State because so many companies are headquartered there and must abide by its rules.
“We believe California can strike a better balance between protecting consumers and enabling responsible technological growth,” Robert Boykin, TechNet’s executive director for California and the Southwest, said in a statement.
Common Sense Media founder and Chief Executive Jim Steyer said tech lobbyists put tremendous pressure on Newsom to veto AB 1064. Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that rates and reviews technology and entertainment for families, sponsored the bill.
“They threaten to hurt the economy of California,” he said. “That’s the basic message from the tech companies.”
Advertising is among the tactics tech companies with deep pockets use to convince politicians to kill or weaken legislation. Even if the governor signs a bill, companies have at times sued to block new laws from taking effect.
“If you’re really trying to do something bold with tech policy, you have to jump over a lot of hurdles,” said David Evan Harris, senior policy advisor at the California Initiative for Technology and Democracy, which supported AB 1064. The group focuses on finding state-level solutions to threats that AI, disinformation and emerging technologies pose to democracy.
Tech companies have threatened to move their headquarters and jobs to other states or countries, a risk looming over politicians and regulators.
The California Chamber of Commerce, a broad-based business advocacy group that includes tech giants, launched a campaign this year that warned over-regulation could stifle innovation and hinder California.
“Making competition harder could cause California companies to expand elsewhere, costing the state’s economy billions,” the group said on its website.
From January to September, the California Chamber of Commerce spent $11.48 million lobbying California lawmakers and regulators on a variety of bills, filings to the California secretary of state show. During that period, Meta spent $4.13 million. A lobbying disclosure report shows that Meta paid the California Chamber of Commerce $3.1 million, making up the bulk of their spending. Google, which also paid TechNet and the California Chamber of Commerce, spent $2.39 million.
Amazon, Uber, DoorDash and other tech companies spent more than $1 million each. TechNet spent around $800,000.
The threat that California companies could move away has caught the attention of some politicians.
California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, who has investigated tech companies over child safety concerns, indicated that despite initial concern, his office wouldn’t oppose ChatGPT maker OpenAI’s restructuring plans. The new structure gives OpenAI’s nonprofit parent a stake in its for-profit public benefit corporation and clears the way for OpenAI to list its shares.
Bonta blessed the restructuring partly because of OpenAI’s pledge to stay in the state.
“Safety will be prioritized, as well as a commitment that OpenAI will remain right here in California,” he said in a statement last week. The AG’s office, which supervises charitable trusts and ensures these assets are used for public benefit, had been investigating OpenAI’s restructuring plan over the last year and a half.
OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman said he’s glad to stay in California.
“California is my home, and I love it here, and when I talked to Attorney General Bonta two weeks ago I made clear that we were not going to do what those other companies do and threaten to leave if sued,” he posted on X.
Critics — which included some tech leaders such as Elon Musk, Meta and former OpenAI executives as well as nonprofits and foundations — have raised concerns about OpenAI’s restructuring plan. Some warned it would allow startups to exploit charitable tax exemptions and let OpenAI prioritize financial gain over public good.
Lawmakers and advocacy groups say it’s been a mixed year for tech regulation. The governor signed Assembly Bill 56, which requires platforms to display labels for minors that warn about social media’s mental health harms. Another piece of signed legislation, Senate Bill 53, aims to make AI developers more transparent about safety risks and offers more whistleblower protections.
The governor also signed a bill that requires chatbot operators to have procedures to prevent the production of suicide or self-harm content. But advocacy groups, including Common Sense Media, removed their support for Senate Bill 243 because they said the tech industry pushed for changes that weakened its protections.
Newsom vetoed other legislation that the tech industry opposed, including Senate Bill 7, which requires employers to notify workers before deploying an “automated decision system” in hiring, promotions and other employment decisions.
Called the “No Robo Bosses Act,” the legislation didn’t clear the governor, who thought it was too broad.
“A lot of nuance was demonstrated in the lawmaking process about the balance between ensuring meaningful protections while also encouraging innovation,” said Julia Powles, a professor and executive director of the UCLA Institute for Technology, Law & Policy.
The battle over AI safety is far from over. Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda), who co-wrote AB 1064, said she plans to revive the legislation.
Child safety is an issue that both Democrats and Republicans are examining after parents sued AI companies such as OpenAI and Character.AI for allegedly contributing to their children’s suicides.
“The harm that these chatbots are causing feels so fast and furious, public and real that I thought we would have a different outcome,” Bauer-Kahan said. “It’s always fascinating to me when the outcome of policy feels to be disconnected from what I believe the public wants.”
Steyer from Common Sense Media said a new ballot initiative includes the AI safety protections that Newsom vetoed.
“That was a setback, but not an overall defeat,” he said about the veto of AB 1064. “This is a David and Goliath situation, and we are David.”
Nov. 6 (UPI) — An evaluation of the Louvre Museum’s security measures — underway long before a costly break-in last month — found Thursday that the Paris institution had fallen “considerably behind” in upgrading its technical infrastructure and security.
The report from the French Court of Auditors took a look at both the facilities of the museum and the Louvre Museum Endowment Fund from 2018 to 2024. It was completed before the Oct. 19 break-in during which thieves made off with eight bejeweled items worth millions.
The report said the theft highlighted “the importance of long-term investments in modernizing the museum’s infrastructure and restoring the palace.”
The authors of the report took issue with the Louvre’s acquirement of 2,754 items over eight years, one-fourth of which were on display. These items — and renovations of displays — represent an investment of $167 million, double what the Louvre allocated for maintenance, upgrades and building restoration.
“Throughout the period under review, the court observed that the museum prioritized visible and attractive operations, such as the acquisition of works, and the redesign of its displays, to the detriment of the maintenance and renovation of buildings and technical installations, particularly those related to safety and security,” the report said.
The report recommended that the Louvre eliminate a rule that requires the museum spend 20% of its ticket revenues — $143 million in 2024 — on acquiring new works. This would allow the facility to redirect funds to update the building without additional state funding. Auditors said the museum could also lean more heavily on its endowment fund to make the upgrades.
Police in France have arrested several people believed to be connected to the October heist. The theft saw four people use a truck with a ladder to break into the upper-floor Apollo Gallery and steal jewelry from display cases.
Among the items stolen were items once owned by French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and his wife, Empress Joséphine de Beauharnais.
Fault Lines investigates the killings of Palestinians seeking aid at GHF sites in Gaza.
After months of blockade and starvation in Gaza, Israel allowed a new United States venture – the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) – to distribute food. Branded as a lifeline, its sites quickly became known by Palestinians and dozens of human rights groups as “death traps”.
Fault Lines investigates how civilians seeking aid were funnelled through militarised zones, where thousands were killed or injured under fire.
Through the testimonies of grieving families, a former contractor, and human rights experts, the film exposes how GHF’s operations replaced UNRWA’s proven aid system with a scheme critics say was designed for displacement, not relief. At the heart of this investigation is a haunting question: was GHF delivering humanitarian aid – or helping turn breadlines into killing fields?
THEME park fans heading to Universal’s Orlando resorts should take note as some attractions will be closed depending on when they plan to head to the tourist hotspot.
Some rides will be off-limits for a short period of time, while others will be out of action for longer.
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Universal’s Volcano Bay will close in 2026Credit: Universal Parks USAThe popular Revenge of the Mummy Ride will be shut for a week in the New YearCredit: Universal Parks USA
Popular attractions set to be impacted include Revenge of the Mummy, and Jurassic Park River Adventure.
On Revenge of the Mummy, thrillseekers are plunged into darkness.
The ride will be closed between January 15 and 21, according to Inside the Magic.
The Hogwarts Express will fall silent between February 9-26 next year.
Universal’s Jurassic Park River Adventure sees riders plunge 85 feet in a thrilling drop.
But the ride will be closed from January 5, 2026 until November 20, as per the Orlando Informer.
Universal’s Volcano Bay water park will close temporarily from October 26, 2026.
It’s likely the attraction will reopen by the end of March 2027.
When visiting Volcano Bay, thrillseekers can enjoy a five-person attraction, Puihi of the Maku Puihi Round Raft Rides.
Or, those wanting a more relaxing experience can enjoy the winding river.
Volcano Bay is also home to shops, bars and restaurants.
Earlier this year, Universal’s Epic Universe opened, sparking an influx of tourists.
The park opened its doors on May 21 and is home to five themed lands.
Guests can immerse themselves in the Super Nintendo World and enjoy Mario Kart-themed attractions.
Epic Universe is home to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and Dark Universe.
Harry Potter fans can enjoy a Butterbeer when visiting the Wizarding World.
Guests can immerse themselves in the Viking-themed village, which is inspired by How to Train Your Dragon.
Thrillseekers will have to wait a while before they can ride the Jurassic Park River Adventure when it shuts in JanuaryCredit: AlamyThe Hogwarts Express ride will be closing temporarilyCredit: AlamyUniversal Orlando’s Epic Universe park opened earlier this yearCredit: Universal Parks USA
This article contains some spoilers for the Netflix miniseries “Death by Lightning.”
If politics today make your head spin, wait until you see Netflix’s “Death by Lightning.” The four-part miniseries, premiering Thursday, chronicles one of the more jaw-dropping stretches of post-Civil War American history, when corruption ran rampant, a presidential nominee was drafted at the 11th hour, only to be assassinated early in his term by one of his biggest fans — becoming perhaps the greatest head of state we never really got to have.
And the show answers the burning expletive-laced question posed by its first line: Who is Charles Guiteau?
“I’ve been in a James Garfield rabbit hole for seven years of my life at this point,” says showrunner Mike Makowsky, who adapted Candice Millard’s 2011 chronicle of Garfield and Guiteau, “Destiny of the Republic.” Those who paid attention in history class probably remember that Garfield served briefly as our 20th president in 1881 before being shot and killed. Those who remember more than that are few and far between.
“My own agent half the time refers to him as Andrew Garfield,” says Makowsky. “And I have to confess, I knew very little about Garfield, like most Americans, until I picked up Candice Millard’s remarkable book.”
Realizing he knew little about one of the four American presidents to be assassinated, Makowsky thought, “Since I would desperately like to be on ‘Jeopardy!’ someday, I was like, ‘Let me educate myself.’ I wound up reading the entire book in one sitting.”
“Death by Lightning,” directed by “Captain Fantastic” auteur Matt Ross, boasts a remarkable cast: Betty Gilpin as First Lady Lucretia Garfield; Nick Offerman as Garfield’s successor, a hard-drinking, hard-partying Chester A. Arthur; Michael Shannon as James Garfield, the polymath president, crusader against corruption and noble to a fault; and Matthew Macfadyen as Charles Guiteau, the frustrated office-seeker who shot him.
“I wanted to cast people who were somewhat counterintuitive,” says Ross. “If you read the cast list for this, you might assume Michael Shannon was playing Guiteau because he has played a lot of complicated, for lack of a better word, villains — tough guys, bad guys. And Matthew Macfadyen has played more heroic characters.”
Guiteau is definitely no Darcy from “Pride and Prejudice,” or Tom Wambsgans from “Succession,” for that matter. In the series’ conception of him, he shares more DNA with Martin Scorsese’s unhinged protagonists than he does with Darcy — or, certainly, with Garfield.
The proto-incel with a gun
As portrayed in “Death by Lightning,” Guiteau is a rotten-toothed, scheming, big-dreaming, delusional charlatan and possible sociopath. He’s the proto-incel, and the diametrical opposite to Garfield, whom Makowsky defines as “lawful good,” to borrow the Dungeons & Dragons classification.
“I think the most reductive view of Guiteau is ‘chaotic evil,’ right? But that’s the least interesting rendering of this person,” he says. “What are the societal factors that alienate a man like Guiteau from his fellow human beings? The show is meant to probe into his psyche.”
He was a member of the Oneida community, a religious sect based in New York that practiced communalism, free love and mutual criticism, which is depicted in the series (and yes, they founded the flatware company). But Guiteau couldn’t partake in what Makowsky delicately called the “benefits” of such a society, largely because his delusions of grandeur alienated him from others there. The women reportedly nicknamed him “Charles Gitout.”
“Everyone who encountered him described him as being disagreeable, odd, rude, selfish,” Ross says, explaining the need for an actor who had the opposite qualities. “He’s an extreme example of someone who had no work to be seen for, but was so desperately looking for affirmation and love.”
Charles Guiteau (Matthew Macfadyen) was part of the Oneida community, which practiced communalism and free love, but he wasn’t accepted by its members.
(Larry Horricks/Netflix)
Ross describes Macfadyen as someone who’s empathetic, warm and funny. “I wanted that humanity because the real Guiteau was a deeply disturbed man who was psychologically brutalized by his father to the point he was a non-functioning person.”
Makowsky says as he was reading Millard’s book, he thought of Rupert Pupkin, Robert De Niro’s deranged-fan protagonist in Scorsese’s “King of Comedy.” “This guy showing up, day in and day out, hoping for an audience with his hero [Garfield], being continually rebuffed to the point where something in his brain breaks,” he says of Guiteau. “He felt like a direct historical antecedent to the Rupert Pupkins and Travis Bickles of the world. He fell through the cracks and we lost potentially one of our greatest presidents because of it.”
Makowsky recalls shooting the only dialogue scene between Garfield and Guiteau, when the “greatest fan” finally gets to meet his idol. To Makowsky’s surprise, Macfadyen’s Guiteau “just burst into tears. That wasn’t scripted. It was so overwhelming to him. I think in that moment, more than any other in the series, you feel something for this man.”
Party (hearty) over country
Garfield was succeeded in office by Chester A. Arthur, whom Makowsky calls one of the least likely persons to ever become president. “The man had never held elected office,” he says. “His one political appointment prior to his nomination for vice president was as chief crony of the spoils system of [New York Sen.] Roscoe Conkling’s political machine. The level of corruption was so audacious and insane.”
He’s played with oft-drunken brio by Nick Offerman, whose voice Makowsky says he heard in his head as soon as he started writing the role: “I was like, it has to be Nick Offerman.” He took some liberties with the character and events, including a memorable sequence where Arthur and Guiteau go on a bender. Makowsky says they “probably never had a wild night out in New York, but it was an indelible proposition and I couldn’t resist.”
Nick Offerman plays eventual President Chester A. Arthur, who was closely aligned with New York Sen. Roscoe Conkling (Shea Whigham).
Betty Gilpin portrays First Lady Lucretia Garfield as her husband’s intellectual equal. (Larry Horricks / Netflix)
As to the first lady, “Lucretia Garfield was every bit her husband’s intellectual equal. But she couldn’t vote. There was a ceiling to what a woman in her day could accomplish,” Makowsky says, wistfully musing on what she might have achieved, given the chance. “And Betty [Gilpin] radiates that strength and that acute intelligence.”
Having recently given birth, Gilpin took her family along to Budapest for filming, voraciously researching Lucretia and reading her entire correspondence with her husband. The role gets meatier as the series progresses until she initiates an unforgettable, blistering encounter with Guiteau to button the story.
“Betty jokingly said to me, ‘If you cut that scene, I will kill you.’ I was like, ‘There’s no way that scene is being cut. It’s one of my favorite scenes in the entire show,’” Ross recalls. “Everyone who read it was like, ‘Oh my God, this scene.’ And Betty just knocked it out of the park, take after take after take.”
The forgotten president
Ross says when he first read Makowsky’s scripts, he thought they were “fantastically relevant” and offered a fresh look at American history. “As an American, I’m always trying to figure out what it means to be American,” he says. “The story of Garfield, you couldn’t make it up. He was a hero of working people and the promise of American democracy — having a representational democracy where those in power and the wealthy are not controlling the laws of the land, which could not be more relevant today.”
Makowsky calls Garfield “a poster boy for the American dream,” rising from poverty to the nation’s top office.
“He was a war hero and a Renaissance man that did math theorems while he was in Congress and who could recite Homer from memory,” he says. “This remarkable individual, fiercely intelligent and a brilliant, powerful orator, was far ahead of his time on certain political questions of the day. He was an outspoken proponent for civil rights and universal education and civil service reform.”
In real life, and as depicted in the series, Garfield worked with notable Black leaders like Frederick Douglass and Blanche Bruce, the first Black register of the Treasury, whom he appointed.
“The great tragedy is we were robbed of a potentially generational leader in Garfield,” Makowsky says.
“Death by Lightning” showrunner Mike Makowsky says Americans were robbed of a “potentially generational leader” in James Garfield.
(Larry Horricks / Netflix)
Garfield wasn’t even seeking the nomination when he spoke on behalf of another candidate at the Republican National Convention of 1880, but his speech so moved the delegates that they eventually persuaded him to accept the nomination after more than 30 votes failed to produce another winner. It reminded Makowsky of then-Sen. Barack Obama’s 2004 speech at the Democratic National Convention, where he presented “a strong and confident, optimistic vision for the future of our country.”
Nowadays, such a rise seems less likely. “I don’t know if that would happen today, obviously because of money in politics; no one can run if they don’t have phenomenal backing,” Ross says.
Ross emphasizes the show is “not a history lesson,” drawing a distinction between drama and documentary. At times, “Death by Lightning” plays like a black comedy. Makowsky’s dialogue, while usually honoring what we think of as the formality and vocabulary of the 1880s’ idiom, occasionally veers into hilariously cathartic invective that bracingly reminds us these were living, breathing people with fire in their bellies.
“Ken Burns could make a 10-hour documentary to encapsulate all the nuances of this incredible story,” says Ross. What Makowsky did, Ross says, was contextualize the history through the prism of two very different people, Garfield and Guiteau.
“One is this incredibly admirable American figure I think everyone should know about, the greatest president we never really had. And then the other is a charlatan, a deeply broken, deeply mentally ill man who just kind of wanted to be Instagram-famous, just wanted to be known. You see this moment in history through their eyes, and I thought that was delicious.”
Budget airline Ryanair to scrap the option for passengers to print out and use a paper boarding pass
12:58, 06 Nov 2025Updated 12:59, 06 Nov 2025
Ryanair is pressing ahead with a big change to aircraft boarding by going 100% digital (Image: SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Ryanair passengers will be forced to use digital boarding passes only from next week.
The budget airline issued update to remind customers, ahead of the big change from Wednesday November 12. From that date, passengers will no longer be able to download and print a physical paper boarding pass.
Instead, they will have to use the digital boarding pass generated in the “myRyanair” app on their mobile device – smartphone or tablet – during check-in process to board any of its flights.
Ryanair insisted the “vast majority” of people already use digital boarding in this way, adding that nearly 80% of its more than 207 million passengers annually did so. But that still means that around 40 million passengers who prefer other methods, including printing their pass, will be impacted.
Dara Brady, Ryanair’s chief marketing officer, said: “While over 80% of passengers already use digital boarding passes, and therefore won’t be affected by this progressive change, we remind the small number of passengers who still print boarding passes to download the myRyanair app ahead of the move to 100% digital boarding passes from Wednesday, 12 November.
“Moving fully digital means a faster, smarter, and greener experience for passengers, whilst also providing easier access to a range of innovative in-app features, including ‘Order to Seat’, live flight information and direct updates during disruption. We look forward to delivering an enhanced travel experience for 100% of our customers, streamlined through our best-in-class myRyanair app.”
Ryanair insisted the move would mean lower airport costs and so fares for all Ryanair passengers, as well as saving 300 tonnes of paper annually.
But it has already had to reassurance customers who fear they will be caught out. For instance, it says that if passengers lose their smartphone or tablet they can get a free boarding pass at the airport, but assuming they have already checked-in to their flight online. The same is true if their battery runs out before they get through airport security, it says, while if it packs up before boarding then they “will be assisted at the gate.”
Then there is the question of what happens if a customer does not have a smartphone with the Ryanair app. The airline says: “If passengers don’t have a smartphone or tablet, as long as they have already checked-in online before arriving at the airport, they will receive a free of charge boarding pass at the airport.”
Ryanair added that, as long as passengers have checked-in online, the digital boarding pass will be available regardless of whether they have a mobile signal or not.
HomeExecutive InterviewsBeltone’s Khalil El Bawab On Challenges And Growth In MENA Financial Services
Beltone is a financial services group with 24 diversified funds and more than 100,000 clients. Khalil El Bawab, CEO of the Local & Regional Markets Division, shares the firm’s growth plans and challenges with Global Finance.
Beltone began in Cairo in 2002 as an asset management firm. In 2022, it was acquired by Emirati Chimera Investment, part of Abu Dhabi-based IHC. Since then, Beltone has completed two record capital increases—EGP 10 billion (about $210 million) in 2023, which at the time was the largest in Egyptian Exchange (EGX) history, and EGP 10.5 billion in 2025, which is now the record for the largest all-cash capital increase on the EGX. Today, Beltone is part of IHC’s new entity, 2PointZero, alongside eight other companies.
Global Finance: How is Beltone Holding currently structured?
Khalil El Bawab: Beltone is a fully fledged institution offering a wide range of services, including investment banking, brokerage, asset management, and custody services. Additionally, Beltone provides various non-banking financial services such as leasing, factoring, consumer and mortgage finance, SME finance, and microfinance. The organization also has a venture capital company that invests in startups through equity and venture debt. Beyond finance, Beltone has expanded into non-financial sectors, with businesses like Robin, which offers Data Science and AI solutions; Beltone Academy, focused on training and development; and Magnet, a human resources consultancy.
GF: What is your approach to the client’s needs?
Bawab: Traditionally, financial services were about selling products. However, amid the market’s emerging financial literacy levels, we shifted our focus on redefining the need. At Beltone, we pinpoint other needs for the clients and then we engineer tailored products around them. Here again, the approach is fully data-driven. For example, clients might not be aware of how to maximize their returns by moving their investments around between equities, fixed income products, precious metal funds, and other channels. Once the investor becomes aware of these diverse offerings and is aware of the ease of investing with Beltone, their need is redefined and met with a tailored portfolio of investing options. Credibility comes not from pushing the highest-commission product, but from ensuring that 5, 10, or 15 years later, clients can say they fulfilled their needs.
GF: How is the regulatory landscape supporting Beltone’s growth?
Bawab: The asset management industry in Egypt changed significantly in 2018. Before then, only banks and insurance companies could issue or sponsor funds. The new regulations allowed asset managers and investment banks to launch their own funds and brokerage firms to act as placement agents. This is a true milestone for the industry, allowing financial service providers to bridge the gap in terms of physical barriers, paperwork, and user experience for clients looking to invest.
Then, issuing a fund could take up to a year; now it takes just a very few days. Since then, more than 50 new funds have started, and that has completely changed the market. Also, the financial regulatory authority issued the FinTech License, which allows digital onboarding, including e-signatures and e-contracts, to help attract more investors to the market, effectively taking the market to new levels.
GF: You manage a large number of funds–why so many?
Bawab: We currently manage 24 funds, including 15 for banks, and plan to launch 5–6 more. All our funds have zero subscription or redemption fees — no entry or exit barriers. The market sees us as simply launching fund after fund, but it’s a conscious strategy and preparation for our upcoming wealth management application.
Today, we already offer the Beltone Trade App — the only investment bank-owned app not tied to a bank, giving qualified investors direct access to equities, fixed income products, and mutual funds. In early 2026, we’ll launch a second app that goes beyond robo-advisory. Clients will be digitally onboarded, complete a risk profiling exercise, and receive personalized advice on the optimal allocation for their investments. It could be single investments or incremental, with standard settlement instructions every month… I’m not concerned which channel the clients go to, but I want to equip them with the right tools to choose the products that best fit their needs.
GF: Who are the clients that you’re targeting?
Bawab: Generation Alpha. The ones who live on smartphones — they research everything and don’t want to interact with any human being. In fact, studies show people would rather visit the dentist than go to a bank! Egyptian law now allows 15-year-olds to open bank accounts and invest in the stock market. Our goal is to incentivize this generation early, with incremental investment plans matched by their guardians up to a limit. By starting at 15, we’re preparing the next driving force of our client base for the coming 10–15 years.
GF: Sounds like you are facing a huge financial literacy challenge.
Bawab: Sure, but you have it at all ages, and overall financial literacy in Egypt is improving rapidly. We are seeing tremendous growth in the number of new entrants opening brokerage accounts or participating in the stock market & mutual funds. We are still behind international standards, but our market growth is outpacing global benchmarks in terms of market participation. This is a collective effort that everybody is working on. The focus now is on making investing simpler and more accessible — and our upcoming wealth management app is designed to be exactly that: super simple and straightforward.
Southern California Edison has cut power to hundreds of thousands of its customers this year, more than ever before, as it attempts to stop its electric lines from sparking wildfires.
The utility has told communities in fire-prone areas in recent weeks that they should expect more of the power shutoffs than in prior years and that the outages could last for longer periods of time.
The Rosemead-based company said it had lowered the wind speed that triggers the blackouts, and added tens of thousands of customers to the areas subject to them, after the devastating Jan. 7 Eaton fire. The inferno, which killed 19 people in Altadena, ignited in high winds under an Edison transmission line.
“You should be ready for the power to cut off at any moment,” Ian Anderson, a government relations manager for Edison, told the Moorpark City Council at an October meeting. He urged residents to buy generators and said the utility doesn’t reimburse customers for spoiled food and other losses if it believes the blackouts were required by “an act of God.”
“But PSPS is not an act of God,” responded Moorpark Councilmember Renee Delgado, using the acronym for public safety power shutoffs. “It’s a choice SCE is making.”
For more than a decade, California utilities have used the shutoffs to stop their equipment from sparking fires. The intentional outages have become so established in California’s wildfire prevention plans that Edison now faces lawsuits saying that it failed to shut off some of its lines before the Eaton fire.
Yet in recent months, the utility has heard a chorus of complaints from communities including Moorpark and Malibu that it is blacking out customers even when the winds are calm. And the utility often has failed to warn people of the coming outages, making it impossible for them to prepare, according to filings at the state Public Utilities Commission.
“You guys have put us into a Third World situation,” Scott Dittrich, a resident of Malibu, said at a Sept. 30 meeting that the city had with Edison to address the shutoffs.
Kathleen Dunleavy, an Edison spokeswoman, said the company recognizes that “any power outage is a hardship.”
But the outages are needed because they have prevented fires in dangerous weather, she said. “Our commitment is to keeping our communities safe,” she added.
This year, Edison has cut off 534,000 customers to prevent fires, according to data it filed with state regulators. That’s almost four times the 137,000 customers subject to the blackouts in 2024.
Under state rules, utilities can use the outages only as a measure of last resort — when the risk of electrical equipment igniting a fire is greater than the dangerous hazards the blackouts cause.
Disconnecting a neighborhood or city can cause far more than just inconvenience.
Traffic lights no longer work, causing perilous intersections. During a Dec. 10 outage in Moorpark, a utility truck failed to stop at a nonworking light on State Route 118, crashing into a sedan. The driver was injured and had to be extracted from the truck by emergency responders, according to the city’s report to state regulators.
The shutoffs also leave residents who have medical problems without the use of needed devices and refrigerators to store medications.
And they can cut off communication, stopping residents from getting evacuation warnings and other emergency messages.
During the Eaton and Palisades fires, the power shutoffs, as well as outages caused by wind and fire damage, “significantly disrupted the effectiveness of evacuation messaging,” according to a recent review of Los Angeles County’s emergency performance.
In the last three months of last year, Edison received 230 reports of traffic accidents, people failing to get needed medical care and other safety problems tied to the shutoffs, according to the company’s reports.
Dunleavy said Edison turned off the power only when staff believed the risk of fire exceeded the outages’ consequences.
Nonetheless, Alice Reynolds, president of the Public Utilities Commission, told Edison last month that she had “serious concern” about how the utility was leaving more customers in the dark.
Reynolds wrote in a letter to Steve Powell, the utility’s chief executive, that records showed that the company de-energized not just a record number of residential customers in January, but also more than 10,000 crucial facilities such as hospitals. The longest blackout lasted for 15 days, she said.
“There is no question that power outages — particularly those that are large scale and extended over many days — can cause significant hardship to customers, jeopardizing the safety of customers with medical needs who rely on electricity and disrupting businesses, critical facilities, and schools,” she wrote.
Reynolds said she would require Edison executives to hold biweekly meetings with state regulators where they must show how they planned to limit the scope and duration of the blackouts and improve their notifications to customers of coming shutoffs.
Powell wrote back to her, acknowledging “that our execution of PSPS events has not always met expectations.”
“SCE remains committed to improving its PSPS program to help customers prepare for potential de-energizations and reduce the impacts,” he wrote.
Since 2019, Edison has charged billions of dollars to customers for wildfire prevention work, including increased equipment inspections and the installation of insulated wires, which it said would reduce the need for the shutoffs.
Just four months before the Eaton fire, at an annual safety meeting, Edison executives told state regulators that the utility’s fire mitigation work had been so successful that it had sharply reduced the number of shutoffs, while also decreasing the risk of a catastrophic wildfire by as much as 90%.
A year later, at this year’s annual safety meeting in August, those risk reduction estimates were gone from the company’s presentation. Instead, Edison executives said they expected the number of shutoffs to increase this year by 20% to 40%. They added that the average size of the areas subject to the outages could be twice as large as last year.
The executives blamed “below average rainfall and extended periods of high winds” for increasing the risk that the company’s equipment could start a fire.
“The weather is getting more difficult for us,” Jill Anderson, Edison’s chief operating officer, said at the meeting.
Some customers have questioned whether the utility’s increasingly unreliable electricity lines should be solely blamed on the weather. They say the shutoffs have seemed more and more random.
The Acton Town Council told the utilities commission in January that Edison was blacking out residents when dangerous conditions “do not exist.”
At the same time, the council wrote, Edison had cut power to neighborhoods served by wires that had been undergrounded, an expensive upgrade that Edison has said would prevent the need for the shutoffs.
Edison’s Dunleavy said that although the Acton homes in those neighborhoods were served by underground lines, they were connected to a circuit that had overhead lines, requiring them to be turned off.
“We try to reroute as much as possible to minimize disruptions,” she said.
At the Moorpark City Council meeting, residents spoke of how the repeated outages, some lasting for days, had caused children to miss school and businesses to close their doors and lose revenue.
The residents also spoke of how their electric bills continued to rise as they had spent more days in the dark.
Joanne Carnes, a Moorpark resident, told Anderson, Edison’s government relations manager, that her last monthly bill was $421.
“Why are we paying more than a car payment,” she asked, “for a service that is not able to provide power?”
Welcome to the Sports Report, our weekday morning newsletter covering L.A. sports. It’s compiled and hosted by Times sports newsletter editor Houston Mitchell. To sign up to receive it via email (it’s free), go here.
But what they saw was a lot of fouls being called that made the game unsightly. Doncic picked up his fifth in the fourth quarter, and Wembanyama eventually fouled out.
In the end, Doncic produced 35 points, 13 assists and nine rebounds in leading the Lakers to their fifth straight win with a 118-116 victory over the Spurs on Wednesday night.
The Lakers won despite a horrible turnover late in the game, giving the Spurs a chance to tie the score.
However, with plenty of money coming off the books, several notable contributors to this year’s team now free agents, and plenty of opportunities lying ahead of them this offseason, the Dodgers have work to do and decisions to make as they attempt to defend their title again next year.
We asked, “Who was the Dodgers’ hitting star in the World Series?”
After 1,691 votes, the results:
Will Smith, 55.8% Shohei Ohtani, 27.4% Miguel Rojas, 13.1% Someone else, 3% Max Muncy, 0.7%
RAMS
From Gary Klein: The Rams are no longer kicking the can down the road when it comes to their kicking problems.
On Wednesday, the Rams signed kicker Harrison Mevis to the practice squad to compete with second-year pro Joshua Karty. The move came a day after the team signed veteran long-snapper Jake McQuaide to compete with Alex Ward.
“It’s all geared toward trying to be able to just get some solutions and some kick consistency really with our field-goal operation,” coach Sean McVay said Wednesday. “I think it’s important to have good competition at some spots that we feel we can have improved play.”
From Andrés Soto: Kaylon Miller was on the six-yard line in the fourth quarter, blocking on a USC run play when he saw King Miller, his running back and twin brother, blow right past him.
“Run, run, go, go!” he remembers shouting as King bumped it outside and crossed the Nebraska goal line for the go-ahead touchdown that ultimately would be the game winner in the Trojans’ 21-17 Big Ten win last Saturday in Lincoln.
When King turned around in the end zone, it was his brother who was the first to greet him; the two brothers shared a moment as their facemasks clashed into each other. Both walk ons. Both finding opportunities to get on the field as redshirt freshmen — and both making the most of those opportunities.
1869 — First U.S. college football game played, Rutgers 6, Princeton 4.
1934 — Joe Carter scores four touchdowns and Swede Hanson rushes for 190 yards as the Philadelphia Eagles crush the Cincinnati Reds 64-0.
1966 — Philadelphia’s Timmy Brown returns kickoffs 93 yards and 90 yards for touchdowns to lead the Eagles to a 24-23 victory over the Dallas Cowboys.
1981 — Larry Holmes knocks out Renaldo Snipes in the 11th round to retain the world heavyweight title in Pittsburgh.
1983 — James Wilder of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers rushes for 219 yards and a touchdown in a 17-12 victory over the Minnesota Vikings.
1988 — Britain’s Steve Jones win the New York City Marathon in 2:08:20, the fastest time in the world this year. His margin of victory, 3 minutes and 21 seconds over Salvatore Bettiol, is the largest in the history of the five-borough race. Grete Waitz wins an unprecedented ninth women’s title, finishing in 2:28:07 well ahead of Italy’s Laura Fogli (2:31:26).
1992 — Manon Rheaume of the Atlanta Knights becomes the first woman to suit up for a regular-season pro hockey game. The 20-year-old goalie doesn’t play in Atlanta’s 3-2 overtime loss to Cincinnati in the IHL game.
1993 — French-based Arcangues stages the biggest Breeders’ Cup upset, rallying to beat Bertrando by 2 lengths in the $3 million Classic at Santa Anita. Arcangues went off at 133-1 and returned $269.20 on a $2 bet.
1993 — Evander Holyfield regains the WBA and IBF heavyweight championships from Riddick Bowe in a fight disrupted by a parachutist. During the seventh round at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, the chutist tumbles into the ringside seats and stops the fight for 21 minutes. Holyfield becomes the fourth man to become a heavyweight champion at least twice.
1995 — Art Modell officially announces Cleveland Browns are moving to Baltimore.
1999 — Charles Roberts rushes for 409 yards and five touchdowns to lead Sacramento State past Idaho State 41-20, setting a new NCAA record for a single-game rushing performance.
2005 — Annika Sorenstam becomes the first player in LPGA Tour history to win a tournament five straight times, shooting an 8-under 64 for a three-stroke victory in the Mizuno Classic.
2010 — Michigan wins the highest scoring game in its 131-year history by stopping a 2-point conversion attempt in the third overtime for a 67-65 victory over Illinois.
2010 — Zenyatta comes within a head of finishing a perfect career. Horse racing’s biggest star closes from dead last, but Blame holds off the 6-year-old mare and wins the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic under the lights Churchill Downs. Zenyatta entered the race hoping to improve to 20-0 on her career.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Tigray was the centre of a devastating two-year war that pitted the TPLF against Ethiopia’s federal army.
Published On 6 Nov 20256 Nov 2025
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Ethiopia’s Afar region has accused forces from neighbouring Tigray of crossing into its territory, seizing several villages and attacking civilians, in what it called a breach of the 2022 peace deal that ended the war in northern Ethiopia.
Between 2020 and 2022, Tigray was the centre of a devastating two-year war that pitted the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) against Ethiopia’s federal army and left at least 600,000 people dead, according to the African Union.
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In a statement released late on Wednesday, Afar authorities said TPLF fighters “entered Afar territory by force today”.
The group, which governs the Tigray region, was accused of “controlling six villages and bombing civilians with mortars”. Officials did not provide details on casualties.
“The TPLF learns nothing from its mistakes,” the Afar administration said, condemning what it described as “acts of terror”.
The conflict earlier this decade also spread into neighbouring Ethiopian regions, including Afar, whose forces fought alongside federal troops.
According to Afar’s latest statement, Tigrayan forces attacked the Megale district in the northwest of the region “with heavy weapons fire on civilian herders”.
The authorities warned that if the TPLF “does not immediately cease its actions, the Afar Regional Administration will assume its defensive duty to protect itself against any external attack”.
The renewed fighting, they said, “openly destroys the Pretoria peace agreement”, referring to the deal signed in November 2022 between Ethiopia’s federal government and Tigrayan leaders, which ended two years of bloodshed.
While the fragile peace had largely held, tensions between Addis Ababa and the TPLF have deepened in recent months. The party, which dominated Ethiopian politics from 1991 to 2018, was officially removed from the country’s list of political parties in May amid internal divisions and growing mistrust from the federal government.
Federal officials have also accused the TPLF of re-establishing ties with neighbouring Eritrea, a country with a long and uneasy history with Ethiopia. Eritrea, once an Italian colony and later an Ethiopian province, fought a bloody independence war before gaining statehood in 1993.
A subsequent border war between the two nations from 1998 to 2000 killed tens of thousands. When Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018, he signed a landmark peace deal with Eritrea, but relations have soured again since the end of the Tigray conflict.
England squad: AJ Brimson, Joe Burgess, Daryl Clark, Herbie Farnworth, Tom Johnstone, Mikey Lewis, Harry Newman, Mikolaj Oledzi, George Williams (capt), Harry Smith, Mike McMeeken, Jez Litten, Matty Lees, Kai Pearce-Paul, Kallum Watkins, Morgan Knowles, Owen Trout, Alex Walmsley, Morgan Smithies.
Australia XIII: Reece Walsh, Mark Nawaqanitawase, Kotoni Staggs, Gehamat Shibasaki, Josh Addo-Carr, Cameron Munster, Nathan Cleary, Patrick Carrigan, Harry Grant, Tino Fa’asuamaleaui, Angus Crichton, Hudson Young, Isaah Yeo (captain).
Interchanges: Tom Dearden, Lindsay Collins, Reuben Cotter, Keaon Koloamatangi.
The Celebrity Traitors finale is almost upon us – however, the BBC hit show left some viewers confused when it didn’t air in its usual Wednesday slot last night
The Celebrity Traitors continues tonight(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/Studio Lambert/Paul Chappells)
Fans of the Celebrity Traitors are on tenterhooks as they wait for the show’s highly-anticipated final, with the five remaining contestants competing for up to £100,000 for their chosen charities. However, many were left frustrated last night when they tuned into BBC One at 9pm to be greeted by Shetland’s Ashley Jensen and not the giggly Alan Carr.
Viewers took to social media to voice their disappointment, with one writing: “WHAT DO YOU MEAN TRAITORS ISNT ON TONIGHT??? #CelebrityTraitors.” Another said: “Gaslit myself into thinking celebrity traitors was on tonight. It’s not.
“I don’t even know why I thought that. I guess it’s time for big brother then. #BBUK.”
Thankfully, fans won’t have to wait much longer for their Celebrity Traitors fix – with the final set to air tonight. The show is airing its big finale on BBC One at 9pm tonight with a 70-minute episode.
“As the ultimate game of deception and trust draws to a close, the stakes have never been higher as the celebrity players face their final, explosive mission,” the BBC teases. “With the prize fund complete, will the pressure of winning cloud anyone’s vision?
“Will the Faithful banish all the Traitors to secure victory, or will the Traitors manage to deceive until the bitter end?”
The castle content doesn’t stop there, with Ed Gamble hosting the final episode of The Celebrity Traitors: Uncloaked immediately after the final at 10:10pm on BBC Two. All the finalists will be joining him for their exclusive first interviews alongside Claudia Winkleman as they reflect on the record-breaking series.
“If they go, then I would love Joe to win for the Faithfuls. This year’s series has been absolutely spectacular and off the chart. My mother and I are engrossed in the whole thing.”
While Coronation Street’s Sally Lindsay said: “Alan, you have always been a legend since I met you 25 years ago and you have been the legend in this. You are the champion!”
Unfortunately, the winner has been spoiled for some fans, with the episode leaking early on Canadian streamer Crave a day early. “PSA: The finale of the Celebrity Traitors was accidentally leaked in Canada yesterday,” one concerned fan wrote on social media.
“Stay away from Traitors news and communities if you don’t want to get spoiled.”
The Celebrity Traitors airs tonight at 9pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
Oliver Brendon, travel expert and CEO of AttractionTickets.com, has shared his top five tips for saving money ahead of Black Friday, which takes place on November 28, 2025
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A holiday expert has shared the best way to save cash ahead of Black Friday(Image: Getty Images)
Oliver Brendon, travel expert and CEO of AttractionTickets.com, says that knowing how and where to look can be the difference between a good deal and a great one when the big shopping day arrives on November 28.
Brendon warns that “logging on early is no longer enough to get a great travel deal. To make the most of the biggest sale of the year you’ll want to navigate price algorithms, leverage loyalty perks, and utilise more clever hacks that many buyers overlook.”
If you really want to save the big bucks, then putting in some time now to sign up to the best loyalty schemes is key.
“Brands are almost always going to reward their loyal customers first and, because of this, the very best deals often never reach the main sale. By signing up for loyalty programmes and email marketing opt-ins ahead of Black Friday, you may get early access to pre-sale discounts, exclusive codes, or even bonus rewards. If the particular booking you’re after is likely to sell out, signing-up to these is the best way to know you’re one of the first customers to access the sale,” Brendan said.
Here are his other top tips:
1. Outsmart Price Algorithms
“Before you start comparing prices, you need to clear your cookies or switch to an incognito browser window. Some airlines and booking platforms can adjust fares based on your browsing behaviour, so if you’ve been researching Disney ticketsfor months hoping for a great deal, you might not be shown the best price.”
2. Flex Your Dates and Group Size to Unlock Hidden Deals
“Flexibility is your best friend when it comes to travel savings. Flying midweek, especially Tuesday to Thursday, or opting for early-morning departures can cut costs dramatically, but you won’t get shown these deals if you have specific date and time filters in use. Ensure when browsing that you have the most flexible option selected, and that includes your group size too. Don’t assume group bookings are always cheaper as sometimes two single tickets cost less than one multi-traveller fare.”
3. Use Filters and Comparison Tools Smartly
“When comparing travel options, choosing a ‘low to high’ filter may not actually be showing you the lowest prices first. Some travel websites order their low-to-high offerings by the price of the just accommodation. Instead, where possible, use filters for ‘lowest total price’ to make sure you’re seeing the full cost including travel, taxes, luggage, and other hidden fees.”
4. Turn Cashback Into Holiday Spending Money
“Cashback rewards is another easy win that many people overlook. Banks, credit cards, and even cashback-specific companies often offer cashback on travel bookings as well as retail purchases. Those savings can quickly add up, and if you activate these schemes before Black Friday, you’ll have extra spending money for your holiday or even a discount on your next trip.”
HomeAwardsWorld’s Safest Banks 2025: Islamic Banks In GCC
GCC banking institutions display the importance of growing open banking.
The evolution of Islamic banking in the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is accelerating as new products and regulatory developments shape the industry. For the institutions cited in our ranking of the Safest Islamic Banks in the GCC, an important area of growth is open banking, which allows bank customers to securely share financial data with third-party providers. This represents a significant opportunity to capture new business with commercial clients, particularly in the small to midsized enterprise segment.
Embedded Shariah-compliant products enable a range of services for real-time cash management, collections, and payments. To speed this development, Islamic banks are expanding partnerships with fintechs. GCC countries have made this area a high priority. The Saudi Central Bank has launched an open banking platform, establishing frameworks for corporate APIs: an important component of the bank’s fintech strategy related to the government’s Saudi Vision 2030 initiative.
The sukuk market is growing steadily—S&P estimates $200 billion in issuance during 2025, up 4% year over year—but the market must adapt to maintain growth as heightened regulation is on the horizon. Under evaluation is a new guideline (Standard 62) from the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) that alters the dynamics of the sukuk market. According to S&P, the new standard will mean “a market shift from structures in which contractual obligations of sukuk sponsors underpin repayment to structures where the underlying assets have a more prominent role. This could change the nature of sukuk as an instrument, exposing investors to higher risk, and increase market fragmentation.”
A new leader has emerged in our 2025 ranking of the Safest Islamic Banks in the GCC. Al Rajhi Bank, the largest Islamic bank globally, has claimed the top spot thanks to a Moody’s upgrade to Aa3 after the agency raised Saudi Arabia’s sovereign rating to the same level last November.
President Trump has long acknowledged that he doesn’t read books, so perhaps he’s never cracked the spine of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby.” But hasn’t he seen one of the several movies? Does he really not know that Gatsby is a tragedy about class, excess and hubris?
It seems not. On Halloween, there was Trump, dressed as himself, hosting a Gatsby-themed party at his Gatsby-era Mar-a-Lago estate. The president was fresh from a diplomatic tour of Asia during which he’d swept up an array of golden gifts (a crown!) from heads of state paying tribute in hopes of not paying tariffs.
Trump’s arriving guests, costumed as Roaring ’20s flappers, bootleggers and pre-crash tycoons, passed a scantily clad woman seductively writhing in a giant Champagne glass, then entered his gilded ballroom beneath a sign in Art Deco script pronouncing the night’s theme: “A little party never killed nobody.”
That’s the title of a song from the soundtrack of Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 film take on Gatsby, the most recent. Perhaps Trump is unaware that in the wake of the fictional Gatsby’s own debauched party, three people died, including Gatsby.
The tone-deaf Trump faced a comeuppance far short of tragedy after his party, but painful nonetheless: a blue wave in Tuesday’s elections. Revulsion at his imperial presidency swamped Republican candidates and causes.
The apparent ignorance of Mr. Make America Great Again about one of the great American novels, now in its centennial year, wasn’t the worst of Trump’s weekend show of excess. This was: The president of the United States held courtat Mar-a-Lago, amid free-flowing liquor and tables laden with food, hours before federal food aid would end for 42 million Americans. Meanwhile, more than 1 million federal employees were furloughed or worked without pay amid a five-week-old government shutdown, some of them joining previously fired public servants at food banks. The online People magazine juxtaposed a photo of Trump surveying his Palm Beach party with a shot of nearby Miamians in a food line.
The president, who for nearly 10 months has seized powers he doesn’t have under federal law and the Constitution, professed to be all but powerless to avert the nutrition assistance cutoff, despite two federal judges’ rulings that he do so. And, characteristically, he claimed to be blameless about the shutdown that provoked the nutrition crisis.
“It’s their fault,” Trump said of congressional Democrats as he flew to Mar-a-Lago for the fete. “Everything is their fault. It’s so easily solved.”
How? Why, Democrats have to bend the knee, of course. They must abandon their quest to get Trump and Republicans to reverse their Medicaid cuts and to extend Obamacare subsidies for the working poor. Even as Mr. Art of the Deal claims (falsely) to have settled eight wars, bargaining even with Hamas, he’s refused to negotiate with Democrats. The shutdown is now the longest ever, on Tuesday surpassing the 35-day record Trump set in his first term.
There’s more.
En route to Florida aboard Air Force One, the presidential plane that Trump is replacing with a truly royal jet, a gift from Qatar, and having left behind the ruins of the East Wing where his $300-million ballroom will rise, Trump took to social media to boast of his latest project in the Mar-a-Lago-fication of the White House: an all-marble and gold do-over of the bathroom adjoining the Lincoln Bedroom. “Highly polished, Statuary marble!” he crowed, sending two dozen photosinaseriesofposts. Trump wrote that the previous 1940s-era bathroom “was totally inappropriate for the Lincoln Era,” but his changes fixed that.
“Art Deco doesn’t go with, you know, 1850 and civil wars and all of the problems,” he’d told wealthy donors last month. “But what does is statuary marble. So I ripped it apart and we built the bathroom. It’s absolutely gorgeous and totally in keeping with that time.”
And with that, Trump again showed his ignorance of America’s history as well as its literature. That said, the new bathroom is more attractive than the one at Mar-a-Lago in which Trump stashed boxes of government documents, including top-secret papers, after his first term.
Trump’s lust for power and its trappings seems to have made him blind to bad optics and deaf to the dissonance of his utterances. The politician who’s gotten so much credit — and won two of three presidential elections — for speaking to working-class Americans’ grievances now seems completely out of touch. There’s also his family’s open accrual of wealth, especially in crypto, and Trump’s recent demand for $230 million from the ever-accommodating Justice Department, to compensate him for the past legal cases against him for keeping government documents and attempting to reverse his 2020 defeat.
All of this while Americans’ costs of living remain high, people are out of jobs thanks to his policies and longtime residents, including some citizens, are swept up in his immigrant detentions and deportations, sundering families.
This week’s election results aren’t the only thing that suggests Trump is finally paying a price. So did the release of severalpollstimed for the first anniversary of his reelection. Despite Trump’s claims to the contrary, his job approval ratings are the lowest since the ignominious end of his first term. Majorities oppose his handling of most issues, including the ones — the economy and immigration — that helped elect him.
The narrator in “The Great Gatsby” famously says of two central characters, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”
I’m looking forward to the day when the careless Trump is gone and his mess can be cleaned up — including all that gold defiling the People’s House.
Republic of Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson has named his squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers with Evan Ferguson included despite struggling with an ankle problem.
The forward – on loan at Roma from Brighton, who scored in the 1-0 win against Armenia in October, picked up the injury against Parma on 29 October. However, he is included in the 25-man squad for the final two group games that begin at home to Portugal on Thursday, 13 November (19:45 GMT) before a trip to Hungary on Sunday, 16 November (14:00 GMT).
Hallgrimsson’s side go into the final round of matches in Group F sitting in third, one point behind Hungary who travel to Armenia in the first of their games, knowing qualification for the 2026 World Cup could be out of their grasp with a game to spare should they lose to runaway leaders Portugal.
Missing for that game will be Jayson Molumby and Ryan Manning through suspension, but both are included in the squad.
There is a return for Mark Sykes despite his club Bristol City revealing he would miss their next two games after sustaining a gash on his leg in Tuesday’s 1-0 defeat by Blackburn Rovers.
With Callum O’Dowda out, Jimmy Dunne retains his place in the squad after coming in as a late replacement for the October internationals, while American-born 26-year-old Kevin O’Toole receives a call-up with the left-sided New York City player eligible through his grandfather.
However, there is no call for Celtic’s Johnny Kenny – despite scoring three goals in his last two games, including the opener in the League Cup semi-final win over Rangers at the weekend – even though Hallgrimsson is without the injured Sammie Szmodics.
In 1860, Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected 16th president of the United States.
In 1861, Jefferson Davis was elected president of the Confederate States of America.
In 1869, in the first formal intercollegiate football game, Rutgers beat Princeton, 6-4.
In 1928, Republican Herbert Hoover was elected 31st president of the United States, defeating Democrat Al Smith.
In 1956, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was re-elected by a wide margin.
In 1965, a formal agreement between the United States and Cuba allowed Cubans who wanted to leave the island nation for America to do so. More than 250,000 Cubans had taken advantage of this opportunity by 1971.
In 1985, members of the 19th of April Movement took over the Palace of Justice in Bogota, Colombia. The leftist guerrillas would kill more than 100 people (11 of whom where Supreme Court Justices) by the time the siege ended.
In 1991, Russian President Boris Yeltsin issued a decree banning the Communist Party, nationalizing its property and condemning its activities.
File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI
In 2012, U.S. President Barack Obama defeated Republican challenger Mitt Romney to win a second term. Federal finance reports showed campaign expenditures broke the $2 billion mark, making the election the most expensive in U.S. history at the time.
In 2013, Avigdor Lieberman, who had resigned as Israel’s foreign minister because of an investigation of alleged corruption, was acquitted and said: “This chapter is behind me. I am now focusing on the challenges ahead.” Lieberman became foreign minister again five days later.
In 2019, the U.S. midterm elections saw a number of milestones and firsts — Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., were the first Muslim women elected to the House; Sharice Davids, D-Kan., and Debra Haaland, D-N.M., were the first Native American women elected to the House; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., was the youngest person elected to the House in nearly three decades; and Jared Polis became the country’s first openly gay male governor, in Colorado. Democrats also took back control of the House, while Republicans held onto the Senate.
In 2024, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz dismissed Finance Minister Christian Lindner, resulting in the collapse of his three-party coalition government. A month later, Scholz lost a confidence vote in parliament, triggering an election in February that saw conservative Friedrich Merz put into power.
Flights to Orlando, New York, Miami and Los Angeles are all set to be affected by the historic US government shutdown
Airports serving the largest cities in the US are set to have thousands of flights cancelled daily in a looming holiday travel nightmare sparked by the government shutdown.(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Thousands of British travellers headed to the United States face either severe delays or flight cancellations as the US government’s shutdown shows no sign of ending.
Those with plans to fly to or return from the States are being advised that they could face disruption after the Trump administration announced a ten per cent to air traffic control. The ongoing US federal government shutdown is also affecting other areas of travel, airport staffing, and access to major tourist attractions.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has updated its guidance for UK travellers, cautioning that those flying to or through the US may face longer queues, delayed flights and reduced services at airports. Officials have also advised visitors to check in advance whether famous landmarks, national parks and museums remain open, as many are federally funded and may now have limited access or be closed altogether.
The warning comes after Washington lawmakers failed to agree on new funding for government operations, leading to a shutdown on 1 October that has left hundreds of thousands of federal workers unpaid and key services running on skeleton staff. The situation has become the latest flashpoint in the deepening political standoff between Democrats and Republicans in Congress.
In its updated travel advisory, the FCDO states: “There could be travel disruptions, including flight delays and longer queue times at some airports, due to the current US federal government shutdown. Check for messaging from your travel provider or airline and follow their guidance. There may also be restrictions on access to some federally-managed tourist attractions. Please check the relevant websites in advance.”
While the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and air traffic control services are still operating, many employees are either working without pay or calling in sick, placing pressure on staffing levels. Travel industry analysts warn that prolonged shortages could lead to further delays, particularly at major international gateways such as New York’s JFK Airport, Los Angeles International, Orlando, and Atlanta.
Tourists planning domestic flights within the US may also see longer wait times at security checkpoints, which could disrupt connecting flights and cause knock-on delays across the country. Airlines operating transatlantic services have begun issuing their own advisories. Some are advising passengers to arrive at airports earlier than usual for check-in and security screening, and to regularly monitor their flight status.
Another area of concern is the possible closure of major tourist attractions. National parks, including Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Yellowstone, and the Great Smoky Mountains, are overseen by the National Park Service, which is affected by the government shutdown. Historically, visitor centres, museums, restrooms, guided tours, and safety patrols have all been suspended during previous shutdowns, leaving tourists with little access or support.
In major cities, museums such as the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, the National Air and Space Museum, and the National Museum of American History may also face reduced opening hours or temporary closure if funding is not restored.
Holidaymakers are being encouraged to verify opening times before visiting, and to have backup plans in case venues are closed. Travel providers say travellers should be prepared to be flexible, especially those on multi-stop itineraries.
The Foreign Office guidance is precautionary rather than alarmist. Flights between the UK and US remain operational, most major tourist hubs continue to function, and hotels, restaurants and privately-run attractions are unaffected. But experts say travellers should avoid assuming everything will run as normal.
The shutdown stems from a political deadlock in Congress over government spending.
Republican lawmakers, particularly those aligned with President Donald Trump, have blocked funding bills in a bid to push for cuts to public services and changes to government programmes. Democrats have refused to agree to the proposals, saying they would damage key areas of the economy and the welfare system.
Without a funding agreement, government departments have been forced to limit operations. Essential services, including national security and emergency response, continue to operate. But many civil servants are furloughed without pay, and non-essential federal programmes are pausing operations until funding is restored.
List of airports that will see thousands of flights cancelled starting Friday
Obidah Habila Albert, an alumnus of the third cohort of HumAngle’s Accountability Fellowship, is among the 15 Nigerian journalists selected for the Digital Public Infrastructure Journalism (DPIJ) Fellowship, which will run from October 2025 to April 2026.
After receiving over 200 applications, 45 candidates were shortlisted, and 15 finalists emerged from 14 media organisations, including The Guardian Newspaper, Premium Times, Foundation for Investigative Journalism, and TheCable.
Organised by the Ghana-based Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) in partnership with Co-Develop, the fellowship is a flagship initiative that aims to strengthen public awareness and participation through journalism, promoting the adoption of Digital Public Infrastructures (DPIs) and Digital Public Goods and Services (DPGS).
Obidah, who is excited about his selection, said he applied for the opportunity because it aligns with his curiosity about technology’s impact on everyday life and how their stories could be more effectively documented.
“By the end of the programme, I want to understand DPI and DPGs better and tell stories about them. I hope my stories will drive conversations and help more people and policymakers in Nigeria and beyond to pay attention and take action,” he said.
During his fellowship with HumAngle, Obidah reported extensively on conflict and peacebuilding efforts in Nigeria’s North East, as well as the rising cost-of-living crisis affecting vulnerable communities. His experience, he said, deepened his commitment to reporting stories that highlight the human dimensions of development and policy issues.
According to Sulemana Braimah, Executive Director of MFWA, the DPIJ Fellowship is a strategic investment in shaping informed media narratives around inclusive design, implementation, and the uptake of DPI development in areas such as policy, governance, and utility.
The selected fellows and their newsrooms will receive grants to support reporting projects, as well as editorial mentorship, training, and access to resources on DPIs and DPGS. Each fellow is expected to produce at least six original stories before the end of the fellowship on issues relating to inclusive digital identification, digital payments, data exchange, and other digital safety issues. Fellows will also join a growing network of alumni across West Africa.
Last year, HumAngle’s Investigations Editor, Ibrahim Adeyemi, was selected for the West Africa cohort of the same fellowship, where he produced several stories exploring the intersection of DPIs and national security.
Obidah Habila Albert, a journalist and alumnus of HumAngle’s Accountability Fellowship, has been selected as one of 15 Nigerian journalists for the Digital Public Infrastructure Journalism (DPIJ) Fellowship from October 2025 to April 2026. The fellowship, organized by the Media Foundation for West Africa in partnership with Co-Develop, aims to enhance public awareness and engagement through journalism, focusing on Digital Public Infrastructures and Digital Public Goods and Services.
Obidah expressed enthusiasm for learning and documenting technology’s impact on everyday life. Throughout the fellowship, fellows will receive grants, mentorship, and resources to produce at least six original stories on digital issues, joining a network of West African alumni. The initiative also supports inclusive approaches in policy and governance, as highlighted by previous fellow Ibrahim Adeyemi, who explored DPIs and national security.
