Kate Garraway has revealed she was ‘flabbergasted’ after making it to the semi-final of the Celebrity Traitors before she was dramatically banished from the Scottish castle
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ATLANTA — Vice President George Bush and Sen. Bob Dole, chief rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, clashed over trade policy and derided each other’s plans for reduction of the federal deficit at a presidential campaign debate here Sunday.
“I don’t think we should go down the protectionist road,” Bush declared in warning against tougher trade measures now pending in Congress at the debate staged here in Georgia to focus attention on the candidates’ views in advance of the March 8 Super Tuesday Southern primaries.
“The best answer (to the nation’s trade problems) is open markets,” Bush said, adding that he was concerned about “the inevitability of retaliation” against the United States by foreign trading partners.
But Dole, who is supporting stronger trade measures on Capitol Hill, disagreed sharply. “Every time I hear the word retaliation I am reminded that Japan and South Korea and Taiwan already block Florida oranges and Georgia peaches and Alabama melons.” Dole contended that an Alabama melon would cost about $55 in Japan because of that country’s restrictive trade practices.
‘Talking About Jobs’
“Let’s be realistic,” the Kansas lawmaker said. “We’re talking about American jobs, not protectionism.”
On the issue of the budget deficit, Dole dismissed a four-year budget spending freeze advocated by Bush as a “four-year cop-out” because the plan limits only overall spending rather than specific programs.
“He’s just going to freeze bad programs for four years and not do anything about it,” said Dole, who favors a one-year across-the-board ceiling on all spending programs, except aid for the needy. Dole contended that in four years Bush’s plan would leave the nation with a deficit of $153 billion.
But Bush disputed Dole’s figures and argued that the senator’s proposal “would cut into the muscle of defense.”
“How does your plan work?” Bush demanded of Dole.
“How does your plan work?” Dole shot back.
A Spirited Argument
Bush made his most spirited argument for his deficit plan in an exchange with New York Rep. Jack Kemp, who is vying with Pat Robertson, former religious broadcaster, to become the conservative alternative to either of the two front-runners.
Responding to Kemp’s charge that the budget freeze proposals meant that national security would be sacrificed “on the altar of mindless budgeting,” Bush said: “The freeze I’m talking about provides the President with flexibility.”
“The point is, Jack, you don’t care about deficits, you never have. You don’t think they’re important. And they are public enemy No. 1.”
“George Bush is now making my speech,” grumbled Dole, who has sought to depict himself in the campaign as the chief Republican foe of budget deficits.
Although Kemp and Bush argued about budget policy, the two were by and large in agreement in opposing changes in trade policy in contrast with Dole and Robertson. Trade has become a hot issue in the Super Tuesday Republican presidential campaign in large measure because of the impact of textile imports on the economies of South Carolina and other textile-producing states in this region.
Dole and Robertson both support trade legislation, which Bush and Kemp oppose.
‘Sounds Like Gephardt’
“Your trade talk sounds like Dick Gephardt,” Kemp told Dole at one point, referring to Missouri Rep. Richard A. Gephardt, who has based much of his drive for the Democratic presidential nomination on a controversial proposal to give the United States the power to retaliate against unfair foreign trade practices.
Earlier in the debate, Robertson introduced the trade issue into the discussion. “People that I’ve talked to can’t abide the thought that America is going to be No. 2 in the world in the 21st Century,” Robertson said. Decrying the rise of textile imports from China and the Soviet Union, the former broadcaster said: “I don’t believe we can continue to permit the deindustrialization of America.
“I’m for free trade in this country but it’s got to be fair. And I think if those people don’t deal fairly with us, it’s high time we started getting tough with them. I don’t want to preside over Uncle Sucker, I want to preside over Uncle Sam.”
But Kemp promptly took issue with that argument in impassioned terms.
‘Barriers to Imports’
“If we’re going to go to Iowa, Pat and Bob,” he said, addressing Robertson and Dole, “and tell the folks in Iowa we want to boost exports of grain and corn and soybeans and then go to South Carolina, as you both have done, and tell them you’re going to put up barriers to imports, we will be making a mistake under your leadership.”
Kemp charged that such a shift in trade policy would be like “the mistake that was made in 1929 and 1930 when a Republican Congress caused the worst trade war in the history of this world with the Smoot-Hawley tariff act.”
Calling for lower tax rates on labor and capital and stable exchange rates to spur economic growth, the New York congressman warned that putting up trade barriers “is not just protectionist, it is mindless with regard to the fact that we have to compete in an export war.
“So let’s not make the mistake we made in the 1930s.”
Sunday’s debate, like the debate staged here Saturday for Democratic presidential candidates, was sponsored by the Atlanta Constitution-Journal. It brought together all of the 1988 GOP presidential contenders for the first time since the New Hampshire primary on Feb. 16.
Republican Survivors
A prior effort to assemble all the Republican survivors on one platform failed 10 days ago in Dallas when Dole and Robertson refused to participate, charging that the arrangements in Bush’s home state unfairly favored the vice president.
Since winning the New Hampshire primary, Bush has seemed relaxed and confident on the stump, bolstered not only by his victory in the Granite State but also by his financial resources and his reputedly powerful organization in most of the 14 Southern and border Super Tuesday states.
The vice president’s chief rival, Dole, won the South Dakota primary and the Minnesota caucuses last week. But Dole’s satisfaction with those successes was dimmed by evidence of discord within his campaign organization, signaled most notably by the firing of two key advisers, David Keene and Donald Devine, by campaign Chairman William Brock.
Meanwhile Robertson campaign strategists have been concerned about the potential impact on his candidacy of the disclosures of the sexual misadventures of television evangelist Jimmy Swaggart.
For his part, Kemp, short on money and lacking the sort of Southern base Robertson can rely on among evangelical Christians, must win the backing of hard-core conservatives to stay in the race. His first objective is to finish ahead of either Bush or Robertson in the South Carolina Republican primary next Saturday, the results of which are expected to have considerable symbolic impact on the March 8 vote.
A WIDOW is set to sue a utilities station operator after her husband was electrocuted while pruning hedges.
Gardener Blair Campbell, 35, was carrying out work on an ivy-covered bush when he accidentally came into contact with a substation wire in October 2022.
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The dad-of-two was airlifted to hospital following the horror but tragically died shortly after.
An inquest at Cheshire Coroner’s Court found that Blair from electrocution.
The victim’s widow, Tina, says she is yet to receive any apology from SP Energy Networks – part of Scottish Power – who operated the station.
She now says she will sue the company to get damages for her husband’s death.
Tina, who lives in Mobberley with her two children, said she had received no apology or compensation from Scottish Power.
She said: “There was not a lot we could do prior to the inquest. Because of the complexity of the case and involvement by HSE and the police that delayed things and we had to wait two years for the inquest.
“My solicitors have been in touch since the inquest with Scottish Power sending paperwork, but basically there has been silence.
“As a result my solicitors have had to put the matter back into the courts.
“I believe that Scottish Power now has 28 days to respond after they were put on notice of our intentions.
“If that fails we will have to apply for a court date, which is unlikely to be before autumn next year. This would drag it out for another 12 months.
“The inquest was over three days with a jury and the conclusion was that they (the power company) ‘more than likely contributed to the death of Blair’ due to the lack of maintenance.”
The inquest was told Blair ran firm, Blue Kiwi Gardens and Maintenance, after moving to the UK from New Zealand to be with Tina.
On October 3, 2022, he had gone to work to prune the hedge when he suffered the fatal shock.
Thick ivy on the bush had covered warning signs about the substation – meaning Blair was unaware of the danger underneath.
The court was told that before Blair’s death, numerous reports had been made about a need to remove the ivy that were not acted on.
SP Energy Networks, which maintains the substation, has now made changes to its health and safety policy.
Home Depot’s multiyear downturn could be nearing an end.
When Home Depot (HD -0.68%) talks, the stock market listens. The blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average component is a bellwether for consumer spending and the housing market.
In recent years, Home Depot’s results have disappointed. Earnings have been falling, and fiscal 2025 same-store sales are expected to grow by just 1%. But that sluggish growth could quickly fade into the rearview mirror.
In an effort to maximize employment and reduce inflation to 2% over the long run, Jerome Powell and the Federal Reserve are cutting interest rates by 0.25% — citing a weak labor market and “somewhat elevated” inflation. More cuts could be in the cards to boost consumer spending and avoid a recession. Although artificial intelligence (AI) has been driving the stock market to record highs, U.S. gross domestic product growth is projected to be just 1.6% in 2025 and under 2% every year through 2028 — illustrating weakness in the broader economy.
Here’s why an interest rate cut is great news for Home Depot, and whether the dividend stock is a buy now.
Image source: Getty Images.
Higher interest rates have a significant impact on consumer spending, particularly on discretionary goods, services, and travel. When money is more readily available for borrowing, consumers may opt for a car loan or a mortgage because the monthly payment is lower. Or they may finance a home improvement project. In this vein, lower interest rates can lead to an increase in renovation projects, which benefits Home Depot.
There’s a big difference between going to Home Depot for a few spare parts to fix an appliance and redoing an entire room or section of a house. And Home Depot’s poor results suggest that a lot of customers are putting off big projects until conditions improve.
On its August earnings call (second quarter 2025), Home Depot said that lower interest rates would help boost demand and provide relief for mortgages. Home Depot CEO Ted Decker said the following:
When we talk generally though to our customers, each of our sets of consumers and pros, the number one reason for deferring the large project is general economic uncertainty, that is larger than prices of projects, of labor availability, all the various things we’ve talked about in the past. By a wide margin, economic uncertainty is number one.
The prospect of good-paying jobs and lower interest rates could certainly give Home Depot’s residential business a lift. However, the company has also been investing heavily in its professional and commercial contractor business. In June 2024, Home Depot completed its $18.25 billion acquisition of SRS Distribution, expanding its home improvement and construction business. SRS specializes in selling roofing products to contractors — which provides cross-selling opportunities with Home Depot’s retail outlets.
Home Depot made the SRS acquisition in the middle of an industrywide downturn — a sign that it is investing for the long term. SRS essentially makes Home Depot even more of a coiled spring for the next cyclical expansion period, potentially amplifying the benefits the company will feel from lower interest rates.
The market is forward-looking and cares more about where businesses are headed than where they have been. And unfortunately for investors considering Home Depot, the stock is already priced as if interest rates will continue to fall.
As you can see in the following chart, Home Depot’s earnings were on the rise leading up to the pandemic, then entered a new phase during the pandemic as consumers accelerated spending on do-it-yourself home improvement projects, driven by low interest rates.
But Home Depot’s earnings have been ticking down in recent years even though its stock price is around an all-time high — suggesting that investors are looking past the company’s near-term struggles in anticipation of a recovery.
In February, Home Depot raised its dividend by the lowest amount in 15 years and issued a dire warning to investors about a prolonged downturn in the home improvement industry. So it could take several interest rate cuts to really move the needle on consumer spending at Home Depot.
In the meantime, the stock is on the expensive side, with a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.2 and a forward P/E of 27.7 compared to a 10-year median P/E of just 23. Meaning that Home Depot’s earnings would need to grow 20% faster than its stock price just for the valuation to come back down to historical averages over the last decade.
Home Depot is an excellent company, but it is already priced for a recovery. So the stock isn’t a screaming buy now.
The good news is that Home Depot could still be a good buy for long-term investors who believe in the company’s potential for store expansions, same-store sales growth, and that the SRS acquisition will pay off. If Home Depot enters a multiyear period of double-digit earnings growth, its valuation could quickly come down, making the stock more attractive.
Home Depot could also reaccelerate its dividend growth rate, building on its 16-year track record of consecutive annual dividend raises. Home Depot yields 2.2% — which is better than the 1.2% yield of the S&P 500.
All told, Home Depot isn’t a no-brainer buy now because the stock price has run up ahead of anticipated rate cuts. But it’s still a decent buy for long-term investors.
CUTTING Angela Rayner loose will not end the trouble she has caused Sir Keir Starmer – in fact it could get a whole lot worse.
Millions of appalled voters will rightly expect her to scurry sheepishly off into the deep freeze along with any future ambitions.
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But to her legions of militant supporters, she is far from a busted flush – she is a martyr, and soon quite possibly their Red Queen over the water.
It is no secret Rayner is far to the left of Starmer, and that theirs has always been a tricky forced political marriage.
Remember when Sir Keir tried to clip her wings in 2021 only to end up giving her a promotion after she kicked off big time?
Now outside the Cabinet tent – and with no real sense of loyalty to the PM – she could turn from his right-hand woman into a right old headache.
Many in the Labour tribe are already furious with Starmer for turning his back on the left-wing causes he once championed.
From welfare, to taxes, to migration, there is no shortage of issues on which soft-left MPs are ready to scrap with No10.
As the PM tries to stem the bleeding to Reform with more hardline policies, those rows will only intensify.
Especially given Jeremy Corbyn’s new rabble and the Greens threaten to sap voters from Labour’s leftward flank.
In this looming battle for the soul of the party, it is easy to see Rayner emerging as the socialists’ standard bearer.
With the might of the unions and members also on her side, Rayner could quickly accumulate a large powerbase.
Maybe one even big enough to mobilise against her old boss.
Think of the grief Boris Johnson or Nigel Lawson caused Theresa May and Margaret Thatcher from the backbenches, leading to their downfalls.
Starmer had no choice but to push Rayner out.
Her fate was set as soon as Sir Laurie Magnus threw the book at her for breaking the ministerial code.
In this looming battle for the soul of the party, it is easy to see Rayner emerging as the socialists’ standard bearer
His gushing, personal, hand-written goodbye note is as clear a sign as any that he wanted to give her the heave-ho in as gentle a way as possible.
But it might not stay friendly for long.
In this episode, @MissSamJohnson looks at how Russia has been whittling away its citizens online freedoms
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“Splitsville” lands at a moment when every comedy released to theaters feels like a battle cry, an attempt to defend audiences’ rights to have a good time at the movies.
Directed by Michael Angelo Covino, who also produces, co-writes and co-stars alongside Kyle Marvin, the film continues the duo’s comic exploration of bad choices, in which men predictably make poor decisions and are depicted as vain, infantile and often motivated by their worst impulses. (It’s funny because it’s true.)
As the movie begins, Carey (Marvin) is married to Ashley (Adria Arjona), who tells him she has been seeing other people and wants a divorce. He seeks solace from his best friend Paul (Covino) and his wife, Julie (Dakota Johnson), who tell Carey they are in an open relationship. Soon Carey sleeps with Julie and all sorts of jealousies and complicated feelings arise among the four of them.
“Splitsville” — the title appears briefly onscreen as the neon sign of a dessert stand — is outwardly a satire of bourgeois aspirations, modern marriage and how no one really understands the dynamics of what goes on with other couples. But the film is actually more concerned with the absurdities of male friendship, to the extent that Covino and Marvin are perennially enamored of themselves and can’t help from centering their own antics.
Their previous movie, “The Climb,” was also about two friends locked into an up-and-down relationship alternating between of moments of betrayal and gestures of support. While they are not playing the same specific characters from “The Climb,” they are very much playing the same type. Covino is seemingly more smooth and together, though riddled with insecurities, while Marvin initially appears hapless and vulnerable, with an emotional intelligence that reveals him to be savvier than he first appears. So they basically meet in the middle.
The entire movie has a disappointing air of smug self-regard about it, with an expectation the audience will adore everything about the characters as much as they do. What at moments feels like a nascent interrogation of contemporary masculinity ultimately suffers from the very impulses it seems to want to parody. (We hear numerous times that one of them is generously endowed.)
Both Arjona and Johnson are asked to play variations on personas they have depicted elsewhere. Arjona has the same earthy warmth she did in “Hit Man,” while Johnson exhibits a placid air of controlled chaos similar to what she showed earlier this year in “Materialists.” They undoubtedly elevate the movie, though too often their characters feel like game pieces manipulated on a board controlled by the film’s male leads.
Johnson and Arjona are movie stars, beguiling and captivating. Covino and Marvin seem like a couple of guys who somehow wandered onscreen. The tension is never reconciled and is constantly throwing the story off balance.
In “The Climb,” there is a moment where Covino and Marvin briefly wrestle, a ludicrous sight of two grown men tussling on the ground. Here that beat expands into a full-blown fight scene that goes on for more than six minutes, as Paul attacks Carey after learning he slept with Julie. Smashing furniture, breaking drywall, destroying a fish tank (while saving the fish) and somehow singeing off Carey’s eyebrows, the fight scene is the movie’s centerpiece, one of its major selling points and indicative of everything that both works and doesn’t. It is funny, escalating ridiculously, but it is also too outlandish for the characters and the story and only really exists as something that Covino and Marvin simply wanted to do for themselves.
They’re good at jokes but much weaker on meaning, stumbling when it comes to making it all add up to something. With a background in advertising, Marvin and Covino are strong on short, punchy ideas conveyed through strong visuals. They may eventually be better served by making work they do not appear in — their performances are the weakest thing about their movies so far. Even as they remain a promising duo, “Splitsville” never quite fully comes together.
‘Splitsville’
Rated: R, for language throughout, sexual content and graphic nudity
Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes
Playing: In limited release Friday, Aug. 22
The shake-up comes after the men’s side suffered its worst season with nine defeats in 10 games that drew a total losing sequence of 18 matches, a run that only ended last weekend with a 31-22 victory in the second Test against Japan.
“The current rugby system in Wales, which includes national teams, professional clubs, community clubs, academies, universities and schools isn’t delivering consistent success on the field and isn’t currently financially sustainable given the likely investment required, even with the recent actions taken to increase financial resources,” the WRU said.
“The WRU is therefore considering a more radical strategy focused on maximising investment and reforming the whole structure of professional rugby in Wales, amongst other options.”