Among

Airports in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago along with hubs across the U.S. are among the 40 that will see flights cut starting Friday due to the government shutdown, according to a list distributed to the airlines and obtained by The Associated Press.

The Federal Aviation Administration announced Wednesday that it would reduce air traffic by 10% across 40 “high-volume” markets to maintain travel safety as air traffic controllers exhibit signs of strain during the ongoing government shutdown.

The airports impacted cover the busiest across the U.S. — including Atlanta, Denver, Dallas, Orlando, Miami, and San Francisco. In some of the biggest cities — such as New York, Houston and Chicago — multiple airports will be affected.

The FAA is imposing the flight reductions to relieve pressure on air traffic controllers who are working without pay during the government shutdown and have been increasingly calling off work.

Controllers already have missed one paycheck and are scheduled to again receive nothing next week as as the shutdown drags on and the financial pressure on them mounts.

The FAA has already been delaying flights at times when airports or its other facilities are short on controllers.

Airlines said they would try to minimize the impact on travelers. United Airlines said it would focus the cuts on smaller regional routes that use smaller planes like 737s.

Passengers should start to be notified about cancellations Thursday. The AAA recommended that travelers download their airline’s app and turn on notifications. United Airlines and Delta Air Lines both said they will offer refunds to passengers who opt not to fly — even if they purchased tickets that aren’t normally refundable.

Experts predict hundreds if not thousands of flights could be canceled. The cuts could represent as many as 1,800 flights and upwards of 268,000 seats combined, according to an estimate by aviation analytics firm Cirium.

“I’m not aware in my 35-year history in the aviation market where we’ve had a situation where we’re taking these kinds of measures,” Bedford said Wednesday. “We’re in new territory in terms of government shutdowns.”

Air traffic controllers have been working unpaid since the shutdown began Oct. 1. Most work mandatory overtime six days a week, leaving little time for side jobs to help cover bills and other expenses unless they call out.

Mounting staffing pressures are forcing the agency to act, Bedford said.

“We can’t ignore it,” he said, adding that even if the shutdown ends before Friday, the FAA wouldn’t automatically resume normal operations until staffing improves and stabilizes.

Bedford and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Wednesday that they would meet with airline executives to figure out how to safely implement the reductions.

Major airlines, aviation unions and the broader travel industry have been urging Congress to end the shutdown, which on Wednesday became the longest on record.

The shutdown is putting unnecessary strain on the system and “forcing difficult operational decisions that disrupt travel and damage confidence in the U.S. air travel experience,” said U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Geoff Freeman in a statement.

Duffy warned on Tuesday that there could be chaos in the skies if the shutdown drags on long enough for air traffic controllers to miss their second full paycheck next week.

Duffy said some controllers can get by missing one paycheck, but not two or more. And he has said some controllers are even struggling to pay for transportation to work.

Staffing can run short both in regional control centers that manage multiple airports and in individual airport towers, but they don’t always lead to flight disruptions. Throughout October, flight delays caused by staffing problems had been largely isolated and temporary.

But the past weekend brought some of the worst staffing issues since the start of the shutdown.

From Friday to Sunday evening, at least 39 air traffic control facilities reported potential staffing limits, according to an Associated Press analysis of operations plans shared through the Air Traffic Control System Command Center system. The figure, which is likely an undercount, is well above the average for weekends before the shutdown.

During weekends from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30, the average number of airport towers, regional control centers and facilities monitoring traffic at higher altitudes that announced potential staffing issues was 8.3, according to the AP analysis. But during the five weekend periods since the shutdown began, the average more than tripled to 26.2 facilities.

Funk and Yamat write for the Associated Press. AP journalist Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque, N.M., contributed to this report.

Obidah Habila Albert, an alumnus of the third cohort of HumAngle’s Accountability Fellowship, is among the 15 Nigerian journalists selected for the Digital Public Infrastructure Journalism (DPIJ) Fellowship, which will run from October 2025 to April 2026. 

After receiving over 200 applications, 45 candidates were shortlisted, and 15 finalists emerged from 14 media organisations, including The Guardian Newspaper, Premium Times, Foundation for Investigative Journalism, and TheCable.

Organised by the Ghana-based Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) in partnership with Co-Develop, the fellowship is a flagship initiative that aims to strengthen public awareness and participation through journalism, promoting the adoption of Digital Public Infrastructures (DPIs) and Digital Public Goods and Services (DPGS).

Obidah, who is excited about his selection, said he applied for the opportunity because it aligns with his curiosity about technology’s impact on everyday life and how their stories could be more effectively documented.

“By the end of the programme, I want to understand DPI and DPGs better and tell stories about them. I hope my stories will drive conversations and help more people and policymakers in Nigeria and beyond to pay attention and take action,” he said. 

During his fellowship with HumAngle, Obidah reported extensively on conflict and peacebuilding efforts in Nigeria’s North East, as well as the rising cost-of-living crisis affecting vulnerable communities. His experience, he said, deepened his commitment to reporting stories that highlight the human dimensions of development and policy issues.

According to Sulemana Braimah, Executive Director of MFWA, the DPIJ Fellowship is a strategic investment in shaping informed media narratives around inclusive design, implementation, and the uptake of DPI development in areas such as policy, governance, and utility. 

The selected fellows and their newsrooms will receive grants to support reporting projects, as well as editorial mentorship, training, and access to resources on DPIs and DPGS. Each fellow is expected to produce at least six original stories before the end of the fellowship on issues relating to inclusive digital identification, digital payments, data exchange, and other digital safety issues. Fellows will also join a growing network of alumni across West Africa.

Last year, HumAngle’s Investigations Editor, Ibrahim Adeyemi, was selected for the West Africa cohort of the same fellowship, where he produced several stories exploring the intersection of DPIs and national security.

South Asians have played a prominent role in President Trump’s universe, especially in his second term.

Second Lady Usha Vance is the daughter of Indian immigrants who came to California to study and never went back. Harmeet Dhillon, born in India and a devout Sikh, is currently his U.S. assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division. And the head of the FBI, Kash Patel, is (like potential New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani,) of Indian descent by way of Uganda.

Some Republicans have taken pride in this kind of diversity, citing it for the gains Trump made in 2024 with Black and Latino voters.

But these days, the MAGA big tent seems to be collapsing fast.

Last week, MAGA had a total anti-Indian meltdown on social media, revealing a deep, ugly racism toward South Asians.

It comes amid the first real rebellion about rampant and increasingly open antisemitism within the MAGAverse, creating a massive rift between traditional conservatives and a younger, rabidly anti-Jewish contingent called groypers whose leader, Nick Fuentes, recently posted that he is “team Hitler.”

Turns out, when you cultivate a political movement based on hate, at some point the hate is uncontrollable. In fact, that hate needs to be fed to maintain power — even if it means feasting on its own.

This monster of white-might ugliness is going to dominate policy and politics for the next election, and these now-public fights within the Republican party represent a new dynamic that will either force it to do some sort of soul searching, or purge it of anything but white Christian nationalism. My bet is on the latter. But if conservatives ever truly believed in their inclusive talk, then it’s time for Republicans to stand up and demand the big Trump tent they were hailing just a few months ago.

Ultra-conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, who opposes much of Fuentes’ worldview, summed up this Republican split succinctly.

Fuentes’ followers “are white supremacists, hate women, Jews, Hindus, many types of Christians, brown people of a wide variety of backgrounds, Blacks, America’s foreign policy and America’s constitution,” Shapiro explained. “They admire Hitler and Stalin and that splinter faction is now being facilitated and normalized within the mainstream Republican Party.”

MAGA’s anti-Indian sentiment had an explosive moment a few days ago when a South Asian woman asked Vice President JD Vance a series of questions during a Turning Point USA event in Mississippi. The young immigrant wanted to know how Vance could preach for the removal of nearly 18 million immigrants? And how could he claim that the United States was a Christian nation, rather than one that valued pluralism?

“How can you stop us and tell us we don’t belong here anymore?” the woman asked. “Why do I have to be a Christian?”

Vance’s answer went viral, in part because he claimed his wife, although from a Hindu family, was “agnostic or atheist,” and that he hoped she would convert to Christianity.

“Do I hope eventually that she is somehow moved by the same thing that I was moved in by church? Yeah, I honestly do wish that,” he said.

Vance later tried to do some damage control on social media, calling Usha Vance a “blessing” and promising to continue to “support her and talk to her about faith and life and everything else, because she’s my wife.”

But many South Asians felt Vance was dissing his wife’s heritage and attempting to downplay her non-whiteness. They vented on social media, and got a lot of MAGA feelings back.

“How can you pretend to be a white nativist politician who will ‘bring america back to it’s golden age’ … when your wife is an indian immigrant?” wrote one poster.

Dhillon received similar feedback recently for urging calm and fairness after a Sikh truck driver allegedly caused a fatal crash.

“[N]o ma’am, it is CRYSTAL CLEAR that sihks and hindus need to get the hell out of my country,” one reply stated. “You and your kind are no longer welcome here. Go the [expletive] home.”

Patel too, got it, after posting a message on Diwali, a religious holiday that celebrates the victory of light over darkness. He was dubbed a demon worshipper, a favorite anti-Indian trope.

Perhaps you’re thinking, “Duh, of course MAGA is racist.” But here’s the thing. The military has been scrubbed of many Black officers. The federal workforce, long a bastion for middle-class people of color, has been decimated. Minority cabinet members or top officials are few. Aside from another South Asian, Tulsi Gabbard, there’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez‑DeRemer and HUD head Scott Turner.

South Asians are largely the last visible sign of pluralism in Republican power, an erstwhile proof that the charges of racism from the left are unfair. But now, like Latinos, they are increasingly targets of the base.

At the same time anti-Indian hate was surfacing last week, a whole load of MAGA antisemitism hit the fan. It started when Tucker Carlson, who in his post-network life has re-created himself as a hugely popular podcaster with more than 16 million followers on X, invited Fuentes on his show.

In addition to calling for the death of American Jews, Fuentes has also said women want him to rape them and should be burned alive, Black people belong in prison and LGBTQ+ people are an abomination.

Anyone who is not his kind of Christian “must be absolutely annihilated when we take power,” he said.

Turns out far-right Charlie Kirk was a bulwark against this straight-up American Nazi. Kirk’s popularity kept Fuentes — who often trolled Kirk — from achieving dominance as the spirit guide of young MAGA. Now, with Kirk slain, nothing appears to be stopping Fuentes from taking up that mantle.

After the Fuentes interview, sane conservatives (there are some left) were apoplectic that Carlson would support someone who so openly admits to being anti-Israel and seemingly pro-Nazi. They demanded the Heritage Foundation, historical backbone of the conservative movement, creators of Project 2025 and close allies of Tucker, do something. The head of Heritage, Kevin Roberts, offered what many considered a sorry-not-sorry. He condemned Fuentes, saying he was “fomenting Jew hatred, and his incitements are not only immoral and un-Christian, they risk violence.”

But also counseled that Fuentes shouldn’t be banished from the party.

“Join us — not to cancel — but to guide, challenge, and strengthen the conversation,” Roberts said.

Are Nazis really all bad? Discuss!

The response from ethical conservatives — Jewish and non-Jewish alike — has been that you don’t politely hear Nazis out, and if the Republican Party can’t clearly say that Nazis aren’t welcome, it’s got a problem.

Yes, the Republican Party has a problem.

The right rode to power by attacking what it denigrates at “wokeism” on the left. MAGA declared that to confront fascism or racism or misogyny — to tell its purveyors to sit down and shut up — was wrong. That “canceling,” or banishment from common discourse for spewing hate, was somehow an infringement on 1st Amendment rights or even terrorism.

They screamed loud and clear that speaking out against intolerance was the worst, most unacceptable form of intolerance itself — and would not be tolerated.

You know who heard them loud and clear? Fuentes. He has checkmated establishment Republicans with their own cowardice and hypocrisy.

So now his young Christian white supremacists are empowered, and intent on taking over as the leaders of the party. Fuentes is saying what old guard Republicans don’t want to hear, but secretly fear: He already is dangerously close to being the mainstream; just read the comments.

Roberts, the Heritage president, said it himself: “Diversity will never be our strength. Unity is our strength, and a lack of unity is a sign of weakness.”

Trying to shut Fuentes up or kick him out will likely anger that vocal and powerful part of the base that enjoys the freedom to be openly hateful, and really wouldn’t mind a male-dominated white Christian autocracy.

The far right has free-speeched their way into fascism, and Fuentes is loving every minute of it.

So now this remaining vestige of traditional conservatives — including senators such as Ted Cruz and Mitch McConnell — is faced with a painful reckoning. Many mainstream Republicans for years ignored the racism and antisemitism creeping into the party. They can’t anymore. It has grown into a beast ready to consume its maker.

Will they let this takeover happen, call for conversation over condemnation to the glee of Fuentes and his followers?

Or will they find the courage to be not just true Republicans, but true Americans, and declare non-negotiable for their party that most basic of American ideals: We do not tolerate hate?

DAVID Bowie and Kate Bush have been named among the top cultural icons who most accurately predicted how we live today, according to research.

A poll of 2,000 adults found George Orwell, Roald Dahl, and even Ross from Friends – who in 1999 predicted AI would be smarter than us by 2030 – made the top 10 list.

Other cultural icons included Captain Kirk – who used to talk to computers, foldable communicators, and tablets as far back as the 1960s – and Ridley Scott.

The director’s seminal 1982 film Blade Runner is still hailed today as a masterclass in technological foresight.

Meanwhile the sitcom, The Simpsons has a history of uncanny predictions, including Donald Trump‘s presidency, the Pandemic, a FIFA scandal, and the development of smartwatches.

The research was commissioned by Samsung for its ‘Visionary Hall of Fame’ and rounding off the top 10 are musicians Prince and Bjork – with the former predicting online dating and virtual relationships in his album 1999, released over 40 years ago.

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While Bjork foresaw the rise of social media in the 1990s and 2000s, predicting that technology wouldn’t just be functional, it would become deeply personal.

Fearne Cotton has teamed up with the brand, as part of their Can Your Phone Do This campaign which highlights the capabilities of Galaxy AI, to go back to her chart show roots, in a brand-new countdown video which reveals the visionaries who feature on the list.

The broadcaster and author said: “These ten icons didn’t just dream about the future; they made it a reality. It’s incredible to see that the future they envisioned is already here, right at our fingertips.

The research also found self-driving cars (39 per cent) topped the list of real-world innovations people remember seeing in pop culture before they became a reality.

This was followed by artificial intelligence (39 per cent) and video calling (33 per cent), along with voice assistants (28 per cent) and smart watches (22 per cent).

Those polled were also quizzed on their use of AI apps or assistants, with 24 per cent using these on their phones daily.

Many use them to ask factual questions (43 per cent), compose messages or emails (22 per cent), and edit photos and videos (22 per cent).

For 23 per cent, they are even translating speech or text among the most used AI functions.

In fact, almost seven in ten (68 per cent) also agreed that today’s AI-powered smartphones feel as though you are carrying the future in your pocket.

Annika Bizon, from Samsung, added: “68 per cent of Brits are amazed that these once-futuristic predictions are now part of everyday life, with over half crediting AI for boosting general knowledge and creativity.

“With Galaxy AI, we’re not just keeping pace with the predictions of modern-day visionaries, we’re actively shaping what comes next.

“We’re turning tomorrow’s possibilities into today’s realities, because when you hold the future in your hand, you’re not just ahead of the curve—you’re defining it.”

CLARKSTON, Ga. — After fleeing the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, Antoinette landed in the Atlanta area last November and began to find her footing with federal help.

Separated from her adult children and grieving her husband’s death in the war, she started a job packing boxes in a warehouse, making just enough to cover rent for her own apartment and bills.

Antoinette has been relying on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, for her weekly grocery trips.

But now, just as life is starting to stabilize, she will have to deal with a new setback.

President Donald Trump’s massive budget law, which Republicans call the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, slashes $187 billion — or nearly 20% — from the federal budget for SNAP through 2034. And separate from any temporary SNAP stoppages due to the federal shutdown, the law cuts off access completely for refugees and other immigrant groups in the country lawfully. The change was slated to take effect immediately when the law was signed in July, but states are still awaiting federal guidance on when to stop or phase it out.

For Antoinette, 51, who did not want her last name used for fear of deportation and likely persecution in her native country, the loss of food aid is dire.

“I would not have the means to buy food,” she said in French through a translator. “How am I going to manage?”

Throughout its history, the U.S. has admitted into the country refugees like Antoinette, people who have been persecuted, or fear persecution, in their homelands due to race, religion, nationality, political opinions, or membership in a particular social group. These legal immigrants typically face an in-depth vetting process that can start years before they set foot on U.S. soil.

Once they arrive — often with little or no means — the federal government provides resources such as financial assistance, Medicaid, and SNAP, outreach that has typically garnered bipartisan support. Now the Trump administration has pulled back the country’s decades-long support for refugee communities.

The budget law, which funds several of the president’s priorities, including tax cuts to wealthy Americans and border security, revokes refugees’ access to Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program for people with low incomes or disabilities, starting in October 2026.

But one of the first provisions to take effect under the law removes SNAP eligibility for most refugees, asylum seekers, trafficking and domestic violence victims, and other legal immigrants. About 90,000 people will lose SNAP in an average month as a result of the new restrictions narrowing which noncitizens can access the program, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

“It doesn’t get much more basic than food,” said Matthew Soerens, vice president of advocacy and policy at World Relief, a Christian humanitarian organization that supports U.S. refugees. “Our government invited these people to rebuild their lives in this country with minimum support,” Soerens said. “Taking food away from them is wrong.”

Not just a handout

The White House and officials at the United States Department of Agriculture did not respond to emails about support for the provision that ends SNAP for refugees in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

But Steven Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for reduced levels of immigration to the U.S., said cuts to SNAP eligibility are reasonable because foreign-born people and their young children disproportionately use public benefits.

Still, Camarota said, the refugee population is different from other immigrant groups. “I don’t know that this would be the population I would start with,” Camarota said. “It’s a relatively small population of people that we generally accept have a lot of need.”

Federal, state, and local spending on refugees and asylum seekers, including food, healthcare, education, and other expenses, totaled $457.2 billion from 2005 to 2019, according to a February 2024 report from the Department of Health and Human Services. During that time, 21% of refugees and asylum seekers received SNAP benefits, compared with 15% of all U.S. residents.

In addition to the budget law’s SNAP changes, financial assistance given to people entering the U.S. by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, a part of HHS, has been cut from one year to four months.

The HHS report also found that despite the initial costs of caring for refugees and asylees, this community contributed $123.8 billion more to federal, state, and local governments through taxes than they received in public benefits over the 15 years.

It’s in the country’s best interest to continue to support them, said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, a nonprofit refugee resettlement agency.

“This is not what we should think about as a handout,” she said. “We know that when we support them initially, they go on to not just survive but thrive.”

Food is medicine

Clarkston, Georgia, an Atlanta suburb, is home to thousands of refugees.

(Renuka Rayasam/KFF Health News)

Food insecurity can have lifelong physical and mental health consequences for people who have already faced years of instability before coming to the U.S., said Andrew Kim, co-founder of Ethnē Health, a community health clinic in Clarkston, an Atlanta suburb that is home to thousands of refugees.

Noncitizens affected by the new law would have received, on average, $210 a month within the next decade, according to the CBO. Without SNAP funds, many refugees and their families might skip meals and switch to lower-quality, inexpensive options, leading to chronic health concerns such as obesity and insulin resistance, and potentially worsening already serious mental health conditions, he said.

After her husband was killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Antoinette said, she became separated from all seven of her children. The youngest is 19. She still isn’t sure where they are. She misses them but is determined to build a new life for herself. For her, resources like SNAP are critical.

From the conference room of New American Pathways, the nonprofit that helped her enroll in benefits, Antoinette stared straight ahead, stone-faced, when asked about how the cuts would affect her.

Will she shop less? Will she eat fewer fruits and vegetables, and less meat? Will she skip meals?

“Oui,” she replied to each question, using the French for “yes.”

Since arriving in the U.S. last year from Ethiopia with his wife and two teen daughters, Lukas, 61, has been addressing diabetes-related complications, such as blurry vision, headaches, and trouble sleeping. SNAP benefits allow him and his family to afford fresh vegetables like spinach and broccoli, according to Lilly Tenaw, the nurse practitioner who treats Lukas and helped translate his interview.

His blood sugar is now at a safer level, he said proudly after a class at Mosaic Health Center, a community clinic in Clarkston, where he learned to make lentil soup and balance his diet.

“The assistance gives us hope and encourages us to see life in a positive way,” he said in Amharic through a translator. Lukas wanted to use only his family name because he had been jailed and faced persecution in Ethiopia, and now worries about jeopardizing his ability to get permanent residency in the U.S.

Since arriving in the U.S. last year from Ethiopia, Lukas has been visiting the Mosaic Health Center in Clarkston, Ga., to address diabetes-related complications. Food stamps allow him and his family to afford fresh vegetables like spinach and broccoli.

(Renuka Rayasam/KFF Health News)

Hunger and poor nutrition can lower productivity and make it hard for people to find and keep jobs, said Valerie Lacarte, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute.

“It could affect the labor market,” she said. “It’s bleak.”

More SNAP cuts to come

While the Trump administration ended SNAP for refugees effective immediately, the change has created uncertainty for those who provide assistance.

State officials in Texas and California, which receive the most refugees among states, and in Georgia told KFF Health News that the USDA, which runs the program, has yet to issue guidance on whether they should stop providing SNAP on a specific date or phase it out.

And it’s not just refugees who are affected.

Nearly 42 million people receive SNAP benefits, according to the USDA. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that, within the next decade, more than 3 million people will lose monthly food dollars because of planned changes — such as an extension of work requirements to more people and a shift in costs from the federal government to the states.

In September, the administration ended a key report that regularly measured food insecurity among all U.S. households, making it harder to assess the toll of the SNAP cuts.

The USDA also posted on its website that no benefits would be issued for anyone starting Nov. 1 because of the federal shutdown, blaming Senate Democrats. The Trump administration has refused to release emergency funding — as past administrations have done during shutdowns — so that states can continue issuing benefits while congressional leaders work out a budget deal. A coalition of attorneys general and governors from 25 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit on Oct. 28 contesting the administration’s decision.

Cuts to SNAP will ripple through local grocery stores and farms, stretching the resources of charity organizations and local governments, said Ted Terry, a DeKalb County commissioner and former mayor of Clarkston.

“It’s just the whole ecosystem that has been in place for 40 years completely being disrupted,” he said.

Muzhda Oriakhil, senior community engagement manager at Friends of Refugees, an Atlanta-area nonprofit that helps refugees resettle, said her group and others are scrambling to provide temporary food assistance for refugee families. But charity organizations, food banks, and other nonprofit groups cannot make up for the loss of billions of federal dollars that help families pay for food.

“A lot of families, they may starve,” she said.

Rayasam writes for KFF.

Heathrow, NatWest and Minecraft are among some of the sites and services experiencing problems amid a global Microsoft outage.

Outage tracker Downdetector showed thousands of reports of issues with a number of websites globally on Wednesday.

Microsoft said some users of Microsoft 365 might see delays with Outlook and some other services.

The company’s Azure cloud computing platform, which underpins large parts of the internet, reported a “degradation of some services” at 1600 GMT.

It said this was due to “DNS issues” – the same root cause of the huge Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage last week.

Amazon says AWS is currently operating normally.

Other impacted sites in the UK include supermarket Asda and mobile phone operator O2 – while in the US, people have reported issues accessing the websites of coffee chain Starbucks and retailer Kroger.

Microsoft said business Microsoft 365 customers might see problems.

Some web pages on Microsoft also directed users to an error notifications that read “Uh oh! Something went wrong with the previous request.”

A Microsoft spokesperson said it is working to “address an issue affecting Azure Front Door that is impacting the availability of some services,” adding that it is sharing updates on the Azure status page.

It said it had found parts of its infrastructure with connectivity issues, and was working to “reroute affected traffic to restore service health”.

It has started a thread on X with updates after some users reported they could not access the service status page.

Meanwhile, business at the Scottish Parliament has been suspended because of technical issues with the parliament’s online voting system.

A senior Scottish Parliament source told BBC News they believe the problems are related to the Microsoft outage.

While NatWest’s website was impacted, the bank’s mobile banking, web chat, and telephone customer services are still available.

NatWest customers with online banking bookmarked were able to access that service as well, the bank said.

On its service status page, Azure’s network infrastructure was showing as “critical” in every region in the world.

Exactly how much of the internet is impacted is unclear, but estimates typically put Microsoft Azure at around 20% of the global cloud market.

The firm said it believed the outage was a result of “an inadvertent configuration change”.

In other words, a behind-the-scenes system was changed, with unintended consequences.

Microsoft said it plans on fixing the problem by effectively replacing its service with a recent backup it knows was working properly.

But it could not give an estimate for how long this would take.

The concentration of cloud services into Microsoft, Amazon and Google means an outage like this “can cripple hundreds, if not thousands of applications and systems,” said Dr Saqib Kakvi, from Royal Holloway University.

“Due to cost of hosting web content, economic forces lead to consolidation of resources into a few very large players, but it is effectively putting all our eggs in one of three baskets.”

When Steve Cherundolo announced last spring that he would be leaving LAFC at the end of the season to rejoin his wife’s family in her native Germany, he seemed excited about the reunion.

Six months later, with LAFC preparing to enter the MLS playoffs, that reunion is just a loss away. So now Cherundolo, who took LAFC to the MLS Cup final twice in his first three seasons as coach, is hoping to put off that departure for another couple of months.

“I’d love to stay until early December,” he said. “That would be ideal. That is what we’re all trying to achieve at LAFC.”

And that appears well within reach for LAFC (17-8-9), which has six wins and 19 points in its last eight games, the last a 2-2 draw Saturday in Colorado. As a result LAFC, the No. 3 seed in the conference, will enter the playoffs as the hottest team in the West and arguably the best team in MLS since the mid-summer acquisition of forward Son Heung-min.

LAFC has lost just one of the 10 games the former Tottenham captain has played in, with Son scoring nine goals and assisting on three others. He has also provided a big boost to winger Denis Bouanga, who scored 11 times in his last 10 games, giving LAFC the most dynamic scoring tandem in the league.

LAFC will open the best-of-three conference quarterfinals next weekend against Austin (13-13-8) at BMO Stadium. The second leg will be played in Texas with a third game, if necessary, in Los Angeles.

Austin is one of just two teams that beat LAFC twice this season, though it enters the postseason having lost three of its last four. Cherundolo said none of those numbers matter now. Not only do regular-season records get thrown out for the playoffs, but even the rules change. In the first round of the MLS postseason, for example, games that are tied at the end of regulation go straight to penalty kicks.

“It’s a new scenario. So it does change the way you play a little bit,” Cherundolo said. “I don’t think current form has a ton to do with it. Last season there were some surprises in the first round of playoffs.

“We’ll do our very best to make sure that doesn’t happen to us.”

Should LAFC, which has never lost in the first round of the playoffs under Cherundolo, make it past Austin it will face the winner of the Vancouver-Dallas series in the conference semifinals. That could be a matchup between Son and Vancouver’s Thomas Muller, who has seven goals and three assists since joining the Whitecaps from German power Bayern Munich two months ago.

The Western Conference playoffs will open with Wednesday’s wild-card match between Portland and Real Salt Lake. The winner of that game will meet conference champion San Diego in the first round. The other final first-round series will see No. 4 seed Minnesota face fifth-seeded Seattle.

Regardless of who reaches the MLS Cup, for the 13th consecutive season the league will not have a repeat winner. The Galaxy (7-18-9), which won the title last season, were eliminated from playoff contention a month ago and finished the season with franchise-worst totals for wins (seven) and points (30) in a full season while matching the record for most losses with 18.

They did end on a high note, however, beating Minnesota 2-1 in their season finale for their third win in their final four games. That allowed them to escape the conference cellar and finish two points ahead of last-place Sporting Kansas City (7-20-7).

Messi wins Golden Boot

Inter Miami star Lionel Messi celebrates after scoring against Atlanta on Oct. 11.

(Lynne Sladky / Associated Press)

Still think Lionel Messi doesn’t care about MLS?

Locked in a tight battle for the league scoring title entering the final month of the season, Messi took his game to another level — if that’s possible — and scored five times in Inter Miami’s final two matches to claim the Golden Boot by a wide margin over Bouanga.

Messi had a hat trick against Nashville on Saturday, putting the game away with a third goal in the 81st minute to finish with 29 goals in 28 games. That’s the fourth-best single-season total in MLS history. Bouanga finished with a career-best 24 goals, tying him for second place with Nashville’s Sam Surridge.

Messi also had five assists in three October games to finish with a league-high 19, tying him for fourth place on the all-time list there as well. Messi’s 48 goals contributions (29 goals, 19 assists) is second all-time to Carlos Vela, who scored 34 times and had 15 assists for LAFC in 2019.

Eastern Conference playoff field

MLS bills the final day of the regular season “Decision Day” because it’s the day the postseason field is determined. But in the Eastern Conference, the nine playoff qualifiers had already been decided by the final weekend. So had the conference champion, with the Philadelphia Union (20-8-6) having secured the league’s best overall record and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs two weeks ago.

Still, some playoff pairings were determined on Decision Day.

With its win over Montreal, Cincinnati (20-9-5) grabbed the second seed in the postseason tournament on a tiebreaker over Inter Miami (19-7-8). Both teams finished with 65 points, but Cincinnati had one more regular-season victory.

As a result Cincinnati will open the playoffs against seventh-seeded Columbus (14-8-12) while Inter Miami will face No. 6 Nashville (16-12-6).

With its win over Philadelphia, Charlotte (19-13-2) clinched a fourth-place finish and home field for its playoff opener with New York City (17-12-5) next weekend. The two wild-card teams, Chicago (15-11-8) and Orlando (14-9-11), will meet Wednesday in Chicago with the winner facing the Union in the conference quarterfinals.

The National Trust has shared some of the best places to visit in the UK in October and November and among them a country estate which offers breathtaking views, magnificent ruins and even a deer park

Autumn stands as one of the finest seasons to explore the countryside and witness nature’s spectacular leaf-based show before winter arrives.

If the weather is spot on, this time of year truly delivers ideal walking conditions: not sweltering like summer, not bitter like winter, but just right. Then there are the stunning autumn colours, turning rural landscapes into a magnificent tapestry of hues.

To mark this enchanting season, the National Trust has compiled some of the finest excursions for the coming weeks. Amongst these is a Yorkshire estate boasting spectacular vistas, impressive ruins and even a deer park, reports the Manchester Evening News.

The National Trust suggests exploring Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal in North Yorkshire for “dramatic autumn views, with reflective pools and tree-lined avenues glowing in shades of red, yellow and brown.”

Originally, the estate comprised two distinct locations. There were the remarkable remains of Fountains Abbey, a remnant from medieval times and Britain’s most extensive monastic ruins.

Meanwhile, Studley Royal was reimagined by John Aislabie during the 18th century into one of England’s most spectacular water gardens, earning World Heritage Site recognition in 1986.

In 1767 William Aislabie purchased the Fountains Abbey ruins to finish the garden and craft the perfect panorama. Prime viewing spots include the Octagon Tower and Tent Hill, offering stunning views across the water garden, as well as the gradual reveal of the abbey from Anne Boleyn’s Seat at the Surprise View.

With autumn in full swing and October half-term just around the corner, it’s an ideal time to explore the grounds if you’re local. Wander along riverside paths that lead to a deer park, home to Red, Fallow and Sika deer, and ancient trees such as limes, oaks, and sweet chestnuts.

The abbey and garden are open daily from 10am to 4.30pm, with an on-site tea room and restaurant for visitors. Tickets start from £21 for adults, £10.50 for children aged five to 17, while under fives go free.

Free parking is available at the visitors centre. For more information, visit the National Trust website.

If you do find yourself in Yorkshire this autumn and fancy leaning into the spookier end of the month, then why not stop off in Bradford?

According to Tarotoo, the spookiest city in the UK is Bradford. The West Yorkshire spot was found to have an alarming 143 cemeteries and 255,699 grave sites. It also had 3,284 empty houses and 66,080 properties over 100 years old. As everyone knows, ghosts love old houses.

The city has a number of reportedly haunted hotspots too, including Paper Hall, which is a Grade II listed building dating back to 1643. One of the most striking reports of paranormal activity to come out of Paper Hall tells of a pair of large staring eyes belonging to a very ghastly face often seen looking out of the windows.

Lindsey Horvath knew all the words to “Pink Pony Club.”

It was an overcast Sunday in June, the WeHo Pride parade was in full swing and the hit song about an iconic West Hollywood gay bar was blasting at full volume.

Sure, the county supervisor’s sequined, rainbow muumuu was giving her an angry rash. But that did little to dampen her spirits as she danced atop her pink pony-themed Pride float, swaying and mouthing the lyrics.

Five hours later, Horvath had traded her sequins and rainbow sneakers for a simple black dress and heels.

Now, she sat on a wooden pew for evening Mass at her 121-year-old Catholic parish in Hollywood.

But she still knew all the words, albeit this time to a traditional hymn about the holiness of the Lord. And then she knelt down in quiet prayer.

Horvath, 43, defies easy characterization.

She is the first millennial member of the county Board of Supervisors, a governing body that wields tremendous power despite remaining unknown to most Angelenos.

When elected in November 2022, she went from representing roughly 35,000 people as a West Hollywood City Council member to having more than 2 million constituents across a sweeping, 431-square-mile district that sprawls from the Ventura County line down to Santa Monica, east to Hollywood and up through much of the San Fernando Valley.

While attending the University of Notre Dame, Horvath held a leadership position with the school’s College Republicans chapter, helped create Notre Dame’s first gay-straight alliance and drew national opposition for staging “The Vagina Monologues” at the Catholic university — all while working three jobs to pay off her student loans. (She’s still paying them off.)

During her 2022 campaign for supervisor, she had the backing of some of the most progressive politicians in the city, including then-Councilmember-elect Eunisses Hernandez, as well as then-Councilmember Joe Buscaino, one of the more conservative members of the body.

As a member of the West Hollywood City Council, she helped approve what was then the highest minimum wage in the country, yet her county reelection bid was just endorsed by one of the region’s most prominent pro-business groups.

In the three years since she was elected to the county Board of Supervisors, she has effectively rewritten the structure of county government and drastically changed its approach to homelessness response.

Horvath’s Midwestern mien, unflagging politeness and warm smile belie her fierce ambition.

She has long been seen as someone who does not — to crib a phrase occasionally used about her behind closed doors — “wait her turn.” And that impatience has worked out OK for her so far.

All of which raises the question, will Horvath challenge Karen Bass in the June 2026 Los Angeles mayoral race?

Horvath speaks as supporters rally in September for her motion to pass an emergency rent relief program.

(Al Seib / For The Times)

Her name has been bandied as a potential Los Angeles mayoral candidate since early in the year, when her public profile exploded in the wake of the devastating Palisades fire and tensions between her and Bass first became public.

She has done little to tamp the speculation since, though some posit she is merely expanding her profile ahead of a run for county executive in 2028.

Still, the political rumor mill went into overdrive in early summer, as word trickled out that the erstwhile mayor of West Hollywood had moved into a two-bedroom apartment at the edge of Hollywood — firmly in the city of Los Angeles.

When asked about her mayoral intentions late last month, Horvath demurred, but made clear the door was open.

“I have no plans to run for mayor,” she said, sitting under the sun in Gloria Molina Grand Park, just outside her office in the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, within direct view of City Hall.

“I continue to be asked by people I deeply respect, so I continue to listen to them and consider their requests, and I’m taking that seriously,” she continued. “But I’m focused on the work of the county.”

Horvath, left, embraces Mayor Karen Bass in August at an event in Pacific Palisades.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Horvath declined to share specifics about who was pushing her to run, though she said they were “significant stakeholders” that didn’t hail from any single community.

On Monday, former schools chief Austin Beutner kicked off his campaign for mayor, becoming the first serious candidate to challenge Bass. Political watchers have speculated that Beutner’s entrée could potentially open the floodgates by offering a permission structure for others to challenge the mayor of the nation’s second-largest city.

In the immediate wake of the January firestorm, Bass’ political future appeared to be in real jeopardy, but she has since regained some of her footing and shored up support with powerful interests, such as local labor groups.

***

Horvath was 26 and had lived in West Hollywood for all of 18 months when Sal Guarriello, a 90-year-old West Hollywood council member, suddenly died.

It was spring 2009. The advertising executive and Ohio transplant was active in Democratic and feminist circles, co-founding the Hollywood chapter of the National Organization for Women and leading the West Hollywood Women’s Advisory Board. (Raised by conservatives, Horvath started college as a Republican but soon evolved into a staunch Democrat.)

Former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti — who was then president of the Los Angeles City Council — had become a friend and mentor to Horvath through her activism. He and others urged her to throw her hat into the ring for the open seat.

More than 30 people applied, but Horvath was ultimately chosen by the remaining members of the council to join them — an outcome that was stunning, even to her.

After two years in her appointed role, she lost an election bid in 2011 but continued to make a name for herself in the tight-knit, clubby world of progressive West Hollywood politics.

Undeterred, she ran again for West Hollywood City Council in 2015 and won.

Horvath is sworn in as the new county supervisor for District 3 in December 2022.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Horvath remained on the council for the next seven years and twice served as mayor before turning her ambitions toward the county Hall of Administration.

She was seen as an underdog in her supervisor’s race, running against former state Sen. Bob Hertzberg, a political veteran who had a 3-to-1 fundraising advantage and first took elected office as she was entering high school.

Hertzberg had far more name recognition, but Horvath ultimately defeated him with a coalition that included local Democratic clubs and some of labor.

***

On the Board of Supervisors, Horvath has been unafraid to take chances and ruffle feathers.

Less than two years into her first term, Horvath was leading the charge to fundamentally reinvent the structure of county government, which hadn’t been meaningfully changed in more than a century.

Horvath’s bold plan to increase the size of the board from five to nine supervisors and create a new elected county executive position was approved by voters last November.

Voters will choose the county’s first elected executive in 2028. Opponents (and even some allies) have long griped that Horvath has her sights set on the very position she helped create, which will undoubtedly be one of the most powerful elected offices in the state.

“There are people who are never going to be convinced that I created this measure without seeing a seat for myself in it,” she says. “I’m not interested in convincing people of that. I’m interested in doing the work.”

As she campaigned for Measure G, critics also said Horvath and her allies were moving too fast, with too much left to figure out after the vote, including the price tag.

“Not everybody always loves you when you do things that upset the status quo. But I think history judges people not by ‘Did everybody love them in a given moment?’ … It’s were they smart and were they brave,” Garcetti said of Horvath.

“And she’s both,” he added.

Still, some of those criticisms came to bear in July, when it was revealed that county officials committed a near-unthinkable administrative screwup. When voters approved the sprawling overhaul to county government in November, the move unintentionally repealed Measure J, the county’s landmark criminal justice reform passed by voters in 2020.

Horvath said she didn’t think she and other proponents moved too fast, arguing that if they hadn’t seized the moment, they would have missed the opportunity “to bring about the change that has been stuck for far too long.”

Horvath argues that the fact that Measure J could have been unwritten in the first place is why Measure G was so needed.

***

Horvath was, briefly, everywhere during the fires.

While Mayor Bass receded into the background, Horvath was a constant presence at media briefings and on the news.

Her face was so omnipresent that a man she’d recently gone on a date with — someone who didn’t fully understand what she did for a living — spotted her on television with some confusion.

That was the last she heard from him, she said. (Dating as a public official is “very weird,” and not just because the one time she tried to use Tinder while abroad, she was seemingly banned for impersonating herself.)

She also tussled with Bass behind closed doors in late January, as revealed in text messages obtained by The Times that highlighted an increasingly fractious relationship.

The two women were at odds even before flames laid waste to a wide swath of coastal paradise.

Last November, Horvath went public with a proposal to shrink the duties of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, which is overseen by city and county political appointees.

Horvath called for hundreds of millions of dollars to be shifted out of the agency and into a new county department focused on homelessness — a proposal to which Bass strenuously objected.

Horvath ultimately pushed her strategy forward in April, but not without warnings from Bass about creating a “massive disruption” in the region’s fight against homelessness.

Horvath attends a news conference celebrating the Army Corps of Engineers clearing debris from the final house in the Palisades in late August.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Horvath’s relationships in the Palisades have also not been without some tension.

The supervisor recently pledged $10 million of her county discretionary funds to help rebuild the Palisades-Malibu YMCA, but some in the community have felt betrayed by her, according to Pacific Palisades Residents Assn. President Jessica Rogers.

“We don’t believe that she’s properly engaging her community,” Rogers said, citing the independent commission that Horvath convened in the wake of the fires. “She put a lot of time and energy into creating this report. The intentions might have been good, but she didn’t include proper community participation.”

Rogers was particularly bothered by Horvath’s proposal for a countywide rebuilding authority, since Rogers felt like Horvath hadn’t earned their trust. The rebuilding authority, which was supported by the mayor of Malibu, did not come to fruition.

“There’s a perception that [Horvath] is too aggressive,” said another community leader, who asked to speak anonymously because they hope to get things done without alienating anybody. “But there’s more of a mix to how people feel about her than you can see.”

The loudest voices, particularly in community WhatsApp groups, NextDoor and other forums, tend to be the most vitriolic, the community leader said, positing that some of the gripes about Horvath had more to do with her progressive politics than her leadership.

“People are suffering, and I will always show up for my constituents — especially when the conversations are difficult. The Blue Ribbon Commission provided independent, expert guidance on a sustainable rebuild. Its recommendations were meant to inform, not replace, community engagement,” Horvath said.

***

The chances of Horvath entering the mayoral race still remain far slimmer than the alternative, particularly because she is up for reelection in 2026 — meaning she would have to sacrifice her safe board seat for an uphill battle challenging an incumbent who still has deep wells of support in the city.

Former Los Angeles City Councilmember Mike Bonin, who long represented the Westside and now directs the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at Cal State LA, said he wondered why someone would want the job of mayor while in the comparatively plush position of county supervisor.

Supervisors have more power and suffer far less scrutiny, he argued. Still, there were benefits to remaining in the mix.

“Being mentioned as a potential candidate is one of the greatest places a political figure can be. Because when you’re in the mentioning stage, it’s all about your strengths, your assets, your positive attributes,” Bonin said with a laugh. “Once you declare, it’s the reverse.”

Times staff writers David Zahniser and Rebecca Ellis contributed to this report.

Oct. 13 (UPI) — Europe’s years-long “dieselgate” scandal is set to begin court proceedings Monday in Britain’s high court that potentially could impact over one million car owners and a handful of manufacturers.

The landmark trial described as the largest class action lawsuit in English and Welsh history is the culmination in a decade-long legal battle over allegations at least five major car manufacturers utilized software that allowed new cars to reduce its emissions under testing conditions.

It pointed to Mercedes, Ford, Peugeot/Citroen, Renault and Nissan as its named defendants. But the global car producers proclaim innocence.

“A decade after the ‘dieselgate’ scandal first came to light, 1.6 million (British) motorists now get their chance to establish at trial whether their vehicles contained technology designed to cheat emissions tests,” attorney Martyn Day, part of 22 law firms representing drivers, told the BBC and the Independent.

Scores of other car makers — including Opel, Hyundai/Kia, Porsche, Volkswagon, BMW, Suzuki, Toyota, Volvo, Mazda and Jaguar Land Rover — may face similar action depending on outcome.

The “dieselgate” emissions scandal was exposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2015 following the revelation that a number of diesel-powered VW models contained deceptive emissions-monitoring devices.

On Monday, Day said if the court ruled on the side of consumers that it would “demonstrate one of the most egregious breaches of corporate trust in modern times.”

“It would also mean that people across (Britain) have been breathing in far more harmful emissions from these vehicles than they were told about, potentially putting the health of millions at risk,” Day added.

However, the companies have attempted to push back against allegations of wrongdoing.

A Mercedes spokesperson said its test mechanisms were “justifiable from a technical and legal standpoint,” while Ford stated the claims had “no merit.”

According to Nissan, it was “committed to compliance in all markets in which we operate.”

In May, a German court convicted four ex-Volkswagen officials of fraud years after “Dieselgate” got exposed.

Australia’s high court in 2019 fined Volkswagen a record $86 million in the emissions scandal.

It arrived as the British commonwealth nation preps to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by more than 60% by 2035 along with more than 100 other nations that agreed to reduce maritime emissions in opposition to U.S President Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, a judgment in Britain’s “dieselgate” case is not expected until sometime mid-next year. A later hearing to determine compensation could follow if Britain rules against the carmakers.

Oct. 7 (UPI) — The European Union has announced it will match President Donald Trump‘s tariffs on steel, causing the United Kingdom’s steel industry to quake.

The new tariffs would cause a crisis in the U.K. steel industry, as 80% of British exports are to the EU, according to a lobbying group representing the sector. Unions said the tariffs could kill the industry, The Guardian reported.

The European Commission’s plan would sharply cut the amount of steel that can be imported to the EU without tariffs to 18.3 million tons a year, an almost 50% drop, and would almost double the tariff rate to 50%.

The EU’s goal is to cut down on global overcapacity, which brings cheap steel from China and hurts steel jobs in Europe, the New York Times reported. It is also a reaction to Trump’s tariffs on EU steel, which could increase the likelihood that global producers will send their steel to Europe, flooding the market.

“Global overcapacity is damaging our industry,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement.

“We have global overcapacity, unfair competition, state aid, and undercutting in prices, and we are reacting to that,” Stéphane Séjourné, the European Commission’s executive vice president for prosperity and industrial strategy, said at a news conference at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. “Eighteen thousand jobs were lost in the steel sector in 2024. That’s too many, and we had to put a stop to that.

“The European steel industry was on the verge of collapse — we are protecting it so that it can invest, decarbonize, and become competitive again,” Séjourné said.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters during a flight to India that officials were in discussions with the EU about the tariffs, according to The Guardian.

“In relation to the question of tariffs or other measures, as you’d expect, we are in discussions with the EU about this, as we’re in discussions with the U.S. about it,” Starmer said. “So I’ll be able to tell you more in due course, but we are in discussions as you’d expect.”

The U.K. government took control of Chinese-owned plants in Scunthorpe, England, earlier this year, while Liberty Steel plants in Rotherham and Stocksbridge, England, fell into government control last month.

U.K. industry minister Chris McDonald said it was “vital” to “protect trade flows between the U.K. and EU” and that he would meet with industry leaders on Thursday. He said he was “pushing the European Commission for urgent clarification of the impact of this move on the U.K.”

Charlotte Brumpton-Childs, U.K. national officer with the GMB trade union, called the tariffs a “hammer blow” that “could end steelmaking in the U.K. if safeguards aren’t secured,” according to The Guardian.

England’s world champion full-back Ellie Kildunne said she is “open to anything” when questioned whether she would be involved in the proposed new R360 league.

“It doesn’t mean that I’d take it, but I’d like to understand the league a little bit more to see if that’s an opportunity that I’d like to take,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

The 26-year-old was speaking at Bracknell Rugby Club to help launch the Rugby Football Union’s Rugby Fest weekend.

The initiative is aimed at ensuring the legacy of England’s Women’s Rugby World Cup win.

As the Red Roses visit clubs up and down the country, rumours surrounding the future of the club game in men’s and women’s rugby refuse to go away, with the R360 breakaway league consistently in the headlines.

The Daily Telegraph reported on Thursday that Kildunne is a top target for R360, and that it had been told “a significant number” of her England team-mates have already signed pre-contract agreements to join R360., external

Kildunne is currently contracted to Premiership Women’s Rugby side Harlequins, who open the league season on Friday, 24 October against Loughborough Lightening at the Twickenham Stoop.

“I’m just focused on the Harlequins season that I’ve got, and you know this week has been absolutely crazy, so I can’t look too far ahead – I don’t even know what I’m having for dinner tonight,” added Kildunne.

“There’s going to be lots of investment into the game now, lots of changes that people will see and I think that’s the direction that rugby needs to go.

“We’ve made something happen and that’s going to come with talking points and debates.

“This league (R360) is still something we don’t know too much about.”

Goalkeepers: Bailey Peacock-Farrell, Conor Hazard, Luke Southwood

Defenders: Paddy McNair, Ryan Johnson, Daniel Ballard, Ciaron Brown, Conor Bradley, Trai Hume, Brodie Spencer, Eoin Toal, Terry Devlin, Ruairi McConville

Midfielders: George Saville, Ali McCann, Shea Charles, Jamie McDonnell, Paul Smyth, Isaac Price, Ross McCausland, Ethan Gailbraith, Justin Devenny, Jamie Donely

Attackers: Josh Magennis, Dion Charles, Callum Marshall, Jamie Reid

Celebrated for decades as Hollywood royalty, Jane Fonda could easily be living a comfortable life of extravagance and leisure.

Instead, the 87-year-old actor and Vietnam War-era provocateur is as likely to be seen knocking on voters’ doors in Phoenix on a balmy summer afternoon as sashaying down a red carpet at a glitzy movie premiere.

Politically active for more than a half-century, Fonda is now focusing her energy, celebrity, connections and resources on fighting climate change and combating the “existential crises” created by President Trump.

Calling fossil fuels a threat to humanity, Fonda created JanePAC, a political action committee that has spent millions on candidates at the forefront of that fight.

“Nature has always been in my bones, in my cells,” Fonda said in a recent interview, describing herself as an environmentalist since her tomboy youth. “And then, about 10 years ago … I started reading more, and I realized what we’re doing to the climate, which means what we’re doing to us, what we’re doing to the future, to our grandchildren and our children.

“Our existence is being challenged all because an industry, the fossil-fuel industry, wants to make more money,” she said. “I mean, I try to understand what, what must they think when they go to sleep at night? These men, they’re destroying everything.”

Rather than hosting fancy political fundraisers or headlining presidential campaign rallies, Fonda devotes her efforts to electing like-minded state legislators, city council members, utility board officials and candidates in other less flashy but critical races.

Fonda said her organization took its cue from successful GOP tactics.

“I hate to say this, but you know, in terms of playing the long game, the Republicans have been better than the Democrats,” she said. “They started to work down ballot, and they took over state legislatures. They took over governorships and mayors and city councils, boards of supervisors, and before we knew what had happened, they had power on the grassroots level.”

Fonda said her PAC selects candidates to back based on their climate-change record and viability. The beneficiaries include candidates running for state legislature and city council. Some of the races are often obscure, such as the Silver River Project board (an Arizona utility), the Port of Bellingham commission in Washington and the Lane Community College board in Oregon.

“Down ballot, if you come in, especially for primaries, you can really make a difference. You know, not all Democrats are the same,” she said. “We want candidates who have shown public courage in standing up to fossil fuels. We want candidates who can win. We’re not a protest PAC. We’re in it to win it.”

On Wednesday, Fonda announced that she is relaunching the Committee for the First Amendment, which was initially formed after the blacklisting of Hollywood actors, directors, screenwriters and others who were labeled communists or sympathizers by the House Un-American Activities Committee after World War II.

Her father, the late actor Henry Fonda, was among the members of the committee.

“The McCarthy Era ended when Americans from across the political spectrum finally came together and stood up for the principles in the Constitution against the forces of repression,” Fonda said. “Those forces have returned. And it is our turn to stand together in defense of our constitutional rights.”

The Trump administration has pressured media companies, law firms and universities to concede to its demands or face repercussions. The suspension of ABC’s late-night television host Jimmy Kimmel, which has been rescinded, is among the most prominent examples.

“The federal government is once again engaged in a coordinated campaign to silence critics in the government, the media, the judiciary, academia, and the entertainment industry,” Fonda said.

Since her birth, Fonda’s life has been infused by political activism.

Her father witnessed the lynching of a Black man during the 1919 Omaha race riots when he was 14, casting him into becoming a lifelong liberal.

Though such matters were not discussed at the dinner table, Fonda’s father raised money for Democratic candidates and starred in politically imbued films such as “The Grapes of Wrath,” about the exploitation of migrant workers during the Dust Bowl, and “12 Angry Men,” which focused on prejudice, groupthink and the importance of due process during the McCarthy era.

But his daughter Jane did not become politically active until her early 30s.

“Before then, I kind of led a life of ignorance, somewhat hedonistic,” she said. “Maybe deep down, I knew that once I know something, I can’t turn away.”

In “Prime Time,” Fonda’s 2011 memoir, she describes the final chapter of her life as a time of “coming to fruition rather than simply a period of marking time, or the absence of youth.”

“Unlike during childhood, Act III is a quiet ripening. It takes time and experience, and yes, perhaps the inevitable slowing down,” she wrote. “You have to learn to sort out what’s fundamentally important to you from what’s irrelevant.”

In 1972, Fonda appeared in Jean-Luc Godard’s film “Tout Va Bien,” about workers’ rights in the aftermath of widespread street protests in France four years earlier. It was her first role in a political movie and coincided with her off-screen move into activism.

Fonda’s most noteworthy and reviled political moment occurred the same year, when she was photographed by the North Vietnamese sitting atop an antiaircraft gun.

Actor and political activist Jane Fonda at a news conference in New York City on July 28, 1972. Fonda spoke about her trip to North Vietnam and interviews with American prisoners in Hanoi, Vietnam.

(Marty Lederhandler / Associated Press)

The images led to Fonda being tarred as “Hanoi Jane” and a traitor to the United States, which had deployed millions of American soldiers to Southeast Asia, many of whom never returned. Fonda says it is something she “will regret to my dying day.”

“It is possible that it was a setup, that the Vietnamese had it all planned,” Fonda wrote in 2011. “I will never know. But if they did, I can’t blame them. The buck stops here. If I was used, I allowed it to happen. It was my mistake.”

Fonda married liberal activist Tom Hayden in 1973. He served in the California Legislature for 18 years and was a force in Democratic politics until his death in 2016.

Fonda’s political beliefs have been a through line in her Hollywood career.

In 1979, she played a reporter in “The China Syndrome,” a film about a fictional meltdown at a nuclear power plant near Los Angeles. The movie’s theatrical release occurred less than two weeks before the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania.

The 1980 movie “9 to 5,” starring Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton, was a biting comedy that highlighted the treatment of women in the workplace and income inequality long before such issues were routinely discussed in workplaces.

Dolly Parton, left, Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda are harassed office workers in the 1980 movie “9 to 5.”

(20th Century Fox)

Two years later, as home VCRs grew popular, Fonda created exercise videos that shattered sales records.

She urged women to “feel the burn,” and revenue from the videos funded the Campaign for Economic Democracy, a political action committee founded by Fonda and Hayden.

This year, Fonda offered signed copies to donors to JanePAC, which she created in 2022.

“I’m still in shock that those leg warmers and leotards caught on the way they did,” Fonda wrote to supporters in April. “If you’ve ever done one of my leg lifts, or even thought about doing one, now’s your chance to own a piece of that history.”

UCLA lecturer Jim Newton, a veteran Los Angeles Times political journalist and historian of the state’s politics, described Fonda as confrontational, controversial and unapologetic.

“She’s remarkable, utterly admirable, a principled person who has devoted her life to fighting for what she believes in,” said Newton, who quotes Fonda in his new book, “Here Beside the Rising Tide: Jerry Garcia, the Grateful Dead, and an American Awakening.”

Newton added that Fonda’s outspoken nature certainly harmed her career.

“I’m sure that there are directors, producers, whatnot, especially in the ‘70s and ‘80s, who passed on chances to work with her because of her politics,” he said. “And I’m sure she knew that, right? She did it. It’s not been without sacrifice. She’s true to herself, like very few people.”

A year after Fonda and Hayden divorced in 1990, she married CNN founder and philanthropist Ted Turner, who she once described as “my favorite ex-husband.” Though Fonda largely paused her acting career during their decade-long marriage, she remained politically active.

In 1995, Fonda founded a Georgia effort dedicated to reducing teenage pregnancy. Five years later, she launched the Jane Fonda Center for Reproductive Health at Emory University.

After Fonda and Turner divorced, she worked with Tomlin on raising the minimum wage in Michigan and then launched Fire Drill Fridays — acts of civil disobedience — with Greenpeace in 2019.

Jane Fonda speaks during a rally before a march from the U.S. Capitol to the White House as part of her “Fire Drill Fridays” rally protesting against climate change on Nov. 8, 2019.

(Alex Wong / Getty Images)

Fonda said she decided to create her political action committee after facing headwinds persuading Gov. Gavin Newsom to create setbacks for oil wells in 2020.

“He wasn’t moving on it, and somebody very high up in his campaign said to us, ‘You can have millions of people in your organization all over California, but you don’t have a big enough carrot or stick to move the governor. … You don’t have an electoral strategy,’” Fonda recalled. “Since we’ve started the PAC, it’s interesting how politicians deal with us differently. They know that we’ve got money. They know that we have tens of thousands of volunteers all over the country.”

Initially concentrated on climate change, JanePAC has expanded its focus since Trump was reelected in November.

“We’re facing two existential crises, climate and democracy, and it’s now or never for both,” Fonda said. “We can’t have a stable democracy with an unstable climate, and we can’t have a stable climate unless we have a democracy, And so we have to fight both together.”

Fonda’s PAC has raised more than $9 million since its creation through June 30, according to the Federal Election Commission.

In 2024, JanePAC supported 154 campaigns and won 96 of those races. The committee gave nearly $700,000 directly to campaigns and helped raise more than $1.1 million for their endorsed candidates and ballot measures. In 2025, they have endorsed 63 campaigns and plan to soon launch get-out-the-vote efforts in support of Proposition 50, Newsom’s ballot measure to redraw California’s congressional districts that will appear on the November ballot.

Arizona state Rep. Oscar De Los Santos, the minority leader in the state’s House of Representatives, recalled Fonda’s support during the 2024 election, not only for his reelection bid but also a broader effort to try to win Democratic control of the state Legislature.

In addition to raising $500,000 at a Phoenix event for candidates, De Los Santos recalled the actor spending days knocking on Arizona voters’ doors.

“It is a moral validator to have Jane Fonda support your campaigns, especially at a time when corporate interests have more money and more power than ever, having somebody in your corner who’s been on the right side of history for decades,” said De Los Santos, who represents a south Phoenix district deeply affected by environmental justice issues.

Voters are often stunned when Fonda shows up on their doorstep.

“I’ve had people walking out of their laundry room and dropping all the laundry,” Fonda said with a laugh.

But others don’t know who she is and Fonda doesn’t tell them.

Jane Fonda

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

“It’s amazing. You wouldn’t think that in just a few minutes on someone’s doorstep, you can really find out a lot,” Fonda said, recalling discovering her love of canvassing when she was married to Hayden.”I loved talking to people and finding out what they care about and what they’re scared of and what they’re angry about.”

Fonda does not walk in lockstep with the Democratic party. In 2023, she joined other climate-change activists protesting a big-money Joe Biden fundraiser. They argued that the then-president had strayed from the environmental promises he made when he ran for election, such as by approving a massive oil drilling project on the North Slope of Alaska.

Fonda said she supported Biden’s 2024 reelection despite disagreeing with some of his policies because of the threat she believed Trump poses.

“When you see what the choice was, of course you’re going to vote,” she said. “I get so mad at people who say, you know, ‘I don’t like him, so I’m not going to vote.’ [A] young person said to me, we already have fascism. They don’t know history. You know, we don’t teach civics anymore, so they don’t understand that what’s happening now is leading to fascism. I mean, this is real tyranny.”

But she also faulted Biden and then-Vice President Kamala Harris after she became the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, as well as 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, for failing to speak to the economic pain being experienced by Americans who backed Trump.

“They’re not all MAGA,” she said.

Many were just angry and hurting, she said, because they couldn’t afford groceries or pay medical bills. Fonda believes many now have buyer’s remorse.

Fonda reflected on the parallels between the turmoil in the 1960s and today. In the interview, which took place before the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, she argued that today’s political climate is more perilous.

“I’m not sure that what we have right now in the U.S. is a democracy,” she said. “It’s far graver. Far, far graver now than it was.”

Fonda said she remains driven, not by blind optimism, but by immersing herself in work that she believes makes a difference.

“This is what I’m going to be doing for the rest of my life,” she said.

It was revealed during last night’s live show that there’s been a huge change to the way viewers can vote for their favourite celebrities and now fans have shared their thoughts

A huge voting change on Strictly Come Dancing has sparked fury among fans over fears it will alter the results. During last night’s (Saturday 27 September) first live show, host Claudia Winkleman revealed “this year it’s changing”.

Bringing in pro dancer Neil Jones to explain, he began: “This year for the first time on Strictly, vote will be online only,” before telling fans they would need to register for a BBC account to have their say.

In previous years, viewers at home have been able to call in or text to place their votes for their favourite stars but it looks like it’s all change this time around. Fans were understandably shocked by the news and took to X to share their frustrations.

One unhappy person expressed: “#StrictlyComeDancing #Strictly You have just alienated a huge part of your audience by getting rid of the phone vote. I cannot imagine my elderly mother & thousands like her, able to log on to register a vote on her favourite programme. Another strike against the elderly.”

Another viewer fumed: “So @bbcstrictly You’ve completely prevented any of the older generation that don’t possess a smart phone or computer from voting by making it online only. You should be ashamed #Strictly.”

READ MORE: Strictly star Thomas Skinner protected by Tom Holland’s ex-bodyguard after death threatsREAD MORE: Strictly’s pregnant Dianne shows off bump in first live show as she makes sweet baby admission

Somebody else argued: “#Strictly very sad how exclusive voting is this year internet only. I have friends who have watched every series & always voted by phone. Not this year.

“They don’t have a smart phone or internet at home. I wonder how any others won’t be voting this year?”

While a fourth added: “Getting rid of the voting by phone is so wrong. I’m sure there are so many people who don’t have smartphones and who used to vote that way #Strictly.”

The voting change isn’t the only change that’s been incorporated onto the show this year, as head judge Shirley Ballas revealed at the end of the show.

For the last seven years, Shirley has been responsible for the gruelling decision of choosing which couple in the bottom two should leave if the votes are tied after the dance off.

However, now it’s been announced that the power is going to be shared between the four judges, with a different judge holding the power each week.

The change will start from next week, when the first couple will be eliminated from the series. As of yet, Strictly aren’t revealing which judge has the power, but the celebs are worried…

A video clip of the celebrities reacting to the news was played as Vicky Pattison said: “This changes everything!,” with Ross King adding: “I just can’t believe it!”

EastEnders star Balvinder Sopal says: “I was nervous, but this is another level,” and George Clarke expresses: “Is it too late to run away?”

Viewers at home were once again unimpressed by the changes on their favourite show as someone said: “i think would’ve made more sense for it to be down to the public vote instead of a different judge each week but okay,” while another commented: “I was hoping it would be a ‘public vote if the judges are tied’ but nope.”

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