Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are one of the best investments for those looking for lower-effort ways to get involved in the stock market, and the right investment can help you build long-term wealth while barely lifting a finger.

But with some investors worried about potential volatility, it can be tough to choose the right ETF. While there’s no single best investment for every portfolio, there are a few good reasons why the Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF (VYM -2.00%) could be a great buy in 2025.

Image source: Getty Images.

1. Its diversification can help limit risk

The Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF contains 579 stocks, which are fairly evenly allocated across 10 different industries. It’s most heavily allocated to the financials sector, representing close to 22% of the fund.

This level of diversification can help mitigate risk. In general, the more stocks you own across a wider variety of industries, the safer your portfolio will be. There are limits to diversification, but if you’re investing in hundreds of stocks across 10 industries, your portfolio won’t be crushed if a handful of stocks or even an entire sector is hit hard in a market downturn.

One thing that makes this fund somewhat different from many other ETFs is its lighter allocation toward tech stocks at only 12% of the fund — compared to, for example, the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, which devotes over 33% of the fund toward tech.

Tech stocks often deliver higher returns than those from other sectors, but they can also be highly volatile. Relying less on this industry can help reduce risk and short-term turbulence, which can be a major advantage in periods of uncertainty.

2. It offers consistent performance

This ETF won’t experience the same returns as, say, a high-powered growth ETF, and that’s OK. Each fund has its own unique strengths and weaknesses, and the High Dividend Yield ETF’s biggest strength is consistency.

All the stocks in this fund have a history of delivering high dividend yields year after year. Companies with strong dividend payouts are often more mature and established than their younger and more volatile counterparts, as the latter are generally more focused on growing and stabilizing the business than paying out dividends.

This doesn’t mean that these companies won’t face shakiness in the near term, especially during a market downturn. But many of the stocks in this ETF have a decades-long track record of recovering from even the most severe economic rough patches while still paying out consistent dividends to shareholders.

3. Its high dividend can generate passive income

Perhaps the biggest advantage of investing in a dividend ETF is the dividend income itself. This fund most recently paid out a quarterly dividend of around $0.84 per share, and while that may not sound significant, it adds up when you accumulate dozens or hundreds of shares over time.

Dividend ETFs can be particularly strong investments during periods of market uncertainty. Besides the general consistency and diversification that this fund offers, you can also rely on it as a steady source of passive income via dividend payments. While you can reinvest those dividends back into the fund, you can also choose to cash them out each quarter for some extra income.

High-yield dividend funds specifically are designed to pay higher dividends compared to other stocks and ETFs. If you’re looking to grow a stable stream of passive income, the Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF can help you get there.

It’s unclear where the stock market may be headed throughout the rest of 2025. But during periods of uncertainty, investing in a dividend ETF can help keep your portfolio more protected, regardless of what’s coming.

Former Los Angeles Unified schools Supt. Austin Beutner is planning to announce a challenge to Mayor Karen Bass in the 2026 election, arguing that the city has failed to properly respond to crime, rising housing costs and the devastating Palisades fire.

Beutner, a philanthropist and former investment banker who lives in L.A.’s Pacific Palisades neighborhood, would become the first serious challenger to Bass, who is running for her second and final term.

Beutner, whose announcement is planned Monday, said in an interview Saturday that city officials at all levels showed a “failure of leadership” on the fire, which destroyed thousands of homes and left 12 people dead.

The inferno seriously damaged Beutner’s house, forcing him and his family to rent elsewhere in the neighborhood and destroyed his mother-in-law’s home.

“When you have broken hydrants, a reservoir that’s broken and is out of action, broken [fire] trucks that you can’t dispatch ahead of time, when you don’t pre-deploy at the adequate level, when you don’t choose to hold over the Monday firefighters to be there on Tuesday to help fight the fire — to me, it’s a failure of leadership,” Beutner said.

“At the end of the day,” he added, “the buck stops with the mayor.”

A representative for Bass’ campaign declined to comment.

Beutner’s attacks come days after federal prosecutors filed charges in the Palisades fire, accusing a 29-year-old of intentionally starting a New Year’s Day blaze that later rekindled into the deadly inferno.

With the federal investigation tied up, the city Fire Department released a long-awaited after-action report Wednesday. The 70-page report found that firefighters were hampered by poor communication, inexperienced leadership, a lack of resources and an ineffective process for recalling them back to work. Bass announced a number of changes in light of the report.

Beutner, a onetime advisor to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, could pose a serious political threat to Bass. He would come to the race with a wide range of experiences — finance, philanthropy, local government and even the struggling journalism industry.

Although seven other people have filed paperwork to run for her seat, none have the fundraising muscle or name recognition to mount a major campaign. Rick Caruso, the real estate developer whom Bass defeated in 2022, has publicly flirted with the idea of another run but has stopped short of announcing a decision.

Bass beat Caruso by a wide margin in 2022 even though the shopping mall mogul outspent her by an enormous margin. Caruso has been an outspoken critic of her mayorship, particularly on her response to the Palisades fire.

Fernando Guerra, director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University, said he believes that Beutner would face an uphill climb in attempting to unseat Bass — even with the criticism surrounding the handling of the Palisades fire. However, his entry into the race could inspire other big names to launch their own mayoral campaigns, shattering the “wall of invincibility” that Bass has tried to create, he said.

“If Beutner jumps in and starts to get some traction, it makes it easier for Caruso to jump in,” Guerra said. “Because all you’ve got to do is come in second in the primary [election], and then see what happens in the general.”

Earlier Saturday, The Times reported that Beutner’s longtime X account had featured — then quickly removed — the banner image “AUSTIN for LA MAYOR,” along with the words: “This account is being used for campaign purposes by Austin Beutner for LA Mayor 2026.” That logo was also added and then removed from other Beutner social media accounts.

Beutner’s announcement comes in a year of crises for the mayor and her city. She was out of the country in January, taking part in a diplomatic mission to Ghana, when the ferocious Palisades fire broke out.

Upon her return, she faced withering criticism over the city’s preparation for the high winds, as well as Fire Department operations and the overall emergency response.

In the months that followed, the city was faced with a $1-billion budget shortfall, triggered in part by pay raises for city workers that were approved by Bass. To close the gap, the City Council eliminated about 1,600 vacant positions, slowed down hiring at the Los Angeles Police Department and rejected Bass’ proposal for dozens of additional firefighters.

By June, Bass faced a different emergency: waves of masked and heavily armed federal agents apprehending immigrants at car washes, Home Depots and elsewhere, sparking furious street protests.

Bass’ standing with voters was badly damaged in the wake of the Palisades fire, with polling in March showing that fewer than 20% of L.A. residents gave her fire response high marks.

But after President Trump put the city in his crosshairs, the mayor regained her political footing, responding swiftly and sharply. She mobilized her allies against the immigration crackdown and railed against the president’s deployment of the National Guard, arguing that the soldiers were “used as props.”

Beutner — who, like Bass, is a Democrat — said he voted for Bass four years ago and had come to regret his choice.

He described Los Angeles as a city “adrift,” with unsolved property crimes, rising trash fees and housing that is unaffordable to many.

Beutner said that he supports “in concept” Senate Bill 79, the law that will force the city to allow taller, denser buildings near rail stations.

“I just wish that we had leadership in Los Angeles that had been ahead of this, so we would have had a greater say in some of the rules,” he said. “But conceptually, yes, we’ve got to build more housing.”

Bass had urged Gov. Gavin Newsom not to sign the bill into law, which he did Friday.

Beutner is a co-founder and former president of Evercore Partners, a financial services company that advises its clients on mergers, acquisitions and other transactions. In 2008, he retired from that firm — now called Evercore Inc. — after he was seriously injured in a bicycling accident.

In 2010, he became Villaraigosa’s “jobs czar,” taking on the elevated title of first deputy mayor and receiving wide latitude to strike business deals on the mayor’s behalf, just as the city was struggling to emerge from its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

Slightly more than a year into his job, Beutner filed paperwork to begin exploring a run for mayor. He secured the backing of former Mayor Richard Riordan and many in the business community but pulled the plug in 2012.

In 2014, Beutner became publisher of The Times, where he focused on digital experimentation and reader engagement. He lasted roughly a year in that job before Tribune Publishing Co., then the parent company of The Times, ousted him.

Three years later, Beutner was hired as the superintendent of the L.A. Unified School District, which serves schoolchildren in Los Angeles and more than two dozen other cities and unincorporated areas. He quickly found himself at odds with the teachers union, which staged a six-day strike.

The union settled for a two-year package of raises totaling 6%. Beutner, for his part, signed off on a parcel tax to generate additional education funding, but voters rejected the proposal.

In 2022, after leaving the district, Beutner led the successful campaign for Proposition 28, which requires that a portion of California’s general fund go toward visual and performing arts instruction.

Earlier this year, Beutner and several others sued L.A. Unified, accusing the district of violating Proposition 28 by misusing state arts funding and failing to provide legally required arts instruction to students.

He also is involved in philanthropy, having founded the nonprofit Vision to Learn, which provides vision screenings, eye exams and glasses to children in low-income communities.

IF a Chinese bloke had been caught spying for the UK in Beijing, he’d currently be hung up by his toes in a cell, awaiting execution.

That’s how the Chinese sort things out. Nobody in Beijing would be worrying much if the UK is a threat or not.

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Bullet or lethal injection, Wu’s yer uncle.

Or maybe they would be pawed to death by an angry panda.

But it’s more often a bullet between the eyes.

Most countries take spying and espionage very seriously.

Indeed, ensuring we are safe from foreigners who might do us harm is the first duty of a government.

But clearly it is a duty that Sir Keir Starmer does not take remotely seriously.

Last week, two Brits were due to be tried for spying for the Chinese.

They were Christopher Cash, a parliamentary researcher, and Christopher Berry, a researcher who works in China.

Both deny any wrongdoing.

But suddenly, at the last minute, the Crown Prosecution Service dropped the case.

It didn’t bother explaining why — one minute the trial was on, the next it was dead meat.

Industrial secrets

It now transpires that the CPS took advice from British government officials.

It is entirely possible that the UK’s National Security Adviser, Jonathan Powell, a good mate of Keir, was one of the officials involved.

Shortly after their meeting with the CPS, the decision was taken to drop the case.

Why? They apparently told the CPS China couldn’t be called a “threat” to the UK.

Instead, it was just a “geo-political challenge”.

And so the charges against Cash and Berry wouldn’t stick.

In a previous spying case it was decided that charges were relevant only if it involved “a country which represents, at the time of the offence, a threat to the national security of the UK”.

Have you ever heard anything more ridiculous?

If China isn’t a threat to the UK, then who is?

The head of MI5, Sir Ken McCallum, has reported that the Chinese have tried to entice 20,000 Brits to act as spies for them, against our interests.

Did nobody think to ask Sir Ken if he thought China was a threat? I suspect I know the answer that would have been forthcoming

He also claimed that 10,000 UK businesses were at threat from the Chinese trying to nick industrial secrets.

In addition, he said that MI5 had 2,000 current investigations into Chinese spying activity — and that a new case was opened on the Chinese — behaving very deviously indeed — every 12 hours.

Did nobody think to ask Sir Ken if he thought China was a threat?

I suspect I know the answer that would have been forthcoming.

Of course the country is a threat.

It is menacing other nations down in South East Asia.

It has a whole bunch of nukes pointed directly at the West.

It arrests dissidents who want western-style freedoms.

And it does everything it can to undermine the UK’s politics and industry.

Truth be told, anybody who is working secretly for a foreign country in the UK is a threat to this country.

Especially if they are working in the House of Commons.

This seems to me so obvious that it should not need stating.

If their secret outside income involves a vast load of Yuan, some fortune cookies and cans of bubble tea, then we should investigate very seriously.

The truth in this particular case, though, is particularly damning.

It seems almost certain that Whitehall officials intervened at the behest of the Government.

And that they did this so as not to p**s off the Chinese — because aside from being a threat to the UK, which China certainly is, we are going cap in hand begging for investment from them.

Other nations don’t have a problem with employing a dual approach.

Make no mistake, we may need to do business with the likes of China, much as we did once with Russia — but they ARE the enemy

They understand that while they all need to do trade with horrible totalitarian countries such as China, they also need to count their spoons, if you get my meaning — and at the slightest sign of devious behaviour, call them out.

The Chinese understand this too.

Yes, being caught with a bunch of spies in our Parliament may be embarrassing for a short while.

But it won’t be allowed to get in the way of China making more money.

It seems that our government was too frit to risk it.

Too scared that the Chinese might react nastily and pull investment.

Or decide not to invest in the future. We mustn’t offend the Chinese.

Strategies like this simply do not work — and the Chinese, just like their big mates the Russians, will continue to spy on our institutions and do everything they can to harm our state.

Enemy is laughing

Make no mistake, we may need to do business with the likes of China, much as we did once with Russia — but they ARE the enemy.

And currently an enemy that is laughing its head off.

The government officials involved will be coming before the House of Commons Joint Committee on National Security Strategy.

If it is discovered that Jonathan Powell did warn off the CPS from pursuing the cases against Cash and Berry, then Powell should resign or be sacked.

Unless, of course, Powell was simply doing the bidding of the Prime Minister or the then Foreign Secretary, the intellectual colossus who is David Lammy.

If that’s the case then THEY should resign.

One way or another, we cannot allow Chinese spies to run amok in this country of ours just because we want to trouser some more wonga down the line, through Chinese investment.

This is a truly important week for Starmer.

The Chinese spygate scandal is the most serious he has faced since taking office last July.

It could yet be the finish of the man.

Which won’t make me lose a terrific amount of sleep, I have to tell you.

THE Man Who Never Sweats is probably feeling a bit moist under the armpits right now.

It has been discovered that Prince Andrew was still sending chummy texts to disgraced paedo Jeffrey Epstein long after the royal said he was.

Andrew is alleged to have messaged him to say: “We are in this together.”

This happened 12 weeks after the point at which Andrew claimed, in that BBC interview, to have cut off all contact with the odious slimeball.

It’s high time King Charles took action and kicked Andrew out of his Royal Lodge home in Windsor Great Park.

I’M sure there must be some people on those pro-Palestinian marches who are not actually dyed-in-the-wool antisemites.

But if so, how do they react to a comrade saying that they “don’t give a f***” about the Jewish community?

Or the protesters in Glasgow who unfurled a banner praising the “martyrs” of Hamas for murdering about 1,200 Israeli civilians and taking 251 hostage on October 7, 2023?

Or the chants about killing the IDF?

Or the demands for Israel to cease to exist?

Or for a global intifada?

It is one thing to have a few doubts about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

It is altogether another to stand alongside rabid, Jew-hating jihadis, chanting their odious slogans.

Isn’t it time these fellow travellers had a Mitchell and Webb moment and asked themselves: “Hey . . . are we the BAD guys?”

BALTIMORE — Rams receiver Puka Nacua fell off his record-setting pace.

But that was fine with the Rams.

They were just happy their star receiver returned to the field after suffering a foot injury in the first half of Sunday’s 17-3 victory over the Baltimore Ravens.

Matthew Stafford passed for a touchdown, Kyren Williams ran for another and Jared Verse and safety Quentin Lake led a defense that shut down the Lamar Jackson-less Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium.

The Rams bounced back from their overtime defeat by the San Francisco 49ers and improved their record to 4-2. They will remain in Baltimore this week to prepare for next Sunday’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley Stadium in London.

The Rams overcame untimely penalties, dropped passes, special teams errors and Nacua’s scare that left them in a 3-3 tie at halftime.

But the Rams scored two touchdowns in the first five minutes of the second half on a short run by Williams and — after Verse forced a fumble that was recovered by Lake — a short touchdown pass from Stafford to tight end Tyler Higbee.

Nacua, who entered the game with an NFL leading 52 receptions and 588 yards receiving, had only two catches for 28 yards. That proved more than enough against a Ravens team that fell to 1-5.

Nacua was assisted off the field by trainers with about 10 minutes left in the second quarter after attempting to catch a pass in the end zone.

Nacua had run along the right sideline with Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey in tight coverage. Both players leaped for the ball and came down hard on the turf.

Nacua got up gingerly in apparent pain, and then took a few steps and went back to the ground.

Moments later, running back Blake Corum also went to the locker room because of an ankle. Like Nacua, he returned in the second half.

Lake intercepted a pass — the first interception of the fourth-year pro’s career — and also recovered a fumble.

Verse forced a fumble and stopped star running back Derek Henry on a fourth-and-one play at the goal line at the end of the first half.

Oct. 12 (UPI) — Longtime Washington insider and political aide Dan Scavino has been selected to head the presidential personnel office.

Scavino will replace Sergio Gor, whom President Donald Trump nominated in August to serve as U.S. ambassador to India.

Scavino, a former deputy chief of staff, has been among Trump’s most trusted advisers.

“I am pleased to announce that the great Dan Scavino, in addition to remaining Deputy Chief of Staff to the Trump Administration, will head to the White House Presidential Personnel Office, replacing Sergio Gor, who did a wonderful job in that position, and will now become Ambassador to India,” Trump said in a social media post.

The personnel office has largely overseen administrative duties, but also has had significant influence, especially during the Trump administration, which has selected several candidates based on their loyalty to the president. The office is responsible for hiring and firing thousands of employees.

Scavino’s appointment comes amid a government shutdown, which led to the layoffs of more than 4,000 employees Friday. Trump has not been clear as to whether they will receive back pay, or whether they will have jobs when the government reopens.

In the late 1990s and early aughts, the conservative Parents Television Council struck fear in the hearts of network TV executives for its high-profile campaigns against shows it deemed too raunchy.

The watchdog group, founded by conservative commentator L. Brent Bozell III, railed against Fox’s “Melrose Place” and “Family Guy”; NBC’s “Just Shoot Me”; and the CW’s “Gossip Girl.” It also singled out CBS following the infamous Janet Jackson-Justin Timberlake “nipplegate” controversy during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show when the singer’s breast was briefly exposed.

But the Parents Television Council Inc. — whose members lodged thousands of indecency complaints with the Federal Communications Commission — has folded. Earlier this month, the Burbank-based nonprofit filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Delaware court, saying it had $284,823 in liabilities, which include staff member salaries, insurance payments and credit card debt. The filing lists $91,874 in assets.

The group’s demise reflects broad cultural changes, including a fractured media environment and consumers’ shift to streaming and social media apps such as TikTok for entertainment. Parents also have tools, including the ability to configure settings on streaming accounts to try to shield children from inappropriate content.

The PTC’s power came, in large part, from its ability to flood the FCC with indecency complaints. But the FCC, which licenses broadcasters, does not regulate streaming services, YouTube or TikTok.

The council had clout with advertisers, which put pressure on network programmers to minimize shows that would raise the group’s ire and threats of boycotts.

“I’m disappointed but I’m still very proud of what we did and what we achieved,” Tim Winter, former president of the group, said Friday. “We were able to raise awareness about so many important issues — issues that are still out there.”

“Like most businesses, it came down to money,” said Winter, who retired three years ago. “It’s just a slog out there to fundraise.”

Decades ago, the group hauled in millions of dollars in donations. The PTC boasted more than 653,000 members and supporters by 2000. However, in 2023, the most recent year of available tax reports, the Parents Television Council raised just $1.6 million, down from $4.7 million in 2007.

The group, which also went by Parents Television and Media Council, was formed in 1995 by Bozell as the Hollywood arm of his Virginia-based Media Research Center.

Bozell, long a booster of President Trump, now serves in his administration as ambassador to South Africa.

One of the PTC’s early efforts was to urge broadcasters to reserve the 8 p.m. hour for family-friendly fare. That was the custom of the networks in the 1970s; but two decades later, there was a rise in sexually suggestive content.

Over the years, the group hired analysts to monitor TV programming, published detailed reports and TV show rankings. Winter testified before a U.S. Senate committee hearing in 2007 on the impact of media violence on children.

Advertisers were sensitive to the PTC’s warnings.

“We were able to redirect tens of millions of dollars away from more explicit programming and into more family-friendly shows,” Winter said.

The PTC also spoke out against media consolidation, which accelerated in the 1990s, “the problem of having too few voices hold the microphone,” Winter said.

While it initially focused on broadcast shows, the group went after others, including Netflix when it offered the show “13 Reasons Why,” based on a book about a 17-year-old girl who died by suicide. The PTC, and other organizations, decried the series, fearing it would encourage more deaths.

Netflix responded by deleting a graphic suicide scene, and the show was later canceled.

“The media culture is no less toxic than it was years ago. And in some ways, it is more toxic,” Winter said, adding that other organizations will have to carry the mantle. “The mission is more important than ever.”

Brookfield Corporation (BN -4.28%) completed a three-for-two stock split earlier this week. The global investment firm split its shares to make them more accessible to individual investors and to enhance the trading liquidity of its stock.

Over the past 30 years, the company has completed several stock splits as a result of delivering a total return exceeding 27,000%. Brookfield has consistently outperformed the broader market, with a 19% annualized total return over the last three decades compared to 11% for the S&P 500. Looking forward, Brookfield expects to continue delivering strong growth, which could triple the value of its shares by 2030

Image source: Getty Images.

Brookfield: The wealth-creating machine

Despite its impressive returns, many investors aren’t too familiar with Brookfield. The Canadian company is a leading global investment manager with three businesses:

• Asset management: The company owns a 73% interest in Brookfield Asset Management, a leading global alternative investment manager with over $1 trillion in assets under management (AUM).
• Wealth solutions: Brookfield Wealth Solutions is an investment-led insurance company that offers annuities, as well as property, casualty, and life insurance.
• Operating businesses: It owns interests in four global operating platforms focused on infrastructure (Brookfield Infrastructure), renewable energy (Brookfield Renewable), private equity (Brookfield Business), and real estate (Brookfield Property).

These businesses generate significant and rapidly growing operating cash flows, enabling Brookfield to return capital to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases, while also allocating funds to enhance shareholder value.

Over the last five years, Brookfield has grown its distributable earnings at a 22% compound annual rate, raising them from $2 billion in 2020 to an expected $5.3 billion this year. This growth puts the company’s intrinsic value at $102 per share (pre-split), well above the recent pre-split stock price of less than $70 a share. Over the past year, Brookfield has returned $1.5 billion to investors ($1 billion for share repurchases and $500 million in dividends), while retaining the remaining capital for reinvestment.

The plan leading to 2030

Brookfield expects to continue growing rapidly over the next five years. The company aims to deliver annualized total distributable earnings-per-share growth of 25% during this period. Within this, its core businesses should generate 20% annualized growth, with an additional 5% growth anticipated from capital allocation activities. As a result, Brookfield estimates its share value could increase at an annual rate of 16%, potentially rising to $210 (pre-split) by 2030 — a projected increase of over 200% from current levels.

The investment firm anticipates that its wealth solutions business will be a significant growth driver through 2030, accounting for over one-third of its anticipated total growth. Management’s goal is to grow its insurance assets from $135 billion currently to $350 billion by 2030, which it expects would more than double the platform’s earnings in the next five years. Brookfield has been expanding this platform through acquisitions, most recently announcing an agreement to acquire Just Group for $3.2 billion, expanding its reach to the UK pension risk market.

Brookfield also sees robust future growth for its asset management business. The company anticipates capitalizing on growing investor demand for alternative investments, which typically offer higher returns and lower volatility compared to traditional asset classes. Many individual investors have relatively low exposure to alternatives, representing a major market opportunity given that they hold $40 trillion in wealth.

Finally, Brookfield generates significant free cash flow, providing capital to grow shareholder value. The company estimates that by 2030, it will produce $25 billion in cumulative surplus free cash flow after dividend payments and current capital commitments, which it can allocate to acquisitions, fund investments, and other opportunities.

A top stock-split stock to buy now and hold for the next five years

Brookfield Corporation has consistently demonstrated a remarkable ability to grow shareholder value over the years. As a result, it has had to split its stock several times, including earlier this week. More stock splits seem likely, given the company’s robust growth profile. That makes it a great stock to buy post-split, as shares could triple in value from here by 2030.

Vice President JD Vance said Sunday there will be deeper cuts to the federal workforce the longer the government shutdown goes on, adding to the uncertainty facing hundreds of thousands who are already furloughed without pay amid the stalemate in Congress.

Vance warned that as the federal shutdown entered its 12th day, the new cuts would be “painful,” even as he said the Trump administration worked to ensure that the military is paid this week and some services would be preserved for low-income Americans, including food assistance.

Still, hundreds of thousands of government workers have been furloughed in recent days and, in a court filing Friday, the Office of Management and Budget said well over 4,000 federal employees would soon be fired in conjunction with the shutdown.

“The longer this goes on, the deeper the cuts are going to be,” Vance said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “To be clear, some of these cuts are going to be painful. This is not a situation that we relish. This is not something that we’re looking forward to, but the Democrats have dealt us a pretty difficult set of cards.”

Labor unions have already filed a lawsuit to stop the aggressive move by President Trump’s budget office, which goes far beyond what usually happens in a government shutdown, further inflaming tensions between the Republicans who control Congress and the Democratic minority.

The shutdown began Oct. 1 after Democrats rejected a short-term funding fix and demanded that the bill include an extension of federal subsidies for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. The expiration of those subsidies at the end of the year will result in monthly cost increases for millions.

Trump and Republican leaders have said they are open to negotiations on the health subsidies, but insist the government must reopen first.

For now, negotiations are virtually nonexistent. Dug in as ever, House leaders from both parties pointed fingers at each other in rival Sunday appearances on “Fox News Sunday.”

“We have repeatedly made clear that we will sit down with anyone, anytime, anyplace,” said House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. “Republicans control the House, the Senate and the presidency. It’s unfortunate they’ve taken a my-way-or-the-highway approach.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) blamed Democrats and said they “seem not to care” about the pain the shutdown is inflicting.

“They’re trying their best to distract the American people from the simple fact that they’ve chosen a partisan fight so that they can prove to their Marxist rising base in the Democratic Party that they’re willing to fight Trump and Republicans,” he said.

Progressive activists, meanwhile, expressed new support for the Democratic Party’s position in the shutdown fight.

Ezra Levin, co-founder of the leading progressive protest group Indivisible, said he is “feeling good about the strength of Dem position.” He pointed to fractures in the GOP, noting that Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene publicly warned last week that healthcare insurance premiums would skyrocket for average Americans — including her own adult children — if nothing is done.

“Trump and GOP are rightfully taking the blame for the shutdown and for looming premium increases,” Levin said. “Their chickens are coming home to roost.”

And yet the Republican administration and its congressional allies are showing no signs of compromise on Democratic demands or backing away from threats to use the opportunity to pursue deeper cuts to the federal workforce.

Thousands of employees at the departments of Education, Treasury, Homeland Security and Health and Human Services as well as the Environmental Protection Agency are set to receive layoff notices, according to spokespeople for the agencies and union representatives for federal workers.

“You hear a lot of Senate Democrats say, well, how can Donald Trump possibly lay off all of these federal workers?” Vance said. “Well, the Democrats have given us a choice between giving low-income women their food benefits and paying our troops on the one hand, and, on the other hand, paying federal bureaucrats.”

Democrats say the firings are illegal and unnecessary.

“They do not have to do this,” said Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “They do not have to punish people that shouldn’t find themselves in this position.”

Peoples writes for the Associated Press.

It was a run chase set up by an Alyssa Healy century and sealed with an Ellyse Perry six as Australia beat India by three wickets to remain undefeated in the ICC Women’s World Cup 2025.

Facing a record run-chase target of 331, Australia’s captain took on the Indian bowlers from the start to build the perfect foundation for her team, and an injured Perry returned to bat to complete the task against the hosts at the YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam on Sunday.

Healy, who opened the innings alongside Phoebe Litchfield, took on the role of the aggressor as she hit three sixes and 21 fours in her 107-ball epic innings of 142.

Litchfield and her captain shared a partnership of 85 before the left-handed batter was dismissed for 40 off 39 balls in the 12th over by slow left-arm bowler Shree Charani.

Healy kept going, though, and built another partnership with experienced all-rounder Ellyse Perry. The pair took Australia to 154 in the 25th over, when Perry retired hurt after suffering an undisclosed injury.

India pounced on the opportunity and were quick to dismiss in-form Beth Mooney for four, followed by Annabel Sutherland for zero in successive overs of spin bowling by Deepti Sharma and Charani.

The fall of wickets did little to slow down Healy, who ensured Australia kept up with the required run rate as she found gaps with little problem and caused several issues for India’s captain Harmanpreet Kaur.

She completed her century off 84 balls in the 31st over and went on to add 56 runs before falling to a soft dismissal off Charani’s bowling. She sliced a ball to point, where a diving Sneh Rana took a catch that had to be double-checked with the television umpire.

However, even as Healy walked off, Australia seemed in control of the run chase. Then three quick wickets in the next six overs brought India back into the match.

When Australia went seven wickets down, Perry walked back onto the field, although with hindered mobility.

The veteran all-rounder combined with Kim Garth to keep the target within reach and finally sealed the win with a trademark six over the bowler’s head to ensure the seven-time champions remain unbeaten in the tournament.

Unsurprisingly, Healy was named player of the match and credited the team for chasing the record total.

“To chase down 330 in a 50-over game is new territory for us,” she said in her post-match comments. “Hopefully, we don’t have to do it again.”

Kaur blames poor end-of-innings batting

India suffered their second consecutive defeat in three days, leaving plenty to ponder for captain Kaur, who blamed the loss on India’s poor batting in the last few overs.

“We knew it was a good batting wicket, but not batting well in the last six overs cost us,” she said after the match.

“The openers have been outstanding, but in the last three games, we were not able to bat in the middle overs.”

The result helped the defending champions return to the top of the points table with seven from their four matches, while India remain unmoved in third despite losing their second match of the tournament.

England are second with six points, and South Africa fourth with four.

The top four teams in the eight-nation tournament will qualify for the semifinals.

Mandhana breaks more records

Earlier, India’s star batter Smriti Mandhana brushed off her low-scoring start to the tournament by hitting a 66-ball 80 in a 155-run opening partnership with Pratika Rawal, who contributed with 75 runs off 96 balls.

Mandhana, who had not gone past 23 in her previous three innings in the World Cup, broke the shackles as she hit three sixes and nine fours in her dominant innings. In the process, she became the fastest player to 5,000 runs in women’s ODIs, having achieved the feat in 112 innings.

It was an attempted slog that became her undoing in the 25th over, when she was caught in deep off the bowling of left-arm spin bowler Sophie Molineux.

Despite the vice-captain’s loss, India continued in their swift-scoring ways as Harleen Deol joined Rawal and resumed the big shots where Mandhana had left off.

However, Rawal was dismissed in the 31st over by Sutherland, and once again, it was an attempted big shot that led to the dismissal at fine leg. India’s captain Kaur, who has also been in search of runs in the tournament, attacked the bowling straight away but was soon dismissed for 22 by Megan Schutt.

The rest of India’s middle and lower-middle order kept the scoring rate up as Jemimah Rodrigues (33), Richa Ghosh (32) and Amanjot Kaur (16) helped India cross the 300-run mark.

Sutherland caused some late damage to help bowl out the hosts for 330 in 48.5 overs and finished with a five-wicket haul.

Molineux finished with 3-75 in her comeback game.

Australia face Bangladesh at the same venue on Thursday, while India resume their campaign after a week-long break when they host England in Indore on Sunday.

The election in Frankfurt an der Oder, a city on the border with Poland, is between Independent candidate Axel Strasser and AfD contender Wilko Moller.

Voters in the eastern city of Frankfurt an der Oder have cast their ballots in a run-off election that could give the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, the largest opposition party in parliament, its first mayoral victory in a German city.

Independent candidate Axel Strasser and AfD contender Wilko Moller faced off on Sunday after leading the first-round vote on September 21, with Strasser receiving 32.4 percent of the vote and Moller 30.2 percent.

Candidates from the centre-right Christian Democratic Union and the centre-left Social Democratic Party were eliminated in the first round.

The election comes three days after the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament, stripped two AfD lawmakers of their parliamentary immunity, with one accused of defamation and the other of making a Nazi salute, which is illegal in Germany.

Political scientist Jan Philipp Thomeczek, of the University of Potsdam, told the dpa news agency that a victory for Moller would send “a very strong signal” that the anti-immigrant and eurosceptic AfD can succeed in urban areas.

Frankfurt an der Oder is a city in the eastern German state of Brandenburg, located directly on the border with Poland. It is distinct from Frankfurt am Main, the much larger financial hub in western Germany.

The German Association of Towns and Municipalities says there is currently no AfD-affiliated mayor of a city of significant size anywhere in the country.

Tim Lochner became mayor of the town of Pirna, near the Czech border, after being nominated for election in 2023 by the AfD, but he is technically an independent.

An AfD politician, Robert Sesselmann, is the district administrator in the Sonneberg district in Thuringia. There are also AfD mayors in small towns in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt.

The Brandenburg domestic intelligence service in May classified the AfD’s state branch as “confirmed far-right extremist”, a label the party rejects as a politically driven attempt to marginalise it.

A 1,100-page report compiled by the agency – that will not be made public – concluded that the AfD is a racist and anti-Muslim organisation.

The designation makes the party subject to surveillance and has revived discussion over a potential ban for the AfD, which has launched a legal challenge against the intelligence service.

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio sharply criticised the classification when it was announced, branding it as “tyranny in disguise”, and urged German authorities to reverse the move.

In response, Germany hit back at US President Donald Trump’s administration, suggesting officials in Washington should study history.

“We have learnt from our history that right-wing extremism needs to be stopped,” said Germany’s Federal Foreign Office in a statement.

The Kremlin also criticised the action against the AfD, which regularly repeats Russian narratives regarding the war in Ukraine, and what it called a broader trend of “restrictive measures” against political movements in Europe.

Brandenburg leaders say the AfD has shown contempt for government institutions, while the state’s domestic intelligence chief, Wilfried Peters, added that the party advocates for the “discrimination and exclusion” of people who do not “belong to the German mainstream”.

Polling stations closed at 6pm local time (16:00 GMT), and results were expected by late Sunday.

Gogglebox star Georgia Bell has opened up about the ‘chaos’ of filming the hit Channel 4 show

Recording Gogglebox proves utterly chaotic for Georgia Bell, with the mum frequently allowing her two youngsters to join her on the settee – and they don’t always play ball.

She told the Daily Star: “It’s good fun having the kids with me. But sometimes it is chaos. I have to tell my boyfriend to take them out.”

Georgia’s co-star and mate Abbie Lynn revealed: “It’s hard for a three-year-old to sit and focus on The Traitors. They’d rather have Bluey on. Mind you, they do love Britain’s Got Talent!”

Despite the difficulties of having children present during recording, Georgia remains delighted she’s included them, as the programme provides her with precious footage she can treasure forever.

She explained: “In years to come, I’ll be like, ‘Sit down boys, this is you two when you were so young’.

“Ralphie was only a few weeks old when he was first on the show and Hugh was a few months old. I just think it will be an amazing thing to be able to look back on when they’re older.”

Georgia and Abbie have featured on the programme for seven years and remain eager to continue, with Abbie declaring: “I will stay on the show until I die.”

Last year Georgia revealed that she had welcomed her second child, sharing a snap of the tiny tot whilst radiating happiness as she provided an update on how he was getting on. In the photograph, the tiny bundle was spotted tucked up in a white baby grow with little white fluffy socks and a sweet little collar round his neck to keep him cosy.

He was pictured having a snooze in a Moses basket wrapped in a soft woollen blanket as he slumbered peacefully after arriving into the world.

Penning the caption, Georgia revealed all the crucial details fans would have been desperate for.

“Ralphie James Newby,” she wrote, “our precious boy – born November 10th at 11:27pm, weighing 7lbs 10oz.

“Settling into the life of a family of 5, we all love you unbelievable amounts little one,” Georgia continued.

Followers were thrilled to discover that the Geordie star had finally welcomed her baby into the world after months of anticipation, but this wasn’t the first time it was suggested she had given birth.

Shares of enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) giant Oracle (ORCL -1.33%) have surged nearly 74% so far in 2025. The company has benefited from the explosive demand for data center capacity, driven by the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure.

With its market capitalization sitting comfortably at $828.6 billion as of Oct. 6, the question now is whether Oracle can cross the coveted $1 trillion mark by 2028. Here’s why this scenario seems highly possible.

Backlog conversion to revenues

Oracle ended the first quarter of fiscal 2026 (which ended Aug. 31) with exceptionally high remaining performance obligations (RPO) of $455 billion, up 359% on a year-over-year basis. The company has contracts with major AI companies, including OpenAI, xAI, Meta Platforms, Nvidia, and Advanced Micro Devices.

Oracle currently operates 34 multicloud data centers on Microsoft‘s Azure, Alphabet‘s Google Cloud, and Amazon‘s AWS infrastructure. Multicloud database revenues grew by 1,529% year over year in the first quarter. Since the hybrid cloud strategy appears to be working with enterprise customers, the company plans to build an additional 37 multicloud data centers by the end of fiscal 2026. The rapid capacity expansion highlights the company’s plan to convert its record pipeline into revenue-generating workloads.

Management expects Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) revenues to jump 77% year over year to $18 billion in fiscal 2026 and become $73 billion in fiscal 2028. The overall cloud business accounted for nearly 48% of the company’s total revenues in the first quarter. If Oracle successfully converts its backlog into revenues as projected, we can expect the overall cloud mix to exceed 50% of the company’s total revenues. The improved revenue mix will translate into higher profit margins, which can help expand its valuation multiples and lead to higher share price gains.

AI Database

Oracle’s recently launched AI Database can also prove to be a significant catalyst for the company’s next phase of growth. This database can vectorize enterprise data (converting it into numbers or using algorithms to be stored and accessed efficiently), so that large language models can accurately process and reason over this data. It also allows secure connections with leading large language models.

These capabilities have opened up a massive inferencing opportunity for Oracle, as enterprises will increasingly opt to run complex AI models on proprietary datasets in a secure environment. Since Oracle is already the largest custodian of high-value private enterprise data worldwide, the AI database will further drive AI adoption among its clients.

Oracle is already a dominant player in the multitrillion-dollar AI training market. However, management expects the inferencing opportunity to prove even bigger than the training one.

Capacity expansion

Demand for Oracle’s cloud infrastructure exceeds the available supply. Hence, the company has planned nearly $35 billion in capital expenditures (capex) for fiscal 2026, primarily for revenue-generating equipment in data centers. The company is already seeing customers consuming data center capacity within weeks of delivery. The urgency of AI demand and clear monetization potential further increase investor confidence.

Maintaining balance sheet strength

Oracle ended the first quarter with $11 billion in cash and marketable securities, $12 billion in short-term deferred revenue, and a strong operating cash flow of $8.1 billion. While free cash flow was temporarily negative due to heavy capex, this may soon improve as capacity deployments and backlog translate into billable workloads.

The company expects revenues to grow year over year by 16% in constant currency, and operating income to grow in the mid-teens percentage in fiscal 2026. The company is guiding for even stronger operating income growth in fiscal 2028.

Oracle’s total debt was at $94 billion at the end of the first quarter. The company has also issued an additional $18 billion in bonds in late September, resulting in a pro forma debt load of approximately $112 billion. However, despite the high debt, Oracle still holds investment-grade credit ratings of Baa2 from Moody’s and BBB from S&P Global.

Can Oracle enter the $1 trillion club?

To reach a market capitalization of $1 trillion in 2028, Oracle’s market cap must increase by almost 21% (at the time of this writing). This is an achievable target if Oracle manages to convert backlog into revenue rapidly, bring new data center capacity online, and push adoption of its AI database.

Oracle must also combine its growth momentum with tight financial discipline. The company should focus on reducing leverage while also improving profitability and free cash flows.

In such a scenario, the company may easily maintain its elevated forward price-to-earnings (PE) ratio of 36.6x. Analysts expect the company’s non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) earnings per share (EPS) to be around $11.2 in fiscal 2028. This translates into a share price of around $409.9, which is over 40% higher than its close of $291.6 (on Oct. 6).

Hence, it is highly plausible for Oracle to enter the $1 trillion club by 2028.

Longtime rivals Sylmar and San Fernando are set to meet on Saturday at the Coliseum in a tripleheader for high school football.

The junior varsity teams will play at 2:30 p.m., followed by a girls flag football game at 5 p.m. and the varsity 11-man game at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 and available for purchase at each school this week, with $12 going back to the schools. Tickets also will be available at the Coliseum on Saturday.

San Fernando is an eight-time City Section champion with a rich history that includes its wishbone teams of the 1970s featuring the late Charles White, who won the Heisman Trophy at USC. Sylmar won City titles in 1992 and 1994 under coach Jeff Engilman.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our student-athletes, families, alumni and the broader community to come together and celebrate the legacy and rivalry of two proud programs in a truly iconic venue,” Sylmar athletic director Wilquin Garcia said.

It will be a Valley Mission League game, with Sylmar 4-3 and 1-2 in league and San Fernando 5-2 and 2-1. In flag football, San Fernando is 7-6 and Sylmar is 4-5.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].

For decades, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) prepared for war, confident in its advantage over any adversary. Its member states invested heavily in state-of-the-art weapons. Stealth aircraft, precision weaponry, secretive submarines and city-sized aircraft carriers stood as the guardians of the West.

This power appeared unshakable until recently. On September 10, during another massive Russian aerial attack on Ukraine, more than 20 Russian drones crossed into neighbouring Poland. The NATO member had to scramble multimillion-euro military equipment – F-16 and F-35 fighter jets, military helicopters and Patriot surface-to-air missile systems – in order to shoot down potential threats. Several drones were shot down, including three Shaheds and several cheaply made foam dummies.

That interception operation was not only costly, but it also busted the myth of Western military might. Trillions of dollars in investment in the military industrial complex could not protect NATO borders from two dozen inexpensive drones.

In the following days, unidentified drones shut down airports in Norway, Denmark and Germany, costing airlines millions of euros; in Belgium, drones were also spotted near a military base.

The European media is full of stories about unidentifiable drones, air defences, and speculation over possible directions of a Russian strike. Romania? Poland? The Baltic States? Along the entire eastern border of the European Union, there is no place where the population feels truly safe.

It is hard to imagine the scale of chaos should Russian forces actually go on the offensive. How many countries would act under NATO’s Article 5, which allows for collective action against a military threat against a single member, and how swiftly? By then, where would the Russian forces be?

The central question remains: can the North Atlantic alliance and its modern military technology stop such an advance?

The war in Ukraine has demonstrated that the answer is no. Russian forces display a persistence in combat possible only under dictatorial regimes, where soldiers are indoctrinated and fear their own command more than the enemy.

Modern methods of warfare against armies modelled on World Wars I and II are not nearly as effective as generals once claimed. One just has to look at the front line in Ukraine and the constantly evolving military strategies.

Faced with a formidable military power with seemingly unlimited budget and unconstrained military reach, the Ukrainians had to adapt quickly. They began deploying drones against Russian armour, but the enemy did not remain idle against these attacks. It started constructing improvised metal cages over tank turrets to absorb explosions.

Precision strikes with Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) cluster munitions taught them to disperse ammunition in small points, avoiding concentrations of troops and equipment.

Drones on both sides monitor the front line, but it is scorched earth: no movement of tanks or infantry can be seen. Russian advances proceed covertly, mostly at night, with two- or three-man teams crossing bombardment zones, gradually assembling for surprise attacks. Troops on both sides are dug deep underground; what is visible is only the casualty count — several thousand each week.

Is Europe prepared for this type of war? Are NATO soldiers capable of surviving for weeks in foxholes and ruins, without communicating, to avoid detection and destruction?

A survey conducted by Gallup last year suggests the answer is no. In Poland, 45 percent of respondents said they would voluntarily defend their country if war threatened. In Spain, the figure was 29 percent; in Germany, only 23 percent; in Italy, a meagre 14 percent; the EU average was 32 percent.

More than three years into the war with Russia, Ukraine itself is suffering from severe shortages of personnel. Forced conscription has become increasingly unpopular, and draft evasion is widespread, according to Ukrainian media and Western observers. Even with Western weapons and funding, the shortage of soldiers limits Ukraine’s ability to hold the line or conduct meaningful offensives.

Currently, the active personnel of NATO’s European allies number around 1.47 million; that includes the United Kingdom. That seems considerable, until it is compared with Ukraine, where an 800,000-strong army has been facing a 600,000-strong Russian force over a 1,000-kilometre (621-mile) front for more than three years, gradually retreating.

Then there is also the difficult question of how many countries would actually send troops to the eastern front, and in what numbers. Would the NATO member states on the eastern flank be left to fend for themselves, only supplied with arms by their Western allies? And would that lead to tensions within the alliance, and its possible paralysis or even breakup?

Europe has only two options to feel even partially secure: either continue to spend trillions of euros rapidly expanding its own military capabilities, or try to put an end to the Russian aggression by providing full financial and military support to Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stated that his nation requires $60bn annually to fend off Russian aggression. It is a heavy burden for the West, especially in these challenging times. Yet it is negligible compared with the price Ukraine is paying — in money, military and civilian lives, lost territory, and destroyed infrastructure.

While Europe hesitates with calculators in hand, Ukraine fights. Every day the war continues, the risk of it spreading westward increases.

The time for swift decisions is now.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

The Kremlin has warned of the risk of escalation if Kyiv is provided with the US-built long-range missiles.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said his country would only use long-range Tomahawk missiles against Russian military targets, as the Kremlin expressed alarm over Washington’s potential plan to offer the weapons to Kyiv.

Zelenskyy’s comment was aired by Fox News on Sunday, the same day he spoke to US President Donald Trump.

Writing on X, the Ukrainian president called his latest conversation with Trump “very productive”, noting that they had discussed strengthening his country’s “air defence, resilience, and long-range capabilities”. It was the second time the pair had spoken in as many days.

On Monday, Trump said he would only agree to provide Kyiv with Tomahawks if he knew what it planned to do with them. He added, without giving further details, that he had “sort of made a decision” over the issue.

Given that their range is 2,500km (1,550 miles), Ukraine could use the weapons to strike deep inside Russia.

In comments published on Sunday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the topic was of “extreme concern” to Russia.

“Now is really a very dramatic moment in terms of the fact that tensions are escalating from all sides,” he told Russian state television reporter Pavel Zarubin.

Peskov said Moscow would have to bear in mind that some versions of the missile are able to carry nuclear warheads.

The Kremlin spokesperson’s remarks came as French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the latest Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

After speaking with Zelenskyy on Sunday, Macron said: “As the agreement reached in Gaza offers a glimmer of hope for peace in the Middle East, the war in Ukraine too must come to an end.”

“If Russia persists in its obstinate warmongering and its refusal to come to the negotiating table, it will have to pay the price,” he said.

Meanwhile, Zelenskyy said in a Facebook post that he had urged Macron to give Ukraine more missiles and air defence systems, stressing that Russia was increasing its bombardments while the world’s focus was elsewhere.

“Russia is now taking advantage of the moment — the fact that the Middle East and domestic issues in every country are getting maximum attention,” Zelensky said in a readout of his call with Macron.

As it has done before, Russia is targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure in an attempt to cripple the sector before winter.

In the past week alone, Russia has launched “more than 3,100 drones, 92 missiles, and around 1,360 glide bombs” at Ukraine, according to Zelenskyy.

Two employees of Ukraine’s largest private energy company, DTEK, were injured at a substation in Kyiv province in overnight attacks on Sunday, according to the regional governor.

On Friday, Russia carried out what Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko described as “one of the largest concentrated strikes” against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, leading to blackouts across the country.

AMY HUNT is prioritising “medals over men” as she adapts to life as a superstar athlete.

The 23-year-old shot to fame last month after claiming a silver medal at the World Championships in Tokyo.

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Following her achievement, Hunt claimed that she would celebrate with some karaoke.

Quizzed what she’d be singing, the confident star said: “Probably Maneater.

“That’s really boring but I feel like that was the vibe tonight, just sexy and aggressive.”

Hunt, who has a degree in English Literature from Cambridge, continues to have her eyes firmly set on further prizes.

Speaking to The Times, the 200m specialist said: “Obviously, as a female athlete, you also have to plan when you think motherhood is a feasible thing for you.

“But the world is very open to me and I will get a sense of what I want to do when the moment is right.

“I actually always joke to my coach, ‘medals before men’, that’s the quote of the day!”

Hunt has not ruled out balancing her blossoming athletics career with further studies.

BEST ONLINE CASINOS – TOP SITES IN THE UK

She added: “I change my mind on it every year. Immediately after coming out of university I thought about the V&A and doing a Masters — with the hope of maybe going on to do a PhD, because I always thought being ‘Dr Amy’ would be pretty cool.

“But then my mind changed and I think I’d want to actually work at a museum or gallery and curate.

“But then I’m like, no, maybe I’d do a law conversion because a lot of my friends did a law conversion out of English.

“And then maybe I’d do that, or maybe an Amal Clooney kind of thing.

“So my mind is always changing on that and I think I’ll only decide when I get to the end.”

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I never shy away from a chance to tell someone how lucrative dividend stocks can be. Reliable distributions may not be as fun to brag about as share price appreciation, but they can quietly help you build wealth, particularly if you reinvest them to benefit from compound growth. And succeeding with an income investment strategy doesn’t require the acumen of a Wall Street veteran, either. It can be as simple as investing in a dividend-focused exchange-traded fund (ETF).

There are numerous worthwhile dividend ETFs on the market, but if you’re looking for one to invest $1,000 in now, I say look no further than the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF (SCHD -1.67%). It checks off many of the boxes that dividend investors should have on their lists.

Image source: Getty Images.

A good vetting process

One of the boxes the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF checks off (and arguably the most important one) is that it contains only high-quality companies. It tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100, and entry into that index requires that companies have consistent cash flow, a strong balance sheet, a track record of at least 10 years of dividend payouts, and strong profitability.

These criteria mean that its components aren’t picked solely based on their dividends, and that they’re unlikely to be yield traps — stocks where the yields are high (and thus, attractive on the surface) because their share price has declined meaningfully due to poor business performance.

This doesn’t mean companies in this ETF won’t ever face challenges, but they have businesses built to withstand them. Below are the fund’s top 10 holdings:

Source: Charles Schwab. Percentages as of Oct. 7.

These companies aren’t the high-flying tech stocks that get a lot of attention in the media and on Wall Street, but they’re reliable, generate consistent cash flows, and have proven that their businesses can hold up during tough economic times. That’s always important, but it’s especially so with dividend stocks, which provide much of their long-term value to shareholders by steadily distributing profits.

A dividend that will grow over time

Not only do the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF’s criteria rule out companies with shaky or unstable dividends, they also favor companies that prioritize regularly increasing their payouts. Over the past decade, the ETF’s dividend per share has increased by 187% to $0.26 per quarter.

At the ETF’s price at the time of this writing, that works out to around a 3.8% yield, meaningfully above its average over the past decade.

SCHD Dividend Yield data by YCharts.

Although the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF’s dividend yield will inevitably fluctuate as the prices of the stocks in its portfolio do, if we assume it remains around 3.8%, that would pay out around $38 annually per $1,000 invested. That’s not life-changing money. However, it can add up over time, especially if you reinvest your dividends and focus on acquiring more shares.

How much could a $1,000 become worth?

There’s no way to predict how a stock or ETF will perform, but for the sake of illustration, let’s assume the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF continues to deliver at the same pace it has averaged over the past decade: an average annualized total return of 11.7%. At that rate, here is roughly how much a $1,000 investment would be worth after various periods (accounting for SCHD’s 0.06% expense ratio):

• 10 years: $3,007.
• 15 years: $5,215.
• 20 years: $9,044.
• 25 years: $15,685.

Those are impressive gains, but your results would be even better if you steadily invested more money in it over time. Adding $100 a month would give you a holding worth around $23,700 in 10 years, $48,670 in 15 years, $91,980 in 20 years, and $167,080 in 25 years. Those are huge differences from just the one-time $1,000 investment.

Nothing is guaranteed in the stock market, but the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF has a track record of being a great choice for investors seeking reliable and consistent income.