job

“Death By Lightning,” premiering Thursday on Netflix, introduces itself as “a story about two men the world forgot,” and while it is undoubtedly true that few in 2025 will recognize the name Charles Guiteau, many will know James A. Garfield, given that he was one of only four assassinated American presidents. There are less well remembered presidents, for sure — does the name John Tyler ring a bell? — and assassins better known than Guiteau, but if you’re going to make a docudrama, it does help to choose a story that might be more surprising to viewers and comes with a murder built in. It is also, I would guess intentionally, a tale made for our times, with its themes of civil rights, income inequality, cronyism and corruption.

Indeed, most everything about the Garfield story is dramatic — a tragedy, not merely for the family, but for the nation. For the sense one gets from “Death by Lightning” and from the historical record it fairly represents, is that Garfield, killed after only 200 days in office, might have made a very good chief executive. (The stated source for the series is Candice Millard’s 2011 book “Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President”; Millard is also a voice in the more briefly titled, illuminating “American Experience” documentary “Murder of a President.”)

That the longtime Ohio congressman did not seek but was drafted for the job — a compromise chosen, against his protests, on the 36th ballot at the 1880 Republican National Convention, where he’d given a stirring speech to nominate a fellow Ohioan, Treasury Secretary John Sherman — made him, one might say, especially qualified for the job; unlike some politicians one might name, he was self-effacing and humble and not out for personal gain. But he saw, finally, that he had a chance to “fix all the things that terrify me about this republic,” most especially the ongoing oppression of Black citizens, a major theme of his inauguration speech (with remarks transferred here to a campaign address delivered to a crowd of 50,000 from a balcony overlooking New York’s Madison Square Park). “I would rather be with you and defeated than against you and victorious,” he tells a group of Black veterans gathered on his front porch, from which he conducted his campaign. (Some 20,000 people were said to have visited there during its course.)

Political machinations and complications aside, the narrative, which stretches two years across four episodes, is really fairly simple, even schematic, cutting back and forth between Garfield (Michael Shannon, between tours covering early R.E.M. albums) and Guiteau (Matthew Macfadyen), a drifter with delusions of grandeur, as they approach their historically sealed date with destiny. Garfield is goodness personified; we meet him on his farm, cooking breakfast for the family, planing wood to make a picnic table. (A table we will meet again.) Guiteau goes from one failed project to another, living it up on money stolen from his sister, running out on restaurant checks and rooming house bills, telling lies about himself he might well have thought were true, until he decides that politics is the place to make his mark. Under the impression that he was responsible for Garfield’s election, he believed the new president owed him a job — ambassador to France would be nice — and when none was coming, turned sour. A message from God, and the belief that he would save the republic, set him on a path to murder.

Matthew Macfadyen plays Garfield’s assassin, Charles Guiteau, in the miniseries.

(Larry Horricks / Netflix)

The series largely belongs to them — both actors are terrific, Shannon imbuing Garfield with a gravity leavened with kindness and humor, Macfadyen’s Guiteau, optimistically dedicated to his delusions yet always about to pop. But it’s a loaded cast. The ever-invaluable Betty Gilpin, in her fourth big series this year after “American Primeval,” “The Terminal List: Dark Wolf” and “Hal & Harper,” plays Garfield’s wife, Crete, fully up on the political scene and free with her opinions. Shea Whigham is New York senator and power broker Roscoe Conkling, Garfield’s moral opposite, and the series’ villain, if you excuse Guiteau as mentally ill. (The jury didn’t.). As wise Maine Sen. James Blaine, Bradley Whitford exudes a convincing, quiet authority, honed over those years working in the pretend White House on “The West Wing.” All the men have been whiskered to resemble their historical models.

Where most of them, even Guiteau, remain consistent from beginning to end, it’s Nick Offerman’s Chester A. Arthur who goes on a journey. Conkling’s right hand, in charge of the New York Customs House — which generated a third of the country’s revenues through import fees — he’s offered the position of vice president to appease Conkling, New York being key to winning the election. Arthur begins as a thuggish, cigar-smoking, sausage-eating, drunken clown, until he’s forced, by events, and the possibility of inheriting the presidency, to reckon with himself.

When First Lady Crete Garfield wonders whether there should be a little extra security (or, really, any security at all) around her husband, he responds, “Assassination can no more be guarded against than death by lightning — it’s best not to worry too much about either one,” giving the series its title and clearing up any confusion you may have had about its meaning. Indeed, Guiteau moves in and out of what today would be well guarded rooms with surprising ease, managing encounters (some certainly invented) with Crete, Blaine, a drunken Arthur and Garfield, whom he implores, “Tell me how I can be great, too.”

Created by Mike Makowsky, it isn’t free from theatrical effects, dramatic overreach or obvious statements, but as period pieces go, it’s unusually persuasive, in big and little ways. Only occasionally does one feel taken out of a 19th century reality into a 21st century television series. The effects budget has been spent where it matters, with some detailed evocations of late 19th century Chicago and Washington that don’t scream CGI. The first episode, which recreates the 1880 convention, held at the Interstate Exposition Building in Chicago, aligns perfectly with engravings of the scene and brings it to life, supporting the wheeling and dealing and speechifying in a way that one imagines is close to being there.

Because we know what’s coming, the series can be emotionally taxing, especially as a wounded Garfield lingers through much of the final episode, while being mistreated by his doctor, Willard Bliss (Zeljko Ivanek), who ignores the advice of the younger, better informed Dr. Charles Purvis (Shaun Parkes), the first Black physician to attend to a sitting president; many, including Millard, believe it was the doctor who killed him through a lack of sanitary precautions, and that Garfield might have recovered if he’d just been left alone, an idea the series supports.

But you can’t change history, as much as “Death By Lightning” makes you wish you could.

The Rams are no longer kicking the can down the road when it comes to their kicking problems.

On Wednesday, the Rams signed kicker Harrison Mevis to the practice squad to compete with second-year pro Joshua Karty. The move came a day after the team signed veteran long-snapper Jake McQuaide to compete with Alex Ward.

“It’s all geared toward trying to be able to just get some solutions and some kick consistency really with our field-goal operation,” coach Sean McVay said Wednesday. “I think it’s important to have good competition at some spots that we feel we can have improved play.”

The Rams are preparing for their game on Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.

The Rams are 6-2 — and their losses against the defending Super Bowl-champion Philadelphia Eagles and the 49ers both resulted from problems in the kicking game that resurfaced without dire consequences in last Sunday’s rout of the New Orleans Saints.

Against the Saints, Karty missed a 39-yard field goal attempt and an extra-point attempt. Karty has made 10 of 15 field-goal attempts and 23 of 26 extra-point attempts.

McVay said after the game that the Rams would evaluate “all parts of where we go with this operation.”

On Tuesday, they turned to McQuaide, 37, who played for the Rams from 2011-2020 and was part of a special teams unit that also included kicker Greg Zuerlein and punter/holder Johnny Hekker.

“If all things go well with Jake, we expect him to be our long-snapper,” McVay said.

On Wednesday, they brought in Mevis, who made 89 of 106 field-goal attempts at Missouri, including one from 61 yards. In the United Football League this past season, he made 20 of 21 field-goal attempts.

So Karty and Mevis will duel during expanded special teams drills this week.

“We’ll implement more than we normally would on a Wednesday and a Thursday and truly be able to kind of use it as a competition,” McVay said.

Nov. 1 (UPI) — Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan on Saturday was declared the winner of the presidential election amid unrest in the African nation over her candidacy and exclusion of her rivals.

Samia, 65, received 31.9 million votes, which was 97.66% of the total in Wednesday’s election among 17 parties, the electoral commission said.

Almost 87% of the country’s 37.6 million registered voters turned out, in sharp contrast with the 50% who voted in 2020.

Tanzania, which has a population of 71 million, is in eastern Africa and is bordered by the Indian Ocean on the east and south of the Equator.

“We thank the security forces for ensuring that the violence did not stop voting,” Samia, who came into office in 2021 as Tanzania’s first female president, said in a victory celebration in Dodoma. “These incidents were not patriotic at all.”

Although the politician from Zanzibar said the election was “free and democratic,” election observers and European Parliament members say the election was rife with irregularities, according to The New York Times.

Samia’s two main opposition contenders were barred from running.

Tundu Lissu, of the Party for Democracy and Progress, is being held on treason charges, which he denies, and Luhaga Mpina of the Alliance for Change and Transparency was excluded on legal technicalities.

During the unrest, Internet nationwide was been shut down and a curfew is in place.

On Friday, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for “a thorough and impartial investigation into all allegations of excessive use of force” and Tanzanian authorities to uphold accountability and transparency in the post-election unrest.

There were no protests on Saturday, one day after demonstrators in several cities took to the streets, tearing down Samia’s posters and attacked police and polling stations.

Foreign Minister Mahmoud Kombo Thabit said the violence was a “few isolated pockets of incidents here and there.”

And electoral commission chief Jacobs Mwambegele said the election was run smoothly.

“I would like to thank all election stakeholders, especially political parties, candidates for various positions, your friends and members for conducting civilized campaigns and maintaining peace and tranquility throughout the campaign,” he said.

Tanzania’s semi-autonomous archipelago of Zanzibar elects its own government.

Hussein Mwinyi, who is the incumbent president, won with nearly 80% of the vote.

Sania was vice president and became president when John Magufuli died on March 17, 2021, of a heart condition at 61.

Her ruling party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi, and its predecessor, Tanu, have dominated the country’s politics and have never lost an election since independence from Britain.

The mainland territory of Tanganyika gained independence in 1961 and the islands of Zanzibar became independent as a constitutional monarchy two years later.

In 1964, they merged to become the United Republic of Tanzania.

Claudia Winkleman has set the record straight on her Strictly Come Dancing experience, as she and Tess Daly are set to leave Strictly Come Dancing at the end of the 2025 series

Television host and national treasure Claudia Winkleman told fans to “be prepared” before revealing her true thoughts on Strictly Come Dancing.

Claudia, 53, recently announced alongside co-host Tess Daly that the pair would be leaving the popular BBC programme after over 20 years of holding various presenting roles on the series.

Claudia, who also hosts The Traitors and Celebrity Traitors, opened up about the origins of her working on the programme in her book Quite, explaining that it was the ultimate case of someone being in the right place at the right time.

She said: “Strictly has been (I don’t want your stomach to turn, so please be prepared) a gift to me. A barnstorming, stonking, thunderbolt of a present.

“I started working on It Takes Two in 2004. There had been one series already, my son was tiny and they said, ‘Look, can you talk about the foxtrot every night live at 6.30pm?’”

She added: “I could be with him all morning and then go to work. I know. It was a six week run and I was ridiculously lucky.

“I then went on to present the results show and when Sir Bruce resigned I got Tess’s job. Sometimes good fortune just falls in your lap. How did I, a short, scruffy, orange idiot get to be part of one of the nation’s favourite TV shows?

“All I can say is there has been no better example of right place, right time on earth.”

In a statement on Instagram announcing of her exit from the show, Claudia said: “It’s very difficult to put into words exactly what Strictly has meant to me. It’s been the greatest relationship of my career.

“From working on It Takes Two in 2004 until now it has been my everything, the show I will be eternally grateful for.

“I will never forget Len Goodman trying to teach me what a cucaracha is (I still don’t know) and the complete thrill and honour it was to work with Tess on the results show to co-hosting on Saturday nights.

“Strictly is a magical, glittery, fake tanned train and it’s been a privilege to be a tiny part of it. The extraordinary talent of the dancers, the band, the hair and makeup and costume teams, the unbelievable production crew and creatives – all utterly amazing.

“I’ve always believed it’s best to leave a party before you’re fully ready to go and I know the new hosts will be magnificent.”

Disneyland Resort has laid off about 100 people in Anaheim, as Walt Disney Co. becomes the latest media and entertainment company to cut jobs.

The layoffs occurred Tuesday and came from multiple teams, Disney confirmed.

“With our business in a period of steady, sustained operation, we are recalibrating our organization to ensure we continue to deliver exceptional experiences for our guests, while positioning Disneyland Resort for the future,” a Disneyland spokesperson said in a statement. “As part of this, we’ve made the difficult decision to eliminate a limited number of salaried positions.”

A person close to the company who was not authorized to comment attributed the cuts to an increase in hiring after the parks reopened once the COVID-19 pandemic waned.

Disney’s theme parks are a major economic engine for the Burbank media and entertainment giant.

Last year, the company’s experiences division — which includes its theme parks, cruise line and Aulani resort and spa in Hawaii — brought in nearly 60% of Disney’s operating income.

Earlier this month, the company announced price hikes on most of its single-day, one-park tickets.

The Disneyland Resort layoffs come as entertainment and tech companies have recently shed thousands of jobs.

On Wednesday, Paramount laid off 1,000 employees in a first round of cuts after the company’s takeover by tech scion David Ellison’s Skydance Media. Amazon, Meta, Charter Corp. and NBC News also have announced cuts.

Since Brendan Rodgers resigned as Celtic manager on Monday, several candidates have emerged as the Northern Irishman’s long-term successor.

Celtic moved quickly to appoint former manager Martin O’Neill as interim boss – 20 years after his first stint in charge of the Glasgow club ended.

Sunday’s 3-1 defeat at table-toppers Hearts was Celtic’s second successive Premiership loss, leaving them eight points adrift in second place, while they have won just two of their last seven matches across all competitions.

O’Neill, 73, has played down suggestions he could take up the job on a full-time basis – insisting he is just “keeping the seat warm”.

Several candidates have already started to emerge for the position, including some names that have strong links to Parkhead.

BBC Sport assesses the options and looks at how realistic it could be to appoint one of them.

Paramount on Wednesday was expected to cut 1,000 employees, the first wave of a deep staff reduction planned since David Ellison took the helm of the entertainment company in August.

People familiar with the matter but not authorized to comment said the layoffs will be felt throughout the company, including at CBS, CBS News, Comedy Central and other cable channels as well as the historic Melrose Avenue film studio.

Another 1,000 jobs are expected to be cut at a later date, bringing the total reduction to about 10% of Paramount’s workforce, sources said.

The move was expected. Paramount’s new owners — Ellison’s Skydance Media and RedBird Capital Partners — had told investors they planned to eliminate more than $2 billion in expenses, and Wednesday’s workforce reduction was a preliminary step toward that goal.

Paramount has been shedding staff for years.

More than 800 people — or about 3.5% of the company’s workforce — were laid off in June, prior to the Ellison family takeover. At the time, Paramount’s management attributed the cuts to the decline of cable television subscriptions and an increased emphasis on bulking up its streaming TV business. In 2024, the company eliminated 2,000 positions, or 15% of its staff.

Longtime CBS News journalist John Dickerson announced earlier this week that he would exit in December. The co-anchor of the “CBS Evening News,” Dickerson has been a familiar network face for more than 15 years, completing tours at “CBS This Morning” and the Sunday public affairs show “Face the Nation.” He was named the network’s evening news co-anchor in January alongside Maurice DuBois to succeed Norah O’Donnell. The revamp, designed in part to save money, led to a ratings decline.

The Paramount layoffs are the latest sign of contraction across the entertainment and tech sectors.

Amazon said this week it was eliminating roughly 14,000 corporate jobs amid its embrace of artificial intelligence to perform more functions. Last week, Facebook parent company Meta disclosed that it was cutting 600 jobs in its AI division.

Last week, cable and broadband provider Charter Corp., which operates the Spectrum service, eliminated 1,200 management jobs around the country.

Los Angeles’ production economy in particular has been roiled by a falloff in local filming and cost-cutting at major media companies.

As of August, about 112,000 people were employed in the Los Angeles region’s motion picture and sound recording industries — the main category for film and television production. The data does not include everyone who works in the entertainment industry, such as those who work as independent contractors.

That was roughly flat compared with the previous year, and down 27% compared with 2022 levels, when about 154,000 people were employed locally in the industry, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The industry has struggled to rebound since the 2023 strikes by writers and actors, which led to a sharp pullback in studio spending following the era of so-called “peak TV,” when
studios dramatically increased the pipeline of shows to build streaming platforms.

“You saw a considerable drop-off from the strikes and the aftermath,” said Kevin Klowden, an executive director at Milken Institute Finance. “The question is, at what point do these workers exit the industry entirely?”

Local film industry officials are expecting a production boost and an increase in work after California bolstered its film and television tax credits.

But Southern California’s bedrock industry is confronting other challenges, including shifting consumer habits and competition from social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok.

“There is a larger concern in terms of the financial health of all the major operations in Hollywood,” Klowden said. “There’s a real concern about that level of competition, and what it means.”

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Monday asked the Supreme Court to allow it to fire the director of the U.S. Copyright Office.

The administration’s newest emergency appeal to the high court was filed a month and a half after a federal appeals court in Washington held that the official, Shira Perlmutter, could not be unilaterally fired.

Nearly four weeks ago, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit refused to reconsider that ruling.

The case is the latest that relates to Trump’s authority to install his own people at the head of federal agencies. The Supreme Court has largely allowed Trump to fire officials, even as court challenges proceed.

But this case concerns an office that is within the Library of Congress. Perlmutter is the register of copyrights and also advises Congress on copyright issues.

Solicitor Gen. D. John Sauer wrote in his filing Monday that despite the ties to Congress, the register “wields executive power” in regulating copyrights.

Perlmutter claims Trump fired her in May because he disapproved of advice she gave to Congress in a report related to artificial intelligence. Perlmutter had received an email from the White House notifying her that “your position as the Register of Copyrights and Director at the U.S. Copyright Office is terminated effective immediately,” her office said.

A divided appellate panel ruled that Perlmutter could keep her job while the case moves forward.

“The Executive’s alleged blatant interference with the work of a Legislative Branch official, as she performs statutorily authorized duties to advise Congress, strikes us as a violation of the separation of powers that is significantly different in kind and in degree from the cases that have come before,” Judge Florence Pan wrote for the appeals court. Judge Michelle Childs joined the opinion. Democratic President Biden appointed both judges to the appeals court.

Judge Justin Walker, a Trump appointee, wrote in dissent that Perlmutter “exercises executive power in a host of ways.”

Perlmutter’s attorneys have argued that she is a renowned copyright expert. She has served as register of copyrights since then-Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden appointed her to the job in October 2020.

Trump appointed Deputy Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche to replace Hayden at the Library of Congress. The White House fired Hayden amid criticism from conservatives that she was advancing a “woke” agenda.

Sherman writes for the Associated Press.

Barbara Boxer decided she was done. Entering her 70s, fresh off reelection to the U.S. Senate, she determined her fourth term would be her last.

“I just felt it was time,” Boxer said. “I wanted to do other things.”

Besides, she knew the Democratic bench was amply stocked with many bright prospects, including California’s then-attorney general, Kamala Harris, who succeeded Boxer in Washington en route to her selection as Joe Biden’s vice president.

When Boxer retired in 2017, after serving 24 years in the Senate, she walked away from one of the most powerful and privileged positions in American politics, a job many have clung to until their last, rattling breath.

(Boxer tried to gently nudge her fellow Democrat and former Senate colleague, Dianne Feinstein, whose mental and physical decline were widely chronicled during her final, difficult years in office. Ignoring calls to step aside, Feinstein died at age 90, hours after voting on a procedural matter on the Senate floor.)

Now an effort is underway among Democrats, from Hawaii to Massachusetts, to force other senior lawmakers to yield, as Boxer did, to a new and younger generation of leaders. The movement is driven by the usual roiling ambition, along with revulsion at Donald Trump and the existential angst that visits a political party every time it loses a dispiriting election like the one Democrats faced in 2024.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has become the highest profile target.

Last week, she drew a second significant challenger to her reelection, state Sen. Scott Wiener, who jumped into the contest alongside tech millionaire Saikat Chakrabarti, who’s been campaigning against the incumbent for the better part of a year.

Pelosi — who is 85 and hasn’t faced a serious election fight in San Francisco since Ronald Reagan was in the White House — is expected to announce sometime after California’s Nov. 4 special election whether she’ll run again in 2026.

Boxer, who turns 85 next month, offered no counsel to Pelosi, though she pushed back against the notion that age necessarily equates with infirmity, or political obsolescence. She pointed to Ted Kennedy and John McCain, two of the senators she served with, who remained vital and influential in Congress well into their 70s.

On the other hand, Boxer said, “Some people don’t deserve to be there for five minutes, let alone five years … They’re 50. Does that make it good? No. There are people who are old and out of ideas at 60.”

There is, Boxer said, “no one-size-fits-all” measure of when a lawmaker has passed his or her expiration date. Better, she suggested, for voters to look at what’s motivating someone to stay in office. Are they driven by purpose — and still capable of doing the job — “or is it a personal ego thing or psychological thing?”

“My last six years were my most prolific,” said Boxer, who opposes both term limits and a mandatory retirement age for members of Congress. “And if they’d said 65 and out, I wouldn’t have been there.”

Art Agnos didn’t choose to leave office.

He was 53 — in the blush of youth, compared to some of today’s Democratic elders — when he lost his reelection bid after a single term as San Francisco mayor.

“I was in the middle of my prime, which is why I ran for reelection,” he said. “And, frankly,” he added with a laugh, “I still feel like I’m in my prime at 87.”

A friend and longtime Pelosi ally, Agnos bristled at the ageism he sees aimed at lawmakers of a certain vintage. Why, he asked, is that acceptable in politics when it’s deplored in just about every other field of endeavor?

“What profession do we say we want bright young people who have never done this before to take over because they’re bright, young and say the right things?” Agnos asked rhetorically. “Would you go and say, ‘Let me find a brain surgeon who’s never done this before, but he’s bright and young and has great promise.’ We don’t do that. Do we?

“Give me somebody who’s got experience, “ Agnos said, “who’s been through this and knows how to handle a crisis, or a particular issue.”

Pete Wilson also left office sooner than he would have like, but that’s because term limits pushed him out after eight years as California governor. (Before that, he served eight years in the Senate and 11 as San Diego mayor.)

“I thought that I had done a good job … and a number of people said, ‘Gee, it’s a pity that you can’t run for a third term,’ ” Wilson said as he headed to New Haven, Conn., for his college reunion, Yale class of ’55. “As a matter of fact, I agreed with them.”

Still, unlike Boxer, Wilson supports term limits, as a way to infuse fresh blood into the political system and prevent too many over-the-hill incumbents from heedlessly overstaying their time in office.

Not that he’s blind to the impetus to hang on. The power. The perks. And, perhaps above all, the desire to get things done.

At age 92, Wilson maintains an active law practice in Century City and didn’t hesitate — “Yes!” he exclaimed — when asked if he considered himself capable of serving today as governor, even as he wends his way through a tenth decade on Earth.

His wife, Gayle, could be heard chuckling in the background.

“She’s laughing,” Wilson said dryly, “because she knows she’s not in any danger of my doing so.”

A private Scottish estate is looking to hire a couple on a long-term basis who will support the smooth running of the estate, which includes a seven-bed main property

A “special opportunity” for a couple to relocate to a private Scottish estate for work has come up. Included with the positions is a three-bedroom cottage.

An estate in rural Dumfriesshire is currently looking to hire two people on a long-term basis. The successful couple will support the smooth running of the “beautifully restored” estate in the south of Scotland.

The salary for the positions is listed as between £70,000 and £80,000 on the Greycoats Lumleys job listing. As well as the “private” three-bedroom cottage, the accommodation includes council tax and firewood.

One half of the couple will serve as the estate’s housekeeper, overseeing a seven-bed main residence plus several guest properties. The other partner will work as a handyperson, taking charge of the estate’s upkeep and maintenance.

Core duties for the housekeeper include cleaning, laundry, ironing, and wardrobe management, alongside maintaining household inventories and shopping responsibilities. They’ll also handle household supplies and coordinate with estate contractors, whilst caring for antiques, fine furnishings, and delicate finishes.

The housekeeper will also assist with entertaining guests and their arrivals, plus handle light cooking and meal preparation. Overall, they’ll be expected to establish and maintain a serene, well-organised, environmentally conscious, and efficiently managed household.

Meanwhile, the handyperson will handle general upkeep and care for all properties both indoors and outdoors. Duties will encompass pressure washing sandstone terraces and pathways, coordinating tradespeople and overseeing repairs and timetables, plus supporting security and the seamless daily running of the estate.

The handyperson will also need to provide driving and errand assistance, alongside inspecting all estate properties—including one situated a 15-minute drive away. Additionally, they’ll be expected to maintain a swimming pond and building.

Candidates applying for these roles should possess prior experience in comparable positions, plus hold a full UK driving licence and solid references. Further sought-after qualities include “a good understanding of privacy and discretion”, adaptability to work evenings and weekends, and contentment working in a rural countryside environment.

The job advert reads: “Greycoat Lumley’s client are seeking a kind, capable, and discreet Domestic Couple to support the smooth running of a beautifully restored Private Estate in rural Dumfriesshire. The previous housekeeper was in post for seven years prior to the building work.

“There is a seven bed principal property and further ancillary guest properties. Full details are available on application.

“This is a long-term opportunity for a professional Couple who bring warmth, initiative, and pride to their work and who value the rhythm of life in the countryside. You’ll be joining a supportive, established estate team, and caring for a home with beautiful interiors set in a stunning garden.

“Willingness to work flexible hours is essential as this is a second home and there are consequently periods of intense activity balanced by quieter spells.”

The Greycoat Lumleys website adds: “This is a special opportunity to join a thoughtful and well-supported household where your contribution will be genuinely appreciated. The right couple will enjoy the peace and beauty of the locality while helping to maintain a beloved family home.”

According to the job advert, the positions are set to begin in February 2026. For further information about the roles, visit the Greycoat Lumleys website.

BBC Breakfast staff are rumoured to be raging at the “double standards” of suspending Kaye Adams from Radio Scotland whilst their own presenters remain in their roles whilst under review

The staff of BBC Breakfast are reportedly furious at the network bosses’ “double standards” after Kaye Adams was suspended from Radio Scotland following bullying allegations, while their own presenters, Naga Munchetty and Charlie Stayt remain in their roles, despite a review underway for similar claims.

Adams was pulled from her BBC radio show after allegations arose about her ‘bullying’ her colleagues. But, BBC Breakfast hosts Naga Munchetty and Charlie Stayt are under review for the same complaint, it has been alleged, and have not been suspended from their show.

BBC bosses are said to be considering a range of allegations about the duo, but while they have already taken action against Adams, they have not taken action against Munchetty and Stayt.

READ MORE: Loose Women star Kaye Adams ‘taken off air’ following internal complaintREAD MORE: BBC Breakfast’s Naga and Charlie announce heartbreaking news as guest living with incurable illness

A source said Adams’ suspension “put a cat among the pigeons” behind the scenes at the BBC: “The review on Naga and Charlie is rumbling on because new complaints keep coming up, which raise new questions, so they have to keep interviewing other people.

“The news about Kaye Adams’ suspension up in Scotland has put the cat among the pigeons because she’s been accused of the same thing as Naga and Charlie – bullying.

“People are saying it’s double standards and that the BBC are pandering to Naga particularly, because she is the big name because she has Breakfast and her 5 Live show. They are the nation’s broadcaster and should treat all complaints the same way.”

Adams was removed from her hosting job on BBC Radio Scotland while bosses conduct an inquiry. It is believed that complaints against the 62-year-old were raised under the BBC’s Call It Out scheme.

The initiative was set up after a review into the conduct of former MasterChef presenters Gregg Wallace upheld several allegations of inappropriate language and the misuse of power. The report also upheld an allegation that John Torode used inappropriate language. After allegations were brought against Wallace, a review into the working environment on MasterChef was conducted.

Following the review, both Wallace and Torode were told they would no longer be MasterChef’s presenters, though they did appear in the latest series as that had already been filmed. They will be replaced with Grace Dent and Anna Haugh for the next series.

The same Call It Out initiative that started from this situation and led to complaints from BBC Radio Scotland staff, rooted out complaints on BBC Breakfast.

When asked about the situation with Munchetty, Stayt and Adams, a BBC spokesperson said: “We do not comment on individual HR matters.”

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Kurt Suzuki wrapped up his 16-year playing career with the Angels in 2022.

Now, three years later, he is starting his professional coaching career with the same team, as multiple media outlets are reporting that the Angels are set to hire Suzuki as their next manager.

The Angels have yet to finalize or announce the deal.

Suzuki, a World Series champion with the Washington Nationals in 2019, played for the Angels in 2021 and 2022. After retiring as a player, he has served as a special assistant to Angels general manager Perry Minasian.

Suzuki will be the Angels’ fifth manager since 2018, when the organization parted ways after 18 seasons with Mike Scioscia — who led the team to its only World Series title in 2002.

He will replace Ron Washington, who was manager the past two seasons but missed roughly half of the 2025 season after undergoing quadruple bypass heart surgery. Ray Montgomery was interim coach in Washington’s absence but wasn’t considered for the job on a permanent basis.

The Angels went a franchise-worst 63-99 in 2024 after losing Shohei Ohtani to the Dodgers in free agency. They were 72-90 in 2025, their 10th consecutive losing season.

Born in Wailuku, Hawaii, Suzuki hit the game-winning single that clinched the College World Series title for Cal State Fullerton in 2004. He was selected by the Oakland Athletics in the second round of the 2004 draft and spent his first five-plus MLB seasons with the organization. He also played for the Minnesota Twins.

The Angels are said to have considered fellow former team members Albert Pujols and Torii Hunter for the manager job as well.

Staff writer Steve Henson contributed to this report.

There were empty seats before West Ham took on Brentford in their London derby. And plenty during the game. And even more so as the game drew to a close.

The fans who were left booed their team off after a truly miserable 2-0 defeat that could easily have been 5-0.

These are toxic times at London Stadium, with some fans staying away in a protest against the running of the club.

New Hammers boss Nuno Espirito Santo – yet to win after three games – admits the players have to work hard to get the fans back onside.

There was no sugar-coating this performance by the head coach with his after-match verdict.

“Not good enough. Poor,” said the Portuguese, who was managing his first West Ham home game since replacing Graham Potter, after two away trips.

“Fairly Brentford won the game, they were the better team.

“I think we are all concerned. You can see our own fans are concerned. Concern becomes anxiety, becomes silence. That anxiety passes to the players. We have a problem.

“It’s understandable. It’s up to us to change. The fans need to see something that pleases them and they can support us and give us energy.

“I understand it, I understand it totally, and I respect it. It’s up to us, it’s up to us to change it. We are the people who have to pull the fans back together.”

West Ham remain 19th, with just four points from their opening eight games. They are in action in the next Premier League game too, visiting Leeds on Friday.

Nuno told BBC Sport: “It’s a challenge for all of us. It’s up to us to change the momentum and bring our fans back to support us. In four days’ time we need a big improvement.”

Maria worked cleaning schools in Florida for $13 an hour. Every two weeks, she’d get a $900 paycheck from her employer, a contractor. Not much — but enough to cover rent in the house that she and her 11-year-old son share with five families, plus electricity, a cellphone and groceries.

In August, it all ended.

When she showed up at the job one morning, her boss told her that she couldn’t work there anymore. The Trump administration had terminated the Biden administration’s humanitarian parole program, which provided legal work permits for Cubans, Haitians, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans like Maria.

“I feel desperate,’’ said Maria, 48, who requested anonymity to talk about her ordeal because she fears being detained and deported. “I don’t have any money to buy anything. I have $5 in my account. I’m left with nothing.’’

President Trump’s sweeping crackdown on immigration is throwing foreigners like Maria out of work and shaking the American economy and job market. And it’s happening at a time when hiring is already deteriorating amid uncertainty over Trump’s tariffs and other trade policies.

Immigrants do jobs — cleaning houses, picking tomatoes, painting fences — that most native-born Americans won’t, and for less money. But they also bring the technical skills and entrepreneurial energy that have helped make the United States the world’s economic superpower.

Trump is attacking immigration at both ends of the spectrum, deporting low-wage laborers and discouraging skilled foreigners from bringing their talents to the United States.

And he is targeting an influx of foreign workers that eased labor shortages and upward pressure on wages and prices at a time when most economists thought that taming inflation would require sky-high interest rates and a recession — a fate the United States escaped in 2023 and 2024.

“Immigrants are good for the economy,’’ said Lee Branstetter, an economist at Carnegie-Mellon University. “Because we had a lot of immigration over the past five years, an inflationary surge was not as bad as many people expected.”

More workers filling more jobs and spending more money has also helped drive economic growth and create still more job openings. Economists worry that Trump’s deportations and limits on even legal immigration will do the reverse.

In a July report, researchers Wendy Edelberg and Tara Watson of the centrist Brookings Institution and Stan Veuger of the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute calculated that the loss of foreign workers will mean that monthly U.S. job growth “could be near zero or negative in the next few years.’’

Hiring has already slowed significantly, averaging a meager 29,000 a month from June through August. (The September jobs report has been delayed by the ongoing shutdown of the federal government.) During the post-pandemic hiring boom of 2021-23, by contrast, employers added a stunning 400,000 jobs a month.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, citing fallout from Trump’s immigration and trade policies, downgraded its forecast for U.S. economic growth this year to 1.4% from the 1.9% it had previously expected and from 2.5% in 2024.

‘We need these people’

Goodwin Living, an Alexandria, Va., nonprofit that provides senior housing, healthcare and hospice services, had to lay off four employees from Haiti after the Trump administration terminated their work permits. The Haitians had been allowed to work under a humanitarian parole program and had earned promotions at Goodwin.

“That was a very, very difficult day for us,” Chief Executive Rob Liebreich said. “It was really unfortunate to have to say goodbye to them, and we’re still struggling to fill those roles.’’

Liebreich is worried that 60 additional immigrant workers could lose their temporary legal right to live and work in the United States. “We need all those hands,’’ he said. “We need all these people.”

Goodwin Living has 1,500 employees, 60% of them from foreign countries. It has struggled to find enough nurses, therapists and maintenance staff. Trump’s immigration crackdown, Liebreich said, is “making it harder.’’

The ICE crackdown

Trump’s immigration ambitions, intended to turn back what he calls an “invasion’’ at America’s southern border and secure jobs for U.S.-born workers, were once viewed with skepticism because of the money and economic disruption required to reach his goal of deporting 1 million people a year. But legislation that Trump signed into law July 4 — and which Republicans named the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — suddenly made his plans plausible.

The law pours $150 billion into immigration enforcement, setting aside $46.5 billion to hire 10,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and $45 billion to increase the capacity of immigrant detention centers.

And his empowered ICE agents have shown a willingness to move fast and break things — even when their aggression conflicts with other administration goals.

Last month, immigration authorities raided a Hyundai battery plant in Georgia, detained 300 South Korean workers and showed video of some of them shackled in chains. They’d been working to get the plant up and running, bringing expertise in battery technology and Hyundai procedures that local American workers didn’t have.

The incident enraged the South Koreans and ran counter to Trump’s push to lure foreign manufacturers to invest in America. South Korean President Lee Jae Myung warned that the country’s other companies might be reluctant about betting on America if their workers couldn’t get visas promptly and risked getting detained.

Sending Medicaid recipients to the fields

America’s farmers are among the president’s most dependable supporters.

But John Boyd Jr., who farms 1,300 acres of soybeans, wheat and corn in southern Virginia, said that the immigration raids — and the threat of them — are hurting farmers already contending with low crop prices, high costs and fallout from Trump’s trade war with China, which has stopped buying U.S. soybeans and sorghum.

“You’ve got ICE out here, herding these people up,’’ said Boyd, founder of the National Black Farmers Assn. “[Trump] says they’re murderers and thieves and drug dealers, all this stuff. But these are people who are in this country doing hard work that many Americans don’t want to do.’’

Boyd scoffed at Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins’ suggestion in July that U.S.-born Medicaid recipients could head to the fields to meet work requirements imposed as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. “People in the city aren’t coming back to the farm to do this kind of work,’’ he said. “It takes a certain type of person to bend over in 100-degree heat.’’

The Trump administration admits that the immigration crackdown is causing labor shortages on the farm that could translate into higher prices at the supermarket.

“The near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens combined with the lack of an available legal workforce results in significant disruptions to production costs and [threatens] the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S. consumers,’’ the Labor Department said in an Oct. 2 filing to the Federal Register.

‘You’re not welcome here’

Jed Kolko of the Peterson Institute for International Economics said that job growth is slowing in businesses that rely on immigrants. Construction companies, for instance, have shed 10,000 jobs since May.

“Those are the short-term effects,’’ said Kolko, a Commerce Department official in the Biden administration. “The longer-term effects are more serious because immigrants traditionally have contributed more than their share of patents, innovation, productivity.’’

Especially worrisome to many economists was Trump’s sudden announcement last month that he was raising the fee on H-1B visas, meant to lure hard-to-find skilled foreign workers to the United States, from as little as $215 to $100,000.

“A $100,000 visa fee is not just a bureaucratic cost — it’s a signal,” said Dany Bahar, senior fellow at the Center for Global Development. “It tells global talent: You are not welcome here.”

Some are already packing up.

In Washington, D.C., one H-1B visa holder, a Harvard graduate from India who works for a nonprofit helping Africa’s poor, said Trump’s signal to employers is clear: Think twice about hiring H-1B visa holders.

The man, who requested anonymity, is already preparing paperwork to move to the United Kingdom.

“The damage is already done, unfortunately,’’ he said.

Associated Press writers Wiseman and Salomon reported from Washington and Miami, respectively. AP writers Fu Ting and Christopher Rugaber in Washington contributed to this report.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma’s new public schools superintendent announced Wednesday he is rescinding a mandate from his predecessor that forced schools to incorporate the Bible into lesson plans for students.

Superintendent Lindel Fields said in a statement he has “no plans to distribute Bibles or a Biblical character education curriculum in classrooms.” The directive last year from former Superintendent Ryan Walters drew immediate condemnation from civil rights groups and prompted a lawsuit from a group of parents, teachers and religious leaders that is pending before the Oklahoma Supreme Court. It was to have applied to students in grades 5 through 12.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt appointed Fields to the superintendent’s post after Walters resigned last month to take a job in the private sector.

Jacki Phelps, an attorney for the Oklahoma State Department of Education, said she intends to notify the court of the agency’s plan to rescind the mandate and seek a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

Many schools districts across the state had decided not to comply with the Bible mandate.

A spokeswoman for the state education department, Tara Thompson, said Fields believes the decision on whether the Bible should be incorporated into classroom instruction is one best left up to individual districts and that spending money on Bibles is not the best use of taxpayer resources.

Walters in March had announced plans to team up with country music singer Lee Greenwood seeking donations to get Bibles into classrooms after a legislative panel rejected his $3 million request to fund the effort. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit challenging the Bible mandate did not immediately comment.

Walters, a far-right Republican, made fighting “woke ideology”, banning certain books from school libraries and getting rid of “radical leftists” who he claims were indoctrinating children in classrooms a focal point of his administration. Since his election in 2020, he imposed a number of mandates on public schools and worked to develop new social studies standards for K-12 public school students that included teaching about conspiracy theories related to the 2020 presidential election. Those standards have been put on hold while a lawsuit challenging them moves forward.

Thompson said the agency plans to review all of Walters’ mandates, including a requirement that applicants from teacher jobs coming from California and New York take an ideology exam, to determine if those may also be rescinded.

“We need to review all of those mandates and provide clarity to schools moving forward,” she said.

Murphy writes for the Associated Press.

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge blocked the Trump administration Wednesday from firing thousands of government workers based on the ongoing federal shutdown, granting a request from employee unions in California.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston issued the temporary restraining order after concluding that the unions “will demonstrate ultimately that what’s being done here is both illegal and is in excess of authority and is arbitrary and capricious.”

Illston slammed the Trump administration for failing to provide her with clear information about what cuts are actually occurring, for repeatedly changing its description and estimates of job cuts in filings before the court, and for failing — including during Wednesday’s hearing in San Francisco — to articulate an argument for why such cuts are not in violation of federal law.

“The evidence suggests that the Office of Management and Budget, OMB, and the Office of Personnel Management, OPM, have taken advantage of the lapse in government spending and government functioning to assume that all bets are off, that the laws don’t apply to them anymore,” Illston said — which she said was not the case.

She said the government justified providing inaccurate figures for the number of jobs being eliminated under its “reduction in force” orders by calling it a “fluid situation” — which she did not find convincing.

“What it is is a situation where things are being done before they are being thought through. It’s very much ready, fire, aim on most of these programs,” she said. “And it has a human cost, which is really why we’re here today. It’s a human cost that cannot be tolerated.”

Illston also ran through a string of recent comments made by President Trump and other members of his administration about the firings and their intentionally targeting programs and agencies supported by Democrats, saying, “By all appearances, they’re politically motivated.”

The Trump administration has acknowledged dismissing about 4,000 workers under the orders, while Trump and other officials have signaled that more would come Friday.

Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought said Wednesday on “The Charlie Kirk Show” that the number of jobs cut could “probably end up being north of 10,000,” as the administration wants to be “very aggressive where we can be in shuttering the bureaucracy, not just the funding,” and the shutdown provided that opportunity.

Attorneys for the unions, led by the American Federation of Government Employees, said that the figures were unreliable and that they feared additional reduction in force orders resulting in more layoffs, as promised by administration officials, if the court did not step in and block such actions.

Illston, an appointee of President Clinton, did just that.

She barred the Trump administration and its various agencies “from taking any action to issue any reduction in force notices to federal employees in any program, project or activity” involving union members “during or because of the federal shutdown.”

She also barred the administration from “taking any further action to administer or implement” existing reduction notices involving union members.

Illston demanded that the administration provide within two days a full accounting of all existing or “imminent” reduction in force orders that would be blocked by her order, as well as the specific number of federal jobs affected.

Elizabeth Hedges, an attorney for the Trump administration, had argued during the hearing that the order should not be granted for several procedural reasons — including that the alleged harm to federal employees from loss of employment or benefits was not “irreparable” and could be addressed through other avenues, including civil litigation.

Additionally, she argued that federal employment claims should be adjudicated administratively, not in district court; and that the reduction in force orders included 60-day notice periods, meaning the layoffs were not immediate and therefore the challenge to them was not yet “ripe” legally.

However, Hedges would not discuss the case on its actual merits — which is to say, whether the cuts were actually legal or not, which did not seem to sit well with Illston.

“You don’t have a position on whether it’s OK that they do what they’re doing?” Illston asked.

“I am not prepared to discuss that today, your honor,” Hedges said.

“Well — but it’s happening. This hatchet is falling on the heads of employees all across the nation, and you’re not even prepared to address whether that’s legal, even though that’s what this motion challenges?” Illston said.

“That’s right,” Hedges said — stressing again that there were “threshold” arguments for why the case shouldn’t even be allowed to continue to the merits stage.

Danielle Leonard, an attorney for the unions, suggested the government’s positions were indefensible and directly in conflict with public statements by the administration — including remarks by Trump on Tuesday that more cuts are coming Friday.

“How do we know this? Because OMB and the president relentlessly are telling us, and other members of the administration,” Leonard said.

Leonard said the harm from the administration’s actions is obvious and laid out in the union’s filings — showing how employees have at times been left in the dark as to their employment status because they don’t have access to work communication channels during the shutdown, or how others have been called in to “work without pay to fire their fellow employees” — only to then be fired themselves.

“There are multiple types of harm that are caused exactly right now — emotional trauma. That’s not my word, your honor, that is the word of OMB Director Vought. Let’s cause ‘trauma’ to the federal workforce,” Leonard said. “And that’s exactly what they are doing. Trauma. The emotional distress of being told you are being fired after an already exceptionally difficult year for federal employees.”

Skye Perryman, president and chief executive of Democracy Forward, which is co-counsel for the unions, praised Illston’s decision in a statement after the hearing.

“The statements today by the court make clear that the President’s targeting of federal workers — a move straight out of Project 2025’s playbook — is unlawful,” Perryman said. “Our civil servants do the work of the people, and playing games with their livelihoods is cruel and unlawful and a threat to everyone in our nation.”

Illston asked the two parties to confer on the best date, probably later this month, for a fuller hearing on whether she should issue a more lasting preliminary injunction in the case.

“It would be wonderful to know what the government’s position is on the merits of this case — and my breath is bated until we find that,” Illston said.

After the hearing, during a White House news conference, Trump said his administration was paying federal employees whom “we want paid” while Vought uses the shutdown to dismiss employees perceived as supporting Democratic initiatives.

“Russell Vought is really terminating tremendous numbers of Democrat projects — not only jobs,” Trump said.

A presenter has revealed he is the recognisable voice behind the Channel 4 programme introductions we see most days – and shared what a day in the life looks like

When sitting down to watch television on a night, we get used to seeing repeated adverts, familiar channel logos, and presenters. One voiceover artists has shared what really happens before you hear programme introductions on Channel 4.

Sam Darlastone works as a presenter on Kiss radio and has his own podcast called Embarrassing For No Reason. He also works as a voiceover artist, whose voice you may recognise in between programmes on Channel 4. Now he opened up about how it works. On Instagram, he shared a video of him introducing what was on. Sam said: “If you’ve heard this sort of thing on TV, this is how it comes together. So you may have heard that or something similar on TV before that is called a trending menu.”

READ MORE: ‘I’m an American living in the UK and one common thing here is suspicious back home’

Explaining, the presenter added: “So trending menus actually start way before they reach the voice overs here at Channel 4, the team will pick three shows to focus on, some will be old some will be new, well most will be new.”

He noted there will be a mix of genres included in the announcement. He shared: “When I finally get there [to the Channel 4 studios] my job is to spend the afternoon scripting, which sometimes surprises people because in certain voiceover rolls you wouldn’t write your own script, but for these we do.”

Sam added he will be giving a brief with a time slot, typically around 20 seconds, and three programmes to talk about.

He noted: “Then we head down to the recording booth – or some people call it the dungeon.”

He claimed he records with the video of the show in front of him. He also previously admitted that sometimes he makes mistakes and doesn’t always get it perfect on the first try.

“Great to put a face to the voice,” commented one. “I love this geeky stuff,” said another. One called Sam “the coolest guy for the coolest channel”.

“Love a good insight into some art being made,” wrote a third. Another added: “Love listening to your voice.”

Another wrote: “You’re the Channel 4 voiceover! I’ve heard your voice loads while watching Friday Night Dinner and Channel 4 Player.”

One other said: “I will never hear your channel 4 voice overs the same again.”

“I’ve often thought about this – and no can see the face to the voice,” one other added.

Brian Callahan has the dubious distinction of being the first NFL coach to be fired this season.

The Tennessee Titans announced Monday they were parting ways with their second-year coach after starting the season at 1-5 with rookie quarterback Cam Ward, the top overall pick in April’s draft, under center. Callahan was 4-19 overall.

“While we are committed to a patient and strategic plan to build a sustainable, winning football program, we have not demonstrated sufficient growth,” Chad Brinker, Titans president of football operations, said in a statement. “Our players, fans, and community deserve a football team that achieves a standard we are not currently meeting, and we are committed to making the hard decisions necessary to reach and maintain that standard.”

Callahan, the son of former Oakland Raiders and Nebraska head coach Bill Callahan, was a backup quarterback at Concord De La Salle High School and served in the same role at UCLA from 2002 to 2005. The former walk-on earned a scholarship his senior year, when he became the Bruins’ holder on field goal and extra-point attempts.

Callahan entered the coaching ranks upon graduation, winning a Super Bowl as a Denver Broncos assistant coach in 2015. He went on to become quarterbacks coach for the Detroit Lions and Oakland Raiders, then offensive coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals in 2019.

A hot commodity for teams in search of a head coach in 2024, Callahan was among at least nine candidates interviewed by the Chargers (that job ultimately went to former Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh) and one of 10 candidates for the Titans job.

Callahan replaced former coach Mike Vrabel, who had been fired after six seasons with the Titans. This weekend, Vrabel will lead the 4-2 New England Patriots into Nashville to play his former team. It remains to be seen who will be on the Titans sideline as interim head coach.

WASHINGTON — It has been four months since Elon Musk, President Trump’s bureaucratic demolition man, abandoned Washington in a flurry of recriminations and chaos.

But the Trump administration’s crusade to dismantle much of the federal government never ended. It’s merely under new management: the less colorful but more methodical Russell Vought, director of Trump’s Office of Management and Budget.

Vought has become the backroom architect of Trump’s aggressive strategy — slashing the federal workforce, freezing billions in congressionally approved spending in actions his critics often call illegal.

Now Vought has proposed using the current government shutdown as an opportunity to fire thousands of bureaucrats permanently instead of merely furloughing them temporarily. If any do return to work, he has suggested that the government need not give them back pay — contrary to a law Trump signed in 2019.

Those threats may prove merely to be pressure tactics as Trump tries to persuade Democrats to accept spending cuts on Medicaid, Obamacare and other programs.

But the shutdown battle is the current phase of a much larger one. Vought’s long-term goals, he says, are to “bend or break the bureaucracy to the presidential will” and “deconstruct the administrative state.”

He’s still only partway done.

“I’d estimate that Vought has implemented maybe 10% or 15% of his program,” said Donald F. Kettl, former dean of the public policy school at the University of Maryland. “There may be as much as 90% to go. If this were a baseball game, we’d be in the top of the second inning.”

Along the way, Vought (pronounced “vote”) has chipped relentlessly at Congress’ ability to control the use of federal funds, massively expanding the power of the president.

“He has waged the most serious attack on separation of powers in American history,” said Elaine Kamarck, an expert on federal management at the Brookings Institution.

He’s done that mainly by using OMB, the White House office that oversees spending, to control the day-to-day purse strings of federal agencies — and deliberately keeping Congress in the dark along the way.

“If Congress has given us authority that is too broad, then we’re going to use that authority aggressively,” Vought said last month.

Federal judges have ruled some of the administration’s actions illegal, but they have allowed others to stand. Vought’s proposal to use the shutdown to fire thousands of bureaucrats hasn’t been tested in court.

Vought developed his aggressive approach during two decades as a conservative budget expert, culminating in his appointment as director of OMB in Trump’s first term.

In 2019, he stretched the limits of presidential power by helping Trump get around a congressional ban on funding for a border wall, by declaring an emergency and transferring military funds. He froze congressionally mandated aid for Ukraine, the action that led to Trump’s first impeachment.

Even so, Vought complained that Trump had been needlessly restrained by cautious first-term aides.

“The lawyers come in and say, ‘It’s not legal. You can’t do that,’” he said in 2023. “I don’t want President Trump having to lose a moment of time having fights in the Oval Office over whether something is legal.”

Vought is a proponent of the “unitary executive” theory, the argument that the president should have unfettered control over every tentacle of the executive branch, including independent agencies such as the Federal Reserve.

When Congress designates money for federal programs, he has argued, “It’s a ceiling. It is not a floor. It’s not the notion that you have to spend every dollar.”

Most legal experts disagree; a 1974 law prohibits the president from unilaterally withholding money Congress has appropriated.

Vought told conservative activists in 2023 that if Trump returned to power, he would deliberately seek to inflict “trauma” on federal employees.

“We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected,” he said. “When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work.”

When Vought returned to OMB for Trump’s second term, he appeared to be in Musk’s shadow. But once the flamboyant Tesla chief executive flamed out, the OMB director got to work to make DOGE’s work the foundation for lasting changes.

He extended many of DOGE’s funding cuts by slowing down OMB’s approval of disbursements — turning them into de facto freezes.

He helped persuade Republicans in Congress to cancel $9 billion in previously approved foreign aid and public broadcasting support, a process known as “rescission.”

To cancel an additional $4.9 billion, he revived a rarely used gambit called a “pocket rescission,” freezing the funds until they expired.

Along the way, he quietly stopped providing Congress with information on spending, leaving legislators in the dark on whether programs were being axed.

DOGE and OMB eliminated jobs so quickly that the federal government stopped publishing its ongoing tally of federal employees. (Any number would only be approximate; some layoffs are tied up in court, and thousands of employees who opted for voluntary retirement are technically still on the payroll.)

The result was a significant erosion of Congress’ “power of the purse,” which has historically included not only approving money but also monitoring how it was spent.

Even some Republican members of Congress seethed. “They would like a blank check … and I don’t think that’s appropriate,” said former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

But the GOP majorities in both the House and Senate, pleased to see spending cut by any means, let Vought have his way. Even McConnell voted to approve the $9-billion rescission request.

Vought’s newest innovation, the mid-shutdown layoffs, would be another big step toward reducing Congress’ role.

“The result would be a dramatic, instantaneous shift in the separation of powers,” Kettl said. “The Trump team could kill programs unilaterally without the inconvenience of going to Congress.”

Some of the consequences could be catastrophic, Kettl and other scholars warned. Kamarck calls them “time bombs.”

“One or more of these decisions is going to blow up in Trump’s face,” she said.

“FEMA won’t be capable of reacting to the next hurricane. The National Weather Service won’t have the forecasters it needs to analyze the data from weather balloons.”

Even before the government shutdown, she noted, the FAA was grappling with a shortage of air traffic controllers. This week the FAA slowed takeoffs at several airports in response to growing shortages, including at air traffic control centers in Atlanta, Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth.

In theory, a future Congress could undo many of Vought’s actions, especially if Democrats win control of the House or, less likely, the Senate.

But rebuilding agencies that have been radically shrunken would take much longer than cutting them down, the scholars said.

“Much of this will be difficult to reverse when Democrats come back into fashion,” Kamarck said.

Indeed, that’s part of Vought’s plan.

“We want to make sure that the bureaucracy can’t reconstitute itself later in future administrations,” he said in April in a podcast with Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist who was slain on Sept. 10.

He’s pleased with the progress he’s made, he told reporters in July.

“We’re having fun,” he said.

A SAVVY entrepreneur ditched her boring desk job at ASOS and is now raking in as much as £56,000 in a single day.

Aimee Smale, has taken her fashion brand Odd Muse from a bedroom side hustle to a multi-million-pound empire.

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The twenty-eight year old has now cemented her place among luxury giants by flinging open the doors to her first UK flagship on London’s exclusive New Bond Street.

Humble beginnings

Just a few years ago, Aimee was slogging away in a £21,000-a-year admin role, feeling unfulfilled working from home during the pandemic.

But with a burning ambition, she started a clever side hustle, flogging £10 logos to Brits who’d started small businesses in lockdown.

Speaking candidly to Grace Beverley on the Working Hard, Hardly Working podcast, she revealed how the tenner-a-pop gig became a goldmine, saying: “I was making like 30 logos a day at one point. 

“Finishing ASOS, closing my laptop, staying up all night to just make logos. But it got me £12,000 for Odd Muse.”

Aimee’s dream was to have her own fashion brand and so she began saving to start what would become her own fashion empire.

Aimee ploughed her entire side-hustle earnings into ordering the first batch of stock, admitting she was “almost arrogant” in her belief that it would be a roaring success. 

She ordered 100 units of her now-iconic blazer, and her bold gamble paid off big time, selling out in days and breaking even instantly.

A significant moment for Odd Muse came when influencer Lorna Luxe purchased the blazer, leading to a massive surge in sales.

Aimee shared, “I remember saying to everyone – everyone would be like who do you want to wear your brand and I would say Lorna. Anyone in the world – Lorna.

“She literally bought it, put it on her story, and it changed the game for me.”

The success of the Ultimate Muse Blazer was followed by the launch of the Pearl Dress, which sold out within a minute.

The brand made over £100k in its first three months and is now a certified smash hit, turning over a whopping £5.2 million in 2023. 

Fashion visionary

Aimee’s vision was to create timeless, luxury clothes that young women could actually afford, offering an alternative to the world of throwaway fast fashion.

She previously told The Sun: “I just remember thinking fashion when I left university aged 21 was fast fashion, which is all we can afford, and the luxury sector is unattainable. 

“I just wanted to offer a fast fashion alternative and justify a price point that encouraged re-wearing and investing in your wardrobe.”

Flagship store opening

Now, Aimee has officially taken over one of the most prestigious shopping streets in the world, having opened her glitzy new store on October 3. 

Despite her mega-success, she admitted on TikTok she still gets terrified no one will show up to her events, a fear that was quickly squashed when 2,000 eager fans turned up to a recent sample sale.

The fashion mogul revealed she was even warned against the bold move onto Bond Street.

“I was told no… I didn’t need to take on New Bond Street,” she said. 

But Aimee was determined to create a space for her loyal fans, “inviting our community into a world luxury fashion previously didn’t think to invite them into.”

The shy girl from class is now the poster girl for her own business, using her relatable personality on TikTok to connect with thousands of customers worldwide. 

She credits this authentic approach for building a massive community, with a staggering 60% of orders now coming from the US.

Meanwhile, the company’s permanent boutique in London’s Covent Garden celebrated its second anniversary back in March.

From her bedroom to Bond Street, Aimee’s incredible journey shows what can happen when you have a bit of northern grit and a brilliant idea. 

As she puts it, seeing addresses from all over the world flooding in made her realise “Odd Muse was going to be something big.”

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