Thank you, Ben Bolch. In your newsletter, an open letter to UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk, you have asked all the right questions. On the surface, the proposed move to SoFi Stadium might make some sense. But in the real world, it sure doesn’t. I was at the game vs. Washington, and the sentiment was pretty strong against a move. Also, the word was that possibly 80% of season-ticket holders will not renew if they play in SoFi Stadium. Even though I have had season tickets for more than 40 years, if they do move, I will be part of that 80%. I wonder if that figure has been factored in?

Bruce Fischer
Huntington Beach

The Rose Bowl is the most storied stadium in college football. Nestled just below the San Gabriel Mountains, it is probably the most beautiful as well. It has hosted five Super Bowls (XI, XIV, XVII, XXI, XXVII), men’s and women’s World Cup finals, the Olympics and its annual namesake bowl game — “the Granddaddy of Them All.” There literally isn’t a bad seat in it. Why would UCLA even consider leaving it, especially for the glorified erector set known as SoFi Stadium?

Stephen A. Silver
San Francisco

Nov. 29 (UPI) — The federal government is ending its anti-Semitism investigation at Northwestern University in exchange for a $75 million fine in an agreement that restores $790 million in federal funding for research.

The Chicago-area private university must abide by federal anti-discrimination laws regarding admissions and hiring and initiate mandatory anti-Semitism training for students, staff and faculty as part of the deal, the Chicago Sun Times reported.

University officials also must enact and maintain policies that clearly regulate protests and other “expressive activities,” review its policies regarding international admissions and end its Deering Meadow agreement that enabled “peaceful” protests at the university’s 2-acre park.

“This is not an agreement the university enters into lightly, but one that was made based on institutional values,” interim President Henry Bienen said, as reported by the Chicago Tribune.

Attorney General Pam Bondi called the settlement a win for civil rights.

“Today’s settlement marks another victory for the Trump administration’s fight to ensure that American educational institutions protect Jewish students and put merit first,” Bondi said in a statement.

“Institutions that accept federal funds are obligated to follow civil rights law,” Bondi added. “We are grateful to Northwestern for negotiating this historic deal.”

Bienen said university officials had several “hard lines” that they refused to cross when negotiating the settlement.

“We would not relinquish any control over whom we hire, whom we admit as students, what our faculty would teach or how our faculty would teach,” he said.

University officials said they will review their international admissions criteria and develop training to better socialize international students so that they understand the campus norms regarding open debate and inquiry.

Northwestern’s board of trustees also will create a committee to ensure the university complies with the agreement with the federal government.

The university must pay its $75 million fine in increments over the next three years, which is the second-highest amount being paid by a college or university to settle accusations of discrimination and anti-Semitism amid pro-Palestinian campus protests.

Columbia University in New York City earlier agreed to pay a $200 million fine to settle claims made against it by federal investigators.

The $790 million in federal research funding that had been suspended should be restored by the end of December, according to Bienen.

Introduction: The Ambition at the Crossroads

Mexico currently faces an unparalleled economic juncture. Global geopolitical dynamics, driven by nearshoring and the imperative to diversify supply chains, have positioned the country for a development opportunity that far exceeds simple assembly manufacturing. The potential to build high-value ecosystems in artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductor fabrication—the foundational pillars of the modern global economy—could fundamentally redefine Mexico’s standing in international trade.

But, this critical ambition is currently being stalled by a single, deeply rooted structural factor in the national infrastructure: the capacity, quality, and, above all, the reliability of the National Transmission Grid (RNT) operated by the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE). The power grid, therefore, is not merely an operational prerequisite; it has transformed into the primary strategic constraint jeopardizing Mexico’s technological sovereignty and its potential qualitative economic leap.

I. The Tensions of Demand: World-Class Requirements

The AI and semiconductor fabrication (FAB) industries impose energy demands that Mexico’s legacy infrastructure is struggling to meet. These sectors not only consume power on a massive scale but also require it with a precision and resilience that approaches technical perfection.

A. The Exponentials of AI and Data Centers

The core engine of AI is the data center. These facilities, especially those dedicated to training massive models using Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), require a constant power flow comparable to that of entire cities. Large hyperscale data centers can demand between 100 MW and 300 MW of installed capacity, and the aggregate demand from this sector in Mexico is projected to multiply tenfold in the near future.

This demand possesses one non-negotiable quality: 24/7 availability. AI operations cannot tolerate interruptions. A micro-power cut is more than just an economic loss; it represents the possibility of compromising the integrity of critical data or nullifying the progress of computation processes that have required weeks of execution—an unviable vulnerability for the industry.

B. The Precision Mandate of Semiconductors

Semiconductor manufacturing plants are arguably the industrial environments most sensitive to power quality. In the fabrication of microchips, where tolerances are measured in nanometers, a micro-unit of voltage fluctuation or an interruption lasting mere milliseconds can prove catastrophic. Such an event can instantaneously ruin entire batches of silicon wafers valued in the millions of dollars.

Therefore, the key to attracting advanced semiconductor fabrication facilities (FABs, typically requiring between 50 MW and 150 MW each) does not lie solely in guaranteeing the volume of energy but in certifying a power quality that the CFE, given constraints in transmission and distribution, struggles to consistently assure within the most desirable industrial hubs. The promise of availability must, by necessity, be a world-class guarantee.

II. The CFE Infrastructure: From Support to Barrier

The National Electric System (SEN) operates under a structural pressure that positions it as the decisive bottleneck. This barrier manifests across three critical dimensions that undermine the confidence of high-technology investors.

A. Saturation of Transmission and Distribution

Mexico’s fundamental problem is not a lack of total generation capacity but the systemic inability to move that power efficiently, a responsibility that falls squarely on the RNT. This infrastructure, much of which is aging or designed for industrial patterns of a past century, has simply failed to evolve at the pace required by nearshoring.

The consequence is severe congestion in substations and distribution lines, particularly in the vital industrial corridors of the north and center (such as Nuevo León, Coahuila, and the Bajío region). This congestion translates into something tangible and costly: industrial park developers face wait times exceeding a year just to obtain connection feasibility. This delay has led to a troubling phenomenon: the proliferation of “Dark Buildings”—industrial warehouses completely finished and ready for operation but lacking physical access to electrical power.

B. Reliability, Risk, and the Unacceptable Interruption

Recent waves of blackouts and recurrent service interruptions demonstrate that the SEN is consistently operating at its operational limit. Obsolescence in the generation fleet and deficiencies in transmission elevate the risk of system failures.

For any corporation managing mission-critical computing processes or high-value production lines like FABs, this level of risk is unacceptable. A multi-billion-dollar investment cannot depend on a grid that offers systemic uncertainty. Compounding this is regulatory volatility, where the perceived prioritization of fossil fuel generation over renewable energy dissuades global investors who seek clarity, stable long-term pricing, and a predictable framework for operation.

C. The Sustainability Imperative (ESG Factor)

Leaders in the technology industry (from Google and Amazon to major chip manufacturers) have adopted rigorous corporate commitments regarding sustainability and governance (ESG), including net-zero carbon goals or the use of 100% clean energy.

To establish AI or semiconductor operations in Mexico, these investors require contractual guarantees that a substantial portion of their consumption will be sourced from renewables. The difficulty imposed on the interconnection of private wind or solar energy projects to the RNT, coupled with the CFE’s reliance on generation based on natural gas and fuel oil, creates a sustainability impediment that automatically excludes Mexico from the list of viable destinations for many of these investments.

III. The Strategic Cost: Sovereignty and Dependency

If the electric infrastructure issue is not addressed with a decisive, long-term state vision, the cost to Mexico will be dual and profound:

Firstly, it will result in the loss of the value-added nearshoring opportunity. High-demand and high-precision firms will simply divert their investments to markets that offer solid power grids and transparent regulatory frameworks, such as the United States (driven by the CHIPS Act) or established Asian ecosystems.

Secondly, it will perpetuate technological dependence. Without the necessary energy infrastructure to host, power, and train large-scale AI models, and without the capacity to manufacture advanced components, Mexico will be relegated to being merely a consumer and assembler of technologies designed and produced elsewhere. This outcome has a direct, negative impact on national technological sovereignty and the capacity of Mexican research centers to compete at the global frontier of knowledge.

Conclusion: From Bottleneck to Catalyst

The CFE grid represents the single most fundamental challenge to Mexico’s digital ascension. While recent investments in transmission grid modernization signal a positive step, the sheer scale of the challenge necessitates a true paradigm shift that transcends institutional inertia.

To transform this bottleneck into a powerful catalyst, Mexico must execute a strategic course of action centered on efficiency and openness:

Agile Regulatory Reform: It is imperative to simplify procedures and drastically reduce the timelines for connection and feasibility studies for high-demand industrial projects.

Focalized Transmission Investment: The reinforcement of the RNT must be specifically prioritized in the industrial corridors that are the heart of nearshoring and the potential base for technological ecosystems.

Facilitating Clean Energy Integration: Creating mechanisms that not only permit but actively promote the interconnection of private renewable energy projects to meet the ESG demand and the volume required by technological leaders.

Deployment of Smart Grids: The massive adoption of AI-based technologies for distribution optimization, loss reduction, and ensuring resilient voltage quality is essential for the mission-critical needs of the AI and semiconductor industries.

Mexico’s technological future hinges upon the resolution of the CFE dilemma. It is the key that, when turned, will either open or definitively close the door to high-technology development.

It was not a good day for Dr. Phil.

Phillip McGraw, the genial celebrity psychologist who spent a career calling out the behavior of others and doling out zingers, found himself upbraided by a bankruptcy judge.

Merit Street Media, McGraw’s new network, had filed for bankruptcy protection in July, a little more than a year after he launched the media startup, and then sued its distribution partner, Trinity Broadcasting Network.

During a nearly three-hour hearing in Dallas last month, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Scott Everett said that he’d “never seen a case” like the Chapter 11 filing McGraw’s company was attempting.

Everett cited evidence indicating McGraw had “violated” a court order by deleting “unflattering” text messages that allegedly described his plan to use the bankruptcy to “wipe out” creditor claims.

“What makes this case unique, unfortunately, is that it has been plagued with the attempted destruction of relevant evidence and less than truthful testimony by some of the key players,” said Everett, alluding to McGraw and his associates in the case.

Everett ruled that Merit Street be liquidated.

Following the hearing, a spokesperson for McGraw’s production company vigorously denied the accusation that he destroyed evidence and said he is appealing the ruling.

“Dr. McGraw’s excellent record of integrity, success and service to millions over two decades speaks for itself,” said Chip Babcock, attorney for McGraw’s production company.

The unraveling of McGraw’s media venture was a gut punch for the celebrity therapist who has assiduously built a reputation — and tremendous personal wealth — as one of the most trusted voices on television. But his fortunes faded amid a dying market for syndicated TV and clashes with a distributor and partner.

After 21 years as host of the successful syndicated talk show “Dr. Phil,” McGraw went out on his own last year. He launched Merit Street Media in Texas, a company that he said would promote “family values” and serve as an antidote to “woke” culture, only to find that his ambitions collided with a new television reality.

Unlike “Dr. Phil,” Merit Street was untethered to the well-oiled machine of Paramount Studios in Los Angeles, where it was filmed, and top-tier distribution partner CBS.

Moreover, the sheer force of McGraw’s personality could not overcome the fact that linear TV is on the wane. Syndicated daytime TV shows are no longer the cash cows they used to be as most viewers consume content through streaming and other digital outlets such as YouTube and TikTok.

“By the time he put this new company together, the ‘Dr. Phil’ era had kind of ended,” said Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. “There is a shelf life to these characters and he reached his.”

An Oprah favorite

McGraw rose from clinical psychologist to an American living room staple and self-help guru in the late 1990s after Oprah Winfrey anointed him as her protégé.

Television’s then-reigning queen hired McGraw to prepare for her libel case brought by Texas cattlemen in 1997. They claimed her comments during an episode about mad cow disease disparaged them and caused beef prices to drop.

Winfrey prevailed, but it was McGraw, a former linebacker with the commanding presence of a sheriff from an old-time western, who emerged victorious.

Oprah Winfrey launched “Dr. Phil” after he advised her during her Texas cattlemen’s libel trial in the late 1990s.

(Christopher Smith / Invision / AP)

Much like books, pajama sets and certain chocolate brands, McGraw became one of Oprah’s favorite things. Recast as “Dr. Phil,” she featured him during weekly segments on her hugely popular talk show, starting in 1998. By 2002, a “Dr. Phil” spinoff began airing five days a week, produced by Winfrey’s Harpo Productions.

The show was distributed by CBS Media Ventures and filmed on a soundstage at Paramount studios on Melrose Avenue with a live audience, and it became the de facto voice for home viewers.

McGraw quickly earned a massive following for dispensing advice to cheating spouses, drug addicts, troubled teens, meddling in-laws, infamous criminals and celebrities. He delivered his no-nonsense, often blunt assessments wrapped in folksy Southern sayings such as “No matter how flat you make a pancake, it’s still got two sides.”

For more than two decades, “Dr. Phil” was a top-rated syndicated daytime talk show — 11 of those seasons at No. 1 — garnering 31 Daytime Emmy nominations. He was catapulted to stardom, appearing everywhere from late-night talk shows to sitcom cameos, even a character on “Sesame Street,” Dr. Feel. In 2020, he received a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.

Dr. Phil McGraw with his wife, Robin McGraw, his son Jay McGraw and his wife, Erica Dahm, as well as their two children, London and Avery, at the ceremony celebrating Dr. Phil receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.

(Getty Images)

McGraw leveraged “Dr. Phil” as a launching pad for his ever-growing empire of bestselling books and various ancillary businesses, including a virtual addiction recovery program, a telemedicine app and production company, Stage 29, with his son Jay McGraw that produced shows like daytime’s “The Doctors.”

But as McGraw’s popularity and influence grew, so did the controversies.

The family of Britney Spears criticized him after he visited the troubled pop star when she was hospitalized on a psychiatric hold and issued a news release saying she was “in dire need of both medical and psychological intervention.”

A spokesperson for the Spears family said, “Rather than helping the family’s situation, the celebrity psychologist caused additional damage.”

McGraw later told viewers on his show that “I definitely think if I had it to do over again, I probably wouldn’t make any statement at all. Period.”

Claims of conflict

Questions were also raised that McGraw used his show to promote businesses and products connected to his family and affiliates, sometimes without fully disclosing those ties.

In 2006, McGraw settled a lawsuit for $10.5 million with consumers who alleged that he defrauded them by making false claims about a line of nutritional and weight-loss supplements that he endorsed on “Dr. Phil.”

He faced a Federal Trade Commission investigation into false advertising and the line was eventually discontinued.

McGraw denied the allegations and did not admit to wrongdoing or misrepresentation in the settlement.

“Dr. McGraw’s career stands among the most successful in television history,” Babcock said. “His programs always have been completely transparent, with all brand integrations under full network oversight and full FCC compliance.”

The on-air promotion of McGraw’s family businesses, such as his wife Robin McGraw’s skincare line and lifestyle brand and his son Jay McGraw’s books during “integrations,” also drew scrutiny.

Dr. Phil McGraw and son Jay McGraw.

(Jason LaVeris / FilmMagic)

“Dr. Phil” episodes frequently featured guests suffering from addiction who were often offered the opportunity to check into a treatment facility at the end of the episode.

In 2017, an investigation by STAT News and the Boston Globe alleged that the show highlighted specific treatment facilities in exchange for those recovery programs purchasing various products affiliated with McGraw.

A spokesman for the show had denied the allegations, saying that “any suggestion that appearances on Dr. Phil’s show are linked to the purchase or use of this program is false.”

McGraw’s wattage remained undimmed. He continued to branch into new ventures. He launched a podcast in 2019, “Phil in the Blanks,” and prime-time TV shows like “Bull,” a legal drama on CBS based on his experiences as a trial strategist, and another CBS legal drama, “So Help Me Todd.”

The “Dr. Phil” show has said that since its premiere, it has provided $35 million in resources to its guests after they appeared.

During the last years of “Dr. Phil,” staffers and viewers noticed that programming began to shift away from advising relationships, parenting and money issues to more conservative and cultural issues such as immigration and transgender athletes.

“He took a political slant already, but once COVID hit, [the show] skewed more and more political,” said one former longtime “Dr. Phil” staffer who declined to be named out of fear of retaliation.

During an appearance on Fox News in April 2020, McGraw said that pandemic lockdowns would be more fatal than the virus, drawing a widespread backlash on social media.

McGraw later posted a video saying he supported CDC guidelines but was concerned about the mental health effects of long-term quarantine.

“He was very good about getting big stories, but we had no input, and believe me, if we ever wanted to or tried, we’d be just told ‘no,’” said a former executive at CBS, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the subject matter.

Starting over in Texas

In 2023, McGraw announced that he was leaving CBS and returning to Texas to launch a new venture and broaden his audience, citing “grave concerns for the American family” and that he was “determined to help restore a clarity of purpose as well as our core values.”

Merit Street built a studio in a former AT&T call center in Fort Worth. Many of the staffers were veterans of “Dr. Phil” or had worked on McGraw-related content and relocated from Los Angeles to Texas.

Dr. Phil and President Trump at the National Day of Prayer event at the White House in May.

(Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images)

The network, whose name was derived from meritocracy (with shades of main street), premiered in April 2024.

“Merit Street Media will be a resource of information and strategies to fight for America and its families, which are under a cultural ‘woke’ assault as never before,” McGraw said in a statement.

McGraw aired “exclusive” interviews with Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on his flagship, “Dr. Phil Primetime.”

Programming consisted of a slate of news, entertainment and conservative commentary programs with former syndicated television stars Nancy Grace and Steve Harvey, whose Steve Harvey Global had a 5% stake in the company, according to Merit’s bankruptcy filings.

In January, McGraw made headlines when he taped interviews with Trump’s top border policy advisor Tom Homan during controversial immigration raids by ICE agents in Los Angeles.

But Merit struggled to find an audience; only 27,000 viewers tuned into the network weekly during 2024, placing it at 130 out of 153 U.S. channels, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

“It’s totally false to say Merit had bad ratings,” Babcock said. “For a startup, it was like a rocket ship; at one point it passed CNN in the first few months of its existence.”

Merit soon scrapped the live audience for “Dr. Phil Primetime” and eventually production on its original programming came to a halt.

Four months after the network’s debut, the company cut 30% of its staff, including workers who had relocated from Los Angeles.

Facing mounting debts, Merit filed for bankruptcy protection in July, listing liabilities of at least $100 million.

“You could see the writing on the wall,” said the former CBS executive. “Ratings for syndication were dropping.”

While still a household name, McGraw was part of a waning breed of TV syndication stars — Judge Judy, Maury Povich and Ellen DeGeneres among them — whose shows were fast becoming nostalgic relics.

Former McGraw staffers from his CBS days said it appeared that he thought he could simply translate his name recognition and longtime popularity to the new venture, but failed to grasp the new digital media landscape.

“The programming model that he launched in 2024 was more appropriate two decades earlier,” said Syracuse University’s Thompson.

Merit Street faced internal strife as well, according to former staffers and court filings.

Former employees described tensions between Los Angeles transplants and less experienced nonunion crews.

“It was total disorganization,” said one former field producer who had worked for the “Dr. Phil” show and then relocated to Texas to work for Merit Street, who declined to be named out of fear of retribution. “Everyone kept saying this was a startup, and maybe it was. People made decisions but had no idea what they were doing,” the producer added.

A representative of McGraw’s production company conceded the startup had growing pains.

“The company thought they could produce the same quality production with less people,” he said.

Compounding matters, relations between Merit and its business and broadcast partner TBN also soured.

Merit alleged in its lawsuit that TBN provided “comically dysfunctional” technical services, with teleprompters and monitors blacked out during live programs before a studio audience.

The suit further alleged that TBN failed to pay TV distributors and had reneged on its promise to cover $100 million in production services and other costs.

McGraw, through his production company, bankrolled the struggling enterprise from December 2024 to May 2025, lending it $25 million, according to Merit’s lawsuit.

For its part, TBN accused McGraw and his production company Peteski Productions of “fraudulent inducement,” alleging in a countersuit that it had invested $100 million into Merit and that McGraw and Peteski had failed to bring in promised advertising revenue.

TBN said McGraw reached out to the company as a potential replacement for CBS as a distribution partner during the latter half of 2022.

“McGraw specifically represented to TBN that he wanted to change networks because of what he perceived to be CBS’s censorship of the content aired on the ‘Dr. Phil Show.’ As McGraw put it, ‘I don’t want snot-nose lawyers telling me what I can and can’t say on TV,’” the lawsuit states.

Instead, they claimed in their complaint, McGraw and his company engaged in a “fraudulent scheme” to fleece TBN, a not-for-profit corporation.

In a statement to Variety, a spokesperson for McGraw and his production company called TBN’s lawsuit “riddled with provable lies.”

TBN did not respond to a request for comment.

Merit also clashed with another partner: Professional Bull Riders, which in November 2024 canceled its four-year contract with Merit and pulled its content, claiming the company had failed to pay the fees it owed.

Professional Bull Riders claims Merit Street stopped paying its broadcast fees and is owed $181 million.

(Anadolu via Getty Images)

PBR, which later signed with Fox Nation and CBS, alleged in a separate lawsuit that Merit breached their contract and is seeking $181 million.

“We’re glad he’s being held accountable,” said Mark Shapiro, the president and chief operating officer of TKO Group Holdings, parent company of PBR, in a statement to The Times.

“Merit Street agreed to work out its differences with PBR in a confidential proceeding which is ongoing. We were therefore surprised that PBR would publicly accuse us of violating our agreement when the facts are in dispute,” the company said in an earlier statement.

Two weeks after Merit filed for bankruptcy, McGraw announced the launch of another new network, Envoy Media Co., that would include live, “balanced news,” original entertainment programming and “immersive viewer experiences,” as well as original programming from friend and former Merit stakeholder Steve Harvey.

Last month, Envoy struck a distribution deal with Charter Communications.

“Dr. McGraw remains deeply proud of his past work and the millions of people it has reached. He’s now turning that same purpose and energy toward Envoy Media,” Babcock said.

But the Merit legal drama is far from over.

TBN has since alleged that Merit Street filed for bankruptcy in bad faith as a way to secure funding for Envoy.

A spokesperson for Peteski called TBN’s allegation “blatantly false” and said Envoy is independently financed.

Earlier this month, Judge Everett rejected Merit’s motion to pause the company’s liquidation while his ruling is appealed. He cited deleted texts in which McGraw described plans by Merit to file for bankruptcy protection to “wipe out” debts from its main creditors, TBN and PBR.

“Candor to the court is critical,” said Everett during his original ruling, and then declared that Merit Street Media “was as dead as a door nail when the bankruptcy was filed.”

Reporting from Fresno

Republican U.S. Senate nominee Carly Fiorina locked down the potentially key endorsement Monday of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as she and her opponent, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, clashed long-distance over their competing plans to create jobs in the state.

Wasting no time at the start of a month-long congressional recess when both Boxer and Fiorina will be campaigning full-time, Fiorina touched off a two-day tour covering ground from San Diego to Fresno to highlight the endorsement as well as her economic agenda, including her support for making all of the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 permanent.

Echoing an argument that Republican candidates intend to hammer across the country as they head into the midterm elections, Fiorina accused her rival of supporting “job-killing” tax and regulation policies and said allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire next year would amount to the largest tax increase in history.

Boxer’s aides said that she favors maintaining the Bush tax cuts for at least 98% of earners and that she is working with colleagues on legislation to address the issue.

Flanked by officials from U.S. and California chambers and other business groups, Fiorina also criticized recent small business legislation co-sponsored by Boxer and charged that her rival “has done nothing to make it easier for small businesses or family owned businesses.”

“She fights plenty for her own job, but she is not fighting for the jobs of the people of California,” Fiorina said during a stop at a plant nursery in Fresno where unemployment in the surrounding county is 16%.

After touring a summer enrichment program at Leo Politi Elementary School Monday afternoon in Los Angeles, Boxer described herself as a champion of the middle class and the working poor, and said Fiorina’s economic proposals, particularly on the Bush tax cuts, would be a boon to the wealthy.

The California Democrat brushed off the chamber endorsement, arguing that “naturally they’re not for me because I believe in a fair, very fair, tax system where the middle class and workers and the people in the middle get the breaks.”

“The Chamber of Commerce wants to go back to the Bush policies, to the tax cuts for people who earn over a million dollars a year,” Boxer told reporters. Those policies, she said, “drove us into this economic ditch: deregulation, tax cuts to the wealthy, two wars on a credit card, terrible deficits.” The chamber’s endorsement of her rival, she added, “only energizes me all the more because this race is about who’s on the side of the people of California.”

In the wake of a Supreme Court decision that corporations have a free-speech right to spend money to elect or defeat candidates, the U.S. Chamber has signaled that it intends to play a major role in this year’s midterm elections and that it has been rapidly expanding its grass-roots network.

The group is expected to more than double its spending on congressional elections from $35 million in 2008 to $75 million this year. The Fiorina-Boxer race is one of at least 10 Senate races that the group is focused on, along with about 40 House races.

Jennifer Duffy, a senior editor for the Cook Political Report who analyzes U.S. Senate and governor races, said the chamber could serve as a counterweight to Boxer’s labor allies and groups like EMILY’s List, which helps raise money for female candidates who favor abortion rights. Fiorina, who lent $5.5 million to her campaign during the primary, is racing to catch up with Boxer in fundraising after the Democratic senator reported almost 12 times more cash on hand than Fiorina at the end of June.

“For Fiorina this is a net plus, she needs as many allies as she can get,” Duffy said. “It could be very important depending how much money it comes with it, and how much advertising they are going to do for her.”

William C. Miller, the U.S. Chamber’s national political director who was traveling with Fiorina Monday, would not say how much the group plans to spend in Fiorina’s race. But he praised Fiorina as a “rock star candidate” and said Boxer had been “consistently pro-tax, pro-lawyer, pro-unions and anti-growth and anti-small businesses.”

For several weeks before the summer recess, Boxer joined Democratic colleagues in pressing for legislation intended to boost lending to small businesses, but the bill was blocked by a Republican filibuster.

The measure co-sponsored by Boxer would have provided money allowing the U.S. Small Business Administration to guarantee up to 90% of loans to small businesses. Currently most SBA loans have guarantees of 50% to 75%, which is less appealing to lenders. The bill also sets up a $30 billion fund to encourage lending to small businesses by community banks.

But Fiorina said Monday that she opposed the legislation because the $30 billion fund amounted to a smaller scale version of a taxpayer-funded bailout, and that she did not believe it would help get credit flowing again to small businesses.

[email protected]

Staff Writer Seema Mehta contributed to this report.

Luis Diaz and Nicolas Jackson score two goals in injury time to seal a dramatic 3-1 victory for Bayern Munich against St Pauli and move the Bundesliga holders eight points clear at the top of the table.

MATCH REPORT: Bayern Munich 3-1 St Pauli

Available to UK users only.

Arrest comes after appeals court handed jail terms to opposition leaders, businessmen and lawyers on charges of conspiracy to overthrow President Kais Saied.

Tunisian police have arrested prominent opposition figure Chaima Issa at a protest in the capital Tunis on Saturday, lawyers said.

The protest came after an appeals court on Friday handed jail terms of up to 45 years to opposition leaders, businessmen and lawyers on charges of conspiracy to overthrow President Kais Saied. Issa was handed a 20-year sentence during the trial.

“They will arrest me shortly,” Issa had told the Reuters news agency moments before her arrest.

“I say to the Tunisians, continue to protest and reject tyranny. We are sacrificing our freedom for you”.

She described the charges as unjust and politically motivated.

Police are also widely expected to arrest Najib Chebbi, the head of the opposition National Salvation Front, the main opposition coalition challenging Saied.

He received a 12-year prison sentence, and opposition figure Ayachi Hammami received a five-year sentence.

Human Rights Watch on Friday described the trial as a “travesty of justice”, saying it was “political, unfair, and without the slightest evidence” against the defendants.

In a statement to the AFP news agency, the US-based rights group condemned the “shameless instrumentalisation of the judiciary to eliminate Saied’s opponents”.

Meanwhile, UK-based rights group Amnesty International said the ruling was “an appalling indictment of the Tunisian justice system”, condemning “a relentless campaign to erode rights and silence dissent” in Tunisia.

During a sweeping power grab in July 2021, Saied suspended parliament and expanded executive power so he could rule by decree. Since then, the president has jailed many of his critics.

Many of the powers that Saied had taken for himself were later enshrined in a new constitution, ratified in a widely boycotted 2022 referendum, while media figures and lawyers critical of Saied have been prosecuted and detained under a “fake news” law enacted that same year.

Saied says his actions are legal and aimed at ending years of chaos and rampant corruption.

The pope is visiting Turkiye until Sunday on his first overseas trip as pontiff, which also includes a visit to Lebanon.

Pope Leo XIV has visited Istanbul’s famed Blue Mosque on the third day of his trip to Turkiye, his first known visit as leader of the Catholic Church to a Muslim place of worship.

The first US pope bowed slightly before entering the mosque early on Saturday and was led on a tour of the expansive complex, able to hold 10,000 worshippers, by its imam and the mufti of Istanbul.

Leo, walking in white socks, smiled during the 20-minute visit and joked with one of his guides, the mosque’s lead muezzin – the official who leads the daily calls to prayer.

“He wanted to see the mosque, he wanted to feel the atmosphere of the mosque, and he was very pleased,” Askin Tunca, the Blue Mosque’s muezzin who calls the faithful to prayer, told reporters.

Tunca said after the mosque visit that he asked Leo during the tour if he wished to pray for a moment, but the pope said he preferred to just visit the mosque.

The Vatican said in a statement immediately after the visit that Leo undertook the tour “in a spirit of reflection and listening, with deep respect for the place and for the faith of those who gather there in prayer”.

While Leo did not appear to pray during the tour, he did joke with Tunca. As the group was leaving the building, the pope noticed he was being guided out a door that is usually an entryway, where a sign says: “No exit.”

“It says no exit,” Leo said, smiling. Tunca responded: “You don’t have to go out, you can stay here.”

The pope is visiting Turkiye until Sunday on his first overseas trip as pontiff, which also includes a visit to Lebanon.

Leo, a relative unknown on the world stage before becoming pope in May, is being closely watched as he makes his first speeches overseas and interacts for the first time with people outside mainly Catholic Italy.

The Blue Mosque is officially named for Sultan Ahmed I, leader of the Ottoman Empire from 1603 to 1617, who oversaw its construction. It is decorated with thousands of blue ceramic tiles, the basis of its popular name.

Unlike his predecessors, Leo did not visit the nearby Hagia Sophia, the legendary sixth-century basilica built during the Byzantine Empire, which was converted into a mosque under the Ottoman Empire, then became a museum under Turkiye’s newly established republic.

But in 2020, the UNESCO World Heritage site was converted back into a mosque in a move that drew international condemnation, including from the late Pope Francis who said he was “very saddened”.

I’m A Celebrity star Alex Scott opens up about being taken to the medical tent during a wide-ranging interview with the Mirror after she left the jungle

TV presenter Alex Scott was forced to go to the medical tent in scenes not aired by ITV. She says that she was left “panicking” after a tic burrowed into her shoulder – and Kelly Brook demanded she sought help,

She said: “I was sitting next to Martin after carrying the logs and I felt my shoulder, and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s a big spot that’s come up.’ I asked him to have a look, then Kelly jumps up and says, ‘It’s a tick.’ I was panicking as she was shouting that I needed to get to medical. I knew about ticks and leeches, but I always thought it wouldn’t happen to me. They got it off but no one else has had one.”

She also revealed that Ginge was affected by leeches too in the wet conditions. Alex opened up to the Mirror as part of a wide-ranging interview. In it she told how her heart sank when she realised Jess Glynne wasn’t waiting for her when she left. The former England star already knew there was a chance that her popstar partner wouldn’t be waiting.

Before she even flew to Australia, Jess’s mum had suffered a stroke, and Alex agonised over whether to pull out of the show. In the end, it was Jess who told her she had to go. “It’s been a tough time for us and obviously her family, and it was a tough decision to come into the jungle, but then Jess never wanted me to step away from not doing it,”

Alex said. “I knew there was always a possibility of her not being across the bridge, if her mum hadn’t got better, or if things had been getting worse, which they have been. But it was a big decision for me to not pass this opportunity, and Jess was the one that pushed me to be here.”

Hours after Alex left the jungle, Jess posted on social media as to why she wasn’t there to greet her. In an emotional statement, she told how over the last few weeks her mother had “suffered a major stroke and needed urgent brain surgery.” She added: “It’s been a really serious, life-altering time for my family, and I’ve had to stay close to home. Alex would always want me to be where l’m needed most. I can’t wait to have her back by my side.”

Asked if she considered pulling out of the show, Alex said: “Oh, yeah, absolutely, 100 percent. But Jess was the one that wanted me to do this, so that’s why I wanted to go in and still make her proud.”

Alex also opened up about being embroiled in one of the camp’s biggest talking points: her salt smuggling operation. The camp had a star taken away after she was spotted sneaking seasoning on crocodile feet.

“I felt like such a naughty schoolgirl, like I should have been put in detention or something,” she laughs. “We had stopped at a service station, and they just had all these little sachets of salt and pepper. I was staring at them for ages, like, ‘Shall I? No… they’ll frisk me.’ But I put them down my socks and didn’t get checked.” And she reveals that a string of other campmates knew about her secret contraband stash. “Jack knew about it, Ginge saw me one night… he just kept giving me the eye. Shona knew about it from early days,” she admits.

As for who she thinks will be crowned this year, Alex says it’s likely to come down to the fan favourites. “Personally, I think, from the public and how the trials have been going, it’s going to be Ginge or Aitch between those two. Because of their fan base and how they’ve come across. I’d love for Shona to win, that would be a beautiful story. But I think it’ll be between one of the boys.”

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has halted all asylum decisions and paused issuing visas for people traveling on Afghan passports, days after a shooting in the nation’s capital that left one National Guard member dead and another in critical condition.

Investigators continued Saturday to seek a motive in the shooting, in which the suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, faces charges including first-degree murder.

Lakanwal is a 29-year-old Afghan national who worked with the CIA during the Afghanistan war. He applied for asylum during the Biden administration, which was granted this year under President Trump, according to #AfghanEvac, a group that assists with resettlement of Afghans who helped U.S. forces in their country.

The Trump administration has seized on the shooting Wednesday several blocks from the White House to intensify efforts to rein in legal immigration, promising to pause entry from some poor countries and review Afghans and other legal migrants already in the country. That is in addition to other measures, some of which were previously set in motion.

Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died after Wednesday’s shooting, and Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, remains hospitalized in critical condition. They were deployed with the West Virginia National Guard as part of Trump’s mission in Washington, D.C., which he says aims to combat crime. The president also has deployed or tried to deploy National Guard members to other Democratic-run cities to assist with his mass deportation efforts but has faced court challenges.

U.S. Atty. Jeanine Pirro’s office said the charges against Lakanwal also include two counts of assault with intent to kill while armed. In an interview on Fox News, she said there were “many charges to come.”

Asylum decisions halted

Trump called the shooting a “terrorist attack” and criticized the Biden administration for enabling entry by Afghans who worked with U.S. forces.

The director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Joseph Edlow, said Friday in a post on the social platform X that asylum decisions would be paused “until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.”

Experts say the U.S. has rigorous vetting systems for asylum seekers. Asylum claims made from inside the country through USCIS have long faced backlogs. Critics say the slowdown has been exacerbated during the Trump administration.

Also Friday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said his department was pausing “visa issuance for ALL individuals traveling on Afghan passports.”

Shawn VanDiver, president of San Diego-based #AfghanEvac, which has coordinated with the U.S. government on its Afghan resettlement efforts, said in response: “They are using a single violent individual as cover for a policy they have long planned, turning their own intelligence failures into an excuse to punish an entire community and the veterans who served alongside them.”

The suspect

Lakanwal lived in Bellingham, Wash., about 80 miles north of Seattle, with his wife and five children, former landlord Kristina Widman said.

Neighbor Mohammad Sherzad said Lakanwal was polite and quiet and spoke little English.

Sherzad said he attended the same mosque as Lakanwal and heard from other members that he was struggling to find work. He said Lakanwal “disappeared” about two weeks ago.

Lakanwal worked briefly this summer as an independent contractor for Amazon Flex, which lets people use their own cars to deliver packages, according to a company spokesperson.

Investigators are executing warrants in Washington state and other parts of the country.

Lakanwal entered the U.S. in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden administration program that resettled Afghans after the U.S. withdrawal, officials said. Lakanwal applied for asylum during that administration, but his asylum was approved this year under the Trump administration, #AfghanEvac said in a statement.

Lakanwal served in a CIA-backed Afghan army unit, known as one of the specialized Zero Units, in the southern province of Kandahar, according to a resident of the eastern province of Khost who identified himself as Lakanwal’s cousin and spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

The man said Lakanwal started out working for the unit as a security guard in 2012 and was later promoted to a team leader and a GPS specialist.

Binkley and Finley write for the Associated Press. AP journalists Sarah Brumfield, Siddiqullah Alizai, Elena Becatoros, Randy Herschaft, Cedar Attanasio and Hallie Golden contributed to this report.

A look at the top performers from high school football games across the Southland during the semifinals of the playoffs on Friday.

RUSHING

• Darnell Miller, Santee: Rushed for 190 yards and three touchdowns in City Section Division III win over Hawkins.

• Isaiah Phelps, Oxnard Pacifica: Rushed for 123 yards and one touchdown in Southern Section Division 3 win over Palos Verdes.

• Dominik Hernando, Palos Verdes: Rushed for 102 yards in loss to Oxnard Pacifica.

• Melvin Pineda, San Fernando: Ran for two touchdowns in City Section Division II win over Cleveland.

• Waylon Stone, Woodbridge: The freshman rushed for 101 yards and two touchdowns in Southern Section Division 13 win over Montebello.

• Makhi Czaykowski, Beckman: Rushed for 112 yards and three touchdowns in Southern Section Division 8 win over Brea Olinda.

• Donovan Murillo, Montebello: Rushed for 136 yards and two touchdowns in loss to Woodbridge.

PASSING

• Trace Johnson, Santa Margarita: Passed for 383 yards and four touchdowns in Southern Section Division 1 win over Corona Centennial.

• Taylor Lee, Oxnard Pacifica: Passed for 211 yards and two touchdowns in Southern Section Division 3 win over Palos Verdes.

RECEIVING

• Trent Mosley, Santa Margarita: Caught 10 passes for 292 yards and two touchdowns, ran for two touchdowns in win over Corona Centennial.

DEFENSE

• Isaia Vandermade, Santa Margarita: Recorded three of his team’s six sacks in win over Corona Centennial.

• Dash Fifita, Santa Margarita: Had 11 tackles in defeat of Corona Centennial.

• Jaden Walk-Green, Corona Centennial: Had four unassisted tackles in loss to Santa Margarita.

• Ivan Lopez, South El Monte: Had a sack on final play to preserve win over Pioneer.

SPECIAL TEAMS

• Colin Chen, Woodbridge: Blocked a field-goal attempt in defeat of Montebello.

• Aiden Wimberly, Beckman: Made a tying 35-yard field goal to send game into overtime in win over Brea Olinda.

Nov. 29 (UPI) — The nation’s consumers spent a record $11.8 billion on Black Friday, which exceeded the amount spent during in-store visits on the day after Thanksgiving.

Adobe Analytics data show a combined total of more than 1 trillion online visits to retailers’ websites, during which consumers spent the record amount that exceeded 2024’s Black Friday spending by 9.1%, Forbes reported.

Consumers also spent $6.4 billion online on Thanksgiving, according to Adobe Analytics.

The final numbers for Black Friday in-store spending were not available on Saturday, but analysts said it is less than the online total.

“Cyber Week is off to a strong start, with online spending on Thanksgiving and Black Friday both coming in above Adobe’s initial forecasts,” Adobe Digital Insights lead analyst Vivek Pandya said, as reported by Forbes.

“This was driven in large part by competitive deals across categories, like electronics, toys and apparel,” Pandya said.

“Discounts are set to remain elevated through Cyber Monday, which we expect will remain the biggest online shopping day of the season and year.”

Adobe Analytics had predicted an 8.3% rise for ecommerce retailers, but online buyers spent an average of $12.5 million per minute to break the 9% mark for online sales.

Mastercard SpendingPulse reported even more robust year-to-year increases in Black Friday sales, with 10.4% for online and 1.7% for in-store purchases.

Jewelry and apparel ranked among the leading product categories for online and traditional retailers, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse.

While the total spent in stores on Black Friday was up from 2024, foot traffic was down.

Black Friday foot traffic was down by 3.6% from 2024, according to RetailNext.

Shoppers are changing how they go about making holiday purchases and are spending less time inside stores than they did during prior holiday seasons.

Many online shoppers were aided by artificial intelligence to locate online deals, with Adobe Analytics reported an 805% increase in AI-driven traffic to retail sites in the United States when compared to 2024.

The Black Friday numbers help the National Retail Federation to assess the impact of the holiday season, which runs throughout November and December.

The NRF is scheduled to update its holiday spending outlook on Tuesday.

British playwright Tom Stoppard, a playful, probing dramatist who won an Academy Award for the screenplay for 1998’s Shakespeare In Love, has died. He was 88.

In a statement on Saturday, United Agents said Stoppard died “peacefully” at his home in Dorset in southern England, surrounded by his family.

“He will be remembered for his works, for their brilliance and humanity, and for his wit, his irreverence, his generosity of spirit and his profound love of the English language,” they said. “It was an honor to work with Tom and to know him.”

When it comes to the world of comic invention and linguistic pyrotechnics, few dramatists of the 20th century could match Stoppard’s scope and sustained success.

From his earliest hit, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, in 1966, through to 1993’s, Arcadia, and, Leopoldstadt, in 2020, Stoppard engaged and amused theatre-goers with a highly individual brand of intellect.

His writing was often philosophical or scientific, but consistently funny, a distinctive style that gave rise to the term Stoppardian. It refers to the use of verbal gymnastics while addressing philosophical concepts.

“I want to demonstrate that I can make serious points by flinging a custard pie around the stage for a couple of hours,” the Czech-born Stoppard said in a 1970s interview.

“Theatre is first and foremost a recreation. But it is not just a children’s playground; it can be recreation for people who like to stretch their minds.”

Early years

Stoppard was born Tomas Straussler on July 3, 1937, in what was then Czechoslovakia, the son of Eugen Straussler, a doctor, and Marta (or Martha), nee Beckova, who had trained as a nurse.

The Jewish family fled the Nazis and moved to Singapore when he was an infant.

But Singapore also became unsafe, and, with his mother and elder brother Peter, he escaped to India. His father stayed behind and died while fleeing after Singapore fell to the Japanese.

In India, Marta Straussler married a British army major, Kenneth Stoppard, and the family moved to England.

Boarding school followed at Pocklington in Yorkshire, northern England, before Stoppard left school at age 17.

He decided not to go to university. Instead, he went straight to work as a reporter on a local newspaper in Bristol, in western England.

While he found reporting daunting, he threw himself into working as a theatre and cinema critic, and his love of drama took hold.

Award-winning career

His breakthrough came with the overnight success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe of, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, a tragicomedy centred around two minor characters from Shakespeare’s, Hamlet.

It moved to London’s West End, before winning a Tony Award for best play in the United States.

“What’s it about?” was a frequent response from bemused theatre-goers about the play. Tired of being asked, Stoppard is said to have replied to a woman outside a theatre on Broadway: “It’s about to make me very rich.”

He later questioned whether he had said “very”, Hermione Lee wrote in Stoppard’s authorised biography, but he had undoubtedly managed to transform his previously precarious finances.

Indeed, Stoppard would go on to win numerous awards on both sides of the Atlantic for his work.

He was knighted in 1997, and in 2014, he was crowned “the greatest living playwright” by the London Evening Standard Theatre Awards.

To non-theatre-goers, he is best remembered for his work in cinema, which included the Indiana Jones and Star Wars franchises.

In 1999, he won an Oscar for his screenplay for, Shakespeare in Love, which scooped a total of seven Academy Awards that year.

“He has no apparent animus towards anyone or anything,” said film and theatre director Mike Nichols, who directed the Broadway premiere of Stoppard’s tale of marriage and affairs, The Real Thing.

“He’s very funny at no one’s expense. That’s not supposed to be possible.”

JACK Fincham has been caught snogging a MAFS star after his split from Towie’s Chloe Brockett.

The former Love Island star can be seen passionately snogging a new woman – and she’s a very familiar face.

The Sun can exclusively reveal that it’s dental nurse turned reality star Leisha Lightbody.

She appeared on the most recent UK series of Married at First Sight and was paired with Reiss Boyce.

The MAFS UK couple split just weeks after their emotional final vows, with the distance between Essex-based Reiss, 33, and 31-year-old Leisha, who lives in Scotland, proving too much for them. 

And now it appears that Leisha has moved on with Jack.

Read more on Jack Fincham

‘ROCK BOTTOM’

Love Island’s Jack Fincham reveals he’s lost over £1million & 1million fans

PEARLY FRIGHTS

Jack Fincham reveals his shaved down stubs as he gets Turkey Teeth redone

The video shows the pair in a quiet corner of the Tulley’s Christmas event going in for a passionate snog.

A source said: “Jack and Leisha were all over each other for the whole night and didn’t seem to care who was watching. 

“Leisha is clearly no longer heartbroken over Reiss and it looks like Jack’s definitely moved on from Chloe. 

“It looked like a lot more than a drunken kiss.”

Jack and Leisha’s reps have been contacted for comment.

It’s been a tough time for Jack after his split from Chloe, with him recently revealing he’s lost a £1m.

The reality star, 34, has had a tough year which saw him narrowly avoid prison after being arrested while serving a suspended sentence at the time.

In a candid Instagram post, Jack penned: “I’ve been quiet for a long time — maybe too long. Truth is, I haven’t known what to say.

“I lost over £1 million chasing the wrong things — and in the process, I lost over a million followers too. That hurt. But I get it.

“I wasn’t myself. I was lost, struggling, and making the kind of mistakes that feel impossible to come back from.

“But I’ve learned this — you don’t need millions of followers to find your voice again. You just need to tell the truth.”

Explaining more, Jack said: “I took a lot of bad advice over the years and had a lot of the wrong people around me.

“I’ve made some massive mistakes. I’ve learnt some really, really proper painful, really painful lessons over the years. Every mistake that I’ve made, I own them all.”

It began as a typical political foray: Prominent defense attorney Jack McMahon, the Republican candidate for district attorney in Philadelphia, called the incumbent Lynn Abraham “racially insensitive.” A familiar campaign claim, yet it uncommonly irked those in the D.A.’s office who knew McMahon from his eight-year tenure as an assistant D.A. After reading his comments in the local newspapers, two prosecutors stepped forward to say they recalled seeing a not-terribly-sensitive training videotape McMahon made back in 1987 for the D.A.’s office. One prosecutor, in fact, had the tape in hand. He had found it in his desk drawer.

Abraham, surrounded by her top deputies, settled before a VCR. The donnybrook that erupted soon after has yet to subside. Politics, legalisms, morals, ethics and barefaced hypocrisy all share center stage; which truly define this melee remains an open question.

First, the genesis. Here are excerpts from McMahon’s one-hour videotaped lesson on jury selection:

“You do not want smart people. I wish we could ask everyone’s IQ. If you could know their IQ, you could pick a great jury all the time. You don’t want smart people because smart people will analyze the hell out of your case. . . . They take those words ‘reasonable doubt’ and they actually try to think about them.

“You don’t want social workers. That’s obvious. They got intelligence, sensitivity, all this stuff. You don’t want them. . . . Teachers, you don’t like. Teachers are bad, especially young teachers. Like teachers who teach in the grade-school level.

“In selecting blacks, you don’t want the real educated ones. This goes across the board. All races. You don’t want smart people. If you’re going to take blacks, you want older black men and women, particularly men. Older black men are very good.

“Blacks from the South, excellent. . . . If they are from South Carolina and places like that, I tell you, I don’t think you can ever lose a jury with blacks from South Carolina. They are dynamite. They are on the cops’ side.

“My experience, young black women are very bad. There’s an antagonism. I guess maybe they’re downtrodden in two respects. They are women and they’re black . . . so they somehow want to take it out on somebody, and you don’t want it to be you.

“Let’s face it, the blacks from the low-income areas are less likely to convict. I understand it. There’s a resentment for law enforcement. There’s a resentment for authority. And as a result, you don’t want those people on your jury.

“It may appear as if you’re being racist, but you’re just being realistic. You’re just trying to win the case. The other side is doing the same thing. . . . The only way you’re going to do your best is to get jurors that are unfair, and more likely to convict than anybody else in that room.

“The case law says the object of getting a jury . . . is to get a competent, fair and impartial jury. Well, that’s ridiculous. You’re not trying to get that. Both sides are trying to get the jury most likely to do whatever they want them to do. . . . . You are there to win. . . . If you think that it’s some noble thing, some esoteric game, you’re wrong and you’ll lose.”

Advice to novices indeed. When McMahon’s videotape reached its end, Abraham and her deputies huddled. They had just seen something obviously repugnant and arguably illegal; the U.S. Supreme Court in 1986 ruled you can’t take race into consideration in selecting jurors. They had also, of course, just seen something that appeared to put a political opponent in an awfully bad light. “All of us,” Abraham would later say, “to a man and to a woman, concluded that it was absolutely necessary, essential and right that this tape be revealed.”

With a cover letter saying “We have determined that disclosure to you is the ethically appropriate course,” Abraham’s office sent the videotape to defense attorneys who represented the 36 people McMahon had successfully prosecuted for murder between 1982 and 1990. Eyes widened with delight in a lot of Philadelphia lawyers’ offices that day. Here were grounds for seeking new trials for convicted clients, and not just in cases McMahon himself had prosecuted. Any young prosecutor who had seen McMahon’s tape was fair game. A cop killer, a barroom shooter, a mobster goon–all had second chances now.

Declared one defense attorney: “That tape is the most disgraceful thing I’ve ever seen. . . . My client deserves a new trial. My client’s been sitting in jail for a decade and a half and never got a fair trial.”

Opined another: “This may have opened a Pandora’s box of hundreds, maybe thousands of tainted convictions. . . . There’s no telling how many attorneys in that office saw that tape.”

The impact even reached into a murder trial then underway, where McMahon was toiling as defense attorney. His client worried what the jurors were thinking about that week’s headlines. McMahon didn’t know. The judge declared a mistrial.

Then came the unexpected turn in this tale. Despite some clucking from law professors–”inappropriate . . . crosses the line . . .troubling”– McMahon didn’t really draw much heat. Local politicos, even black leaders, held their tongues. So did state Supreme Court Justice Ronald D. Castille, who had been D.A. when McMahon made the tape. Suddenly, it was Abraham on the defensive. A backlash had set in.

All sorts of people declared themselves stunned by her release of the videotape. A crass move, they suggested, a new low in politics. For political gain, she had let 36 convicted murderers walk. What’s more, she had trafficked in hypocrisy, not being known herself for much racial sensitivity. Low-down dirty stuff, declared one black city councilman.

Soon McMahon was happily doing the television talk-show route, showing up on everything from “Geraldo” to “Good Morning America.” People were approaching him on Philadelphia streets, shaking his hand, saying: “We’re with you.” Regret and retreat were the furthest thing from his mind.

“It’s done today, it’s going to be done tomorrow, and I don’t apologize for it,” McMahon declared about his jury-selection advice. “I only said what any good jury consultant would charge hundreds of thousands of dollars to tell you: Some people, black or white, help your case, other people hurt it. That’s not being racist–that’s being realistic. Every lawyer in the world uses these techniques.”

For awhile, Abraham tried to counter.

“The sentiments and practices discussed on that videotape are repugnant to me, and they are in direct contradiction to my beliefs and to the policies of this office,” she offered. She was “ethically, morally and legally compelled to make it public” once she learned of its existence. McMahon was a “rogue assistant district attorney.” At a press conference Abraham flatly declared: “I am morally right. I am legally right. I am ethically right.”

Despite the election-year context, some truly believed that this former judge was speaking in earnest. Yet in the end it didn’t much matter. One likely reason: People sensed truth in McMahon’s claims. Whatever Abraham’s motives, the D.A. basically had declared herself shocked–shocked!–at repugnant but fairly common practices.

Three Philadelphia judges, speaking on condition of anonymity in recent days, have told local reporters that McMahon’s techniques are routinely employed by both the D.A.’s office and defense attorneys. One defense lawyer and former prosecutor, on the record, has advised: “I’m not saying everyone does it, but it’s part of real life in the real courthouse.” Philadelphia’s mayor, Edward G. Rendell, a former two-term D.A., has been quoted as saying: “If you look at the totality of what he’s talking about, I think it is a veteran prosecutor lecturing young prosecutors about jury selection.”

Thus, this particular extravaganza rolls on, heading toward a November election, perceived and described in multiple ways. This much, at least, can be fairly said: What finally is extraordinary about McMahon’s remarks is not their content, but their wide and unabashed public circulation.

“It’s flabbergasting,” pointed out jury consultant Paul Tieger, “that this guy put this on a videotape.”

Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola says that the referee lost control of the game, with the Cherries losing three players for their next match to suspension in a 3-2 loss at Sunderland.

MATCH REPORT: Sunderland 3-2 Bournemouth

Available to UK users only.

Follow our live build-up, with full team news coverage, ahead of our text commentary stream of the all Brazilian final.

It has been more than a month and a half since a ceasefire was concluded in Gaza. As part of the deal, 600 trucks were supposed to cross daily into the Strip carrying food, medicine, tents, fuel and other basic necessities.

We have grown used to official statements talking about hundreds of trucks crossing the border every day. Photos are released, crossings are documented carefully, and announcements are made with celebration.

“4,200 trucks carrying humanitarian goods are entering Gaza weekly, since the start of the ceasefire. 70% of trucks that entered carried food … Over 16,600 trucks of food entered Gaza since the start of the ceasefire. Over 370,000 tons of food,” claims a November 26 update from the Israeli occupation authorities.

One would think the Palestinians in Gaza are the most well-fed people in the world.

To many of us, it is not clear how Israel counts the “trucks of food”, as there are indeed many commercial trucks allowed in that carry food of low nutritional value, like chocolate bars and biscuits, or food that is too expensive, like frozen chicken for $25 a kilo or a tray of eggs for $30.

Humanitarian organisations also seem to doubt the official count. According to the World Food Programme, only half of required food aid is entering Gaza. According to Palestinian relief agencies, only a quarter of necessary aid is actually allowed to go in.

And then only a fraction of that fraction actually reaches the displaced, the impoverished, the injured and the hungry. That is because much of the aid that does make it inside Gaza disappears into a “Bermuda triangle”.

The distance between the border and the displacement camps, where aid should be distributed, looks short on the map, but in reality, it is the longest distance politically and security-wise.

Yes, many trucks that go through never reach the families that need the supplies the most.

People hear about trucks, yet see no humanitarian packages. They hear about tonnes of flour, but they see no bread. They watch videos of trucks entering the Strip, but they never seen them come to their camps or neighbourhoods. It feels as if the aid enters Gaza only to vanish into thin air.

Recently, talk about the missing aid has grown louder in the streets, especially as basic food items have suddenly appeared in local markets while still carrying labels that say: “Humanitarian Aid Not for Sale”. I have seen cans of chicken meat with this label being sold for $15 apiece.

Even when aid parcels reach the needy, they are often lacking in promised items. For example, my family received a food parcel that was supposed to contain rice, lentils, and six bottles of cooking oil, but when we opened it, there was no rice or lentils, only three bottles of cooking oil.

This is not simply a matter of corruption. After two years of genocidal war, governance in Gaza has collapsed, its institutions systematically targeted by the Israeli army. There is no unified authority, and there is no force able to provide public order and security.

According to the UN mechanism for aid monitoring, from May 19 to November 29, 8035 aid trucks made it to their destinations inside Gaza; 7,127 were “intercepted” either “peacefully” or “forcefully”.

The Israeli army sets restrictions on the roads that trucks can take, often forcing them to take routes that are full of danger. Some roads cannot be used without coordination with powerful local families or neighbourhood committees, others are controlled by armed groups. All this makes a trip of a few dozen kilometres a very fragile process that is easy to disrupt. This is how aid disappears into Gaza’s “Bermuda triangle”.

International organisations are also unable to enforce security. They cannot accompany trucks because of the danger, cannot supervise unloading in real time, and do not have enough staff to track every shipment. Their dependence on local committees and volunteers means they rely on a system full of gaps that different parties quickly take advantage of.

Amid all this, one big question remains: Who truly benefits from the disappearance of aid?

There are the merchants looking for quick profit. There are the local armed groups seeking a source of cash. And there is, of course, the occupation and its allies who want to continue using hunger as a tool of political pressure. All of them are benefitting from the pain of ordinary Palestinians.

The problem here is that attention to what is happening in Gaza has diminished since the ceasefire. The global public feels reassured that the genocide is over, and it is no longer asking why aid is not reaching the Palestinian people.

Meanwhile, within policy and political circles, the disappearance of aid is being normalised, as if it were a natural outcome of conflict. But it is not; it is an engineered crisis meant as yet another kind of collective punishment for the Palestinian people.

As the world chooses yet again to turn a blind eye, it is not only trucks that are vanishing into Gaza’s “Bermuda triangle”, it is also the strength of Palestinians to keep going.

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

LONDON — British playwright Tom Stoppard, a giant of modern theater and Oscar-winning screenwriter known for erudition and wit, has died. He was 88.

In a statement Saturday, United Agents said Stoppard died “peacefully” at his home in Dorset in southern England, surrounded by his family.

“He will be remembered for his works, for their brilliance and humanity, and for his wit, his irreverence, his generosity of spirit and his profound love of the English language,” it said. ”It was an honor to work with Tom and to know him.”

The Czech-born Stoppard was often hailed as the greatest British playwright of his generation and was garlanded with honors, including a shelf full of theater gongs. Dizzyingly prolific, he also wrote radio plays, a novel, television series and many celebrated screenplays, including 1998’s “Shakespeare in Love,” which won an Academy Award.

His brain-teasing plays ranged across Shakespeare, science, philosophy and the historic tragedies of the 20th century. Five of them won Tony Awards for best play: “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” in 1968, “Travesties” in 1976, “The Real Thing” in 1984, “The Coast of Utopia” in 2007 and “Leopoldstadt” in 2023.

Stoppard biographer Hermione Lee said the secret of his plays was their “mixture of language, knowledge and feeling. … It’s those three things in gear together which make him so remarkable.”

The writer was born Tomás Sträussler in 1937 to a Jewish family in Zlín in what was then Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic. His father was a doctor for the Bata shoe company, and when Nazi Germany invaded in 1939 the family fled to Singapore, where Bata had a factory.

In late 1941, as Japanese forces closed in on the city, Tomás, his brother and their mother fled again, this time to India. His father stayed behind and later died when his ship was attacked as he tried to leave Singapore.

In 1946 his mother married an English officer, Kenneth Stoppard, and the family moved to threadbare postwar Britain. The 8-year-old Tom “put on Englishness like a coat,” he later said, growing up to be a quintessential Englishman who loved cricket and Shakespeare.

He did not go to a university but began his career, aged 17, as a journalist at newspapers in Bristol, southwest England, and then as a theater critic for Scene magazine in London.

He wrote plays for radio and television including “A Walk on the Water,” broadcast in 1963, and made his stage breakthrough with “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” which reimagined Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” from the viewpoint of two hapless minor characters. A mix of tragedy and absurdist humor, it premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1966 and was staged at Britain’s National Theatre, then run by Laurence Olivier, before moving to Broadway.

A stream of exuberant, innovative plays followed, including meta-whodunnit “The Real Inspector Hound” (first staged in 1968); “Jumpers” (1972), a blend of physical and philosophical gymnastics; and “Travesties” (1974), which set intellectuals including James Joyce and Vladimir Lenin colliding in Zurich during World War I.

The musical drama “Every Good Boy Deserves Favor” (1977) was a collaboration with composer Andre Previn about a Soviet dissident confined to a mental institution — part of Stoppard’s long involvement with groups advocating for human rights groups in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

He often played with time and structure. “The Real Thing” (1982) was a poignant romantic comedy about love and deception that featured plays within a play. “Arcadia” (1993) moved between the modern era and the early 19th century, in which characters at an English country house debated poetry, gardening and chaos theory as fate had its way with them.

“The Invention of Love” (1997) explored classical literature and the mysteries of the human heart through the life of the English poet A.E. Housman.

Stoppard began the 21st century with “The Coast of Utopia” (2002), an epic trilogy about pre-revolutionary Russian intellectuals, and drew on his own background for “Rock ’n’ Roll” (2006), which contrasted the fates of the 1960s counterculture in Britain and in communist Czechoslovakia.

“The Hard Problem” (2015) explored the mysteries of consciousness through the lenses of science and religion.

Stoppard was a devoted champion of free speech who worked with organizations including PEN and Index on Censorship. He claimed not to have strong political views otherwise, writing in 1968: “I burn with no causes. I cannot say that I write with any social objective. One writes because one loves writing, really.”

Some critics found his plays more clever than emotionally engaging. But biographer Lee said many of his plays contained a “sense of underlying grief.”

“People in his plays … history comes at them,” Lee said at a British Library event in 2021. “They turn up, they don’t know why they’re there, they don’t know whether they can get home again. They’re often in exile, they can barely remember their own name. They may have been wrongfully incarcerated. They may have some terrible moral dilemma they don’t know how to solve. They may have lost someone. And over and over again I think you get that sense of loss and longing in these very funny, witty plays.”

That was especially true of his late play “Leopoldstadt,” which drew on his own family’s story for the tale of a Jewish Viennese family over the first half of the 20th century. Stoppard said he began thinking of his personal link to the Holocaust quite late in life, only discovering after his mother’s death in 1996 that many members of his family, including all four grandparents, had died in concentration camps.

“I wouldn’t have written about my heritage — that’s the word for it nowadays — while my mother was alive, because she’d always avoided getting into it herself,” Stoppard told the New Yorker in 2022.

“It would be misleading to see me as somebody who blithely and innocently, at the age of 40-something, thought, ‘Oh, my goodness, I had no idea I was a member of a Jewish family,’” he said. “Of course I knew, but I didn’t know who they were. And I didn’t feel I had to find out in order to live my own life. But that wasn’t really true.”

“Leopoldstadt” premiered in London at the start of 2020 to rave reviews; weeks later all theaters were shut by the COVID-19 pandemic. It eventually opened in Broadway in late 2022, going on to win four Tonys.

Stoppard’s catalog of screenplays included the Terry Gilliam dystopian comedy “Brazil” (1985), the Steven Spielberg-directed war drama “Empire of the Sun” (1987), Elizabethan rom com “Shakespeare in Love” (1998) — for which he and Marc Norman shared a best adapted screenplay Oscar — code-breaking thriller “Enigma” (2001) and Russian epic “Anna Karenina” (2012).

He also wrote and directed a 1990 film adaptation of “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” wrote the 2013 TV series “Parade’s End” and translated numerous works into English, including plays by dissident Czech writer Václav Havel, who became his country’s first post-communist president.

He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997 for his services to literature.

He was married three times: to Jose Ingle, Miriam Stern — better known as the health journalist Dr. Miriam Stoppard — and TV producer Sabrina Guinness. The first two marriages ended in divorce. He is survived by four children, including the actor Ed Stoppard, and several grandchildren.

Northwestern University has agreed to pay $75 million to the U.S. government in a deal with the Trump administration to end a series of investigations and restore hundreds of millions of dollars in federal research funding.

President Trump’s administration had cut off $790 million in grants in a standoff that contributed to university layoffs and the resignation in September of Northwestern President Michael Schill. The administration said the school had not done enough to fight antisemitism.

Under the agreement announced Friday night, Northwestern will make the payment to the U.S. Treasury over the next three years. Among other commitments it also requires the university to revoke the so-called Deering Meadow agreement, which it signed in April 2024 in exchange for pro-Palestinian protesters ending their tent encampment on campus.

During negotiations with the Trump administration, interim university President Henry Bienen said Northwestern refused to cede control over hiring, admissions or its curriculum. “I would not have signed this agreement without provisions ensuring that is the case,” he said.

The agreement also calls for Northwestern to continue compliance with federal anti-discrimination laws, develop training materials to “socialize international students” with the norms of a campus dedicated to open debate, and uphold a commitment to Title IX by “providing safe and fair opportunities for women, including single-sex housing for any woman, defined on the basis of sex, who requests such accommodations and all-female sports, locker rooms, and showering facilities.”

Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the deal cements policy changes that will protect people on campus from harassment and discrimination.

“The reforms reflect bold leadership at Northwestern and they are a road map for institutional leaders around the country that will help rebuild public trust in our colleges and universities,” McMahon said.

Trump has leveraged government control of federal research money to push for ideological changes at elite colleges he claims are overrun by “woke” ideology.

The fine agreed to by Northwestern is the second-largest behind Columbia, which agreed in July to pay the government $200 million to resolve a series of investigations and restore its funding. Brown and Cornell also reached agreements with the government to restore funding after antisemitism investigations.

Harvard, the administration’s primary target, remains in negotiations with the federal government over its demands for changes to campus policies and governance. The Ivy League school sued over the administration’s cuts to its grant money and won a court victory in September when a federal judge ordered the government to restore federal funding, saying the Trump administration “used antisemitism as a smokescreen.”

This fall, the White House tried a different approach on higher education, offering preferential treatment for federal funds to several institutions in exchange for adopting policies in line with Trump’s agenda. The administration received a wave of initial rejections from some universities’ leadership, including USC’s, citing concerns that Trump’s higher education compact would suffocate academic freedom.